Cafe Blog Reviews

MSPmentor Five-Step PR Plan for Managed Service ProvidersMSPmentor… to two announcements per month… and keep going from there. Next time around I'll cover some of the basics of Twitter, Facebook. Google Adwords and video PR. addthis_url = ‘http2F2Fwordpress2F’; addthis_title = ‘Five-Step+PR+Plan+for+Managed+Service+Providers+238211%3B+MSPmentor’; addthis_pub = ”;

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Five-Step PR Plan for Managed Service Providers – MSPmentor

This weeks guest blog post is by  Becky Robinson , a social media consultant and blogger for Mountain State University .   (Do you want more than that?) If so: She is also the mother of three daughters and currently lives in Chicago, IL. This week marks the one year anniversary of my entry into the social media world. I am going to say something bold (and risk sounding corny, too): SOCIAL MEDIA CHANGED MY LIFE. I am still the same person at my core: my values, my beliefs, and my purpose, but becoming involved in social media has changed my habits, my activities, and my aspirations. I have a new career path and every day brings new relationships and opportunities. My social media involvement started with Facebook, last New Year’s Day. Less than a month into my Facebook experiment, I reconnected with lots of old friends. Then one day, a high school classmate I hadn’t talked to or seen in more than twenty years posted a status update looking for freelance writers. I have always wanted to write. At age 8, my friends and I created newspapers and went door to door trying to sell them. As a preteen, I filled a series of flannel covered journals with lines of poetry and stories. I majored in creative writing in college but after graduation I got married, went to grad school, and got a job (not writing). After several years of 9 to 5, and 12 weeks of maternity leave, I wanted nothing more than to stay home with my daughter, so that’s what I did. Three daughters and 8 years later, I had a store of creative energy waiting to be unleashed. Being involved in social media has given me an outlet for creativity and means for connecting in relationships with people all over the world. On a personal level, blogging, Facebook, and Twitter are just plain fun. Professionally, though, social media has provides an amazing platform for building not only my personal brand, but also the brand of the university that I represent. My old friend John, who got me started with freelancing, works for the marketing department at Mountain State University. When I became a part of the team there, we started to explore the impact we could make with social media. We started with a  blog . To the blog, we added a  Twitter presence . Then we started to experiment with expanding the university’s Facebook presence. The whole point of social media for Mountain State – for anyone – is relationships. We are finding new approaches to connect with current students, new ways to make our brand known to potential students. We are finding new methods to delight and engage our students, and new avenues to involve them in community with each other. And you know the best part? It’s really just plain fun. Related articles by Zemanta Try a Slow Media Diet for 2010 (lifehacker.com) Got Caught With My Pants Down and My Ink Dry? What’s My Next Move? (agentgenius.com) Avatar Makes a Billion Dollars (mashable.com) Social Media: More Than Meets the Eye? (myventurepad.com)

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Social Media Changed My Life!

The wonderful people over at the ISBDC (Indiana Small Business Development Center) are sponsoring a 12 part seminar series over Twitter through the state of Indiana. I am blessed to be presenting for the serminar series to support my book ( Twitter Marketing for Dummies )! If you can make it out to any of the events that would be awesome! Here is the basics of what we will be talking about: —————————- Increasing Sales and Revenue through Twitter WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT? Building an online presence is a great first step, but how do we use that presence and use social media to make money? Using Twitter you (and your sales team) will have the ability to increase close rates and sales by building new connections and strengthening existing connections with your prospects! It doesn’t matter if you market to farmers, stay-at-home mothers, or C-Level employees, Twitter gives you the tools necessary

HopeYouDontMind.com – A New Way To Drive SalesKillerStartups.com (blog)“HYDM is a hybrid solution that gives you the keyword matching facility of Google Adwords, the interactivity of Twitter and the “personal touch” of a … addthis_url = ‘http2F2Fwordpress2F’; addthis_title = ‘HopeYouDontMind.com+238211263B+KillerStartups.com+29′; addthis_pub = ”;

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HopeYouDontMind.com – A New Way To Drive Sales – KillerStartups.com (blog)

I have been searching for books that contain leadership information and content that I can use on Twitter when it comes to sharing information about leading companies. Kevin Eikenberry , renowned author and speaker, recently sent me a Twitter book that fulfilled all my desires. The book is called #LeadershipTweet and is filled to the brim with noteworthy leadership quotes to get me through the day. (I’m not kidding… I did love the book). I thought I would write a brief review of the book while listing some of the leadership tweets he has documented over the past couple of years. The book breaks down into 4 sections plus a short foreword by the one and only, Chris Brogan . The sections include leadership actions, thoughts, inspiration, and how we can learn from one another to become better leaders. I wanted to list 15 of my favorite leadership tweets from the book. 1. Remarkable leaders translate vision into reality 2. People don’t resist change; they resist being changed 3. Want better ideas? Create MORE ideas 4. Strive to be a leader who learns and a learner who leads 5. Remarkable leaders have formed a habit of doing things that average leaders don’t like to do 6. Remarkable leaders are willing to make bold decisions 7. Make a choice to make a different. Make a choice to lead 8. Great listening starts with an open heart and a curious mind 9. Your belief in someone’s potential is the first step towards helping them develop it 10. Be authentic–you will be a more successful leader (and person) 11. Remarkable leaders are network builders 12. Remarkable leaders are accountable for their actions 13. Remarkable leaders communicate with others in a way that is best for the other person 14. Remarkable learders communicate powerfully through stories. 15. Resistance is energy that leaders use to move change forward. As you can already tell… the book is packed full of great ideas for leadership for 2010! You should definitely go check out the book. Follow this link to read thoughts, ideas, and inspiration from Kevin Eikenberry and the world of Twitter! Related articles by Zemanta Social media needs fewer rockstars, and more rockstar ideas (socialmediatoday.com) How to Create a Meaningful Following on Twitter (mintzwordz.com) Book Review – Dan Zarrella – The Social Media Marketing Book (broadcasting-brain.com) Are Tweedledee and Tweedledum on Your Twitter List? (socialmediatoday.com)

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140 Bite Sized Ideas to Help Your Business

VentureBeat Predictions for 2010: Tablets will fail, Google will pummel MicrosoftVentureBeat(Anthony Ha) Twitter will launch its own social version of AdWords — And contrary to what chief operating officer Dick Costolo said earlier this year, … addthis_url = ‘http2F2Fwordpress2F’; addthis_title = ‘Predictions+for+20102C+Google+will+pummel+Microsoft+238211%3B+VentureBeat’; addthis_pub = ”;

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Predictions for 2010: Tablets will fail, Google will pummel Microsoft – VentureBeat

We have been waiting… and by we I mean every social media consultant on the face of the planet… for Twitter to announce business friendly applications and developments . It finally came on Monday with the announcement of the development of what is called Contributors (and other applications). From the Twitter Blog : “The feature we are beta testing is called ‘Contributors’ – it enables users to engage in more authentic conversations with businesses by allowing those organizations to manage multiple contributors to their account. The feature appends the contributor’s username to the tweet byline, making the business to consumer communication more personal; e.g. if @Twitter invites @Biz to tweet on its behalf, then a tweet from @Twitter would include @Biz in the byline so that users know more about the real people behind organizations.” I like the concept but it still is not as revolutionary as it should be (in my humble opinion). I trust that Twitter has some other ideas up their sleeves in regards to businesses truly maximizing the tool. Until then we will stumble… make mistakes… add to many followers… send out the wrong message and get spammed to death by MLM’s and idiots. Until the beta is released to bigger subset of users the opinions… will be varied. Want more information about the Twitter beta? Twitter signals commercial accounts (robbiz1978.blogspot.com) Twitter Runs “Feature Test” For Businesses (centernetworks.com) Twitter Highlights Coming Contributer API (thenextweb.com) BREAKING: Twitter Starts Testing Features for Businesses (mashable.com)

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Twitter Announces Enhanced Business Applications