Category: Blog

A few weeks ago, I asked the following question on my Facebook Page:

“How often do you update your social media bio’s?”

Responses to the question ranged from, “not often enough” to “not lately” to “just last week.” But the response that made an impact to me was from Amanda Wright, CEO of Learning Connections. Amanda stated that she updated her bio’s the first of every month. I thought, what a great idea! Now normally I update my bio’s every month or two , but thanks to Amanda, I have actually scheduled it as a task on my calendar month.

Used under Creative Common License via Flickr

So, how often do you update your bio’s? I suggest you follow Amanda’s suggestion as I have, schedule the update on your calendar!

Why would you want to update them monthly? Here are three quick reasons as to why:

1. You gain new followers and friends on a monthly basis, so make sure they have the updated information about what is important about you.

2. You may want to attract a different group of followers. As an example, if you work in education, you may want to focus your bio on your field of study to gain followers or connections in education.

3. Hobbies and interests change. If your new hobby is sailing, then use some keywords that related to sailing in your bio.

Social media, just like business, changes on a daily basis. You gain new followers, you lose followers, interests change, or your market can change. Change with your market and your interest; update your bio’s monthly.

Let me know in the comments below when you last updated your bio’s! In the meantime, please excuse me; I need to update my own bio’s!…

Thanks to my friend Misty McPadden, (@mistygirlph) I was recently included in a terrific resource post: 25 Blogging Tips You Need to Learn Today. List25 was started by David Pegg (@iamdpegg) and Syed Balkhi (@syedbalkhi). The site compiles lesser-known intriguing information on a variety of subjects.

My tips for this post encourages bloggers to “Use Your Voice” when writing. Allow me to expand on what I submitted for the article.

• Write as you speak. When you write, make sure you are writing the same way you speak, using your words and your manner of speaking. For some reason when most of us sit in front of a screen to prepare an article or blog post, we try to write as someone else, not as ourselves. Think about how you speak; how you carry on conversations with your friends or colleagues. Write in the same manner and vocabulary that you use daily.
• Write for one person. As my manager told me when I was a new DJ at a radio station; picture yourself talking to one person, or having a conversation with one person. Obviously you want a lot of people to read your blog, but write it as if you were writing for just one person. This goes along with writing as you speak; if you write your posts in the same manner that you would speak in, the readers will get to know you.
• Record yourself. Yes, we all hate to listen to ourselves, but this can be a very valuable process. Recording yourself talking about the blog topic will help you to write as you speak and can help you avoid writers block. Relax and talk about the topic, then listen back to the recording and write your post! This can also help you to make sure you are not forgetting an important point in your post.
• Don’t Post Just to Post. Regular blog posts are essential for your business and can greatly improve your search engine rankings; however, posting just to post is wasted time and space. It can also potentially alienate your readers.

Those are some of my tips; what are your favorites? Thank you again to Misty for asking me to be part of List25!…

YouTube is the second largest search engine used daily throughout the world. If you’re making an effort with your marketing to reach audiences on Google, why not reach them on YouTube too? Utilizing videos in your marketing plan can get your brand in front of a larger, more engaged audience. You might be asking yourself why video and why now? Here’s the reasoning behind this switch:

First of all, videos are fun – much more fun than reading a white paper. Reading requires an extended amount of time and much more brain-work than sitting and watching a video for a few minutes. And that’s why customers love videos. They are easy to comprehend and are often much more interesting than written content.

It’s also easier to spread a message through video than text. A good, short video can obtain thousands of views on YouTube or Facebook whereas the same content, just written out will receive only a fraction of that audience. Seeing a person on screen captures attention. Having an employee using a product or telling a story isn’t just shareable but also persuasive. Utilizing video as a method of training, such as a “how to” video can easily capture and hold the viewers attention.

Thanks to YouTube’s huge network of viewers, creating and publishing videos gives you and your company a chance to reach a way larger audience than ever before. You aren’t limited to your Twitter followers or database of emails; you can reach thousands and millions of potential customers that you never had the opportunity to interact with before. Combining YouTube with the fact that more users are now watching videos on Facebook makes this a sound marketing decision.

Videos that you create don’t have to just stay on YouTube either. They can be repurposed and put into emails, embedded on your website and even using for video advertising on Google, YouTube or all of your social channels. One video goes a long way and can help reach your target audience whether they are browsing the Internet or are searching directly on your website for a product or service.

Short, interesting videos are also the perfect content for reaching decision makers that delete emails and click through 30+ page white papers. Presidents, owners and CEO’s don’t have an extra hour to read a white paper or articles let alone 3 or 4 to think about it, analyze it and discuss it with the team. Luckily, all of this information can be served to them in a short, quick and easy-to-digest video that they just sit back and watch (very little thinking involved!).

Take some time to explore this marketing tactic and see how your company can take …