Category Archives: Facebook

“Social Media: Step-by-step”

The End of The Year is made for reflection, clean up, and planning for the future.

Six months ago, social media luminary Chris Brogan published 19 tips to manage your SM online presence.

And I most likely did what a lot of my friends might have done, i.e. LOOK at the List and THINK “What a great list” and then [most probably] moved on to something else to read.

What were we missing?

A lot!

An Actual Roadmap for DOING & LEARNING Social Media!!

So I thought I’d take a few of our moments here to actually study Chris’s list and chat about each item, i.e., more active reading and more opportunity to “internalize” some of his great advice.

Note: Chris’s 19 tips are in blue. [And he recommends you do them Daily. That, of course, is up to you.]

Twitter

1. Find seven things worth retweeting in your general feed and share.

When starting a new regimen, EASY is good. And finding valuable info on the Net to share will make you feel good as well. Of course, if you have really read the information and can add an insight of your own, that will help you as well as your audience.

2. Reply to at least five things with full responses (not just “thanks”).

Commenting on other people’s blogs is Not Easy, but it accomplishes so much: e.g., adding to the conversation, recognizing the writer’s hard work, and getting your name out there . . . for just three benefits.

3. Point out a few people that you admire. It shows your mindset, too.

Hmm. Have to do a bit of interpretation here. I’m assuming that Chris suggests we use the @name and pat them on the back in a Tweet. That’s very cool, but every day? It might be more realistic to find new person to applaud every day. If you keep praising the same people, that seems a bit spammy.

4. Follow back at least 10 folks. (I use an automated tool, but this is a personal preference. If you want such, I use SocialToo.)

Following people back is easy — but deciding WHOM to follow back is another story. I, personally, am not a fan of anything automated and that alone may slow my popularity growth online. Many people do follow you automatically, most often after you Tweet something with a keyword they are following. And, in most cases, I follow them back — but NOT if their last comment was spammy or missing. And I also look at the Avatar. If I feel it is “inappropriate” in any way, I don’t follow back.

5. 10 minutes of just polite two-way chit chat goes far.

Every time you or I go onto Twitter with some time specifically devoted to participating, I think this is fun to do. If your closest Twitter friends are not posting at the moment, you can engage in some conversation with anyone who posts something you like. The poster could be someone you are already following — or better yet [and a way to accomplish #4] — do a search for an area of interest and converse with someone who writes something interesting, whom you were not following before.
Because I use Tweetdeck and have a steady stream of real-time posts about my key search terms, I can always find new people to chat with.
BTW, I just Tweeted @chrisbrogan asking if I could use his photo, and he said ‘Sure” [only 9 more minutes of 2-way chat to go for today]
Thought I’d take this opportunity for a shameless plug for my own Twitter Cheat Sheet post: http://sharisax.com/2009/12/03/twitter-basics-workshop-cheat-sheet/

Facebook

1. Check in on birthdays on the home page. (Want a secret? Send the birthday wish via Twitter or email. Feels even more deliberate.)

Honestly, it was fun back in October to have all the birthday greetings on my Wall. But I imagine Chris is right and that a Tweet or email would have been even more “personal” and warm.

2. Respond to any comments on your wall.

Actually this tip sounds like a No-Brainer, unless you have 5000 friends — which I don’t . . .
But from what I understand, if we want to use Facebook for Business purposes as well as Personal, then we all will need to connect with many, many people through Facebook. If you are reading this post, please Ask to be my Friend. Chris, you, too. 🙂

3. Post a status message daily, something engaging or interesting.

This advice gives me the opportunity to spout my own viewpoint on “Updates”: At this moment in my social media learning curve, my opinion is that updates to Facebook will Not always be appropriate to other platforms. I am really anxious, though, to hear/read other people’s opinions on this.
I know there are sites like Ping that make posting to all your sites simultaneously a breeze. I don’t do this [yet], do you?

4. Comment on at least seven people’s status messages or updates.

Now this is WORK, but the kind of “social capital” that pays off huge rewards. As a matter of fact, I’m going to stop writing right now to comment on my friends’ updates.

This reminds me of a related tip: Do things NOW. If you wait, they are forgotten.

5. Share at least 3 interesting updates that you find.

Honestly, this is ONE tip I’d never thought of, but I can see that ANY TIME you share someone else’s thoughts, you make them very, very happy . . . and spread the good words.

6. If you belong to groups or fan pages, leave a new comment or two

Again, something New for me. I’ve been joining a few Fan Pages, but I can’t remember even looking at them.
🙁 Let alone, commenting. This will take some thought; however, that being said, I, too, have a FanPage that would love to see some “love,” i.e., comments: Performance Social Media. [Become a Fan . . . and comment 🙂 ]

1. Accept any invitations that make sense for you to accept.

A “no-brainer” . . . except for deciding what “makes sense” for you. I’ve heard of people who are VERY discriminating in accepting LinkedIn invitations: their practice is to ONLY connect with people whom they know well and would write a recommendation for.
My own practice follows the advice of many LinkedIn gurus who suggest that the real power of LinkedIn is in your second and third degree connections, i.e., the people who are connected to your connections.
Please feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/shariweisssf

2. Enter any recent business cards to invite them to LinkedIn (if you’re growing your network).

Great suggestion and a practice I do subscribe to. Of course, this means you need to keep up your F2F [Face to Face] networking as well as online. My friend and one of my personal social media gurus Dean Guadagni gave a great networking presentation to a networking group I belong to.

3. Drop into Q&A and see if you can volunteer 2-3 answers.

EXCELLENT ADVICE! LinkedIn is so much more robust and powerful than most people know. Personally I’ve been on the “receiving” end of the Q & A function. I’ve met some great new contacts from all over the world — a few whom I’ll be collaborating with on future projects.

4. Provide 1 recommendation every few days for people you can honestly and fully recommend.

WOW! Wouldn’t this be sensational! I do see that Chris has modified this practice to “one every few days”: I bet that’s do-able. So much more auathentic when you give the recommendation without having been asked.

5. Add any relevant slide decks to the Slideshare app there, or books to the Amazon bookshelf.

Another item for my To-Do List. I know that creating and sharing Slideshows is a fantastic way to build your online authority . . . and I Resolve to do some.

Blogs

1. Visit your blog’s comments section and comment back on at least 5 replies.

WordPress makes this easy as I receive email notifications [and not enough comments . . . yet . . . let’s change that. I do promise to reply to EVERYONE who comments on this post! Chris?]

2. If you have a few extra minutes, click through to the blogs of the commenters, and read a post or two and comment back.

GREAT IDEA: You comment here and I’ll comment back — Be very happy to.

3. While on those sites, use a tool like StumbleUpon and promote their good work.

Absolutely, but I like Digg and Delicious . . . hint, hint. [Check the end of the post for an easy click through to those sites.]

4. Write the occasional post promoting the good work of a blog in your community.

Great idea: Some of my fav bloggers are Adam Singer, David E. Henderson, Larry Brauner, and Suzanne Vara, and Valeria Maltoni [to name just a few]. I learn a host of new things every time I read their articles.

NEXT POST: Handy Checklist to manage all these tasks

Well “we’re” finished with the planning. Now it’s time for the doing. Please let “us” know what that “Doing” entails.

Blogging, Facebook, LinkedIn

1,734 Uses for Social Media – Look ’em Up in Tamar’s “Text”

December 20, 2009 Shari Weiss 1 Comment

You’ve got to be more than a Social Media Newbie to appreciate the depth and breadth of research that went into compiling the 334-page compendium The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web.

Author Tamar Weinberg is a community manager for Mashable, clearly the best source for Social Media news on the Net —

She knows her stuff AND you will, too, if you get a copy of this book, read it, and follow up by trying our just a small portion of the platforms and strategies described in careful detail . . . just one example:

There are more than ten pages just on social bookmarking sites Delicious and StumbleUpon.

Tamar’s Top Seven Reasons to be on the Web:

Establish your expertise.
Bring more traffic to your website.
Raise search engine rankings.
Increase sales.
Manage your reputation.
Enhance brand awareness.
Build relationships.

Here are Nine Strategies for Social Media Marketing Success:

1) Establish goals for your social media marketing campaigns.

2) Create a strategy for executing your social marketing efforts.

3) Communicate effectively with the communities you intend to target.

4) Take charge of the conversation, even if it’s not on your website.

5) Gain exposure from participating among many social channels.

6) Utilize social media to handle a reputation management crisis.

7) Utilize blogs and bloggers to send messages to larger groups of individuals.

8] Leverage existing sites to market your products.

9) Craft content that is currently “hot” within many social media circles.

Some quotes to “get your hands around”:

“You can’t manage something you can’t measure.”

“On the Social Web, conversations happen WITH or WITHOUT you.”

“A Community Manager’s key function is humanizing an organization.”

“Strategy requires teamwork and idea generation.”

“Communities flourish because people are helping people.”

“If you consistently Listen, AND Give Back to your social media community, you will be miles ahead of the competition.”

12 different Online Reputations you should monitor:

Your name
Your company name
Your brand names
Your company executives
Your company’s media spokespeople
Your slogan or marketing message
The competition
Your industry
Your weaknesses
Your business partners
Your clients
Your intellectual property

Personally, I’ve made a list of [a] more than a dozen sites I’m going to check out in more depth, [b] a half dozen communities I’m going to join, and [c] 10 specific tips I’ve already started to adopt.

PS I really didn’t count, but I’m willing to bet there are MORE THAN 1,734 facts you’ll learn about social media from Tamar’s invaluable text.

For those of you who’ve already read it, let us know how it helped you.

FURTHER INFO FROM TAMAR:

Social Media Strategies

10 Social Media sites to get answers to your questions

Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter

Social Media Marketing 101: More strategies to get you started

November 27, 2009 Shari Weiss 7 Comments

It almost doesn’t make a difference where you are on the Social Media learning curve, there’s always more to discover and integrate into your strategy . . . even if you are just getting started.

"I am always doing that which I do not know how to do in order to learn how to do it." -- Picasso

STRATEGY is the key word of the day

i.e., what do you do first, second, third, and so on . . .

As a teacher for umpteen years, I subscribe to a learning philosophy, which is introduced to my students on their first day of class.

It’s so simple, I break it down to these Four Words:

Confusion
Silence
Focus
Effort

Confusion: Accept it. If you already KNEW what you were studying, you wouldn’t need to be in the class, workshop, consulting session, etc.

Silence: Stop worrying, i.e., quiet the FEAR [False Expectations Appearing Real] or you’ll never be able to Listen and Learn.

Focus: Multitasking is the ruination of perfection [according to Suze Orman . . . and me]. So concentrate on one thing at a time.

Effort: Without work and persistence, nothing will be produced or achieved.

Therefore, STEP ONE is to get past your feelings that there is too much to learn, and it takes too much time, and you’ll never get a handle on it.

You are correct: there is a lot to learn; it does take time; BUT you can get a handle on it if you can Listen, Focus, and do the Work.

So what should you do today?

Well, reading through the rest of this article could get you headed in the right direction: I’m going to list some of the “lessons” I heard in a webinar called “Capitalizing on the Conversation” that was sponsored by Social Media Magic, a firm that offers free webinars and fee-based courses and coaching.

Disclaimer: I was not paid to write about them, but I found their information extremely useful.

During the first 40 minutes of the online presentation, I tweeted many of the webinar insights under the hashtag #COC. [If you go to http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23COC , you will find all of them.]

Top Ten Lessons from Social Media Magic Webinar:

1. Social Media is a complex Organic Conversation.

2. Your customers and prospective customers are “out there” talking — and they may be talking about you.

3. Not having a presence in Social Media means not having a Brand out there.

4. The three MAIN sites to establish a profile on are Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

5. Optimizing your profile on each of these sites will have a huge impact. What you say about yourself is one of the key ways that people find you and connect with you — and then buy from you.

6. Don’t worry about numbers. Instead look for targeted users and build relationships with them.

7. The most powerful way to build relationships is to be personal, transparent, and authentic.

8. Twitter has lots of value that people either miss or don’t understand. Twitter search offers Real Time results, i.e., what people are talking about now.

9. On Twitter you can share timely information, promote contests, spread useful links, personify your brand, follow competitors, and build credibility and influence.

10. Know the goals of your company and plan your strategies around them. Then find your target audience and create messages for them.

So now, what do you do first?

Get started.

Get started where?
How?
With what?

Okay, if you are still asking these questions, then my suggestion is to set up accounts on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter AND Optimize your profiles . . . then we’ll talk some more.

FURTHER READING:

9 Ways to Master Social Media Strategies

Facebook, Interview, Sharisax Is Out There

Do we need an Emily Post for social media etiquette?

November 20, 2009 Shari Weiss 10 Comments

“To be or not to be . . .”
“To DO, or NOT to do . . .”

I got a “dressing down” the other day when I asked a question on various social media platforms.

This was my message:

“ARE PRESS RELEASES DEAD? I would like to publish an article on my blog,”

I received many relevant opinions and this surprising response:

“Don’t use my wall to promote your blog.”

Had I missed a rule?

Honestly, I was quite taken aback. What on earth had I done that was WRONG?

So I looked to the ‘wisdom of the crowd” and asked a few of my social media friends — many of whom had received and responded to my question: “What rules had I violated?”

Most said that they hadn’t been offended in any way, but one suggested that some people can get very “persnickety” about their Facebook profile — and that if I really wanted the Scoop on “Doing the Right Thing,” I should ask Etiquette Expert George Kao, a social media coach whose webinar I had attended and written about a month ago: The Circle of Reciprocity begins with Free.

“People are forgiving of your social media mistakes — if you don’t keep repeating them. Someone will usually let you know if you’ve done anything wrong.” — George Kao

George suggested to me that people should not be afraid of making mistakes. “The social web is so new, that the rules for etiquette may not be obvious,” he said. If in doubt, take action, he suggested.

“Focus on adding value to people’s lives and business.”

If you want to do the Right Thing online, then think of the Golden Rule: “Do Not do unto others as you would not have them do unto you.” AND “Do onto others as you would have them do onto you.”

Here are some of George’s suggestions:

Give others the experience you would want.
Be aware of actions that would be intrusive [like over promotion].
Build “Social Capital” [i.e. authentic relationships] before you spend it.
Duplicate the types of online actions that you like AND don’t do the ones you don’t like.
Be “Open Hearted.” We tend to be open-hearted with those who are open-hearted with us.

Facebook Walls: What to post and what not to post

Many people seem to be confused about Facebook Walls, George agreed. “Think of the Wall as someone’s Front Porch or a public office space,” he said. “Your Wall is where you post messages for all visitors. Your updates go on your wall,” he explained.

When someone clicks through to another person’s Facebook profile and writes on that person’s wall, it should be about that person — like a birthday greeting or an endorsement. The only people who see that Wall message, however, will be the Facebook friend and any mutual friends, according to George.

When you comment on one of your friend’s updates, it’s visible by all the person’s Facebook friends as well, so be aware of that.

“Everyone has a responsibility to manage his or her own Wall. If someone writes something you don’t like, you can remove it — and you ought to.”

George’s final caution: “When you are communicating and updating on Facebook, make certain that you don’t post anything you wouldn’t want the world to see.”

Do you have any online pet peeves that you’d like to share — or resources for rules? We’d love to know them and help spread the word.

Facebook, Sharisax Is Out There

Facebook for Business, Blogging, Posterous and more:

November 12, 2009 Shari Weiss 3 Comments

Twitter is like my personal bookstore, but so is most of Web 2.0

Sharing is one of the amazing benefits of Web 2.0, so it’s no wonder that Twitter is so important to me — both as a source and a repository. Here are some of the articles I read and Tweeted and Re-Tweeted this week:

New York Times tips for Marketing on Facebook

Quick Tips worth repeating over and over [until people get them ingrained]: (a) Identify goals; (b) Share personality; (c) Engage, don’t shill; (d) Use Facebook data Here are some article highlights:

Be where your customers — and prospective customers — hang out.
Start small and add tools & apps slowly
Enliven page with photos and useful information
Buy-buy-buy messages do not work
Offer value and be patient

NYT article on Facebook for Business

Blogs are best HUBS for your content

Here are seven reasons why:

With a blog, you control the agenda, whether you’re communicating on behalf of a company, or for personal reasons.
Your blog can cater to a sub-group of your Twitter friends or a different audience altogether.
A blog is less dominated by spam than Twitter.
You can embed images, audio and video on your blog.
Blog posts can be of unlimited length. You can express yourself in more than 140 characters.
With some environments, you have almost unlimited control over the appearance, functionality and arrangement of your blog.
Many blogs include the ability to offer contact forms, polls, chat and other functionality. You can even embed your Twitter stream into your blog.

Blogs better Hubs than Twitter

Local audience — where the money is

Nope, even traditional media admits social media is NOT a fad. Local bloggers are being paid for page views. Viral nature of social media is fountain for success. Social media provides 2-way communication. Social media will be your local marketing tool

Facebook & Google win social network marketing race

“In the future, the Web you know will be based on the Web that knows you.”
“Social Media has simply become an unstoppable force.”
“Making special offers based on known behaviors and connections, will be automated.”
Future marketing outreach: “Maybe you’ll also reach out to one of the baker’s dozen’s worth of active baking-related groups on Facebook.”

Future of Marketing – PR Squared

Robert Scoble interview with POSTEROUS for the “GEEKY-ER” among you:

Top Geek-Thought-Leader Robert Scoble posted a video interview with the two creators of Posterous, a platform on which anyone can post content via email. Steve Rubel stopped publishing his highly regarded marketing communication blog Micropersuasion in favor of a Posterous stream. Video is 17 minutes long and features Robert’s questions for Posterous founders: Sachin Agarwal and Garry Tan. Highlights:

Purpose is to provide a simple, clean platform for rich media and mobile application.
Only four full-time engineers do all the work.
To serve 1.8 billion people who don’t want the hassle of a traditional blog
Future business model to offer Premium features — far in the future.

Check out more of Howard’s Awesome photos on his website: http://faces-and-places.net/indexa.html

Blogging, Facebook

Let’s get the blogging story “straight” — a glimpse of the Technorati report

November 7, 2009 Shari Weiss 10 Comments

Just over six months ago [in April 2009], I wrote my first blog post with the announced intention to aim for “A-List status.”

Four months later I wrote an article about the “day I thought I’d died and gone to Heaven” — it was actually a report of a panel discussion headlining Steve Rubel among other social media thought leaders discussing a Roadmap for the future.

How very exciting it had been to introduce myself to Steve, who’s been a role model.

I told Steve of the lofty goal I was working towards, and he said,

“You might want to reconsider, Shari. Blogs are losing their status, and you might aim, instead, to be an A-List Thought Leader,” he advised me.

During the panel discussion Steve elaborated on this view:

I do subscribe to Steve’s Posterous stream, but that’s in addition to more than a dozen other blogs I keep up with pretty regularly. [Check my blogroll on the right hand sidebar.]

So . . . every time I read a headline like Brian Solis’ “Rumors of the Death of the Blog are Greatly Exaggerated,” I am encouraged to keep on “keepin’ on,” i.e., BLOGGING towards the A List.

Commentary on the PR 2.0 summary of Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere report

Technorati is a search engine for blogs, and it catalogs more than 112 million blogs. Every year the site comes out with a State of the Blogosphere Report and this year’s findings include information about these topics: professional blogging activities, brands in the blogosphere, monetization, twitter & micro-blogging and bloggers’ impact on US and World events.

The report also includes interviews with more than a dozen well-known, well-respected, and well-read bloggers including Steve Rubel.

Brian Solis’ blog PR 2.0 featured an indepth view of the report

This article will pick out and share pieces of the report that I found interesting and helpful to me as a fairly new blogger.

Brian’s post included color-coded charts recording responses from four categories of bloggers: (a) hobbiests; (b) part-timers; (c) corporate; and (d) self-employed.

1) About 70% of all bloggers felt that “Blogs are getting taken more seriously as sources of information” while 60% agreed that “More people will be getting their news and entertainment from blogs than from traditional media in the next three years.”

HOWEVER

2) Fewer than 40% agreed with the following two statements:

a) “Newspapers will not be able to survive in the next ten years.”

b) “Blogs are often better written than traditional media.”

Re: “Prolificness”

Brian wrote that “those bloggers who rank among the highest according to Technorati Authority post nearly 300 times more than the lower ranked bloggers.”

One Technorati survey question asked “How frequently do you update your blog?

20% post once or twice a day
27% post 2-3 times per week
33% post at least once a week
Interestingly, 3% of self-employed bloggers post 10 times a day or more! AND 7% post 5-9 times a day.

Why do bloggers blog?

“Self expression and sharing expertise are among the primary motivations for bloggers,” Brian wrote.

To measure the “success” of their blogs, survey respondents chose from the following ten factors, ranked from the most popularly selected to the least:

1) Personal satisfaction

2) Number of unique visitors

3) Number of posts or comments on the blog

4) Number of links to my blog from other blogs

5) Number of RSS subscribers

6) Accolades from other media

7) Number of people favoriting you

8) Blogger’s Technorati authority number

9) Number and quality of new business leads

10) and, finally, in last place for hobbiests/corporate bloggers was revenue; HOWEVER, 39% of part-timers admitted that revenue was an important measure of their success.

What activities do bloggers participate in to attract visitors?

The four most popular activities included (a) Listing the blog on Technorati; (b) Tagging blog posts; (c) Commenting on other blogs; (d) Listing the blog on Google.

Other activities were the following [from more popular to least popular]: (e) Getting listed on a blog directory; (f) Produce content for other blogs or websites; (g) Create a blog on a broader blog network; (h) Attend conferences for bloggers; (i) Pay for online advertising.

The future of Blogging

Here are the eleven blog ideas and tactics proposed for the coming year [from most popular to least]:

1) Blog more frequently

2) Expand some of the topics already blogged about

3) Publish a book

4) Begin using the blog to get speaking engagements

5) Add advertising

6) Begin guest blogging

7) Add video

8) Blog through mobile device

9) Start a new, independent blog

10) Start a new blog on a blog network

11) Blog less frequently.

According to Brian:

“Technorati believes that the next generation of blogs will be more action oriented, not just documenting real time happenings, but driving actual events.”

If you’re a blogger, how would you have answered any of the Technorati questions?

If you don’t blog yet, has any of this information convinced you to “dive in” and start expressing yourself?

FURTHER READING:

Blogging Basics

Blogging, Facebook, Twitter

From creating Buzz to real-time Trends: Reading my favorite blogs is just like taking out toys and playing with them

October 30, 2009 Shari Weiss Leave a comment

Coming back from vacation is Hard Work, but if that “work” is “play,” then it can be a lot of fun — albeit different from three days in Las Vegas to celebrate my birthday.

So my “coming back plan” is to catch up on my blog-reading and blog-writing at the same time.

Where to start?

At the top of the inbox?

Where I left off last?

Any email title that catches my eye?

I decided to start with Adam Singer’s The Future Buzz [my favorite blog]. Adam is only 26, but his depth of experience and passion is amazing. Today he wrote about speaking at PubCon Nov 10-13, so any of my readers who can get back to Las Vegas, please say HI to Adam for me.

Adam’s post Understanding your audience is underrated touched a few chords for me. Here was my comment:

Two responses come to mind upon reading this post:
(1) As a writing teacher, I am reminded of my advice to students to imagine the reader and it makes the writing task so much easier.
Here was a cool example that worked this past summer: Imagine writing an essay about “Why you should exercise.” With no one person/reader in mind, where do you start? Now imagine the reader is your lazy overweight uncle sitting in front of the TV, drinking beer and playing with his remote. Easier to get started . . . and easier to write.
(2) As a marketing teacher, I’d want to share all of your insights with my students to show them the power of intelligent thinking. In this particular post, your five strategy questions provided a great “lesson.” I especially liked the suggestion to find promotions that work and make those your own.

Have you tried a “News Update Network”?

I like social|median for news updates. It’s cool to read “Sharisax’s News Updates” in my email box every day on these five topics: (a) Tech News, (b) Social Networking, (c) Social Media Watch, (d) Media&Technology, and (e) Twitter.

(b) Social Networking news was of particular interest:

“Why I don’t use Google Reader anymore” posted on Robert Scoble‘s Posterous stream — from his Friendfeed account.

The title of the post appealed to me because — although I have a Google Reader account, I much prefer the blogs and news that comes straight to my mailbox. Here’s why Robert dislikes Google Reader: (1) it’s slow [misspelled “slog” at first; appropriate? :-)]; (2) the UI (user interface) is confusing; (3) too many items to read, which he doesn’t get to; (4) social networking aspects too slow; (5+++) Twitter is so much better!

Robert’s post goes on to show the versatility of Twitter’s new LIST feature, which will soon be open to all. Robert ends his post in the “recommended” fashion to ask how readers view Google Reader. The first commentor suggested that Twitter doesn’t have an RSS feeder like Google Reader. Robert’s response: Everyone he wants to read posts their info on Twitter.

Checking out Seth Godin’s latest “words of wisdom”:

1) Big ideas . . . are little ideas that no one killed too soon

2) Opt-in or opt-out: a thought-provoking consideration of how personal choices should/shouldn’t be automatic, e.g., organ donation [a public good] is “opt-out” while spammy messages are a definite “opt-in.”

3) What you buy when you buy a lottery ticket: The title alone got me. Seth says that buying a lottery ticket is a lot like writing a blog post, and that the motivation is “the thrill of possibility.”

Seth’s Blog is a great one to check out (a) if you are just starting a blog and you want to have a role model who posts short sharp insights very consistently, i.e., at least daily AND/OR (b) if you want to see how a writer can say a whole lot with very few words AND/OR (c) if you simply want to think about some idea of value.

Where to end . . .

Since this is “play,” I could go on and on. But I’m sure I’d lose too many of you. So I’ll quit this post with one last article glimpse, and what better source than Mashable, the premiere aggregator of tech savvy contributors, the ultimate “Social Media Guide”:

One of the stories that caught my attention was the 4 Emerging Trends of the Real-Time Web: (a) Individuals working together [i.e. collaborating] online via specially designed Web platforms; (b) real-time data on shopping, health info and a host of other categories; (c) more valuable search findings that filter out old information; (d) the BEST prices at any one moment in time — WOW!!

If you check out any of these stories, let me know what you got out of them.

If you enjoyed this article, please consider leaving a comment or sharing it with your followers on Twitter! You can also subscribe by email for more cool interviews and articles from Sharisax is Out There.

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Blogging, Facebook, Guest Post, LinkedIn

Web designers more in demand now — even with the ease of blogging and pre-made themes

October 23, 2009 Shari Weiss 7 Comments

Migrating from wordpress.com to wp.org was one tough challenge — and then finding my ideal template was an even bigger one.

Thank heavens for all the support available online — especially via the LinkedIn Q&A feature. [See previous guest post.]

One question led to another once Australian problem solver James Hilton offered me his expertise to fix some early errors. When I found out that James had quit his job as Audio Visual Technician to focus on building websites, I wondered . . . and asked:

How will the ease of creating blogs affect businesses that build websites?

James’ answer surprised me in many ways — but mostly in how much effort and detail he put into his response.

Not wanting to keep all this knowledge and wisdom to myself, I asked James if I could republish his information as a GUEST POST on my blog. Fortunately for all of us, he said YES, and here we go:

Designers will be needed to “Make-over” pre-made blog themes

by James Hilton

I quit my last job so I could focus on building websites. I figured I should be doing what I’m passionate about regardless of whether I’m making money or not. If I’m good at it the money will come to me.

To answer your question, I believe the ease of creating blogs has increased the amount of jobs out there for web designers.

The easier blogs are to start, the more people will be starting blogs, and while there’s tens of thousands of premade themes out there to use, it’s so hard to find one that perfectly fits your idea for the blog so a lot of people hire designers to give their blog a make-over.

I’ve started many blogs and spent hours looking for the perfect theme but I can never find it. In some cases I find one that looks similar to what I envision then spend days modifying it to suit my needs.

What has changed is that web designers are leaning towards graphic design more these days

Anyone can code a basic website, and anyone can set up a website and put a basic theme on, so the web designer’s job is just to make a custom visual design that looks pretty, and that is the biggest job when it comes to building a website.

Personally, I can program a whole website in minutes. But doing the graphic design for it, now that takes many hours or days or even weeks!

I believe many graphic design courses are now including a bit of programming in them simply because the highest demand for graphic designers is on the internet!

Another way that easy blog creation will affect some web design businesses is that they will not have a future income from a client. In the past, a designer might charge a yearly or monthly fee to maintain the website and update it, but now with all these fancy blogging systems like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and many others, the people who own the website can now update it themselves.

Can websites make money?

The type of websites I build are money making ones, but having said that, they’re not making much money!! When I started learning web design 2 years ago I built a website called www.Icanhasmotivation.com which was just about funny pictures. I was so proud about it and knew I was going to hit it big and be raking in the money. On the first day I showed my friends and they loved it and I made $1.50 from advertising income. The next day I made $2, the next day $1, the next day 50 cents, then 20cents, then nothing…

I gave up on that, and started working on other projects but none of them really hit it off. A year later my friend wanted to run a site so we had a go at running the motivational site again and we made it really really popular and got it a lot of traffic. But at the peak it was only making 50 cents per day. 15,000 people visited it in one day and we made $1. So far it’s made $65 so I can safely say it was a failure. (I just checked and it’s made $2 in the last 7 days from roughly 15000pv and 3000uv)

My latest project is the one I have the highest hopes for

I’m pretty confident that this one will hit it big and make me rich. I just need to finish it!!!

www.localendar.com.au is going to be a community calendar that will list every event in Australia and give anyone the opportunity to see what’s happening in their home town on any given day. Or even if they’re holidaying in another town they can see what events are happening. In the one month that I’ve been working on it I’ve changed the visual appearance sooo much! If you view it on Firefox or Safari it will look good but on Internet Explorer there’s a few glitches I need to fix. So far I’ve put about 40 hours into this project and most of that has been towards fixing glitches with the different browsers. Every time I change something about the site I need to fix a damn glitch.

I should be finished with the visual appearance in another few hours then be finished with all the behind the scenes programming in a week or two and I’ll be ready to market this website to the masses. I’m going to fill it up with every event in my home town then expand to the next town then to the next. If it becomes popular and well used I’ll expand it to every town in Australia. If it becomes popular throughout Australia I’ll be expanding to NZ UK USA etc.

So like I said, I have VERY HIGH hopes for this one. If you’ve got some time, (And you’re using any browser other than internet explorer) check it out and tell me what you think. 🙂

New website building options all over the Net

By the way, relating to your question, there are a bunch of new website building websites popping up all over the net. They allow you to create a website in flash format, and they seem pretty good. Although I disagree with the use of flash, I think the future for website building will be in online WYSIWYG editors. (just in case you haven’t heard of it, that just means What You See Is What You Get, and it’s a common term for a program where you drag shapes, text and images around a page and it automatically converts that into a website that anyone can view)

Ideally, what someone will have to create is a website like wordpress where you sign up and get your own page like http://wordpress.com/shari and you will then have an online editor like dreamweaver or front page, where you can paste boxes, text, and pictures onto the page and it will appear like that to other viewers. Of course you can already do that with dreamweaver and front page, but doing it all online so it’s instantly accessible will take it to the next level. From there you would be able to buy a domain name and link it directly to this page so that it appears as though you built it ON the domain that you’ve bought.

The secret will be in using position:absolute; in your CSS. This allows an item to appear ANYWHERE on the webpage and it can be layered below or above any other item you choose. Once someone creates a world wide standard doctype that makes every website appear the same on every browser, this will be possible and I reckon someone is going to get insanely rich from it. (that’ll be me if I have the time to do it! lol)

THX, James, from all of us.

Blogging, Facebook, Twitter

Reading: Social Media tips, stats, and updates. What are people talking about?

October 15, 2009 Shari Weiss 4 Comments

My friend and colleague Zahid Lilani recently posted links to eight articles he’d found interesting. So I thought I’d do the same — and get through some of my emails at the same time. If you read any of the suggested articles, please feel free to comment below — that “tip” is also recommended in a few of these articles.

SOCIAL NETWORKING: Social Media success depends on more than developing an online presence. Taylor Ellwood offers five tips on how to “Network” and Build Community using social media. Basically he suggests (1) Comment on peoples’ tweets and posts; (2) Pay attention to what people need; (3) Post personal info, but be careful that you talk about things that would promote interaction; (4) Try to connect people with one another; (5) Treat people as people, more than just prospective clients.

Friendfeed losing steam: Some SM influentials like Robert Scoble and Jeremiah Owyang, Louis Gray and Steve Rubel have lost faith in Friendfeed, especially since its acquisition by Facebook. [Also, if you check the Oct 14 post on Steve Rubel’s stream in the link above, you can access a great basic Handbook for Twitter.]

Deleting Duplicates: Are you bothered by seeing the same Tweet Twice? Twitter is doing something about that, but some people are upset because they schedule the same tweet to be broadcast 3 different times during the day. Sorry, but you’ll have to make a small change and that will be enough to “delete the delete.”

Technorati Update: The name “Technorati” was one I’d heard early on as The Blog Directory. Apparently the site has not updated its offerings until lately — and the changes will no doubt affect the Blogosphere. Read this article if you want to familiarize with what’s happening with this Big Name.

How-to Plan an Event on Facebook: Many of my friends and prospective clients want to know how to use Facebook Fanpages for their businesses. Here is a Step-by-Step guide to broadcasting news about an event on Facebook. Who doesn’t like Step-by-Step guides?

For Techies – Resources to build Apps: To be honest, this article is a bit over my head, but some readers may be thinking of building applications for FOUR of the most popular SM sites, i.e. Facebook, Flckr, Google Maps, and Twitter. Interesting reading [and stats] even for some of less tech-types.

Make money blogging?: Final reading selection of the day is a Roadmap to Turn Blogging into Your Business. Read Darren Rowse’s [Problogger] Roadmap after his wife told him “You have six months to make blogging full-time.”

Blogging, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter

Social Media Victories: presentation by Patrick Schwerdtfeger for Bay Area Consultants — BACN

October 14, 2009 Shari Weiss 17 Comments

As a Bay Area Consultant myself, I was thrilled to attend my first BACN breakfast meeting and hear Patrick Schwerdtfeger tell 80 of us all about his “Social Media Victories.”

Patrick’s one-hour talk featured case studies where organizations leveraged Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube to increase revenue and brand awareness . . . but what most enlivened the audience were Patrick’s own experiences and lessons along Social Media Revolutionary Road.

Below are my videos from the morning as well as reactions from some of the attendees.

Video 1

Social Media Sites are Raging Rivers

People are on the “raging rivers” of the Web, and they are looking for things.
Are you putting things out there that they can find?
If you do it right, people in New Zealand will find you.
Demonstrate your expertise.

Video 2

Driving traffic to a website is expensive

Use a blog as a Hub and social media platforms as spokes.
Twitter studies show lots of “babble.”
It’s not difficult to stand out as a valuable resource.

Video 3

Twitter is about getting out the right TITLES

Twitter allows consumers to “sample” the goods
4 reasons to tweet: Community; Business; Expertise; Life
Corporate success stories: Whole Foods, Dell, Jet Blue

Video 4

Get the most out of Twitter & LinkedIn

Twitter tools: Tweetlater, Twellow, Tweetdeck
Kogi BBQ story
LinkedIn: people are 7 times more likely to open a LinkedIn email than a regular email
Join LinkedIn Groups to be able to email members “without” being connected.

Video 5

LinkedIn & Facebook: overcoming hurdles

Write recommendations for LinkedIn connections and they may reciprocate
Learn from the best; use model Linked profiles to design your own profile
Use Advanced Search in LinkedIn to send business proposals
Learn the different opportunities offered by Facebook Profiles, Groups, and Fanpages

Video 6

Create a Facebook Fanpage

Post and promote cool events
Take photos and tag people
Video events and post them

Video 7

Facebook and YouTube

Facebook all about Engaging your community.
YouTube: authentic videos are the ones that get watched.
Case study about The Best Job in the World

Video 8

Don’t have time for social media? Integrate Everything

What did the attendees “take away”?

“The session on social networking prompted me to look more deeply into using iTunes as another vehicle for providing though leadership about my practice. I am seriously looking into this and planning to FINALLY actively use at least iTunes to get more visibility to the Bay Area Consulting Group LLC and our deep expertise in IT management.” — Harry Chapman, BACN founder

“I learned that I had underestimated the power of YouTube and its rightful place at the Big Kids table of social media. It is in fact now part of the Big Four: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn AND YouTube.” — Kerry Rego, Kerry Rego Consulting

Dr. Maynard Brusman, Consulting Psychologist

“WOW! Patrick Schwerdtfeger presented a one-hour energy Social Media workshop packed with scores of tips and tricks to create social media success. He motivated me to take action and create Executive Coaching YouTube videos to attract more clients.” — Dr. Maynard Brusman

Sallie Goetsch - "If podcasting is driving you crazy, we can help."

Patrick did a great job of presenting the core information about Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube. The material was all familiar to me, but I appreciated his arrangement of these four social networks as spokes around the hub of your blog. What stuck with me most was the advantage of going where your prospects already are, rather than strugling to build up traffic on your own website.” — Sallie Goetsch, The Podcast Asylum

Susan Bercu, "Let's talk. I'm a good listerner."

“My take-away from Patrick’s lively, easy-to-follow presentation was his emphasis on the integration of social with your marketing strategy. I especially liked the tips on using YouTube. Very smart.” — Susan Bercu, graphic design and illustration

David Weissman, Bay Area Paralegal Services

“The content of the presentation was thought-provoking and useful. The speaker was very knowledgeable, and I definitely intend to use the information to positon and promote my business services in a more effective manner.” — David Weissman, Bay Area Paralegal Services

Alice Cochran, Fast Forward Facilitation
“Everything in the presentation seemed so practical that I wanted to learn it in a step-by-step process, so I bought Patrick’s book Webify your Business. I particularly liked his approach which came from being self-taught — and convinced me that I could learn from him.” — Alice Cochran, author of Roberta’s Rules

Neil Schaffer, Windmill Networking

“The one take-away I had was the “raging water” symbolism. It really does give justice to how viral and quick the pace of things in social media — and how you need to throw yourself into the water and go with the flow. I also liked his case studies, which really drove home his points.” — Neil Schaeffer, Windmill Networking

“Patrick’s enthusiasm and passion for social media tools are infectious. Many thanks to BACN for a wonderful presentation which has inspired me to ACT.” — Yael Schy, Dramatic Strides Consulting

Marla Rosner @ManagementMavin on Twitter

“I loved listening to Patrick. He’s a font of wisdom about social networking. I’m close to posting my first YouTube video and I got some great ideas about tagging.” — Marla Rosner, Helping teams listen, learn, and lead.

Steven Tulsky, Financial Experts for Nonprofit Sector
“What I liked about Patrick was that he comes to this stuff with the same scepticism as I do. He doesn’t preach, but rather shares his amazement that using Web 2.0 can actually be very helpful in establishing one’s personal visibility and respectability, and therefore ultimately one’s business. The credibility of his low-key, easy-going style made me want to look further into what he was telling us about–and buy his book!” — Steven Tulsky, The Benemetrics Consulting Group

BACN Mission: To improve business and professional development success through networking and programs for consultants.
Members of BACN are independent consultants who are interested in expanding their professional practices through effective networking and professional development programs sponsored by BACN. Attend a BACN meeting to become a member.

Facebook, Twitter

Yes, Shari, Micromedia can support and inspire great conversation

September 16, 2009 Shari Weiss 1 Comment

When I first read chapter 13 in Putting the Public Back into PR, I had my doubts as to whether Twitter was really the place for great convo — i.e. conversation.

But two recent experiences convinced me that rapid-fire, off-the-cuff, succinct wordings could in fact power “engaging” and “enlightening” experiences — not to mention the opportunity for community-building.

Last night I moderated the #smbookclub discussion for Part 3 of Brian Solis and Deirdre Breakenridge’s Putting the Public Back in PR. This morning I participated in their discussion at #PRStudChat. Both complete discussions are archived and be followed simply by searching the hastags.

Content/conclusions from the book discussion:

“Relax and let chaos reveal its relevance to you.” Susanna Stinnet

The conversations [“convos”] are happening. If you are part of them, you can affect change and make a difference.
Companies that use today’s tools will be ahead of the game, even if those particular tools change or lose their vitality.
Social media will continue to evolve; it will not go away.
Social media platforms are great ways to meet people.
Before engaging anyone, first observe and understand the cultures and behaviors necessary to participate in these communities.
Marketing jobs have moved from monologues to dialogue.
Avoid the clutter and build relationships.
Build meaningful relationships that will contribute to company’s brand equity, resources, and overall bottom line.

“Twitter and Facebook are really good for listening and developing relationships — and then driving to where you can talk in more depth either via email or phone.” Paul Salinger

“Social media is forcing changes that should have happened a long time ago in everything related to business.” Cherisse Rivera

Notes for further “conversation/content”:

1) Check out #PRStudChat for hour dialogue between Brian, Dierdre, PR students and pros.

2) Read my reviews of Putting the Public Back in PR:

Part 1: True Value of New PR
Part 2: Facilitating Conversations
Part 3: Social Media Tools – topic of this week’s social media book discussion
Part 4, ch. 15: Community Managers – first chapter in section to be discussed next week #smbookclub

3) Join the chat next Tuesday on Tweetchat.com #smbookclub 8 pm EDT/5 pm PDT

For those of you who do check out #PRStudChat OR if you attended, please comment with your favorite quotes from that conversation.

Facebook, Guest Post, Twitter

Our Future Around Facebook and Twitter — guest post from Gen Y-er Zahid Lilani

September 14, 2009 Shari Weiss 17 Comments

I couldn’t wait.

Sharisax Is Out There has been featuring a series of reviews on the book Putting the Public Back in PR, but one of my most conscientious SFSU students wrote this wonderful article on Gen Y and social media.

Without further ado, here is Zahid:

Guest Poster Zahid Lilani: Voice for Gen Y

Social Media has changed the way we communicate and stay connected. Not that it will ever replace face-to-face interaction, still it has become a popular way to communicate for Generation Y. 90% of U.S. adults are online and 80% of U.S. online adults participate in social media.

“Social Media is no longer the cool and fun thing that fascinates imagination with all the bells and whistles, it is more like a necessity for Generation Y.”

Who is the Generation Y? I am the Generation Y, my generation created Facebook and Twitter and my generation will dictate the future of social media.

The idea behind Web 2.0 or social media revolution was to change the way our generation communicates, we now decide what’s worthy, what to vote up and what to vote down. Being more well versed with Facebook and Twitter, this is what I think our future will look like:

Facebook ID Implementation Across Major Platforms

Most websites are implementing an excellent feature on to their websites, it is called Facebook Connect. In plain English, if you go to a website and have to register to login, you won’t have to create another user id and password. You will be able to connect using your Facebook ID and Password. Still in its earliest stages, most developers are implementing this concept into their programming because of the immense power of social media. You can read more about Facebook Connect here.

Twitter Household
The idea behind Twitter Household is that everything in your house can communicate with you if you provide it with the right tool. The tools are still in its early stages but the technology is already there, it is Twitter. If that was vague, here are couple of examples:

Laundry: The Washing Machine Hack, created by Ryan Rose, sends text message (SMS) notifications over Twitter when clothes are done. You can follow his Washing Machine here.

Power Usage: In future, if you are energy conscious or plain curious about the power usage in your household, you can use Tweet-a-Watt which will update you using Twitter on your power usage.

Both Facebook and Twitter are immensely powerful in what they can accomplish and with time they will evolve and become more mature. What do you think your life will be like around Facebook and Twitter two years from now? What else do you think you will be able to do on Facebook and Twitter besides information sharing and gathering?

Check out Zahid’s blog: his most recent post will help you convert your WP.com blog to a self-hosted one at WP.org in five easy steps.

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Category Archives: Facebook

Let’s get the blogging story “straight” — a glimpse of the Technorati report

How very exciting it had been to introduce myself to Steve, who’s been a role model.

“You might want to reconsider, Shari. Blogs are losing their status, and you might aim, instead, to be an A-List Thought Leader,” he advised me.

Commentary on the PR 2.0 summary of Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere report

Brian Solis’ blog PR 2.0 featured an indepth view of the report

Re: “Prolificness”

Why do bloggers blog?

“Self expression and sharing expertise are among the primary motivations for bloggers,” Brian wrote.

What activities do bloggers participate in to attract visitors?

The future of Blogging

“Technorati believes that the next generation of blogs will be more action oriented, not just documenting real time happenings, but driving actual events.”

From creating Buzz to real-time Trends: Reading my favorite blogs is just like taking out toys and playing with them

Where to start?

Have you tried a “News Update Network”?

Checking out Seth Godin’s latest “words of wisdom”:

Where to end . . .

Web designers more in demand now — even with the ease of blogging and pre-made themes

How will the ease of creating blogs affect businesses that build websites?

Designers will be needed to “Make-over” pre-made blog themes

What has changed is that web designers are leaning towards graphic design more these days

Can websites make money?

My latest project is the one I have the highest hopes for

New website building options all over the Net

Reading: Social Media tips, stats, and updates. What are people talking about?

Going BEYOND the Social Media Revolution

“Social Media: Step-by-step”

An Actual Roadmap for DOING & LEARNING Social Media!!

Twitter

Facebook

LinkedIn

Blogs

NEXT POST: Handy Checklist to manage all these tasks

Well “we’re” finished with the planning. Now it’s time for the doing. Please let “us” know what that “Doing” entails.

Tamar’s Top Seven Reasons to be on the Web:

Here are Nine Strategies for Social Media Marketing Success:

Some quotes to “get your hands around”:

12 different Online Reputations you should monitor:

It almost doesn’t make a difference where you are on the Social Media learning curve, there’s always more to discover and integrate into your strategy . . . even if you are just getting started.

STRATEGY is the key word of the day

Therefore, STEP ONE is to get past your feelings that there is too much to learn, and it takes too much time, and you’ll never get a handle on it.

You are correct: there is a lot to learn; it does take time; BUT you can get a handle on it if you can Listen, Focus, and do the Work.

So what should you do today?

Top Ten Lessons from Social Media Magic Webinar:

So now, what do you do first?

Get started.

Get started where?

How?

With what?

“To be or not to be . . .”

“To DO, or NOT to do . . .”

Had I missed a rule?

“People are forgiving of your social media mistakes — if you don’t keep repeating them. Someone will usually let you know if you’ve done anything wrong.” — George Kao

“Focus on adding value to people’s lives and business.”

Facebook Walls: What to post and what not to post

“Everyone has a responsibility to manage his or her own Wall. If someone writes something you don’t like, you can remove it — and you ought to.”

Twitter is like my personal bookstore, but so is most of Web 2.0

New York Times tips for Marketing on Facebook

Blogs are best HUBS for your content

Local audience — where the money is

Facebook & Google win social network marketing race

“In the future, the Web you know will be based on the Web that knows you.”

“Social Media has simply become an unstoppable force.”

“Making special offers based on known behaviors and connections, will be automated.”

Future marketing outreach: “Maybe you’ll also reach out to one of the baker’s dozen’s worth of active baking-related groups on Facebook.”

Robert Scoble interview with POSTEROUS for the “GEEKY-ER” among you:

How very exciting it had been to introduce myself to Steve, who’s been a role model.

“You might want to reconsider, Shari. Blogs are losing their status, and you might aim, instead, to be an A-List Thought Leader,” he advised me.

Commentary on the PR 2.0 summary of Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere report

Brian Solis’ blog PR 2.0 featured an indepth view of the report

Re: “Prolificness”

Why do bloggers blog?

“Self expression and sharing expertise are among the primary motivations for bloggers,” Brian wrote.

What activities do bloggers participate in to attract visitors?

The future of Blogging

“Technorati believes that the next generation of blogs will be more action oriented, not just documenting real time happenings, but driving actual events.”

Where to start?

Have you tried a “News Update Network”?

Checking out Seth Godin’s latest “words of wisdom”:

Where to end . . .

How will the ease of creating blogs affect businesses that build websites?

Designers will be needed to “Make-over” pre-made blog themes

What has changed is that web designers are leaning towards graphic design more these days

Can websites make money?

My latest project is the one I have the highest hopes for

New website building options all over the Net

Video 1

Social Media Sites are Raging Rivers

Video 2

Driving traffic to a website is expensive

Video 3

Twitter is about getting out the right TITLES

Video 4

Get the most out of Twitter & LinkedIn

Video 5

LinkedIn & Facebook: overcoming hurdles

Video 6

Create a Facebook Fanpage

Video 7

Facebook and YouTube

Video 8

Don’t have time for social media? Integrate Everything

What did the attendees “take away”?

Content/conclusions from the book discussion:

Notes for further “conversation/content”:

“Social Media is no longer the cool and fun thing that fascinates imagination with all the bells and whistles, it is more like a necessity for Generation Y.”