A snappy, eye-catching headline used to be the most critical part of a press release back in the day when a press release was—shockingly—actually a release to the press. Now that the Web has allowed people to read press releases directly, even the cleverest headline is useless on a news release that doesn’t generate traffic. In today’s Web 2.0 world, the most important thing your press release and its headline needs is keywords. Keywords are what Publicity Expert … [Read more...]
Twitter: Pornography & Spam vs. Quality Contacts
January 10, 2010 by
I lost about a hundred Twitter followers over the holidays. "Alice" was on Christmas break, and I didn't have time to review my new followers to decide if I wanted to follow them back. I check every Twitter profile before I manually follow back, making it is easy for me to fall behind. I definitely do lose a few contacts that way. Some new Twitter followers will unfollow you in as a little as two days if you don't return the follow. Of course, some of these can … [Read more...]
Video Clip of the Month: Serendipity Engine
January 1, 2010 by
My January 2010 video clip of the month features a valuable talk Chris Brogan gave at the Web 2.0 Expo in New York City. Brogan is arguably one of the top social media experts in the world and his blog is rated number 0ne by Advertising Age magazine. Here's the YouTube video: … [Read more...]
Your Brand: Taking Social Media Seriously
December 16, 2009 by
Now that Google has added live results from Twitter into searches, you need to face the fact once and for all that you can no longer control your organization's online reputation. Negative comments on blogs, Facebook, or Twitter have the power to tarnish your brand overnight in ways unimaginable a few years back. Even a small business should take social media seriously and try to influence conversations about its brand. A common concern, however, is managing … [Read more...]
Your Brand: 10-Minute Social Media Monitoring
December 9, 2009 by
Google is adding live results from Twitter into searches this week, forever changing the nature of brand management. Now more than ever, you need to monitor your organization's social media presence. You need to know right away if the live Tweet results include "worst service" or "sucks," so you can diffuse these conversations and "push down" negative tweet search results. A common concern, however, is that monitoring social media takes too much time, especially … [Read more...]
With WordPress, Your Ideas Beam into Reality
December 2, 2009 by
I love WordPress! In case you missed my Oct. 15, 2009 post, WordPress is one of the leading free open source content management systems (CMS). It’s user-friendly, interactive ( i.e., Web 2.0), and lets you create professional looking websites in no time. More importantly, you can quickly improve your site when you come up with new ideas or technology changes—without having to pay for any software or development costs. This Sunday I came up with an idea on … [Read more...]
Video Clip of the Month: Muppets on Social Media
December 1, 2009 by
The Muppets Studio produced a cute clip about social media. Here's a link to the video on YouTube: … [Read more...]
My Life as a Communications Consultant
November 24, 2009 by
NOTE: This post is out of date. "Alice" starts Extended Day, the Montessori equivalent of full-day Kindergarten, in September 2011, which will make me available for semi full-time work. When I am out and about with "Alice," my 2-year-old daughter, I am often asked what I do for a living. I usually answer "communications consultant" rather than "work at home mom" (WAHM) or "mompreneur." Some people seem to think WAHM and mompreneur are the new euphemisms for … [Read more...]
Social Media Campaign Sets Guinness Record
November 23, 2009 by
The Atlanta-based social media marketing agency Everywhere set a Guinness World Record October 16 to 17, 2009, for the most widespread social network message in a 24-hour period with 209,771 mentions on Twitter, Facebook, and blogs. In fact, the massive viral effort was so successful that #beatcancer, the campaign's trending topic, became the top one on Twitter. Incredibly, Everywhere conceptualized and executed the one-day pro-bono campaign in one week. It ended … [Read more...]
Blog with Integrity FTC Webinar
November 21, 2009 by
Blog With Integrity hosted a free webinar on Nov. 10, 2009, featuring Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Associate Commissioner for Consumer Protection Mary Engle. The webinar discussed the new FTC guidance on disclosure and endorsements, which is critical information for bloggers who write about products and services plus the public relations and marketing people who hock them. You can view the Vimeo video below. I have signed Blog with Integrity's online pledge. I … [Read more...]
White House Website Shifts to Free Drupal
October 25, 2009 by
The www.whitehouse.gov website shifted over to the free open source Drupal content management system (CMS) yesterday, according to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle. A CMS is a software package that lets you build a website that non-technical people can quickly and easily (and therefore affordably) change and update. "We now have a technology platform to get more and more voices on the site," White House new media director Macon Phillips was quoted in the … [Read more...]
A Great Resource: DC Web Women
October 21, 2009 by
I am a member of DC Web Women (DCWW), a 501(c)(6) professional organization of about 3000 members located in the Washington, D.C., area. Our members are professional women, students, and enthusiasts who specialize in the fields of web design, web development, computer science, Information Technology (IT), graphic design, web content, blogging, multimedia, marketing, e-marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), web analytics, and social media. A former boss of … [Read more...]
What’s Hot: Free Content Management Systems
October 17, 2009 by
eVentures in Cyberland: Through the Web 2.0 Looking Glass, and What Communicators Found There was created using WordPress, a free open source content management system (CMS). A CMS is a software package that lets you build a website that non-technical people can quickly and easily (and therefore affordably) change and update. You could, for example, design a templates-based website like this one for as little as $1,000 (all in design, not writing, labor and assuming … [Read more...]
Google Wave Developer Preview
October 15, 2009 by
I hope I can get a Google Wave invite. Google Wave is "a personal communication and collaboration tool" announced by Google at the Google I/O conference on May 27, 2009. It is a web-based service, computing platform, and communications protocol designed to merge e-mail, instant messaging, wikis, and social networking. About a million people were extended invitations starting Sept. 30, 2009, with the initial 100,000 users each allowed to invite from 20 to 30 … [Read more...]
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