Archive for the ‘Social Media’ Category
I spend a lot of time these days talking to local businesses about Social Media and discussing how they can use Blogs, Facebook, Twitter and other channels. And that can be challenging because in many cases people have a hard time seeing the connection between online social activities and their businesses. Sometimes even in spite of the fact that they are familiar with one or more social channels already for their personal use.
I have discovered that telling stories about how other businesses are using Social Media to be the best way to get to that “AHA!” moment where the possiblities are suddenly staring them right in the face.
I came across this article in the New York Times that I think successfully illustrates the opportunities for local business to successfully use Twitter. Take a look and let me know your thoughts!
Click here:
Mom-and-Pop Operators Turn to Social Media, The New York Times
Tags: Blog, Facebook, Local Business, Social Media, Twitter
Posted in Blogging, Facebook, Local Business, Social Media, Twitter | No Comments »
July 23rd, 2009
Question: A patient of mine who is pretty web-savvy has been repeatedly telling me I should start a blog. Should I? What would it consist of, given my profession as psychotherapist and marriage and family therapist and trauma specialist? Dr. Barbara Nadel, D.C.S.W., Ph.D. www.drbarbaranadel.com
Your patient may be right. She could be urging you to start a blog because she believes that you have something to say that would be valuable to people. I can imagine that you could help a lot of people by sharing what you learn in your practice.
Your blog can be your place to voice opinions, give advice, answer questions, post videos, and anything else you can think of. But blogging is mostly sharing information.
Don’t know if you have anything to share? Then ask yourself a couple of questions:
1. Who is your audience? Is it your current patients, your colleagues, your friends, all of the above?
2. What are the benefits of having a blog?
There can be a lot of benefits to writing a blog, and many of them are incidental. Here are just a few:
- Credibility: your blog gives you a platform from which to set yourself apart from others in your field.
- Visibility: your blog can help you become more visible when people are looking for you online because search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing) love fresh content and look for websites that are regularly updated.
- Supports Word of Mouth: For me, this is a biggie. Let’s say someone refers you to a new patient. Your blog, more than even your website, allows that prospective new patient to find out who you are before he or she calls.
- Fun: Your blog gives you the opportunity to share your successes and tell stories that are meaningful to you. And, that’s a lot of fun! (see my post about co-writing a blog http://tinyurl.com/mdv7lr)
Once you identify who your audience is and what the purpose of your blog will be, it will be a lot easier to figure out what the content should be. Get your inspiration from reading other blogs (this is a list of blogs about psychology for you to peruse: “40 Superb Psychology Blogs” http://tinyurl.com/kmgp8u)
Plus, I recommend that you write some blog posts even before your blog is setup. Just to get a feel of it and see if blogging is something that you want to do. Then when your blog is ready (or when you are ready to publish) you will already have some content to upload. I recommend this wonderful eBook: 31 Days to a Better Blog to help you find your “blog voice”. http://www.problogger.net/31dbbb-workbook/
In Social Media, a blog is often where everything else revolves: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and many other social network channels can be set-up so that your blog posts are automatically fed into them and that people who are your followers, friends and fans, can see what you are saying.
Want to know more about blogging? Just ask me a Question!
Tags: Blogging, Blogs, Social Media
Posted in Blogging, Social Media | No Comments »
July 21st, 2009
After experiencing some embarrassing moments myself, I have wondered the same thing. This is an issue that so many people are concerned about that Paul Boutin who writes Gadgetwise, a technology blog for The New York Times, recently devoted at least one blog post to this topic.
Bottom line, you can’t stop anyone from posting a picture of you on Facebook. That’s a nightmare for those of us who are not real keen on how we look on film. However, there are a few things you can do to reduce the visibility of those pesky pictures where you are tagged:
If a photo of you has already been posted and tagged on Facebook:
1. Find the photo. Underneath it you will see In this photo
2. Your name will have a link next to it, click remove tag
3. Voila! The tag is gone.
What if you want to keep the whole world from finding pictures of you on other people’s profile pages?
1. Go to Settings on the upper right hand corner of your Profile page, you’ll see a drop-down menu, click on Privacy Settings.
2. Click on Profile
3. In the list, you’ll see Photos Tagged of You, Click on Custom
4. Where you see Who Can See This? Click on Only Me
This will prevent people from searching for you in photos and keep them from seeing other photos where you are tagged.
If this is all too complicated, you could ask your teenaged son or daughter do it for you (although they probably wouldn’t understand why you would want to do it in the first place!)
To read more go to: http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/05/how-to-block-facebook-photos-of-yourself/
Tags: Facebook, Pictures on Facebook, Remove Tags, Tagged Pictures
Posted in Facebook, Social Media | No Comments »
July 10th, 2009
Question: I am an interior designer and I have a friend and colleague who is a real estate agent. We each would like to start a blog. Would it be effective for us to do a blog together since our two areas are related?
One of the first things to ask yourself when conceiving your blog is: “Who is my audience?” “Who is going to get benefit from the information I can share?” In this case, a combined interior design and real estate bIog may not be a very good idea. Are the people who are interested in interior design the same people as those who are interested in real estate? Not necessarily.
For instance, if your friend the real estate agent posts a blog about, say, the perils of buying a home in foreclosure, the person who is interested in buying vintage furniture for their living room will probably think “this blog doesn’t give me the info I’m looking for” and not come back.
However, that doesn’t mean that you should never co-write a blog. Many bloggers invite guest authors to post on their blogs if the content is valuable to the audience. For instance, I recently co-wrote a blog with Elizabeth Beskin of Fifth Avenue Digital. We attended the O’Reilly Twitter Boot Camp together and wrote “10 Things I Learned at Twitter Boot Camp” (see blog from June 18th) and posted it on our blogs. The subscribers to both of our blogs found the information very useful.
I recommend “31 Days to Build a Better Blog” which is a terrific e-Book published by ProBlogger.net. It will really help you identify what you bring to the table in Social Media and get you on track.
Tags: Blog, Blogging, Social Media
Posted in Blogging, Social Media | No Comments »
June 26th, 2009
Question #1: What is Google PageRank?
Google PageRank (PR) is a number that represents the importance of an individual web page in the eyes of Google. So, when lots of web pages link to a specific web page, it shows Google that the page is popular. That means good stuff to Google because their ultimate goal is to always deliver the most relevant, quality content to their users.In other words, if a page has a PR of 9 or 10 (10 being the highest), that page has won a popularity contest!
Question #2:Is Google PageRank Important for SEO?
Well, that’s a really good question. There was and still is a lot of speculation as to whether a high PageRank benefits a web page’s ranking in organic listings (SEO). However, it is ALWAYS good to have as many quality inbound links a possible directing people to your web pages.
If you have the Google Toolbar installed in your browser, you can see the PageRank of each page as you browse the web. Don’t know if you have the Google toolbar, or want to install it? Let me know and I’ll be happy to help!
Tags: Google PageRank, Google PR, SEO
Posted in Internet Marketing, SEO, Social Media | No Comments »
June 25th, 2009
On Monday I had the pleasure of being able to spend the entire day at Tim O’Reilly’s Twitter Boot Camp at the New World Stages in Manhattan. There were wonderful speakers and wonderful advice on the use of Twitter for your brand. Here are a few pearls of wisdom I took away about this exciting new communication tool. (more…)
Tags: O'Reilly Twitter Boot Camp, Social Media, Twitter, Twitter Boot Camp
Posted in Social Media, Twitter | No Comments »
June 18th, 2009
Lately I have been speaking to groups of entrepreneurs about Social Media. Once I finish explaining the benefits of using LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Blogging, I take questions. In every case, my audiences’ biggest concern is that Social Media will become a huge “time drain” for them. And, I can totally understand their worry.
However, an article published today in MediaPost, states “81% of all marketers indicate that their social media efforts have generated exposure for their businesses. At least two in three participants found that increased traffic occurred with as little as 6 hours a week invested in social media marketing.”
So, if you devote as little as 6 hours a week to Social Media, your business will benefit. If I were to limit myself to 6 hours a week, I think I would do it this way:
- Blog for 2 hours: write one blog post per week and make sure your blog is set-up so that your posts are will appear on LinkedIn and Facebook.
- Twitter for 2 hours: choose the people who interest you the most, and see what they are talking about (I get cell updates from the people I want to learn from the most, and there are only about ten of those). Read what they are talking about only when it relates to your business. If there is an article or blog that they particularly like, bookmark it to go back to later, read on your handheld, or print it out to read when you can (it’s OK to skim).
- Explore for 1 1/2 hours: give yourself some time to just float around, discover new sites, find new people to follow, etc.
- Update for 1/2 hour: check your profiles to make sure they are up to date.
6 hours is hardly a “time drain” and can have an impact on your business.
Need help getting started? Be Visible Associates now offers “Instant Social Media Packages” where we set up all your profiles, integrate them, and train you on how to use them.
Tags: Facebook, LinkedIn, Managing Time Social Media, Social Media, Twitter
Posted in Networking, Social Media | No Comments »
April 22nd, 2009
If you Blog, if you use Twitter, if you use Facebook and LinkedIn, you know how easy it is to lose your direction in the maze of information coming in. And, what to say, how to add to the conversation, what’s the best way to be a part of it? If you are anything like me, you could use a few extra hours every day just to keep up!
Sometimes, we just need a reality check. I got my reality check this morning when Chris Brogan led me to an article he wrote WAY BACK in November! If I Started Today by Chris Brogan. Thank you, Chris!
Tags: Blogging, Chris Brogan, Facebook, Social Media, Twitter
Posted in Networking, Social Media | No Comments »
April 14th, 2009
Be Visible Associates is proud to announce the introduction of our newest service:
The Instant Social Media Package
Get your business on:
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Your Own Blog
and have it all work together for you!
Training included.
Call us today!
Tags: Blog, Blogging, Facebook, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, Social Media, Twitter, Zillo
Posted in Social Media | No Comments »
April 3rd, 2009
If you are a business person and you use the Web, you are probably
1. using Twitter
2. wondering about Twitter
3. trying to ignore Twitter
4. scared of Twitter
This week I’ve had the privilege of talking to groups of business people about Twitter and its value to their businesses. Everyone seemed to fit into categories 2 through 4. So, my challenge has been how to de-mystify it for them. One of the best ways that I have found to explain Twitter is this:
“Think of Twitter as a way to send a text message to a whole lot of people at one time…most of whom you don’t know, but most of whom share your interests. And, people who are interested in what you are interested in will send you text messages, too.”
If you keep this in mind when you use Twitter, you’ll get a lot out of it.
Example: about an hour ago this blog was announced by someone I am following on Twitter. It is on the Marketing Pilgrim website. It talks about Twitter being a “search engine” and how it may become a real challenge to the mammoth Google. http://tiny.cc/iow9T
As a business tool, Twitter enables me to get up to the minute information like this about my industry that I can then share with my clients to keep them on the cutting edge of what is going on in online marketing.
So, if you are in business, and if you really want up to date information about your industry…twart tweeting right now!
Tags: Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking, Twitter
Posted in Networking, Social Media, Twitter | No Comments »
March 5th, 2009
