2009 JuneMirna Bard | Mirna Bard

June, 2009

3 Ways to Make Your Social Media Marketing Better
Posted Jun 30th, 2009 By Mirna Bard in Social Media, Social Networking With | 11 Comments

There are a lot of people who don’t really “get” social media marketing. Unfortunately, these people are missing out on a tremendous opportunity that could change the way they do business. Why do they feel that this type of marketing is a dead end road? Often, they have tried Twitter or Facebook and have found it to be useless, most likely because they weren’t using it correctly.

With that in mind, I thought I would offer a few tips on how to make your social media marketing more effective, no matter which platform you are working with.

1. Beef up your profile. Use a real photo to show people who you are and take the time to write at least one long paragraph about yourself, if not more. While you can certainly promote your business here, make sure to include some personal info, as well. People prefer to connect with humans, not business robots.

2. Interact. The whole point of social media is to be . . . well, social! Make a point of sending personal messages once in a while, voting for a friend’s site and just generally not being a lone wolf.

3. Don’t automate everything. It’s not a crime to have your blog automatically post a notice on Twitter or Facebook each time you update, but it IS rude if that´s the extent of your social networking. You need to make sure that you actually talk to people, as well (see #2) if you want this marketing method to work for you.

Bonus Tip: Get some help. If you don’t know how to make social media work for you, stop stressing and get a professional to help you out! Your business can benefit greatly from marketing properly, so make sure you are doing it the right way.
Social Media: What’s Buzz’n on the Web?
Posted Jun 21st, 2009 By Mirna Bard in Social Bookmarking, Social Media, Social Networking With | No Comments

Are you on Facebook or are you on Friendster? Twitter or Yammer? On LinkedIn anyone? Do you Digg or Delicious it? All of the above?

The most important question: Do you know what all this means or are you confused? In this article, we hope to clear the confusion and help you understand the importance of using these sites for your business.

All the above sites mentioned are called social media sites. Social media is defined as:

The use of Internet destinations to connect with people socially and generate publicity through online communities.

Social media is the most effective way to publish and promote content in the form of press releases, PowerPoint presentations, viral videos, articles, podcasts, photos as well as whitepapers and ebooks.

If you visit and connect with people on these virtual destinations, you are social networking. For business owners, social networking is similar to a business networking event without constraints of time and space. We call it networking on steroids because you can rapidly connect with people globally 24 hours a day.

Social networking is about:

• Building relationships
• Starting conversation & creating word-of-mouth or buzz
• Answering questions/helping others
• Asking questions/trusting recommendations or advice from others

If you share interesting content on social media networks, you will get a bunch of fans and friends who will comment on it, share it, blog about it, tweet it (Twitter lingo), Digg it. Sites like Delicious and Digg are what we call social bookmarking sites. These web sites allow you to nominate and bookmark web pages or information that you think are worthy of attention.

How is this important to your business? By sharing your content, you are going to provide a link back to your hub (a blog or web site). Thus, increasing your visibility, boosting web site traffic, and ultimately growing your business.

It is no longer enough for your site to be visible on search engines such as Google. The key to any Internet marketing is ubiquity: being everywhere across a multitude of web sites. In today’s virtual world, if your business is not transparent online, you do not exist. With perseverance and patience, you will be able to create buzz and soon your online friends will start sending leads and referrals your way.

In summary, how does social media marketing benefit your business?

• Manage your reputation online
• Build recognizable identity or branding of your products or services
• Establish yourself as an expert in your industry
• Create “Buzz” or online conversations about products or services
• Form relationships with customers, prospects, employees, business partners, investors, colleagues, or friends
• Invite positive or critical feedback, dialogue, and discussion
• Speak directly, openly and honestly with your customers
• Articulate your viewpoints, knowledge & expertise pertaining to your industry
• Reach millions of people globally who could potentially become customers
• Set yourself apart from competition

Social media is here to stay so you can no longer afford to ignore it for your business. You can jump on this OPPORTUNITY or sit back and watch your competitors take all the fame and fortune. What steps are you ready to take?
7 Best Twitter Apps to Boost Productivity
Posted Jun 6th, 2009 By Mirna Bard in Social Media, Social Networking, Twitter With | 2 Comments

Twitter is one of the fastest growing social networking sites around and with all those new users have come new ways to use Twitter, in the form of customized applications that do everything from search for jobs to finding people with like interests.

For your convenience, here are my top 7 Twitter apps to maximize the usefulness of the micro-blogging site.

1. TweetDeck
TweetDeck allows you to create multiple columns with groups. For example, all your marketing contacts can appear in one column while another would show personal contacts or perhaps others interested in travel or another common hobby.

2. TwitterBar
This is a Firefox add on that lets you tweet right in your browser by adding a special toolbar. It is particularly handy for tweeting specific webpages that you want to share with friends.

3. Twhirl
For those who aren`t following huge numbers and just want a simple pop up application, twirl is perfect. It minimizes to your status bar and updates appear in brief pop ups and has all the basics for tweeting, retweeting and sending direct messages.

4. TwitterFeed
Named as one of the most useful Twitter applications by Darren Rowse, aka ProBlogger, this handy app lets you post links from your blog. To avoid the typical automated look, you can customize the message on your tweets.

5. Socialoomph
This tool lets you set up scheduled tweets, something that is particularly useful if you`ll be on the road or live in another time zone from the majority of your audience. If you schedule blog posts to go live at a specific time, you can now schedule a tweet about it, as well.

6. Twello
Lauded as the Yellow Pages of Twitter, this site lets you find people on Twitter in specific professions or areas of interests. If you`re interested in advertising and marketing, for example, Twellow will give you a useful list of people to follow.

7. TwitScoop
Looking for what`s hot on Twitter? TwitScoop lets you see at a glance what people are tweeting about. You can see all the most popular keywords in a tag cloud. This application is actually integrated right into TweetDeck, for added usability.

What are your favorite Twitter applications? With the hundreds now in existence, I`m sure there are some I haven`t used that could be very useful.
Twitter Explained
Posted Jun 6th, 2009 By Mirna Bard in Social Media, Social Networking, Twitter With | 1 Comment

Many people still ask us what Twitter is. They hear everyone saying: “We were tweeting or someone tweeted this and that on Twitter.” So, we thought what a perfect opportunity to share another Commoncraft video, which we absolutely love! But first, here is the Wikipedia definition of Twitter:

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging platform that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates known as tweets. Tweets are posts of up to 140 characters, displayed on the user’s profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them (known as followers). Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow anybody to access them. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications.
Top 15 Social Bookmarking Sites
Posted Jun 3rd, 2009 By Mirna Bard in Social Bookmarking With | 1 Comment

Trying to figure out which social bookmarking sites to use can rapidly become overwhelming with the sheer number of choices available. To make things a little easier, I’ve narrowed them down to 15 sites that really are worth checking out.

1. Digg
Despite complaints about the notoriously short attention span of the majority of Diggers, this remains the number one social bookmarking site.

2. StumbleUpon
A friendlier way to connect with people and share favorite sites, StumbleUpon is easy to use and a true social bookmarker.

3. Propeller
One of the best sites for business use, Propeller tends to focus on sites of interest to older males in business for themselves.

4. Del.icio.us
Del.icio.us is the oldest bookmarking site around, but that doesn’t mean it’s out of date. Millions of people use it still and the site has a simple, easy to use format.

5. Blinklist
This social bookmarking service is well used and tends to focus on marketing and media, with no restrictions as to which webpages you can tag.

6. Reddit
Offering a personalized groups feature where you can save sites for those in your group to see, Reddit is an oldie, but a goodie.

7. Blipoo
If you are looking for a site that allows self-promotion, Blipoo is the place for you. The site leans heavily toward blog promo.

8. Buddymarks
This site offers three options for saving your bookmarks, personal use only, sharing within a group, or open social bookmarking.

9. Diigo
Hailed as “social bookmarking on steroids”, this site offers heavy duty bookmarking options for the serious surfer.

10. Yahoo! Buzz
This site works similar to Digg in that you can vote your favorite sites up and the worst ones down, plus the Yahoo name makes it a little more valuable.

11. Slashdot
Perfect for bookmarking technical information, this site also has clout with Google, making it a good place for tech business news.

12. Mixx
Here’s a site that is multi-purpose, allowing for submission in a wide range of categories to be voted for by users.

13. Furl
Furl has plenty of Google juice and for this reason, it’s a fairly popular choice among marketers and internet based businesses.

14. PlugIM
A site that offers bookmarking services to internet marketers and lets you submit content, vote stories up and make friends for a full networking experience.

15. ListerLister
Our final social bookmarking site, ListerLister is a site that not only promotes bookmarks, but forming communities based on common interests.

Which social bookmarking sites do you use and what is your favorite?

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