Follow Friday Challenge: The I’ve Been Stingy Edition
I haven’t done one of these in a while, forgive my stinginess. Ahem.
I like to challenge myself to find and follow folks on Twitter who are outside my comfort zone of marketing, social media, PR and small business. Then I run into the oxymoron of “if they’re on Twitter, they are using SM.” Probably just me.
My five to follow this week:
- Adam Vincenzini tweeted a question the other day, asking for a non-social media or PR blogger to follow. While anyone who blogs might be considered social media, I totally appreciated his oxymoronic point. I loved his question, so Adam is first on my list.
- Follow @Redheadwriting was my suggestion to Adam, as Erika Napoletano brings humor and snark to her posts about whatever is on her mind. I need to find more not really social media types to follow on blogs and Twitter and she’s a perfect example. We could all use a good Bitch Slap every once in a while.
- Kate Spiers tweeting as @WisdomLondon asked a simple question about Twitter rules of engagement. A nice little chat ensued, showing the benefits of the real-time application. Plus she lives in London, is sure to have a fab accent.
- Rose DesRochers I met via @DannyBrown’s #sbt10 chat. She blogs a little of everything including teen fashion, blogging basics to novelty sleep masks. Love eclectic, she tweets as @BloggerTalk.
- Always gotta include a funny one and don’t think I’ve given them a shout out before so here’s some love for @OHnewsroom and the frackin’ hilarious media and journalism tweets. I’d love to know which paper or media establishment produces these.
If you have any suggestions, please share.
Photo Credit: Twitter Nonsense by Pink Sheep
Atlanta Public Relations, Marketing and Social Media
It’s not rocket surgery, it’s marketing. Simple.
I tweeted that Douglas Adams quote again today, always one of my favorites. Simplicity is anything but simple. It’s hard to get it right, to really nail “simple” without outthinking your audience.
Writing.
Tweet today from HBO’s True Blood “Blah blah watch this preview blah.”
How many ads or sales pitches have you see that read “blah blah buy our crap, you’ll like it blah?” Not many and that’s a shame. Forget the hard sell, go for the authentic simple pitch.
Design.
I love this minimalist design for a business card. Even without knowing much about this person, I can tell he’s a designer of some sort, a creator. Plus the card does its job: lets me know how to contact this person, even if not by phone.
Marketing.
The @OldSpice ads were nothing more than a hot guy in a towel, reading clever copy. Brilliance that combined with a smart social media strategy, catapulted the brand into the stratosphere and for a day, shut down YouTube. Tons of blog posts on this, including mine.
Social Media.
You go online, you set up your LinkedIn, Twitter profiles, a Facebook page. You share, you connect, you engage. You’re authentic and suck less. Here are 9 tips to help you get started.
Social Media Marketing.
There’s a difference. You build relationships, you help others help themselves, expand your brand and your business. Kodak and their social media marketing doesn’t just try to sell you cameras and film, they try to help you take better pictures. They focus on the consumer as well as businesses via three different blogs, podcasts and more.
If you have a small business, don’t make your marketing, public relations, or social media be harder than it has to be. Keep it simple, stupid.
- Need business cards: find a designer, an affordable printer and just get it done.
- Want a website: buy a domain, install WordPress and make it happen.
- Have a story to share: no one knows it better than you, so Tweet it, tape it (YouTube), write it (blog). Start with the basics.
- Have customers who love you: get their testimonials, and SHARE!
Or just hire me. I can simplify it for you. 
Atlanta Public Relations, Marketing and Social Media
Got Plan? 10 posts on Social Media Strategy, Tools and Tactics
“Do you suppose they have an app for strategy?” Terrific and funny question, posed by Valeria Maltoni on her blog last week.
Many small businesses struggle with ideas for social media strategy, knowing the tools–Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs–but not how to use them, measure success or where to start.
The Pros Know
As a PR pro, I can tell you that social media can make your professional life better.
Social media experts have learned to share. Tips on social media, how to advice on setting up Facebook pages or Twitter accounts, the Ins and Outs of blogging for inbound marketing. You name it, it’s out here.
From the blogroll and beyond: I’ve got 10 posts (counting Valeria’s) this week on social media marketing strategy.
Got Game Plan?
- Beth Harte has a great outline for planning, to develop social media strategy that goes past falling in love with the latest shiny object like YouTube or Facebook.
- Here’s a blueprint of what a social media plan may look like, courtesy of Neicole Crepeau.
- Are you pro-active or reactive with your social media strategy? asks Jay Baer.
- Carol Philllips with five questions to test your social media brand strategy.
- Marc Hausman with three things he thinks are critical to social media success. Strategy is priority #1.
Think Global, Shop Local
If your social media reach doesn’t need to go viral–just around the corner–to get you ahead, there are plenty of strategies for using social media for local businesses. Four posts for marketing local, retail business:
- Gini Dietrich makes the case for using location based marketing… right now.
- Adam Vincenzini has five ways to step up to Foursquare.
- I loved this post on using social and being helpful for marketing greatness. Another gem from Jay Baer.
- Brand new and shiny is Shopkick, another location based “check in” smartphone app for retailers.
BTW: Shout out to PRWeb inspiring this post with this article on blogger relations strategy. Thanks!
Have a favorite blog post on social media marketing strategy? Please share it here.
Atlanta Public Relations, Marketing and Social Media
My Evil Blogging Plan: Keep it Short and Sweet
Inspired … okay, guilt tripped by last week’s #SoloPR twitter chat, I am writing a short, sweet blog post.
Seth Godin has tons of readers and followers because he writes well, intelligently, and more often than not, concisely. But I am no Seth Godin and that’s fine.
Brevity is the soul of wit, right? It’s okay to have something quick to say, and I will add that to my small business marketing plan: shorter blog posts.
My evil plan is working!
I’ve been actively networking via social media for more than a year now. The key word in that sentence: Actively, an adverb describing the action word, networking.
I have connected with so many smart people in the social media, public relations, marketing game via Twitter, LinkedIn and my blog. Shameless self-promotion alert: I had one post make the front page of Social Media Today. For a week! And will be speaking at the 2010 Southern Public Relations Federation Conference this fall, based on this post.
My evil plan is failing!
I write what I know, what will give my audience something they can use, so my posts tend to be about PR, marketing and social media, geared for small business.
Yes I’ve brought value to this space, my readers.. but I haven’t signed new clients as a result of my plan. Yet! That’s a problem, that pesky ROI, one I plan to correct by stepping up my networking and blogging game.
Making the time
My new goal is make my blog a marketing and PR resource for Atlanta small business. I’ll do so by blogging more often, mixing it up and writing shorter, “easier” posts that speak to my target audience of potential clients.
Stay tuned to see if my plan is good, evil, or just dumb. 
You’re Just a Tool, Social Media
Twitter may be Gini Dietrich’s favorite social media tool, but she’s also seeing the power of video and YouTube. Unless you’ve been in hiding, chances are familiar with these Big Dogs including Facebook and LinkedIn.
What else is out there? A lot.
Tweet Better. Show someone the standard web interface, they don’t get Twitter. That’s why you need a client.
If you manage multiple Twitter accounts, and want to make sure to not accidentally tweet from the wrong account, use different Twitter clients. I use Seesmic and Twhirl for other accounts, makes it much easier.
After trying Twhirl, Seesmic and Echofon for Firefox, TweetDeck is probably still my favorite Twitter client. All of them work okay; I just like the organization and integration of TweetDeck.
Other Twitter gems:
- Twitter Grader: are you engaging enough or just bragging about yourself? Check your score here.
- Twitter Background Checker: Test how your personalized background looks at different resolutions.
- Need help creating a background? Here are 3 sources.
- For multiple Twitter searches, check out TweetGrid.
- Directories: WeFollow and Twellow and Listorious.
- Mr. Tweet: Updating as of this post, good tool to find new people.
- Want more? Augie Ray has 19 other Twitter tools and Mashable, these 10.
Google Knows. Sure Google is set to go self-aware, annihilate us all in a few years, but until then it offers great tools. Did I mention they were FREE?
- Google Profile. Vanity searching aside, the minute you set it up your profile is out there. Plus you can add links to your blog, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. Nice SEO.
- Google Alerts. Smart people like Gini and Sarah Evans have blogged about using alerts for monitoring, with good reason: quick, easy and free way to monitor the web.
- Google Docs. In case you hadn’t heard, there’s this Cloud thingy and you don’t even have to email files back and forth. Genius.
- Google Translate. Get a comment on a YouTube video in a different language, need a quick translation will traveling, this works. There’s also a website tool.
Blog Posting Power Ups: It’s Good to Share.
- Add to Any, Share This, TweetMeme are great services to let people forward your wonderful musings to their networks.
- Issuu. Time picked it as one of the best websites last year. It’s an easy way of sharing and publishing graphic, stylized documents like newsletters. Lots of potential a la SlideShare.
- Disqus. Even if you don’t use it to manage comments on your own blog, it’s worth registering and creating a Disqus profile since it will make it easier to share your two pennies.
- LinkedIn Applications. You take the time to blog or develop presentations; these apps can add your WordPress or Typepad blog automatically, make it easier to enhance your profile.
Former favorite. Somebody please save this!
BackType is a social media analytics firm, that helps track the conversation in real time and they used to offer one of my favorite social media tools, a blog commenter profile.
- It collected almost all of my comments on other blogs. Fab. Now my Disqus profile has saved those, but I don’t always use that tool to comment.
- Via WordPress plugins BackType Connect and My Comments Elsewhere, I could show my blog comments in a great sidebar widget. Better than a blogroll.
In April they retired collecting user comments on other blogs, which I really miss.
Overload Much. Too much of a good thing.
- FriendFeed. It’s linked to most folks Twitter feeds, so it’s redundant. Unless Twitter is down, of course.
- Plaxo. An electronic address book. I use LinkedIn more.
- Technorati. Could never join, technical issues. Fail.
- Yet to try: HootSuite, Digg, Delicious or StumbleUpon though I see them used quite a bit.
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There are plenty of lists like this one from Jay Baer. Anything great I must to check out, if I had to add just one to the arsenal, what would you pick? Share your tips here.
Atlanta Public Relations, Marketing and Social Media