That’s because we’re shutting down this blog over the next couple of weeks! I’m now posting exclusively on New England Multimedia’s Wordpress site, so we’ll be reusing this content over there as time goes on.

Lots of goodies over there — come and see!

Michelle handles all Social Media for New England Multimedia. You can contact her by email, on our Facebook, or on our Twitter.

Bit.ly's Puffer Fish Logo

I had Tweeted about her new website/blog, and used the shortened link she referenced, instead of her actual web address: http:pilatesbodynyc.com/.

I recommend everyone who uses social media (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, blogging, etc.) for any kind of marketing register for a free account at bit.ly. Here’s why:

Twitter only allows 140 characters, and if you hope to have your Tweets “retweeted” or “shared” (a goal you should have, for a lot of reasons I won’t get into here), the rule of thumb is to use no more than 120 characters in a Tweet. Shortening your links using bit.ly gives you more room.

For example, if I use our Twitter to point people to our blog post “The Small Business Triple Threat: Relationship Skills, Blogging, and Social Media” using the original url (http://qwebconsulting.com/website-tips/the-small-business-triple-threat-relationship-skills-blogging-and-social-media/), I’m using nearly 100 characters.

Using bit.ly to shorten and customize the link, I use http://bit.ly/TripThreat, just 24 characters.

Now I have a lot more room to build a headline that will [hopefully] get people to click my link and go to our blog.

Why do you care? Because for an effective social media strategy, you need to know whether or not anyone cares about what you’re sharing, especially if you’re using social media trying to drive traffic to your website, blog, or other sales vehicles.

If you’re not getting any clicks — or you’re only getting a few — you need to make some changes in strategy so you’re not wasting time.

For example, the shortened link we use to send people to New England Multimedia’s Facebook is http://bit.ly/newengfb. I use the same link every time, because it’s easy for me to remember. The letters I’ve used give the reader a clue as to what they’re about to click on, AND as I shared in #2, my new link is a heck of a lot shorter than http://facebook.com/newenglandmultimedia.

See how that works?

I’ve also found that when I just use the shortened link bit.ly gives me, without customizing it, I get fewer clicks. The jumble of letters and numbers bit.ly uses isn’t very appealing. I don’t customize every shortened link, though. It can be time-consuming trying to think of one no one else has used.

For example, if you click “info” and take a peek at our info page for “The Small Business Triple Threat: Relationship Skills, Blogging, and Social Media”, you’ll see interesting statistics we can use to tweak our social media strategy. How many clicks a link got, what time people clicked, whether they’re retweeting it or sharing it, which social media profile you’re getting the most clicks from (if you use the same shortened link on different social media profiles), and more — these are all statistics you can use to tweak your strategy.

Recently, bit.ly launched “bitly.Pro” that looks especially interesting. It’s free while in the beta stage, if your application to be a tester gets accepted. Why don’t you check it out?

What link shortener program do you use, and why? What features do you use with bit.ly that you can share here with our readers?

Note: Because I want your comment to stand, please read our simple comment policy before replying! Thank-you!

Michelle handles all Social Media for New England Multimedia. You can contact her by email, on our Facebook, or on our Twitter.

“When one bases his life on principle, 99 percent of his decisions are already made.” Author Unknown

I’ve been doing some deep soul-searching.

Yesterday I read an article on CNNMoney.com called “Why Amish Businesses Don’t Fail.” According to a 2009 report by Elizabethtown College sociology professor Donald Kraybill, more than 95% of businesses run by the Amish survive the 5-year “success” mark, compared with around 50% of the rest of America — this despite the Amish practice of routinely ending “formal” education beyond 8th grade (I can see many homeschoolers nodding their heads knowingly).

The Amish people as a rule have character strengths and live by principles that most of us would agree are admirable: hard work, community, honesty, integrity, humility, servant-leadership, strong family ties, getting up early to start their day. If you asked an Amish business owner what the “secret” of their business success is, they’d also give credit to God; as a Christian, I understand why. At the very least, the Bible lays out the importance of living by the values the Amish espouse, only some of which are listed in the article.

What especially surprised me was the willingness of at least some Amish businessmen to use technology like cell phones and email. The use of these modern devices, however, brings the same challenges for them as for the rest of us: family life suffers. As we can all attest to, even with a strong focus on family togetherness, the Amish are not immune to finding that the increased business efficiency offered by technology brings with it the difficulty of maintaining balance.

Here’s a video from the article, to give you a peek into Amish business life:

So, the questions I’m wrestling with are these:

What principles do you live by that guide the decisions you make, or help you get back on track when you’ve made poor decisions?

Do you separate business from “real life” and operate each with different principles, or do they overlap?

What can we learn from the Amish, if anything?

Note: Because I want your comment to stand, please read our simple comment policy before replying! Thank-you!

Michelle handles all Social Media for New England Multimedia. You can contact her by email, on our Facebook, or on our Twitter.