Your Marketing Gal

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Thank you so much for stopping by Your Marketing Gal. You'll find posts on social media, general business how to and so much more. Always feel free to contact me with any questions you may have. Thanks!

LinkedIn 101 Rotary Club in Denver

Last night I had the pleasure or presenting a brief introduction to LinkedIn to a group of Rotary members. Debra Fine, author of the bestselling book The Fine Art of Small Talk, asked me to present to the members of her chapter at their informal gathering. After watching a video on her website, I see that social media is actually not so different from her suggestions on how to engage people through small talk. Through LinkedIn and all social networks, it's  all about having a conversation with your connections, friends or followers. Her advice: show that you are listening - also great for social media.

Thanks so much, Rotary members, for having me at your meeting. Oh and my brother will be so proud that I spoke to you as he has been a member with perfect attendance of the Rotary Club in Laredo, Texas for almost 30 years. 

Twitter for Job Seekers

On December 17, I had the pleasure of speaking to a friendly group of job seekers in Boulder called Boldernet. The group is run by volunteers but has a nice, relaxed structure. Their website is http://www.bouldernetworking.net/ plus they have a Meetup as well. Here is the Twitter presentation:

Social Media Marketing 101 Brand Your Business

Is it too late to create your social media marketing plan? Heck no - it's prime time. You can start branding yourself as an expert in your industry or business by implementing a few simple tools. Watch the Power Point I presented to the great folks at Creative Connections in Denver recently. Have any questions, feel free to contact me.

Denver Entrepreneurs Unite for a Great Cause

On November 18, a dynamic group of Denver Entrepreneurs met at Slattery's Irish Pub for a great cause. Our benefactor: Food Bank of the Rockies. We raised $750 or the equivalent of 3,000 meals for folks and we had so much fun. I am honored to be the organizer for this group of business owners and friends.

Our big job for the night was a fun networking event - a people scavenger hunt - where everyone had to talk to each other to find out who had done what on the list of questions. It inspired everyone to network, talk and enjoy the company. An hour later, no one had claimed the prizes because all were busy getting to know each other. I made sure the winners got their prizes. Such a successful event - fun, networking and for a great cause.

Please visit the Denver Entrepreneurs. Our meetings are "sales free", fun and educational. We have monthly experts speaking to us on a variety of helpful topics to help us grow our business. So please join us. 

Creating Video For Search Engines - Media Post Search Insider

If you're just getting into video marketing, as I am, the following article has great information.

My job has lately had me producing a lot of video content for the Web, and I suppose my timing couldn't be better. Google just decided to roll out auto-captioning, which will vastly improve the accessibility of video files to search engines. And while Web videos are hardly a novelty, they're starting to influence conversations more and more. Here, then, are a few observations about what (and what not) to do when producing video for the Web.

Videos Rank!

One of the biggest surprises I found after producing a few videos was how quickly they ranked on Google's Video Search. While everybody and his brother have spent years optimizing their pages for Google Web search, a far fewer number have deployed video assets. While it's an overstatement to say that Video Search is virgin terrain, there's clearly an opportunity here if you have something to say -- and a way to say it with video. Does the fact that we decided to host these videos on Google-owned YouTube influence their rankings? Well, it clearly doesn't hurt.

Short is Better

Numerous studies have shown that Web video watchers prefer short over long-form video content. So what do you do if you've shot a 30-minute interview? Cutting it into four or five topic-themed segments, from roughly four to five minutes in length, is labor-intensive, but it's worth your while to do so, because each segment can be titled with a unique topic name, which will boost your rankings. Once you've created the clips, you can easily organize them on YouTube using its playlist system, which lets you control the running sequence of each clip.

Traffic Spikes Are Great, But Plan For The "Slow Tail"

There's nothing better than having a video "go viral," but this doesn't happen often. However, over time, a video that starts out with a middling performance can rack up many thousands of views over a period of weeks or months. Keep this long time horizon in mind and make sure your videos are date-stamped. Somebody watching your video a year from now won't mind if it's old, as long as you forewarn them of the recording date. Your first Web video may not nail a prospect in its first month, but a year from now may land a big fish. Think of each video you make as another "hook" in the water that may be nibbled on next week, or many months in the future.

Inexpensive Productions Don't Have To Look Cheap

As someone with an extensive A/V background, I'm still amazed at how powerful today's NLE (Non-Linear Editing) systems are. Adobe Premiere is preferred by many digital video professionals, but has a fairly steep learning curve. Unless your production needs are particularly fancy, you can probably achieve equivalent results with less expensive software such as Sony Vegas. There are tons of great online video production resources on the Web that can help you set up temporary or permanent video production environments. In my view, the biggest mistakes that people make when doing Web videos is failing to light properly and to produce quality audio.

Steve Baldwin is editor-in-chief at Didit, an agency for search engine marketing and auctioned media management based in New York. You can reach Steve at steve.baldwin@didit.com.

See original article.

via www.mediapost.com

Dos and Don'ts: Online copywriting - DMNews

Consumers interact differently with copy on the Web than they do with traditional marketing media. Transferring copy from a printed brochure online is not a recipe for success. Web copy must embrace online consumer behavior and be relevant to the audience's needs.

Chip Reingold, chief creative officer, Blast Radius

Do: Seduce the audience

Every great seduction begins with engaging conversation. Break the ice either boldly or slyly, but give your audience something to engage with. Genuine insight served with wit or intrigue is a great start. Let your personality shine through – you're selling a connection as much as any product or service. Success depends on understanding all aspects of the audience and delivering relevant information and experiences.

Don't: Forget to listen

Make sure you are creating a dialogue, not a monologue. Give the audience a part to play. Be attentive. With every reaction and interaction, they're telling you something about themselves. If you haven't given them anything relevant or a way to engage/respond, you'll lose them fast. Use this information to lead them through click by click. Are they looking for cold, hard facts? Do they want to be entertained? Make the information accessible, easy to understand and interactive. Listen and learn.

Steve Capp, chief creative officer, Unit 7

Do: Optimize your copy for people in addition to search engines.

Sure, having searchable words and targeted keywords is crucial if you want the search engines to find you, but you don't want to lose your readers in the process. Selling is about connecting with people and building relationships. Your words are your virtual handshake, extending to those who probably trust a stranger more than they trust your brand. What you write needs to inform, educate and entertain, but it also needs to connect and build trust. Your readers want to know that you get what's going on in their lives and that you actually care about them. So get to know who they are. And then write the way they speak. People instinctively trust those who speak like they do. Keep it conversational, concise and simple. Big words may impress, but your job is to communicate and engage. Avoid words that sound like you're selling something because it will just sound like you're selling something. And the only thing that will build is resentment.

Don't: Try to retrofit a static piece of offline copy into an interactive medium.

You're now speaking to an impatient online reader or, more appropriately, an impatient online scanner. Gone is the luxury of the beautifully crafted setup. On the Web, your reader wants the conclusion up front. Think the "inverted pyramid" approach to writing copy. Every word has to hold their attention and move them toward whatever it is they're looking for. Headlines have to be meaningful rather than clever. One idea per paragraph is a good rule of thumb. Speaking of which, stay away from clichés. Include searchable words and targeted keywords so the search engines will find you. Of course, there are rules in the offline world that also apply to the Web. Know who your target is and convince them of what the product can do for their life rather than how many cool features it has to offer. And when you have figured out that magnificent amalgamation of the traditional and the technological, don't let a typo be the thing they remember.

Daren Trousdell, Managing Director, NY, Isobar North America

via www.dmnews.com

See original article.

Getting ready for a happy hour fundraiser for Food Bank of the Rockies tomorrow in the Denver area. Please tell your Denver friends: http://bit.ly/1bC1sc

Elf Yourself on JibJab - Here's Mine at the Disco

A bit soon, but Happy Holidays.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

LinkedIn and Twitter Partnership: LinkedIn Just Became More Interactive

Linkedin is finally getting more interactive by pulling your Twitter posts. I receive a lot of hits on my blog from LinkedIn - great way to market your company. It's not just for job seekers although it is a great place to have a complete profile if you are. It's a great place to build yourself professionally , find power partners, etc. But it is not very interactive. Perhaps this will help. You will have to use two hashtags: #in and #li to post to your LinkedIn account. I went to connect my accounts and some how they already are. Great news!

Ian Paul, PC World

Nov 10, 2009 8:04 am

LinkedIn and Twitter announced a partnership on Monday allowing you to push your LinkedIn status updates out to your Twitter account or pull your tweets into your professional profile. Twitter co-founder Biz Stone called it "bringing the peanut butter and the chocolate together to make the perfect combination."

Twitter integration with LinkedIn makes sense, but don't forget these two services are very different from each other. Twitter is a very casual and fun network with its short burst messages, while LinkedIn is all about connecting with colleagues, other professionals and furthering your career. If you integrate your Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, be prepared to make smart choices about what you share across these services, because what's perfectly acceptable on one network, may not work on the other.

The Basics

You have three options for integrating LinkedIn with Twitter: you can rebroadcast your LinkedIn status updates to Twitter, turn your tweets into your LinkedIn status or both. To start integrating your tweets, you need to edit your LinkedIn settings by adding Twitter from your profile page or by clicking the Twitter icon next to your status on the homepage. Twitter integration will be rolled out to all LinkedIn users over the next few days, so you may not see the new feature right away.

DO's and Don'ts

DO broadcast your LinkedIn status to Twitter. Chances are your updates on LinkedIn contain things you want to talk about with as many people as possible like what you're working on, what you need help with or just a general question. Broadcasting these updates to your Twitter followers will only add to your knowledge and help get the word out about what you're doing. To push your LinkedIn status out to Twitter, click the check box next to the Twitter icon on your LinkedIn homepage, enter your update and click "Share."

DO link multiple Twitter accounts to your LinkedIn profile. If you have more than one Twitter identity, you probably have one account for personal tweets and others related to your business or job. It's almost impossible to hide your personal Twitter account from the rest of the world, so why not integrate all your Twitter accounts with LinkedIn? Besides, if you send out a lot of work-related or topical items from your personal account, you may want your professional network to see these tweets. LinkedIn did not specify how many Twitter accounts you could add, or what kind of broadcasting controls it offers for integrating multiple accounts.

DON'T send all your tweets to LinkedIn. Twitter's not just a professional broadcast tool it's also a fun way to connect with others. Don't forget that. LinkedIn gives you the option to only send tweets to your profile marked with the '#in' or '#li' hashtags or to send all your tweets to LinkedIn. Make sure you choose the hashtag option so only the tweets you decide to share will get through to your LinkedIn account. Sharing an update about your recent promotion on LinkedIn via Twitter is a great idea, but all those drunken tweets you send out on Saturdays won't look so hot on your professional profile.

DON'T display your Twitter account on LinkedIn. LinkedIn gives you the option of installing a Twitter widget on your LinkedIn profile that will show your most recent tweets. You don't want to do this for the reasons given above, not to mention the fact that you're already sending your tweets to your LinkedIn status. Why the double exposure? There is such a thing as Twitter overkill.

DON'T forget about LinkedIn. Chances are you'll be in front of your Twitter account more often than your LinkedIn page, so remember your colleagues. There are many tweets you'll want to share with them, but if you took my previous advice you'll need to type '#in' or '#li' every time you want to send a tweet to LinkedIn. Don't forget this.

Check out the LinkedIn Learning Center to learn more about Twitter and LinkedIn.

Original post at: 

http://www.pcworld.com/article/181814/LinkedIn_and_Twitter_Partnership_Dos_and_Donts_for_Users.html?tk=rss_news

via www.pcworld.com

Social Media Basics for Wildly Successful Women

I am honored that I was the speaker at last night's meeting for a smashing group Wildly Successful Women in Denver. Here’s a recap of what I spoke about and the resources to consider when thinking of creating your social media strategy. 

First understand that social media is now and the future. Social media is online content created by people that is inexpensive to free and makes us all publishers. We’ve gone from monologues to dialogues and to more of a democracy. Whereas before we relied on newspapers, movies, radio, also known as industrial media, we now can publish, participate and engage with others. We can vote on products, talk about them, etc.

Components of social media include social networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook,, video marketing, blogs, email marketing and others. The important thing is to

• find your community
• look and listen
• participate
• build relationships
• share content
• set your goals and analyze.

Advantages of social networking and social media marketing include building your brand, increasing your online footprint and being found the inbound marketing way - new marketing instead of being intrusive and pushy, you pull prospects and potential customers.

While newspaper circulation is 48.4 million daily, 285 million people watch television monthly, there are 14 billion core searches done online both in searching and in online media such as Twitter and YouTube – and these figures are constantly changing. What a great time to create your social media strategy.

Here’s a few tips for doing social media the right way. It’s never about you unless you want to turn others off. Social media is similar to a cocktail  party. If you walk into a party and just talk about how great you are, your company is, your services are and never ask questions or listen, you’ve just become the jerk at the party. Nobody cares about you or your product. Give people a reason to follow/friend/connect with you. Make them feel important. Share helpful, valuable information.

So how do you add value and make others feel important? Remember it’s a conversation, not a broadcast. To look like an expert and add value:

• share original, helpful content
• set up Google alerts at www.www.Google.com/alerts on your area of expertise to include articles, videos, blogs and share the links
• subscribe to newsletters or RSS feeds through Google or other reader
• show humor on Casual Friday by posting funny videos or quotes
• post inspirational and other quotes.

Engage others by be Retweeting (Twitter), sharing (Facebook) or commenting on their posts on LinkedIn groups. Share events you are holding or attending.

To share articles, blogs or videos, shorten the web address by using a URL shortener to a few characters. Two to consider are http://tinyurl.com/ or http://bit.ly.com. Or use a bookmarking/sharing tool such as www.addthis.com.

Optimize, optimize, optimize. Use keyword research tools to come up with good keywords related to your industry - ones with good traffic but low competition. Try  https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal or  http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/. Use the keywords in your blog, videos, website, etc.

Wondering how to start a blog? Here's some information that might help you whether to use Typepad, Blogger or WordPress. All three offer different features. I use Typepad because it has great SEO capabilities and you don’t have to be as technically savvy plus they provide tech support.

Into video marketing? Post your videos to video sharing platforms by signing up with http://www.tubemogul.com. The first time, you'll have to enter your information for all the different networks. Tubemogul will share your videos with all your video platforms.

When deciding on which social networks to join, remember, bigger and popular doesn't mean the best. Find your community by listening and observing. You can be a big fish in a smaller network that is more relevant to your industry. 

Decide what you like to do. Do you enjoy writing, being in front of a camera and creating videos or engaging with others online? How much time can you devote? Pick a few and work them steadily. Most of all, have fun. Make this process part of your creative outlet. Have any questions? Please post them here and I will answer them.