CaliberPulse

Wow! What a turnout for our Smart Marketing Workshop on social media this morning! I Twittered throughout the workshop all the great takeaways our speakers covered. If you couldn't make it, don't worry. We're already looking into a follow up session. We'll also be posting the PowerPoint presentation on our Web site's home page. Check back later tonight for a recap of the session! If we did see your smiling face there, let us know what you thought. Did you get any cool ideas for how to use social media in your business? We'd love to hear from you! (Like what you're reading on CaliberPulse.com? Sign up for an e-mail alert and we'll let you know when we post something new! Just look to the right side of the page!)

The Facebook Blog announces this week we can now personalize our Facebook pages by using our usernames in the address. So instead of directing friends to www.facebook.com/alsdfkjds1234kfjeis, we can now refer our friends to www.facebook.com/JoePublic. Why do we care? LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter have become the business card of choice for social media savvy businesses. So now you can advertise your business Facebook page as www.Facebook.com/businessname. It's definitely more reader friendly for marketing and advertising materials. To register, go to www.Facebook.com/username. Then consider adding your Facebook address to your business cards as a great way for potential customers/clients to interact with and get to know your business. Take a look at what Radisson Suites Tucson and Gadabout Salon Spas are doing on Facebook to build relationships with customers/clients. Sharing special VIP events and sales is just one way for a business to gain "friends" online. How has your business successfully used Facebook? (Thanks to Hello Laulo for the picture!)

Stephenie Meyer, the author of the best-selling Twilight series and other novels, recently said she is resigning from social media. Regardless if you are a fan of her or the vampire stories she tells, this speaks to a larger issue of people using Internet applications to attack or even disguise their identities – people commonly called trolls – to say what they want. As more companies use social networking to reach their customers or humanize their brand, the growing number of trolls online could intimidate a brand from jumping into to the social media pool. So, how can businesses keep trolls under the bridge where they belong and out of their online communities? It’s not easy, but it can be done.

The Caliber Group will host the second in a series of Smart Marketing Workshops 7:30-9:30 a.m. June 17 at the Tucson Association of REALTORS®, 2445 N. Tucson Blvd. This month’s workshop will offer how to build brands and business using social media. More than 350 million conversations are taking place routinely online, with users telling their friends where to shop and eat, what to buy, who to vote for, and what’s news. “Using Social Media to Build Your Brand and Business” will offer a primer on social media and representatives from Metropolitan Tucson Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Arizona Daily Star, KOLD News 13 and Buffalo Exchange will share examples of how they’ve used social media to improve their businesses. Interested businesses can reserve a seat today at RSVP@calibergroup.com or call 795-4500 for more information. The workshop is free and open to the public. This month’s Smart Marketing Workshop is sponsored by The Caliber Group, Metropolitan Tucson Convention and Visitors Bureau, Arizona Daily Star, KOLD News 13 and Buffalo Exchange.

Newcomers to Twitter will quickly find that the philosophy of "Keep It Short and Simple", also known as K.I.S.S., is the key to successful tweets. One good reason: shorter tweets enable other users to retweet your post and share it with their online followers. However, retweeting takes up some of the 140 characters Twitter allots for users. This means if the post uses all of the available space, it's nearly impossible for you to share it. For companies and agencies using Twitter for marketing purposes, this could translate to less traffic and people wanting to follow your account.

General Motors is taking significant steps to improve its image with customers and investors – which now consists of American taxpayers. The company launched GM Reinvention, a customer-focused and social media-driven Web site, hours after filing for bankruptcy protection. Regardless of whether your business is booming or in a similar situation as the national automaker, GM’s new marketing practices are worthy accolades. Rather than staying quiet and licking their wounds, the company is using popular social media tools like Twitter and Flickr to give customers access to speak with company engineers, developers and executives about new products and steps GM is taking toward reinvention.

According to a report from Forrester Research, nearly two-thirds of Baby Boomers ages 53-63 consume social media – blogs, video, podcasts, etc. Why should businesses care about how many Baby Boomers are posting pics of the grandkids on Facebook? Because they’re getting braver about participating in social media, that’s why. The same report stated that the number of Baby Boomers responding to online content more than doubled from 15 to 34 percent last year.