I have a degree in Advertising and all through college people would mix up Advertising and Public Relations, and with good reason, they are only slightly different from an outsiders view. Thanks to social media, the two are becoming even more intertwined.

If no one has introduced you to the addictive website whenparentstext.com, let me be the first to welcome you to endless hilarity. While I was perusing one day, I came across this gem of a text conversation and couldn't help but think this is exactly what some businesses are doing to their social media audience.

Don't call it a comeback because they never left! It looks like LinkedIn is about to see a whole lot more traffic. LinkedIn has started allowing businesses to post status updates like Facebook Pages, which begs the question, how is it different?

So you have your Facebook page and your Twitter page so social is all covered. You have some guy constantly working on the back end of your site making sure your keywords are perfect and you have a decent amount of backlinks out there. You should definitely be ranking first on Google now, right? Well, maybe not.

Search Engine Optimization is becoming a more involved way to advertise because you now need a mixture of things to happen for you to rank first on any search engine. So, let's get this stew going shall we?

Creating an official Facebook Page for your company or, if you’re an agency, for your clients, is important. A Facebook Page can show involvement, give helpful tips and most importantly can help generate leads.

Step 1:

Go to the Facebook homepage and click on the “Create a Page for celebrity, band or business” option.

      Social Media is a great outlet and tool for businesses, especially small businesses, but I do not see it taking over advertising because it can’t stand on its own. Think about it, would you let another media take your entire budget and only advertise on TV? Imagine all the people who use DVR and miss your message!

Social media is obviously becoming a must have for businesses across the globe. It has become such a big deal that riots and wars have broken out around it. And who knows this market better than the ones who have been on it since they were teens? The ones who grew up in a world where it was normal to share each detail of their lives with anyone who would listen; the ones who made the medium what it is today. These kids are now getting to the age where they are fresh out of college and ready to take on the real world and the real world is trying to learn what we, the recent college grads, already know.

Warning: Please look up and become familiar with the term “Scathing Sarcasm” prior to reading.

1. Post something on your wall every 30 minutes to ensure people get to see your awesome icon every time they look at their news feed.

 2. Never answer anyone who posts on your wall. Your wall is all about you, it’s not a place for helping people and answering silly questions like “Where can I buy your awesome product?”

3. When someone posts a negative comment on your page, just delete it. No one will notice and point it out to all your followers. Promise.

Have you ever just really wanted a good beer but aren’t sure where to go and what to order? Well have no fear – we’ve compiled a list of brews and venues that will help you make a decision in no time.

Our first picks come from beer connoisseur Brian Dilworth who doesn’t own a prized plate from The Flying Saucer's UFO Club only “because the beer snob in me told me I’d have to drink Coors Lite and Miller Lite to achieve that goal and that just defeats the purpose of going to the Saucer. Otherwise, I’ve probably reached that plateau years back just by drinking most anything new or different.”

You take the time to look nice for that meeting to impress your clients and you research like a mad man to be sure you have the most up to date information to give your clients. You toil over hours of content to be sure your message goes out the way you want it, and then you check the impressions on Facebook and only 20 people saw your awesome post. #fail

If you have a Fan Page I am sure you have seen the Facebook impressions that have started to show up. I was curious about these since some of our clients have way more impressions than fans sometimes even over 10 times the number of fans. So, where do these impressions come from?

The simple answer is yes, but the real questions should be, “Where does your business need to be in the social media scene?” If you are selling watches out of the trunk of your car, Foursquare may not be the place for you. But I will say this, if you aren’t on some social forum, you are missing out on millions of opportunities and just because you don’t participate, doesn’t mean your business won’t be talked about. Why not lead the conversation?

In this new world of geo-location, there are plenty of options to be sure all your friends know where to find you. Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt, Yelp, and recently Twitter and Facebook have even gotten into the location-based arena. So, here’s how to play the game.

How many times have you gone on Facebook and looked up a business that you were interested in and the first thing you see when you go to their page is boring content or worse, no pictures? There are no pictures, no deals or specials and the page is all together lacking a personal touch. It is a social forum after all; going to someone’s page should be like walking into their home or office. This is where an FBML tab can help.

Product placement is becoming more prevalent on TV as use of the DVR becomes more popular. Advertisers are coming up with inventive ways to get you to see their products, but are we, the consumers, even noticing? I think it depends on the brand’s top-of-mind awareness, which is what every brand strives for. Top-of-mind awareness is the first brand you think of when asked about a product. For example, when someone says name a brand of detergent, the first brand you think of is your top-of-mind awareness.

 

I am currently the social media intern here at Atomic, I just started at the beginning of June and I will be the first to say this small-staffed business knows how to work hard and have fun. Most everyone here will go out of their way (or sometimes I’m just on their way) to say hi, but either way they make time.  As a recent graduate of Texas Tech, I have been told many times by many adults that the economy was so bad right now there are no jobs out there. I was told enough times I started believing them.