Rachel Levy: Social Media & Marketing

I’m pleased to announce, that in addition to my Marketing and Social Media consulting business, I have now launched a new venture called WebinarListings.  Through hosting a few of my own Webinars (online seminars), I noticed that there was no central website for hosts to promote their webinars, or for people to find out about them.  So, I created one!  Today is the beta launch of my site, and it will eventually be FULL of a variety of Webinars for all interest areas (business, health, technology, etc), in any part of the world. Right now it happens to be focused on marketing, social media, technology because that is where my connections are, but that will soon change. Webinars are a great way to learn new things right from your computer AND are free most of the time.

So, if you’re interested, I invite you to check out the site, and connect with me in any way you choose (many options below!), especially by signing up for the weekly newsletter.  During the beta period, the more traffic and registrations/followers I build, the more interest hosts will have to list their webinars with me… so I’m counting on you! If you hear of any Webinars being put on, please pass them my way so I can contact the host. And feel free to tweet, blog, facebook update, talk, or spread the word in any way.

I’m also running an introduction promotion for this week only (through the 14th) — use promo code “intro50″ for your Featured Webinar listing and get 50% off your Webinar.

I’m really excited about this, as it is really putting to use the skills I have in social media, marketing and Webinars. I’m looking forward to seeing where this takes me!

WebinarListings contact info:

Let me know what you think!  I’ll take all the feedback I can get.

I asked one simple question of my followers on Twitter, and got 20 responses.  Here are their answers.

JoeManna: The people I have conversations with.

acraKA: Relationship building

alliemiami: Making great business connections is simple I start a conversation with someone of interest & it takes off

joewaters: The strength of weak ties.

econwriter5: Useful exchange of info

dmeiselman: An easy way to connect with new people that share an interest. Twitter lets me start relationships I would not have otherwise.

cargillcreative: Learning from others and making new connections…those are two ways I’ve benefited from using Twitter.

JoeCascio: I get connected to smart, friendly, creative people. I make friends. I don’t have to listen to asshats. Does one need more?

Dawn_Migliore: Getting news before it breaks and great links on topics you’re interested in

LevelTen_Colin:  Networking, hands down.

michaelflint: Reach and search.

jensjewellery: Publicity for my Etsy store.

abarcelos: Definitely for two-way valuable interaction, both personally and professionally.

fairminder: Meeting new friends, maintaining friendships and finding clients and colleagues to complete client projects, all on Twitter

rsomers: A radio-like stream of ideas in the background as I work

melwebster: Links to interesting stuff and a good laugh at all of the blatant self-promotion

Notice, not one person said to “find out what people are eating for lunch” (a big misperception of Twitter!).

What are your thoughts on this?  Anything to add to the list?

I have been working really hard over the past few months to keep my email Inbox clean and as close to zero as possible. A few people have asked how I do it, so I thought I’d write about it.  Here’s proof that it works:

I use Gmail, but most of what I’ve written can apply to any advanced email client. Here are my tips:

• Unsubscribe - I can’t say enough about the value of unsubscribing.  I have signed up for so many newsletters over the years, but my interests have changed.  I also do a lot of shopping online, and many sites automatically add you to their email list (or I miss the opt-out button).  Now, as soon as I get something that I find myself automatically going for the delete button, I unsubscribe immediately.  No need to waste my time each time deleting these emails.  Plus, there’s something therapeutic about using the unsubscribe button!
• Filters - Filters allow you to perform a certain action automatically to incoming emails.  I use filters in a few ways:
  • Move emails I don’t need very often automatically to my Archived box -  For example, I receive a lot of emails that are about social events in the Boston area.  Usually I’m too busy to add anything else to my schedule, so I don’t need to clutter my Inbox with them.  Instead, I have them automatically go to Archive, and if I am looking for something to do at night, I know where to look.
  • Filter out emails I want to deal with all at once – For example, all the notices I receive from Twitter telling me I have a new follower… I prefer to go through my new followers all at once and review them.  Getting them out of my Inbox reduces the clutter.
  • Filters are great for Google Buzz, which makes any reply to you, show up in your Inbox. If you dislike this, create a filter to move these to trash automatically.
• Labels (this is a Gmail feature which is very similar to email Folders) – I use labels to categorize emails coming into my Inbox. About 1/2 of the emails I receive are set up to be labeled automatically. For example, each client I’m working with has a its own label, so any email arriving from that client gets automatically labeled.  That way, I can glance quickly at what is high priority and who it is for.  I also use labels to identify news subscriptions I receive, so they’re still in my Inbox, but easily identifiable as lower priority.
• Dedicate time to go thru emails – On a daily basis I try to keep my Inbox volume low.  But, inevitably it piles up a bit throughout the week.  I find that designating time to go through my emails each week and get it back down to zero really helps.  I typically do this on the weekends, but you can do it whenever works for you. The key is to ensure you do this, or 10 will become 20, and 20 will become 30, and so on.
• Add to task list – I used to leave follow-up items in my Inbox, and star them as important.  But, that then just cluttered my Inbox and made it tough to see what else I was receiving.  Now, I take to-do items and put them on my task list, and move the email to the Archive folder.  That allows me to prioritize my to-do’s and keep my Inbox clean.
• Conversations – One of my favorite features in Gmail is the grouped conversations, which groups all emails in the same email stream together.  So, if you send an email, and 10 people reply, it just shows up in your Inbox as ONE email, rather than 10.  All 10 responses are grouped together.  This helps a lot in keeping the visual volume down.
• Mark as read – For any of the news subscription emails I receive, I automatically mark those as read, so they mentally clutter my Inbox less.  They’re still in my Inbox, but don’t feel like they have the same urgency as Unread emails.

(Photo credit: Email)

What do you think?  Do you have any more tips to keep your Inbox in control?

I had coffee this week with a fellow marketing consultant like me, with one big difference: she’s an SMS (Social Media Skeptic). We spent much of the hour we were together talking about the merits (or lack thereof) of social media. Since I’ve already written a similar post about Twitter, Why You Shouldn’t Use Twitter, I thought I’d focus this time on blogging.  So, here are some of the objections she had, along with my thoughts on the topic.

• SMS: Blogging takes too much time — it’s a full time job.
  • Me: It doesn’t have to be a full time job… if you commit to write one post per week, that’s a great way to get started, and that will only take a few hours per week.  If you have a few people blogging on a rotating schedule that shares the workload across people.
• SMS: Even if you only write one post per week, you still have to respond to all the comments.  Who has time for that?
  • Me: Yes, it’s important to make time to respond to comments, but think about it in a positive light… if your customers (or potential customers) are engaging with your brand and what you’re blogging about, isn’t that worth the additional minute you spend responding to them?  What other form of marketing can you engage customers like this? (a lot, but many of them are in social media!). Isn’t the point of marketing to engage with your consumers?
• SMS: Not everyone is a good writer, so they shouldn’t be blogging.
  • Me: There are so many ways to blog.  You can use video, audio, photos, short paragraphs, etc.  Not all of these require 4 hours to write a post, or good writing skills.  In addition, you can rotate your bloggers on a schedule so not one person is carrying the load, or also use guest bloggers on occasion to mix it up a bit.
• SMS: I’m not technical, so I could never figure out how to put together a blog.
  • Me: Just over a year ago, I didn’t even know what WordPress was (it’s a Content Management System that allows you to easily put together a blog/website in a very user friendly way), and now I know it very well, and even train others on using it.  Sure, occasionally I get stuck, but 95% of the time, I can manage it on my own.  In addition, there are some VERY user-friendly WordPress themes out there, such as Headway, that allows you to drag and drop boxes, and edit the design elements by just clicking.
• SMS: Blogging (and social media) are fads, and will not be around for much longer.
  • Me: I do agree that there are some social media tools that might not be around in a few years.  But, I think that the overall categories such as blogging, micro-blogging, etc. are here to stay.

Once I had responded to all of her objections, I pointed out some of the other positives of blogging:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - The more you write, the more activity and comments you get on your blog, and the more inbound links you get.  This is exactly what the search engines look for when analyzing websites.  All of this activity is viewed very positively, so will positively affect your search engine rankings.
• Interact with customers – As mentioned above, isn’t it a POSITIVE thing to be able to interact with your customers?  To hear their feedback, get them engaged, get them asking questions?  All of that happens on a blog, and it’s all on YOUR website.
• Establish yourself as an expert in your area - Writing blog posts in your area of business allows you to establish yourself as an expert, and display what you know in your area.  It may or may not be directly related to your product, which opens people up even more to hearing your message.
• Low cost - For the cost of $10, you can buy a domain name and build a blog.  If you want a premium theme such as Headway or Thesis, that will run you $90. So, for $100 you can have a blog.  True, the biggest cost with blogging is time, but the actual budget outlay is less expensive than most other forms of marketing.

(Photo credit: No social media, Blogging sucks)

So, what do you think?  Is blogging a good idea?  Are there any other objections you’ve heard?  Or benefits I haven’t mentioned?

I came across this this morning, and wanted to post it as a GREAT way to take the “same-old” and turn it into something newly creative. Look at how it stops people in their tracks. It’s unexpected and new.

What other examples have you seen like this that are unexpected ways to advertise or promote a product?