Get Your Blog On Babe!

There is always that fine line when it comes to the topic of blogging. Should I? Or shouldn’t I?  You’d be surprise to know that many people are hesitant and a little nervous when it comes to blogging.  I was once if that boat, wondering if people would find my content interesting. Will it play a role in my career? And of course the mind blogging question of what will I write about? But I quickly realized that blogging is a very effective and efficient way to connect with your target audience and focus on your market.  

The first thing you need to decide is what do you want to accomplish with your blog? For example, if you’re a company or business your objective may be to build awareness of your company through your blog.  Or you may have a very strong passion or interest towards a certain topic and your objective may be to educate, advise or give feedback. For example, I created Socialmedcomm because I have a strong passion towards the marketing industry, especially PR and Social media. Because I am fortunate enough to have a lot of previous experience with both PR and Social Media at a young stage of my career, my initial goal was to reach out to “social media rookies” and share my knowledge and advice with them based on my prior occurrences. 

The second thing you need to do is the easiest step of all: BE YOURSELF! Blogging is about being and posting the unedited version of you. Unless your brand or company is trying to create a certain persona, then by all means post accordingly. But for the rest of you future bloggers, try to be as natural as possible the key is to create a connection where your readers feel comfortable with you, and can see relate to you through your blog, by simply being yourself will allow being with similar interest as well as your target base gravitate towards you as they are able to relate and comprehend your blog posts. So forget pretending you are some stuck up, and boring individual in order to get attention to your blog and just be wonderful and unique YOU!

Lastly, in order to have a brilliant blog that will keep your audience coming for more, you must market your blog! It is important in order to gain reader and subscribers to your blog that you market your blog on a consistent basis. Whether it is monthly, daily or weekly is completely up to you! But in order to gain popularity and gain more readers marketing your blog is essential.  For example, I personally post my blogs on a monthly basis and tend to captivate my audience through sites such as: twitter, Facebook, inserting my blog link on to other forums etc.  Typically, I start a buzz about my blog close to when I am about to create a new blog post. Then once again, when my new blog post is released.  I also market my blog when I see related links. For example, if I see somebody is tweeting about “blogging tips” I may join the conversation by saying something such as:

“Great tips @ABC123 I would like to invite you to check (insert your blog link) this is my latest #blog on starting up a blog!”

Don’t get frustrated, be patient, stay focused and most importantly HAVE FUN! Build the voice and persona you want for your blog. And for those of you who are blogging about your company or product, remember  honesty is can be easily felt and viewed online, so don’t try to hide a bad product or over exaggerate it with a spectacular review, let your audience know how you really feel and I assure they will let you know how they feel that their feedback as well. 

                                    The Sweet Satisfaction Of Social Media 

The most succulent dessert  in the World Wide Web pastry shop is most definitely social media. Everyone is looking for a way to get a piece of this delight.  Almost every day new features,techniques and sites are offered and displayed on world wide web, some focusing on  specified essentials while others are a recreational area featuring multiple focuses.  However, at the end of the day each social site work day in and day out to give that sweet satisfactory you’ve beenlooking for, by helping you engage within your social community, leverage your business or product and create an overall social hangout!  

Surpringlsy, as sweet and satisfying this social delight is, there are still a number of individuals and businesses who are reluctant about using social media, as they find it a little overwhelming and ever frustrating. So I dedicate this blog, to my social media rookies who are looking to dip their fingers in the succulent world of social media.

It’s time you get to know these “sweet spots” and what they have to offer. You never know, once start getting a taste of social media, your sweet tooth will be craving more!  So let’s start by giving you the general rundown of some of these sweet contenders and allow you to understand how they fulfill your satisfaction!

1.Linkedin

Are you the career minded workaholic type who yearns for a constant source ofnetworking with your industry community? If this sounds like you, Linkedin isdefinitely the right choice for you! LinkedIn is the social “sweet spot” ofprofessionals.  Upon becoming a member invites are sent to both connections you have, such as: colleagues, peers, friends etc. Over time the circle of connections becomes bigger. Giving you the leverage to have better opportunities of members finding jobs or being spotted by potential employers through primary or sub connections. You also have the opportunity to be recommended by others for the skills you attain. LinkedIn profiles generally focus on an individuals professional experience and skills. That being said, LinkedIn is favored by many recruiters and hiring managers.

2. Pinterest

Are you more of the visual kind? Never fear, Pinterest is here! This virtual bulletin board allows people “pin” photos of what they like, want, desire, know about and what not, with external links. This is especially great for those of you in the creative industry as is a great way to display your products and visual works. Pinterest can also benefit you in terms of its effective SEO and marketing opportunities it provides.

Upon signing up for Pinterest, you will be provided with a virtual bulletin board! Your Pinterest experience starts with a “pin” (an image or a video) of something you like or have a great deal of knowledge about. These pins can be repined and consist of backlinks to othersources. Pins are put up on “boards” which you have the option to make private or public. 

Following someone or their pins, means their pins show up in your Pinterest home feed. You have the option to either follow all of someone’s boards or just the ones you find to your interest!

3.  Google+

Love conversation and discussion? Surely becoming a popular “sweet satisfaction” for many individuals and companies. Google+ is another great business tool within the social media scene! Once you sign up for Google+, you will be given access to write on the wall, which becomes a part of a the stream. The stream is where people see each status updates and postings. You also have the opportunity to share status updates in a circle or with individual users. Once you make your status update public, anyone within your circle or in your “friends” circle they are can view it. You can also tag  individuals of your choice by either typing “@ or +” at the beginning of the individual's name. 

Google+ is a great way tool for businesses and entrepreneurs to dip their fingers into, giving you the allowance to discuss, promote and advertise your service or product! You also have a great opportunity to join circles within your sector, allowing you to grow your professional community and giving you amazing networking chances for  potential growth! 

After reading all this succulent and tasty information, I am sure you are craving more information about these social delights ! As I mentioned previously, these are only a few of the sweet contenders out there, but I hope I have treated you with enough insight to give you that “push” you need to dip your fingers in the world of social media! I promise once you do your social cravings will most definitely be fulfilled! 

My Virgin Ears

My Virgin Ears!

After months of not seeing a close colleague of mine I finally ran into her last week at the local coffee shop.  We started chit chatting as girls are known to do, she mentioned to me that she has been completing an unpaid internship for a PR firm in the city, and her employer told her this was a good way to get her “foot in the door”  UNPAID INTERNSHIP!!! REALLY!! MY VIRGIN EARS! The words kept swirling around in my head, as this is something I have never heard or done before.  I was beyond shocked to know a smart girl who obtained stellar grades throughout her post-secondary career was working for the price of nothing. Furthermore, I was baffled by the fact that her employer told her such rubbish! So to my fellow graduates who feel that an internship (especially unpaid) is the best way to get your “foot in the door”, please erase that thought in your head and take a big spoonful of reality!

If this is the route your are currently in or you are considering in note that it is far much better to accept no internship at all. As one of my mentors once told me: “money is a sign of respect” and you being someone who just graduated definitely deserves respect! DO NOT let your hard work, endless hours of studying and mostly your pride go out the door! You are worth something; you did not spend four years of your life to be a volunteer. You have talents and skills that can easily surpass others. Personally, I think any job (intern or not) where you are working in over 20 hours a week should be paid. My Virgin ears ring of outrage to this naive and degrading concept. Almost as if someone was ran over by a train!  I mean how convenient for organizations to hire "interns" under the guise of learning and hopefully establishing themselves within a company as a future employee, then pulling the rug out by not offering them a job and not paying them for hours of labor.

Why do employers feel hiring young adults and graduates to participate in free labor have right to bash them by treating them with such little to no disrespect? Do employers today feel that today’s graduates have nothing to bring to the table that has no value? If this is how they truly feel the last laugh is on them, little do these business executives and veterans realize that it’s young people and graduates who have been contributing towards society for the past few years, such as : Mark Zuckerberg who developed one today’s leading social network sites Facebook at the tender age of 23.  Matthew Mullenweg who developed the well known blog site Wordpress at the age of 25. Need I go on? There are so many young people under the age of 30 who have made a great impact towards the world, yet employers still feel that the forbidden idea of an “unpaid internship” should be something young adults should embrace.

The thing these “Savvy executives” are oblivious to notice is graduates today not only are educated with the latest education, trends and facts. They are also part of Gen Y, which means they are the generation of social network and technology. This stuff comes natural to them, so without any schooling at all they already have an advantage over some of the biggest CEO’s and business Savvy’s throughout the globe who had to go through the “adapting” stage and learn how to use a smart phone, tablet or the various social network sites that are now available. Yet with all the skills, education and natural smarts that graduates of today can provide, employers view them in a lower grade and in result pay them no fraction of what they are worth! 

Too many employers are cutting corners and creating 'internship' positions.  More needs to be done to protect these graduates. They have no one to go too when they are being treated unfairly, employees think they are too superior when they were once in the exact position once upon a time.  Little do they realize that a little respect can go a far way and produce abundances of opportunities towards the companies favor.

The impact social media has on the marketing industry

  The impact social media has on the marketing industry

The overall Marketing Industry is beginning to go through some striking and remarkable transitions, although some may consider social media an unorthodox approach to customer communication, while others feel that social media is nothing more than a passing fad. Some would argue that this is leading to a “down slope” for the overall industry. Although, business executives are finding quite the opposite result. The web is actually helping to enhance the efficiency of the how the industry communicates and puts forth tactics, strategies as well relating information to their customers and clients. The web and social media are making it easier for businesses to communicate to their target audience. Concurrently, where there was once a separation between marketing and public relations, the impact of the web has resulted in a merger between the two industries in result creating an overall greater impact.

Social media is the combination of advertising, public relations, marketing and sales. For example, if an international band comes to perform in town and you place ads throughout the subway and bus stops this is an example of advertising. If you hold a press release alerting the public and local media about the band’s performance, this would be an example of public relations. If you are able to create good rapport for the band this is a form of marketing. If you persuade your target audience on the great value they receiving from attending the concert this would be a form of sales. Social media is a combination of all of these methods, as it is the ultimate tool used to convey your content out there.  Placing an advertisement on Facebook or Pinterest is just or even more effective then placing your ads within subways and bus stops. We can alert target audience through twitter and even create a release through blogging. Social media has made creating a good rapport easy as you are able to allow your audience interact through social media contests, photos and comments making them feel a part of the marketing strategy.

Social Media is giving people the authorization to appoint and influence others. This impact of social media is forcing the overall public relations and marketing industry to be aware and include these tools empowering in their strategies when marketing or advertising. Social Media is becoming more and more influential, not only is it “switching the gear” for the way we communicate but it is becoming arousing for marketers globally. This switched has allowed the marketing industry to connect with their clients

With the powerful tool of social media, marketers are able to advertise and target the intended geographic or demographic, habits and psychographics. Through a simple tools we can advertise, We are able to add keywords and create blogs into a search engine that optimizes results. Social media sites are creating an upside for marketers as we are now able to connect and reach out to both existing and prospective clients, making it easy for us to target specified niches.  

Meet The Crew

                                                     Meet The Crew

Depending on your company’s goal and what you want to achieve will determine which social networking site suits your company.  Learning briefly about each network will allow you to determine which niche you would like to fit in to and how you would like to execute your social media campaign in order to reach your target audience at the maximum potential.

Twitter: The network is active and a buzz with links, conversation, self reflections, and just plain content. To inbound marketers, all of this content probably seems great -- but it also means it takes a lot of work to get your content to stand out in the crowd.

Facebook: how do companies fit into this social network that focuses so heavily on the human connection? Companies are  acting more like friends, and less like, well, companies. This means your updates should be friendlier, and show personality through photos and videos that make your brand seem more relatable. That's why we use Facebook to share things like important milestones in our company's life, just like you would with your friends and family!

Google +: When you post your content to Google+ you're making it more likely your company's content will rank well in Google's SERPs. That's because, much to the dismay of many other social networks, Google is considering factors such as +1's of content when deciding how high to rank a piece of content. Google also started to index and feature Google+ status updates, author names, and 'Add to Circles' buttons in search results, making your activity on Google+ even more important for a strong organic search presence.

Pinterest: Pinterest is easy to maintain and grow if you're more reliant on visuals than text in your industry. We do, however, recommend writing descriptions for every image you pin to provide further explanation for those looking to learn more about your pin. And before you go saying Pinterest is just for wedding planners  and artist’s remember that your visuals could include anything from photos, to graphs, to infographs! They key with Pinterest is, when someone clicks your image to see the source, you're directing them to your website so you can convert all that Pinterest traffic.

Linked-in: to target other businesses -- if that's your goal, of course. Use your content to provide solutions to business-related problems, and people will naturally share your content in an attempt to boost their own clout, not to mention click your content so you can generate more leads. Don't be afraid of posting white papers and reports here, either -- this is the type of content that typically performs quite well on LinkedIn.

YouTube: Use YouTube to tell important stories about your company, to entertain your audience, and even to educate them (maybe create your first webinar!) As with most visual content, sometimes it's easier to get your message across with something a bit more interactive.

Join Team Social Media

                                                               Join Team Social Media 

As powerful as this social media tool is, some are still not convinced of the great heights it is able to provide your overall business, and feel that it is nothing more than a passing fad. Many companies give social media a “trail run” and only use it on an occasional basis, not realising the importance and value it has towards the implementation of their organization.  Not engaging in Social media results not being able to interact or communicate, share and provide content. On a lower note, you are allowing to your competition to indulge and become the source of information for your audience. Using social media tools will able to you to enhance and build your brand and company image, as you will be able to connect with all sort of individuals virally.

Social media holds four primary functions: to monitor, respond, amplify, and lead consumer behavior in terms leading them towards making purchasing decisions towards your product, service or company. Being able to identify exactly how, when, and where social media influences consumers helps companies create marketing strategies and tactics that take advantage of social media’s unique ability to engage with customers. It also helps develop, launch, and demonstrate the financial impact of your company.

In short, today’s businesses can no longer treat social media as a side it’s much more than simply another form of paid marketing, and it demands more too: a clear framework to help  your business evaluate investments in it, a plan for building support infrastructure, and performance-management systems to help leaders smartly scale their social presence. Companies that have these three elements in place can create critical new brand assets (such as content from customers or insights from their feedback), open up new channels for interactions (Twitter-based customer service, Facebook news feeds), and completely reposition a brand through the way its employees interact with customers or other parties. By asking yourself these crucial questions will not only help vision where  your campaign stands on the social media spectrum, but also what your social aim is and how your company will gain the most out of using social media.

-          What Do I want for my company ?(Determine your goal  or objective for your social media campaign)

-          How will I gain customers and attention? (Using strategies and tactics generate what method you will use  to build your company’s social awareness, it could be simple as holding a “pin it to win it” contest on pinterest or perhaps just using keywords in your blog to generate traffic towards your site.)

-          -How can I gain from this campaign? (implement you may be able to use the contacts you have gained through social media to build your company’s success?)

-         - How can I Engage, participate and get on my customers “level” (Will you conduct a webinar?, figure out how exactly you can let your customers feel they are on your “level” by reaching your hand out to them.

-       -   How Can I Beat my Competition (Research and establish what makes your competition social media presence more outstanding then yours? What  differences and similarities do you and your company share? What makes you more unique and different from the competition? How will you make it known to your target audience?)

Answering these questions will help you understand your company on a social media aspect. You will now be able to execute your company’s message on a whole new level that will 

not only  help develop your over all company’s exposure, but will also allow you to interact with various people allowing them to share, post and covey your message. In result this will give you a wider exposure and build your company’s reputation to a higher horizon of success. 

Participate, Engage and Listen!

How customers react towards your campaign as well as receive feedback instantaneously. For example, if you’ve been a publicist for many years and you finally decide to write a book about public relations. Holding a webinar in which you discuss various PR topics will not only help promote your book, but will allow your audience to relate to you. Engaging in a webinar would also make your book an easier sell, as your audience has now witness your knowledge towards the Public Relations industry before purchasing the book.Another way we can look at this is through  Envisioning the web as a busy town where social media spots are used for individuals who join together to socialize, allows us to make sense of how marketers can utilize social media tools to its maximum potential, in order to gain success for their company or product.

Of course you can attend social gatherings and blab about how brilliant your company or product is, but will this make you popular? Probably not. It would be wiser to make friends and acquaintances that like conducting business with people they like.The same concept is applied in the world of social media.It is good to join and participate in advancing networking sites such as forums and blogs and social network sites i.e. (Twitter, Facebook) etc. but be aware to give more than you get. Do not overwhelm people with your product or company, be able to part take in other things that are going on in the sites that you are taking part in, such as: discussions, commenting on other material, participating in survey’s etc. this will allow other members to view you as a more approachable individual as you are not overwhelming or making them feel obligated to your business or product. As an entrepreneur you want to “reel in the bass and fish out the tuna.”

 This means start small simple conversation and take part in social activities in the sites you are involved in as I mentioned earlier, you can help build your personal reputation making yourself feel more approachable to people. Try to create a sense of comfort between you and, your audience this will allow an opening to be formed for you to “reel in the tuna” or in other words, discuss your business or product.  Conduct business as you would in a social setting, not as you would in a bank. Meaning, do not approach people by discussing purely your company or product, make sure you are embracing “small talk” as well.  People do not like to feel as if they are being corner attacked or overwhelmed by something. A little conversation will go a far way.

You will be able to create an opening for you to discuss your business product or company. I can guarantee you will slowly start to notice your valuable interactions will lead to more promising business opportunities.The opportunities that you come across to engage, participate and listen to others will not only allow you to exposure for your company, but will place your company on a high end of the social media spectrum. 

With technology and internet moving at such a vast pace, the concept of browsing the internet is slowly becoming no longer. Now companies are looking for the best way to stand out among their competitors by engaging with others and providing worth content. 

Ode To Social Media

  Ode to Social Media   

Social media is the alteration of content. It has the impact to allow individuals to alter from reading information to circulating information through sharing and creating content. In short, social media is simply anything that uses the internet to assist conversations and media. Individuals now are able to broadcast their ideas, opinions and expertise on a global spectrum. A person’s tone of voice can be as influential as iconic figures using the tool of social media. It all depends on how impactful your campaign is and what strategies and tactics you use to reach that point of definition.

With the growth and development of the Internet and the changes in the Internet Technology, particularly in the rise of the Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and LinkedIn and many other sites, it has become crucial for companies to participate in social media.Companies today use social media sites such as: Facebook Fan Page accounts, Twitter accounts, LinkedIn accounts. These companies, big and small, use the social media as a tool to build awareness of their brand, consumer recognition, simply as a tool to market their products and services.

The use of the social media is considered as a deviation from the traditional forms of marketing.
  
In the past, marketing is done in terms of directly selling to the target audience particular products and services.  Business organizations spend handsome amount of money via television or print advertising just to attract the attention of their target consumers and convince them that their products and services are superior to their competitors
.

With the rise of the Internet Technology, the Internet has not only become a tool for searching information.  Rather, it has become a tool for sharing information and knowledge. Companies and consumers are now directly engaged in spreading information to like-minded individuals about products and services.  For example, consumers who have twitter can easily tweet about a particular product which is out on the market and discuss about its features.  Other consumers who share similar interest can comment, retweet and discuss their own experience with the particular brand.  Some consumers discuss these product features in blogs where they are able to discuss the product and use keywords  within their blog to optimize search results back to the company.

Companies utilize the power of the social media to market their products and services.  For example, a company is engaged in selling a particular type of shoes.These companies can share information about shoes on their blog and let consumers comment on these blog posts. They can visit blogs of other consumers which discuss about their favourite type of shoes, shoes in trend etc. and comment on these blog posts by sharing information.

The important word about social media marketing is that it is social. Companies now participate in the communication that is going on in the world wide web.  When used properly and diligently, small businesses can easily compete with bigger businesses.