Baratunde reveals he was the creator and operator of the various social media profiles for the swine flu during the recent outbreak.

just an update about what’s going on now. take care! – xo Monster (Josie)

Wil Wheaton answering fans’ questions at a reading of Just A Geek.

Complete video at: fora.tv Scott Rosenberg, Salon co-founder and author of Say Everything, gives his list of the top 10 myths about blogging. “I will boil down to you to fewer syllables than a haiku: some bloggers are doing journalism, others aren’t.” —– You’ve heard all the arguments about blogging, pro and con. Blogs are a wondrous innovation, keys that have unlocked a vast treasury of self-expression and allowed underdogs everywhere to challenge giants. No, wait! Blogs are a scourge that is debasing journalism, undermining traditional authority, drowning us all in meaningless chatter, and destroying civilization as we know it. Say Everything chronicles blogging’s unplanned rise and improbable triumph, tracing its impact on politics, business, the media, and our personal lives. What blogging has become, Rosenberg says, is a new kind of public sphere – one in which we can think out loud together. – The Hillside Club Writer, editor and website builder Scott Rosenberg is a cofounder of Salon.com and author of Dreaming in Code: Two Dozen Programmers, Three Years, 4732 Bugs, and One Quest For Transcendent Software. At Salon, Rosenberg served as technology editor and, from 1999 to 2004, as managing editor and vice president for editorial operations. He also started the Salon Blogs program in 2002 and began his own blog as part of it. Before leaving Salon in 2007 to write Say Everything he conceived and prototyped the Open Salon blogging community. Before Salon he wrote on …

To secure new business in a tough economy, your company needs to appear stable and reliable. Social media marketing is one of the best ways to spread good news about your company and build an image of dependability and success.

The Role of Social Media in Enhancing Your Image

As the saying goes, image is everything. That statement is especially true during difficult economic times. As Rich Tehrani of TMCNet states in a recent article, people looking to make purchases want a company they can count on, and outward appearance is the key to creating an image of stability. Is he saying you should lie about the state of your company just to get sales? Absolutely not. What he’s saying is that you should play up the positive news to boost your image:

”… all companies need to over saturate the markets they serve with the best news they can create. This is regardless of how well they are doing. If sales are generally good now, it makes even more sense to focus on putting a halo around your brand to protect it from bad times which may or may not be ahead. Customer wins, new product launches, a new green data center, a widget that does something useful – if you have any of these, issue a release and try to get some positive media coverage.”

In addition to press releases, Tehrani suggests that companies continue marketing through a variety of means, including social media.

A Social Media Marketing Firm Can Build a Positive Profile for You

Social media sites present one of the greatest marketing opportunities for businesses that are interested in establishing a real relationship with their customers. That last phrase is of great importance – social media marketing will not work if you don’t get involved in a real and meaningful way.

What does that mean? You can’t just create a Facebook page and leave it at that. You need to become a part of the community that exists on the social media site, whether it be Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.

You need to analyze which sites are best for your type of business, and determine what kind of content will register with the people in these various online communities.

You also need regular communication so you can participate fully in the “social” aspect of these sites.

Marketing with social media is labour-intensive, but it is worth it. Fortunately, you don’t need to do all the work yourself. Online marketing firms that specialize in social media marketing can do all the legwork for you.

What a Social Media Marketing Firm Will Do

Your social media marketing partner will conduct the research you need to get started on the most widely used social media sites. The company will prepare content for you and make sure your pages are updated regularly. Their efforts will result in an authentic and positive online profile for your company.

Social media marketing is the next wave of online marketing. Catch the wave now and you’ll be able to ride out the recession and be in a stronger position when good times return.

Have you ever felt lost for words and pondered what topics to discuss on your blog site? Well, instead of feeling confused, your time could be spent on improving your writing skills. The best way to get rolling again is to focus on your blog headlines. Concentrate on creating a headline formula and do some research. Learn how to create headlines that make people want to click on your blog site.

Do this project on a weekly basis and before long, you will have created plenty of ideas for your headlines and therefore, articles to discuss on your blog. Surf the internet for information and read books on how to write great headlines.

Build a keyword file and list keywords that are related to your blog site. Write a headline and include a few of your keywords. Next, use your keywords throughout your article. For instance, the word “blog” is included in the headline of this article. The first paragraph shows the word “blog” three times, and the second paragraph shows the word “blog” once. Count how many times you see the word “blog” in the next paragraph. Okay, you’re starting to get the idea.

Now, before you get carried away including keywords throughout your articles, make sure you are showing top-ranking keywords. We used Wordtracker – a free keyword tool, to search for the word “blog” and their reports show an estimated total of 1,775 daily searches.

Don’t forget to include top-ranking keywords in your “tags” and “meta-tag” for each article that you write and submit your articles to search engines. This simple step will help boost the ranking and traffic to your blog site.

You can find more blogging tips at: http://justsayitblog.com

Follow Me On Twitter! – http://twitter.com/justsayitblog

Article marketing 2.0 is a revolutionary method of article promotion. Do you still wonder how you can do professional article marketing 2.0? Then read on this article to find out the 3 important facts about professional article promotion. 

Here are 3 Important Facts about Article Marketing Tips: 

Article Marketing 2.0 Fact #1: Social Bookmarking And Social Networking 

You can get maximum benefit of article marketing using social bookmarking and social networking. 

Have you ever combined your article marketing with web 2.0 tools like social bookmarking and social networking? Just imagine how much traffic your sites would generate if you promote your articles on Twitter, Facebook or other popular social network sites which have millions of visitors daily! 

Article Marketing 2.0 Fact #2: Blogs 

You can take maximum advantage of article marketing using blogs. 

The other web2 tool – blogs are the best way to get more backlinks to your popular articles and in this way, get higher ranking for your sites. How? – When you link to your most viewed articles from various blogs or other web 2 tools like squidoo, hubpages, blogger, the site noted in the resource box of those articles get higher rankings on popular search engines. In this way, you can even get to the 1st page of Google. 

Article Marketing 2.0 Fact #3: Youtube 

Youtube is one of the most visited web 2 sites online. Just imagine how you could leverage of your daily article marketing if you turn your articles into videos and submit them to Youtube! 

Conclusion: 

Article marketing 2.0 is a revolutionary way to leverage your article marketing and get maximum traffic and sales. So don’t neglect this important part of article promotion.

In this video, I answer a question from drekw2 of Youtube who asks: “I saw your video where you discus the mic for podcast! You know the Blue snow ball micphrophone? What your opinion of this mic? Why you use the headphones when you record your podcasts? You can post a tutorial “How to do a good podcast” on you tube?What the program you use to record your amazing podcasts?” Wow, a lot of questions there drekw2! First off, I don’t own a Blue Snowball microphone so i can’t speak for its quality, but I do have friends who purchased one and aren’t using it today. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad. As for the headphones, I use them so I can various sound effects during the podcast without them coming across the mic. I’ll think about doing a tutorial on podcasting, but I want it to be in-depth, so it may take some time. The program I use to record my podcasts is called Ubercaster (www.ubercaster.com It’s great for doing live, record and publish podcasts with very little post production. Hope this answers your questions drekw2. If you have any other questions you’d like me to attempt to entertain, email me at help@bwana.tv

I personally have been Tweeting for a few months. But I use the phrase “tweeting for a few months” loosely. I haven’t been all that consistent with it, and I definitely didn’t have a strategy. I just thought it was kind of cool.

Recently I’ve started paying more attention to it for a few reasons; my mother-in-law was at a librarian conference recently and attended a session on Twitter. I got into a conversation with her about it, and then the next day I saw John Reese’s email about Twitter. It seems like there is a lot of twittering about Twitter going on. What is Twitter?

According to the Twitter FAQ, “Twitter is for staying in touch and keeping up with friends no matter where you are or what you’re doing.”

Wikipedia says, “Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send updates via SMS, instant messaging, email, to the Twitter website, or any one of the multitude of Twitter applications now available”.

Basically Twitter asks the question, “What are you doing?” and allows you to send a short update (your tweets are limited to 140 characters) to your followers (family, friends, colleagues, customers, potential customers etc).

Twitter allows you to send and receive updates (also called tweets) via your browser, email, instant messaging clients and SMS (using your cell phone). No matter where you are, you can tweet!

I haven’t been following Twitter since day 1, so I’m not going to comment on it’s evolution but I will speculate that as its popularity grows, as more and more marketers use it, 2 things are inevitable:

1. Rules on Twitter etiquette will continue to evolve as we learn what we like and dislike about it, and as we respond to the inevitable abuse of Twitter (don’t mean to sound negative but it happens with each exciting new opportunity ‘ people end up abusing it).

2. More and more companies will jump on board and try to get in on the conversation.

Start Twittering, (or is it Tweeting?)

Remember, when you first join Twitter, it can feel like a lonely place. When you aren’t following anyone and no one is following you, you may find yourself asking “what is the point?” I’ve heard so many people say they just don’t get it. In fact, I’ve said that myself.

The key is to find the Tweets you want to follow so you can keep your finger on the pulse of your niche. The next key is to start building your followers. More on that in a minute.

How can Twitter help your business?

The more contact you have with a potential customer, the more likely you are to get their business. You can stay “top of mind” through Twitter. Let them know what’s new in your industry, in your company etc. You become a source of quick news flashes for them.

Here are just a few of the benefits of Twitter: – It reminds people that you exist

- It shows people you have something to say

- It shows them that you are human

- It allows you to mention new offers, sales and breaking news immediately

- It allows you to form a more casual relationship

- You can use Twitter to promote your social bookmarking submissions.

- You can ask for referrals, suggestions, feedback and help, and people will respond.

Twitter is also fun and is contributing to the new language we are constantly developing. For example “Twitterference” ‘ the intrusion of twitter updates on your phone making it hard to have a conversation on your phone.

Finding Followers:

Start by reaching out to your friends, family, mailing list etc. You can also add your Twitter link to your email signature line; add links to your website and Blog. Mention your Twitter account in your newsletter.

Twitter Rules

One cardinal rule (that is in your best interest to follow): if you use Twitter as a pure sales tool, you will lose followers quickly. As with all forms of social media, it is about creating a conversation and sharing news ‘ it’s not all about you shoving your sales message down their throats.

Tweets are limited to 140 characters. This is to allow them to be easily sent over mobile SMS systems.

You aren’t able to embed HTML with the exception of hyperlinks. (But they are no-follow links, so they won’t help you in your SEO quest for backlinks) Bonus: Twitter automatically uses the TinyURL service to shorten links.

Don’t tweet too much, or too little. There is no magic number and it varies according to your audience. Some people say don’t update more than once per hour. Others say not more than once or twice a day. I tend to be in the once or twice a day camp. If there is breaking news and some days you just have to update more often then it’s OK. If your tweets are valuable information people will be more tolerant of frequent updates.

On the other hand if you are too quiet, people have nothing to follow so make sure you find that balance and tweet just enough to keep people informed but not annoyed.

Don’t forget that your profile shows a history of all your tweets, so if a new person comes along and sees that you don’t have many tweets they may decide you aren’t worthy of following. Also if your past tweets aren’t informative or interesting, you lose some potential followers.

You’ll find that sometimes you get involved in personal conversation with someone. Try to avoid doing too much of this. Not everyone will be interested in your personal communications. If you do need to do this, put the @ symbol in front of somebody’s name ‘ this indicates that this message is for them.

One thing to keep in mind about personal conversation tweets – some people who are following you may not be following the person you are talking to. This means they get only one half of the conversation. One suggestion is to word your tweet so that spectators have an idea of what you are talking about. That way, they can feel more included in the conversation.

Trust and Twitter

With so much hype in marketing, people are really looking for a company that can trust. You can build trust with prospects by allowing them to get to know you, and by providing them with information. Twitter allows you to do just that.

A great tip: look at your own Tweet history ‘ is the information valuable, does it build trust? Would you want to follow yourself?

Get tweeting!

It may take some trial and error, and you probably want to check out what others are tweeting about to get a feel for the style. But don’t spend too long lurking ‘ check it out and then jump on in.

If you have a business and a website, one of the best marketing tools available to you is Article Marketing. Article Marketing is all about creating online articles that you publish in article directories. The goal is to get your article out to readers who will be interested to learn more about you and your business. As a marketing tool, it helps connect your website to your target market effectively and inexpensively.

What your article should have

Article Marketing is simply writing what you know about your business. You want to create an informative article that others will want to read. It should start with a catchy title that will compel readers to read the rest of the article. Of course, the main body of the article should be just as compelling. For more details www.lazyman-article-guide.com. Short, well-written, and interesting articles establish you as an expert in your field. It should generate more interest about you and what you do. The article should end with a resource box that gives readers information about you, including your name, your website, and other contact information. It should also include a capsule version of what you do, what your business is about, and what they should do to make the best use of the information you gave them (i.e., avail of your services).

Reaching your target audience

Article Marketing is one of the most inexpensive marketing tools available. By publishing your article in article directories, your words reach more people through more channels. Newsletter publishers can find your article and use it as content for their ezine or offline newsletter. Your article and your name will find their way to more people, and they will look you up on your website. Article Marketing also drives more traffic to your website by getting ranked on search engines. With proper use of keywords and phrases in your article, they will get indexed by search engines, and preferably within the first page. Of course, people will check out your article more frequently and your article will lead them back to you.

Extending your market

Social Bookmarking and Article Marketing are made for each other. When people find your article useful, they will bookmark it through services like Digg, StumbleUpon and Del.icio.us. This helps connect your name and your article to other people who share the same interests as your current target audience. As you reach more people, your customer base naturally expands as well.

New material and new business

Article Marketing also benefits from Social Bookmarking by helping you find out what your niche market is interested in. For more details www.press-release-profits.com. Through the bookmarks of your readers, you will find out what other topics they look for on the Internet. If you are knowledgeable about these same topics, then you can create more articles that will interest your current readers and, hopefully, more new readers and potential clients. It can also help you keep your business up-to-date with the needs of your clients.

Where to publish your article

There are literally hundreds of article directories on the Internet. However, you usually have to pay a subscription fee to get your articles published in these directories. It also pays to have your articles actively promoted through the directories’ own RSS feeds and websites. Thus, it’s usually best to stick to the larger and more popular article directories like: EzineArticles GoArticles WebProNews ArticleDashboard SearchWarp Article Marketing is an inexpensive marketing tool that helps you connect to your target market and beyond. Maximize its potential and you will maximize your business prospects.