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How to build a social media empire

Video on networking with twitter

One of my favorite Bloggers Guest post

Christine Gilbert is a full time traveler, freelance writer and photographer. She blogs about her transition from Fortune 500 Manager to traveling vagabond on Almostfearless.com. Her tips about traveling Europe on a budget can be found at europestring.com. She travels with her husband and two large, slobbery dogs– and still wonders why it took her so long to make the leap.

How to Build Your Social Media Empire (in 13 easy steps)

These steps assume a couple of things. First, that you have a blog (or business) that you want to promote. Second, that you haven’t really started using social media to promote your blog or your unsure where to start. Next, that you already know what your brand is, how to be consistent you’re your brand message no matter where you write and you actually have something to say. Finally, there are tons of additional places (like plurk, for instance) that I don’t mention here, because this is intended to get your started (not overwhelm you with the thousands of sites out there).
1. Sign up for an RSS Reader if you don’t already have one. I suggest bloglines or google reader.
2. Add your blog, plus the blogs of anyone that comments on your site (or blogs that you read). This will become your task list.
3. Sign up for a stumble account. Add everyone you know as a friend. Be sure to list your own blog on the profile page.
4. Everyday try to comment on at least 5 blogs per day. You want to change up who you comment on, so use your RSS reader as a “To-do list”
5. Everyday stumble at least 5 posts.

You definitely want to pick the best content to stumble, and be sure to write a review. Thumbs up without a review has less bang for the buck.

(Note: you can but try not to, it doesn’t look good. )
6. Check your webstats. Are you getting stumbles? Go to your post that got a stumble and use the stumble toolbar to see who reviewed it. Add these people as friends. If they have a blog, add them to your RSS.
7. Sign up for twitter. Add everyone you know. Be sure to use tweetlater to autofollow and autorespond with a link to your blog or RSS feed.
8. Go to a twitter account of someone with a similar blog topic and start adding their followers. You can usually get away with about 100 a day. After 3 days, drop anyone who doesn’t add you back. Repeat. (Always follow everyone who follows you first).
9. Start experimenting with Digg, Mixx, Reddit, Delicious, and so on. Watch your stats. See what works. There are times when these sites have great rewards, but it takes some finesse.
10. Respond to every new commenter on your site with a personal email. Let them know you have added their blog to your RSS (if applicable) and thank them for commenting (offering assistance or something free (like an ebook) doesn’t hurt either).
11. Sign up for twitterfeed to auto post your last blog post to twitter. Be sure to participate in twitter in a friendly way. Respond to what others write. Offer cool links not on your blog. Give tips. (Don’t just post links to your blog over and over, this is spammy).
12. Once you get a hang of it, create a daily to do list. It should read something like: check webstats, 5 comments, 5 stumbles, 5 tweets, add followers to twitter, catch up on emails, 1 digg/reddit/mixx. After a few months of doing this you should have a healthy following of a few thousand people. Always be gracious and helpful.
13. You have a social media empire, now what? Use it for good. The best self promotion is selfless promotion. Give new bloggers a leg up. Gently promote your stuff. Enjoy the warm glow of being part of a bigger community.

Got something to say? dying to tell us what you think? comment below,
Wisequeen

Corporates using social media to market

We’ve been on a social media roll here this month with social media being debated on wisequeen.
But the question on everyones’ lips is, Are the big corporates and brands using social media? And if so, how and for what.
Well the question I’ve been researching for some weeks with the Democrats using Twitter to build brand full on, was nicely answered for me, when I was directly targeted in a marketing drive launched on Twitter by Virgin Airlines. Yes, that bright red brand flag we have come to know so well, popped up in my followers on Twitter and I followed. They were promoting new flights to Australia. Good, because as it turns out my sister moved there last year and I’m considering going to visit. So Bingo! Richard Branson has his own Twitter too.
Now for the marketing gurus out there, this may seem a bit like throwing mud at a wall and seeing how much sticks, but it is probably as effective and cheaper than most ad campaigns.
Well it did answer my question, and that is, yes the big brands are using social media like facebook, twitter linkd’n and others rather than email, to find and build customer relationships.
So the web 2.0 age comes to all who can use a Laptop or iphone.
Have an opinion on this, been targeted yourself?
Send us a comment.
Donna Jackson
Social Communications Specialist
Wisequeen

social media your rights - can your boss ban use

In my last post I covered “it’s not about the tools it is still about the content”. Now here’s your rights laid out. There are bosses that ban the use of  social media tools like Twitter and Facebook during working hours, but this is almost impossible to enforce. A nifty pdf file that is downloadable  on socialmedian and also mentioned on mashable.com written by Peter Bradwell and  Richard Reeves, in 2008
lays it all out. www.demos.co.uk/publications/networkcitizens.

This is sure to get corporates discussing this. As many big companies like Hewlett Packard  and IBM decide to use social media like Twitter and socialmedian to keep their staff talking to each other across the globe.

The Somesso conference on today 31st Nov in Zurich is addressing all these issues and is being attended by industry insiders.

Speakers include David Terrar on building communities, who gave his views here  on wisequeen.com on the wi fi post

Jon Mell Web 2.0 evangelist and  Senior Consultant at Headshift and

Thomas Power director of ecademy  is talking on creating an online presence.

That’s the Brits. who rocked

Then  Daniel Joerg a  Bio Digital Strategist at  Crossmedia Agency

Follow online.

Have something to say? send a comment.

Donna Jackson.

Social Communications Specialist.

Wisequeen

It’s not about the tools it’s still about content

There are now legions of social media evangelists marching all over the globe preaching the message and sending out link after link on Twitter daily. Some of these links are valuable and through them I have found services and things I needed without having to dig. But, and it’s a big but, with all this chatter on twitter, facebook, and the myriad other ways being invented every other day of communicating quickly on line, are we really communicating?

If I go on twitter and say “Hey ho I’m depressed today I lost a contract” for example, that’s a thought and  I’ve put it out there into the twittisphere.

Who is likely to respond to this? The people I want to care? or someone on-line in amongst my followers who feels they must offer some kind of abbreviated response in 140 characters like: “chin up chum and get slaughtered”. Now I could get this  type of vegetative comment from any number of barmen or pizza flippers on any street, in any town.

So what do I want when I go on twitter, like minded souls who might tell me of a contract that I could pitch for? Maybe, but unlikely. I’m more likely to get some rabid political zealots who once again hammer home who I should vote for in the election. Or someone telling me in strings of jargon what applications I simply must use, or an incoherent group of blog links most of which have nothing to do with me, my work, or my lifetime ambitions.

Social media is a great way to get your message out to a wide audience quickly. A new blogpost, an amazing find,  a thought for the day, an event, but it should never replace the deep human need to to communicate with others in a way that satisfies that deep human need to listen and be listened to. So don’t sprout tech jargon, that’s what computers specialise in.

It is only a tool, just as your cell phone and laptop are and can never replace face to face and the contact of a handshake. It is but a prelude to this, or an information source and virtual network.

My last thought? Put something edifying into the twittersphere.

The Somesso conference begins 31st October, follow it to see what industry insiders are saying.

Donna Jackson

Social Communications Specialist

www.wisequeen.com