Category Archives: shameless self promotion

January 14, 2012

What makes you influential on social media? (It’s not what you think.)

By Giselle Bisson

What makes you influential on social media?

Just as in mainstream journalism, great content is key. Great headlines grab the reader. Posting frequently and regularly and being the first to break the news is key.

And just as magazines have long known, pass along readership is key to great circulation.

But the main thing that sets social media influencers apart (and sets social media apart from traditional “journalism”) is that they are followed by people who they themselves have strong networks.

An influencer might reach only 1000 people — but those 1000 people also reach 1000 highly connected and active people and so on and so on…which means within seconds, they can reach millions. Which is how revolutions like the Occupy movement and #Egypt managed to spread like viral wildfire.  And why your boring: “I just announced a new product” or “Please like my business” plea is often ignored.

As Haydn Shaughnessy wrote yesterday in Forbes:

“What behaviors make the key difference for people who want to elevate their status online?”  He breaks it down to:

  • Being active in a sufficient number of channels
  • Creating and maintaining a high quality network
  • Frequency of participation
But there’s more.

Social Media is interactive. To have real influence you need to be “social” — and that’s where 99.7% of businesses go wrong.

Social media not a press release or an advertisement — it’s an interactive conversation.  If your content is so engaging and interesting that followers feel compelled to repeat it–you will be retweeted and shared, and quickly reach tens of thousands or even millions of people.

2 comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in citizen journalism, damage control, Facebook, personal branding, renegade marketing, shameless self promotion, social media, Twitter, Uncategorized, viral

March 7, 2011

What’s in a name? Everything!

By Giselle Bisson

I was talking to a client the other day who wanted more visibility. They had a hideously long URL for their company website.

I rolled my eyes. I immediately knew they were doomed to failure unless they changed their name.

I asked: “Is there any way you can find a shorter url?”

My prospective client hemmed and hawed about how attached he was to his ridiculously long company name.

There’s a reason why Google and Yahoo succeeded — and a host of other earlier search engine contenders like NorthernLights and AltaVista bombed.

There’s a reason why YouTube won the video wars and early contenders like, “uh, um, uh, whats their name, I forgot” failed.

Because YouTube is a freakin’ awesome brand. It says what it does. It has attitude. It’s memorable. You can spell it. It rhymes with things. It’s unique. It works in other languages and other cultures.

When I named my business, I spent an entire rainy day on Go Daddy typing things in at random until I found “Visibility Shift.”

Even though it’s not short, it’s memorable, it says exactly what it is.

And it’s relevant to my consulting practice, which is about shifting your visibility to a new level. I was absolutely floored when I discovered such a great website name was even available — and for $7.99.

There are several reasons you want to take time to find a truly memorable stand out URL:
- easier to type – a long or unmemorable url discourages people
- memorable - (One word is best. Two words are ok. Three is just too much.)
- Searchability (SEO) - A name that isn’t unique is going to bring up millions of search results in Google. You want a unique URL so you are the first and only hit in Google, without having to pay $$$$ to Google for adwords.
- International localization - remember the web is global and your name has to translate easily into other languages — so it’s better if it’s not a word in any language.  Run your name past some friends who speak other languages and some translation software and make sure it doesn’t translate into something embarrassing. (The Chevy Nova flopped in Mexico because “No Va” means “Won’t Run.”)
- Put less words on your site, more pictures. Especially remember that the web is international and words need to be translated.  So the fewer words, the more universal your message is.  Learn from the success of big brands like Apple and Google who take a less is more approach.
-  It doesn’t have to be a .com — You can be successful with a .us, .tv, etc. For example, Delicio.us.
- Groupon is successful in large part because their name rocks. “Group + coupon.” Brilliant. Memorable. Unique. Short. Tells you what it is.
- Get your name first before you spend time and money branding it. Changing your name later is very costly and it means you are undoing all the work you did on public relations, marketing and social media outreach.
- VCs look at your brand and name as a big reason to invest. A great logo, web design, business card, brand and name are almost as important as the product or technology behind the brand.
- Think about web branding when you name your products — and your kids, too. I’m grateful that my mother, very ahead of her time, gave me a name that is so unique that I go to the top of Google. Check that name out in Facebook, Twitter and Google and make sure it’s available. (The reverse applies if you want to protect your privacy — then John Doe is the way to go.)
- Consider adding a unique middle name to your name that describes what you do so you stand out. (ie: David “Avocado” Wolfe is a speaker in the health food field.)
This advice applies to any personal or corporate brand — a musician, band, artist, writer, book title or film. Choose your name carefully and snap up the URL as soon as you can, even if you end up sitting on it for years before you get your project started.
For more information about naming, visit Name Wire a blog about naming.

2 comments   |  tags: , , | posted in blog, bootstrapping, Facebook, personal branding, privacy, public relations, renegade marketing, search engine optimization, seo, shameless self promotion, social media, Twitter, Uncategorized, viral, website

February 9, 2011

7 lazy ways to shamelessly promote your blog and social media posts to get more traffic

By Giselle Bisson

Put your social media on autopilot - reach thousands of influencers, worldwide while you're still asleep or drinking your first cup of coffee.

 

1. Use “Share This” widgets to shamelessly self promote.

Whether you’re using WordPress or any other blogging or web development tool, you can use the “Share This” widget on your website to quickly promote your posts .  Just install the widget on your site and right after you file your post share it shamelessly! Take an hour and share your story with every possible site out there–especially Digg and StumbleUpon. The more you share, the more links you are generating back to your site — and the more traffic you’ll get.

2. Use the “Publicize This” feature in Wordpress.

Yesterday WordPress announced some improvements to make their Publicize This feature more friendly.  Follow the instructions and watch your traffic soar.

3. Time your posts strategically.

In the world of old school journalism and PR, we have learned to strategically project which times and days will generate the most pick up for a news announcement. Tuesday at 8 am EST is when I’ve found press releases get the most pickup.

Why? Because on Monday at 8 am, everyone’s still groggy and drinking coffee (or they’re rolling in late to the office, or sitting in meetings.)

Tuesday is when business gets rolling. And it’s the day when publications traditionally have their story meetings.

Wednesday is the day the weeklies traditionally file their stories.

Thursday is still ok, but your story might get forgotten by the following Monday when reporters are writing again.

To bury bad news, you use reverse psychology. To bury bad news, announce on Friday afternoon, or right before a holiday weekend when everyone’s jetting out of town early. (This is the day for announcing the departure of a CEO or dismal profits that you don’t want to influence the market with.)

Well, I’ve discovered the same theory works with blogging, Tweeting and Facebook:

Tuesday at 9 am EST is the perfect time for a Tweet or post you want to get noticed because:

- It’s 9 am on the East Coast and everyone’s drinking coffee and checking their email, Twitter and Facebook.

- It’s 12 noon on the West Coast and everyone’s checking their social media profiles while on lunch break.

- It’s 6 pm in London, and everyone’s finished their work day and are checking their PCs.

There are lots of tools that help you write your Twitter posts in advance and time them. WordPress also let’s you schedule a post in advance so it blasts out just at the right time.  Marketing consultant Gary McCaffree has this great chart that helps you predict the “sweet spot” for a Tweet — he says the best time is between 9 am and 3 pm.

4. Have everything connected so your WordPress updates your Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, automatically.

This is so easy and so potent. (And you can even rig it so that it’s on autopilot while you’re still asleep — tricking your clients and colleagues into thinking you are a hard working early riser!)

- Set up the Wordbook plug in to post your WordPress to your Facebook wall.

- Now set up the WordPress to Twitter plug in so that your WordPress post automatically goes out to your Twitter subscribers.

- And use the Twitter to Linked in widget to set things up so your Tweet automatically updates your LinkedIn status.

Wow! You just got out the word to thousands of professional connections while you were still asleep!

5. Use a press release to dramatically boost your story’s pick up.

There are hundreds of free press release sites that will help you blast out your story to the planet, or you can use a professional press release wire service for a fee.  You can time your news in advance to go out at a strategic time, and you can load up your press release with key words that will make it stand out in the search engines. Plus, if you use a paid newswire, your news will automatically go out into Yahoo News and Google News where it’s picked up like an AP or Reuter’s newswire story.

With one well written article or news release, I have consistently generated from 50,000 to 100,000 links back to a client’s website. (That’s not a typo.)  And your traffic will only increase as spiders and bots pick up your news, reprint it on RSS feeds and blogs throughout the web, and yes, generate more links back to your blog which in turn permanently increase traffic and search rank.

But the key word here is “well written.” You can’t get this kind of pick up for self serving fluff — your content has to be genuinely newsworthy, interesting, engaging, funny, controversial, keyword-rich or relevant. If you’re not a wordsmith, hire a professional.  Ultimately it’s a juicy headline and great content that gets noticed, reprinted, passed along virally and linked to.

6. Time your email newsletter to go out at the same time.

Start a news virus! Put your blog post in your email newsletter and time it to go out simultaneously to your customers, internal company employees, investors, partners, influencers and your press/blogger list.  With everyone hearing about your news announcement at the same time, it has more psychic impact and feels more important.  Also it’s courteous to give the news to your most valued contacts just as it goes out to the blogosphere.

7. Spin it and send it out again.

Tweet your story several times in one day or week by simply spinning your Tweet slightly and changing the headline to focus on a different aspect of the story. For example, my headline here is: “7 lazy ways to shamelessly promote your blog posts.” My next headline could be: “7 lazy ways to get more traffic on your website,” and then “7 shamelessly lazy ways to get more Twitter traffic,” and then, “Get more web traffic while you’re still asleep,” and so on… and yes, you can even set them up in advance so they go out on autopilot.

Well, (gloat, gloat) just wanted to let you know that this post went out to thousands of friends and influencers, all over the planet, boosted my search rank and increased my credibility while I was lounging around doing my morning yoga and drinking my first cup of coffee.

That’s why I love social media!

5 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in blog, bootstrapping, citizen journalism, Digg, Facebook, flacks, newsletter, PR Newswire, press release, public relations, renegade marketing, search engine optimization, seo, shameless self promotion, social media, Twitter, viral, website, Wordpress

December 21, 2010

8 free (or cheap) ways to give your web branding a new look for the New Year

By Giselle Bisson

Start the new year with a fresh new look for your personal brand.

This down time between Christmas and the first week of the New Year is a perfect opportunity to give your personal branding a lift and start the New Year with a fresh image.

Here are eight ways you can use free templates and other inexpensive tools available on the web to give your business or personal brand a lift.

1. Reinvent your name for the new year.

Is your business name unique–or is it lost in the crowd? Consider finding a new name for your business and a unique URL — an identifier that people type into the browser to find your website. Do a little research on  Go Daddy or directly from WordPress, and see if your business name (or your personal name, or the name of your book) is available. If your name is generic, hard to remember or hard to spell, change it today before you start your branding campaign.

 

Check for copyright availability too before you buy your URL. If your business name is no longer available in Facebook, Twitter or Go Daddy, consider modifying or changing it today to something unique before you move on to step 2.
If you aren’t the first whatever that shows up in Google, you’ll need to pay dearly for that in advertising. Names are free. Ads are expensive. Save money by choosing a unique name before you start your web marketing campaign.

2. Start a blog with a free WordPress theme.

Do you have a blog yet? Or do you have an old website that desperately needs an update? A blog is the hub and the center of the wheel of your integrated web marketing strategy, so start with it first.

I recommend a blog, not a Website, because blogs are filled with words, and Google uses words to search for you. In short, blogs, which are filled with Tags and Categories and Words are instantly Search Engine Optimized.

Moving from an old static website to a new WordPress blog (or adding a blog as a link on your old static site) will generate an instant surge in traffic and customers in the New Year.

With one click and you can move your old, outdated WordPress site into a new theme and try it out.  Just click “theme options” in your Dashboard to try on a new look — or spend a little to get your site hosted and you’ll be able to choose from thousands of free templates for your site.
Choose a template that offers a “custom-background” and “custom-header” and custom colors, such as this Elegant Grunge template I used for Visibility Shift.
Your background is important and spend enough time to really find one that strikes you. I like to start with a clean, white, simple zen-like template as a blank canvas and add bling from there:
  • Top 5 WordPress Simple White Themes: http://www.techcats.net/top-5-free-simple-white-wordpress-themes.html
  • 10 super clean and minimal themes: http://www.cssreflex.com/2010/10/10-super-clean-and-minimal-free-wordpress-themes.html
  • 40 stylish, minimal, clean themes: http://speckyboy.com/2009/04/20/40-stylish-minimal-and-clean-free-wordpress-themes/
  • 20 beautiful minimalist themes: http://sixrevisions.com/wordpress/20-beautiful-minimalist-wordpress-themes/
3. Add a new free custom  background to your theme.

You can find a free wallpaper online to use as your background, or buy stock art or better yet, use your own photo that you have rights to.  There are thousands of free backgrounds available, here’s just one site to check out:
  • Free wallpapers: http://techmagazine.ws/free-textures-background-images/
4. Create a new custom banner for your page:

Some WordPress sites enable you to drop in a photo, crop it and add text to create a custom banner or header. I used a photo by my brother in law, Adrian Fernandez, (of a galaxy) for this blog, Visibility Shift. Prior to that, I used a free image of Times Square that matched the wallpaper in my Twitter page.
  • Free Twitter background: http://twitrounds.com/twitter-backgrounds/times-square/
Here is just one of many sites that let you create free banners without needing to know Photoshop:
  • Header Art: http://www.header-art.com/
  • Theme Headers: http://www.themeheaders.com/
You can also find sites that offer cute, free custom backgrounds for Blogger, like this one I used for the blog, Shopping for Love:
  • Background Fairy: http://www.backgroundfairy.com.
5. Add free plug ins or custom fonts to your blog.

If you are hosted, you can use a wealth of free Plug Ins to jazz up your blog. If your site is WordPress hosted, you can use Typekit for two free fonts. (Two is the max you should use anyway for clean design.)
Unique fonts will really make your site stand out. I used two very distinctive Typekit fonts in the Laughing Heart site and the colors of pink, lavender and purple for a playful look that suits this husband-wife spiritual comedy team.
The most important plug in is a Share This button that will encourage readers to virally share your content via email, Facebook, Twitter, Stumble Upon, Digg, etc.
6. Start a free newsletter.

Your newsletter should use a similar color scheme, template, banner, background, photograph and font as the rest of your branding. My branding designer recommends the free My Newsletter Builder for a newsletter. Most of my friends and clients use Constant Contact. A new service, My Emma, is more stylish.
Make sure you add all of your social networking pages into the signature line in your newsletter.
While you’re at it, update your email list and type in or scan the contacts from all those business cards you gathered in 2010. When you build social media pages, you can use that email list to invite customers and contacts to join your pages.
You can manage your email list for free in a free email program like Fastmail or Gmail.
7. Update (or start) your Facebook Fan Page, Twitter page, Linked In profile and Yelp page.

If you don’t have a social media presence yet, the winter break is a great, quiet time to hunker down and do the tedious, time consuming work it takes to get your pages built and invite all of your contacts into them.
Again, use the same photo, name, background wall paper or logo, and the same fonts consistently in all of your web and social media pages.
8. Send out a New Year’s holiday greeting with your e-newsletter to announce your new look.
There are tons of free New Year’s wallpapers out there that you can use to spruce up your newsletter, or better yet, commission a portrait of your family, work group or business, or a collection of photos that sum up the highlights of 2010.  Use your newsletter to announce your new website and Social Media pages to your friends, family, business contacts and customers and start the New Year with a fresh look for 2011.

1 comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , | posted in blog, bootstrapping, Facebook, newsletter, personal branding, renegade marketing, search engine optimization, seo, shameless self promotion, social media, template, Twitter, viral, website, Wordpress

December 19, 2010

Facebook is a global network you can’t afford to ignore.

By Giselle Bisson

This map of Facebook friendships looks not surprisingly like a map of the Earth as seen from space at night.

Are you utilizing this vast network of more than 1/3 of the most wired, affluent and educated people on the planet to promote your business, consulting practice, art form or cause? You should be.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2010/12/data_visualisation_1?fsrc=scn%2Ffb%2Fwl%2Far%2Ffacebookfriends.

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , | posted in blog, Facebook, many to many, public relations, renegade marketing, shameless self promotion, social media, viral

November 3, 2010

Seven lame, business-killing excuses for not having a social media presence.

By Giselle Bisson

1. You’re too busy.

I don’t think social media is optional anymore — a professional presence in social media is now a marketing necessity, like a business card or a website. You can’t afford not to have a social media presence. You’ll look like a Luddite, like you’re out of step, like you’re stuck in the Eighties — when people actually got their news from a newspaper, bought things from ads and were influenced by television.

For most businesses and professions, social media is important. (It’s not as useful for big brands and large corporations, unless the communication is coming from a charismatic CEO or spokesperson.) Make an investment in social media, plan your strategy first, do it right, and you’ll be paid back ten-fold.

Updating your profile and sending out Twitter updates can become part of your regular routine — like brushing your teeth, answering email and checking your voice mail.

Using free tools, you can interlink all of your social profiles — so that your Twitter automatically updates Facebook, your blog and LinkedIn. You can update everything simultaneously from your mobile phone in a few minutes a day.

2. You don’t “get” this social media thing.

When you tell stories in public, not only do they have to be true (fact checked, verified, libel-free and legal), accurate, spell-checked and well written, but your story needs to be interesting, engaging and continually evolving. If you’re not naturally good at that, or you don’t have time, you’ll want to hire professional help.

Ultimately, you’ll need to be engaged on a daily basis. Celebrities, consultants, musicians, workshop leaders, public speakers and CEOs who “get” social media make it a priority and are personally involved. You can also outsource social updating to a pro. But make sure they take time to truly know and understands your business, know how to tell an engaging story, have a “voice” and “get” the culture, ethics and rules of the community you’re trying to reach.

3. You can’t afford it.

Everything you need is free. If you hire a consultant, you can get a lot of value from a few hours of his/her time setting your site up and coaching you on the unwritten secrets, tips and tricks of really using Social Media brilliantly.

4. You don’t need it.

Just like you “didn’t need” a website back in 2000. Everyone else jumped on the bandwagon, killed brick and mortar businesses, got all the cool urls and are now worth millions. Are you going to miss out on this land grab too?

500 million people worldwide are utilizing Facebook to create their personal brand. Many events are solely promoted on Facebook. You are really late to the program and totally out of the loop and out of touch if you have a stagnant, unupdated profile or none at all.  These days a lot of people think you don’t exist anymore if you’re not in the social sphere because they aren’t even using email anymore and use Facebook or LinkedIn as their main way of communicating with colleagues, or Twitter as their main way to announce breaking news.

5. You’re doing fine with Google adwords.

Oh yeah? Why are you buying search results that will disappear as soon as you stop paying — when you could be using social sites and a blog to build a search ranking that will last forever. Also, you’re totally missing out on a highly targeted market if you’re not also advertising on Facebook.

6. You already hired an SEO guy.

In my opinion, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is dead in 2010. It was important in the age of static HTML websites in the 90s.

Why? Because search engines can only search text! The most important thing you can do is generate tons of text and mentions of your URL that will drive people back to your website.  More about this tomorrow.

7. It’s not necessary.

If you are not on social media, your business reputation is at risk! Ignore social media at your peril–because people are probably talking about you, your competitors and your brand. They’re building relationships without you. They’re inviting people to cool events that you’re not learning about.  If you’re not on social media by now, it’s as if you don’t exist.

Bad PR used to be quickly forgotten when the newspaper was tossed in the trash. Now it lasts forever in Cyberspace. Bad customer reviews can quickly destroy a new product launch, a new event or a beta program.  Bad word of mouth on social networks will severely damage your personal reputation.

Negative reviews on Yelp can kill a restaurant in a few days. Don’t worry, you can now pay Yelp a monthly fee (aka bribe) to remove bad reviews. Better off to not get them in the first place.

You need to be prepared to brand yourself and position yourself wisely. And you need to pay attention to what your peers, competitors and partners are saying in the social realm.

If your business is large, you’ll also need to track the coverage and monitor feedback so you can respond to customers immediately. It’s all quickly becoming as complex as a traditional, mainstream media PR program.

Whatever you call it — Social Media, Emerging Media, New Media — it’s all just a conversation.

But it’s a conversation you can’t avoid anymore.  Ignore it at your peril or it will happen without you.  It’s time to lead the conversation.

83 comments | posted in blog, damage control, Digg, Facebook, MySpace, PR Newswire, press release, public relations, renegade marketing, search engine optimization, seo, shameless self promotion, social media, Twitter, viral, viral video, website, Wordpress

September 28, 2010

Should Facebook add more “in a relationship” options? Or should we just be discreet?

By Giselle Bisson

Is it tacky to announce your relationship status on a Social Network?

Move over Brad and Angie! Now with Facebook, you too can be as embarrassingly public with your infidelities as a Hollywood celebrity!

Unless it’s really going to benefit your business or career — announcing your new relationship status is probably not a good idea in a public forum. And it’s a really, really bad idea if you care about your career reputation.

Personally, I’d like to see people use more tact, thoughtfulness and discretion before they click any “In a Relationship” button out here in Facebook-land.”

Many of my solidly married friends don’t even announce their relationship status on Facebook.

But seems that people who just hooked up two weeks ago at a party are quick to brag about how in love they are and click that: “In a Relationship” button.

And the brutally honest and much more realistic: “It’s complicated.”

I even know a woman who clicked “In a Relationship” when her “boyfriend” was a personal ad pen pal who lived in another state and they hadn’t even met yet.

Social Currency and trust is what it’s all about in the new era of Social Networks. Our network is our net worth. Consider how your actions will be regarded in terms of your overall trustworthiness and “flake factor” before you post anything in a social forum. Relationships come and go, but reputations linger in Cyberspace forever.

I see grown, middle aged adults on Facebook like dumping their ex-spouse for someone they hooked up with a few weeks ago and then announcing and bragging about their new love affair publicly on Facebook.

It can inspire some incredible cruelty and tastelessness. Or what many call: “Facebook Drama.”

Perhaps I am being a bit old fashioned and “Miss Manners” here by suggesting that we wait six months at minimum, until relationships are solid — just as one might want to wait 3 months before announcing they’re pregnant, or waiting until they have an offer letter in hand before announcing a new job.

Today, someone posted this on Facebook:

“I am seeing someone, but that is not an option. Here there’s ‘its complicated’ — but that it is not. And there is ‘in a relationship’ but we are not there yet. We are trying to go slow, but I want a way to know Iam not available but am very interested in someone. Might that change?”

Do you think Facebook should add a new relationship status?

Facebook is considering some new “In a relationship” options. What do you think? Here are some options that readers of “All Facebook” have suggested:

- need a rebound

- in a rebound relationship

- hate my ex and need a rebound

- off the market

- common law marriage

- seeing someone

- confused

- stalkers not wanted

- separated, not looking

- serial dater

- cruising

- just looking

And…

- “I gave up.”

3 comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in damage control, Facebook, privacy, public relations, shameless self promotion, social media

July 13, 2010

“Double Rainbow Guy” proves that just being yourself is the key to viral success.

By Giselle Bisson

The "Double Rainbow Guy" -- You Tube Viral Video Sensation

Who would have thought that a trippy hippie witnessing a pair of colorful streaks in the sky became the newest viral sensation to catch fire on You Tube — with more than 1.5 million views?

Excuse me — 3,702,017.

Recently Fast Company magazine added “The Double Rainbow Guy” to it’s new “Influence Project” — a social experiement to discover the most influential people in America. I think we all expected influence to come from celebrities, media icons or corporations — not a hairy bear like guy living in Yosemite and ooohing and ahhing in ecstasy at something as simple and free as a couple of prisms in the sky.

But maybe that’s the point. Maybe being uninhibited, being real, being yourself is all it truly takes to stand out in a world where there is so much posing and posturing and pretending.

Maybe the Rainbow Guy is telling us it’s ok to be real if we want to be noticed. In fact, it’s better.

The Rainbow Guy caught fire on my Facebook page too today, as a lively discussion about the psychology of “The Rainbow Guy” errupted.

Brooks Cole, himself an online media expert, started the conversation:

“FastCompany reports on the Double Rainbow Guy viral phenomenon. What makes this so viral?

My own explanation? I think it mirrors (and leverages) the same human factors that drive sex, along with sex’s power to drive DNA replication, then taken to the power of network technology. I think the viral key is this:

All viral videos have to be:

a) unusually amazing or demonstrably curious in some palpable way that builds curiosity/intensity/amazement to a climax, and:

b) have to provide some tension+release that carries the seed of its own propagation, and:

c) that the speed and success becomes its own amazement factor, multiplying the propagation.”

Karen McKrystal chimed in:

“And then… leverage the viral video to deeper content, transcendent analysis, all for the convergence of activists & thinkers working to bring forth the new society emerging from the ruins and in spite of the ruinous activities of savage capitalism. End of rant.

What I mean is, this whole viral thing, driven by basic motivator sex drive/power, as Brooks suggests, could be leveraged wider, and not be left to the “rainbow” people alone — here for a moment, then gone. Let’s provoke social DNA evolution, helpl nature do what it’s designed to do anyway. Within the human DNA is enfolded the potential for further and further evolution — into potentials yet barely understood and rarely even anticipated.”

Aneline:

“I hadn’t seen this – that’s so great! WOOO-HOOOOO!!!!! ♥”

Karen:

“What, exactly, are you saying is great? If you don’t mind my asking.”

Aneline:

“That FUNTASTIC rainbow video – and the fact that I’m not the only one who feels this way!!! :D ♥ ♥..♪♪♫•*•”

Yes, at least 3.5 million people at last count are either laughing uproariously at the Double Rainbow Guy, or they feel like Aneline.

“WOOOOT WOOOOT !!!!! :D ♥ ☼”

It’s great to see happiness can even more contagious than the latest Britney spears rumor.

Leave a comment | posted in blog, Facebook, renegade marketing, shameless self promotion, social media, Twitter, viral, viral video, you tube

March 11, 2010

Social media dos and don’ts from Obama’s website

By Giselle Bisson

Everything you need to know about Social Media you can learn from Obama. Here’s a social media do and don’t lesson from the White House.

Do: Integrate your social networks into your website

President Obama’s website, and the “Organizing for America Campaign,” is slick and fabulous. It is one of the best examples of integrating social media with your web presence I’ve seen for any public figure.  At the bottom of the page are custom buttons linking to all of Obama’s social network pages.

Do: If you’re a public figure, make your pages freely available.

Everything is public, except Mr. Obama’s Linked In connections. Though it was interesting to see that four of my LinkedIn connections are directly connected to the President, so I am am only one degree removed from the CEO of America.

Do: target your message

The pages themselves are targeted to the special interest niches they serve, and are customized with lots of photos, videos, graphics and messages.

Perhaps that’s not a surprise, given the resources the President has at hand.

Do: Discover and join niche social networks that serve your customer groups and markets.

But what’s more interesting are the social networks President Obama’s team has deemed important.

These include the usual: Facebook, MySpace, You Tube, Digg, Twitter, Eventful and Linked In — and targeted social network sites that serve the constituencies that elected him. In all networks except Gay/Lesbian (where is is identified as “straight”), the President has lots of friends. It’s smart networking both in the real world and online to identify multiple groups and present yourself slightly differently in each one, yet with a consistent “brand” in each “target market” — as Mr. Obama has done brilliantly with the Change logo and color scheme.

Click the links below for Obama’s niche social nets, some with profiles targeted for each niche:

Black Planet (a Black social network)

Faithbase (Faith, gospel)

Eons (for Boomers and beyond)

Glee (gay/lesbian)

MiGente (Latino)

MyBatanga (Latin, in Spanish)

AsianAve (Asian)

DNCPartybuilder (Democrats)

Don’t: Forget to keep your social pages and status updates current.

Unfortunately, Mr. Obama, being the President after all, is perhaps so overwhelmed with urgent presidential duties that his status updates are woefully out of date on most of these pages, which has somewhat stagnated the dialogue with the American people. Some of the blogs and status updates have not been updated by his team since October 2009. I think there’s a job to fill for a White House intern. I’d get on it right away if I were managing the President’s PR crew, as having an outdated profile in a special interest group niche could give one the impression that you’re not paying attention anymore to that constituency and its needs.

Do: Update the status in your pages simultaneously by feeding Twitter to multiple sites.

Ping.fm is just one of many ways to do this. Facebook for example, also has a Twitter to Facebook integration feature — though it can be somewhat annoying if you Tweet frequently. This would solve the President’s updating problem, at least superficially, though the messages would not be targeted, which may be why his staff isn’t doing this.

Don’t: Play it so safe that there is no personality in your profile. Make sure it feels like you’re really there — or hire someone who knows your communication style to do your updates for you.

Be daring (within reason) and share some of your thoughts once in a while. Share a song you’re listening to, a favorite quotation, what you’re doing, where you’re traveling, how you feel, what’s the weather. His profile is a bit too corporate and businesslike on MySpace  – it would be nice to see some of his favorite bands or some casual family photos, for example.

Social networking was brilliantly used during his election campaign, but recently there’s no there there behind the President’s profiles, and that gives us a feeling of abandonment or stagnation. Keep the news flowing and think of your updates as little mini press releases you send out, reminding your customers/followers that you’re busy, not absent.

1 comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , | posted in Digg, Facebook, MySpace, press release, shameless self promotion, social media, Twitter, website

March 8, 2010

6 ways to determine which social sites are best for your business.

By Giselle Bisson

Today there are at least 350 social networks. And thousands of smaller, focused and specialized social networks that have been built on Ning — like Etsy, which is now essential for craftspersons, and Architects of a New Dawn, a new age network of “positive and uplifting content” created by musician Carlos Santana.

How do you make your way through this mountain of potential sites and decide where to focus your precious time and marketing dollars?

1. Decide what your market niche is and choose the top 3 networks in that niche.

For example, if you’re a Yoga business, you might want to join the three largest, fastest-growing, or most heavily visited networks in the New Age and Yoga market — Yogamates, Architects of a New Dawn and Gaia. If you are a yoga non profit organization, perhaps you’d also add Wiser Earth. Keep an eye open for all new social nets in your industry and create a basic page on all of them if possible–you really never know where a new customer is going to come from.

The best and most active groups will soon become apparent and then you can start unsubscribing from the less popular ones. (It’s better to have an active page you’re paying attention to than a dead one that could be collecting negative comments or will make your business look stale and outdated.) But in this day of emerging media, it’s difficult to predict in advance who is going to be hot and who’s going to fizzle out. (Once upon a time, only two years ago, Facebook was just a niche network for Ivy league college graduates).

2. Add the Yahoo groups and Meetups in your marketing niche.

Do a search for Yahoo groups relevant to your market, and join the largest ones. These lists become valuable places to announce and promote your events and services. For example, as a Yoga business, we would join all of the Yoga and Vegetarian Yahoo groups, Google Groups and Meetups in our region. Your profile should always list all of your Facebook, Linked In and Twitter profiles, your website, blog and any other urls that relate to your business. This generates links and traffic back to your website.

3. Create a Facebook personal page AND a Facebook fan page. Then create Facebook Event pages for all of your events.

Why multiple Facebook pages? Because you will eventually want to separate your personal life from your busines. Also, fan pages offer the potential to send out news to your whole list with one click — whereas an Event page created from your personal identity requires tediously clicking on every single name in order to invite people. Trust me, you need both.

Again, link back to all of your other social profiles and URLs from your Facebook profiles. More about how to create a kick-butt Facebook fan page in a future article. There are both free and paid Facebook fan pages, depending on the number of friends you have and the features you want.

4. Decide if Twitter, Linked In, Myspace or Flickr are for you. They’re not for everybody.

Twitter is more impersonal than Facebook — I think of Twitter as where I can blast out news to the entire planet in my professional niche. But Facebook where I reach my closest community circle–real people I actually know.  If your business does not need to reach the whole world, Twitter is overkill. For example, a local pet store probably won’t need Twitter, but a distributor of pet products would use it to communicate with stores, pet magazines, customers and fans.

Myspace is in decline, but is still one of the world’s largest social networks, and because it has music player features that Facebook lacks, it’s still essential for musicians, authors, festivals, nightclubs and entertainment venues. Myspace is not trafficked much anymore for other businesses.  More about music promotion, which is a world unto itself, in a future article.

Linked In is essential if you’re a high tech executive and want to link up with your peers and business development contacts — but it’s fairly useless for a massage therapist.

Flickr or Photobucket are great if you’re a professional photographer, or if your collection of photos is somehow relevant to your business, and it will drive traffic to your other sites because these photos are tagged and will show up in web searches.

5. If you’re a local business, you absolutely need to be on Yelp!

Yelp is essential for all local businesses — whether you are a dentist, offer professional services or run a restaurant. You need to actively encourage your friends, family and best customers to write positive reviews on Yelp — because positive reviews will crowd out the negative ones. More about Yelp and review services like Epinions later in a specific article. One of my clients, a mover, says the majority of his business referrals now come from Yelp so he offers a discount to encourage happy customers to write a Yelp review.

6. Local businesses also need to consider local listing services, specific to their niche.

Proactively seek out the free listings first. The ones that are selling ads will seek you out and beg you to spend. Personally, I would hire a competent social media/marketing consultant first and foremost before I paid for any online advertising. For example, if you’re sending out invitations to events, you’ll want to pay for email lists that reach your geographic and business niche, and you may find value in highly targeted Google Ad Words or Facebook ads. For a local restaurant, for example, you’d want to get listed on Bing.com, Restaurants.com, Yelp, Urban spoon, Fodors, Zagat, Dine.com, Citysearch, Boorah and Gayot, plus you’ll need to pay careful attention to Yahoo and Google to make sure you show up on the local search maps.

More about restaurant-specific social media in a future article, as I start to work for a restaurant client and give you some real world examples.

7. Join video listing services, photo sites and podcasting communities, if relevant to your business.

Video communities like You Tube, veoh, Metacafe, Google Video and Current.TV let you host small video clips for free to promote your business or brand. I have a client who is a yoga teacher, for example, who has clips from several of her Yoga DVDs and cooking videos online and considers that an important part of her promotion strategy. Another client, with an Astrology website, uses podcasting networks to promote his online radio show.

7. Listing sites like Digg.com are important too…but you can deal with those later.

I’m going to save this for a separate tutorial, because listing sites like Digg and Delicio.us are a whole other social animal. These sites, which tend to appeal mostly to a younger audience, are where the community “votes” on the importance or relevance of a topic or article. Your blog is like the center of the wheel that is your social promotion strategy. Get started  building your fan base on social sites and the listing services relevant to your business first, and develop a blog that links all of these sites together - before you worry about the listing sites.

The bottom line is — if you’re customers, peers, pundits and fans are there, you need to be on a social network. If they’re not, I’m sure you have better things to do with your time.

3 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in blog, bootstrapping, Digg, Facebook, renegade marketing, search engine optimization, shameless self promotion, social media, Twitter, website

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