7 Tips to Finding “Your” Writing Voice
http://ow.ly/kvr0K 
#writing #blogging #socialmedia

Have you ever stumbled upon a blog and thought…”Was this written by an android, a robot or was it a Martian?“
Maybe it was produced by someone that had a personality bypass.
Whatever it was, it didn’t seem human.
That, I think touches on what a “voice” is.
It is about being human, displaying a personality and willing to be vulnerable.
Then the real fun starts.
It is about writing and creating from the “real” you. That can be daunting and  exposing. Your internal conversations start the jabber….”What if I show a side of me that no one likes or thinks is stupid?”

Looking daft or dork is not cool.

In fact we were all raised on the human craft of hiding behind a facade when the school playground often rewarded the strong, the fake and the facile.
Many childhoods are lived in quiet desperation of hiding the real “you.”
Being grown up means accepting yourself for all its glorious imperfections.

A formula, an evolution or a revelation?
I don’t have a process or a magic potion to finding a writing voice or an expression formula but let’s have a look at what happens when you start to write and create in an online world.  What happens when you start to publish on social media networks or your blog.
The journey commences.
I am curious and wanting to express my insights. I write. I record and express myself. The publish button is struck! The blog post is live and the YouTube video is online!
No clapping or cheering can happen until you step onto the stage. 
There the music is revealed, the words are displayed and your design is exposed.
Whoa!…on the internet two billion web users can see your thoughts and concepts in black and white and high definition in all its wonderful glory and imperfection.
If you are honest the world will show up and say “fabulous” …work harder and maybe “well done”.
Your genius that is you is on display.
Don’t like what you hear? Then there is more work to do. The fun stuff is in growing….not shrinking!
That is sometimes a painful revelation but is part of your journey of personal evolution.

The unique you
There is only one “unique you”. Own it and embrace it with two arms and welcoming introspection.

It’s all you’ve got.

The strange thing is that creating a writing “voice” is more a journey of subtle growth that happens by stealth and mundane action.
Sitting down to write in the small hours. Staying up so late that the next morning you ask yourself…”Was that necessary?”
It is turning up and “doing the work”.

Influencers and stealing ideas and inspiration
I have had some strange influencers on my writing and expression including Jeremy Clarkson of “Top Gear” fame.
An introduction to a car review that is is 900 words of fun, humour and stories and 100 words of features and functions about a Porsche, Ferrari or Skoda with maybe a telling pithy insight.
That is it.
Who would have thought that. Inspiration from a car magazine writer.
Inspiration comes from content and creators who can be geeks, intellectuals or artists.  These can be taken from any walk of life and whose ideas are so good that you want to steal them.
Just ask David Bowie.
“The only art I’ll ever study is stuff I can steal from”

What is your voice?
So what is you?
Your persona and humanity is multi-dimensional and many faceted. It is a jumble of experience, thoughts, expression and passions.
Here are some tips to find your voice.

Read more at http://www.jeffbullas.com/2013/04/29/7-tips-to-finding-your-writing-voice/#BRSLzwGzeeXdsaeu.99 

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3 Google+ Power Users Reveal their Secrets

I recently wrote an article about Google+ vs Facebook and a tribe turned up from Google+ and became rather engaged!
The question that  had been posed was whether Google+ was a ghost town.
I received an answer.
What was revealed was a vibrant city bustling with passion and people that were happy to point out the real value of Google+
The post to date has received 440 comments with some in depth contributions on how Google+ should be used. You just have to love the leverage that social networks provide to create stories.
Here are just three people among the hundreds who spent the time to make a positive contribution to the conversation, left lengthy comments and have provided real insights as to the power of Google+.
There are many more that provided real valuable comments and feel free to read them at the post “Google+ vs Facebook”
Here are their stories unedited.

#1. That Dutch Guy 
From my experience, G+ gives back what you put into it. When I ditched facebook, and instead signed up for G+, I was afraid that it was going to be a marketing driven semi-interactive experience. As a result, my stream was mostly dead, and my circle of contacts hovered around 30 people, half of which it seems had the same experience.
It wasn’t until I started interacting with people, that my circles started growing rapidly… and at the same time I noticed I was being added to more people’s circles.
If I see someone who circles me, and there’s no original content or nothing but marketing speak, I ignore, and many of the people in my circles have the same attitude. We’re not interested in pure marketing, ads or PR. What we expect is engagement. Bring something interesting to the table. Start actual conversations. Respond to people’s questions and inquiries.
G+ is an active community – some of the people in my circles have, themselves, thousands of people in theirs, and vice versa.
The way I see it is pretty simple: if you have a product you want to sell, facebook lets you plaster people’s walls with ads (and many people block these very ads with a plethora of plug-ins and add-ons, because they’re jarring, in the way). On G+, you can’t just toss an ad in, because it will ignored – you need some people to actually spend time and communicate to advertise your product. And I’m not talking about bots that circle people and puch ad-talk… they will be living in a ghost town, because nobody wants those in their circles. I’m talking about a dedicated team that becomes part of the stream.
To throw in a phrase I’ve seen a lot: the paradigms are shifting. People are fleeing from TV, blocking old-fashioned advertisements. If you’re in it for the money, you’ll need to adjust to the increasing demand for interaction and acknowledgement of your customers.
Simply sitting there, tossing out a block of text and waiting for no reaction to come, and then stating there is no active community worth targeting is a thing of the past, and it shows you’re missing the point of what communities are about.
facebook isn’t a community: it’s a loose sampling of people who keep in touch with their rfamily and friends, that play games all day. G+ is a community of people—strangers to each other—who like to talk about all kinds of subjects, have civil discussions and share experiences

#2. Kathy Mortlock
Hi, Jeff,
I’ve been on Google+ for about a year now.  I have over 25,000 people who have circled me.  I use Google+ for engagement and information.  I post mainly public.  I spend about 9 active hours a day on the site.  Many people don’t post public, you won’t see that, it’s not information that you have access to.  Today the stream was so busy, even on my large monitor the info was moving at a very fast pace.     I make sure I vary my hours, because I have so many people all over the world, that I make contact with and I don’t want to miss interacting with them.  The United States, Russia, India, Thailand, Pakistan, South Africa, Germany, Australia, Belgium all over South America and Canada to name a few. I have been voted an expert on Google+ for interaction and social media, as well as coaching new members.  You may hear from some people it’s a ghost town.  Well of course it looks like a ghost town if you come in, make an account, sit there and look at the screen and say where are all the people?  It is all about interaction. Please stop comparing Google+ with Facebook.  We are a lot of people with a wealth of  different viewpoints, from all over the world interacting together; online, in hangouts, and sometimes in real life.    Google+ is full of information, news, science, politics, tech, parenting, music, photography, friendship and lots of love.  Hanging in Real Life (HIRL) with people you met on Google+, photo walks, concerts, artists and so much more.  We raise money for charities and we try to help people in need.   We have Book Clubs, Poetry Circles, Food & Cooking Circles and all kinds of different themed hangouts for business and for learning and/or pleasure.  Click the mouse a few times and you can make your own page, mine is a reading page, where I post book reviews, so people have a place to browse and see what other Google+ members are reading.  It’s an interactive page, where anyone can share and write reviews.  These are just the personal pages.  Click the mouse a couple more times and you are blogging.  The business pages on our site our amazing, they are varied and there is an enormous amount of them.
I look at the stats posted above and laugh.  The minute you walk through that virtual Google+ door everything is there just waiting for you, the possibilities are really endless, but it’s all what you make of it.  Isn’t that the way life is?
When you walk through that door someone is there waiting to help you and guide you, all you have to do is wave and let them know you are there.
Come on over and make an account, sign in and I’ll show you around. You will find a thriving, integrated community.  You won’t find a ghost town.
To date, I’ve not yet, seen one single ghost.

#3. J.C. Kendall
Not only is Google + a source for bloggers and brands, I believe it is by far the best source. The critical factor is Engagement. You cannot sit on the sidelines and expect Google + to start throwing customers in your direction. I have been using Google + since Day 1 of the closed beta, and I must tell you, that for those of us who have been actively engaging with others, using important tools like the +1 button, and Rel=Author in our content, we have built great awareness for what we do. I have the honor of hosting Canadian politicians in virtual town-hall meetings from Councillors to Mayors to members of the Canadian Parliament in Google + Hangouts, including one just last evening discussing the Montreal Protests. Tomorrow at 10am, my company is hosting the first in a Seminar Series on using Hangouts in your business. Since Nov of last year, 95% of my clients have come from the Google + streams, both public and private. It is critical to be active, and develop a following which serves to enhance both your corporate and personal brand. Bloggers who are not using Rel=Author in their writings run the risk of someone else showing up with a re-share of someone else’s work on Google SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) Because of the visibility of Google + used properly, my hangouts have been the subject of newspaper articles:
http://www.princegeorgecitizen… stemming from articles of my own about the subject:
http://socialmediatoday.com/jc…
The important thing, is to not look at Google + as a competitor to Facebook. Google + is an “Identity Engine” for Google search. What it does, is tie Identity to Activity, resulting in a more relevant return of search results, including local optimization and actual sales conversion. Facebook has no mechanisms in place (though Facebook Exchange is coming) to provide highly relevant real time ads to its users, which is why they are challenged in coming up with a credible long-term revenue model.
I would encourage you to look at Mashable, Forbes and others through a critical lens, because none of their authors has engaged on Google+ to the point of knowledge or understanding of the forum. They usually join up, and base their output on their 20-50 circles, and conclude the forum is dead. I have well over 20,000, and was voted by peers one of the top Google + users for 2011. My stream rocks night and day, and I invite you to take an in depth look at what Google + offers for yourself, and pay no attention to a bunch of clowns in the media crying over Facebook’s stock price.
We’ve done business off LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter as well, but our engagement off those forums come from our Google + postings, fed to those forums via extensions and RSS feeds. It works, dude. Check it out.
 What About You
How are you finding Google+?
Do you have time and resources to spend on Google+ and Facebook or do you need  to focus on just one?
Which one will you be choosing?
Look forward to your comments.

3 Common Mistakes to Avoid with Your Social Media Marketing
http://ow.ly/k841Z 
#socialmedia  
#socialmediamarketing  
#marketing  

64 Google+ Marketing and Branding Tips – Infographic

Google+ is a social media network that most people don’t seem to understand.
It has now been with us in the social web ecosystem for over 12 months and has now reached over 400 million users. Despite this, it is underestimated as a tool for marketing your business and brand.
Maria Peagler calls it “The Rodney Dangerfield of social networks, because it gets no respect! It has tremendous SEO and branding potential, but few people realize the power it has“.
Just like Facebook it has personal and brand pages that allow you to post text, images and video. It has been designed from day one to be multi-media rich and optimized for mobile. It has forced Facebook to evolve more rapidly and enhance its features such as live video, larger and higher definition images and an improved user interface. What is often forgotten is that Facebook has been with us for over 8 years old and Google+ by providing a more modern look and feel has added vital competitive pressure to the social media landscape.

3 Key Features of Google+
Google+ offeres capabilities that make connecting and engaging online globally, richer and easier than in the past.
The following three features are valued by many users on Google+.

Hangouts
Hangouts allow you to have a live video chat with up to 10 people and many tools and and extensions have been created to make this a richer experience. Google+ hangouts have been embraced by communities globally, both personally and for business that allow real time face to face engagement. This builds sronger ties and relationships that just textual communication cannot.

No Limits to the Size of Articles
Despite Google+ having strong multi-media features, one of the Google+ features that is highly valued and widely embedded in its culture is the ability to add long articles. Long form content in text format is valued by  many of the Google+ community as it displays thought leadership and expertise.

Circles
This feature allows you to easily drag and drop users into custom created circles that can be private or public. Much of the discussions and engagement on Google+ is private which has led to the misnomer that it is a Ghost Town. It is used by many businesses to have private discussions with industry groups and communities.

What About You?
Are you on Google+? How are you finding its features and functions? Are your friends on Google+ or are they mainly on Facebook?
How are you finding it as a business marketing and branding platform?
If you are a blogger, is it working for you to increase engagement and traffic to your blog?
Look forward to reading your stories in the comments below.
 
Want to Learn How to Market Your Business and Brand on Social Networks?
My book – Blogging the Smart Way “How to Create and Market a Killer Blog with Social Media” – will show you how.
It is now available to download. I show you how to create and build a blog that rocks and grow tribes, fans and followers on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It also includes dozens of tips to create contagious content that begs to be shared and tempts people to link to your website and blog.
I also reveal the tactics I used to grow my Twitter followers to over 110,000.
You can read it now.
http://www.amazon.com/Blogging-Smart-Way-Create-ebook/dp/B008UGCTMS

21 Awesome Social Media Facts, Figures and Statistics for 2013
http://ow.ly/kJea1 
Social media networks were a novelty 5 years ago and today they are no longer debated around the dinner party table.

The conversation has moved on.

Facebook is now part of most people’s web lives, Twitter is where a lot of people are reading the breaking news and if you want to be entertained then just dial into YouTube.
Despite it’s minimal mindshare, media profile and awareness Google+ has woven its way into our consciousness and is now the second largest social network.
As if these social networks aren’t enough to distract us then we also have Pinterest and Instagram to add to the online temptations.
The social web is the modern version of Alice in Wonderland, where we are following not one but many rabbits down innumerable rabbit holes.

What are two key factors driving the social web in 2013?
According to a Global Web Index study it is:
Mobile – with the number of people accessing the internet via a mobile phone increasing by 60.3% to 818.4 million in the last 2 years.
Older users adoption – On Twitter the 55-64 year age bracket is the fastest growing demographic at 79% since 2012. The fastest growing demographic on Facebook’s and Google+’s networks are the 45 to 54 year age bracket at 46% and 56% respectively.
These 2 key factors are keeping the social web bubbling along. So maybe the reason your grandparents aren’t turning up to that dinner party is that they have now discovered Facebook and Twitter!
So let’s look at some of the fact, figures and statistics for the major social networks

Read more at http://www.jeffbullas.com/2013/05/06/21-awesome-social-media-facts-figures-and-statistics-for-2013/#ce3qmfdv8sJrlyDP.99 

How to Unleash the Power of Content - Ideas and Inspiration for Content that People Love to share on Social Media 
http://ow.ly/k3kB9 
#contentmarketing #socialmedia #slideshare

The Evolution of Communication
Do you like this cartoon by the political artist Mike Keefe?
I think it shows the development of communication rather poignantly.
http://ow.ly/kFbsD 
#socialmedia   #communication   #awesomeness  

How to be a Power User of Twitter Hashtags
http://ow.ly/ljbuK 
#hashtags   #socialmedia   #marketing  

10 Commandments of Twitter
http://ow.ly/kO95J 
#socialmedia   #marketing   #twittertips  
When I stumbled upon Twitter 54 months ago I was bemused, flummoxed and even curious. What is this social network that keeps me to 140 characters, sounds like a bird and seemed…well…. pointless?

I tweeted here and there and collected 31 followers in 90 days of meandering. Even followed people with large Twitter tribes on topics as diverse as food, photography and politics. Malcolm Turnbull, the local senator must have thought I was a Twitter groupie.

Luckily he didn’t report me for stalking.

My progress on Twitter was slow, confused but persistent. Despite this I continued to tweet, retweet and play. My curiosity was undiminished.
Some people such as Jennifer Aniston’s boyfriend at the time tweeted so much that she decided that he loved Twitter more than her.
She moved onto boyfriend number twenty seven.

Twitter is more powerful than you think
Twitter’s sometimes chaotic nature does make management of the torrent of tweets seem like herding cats. It is essential that you plug your Twitter account into a management tools such as Hootsuite and Tweetdeck. This will help you manage your stream with lists of people and hashtags that categorise on topics.
The real power of Twitter is that you can build a follower base that allows you to share a focused stream of content that adds value to your followers daily lives.
There are no fancy Facebook “Edgerank” algorithms to throttle your tweets and choke your content distribution.
Its pure and wild. I like that.
So what are some fundamental principles that you should embrace if you want Twitter to work for you?

The 10 Commandments of Twitter
Here are 10 commandments that may guide you to the Twitter promised land of a large and loyal following.  That engages with you and shares your content with speed and velocity.

Read more at http://www.jeffbullas.com/2013/05/08/the-10-commandments-of-twitter/#87cqeg44ExVl9YIp.99 

Honoured to be Listed in Huffington Post's "The Top 100 Business,Leadership and Technology Twitter Accounts You Must Follow"

7 Ways To Get More Engagement Out of Your Photos on Facebook
http://ow.ly/katBH
#socialmedia  
#socialmediamarketing  
#smm  

How to Supercharge your Social Media Marketing Strategy with Employee Sharing 
http://ow.ly/kxEtw
#socialmedia   #socialmediamarketing   #marketing  
Employers have always known that employees are their best assets. If they aren’t engaged and passionate about the products or services they represent, then how can their customers feel the same?

It’s every employer’s dream to have fully engaged staff talking about the amazing benefits of the products or services the company offers, and positioning the company the way the founders intended. Social media has made this a lot easier, but ironically social media has also made the relationship between employees and employers somewhat awkward.

Employees are rarely provided with clear policies or strategies on social media outreach or engagement on behalf of the company. Occasionally this laissez-faire attitude can put employees and companies at risk.

Read more at:
http://www.jeffbullas.com/2013/04/30/how-to-supercharge-your-social-media-marketing-strategy-with-employee-sharing/#ogYM6bYB63kFzACP.99 

This infographic is rather fun!

5 Great Examples of Calls to Action for Your Facebook Cover Photo
http://ow.ly/l7cTG 
#socialmedia   #socialmediamarketing   #marketing   #marketingtips  

How to Get More Likes on Your Facebook Page – Infographic
http://ow.ly/kQveF 
#socialmedia   #marketing  
Everyone wants to be liked.
This was first felt in the schoolyard. It meant being invited to hang out with the popular gang. It was noticed when you were offered to attend “that” all important birthday party.
When college came around it was being selected to be on the football team, chosen for that all important committee or be part of a fraternity.
It doesn't change when you start your career. You need to be “liked” to get past first base at that job interview.
Being left off the list is a lonely place.
On the social web that has been transformed into every “brand” wanting to be liked. It does have some benefits.

What are the benefits of Facebook likes?
So you are chasing the blue upturned thumb. Why should you?
These are some of the benefits:
Creates social proof that your brand is popular which says “everyone likes us so you should check us out and find out why”. Empty restaurants may have great food but those empty tables scream a different message.
Those social signals can improve your search engine optimisation
It helps move your content
Creates brand awareness
Find out what your fans like and so create products and services that they want through free crowd sourced research
Sell more products and services
All of these are important as marketing moves offline to online.

So how do get more Facebook likes?
Dan Zarella likes doing research and loves numbers. Often he lurks around calculators, spreadsheets and data crunching computers. So he has summoned the lists of figures and made the database sing and dance.
This meant he collected 1.3 million posts on 10,000 most liked Facebook pages and did some correlation and calculation.
Then he made simple sense of the complex.
Here are some of his results that turned up a revelation or two. Well …it did for me.

You may be surprised
The data showed some results that many of you already know. Photos are helpful for garnering likes but there are some surprises.
Short posts “and” long posts get a higher “like” percentage. In fact an 800 character post can get as many likes as one with 90 on Facebook! The common knowledge is short always wins. The data says something different.
Share percentage on Facebook spikes at around 450 characters. So on the topic of Facebook sharing  the data analysis insights show that if you want your Facebook post to be shared rather than just liked, then make it 450 plus characters.
Self reference works well on Facebook. If you use “me” or “I” then you will gather more of those Facebook likes.
Want some more scientific data then check out the rest of Dan’s infographic.

Read more at http://www.jeffbullas.com/2013/05/09/how-to-get-more-likes-on-your-facebook-page-infographic/#0bwsMMbtuWMiYteg.99 

The 10 Step Framework for Building a Blog with Big Foundations
http://ow.ly/lbykG 
#blogging   #bloggingtips   #socialmediamarketing  
Nineteen with little money. Need wheels? So you buy a car that promises much but breaks down when getting to that important meeting or date that matters.
It’s expediency driven by budget, necessity and inexperience.
You bought a lemon.
Blogging is not that different.
Sometimes we are so eager to get started that we cobble something together and launch. Later we have to pull it apart because it didn’t have the foundations to handle the traffic or the flexibility to do what was needed.
Sometimes we borrow when we should have bought.
The result is that it can be painful, time consuming and often expensive. It’s called impatience, it can masquerade as frugal and it may even be called shortsighted.
We have all been there.

A blog that means business

If you are serious about turning a blog into income and then your business, then laying the right foundations is important. It means sitting down and doing some planning.
It means asking some questions
What am I going to focus on? What should the branding and design be like? What should I develop it on?
The list goes on.
If you do mean business then you need to create the right framework and foundation for your blog.

A framework for the future

Sometimes a little thought, the right framework and resources can be time saving and stress relieving in the long run.  
Here are 10 key building blocks to get you started.

Read more at http://www.jeffbullas.com/2013/05/20/the-10-step-framework-for-building-a-blog-with-big-foundations/#EmDECYqOWOMLwd2f.99 

Honoured to be selected as a finalist for "Top 10 Social Media Blogs 2013" from 750 nominations

Honoured to be a winner "Top 10 Social Media Blogs - 2013" http://ow.ly/hbpSO

How to Become a Social Media Marketing Expert - Infographic
http://ow.ly/lgn2X 
#socialmedia   #socialmediamarketing   #infographic  
Many words and phrases are trotted out by self titled social media marketing experts that are tossed around so much they lose their meaning and impact.
Specialist, thought leader and even guru are some of the glib terms used. Maybe we should be using words that are a bit more fun and less serious.
Like…savvy, adept, adroit or even crackerjack.
Just imagine being at a dinner party and someone asks you what you do. You respond with I am a “Crackerjack Savvy Social Media Marketing Specialist“.
Bit more fun really.
The “Guru” term is the one phrase that makes me cringe the most. It makes me think of someone who has disappeared into the Tibetan mountains, had a vision, hummed a lot and and has come back with insight and enlightenment that is god like and transcends being human. They are wearing sandals, donned a magical cloak and the halo is shimmering.
Sorry…haven’t met one of those yet.. but looking forward to it.

The path to professional
Becoming well known and a professional in your industry is often a journey that starts with a burning passion. This is maybe the most important quality because you need that fuel to maintain the dedication and discipline required to be at the top of your game.

In social media marketing the two most common formal paths that converge in a social media expert and specialist are from public relations and marketing. With the rise in the importance of content marketing, multi media and technology the skills required  can even extend into creative, technical and writing.

Also thrown into the mix is an understanding of data that keeps us on track in our quest for determining what does and doesn’t work.
One term I have heard kicked around is a “Creative Ninja Geek”. This sort of conjures up a  picture of someone that  understands tech but hasn't forgotten to be human and social.
They are the sort of people I often enjoy hanging out with.

How do you become a social media marketing expert?
Here is an infographic that provides some hints, colleges and education ideas that you may find useful on your path to becoming that social media expert.

Read more at http://www.jeffbullas.com/2013/05/22/how-to-become-a-social-media-marketing-expert-infographic/#HMMhCxKxADUYkDTB.99 

Honoured to be on the Forbes Top 50 Social Power Influencers for 2013 http://ow.ly/kaeHS

Why Do You Use Social Media?

There are many reasons we do things. Some of us exercise to keep fit, others do it because they just love the high of the endorphin rush as they get into the zone.
The why of starting a business for some is because of the challenge but for others its all about the money.
Some of us read because they are driven by the joy of  learning. Others pick up a book because they want to be entertained by the journey it takes you on. I still remember diving into books about pirates, tropical islands and sunken treasure and be lost for hours as my imagination took me to faraway lands.
If you ask a base jumper who leaps off  1,000 metre cliffs why they do it, despite the high risks involved and possible death. They will tell you it makes them feel so alive.
Sometimes we don’t even know why but we just do.

Successful companies start with a why
Companies with visionary CEO’s such as Apple with Steve Jobs understood that the why was important and Simon Sinek with his best selling book “Start With The Why” summed up Apple’s vision this way.

“In everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo and thinking differently. We do this by making our products beautifully designed and simple to use. We just happen to make great computers. Do you want to buy one?”

Other leaders such as Walmart’s Sam Walton said that he wanted to make quality goods affordable and available to rural USA. Herb Kellerman of SouthWest Airlines vison was to bring air travel to the common people. Bill Gates vision was of accessible information for all.
Understanding the why can be important in motivating you to continue the journey despite the setbacks and obstacles. Sometimes the more why’s you have the bigger the motivation.

So what are some reasons we use social media?

Curiosity
One of the reasons I joined Facebook was the curiosity to see what my friends and colleagues were up to. What were they doing in London, New York or Katmandu. The ability to peek and peer into other people’s lives is sometimes enough to get them to sign up to Facebook or join Twitter. Nothing like seeing what someone is posting or tweeting to catch a glimpse into their world.

Fun
One important reason that drives many of us to use social media is that is just plain fun. Watching a viral video on YouTube that is so cool you just have to share it is just plain fun. Pinterest pins with their beautiful images and photos are addictive for many. Instagram with its fabulous filters turns photography into a visual fun parlour.

Learn
Social media provides platforms and portals to dive in to and learn. It could be an ebook, blog article or a Slideshare presentation. It could be a YouTube video that reveals the secrets of basket weaving or how to use WordPress. Never has so much information been at our fingertips that can teach us everything from Photography to playing a guitar or even maths.

Experiment
There is a lot of people experimenting with Facebook posting and publishing to see if image A works better than image B. Do pictures of cats produce more engagement?
Sometimes it is just fun to hit publish and see what happens.

Communicate
Most of us enjoy communicating whether it is on Skype, Google+ hangouts or via a Twitter tweet. Some like it short and sweet others want to have a a good long chat. The ability to keep in touch is now global whether you want to do a video in your pyjamas or hide behind an audio stream.

Make money
Making money for some is the big motivator . The social global networks can accelerate the opportunities to monetize your passion through increased online attention and connections that social media provides.

Build a business
The challenge of building a business from scratch is for many people good reason enough to create an online business that is powered by the marketing leverage of social media.

Build a tribe
Remember the schoolyard and some of us just loved having a gang of friends with similar interests and the bigger the better. With social media it is now possible to build a world wide community of followers that love what you do.

Express yourself
In the past expressing yourself was restricted to singing in the shower, playing in a band at the local pub or painting in your studio at home. Now your writing, images, art, videos and music can be shared around the world with a click.

Make a difference
Some of us may even want to make a difference in the world. The motivation of creating a legacy that changes people’s lives for good can be a huge motivation. Starting a blog and building a tribe can accelerate and spread your message at a pace and velocity that wasn’t possible before.
Search engines are indexing your content and making it visible to the world. This content will be online until someone turns the electricity off.
Creating content online that educates, adds value to people’s lives and inspires is something worth aspiring to.
What legacy do you want to leave behind? What is your why?
 
Want to Learn How to Make a Difference with your Blog and Social Media?

My book – •Blogging the Smart Way “How to Create and Market a Killer Blog with Social Media• – will show you how.
It is now available to download. I show you how to create and build a blog that rocks and grow tribes, fans and followers on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It also includes dozens of tips to create contagious content that begs to be shared and tempts people to link to your website and blog.
I also reveal the tactics I used to grow my Twitter followers to over 125,000.

Download and read it now.
http://www.amazon.com/Blogging-Smart-Way-Create-ebook/dp/B008UGCTMS

6 Reasons Why You Will Fail at Blogging

Blogging is not a spectator sport. If it was, I think that most observers would rate it right up there with watching paint dry.
To the naked eye not much is happening. The keyboard is pecked and caressed accompanied by a furrowed brow with the occasional sigh and maybe a quick visit to the kitchen for that sustaining beverage. There are the occasional distractions of checking emails and Facebook updates and Oh.. yes, the Twitter stream!
If the ideas and words aren’t flowing and creative constipation has struck, then blogging timeouts can blowout and be lengthy and hard to recover from. The dedicated blogger though will always find a way to hit their publishing deadlines even if they move out a bit.

Blogging and Narcissism
The activity of a blogger is mainly of the mental kind but it also requires writing, marketing and a certain level of narcissism.
It involves putting your ego and credibility on the line every time you hit the “publish” button. This awareness can lead to a potential blogger writing 10 or 20 articles offline and they never see the light of online day.
Blogging when embraced and focused can be a synthesis of your life’s passions, innate abilities and undiscovered talents. It can be a facilitator of both personal change and self development. It can transform both your life and your readers lives but don’t let that awful responsibility stop you.
The thought of potentially 2 billion plus people reading your imperfect ideas can be the barrier to blogging your way to a brilliant career and maybe a more fulfilled life.
So what are the reasons you  are going to fail at blogging before you even cross the start line?

Reason #1. The Impossible Goal of Perfection
Unless you are Jesus then perfection is not going to happen. You are not in most cases going to create a blog post that is free of grammatical errors. In your mind the concepts will often seem flawed and your article structure clunky. Wrestle and wrangle your article into shape, check it, shut your eyes and then hit publish.
Your thoughtful nakedness is now visible and it is yours.
There is one distinct advantage of the digital world over the printed word. After it is placed and published before the world in all its glory, you can also go back and punch the edit button and update your masterpiece. I do.

Reason #2. My Ideas are Not Original
You are afraid that what you say and write will be seen as redundant, and superficial. I am sorry to say but there are not many original ideas under the sun. Many people’s work who we perceive are geniuses, such as writers, painters and musicians are in fact mashups and remixes with a twist. Even the genius of Bob Dylan wasn’t immune from this.
Henry Ford – “I invented nothing new, I simply assembled the discoveries of other men behind whom there was centuries of work”
Be prepared to stand on the shoulders of giants and of ideas past and present. Put your creative spin and slant on them. The art of creativity starts with copying, then transforming and finally combining with your own remix.
Add your own snowflakes of creativity.
 
Reason #3. Passionate People are a Bit Weird
Succeeding at blogging does in most instances require a certain degree of passion to drive the activity and the dedication required.
You will be saying to yourself “I am not weird, I don’t want to let this passion thing turn me into a weirdo“….”My friends will disown me“. Don’t be afraid to wear that passion and purpose on your sleeve. Be prepared to be different and let that passion become an integral part of you.
Weird is good, in what can be a big bland sea of  homogenous humanity.
 
Reason #4. My Relationships are Too Important
Blogging does require time and commitment. Potential bloggers who never start sometimes can use the excuse of “it will take me away from my family and friends“. This is a cop out.
Make the time. Stop watching so much TV. Get up early or stay up late when the the house is quiet. You owe it to yourself and guess what?.. you may earn a lot of respect.

Reason #5. I am Not a Genius
I am sorry but the word genius is overrated. Many people who achieve a modicum of success are sometimes seen as gifted and lucky. Don’t let this urban myth stop you from achieving what may seem from afar as an impossible dream.
Dream away.
The US President, Calvin Coolidge had this to say about genius – “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent”
Couple up your passion with your innate abilities, add some determination and persistence and then magic can happen.

Reason #6. I am Not a Writer
This one gets rolled out time and time again. If you go and read my first posts on this blog (and I am not going to link to then as they are just too embarrassing) then you would break into laughter and state “what was he thinking”
Competent writing can be learned if you don’t believe me then go and buy Stephen King’s book on the basics of writing, titled  ”On Writing”. It has some great simple tips.
Still you might say “Nope.. this writing thing is not my gig“. Well, I am still not going to let you off the hook that lightly.
The web is a multimedia playground. There is nothing to stop you video blogging (Gary Vaynerchuk was a champion at that). The rise of  a visual web is also making “visual blogging” a reality. Many areas of interest such as travel, food and fashion are more about communicating with photos more than the text.

The Solution?
Just ship it!
Don’t wait for perfection to strike or genius to arrive. The time has come to buckle up, turn the key and hit the accelerator.
I look forward to hearing your stories of success and adventure.
 
My New Book - Blogging the Smart Way “How to Create and Market a Killer Blog with Social Media”
Is available on Amazon. Thanks to your support since launching, it appeared on the “Best Sellers List” in two categories. 

Here is the link to buy it
http://www.amazon.com/Blogging-Smart-Way-Create-ebook/dp/B008UGCTMS  
 
 

Instagram photo of the day - Check it out!

Cool "Moody" Instagram photo of the day

My handpicked Instagram photo of the day 

12 Common Misconceptions about Content Marketing
http://ow.ly/kSHXB 
#contentmarketing   #marketing   #seo  
I don’t know everything about content marketing – no one does.
Sometimes we are tempted to think we do but when the truth comes home there is always a lot more to learn about content marketing’s role on the social web.
The concept is constantly evolving and we content marketers will strive to perfect it indefinitely. But currently, some are promoting false ideas about the concept of content marketing and these are sometimes preventing others from having success. 
Here is my list of misconceptions you should not fall for – I would be happy if you add yours to it… 

Read more at http://www.jeffbullas.com/2013/05/10/12-common-misconceptions-about-content-marketing/#Azzwv9J8pqJ349Zd.99 

Vladimir Kush is an amazing artist. Check out this creation
"Departure of the winged ship" http://ow.ly/jXctP 

Burano, Venice

Instagram photo of the day!

Awesome Instagram photo of the day 

6 Tips on Marketing Your Online Content

Content marketing is a simple phrase. It involves just two key elements.
“Content” which can be articles, videos and images in all their various multi-media formats.
“Marketing” which means taking that content and letting the online world knows it exists. In essence it is implementing strategies and tactics of making your ideas spread.
This is a challenge in a world where there are over 2 billion internet users who are bombarded with emails, streams of tweets and banner ads.
The process of content marketing involves the creation of material that is informative but is also written on a perspective which shows your business in a positive light. Good content marketing will create interest in your business, attracting traffic to your website and hopefully, sales or conversations as well.
Great content will position your business as a thought leader in its industry and it will also educate, inform, entertain and inspire.
There are many ways of doing content marketing but not all methods yield the positive results! Here are six tips to get you started on marketing your own content:

Tip 1: Drip feed your content
There is a tendency to create too much content, unleash it on the Internet and then expect it to carry traction throughout the year but this isn’t always a good idea. News and current events change all the time which means your target audience may not be searching for the same things as they were searching for two or three months ago. Publish content consistently and persistently making your sure the content you produce has some relevancy to current events and what your target audience may be interested in at the present time.

Tip 2: Monitor old content
Use Analytics and visitor level call tracking software to monitor your content. Once you find out what types of articles seem to be the most effect, you will have a better idea as to what types of content your target audience are interested in. The success of your content will be measured in many ways but broadly speaking, an article that produces a high level of the following would be considered good content:
High Traffic
Prompts interest and enquiries
Generates sales

Tip 3: Make use of social media
Once your content has been published, the main objective is to get as many people to see view it who may be interested in your business and leveraging social media is an excellent place to start in order to achieve this. Posting content on your social media accounts will bring your content to those following your social media accounts. If these people like your content, they may choose to share it with their followers and a snowball effect is created which may possibly result in your content going viral!
In addition to this, we already know that Google uses social media signals when deciding your positions in the search results so an article that gets a good number of ‘Likes’, shares, comments, tweets, +1s is likely to improve your search engine positions as well.

Tip 4: Aim for quality not quantity
Hundreds, if not thousands of pieces of content are created every day. A web surfer is spoilt for choice when it comes to choosing content to read. Creating an interesting title will definitely be effective in getting a user to click on your article rather than the next person’s article but a poorly written, uninteresting article will just get scanned and then discarded. This means no social love and definitely no enquiries or sales.
Find out what your target audience are interested in and create high quality, engaging, thought provoking content that they would be interested in. no doubt in the time needed to create one high quality article, you could’ve possibly created two, or maybe three low quality articles but that one high quality article will prove more beneficial than three lower quality ones.

Tip 5: Incorporate the right amount of SEO
Your article needs to be able to turn up in search engine results pages (the holy grail is to be on page one at the top of the page) and then by having the right headline and description attract the right people. To do this, you should include some relevant keywords into your article but don’t overdo it. Adding too many keywords may result in the article losing its readability factor. As a general rule you should always add keywords but the article should be written for a human, not a search engine.

Tip 6: Inform rather than sell
People receive sales pitches all the time, be it in the electrical store, through the post, a popup advert on the Internet or whilst passing a billboard. They’ve become very good at noticing a blatant attempt to make them purchase something which is why all marketing articles should aim to inform rather than sell a product. Provide genuinely useful information on a topic which would allow you to mention your product or service along with some of its merits. A well written article will make the reader come to a conclusion without sounding like a sales pitch.
At the centre of any content marketing strategy is the creation of high quality content. Once high quality content has been created, it needs to be promoted and monitored using web analytics and call tracking solutions. Do this and you will well on your way to having a successful content marketing strategy.

 
 
Want to Learn How to Create Contagious Content and Market it on Social Media?

My book – Blogging the Smart Way “How to Create and Market a Killer Blog with Social Media” – will show you how.
It is now available to download. I show you how to create and build a blog that rocks and grow tribes, fans and followers on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It also includes dozens of tips to create contagious content that begs to be shared and tempts people to link to your website and blog.
I also reveal the tactics I used to grow my Twitter followers to over 120,000.
You can download and read it now.

http://www.amazon.com/Blogging-Smart-Way-Create-ebook/dp/B008UGCTMS

Taken with my Canon EOS 60D on the Island of Burano, Venice in Italy

5 Ways to Turn Twitter into Your Most Powerful Social Media Tool

6 Tips to Grow Your Twitter Followers
http://ow.ly/l24ik 
#socialmedia   #socialmediamarketing   #marketingtips   #marketing  
Twitter has been my number one social media platform for quite a long time. That was actually the first social network I embraced after I started my blog.
Over the course of more than two years I dedicated a lot of my free time to not only expanding my Twitter network but to also to actually engage with  people who cared about what I shared and who enjoyed my content.
As much as you'd like to say that quantity doesn't matter, well, it does.
The more people I “persuade” to follow me, the more visitors my blog ends up receiving. The traffic Twitter brings me is now significant with 5,500 visitors a month coming from the 140 character social network.
If you'd like to increase your Twitter traffic the way I did, here are six of the most effective ways to get more quality Twitter followers that I have discovered.
Anyway, let’s get started:

Read more at http://www.jeffbullas.com/2013/05/15/6-tips-to-grow-your-twitter-followers/#58cEi6Z5roV3fox7.99 

The Top 10 Most Infuriating Things about WordPress and How to Fix Them
http://ow.ly/kCtcO 
#blogging #socialmedia

Using WordPress is an experience that is very much like using another CMS, but it is also an experience that is completely unlike using any other CMS.
Maybe it is the “duct tape,” DIY nature of PHP coding, maybe it is the first-to-market nature of any product that explodes into worldwide recognition, or maybe it is something entirely undefinable.  Whatever the reason(s), many web developers hold that teaching yourself WordPress it a rite of passage—some sort of a vision quest into the heart of the digital forest. Some are after their professional content creation spirit guide, whereas others are just looking for the most direct route to casual blogging. Regardless of what you ultimately intend using WordPress is a process will bring you to the edge of sanity and back with its maddening logistics and mind-bending reasoning for nearly every part of its design.
The whole ritual generally includes, but is not limited to the following ten things.

Read more at http://www.jeffbullas.com/2013/05/02/the-top-10-most-infuriating-things-about-wordpress-and-how-to-fix-them/#CISVxHrXvtsL2yic.99 

Presentation- Slideshare 

How To Write A Blog With Great Content Every Time

You started a blog for your brand. You knew it was time, and you knew how it would benefit you. And, at the start, the going was great; there were plenty of things to write about. That is, until writer’s block set in, and suddenly you were drawing a blank.
Somehow, it just got a bit more complicated.
How do you generate great blog content regularly without burning out? Inevitably, there will be an average Tuesday morning where you’ll find yourself staring at a blinking cursor, a blank screen, and a looming deadline. Right about then, you’ll wish you knew what to write about. Right about then, you’ll wish you knew how to go about finding ideas when you didn’t have any of your own.

Here are some tips to make the ideas flow.

1. Answer Questions
Wouldn’t you like to know what questions your readers were hoping you’d answer for them? If you have the time to look and listen, you’d find out that readers are actually telling you this very thing.
Questions on Quora
Quora is where people are asking — and answering — questions. It’s easily searchable by specific topic, so you can find your niche audience fairly quickly. By setting up your account and selecting specific Quora users and topics to follow that are relevant to your industry, any quick visit to the Quora site will bring up useful content. So, are there questions Quora users are asking that you could answer? Write about them on your blog.
The questions asked on Quora.com are a great source of ideas; blog your answer.

Your Own Readers
Don’t ignore your own blog’s comments section, or your customer feedback. If a blog comment section turns lively, you’ve hit on a topic that you should definitely consider expanding in a fresh post and then going back and letting those readers know you’ve written a new post. This is particularly useful if you find yourself leaving long comments that might be better served pulled up onto the main area of the blog. And of course, it goes without saying that if you have customers that are asking the same questions about your service or product, there’s a clear need for a blog post to cover the topic. At the very least, it’s the start of a user guide or online FAQ.

2. Go Google
Google provides generous source material for blog ideas whether they intend to or not. In the process of supplying their customers (us) with data, they give us insight into the customers using that data.
Google Search
Using Google Search for research, rather than just search, will garner you related topics that people are actively looking for. For each search you make, you have the opportunity to use the advanced search options and generate “Related Searches.” From these related searches, you can follow a rabbit trail and end up with as many blog topics as you have the desire to write. These searches will also tell you what to use for a headline. The related searches can be found in the “Show search tools” option in the left sidebar of a Google search page.
Google related-search will help you find new ideas.
Google Blog Search allows you the opportunity to search within blogs only, so you can quickly see what other bloggers are writing about, and what kind of comments they’re getting from those topics.

Google Keywords
Google AdWords provides a keyword tool where you can input words and phrases for your industry or niche. The keyword tool will break your search terms down, allowing you to see which keywords you’d like to dig deeper into. By saving these keywords, you can find out what people are searching for on Google, and which terms are the most popular (and have the stiffest competition) with those buying AdWords. These keywords can give you ideas for SEO-friendly headlines, and such headlines quickly turn into SEO-friendly blog posts.

Google Alerts
Google Alertsare especially helpful if you already have your email or RSS reader in your daily workflow. It’s easy to forget to do regular searches, or find the time to set aside an hour or two to perform regular online searches to see what’s new in your industry. By setting up a Google Alert, you can have those search results sent to your inbox or RSS reader automatically. Any time you can find a way to incorporate information gathering in your current workflow and keep things simple, you’re more likely to make us of it.
Google Alerts can come to your inbox or RSS reader, as this setting shows.

Google Trends
By their very nature, trends are going to be quick and hard to grab onto in time. Using a trending topic for microblogging (Twitter, Google+ post, Facebook post, Tumblr) is probably going to be the easiest way to capitalize on their here-and-gone nature, rather than a long and meaty blog post. However, you may still get an idea on a topic that you can tie into your industry.
Google Trends offers a “hot trends” section which lets you know what people are searching for right now. Current events are often in search trends. Your readers appreciate an expert who can speak their language and put a hot topic into context for them from a particular view. Think of yourself as a translator, and tell your readers what the latest news means for them.
And of course, within the Google+ network, you can finding trending topics that even indicate which direction they are trending.
Google Trends’ Hot Searches let you know what people are searching for right now.

3. Build Libraries
Great minds have great ideas, and there’s few better places to find ideas than in the writing and voices of others.
You can make a digital library using an RSS Reader; the more well-organized the better. It’s the best way to stay on top of what your favorite bloggers and information sources are saying. This isn’t about stealing other’s ideas. It’s about validating or challenging your own, finding inspiration, and writing your own content.
Reading books regularly is also necessary for the serious blogger. You need to get pushed out of your own mind in order to fight your way back in by writing. Books are ideas, and new ideas are disruptive. Disruptive gets the creative juices flowing. A good blogger writes. A great blogger also reads. Read books associated with your industry voraciously. Blog about the book itself, if nothing else.

4. Mingle With The Trendy Crowds
It’s very likely you have a presence on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, and are using it to promote your blog. Facebook and Twitter have their own versions of showing which topics are trending and popular based on your settings and who you follow; these will work similarly for you as blog content much like the Google Trends hot trends does.  The best thing about using the trends on a social network is that this is where your fans and followers are, and this is what is catching attention right now. It is less easy to capitalize on a broad internet search trend than a trend on a social network.
Twitter trends are found in the left sidebar, and can be tailored based on who you follow, or not at all.
Other popular social networks, like Pinterest, easily show you what your audience is interested in as long as you’ve planned your social following practices well. You can use Pinterest, for example, for your own interests and follow those boards that interest you only. Or, you can follow the boards of known fans or related niche audiences and see what’s popular among them, discerning what kinds of images they are drawn to.

5. Tell A Story
Everything you consider writing can be told as a story. What makes a great story?
A great story hooks the reader immediately (which often means you’ll have to be a brutal editor of your own words because wordiness kills the hook). A great story has anticipation, a feeling of “what’s next!” and a resolution that doesn’t leave the reader feeling cheated or angry. A good story makes a person feel something, whether it’s laughter or empathy or some other emotion. Have fun with your story, or be serious.
People love stories. Tell them one. Tell them a story as a series, or to generate leads. Just tell a great story.

You Have A Story
You have a story to tell. It’s the story of your business, the daily things that happen in it every day. It’s the teachable moments where you learned something about yourself or your readers. Whatever it is, your story is personal and inspirational, and should be told in that way. Use what you know best: your business, your hobbies, entertainment — what story can you tell that your audience will nod their head and think “I know exactly how he felt.”

They Have A Story
You have a story, and so does everyone around you. Have you asked them to share their stories with you?
Interview other bloggers or industry leaders. You’ll get great content, learn something, and attract a few of their fans to read what you wrote. Generously link back to the interviewee’s website and social media accounts, and promote the blog post.
Respond to other bloggers’ posts. Write well, don’t start a flame war, and avoid responding to well-known bloggers for promotion sake only. Make sure it is a post you really want to comment on, and have something valid to add to the conversation. Link and attribute properly so your readers can find the original work.

6. Look Within
If you’ve been blogging for several years, it’s a pretty good guess that you have early posts that embarrass you terribly. As a blogger, you got better; it’s hard to look at the old posts without wincing. Writing style aside, what about the ideas? Are they still valid? Have you changed your mind, or expanded your opinion? Your old blog posts are a gold mine of ideas you might not remember you had. Recycle by rewriting. Make them better, make them the best, make them relevant, and make them pull their weight again.
And, when all else fails, have a system in place that forces you to work. It might be a system to generate headlines (writing the headline before the rest of the post is a good habit to get into). It might be a system to quickly scour your library and write a post on the themes you see in the posts of the day. For example, you might come up with 10 “stock” headlines that you can easily adjust for different topics. Perhaps they are “5 Ways To _____ Your _____”. Whatever you decide, set up your system, fill it in, and force yourself to write.

A blog is a powerful tool, but a poorly written or seldom updated blog is almost worse than no blog. It tells those who find your site that you’re no longer in business, not around, or not worth serious consideration.

Guest Author: Julie Neidlinger is a writer at Todaymade.com
 
 
Want to Learn How to Create and Market your Blog on Social Media?

My book – Blogging the Smart Way “How to Create and Market a Killer Blog with Social Media” – will show you how.
It is now available to download. I show you how to create and build a blog that rocks and grow tribes, fans and followers on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It also includes dozens of tips to create contagious content that begs to be shared and tempts people to link to your website and blog.
I also reveal the tactics I used to grow my Twitter followers to over 115,000.
You can download and read it now.

http://www.amazon.com/Blogging-Smart-Way-Create-ebook/dp/B008UGCTMS

Top 5 Mobile Apps for Online Marketers

Going mobile with your SEO can make your business sharper, quicker, and more responsive.
As more and more businesses realize the value of SEO, defending and improving client’s visibility increasingly demands constant vigilance.
With these smartphone apps, you can keep an eye on multiple variables at once, and get a better idea of what is working for your clients and what isn’t.
These apps will keep you on top of your game at all times, whether youíre on the subway or stuck in the waiting room at the dentist.

1. Raven Tools
Raven Tools mobile app is a must-have if youíre already a Raven user; it ís easily the most comprehensive toolkit on this list. While the app is free, the subscription cost makes this something of a luxury alternative to Google Analytics or other free tools. Raven covers many SEO indicators that others miss, like social mentions and a clearer connection between marketing expenses and their impact on revenue. If you’re willing to take the plunge and make a big investment, Raven Tools is the obvious choice, and this app is the only one you need.
Cost: Free
Operating System: Apple (iOS)

"Surreal" Instagram photo of the day

One of my favorite places in Italy. The Italian Riviera.the seaside town of Camogli - taken visa "Instagram" on my iPhone in March this year. 

RESHARE:


Reshared text:

Stunning photo by John Paul Caponigro
http://ow.ly/kmyLu 
#photography  

Is your Content Boring? 8 Types of Content Every Business Should Consider Publishing
http://ow.ly/kmdc8 
#contentmarketing   #socialmedia   #marketing  
Ever sat down at a dinner party and after a few minutes of conversation the guest opposite you started yawning?
Is your content boring?
Most of us have been brought up on a diet of vanilla text and photos and sometimes forget that the online publishing world is now multi-media rich.  If you really get your neurons firing you can transform one written article into several formats.
Add some content excitement.
This can include a podcast, video or even a Slideshare presentation that takes your content from monochrome to multi-dimensional and maybe even entertaining.
Content marketing has boomed and is a type of inbound marketing. It requires the consistent creation of content that is shared and published to multiple social networks to engage and attract readers and potential customers.
The mantra is: “Engage first, sell second“.
The E-commerce sector has come up with excellent new concepts targeting higher level of interaction with users and customers for acquiring more business for the brand name. The owners of online stores should have as a minimum a blog and videos.

How to Unleash the Power of Content - Ideas and inspiration for creating content that people love to share on social media http://ow.ly/k2n8P Slideshare presentation from my keynote at the Social Slam Conference in Knoxville Tennessee, USA 

Instagram Photo of the Day

Instagram photo of the day

How to Build a Targeted Twitter Tribe of 100,000

Twitter remains an enigma for many bloggers and businesses. Many questions are asked. What can I do with 140 characters? What is the point of tweeting? How can I use if for marketing? Should I check all the people who follow me before following back?
These and many other questions bedevil the casual Twitter user who often thinks that social media marketing only revolves around the Facebook universe.
Social media marketing at scale includes participating on as many social networks as possible that are relevant to your target audience. You need to have your brand on the major social networks and build large followings. Enterprise class tools for facilitating social at scale are now starting to emerge from players such as Exact Target and Adobe.
On Twitter one or two tweets per day with a random message to 200 followers is not going to cut the marketing mustard. You need to scale it up.
Twitter is growing and gaining traction rapidly which stems partly from last years inclusion in Apples’s new mobile operating system and  is now embedded in its mobile menu system.
On social media it is important to listen and engage. The other truth is that “bigger is better”. You need to create big tribes on big networks.
This will give you the reach you need to continue to scale.

How Do you Build a Large Twitter Tribe?
I am going to assume that your blog or website has great content already. Content that has good headlines, published in a range of media types, is well written and structured are important elements in building the foundation to any substantial long term  presence online.
Letting people know that you have this awesome information to help them solve problems and provide “how to information” is the magic sauce to take your brand from invisible to visible.
Building a large Twitter tribe is one of the most efficient ways to distribute that content.

How Do You do That?
One of the best simple and free tools that I discovered that can help you achieve that and also abides by Twitters terms of use is Tweepi.com.
What are the steps to attract and build Twitter followers using this tool?

Read more at http://www.jeffbullas.com/2012/08/03/how-to-build-a-targeted-twitter-tribe-of-100000/#7JodBfm6XPfmUOYw.99

25 Ways to Create Contagious Content [Infographic]

Content is the foundation for blogs and websites. It is what makes your readers and viewers come back for more.
The range and type of content that is available on a social web is extensive and includes multimedia such as videos, images and infographics and of course plain old simple text.
Content can achieve different objectives including
1. Educating (How To’s)
2. Informing (News)
3. Entertaining (eg. Funny Videos)
4. Inspiring (Provide motivation)
The challenge is to come up with the ideas and the content that people find valuable and want to share. This is something that all writers and bloggers struggle with. I have tried all sorts of content on this blog and sometimes I am surprised with what works and what doesn’t.

New from Twitter - This is very cool - How to capture leads on Twitter
 http://ow.ly/ljatU
What do think of this development?
#socialmedia   #marketingtips   #advertising  

The Perfect Facebook Post?
http://ow.ly/kELek 
#socialmedia   #socialmediamarketing   #marketing  

Perfection. What is that?

In the world of cars ….is it a Ferrari? If it is art… could it be the Mona Lisa? With the profession of architecture, is it personified in the Sydney Opera House?

A rose?

Big claims… but you have to admit their all damm good. Memorable even…and maybe even the term excellent could be rolled out and we could even stretch it to “awesome”. 

When you see something that is splendid you know it. The visual impact can be visceral , emotional and inspiring.
Whatever the phrase it is always good to strive for perfection. But keep in mind that if you are always “waiting” for your creation to be sublime and faultless then that post will never be published or that book will never be written.
At some stage the finger needs to hit that “publish” button or that “enter” key.

7 Tips for the Perfect Facebook Post

Images on Facebook are the most shared of any media. As humans we do like a good picture. Facebook just makes it easy to acknowledge that with a “like” or if we get really get excited we can even share it with our 500 “best” friends.
Creating a perfect Facebook post for images is maybe not possible but here are 7 tips to help you move along the spectrum of excellence towards a “God like” Facebook post.

Read more at http://www.jeffbullas.com/2013/05/03/the-perfect-facebook-post/#mfOYXwijjw3UMuic.99 

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