Thank you so much Shelly Kramer from V3 Integrated Marketing for sharing this!
Quality, Not Quantity Part 1
July 1, 2010 by 2 Comments
Social events in general, are usually gauged on their success by the number of people that attend. But there are also additional factors that lend to the success of an event…the atmosphere, the food that was served and the actual quality of people that were in attendance and what they brought to the table as soon as they walked through the door.
I like to look at the people that I interact with on social networking sites in the same manner. Although I love to say “I have 900-something friends on Facebook,” I do evaluate each and every person before accepting them as a friend on my private Facebook profile. The reason I do this, is because my profile is private, for multiple reasons. When I accept you as a friend, I’m not only welcoming you into my business world, but my personal world also. My personal world involves the people that are closest to my heart; my family, my dearest friends, my children. It is an honor to you that I trust you with these pieces of my life when I accept you as a friend. That’s the nice thing about a personal profile on Facebook, you can pick and choose. When it comes to your Official Business Page on Facebook, you don’t have that luxury. People can “like” and support your page without your approval at any time. Now, this can also be a blessing in disguise…because the Official pages are searchable and have some SEO capabilities, people can find out about you and your company via your Official Business Page quicker then they would find your personal profile. This is a huge advantage for your business!
Back to the party on my social networking sites, I try to surround myself with people that are entertaining, keep the conversation going, have an opinion and an open-mind (at the same time), a sense of humor and have good hearts and intentions. I love to that Facebook and Twitter are two virtual platforms where I meet, greet, collaborate, discuss, support, hang out and shake my booty from time to time! That’s what makes it social! But sometimes, there are people out there in the social media world that can actually impede your business growth just by association on social networks. I wanted to take the next few days to share with you some ways that you can filter out people that are spammers on Facebook, fantastic tools to clean house on Twitter, what to do once you’ve cleaned house on both Facebook and Twitter and finally how to show up on social networks (hint: just be yourself:).
So stay tuned for tomorrow’s blog: “You might be a Facebook Spammer If….”
I Love Collaborating:)
June 30, 2010 by Leave a Comment
Today I had a great conversation with a fantastic budding-virtual assistant that has deemed me her “mentor” (which makes me absolutely giddy that someone thinks of me that way!) Jody contacted me some time ago after she heard me do a webinar for other virtual assistants on “Using Social Media to Find Clients” for a social media consultation. After our consultation, we became fast friends and chat quite often on Facebook.
Recently Jody asked me if we could talk about some things that she needed some guidance on and we set some time aside to chat. During our call I outlined a process that I go through when completing a certain task. At the end of the call Jody wanted to know how she could compensate me for my time and asked me if I had ever written out the process that I just explained to her. I thought about it and realized that, No I never have taken the time to write down the process and what a great resource it would be to have it written down.
Our conversation made me think, when it comes to compensation for a consultation or a mentoring session, does it always have to be about money? I loved the fact that I shared a strategy that I have found success with to another person and she saw not only the value in it, but additional benefits to what I already had in place. I know that there is no way I would ever gotten around to writing this strategy down, but now that I will have it in a document soon, how easy it will be to share with others in my Social Media Online Coaching Program: Simple, Savvy Social Media.
So next time you collaborate with someone or have a session with another like-minded individual, think about some of the tasks that you have been putting off or find out what that other person’s strong skills lie. Is there a miscellaneous task that you can hand off? Is there a joint-venture that you can do together? In the long run, the pay-off may be much better then money in the bank!
I May Not Love Numbers; But I ‘Heart’ Twitter Statistics!
March 12, 2010 by 6 Comments
I’m horrible at math. I’m actually embarrassing to be around when it comes to counting. When I first graduated high school, I worked at Target and they tried to train me as a back up cashier. I tried to tell them that this was a bad idea and they wouldn’t listen. Well, after I was pulled into security’s office for the 4th or 5th time because my drawer was short and they were never able to catch me pocketing the money, I was finally blacklisted as a cashier. I just couldn’t count well! When I play poker and I try to make change from the pot, I usually bat my eyes at the cutest guy near me and ask him to do it for me (it’s usually my husband:).
So needless to say, I don’t love numbers, but I do have a thing for statistics because they actually tell me something. They are an easy-peasy black and white of here what is and isn’t working for you.
With that being said, do you know what your statistics are when it comes to Twitter? Are you ready to find out what is and isn’t working for you? And are you ready to do it for free? Then here we go:
TweetEffect: Curious about what you say on Twitter and how it is effecting your followers, your stats, your re-tweets? Here is the tool to use. I was amazed to find out what I posted and how it effected my followers. This is a tool you want to check out!
Twitalyzer: By far my favorite! Twitalyzer truly measures the things that I care about! It’s not only about numbers for me on Twitter; it’s about my character, reach and authenticity. Here is a quick rundown:
- Measures impact, engagement, influence and generosity
- Click on one of the above measurements and you will be given a detailed definition of what the item means. From their great definition, you are able to easily figure out how to improve your measurement
- Want to know who in your Twitter has the most influence is paying attention to you? Click on ‘Retweeters.’
TweetStats: This handy dandy little tool shows you a ton of information on one condensed page. Here are the great things about it:
- You can save the URL and refer back to it.
- Detailed graphs on who you retweet the most, what days and times are you most active on Twitter, who you chat with the most, your Twitter time line and an average on how much you tweet a day.
- You can tweet your graph also.
- Curious about followers and friends? You will get a graph on that too!
Twitter Analyzer: They claim that they are the best Twitter analyzer out there. I’m not sure if that’s true, but it definitely has a ton of fantastic features. Below I listed a few of them:
- Ability to view your daily tweets rate, daily chats rate, daily popularity rate, daily exposure rate.
- Check out your most popular subjects, most popular hashtags, most popular links and most popular apps
- My favorite graph is under “Friends” and it is the “Closest Friends” and “Disregarded Friends.” I love that it shows me my friends that need a little Twitter attention from me!
Do you have a great way that you analyze what you are doing on Twitter? I’d love to hear it!
Short & Sweet Facebook Fan Page News Flash
March 2, 2010 by 14 Comments
If you are anything like me, as much as you LOVE social media, you are still trying to find ways to streamline, automate and not get distracted by it. One of the things that really slows me down is the management of my Facebook Fan Page. It really annoys me that I have to manually check every morning and night on my Fan Page to see if any of my loyal and lovely fans have left me a comment. The last thing I ever want is a supporter to think that they are being ignored! Wouldn’t it be nice if you got an email sent to you anytime a fan left a comment on your Fan Page?
NEWSFLASH!
You can get an email anytime someone leaves a comment on your Fan Page and here is the trick: anytime you update the wall of your Fan Page, click on the “Like” option under your published post. Like magic, from here on out, anytime someone leaves you a comment, you will be notified by email! How great is that.
Like I said, Short & Sweet Facebook Fan Page News Flash! What another great way to further cut down on the time you are spending on social networking. Do you have a short cut? Share it here!
Moms in Business -> Do You Have a Media List?
February 17, 2010 by 1 Comment
Guest Post Written by Elena Verlee
If you want to get PR, you need a media list. When you have your press release or story about your business, product or service, you’ll want to send it to a reporter. This is where your media list comes in.
A media list is simply a list of reporters, their contact information and the name of the magazine, newspaper or website that they write for. A good media list is customized and researched so that each reporter or magazine covers the type of product or service that you offer. In turn, your product or service is appropriate to the readers of that publication.
When planning PR, know that consultants and agencies can charge thousands of dollars to put together a media list for you, since there could be hundreds of editors and their magazines to research and target.
If you have the time and want to build your own media list, take 30 minutes a week and do some research.
• What do YOU read? List your favorite papers, magazines, websites and even TV and radio shows that may be interested in featuring your company.
• What do your customers read? If you can find just one website they are reading, chances are that website will have sponsors, partners or a resources page where you can find other media that your customers may be browsing. And so on, and so on.
• Who accepts submissions for new products? Most likely it will be a new products editor, news editor or in smaller publications, the editor-in-chief.
• Read the magazine and note if there is a columnist or reporter that is most likely to cover you for a feature story or interview.
I can bet that you have your favorite set of writers you follow and often think, my product or service would be perfect for them…if only they knew about it!
If you do this every week, by the end of the year you will have built up 52 solid contacts that may be writing about your company.
Update: 50% off sale on Mom Media List – they’ll be gone after Feb. 28, 2010
If you’re a mom entrepreneur wanting to jumpstart getting PR with no time to waste, do check out my media list for moms with hundreds of reporters. I won’t be doing an updated list for 2010, so this is your last chance to get a copy. You can download a free sample from the page if you’d like to see what it looks like.
Elena Verlee is the creator of PRinYourPajamas.com where she shares publicity and buzz-generating tips for entrepreneurs and small businesses.
