Social NetworksMirna Bard Page 2 | Mirna Bard

Case Study: Chef Zov Karamardian of Orange County Takes On Social Media
Posted May 15th, 2010 By Mirna Bard in Blogging, Business, Case Studies, Social Media, Social Networking With | 4 Comments

Recently, I had the pleasure of connecting on Twitter and Facebook with Chef Zov Karamardian (@Zovs), an award-winning chef, restaurateur and bestselling cookbook author. Chef Zov jumped on the social media bandwagon a few months ago, learning and embracing as much as she can.

As part of her social media strategy, Chef Zov announced the “Make an Eggplant Proud Recipe Contest,” in which I became a finalist after submitting my favorite eggplant recipes.

The eggplant contest was only promoted through Zov’s blog, Facebook, and Twitter, resulting in over 30 recipe submissions. With the assistance of creative minds Marcie Taylor, Suz Broughton, and Frank Groff, Inc., Chef Zov turned the contest into an exciting offline affair. On May 12, several influential Orange County bloggers were invited for lunch at Zov’s Tustin location to taste and judge the recipes of the four finalists (See partial blogger list and finalists as well as my recipe below).

Chef Zov, Me (dressed like an eggplant, but unplanned), Jihan Assi (winner), Priscilla Willis, Yuko Graham

The winner (Jihan Assi) took home a plaque with a $100 gift certificate for Zov’s restaurant and will have her recipe featured as the “Special of the Day” at Zov’s Cafe in Tustin on Friday, May 28th. You can grab Jihan’s eggplant recipe on Zov’s blog. (more…)
Poll: Should You Friend Competitors on Social Networks?
Posted May 3rd, 2010 By Mirna Bard in Polls, Social Networking With | 18 Comments
This question comes up often in meetings and speaking engagements. Businesses fear that competitors will see what they are doing or find out who their clients are.

Should you add competitors to groups you have started on social networks? Should you allow them to join your business pages? Should you block them from following you on sites like Twitter? What are your thoughts?

Please take a minute to give me your opinion. Once I have enough answers, I will write a blog post on what I think, along with some tips on how you should engage with your competition online.

Let’s also start a discussion about it in the comments below. I look forward to reading your viewpoints on this topic.
Should You Friend Your Competitors on Social Networks?
- Yes (66%, 69 Votes)
- It depends (26%, 27 Votes)
- No (8%, 9 Votes)
Total Voters: 105
Loading …
12 Ways to Boost Blog Visitors
Posted Mar 10th, 2010 By Mirna Bard in Blogging With | 10 Comments

What blog doesn’t need more visitors and eye balls? A few days ago I posted six reasons why you need a business blog. Today we’re going to look at how to increase the traffic to your blog using some pretty simple methods.

1. Comment on other blogs. It literally takes a few minutes to find blogs through Google Alerts (set up for your keywords), Google Blog Search or Technorati. Once you find relevant blogs that are relevant to your topic, leave a short note with a link to your blog. That simple action can get you hundreds of new followers.

2. Stay active on social networks. Whether you’re using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or niche social networks, be aware that your traffic levels are directly proportionate to your activity levels. If you only post once a week on Twitter, you won’t see much return on your investment. Consistently post on social networks, interact with others and you’ll enjoy a nice boost in traffic. Also remember, that many of these social networks allow you to bring in your RSS feeds that automatically show posts on your profiles.

3. Write some articles. Article marketing is an often overlooked method of increasing the number of visitors you get to your blog. It’s also a handy way to build backlinks, which help boost your search engine rankings.

4. Write great content. This might seem obvious, but the sheer number of cruddy blogs out there means that this one is necessary to mention (And, I am not saying my blog is perfect J). If you do a good job on your posts, include keywords in your title and several times in the post, you’ll see a rise in search engine traffic as well as word-of-mouth buzz.

5. Link to other blogs. It might seem tempting to hoard all your traffic, but by sharing your favorite blogs, you’ll gain the attention of other bloggers. Often this results in a link back, which can be very beneficial, particularly if it’s a larger blog than yours.

6. Use social bookmarking. There’s nothing wrong with letting online bookmarking contacts know when you have a new and awesome blog post. If they want to bookmark it, then you will get more traffic. In order for this to work, you need to only forward your best work.

7. Include in e-mail signature. Include a link to your blog or RSS in your e-mail signature constantly reminding people to read or subscribe to your blog.

8. Highlight a featured post in your e-newsletter. Do you have a weekly or monthly e-newsletter (e-zine) that goes out to your opt-in list? Include a synopsis and a link back to a featured blog post. This way you are taking readers from your e-zine to your blog.

9. Submit to directories. Take your time doing research of the top blog and RSS directories. Submit your blog to a few new directories each week.

10. Become active on forums. Find forums that are relevant to your industry and target audience, and keep your eyes open to people asking questions about a topic that you have already addressed in one of your blog posts. Try to help them out by providing a brief answer and leaving a link back to your blog post that addresses the question. You would be surprised how many people will appreciate this!

11. Interlink old posts. Your older blog posts should not be forgotten if the information is still relevant. You can bring them back to life by mentioning and interlinking them with newer blog posts.

12. Mention at speaking engagements. If you are a speaker or regularly present to prospects and clients, don’t forget to mention to your audience that you give great tips and advice on your blog.

Gaining traffic to your blog is rarely done by going with just one method. You’ll need to combine several, such as comments, writing great content and submitting to directories. Don’t forget to measure your blog traffic with analytics to see which methods are working best.

Where do your blog visitors come from? Please share below.
6 Reasons to Retweet
Posted Sep 22nd, 2009 By Mirna Bard in Twitter With | 6 Comments

Twitter is still one of the most popular social media sites out there and that means it’s a good idea to know how to use it well. One of the features that many people don’t understand fully is the retweet.

Retweeting is simply forwarding a message to your own contacts after receiving it from someone. When links go viral on Twitter, they are often retweeted at a very rapid rate, meaning thousands of people see them in a few minutes. It’s essentially a ripple effect, one tweet expands in ever widening circles by being passed on in groups.

Why should you retweet? Well, there are a few reasons to do it.

1. Gain followers. If you want to catch someone’s attention, retweet their best links and information. They will automatically see your retweet and will probably check your profile out. If they like what they see, they’ll join your followers.

2. Get retweeted yourself. When you forward someone’s message, not only do you increase the chances of that person following you on Twitter, you also boost the chances of them returning the favor. That means your links have the possibility of being exposed to entirely new groups of people. That in turn can earn you more followers, as well.

3. Let people know your thoughts. Often when something controversial is going on, you will see some worthwhile comments. Rather than just retweeting, though, make sure you add your own little comment. It doesn’t have to be much, just something like “I agree” or “so true” works very well and lets people know where you stand.

4. Build relationships. When you pass along a tweet that promotes someone else, they’ll appreciate it. It’s a far better way to get noticed than clamoring for attention. When you do something for someone else without an outer motive, you’ll find that they are much more open to a relationship, business or personal.

5. Garner respect. People like those who give them information . . . even if that information is not coming directly from you. You can easily pass on something that someone else has said to your followers and they will be thrilled that you did. More respect usually means more trust in the long run and we all know that trust is vital in getting people to buy from you, so this is a great business tactic.

6. Send out more tweets. You may not always have something wise or important to say, so why not pass on something someone else said instead? It allows you to build up that tweeting frequency without trying to come up with something worthwhile to say.Retweeting is a useful Twitter tactic that is on the rise for good reason. You can start harnessing the power of the retweet for your own business benefit and gain more followers, as well as the respect of those you are helping out.