What is Social Media? Why Should I Care?

Facebook Tips: How to Put Your Friends into Lists


Video is best viewed full screen. So hit play on the video and then click the button in the bottom right hand corner of the video that has all the arrows going all different ways. That’ll show the video the size of your entire screen.

Facebook Tips: How to Filter Your NewsFeeds Via Your Friends List

How to Make Posting Status Updates A Cinch!

When I start working with clients who want help with their social media management I usually ask them if they are writers or talkers and it never fails that people are either one or the other.  Personally, I’m a talker and writing feels very painful for me so I often don’t write up these blogs as often as I would like but with this new tool-all that is going to change!

I’d like you to meet my new best friend…CINCH!

Cinch allows you to record an audio from your phone or computer.  If you’ve got an iPhone they have an awesome app you can use to record your message and automatically send it out via Facebook and Twitter. If you don’t have an iPhone then you just call into a special phone number and hola! the magic happens.

There is no excuse now for those that aren’t writers to not connect with their followers everyday! Especially when its as easy as picking up the phone, jabbering away and hanging up!

What do you think? Ready to give it a try? Please leave your comments below with links to your Cinch profile so we can be friends there too!

BTW-if you use the heart social media icons…feel free to start using the Cinch Heart icon I had my wonderful graphic designer Morgan make!


Facebook Overtakes Google

With Facebook overtaking Google as most visited website it stands to reason that we should all be paying a bit more attention to optimizing our presence on Facebook.  With that comes updating our Fan pages to stay current with the recent elimination of FBML and the adoption of iFrames for page customization.

3 quick short cuts to get you up to speed:

  1. To get oriented on what’s new regarding the layout of your Fan Page read Mari Smith’s post
  2. To understand iFrames read HyperArts’ post
  3. If you’d just like to purchase a Do-It-Yourself program including videos, webinars and plug-n-play templates for updating your page with iFrames check out FBMaxed

It’s off to work for me getting FreeSocialMediaHelp updated. Are you a fan yet?

To Your Profitable Success,

Mande White, MBA

P.S. Feel free to leave a comment below with a link to your updated Fan Page.

Could One Night Turn It All Around For You?

It was so beautiful ... wasn't it?

The moment you knew that you wanted ... no, had to start your own business. 

That the amazing lives you so admired others leading, could now be your dream. 

Your story.

Your reality.

"Do what you love ... and the money will follow."

(And so, we all set out to conquer the world.)

Unfortunately, there were a few things they didn't tell you:

-->  Sometimes the "money will follow" part takes forever.

-->  When it finally does show up, there's a good chance it won't pay your
bills.

-->  You can waste a lifetime waiting, hoping and wishing for success. Time
you can NEVER get back.

Its enough to leave you feeling your dream is impossible. Some of you may
be wandering in the darkness, yearning for someone to show you the way.

With more than "hope", "intention" or "attraction".

But with real live business secrets and principles that work. Time after time. No
matter what you do.

Well I am thrilled to let you know, there is such a person. And for one night
only, she will be offering a live world premiere event, that can transform
your unhappy business story, to the stuff dreams are made of.

Its as close as your computer. And it won't cost you a dime.

www.ILoveSuzanneEvans.com

The woman is Suzanne Evans. Starting from nothing, she built a 7-figure
business in just a little over 3 years.  But much more than that, she has
revived and resurrected more business dreams than I can count.

Time after time, Suzanne takes entrepreneurs in desperate straits. And
transforms their businesses into thriving enterprises.  Turning  "down to
my last dime" situations into six-figure success.  Transforming "I don't know
where to turn" urgency into "the sky's the limit!" Taking dying dreams, and
revitalizing them.

And I am excited to tell you, Suzanne has taken the most fundamental keys
to her success (and those of her clients) and created a stunning live
streaming video event called: 

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Suzanne Evans RAW: Real Activities that Work Crucial Keys to Make More Money and Be the Change!

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The keys to break free from vague tactics that rely on "hope" and embrace powerful
fundamental money-making strategies that create unbelievable profits time after time.

-->  Observe and model the actual process and language Suzanne uses to convert looky-loos
to committed, paying clients. 

-->  How to make money (AND make a difference) in record time! Without sacrificing one for the other.

-->  Actual specific actions you can take immediately to start seeing more success in your business.

Yours ... for FREE!

Make no mistake:

This isn't "energy". Or "attraction". It isn't some abundance head trip. Its real. And when you
experience it, suddenly you will be able to see yourself as a source of power in the world. 

And when that happens, sales and marketing magically transforms: From something you "
have to do" to the most direct way you can transform the lives of your clients and customers.

When you join us for this powerful worldwide video Live Stream you will discover the
amazing truth that:

-->  Making a difference doesn't mean taking a vow of poverty.

-->  Prosperity, profit and actually helping people CAN all exist in the
same place.

-->  You don't have to sacrifice what you know is important to achieve your dream.

www.ILoveSuzanneEvans.com

And finally, with so much more than just hope on your side, you can step confidently
towards realizing your own business dream.

And the greatness you are destined for.

To Your Online Profitability,

Mande 

Who Else Wants to Remove the Risk, Confusion and Frustration from Online Marketing and DOUBLE Their Income in the Next 90 Days...GUARANTEED!


Register NOW for this one time only teleclass at ExplodeAndProfit.com

How RedBull Gave Google SuperSonic Wings!

Saturday morning I ran out of my favorite organic hazelnut flavored coconut milk creamer and decided that was a sign to stop drinking coffee all together.  I’m usually only a one cup a day coffee drinker so it’s not like I’m giving up chocolate or anything but it’s taken a couple of days to adjust my morning routine to not be coffee focused. I’m hoping that by next Saturday my body will have adjusted accordingly.  In the meantime I’m surprised by how much time and energy I’ve spent thinking about coffee and caffeine. Thus the caffeine oriented post for you today. Hope you enjoy!

Since you don’t have coffee on the brain you might not have noticed how much faster and relevant your Google searches have become in the last few months. So I thought I’d share with you what’s going on behind the scenes so that you can include a few more search engine optimization strategies in your marketing portfolio.


Since July 2010, Google has been using their new site indexing platform called Caffeine! See what they say about their old vs. new system:

Our old index had several layers, some of which were refreshed at a faster rate than others; the main layer would update every couple of weeks. To refresh a layer of the old index, we would analyze the entire web, which meant there was a significant delay between when we found a page and made it available to you.

With Caffeine, we analyze the web in small portions and update our search index on a continuous basis, globally. As we find new pages, or new information on existing pages, we can add these straight to the index. That means you can find fresher information than ever before—no matter when or where it was published.

Caffeine lets us index web pages on an enormous scale. In fact, every second Caffeine processes hundreds of thousands of pages in parallel. If this were a pile of paper it would grow three miles taller every second. Caffeine takes up nearly 100 million gigabytes of storage in one database and adds new information at a rate of hundreds of thousands of gigabytes per day. You would need 625,000 of the largest iPods to store that much information; if these were stacked end-to-end they would go for more than 40 miles.

Web searches should now be 50% fresher. What does this mean for you?  It’s time to step up content development (that means more blogging) and your social media creativity to stay ahead of the competition and stay as relevant as possible to your prospects and customers.

Are you up for the challenge? Did you notice any fresher results when Google searching? Please leave your comments below.

Sweet Facebook Secrets from a 98-year Old Cookie Company

Who Else Wants 8,200 likes and 2,300 comments on their Next Facebook Status Update?


Today’s tip comes from a chapter from Oreo cookie’s playbook. Take a look at some of their recent Facebook Fan Page Status Updates and staggering statistics.

  • “Ever try dunking an Oreo cookie with a fork or anything else?” 8,200 likes and 2,300 comments
  • “Pick a flavor, any flavor! If you could create a new Oreo cream flavor, what would it be?” 7,100 likes, 12,500 comments
  • “Pop quiz: Twist, lick, then…” 6,500 likes, 6,200 comments

Would you like these same sort of comments and likes on your fan page? Or how about even a 1/10th of those likes & comments?

(Hell, ya!)

It’s hard to resist that masterful combination of crunchy chocolate cookies and sweet creamy filling.  Oreo has over the years created a strong brand, in fact 491 billion Oreo cookies have been sold since they were first introduced in 1912.

So what’s their secret to success and how can you transfer this secret to success into your own Facebook Fan Page?

Let’s look at the classic combination of crunchy and creamy and apply that to the types of status updates you make.

Think of any of the promotional status updates, videos and tweets you make as ‘crunchy’ marketing.

Then picture the valuable content you provide as the creamy center.

If you package your creamy (rich, problem-solving information) content around the crunchy (promotional) cookie  you can please a lot more people AND get what you want…more people to pay you money for the work that you do or product/service that you provide.

Play with me a bit more with this analogy. (I promise you can run out to munch on some Oreos in just a minute)

Many people don’t like the crunchiness of the Oreo cookie just like many people get really cranky when people or companies self-promote.  And often heart-centered entrepreneurs don’t like being self-promotional or crunchy themselves.

How do you make your Oreo cookies less crunchy?

Most people…dip them in MILK! (Remember Oreo’s are Milk’s Favorite cookie!)

What’s the milk in your marketing?

How do you make your promotional marketing more palatable?

May I suggest that the milk be…conversation?

How do you start a conversation?

ASK questions!  Ask questions about what people think about your content, your industry, the way they use your products or services.  Ask about how you can support them and service them better. Ask them about how they are.

So what do you think about my Oreo Marketing Secret? Please share your comments below or on our Facebook Fan Page.

10 Social Media Predictions for 2011

What a year it’s been! I’ve heard that time goes by faster the older you get but I think the speed of technology makes it feel like it goes by at warp speed. This next year will speed by us if we don’t watch out. Here are my predictions for 10 areas of social media you should keep on your radar.

  1. Applications for smart phones and tablets will become more important. Three out of the 10 social media books on my reading list are all about apps-how to create them, how to monetize them, how to market them. My research shows that Productivity tools and games are 2 top categories of most downloaded apps. There were 15.7 million tablets sold in 2010 with Apple capturing 85% of that market.

  2. More local businesses will start to integrate some sort of Location Based Marketing tools like FourSquare, Gowalla and QR codes. 1 in 4 have a smart phone with the majority of those GPS enabled so there is no better way to deliver marketing messages to prospects at the right time, in the right location.


  3. Streaming video will be HOT. You may not have heard that Google TV died, that Hulu lost an investor but Netflix might just reign King here. 16.9 million subscribers using Netflix as of 3rd quarter 2010. Let’s see if they can rally or if dark horse steps in takes the stage.


  4. My downer prediction. Retargeting might be hot right now-but look to hear grumblings of governmental interference. A possible “Do Not Track” legislation might do what the “Do Not Call” did for telemarketing :(

  5. Subscription model on iTunes. Right now you can’t get a yearly subscription to your favorite magazine with iTunes and buying it by the issue will cost you an arm & a leg. As the publishing world pushes iTunes for this functionality-cutting ege information marketers will look to take advantage of this medium as it develops.

  6. More info-marketers will be using Amazon.com to sell their ebook and info-products. Yes, this is a biased recommendation-partly because I’m committed and already have on the planning calendar to offer a series of workshops on this topic. With more people reading books via Kindle & iPad-getting your content on Amazon is a must.

  7. Mobile will be BIG. I mean BIG.


  8. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is so 2000 and late (Black-Eyed Pea reference here). Social Media Optimization will be all the buzz. Facebook alone gets 25% of all US Pageviews and roughly 10% of Internet visits. Optimizing your content on the most visited social networks like Facebook & YouTube should capture your attention and resources.


  9. Engagement will continue to be the buzz word. Savy information marketers will continue to find ways to increase engagement of their target audience among the right platforms, work on tweaking their message and creating memorable experiences for target audiences.


  10. Video. Smart information marketers will find ways to incorporate video to differentiate their higher priced products and programs. Use video to demonstrate the fine details, extra features and functions of your products and services. Find ways to use video to enhance the shopping experience, enter the conversation in your prospects head. Studies show that visitors stay on a page with video an average of two minutes longer than a page without video.


Did I miss anything? What do you think should be on the mind of information marketers for 2011? What are you adding to your strategic marketing plan in terms of social media for 2011?

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