ActiveRain Tutorials

Now you really need to get into Google Plus

Jeremy Blanton (210 Consulting~ Social Media Advisors) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:19:33 -0500

Social Search went live this morning on Google. No, not Google Plus – but GOOGLE, the mothership of the internet. They’ve been hinting that social has been influencing the Google algorithm for a while and as of today there’s no more hinting. It’s in your face. Bamm!

Here’s how a search for an Irish Pub in NY looks to me. Remember, I’m in San Francisco. You can see there’s 30 of my friends that have recommendations for me.

Google has placed that right at the top!

I didn’t know I even had 30 friends in NYC, let alone personal recommendations for me.

The truth is, they might be friends, but they might also be friends of friends. That means they might be someone you don’t recognize, don’t know and yet they just influenced your search result! Wow! They might have written a review on Yelp, or uploaded a picture to Posterous, or liked a YouTube video. Those are the rare instances. The majority of what shows up as a ‘recommendation’ in search is either a share to Google Plus or just a simple +1 by them.

That’s why, even though you don’t think you need another social network, you do need to understand what’s happening. Lucky for you, we have help!

January 16th, 2012 1PM Eastern- Understanding The New Google+ with Mike Mueller

Join us with special guest presenter Mike Mueller for an in depth look at the Google+ social network including how to drive traffic back to your website as well as the NEW Business Pages. In this webinar we’ll discuss:

What is Google+?
Step-by-step walkthrough on how to get started
Current useful Google+ applications for business
How to keep Google+ from becoming a time suck.
Understanding how to use this new Social Search to your advantage

With over 62 million users already on Google+, this is a network to definitely consider in your online marketing plan. This is a free webinar with limited seating, so sign up now! Register Here

Originally Posted at: 210 Consulting- Social Media Advisors

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

I am the Co-Founder of 210 Consulting- Social Media Advisors. I have traveled the country as a social media speaker. If you would like more information on any of the topics discussed in this blog, please contact me directly. We specialize in social media training, online consulting, and the creation of your own custom WordPress site.

Feel free to subscribe to my blog to keep up to date with my latest posts of tips & tricks to enhance your experience on ActiveRain. If you would like, you can sign up to receive updates via email directly in your inbox.

Also, let's connect on these great social networks:

Useful Blog Posts:

Twitter Applications- 125 Twitter Tools To Make Twitter Easier To Use

As 2012 Begins, Do You Still Think Twitter Is Stupid

Jeremy Blanton (210 Consulting~ Social Media Advisors) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:41:59 -0500

This past year I've had the honor of traveling the country as a social media speaker sharing on all types of social media topics like using Facebook for business, how to blog, video basics, and many other topics. One of the top statements that I've heard this past year while traveling is some variation of this: "Twitter is stupid, I don't get it" which normally leads into a discussion on how Twitter can be used to help your business.

Is Twitter Stupid or A Great Source of Traffic?

One of the things I usually try to point out to people is that Twitter is a great referring source of traffic to your site. During this past year, it is responsible for 22% of referring traffic. The only traffic referrer to beat it was Facebook at 33%. The bounce rates as well as time on site are very similar between the two social networks. So is Twitter stupid, or a great source of traffic? I'd have to say the latter.

Twitter Is Stupid, Only Celebrities Are There.

This is another common complaint I hear. Since you only hear of big name celebrities like Oprah or Justin Bieber on Twitter in the media, many thing that is the only people signing up and using the social network. Here's a really great visualization of Twitter adoption in the US over the past few years:

As you can see, there are many more signing up for Twitter each & every day. In fact, over 100 million users are active each month according to Mashable.

Twitter is Stupid I Don't Care What You Ate For Lunch

Why should someone care what you ate for lunch or what you did last night for fun. I get it, not everyone is going to care about everything you do. But, if you take some time listening to what others are doing, you can learn a tremendous amount of information about your sphere. And, build some of the strongest relationships with people. This past year I made a trip to Seattle to speak and while there some of my Twitter friends a meetup while I was in town. Thanks to my friends Stephanie, Dale, Linda, & Debra, & Chris, I spent a wonderful evening with a great group of friends, all that I mainly communicate with just through Twitter. So while some may not care about those types of things, I cherish the friendships I have made through Twitter over the past year. I know more about some of my friends on Twitter from the other side of the country than friends of mine that live within 5 minutes of my home.

So Is Twitter Stupid or Valuable?

I am not going to force you to use Twitter in 2012, but as for my business, I know I will be continue to integrate Twitter into my online marketing strategy. If you are not sure how to get started there, that is understandable. Here's a few great resources to get you going in the right direction:

Get More Followers- Chris Brogan
7 Way To Be Hated on Twitter- 210 Consulting
50,000 Tweets and All I Got Was Everything- Scott Stratten

If you want to connect with me on Twitter, you can find me @JB140

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, let's connect on these great social networks:

Useful Blog Posts:

Twitter Applications- 125 Twitter Tools To Make Twitter Easier To Use

With 3 Billion Views Daily, Video is No Longer an Option

Jeremy Blanton (210 Consulting~ Social Media Advisors) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:42:45 -0500

Video, some love it, most hate it. Why? They don't like the way they look on camera, or hate their voice, or some other really bad excuse. But, with 3 billion views daily on YouTube, video is something that your business can no longer ignore. There are simple ways to incorporate video into just about any business that is out there.

As we all know, many people consume things better when they can either hear or see it instead of just reading. Hence why you always should try to include images to keep the consumers interest in your blog posts. However, when you embed a video into the blog post you increase this exponentially.

As I was scanning YouTube videos, I came across this one from a real estate firm in Australia. They do a great job explaining the importance of video in their industry:

As the saying goes, proof is in the pudding. Both the top sales person in the state & country are using video to promote their business. Also, they discuss spending $1,000 on a newspaper ad versus spending $500-$1,000 on a professional looking video. Let's look at this in detail for a moment.

The ad that you place in a newspaper runs for a limited time. Normally only once or twice making it's shelf life very short. Secondly, the reach of that ad is the audience in your city that gets a newspaper. If this was my hometown of Myrtle Beach, SC, the circulation of the paper is about 50,000 daily. So you would be paying roughly $2 per viewer if you are lucky enough to get 1% to view your ad. Since it is not interactive, you would then have to rely on the consumer going to a computer visiting your website, or picking up the phone to call you. Of course this also doesn't take into account those who are not in the market for your product right now, which would make that number dramatically less.

In comparison, if you pay a video company to design a dramatic video or create one yourself for your product/service you are offering the video can easily get thousands of views if you title & tag it properly. The other big differences between the print ad & video is that your video doesn't have a shelf life. Unless you delete the video or have your account suspended, the video can live online for eternity to be found by consumers moving forward instead of just those looking on that day. Secondly, the people viewing your video are those who are typically interested in that thing. They have done some sort of search and landed on your video. So, conversion should be much higher than the print ad.

So, if you have not started with video yet, now is the time to begin. 2012 is a year in which video will continue to remain a strong tool to implement into your online marketing strategy. To help everyone get started in the right direction, I've created a free webinar that will take place on Monday January 9th, 2012 at 1PM EST. Seating is limited, so register now!

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, let's connect on these great social networks:

Useful Blog Posts:

Twitter Applications- 125 Twitter Tools To Make Twitter Easier To Use

Is Your Website Mobile Optimized?

Jeremy Blanton (210 Consulting~ Social Media Advisors) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 14:34:33 -0500

According to Google, mobile traffic queries are up over 4 times those of a year ago. More and more people are surfing the web from their smart phones every day for things. There should no longer be a question of whether or not you need a mobile version of your website.

Having your website mobile optimized means that it will load quickly & easily for any mobile device. If it takes more than five seconds for the page to load, consumers are likely to leave and move on to another site. Also, the amount of data required to open a non-mobile site can turn those with limited data packages away from becoming a regular online customer of yours. If you have images inserted, they need to load properly and I shouldn't need to pinch or zoom to view the items on a page.

Google believes that mobile sites are becoming so important that they recently launched an initiative to help people determine if their site is mobile optimized. HowToGoMo.comoffers you the ability to test your site, learn more about mobile websites and even get help if needed.

Here's a quick demo on how it works:

When you finish the test you will get a brief summary and also the ability to either email or download a Full Mobile Report. Also, if your site does not do so well in the test, they have some great developers available to assist you in building a mobile optimized site for your business.

As someone who uses WordPress and also builds Custom WordPress Sites, I install a plugin called WPTouch onto all the sites I build that helps turn them into a mobile optimized version for when your site is viewed on a smartphone. It is super simple to set up and can be done in less than three minutes. It will make your site look fairly similar to the way mine did in the video demo above.

So, go try HowToGoMo.com and see how your site ranks in their results. If you need help turning your WordPress Site into a mobile optimized version, just ask!

Originally Posted at: 210 Consulting- Social Media Advisors

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, let's connect on these great social networks:

Useful Blog Posts:

Twitter Applications- 125 Twitter Tools To Make Twitter Easier To Use

Creating Better Videos- Audio

Jeremy Blanton (210 Consulting~ Social Media Advisors) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 18:39:07 -0500

This is part three in my series on creating better videos. In our first segment we covered indoor shots and how to keep the light balanced. Then, we discussed why using a tripod is crucial to the quality of your video. For today's segment, we are going to discuss audio.

Good videos are made up of two main components. The images on the screen and the sound that accompanies it. If one of these parts is lacking or missing, the quality of your video goes down. While you may think you need to spend several hundreds of dollars on a good microphone setup, you will be surprised what you can get for under $40.

Before I show an example, let's first discuss the different types of microphones that exist. There are three main types that you may want to use:

Shotgun Microphones- These microphones are highly directional and pick mainly the audio that is just in front of them. It is used many times on movie sets with a boom stand that hangs it overhead those speaking. They can get a little more expensive, but can be effective in situations where you cannot have a microphone 6 inches from your subject. They can pick up sounds usually within 10 feet. Unfortunately though, if you are trying to interview someone in a noisy room, it can be difficult to distinguish their voice and the noise of others speaking in the room.
Handheld Microphones- Handheld microphones are like those used by news reporters. They can be wired or wireless. They provide a good sound of those close to the microphone. If you want the ambient noise of others in the room, this may not be the best option. Also, if the person using the microphone has weak arms and the microphone moves away, you may lose some of what they are speaking.
Lapel Microphones- Lapel microphones provide very good quality audio that will remain consistent as you clip it onto the persons shirt or jacket. These microphones pick up only the person wearing it so if you are trying to interview someone else, this is not the option for you. Unless of course you use an audio mixer and two of them. In the example below, I use a simple $25 Audio Technica ATR 3350 wired version. (aff link)

Here's a demo:

As you can see, adding just a simple $25 microphone changes the quality of your video immensely. No longer do you hear the wind blowing and my voice faintly. Instead my voice now is coming through crystal clear. So, if your camera allows for the use of an external microphone, then put the additional investment into your videos and see the major difference. If your camera doesn't have the option for an external microphone, have no fear! I will have a guest post coming soon that will show you how you can accomplish the same type of audio quality.

To learn more on how to create better videos, check out this presentation that I have shared as a social media speaker on Video Basics.

photo credit: Mike Mueller Areweconnected.com

Originally Posted at: 210 Consulting- Social Media Advisors

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, let's connect on these great social networks:

Useful Blog Posts:

Twitter Applications- 125 Twitter Tools To Make Twitter Easier To Use

Creating Better Videos- Steadying Your Shot

Jeremy Blanton (210 Consulting~ Social Media Advisors) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 18:51:19 -0500

The other day I started a series of posts on creating better videos. The series came from some recent presentations I have given as a social media speaker on using video more effectively in your online marketing strategy. The first post dealt with picking the right angles for your indoor shots. Today we are going to tackle another one of the issues I see in too many videos. The fact that you feel like you are riding a roller coaster throughout the entire video due to the shakiness. If you wonder what I am talking about, here's an example from one of my golf outings.

So how do we go about fixing this problem? Well, absolute easiest is to just use a tripod. It steadies your camera and removes all the shake. You can purchase one for anywhere from $20 for an inexpensive one to some that can cost you several thousands. Personally, I use a tripod/monopod combo from Sunpak that is around $85. (aff link) This tripod is a little taller than some of the others out there which comes in handy if you are taller or interviewing someone who is taller than 5'7".

In addition to this tripod, I also use a smaller lightweight one, but that can can be hard to use since it is so lightweight it causes some vibration when you try to do pan shots. The third tripod I carry in my bag always is a small desktop tripod. This one might get more use than any other tripod I own as it is with me all the time. It doesn't always work the best with the DSLR camera due to the cameras weight, but with the pocket cameras it is perfect.

Here is a quick demonstration video showing the importance of steadying your camera:

So what if you want to shoot a video and do not have a tripod handy? What should you do? Well, obviously you wouldn't want to just give up on shooting the video. Instead, lets think of some other ways to imitate the tripod. Here are just a few things I have done in the past when I don't have a tripod nearby to steady my video camera:

Find a steady flat surface to sit/prop the camera. I've used everything from sidewalks, desks, railings, you name it to steady the camera. I've even used my wallet before to prop a camera up & get that perfect shot.

Put your camera strap on & pull the camera tight against your neck. This will help to steady the camera more than just using your arms.

Find something to lean on. If you can find something to lean your elbows against you can use your arms as a tripod fairly well.

These are just a few ideas, there are plenty more crazy things I've done in the past to try & get the right shot. Have you ever used any of the things I mentioned in the past? Or maybe you have another idea. If you do, please share!

Originally Posted at: 210 Consulting- Social Media Advisors

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, let's connect on these great social networks:

Useful Blog Posts:

Twitter Applications- 125 Twitter Tools To Make Twitter Easier To Use

Creating Better Real Estate Videos- The Indoor Shot

Jeremy Blanton (210 Consulting~ Social Media Advisors) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 22:33:52 -0400

Wow! What a crazy month it has been here for me. Over the past few weeks I traveled several thousand miles to share as a social media speaker at many events around the country. One of the more popular presentations I have done recently has been on video in real estate. In that video I share several video demonstrations on various tools & tips. Things like the importance of using an external microphone, using tripods, etc.

I think these video tips are fairly important and could be useful to others, so I will be sharing these short video examples and tips over the next few weeks here on the blog. Today I am sharing tip 1 for creating better real estate video.

Getting The Right Indoor Video Shot

The biggest issue I have seen in most indoor real estate videos has to do with the camera position. Too many times I see the shot focusing on the windows of a room and shooting directly at them. While it is important to point out the lightness & brightness inside a room caused by a window when trying to sell a home, if you try to convey this the same way in your video that you do when physically in the home with a buyer you end up with all kinds of problems.

Because there is so much brightness, many ignore turning on the lights in the room to try to keep the shot from being over exposed which causes problem one. Then you have the unbalanced amount of light as you pan the room. Most cameras can not adjust fast enough as you pan so you end up with part of your shot looking fine, part completely washed out and then another segment that is so dark you may think you are in a real estate cave. Not to mention the fact that it looks like the room changes color from tans to yellows to grays to whites.

You can spend hours in the editing booth trying to adjust color and exposure in your shot causing you to want to pull your hair completely out. While this option is available, there are others that are much easier. The angle you choose to shoot your video at can fix all these issues almost instantly.

Instead of shooting your video directly into the windows with no interior lights on, move the camera to the other side of the room near your windows. Turn on the interior lights and begin your video shot there. By doing so you will see a more consistent amount of light across your shot without the white balance & exposure changing as many times as a chameleon.

Here's a quick demo video from my recent presentation on Real Estate Video Basics:

So when you shoot your next indoor real estate video, take time to think through the shot to get even steady lighting throughout.

Originally Posted at: 210 Consulting- Social Media Advisors

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, let's connect on these great social networks:

Useful Blog Posts:

Twitter Applications- 125 Twitter Tools To Make Twitter Easier To Use

How Long Tail SEO Can Build Your Business Online

Jeremy Blanton (210 Consulting~ Social Media Advisors) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 11:33:03 -0400

Long Tail keywords are so important to your online business and how it is found in the search engines. If your business has been struggling to be found online, this may be something you want to look into. While you may think that you need to be page one for your main business terms, what you are missing is that it is normally much more difficult to rank at the top of the rankings for these high competition keywords.

However, if you focus on long tail keywords in your site, you will find yourself having a much easier time getting to page one of Google as the competition is normally much less. So, as I shared in the video, if AppliancePartsPros.com focused only on the keyword "appliance parts" in their site SEO strategy, there is a good possibility they would not have had my business the other day. But, because they took the time and wrote content about a specific part as small and inexpensive as it may be, it brought them in a new customer.

As a new customer that had an exceptional experience, I know that if I ever need another part for a small appliance, I know where I will start my search. I also know that whenever I hear someone mention needing a small appliance part, that I will send them over to their site. My guess is that it probably took them a few hours of writing on the specific part & model number to gain page one rankings on Google for the keyword. So in terms of investment, I would say the return has been great.

So, if you are trying to figure out ways to help your business online, maybe it is time to start writing about long tail keywords and let others fight over the highly competitive ones. If you are not sure how to implement this type of strategy into your business, let's schedule a personal coaching session today to discuss this further for your business.

Originally Posted at: 210 Consulting- Social Media Advisors

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, let's connect on these great social networks:

Useful Blog Posts:

Twitter Applications- 125 Twitter Tools To Make Twitter Easier To Use

How to Insert Photos into your blog & Placing Properly to Make Them Pop!

Jeremy Blanton (210 Consulting~ Social Media Advisors) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:24:28 -0400

The number 1 question that I get asked each week by new members is how to insert photos into your blog and move them around. I would guess this question comes up anywhere from 3-5 times each week. Adding photographs to your ordinary blocks of text in a blog post can take your boring posts to another level.

However, many are confused on how to insert photos, or use the different components of ActiveRain's photo editor, so I am going to break this down into several components.

The first part I am going to show you is how to insert photos either from your computers Hard Drive, or from a link to the photo on a web hosting service like Flickr. (Remember to read the TOS of the web hosting site before uploading photographs for commercial use.)

The one advantage to loading your picture to a web hosting site first is that it gives you another link in your blog that helps to build your SEO & Google juice by linking from the photo site to your blog. You will notice that since I uploaded the picture of the Lilly Pads from my photo account, I have the ability to go back & place a link on it as well back to the photo album. Since the picture on the left came straight from my hard drive, there isn't a way to link back to another area. The other nice thing by linking this photograph is that if someone wants to see it much larger, they can click on the picture and will be directed straight to where the photo is available in full size.

This first video will just show the 2 different ways to insert a picture onto your blog. I broke this tutorial into two parts to keep the videos from becoming too long. When you are actually inserting the picture into your blog, you would do both processes of both tutorials before clicking the update button.

This second video shows you how to align the photo in your post, re-size it & also place some white-space around your picture so that the words of your post do not run into your picture.

Here are a few final reminders for inserting photos onto your blog:

Do not use any photo that is not yours without written permission from the owner. Using a photo without permission can result in an instant lawsuit and cost you thousands of dollars!
Remember the importance of labeling your photos!
Keep your photos on your ActiveRain blog under 550 pixels in width. Any wider than that and you can run into major layout issues on your Outside Blog.
Turn off Pop-Up Blockers. The number #1 issue that people run into when trying to insert a picture is that they have a pop-up blocker that is prohibiting them from loading a photo. Sometimes even after changing the settings they run into issues. If this is the case, hold in the CTRL button on your keyboard when clicking the links and it should allow the boxes to load properly.
Give Credit to the Photographer. Some places have a creative commons license which allows you to use another persons photo, but you must give them credit for taking the picture.

The photos I used for this demonstration were taken from my Flickr Set that were taken on my recent trip to Atlanta & our journey to the Atlanta Botanical Garden.

I hope this tutorial answers any questions you may have on how to insert an image into your blog. If you have any other, do not hesitate to contact me.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, let's connect on these great social networks:

Useful Blog Posts:

Twitter Applications- 125 Twitter Tools To Make Twitter Easier To Use

How To Effectively Spam a Facebook Event to Your Friends

Jeremy Blanton (210 Consulting~ Social Media Advisors) — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 14:40:43 -0400

Over the past few days I’ve noticed more an more issues on Facebook with those I am connected to. For the longest of time things seemed to be going well. Then all of a sudden there seemed to be another mental lapse on how to use Facebook for business properly. I wrote yesterday about how to successfully tick off your fans on a Facebook Business Page. Well, this morning another common issue I have noticed on Facebook started running rampant again… people spamming you with events.

We have all had the invitations to a friends event on Facebook at sometime. I’ve heard that there are roughly 3.5 million events created on Facebook each month. If you are like me, you probably feel like you get invited to half of them. In my case though, I seem to be constantly invited to events that are nowhere near applicable to me. For example, today I was invited to an auction in San Clemente, CA. Curiosity got me, so I checked Google Maps, it’s only a mere 2,549 miles from where I live in South Carolina. No matter how amazing and awesome that house may be, the likelihood of me coming across the country to attend this event is almost zero. The same holds true for many more of the 1,300 other people invited to this event.

In fact, many wrote on the event wall complaining about being invited to an event they had no interest in attending or zero chance of traveling across the country to attend. I explain this whole situation a little better here:

So, before you invite everyone you know to your next Facebook Event, take a little bit of time to sort through those you are about to invite. Ask yourself this question: Will this person I invite be glad I sent the invitation or annoyed that I am sending them spam. If the answer is the latter, maybe you should refrain from sending it to them. Just because you invite over 1,000 doesn’t make your event more successful. Instead, inviting those who are likely to attend is a much better strategy to help you use Facebook for Business more effectively.

Originally Posted at: 210 Consulting- Social Media Advisors

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, let's connect on these great social networks:

Useful Blog Posts:

Twitter Applications- 125 Twitter Tools To Make Twitter Easier To Use

3 Ways to Tick Off Your Facebook Fans

Jeremy Blanton (210 Consulting~ Social Media Advisors) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 14:15:14 -0400

One of the top questions I always receive when I am presenting as a social media speaker, is how to get more "likes" to your Facebook page. In fact, over the past few weeks I have seen many blog posts with ideas on how you can do this.

As I was reading through more and more blogs addressing this topic, the more frustrated I became by some really bad advice from these bloggers. Joining Facebook like groups where if I like your page you will like mine? Commenting on popular pages as your business with a link back to your page? C'mon, those are some of the worst options out there. To save you from reading a 3,000+ word novel if I wrote out all my thoughts in a blog post, I decided I would take the time to simply put it all on video for you:

Here's the thing with the number of people who "like" your Facebook page. Does it really matter if you have 4,000 fans if nobody ever takes the time to comment or interact on the page? Not a bit. If nobody is reading your content on your business page, it provides zero value to your business. Bigger numbers do not equate to better. Your page will have a greater return to your business with 200 fans that actually participate and pay attention to it than one with 20,000 that ignores everything.

Also, with the dynamics of Facebook and how it is set up, your business page cannot help but to grow if you have active fans there. Every time they comment, their friends (which they say on average everyone now has anywhere from 130-150) see a link posted on their profile. If you get someone commenting 3 times a day on your business page, the natural reaction is for their friends to get nosy and check it out as well. When they see the good content, they "like" the page & join in as well.

So, don't despise small beginnings on a group, and whatever you do, please do not try the spammy ways to grow your Facebook page. Bogus fans and spammy connections are nothing but a bad formula to create a Facebook Page with zero value.

Originally Posted at: 210 Consulting- Social Media Advisors

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, let's connect on these great social networks:

Useful Blog Posts:

Twitter Applications- 125 Twitter Tools To Make Twitter Easier To Use

The ROI of Social Media is Your Business Will Exist in 5 Years

Jeremy Blanton (210 Consulting~ Social Media Advisors) — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 10:31:42 -0400

I just finished watching the 2011 version of Social Media Revolution from Socialnomics. As usual, they have put together a good visual representation of where social media is right now. They shared some good stats as they normally do. Things like, “If Facebook were a country, it would be the 3rd largest” “eReaders have surpassed traditional book sales,” and “1 in 5 couples meet online.” I enjoyed the stats & the choice of music to go along with years version. It was very well done.

Over the past few days I’ve watched as some of my friends have shared their thoughts on what they feel is the ROI of social media. They have shared their personal opinions on the ROI of social media and there has been some really great discussions that have spawned from it. But, in my mind, one of the most powerful things that social media provides as an ROI is the last statement in the Social Media Revolution 2011 video.

The ROI of Social Media

If you weren’t paying close attention, it might have slid right on by you. In fact, the first time I watched the video I missed part of it and had to rewind to see what exactly it said. They said:

“The ROI of Social Media is Your Business Will Still Exist in 5 years.”

I don’t think a better statement could be made to sum up it’s ROI. Too many times we are focused on the marketing side of social media and how we can turn followers into dollars. The focus shifts from connecting with people to how can we increase our bottom line. Don’t get me wrong, a good social marketing strategy can be huge for a business, just ask VW and their superbowl ad. It has over 39 million views on YouTube. How many cars has it sold? Impossible to say. But, how many conversations has it created? Thousands is my guess. Those thousands of conversations and views turn into consumers who remember your product when they are ready to make a purchase. While it is virtually impossible for VW to measure their ROI on that commercial, my guess is that they have seen more than enough business come from it.

Kill The Social Media Resistance

The time has come to stop fighting the urge to use social media in your business plan and to start forming a game plan. If you feel that social media is just a major waste of time, then you might want to start working on a new invention or business idea because in the next five years there is a good possibility your current source of income will be extinct. What used to be just an option offered by a few is now becoming the norm. People expect to be able to interact with your business on Facebook. They want to be able to ask a question on Twitter and get a prompt response. Fading away rapidly are the days of customer support phone lines and emailing for help. Consumers want instant access and quick responses. If all your competitors are offering it freely and your company isn’t, the consumer will move on no matter how loyal you may think they are. When this begins to happen, this marks the decline in your business until you finally have to close it down. Stop fighting the resistance and start using it today. If you need more reasons to get started, I highly recommend watching Social Media Revolution 2011.

In case you haven’t seen Social Media Revolution 2011 yet, enjoy below:

So the next time someone asks you “What’s the ROI of social media?” simply respond: It means my business will exist still in five years.

Originally Posted at: 210 Consulting- Social Media Advisors

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, let's connect on these great social networks:

Useful Blog Posts:

Twitter Applications- 125 Twitter Tools To Make Twitter Easier To Use

When it Comes To Content Creation- JUST DO IT!

Jeremy Blanton (210 Consulting~ Social Media Advisors) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 19:40:04 -0400

{EAV_BLOG_VER:d4256f5ae13148cf}

So, over the past week or so, there has been quite the conversation going on about what is considered good content. The discussion began on Twitter, and then moved over to a blog post by Rob Hahn, which brought out some really good discussion on the subject. To sum up Rob’s 1,761 words his main point was this:

“Create content that you find compelling and forget everything else.”

While I get the point behind Rob’s post, I don’t necessarily agree with it 100% and here’s why: Someone new to blogging doesn’t know where to start. I get the point of being yourself, writing about your passions & all, but when someone who is new to blogging, you aren’t going to start out by writing the best blog posts, creating the most awesome videos, and everything else. You may have stuff of interest to you and that you are passionate about, which I think are great topics to do, but the fact is that when you are just starting out, you have yet to find your voice in creating that compelling and amazing stuff alone. You content is hit or miss in the beginning. Just like in baseball, you are happy to get home run caliber content once out of every fifty tries.

When I am out speaking to people on how to get started with blogging, I always share this: Your first blogs will stink! The key is to just start. I then go on to tell them about one of my first posts I ever wrote. To save everyone the trouble of trying to find it, I’ve pasted the post in it’s entirety below:

Hot Donuts Now!!!

This Morning while just flipping through some of the odd headlines that pop up when opening up aol, I started reading a story about 23 Retail Stores closing. I mean some of the ones on the list are kinda no brainers, but one that caught my eye was Krispy Kreme!!! What is this world coming to? Instead of closing them up, they need to just turn on the hot donuts signs more often!!! Luckily only 25 stores have closed so far. Hopefully someone in KK will read this post and take my advice!!!

94 Words of waste with twelve exclamation points. The post had absolutely nothing to do with the profession I was in at the time, it was simply just something interesting to me that I thought would make a good topic to write about. If you go on to read many of the other posts that I wrote back at the beginning of my blogging career, they follow along the same lines of terribleness. Unlike many people that start blogging I just started doing it and put an effort into blogging no matter how bad I may realize those posts were in the beginning. That first month I wrote 38 blog posts. Of which maybe only 2 were worthwhile. But, I did not quit, I had decided I was going to do this and would not give up.

After about 6 months, I finally started to get the hang of it and my efforts started paying off as new leads came my way, business started to grow, and my blog was starting to be recognized. It wasn’t too long after that time that the local newspaper contacted me to write for them, major corporations contacted me for interviews, and my content was starting to be published on a national scale. That real estate blog which I have not written anything on the subject of real estate in over two years still makes my phone ring to this day. Now, my entire business model for 210 Consulting revolves around my blog and it is my main source of connections and leads.

The reason this has happened is that I took the same type of stance that Daniel Rothamel took in his response to the conversation with Rob and the others. Daniel’s stance is this: In order for content to be considered good content, it actually has to be created. If I had not started with writing those first blog posts as terrible as they might have been, I would have never made it to the point I am today. Finding your voice in your blog, video, or many other online avenues takes time for many. But, if they never actually start and give it a try, then they will never achieve success. The same is true for the person that starts it and gives up after only a few tries. Like anything in life, it takes time and hard work. I think what sums this up better than anything is a speech given by Art Williams:

So, don’t always worry about the compelling & amazing, just start creating content. There is someone out there that will find your content interesting and you will make connections. Trust me when I say this, I have seen some stuff that is just down right awful that has brought people business. Everyone has their own opinion and you will connect with at least one person if the content is created for them to connect to. Without the content it is virtually impossible to form those connections.

So, like Daniel said,

“There is one thing that ALL good content has in common– it was actually created. The only really bad content is the content that we never create. . .”

I tend to agree. I would love your thoughts and comments.

Photo: Nisha A Creative Commons 2.0

Originally Posted at: 210 Consulting- Social Media Advisors

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, let's connect on these great social networks:

Useful Blog Posts:

Twitter Applications- 125 Twitter Tools To Make Twitter Easier To Use

Never Rent What You Should Truly Own

Jeremy Blanton (210 Consulting~ Social Media Advisors) — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 09:04:07 -0400

I recently finished building a Custom WordPress Blog for a client that had quite the sad story. For the past 2 years he has poured his heart and soul into creating an awesome blog. He worked diligently on making his content rank well in the search engines. He was starting to see results and his business was starting to grow.

But, there was one small problem. He had created his blog on a platform that he didn't own. The blog was built on Blogger. Granted, he had no issues with setup, that only took 5 minutes to do. Another few minutes and he had a pretty nice looking theme chosen. He was now ready to start his blogging career. And best of all, it was FREE!

Then, one day when he woke and went to log into his blog to write his daily post, he had a slight problem. The login was not working. Also, when he tried to pull up the blog, it appeared everything had vanished into thin air! He tried feverishly to contact Blogger and get things reinstated. But, they felt that something he was doing on his real estate blog was against their terms of service and shut him down. Now, what he could have done in writing about a listing or a neighborhood that breaks their TOS, I have no clue.

Two years of work down the drain. Lost forever into the thin air of cyberspace. After several months of fighting to get his blog reinstated, he finally realized that it was time to move on and start on a platform that he had control over and owned. He contacted me & we began the construction of his own Custom WordPress Site. We began the work and now he has his own site that he never has to worry again having a terms of service violation.

As unique as this story sounds, this is something that is a regular occurrence across many of the social media platforms that are out there. Remember the Facebook Page that was shut down for a trademark violation? This same sad story I have seen happen numerous times on places like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, WordPress.com and many other playgrounds within the social space. The problem comes when you are using other networks other than one that you own as your primary business builder.

Instead, you need to use those areas to push traffic to your home base. Here's a graphic from a recent presentation I created for speaking at a few Inman News Agent Reboot events:

If you own your space and use all of these other rental networks to drive people back to you, then you will not be as devastated if something happens to one of the small outer pieces. Here's the way I feel you should set up your entire social media strategy. Have your domain that you are in complete control of and use all the other platforms to drive everything back to where you can convert it into business. Besides, can you actually sell something alone on Twitter? I suppose it could be done just through a conversation, but more times than not, you are going to come to a point in the discussion that you will share a link with the person you are communicating with. That link is going to drive that person away from Twitter and more times than not, directly to your own personal website where they can go from being just a potential lead into a converted customer/client/member. If you drive them to a space you aren't in complete control of, it taeks only a moment for them to misclick and buy from a competitor.

On blogger for example, there's the next blog link at the top. I just clicked on it 3 times in a row. The first place was an accupuncture, followed by a consumer advocate site with Google Ads down the sidebar, and finished with a mortgage site. You can't control where they go, and what they might see next. I'd hate to work so hard on my stuff ranking well in the search engines and spend all that time creating great content to lose the consumer to one accidental click.

So, would you rather own your space, or rent somewhere else that you cannot control?

photo by: joeltelling creative commons 2.0

Originally Posted at: 210 Consulting- Social Media Advisors

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, let's connect on these great social networks:

Useful Blog Posts:

Twitter Applications- 125 Twitter Tools To Make Twitter Easier To Use

Is Social Media Dying? Google Says No!

Jeremy Blanton (210 Consulting~ Social Media Advisors) — Sat, 28 May 2011 23:07:39 -0400

{EAV_BLOG_VER:2b762beae86b955c}

I am constantly traveling around the country as a social media speaker, I get asked over and over if social media is just a fad that will die any moment. Personally, I don't see this happening at any time soon, but while at a recent event in Las Vegas, I had the opportunity to sit in on a presentation by Sam Sebastian of Google. This presentation was probably one of the most informative presentations I've heard in a long time and I will definitely be sharing more information from it over the next few months.

During his presentation, Sam shared statistics on the engagement of consumers in social media. In 2008 41.6% of Americans were using social media. In 2011, this rose to 61.2%. Also, from their predictions, they see this number to continue to rise over the next few years. Their predictions indicate that by 2014 the percentage will rise to 65.8%

Consumers show no signs of giving up on using social media any time soon, and therefore you need to have some sort of social media strategy in place for your business. Here are a few reasons I believe this trend will continue and that Google is right:

1. Smart phone usage continues to increase- During Sam's presentation, he shared that by the end of 2011, half of all Americans will have a smart phone. This means that mobile usage on social platforms will continue to rise. Since all major social networks have made mobile applications that make using their platforms so easy to use, more and more will start using the platforms through their phone.

2. Ease of video creation & number of views increase exponentially- I wrote before about each day over 2 billion videos are viewed on YouTube daily. Sam also shared that popularity on YouTube has increased 2,000% over the past few years. With devices like the Kodak Playtouch that create great videos and smartphones now shooting HD quality video that can be instantly uploaded, I don't see the number of videos created and being watched slowing down any time soon.

So, I ask you, do you think social media is dying? I personally agree with Google when they say no!

Originally Posted at: 210 Consulting- Social Media Advisors

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, let's connect on these great social networks:

Useful Blog Posts:

Twitter Applications- 125 Twitter Tools To Make Twitter Easier To Use