Social Media With Chris Brogan

Chris Brogan

by Catherine L. Tully

 

If you are trying to get the hang of social media but are tired of all the same old information, check out Chris Brogan for some enlightenment. Well known as a social media guru, Brogan gives advice on his site in a “best of” section that hits some pretty good highlights. Learn “50 Ways To Take Your Blog To The Next Level” or read “Framing Your Social Media Efforts”.

Social media has pretty much become a must for the writer, so if you have yet to dip your toe in the pool, there is no time like the present. Brogan also offers advice for those who have been around a while and are looking to maximize their presence on the web.

You can also sign up for his newsletter.

Does Your Hobby Blog Eclipse Your Pro Blog?

by Joe Wallace

If your hobby blog is overtaking your professional blog, getting more hits and more attention, ask yourself a couple of important questions. After all, we all want our pro blogs to do well and make money–but some people find their pro blogs lagging behind the ones they do for fun.

And there lies the answer, I suspect.

Hobby blogs are often more informal, more fun to read, and definitely more fun to write than pro blogs. I think pro blogs could take a lesson here–at least the ones that don’t seem to be able to compete. I run Turntabling.net, which is a lot more snarky, informal and goofy than Freelance-Zone.com. While Turntabling isn’t a hobby blog per se–I do try to earn some coin on it–I don’t worry nearly as much about content there because it’s far more opinionated and as such is easier to write. While there are opinions here, I find striking a balance between information and opinion more crucial to the success of FZ in general.

If your hobby blog is outpacing your pro blog, ask a few questions of your work:

• What makes the hobby blog fun to read? What is it you do there that you DON’T do on the pro blog?
• Is your pro blogging work too long? Too densely packed with information? Or is it “skimmable”?
• What is the central idea of your pro blog? Can you sum it up in two sentences or less?
• Look at the visual presentation of your pro blog. Is it easy on the eyes? Or is it a cluttery mess?
• Give your blog the Who Cares? test for all your most recent posts. The So What? test is also a good one.

These are only a few of the things you can try, I’ll cover some additional ways to give your pro blog a good, hard look in another post. … Continue Reading

5 Social Media Tips For Freelancers

By Joe Wallace

It’s funny how history repeats itself. Ten years ago, freelancers and business owners were wondering if they should start websites to promote the business. It wasn’t quite mandatory yet back then. Today people have the same issues with social media. “Should I get more involved with Twitter and Facebook?”

That question is like, soooo last century.

Of COURSE you should be. But for the right reasons and with the right strategies.

Gang of Four founder and social web contrarian Dave Allen is fond of saying that simply having a Facebook and Twitter account does not equal having a digital strategy, and I have to agree. So many people DO believe that, though–that using social media IS the strategy as opposed to simply having another tool in the box to use.

The first place I start when telling people how to use Twitter and Facebook? Make a plan and decide what you want to DO with these tools. It’s not enough to post things and hope people pay attention.

Once you have a strategy and know what you want to accomplish with your social media accounts, then you are ready to really take advantage of the following advice:

1. Don’t be content to post an endless stream of quotations and self-promotion. People want to know YOU’RE there.
2. Opinions vary, but I’m of the mind that posting links in every post isn’t the best way to use social media. Sometimes we all fall into a rut here–myself included, but refer to #1. People want to know YOU are there…not just your agenda.
3. Following the right people is an art–don’t just populate your friends and following lists for the sake of the numbers like we ALL did when we first got our Twitter and Facebook accounts. Be selective. Target your audience and go after THEM.
4. Don’t ignore your DM, inbox, and other tw0-way communication tools associated with your social media account. Sometimes you learn a lot about how NOT to use the social web by weeding out the spam and useless messages you’re going to get.
5. It’s very tempting for freelancers to lean in favor of potential clients or colleagues when friending and following. Don’t be so self-conscious about your friends and follows–add the people who are relevant to what you’re doing on the web and let the chips fall where they may.

What You Don’t Know About Twitter CAN Hurt You

by Joe Wallace

Over the last few years, in addition to freelance writer and editor, I’ve also added social media specialist to my list of titles. I got started doing MySpace accounts for music projects and music journalist sites and branched out over time as Twitter, Facebook and other social media gained traction.

Among the many trends I’ve noticed among social media, one thing remains constant regardless of platform preference; there are always people willing to find new ways to send spam. Twitter is a no-brainer when it comes to spam–it’s too easy to tweet, tweet, tweet ad nauseum and send annoying direct messages until the keyboard breaks.

But it’s also just as easy to block spammers, so a bit more innovation is required to send out the annoyance.

One way spammers are using Twitter can actually affect YOUR account’s reputation, get you blocked by potential readers, clients or customers, and give you a bad name all round. And if you’re not disciplined enough to check your account on a daily basis, you might never know it’s happening. … Continue Reading

Why Hoot Suite Rocks

by Catherine L. Tully

If you are into social media (which you should be in my opinion), you need Hoot Suite. Seriously.

Hoot Suite helps you manage all of your social media accounts from one place, and it has a host of useful features, including:

- The ability to schedule tweets

- Easy updates on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook–all from one page

- The ability to shorten URLs without leaving the page

- Auto complete on your @usernames once you have used them before (I think this may be my fave feature)

- Statistics on how many people click through on the URLs you tweet. And yes–I’m serious!

I tried TweetDeck before, and while I think it looks much better (very slick interface), it is more confusing. I accidentally sent an update meant for Twitter to all of my social media accounts….

Not good.

If you are looking for a simple way to manage your social media without a big learning curve–this is it. I haven’t used the app yet–but there is one available for the iPhone as well. Check it out and you will really be glad you did! No more multiple log-ins and no more time suck. Do it all quick and easy.

I’m loving it!

No Time For Social Media, But Lots Of Time To Waste On Email

Freelance-Zone.com reached out to Joan Stewart, a speaker, trainer and consultant who blogs at Publicity Hound and My Social Media Solution and she shared a great tip on time management in terms of how to find space in your day to utilize social media…

One of our customers told me this morning how frustrated she is that she doesn’t have enough time to spend on social media.

I suggested that she set aside a block of time twice a day, say as soon as she starts work in the morning and again before she closes the office for the day, to blog, post to her Facebook and Twitter profiles and do what needs to be done on LinkedIn.

When she hemmed and hawed about how difficult it would be to find the time, I asked her, “”How much time do you spend on email each day?”

“A lot,” she said.

“Why?”

“Because it’s a way for me to check in with my clients and other people who I like to hear from,” she said.

“How profitable is answering email?” I asked. … Continue Reading

Social Media For Writers

This post is sponsored by FiledBy – where authors can claim their free website and build their online marketing platform

by Catherine L. Tully

I stumbled across a real gem of a site in Social Media for Writers and thought I’d share it with you today. It was great to see something specifically devoted to writers out there, and this site has a little something for everyone…

If you are a rank beginner when it comes to social media sites, the author (Donna Talarico) provides a good overview of two of the best out there–Twitter and Facebook. More advanced users will appreciate things such as information about promoting your blog on Twitter or information on how to use Twitter lists.

One of the most refreshing things about this site is the easy tone that Talarico uses. She communicates good information without talking down to writers, but it isn’t so basic that you’ll be bored. Take a few minutes to check this site out and see what you can learn about making social media work for you.

And if you haven’t already joined us on Twitter or Facebook, please drop by and sign on. We should all be connected!

This post was sponsored by FiledBy – where authors can claim their free website and build their online marketing platform

Social Media ist das Opium des Volkes

by Mike O’Mary

Okay, so maybe Karl Marx was talking about religion instead of social media when he tagged an institution as “the opiate of the people.” But if Karl were alive today, I don’t think he’d argue with calling social media an opiate. Speaking for myself, I swore off television years ago only to end up spending those newfound hours in front of the computer every day. Sucked in again!

How much time do you spend on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, Classmates, YouTube, Flickr, Google Buzz, Bebo, Flixster, MyLife, etc., etc.? And I’m not even talking about the time you spend checking your e-mail accounts, blogs, bank/brokerage accounts, shopping, travel, and all that other “essential” stuff. Talk about a huge time suck.

To be clear, social media is pretty amazing. You have hundreds — sometimes thousands — of personal and business connections at your fingertips. This simply was not possible ten years ago. Old college friends were just that…old college friends. Maybe you saw them at your 10th or 20th or 50th reunion. Now you can see them every day. Perhaps all you learn is that they spend oodles of time fertilizing eggplant in FarmVille. But hey, you’ll have something to talk about at the next reunion, right? (”Hey, Greg…how’d that degree in library science turn out? Oh. Sorry. Nice eggplant farm though.”)

I started to say that social media is pretty amazing. And that it has its place. It’s helped me spread the word about my new book publishing business faster and cheaper and to a broader audience than I could have done with traditional PR or marketing. And I’ve made some new friends along the way. It’s been great. But I really did get sucked in. Here’s what happened: I was spending LOTS of time each day trying to keep up with all of my social media accounts, and then staying up very late at night doing all the other things that are traditionally associated with book publishing. That had to stop. My job is editing and publishing. My job is not social media gadfly — no matter how entertaining, compelling or (dare I say it) ADDICTING social media might be.

Here is a longer version of the famous Karl Marx quote. Again, I have substituted “social media” for “religion”:
[Social media] is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.

It’s your life. Don’t live it all virtually.

Mike O’Mary is founding dreamer of Dream of Things, an independent book publisher currently accepting creative nonfiction stories for anthologies on 15 topics.

Using Social Media

by Catherine L. Tully

How do you use social media? I’m getting into it pretty heavy and I’m really enjoying what it does for me. Joe and I use Twitter and Facebook for this site (come join us if you haven’t already!), and I use LinkedIn as well. The learning curve on all of them is a little to deal with on the front end, but they are fairly user-friendly overall. It can get a little complicated when you try and use some of the more advanced features, but all writers can benefit from having an account set up.

If you haven’t yet jumped on the social media bandwagon, try it. Set up a Twitter account and tweet. Create a Facebook page for your business. Take the time to walk through the LinkedIn profile and get that out there. It’s worth the effort–trust me!

Unfollow Thursday

I am starting a new Twitter fad. Are you sick of getting stupid spam Tweets about “I just added you to my Mafia family, you should accept my invitation” and teeth whitening? Are you as fed up as I am with 500 million tweets daily about stupid spammy nonsense? “I make $500 a day, you can too!”

That’s why I’ve declared Thursdays as UNFOLLOW THURSDAY. It works exactly the same as FOLLOW FRIDAY, except in reverse. Name your names, folks–shame them into ending the Twitter spam all together.

For those who don’t know about FOLLOW FRIDAY, and now UNFOLLOW THURSDAY, you simply type in Follow Friday: @TinyNugget, @Freelancezone, @CrimsonForehead, whoever else you want to follow and announce to the world that you’ve followed them … Continue Reading

Using Twitter With Purpose

by Catherine L. Tully

Do you just get on Twitter and tweet away about whatever comes to mind? If so, you aren’t taking full advantage of the power of this social networking tool. Writers need to be thinking about how they are marketing themselves and their services when they post.

To that end, I’d like to point out a Twitter Guide that breaks a lot of the information out there down in a very palatable way. Mashable divides things up into three common sense categories… … Continue Reading

Myspace 2.0 Customization Tutorial for Freelancers

by Joe Wallace

Do freelance writers actually USE MySpace? I gave up on it ages ago, but I am very curious about what others are doing and what the general (?) consensus is among freelance writers about the usefulness of Myspace.

The one thing Myspace has going for it is the Bulletin feature, but it’s so abused and overused that it would be tough to get a real message out there among all the clutter. But I digress. … Continue Reading

Twitterfeed-Type Services Down After Hack Attacks

Bloggers who use Twitterfeed and similar services to send updates to their Twitter accounts when they create blog posts are still unable (at press time) to run automated posts to Twitter.

Twitterfeed.com and other services were blocked by Twitter following Thursday’s denial-of-service attacks. Twitter has implemented very aggressive IP address filtering according to an update at GetSatisfaction. Twitter promises to look into the issue but there’s no telling when auto-update services like Twitterfeed might be permitted to resume. Bottom line, if you’re having trouble with those automatic blog post updates on Twitter, it’s not Twitterfeed’s fault, access has been denied by Twitter until further notice.

What Freelancers Can Learn From The Daily Beast

By Joe Wallace

The Daily Beast ran a fasciating little piece entitled, “How MySpace Blew It” with the accompanying AP photo of Rupert Murdoch, who can’t seem to get a break these days. That’s due in part because the old guard seems almost genetically inclined to get new media wrong even when they try to embrace it.

Remember when MySpace seemed unstoppable? That was, of course, before all those goofy ads of people on webcams with low-cut halter tops bending over suggestively and nonstop barrages of other intrusive ads. Once upon a time, a writer without MySpace was deemed to be hopelessly married to old-school PR.

Today, MySpace isn’t good for much unless you have a band, and some are questioning even that usefulness. … Continue Reading

Sometimes, Less is More

by Joe Wallace

Have you noticed a social media-driven trend in writing resumes and “about me” blurbs lately? Brevity has always been the soul of wit, but thanks to social media your resume and About Me blurbs need to get even wittier.

Cutting out the flab from a resume is nothing new. Strunk & White have been shouting the “Omit needless words” gospel from the rooftops for generations. But in an age where attention spans are so short that anything longer than 140 characters seems positively Joycean, short bursts of credibility are more important than being fun to read.

If you can’t tell what a person’s About Me is all about at a glance, the feature might be missing the mark. On my Twitter page, for example, I cut out all the fun stuff about being a snarky columnist and music photographer. Yes, I am those things. But I get right to the point now, saying basically, “Joe Wallace for hire. I write finance, medical, SEO and other high-value topics. I excel at quick turnaround projects with insane deadlines.”

And that’s pretty much it. I was sad to see the snarky fun go out of my About Me, but the value of being instantly attractive to a potential client shouldn’t be underestimated.