PodCamp Cleveland was Amazing

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Deborah Chaddock Brown

First – a huge thank you to the people that did all of the work behind the scenes at PodCamp Cleveland like Wendy Suto and Alicia Young and so many others. What a wonderful day of networking and learning.

In the next couple of posts, I’d like to share my notes from the three sessions I had the opportunity to attend.

Paula Atwell of Lake Erie ArtistsFirst up…Paula Atwell’s class on HubPages.  I had heard about HubPages but I didn’t really know what it was.  Turns out it is an article platform, but more powerful than the others I’m already on like E-Zine Articles and Squidoo.

Here are my notes about HubPages thanks to Paula:

  • Be very focused on your topics. Not gardening, not gardening in Cleveland but write about planting black tulips in Ohio. Be that focused.
  • The more focused the easier it will be found
  • A similar concept to The Long Tail 
  • Articles need to be more than 300 and less than 1500 words
  • Opposite from traditional writing of starting broad, online you need to be most focused
  • Use keywords – they are vital for writing online
  • Serp: search engine results page
  • Hub pages only taking original copy based on the Google recent changes
  • Sections of the article are called capsules; test, link, photo, map, Amazon, video
  • Align pages up and down or side to side
  • You create the configuration of the page
  • Pages can have a link or not
  • You can include hyperlinks in the text
  • Four ways to earn money on hub pages
  • Need an adsense account
  • You get 60% of impressions and if someone clicks on an ad in your article you get 100%
  • Backlinks from HubPages help your business website
  • As you add new content your traffic and credibility grows
  • Hubber score need to be above 75. A score below 75 and your links become no follow. The score is based on the credibility and value of the content.

Setting up a HubPage account is similar and free.  Think of a niche you are knowledgeable about and then open a Hub page and start writing.  Thanks again to Paula for a great class. Follow Paula and learn more @lakeerieartists

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The Latest Stock Option – You!

Posted on May 3, 2011 by Deborah Chaddock Brown

Are you ready for this? Social media has added yet another way to waste your time – buying and selling each other. Yep, you heard me. Launched this past month, Empire Avenue a website that allows you to buy stock in others that are active on the Internet.

How does it work? It’s free. You set up your account, upload your photo, fill out a description of who you help and how you help them and then link together Empire Avenue with your other social media accounts; Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. The more people you have in your social media accounts the higher your initial stock price.

For every action you complete, you get “dollars” in your stock portfolio so that you can buy stock in others. Each time you complete a level you get little certificates and Empire Avenue encourages you to send a tweet to let your peeps know.

So let me digress for a little bit. 

I have a 14 year old daughter who I will not allow to be on Facebook. So about two years ago, she and her friends set up accounts on Gaia. A children’s social network site. They can upload avatar images that represent themselves, fill out a bio of their likes and dislikes, link to friends and play games. Each time they complete a level they get “dollars” in their account that allow them to spruce up their site and “buy” things for their avatar.

Wait.  Did I just describe Empire Avenue twice???

Okay, so I got sucked in. I signed up – my stock opened at $18 (it is up over a dollar today) and I linked my accounts and tweeted my friends, I bought stock in a few people, but when it popped up that I’d gotten a certificate and opened a new level on the site I smacked my forehead.

This is the adult version of Gaia. 

Then I looked at the clock.

Where had that hour gone?

Sucker.

So what do you think?

How do you feel about a site that has people buying each other? Oh man….this just can’t end good.  Share your thoughts in the comments section below unless you are a spammer (which there have been a lot lately) and to you I say “good day.”

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Too Much Social Media Hurts Your Brand

Posted on April 20, 2011 by Deborah Chaddock Brown

Too Much of a Good Thing

There is a guy in my LinkedIn network that loves to answer questions. Each week on my LinkedIn status update I find that he’s answered 50+ questions in the areas of his expertise.

Some may say “wow he clearly knows a lot.”

Not me. I say “Is this guy out of work? Has he nothing better to do with his day?” So one week I got curious and I visited his website. He is a marketing consultant. So now my question is “How does he have time to work with clients if he spends it all answering questions.”

Not long after I was having a struggle with a video I had uploaded to YouTube and so I went to LinkedIn and asked a question. Guess who was the first person to answer? Yep. Mister Know-it-all. Guess, what – he doesn’t know that much.

His answer? And I quote:

Happened to me also… Couldn’t find any solution either…

I wanted to reply – THIS is how you get to 50 answers a week? By wasting my time with your non-answers? I was livid. Not because he didn’t have an answer, but because he knows that his non-answer racks up points in the game of “who can answer the most questions.” So if someone didn’t dig deeper they might think “wow, this guy knows his stuff.”

There is a fine line in social media with reaching out, connecting, driving traffic to your website, improving your search engine results and then just wasting a bunch of time.

Rachel Farrell of Career Builder wrote an article recently called How Social Media Can Kill Your Career.

“If you are very active on social media, an employer should question how your online activity is contributing to the company’s mission and achievement of your individual goals,” says Michael R. Neece, president and chief operating officerof JobTacToe.com. “An employer would certainly ask what is not getting done by you spending so much time socializing on social media sites.”

Think about your social media participation. Be strategic, thoughtful and add value. Be the one people look to for advice, not the one people talk about behind your back.

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Let Your Fingers Do the Walking Through Social Media

Posted on April 18, 2011 by Deborah Chaddock Brown

How many of you still use the paper Yellow Pages that comes crashing onto your front porch a couple times a year? I mean use it for something other than a door stop or booster seat for your toddler?

We have been conditioned to seek out the nearest computer or mobile device to check online for what we use to look for in the phone book.

So if everyone is looking on the computer – are they going to find you?

When was the last time you updated your website?

If someone tweets about you – do you know how to listen and respond?

If someone asks a question that is right up your alley on Linkedin – do you take the time to respond? Did you even know that people asked questions on LinkedIn?

Social media is changing and growing and taking over our lives. We can’t afford to take an “oh well” attitude unless we are ready for retirement. Even then you’ll need to know Facebook to share pictures with your children.

If you aren’t visible and active on social media – you don’t exist!  Harsh, but true.

Call me – I can help. With regular updated content. With training for your employees. With one on one consulting for you. 330-414-8792. You don’t have to be in this alone – hey, I’m over 50 and I’m figuring it out and so can you!!

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Alexa a Great Website Writing Tool

Posted on April 17, 2011 by Deborah Chaddock Brown

So how popular is your website or blog? Do people link to you? Do people visit? How do you know?

One way is to install Google Analytics on your site. It allows you to track the actual visitors, how long they stay, what pages they visit and so on.

Another tool to be aware of is Alexa. Find out the strength of your site, how many pages link to you and what key words your site is known for. It is great information and can provide valuable insight into what key word phrases you should be using in your updated website and blog content.

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Are You Aware of All the Social Media Sites?

Posted on April 13, 2011 by Deborah Chaddock Brown

Yesterday on Us Media Radio, Candace Benson and I talked about the different social media sites that are available. We both mentioned a couple of websites that we like.

Candace likes Traffikd – it has a very active blog and then if you click on the social media sites tab, it provides the different social media sites broken down by interest category:

List of Social Media and Social Networking Sites

This page will be continually updated to add new resources, so please use our contact form if you know of a site that should be included.

Categories: (click on a link or scroll down the page)

Arts, Bookmarking, Cars and Auto, Connecting with Friends, Consumer Reviews, Cooking/Food, Cultures/Foreign Language, Dating, Education/Books, Event Planning, Family, Fashion/Clothing, Finance, Games, General Networking, Health/Medical, Internet Marketing, Link/Website Sharing, Microblogging/IM/Mobile, Movies, Music, News, Pets, Photo Sharing, Politics, Pop Culture, Professional, Real Estate, Religious, Shopping, Social Action, Sports, Technology, Teen, Travel, Video Sharing, Women, Miscellaneous

I like Knowem.  The reason I like this site is that you can check over 550 social media sites to see if your preferred user name is available. This helps with your consistency across all site.

Search over 550 popular social networks and over 40 domain names to instantly secure your brand across the social web.

Protect your brand or username from social media identity theft
This site also categorizes the social media sites but not by interest, rather by function:  blogging, business, networking, etc.
Both sites are worth a look. 
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Words: The Most Powerful Part of a Great Website

Posted on April 11, 2011 by Deborah Chaddock Brown

You’ve heard about “spinning” a message and people who can artfully “turn a phrase.” It truly is an artform. Two people can say exactly the same thing with totally different results. Website content that effectively tells about the solutions you offer is the difference between having a reader stay on your site to learn more or leave within the first five seconds.

Following is a video that offers an amazing example. Hang in until the end to see what the woman does with the simple message this blind man is trying to convey. 

Now look at your website content. Do you turn a phrase? Do you paint a picture? Do you need help?  Call me 330-414-892.

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Create a 30 Second Commercial with Animoto

Posted on April 2, 2011 by Deborah Chaddock Brown

Have you heard of Animoto? It is a great online tool for combining photos and an audio track in an animated way to communicate a message. I first used it to create a little video as a memory keepsake of the Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana concert my daughter and I attended. It was easy and fun.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

That was two years ago and I guess I had forgotten what a fun tool it was and frankly didn’t think of it in terms of business. But Thursday I attended the monthly Akron Bloggers meeting and one of the members talked about using Animoto and so I thought about how I might combine testimonies of people who have heard me speak with photos and an audio track of my 30 second commerical. See what you think:

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

People gather information in many different ways; in person, through reading and also visually. Creating a video is a great way to demonstrate your products and services, however, some people are intimidated by the equipment and the process, how they look and how they edit. Animoto is a great solution because they do all the work.

You:

  • Upload photos from your computer
  • Select music – if you don’t own the rights to music, they offer a wide collection of different music styles
  • Your own audio – if you want to include a personal message, like I did – you can record your voice into a similar program like Audacity and save it as an MP3 file and then upload
  • Select your freeze frame picture from the images you’ve uploaded
  • Write a title for your video and a brief description – make sure you include key words
  • Click the create button and just wait for Animoto to do the rest.

Once the video is created – takes about 3-5 minutes depending on the size of your photo files – you are given the option to upload to YouTube, share on Twitter, Facebook or other social sites or embed a copy into your website or blog like I have done.

Each 30 second video is free. You can pay $5/month and create longer videos that also will not include the Animoto logo, but for now their free option  suits my needs. 

Okay – what are you waiting for? Get started and then send me the link in the comments section so we can all take a look at your video.

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Podcamp Cleveland is Just Around the Corner

Posted on March 29, 2011 by Deborah Chaddock Brown

podcamp cleveland badge

Mark your calendar for April 30, 2011 – all day Saturday you will be joined by leaders in the social media industry as well as newbies to the medium. It is an unconference, by that I mean, no one is making any money, everyone volunteers their time and if you have knowledge to share – you can sign up to be a speaker.

It is the only conference I’ve attended where participants actively text, tweet and video chat as they are learning. Every techno gadget comes out to play and people meet in the hall and in the cafeteria to make new friends and say “Hey – cool, can I try that?”

Last year was the first Podcamp event in Northern Ohio, previously I had to travel with several other social media enthusiasts to Columbus. I have been an attendee and speaker at Podcamp Ohio and Podcamp Cleveland and it is always fun to meet up in person with the people you follow, friend and link to online.

Visit Podcamp Cleveland to register for a seat – the conference is free unless you’d like to donate $25 and become a sponsor – and check back often to see the seminars that will be offered. The agenda is usually set the night before as people step up and offer to present new and interesting topics. Each hour you’ll have multiple classes to chose from; some high tech and many for the beginner, all designed to help provide new tips and ideas that will help promote your business online.

You don’t have to be a business owner, a marketing expert or a computer genius – just someone interested in learning more about social media.

Hope to see you there!  Click here to register for Podcamp Cleveland.

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Every Website Page is Your Home Page

Posted on March 25, 2011 by Deborah Chaddock Brown

You just never know where an organic search will land a prospect. In a recent Entrepreneur Magazine article, the author, Mikal Belicove, reminds us to make sure we have all of our important company information on every page.

When a prospect begins a Google search, they type in key word phrases that may result in finding one of your sub pages like an article you’ve written, a press release or an event that took place last year. Mikal says make sure every interior page has the following:

  • Company logo and tagline
  • Consistent navigation including search
  • A call to action – BOTH ABOVE AND BELOW THE FOLD (that was something I didn’t know and will now have to go back and fix for my site!)
  • Clear, concise, compelling, grammatically correct website content (look for assistance, a second pair of eyes to view your content to make sure you haven’t used a wrong word or forgotten a word – spell check is only good for a small piece of the editing)
  • Consistent design and colors
  • Advertisements to promote featured products, services and special offers.

View each of your website pages as if this were the home page.  What is missing? Would a reader know who you are and what you stand for if they enter on the Contact Us Page?

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