Social networks are great for amplifying your company’s voice and reach – but they’ve also given a powerful megaphone to your customers, your audience, and the general public. Are you prepared for the inevitable “social media age” crisis that will demand the full attention of your communications team and push them way outside their comfort zone?

In our next Lava Lunch series workshop on Thursday, September 29th, we’ll share examples of how various organizations of all sizes have handled (and mishandled) unexpected crises. We’ll explore different tactics to get your team prepared to tackle everything from disgruntled individuals to full-on doomsday scenarios.

Refreshments and catered lunches will be provided. We’ll get started at noon, but feel free to stop by between 11:30 and 12:00 for some good, old-fashioned networking.

Tickets can be purchased at the bottom of this post for $30.00 per person, plus a nominal Eventbrite fee. Or, skip the fee and pay with Dwolla. Full event details and directions can be found on the Lava Lunch page.

Photo: underbiteman via flickr.

On Wednesday, we talked about foursquare’s newly launched brand pages, which allow companies to leave their own tips at other foursquare venues. Today, we’ll discuss a few ways to make your tips stand out — whether you’re posting on behalf of your business or sharing your own personal favorites through an individual account.

If you use foursquare, you’re already familiar with using your smartphone to check in to the venues you visit in real life. You’ve earned a few badges (maybe even the elusive Swarm badge) and taken over a few mayorships. But when was the last time you left a tip?

Tips are notes you leave on a venue for friends and other foursquare users to find. Think of tips as the types of recommendations you’d share with a friend before they visited somewhere for the first time — things to try, things to avoid, best places to park, anything that will make their experience better. When your friend (or someone “following” your brand page) checks into a venue where you’ve left a tip, your tip just might pop up on their phone, where they can add it to their To Do list or say “I’ve done this!”

The best tips have a few things in common:

• They’re actionable. Use action words like “Do this,” “Try this,” or “Order this.” The ultimate goal of leaving tips is to have the largest number of people choose “I’ve done this!” That moves your tip up to the top of the list, making it more likely your tip will be shared with others. If you can’t say “I’ve done this!” to a tip (like this El Bait Shop tip that just says, “Crazy selection of beers on tap”), find a different way to say it.
• They’re specific. Use one tip per recommendation. If that means you have to leave three tips, then leave three tips! Users are much more likely to choose “I’ve done this!” on a tip recommending one menu item, for example, than one recommending half the menu.
• They’re exclusive. Foursquare specials are all about the exclusivity of rewarding people “in the know,” so think of tips the same way. Do you know of a secret menu item or a hidden parking lot that always has a few spots open? Now’s your chance to share it.
• They’re real. Don’t spam foursquare venues with “tips” about your company, your products, your services, your events, or anything else unrelated to the venue itself. The foursquare community will flag these as spam and your tips will be removed. This is not about selling — it’s about sharing your expertise.

Ready to leave a tip? In the foursquare app on your smartphone, simply search for the venue, then click the Tip button in the bottom left corner of the venue page. Or visit foursquare.com from your computer, navigate to the venue’s web page and leave your tip in the text box.

Our challenge for you? Leave tips at three venues you checked in to in the last week. Want a bigger challenge? Scope out other users’ tips when you check in to a venue and see if anything strikes your fancy. Foursquare isn’t just about checking in anymore — it’s time to leave your mark.

Foursquare has long been a fantastic resource for consumers, offering exclusive discounts, recommendations and of course, bragging rights for venue mayors. On Tuesday, foursquare made a leap forward to become an equally strong resource for brands, from bloggers to small businesses to large corporations, with their new self-serve brand pages.

First, a bit of history: foursquare launched its first brand page for Intel in January 2010, offering the company a platform for recommending local Philadelphia favorites to out-of-towners during their annual ISTE conference. As other companies expressed interest in custom-branded pages, foursquare began to build pages for them, too — all built manually by the foursquare team, behind the scenes. The launch of these new self-serve pages gives companies the opportunity to build their own pages, without needing to await approval from the foursquare team.

So what is a brand page, and what value does it offer to a company? A brand page is a custom-branded page on foursquare that allows a company to recommend venues through check-ins and tips left on foursquare. Brands lend their influence and expertise to foursquare users, who “follow” the brands to see their tips; for example, Walgreen’s leaves tips at public transportation stations reminding passengers to wash their hands after train rides to avoid catching the flu. In return for sharing tips with foursquare users, brands gain their followers’ trust by infusing their expert knowledge into their followers’ daily lives. Brand pages can also be connected to your company’s page on Facebook, so your tips can be extended beyond foursquare to reach all of your fans.

It’s important to note that brand pages function differently from typical individual foursquare accounts in a few important ways. Remember that these pages are meant to be used by brands, not as a substitute for a personal foursquare account. Brand pages can’t earn badges, and if your brand has used an individual account in the past to leave tips, all of your friends will be converted to “followers” when you create your page. That means that your company won’t be able to see where its fans check in, but everyone on foursquare will be able to see where your company checks in. It’s like following someone on Twitter — a one-way connection.

Ready to create a brand page for your company? Here’s what you’ll need:

• A header image of 860 x 130 pixels (check out the Walgreen’s brand page for inspiration)
• A small profile image of 185 x 185 pixels
• A description of your brand
• Links to share with your followers (website, Facebook page, Twitter handle, blog, etc.)

Now, just visit https://foursquare.com/create_page and click “Create a Page” to get started!

Once you’ve created your page, you’ll have everything you need to start leaving tips at other foursquare venues you endorse or recommend. Visit our blog later this week for a guide to crafting great tips through your brand page!

Join us on July 28th for this month’s installment of our Lava Lunch series, a discussion about QR codes, scan tags and augmented reality — and how to make these emerging technologies work for your brand or business. As usual, we’ll share examples and case studies of how businesses are currently taking advantage of the these new tools, but we’ll also discuss what makes some campaigns more engaging than others (here’s a hint: it’s more than just sending a customer to an online version of your ad!).

Refreshments and catered lunches will be provided. We’ll get started at noon, but feel free to stop by between 11:30 and 12:00 for some good, old-fashioned networking.

Tickets can be purchased at the bottom of this post for $30.00 per person, plus a nominal Eventbrite fee. Or, skip the fee and pay us with Dwolla. Full event details and directions can be found on the Lava Lunch page.

We hope to see you on July 28th!

After a few bruises, a slight hernia, and two near-death electrical shock experiences, we’re all moved in to our new office at the Brown-Camp Lofts building in Downtown Des Moines.

This Friday, November 5th, we’re opening our doors from 6:00-9:00pm and would love it if you stopped by! We’ll provide the cocktails – all you have to do is show up. (Don’t forget to RSVP on Facebook.)

Our space is located at the corner of MLK Parkway and SW 2nd Street, just north of Principal Park and close to The High Life Lounge. We’re in Unit 115.

To find us, use the walk-up sidewalk just off SW 2nd Street at the southwest corner of the building (nearest to the intersection of MLK Parkway and SW 2nd Street). This is our private entrance. There is metered parking along SW 2nd, Market Street and SW 1st. Meters are not enforced after 6pm. Click here for a handy map and directions.

Hope to see you there!

Photo via booleansplit on Flickr

Today, social media initiatives are part of every large company’s marketing play book. Most even have budget line-items and dedicated staff.

Then there’s the small business world. Many of you are still trying to figure all of this out. You’re busy with the books, managing people, servicing customers, watching the competition, taking out the trash – pretty much everything except worrying about your Twitter feed.

We know this, and we want to help – so we’re announcing a new three-week semester of social media business workshops on the evenings of October 28, November 4 and 11. These classes have been tailored to the needs of small business owners, entrepreneurs, freelancers and individuals who are just getting started in the space.

During these sessions, you’ll learn the fundamentals and best practices necessary to effectively use social media tools for business – helping you extend your online presence, better connect with customers, and grow leads. We’ll emphasize key tools like Google Reader, blog publishing platforms, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Foursquare.

There’s no reason the little guy can’t get bigger by using this stuff, right? Tickets can be purchased below ($30 per weekly session, $90 total plus a nominal Eventbrite fee) and details follow.

If you can’t see the above ticket form, visit the event page on Eventbrite.

Please note: The three sessions are held on Thursday nights from 6:15pm to 7:30pm, once per week over a three-week period. By purchasing a ticket you are committing to attend all three sessions. Classes are capped at 20 participants to guarantee hands-on, individualized attention from the Lava Row team members.

What to bring: Yourself, lots of questions, your laptops and iPads (if you have them) or pen and paper. Your choice! We’ll assume you know a thing or two about computers and the Internet. We’ll provide Wi-Fi access and refreshments (water and soda).

Directions: Classes are held at Lava Row, conveniently located just north of Principal Park (home of the Iowa Cubs) in Downtown Des Moines. Our space is inside the Brown-Camp Lofts building at 100 Market Street and we’re in unit 115. To access, use the walk-up sidewalk just off SW 2nd Street at the southwest corner of the building (nearest to the intersection of MLK Parkway and SW 2nd Street). This is our private entrance.

Parking: There is metered parking along SW 2nd Street, Market Street and SW 1st Street. Meters are not enforced after 6:00pm.

Questions? Just contact us.

I’m one of the most easily distracted people on the planet, and that’s not a good thing when I have work to get done. Here are three simple things I’ve been doing recently to stay focused on the really important stuff (client work that pays bills) while not forgetting to “feed the monster.”

Blogging: Due to the long-form (and open-ended) nature of blog posts, I often spend lots of unnecessary hours composing, re-writing, editing, tweaking, stressing and trying to find images. This is a rabbit hole I don’t want to get sucked into anymore, so I started setting limits for my posts: No more than five paragraphs and one image. Also, I set a timer for 30 minutes – when that goes off, I publish. Even if the post is still rough around the edges.

Email inbox: Any time I see the (1) in my Gmail browser tab, I tend to stop what I’m doing and jump over to read whatever has come in. I really do love email as a business tool and many of our clients are in constant communication with us throughout the work day, so I don’t want to turn it off entirely for long periods of time. However, I’ve put together filters – one of those is to re-direct new Twitter follower notifications to a separate folder that I can check later in the day. Since then, my inbox has become less distracting and more focused. (Oh yeah, Gmail’s nifty Priority Inbox helps, too.)

Instant Messaging: I only let a few people IM me. These people are my wife and co-workers. No one else.

Those are just a few of my productivity hacks. Care to share yours in the comments below? Also, Chris Brogan has a great post up about his self-imposed “blinders” and simplifying information streams – which inspired this one. *Ding!* Time’s up, gotta publish this post.

Photo credit: pmiaki via Flickr.

As Foursquare and other location-based networks grow in popularity, both in terms of users and businesses, Mayor and checkin specials are becoming more and more ubiquitous. Local coffee shops offer a free shot of espresso with each checkin, while restaurants offer free appetizers, desserts or discounts off each purchase to the top Foursquare users. But beyond free food and drinks, some businesses have taken their Foursquare presence to the next level by thinking outside the box.

At Miss Shirley’s Café in Baltimore, MD, the Mayor never waits for a table. The restaurant draws quite the crowd for its weekend brunches — often an hour-long wait — so there’s fierce competition to become the Mayor. And data from Baltimore ad agency MGH shows that Miss Shirley’s has seen a 427% increase in checkins since the special began in early 2010. But with some users checking in to the same businesses almost daily (I’m looking at you, Jeff Janssen), how do businesses give value to Foursquare users who don’t come out on top?

Milwaukee-based AJ Bombers has the answer: a “Loyalty Royalty” menu created by not just the Mayor, but all of its top Foursquare users, designed to dispel “checkin fatigue.” Each month, AJ Bombers’ top three Foursquare users create a menu of their own, naming the special dishes and even tweaking the recipes. They can also choose one day each month to make their special meal available to all AJ Bombers patrons. And with other specials for dethroning the current Mayor and for adding tips and to dos, AJ Bombers puts Foursquare deals in the hands of more than just the Mayor.

Interested in taking your business’s Foursquare specials to the next level? Check out these other creative specials for inspiration.

Everyone loves local deals! A growing wave of e-coupon-local-deal services are giving merchants a new way to promote their businesses and teaching consumers how to harness their “collective buying power.” Local deal services such as Groupon and LivingSocial leverage the power of their subscriber bases to offer deeply discounted local deals to consumers in a wide range of cities. In most cases, all you have to do to take advantage of the deals is sign up to get their daily email, but the deals themselves are fueled by social media.

While the initial success of these online coupon deal services relies on a large subscriber base, the ultimate driving force behind the deals is social commerce. The concept of group coupon services like Groupon is that the local deal for a product or service in your city can only be claimed if a minimum number of people purchase the discount, so the services provide social media sharing tools to encourage users to tell their friends about the deals – a win-win for everyone. Consumers get the discount and the local businesses get enough customers to make it worth their while.

Groupon and LivingSocial have yet to publish any local deals in Des Moines, but Travelzoo Local Deals recently joined the social media bargain hunting scene, launching Des Moines as a test market. If you’re a Travelzoo subscriber, you’ve already seen the first Local Deals in Des Moines, including $10 — Stam Chocolate & Fine Wine: Tastings for 2 (50% OFF) and $20 — Half Off at Dos Rios w/FREE Cocktails. Travelzoo Local Deals are currently only available in Des Moines and Minneapolis but will quickly expand into 120 markets.

You’re probably wondering why Travelzoo Local Deals launched in Des Moines and Minneapolis despite the success of Groupon and LivingSocial in larger cities like Chicago, New York and L.A. It could have something to do with their existing, large user base of 24k+ subscribers in Des Moines – a user base that Groupon and LivingSocial are currently working to build up, in addition to recruiting businesses to feature special offers. In the meantime, be sure to follow TravelzooDSM and TravelzooMSP on Twitter to keep up with all of the local deals, and sign up to receive local deals here. If you’re a business owner who would like to feature a Travelzoo Local Deal, you can start here.

What kind of local deals do you want to see in Des Moines? Leave a comment below!

According to a 2009 Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey, 90 percent of Internet consumers have some degree of trust in recommendations from people they know; only 62 percent place their trust in television advertisements, and the numbers are even lower for other forms of traditional advertising. So what does this mean for social media?

For that 90 percent who trust the recommendations of people they know, they’re not just taking tips from family and friends, but also from their online connections. Think about it: if you read a rave online review about a restaurant, you’re more likely to check out that restaurant on your own, even if you’ve never met the reviewer.

Our online connections influence our decisions.

From a business standpoint, tools like Google Reader provide an efficient way to keep tabs on what people are saying about your company. And by reaching out to opinion leaders in the online community, you will find people who can vouch for your company, connect you with your audience in a new way and serve as contacts in the future. (You’ll also be able to track down negative messages and address a concern right where it’s voiced.)

Here are a few tips for getting started with blogger outreach:

1. Make a list of key terms and phrases bloggers might use to reach the audience you target. This list should be pretty exhaustive—try out different combinations, singular and plural forms of words (blog vs. blogs), even popular misspellings. Use Google’s blog search feature to generate a list of results, then scroll to the bottom of the page and choose “Subscribe to a blog search feed for [search term] in Google Reader.” You’ll also want to subscribe to your company’s name, Twitter handle and any other identities bloggers might use to reference your company. As new blog posts that fit your search terms are made public, they’ll automatically be fed to your Google Reader account.

2. Look at the posts that seem relevant to your company or your industry. Identify the bloggers you’d like to reach out to, and narrow your list down by their reach and influence. Eliminate any that haven’t posted within the last few months.

3. Take some time to get to know their focus, tone and audience. Connect with them on their turf by commenting on a post or two that are relevant to your own company’s focus—this shows them that you are familiar with their blog and that you want to join the conversation. Engage with them before you need something from them; establishing relationships now will give make it easier to reach them down the road.

4. Reach out to the bloggers you select to offer your “pitch.” Stay away from form emails—this is your opportunity to show that you really want to connect with them individually. In your email, explain why they and their readers will care about your brand. Personalize it by referring to a particular post on their blog that caught your eye, or use a specific example to show how your pitch is relevant to them. Some bloggers receive hundreds or even thousands of unsolicited pitches each day, so make sure yours is compelling and unique.

5. Be prepared to provide additional information, resources and logos to them. If they’re taking the time to write about your brand, you should make it as easy as possible for them to do so.

6. If a blogger you contact does write a post about your company, promote their post through your social media channels. Not only will you share their coverage with your fan base, but you’ll also drive traffic back to their blog and reinforce your commitment to staying connected to them.

If you’re less successful than you’d like, set your sights on bloggers who may receive fewer requests. Continue to monitor your Google Reader feeds, and stay engaged with the bloggers you’ve connected with. The more authentic your relationships with these bloggers are, the more likely they’ll be willing to help you out.

What are your tips for connecting with bloggers? Share your thoughts below.

[Photo courtesy of macalicommblog.com.]