As a way of helping companies out that are doing great things, I am going to be doing this type of Brand Evangelism post on a programs that I hear about.   I am not getting any sort of compensation for these posts.

One of the networking groups that I belong to is Rotary International. I am currently the Sgt at Arms for the Boyertown Rotary, where the current president works for Susquehanna Bank.  At our last Rotary meeting, Joe W.  told me about a program his company was doing that entailed donating 50 meals to local food banks for every new checking account that was started through the end of December.  Susquehanna is also donating 10 meals for every new person that follows them on Twitter and 5 for retweeting a tweet about the #Tweet2Feed program.

I have already followed and retweeted the tweet and encouraged others to do so as well.

Click on the #Tweet2Feed picture to go to Susquehanna’s post about the promotion.

The #Tweet2Feed program is a great example of a program that is creating brand evangelists. Susquehanna Bank is a company that I believe has been utilizing these types of programs and encourages its employees to be part of the local communities.

I was at a Bible study the other day and I was telling the guys about a conversation I had with my daughter, when she asked me what I wanted for Christmas.   I told her I wanted cash and she said that was really weird for a guy my age to ask for cash. I told her I wanted to use the cash to open up a checking account at Susquehanna Bank which was holding this promotion.

Upon retelling this to the guys, one of the guys told me that he has nothing but great things to say about Susquehanna Bank, as it was the bank his father used, and when his dad died a number of years ago, many of the local Susquehanna bank employees came to the funeral and grieved greatly for his dad.

Well, anyway, I want to encourage everyone that has a Twitter account to go to the post and then RT and follow @Susquehanna

Update: at the time of writing this there were 45,675 meals donated..as of 12/13/2010 at 2pm there have been 46,370 meals donated.

Lately,  I have been spending quite a bit of time on LinkedIn, primarily due to my growing involvement in the number of groups I have joined as the result of the blog post about using Social Media for finding a Job done by our Baldydog.com intern last semester.

On a basic LinkedIn profile you are allowed to join the maximum of 50 groups. So I started joining groups after I searched “Groups” for topics I am interested in such as “social media”, seo, Philadelphia business, and  networking to name a few. This blog post is about using free LinkedIn profiles.

Oh, if you want to add me as a LinkedIn contact,  check out my LinkedIn profile and leave a comment here with your LinkedIn email and profile and I will add you as well.

Also be sure to join the SMO group that I created which discusses topics involved with optimizing your social media profiles. I created several groups, but this is the group I am going to focus on for my goal of being seen as a LinkedIn Thought leader.

LinkedIn Features for Networking

• Join and participate in groups to meet people and to find jobs. Groups all have job boards.
• To be seen as a Thought Leader in your particular niche on LinkedIn, you need to Answer and ask questions in the Answers section(click the more button on the top navigation of LinkedIn and click on the Answers link)
• Follow people who are in your groups who participate in a meaningful way.
• Want to get a foot in the door in a certain company, search the Company listings and follow them.  This is a relatively new feature, so not all companies are listed..Check out Baldydog’s Listing…
• Using the Company listing, you can then check out any employees that are in the same groups, and then follow them…please be tactful when asking for an introduction.
• Ask for and give recommendation reviews. The more reviews you have, the higher you show up in the LinkedIn search results.

What Do You Know About LinkedIn?

Well this is my first post on LinkedIn, so if you have any suggestions about using LinkedIn for networking to add, please feel free.

This long over due Facebook Optimization blog post focuses on some apps and more that I use on Facebook or have recommended others use. Today, more and more businesses are using Fan pages, so this is a huge opportunity for Social Media Consultants.

Facebook Optimization Tips

• Hubspot article  that tells you how to claim your Facebook vanity urls ..I grabbed mine for the Baldydog  Fan page
• I have also heard that it is possible for fan pages to like other fan pages…here is the link to the Facebook App that allows Fan pages to like other Fan pages thereby aligning brands.
• Another great app that I have used is selective tweets on #FB ..this is great so that you can update your Facebook profile or Fan page by placing #fb at the end of Tweets that you want to include in your updates. This will greatly reduce the noise on your Facebook page, and please all your fans.
• Facebook landing pages – for brands and anyone who wants to create a landing page on their Facebook profile, be sure to check out this Problogger post.
• facebook badges – be sure to include Facebook badges all over your site..hmm..I have to do this too..As a Social Media Consultant, Social Media clients to place not only Facebook badges, but Twitter, Youtube and LinkedIn badges also, if their potential customers are playing on those SM sites that is.
• Use the networked blogs on Facebook to update both fan and personal pages automatically when you publish a blog post.
• Lastly, limit your Facebook activity. What I mean by this is don’t feed too much info to your Facebook Fans. Very few people want to see all of your Tweets and other updates, so limit the number of daily updates you do on your fan page. Focus on quality not quantity.

This is just a small list of tips for optimizing your Facebook Fan pages. If you feel so inclined, fan Baldydog on Facebook.

Do you have any Facebook Optimization tips?

If you are actively involved in social media for your business, you know that it is important to constantly seek out new ways to engage your followers. Simply posting information about your company is not enough. You need to engage users in a dialogue that will get them talking to you and talking about your company.

One way to do this is to host an event such as a Twitter party, Twitter chat or ‘tweet up.’ All three are fun, relatively low-cost ways for companies to reach out to followers and get them actively participating in topics related to your company. Here are descriptions of each type of event and ways you can apply them to your social media marketing plan.

What are Twitter Parties?

Twitter parties are events that are held entirely on Twitter. A company or organization will pick a specific date, time and hashtag for the party that users must include in each of their tweets in order for their responses to be ‘seen’ in the party. A company hosting the event will pick a specific theme for the party, which usually includes topics and discussions related to the company’s products and services (for example: a company that sells butter might have a Halloween Twitter party that includes discussions about baking Halloween party foods with recipe ideas that include butter). There are usually product giveaways during the party and an expert or company representative on hand to answer questions pertaining to the party theme. A Twitter party is not about a hard sell; rather the brand takes a back seat to the topic and discussion at hand. However, the brand’s presence is felt by providing users with the opportunity to ask questions about the topic from an expert, exchange ideas and opinions about the topic, possibly win a prize from the sponsor or maybe take part in a special offer or call to action provided by the sponsor during the party. Twitter parties fun events that get people excited about. As a result, attendees are likely to mention or tweet about the event both before, during and after the party, genearating an increase in followers and interest in the company sponsoring the event. For more information about planning and hosting a Twitter party, check out Twitter party experts TweeParties.

What are Twitter Chats?

Twitter chats are similar to Twitter parties in that they have a specific topic to discuss, they are about an hour or two in length and use a hashtag to help users follow the chat. What makes them different from parties is that while a company might organize or sponsor the party, the purpose of the chat is to discuss and share ideas about a certain topic—not to promote a business or organization. Also, while a Twitter party might be a one-time event, Twitter chats are usually held on a regular basis—either weekly or monthly—to develop a following of Twitter users who might be interested in regularly discussing the tiopic. Twitter chats can be held for any topic: travel, marketing, small business tips, knitting, cooking, parenting teens—you name it! It’s a great way for people who have a shared interest in a topic to come together, share ideas and network. But remember: Twitter chats are all about the discussion, not about promotion. Even if a company organizes a chat, it’s usually not the place to promote your products and services.

What are Tweet Ups?

Tweet ups are events that are not held online but rather in person. It’s a gathering of Twitter users at a specific location: your company, a restaurant or any venue where people can come together and meet face-to-face. Usually Tweet ups are very social in nature and include ample time for users to mingle and chat, beverages and snacks, maybe even giveaways or ‘door prizes.’ Often Tweet ups have a speaker on a specific topic that makes the event educational and informative as well. They’re a great way to get your users through your door and reward them with a fun, informative, free experience. Tweet ups work well for companies or organizations who have a number of followers who live or work in the same area. You can consider it an ‘open house’ of sorts for Twitter users. Tweeting about the event to your followers and enticing them to come for fun, food and freebies might also encourage your followers to spread the word to their friends through tweets and retweets. You can even set up a registration page using online services such as Eventbrite or Twtvite to give you an idea of how many people to expect. But always take that number and add to it, to allow for last minute arrivals who saw a tweet minutes before and happened to be in your neighborhood.

The above post was written by Erin Boudreau
Founder of TweeParties, Inc.

Every Thursday at 3:20pm I get a Google Alert that at 330pm EST, I  will be participating in an online Tweetup called Travelers Night In (#TNI Twitter hashtag).  I first found out about the Tweetup when I noticed #TNI appearing in the Alltravelsites Twitter stream. I then asked one of the people what the Hashtag #TNI stands for, and I was sent to the Travelers Night In page and told to follow it on Tweetgrid.com, which is a cool site that allows you to follow numerous Twitter streams and post to your own stream to connect to the Twitter conversation.

TNI is from 330pm to 5pm and it consists of 10 questions about some area of travel, this upcoming week for example is on the topic of  “Festivals”.

Healthy Travel from ChooseCherries

Several weeks ago,  when I participated in the Healthy Travel TNI, which was sponsored by Choosecherries, I actually  won a Choosecherries travel pack. One lucky TNI participant won the grand prize which included a cherry iPod.  Good thing I didn’t win that, or it would have made three iPods I have won and don’t use. But anyway, I  would like to thank ChooseCherries for the cherry travel pack..I loved eating the dried cherries on my oatmeal in the morning..yum..

ChooseCherries.com does not sell or represent any one cherry company, so I guess you could call them a Cherry Coalition. Their site has lots of great info about cherries, including many cherry recipes and cherry health and nutrition information. You can also follow them on Twitter and Facebook.

If you did not know, I am a big fan of the cherry as a fruit. I also love lots of different cherry candy..see the Cherry Mash Needs SEO blog post..Thinking about cherries reminds me of one of my favorite dishes at a local restaurant, the Landis Store Hotel, Duck with Cherry Sauce…oh, I need to stop thinking about food.

Who Should participate in #TNI?

Back to TNI, now who should participate in TNI?  If you have a travel interest that is personal or professional, you may want to consider following and participating in TNI. Who already participates in TNI?

• Travel bloggers
• Travel agents
• Travel enthusiasts
• Travel photographers

So if you find yourself being o of these four types of travelers, or if you find yourself being a person that would like to network with these types of  travelers, why not tune in on Thursday and give TNI a try?

If you are interested in Sponsoring TNI like ChooseCherries.com did, you can visit ZipSetgo below for more info.

Examine TNI

TNI and other similar Twitter Chats have the potential to be awesome marketing events.  Thinking about your own little niche, be it automotive, financial, home improvement or what have you. Do you think you could use a Tweetup like this to drive business to your site or your physical location?

TNI Resources

• ZipSetGo TNI Post -These wonderful ladies are responsible for starting and maintaining TNI. I am sure if you have questions about starting a Tweetup or questions about sponsoring TNI, this is the place to go.
• AdventurousKate does a review of TNI including the Healthy Travel week post.
• TweetGrid.com to follow the TNI action and any other Twitter hashtag events you may choose.