Writing for Your Website When You’ve Run Out of Things to Write

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As a writer, you may fear the inevitable wall, that moment when you feel you have exhausted your idea repository and aren’t sure what to write for your website or blog. You know it’s important to keep your online presence relevant and fresh in order to maintain high readership – with certain fields, there is always something new to explore. If your business is slow to offer innovations and new events, however, it’s possible to spend more time staring at the monitor screen than filling it.

Whether writing non-fiction or a story, everything begins with an idea, a question that needs to be answered, or a “what if” scenario burning to be played out. If ever you find it a challenge to crank out a minimum of 300 words designed to promote your products and services you may wish to employ a few writing exercises designed to stimulate your brain and turn one uncertain sentence into a flowing narrative rich in key phrases to help readers find you via search. Here are a few I recommend, which have worked in different situations and may be applied to any topic:

Top Five: This is a good topic especially for retailers or those in the mechanical or technical trade. Ultimately, no matter what you do for a living, you will be asked about the top products or devices in your field. Contractors swear by specific brands of windows and plumbing, and boutique owners may recommend certain designers for formal events. Think about a topic related to your business where at least five brands compete for your and your clientele’s attention, then compare and contrast.

How To: The simple how-to article works to establish you as an authority in your field. If you sell goods, draft step by step instructions on how to use them, and if you offer services – labor or clerical – you can offer tips on handling certain issues without necessarily giving away the store.

I Remember…: Do certain products or services you offer tie in to a specific memory? Does what you do know require more advanced work and equipment than in years past? Take readers on a trip down memory lane and provide a history for your company in the process.

Anti-Top  Five: For every top five products and paradigms, there is advice on what not to buy and how not to do things. Offers readers the consequences of the wrong decisions and products for the work you provide, and you may find this strengthens your authority.

Worst Case Scenario: If troubleshooting constitutes a good part of your business, nip those frequent calls for assistance with a series of articles designed to help readers face different challenges.

Once you’ve exhausted these ideas, keep brainstorming. Check the daily news wires and set up keyword alerts for your e-mail to lead you to related blogs and sites. Sometimes it takes only word to spark an idea, be sure you search well for it.

Kathryn Lively is a social media specialist assisting clients with social media optimization and travel social media services. Clients include Gainesville hotels, European hotels, and Virginia web design firms.

Approaching Twitter Users: Dancing the Fine Line Between Promotion and Spam

Need assistance marketing with Twitter? Spider Writers is a full-service social media marketing company ready to assist with building your social media presence. Call us today at 757-499-1990, ext. 104 for your free estimate.

I hadn’t expected a reply to a recent tweet post made regarding cupcakes. In a moment of good humor, considering my recent weight loss, I posted to my account a link to a news story about pastry giant Cinnabon branching into the cupcake business. Given my weakness for cupcakes and the potential damage they do to my diet, I let forth a curt vent (“Damn you, Cinnabon!) followed by the link. Later that day, to my shock, I received an @replay from the official Cinnabon Twitter.

Just goes to show, people with brands do monitor what is being said, even in jest, and may be inclined to follow-up. While many of us can page the likes of Conan O’Brien, Demi Moore, and the host of other celebrities and bigwigs using this social network, the odds of finding a reply or – gasp – a direct message may be slim. As a business using Twitter to market products and services, however, you have a golden opportunity to reach consumers who share their feedback, or else put out feelers for information relevant to your company. Succeeding in Twitter marketing involves not only tracking those people, but communicating in a manner that doesn’t come off like a hard sell.

Tracking on Twitter

As you monitor the performance of keywords that bring visitors to your main site, it would make sense to track those same phrases on Twitter to gauge overall interest in products and services relevant to your brand. Whether you cater to local or national markets, you have the means to search what people are tweeting without necessarily refreshing Twitter’s search engine. E-mail, web-based and desktop clients allow for ease of researching multiple key phrases, and many of them are free.

A sample TweetDeck search on "Virginia Beach"

TweetDeck, a popular desktop client that can collect the feeds of multiple social media accounts, may be set up to run feeds of a specific nature. Simply add a new column to the screen and program a search. Choose the keywords, and watch the results.

To receive Twitter searches via e-mail, TweetBeep offers the means to track the activity you want to browse. Similar to Google Alerts, TweetBeep delivers the information directly to your inbox. This is handy tool to use if you want alerts sent to your phone.

The popular web-based program Monittor presents up to three real-time feeds of key searches. One advantage to Monittor is that is permits for geotargeting – you can search tweets within a specific distance of any city, and RSS capability allows you to aggregate the results into your favorite reader. Twitter itself offers a similar method of tracking in its widget functionality, where one can create an ongoing feed of trending tweets, though geographical parameters cannot be set.

Once you’ve determined how to find potential consumers and clients through Twitter, there comes the challenge of approaching them. Just because a Twitter user does not protect his/her feed from public view doesn’t necessarily mean an invite to relentless hustling. If you see an opportunity to recommend your products and services to somebody who appears to want them, you don’t want to give the impression that your Twitter account is used mainly to distribute ad copy.

Engage the tweeter first with a question for confirmation. Are they looking for what you have to sell…are the specific designs or benefits they want? Would they be interested in a discount if they ordered online? Can you answer any questions they might have? Don’t let the distance of a computer screen distract you from the fact that behind that Twitter avatar is a human being who is social, and may likely use Twitter to recommend you in the future.

Using widgets and search clients to help with leads can cut your Twitter research time significantly, giving you more time to perfect your social media skills.

Kathryn Lively is a social media specialist assisting clients with social media optimization and travel social media services. Clients include Gainesville hotels, European hotels, and Virginia web design firms.

Engaging Readers to Comment on Blogs and Social Networks

Do all these funny-sounding social media sites cross your eyes? You need help sorting the tweets from the buzzes! Spider Writers can develop a sound social media marketing plan that brings followers to your profiles, and your business. Contact us today at 757-499-1990, ext. 104 for a free consultation.

You can write for miles, you can post links to funny videos on your Facebook page, and you can tweet until your online voice gives out…it’s great to have the ability to easily produce content, but none it means much unless you know for certain people are processing it. What good does it do to have 500+ Twitter followers or a thousand fans on Facebook if none of them are regularly checking your content?

Where success in social media is concerned, we tend to gauge the effectiveness of updates by how often posts are “retweeted” or shared across over platforms. How often people “Digg” your articles or link to your YouTube depends on overall interest – did you produce something thought-provoking or funny? You may be encouraged to see numbers increase every time you check your social profiles, but when it comes to your blog you have analytics and, more importantly, comments. When you post, do people have to something to say about it? Does what you write move people to want to share their opinions? If not, there’s a chance you aren’t blogging correctly.

Are there rules to proper blogging? Not really. The beauty of blogging comes in the freedom allowed the writer – you can share as much or as little information as you wish, enhance your entries with photos or video embeds, and even creative hypertext that guides readers to relevant spots on the Internet. As a blogger, you can also monetize your material with affiliate or point of sale links to products and services. The more you blog, the greater the opportunity to reach people interested in your topic, though the one thing that will keep readers returning to your blog is active engagement. Don’t just blog at visitors, but to them.

Ask Questions: If the purpose of your weblog is to establish yourself as an authority in your field, you might at first be reluctant to entertain opposing views. While some may find debates daunting, encouraging readers to answer to questions you pose can make for good interaction, which in turn may lead readers to share these only discussions via social media.

Accept Criticism: In a perfect world, everybody agrees with what we have to say, and everything we say is correct. Not so online – it seems the Internet was made to create controversy, and nobody is immune to negative feedback. Rather than take a curt remark on your comment wall personally and ignite a flame war, take a deep breath and examine why a reader would disagree with you, or criticize your company, product, or service. The temptation to erase bad history is tempting, but you’ll be the bigger person if you let these comments remain and accept them with grace.

Remain Topical: Part of maintaining online popularity involves looking for content that is…well, popular. It’s a challenge to raise your voice and talk about your business when people are more interested in sharing viral videos and pictures of funny-looking cats. You might wish to experiment with levity in your blogs and social profiles – join ‘em instead of beat ‘em by sharing popular content, and test reader response. If you can find a way to integrate what is popular and maintain relevance to your topics, all the better.

Above All Else, Ask! Never fear that asking questions of others will diminish your authority. The only way to grow is to learn, and engaging people online can snowball into full-fledged conversations that keep people visiting your profiles. What have you done recently to help blog comments skyrocket? How do you engage social friends and fans to keep talking? Feel free to share your ideas here.

Kathryn Lively is a social media specialist assisting clients with social media optimization and travel social media services. Clients include Gainesville hotels, European hotels, and Virginia web design firms.

Information vs. Community: Determining the Direction of Your Social Media Presence

Do all these funny-sounding social media sites cross your eyes? You need help sorting the tweets from the buzzes! Spider Writers can develop a sound social media marketing plan that brings followers to your profiles, and your business. Contact us today at 757-499-1990, ext. 104 for a free consultation.

As long as marketing exists, so word of mouth will remain the most proven method for promoting products and services. With social networks, the odds of good buzz are amplified through tweets, Yelp reviews, Digg clicks, and even the simplest of social status updates. If you want people to talk about your business, you know your presence online has to give them something for discussion. Yet with the structure of some networks – some of which allow for message board style conversation – and the ability for companies to set up their own social hubs independent of major networks, there comes the question of how to approach your social activity. Do you maintain the lines of information and keep personal op/ed at a distance, using Twitter and Facebook for link sharing, or do you foster a full-blown community and give visitors a new place to call home?

It’s been said that the majority of Twitter users, for example, can be classified into two groups: the “me-formers” and the “informers.” Me-formers talk about themselves: what they watch, what they eat, what they listen to, and keep the focus on their own activity. A me-former interesting enough to attract a following beyond immediate friends and family can prove valuable for a marketer looking to nurture word of mouth. The Informer, by contrast, acts as a news wire, constantly tweeting links to other sites with news on anything relevant and timely. You might see the Informer’s timeline feature information on where to send donations for earthquake relief, or link to celebrity obits, or retweet breaking news from official media accounts. Why would anybody follow an impersonal Informer? If that person is prolific, it may beat following fifty different accounts when one does all the work.

As you build your online networks, it’s important to determine how to present yourself to a potential following. The nature of business may make this decision easier, whether you choose for your profiles to serve as a means of simply relaying sales information or events, or if you would prefer to engage others in conversation and obtain feedback for products and services. If the latter, there is the possibility MySpace, Facebook, or Twitter may not sustain what you wish to accomplish. It would seem logical to encourage greater participation through a message board, and free software is plentiful for that purpose, but a forum can limit how members wish to express themselves. For better control of the way you business socializes, you may wish to pursue customized networking.

Depending on your budget, there are options suited to the pricing you wish to pay. Ning.com is perhaps one of the better known DIY social networks, which allows you to set up your own page to your specifications. You can input RSS feeds and your YouTube Channel, and users can join your Ning channel while also setting up their own profile pages and moving elsewhere through Ning sites. Ning can be useful for those who wish to collect their minor social presences in one place for visitors to access, and discuss.

The developer-minded business may wish also to explore more advanced options in this realm. Social network development sites like KickApps and SocialGo offer paid solutions in this realm, which permit integration of other social sites. One advantage to the custom network is that you can actively track opt-in members and encourage the level of interaction you desire. While Facebook fan pages offer similar benefits of fan interaction through wall posts and photo sharing, that your page is but one of thousands on the network may dilute fan interaction due to the amount of competition for attention you face. With Ning and others, though there are other sites connected to Ning, the focus tends to remain on your site.

To maximize your social media presence, determine first how you intend to use your online networks, and build accordingly. Custom social networks may work if you wish to raise awareness of your products and services through active discussion.

Kathryn Lively is a social media specialist assisting clients with social media optimization and travel social media services. Clients include Gainesville hotels, European hotels, and Virginia web design
firms.

Variety in Social Media Marketing Keeps Followers Interested

Do all these funny-sounding social media sites cross your eyes? You need help sorting the tweets from the buzzes! Spider Writers can develop a sound social media marketing plan that brings followers to your profiles, and your business. Contact us today at 757-499-1990, ext. 104 for a free consultation.

I hadn’t intended to write yet another article weighing the pros and cons of tying all social networks together to distribute the same information to different channels, but after reading MediaBistro’s article on the why it’s better not to update networks via auto-feeds, I realize this is still a topic that needs to be addressed. If you are serious about social marketing, you have the Twitter feed, the Facebook fan page, and probably now the Google Buzz attached to your GMail. A click of the mouse will integrate each with the others, plus you can add all three RSS feeds into your FriendFeed account for added exposure.

As the Media Bistro article intimates, however, somebody who keeps track of you via all social outlets may tire of seeing the same information everywhere he goes. Of course, one must consider that one’s Twitter readership may sorely outnumber the Facebook, or vice versa, and therefore an important tidbit shared in one place could be missed by the larger audience.

Are auto-feeds worth the risk of losing readership, especially if one estimates a person willing to track all of your social profiles is apt to patronize your business? Do you risk less conversion, or even neglect of a particular profile, if you pull the system apart?

Adding Variety to Your Social Marketing

It’s said in advertising that a consumer usually sees a product or service 5-7 times before making a decision to buy. So it is with eCommerce, where people bounce off and on a site for days while they discern if the company is worth their spending dollar. As I peruse Twitter, I find it’s not uncommon to see the same tweets recycled by certain account every several days. In theory it is probably a good practice, as I find the Twitter clients I use don’t necessarily catch every post added to my follow feed. When marketing to especially busy people, too, it never hurts to send reminders.

If you are concerned about alienating current and potential fans, there are methods to market that can help retain your sanity without forcing you to log into every single profile you own to make updates. As you map out your strategy, you have the opportunity to present the variety multi-account followers crave without skimping on information that needs to be widely broadcast.

Limit what social networks are connected: rather than link your Twitter to everything, choose what feeds into it. If you want to emphasize your presence on Facebook more, connect those two and leave your blog/RSS free. For times you want to really promote a blog post, do occasional manual Twitter udpates.

Make use of widgets: Rather than blast the same information to all networks, create a home base for visitors to check all of your profiles. Set up your blog sidebar with various widgets for Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, etc. As you attract readers, you can keep them on longer with the different information you provide there.

Use different profiles to emphasize different aspects of your business: For the multi-faceted company, experiment by assigning different branches of the business their own social network. Build a focus that attracts visitors and gradually promote your other interests through occasional cross-promotion.

Connecting all of your profiles provides ease of use, but only you can determine its effectiveness. Don’t be afraid to unlink chains on occasion to test analytics, and watch activity across the board to see what visitors prefer.

Kathryn Lively is a social media specialist assisting clients with social media optimization and travel social media services. Clients include Gainesville hotels, European hotels, and Virginia web design firms.

Top Blog Enhancements for Maximizing Your Presence

Do all these funny-sounding social media sites cross your eyes? You need help sorting the tweets from the buzzes! Spider Writers can develop a sound social media marketing plan that brings followers to your profiles, and your business. Contact us today at 757-499-1990, ext. 104 for a free consultation.

It’s not enough anymore to simply pen an amazing blog post, then kick back and wait for the traffic to roll in. With social media at the forefront of general consciousness, the mindset now is that people don’t search for news…it finds you. While you might think it a daunting task not only to create your brand’s news and updates but to actively seek out willing readers, know you don’t necessarily have to do all the work. If you write compelling copy, those who follow you will spread your gospel. It is up to you, however, to make that task easier.

Visit any blog you enjoy frequenting, particularly the heavy hitters, and what do you see? The sidebar may be stuffed with feed widgets and social media badges meant to entice new fans and followers, but above all else you should notice the body of each post. Let’s presume for a moment the casual Internet user isn’t geeked up with browser share buttons and tool bars…how do you think they intend to share an article with friends?

The idea of having to cut and paste long URLs strings can be a turn-off, though it’s a simple thing to do. Pasted  URLs may break in transit via Twitter or e-mail. Click-throughs to dead links inspire frustration, and ultimately a reluctance to share more. A few quick fixes to your blog, however, provide a streamlined sharing experience that can expose your brand to a new audience.

Buttons and Buzzing: We should all know by heart now which 32×32 chicklet goes with which social network. Programs like AddThis, Sociable, and Add to Any allow you to implement widgets that encourage readers to retweet posts, share links on Digg and Facebook and promote via other networks. With the advent of Google Buzz, you won’t see that option on these free for all sets just yet, but if you are into Buzzing, pick up the additional Google Buzz Button for Wordpress.

Monetize and Advertise: Depending on the purpose of your blog, you may be interested in having it work for you to the point that you are compensated for your efforts. Blogger and Wordpress, for two, offer widgets that allow you to integrate Google AdSense, between posts or on the sidebar. Authors listed with Amazon.com have the added bonus on Blogger of setting up Amazon Associates ads for their products – even if you have nothing to sell on the mega-retail site, Blogger users can take advantage of the feature to promote items similar to the blog topic and receive commissions on click-through purchases.

Global Commenting: While it’s true blog platforms featuring their own commenting systems, you might wonder if there is a more enhanced method that allows readers to share their comments through social media. When you sign on to DISQUS, an advanced commenting system that integrates easily into most blog platforms, you allow readers not only to remark on your updates but share their opinions via Twitter and Facebook automatically. In turn, this could provide added exposure to your site and perhaps more traffic.

Blogging is terrific marketing. Blogging to an attentive audience is even better. With a few simple enhancements to your blog you can increase readership and foster a following willing to share what you have to say.

Kathryn Lively is a social media specialist assisting clients with social media optimization and travel social media services. Clients include Gainesville hotels, European hotels, and Virginia web design firms.

In Social Media, Who Owns the Name?

Do all these funny-sounding social media sites cross your eyes? You need help sorting the tweets from the buzzes! Spider Writers can develop a sound social media marketing plan that brings followers to your profiles, and your business. Contact us today at 757-499-1990, ext. 104 for a free consultation.

If you follow Mashable on Google Buzz, you’ve already seen the note on the recent flap with restaurant chain Denny’s and Twitter. Due to a printing, or perhaps marketing, error, Denny’s dine-in menus nationwide have the incorrect Twitter address printed on them. Where the eatery chain currently manages two official accounts at DennysAllNightr and DennysGrandSlam, the Twitter account listed (@Dennys) belongs to somebody in Taiwan. While the account had been dormant for several months, its owner has recently started tweeting again, and the powers that be at Denny’s are hoping to claim the account from Twitter rather than spend the money to have thousands of menus reprinted.

Reading the train of comments in Mashable’s Buzz thread on this topic, one might wonder if it will cost more for Denny’s to get the prized Twitter handle. “He (@Dennys) should be able to sell it,” comments one follower, while others joke about the restaurant trading the account for free breakfast for life (for the record, Taiwan has no Denny’s locations; the closest this guy will have to travel is New Zealand for free pancakes).

This brings up an interesting point, and an inevitability a business may have to face with regards to social media. In years past people have debated over the purchasing of specific domain names and the legality and ethics of claiming a trademarked name – you might recall the row caused a decade ago when Archie Comics threatened to sue the parents of a young girl named Veronica, the subject of a site at  www.veronica.org. The suit was later dropped, and the site no longer exists. These days, “cybersquatting” is defined as the act of intentionally purchasing a domain name with a trademarked name in order to capitalize on its sale. While Veronica’s parents hadn’t set out to extort money (it’s said they didn’t realize Archie Comics had trademarked the name), this legislation has arguably discouraged mass spends on URLs.

The Denny’s situation may give rise to a new breed of squatters, as people claim Twitter handles and Facebook vanity URLs of known brands. Could “social-squatting” become a new term and a new headache for companies to deal with? When somebody registers for a Twitter account, who ultimately has the right to decide if the owner should part with the name – the owner or Twitter? Can or should one be able to sell the rights to a Twitter handle?

When one considers the ease of which one can apply for a Twitter account, the ability to claim a trademarked name can happen in seconds. Presently, Twitter offers no alert system for refusing applicants who pick trademarks for their user names. Looking at my desk, I have products by Blue Diamond almonds, Revolution Tea, and Splenda. Checking @BlueDiamond reveals that handle is not being used, @splenda is taken, as is @revolutiontea, but apparently not by the company. Right here two companies are unable to tweet through their brands.

What does this mean for the small business integrating social media into marketing? For one, it’s important to lay claim to your brands in these networks before somebody else does. Especially if you have a recognizable name, people will search for you online, and with blended results Twitter account and other networks will show, so have your bases covered. If somebody has beaten you to the punch, it’s up to you to decide how badly you want your name, and hope the current owner isn’t wondering about the size of your wallet.

Kathryn Lively is a social media specialist assisting clients with social media optimization and travel social media services. Clients include Gainesville hotels, European hotels, and Virginia web design firms.

Is Your Social Media Agency Working For You?

Do all these funny-sounding social media sites cross your eyes? You need help sorting the tweets from the buzzes! Spider Writers can develop a sound social media marketing plan that brings followers to your profiles, and your business. Contact us today at 757-499-1990, ext. 104 for a free consultation.

The decision to hire a firm specializing in social media marketing, over handling your network profiles in-house, can prove beneficial depending on your budget and available manpower. While you are apt to promote your products and services through traditional means (print, radio/TV, and even pay per click models), social media engagement requires a level of communication that doesn’t always come naturally.

Some who are just learning their way around Twitter and Facebook may not feel comfortable taking on the challenge of attracting fans and followers, and as one hires an agency to handle print and broadcast campaigns, it’s natural to hand over social networking to a firm that better understands how it works. That said, you want to be certain the agency you hire is the best one to represent you and your brand.

If you choose to outsource people to monitor and update your network profiles, don’t hand them the keys to all the castle’s minor forts and assume all is well. For every post, tweet, and video upload made, visitors see only you, not the firm working in the background. Take the time to study your profiles as any visitor would view them, and put your firm to the test.

Facing Negative Feedback: Watch your Facebook fan page closely. Are fans allowed to post to the wall, and add photos and reviews? Has your agency restricted fan participation in any way? Do they delete negative remarks rather than leave them up for you to address?

If you plan a Facebook page for your brand, it’s vital to establish the page within your company first before handing the reins over to an SMO firm. When you set up the page, you are listed as the primary admin, meaning you have the ability to add and remove administrators and cancel the page altogether. Do not give this control to somebody outside your company, and as your Facebook presence grows be sure to monitor how your agents react to posts and represent you in updates they share.

Test Response Time: One aspect of social media businesses and others with products/service to promote find valuable is the ability to offer real-time commentary. With most social networks, response time is key in keeping readers updated and interested. As you monitor your brand name in social search, you might find Twitter users especially address you with an “@” reply. Note the timestamp of each missive sent to your account, then track how quickly your agency responds. Do questions, comments, and complaints go ignored? Is that fact noticed by other social users?

As quickly as people can access their accounts – laptops, smart phones, etc. – the manner in which your SMO agency should respond must reflect a timely presence. Otherwise, visitors are likely to accept your social networks as another means of distributing press releases.

Socializing Outside the Box: Thanks to RSS capability, one can integrate social profiles into a number of places. A good SMO agency is always abreast of new developments in social media. You need to ask yourself: how proactive is my agency in getting my brand out there? Are they looking into new networks for possible integration, or are they wasting time signing you up for things you don’t really need? When it comes to analytics, is your agency more concerned about cramming as many bodies into a box as possible rather than concentrating on an audience that is actually interested in your services? It’s easy to get thousands of Twitter followers, if you track down people who auto-follow just for the purpose of being seen, but if you want to maintain genuine interest it’s better to grow an audience naturally. A reputable SMO firm will know this.

As you invest the time in building your social presence, spend some of it watching those who tweet and post on your behalf. The face you present to the world is one that can be shared easily and quickly now, make it a good one.

Kathryn Lively is a social media specialist assisting clients with social media optimization and travel social media services. Clients include Gainesville hotels, European hotels, and Virginia web design firms.

Breaking the Wall: Taking Social Engagement to New Levels

Do all these funny-sounding social media sites cross your eyes? You need help sorting the tweets from the buzzes! Spider Writers can develop a sound social media marketing plan that brings followers to your profiles, and your business. Contact us today at 757-499-1990, ext. 104 for a free consultation.

The challenge in making social networks like Twitter and Facebook useful in your marketing strategy is finding the audience you need for them to remain effective. One might wonder why it’s necessary to devote time tweeting links and information to a handful of followers, when their main website pulls in a healthy amount of traffic through organic or paid search. While it’s difficult to argue with hard numbers, you must also consider this: how much revenue is generated from the search traffic as opposed to referrals from social networks?

Say you were able to track fifty people coming in from search, all of whom stayed on your site for a few minutes to browse before jumping off without clicking through to a conversion. Now think about the ten or so people following your Twitter or Facebook page. If just four of them came to your site via a tweet or social post and went on to contact you or buy something, one can argue the social media is more effective. Four conversions among a small following could be far better than zero leads in a larger crowd elsewhere, and though it’s certain you have no plans to cast aside traditional SEO and PPC efforts in favor of courting this social minority, such a case study will undoubtedly encourage you to take your social marketing to another level.

Making the Breakthrough: Sorting Wheat From Chaff

The established business or organization with an existing opt-in mailing list or blog following may have it easy when it comes to encouraging the masses to move over to Twitter or Facebook. The more options you provide for obtaining information, the stronger your online presence grows. The start-up, however, may encounter roadblocks. What have you to offer anybody in terms of relevant, twittered news, and why should anybody become your fan on Facebook? Why does anybody need to add you to their already bulging list of auto-buys?

Incentive: Think of something you can offer strictly to those who obtain updates via social media. You could offer free samples or deep discounts to visitors who join, and regularly provide unique information not made available on site or in newsletters.

Interaction: With Facebook in particular, fans have the opportunity to share photos and wall conversations about your products, services, and events. One Southern US department of tourism, for example, holds monthly photo contests among its followers and encourages the participation.

Personalization: Because social media encourages real-time interaction, social users may be more inclined to follow a profile if they believe they will receive support in a timely fashion. All you need to do is provide it. Engage people through social networks, and you may find you attract genuine followers rather than SPAM accounts – as people respond via Twitter, their friends will see the replies, and Facebook users will see the notifications on their friends’ feeds. Increased participation makes for good viral promotion.

Kathryn Lively is a social media specialist assisting clients with social media optimization and travel social media services. Clients include Gainesville hotels, European hotels, and Virginia web design firms.

Choosing and Changing Social Media Handles: What is Best for Your Visibility?

Do all these funny-sounding social media sites cross your eyes? You need help sorting the tweets from the buzzes! Spider Writers can develop a sound social media marketing plan that brings followers to your profiles, and your business. Contact us today at 757-499-1990, ext. 104 for a free consultation.

In reading blogs by and interview transcripts with editors and literary agents, one thing I’ve learned about the submission process is that your immediate impression can truly affect the way somebody approaches your query, sometimes even before it’s read. These days, editors and publishers eschew physical mail, preferring to accept novels and non-fiction via e-mail attachments. If you are serious about pursuing a career in, say, penning volumes of academic criticism or political history, you may wish to think twice about sending it from an e-mail handle like “mewanttwinkies”.

The beauty of signing up for e-mail, Twitter, and even social networks like MySpace and Facebook is that you have the opportunity to sign off under a name different from yours. Some of us may not be pleased with being named for a dead uncle or a long-lost high school BFF, but in the Internet world you can create your own personality through your chosen handle. Depending on your industry, you can incorporate your line of work into your nicknames (VirginiaRoofer, InjuryLawyer, etc.), giving visitors a better idea of who you are and what to expect if your handle is found in search.

However, talking with other professionals about social media handles has brought up more than once the question of which names to use to promote products and services. If your brand is not as recognizable as that of a national fast food chain or global insurance or banking corporation, is it more valuable to use the brand name in vanity URLs and handles for Google Buzz and elsewhere, or should one maintain a personal profile and integrate your company’s PR with a more “human” touch?

One example where the face of the CEO is put before the company on social media is growing digital publisher/distribution hub Smashwords. Where Smashwords does have a Twitter account under its own name, it is largely inactive, and visitors are encouraged to follow the company’s founder, Mark Coker. Through his personal account, Coker hypes new innovations at Smashwords while also providing commentary and updates on the publishing industry as they relate to eBooks, digital rights management, and other topics. In a way, one can argue Coker has set himself up as a brand, close enough to Smashwords to build the company, yet far enough away to establish himself independently as an expert in the field. That Coker keeps the inactive @Smashwords account up, with a prominent note to join him at @MarkCoker, connects himself with the brand, while also keeping Smashwords visible in Twitter search.

Now, let’s say you have an established Twitter account, a good number of followers, and an informative feed worthy of archive. Perhaps, you feel, you’ve initially chosen the wrong handle for your network profile’s purpose, and wish to change. If you do so, you won’t lose the followers you have, but the handle switch will require you to edit inbound links to your account, and if others have you listed they will need to do the same. You run the risk, too, of alienating present followers who might not be aware of the switch and wonder how they came to follow this “strange” account.

On the other hand, if you choose to change your Twitter handle to something more relevant to your work you might find followers sign up to read your feed at a greater pace than before because they recognize the brand you now display.

If you are serious about integrating social into your marketing strategy, it’s wise to decide on user names before signing on to anything. The less changes you need to make in your campaigns mean less headaches down the road.

Kathryn Lively is a social media specialist assisting clients with social media optimization and travel social media services. Clients include Gainesville hotels, European hotels, and Virginia web design firms.