Archive for the ‘Social Media Marketing’ Category

Today we had our first Social Media Lunch & Learn at Margarita’s in Auburn, Maine. Everyone brought their questions, concerns, and gave great input. Margarita’s served a great lunch and as usual, great service.

We talked about concerns regarding time management, the differences between the different platforms, and what you should be doing online. The participants have given a lot of positive feedback.

Thanks for the Lunch & Learn on July 6 at Margarita’s. Your presentation was clear and informative. Thanks for answering questions in a way I could easily understand and will be able to use the information immediately. I’m looking forward to future lunches.

Freddie Collins
Next Level Business Coaching

We are so pleased with the turn out and are really looking forward to future Social Media Lunch & Learns.

Photo Credit: Mainely Portrait Photography

Core Zero Creative, your one-stop shop for Maine Web Design & Social Media Marketing Workshops in Maine had a WHOPPER of a day over at the Androscoggin B2B Trade Show Thursday! First of all, Thank You to the LAEGC, The Chamber, and all the businesses and people involved to make this event happen each year. What a wonderful statement of commitment to our economy and local businesses! It was our first year there as an exhibitor and we could not have been more delighted with the experience. We brought a crew of 5 to “work the show” and that really paid off. We all got plenty of face time with visitors as well as enough down time to stay sane. Those that chose not to stay sane spent their free time walking the show visiting other booths, sharing the insanity. And eating cookies. And other good stuff. I may still be touched…

With over 200 vendors plus their crews, and over 2,500 visitors… 3,000 people… what a great day to network and get the pulse on who’s who and what’s what here in Lewiston-Auburn and the surrounding areas. (Not to mention getting to sleep all day Friday!) I highly recommend taking a day out of your busy schedule next year to attend this show. You will be glad you did!

Privacy on Facebook

Privacy is built around a few key ideas: You should have control over what you share. It should be easy to find and connect with friends. Your privacy settings should be simple and easy to understand.

On Facebook, there are three basic levels of privacy: Friends, Friends of Friends, Everyone. You also have a set of public information, which helps your friends find and connect with you: your Name, Profile Picture, Gender, and any Connections you’ve made. This includes the friends, networks and Pages you’ve chosen to connect to. You also always have control over who can see your Connections on your profile.

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If you really want to know what you should be doing online my recommendation is to network in a real and authentic way. We’re not talking about networking like you see at your local chamber of commerce meet-ups where people whip out business cards and throw them around like ninja stars, but networking as in:

• Finding a networking community that shares your interests (and yes, this can be a Facebook page, LinkedIn or a handful of Blogs).
• Making sure that everyone connected in the community has shared/similar values.
• Adding your own value (insights, news, etc…) that helps to elevate to the community and the participants.
• Do much more for others before asking them to do something for you (I think Chris Brogan’s rule is perfect: do twelve things for others before asking them to do one thing for yourself).
• Don’t ask for business, but try to find business for everyone else.
• Plug into the community. Sincerely. Get to know your neighbors and be helpful.

It’s not sexy and it doesn’t add to your bottom line… today.

And that’s why so few people do it so well, and those that do it very well are the true rock stars of their industry.

That’s what you should do online.

Many thanks to Mitch Joel for this post!

The countdown to 5-10-10 has completed and the BIG DAY has officially arrived! Eric Bryant (that’s me) is now the acting full time Marketing Director of Core Zero Creative! Unbeknownst to many (archaic word alert!) in addition to my role at Core Zero as a WordPress Web Designer, Social Media Marketing Strategist & Trainer, and Internet Marketing Guy, I’ve also worked as an IT Specialist for the past 25 years managing corporate computer systems and networks. As millions turn to Web 2.0–the social web–as a means to promote their businesses, products, services, organizations, and causes, Core Zero’s steady growth has made it both possible and necessary for me to come aboard full time, leaving the IT field behind. This year companies will throw billions of dollars at engaging people in web-based conversations around their brands and causes, and getting people to friend, follow, link to and talk about them.

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It’s no coincidence that Facebook launched a new real-time search engine on the same day that it bought FriendFeed and Google announced a new infrastructure project aimed at speeding up its indexing time. Make no mistake about it: people that know search believe that there’s gold in real-time and social data, and Facebook’s blockbuster acquisition of FriendFeed was a lob squarely across Google’s bow.

Facebook has always been in a position to take a lead in real-time and social search because of the sheer amount of data the site has collected about what people are doing, the things they’re interested in, and what their social graph looks like. About 15 months ago, Paul Buchheit, the founder of FriendFeed, actually wrote that the human link data at sites like Facebook “could ultimately be more valuable than the link data from the web” that Google’s search engine is based on – someone just needs to mine it. Now he may have his chance.
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Have you ever wondered, “How do I promote my Facebook fan page?” This article reveals 5 ways to use the power of Facebook to grow your fan base.

Why Do You Need a Facebook Fan Page? You may ask, “Why do I even need a Facebook fan page?” Here’s why: Facebook currently has an Alexa ranking of 2. They are the second most trafficked website next only to Google!

This means your Facebook page will be indexed faster on Google and other search engines, so if you don’t have a fan page, be sure to add one and promote it.

Here are 5 great ways to grow your Facebook fans:

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We all know about Girl Scout Cookies, but what does that have to do with Social Media? A lot for one little girl and we thought we would share a personal success story.

Our daughter is a Girl Scout and due to other commitments is not able to attend the meetings regularly so when it came time to sell cookies we had a late start… a VERY late start.  We received the order forms last week, but I did not look at the date they were due until Monday, February 1.  OOPS! The order forms were due Tuesday, Feb 2! We very quickly hopped on the phone and started calling family and then I thought, I wonder what would happen if I posted this on Facebook? Put social media to the test for a little girl who has a goal of selling 100 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies and the challenge of accomplishing that goal in 24 hours!

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The social media scene is demanding your company’s attention. Regardless of what your product or service area is, the social media network is talking about it, and you’d better be listening. What should you do about it? Here are some great social media networking tips to help you along the way. Whether you’ve just started or you’re still thinking about it, check them out. Be sure to add your own tips in the comments section and and let us know what you think!

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Here’s a Q&A Quickie on Social Media that’s sure to delight. It’s from an interview with Joseph Jaffe, President of Crayon, and best selling author of many books on advertising and new media.

Question: Can you share some tips for companies trying to make sense out of defining a social media strategy?

Answer:

• Don’t cede control completely to your consumers. They don’t want it. Meet them halfway. Partner with them. Work with them.
• Marketing is not a campaign; it’s a commitment. If you want lifetime relationships with your consumers, you need to invest in them–genuinely–for life. Begin with investing in what we call “commitment to conversation”.
• Learn to deal with negativity. You want the love, but can’t deal with the hate. Criticism is not your enemy; apathy and indifference are. Any negative response from consumers (whether by blog, e-mail or customer service inquiry) is a cry for help and an acknowledgment that they care enough to reach out to you.
• Think strategically. Define a social networking strategy. Invest in well-structured experimentation. We distill this into a very real and workable number: four. Four experiments over a calendar year. Is one experiment per quarter that unrealistic, or irrationally exuberant? I think not.

Onward & Upward!

Eric Bryant