Find People by Name:

1. Type the person’s name into the search box at the top of your Twitter homepage.

2. Search Results will show up under the Who To Follow tab on the search results page, under Discover.

Find Accounts by Interest:

1. From the Discover tab, click Browse categories.

2. Click on any interesting category (e.g. Sports). You’ll be shown a list of accounts you may want to follow.

3. Browse by interest using the search box at the top of the Browse categories page. Type in a topic (like “singer” or “basketball”) or a descriptive phrase (such as “flamenco dancer” or “astronaut farmer”) and you’ll see a list of account results for that search term.

To keep things simple and organized, create a list within Twitter to place people.  Categories might be:  Industry Notables, Business Thought-Leaders, Social Marketing Professionals or something else.  If you make your list public, then other people can follow the list, you are curating people for your followers to follow.

HINT:  Twitter has follow limits to help prevent abuse.

• Every account can follow 2,000 users total. Once you’ve followed 2,000 users, there are limits to the number of additional users you can follow. This number is based on your ratio of followers to following; this ratio is not published.
• Every Twitter account is technically unable to follow more than 1,000 users per day; this prevents spammers from abusing the account.
• When you reach the account-based follow limit (2,000 users), you’ll need to wait until you have more followers before you can follow additional users.

Hashtags

Hashtags are simply a way to categorize tweets and expose your posts to new followers.  For example when I tweet about this post I will use the hashtag, #twitter, in the post for new people to find the post.  Hashtags are especially useful for industry subjects (#smm = social media marketing) or associations (#mima=Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association), chats (#leadershipchat; participate in a discussion), tvshows/events (#MadMen) conferences (#sobcon=social business conference) or making up a new one like #cutekittenpics to draw attention to your posts.  Click here for some common hashtag definitions.

Now that you know how to find people on Twitter and follow hashtags, begin engagement by listening.  Then incorporate some of these Twitter Business Ideas that Chris Brogan has suggested.

Twitter Listening Tips:

• Ask a question (who, what, why), listen and respond appropriately.
• Follow your favorite blog authors/industry leaders
• Check out chats and discussions.
• Watch the stream. Notice people and pay attention and respond to what they are saying. Notice when people are absent.
• If someone re-tweets you they are paying attention to you; thank them.
• Use favorites to save tweets you want to remember.
• Look at the person’s profile and recent tweets.

Now that you know how to follow people on Twitter, go out and follow @stevegasser @confessionsmom @jkaufenberg @michellefalling and @smmanley.  Check out the lists we have created, you may find them useful people to follow, too.

Free Online File Storage

Media file is a free online file storage tool.  I use when I need to send a client or my daughter large files.  You can use their simple file uploader and email a link to the document.  As more and more ISP’s limit the email attachment sizes to around 10 or 20mb, tools like MediaFire are going to become more and more important.

Here is a little more from their website:

MediaFire is the easy way to host and share any file type including documents, presentations, videos, and images. More than just a file hosting website, MediaFire has the features you need to easily upload, download, manage, and share your documents, presentations, videos, images and more.

Add Life to Boring PowerPoints

Want to add a little extra flair to presentations?  Try Prezi.  It is an online presentation tool to make engaging presentations.   A friend introduced me to Prezi about two months ago and now I love this tool.  Make your next presentation ZOOM.  There are several sample presentations for you to view here:  http://prezi.com/explore/

Your Thoughts?

What do you think of these tools?  I would love to hear your comments and thoughts on these or other tools you love.

Question:

Answer: While there are many components of driving traffic to websites and optimizing for search engines, I want to share one very quick “actionable” item you can take to make a significant difference to your blog posts. Today’s tip is to Add Tags to Your Blog Posts.

Why Add Tags to Your Blog Post?

Tags are simple to add and help both humans and search engines know how to sort and find information efficiently. Similar to keywords, you should select at least two to ten tags to summarize your blog post. Tags (not to be confused with Categories) can be single words or multiple word combinations, but must be relevant to the copy you’ve written.

When Add Tags?

Ideally you should add tags prior to going live with a post. However, it’s never too late to add tags. Simply log into your site, click on “all posts” and look down the “tags” column for any posts that are missing tags. Click the “edit” button, go into the post, add some tags, and click “update” to save your changes.

We’ve noticed on multiple occasions that adding a tag to a blog post has resulted in very fast indexing of content by Google, and excellent results for traffic to the post where the content and tags complemented each other nicely.

Do you have a question we can help answer regarding WordPress, blogging, or tagging posts?

Quick Tips for How-To Set Up a Twitter Account

To begin, go to Twitter.com and enter your name, email, and a password.

Next, select a Username and Twitter will let you know if it is available. You will be able to change this later if you choose.

Twitter Tutorial

Twitter will guide you through some basic information and will suggest some people to follow. Take advantage of the Search feature. Put your target market and industry specific information in the search bar and then follow those people. In this example, I used “Health” as a search term and Twitter suggested some people to follow on Twitter related to that term.

Profile Pictures Versus Logos

Make sure you add a profile picture and write a bio when prompted. You can always add this information later and/or change it in your “settings”.

As a rule of thumb, try to use a nice photograph of yourself. Close-up head shots are best, and candid photos are fine as long as they are clear, crop well, and still maintain a level of professionalism. If you are creating an account for a company or organization, it’s still more personable and engaging to your followers if you use a warm photo of you, someone at your organization, etc. Logos used as profile pictures on Twitter put a large emphasis on brand recognition, and this should be done if it’s in your social media goals and company culture.

Anytime I’ve switched a profile picture from a logo to a person, I’ve seen the number of followers and engagement shoot up!

If you already have a gravatar that you use on your blog, Google+, Facebook, etc, you can use the same one. This is important if you are building a personal brand or want to maintain consistency for followers across various social media platforms.

Write Your Bio

You have 160 characters to use in the bio section of your Twitter profile. Use this space wisely to communicate who you are and what you are passionate about. Search engines like Google do index Twitter, so using keywords and business name (as appropriate) can be beneficial. It may also help people find and follow you based on similar interests.

Tweets

It seems counter-productive to start tweeting before you have followers. However, many Twitter users are leery of spammers and careful who they follow. Get started tweeting so you get the feel of it and let others know you are a legitimate person to follow on Twitter.  You can tweet that you’re new to Twitter, how you plan to use Twitter, who you are looking to connect with, what interests you, or whatever news you have to share. There’s a fine line between being too personal on Twitter and being personable enough for people to want to engage in conversation. You’ll need to work to find that balance.

Get the Most Out of Twitter

Twitter allows you to link to your website or blog in your profile, add a geographic location, and more. To make these additions, click on silhouette image on the top right and then click on “settings”.

While in this section, you can change your background image to one that Twitter supplies or customize your own. Simply click on “Design” and follow the prompts.

NEXT STEP:  Gain Some Quick Followers

Once you have your Twitter account set up, add a comment below with your Twitter username (also called a Twitter @handle) and we’ll follow you on Twitter. We’re excited to see your new Twitter page and start connecting with you on this exciting and fast growing social media site.

Wondering what the official rules of Twitter are? Check out The Twitter Rules.

Online Photo Editing with Pixlr

If you want a full featured image editor like Photoshop, but like the work FREE, you should check out www.Pixlr.com.  It is an online photo editor that allows you to crop, resize, add text, create layers and more.  Kinda like a light version of Adobe Photoshop.  I use almost daily.  Since it is an online tool, you can use it on any computer at home, work, or the coffee shop down the street.  No software to install and maintain.  What could be simpler?

Coordinate Meeting Times with Doodle

This is a very useful tool for scheduling meetings with large groups of people.  Just send out a Doodle to everyone with possible dates and time.  Each person selects the times they are available, allowing you to pick the day and time that works best for everyone.

VIDEO:  How to ‘correctly’ dry your hands with a paper towel

We take recycling and conserving our environment seriously at Vivid Image.  But maybe there are things we can do to improve.  Like drying our hands correctly with a paper towel?  This TED video explains how we can all conserve paper by drying our hands ‘correctly’ and use fewer paper towels in the process.  I found it very entertaining – but I am easily amused.

You use paper towels to dry your hands every day, but chances are, you’re doing it wrong. In this enlightening and funny short talk at TEDxConcordiaUPortland, Joe Smith reveals the trick to perfect paper towel technique.

Your Thoughts?

What do you think of these tools?  I would love to hear your comments and thoughts on these or other tools you love.

Kurt says, “telling the Microloan story is an important part of securing our funding each year through the SBA. No one can tell that story better than the people we serve, our clients – This application was a perfect way to showcase our diverse clients and how this program has helped them start and grow their businesses.”

“…a perfect way to showcase our diverse clients and how this program has helped them start and grow their businesses.”

It’s important our representatives know and understand the impact their decisions have on Minnesota and our rural economy. While in Washington DC, Kurt used this video by showing it to law makers on his iPad during his visit. The video features many success stories of small businesses in Southwestern Minnesota and the critical role that SWIF and its subsidiary MN Center of Rural Entrepreneurship (MN CORE) has played in assisting small businesses with resources, financing, education, and support. It’s a compelling video and excellent use of video and YouTube.

You can follow the MN CORE blog here, and find out more about Southwest Initiative Foundation, MicroLoan and QuickMatch Loan program (for social media, web, and technology).

1.  Have the Business Name, location(s),  phone number, fax, a clickable email address (regularly checked), chat options and social media sites, etc.   The Contact Us page should list out all of your business locations, or link to a page that explains the location details.

Hint: Consider offering guidance if there is a best choice for the contact option. Example: Please send me an email if you want an immediate response.   

2.  Include a photo of your business and/or directions.  Directions are helpful for potential employees, service providers and vendors.

Hint:  If your business depends on getting people to visit, you may want to consider a separate “Directions” page.

3.  Provide a form for your visitor to complete.  This is also a great way to collect email addresses for your mailing list, but it’s best to give the person filling it out the option to sign up for email via a check box. Offer simple instructions on using your contact information.   Example: “Please call us or e-mail us to order handmade chocolates, or visit our store to taste free samples” or “Call us for a free quote.”

Hint:  Make sure you don’t have excessive required fields. You may not need them to provide their address.  Sometimes, less is more important.

4.  Have some blog content and comments in a sidebar.  Your visitor is going to want to know more about you–what better way than to allow them to see what you or your company blogs about or reviews.  Comments are excellent because they show people are interacting with you.  Get visitors to further engage with your website by offering social media buttons.  They will learn even more about you and your company.

Hint:  “Contact Us” means being reachable through appropriate social channels and avoid confusion.   For example, if your business sells handmade chocolates but your blog is about singing, delete the link.

5.  So what should the visitor to do AFTER they submit the form?  This is important because you want them engaged to learn more.  After the form is completed it should go to a Thank You Page that explains when and how you will be contacting them.

Hint:  Tell visitors if they must have information handy when they contact you.

Any questions?  Anything that you would add?  If not, please like and share this article.  Keep the design of the page simple, but incorporate these elements to maximize visitor participation on this hard-working page.

TaskCurrent:

This is not just another to-do list.  It is build to help you take action!  With daily and weekly advice to keep you motivated to learn a new skill.  Want to learn to run a 5k race in the next 10 weeks?  Want to share the virtue of gratitude each day?  Want to learn from one of my mentors and friend – John Jantsch from DuctTape Marketing?  There is a “task list for that!”  This is only available for your iPod or iPhone right now.  Search “TaskCurrent” in the App Store (did I mention it is FREE.)  More information can be found on LifeHacker’s website.

Join.me:

Join.Me is a simple (and FREE) tool to share your screen with others.  Collaborate with clients or team members with they are not in the same room.  I attended a product demonstration from a vendor who used this tool and I loved how easy it was to setup.  Virtually no set.  Just typed in a code and I saw his computer screen.  There is a mobile app for your iPhone or Android device so you can screen share anywhere.  That is the next thing I need to try!

A little light reading?:

My favorite article this past week was written by Jackie on our Vivid Image blog.  Her post on “5 SEO Essentials Made Easy with WordPress” is making a big impact with businesses looking at ways to increase traffic to their website.

A little more fun?

I am facinated with infographics.  This one is kinda fun.  How much do kids change of the course of a generation?  If you grew up in the 80′s you will like this one!  Click on the image on the right to see the comparison.  The original can be found here: http://www.besteducationdegrees.com/high-school-kids/

Frustrated with the information available online, I decided to document the steps involved so others can avoid frustration and maximize their YouTube channels. All the information I could find starts with creating the YouTube overlay, but misses some of the essential steps that make this option available.

Provided you have a YouTube channel set up and a video uploaded, you’ll want to make sure your Google account information is linked to your YouTube account. For most people, YouTube has likely merged the two already. Go to http://ads.youtube.com

Click on “Get Started with Ads for Video” if you don’t previously have a Google PPC account set up.

If you have used Google Adwords in the past, then click on “manage existing promotions with ads.youtube.com”. This was initially confusing as I had used Google PPC before, but not in association with YouTube or YouTube ads. However, whatever log-in info you used with your Google Adwords account is what they are after, and it will guide you to a page that has any previous Google PPC campaigns in it.

On the left hand side of the screen, within Campaign Management, you’ll be able to navigate between Google PPC  and YouTube (video campaigns) Ads. While we are reviewing how to set up a YouTube overlay, NOT an ad, it is necessary to go through all these steps to get the overlays to work.

Next, click on the button “New Video Campaign” and fill out the fields. You will need to give a minimum budget, but nothing should get charged to your card if you pause the campaign. If you’re concerned, make it a small amount like $5.00. As you are filling out the information, you’ll see a “select video” button which should give you all your YouTube uploaded videos to select from. Choose one, and keep going until you select “continue” until your ad is saved.

Now go over to YouTube and find the video you selected in the Google/YouTube Ads account that you created an ad for and select “edit”. Once in this screen you should see the option and fields to add an Overlay on the right side of your screen. Complete the fields and make sure you save.

Now go back into your Google Adwords account and find the campaign you just created and “Pause” it so that it doesn’t run the ad. The overlay will continue to work.

If you want to create overlays for multiple videos, you will need to repeat this whole process for each video. Therefore if you have 20 videos, you will need to create 20 ads; one for each video, create unique overlays for each, and pause each ad.

Do you have a tip to add? I’d love to hear from you! Good luck!

Well there are quite a few things you can do!

Before you can start engaging fans, you have to get them there. Once you have a growing number of “Likes” you’ll split your time between growing the fan base and engaging with those already there.

How to Gain More Likes

1. Start at the basic level and make sure everyone at your organization knows you have a fan page. Everyone at your company (whether an admin of the page or not) is an evangelist for your fan page. Provide them with a link to the page, and tell them exactly how you’d like them to help promote the page.
2. Make sure everyone at your company has a link to your fan page in their email signature. This is easy to do in Outlook, and is a simple way of communicating your page each and every time you email people.
3. Add a Facebook icon and link to your website and any other pages you have. Because Facebook’s search feature often fails to produce the desired search results for finding a specific fan page, people will often turn to Google and your website to find a link to your Facebook fan page. Make it as easy as possible for them to find you!
4. If you have a waiting room, host events or attend tradeshows, consider having a computer/Internet available so people can instantly “Like” your page while being prompted. If you give out a WiFi password, be sure to invite people to “Like” your fan page.
5. Writing guest posts for other websites or blogs is a wonderful opportunity to link to your fan page in your writer’s bio. Share with people what they can expect to get out of liking your page.
6. Almost everything you do on Facebook is tracked and potentially seen by others. When you use Facebook as a page and interact with vertical fan pages (those that compliment yours but not in direct competition) such as liking their page, posting helpful information, commenting on their pages, and sharing their information to your own page, it will often attract people who otherwise didn’t know about your page. If you’re a non-profit, check out fan pages of sponsors, donors, and geographical areas. Businesses should connect with dealers, suppliers, parent companies, vendors, chambers, etc.
7. Consider a paid Facebook ad that can grow your fan base in a number of ways. Facebook offers many new social sharing options, as well as very specific target marketing. You don’t have to have a large budget to use some paid Facebook ads, as long as you spend time refining the goals of your ad and measuring.
8. E-newsletters and email blasts should all link to your Facebook page at the very least, and to amp it up, consider a specific incentive to “Like” your page. If you have new products to premiere or news to announce that always generates interest, encourage people to “Like” your fan page to get the news first. Be consistent and over time, news will spread if people feel the pull toward your page and the excitement builds.
9. Get your vanity URL, so it’s easier to tell people the link to your fan page. Rather than a long and general Facebook generated URL, you decide the URL of your fan page. Go to Facebook.com/username and follow the directions there.
10. All print materials must have a Facebook icon and address added (Example: Facebook.com/VividImageInc) Since print materials aren’t clickable, people need to know how to find your fan page. Don’t assume they can find you with Facebook’s search bar. It’s notably not very advanced and often returns no results, even when you know the name of the fan page. Print materials include receipts, business cards, brochures, newspaper ads, flyers, direct mailers, etc.
11. Some small businesses and organizations have a unique opportunity to find ambassadors who are willing to help you promote your brand or cause. Spend some time identifying who these people may be, how you can approach them, what specifically you’ll ask them to do to help spread the word, and if you will compensate in some way.
12. Don’t forget to add a quick message on your voice mail letting callers know that they can find you on Facebook and if applicable, let them know they are welcome to connect with you there.

With a growing number of “Likes” on your fan page, you’ll want to start focusing on engagement. It is always more important to have fewer fans who are more engaged than tons of fans who are not engaged. The article, “How to Increase Engagement on Fan Pages” will be in our newsletter later this week, so make sure you’re on our mailing list (sign-up is on our homepage at the top).