Archive for social media marketing – Page 5

Is the Social Web Changing How We Write?
How to Write Like You Talk

This week’s guest post is by Barb Sawyers, Sticky Communications who recently published a great ebook on how you can write better for the web.

Hello, Patsi’s readers. I’m Barb Sawyers, a blogger who shares her interest in encouraging people to write like they talk.

Patsi was telling me how some of you don’t find writing for the web to be as natural or fun as talking. Sometimes you don’t think you’re connecting with your readers.

Seeing as we’ve all been talking since we were toddlers, and go back to what sounds right when we’re not certain, you’d think writing like you talk would be easier.

But something happened at school and at work that turned the pleasure of communication into hard labor, for both writers and readers.

Then along came the Internet, blogs, Twitter and Facebook: Overnight, it seems, our online social lives and writing was pulled back into conversational mode.

But how do you reverse years of conditioning about what writing should be? Read More→

Twitter: the little bird that grew up strong

Why Twitter Is Such a Powerful Social Media Platform, this week’s guest post by Phyllis Zimbler Miller,

When I first heard Twitter mentioned two years ago – in a teleseminar with the BlogSquad! – I checked it out because I valued Patsi’s advice.

At the time the Twitter home page question was something such as: “Let your family and friends know what you are doing now.”  I thought to myself: Why should they care about this and why should I join the site?  Thus I didn’t join.

But because I trusted Patsi, I went back to the site a few days later and signed up, getting the username @ZimblerMiller.  Another few days later I got my business partner Yael K. Miller to get the username @MillerMosaicLLC to tweet under our company name.

And then something happened!  I began reading about how to use Twitter and observing what was going on – and I got it!  I saw the power of Twitter and embraced it wholeheartedly.   Read More→

9 Ways to Use LinkedIn for Smart Professionals

How Business Owners Can Benefit From LinkedIn’s Features, this week’s featured guest post, by Carol Tice, Make a Living Writing blog.

LinkedIn is a highly useful social-media site for business owners looking to connect with prospective customers, suppliers, partners, or other businesses in their town. If you haven’t already built a profile on LinkedIn, I recommend it. Get on, fully flesh out your profile, and start connecting with people you already know.

LinkedIn has a reputation as a social-media channel with a very businesslike “flavor,” and that’s one of the reasons I like it. People aren’t on there to talk about what their dog ate this morning…they’re there to grow their business.

LinkedIn offers many ways for you to make new connections. Each connection you make connects you to all of that person’s connections indirectly.

Once you’re on, you’ll get invitations to connect. There are different schools of thought about how to respond — some people only connect to people they know well, while others accept anyone who asks. I guess I’m somewhere in between: unless they’re really spammy or not remotely someone who would ever be a prospective client or good referrer for my business, I usually approve friend requests to keep my network growing.

Some of the features I like best on LI (in no particular order): Read More→

4 Time-Saving Tips for Social Media Marketing

What’s the least you should be doing to extend the reach of your online content marketing through social media sites?

This is a good question because many of my readers are busy professionals running a business who don’t have a lot of time. The big danger of sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn is that they can suck you in and spit you out hours later. … and time is money.

Even when you’re connecting and having a good time, you can spend time that isn’t productive. …Sometimes it’s hard to know if it’s time well spent or just a good time.

So for those of you who want the bare minimum effort and time, and still get results, here are a few tips I suggest. I’ll remind you I’m not a social media marketing expert, so please feel free to join in and add other tips in the comments section.

I will tell you I’ve gotten clients directly from Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, so I must be doing something right. Read More→

Why Use Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn for
Content Marketing?

True confession time: I am not even close to being smart about using social media for online marketing. No big surprise for those of you who know what an introvert I am. But still, I am using Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and I think you should too. Here’s why…

I am a psychologist who helps others get found online, get known in their niche, and get clients. If you’ve read my story, you know how I started using the Web ten years ago, as a complete techno-klutz. All that changed in 2004 and 2005 with the popularization of blogging platforms like Typepad and WordPress.

This ushered in new business success for me and my former partner as The Blog Squad. If you’ve been online for a few years now, marketing your business using the Internet, you probably experienced the same phenomena… all of a sudden you don’t need to be a computer geek to get a site up and start making money.

Around 2004, sites like Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter came along, but they didn’t really pick up steam until 2006 and later. What happened is beyond comprehension on some levels… and totally natural.

Now Facebook boasts one of the highest web traffic numbers and Twitter has become a news source re-broadcast on network TV news stations. Read More→