4 Ways Your Email Newsletter Can Drive Traffic to Your Blog, FaceBook and Twitter Pages
Donna Maria shares tips on integrating different media outlets for maximum engagement with your customers, clients and friends.
Indie Business Radio: An Interview With Shiv Singh
Recently, I interviewed Shiv Singh live on Indie Business Radio. Shiv is the author of Social Media Marketing For Dummies (affiliate link). He is also the Global Social Media lead at Razorfish, a brand engagement company. Shiv thinks that, in some ways, the term social media is a misnomer. In fact, in his social media…
6 Ways To Attract More People To Your FaceBook Fan Page
Last week, I shared some tips to spruce up your FaceBook Fan Page. Yesterday, I asked people at the Indie Business FaceBook Fan Page to share their Fan Page links, along with their tips and questions about attracting more people to a FaceBook Fan Page. My goal was to crowd source some new ideas so…
3 Really Simple Ways To Spruce Up Your FaceBook Fan Page
Today, I asked people at the Indie Business FaceBook Fan Page to share their Fan Page links, along with their questions and tips about how to use them. My goal was to share easy to implement tips everyone could use to enhance interaction and conversation at their Fan Pages. I got a chance to join…
6 Ways Small Business Owners Can Assess Return On Social Media Investment
One of the reasons using social media can be challenging for small business owners is because it is often difficult to quantify the return on social media investment. For example, if you invest a certain amount of time and/or money on social media outreach, how do you assess whether it was a good investment of…
Why Twitter Is Not A Waste Of Time For Small Business Owners, In 29 Words
Many small business owners conclude that Twitter is a waste of time without devoting a legitimate amount of time to learning how to use it to discover its potential value when applied to their unique situation. I recently read this post at ReadWriteWeb. It summarizes the results of a study (of sorts) on the value…
Reclaim Your Life! A Small Business Owner’s Guide To Using FaceBook Efficiently and Effectively
UPDATE: 1/29/10: While this is an informative post, I discovered that it is against FaceBook’s Terms Of Service to have more than one FaceBook account, so I deleted the personal account. Last September, I shared my new FaceBook social networking strategy, designed to help me stay connected to business colleagues and friends, as well as…
Blogging Brings Home The Business
This is the third in a series of posts featuring small business owners’ suggestions for things you can do to be successful in 2010. Last week, I told you about Joan Morais, an IBN member who increased her productivity and profitability this year by hiring a virtual assistant. I also told you about Marla Bosworth,…
Blog vs. FaceBook Page: Do You Need Both?
Donna Maria shares things to consider before ditching your blog in favor of a FaceBook Page.
How Blog Comment Policies Lend Credibility To Your Blog
The comments at my three blogs are always helpful, professional and polite, even when they disagree with my commentary. In fact, the only comments I reject are spam or comments that simply make no sense, usually because they are riddled with spelling and grammatical errors. I am also a frequent commenter at other people’s blogs.…
The Social Media Revolution
The brains behind this video is Erik Qualman of Socialnomics. Erik is a seasoned social media expert who was a guest on Indie Business Radio a few weeks ago. On the show (you can read a summary, watch a video and stream the audio of the whole show here), Erik shared lots of tips and…
Six Strategies For Being An Effective Media Outlet For Your Small Business
In order to be an effective media outlet for your business, you should abide by some basic journalistic principles. While the technologies that support journalistic endeavors are constantly changing, the basic tenets of good journalism have remained constant for hundreds of years. The challenge for you is to use those principles to establish the branded…
Twitter List Widgets Use RSS To Help Small Business Owners Expand Their Reach
If you enjoyed my article containing 10 ways small business owners can use Twitter Lists to expand their sphere of influence and build trust and credibility, then you’ll be happy to know about this new Twitter widget creator allowing you to quickly and easily aggregate specific List content into a widget that can be displayed…
Plummeting Newspaper Circulation Creates New Media Opportunities For Small Business Owners
This is a momentous time in American history for small and independent business owners. That may seem like an overstatement to some, but it’s not. We are in the midst of en economic transition that is creating new opportunities for tiny businesses nationwide. There are many reasons for this transition, and one of them is…
Proof That Social Media Is Killing Print Magazines
When I quit my corporate job to start my business, the first thing I did was call the vice president of public relations at the company I was leaving and ask her how to get good PR. She referred me to a veteran in the industry who broke the devastating news that my business was…
Can't Wait To See Kaila Westerman At The Media Is You – San Francisco!
I am delighted that longtime IBN member Kaila Westerman will join us at The Media Is You – San Francisco! Kaila is the owner of TKB Trading, LLC, a San Francisco-based supplier of cosmetics colorants for use in toiletries, soap and cosmetics. Kaila also sells waxes, lip product bases, containers, lipstick molds, and associated products.…
The Results Are In: Social Media Increases Sales
Earlier today, I suggested that social media is just media. Today, I want to share proof that, whatever you call it, it works! According to comScore, a digital marketing intelligence company, the graph below shows a marked increase in the number of discounts and special offers made by retailers on Black Friday (and ten days…
YouTube Direct Supports "Citizen Journalists"
If you don’t already think The Media Is You, this will change your mind. YouTube recently announced YouTube Direct, a service that allows news organizations to customize YouTube’s uploader to receive video from people who want to share items of interest with the news organization’s audience. The potential of this new format is massive, both…
Top 10 Ways For Small Business Owners To Use Twitter Lists
[This post was inadvertently published yesterday. I recalled it, but not before Feedburner picked it up. I apologize for the inconvenience.] A few days ago, Twitter announced Twitter Lists, a great new feature that allows users to create pubic and private lists of people on Twitter. If you read Item #9 on Top Ten Actions…
Don’t Just Own The Water. Own The Pipe.
In case you haven’t heard, Oprah Winfrey will host the final episode of the Oprah Winfrey Show sometime in 2011 when her contract with CBS Corp. (which syndicates her show) expires. At that time, she will turn her attention to a 50-50 joint venture, announced last year, with Discovery Communications called, “OWN: The Oprah Winfrey…
Why You Hate Social Media, And What To Do About It
I recently received an email from a small business owner who said, “I hate social media.” In the next paragraph, she asked me what she could to do grow her business, which relies on the Internet for the vast majority of its sales. While the short answer to that question is, “Use social media,” I…