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 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?

Are you wondering why I’m writing a post about how to cross-post, when I JUST wrote one about how I’m not a fan of cross-posting? Well, for starters, some of these tactics are temporary, meaning you turn them on and off for each update, so it’s not just a flow of ALL of your updates.  And, second, I thought it would be helpful to have all of this in one place to keep track of it! And third, to me, even some of the “permanent” cross-post tactics (such as Blog to LinkedIn) can be useful. So, if you do decide to cross-post after reading my post here’s how:

Twitter to Facebook Profile

• Individual updates
  • Tweetdeck Desktop – Add your profile to your Tweetdeck account by clicking on the plus at the top of the screen.  Once your account has been added, you can toggle each account on and off by clicking on the account name.
  • Tweetdeck for iPhone – Go to the settings page and add your Facebook account.  When updating  your status, select your Facebook account.
  • Selective Tweets – Install the Selective Twitter application in your Facebook account.  Once you’ve done that, any Twitter update you make with #fb, will also update your Facebook status.
  • There are many other mobile and desktop applications that do this, such as Seesmic Desktop, Hootsuite, and many more.
• Permanent
  • Install this Twitter application in your Facebook account.  Once you’ve done that, EVERY Twitter update you make, will also update your Facebook status.  CAUTION, this can be annoying to your Facebook friends.

Twitter to Facebook Fan Page

• Tweetdeck Desktop – see above.  Hootsuite also does this.

Facebook Fan Page to Twitter

• Individual updates- There is currently no way to update Twitter from your Facebook Fan Page on an individual update basis.
• Permanent 
  • Install this Twitter application in your Facebook account.  Once you’ve done that, EVERY update you make on your Facebook Fan Page, will also post to Twitter.

Twitter to LinkedIn

• Tweetdeck Desktop – see above.  Hootsuite also does this.
• Adjust your settings in LinkedIn.  Once you’ve added your Twitter account, you can choose to have all or some of your updates flow to LinkedIn.  Again, I CAUTION  the use of permanent update cross-posting.  For individual updates to flow to LinkedIn, simply use #in or #li when you update your Twitter status.

LinkedIn to Twitter

• This functionality is built right into LinkedIn now, so each update you make on LinkedIn, you can select if you want it to also post to Twitter, by checking the check box below your update.

Twitter to Blog

• Add a widget to your blog that displays your recent tweets by installing the “Twitter for Wordpress” plugin on your blog. Your tweets will stream into a widget on the side of your blog, similar to mine on the bottom right.
• You can also install the Wibya toolbar (see mine at the bottom of this page) which shows your Twitter updates.  If you want to know more about the Wibya toolbar, take a look at my post on the topic.  Another similar toolbar is the Meebo Bar.

Facebook Fan Page to Blog

• This is possible using the Wibya toolbar or the Meebo Bar.  See above.

Facebook Profile to Blog

• This is possible using the Wibya toolbar or the Meebo Bar.  See above.

Blog to Twitter

• Twitterfeed - You can easily automate the posting of your blog to Twitter by setting up a feed on Twitterfeed.

Blog to Facebook Profile

• Create a Facebook note for each of your blog posts by following these instructions: In the “Applications” menu (in the bottom bar), choose “Notes.”, under “Notes Settings,” click on “Import a blog” and enter your feed address.  For more detailed instructions and screen shots, see this post.
• Wordbooker – This is a Wordpress plugin that imports your blog posts to Facebook.  The difference in this versus using Notes, is that your posts get a separate area on your profile, and any comments are imported back into your blog.  (Thanks to @tpapi for the suggestion!)

Blog to Facebook Fan Page

• Wordbooker – see above
• Social RSS – Install this application on Facebook, and your blog posts will feed directly as updates to your Wall.  You can also create a box that will show your posts in a box on your Fan Page.  See WebinarListing fan page for an example.

Blog to LinkedIn

• Install the Wordpress application on LinkedIn or BlogLink onto your LinkedIn profile and have all your blog posts flow to your profile.

Not possible at this time (if you know of a way to do these, please let me know in the comments!):

• Facebook Profile to LinkedIn
• Facebook Profile to Twitter
• Facebook Profile to Facebook Fan Page
• Facebook Fan Page to Facebook Profile
• Facebook Fan Page to LinkedIn
• LinkedIn to Facebook Profile
• LinkedIn to Facebook Fan Page
• LinkedIn to Blog

You may also be familiar with Ping.fm, which allows you to update 50 social media sites at once.  You just post it once, and it updates the sites you choose.  So, obviously this is a great way to cross-post.  A few weeks ago, Seesmic acquired Ping.fm, so the Ping.fm functionaility will be incorporated into Seesmic in a few weeks, making it a great option to cross-post.  Ping.fm is currently incorporated into Hootsuite as well.

Did I leave anything out?  I plan on keeping this updated over time, so please let me know if I have missed anything!

Last week, I found out about a really cool new toolbar for websites called Wibiya. I asked them for a beta invite and they said it would be launching to the general public soon (I guess I wasn’t special enough!), and sure enough, I was notified about it today.  So, what do I think?  Well, considering I was inspired to write a blog post about it within 15 minutes of installing it, I’d say I like it! :-)

So, what is Wibiya?  If you’re viewing this post on my website, just look down at the bottom to the pink bar.  If not, here a screen shot of it broken into 2 parts.

What it does essentially is bring your social media components (and a few other things) all to one place, and a place that is available everywhere on your site.  People can do the following right from the toolbar:

• Facebook
  • update their status (with automatic link to your site)
  • become a fan of your Facebook page
• Twitter
  • see your tweets
  • follow you on Twitter
  • tweet (with an automatically shortened link to your site)
• Blog
  • subscribe to your RSS feed
  • See your recent posts
• Search your site
• Chat with others
• Message your site visitors
• Translate your site into different languages

…all without leaving your site.  There are also a bunch of other apps, such as photo galleries and YouTube integration, that you can easily install.  What a great way to give people the functionality they want, without forcing them to leave your website and you never get them back.  Sure, most of these tools are available with other WordPress plugins, but it’s great to have everything in one place, so you can fill your site with more good content.

In addition to all of this functionality for your site visitors, you get analytics too!  So, as soon as I posted on Twitter, I could see how many people were visiting which pages, and where in the world they are.  What a great way to get instant feedback, to see if people are driven to your site.  It also shows you overall stats for the past 7 days, including assumed bounce rate reduction, and new RSS registrations.

As I said, I JUST downloaded this 1/2 hour ago, so I’m still poking around.  But, overall, this is a VERY cool app… a definite BUY recommendation from me! Oh, wait, it’s free.  :-)

What do you think? Have you discovered anything I haven’t mentioned above? Any downsides you see?

Selecting your handle is an important step when starting out on Twitter. It’s not that you can’t change it whenever you want, it’s just that as people start to recognize you as your Twitter handle, your brand and your reputation, it becomes harder and harder to move away from that.  There are a few handle options you have, so I thought I’d go over the pros and cons of each:

Your Real Name (first, last, initials, business name or some combination of the those)

Examples – @lizstrauss, @loic, @chrisbrogan, @DaivRawks, @jbruin, @pistachio

• Pro – You’re branding your own name, so people will recognize you
• Con – It’s harder for people offhand to know what you do or what interests you

A Description (who you are, what you do, what you’re interested in)

Examples – @BostonMarketer (that’s me!), @SEOSEM, @BostonTweet, @thebrandbuilder,  @skydiver

• Pro – People automatically know what you do, or what interests you.
  • I can speak from personal experience on this one… I get quite a few referrals through Twitter for Marketing and Social Media Consulting work.  I attribute that to a lot of factors, but one of them is that my name makes it clear what I do.  So, if someone is trying to think of a referral for Marketing in Boston, I come to mind.  The same thing happened to me on the other side last week, when someone asked me for a recommendation of someone who is good at SEO. The first person I thought of was @SEOSEM because of his name.  I follow close to 4,000 people, so remembering specific people is difficult.  Having an obvious name, makes remembering you easier when it comes to referrals, or just finding someone in a particular area of interest.
• Con – You’re missing out on an opportunity to brand your own personal name.  I joke sometimes that people don’t actually know my name — I’m @BostonMarketer to them.  But, I do think it’s somewhat true.
• Con – If you’re not focused in what you’re interested in, it can pigeon hole you into one area

A Random Name (probably not obvious to everyone why that’s your name)

Examples – @lmzadi1, @NoOneYouKnow

• Pro – CAN be memorable
• Con – You’re not branding your name, or what you do, so it’s a missed opportunity
• Con – Oftentimes difficult to remember

(of course, there are also combinations of the types above, i.e. @pamelawella, @JessicaKnows, @LauraLovesArt)

Overall, my personal recommendation is to choose a name that describes your interests, as long as you are focused in the reason you are on Twitter.  If not, then go with your real name!

Other miscellaneous tips:

• Names I find difficult are ones where it’s A name, but not the person’s real name.  For example, @BstnMelody — I find her name VERY difficult… because her name is NOT Melody, but rather, Robin.  So, when I see her, I keep wanting to call her Melody.  Another one is @Admore, whose last name is not Admore, but rather Damore. (Sorry Robin and David, I needed to use you as examples to make the point.)
• Regardless of what your Twitter handle is (unless you share an account with multiple people), you definitely should have your real name onyour bio as well (see image — you see Rachel Levy, although my Twitter handle is @BostonMarketer).  It puts a real name to your handle, and makes you more personable.
• The use of underscores makes typing the person’s name more difficult.  On a laptop keyboard, it’s just pushing the shift key.  But, on the iPhone it’s an additional two strokes to get the underscore.  I would recommend staying away from underscores if you possibly can.
• Having a long Twitter name makes it difficult to get retweeted — the longer your name is, the more characters your name takes up to RT you.  My name (@BostonMarketer) is 14 characters, and I think it’s a bit too long… my recommendation is to keep your name under 10 characters.
• Don’t use a lot of random numbers or strange spellings of words in your name, as it’s difficult to remember.

(Photo credit: Follow Me, Twitter Handle list)

What do you think?  What are the best naming conventions?  Any other pros/cons I’m missing?

When I mention Twitter, I usually end up sitting there listening to all the reasons people DON’T want to use Twitter. And, often times the person hasn’t really used Twitter much, or has just heard these reasons from other people! I figured I’d write them all down, so the Twitter-skeptics don’t have to think of the reasons anymore:

• Why do I want to hear when someone is going for coffee or what they’re having for lunch?
• I don’t want to share that kind of stuff about my life
• It’s too young
• I don’t have time
• I use Facebook instead
• None of my friends use it
• I tried it last year and I didn’t get it
• It’s a waste of time
• I don’t like text-messaging
• It’s just for marketing people
• It’s just for geeks (from @mdurwin)
• I just don’t get it (from @mdurwin and @KarenVazquez)
• I don’t have anything important to say (from @acraKA, @rossmevans and @PamResearchDiva)

Those are all reasonable things to think about Twitter.  And, they can definitely be true if you use Twitter in certain ways.  But, it doesn’t have to be like that!  I thought I’d share some of my tweets from yesterday, and the general category of the benefit of Twitter:

• Opinion/Advice…. Designers– is it common to charge extra to deliver the eps files to your client? OR Consultants… Do you charge for local travel time on hourly projects?
• Help…. Any ideas on where to download a HIGH RES rendition of the “hand pointer” (what appears when you’re about to click on a link on computer)?
• Provide information… Why Google’s real-time search with Facebook and Twitter is so important http://bit.ly/6WkSig
• Learn something… great idea! RT @mlourie: How to embed video into your LinkedIn profile using Google Docs http://bit.ly/5n4NuS
• Promote something for charity… Looking to help someone in need for the holidays? Sponsor a child thru Operation ELF! (AMAZING org I’m involved w/) http://bit.ly/7gyWcm OR RT @johnhaydon Bone marrow match needed for a 4 yr old mixed race girl: http://bit.ly/6UXhP0
• Connection…. Happy birthday to @justinlevy and @adampieniazek! Hope the next year is a great one for you!
• For fun… Damn, headset fell in coffee mug :-(
• Provide Industry information… Four email marketing predictions for 2010 http://bit.ly/6uBNmw

And, that was just in one day!  It’s really amazing what you can do on Twitter, if you take the time to understand how to use it.  Here are even more reasons to use Twitter:

• Spread a message
• Connect with people with similar interests/Networking
• Find customers/evangelists
• Customer Service
• News
• Branding (personal or for business)
• Build community
• Market Research (aka “listening”)
• New business/sales
• Build customer loyalty
• SEO
• Recruit employees

The way I explain Twitter is in terms of Facebook, as most people understand that: “Facebook is about connecting with friends. Twitter is about connecting with people with similar interests.”  I can’t even tell you how much it’s done for me in terms of networking, getting clients, and learning about things that interest me (social media being one of them).  I think it’s about time to give it a REAL try!

(Photo credit: I don’t get it, I hate Twitter)

What other reasons have you heard for people not wanting to use Twitter?  What other benefits have you seen?

Missed my Twitter 201 Webinar? You can purchase a copy of the video recording here for $15. This webinar will be more advanced information about Twitter, and will include the following:

• Twitter’s external applications (i.e. Twellow)
• Twittiquette (etiquette for Twitter)
• Growing your following
• Syndicating you tweets outside of Twitter
• Managing your time on Twitter
• Twitter success stories
• Twitter Lists
• and more!

If you’ve been on Twitter for a little while, but want to take it to the next level, this webinar is for you!

(after purchase you will be automatically redirected to the video recording)

I’ve noticed a lot of people automatically cross-posting from one social media site to another lately. They have all their Twitter updates feed to Facebook, all their LinkedIn updates feed to Twitter, or all their Delicious tags updating Facebook. I’ll say right off the bat, that I find this frustrating (especially when it comes from savvy marketing people). Why? Because each of these audiences is different, and each tool is used differently. You wouldn’t take a Coke ad that was specifically written for a Golf magazine and put it in Vogue, would you? No, because the audiences of each magazine are different and the brand’s message may be slightly different for each audience.

Similarly, each social media tool has a different audience, is used differently and has a different culture. For example, for me, I view each of these sites as follows:

• Facebook – connecting with friends; not very businessy (when talking about personal profiles), updates are a few times at most a day
• Twitter – connecting with people with similar interests (for me, mostly marketing and social media), somewhat businessy, updates are frequent (sometimes up to 20-30 times/day)
• LinkedIn – connecting with people in order to network, very businessy, updates are infrequently used (starting to catch on though)

Given the above, if I cross-posted all my Twitter updates to Facebook, I would be doing a few things — I’m pushing my business stuff on my friends who probably have no interest in it, and I’m doing it at an overwhelming pace given the culture on Facebook.  In addition, I’m using lingo that my Facebook friends don’t know, such as RT, @, #, etc. Why would I want to do that??  It’s blatently ignoring how people operate on Facebook, why they’re there, and overwhelming their stream with posts that they probably have no interest in.  They have signed up to be my friend, not necessarily to hear about all of my business interests.

So, do I think there are some posts that work as cross-posts?  Absolutely!  And, that’s why there are a few applications that allow you to choose when it’s appropriate to cross-post.  For example, applications like Selective Twitter Status (use the hashtag #fb in a tweet to send it to Facebook), or using the hashtag #in in a tweet to send it to LinkedIn, choosing “Facebook” on TweetDeck or Seesmic when you want to update Facebook, or clicking the checkbox on LinkedIn to send you update to Twitter.

So, what about posting your business updates to your Facebook profile? While it’s a little off the topic of cross-posting, the concept is the same to me.  Have your friends signed up to hear about your business by being your friend?  No.  So, if you find yourself with over a quarter of your Facebook updates (a good benchmark to me) to be about your business, maybe it’s time to consider a business Fan Page so your friends can opt-in to receive your business updates.

The risk you run with not keeping these audience/culture factors in mind, is people will hide or unfollow you, and then they’re not seeing ANY of your updates. For example, I hide many people on Facebook because they overwhelm my stream, and unfortunately that means I don’t see any of their updates anymore.

So, my final message is this… think about your audience and the culture before cross-posting!

What do you think?  Is it OK for people to automatically cross-post?  Why or why not?

BEEN GETTING A LOT OF REQUESTS…. If you can’t make it but would like to, go ahead and register hereon EventBee, and I’ll send out a video recording after the Webinar!

Twitter is about connecting to people with similar interests, and can be used for business or personal reasons, including networking, learning information, getting business, finding a job, etc.

This webinar will be more advanced information about Twitter, and will include the following:

• Twitter’s external applications (i.e. Twellow)
• Twittiquette (etiquette for Twitter)
• Growing your following
• Syndicating you tweets outside of Twitter
• Managing your time on Twitter
• Twitter success stories
• Twitter Lists
• and more!

If you’ve been on Twitter for a little while, but want to take it to the next level, this webinar is for you!

Here are my basic Twitter stats: 6,100 followers, Ranked #25 in Boston, 15,000 updates, Certified Twaddict (Twitter addict)!!

Price: Price is $10 through the 29th, $20 until noon on Dec 2nd, and the $25 after that.  So, register early!!

Hashtag: #BMTwitter

Questions? Contact me on Twitter or by email
I do plan on ending by 1:00pm, but scheduled it for an extra 15 minutes just in case!

See you soon!