Tag Archives: Twitter

Facebook, Featured, LinkedIn

Social Media Victories — and how to win them

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Bay Area Consultants hear SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS from popular speaker Patrick Schwerdtfeger

Back by popular request, Patrick presented more detailed online marketing tactics — building from his earlier talk on social media basics delivered last fall.

Author of Webify Your Business, Patrick spoke at 127 events around the globe in 2009. He shares social media success stories and practical strategies that inspire his audiences to go home and start creating plans of their own.

Below are 14 videos taken at the 90-minute presentation — from how to introduce yourself online to maximizing the professional opportunities on LinkedIn.

First, however, read the reactions from 10 of the more than 70 entrepreneurs in attendance.

I went into Patrick’s presentation knowing nothing about social media except that someone told me I was being reviewed on Yelp and joined LinkedIn because I was invited.

The one step I decided to implement was making a video for YouTube on how to do something specific in QuickBooks and start a blog to connect to my website.”  — Pamela Lyons

Pamela teaches companies to leverage technology with their accounting practices using training,  part time CFO, and bookkeepers onsite or remote.  She takes QuickBooks to the next level to get results on your financial information.

“I’m going to follow-up on Patrick’s suggestion that we choose one standard head-shot photo to use in all of our online media outlets, as these will become our brands.” — Steven Tulsky

Steven offers financial Expertise for the Nonprofit Sector: The Benemetrics Consulting Group partners with nonprofit executives, directors, and finance staff to develop, evaluate, and communicate meaningful financial information, enabling them to implement good decisions that assure the financial well being and mission effectiveness of their organizations.

“Patrick’s presentation showed me that “doing” social media could be easy and fun!  The big thing – get started!

The best tip for me was to create educational videos for You Tube, leverage them with similar related videos, match my current branding and then, get the word out there.  Patrick is a great speaker – he loves “this stuff” and enjoys sharing the information.” — Deborah Myers

An acupressurist and Health Educator, Deborah unravels the mysteries of the body, bringing health and wellness to your personal and business life.

” Patrick has a wealth of useful information on Social Media Marketing; he has a gift for simplifying and giving practical tips. I immediately put to use his tips on doing a YouTube video.” — Diane Parente

Diane’s company Image Development & Management, Inc (IDMI) is The Professional Image Resource based in San Francisco providing services and products to fit every aspect of your image from visual to verbal.

“Here is my One Tip that we will be implementing: Adding a Yelp profile for our company and asking clients to write reviews.” — Terry Gault

Terry’s organization, The Henderson Group, helps business professionals transition into high visibility roles where communication skills are critical for success.

“One powerful tip I got from Patrick’s presentation is the fact that there are 400 million users on Facebook and that I need to start utilizing that resource.  As a result of hearing him speak, I plan on creating a Fan Page on Facebook to help direct people to my website.” — Carrie Cheadle

Carrie has dedicated her career to helping athletes of all levels enhance their athletic experience by coaching them on how to approach their sport with more confidence, more enjoyment, and empowering them with the necessary support and skills to achieve their goals and perform to their potential.

“Social media can be so overwhelming – lots of choices with little understanding of real marketing value.  Patrick’s presentation made both sense and cents, as I feel I can better implement social media to my advantage.” — Bruce Burtch

Bruce, the Cause Marketing Catalyst, develops cause marketing campaigns, joining for-profit and nonprofit organizations, with the focus of building win-win partnerships for the greater good.

“Instead of getting overwhelmed by social media, I plan to commit to taking one step forward each week!  ” — Carol Seebach

Carol’s company Executive Gears provides support for executives and boards to bring order and efficiency to organizations.

“The main idea I took away from the presentation was to be redundant on the web: Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, YouTube, all are excellent platforms for getting the word out about your business. I feel more confident about moving forward with this branch of our marketing efforts after listening to Patrick.” — William Buchanan

Bill’s 51 years of federal law enforcement experience combined with an efficient business model assure our corporate and law firm clients the highest quality of investigative services.

“I suppose I have to put my business on Yelp, which I have resisted doing for years. It still doesn’t seem to me like the kind of place people look for my type of services. (After last time, I created a Facebook Fan Page for the Podcast Asylum, though I refuse to have a personal profile on Facebook.) Patrick is a convincing guy.” — Sallie Goetsch
Sallie’s service, The Podcast Asylum, helps you podcast without losing your mind — or driving
your listeners crazy.

SOCIAL MEDIA VICTORIES – and how to win them

  • More and more people are searching online every single day
  • Driving traffic to a website is a difficult challenge
  • Introducing yourself online will spread your influence

Outrun your competition

  • It’s not difficult to outshine your online competition
  • Do more than them
  • Example: 40% of Tweets are useless babble

Raging Rivers – post info for people to find

  • Understand how every action online can support your business objectives

Digital Divide — embrace the new media

  • Centerpiece is your blog
  • Your website meets your customers on a different level
  • Examples of how “age” shapes opinions:

“If an online transaction goes wrong, I have no recourse VS. If online transaction goes wrong, I can personally destroy their business”

United Breaks Guitars — online payback for customer neglect

  • YouTube gets real results
  • Lots of things may fail, but some things really work

Conversations are Markets

  • Is marketing dead? Of course not, but it is changing
  • Find the conversation and participate
  • Awareness leads to interest . . . and more

Facebook — and what to do with it

  • Your headshot online becomes your brand
  • Difference between Profiles, Groups & Fan Pages
  • Facebook ranks really HIGH on Google
  • Google Juice is the SEO value of what we are talking about

Building Facebook Pages

  • Do people read updates?
  • Posting on the Walls of friends
  • Increasing number of companies have Facebook rather than traditional website
  • You can create Groups & Fan Pages for your business on Facebook

Tagging People in Photos

  • Successful winery case study
  • “That looks like fun” – Fun events to share

Get to 300 Facebook Fans

  • Viral effect of people engaging will grow your page
  • Run campaigns and ask questions to grow exposure
  • Interactions lead to trust

Facebook URL & stunt that “worked”

  • Losing friends and gaining Whoppers

LinkedIn – searchability

  • Stats
  • Excellent Google visibility
  • Allows for precision email communication
  • Go to Google: search for LinkedIn success stories
  • Make sure technical keywords are included in profile

Maximizing your LinkedIn profile


LinkedIn Recommendations

  • Mixed views on recommendations, but get them

Having a LinkedIn Profile – is not marketing

  • You have to work
  • Ask and answer questions
  • Join and create groups
  • Post your blog URL in group news items


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.

Sharisax Is Out There

Can Social Media Predict the Academy Award Winners?

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Chicken or Egg: Which came first?

If I write this blog article about how Jeff Bridges should win the Best Actor Oscar for his authentic portrayal of a washed up, alcoholic country singing legend in the semi-romantic film Crazy Heart –

(1) Will my article get lots of new readers after he wins?

OR

(2) Will he win because I wrote about him?


If you join LinkedIn and completely fill out your profile, enter regular updates, answer questions, and participate in LinkedIn groups –

(1)Will someone find you and offer you the Job of a Lifetime?
OR
(2)Will you connect to some really bright, supportive people who help you create the life you always wanted?

If you spend an hour a day on Facebook –

(1)Will you be found by your long-lost high school buddies [or significant other]?
OR
(2) Will you participate in ways to deepen your current relationships?


If you keep your Tweetdeck desktop application open throughout the day and check it periodically –

(1) Will you accrue 15,000 followers
OR
(2) Will you discover amazing information AND people you could never have found any other way?


Which comes first?

Knowing how to do something OR learning what needs to be done in order to do what you want done?

Sharisax Is Out There

Everyone Is Someone’s Customer: Use Social Media to Reach Them, Listen to Them, and Learn from Them

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Too often companies forget the second part of this scenario:

Firms are in business (1) to make profits by offering products and services

(2) to satisfy the unmet needs of their customers.

Too often they are so immersed in organization-centric thinking, that they don’t even realize their products or services may no longer be in sync with the marketplace, i.e., no one really likes their offerings/brand/support anymore.

This is where Social Media fits into Modern Business:

We are all customers. Everyone is a customer of someone else.

“Social media is important for business because the discussions between so many people bring information to us. We want people to talk and we want them to listen to us.” — [all quotes from Axel Schultze]

In the second meeting of the Social Media Academy Leadership class, Axel discussed how various social media “tools” [ i.e., sites/ platforms] enable businesses to grow their networks.

“If you have products or services, you can have conversations with people who use them. People may not be looking at your advertising, but if you ask someone what they think of your product, you will probably get an answer.”

WHERE DO YOU HAVE THESE DISCUSSIONS

or

Which sites do you use?

The common wisdom is that you go where your customers are. These days, the most popular hangouts are Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Business people need profiles on each of these sites, and businesses can have them as well.

“The demarcation between personal selves and business selves doesn’t really make sense any more. We need to take down these walls.”

The key to online presence building is to be deliberate, thoughtful, and very careful about everything you post online – no matter what the site or platform.

Four Social Media Objectives:

1)    Extend reach with tools
2)    Intensify the depth of your relationships
3)    Broaden your knowledge
4)    Revitalize your influennce

“When you do a survey, you get certain types of people who choose to respond. When you make telephone calls, if you have 20 effective conversations in one day, that is a good day. But with social media, you could easily have 200 interactions in a day.”

LEARN FROM YOUR MARKET: Get your hands around the Concepts. The tools may change, but you will be able to navigate the waves of innovation and continue to build on your experience to get the most from each new communication opportunity.

Blogging, Facebook, LinkedIn, Sharisax Is Out There, Twitter

How Many of These Social Media Questions Can You Answer?

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My Laney College students are participating in social media to build writing and reading skills. For many of them, however, this is a significantly new experience, i.e., creating blogs and signing up for Twitter.

What is Social Media and why is it important?

and . . . here are many of their other questions:

Where can and will SM take me?

How did Social Media get so big?

Is it possible to become famous on SM?

What percentage of SM is business?

How much time do/should people spend on SM?

Who started SM?

What makes SM important?

Why are people addicted to SM?

Can SM help better the world?

Is SM safe?

What are the most popular blogs?

Who can read my blog?

Are all SM sites free?

Why has SM become popular?

What is the average age of a person using SM?

What is the main reason for using SM?

How can you detect if someone is insincere?

Today I am conducting an introductory Social Media workshop for a Mass Media & Society course at Laney. I will begin asking them to tell me which of those questions they would most like answered.

Then I will chat and show the slideshow below.

And, finally, I will ask THEM to answer any of those questions . . . and I’ll be posting their responses.

Here is the slideshow on

Making Sense of Social Media

Making Sense Of Social Media 2010

View more presentations from sharisax.

NOW . . . FOR THOSE ANSWERS: from the students AND from any of you readers. Please do add your thoughts.

photo credit Howard Blum

Twitter

Want To Get Retweeted? MOST & LEAST popular RT’d Words

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Sharing is cool, especially when people share your Tweets. Did you realize that the WORDS YOU USE can help — or hinder — your Tweets from being Retweeted?

It’s scientific. Dan Zarrella reported his research in a slideshare presentation:

The Science Of ReTweets

View more presentations from Dan Zarrella.

Most Retweeted words and phrases:

  1. you
  2. Twitter
  3. please
  4. retweet
  5. post
  6. blog
  7. social
  8. free
  9. media
  10. help
  11. Please retweet
  12. great
  13. social media
  14. 10
  15. follow
  16. how to
  17. top
  18. blog post
  19. check out
  20. new blog post

Least popular words in Tweets

  1. game
  2. going
  3. haha
  4. lol
  5. but
  6. watch
  7. work
  8. home
  9. night
  10. bed
  11. will
  12. sleep
  13. gonna
  14. hey
  15. tomorrow
  16. tired
  17. some
  18. back
  19. bored
  20. listening

What’s wrong with these words?

[a little levity]

  1. game– Anyone who spends time gaming doesn’t have the energy to Tweet
  2. going -If you are always going to do something, chances are you won’t get to it.
  3. haha – The words Twitter and Tweet are funny enough.
  4. lol – People are laughing so loudly they get their fingers on the wrong keyboard keys and they spell RT as %*.
  5. but – No one likes to hear the contradiction.
  6. watch – If you’re looking at your watch, you’ve lost focus on what matters.
  7. work – Too obvious: WORK — call it “play” and people will share; call it “work” and people will avoid.
  8. home – Did you know that the word “home” can be an adverb? Maybe people are confused.
  9. night – Re-Tweeters are otherwise occupied at night.
  10. bed – see above
  11. will – In today’s culture, we want everything NOW. Will implies “later.”
  12. sleep– See #9
  13. gonna – Bad English; shows your ignorance?
  14. hey – “Hey[hay]” is for horses, as the proverbial saying goes. We don’t like to be “hailed” that way.
  15. tomorrow – You know: when you put things off for tomorrow . . . they don’t get done [or re-tweete].
  16. tired – No, I’m not getting lazy, it’s just that #’s 9,10,12 and 16 are all related. DON’T use them if you want retweets.
  17. some – It’s All or Nothing.
  18. back – With All Things Social Media, we’re looking ahead, not back.
  19. bored – Don’t worry, the “levity” is coming to a close.
  20. listening – Can’t figure this one out: _______________________________ YOUR TURN

And if you want to learn more about the science of social media read my last post on Dan’s webinar “Why do people do what they do online.”

Sharisax Is Out There

Laid Off and Bored? Use Your Brain and the Net to Become an Expert

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One of my Loved Ones was laid off recently, and now tells me he’s bored.

NO WAY!

NO HOW!

NO EXCUSE!

Not in Today’s World where so much is at our fingertips.

Just DO IT is the Common Mantra

Suggestion One: Do NOT just “fill empty spaces” — i.e., don’t DO, just to DO.

Suggestion Two: Give yourself a goal: Use your computer to become an Expert.

Suggestion Three: Research your industry to discover challenges/issues/problems that you can solve — or learn to solve.

Suggestion Three and a half: Join and build strong profiles on popular social media sites including, but not limited to, today’s Top Three: Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn (so that you can become a more effective researcher).

  • Ask questions about your industry and your interests on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites.
  • Build relationships with people who answer your questions.
  • Look on LinkedIn and Ning for groups of people with similar backgrounds, and then join the conversation.
  • Build relationships and look for opportunities where you can help others.
  • Check out the websites of prospective employers; then look them up on LinkedIn to find more information that you won’t find on their websites — especially LinkedIn members who now work for the company and those who have left.

Suggestion Four: Think positive; use your brain and good intentions to become productive, happy, and valuable to yourself and others.

PS Check out these two previous posts: Updating your LinkedIn profile and Twitter 101 lessons

Your turn: What advice can you offer my bored Loved One?

Blogging, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter

Use this Checklist for Managing Online Presence

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CHART YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PROGRESS:

Want to manage your social media sites? Yesterday’s post reviewed Chris Brogan‘s 19 tips: Resolve to Manage your Online Presence.

Today you’ll find a handy spreadsheet to use for weekly check-offs. And there’s space to add other tasks . . .  like writing your blog post 🙂

Now you can Check-off when you Do-It

Click HERE for a JPG of the chart

Blogging, Facebook, Twitter

Resolve to Manage Your Online Presence — Lists only go so far . . .

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“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/

Twitter Button from twitbuttons.com

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 🙂 ]

LinkedIn

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.

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.

Guest Post

ABC’S of PR: One Student’s Wide Angle View

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Magan JenkinsI met Magan online last week when she wrote this fabulous blog post on PROpenMic, a social network for PR students, faculty and professionals. I loved her creative approach to the practice and wanted to share it with my audience.

Magan is a senior at University of Georgia. As a PR major, she is in love with all things New Media and is working for a special certificate in that area of study. Her favorite color is lime green and her favorite foods are salads and French Fries [of course lots of salad so she can eat the fries, I imagine 🙂 ]

ABC’s of PR

by Magan Jenkin

Since I am a senior this year I thought it would be fun to go back to the basics and remind myself of my ABC’s, only this time within the world of PR.

A- Audience, Always make sure any all plans, press kits, news releases, etc are aimed at your target audiences.

B-Business etiquette, the best way to learn is to OBSERVE- Guest speaker Joan Collins

C-Create social networking accounts i.e. Twitter, Facebook, PROpenmic, Blogging, etc.

D- Develop plans and strategies that will be most effective

E-Elements of a Crisis- Surprise, Lack of information, Loss of control, Outside scrutiny, Time pressure

F-Focus Groups, a great way to gather information on your audience

G- Google yourself to make sure your Web presence is a positive one.

H- Hear, Keep your eyes and ears open for any internship opportunities that may present themselves.

I- Interview a working PR practitioner, an assignment I was able to do in in my 5920 class. I learned so much from Melissa Libby from Melissa Libby and Associates

J-Join PRSSA, UGA’S Public Relations Student Society of America

K- Key Message, always make sure your key message is clear and directed to their right audience

L- Look for AP mistakes in any print material you are sending out

M- MBO, Management by Objectives, process of agreeing upon objectives within an organization so that management and employees agree to the objectives and understand what they are in the organization.

N-Networking, an important skill to develop to help build strong relationships.

O-Opinions, get to know the opinions of your target audience and the local media. By investing time with the media the more likely they are to run your releases.

P- Press kits, puts forth key information about its business or product in a convenient, cohesive marketing package with the goal of attracting further attention.

Q- Questionnaires are a great way to conduct research on your target audiences.

R-Relationships with Journalists- very imporant to develop and maintain healthy relationships with journalists

S- Southwest Airlines, a truly unique airline who has mastered Public Relations

T- TQM, Total Quality Management, business management strategy aimed at embedding awareness of quality

U-University of Georgia’s Grady College, Public Relations is the hardest major to get into. Remember how all your hard work and be proud of your accomplishments.

V- Vs, Public Relations Vs. Journalism, an on going battle between the two majors, and jobs. Either way both professions need one another and its a good idea to develop healthy relationships.

W- Willingness, always have the willingness to participate and be effective.

X- X-Factor, when applying for internships or jobs show your potential boss that you are of value and will bring something different to the table

Y-You can do anything. Stay positive and be confident in all your work.

Z- Catch some zzz’s, sleep is very important in any profession it provides a practitioner with energy!

Twitter

Counting the ways I loved “Twitterville”

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What a great read! — Twitterville by Shel Israel

twittervilleThis is likely to be a “Labor of Love” i.e., chatting with you about all the cool things I learned from this very personal, highly researched, inspirational Social Media MUST READ.

A friend just told me that her secret to reading loads of books is to look at  the beginning, the end, and then bits in the middle. But, PLEASE,  if you want to try that method, don’t start with Twitterville:

This is one book with loads of answers — none of which you will want to miss

In Twitterville, you are what you Tweet & 10 other things I’m going to remember:

1.Twitterville is a global communication community where conversations have power; but its environment is “homey” with a small town feel.

2. In good times and bad, companies can get closer to their customers with ease and at low cost. Twitter is a nonstop “feedback loop.”

3. Twitter is a golden moment in massive micromarketing — less mass, more personal . . .  ushering us from the Broadcast Age to the Conversation Era.

4. [From the final chapter, but a key point you shouldn’t miss]: The better our communication tools get, the less likely we will be to use tools of destruction. Countries that do business together don’t go to war against each other; therefore Twitter is likely to be an instrument for peace.

5. When you’re getting started on Twitter, you may want to lurk for a bit: this allows you to listen and watch to get a sense of the mechanics and rhythm of the conversations. Listening on Twitter will make you smarter.

6. If a tree falls in a forest, and it’s not on Twitter, did it make a sound?

7. Lethal generosity: the greatest influence goes to the most generous:

“If you join a community where a competitor exists, or is free to join and you give more to that community than the competitor, the other player is forced either to follow you or to abstain from participating in a place where customers spend time.”

8. Metcalfe’s Law: The power of the computer network grows exponentially as the number of nodes increases.

9. Followers have influence: they are “Feet on the Street.”

10. What Twitter does better than any other tool: Spreading the word with great speed.

Case studies:  Companies large & small have “gotten it”

Zappos: Tony Hsieh discovered he could stay closer with people who mattered to him on Twitter than he had been doing via email, phone or other social media platforms.

Comcast: Frank Eliason made it clear he was on Twitter to solve customer problems.

Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit: Doctors have humanized surgery by “live-tweeting” during operations.

IBM: More than 1,000 IBM employees are now active Tweeters. Management is delighted: Twitter saves time, brings employees and customers  together, and makes the company collectively smarter.

This has been just a “taste”

Shel Israel has chapters on personal branding, journalism, nonprofits, the dark side of Twitter, and the very basic Get Started Steps and Vocabulary.

What are you doing still reading this review? Go out and get the book and then get Tweeting.

FURTHER READING:

Twitter workshop cheat sheet

Twitter

What to Tweet? Yes, you can mix personal with business

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I’m planning a Twitter workshop for some of my BabyBoomer friends, who are finally getting the idea that Twitter isn’t going away — and maybe they ought to jump aboard sooner rather than later.

There’s a whole lot of confusion out there: note the “Digital Divide” that Janis Johnson and I discussed in my last post Social Media has a PR problem.

How often do I tweet?

When do I tweet?

What do I tweet — business? personal?

HELP!

And, of course, the “help” abounds all over the Internet. I like my two posts

A recent “tutorial” brought to my attention by my student and colleague Zahid Lilani was a video featuring Social Media Thought Leader Chris Brogan discussing Social Media 101

In the last few minutes devoted entirely to Twitter, Chris describes his own Tweeting strategy:

  1. He promotes other people’s stuff 12 times for every once he does his own.
  2. He replies to Everyone [I think he says more than 80% of his Tweets are replies.]
  3. And you should mix Business AND Personal.

Chris Brogan Shares Social Media Tips from Michael A. Stelzner on Vimeo.

Chris called Twitter “His Serendipity Engine” through which he’s met scores of people he’d never have met any other way.

NOTE: Super Tech Geek Robert Scoble said yesterday that Chris does Twitter wrong simply because he talks so much about other things and other people, and Robert wanted to read more about Chris.

But my post has had a “secret” agenda, which is now going to be revealed:

I wanted to mix personal with business.

So here are the latest photos of my “Buckeye Family”:

Buckye Family
Brian, Karen, Tyler

Tyler says Howdy Do

After all, People prefer to do business with People — when they have the chance.

LinkedIn

728 FAQ’s for LinkedIn: Who Knew?

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Photo by Susan Ambrosini

Getting your LinkedIn ???s answered is a piece of cake

 

It all started because I couldn’t “link in” to the new Twitter/LinkedIn sync.

I checked “here” and I checked “there” and VOILA, I found that Help [in the upper right hand corner of the LinkedIn home page] has 728 Frequently Asked Questions — and the Answers.

Here are the first 30:

  1. Company Profile – Frequently Asked Questions
  2. Ten Tips on Building a Strong Profile
  3. Removing a Connection
  4. Email Address Not Associated with Account / Duplicate Account
  5. Closing Your Account
  6. Subgroups – Frequently Asked Questions
  7. Exporting and Transferring Your Contacts
  8. 10 Ways to Use LinkedIn by Guy Kawasaki
  9. Creating a Group
  10. InBox Changes
  11. Frequently Asked Questions about Applications
  12. Who Has Viewed My Profile
  13. Downgrading Your Premium Subscription
  14. Editing / Withdrawing a Sent Recommendation
  15. Changing Your Primary Email Address
  16. Contacting Customer Service Online
  17. Frequently Asked Questions about DirectAds
  18. Merging Accounts
  19. Connections List Missing and Correct Marked Fields Error
  20. Origin of Incoming Data for Company Profiles
  21. New – Adding a Twitter Account to Your LinkedIn Profile
  22. Promoting My Public Profile
  23. Receiving Error Message when Adding Email Address
  24. Editing a Company Profile
  25. Removing People From Company Profile
  26. Customizing Your Personal URL
  27. Sending Invitations
  28. Adding a Company Profile Page
  29. Shared Connections Not Viewable
  30. Job Searching Tips

. . . and 698 more. Check them out.

Unfortunately I didn’t get my Twitter situation fixed, but now I’ve got lots of homework to do to learn about hundreds of LinkedIn features I can take advantage of.

If you check out this section and find an answer to one of your questions, please share the experience; after all, I can’t get through all 728 of them on my own.

Photo by Susan Ambrosini