In late February 2012, Twitter hit 500 million users. This milestone has cemented Twitter as a major Social Media player. With this large user base, companies should be seriously considering integrating twitter with their marketing strategies. Benefits of integration include increased followers, brand awareness, and potentially a better bottom line. Here are some tips for increasing your followers.

Search for companies and people you know While it’s easy to use the search function in Twitter, it can be time consuming to search for people one by one. Instead:

1. Log into your Twitter account
2. Press the # Discover button at the top of the page
3. Press Find Friends
4. Log into the various accounts available
5. Add people as followers

This is a great way to rapidly increase your followers, and reconnect with customers and contacts you may have lost contact with.

Combine your Twitter and Facebook feeds You can combine your Twitter and Facebook feeds easily:

1. Log into your Twitter account
2. Select Profile Settings
3. Select Profile
4. Select Post your tweets to Facebook
5. Follow the instructions provided

Within minutes, your Tweets will show up in your Facebook status, enabling you to reach two platforms simultaneously. Be warned, this could spam your followers, causing them to stop following you - so it’s best to keep your Tweets or status updates to the most important information.

Join Twitter Ads for Small Business This recently announced service will be up and running soon, allowing small business owners to advertise on Twitter through Promoted Tweets. This service will be released in the near future, enabling businesses of all sizes to advertise.

If you are not on Twitter, would like to join, or know more please contact us.

Employees are using popular social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn like never before—even while on the job. This begs the question: are companies properly managing the use of these sites? Read on to find out.

The use of social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin is exploding, with some using them even while in the workplace. While these sites offer work-related benefits such as fostering better workplace communication and collaboration, they also expose the organization to risks as well. Some of the risks borne out of social networks include the mundane—such as potentially embarrassing the company through inappropriate posts online, to the serious—such as security threats via viruses and malware or through the inappropriate sharing of proprietary or confidential material. This begs the question: are companies properly managing the use of social networking sites of employees at work?

In a survey recently published by the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics with the Healthcare Compliance Association, it was discovered that for most companies, this was clearly not the case. With a sample of almost 800 respondents from for-profit, non-profit and government organizations, the survey revealed that half, or 50%, did not have a policy covering the use of social networking sites at work. Of those companies that do have a policy, 34% include it in a general policy on online usage, and just 10% specifically address the use of social networking sites.

About half of the respondents also reported that their employer also does not monitor the use of these sites, or at best has passive systems in place—usually being done by their security department. Yet despite this, a significant number, nearly one fourth of those surveyed, or 24%, report that their organization has had to discipline some employees for improper use of these sites.

Despite the suggestion from the research that a lot of companies do not yet have formal policies and governance systems in place to manage the online activities of employees in social networking sites, it suggests that over the long term it is something that they should do. Employees may be engaging in risky activities that the company is not aware of—and therefore, as with other online activities such as email, should be managed properly.

Do you agree? Or do you think that the fears of some organizations are bigger than the actual risk? Let us know. We help companies understand more fully the risks associated with online activity and how to better monitor and manage them. We would be happy to speak with you on this subject and help you make sure that your data and systems are safe.

I’ve got a good friend and colleague who is one of the most astute networkers I know. She has an amazing ability with people, both in understand them, working with them, but also in bringing them together. She also happens to be a fantastic writer, penning a number of e-publications that she has successfully used to help promote her business.  In fact the success of her business is largely based on these core skills. Which is why I was a little surprised the other day when she confessed to knowing very little about blogs, twitter, and so on. Web 2.0 is such a perfect medium for her message that I had assumed she’d be all over it!

Now to bring this back into context, Grassroots IT is only slowly discovering the power of social media, so for sure we are the last ones to be in a position to offer advise! So better yet, let’s share the learning experience. Follow us on Twitter (@GrassrootsIT), and via the blog (Subscribe over here) and learn from our mistakes! Let us know what works, and what doesn’t. Comment on our blog posts. Tweet back at us with feedback and ideas. Why not dip a toe in the water of Twitter? It’s free, and you can just listen for as long as you want. When you’re ready to start tweeting yourself, start by checking out these great Twitter Tips for an easy introduction. And don’t forget to let us know when you’re on, so that we can follow you too!

To all those hip and with-it, you can now follow us on Twitter!
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