Many of the clients we work with are just getting started on Social Media. If they have used Facebook or other Social Media platforms at all, it has been only for limited personal use. In order to help small business owners get started, we are launching a series of posts, each of which will outline how to quickly get up and running on a specific social network. Businesses can go through these posts one at a time or pick and choose which networks they want to start with. With each post we will review how to set up your account and cover some of the basics for posting and participating on that network.

For most small business owners, your social media activity may be limited to just one or two posts a day. If you're active all day, then "optimum post time" may not be as important. But if you have just one or two shots to catch the bulk of your followers when they're potentially listening, you need to be aware of that time.

Last week, Twitter acknowledged that their systems had been breached, and that at least 250,000 Twitter users may have had their account information shared with the hacker. According to their blog post, Twitter revealed that the attack may have revealed usernames and email addresses, along with encrypted/salted passwords. While Twitter immediately secured the breach and took steps to reset the passwords for every affected account, the event should still serve as a warning to all: Your Social Media Accounts Are Vulnerable!

Statistics have shown that when posting updates and content to social networks, use of an image will improve your engagement significantly. That's partly due to the fact that 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and visuals are processed 60,000x faster in the brain than text. In fact, according to SimplyMeasured, just one month after the introduction of Facebook Timeline for brands, visual content -- photos and videos -- saw a 65% increase in engagement.

Social Media Care, also referred to as Social Care, is all about using social media platforms as customer service venues. Already about 16% of customer support requests are served via social media, and it's more than likely that figure will grow rapidly in the coming years. What customers are saying about your brand will be more and more public – and it simply can't be ignored.

We have talked in the past of how business owners can use the Twitter List functionality to help themselves. In your Twitter account, you can create lists and add Twitter profiles to those lists, allowing you to view a list and see only updates from those Twitter users. These lists can be public or private. Other social networks like Facebook and Foursquare have similar capabilities, and some businesses are using these tools to provide extraordinary value to their clients.

When someone wants to buy or sell their home, they want help from someone that they know, like and trust. Many real estate agents will join local business networking organizations and chambers of commerce to help create and foster those kinds of connections. What if there was an easier way to connect with local customers?

Real estate agents everywhere are realizing that social media could possibly be their best marketing medium. Instead of bus benches and newspaper ads, agents can use social media to create a steady stream of inbound marketing leads. Here are eight aspects of social media marketing that real estate agents need to keep in mind.