Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

According to Facebook, “Starting today people will be able to connect with your Page by clicking “Like” rather than “Become a Fan.” We hope this action will feel much more lightweight, and that it will increase the number of connections made across the site.”

Please note that this may also impact the language in some of your marketing materials where you may have invited prospective followers to become “Fans.”

I just read a great piece from Rob Reinalda at Ragan.com on how language gets mangled with some tips for how to avoid making such errors: http://bit.ly/dk3wae Sometimes it’s just that people don’t hear the word right in the first place, and Reinalda advises that “Questioning meaning can help you avoid misusing ‘familiar’ terms.” One of his examples is the unword “supposably.”

A first cousin to this syndrome is the butchering of song lyrics, sometimes with funny or embarrassing results especially when sung exuberantly by a music lover who didn’t quite get the words the way they were intended. You can check some of those out at http://www.kissthisguy.com/, the Archive of Misheard Lyrics, which designates some as the funniest or most absurd of the week while showing what the lyrics really were. Even the the national anthem has gotten contorted into some intriguing or just-plain-funny takes on it. Reinalda’s piece touches on those mangled words and phrases–many of which we start to associate with certain individuals. Most of us DO have some language blind spots. And, with a little “need more coffee” digression here, I think many of us have typing blind spots, too. Do you ever find that there are some words that your fingers just want to type with transposed letters? I used to find that I’d type “teh” instead of “the”? What IS that about, anyway, and why do these seem to be so different for each person? We’re told that we can take solace from knowing that it happens to incredibly gifted writers and journalists frequently, too. At least technology is helping us out a bit on the typing front, as you can set up your custom dictionary in Word to autocorrect common mistakes you know you’re making, though–such as my “teh” typing foible!

Feel free to post your thoughts on other tin-ear language mistakes you’ve heard (and don’t hesitate to share if you have any fat-fingered typing mistakes that you keep having to deal with, too!). When you hear them, do you tend to just let them go or do you ever correct the speaker especially if it’s a professional colleague or friend who you may really wish to help? There are definitely some alligators in that water as it’s a sensitive subject even if you’re intending to be proactive.

Here’s a link to some fabulous (FREE!) content from some of the world’s top social media pros with the first six included below.

It’s no secret that social media marketing is the most powerful business-building tool on the planet. Now any business can directly reach customers, anytime and anyplace. To take your social media marketing to the max, here are hot social media tips direct from 12 of the top industry masters. You’re going to want to model their priceless advice whether seeking to do it all yourself or hire a pro to assist with ensuring your content is well worded and properly proofed!

#1: Engage Your Facebook Fans With Questions
“Discussions are the currency of Facebook. When your fans engage, your fan page comes up in their feed regularly. A great way to get your fans active is to end each status update with a question. You can add your own comments to get the ball rolling. Do your best to respond to fan questions as promptly as possible to keep the discussion alive.” Mari Smith, author of Facebook Marketing

Asking engaging questions gets your fans involved, as seen on this fan page.

#2: “Listen” to Know What to “Say”
“The way to make a connection is to talk about what people want to hear. No-cost and low-cost listening tools help you ‘grow bigger ears’ and then apply what you’ve learned from listening to improve your sales, your service or your future products. That’s the single most important thing you can do with social media tools. Free tools: blogsearch.google.com and icerocket.com. Fee-based tools: radian6.com and scoutlabs.com.” Chris Brogan, author of Social Media 101

IceRocket allows you to track blogs, Twitter and other social media sites for activity based on any date range.
#3: Use Video to Turn Company Mistakes Into Gold
“Even customer service errors present a powerful relationship opportunity. Create a 2-minute video apology, post it on Viddler and tweet about it as a real-time response. Give thanks, admit the mistake, apologize, and then WOW your customer to turn the situation around.” Ramon De Leon, Operating partner of a six-store Domino’s Pizza franchise

Watch as Ramon De Leon uses video to turn a company error into a golden customer opportunity.
#4: Leverage YouTube’s Keyword Power
“In February 2010, Americans conducted 9.9 billion ‘expanded search queries’ on Google, 3.6 billion on YouTube, and 2.5 billion on Yahoo! But YouTube users are searching for video content, so they’re less likely to look for something to buy on YouTube than they are on Google. That’s why I use YouTube keyword tool to get new keyword ideas instead of the Google AdWords keyword tool. Use your keyword discoveries to optimize your video pages for YouTube users.” Greg Jarboe, author of YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day

The YouTube keyword tool allows you to capture YouTube users with popular search terms.
#5: Promote SMS Campaigns on Facebook and Twitter
“One hundred million users access Facebook from their mobile phones. So you want to be promoting your text campaigns there and on Twitter. Send messages that encourage people to text your keyword and sign up for your mobile coupon or get on your alert list. Example: ‘For weekly mobile marketing tips Text KIMDUSHINSKI to 95495. Message & Data Rates May Apply.’” Kim Dushinski, author of Mobile Marketing Handbook
#6: Be Your Own Secret Shopper
“Want to know what people are saying about your brand or about the products you sell? Use search.twitter.com and type in the word ‘wish’ in front of your brand name or product. You’ll be surprised!” John Bernier, manager of social media marketing for Best Buy

Using search.twitter.com, you can easily find what your customers want, for free.

Click through to for the rest!

I just came across a great piece on the power of the word and how key it is to avoid “puffery” in our business and personal communications written by Michael Port, Contributing Editor for Entrepreneur, featured on the American Express OPEN Forum.

Here are just some of his observations from that article that apply to virtually any sales, staff, or client meeting as well as advertising and personal connections: “Most of the actions or activities people engage in, both personally and professionally, are carried out through conversation, so our use of language is a powerful tool for building or breaking trust. If you can’t back up your puffery or prove the generalizations you make, it’ll be difficult to engender much trust.” As Port cites in his post, “All generalities are false, including this one.”

You can keep reading here: http://bit.ly/bddrX4

I recently registered for the Michael Stelzner/SocialMediaExaminer.com Social Media Success Summit 2010 after having participated in an incredible lead-in introduction Webinar for the summit. (Michael is the guy who really did write the book on white papers!) I was blown away by how much information the participating summit experts shared and realized how powerful this online/summit conference is going to be and did not hesitate to enroll. I’ve already discussed this with some of you and was asked to provide more information when I got it as this is bound to be of great interest to many others. This post includes LOTS of info because this is a lot to share plus I’ve included a special link for the special $297 price (a 50% discount!) that is good just through April 15, 2010.

The Michael Stelzner summit I was part of in late 2008 FAR exceeded my expectations, and this one promises to be bigger and better and it’s on a subject that is changing almost daily: social media. It is anticipated to be the world’s biggest online event designed to empower marketers and small business owners to master social media marketing. And the great news is that it’s a live, online conference with these experts that you can attend from your home or office—and even catch up on the Web if you need to miss a session.

This summit offers all of us an ideal opportunity to maximize the benefits from all of the combinations and permutations of the social-media mix (including some elements and tactics that may be entirely new to many of us) whether you are on the agency side or the client side. Even though one of the services I provide is helping clients with social media strategy and execution, I really feel that almost everyone should have the information contained in this summit to help realize the potential and implement their plans.

Michael Stelzner and his team have been working for months to bring the best minds in social media marketing together in an event called Social Media Success Summit that features 24 of the world’s leading social media superstars as summit instructors with the legendary Guy Kawasaki as the keynote speaker.

The summit features Guy Kawasaki (author, Art of the Start), Chris Brogan (author, Social Media 101), Darren Rowse (author, ProBlogger), Mari Smith (author, Facebook Marketing), experts from Best Buy, Home Depot, Whole Foods, FoursquareGroupon; Steve Rubel (Edelman), Ann Handley (MarketingProfs), Brian Clark (Copyblogger), Greg Jarboe (author, YouTube and Video Marketing), Kim Dushinski (author, Mobile Marketing Handbook), Jason Falls (Social Media Explorer), Jay Baer (Convince & Convert), and Ramon De Leon (Chicago Domino’s Pizza)—just to mention some. Together, this team of “who’s who” in social media will help you succeed using practical tactics.

Last year, nearly 1,000 marketers and small business owners from around the world attended the 2009 summit, and it was a smash hit. Businesses were transformed. In fact, 97% of attendees said they’d attend again.

Click here to visit the site now…

This year’s focus is to empower you to build social media marketing plans, track your social media results and learn from other successful businesses. You’ll also discover how to use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Foursquare, and Groupon to attract high-caliber customers and grow your business during this economic slump.

PROOF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING WORKS…

A few months ago, Michael Stelzner founded a site called Social Media Examiner. He relied 100% on social media tactics to drive traffic to his site.

In less than five months, he was declared the #1 small business blog in the world by Technorati, added more than 13,000 email subscribers, brought nearly 100,000 people a month to his site and is ranked as one of the top 4,700 Web sites in all of America by Alexa.

He didn’t advertise, didn’t rely on the press and almost none of his traffic is coming from search engines. Nearly overnight, his site has become a top destination for businesses.

This all took place via social media. He simply leveraged the power of sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to deliver the kind of results that would’ve cost him a fortune in the past. He didn’t spend a dime on marketing—just his time.

Not only can you gain amazing exposure for your business with social media marketing, you’ll also generate traffic, increase sales, gain qualified leads, and build new partnerships.

WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU

First, you don’t need to be a techno-geek or twenty-something to use and benefit from social media. You might be surprised to learn that most social media marketers are aged 30 to 60 and have only been using social media for a few months. In fact, even traditional businesses like Ford Motor Company, Clorox, and State Farm Insurance are heavily focused on social media.

Social Media Success Summit 2010 will help you discover the best ways to market your business using social media. You’ll also learn how successful social media campaigns were executed and how you can achieve similar results using no-cost social media tactics.

One thing I found valuable after I participated in the 2008 Stelzner summit was that participants were able to join an online community of like-minded women and men at no additional cost. Many of them freely shared their sometimes-remarkable experiences and wisdom with each other with a pay-it-forward type of mentality–and there will be a counterpart to that online community for those who participate in this summit.

Here’s the link to learn more and enroll: Social Media Success Summit 2010

I am looking forward to this–and I think you will, too, once you’ve had a chance to check out the agenda and the possibilities! All of the sessions, dates, and times are detailed as are the payment options, etc., by clicking through one of the links above.

P.S. As a way of saying “thanks” for checking out the summit, they’ve included a gift just for marketers called “How to Grow and Engage an Audience on Twitter” (valued at $42). It, too, is waiting for you here