This is a guest post from social media strategist Taylor Ellwood

Most of what’s discussed about social media is business and how social media can be used to help businesses engage in social media activities. But there’s more to social media than just business and how it can be used to promote business.

Social media is a social medium. It’s conversation between people, it’s jokes, and sometimes it’s sadness, and sometimes its other things altogether. When we treat social media as a tool to accomplish something, we still need to remember that it’s much more than that. Being social is sharing more than just information…it’s sharing personality, and people like to interact with other people.

So what can you do to make your time on social media social as well as business oriented?

1. Post updates about a hobby you enjoy doing.
   If you like bird watching or photography, or something else, share it. You might be surprised at the responses you get, because other people might share those same hobbies. And the beauty of it is you get to know people a bit better and share in something you mutually enjoy. You might even make some new in-person friends as a result to enjoy that hobby with.
2. Tell people about a fun activity you or something you enjoyed watching or reading.
   Telling people what you’ve watched or read can also create opportunities for engagement. For example, telling people about the latest episode of a show I watched created an opportunity to talk about that show and what people thought about it.
3. Tell a joke.
   Keep it tasteful, but it can be fun to tell an occasional joke and see what response you get. You can even make a game out of it, if you get enough people involved.
4. Ask questions.
   People like to be asked questions, so if you see an interesting post and want to know more ask questions. It can be a great way to get to know people better and it also shows them that you are interested in them.
5. Share a story with people or make one up.
   I once participated in an online twitter story, helping to come up with some of the writing. We had a lot of fun and it was a great way to be silly and be social on social media. Telling a story on a social media site can also be a great way to get the creative juices flowing, especially if you get other people helping you write the story. Make it a collaborative, learning project.

Remember that social media is social. It doesn’t always have to be about business. In fact making it fun can be a really great way to show people you’re connected with that you’re more than a business logo and that you want to get to know them as people. And really, in the end, don’t we all want to be treated as people first, and clients second?

What is social about social media? is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

WebVisions Hosts Lunch 2.0 at Hot Pepper Studios Today Wednesday April 14th at Noon

We will be heading out to Lunch 2.0 today. Lunch 2.0. Our host will be Brad Smith at Hot Pepper Studios, 3377 SE Division St., Suite 104, Portland, OR 97202 at noon.

WebVisions Lunch 2.0 Portland

• “A social phenomenon referring to a migration of web 2.0 company employees to other offices around the Portland area; characterized by open communication, decentralization of authority, freedom to share food and ideas…”
• “The lunch as a conversation.”
• “Welcome to Lunch 2.0… you are now free to eat around Portland.”
• “Taste the buzz”
• Web 2.0 backlash

Brad is the visionary and driving force behind WebVisions. This year WebVisions is celebrating their 10th anniversary.

WebVisions this year is being held May 19th thru May 21st at the Oregon Convention Center.

I have actually been able to procure a discount for all my readers to this year’s Webvisions.

Tomorrow is the last day for submissions for the highly coveted WebVisionary awards. Each year Webvisions honors the most visionary, daring, and curious talent on the web by awarding them with a miniature robot. So get your robot in gear and submit today!

I’ll see you at both today’s Lunch 2.0 and WebVisions.

Late,
Gary Pool SEO

Lunch 2.0 Today at Hot Pepper Studios The Founders of WebVisions is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

Guest video blog post by social media strategist Taylor Ellwood

In the video below I discuss why I video blog, and why I think video is an underused resource. Video should be incorporated into your social media presence. The advantage of doing so, is that it allows you to show people you and what you are doing, as opposed to just telling them.

Social Media Coach: Why I video Blog

Why I Video Blog is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

This is a guest post by social media strategist Taylor Ellwood.

What is Social bookmarking?

Social bookmarking allows you to bookmark a website or blog on the web, instead of on your browser. This is useful, because if you lose your computer or it dies, you also lose all the bookmarked websites on your browser. By having them on the web, you can always retrieve the websites that interest you.

But social bookmarking does more than just that. When your website or blog is bookmarked on a social bookmarking site, a backlink is generated, which can help with the SEO for your site or blog. Additionally people can tag, share, and rate your website or blog, and even leave commentary. This can be very useful for sharing information about your website with other people, and consequently makes social bookmarking a form of passive marketing. You put a social bookmarking button on your website and let other people bookmark it and share it other people, which means they are marketing your website or blog for you.

Is Social Bookmarking important for raising visibility?

Social bookmarking is increasingly more important especially for bloggers. Bloggers use social bookmarking to draw more readers to them, by creatively using tags and notes to tell people about articles they’ve written. Also readers will sometimes tag articles they’ve come across when they really like the article. Additionally readers can, and will, rate the articles which can improve traffic to the blog, if its rated high enough.

Social bookmarking can also be applied to regular websites and it’s useful to utilize it as a way of drawing more traffic to your site. By tagging your site, you are informing people about what it is, what it offers, and at the same time drawing more traffic to it. Social bookmarking will become more important for businesses because it provides another way for people to find those businesses and even rate them.

How do I get started with social bookmarking?

There are a number of different sites that do social bookmarking. Some of those sites are focused on bookmarking specific types of information. Bibliomancy for instance focuses on scholarly sites and blogs, while newsvine tends to focus news articles and blogs. Obviously not just any social bookmarking site will work. So which ones should you look into and what should you use them for?

Google: You can bookmark sites on google. Enter some tags, and notes about the website.

Delicious: this is an excellent social bookmarking site, which adds some buttons to your browser, which makes it easier to tag sites or articles you find.

Digg It: Another useful site for social bookmarking. It does seem to be more focused on blog articles, but I’ve used it to tage all of my business websites. Unfortunately you have to go to the digg it site to actually tag a relevent site.

Stumbleupon: This is probably the most popular social bookmarking tool. Not only can you tag a site but you can also indicate if you like it or not and even email the site to friends.

When you tag an article or website, include relevant phrases, names, and other information that will help people learn more about the article or site, as well as of course be searchable for people looking for something specific.

The notes section allows you to add relevant notes about what you are bookmarking. Enter a short description about the article or about the websites and services/products offered on it.

Why do I want to use social bookmarking?

It allows you to bookmark relevant pages, rate them, and draw more traffic to your articles and/or websites. It’s also a useful way of categorizing interesting sites or articles you find and sharing them with other people. It can help you raise your visibility and grab people’s attention in regards to your products and services. Since using social bookmarking, I’ve noticed a slow but steady increase in traffic to my blogs. When I check the google anlaytics for my websites, I believe I will see a similar trend. While more traffic doesn’t automatically guarantee more business, social bookmarking does provide another way for you to reach out and connect with people interested in your services and products

How Social Bookmarking can raise your visibility is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

Learn SEO, Social Networking Marketing, PPC, Google Analytics, and More

This year the Internet Marketing Conference at Portland State is being held December 7th 2009 from 11:30am to 8:00pm, this includes a networking event, at Portland State University, 1515 SW Fifth Avenue on the 10th Floor.

PSU’s IMC is one of the most important events for those business leaders and marketing professionals looking to stay up to speed on the latest in online development. It doesn’t matter whether you are a beginner or a seasoned professional there are tracks that will allow you to learn at your own pace.

PSU’s Internet Marketing Conference is the single best opportunity for Portland-area digital marketing professionals,” say Dennis Hahn, CEO ID Branding. “You’re going to have to go to San Francisco or New York to get anything like this.

I have included a special discount code for my readers at the bottom of this post.
(Post from Search Engine Optimizician.)
Sessions Include:

• Diverging Analytics Solution Landscape
• Media in a Convergence Culture, Understanding Marketing in the YouTube Age
• Managing Your Message in the Digital Realm: Content Strategy Fundamentals
• Digital Marketing Trends
• Creating Meaningful Experiences in the Mobile Space
• The Phases of Social Media Integration & Adoption
• Social Search
• Link Building for Search Engine Rankings
• Digital Marketing Trends: Turning “Blah, Blah, Blahs” into “Aha!s”
• Content Strategy: The Missing Link to True Usability and an Effective Website

The special discount I worked out with Portland State is for a $35 discount off the regular price of $125 or $90. If you have a group of 5 or more you can use the discounted rate of $65 each.

To use the individual discount rate use the code LINKED90 here.

To use the group discount rate use the code Group65 but you must use this code by phone 503 725-4832.

Last years event was great and it looks like this one is going to be even better.

See you there. Be sure to introduce your self to me.

Late,
Gary Pool

Internet Marketing Conference at Portland State University is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

Everyone is all astir over Linkedin finally connecting its status updates to twitter, but in my opinion, this recent update is not as wonderful as it first seems. In fact, in the few days since it’s been started, I’ve already seen the quality of status updates on Linkedin degrade because people aren’t using #in for sending tweets, but instead are sending all of their tweets over to Linkedin. I’ve learned more about cats, sports teams, and other equally irrelevant information (for Linkedin) in the past few days because people haven’t exercised the proper awareness of how to use the new Linkedin Twitter connection effectively.

A good example of the right way to use the twitter-linkedin connection and the wrong way to use it can be seen in the screenshot below. The top post is the wrong way to use the linkedin-Twitter connection. The person has responded to someone on twitter, but that post has also been sent to Linkedin. In fact, every time this person posts a tweet, it will show up in Linkedin. The result is that we’ll see a message, which isn’t relevant on Linkedin, because even if it’s a professional message, it’s a reply to someone else on Twitter, as opposed to Linkedin. And of course we could also get more mundane and non-appropriate posts, such as the post about a sports team. It’s not remotely relevant to Linkedin, because it’s not a professional update. It’s actually rather unprofessional and is a good example of how to use a social network inappropriately.

The post from the person in the middle is appropriate to Linkedin, at least in terms of describing something professional. He’s also chosen the option where the post from Twitter will only appear if he uses #in. That hashtag indicates that the message should get posted on both Twitter and Linkedin. Without that hashtag, his post will only go to Twitter (and other services he’s connected to Twitter).

What’s happened with the Twitter and Linkedin connection is that most people have simply connected Twitter to Linkedin without using the #in tag. The result is that a lot of non-professional tweets and responses to people in twitter are showing up on Linkedin, but the material isn’t really relevant to Linkedin as a social networking site. This diminishes the usefulness of Linkedin, in terms of status updates, because many of the status updates aren’t relevant to the purpose for using Linkedin.

To set-up your Linkedin and twitter connection, click on the blue Twitter icon. A new window will appear, asking you to authorize the connection. You’ll need to enter your twitter handle and password, in order to authorize the connection.

After you’ve authorized the connection, the window will display the settings for the Twitter-Linkedin connection. Make the Twitter account visible to everyone, unless you don’t want people to see it on your profile. On your profile page, people will see a link to your twitter account, which will allow them to connect with you on Twitter if they choose.

Under share your Tweets in your LinkedIn status DO NOT select all tweets. If you do people, will see all your tweets, including ones which aren’t relevant to Linkedin. Instead select “Only tweets that contain #in.” This way the only time your Linkedin status will update to your twitter account is if you’ve actually included the hashtag in your message. Yes, this means you will need to include the hastag, but this will also help you determine if the update you’re about to post is really relevant to your audience on Linkedin.

If you need to change your twitter settings at any time, simply click the blue twitter icon again and select Twitter Settings. You’ll then be able to change any settings you’ve made to your Twitter-Linkedin connection.

Remember that as tempting as it might be to send all your tweets to Linkedin, it defeats the purpose of the status update feature in Linkedin, if any of those tweets aren’t relevant to your professional activities. Also, when it’s a response to someone on Twitter, it won’t really make sense because the context of the conversation is missing. Restrict your tweets to Linkedin by using the hashtag #in and you’ll not only be using the connection properly for professional activities, but you’ll be showing a sophisticated awareness of how to use social media properly. Remember Linkedin is not Twitter and should not be treated as such!

Taylor Ellwood
Business, Writing, & Social Media Coach

How to use the new Twitter Linkedin connection properly is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

Is Your Cell Phone Killing You?

Being in business today means that you have a cell phone. How can you do any marketing or networking without being able to communicate with your clients on the fly?

In today’s world lightening fast communication is at the top of the expectations list. We all have our smart phones so we can keep up with our emails, phone calls, twitter, facebook, and the rest of our social media media. It seems that the perception is that if you don’t have a cell phone or even a smartphone today you are not really in business.

Recent studies link cell phone radiation to:

Brain cancer: Two research groups independently analyzed all data from 25 original studies of cell phone users, and identified a 50 to 90 percent increase in risk for two types of brain tumors: glioma and acoustic neuroma (Hardell 2009, Kundi 2009).

Salivary gland tumors: An Israeli study found an increased risk of 50 to 60 percent for salivary gland tumors among people with highest cell phone use (Sadetzki 2008).

Behavioral problems: A study of 13,159 Danish children showed 80 percent elevated risk for emotional and hyperactivity problems among young children who use cell phones and whose mothers also used cell phones during pregnancy (Divan 2008).

Migraines and vertigo: A study of 420,095 Danish adults showed that long-term cell phone users were 10 to 20 percent more likely to be hospitalized for migraines and vertigo than people who took up cell phones more recently. (Schuz 2009).

The Environmental Working Group has put out a pretty informative study on the risks of cell phone technology. The executive summary Cell Phone Radiation Science Review is pretty eye opening.

We at Environmental Working Group are still using our cell phones, but we also believe that until scientists know much more about cell phone radiation, it’s smart for consumers to buy phones with the lowest emissions. The U.S. government ought to require cell phone companies to label their products’ radiation output so that consumers can do the numbers at the point of sale. It doesn’t, so EWG has created this user-friendly interactive online guide to cell phone emissions, covering over 1,000 phones currently on the market.

Here are some high and low rankings according to this study.
“W/kg” stands for watts per kilogram, a measurement for power density.

The 10 smartphones with the highest radiation

1. T-Mobile MyTouch 3G (1.55 W/kg)
2. Blackberry Curve 8330 (1.54 W/kg)
3. Palm Treo 600 (1.53 W/kg)
4. T-Mobile Shadow (1.53 W/kg)
5. Palm Treo 650 (1.51 W/kg)
6. Blackberry Curve 8300 (1.51 W/kg)
7. Blackberry Bold 9000 (1.51 W/kg)
8. Sony Ericsson P910a (1.50 W/kg)
9. HTC SMT 5800 (1.49 W/kg)
10. BlackBerry Pearl 8120/8130 (1.48 W/kg)

It looks as though with 2 out of the top 10 T-Mobile leads the pack with the highest radiation.
As a manufacturer Blackberry holds 40% of the top 10.

The 10 smartphones with lowest radiation

1. Nokia 9300i (0.21 W/kg)
2. Nokia 7710 (0.22 W/kg)
3. T-Mobile MDA Wiza200 (0.28 W/kg)
4. Samsung Impression SGH-a877 (0.35 W/kg)
5. Nokia 9300 (0.44 W/kg)
6. Samsung Propel Pro SGH-i627 (0.47 W/kg)
7. Samsung Gravity SGH-t459 (0.49 W/kg)
8. BlackBerry Storm 9530 (0.57 W/kg)
9. Nokia E90 (0.59 W/kg)
10. Nokia N96 (0.68 W/kg)

At the other end of the spectrum Nokia leads the manufactures with a full 50% of the lowest radiation phones.
An honorable mention to Samsung with a 30% share of the list.

What about the new droid? …
(Post from Search Engine Optimizician.)

Bluetooth radiation emissions

Will it help if I use my Bluetooth headset?

According to the findings and recommendations by government agencies and researchers in various countries, the use of Bluetooth headsets with cell phones decreases the overall levels of SAR exposure to the head.

(American Cancer Society 2008; BfS 2005; Martinez-Burdalo 2009; Swiss Federal Office of Public Health 2009a)

Just like the Environmental Working Group, we are still using our cell phones too.

The comprehensive study from the Environmental Working Group is available as a PDF download.

Late,
Gary Pool

Cell Phone Radiation – Will My droid Kill Me? is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

Twitter lists is twitter’s version of groups

It’s similar to a group you might create on Tweetdeck or Seesmic, but there are several advantages to creating a list on twitter. The list feature allows you to organize the people you’re following on Twitter, or find new people to follow. When you look at the list you can get an overview of what those people are up to. So far that sounds like what Tweetdeck and Seesmic offer with their group feature, BUT the lists feature also allows you to add someone to your list that you aren’t following. So, for example, if you know someone who tweets a bit too often for your taste, but you’d still like to keep an eye on them, you can add them to a twitter list and then check up on them, without having to actually follow them.

Still, you might wonder at the wisdom of creating a list on twitter, as opposed to creating a group on Tweetdeck or Seesmic. In my opinion, you can and should create both. While you’ll likely be using Tweetdeck or Seemic more to monitor and manage your conversations, creating a list on Twitter allows you to also add the group functionality on the site. Additionally, because you can add people to the list that you don’t follow, you can keep up with what they are doing, by checking your list on twitter. Finally, because lists are public (unless you choose to make them private), other people can actually see your list, and you can also see who has added you to a list. This is a functionality that isn’t offered by other platforms, and it can be useful for determining what kinds of lists you appear on.

I would suggest creating the following types of lists:

• Industry: Create a list following people in your industry and related industries. This could also be a list where you keep  track of your competition and anything new they are doing. I’d suggest making this list private, if you don’t want to tip people off that you are keeping track of them.
• Co-worker/Employee: A company or employee may want to create an employee or co-worker list to keep track of what employees or co-workers are saying. This can have its advantages and disadvantages in terms of how people may respond to that. On the one hand, it’s useful for monitoring what is being said by representatives of the company, and on the other hand it can come across as big brotherish. If you do create this list, you may want to keep it private.
• Networking/Referral/mentors: If you do a lot of networking, you may want to create list for people who you network with on a regular basis. It can help you see what they are up to and also help you think of them. I’d also include mentors in this list because these are people you want to network with and learn from.
• Local: It can be useful to create a list of local people, to keep up with what they are doing, or what’s happening in your city or hometown.
• Media: Keep track of editors of magazines, radio shows, or TV people you want to stay in touch with or work with. This list allows you to focus exclusively on those people.

These are just a few examples of lists you can create. You can create up to twenty lists, with a maximum of 500 followers per list, though this number will likely change as times goes on. I do recommend creating lists and logging into twitter to check them, especially to see what the people you aren’t following are saying.

You can also see what lists you are on by selecting the listed link. You can even choose to follow someone else’s list, by clicking on the name of list, and then on the list page selecting the Follow this list button.

There are also several third party sites that provide information on lists. Listorious is maintains a categorized directory of Twitter lists that you can search or browse through. TweetMeme Lists is another tools, which focused on the most popular lists, the ones that have been tweeted about the most. Using either of these sites can help you find more lists, if you want to follow the lists other people create. Personally, I’ve opted to just create my own lists and keep track of them. I might look at another person’s list occasionally for people I’d like to add to my lists, but I’d prefer to only keep track of my own.

How to create a twitter list

Creating a new list is easy to do. Login to twitter and click on the new List link. After you’ve done that a new window will appear asking you to name the list and indicate if it is a public or private list. Choose a name for it that is descriptive for you. I chose the name of example, but you can obviously pick a more descriptive name than that.

After you’ve created the list you’ll be taken to a page where you can start to find people to add them to your list. You’ll also have the option of going to your follow page to add someone there.

Once you’re on the follow page, select the lists icon and then select the checkbox next to the list(s) you want to add a person to. Remember you don’t need to follow the person to have him/her on the list.

If you ever want to edit or delete a list, select view lists and then select the link to the list you want to edit or delete. Delete gets rid of the list, while edit allows you to edit the name and the privacy settings of the list. You can also get off of someone else’s list, by blocking them, which will then remove you from their list.

Taylor Ellwood
Business, Writing, & Social Media Coach

How to use Twitter Lists to monitor topics of interest is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

One of the features I like on Twitter is the search engine

Recently they’ve even improved it, so that you can do a search on twitter for a specific topic while logged in. You can search for industry specific topics, keywords, and phrases to see what people are tweeting about, in relationship to what you offer.

For example, if you’re a business owner who creates wedding invitations, a search phrase to use would be wedding invites or wedding invitations. You would enter the information into the twitter search box, and press search.

Twitter will then display real time results for the phrase you searched for. Thos results will show you what people are saying about that specific subject, and can sometimes be useful as a way of determining what someone needs. Below are search results I got when I typed the phrase wedding invites and searched for it.

As you can see there’s some definite conversation around wedding invites, but not all of them will be ones that a business would send a reply to. However, LisaWeddingGirl, Fastpitch, and maxturner are a few people that someone who does wedding invites could make a response to. To make a response you simply hover your mouse to the right of the message by the person and click on the arrow (see picture below). Then an @ symbol and the name of the person will be displayed and you can write your response.

When making a reply, I don’t recommend replying with a link. Reply, instead, with a helpful suggestion, and if you get a response, follow-up with another one, and then follow up with a link. Remember, you need to build rapport, and a relationship with this person, before trying to direct that person to your website. Also, there’s no guarantee that the person will go to your website, but in general, if someone feels you are being helpful, they’ll at least check it out.

The search engine on twitter is pretty powerful and useful. I recommend logging onto the twitter site directly a couple times a week, at least and doing a search on what people are commenting on that relates to your industry. If you’re feeling really adventurous and want to take you social media marketing up a notch, do a search on twitter a couple of times a day on words or phrases that are associated with your industry and start making some responses to people.

Taylor Ellwood
Business, Writing, & Social Media Coach

How to use Search on Twitter is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

The Ins and Outs of Using Video Effectively on Your Website by Taylor Ellwood

Something I’ve noticed a lot when I’ve visited different business websites is how they do or don’t incorporate video into their website, and if they do incorporate, whether they do it in a way that is respectful of the visitor, or ends up coming off as potentially invasive.

The screenshot below is an example of a video I would consider invasive to someone visiting the website where the video starts. As soon as you as visit the website, the video starts up, and you’re immediately getting a pitch from the owner of the business about his services and products. You can turn it off, but you first have to find the button that turns it off.

Now, it might seem from a marketing standpoint like a good idea to start out with a video. You show what it is you offer and how it helps someone out. But the key issue here is whether or not you’re providing your website visitor a proactive or reactive choice in viewing that video. A reactive choice is going to be turning the video off, because s/he isn’t ready to see it yet. A proactive choice involves the website viewer choosing to turn the video on, because s/he is intrigued and wants to know more. So what’s the difference then, when it comes to marketing to a potential client?

If a video automatically starts up, you are forcing your potential client to make a reactionary choice, and that reaction is being done from a place of negativity: “I don’t want to be spammed or advertised to”. You aren’t letting that person make a proactive choice from a positive place, such as “I’m intrigued and want to see more.” The difference is essentially this: You either take the choice away from the person right as they come into the site and potentially come off as a spammer, or you empower the person visiting the site, and let them choose to see the video. Personally I opt for letting the person make a choice. It provides them a feeling of control and from a marketing perspective, allows you to draw them instead of just starting off right from the beginning with a sales pitch. People like to explore websites at their own pace and we need to remember when we create for those websites.

Taylor Ellwood
Business, Writing, & Social Media Coach

How to Use Video Effectively on Your Website is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician