Social Media Tips and How-To's for Beginners

Does your email look like this? donjuan@yahoo.com Feel free to take out ‘Yahoo!’ and insert any of the following:

• AOL
• Hotmail
• Earthlink
• Gmail
• MSN
• Comcast

When you see that my email is julie@walmart.com or julie@nbc.com or julie@burgerking.com, you assume that I work at one of those fine establishments. Why wouldn’t I assume then, if your email was donjuan@comcast.net that you worked at Comcast? Obviously, because most of us do know that Comcast is an ISP – but we also know nothing about YOU.

Here’s my point. When you’re running a business that has an online component (which just about every business at this point really should!), it is best practice to customize your email address.

When your email address is john@yahoo.com or jill@aol.com, it’s generic. When your email is john@vacuumservices.com or jill@edibleflowers.com, then every time you give out the address and every time someone types it in, they’re reminded of your business. If they’re just emailing you for the first time, they will likely even notice the URL and go visit it. It’s yet another easy way to promote your business and plump up your branding. As a consumer, when I see a generic email, I wonder why you haven’t taken that next step.

I know that a lot of people keep these generic email accounts for junk mail or lists, etc. Which is fine…but not the best choice for use as a professional email account. I’ve yet to come across a host (and I work within and around the major-ish brands) that doesn’t offer email with your url when you set up an account.

Do you work at Yahoo! or AOL? No…you work at your own company. Let everyone know all about it.

Image credit: yodel anecdotal

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Welcome to the Friday 5 on Socmedia101.c0m.  Here we are at the end of the shortest month and Google Buzz has dominated the social business news this month. Charlene Li headlines this week’s 5 with a post about finding her 9 year old on Google Buzz with an open account and what she did about it.

And here we go:

• Google Buzz and Kids: Parental Control Nightmare by Charlene Li, Altimeter Group Blog.
• Facebook Granted Patent on the Newsfeed by Marshall Kirkpatrick, ReadWriteWeb.
• You Cannot Take Back a Tweet by David Meerman Scott, Web Ink Now Blog.
• A Twittervention: What If There Were No Twitter by Lisa Barone, Outspoken Media Blog
• The Ultimate Formula for Success by Johnny B. Truant, CopyBlogger Blog

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Another week for the Friday Five in social media. My favorite this week comes courtesy of my sister-in-law in Australia who sent me an article on an Australian bank that seemed unhappy with its profitable quarter and chose to Tweet about it. The public responded (as only Aussies can). I believe it speaks directly to how social media tools have become part of the mainstream of how we communicate (even with banks and corporations).

Without further adieu, this week’s links:

* Westpac Bank writes ‘Oh So Very Over It’ on Twitter Account by Cameron Atfield, Brisbane Times.

* Google Buzz Monitoring by Rick Klau, Rick Klau’s Weblog.

* 20 Inspiring Women to Follow on Twitter by Halle Tecco, Forbes.com

* The Sex and the City Guide to Blogging by (our very own) Julie Roads, Copyblogger.

* Seth Godin Should Read His Own Book by Mark Cuban, Blog Maverick Blog

Photo by pvsbond on Flickr. Used under Creative Commons License.

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This post originally appeared in the by Ron Miller Blog.

I spent Saturday at the second Western Mass Pod Camp at Westfield State College. A pod camp, for those of you who are unaware, is a gathering where people come together to learn about social media. As a person who has been blogging since 2003 and heavily involved in social media for a couple of years, I have to admit I was skeptical that there was much for me to learn. But I am here to happily report just how wrong I was.

Most of all I learned new tricks and techniques that I was able to apply immediately. I learned from Steve Garfield, for instance that I can download Qik on the iPhone for just $1.99 and capture video using the still camera on my old iPhone 3G. I learned from Christine Pilch that I could save my LinkedIn profile as a PDF, something I didn’t know was possible. I found out about functionality like polls and announcements. I use LinkedIn all the time, but like everyone else, I use what I use and I don’t pay attention to the rest.

As I was talking to one of the organizers, Morriss Partee, he pointed out how important it was for people to meet each other in this fashion. We all socialize with one another online, but too rarely meet each other in real life. Gatherings like Western Mass Pod Camp give people the opportunity to meet one another and make concrete business connections.  We need to get out from behind our desks from time to time and see the people we spend so much time with virtually because there is so much to know and so much to learn. And no matter how much you think you know, there is always more.

I’m thrilled I took the opportunity to spend my Saturday with these people, and I highly recommend it. You’ll be surprised what you’ll discover.

Also check out my video from Western Pod Camp and my post on how turn your iPhone 3G into a video recorder.

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So many blogs, so little time! How do you find the best ones?

I’m working on a project right now where I need to find the top blogs for a number of different topics. And it’s not as easy as you’d think. There isn’t one place that categorizes all blogs or top blogs or best blogs in terms of traffic, rank, subscribers and social media reach.

And, interestingly, Google isn’t really cutting it. I’ve found that blogs that end up on the first page of my Google search returns aren’t necessarily highly trafficked. When I tweeted my request for a way to find top blogs, many people said, ‘Use Google!’ But Google ranks based on how many people are linking to a particular post, not the site itself. So if you type in ‘NVidia blue screen error’, you will find a specific blog post on the subject at the top of the results. Doesn’t mean the blog that post lives on is a top ranked blog, but that post is. Google isn’t measuring popularity to the site, it’s measuring traffic to the page (among other things).

Below, you’ll find a list of other sites that can help with this task – but none of them are spectacular. And you can’t take what they say as gospel. You’ll need to install the Alexa toolbar, check each blog’s posts for comment numbers and ask around to get the full picture.

• Technorati
• Delightful Blogs
• alltop
• PopURLS
• Scribnia

So…if anyone’s looking for a great business idea. Please make the ultimate blog ranking and discovery site – ‘kay? Thanks…

Image credit: Dan is awesome

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Welcome once again to the Friday 5 links in social media, the Valentine’s Day edition, because we all know that social media is near and dear to your heart.

• 5 Google Buzz Tips for the Advanced User by Sarah Perez, ReadWriteWeb.
• Twitter Search and Money by Chris Brogan, American Express OpenForum.
• Web Strategy Matrix: Google Buzz v. V. Facebook v.  MySpace v. Twitter by Jeremiah Owyang, Web Strategy Blog.
• You Can’t Take the Personal Out of Blogging by Lisa Barone, Outspoken Media Blog.
• Are my Blog and I Breaking Up? by Andrew G.R., The Blog Herald

Photo by T’eresa on Flickr. Used under Creative Commons License.

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You may be wondering right about now, why I think bloggers should be cleaner than others, but I’m here to tell you, it’s because it’s where ideas are born. When you relax and open your mind, something wonderful happens. As that water rains down on your body, your mind clears and the ideas that have been locked away find their way free.

I’m a writer. It’s what I do, and I find ideas come at me out of nowhere all the time, but you don’t have to be a professional writer to experience this. You just have to be ready. The trick is to recognize the idea and respond, and never, ever ignore it. I’m still so pleasantly surprised when a seemingly spontaneous idea pops into my head almost fully formed. I’ve had it happen in the shower, emptying the dishwasher, out for a walk, in the car–any place my mind is open and the ideas are flowing.

But because I’m a writer I’ve trained myself to listen for these moments of clarity. You may be new to blogging or a regular blogger who struggles to find ideas. You just have to learn to look and listen and the ideas will come. They are out there all around you. You just have to be ready to detect them.

And when it happens, that magic moment, wherever you are, write it down, type a note or leave yourself a voice mail. Do something so you won’t forget. And pretty soon you’ll find that sometimes, when you get out of the shower, even before you dry off, you’ll find yourself sitting at your keyboard, writing that blog post. It’s why real bloggers shower regularly and write often.

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This is a familiar client/Writing Roads scenario:

Me: If you want to be part of the world online, you must have a blog (for all of these reasons and more)

Client: Okay great…how often will I have to post? Like once a month?

Me: Uh, no. A little more than that.

Client: Twice a month? Just tell me how often should I publish to get the most ROI?

Me: Honestly, as much as possible. But at least 2-3 times per week.

And then they pass out.

The thing is, I’m not just talking out of my arse.

Take the Writing Roads blog, for instance:

• I used to blog Monday – Friday. As a result, after about 9 months of steadily rising stats, I had an Alexa rank of 123,000. (Which is really, really good – Google is #1)
• Last spring, I got insanely busy and I decided it wouldn’t hurt to drop down on my posting. So I went to Monday, Wednesday and Friday posts, 3x/week. My Alexa rank steadily fell to the 300,000 mark. (Not anywhere near as good)
• About 3 weeks ago, I started posting every day, Monday – Friday, again. No less busy – possibly more, but I just wanted to (because I love writing this blog), so I did. And I’ve watched my Alexa rank rise 100,000 spots and my spider (and visitor) stats increase. That’s 100K in about 13 posts. As of this writing, my rank is 199,000 (and rising)

The proof really is, as they say, in the pudding. If you want your blog to do better, (one of the methods that works is to) write, produce and publish more good content that tells the world all that you know about your chosen topic.

The good news, for both of us, is that if you don’t have the time or ability to do all of this blogging, you can hire someone to do it for you. I know, it’s a brilliant solution. You can do what you do best (cut hair, build houses, train chickens, whatever) and I, or some other writer, can do what we do best – produce engaging content. It’s a win/win sitch. No heavy lifting required.

Image credit: The Truth About…

Cross-posted on Writing Roads

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Welcome back to another Friday 5. Here’s this week’s list:

• Rearranging Your LinkedIn Profile. Christine Pilch, Grow My Company Blog. Cool new feature.
• How to Create the Perfect Facebook Fan Page. Jesse Stay, Techipedia Blog.
• Forget Common Sense, Social Media Communicators Must Have Empathy. Shannon Paul, Shannon Paul’s Very Official Blog.
• Social Media is not the Disease. Amber Naslund, Altitude Blog.
• The Twitter Guide Book, Mashable.

Photo by wryonedwards on Flickr.

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