I get alot of questions about using social media these days – Facebook, Twitter and the like. The biggest mistake is talking about yourself, as this article describes. If you want to use social media, make it an effective part of your marketing plan. Learn, plan, apply, test and evaluate like any other marketing activity.

I’ve been reading Joan Stewart a.k.a. The Publicity Hound and her newsletter ever since she started it years ago. She offers great practical advice for small business owners seeking publicity and has grown along with the internet. Her weekly newsletter is free and the credit at the end of the article directs you to her site and blog. She is a “10″ in my book!

This is from the Nov. 24th newsletter:

1. Stop Talking About Yourself
====================================

If social media were a cocktail party, many of us would be heading
for home by 8:30.

That’s because everybody seems to be talking about themselves:

“I’m standing in line at Starbucks.”

“I’m starting my day with a hot bowl of oatmeal.”

“I just dropped my kids off at school. It’s pouring rain!”

Chris Brogan, who is arguably one of the top social media experts
in the world and whose blog has been ranked Number 1 by Advertising
Age magazine, says we should be spending 12 times as much time
talking about other people as we do about ourselves.

He spoke last week at the Web 2.0 Expo in New York City. A
10-minute snippet of his presentation at
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=L69A3&m=1fFHyyzuPTtYrK&b=rXjHm_9biQkYkibc9qCmmQ may be one of the most valuable
videos you’ll watch all year. His tips:

–If you’re not spending time using http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=L69A3&m=1fFHyyzuPTtYrK&b=DIWrIzToQ2CJjZ29Dg9vGA
or the search part of your social media application, you’re missing
one of the best opportunities that social media offers. That’s
because you can search for people who are talking about specific
topics. Following conversations is often more valuable than
following people.

–We should be listening far more than worrying about what to say.

–When we share helpful tips and information from other people,
that makes us more valuable to the people who follow us. Eighty
percent of his Twitter posts are responses to things other people
have tweeted.

–No continual “barking” (his words, not mine) about your products.

–The difference between an audience and a community is the way you
turn the chairs.

As you watch the video, notice the tweets that show up on the
screen behind him. Many of them are from audience members who are
tweeting about his presentation. They’re using the hashtag #w2e in
their tweets. That makes it easy for anyone searching for
information about the conference to find it at
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=L69A3&m=1fFHyyzuPTtYrK&b=DIWrIzToQ2CJjZ29Dg9vGA

Read more about how to use hashtags for publicity at my blog at
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=L69A3&m=1fFHyyzuPTtYrK&b=0PwgI_bFrIaM.twXKwq_KQ

and don’t forget to add your thoughts with a comment below!

Reprinted from “The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week,” an ezine
featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity.
Subscribe at http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=L69A3&m=1fFHyyzuPTtYrK&b=doEjuk786e1sxsrpJjUJQA and receive by email
the handy cheat sheet “89 Reasons to Send a Press Release.”

OK, so you decided to start your blog as part of your internet marketing campaign. You’ve installed WordPress, chosen a theme and started blogging away. You are marketing online and ready to increase your profits. Good for you!

How, you want your best prospects to visit your blog on your website, look around, comment on your blog, sign up for your website newsletter and, eventually, become a customer – RIGHT? That’s alot to ask, but not unreasonable. What’s unreasonable is expecting it all to happen right away. And, it requires a systematic approach. First things first.

The BEST thing you can do to your website blog is to PING! Pinging is basically sending a signal to blog directories and other websites to let them know you’ve posted new content on your blog. Sending pings is a great way to get your website blog indexed in search engines and spread the word so that your potential customers can find your content. It’s really the fastest and easiest place to start promoting your blog, your products and services and your small business. Best part about it is that it doesn’t COST you anything to do.

However, you must do this the right way or you can end up hurting your website and blog presence in the ever-growing-and-becoming-much-more-important blogosphere.

WordPress comes with built-in ping features. However, they don’t really work that well as the default and you really need to optimize your blog ping system. The best tool you can get (and one of the few plug-ins I use here) is MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer. It’s easy to install and use and really makes a BIG difference in getting the results you want from your blog. (If you need help with this, just ask me by email or call me direct at (863) 668-1086)

Your pings can get you:

Indexed right away in search engines

Traffic coming immediately to your website

Listed in blog directories so SEEKERS can find your website

Get other blogs to find your blog and mention your posts

Get good links that add to your Google Page Rank and bump you up in the search results

How, once you’ve got it installed and activated, you’ll want to add some ping sites to your list. Here’s the first twenty I have on my list:

http://rpc.pingomatic.com/

http://api.feedster.com/ping

http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2

http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping

http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2

http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php

http://www.blogsnow.com/ping

http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi

http://coreblog.org/ping/

http://ping.blo.gs/

http://ping.feedburner.com

http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php

http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php

http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php

http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/

http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2

http://topicexchange.com/RPC2

http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/

http://api.moreover.com/ping

Getting your BEST customers to visit your website and Buy your products and services is the goal of an internet marketing campaign. Your Lakeland business can use more customers, right? So what are you waiting for? This is your invitation to maximize your blog by using ping optimizer. It’s easy, fast and no cost other than a few minutes of your precious time. It’s definitely worth your investment!

This is a great start. You can discover more by searching the web or you can just email me and ASK for a list of more ping sites I use. I add new ones all the time and am glad to share them with you!