Why Your Small Business Needs Social Media

Social media can be intimidating to a small business. With so many social networks available, setting up social profiles can be a bit overwhelming for someone with limited time and budget. Many times, small businesses are eager to establish an online presence. They hastily set up profiles on every social network, but that might not be the best option for their brand.

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How to get kids to stare into space

How do you rekindle a love of the extraterrestial not seen since last century's space race? Successfully landing the Mars Curiosity Rover on the red planet certainly helps, and NASA's saavy complementary social media campaign has ensured that the next generation continues to look to the stars.

Along with the above parody video, the mission's media blitz has included the best robot Twitter feed you'll ever see, a meme spawned by the flight director's star-spangled mohawk and an upcoming Q&A session on Reddit (called an AMA, or Ask Me Anything).

You can even get photos from Mars sent directly to your inbox. 

To get the people excited about space again, you have to go where the people are. NASA has proven that they not only understand the complexities of interplanetary space travel, but how to get some fantastic attention on social media.

Not too personal, not too professional: Using social media just right

More and more, businesses are encouraged to use social media to promote themselves. But quite often, businessowners and their employees are already actively using Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. So what's the best policy: Keeping your personal accounts completely separated from your professional accounts, or merging the two accounts for fewer day-to-day hassles?

And of course, the answer is: It's complicated.

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The Olympics, any way you want 'em.

In just a couple of days, the Games will begin with an undoubtedly spectacular opening ceremony. But for those of use who are just itching to get this party started, social media is to the rescue!

The London 2012 Games have been termed "the first social Olympics," and for good reason: the athletes are tweeting (sometimes with serious consequences), there is an expansive network of official social profiles, and NBC, which has exclusive broadcasting rights in the United States, has developed apps for the Olympic-sized sports apetite. The London Eye will even become a giant glowing gauge of Olympic excitement.

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The Lesson of the 8-Bit Crab

As someone who works with clients on a regular basis, I know that my job is to give the client what they want. But what do you do when the client doesn't know what they want? In that situation, I realized my job is to give the client something they can't live without.

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Hashtags: When They’re Good, They’re Very Good; When They’re Bad …

Remember when # was the pound key? Well, thanks to Twitter, that symbol is almost universally referred to as a hashtag, and they are increasingly being used to determine exactly what the biggest news of the day is.

Earlier this month, I was delighted with a fun new campaign by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, publisher of Cassandra Clare’s YA series The Infernal Devices. The cover of the series’ final installment, Clockwork Princess, was revealed using hashtags on Twitter.

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Red Byrd has hatched.

Welcome to Red Byrd Social Media!

Our goal is for small business to get more social. To that end, we provide many services, outlined on our aptly named Services page, to ensure that your small business is not only using social media successfully.

And one fact that you don't often hear: Social media sites are not created equally. Just because a vibrant Facebook page works for one business, doesn't mean it should be the focal point of your own social efforts. After all, you don't want to waste your time and money on that Facebook page if all of your potential customers are hanging out on Pinterest.

So please take a look around our site, and ask questions! We'd love to hear from you.