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Number 10 Downing Street issues a Twitter guide to help British governments tweets be less dry. http://bit.ly/2YRoci

Starwood’s W Hotel’s partner w/ Entourage 2 create tbrand bungalows 4 posse of 4! Limo, Grey Goose etc | http://bit.ly/k28yq #fb

Ethical standards for Social Media Marketing: Share your thoughts

As more practioners enter the field of social media marketing, consulting and branding, those who have been early adopters of these tools should step forward and contribute to the discussion on developing a set of recommended albeit not mandatory set of guidelines for marketing and public relations via social mediums.  As someone who is currently engaged in training with Mari Smith, http://www.marismith.com (someone who also cares deeply about ethical behavior online) and who will be part of the first class of certified social media professionals, I’m very interested in hearing about your concerns, issues and ideas for perhaps a “Golden Rules” of using social media for publicity and marketing.  Let’s post our ideas here and start the conversation.  If you post, please include your full Facebook, Twitter or Website URL including the http:// so that others can friend, follow and connect with you in just one click.  You’re welcome to list all of your preferred connection options in that way.  Let’s start a movement.

How to add a “Follow Me on Twitter” Button to your Facebook Profile and Fan Page

Take your Social Media Image Seriously

Your Facebook® profile and your Facebook® Fan Page are two  key social media touch-points for connecting with potential clients.  Creating your on-line funnels in a variety of social mediums helps people find you and clearly understand the service you provide.  Now, the yellow pages will do the same thing but social mediums let customers engage with you first and then decide, based on your attitude, the comments they read from your friends and followers and the value you provide in your various postings, whether or not they want to take the next step and become your customer.  They can literally shadow you while deciding.  That’s why it’s so critical for you to take your social media image seriously.

The Key Ingredients to your Social Media Strategy

Because your potential customer might be exploring numerous social media sites, you’ll want to be on at least Twitter, Facebook, Linked In and I highly recommend that you have a blog.  If you already have your own website that becomes your home base.  If you don’t, you’re blog can serve that purpose.

Now the number one rule of any great  marketing campaign is to make sure that every consumer touch-point is integrated with every other one.  All of your social media sites should link to each other, carry a similar look and message all while speaking to the consumer in the voice most appropriate for that medium.  For example, you’ll communicate in short 120 character* bits on Twitter, longer more detailed thoughts will be incorporated into your blog and your Facebook profile and fan pages might be more personal and intimate.  Yet an integrated marketing strategy means that the core values and the key message points will be the same, albeit communicated differently.

Helping Customers Find, Follow and Friend You

If you were the owner of a Deli, you wouldn’t hide the checkout counter.  You’d make it very easy to find.  Shoppers would never have to guess where to find you, talk with you and pay you.  It’s the same with social media sites.  Be user friendly.  Make it easy for someone who finds and follows you on one site to find and friend you on another.

I recently installed a “Follow me on Twitter” button on my Facebook Profile and my Facebook Fan Pages. This is a nice visual addition to your profile or page and there are a lot of designers and programmers out there offering free buttons.  I happen to love http://twitbuttons.com for it’s user-friendly interface.  You simply enter your Twitter name in the URL box at the top of the page and all the HTML code in every Twitter Button box is changed, automatically, to customize the button for your twitter page.

So here are the instructions for adding a “Follow me on Twitter” button to your Facebook Page.

1. Log onto your Facebook Page and go to the applications link on the bottom left hand side of your screen.
2. Click “Browse applications and the find ” “Extended info” application. Add that to your profile. Then click the edit settings link to the right of the app in the list of apps you’ve downloaded. Where it says “Tab” click “add.”
3. Then go to http://twitbuttons.com and pick out your favorite button. Be sure to enter your twitter name in the black space above the buttons. This will automatically enter your correct twitter name link to the code under each twitter button image.
4. Copy the code of the button you like and go back to Facebook to the Applications list (link on bottom left of page).
5. Open the Extended info application by clicking directly on that link. A window will pop up for you to paste your code.
6. Paste the code and click the “Add to Profile” button on the upper right of that page.
7. Then click the Save changes button below the code and return to your page.  You can change the look of your button at anytime by returning to these instructions and choosing a new button from the website I mentioned or another you may find.  You can design your own if you’re skilled with HTML too.

Transparency is Currency in Social Media

I recommend adding your “Follow Me” button or link to all of your social media sites and using the custom options on your Twitter background to provide the URL’s for your Facebook, Linked In and Blog to your Twitter followers.  You get the picture.  The name of the game is to be visible.  For some inspiring examples of people who are doing this well, check out these social media pros.  Each one of these people are helping potential clients find them and utilizing a slightly different style.  Take a look and make a plan to help yourself stand out in the crowd.

Mari Smith: http://www.facebook.com/marismith?ref=ts#/marismith?v=app_11007063052&viewas=1048779085

Dr. Mehmet Oz: http://www.facebook.com/droz?ref=ts#/droz?v=app_4949752878&viewas=1048779085

Gary Vaynerchuk http://www.facebook.com/gary?ref=ts#/gary?v=wall&viewas=1048779085 (Check out his “Friend Me Up” Tab!)

Karmen Reed at KickOff Topic: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kickoff-Topic-Marketing-Solutions-Through-Online-Visibility/56494299508#/pages/Kickoff-Topic-Marketing-Solutions-Through-Online-Visibility/56494299508?v=wall&viewas=1048779085

The Social Latte: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tempe-AZ/The-Social-Latte-Specializing-In-Social-Media-For-Small-Businesses/80841554499?ref=ts#/pages/Tempe-AZ/The-Social-Latte-Specializing-In-Social-Media-For-Small-Businesses/80841554499?v=app_7146470109&viewas=1048779085

Angela Albright: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Angela-Albright-Social-Media-Entrepreneur/87674098294?ref=ts#/pages/Angela-Albright-Social-Media-Entrepreneur/87674098294?v=wall&viewas=1048779085

If You Liked What You Read Here, Please Join Me

Friend me on Facebook:  http://Facebook.com/CindyRatzlaff

Connect with me on LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/CindyRatzlaff

Follow Me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/BrandYou

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*Always try to keep your tweets to 120 characters so that people can Re-tweet your post.  When they re-tweet, some of the character spaces are taken up with their Twitter name.  At 120 characters you’ll be re-tweet-friendly.

From my friend Mari Smith: Get ready to secure your BRAND on FACEBOOK tonight: How To Secure Your Facebook Username (Vanity URL) http://bit.ly/HuuCW

As the Masses Become 300 Million Individuals Publishers Scramble

Social Media has turned the marketing world upside down in the past two years as the consumer evolves from “the mass” to the individual.  Some companies and brands have successfully navigated the shift while others, entire industries, have fallen behind and in fact seem surprised by the turn of events.  Publishing seems to be one of those industries that are just now scratching their heads and asking “What happened?”

Every person with computer access is now a writer and a publisher or has the ability to be so within 10 minutes of hatching the desire. Anyone can log onto the internet, start a free blog, open a Twitter account (where every 140 character thought they have is indexed and searchable by Google.com) and in effect, publish their thoughts.  Business slide presentations, nearly virtual business books, can be posted on LinkedIn and everyone with a glimmer of an idea can create an e-book and distribute it by tonight.

The era when gatekeepers carefully chose which  ideas would be presented to the consumer has passed.  The idea-makers are taking their work directly to the universe.  Less driven by the desire for monetary gain than by the need to express themselves and connect to others, these new world order writers are dumping endless content into the cybersphere.  Yet without the filter of publishing houses, editors, agents and the like, how does the end user find the work and commune with the writer?  Even if the reader finds the work, how can he/she be assured the work is good, interesting, valid.  

The aggregator sites are a start but lack the “taste filter” an editor might have provided.  Readers must self-select which writers they’ve liked in the past and hope they’ll enjoy future work.  Here’s where the community kicks in.  People who share a passion for a particular genre, writer or subject matter become the referral mechanism for those who are searching.  People are developing trusted communities and sources from whom they’ll accept recommendations much like we once trusted our local independent bookseller.  The hunger for information, the lust for a great read hasn’t died.  The medium, the delivery system and the discovery process, however, are changing.

So what does this mean for the future of books, fiction and non-fiction?  Publishers will continue to act as curators, finding and nurturing talent, but the financial model will have to change.  Increasingly the burden of finding an audience for a writer’s work will fall squarely back on the shoulders of the writer.  This is not always a good fit in terms of an writer’s skillset.

Mystery writers and women’s fiction/romance writers have an edge in this new world because publishers have always placed the lion’s share of the promotional responsibilities back on those genre authors.  They’ve become experts at self-promotion and understand the importance of building a passionate fan base and engaging with those fans.  They’re already social media pros. Business writers tend to be good at this as well.  But perhaps this appears so because publishers are only buying books from business writers who have already demonstrated their ability to build a database and a following for exactly this purpose.  The business model seems to be, “build it and we will publish.”

How, then, will first time novelists and self-help specialists with new ideas fare in the new Social order?  How will great work rise above the noise to capture the imaginations and heart of millions rather than just delight hundreds?  Will this democratizing of publishing rob us of literary talent who are not also self-marketers or will this process open the door to bright new talent who might never before have been able to squeeze by the gatekeepers?    I don’t know the answers and most likely neither do you but I’d love to hear your thoughts. Since we can’t look at things the same old way, we might as well talk boldly about what “new” can really be.

10 Essential Tools to Jumpstart Your Social Media Presence: Checklist #1

The sheer volume of social media sites available could make a grown man or woman weep as they try to navigate the landscape and place themselves or their brand in the mix.  Social Media can jumpstart awareness of your brand or it can be an enormous time waster.  The key is knowing where to put your energy, how often and when to turn your time and attention elsewhere.

Here’s a quick down and dirty checklist of sites I think are worth your attention as you stake your space in the social media world.

1. Facebook: More than 200 million users.  Enough said.  You need to be here.  You can create a Facebook page and begin inviting people to join you as friends and if you’re using Facebook for your business you’ll want to create Facebook Fan Page.  For a very informative video and written instructions, there’s no better coach than Mari Smith. I highly recommend her “How to Create and Promote Your Facebook Fan Page video and here’s the link.  http://budurl.com/z53e.  Your Facebook Fan page is indexed and is searchable inside and outside of Facebook.  This means that when someone googles the topic or your name, bingo: You’ve achieved virtual visibility.  If you do nothing else (and you will) create a Facebook Fan Page for your business.
2. Twitter:  Six to eight million U.S. users, depending on whose stats you’re viewing.  Come on.  It’s 120 character microblogging.  You can find the time.  Note: Each tweet can be 140 characters but keep it to 120 so others can Retweet you and help your info go viral. Twitter can be addictive.  It’s real time conversation with the entire world.  You can easily lose your focus and participate for long periods of time with this cyber cocktail party.  Set a time limit (and a kitchen timer if necessary).  Start with 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes at another time during the day.  Share your expertise and look for others who are interested in what you have to say.  Ask others about themselves.  Engage, share worthwhile information, link to your website for more detailed information and stop for the day.
3. LinkedIn:  You simply must be on LinkedIn.  It’s the yellow pages of business professionals.  LinkedIn can be a “set it and forget it” site but there’s significant value in updating regularly because every update puts you into the stream of updates on all of your colleagues with whom you are linked.  It reminds them that you’re out there, doing interesting things, and keeps you and your business top of mind.
4. WordPress or Blogspot:  Content is King and a blog, be it wordpress (my favorite), blogspot or another program, it is a great avenue for communicating your passion and purpose.  You need to have a homebase for posting interesting and useful information in more than 120/140 characters.  You can link to your blog on Twitter and Facebook to drive additional interest in your content.  You’re blog can live on your website or can serve as your website, depending on your goals and the needs of your business.
5. Friendfeed: Great resource for sharing your favorite blogs and posts with all your social media sites at once.  I simply love this application.  You can add “Share on Friendfeed” to your toolbar and with one click post interesting information you find on the web to all of your social media site instantly.  Yum!  Three cheers for time saving applications.
6. Twellow and/or WeFollow:  These are like the Yellow Pages of Twitter.  For a minimum investment of your time, you can list yourself, free of charge, and make it easier for other people to find you.  You’ll enter a few “key words” to describe your business, your service and your interests.  You can also search these site for like minded people that you’ll want to follow.  These are excellent resources for finding folks to follow and worth a few minutes a day as part of your twitter-follower building strategy.
7. Tweetdeck or Twhirl:  For filtering the stream of noise in Twitter and making sure you don’t miss really important tweets from your peeps.  Free to download and easy to learn to use, these are time saving applications that will help you take a look at your Twitterverse quickly and efficiently.
8. HootSuite:  You can pre-schedule your tweets, manage multiple twitter accounts and measure your success with this wonderful Twitter toolbox.  This, again, is a free application but you can choose to give a donation to help them continue to add new features.  The choice is yours.  Either way this will help you disseminate content, say from your blog or website, during pre-scheduled time periods throughout the day on Twitter, automatically.  This is a wonderful time saver and definitely a worthy Phase One strategy.
9. Google Profile:  You can now set up a google profile, similar to what you’ve already done on LinkedIn.  I’ve made mine slightly less corporate and with a little more personality because I have multiple businesses and I want to engage the reader more with my personality than with my professional resume.  I’ve included those links on my google profile so that information is there too.  This is free, easy and indexed by google.  Be there or be square.  This really does seem to be a “set it and forget it” tool.  If I find that it is evolving to a more social tool, I’ll visit this on a new post.
10. Technorati:  If you have a blog, “claim” it on Technorati to help others find your words. Once you’re blog has passed their review standards, you’ll be indexed, an essential step toward standing out in the online universe.  Technorati is also a terrific resource for finding blogs you’ll want to read and perhaps share with your Twitter and Facebook friends.  This application is easy to use, takes very little time to set up, is a solid resource for content and thus makes my top ten Phase One Social Media tools list.

Now bookmark this page, shut off your computer and go outside.  Here’s my challenge to you.  Do one of these a day for the next 10 days and let me know how it goes.  You can do all of this one step at a time and reduce your anxiety level to zero.  Let me know if you have questions or suggestions for future posts.  I want to write about things you want to read about.  Let me hear from you.

Twitter Strategies for Finding Your Peeps

You can follow a maximum of 2000 people on twitter before the infamous Twitter wall blocks you from following more people until about 1800 people follow you back.  Once you acquire 1801 followers, Twitter allows you to begin following others again.  Your twitter followers to following ratio, however, will need to stay at approximately 10% or you’ll get a message telling you that you can’t follow new people at this time.  So how does one go about acquiring new followers?  You acquire followers by following others and by posting interesting tweets or retweeting useful information you get from others.  So skip the posts about your breakfast unless you’re looking for social interactions about everyday life or yummy meals.  Post about your passion and people who share that passion will follow you.

 

Here are a couple of ideas that I hope will help you find your twitter peeps.

1.  Follow Your Followers:  Set up an autofollow using http://tweetlater.com or http://socialtoo.com.  I use socialtoo.com and like it alot.  I set my account to autofollow anyone who follows me and to unfollow anyone who unfollows me.  If you’ve been on twitter for awhile, you may want to purchase the $5.00 option that let’s you catch up and follow everyone who has followed you.  You can also use http://friendorfollow.com.  It’s a bit cumbersome but kind of interesting to find out exactly who isn’t following you back or to make sure you’re following everyone who follows you.  The site features thumbnail photo/avatars and you can sort based on account age, last tweet, number of followers etc.

2.  Twitter Search: You can use use http://search.twitter.com to find new people to follow.  Go there and enter your name in the search window to see everyone who mentions your name in any way.  Then you can follow them.  Try the same search with your @(insertyourtwittername) and see who has retweeted you, commented on your posts and in general already tried to engage you.  Follow them.

3.  Twitter Yellow Pages: Try http://twellow.com.  Set up an account with Twellow and register yourself under several keywords that describe your interests and business.  This will help others find you.  Then, while logged in, search for keywords that describe people you want to reach.  For example, I’m interested in publishing and social media, so I search those words.  You’ll come up with a list of people who have self-described themselves with the keywords you searched.  You’ll be able to follow them by clicking the “follow” button on the left under their avatar or picture.  In my opinion this is the most productive following tool and I recommend it highly.

4.  Finding Twitter Groups:  Another very useful directory is http://wefollow.com.  Be sure to list yourself there and follow people in popular tags.  http://twitterpacks.pbwiki.com is a site that allows you to follow packs in your desired business or geographic area.  http://mediaontwitter.pbwiki.com and http://www.exectweets.com are self explanatory and worth a look.

5.  People Who Follow People: ♫Are they the luckiest people in the world?  Seriously, this technique is useful but not foolproof.  The idea is to head to the profile of someone influential in the business or social arena that interests you.  If you love wine that would be @GaryVee.  You follow Gary Vaynerchuk and then look at his follower list and follow them.  You can’t be sure that all of these people will be interested in wine, however.  Some will be people not, but you’ll surely come up with many, many folks who share your passion.

6.  People Who Engage:  View the account of some big name, high profile Twitter types like @chrisbrogan or @Ev and observe people with whom they engage or chat.  Follow them.  You can find a list of people with the most followers at http://twitterholic.com.

7.  Hashtags: Take a look at the trending topic hashtags on the right side of your twitter page and click one or two that interest you.  Follow the people who are engaging in the discussion.  Every Friday, people will recommend other people using the #FollowFriday hashtag.  This is a good source of people to follow as they’ve been recommended by others.

This is by no means a complete list of search strategies.  Here are a few more to add to your list:

http://twibes.com

http://twindexx.com

http://retweetist.com/users

http://twitter.grader.com/top/users

I’d love to hear about your favorites so I can pass them on to others.

Brand: Kathie Lee Gifford

Kathie Lee Gifford, Today Show co-host and author of a new book  Just When I Thought I’d Dropped My Last Egg: Life and Other Calamities (Ballentine Hardcover) http://budurl.com/ur65 was the guest speaker at the New York City Women’s Media Group luncheon Monday, May 18th.   

She had some very insightful thoughts on branding.  I suspect she doesn’t think of herself as a brand, but because my business is brand communications and marketing, I heard her talk through that filter and found that she exemplifies what I consider to be some of the most essential elements necessary for a strong brand: aspiration, inspiration and motivation.  I’d like to share a few quotes from her talk as illustration.

“You can have it all but not all at once.” This is Kathie Lee’s aspirational brand promise.  It tells her audience that she (and they) can live rich and fulfilling lives but there are some sacrifices which must be made along the way in terms of timing.  Kathie Lee shares stories of Broadway opportunities left behind when her children were very young and of new Broadway offers coming to her at a better time in her family life.  She talks about her decision to co-host the fourth hour of The Today Show, which some might view as a lesser spotlight than her position on Regis and Kathie Lee, but which was a very creative and rewarding new opportunity for her.  Her brand promise tells the consumer/viewer that Kathie Lee believes in going after your dreams, fully understanding and evaluating the personal “cost.”  Aspirational Brand promises resonate with the intended core audience and tell them that their aspirations are available to them – at some point in their lives.  This promise is spot on brand messaging for Kathie Lee’s intended audience.

“At my age, I’m delighted to be anywhere…”  Kathie Lee uses mild self mockery and humor as a way to identify with her core audience.  Here she tells her audience that she’s been through a lot in her life, as have they, and she understands their lives.   She also told the audience that she’s the oldest host on the Today Show other than Willard Scott.  An inspirational brand message tells the consumer that the brand is “just like her.” This brand understands that her audience is looking to her for inspiration and wants to know that even if it’s a struggle, success is possible – even later in life.

“My career is how I make my living.  It is not my whole life.”  This is Brand Kathie Lee’s Mission Statement and provides motivation for the viewer.  This gives her audience insight into what to expect from her.  She will talk about her husband and children.  She will make public appearance choices based on that mision.  She will moderate or alter her public life accordingly.  This motivational statement tells the viewer that by associating with Brand Kathie Lee, their lifestyle choices are not just validated but celebrated.  Her brand promises to provide information and entertainment which will always be guided by her Mission Statement.  They can trust and value her brand and “consume” it with confidence.  She motivates her audience to trust her and therefore, the information she presents to them.

Overall, Brand Kathie Lee’s core messages are clear and  she presents herself as sincere, funny, dedicated to family, creative and spiritual.  This says “I have a wonderful career but I have a life outside of work.  Family life is more important to me than my life in the public eye.” This brand promise tells her audience who she is and invites key emotional identifyers to join her.  She expertly positions her brand for clarity and her ideal audience can find her easily.

Which other celebrities do you think are managing their brand successfully?  Why?