Jul
1
How To Add Video To Your Blog
Filed Under What To Blog About | Leave a Comment
I’ve long 
been a fan of video on websites and blogs. In fact I’ve been experimenting with video for around five years now, and love how easy it makes it to connect up with people you may never meet in person. It’s a great way to connect and build relationships even quicker than with words or even audio.
We’ve always used a fairly high quality video camera in the past. You know, get out the tripod, set it up with lighting, create a great background. Hey, we’re photographers right? But I have really wanted a Flip Video since they first started making their appearance online.
- They are small and portable.
- You can bring them anywhere.
- It’s easy to create video – just push the button.
- It’s easy to move the video to your computer – just pop out the USB and plug it in.
- And amazingly enough, it has high quality video and audio for such a small inexpensive camera.
So a week ago I decided a Flip Video would be the perfect gift for Father’s Day. So we’ve been playing with it for the past week, and I decided its time to get busy and start recording.
Jun
23
Twitter For Business – How Many Twitter Accounts Is Enough?
Filed Under Social Sites | Leave a Comment
Last week I attended the Affiliate Convention here in Denver. It was the first year they’ve held it here in Denver, and for a first event, with attendance approaching 1,000, it was very well received.
The hot topic in every training class I attended was social networking. “How many of you have a Twitter account?” was the first thing mentioned in every class. 
In one class, the questions became even more controversial, and started a lot of discussion.
Should you run more than one Twitter account? And if so, should Twitter accounts be all about you, or can they also be designed as a promotion tool?
Ultimately the purpose of social media is to build relationships, and let people develop a comfort factor with you and your products/services before they become customers. When you use Twitter as your own personal name - @LoriOsterberg for instance – than you can talk about a variety of things, and let people see your personality through the multitude of posts you create.
Jun
12
What’s the most popular marketing strategy around at the moment? Twitter. Every networking group I attend, every show I watch, even at my daughter’s softball games, everyone is talking Twitter.
So if you run a business, you have to be on Twitter, right? 
And if you’re on Twitter, the best thing you can do is get a ton of followers, right?
So these promises of 5,000 Twitter followers in 5 hours for $50 is a great deal, right?
Think again.
If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
First, if anyone is promising a ton of followers for a low fee, your first question should be “How valuable would these followers be to my business?”
Just like everything, the best way to get followers is the good old fashioned way. Go out and find people who you have something in common with.
- If you are a mommy blogger, find moms.
- If you are an accountant for small businesses, find small business owners.
- If you are a realtor, find people who are interested in buying property within your area. (A Colorado realtor can find a ton of people to follow in Colorado very easily.)
So let’s say your goal is to add 50 new followers every day. That’s 350 a week. If you add 50 a day for three weeks, that’s more than 1,000 people you’re connecting with every time you Tweet.
Jun
9
Why do you have a blog?
Chances are it’s to communicate with prospects and customers. Which also means that you’re hoping to grow your list of prospects and customers down the road. 
The problem with most bloggers is they rely on a person to find their blog, and come back to it again and again in order to keep in contact. Think about that for a minute. Do you go back and visit blogs on a regular basis? I’m sure you have your favorites. I have about six I visit several times per week just to see what’s new. But the vast majority I may have found an interesting article at, but rarely head back to visit.
Your visitors are the same way. They may have found interest in your information, but after reading down the page, they found something else of interest, clicked around, and exited out of your blog.
How can you prevent that in the future?
Jun
3
The Future Of Twitter – How Long Will The World Be Tweeting
Filed Under Social Sites | Leave a Comment
It seems like the whole world is Tweeting. You watch television and they mention Twitter addresses. You head out to a networking group, and every speaker is talking about social media and Twitter.
But is it really the way of the future? 
The key to making it an integral part of our society is to have people embrace the technology.
According to the Participatory Marketing Network and reported on Marketing Charts, even though 99% of Gen Y consumers (18-24 year olds) report being active on at least one social site, only 22% of this group said they were currently on Twitter.
So it’s not the younger generation who is using it.
It seems if you’re using social to follow friends, Twitter isn’t a choice. Yet.
Where Twitter does well is for those of us already established in our careers, and out there looking for a new way to market our business, connect with people, and build relationships that will ultimately lead to new business, careers, or even friendships.
Once people are on Twitter, they tend to use it in several ways.
May
26
I was listening to the radio today. The DJ was talking about a great artist he
had found, and absolutely loved her work. He linked to her website from his home page, and contacted her to do an interview for his show. So that’s how I found out about this artist, and of course was intrigued. So I wrote down her web address, and looked it up when I got home.
During her interview, she revealed that business was slow a few months ago, so she decided to try gaining some exposure in the press. She did a great job – and landed on a major talk show. The DJ found her by seeing her on this major talk show. So for her, business has been pretty good the past couple of months.
But when I went to her site, I noticed that business could be even better for her if she implemented just a few things. She went after the press and the national exposure without having the marketing behind it to truly capture the attention of her visitors, and turn them into sales.
Here are 7 things she should be doing to grow her business even further.
May
18
I’ve been writing for many years now. I have hundreds or articles and posts 
between three different sites, and over the years, they all fall down into the depths of my sites.
If you are a blogger, you know what I’m talking about. Each day you sit down to write on a new subject that’s pertinent to today and to your market. But if you’ve ever searched back through your categories, chances are you’ll find something similar from several months before.
How can you use old information to help you gain clients today?
Let’s look at three strategies.
1. Instead of sitting down with an entirely new idea, choose a category instead. Then click over to that category on your blog and start reading some of your posts from the past few months.
Are there any posts that would make an interesting topic today?
Are there several posts that you can combine together to make a new point?
Start writing your new post, linking back to the old posts as reference. It will give your old posts traction (people click through to read your point) and will help you dive deeper into a topic you have a lot of knowledge in.
May
14
It’s All About Me
Some people just don’t get that Twitter isn’t about self-promotion. It’s about building a relationship. Sure it’s okay to occasionally send out a Tweet about your new product or service. As long as you’re filling in with quality information and resources that make you a value to the community. 
Bull Horn Approach
Imagine standing on a street corner screaming out your message at 4am on a Sunday morning. Will a few people hear it? Maybe. But you’re missing a huge opportunity. Don’t head out to Twitter once a month and Tweet out six messages in a row. Spend 5 minutes per day adding one or two quality Tweets, and spend some time re-tweeting and making conversation.
A Glamorous RSS Feed
Twitter is more than a resource for you blog posts and RSS feeds. Simply feeding in your RSS is a surefire way of getting your followers to quickly unfollow. Twitter is all about relationships first, content second.
May
11
Would You Blog For $25,000?
Filed Under Blogging Success | 1 Comment
What would it take for you to blog regularly for your business?
Would you do it if someone invested $25,000 into your business?
I opened up my email to this question today from FuelMyBlog.
If you were loaned $25,000 today by Pertuity Direct, what type of online business would you launch?
And instantly I started seeing a whole new business model.
Definitely a blog. 
Blogs are becoming one of the most powerful, influential ways of communicating with a mass audience. In a short period of time you can be up and running any type of business on any subject matter.
From there I started thinking about what people need the most right now.
The world is running scared from economic crises. Buying is way down. And yet more people are starting up businesses or additional income streams in masses. I’m contacted daily by someone with a new venture starting up, wondering if I’ll take a look.
So of course everyone is jumping on the bandwagon of every free service out there. Have a Facebook account? You bet. How about Twitter? Of course.
Yet very few people I meet and talk with understand why they have a Facebook account, or how they will use Twitter to market their business.
May
7
The Simple Life Gone – Why Social Is Changing The Way We Live
Filed Under Social Sites | Leave a Comment
Remember the simple life?
- You did something crazy with your friends, and it became a memory you talk about at high school reunions.
- You did something embarrassing, it circulated at school for a few days, and it disappeared forever.
Ah, the good ol’ days. 
Thanks to blogging and social media, your business is everyone else’s business forever. If you do something crazy, it will circulate online forever. If you do something embarrassing, the photos will be around forever to prove it.
A recent report by the National Association for College Admission Counseling says that one fourth of colleges surveyed indicated they use web searches or social networking technology to dive deeper into prospective students backgrounds.
More than half monitor the online social buzz for their school.
And one third maintain a blog for their college.
In short, they know how to use social media and they aren’t afraid to use it.
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