5 lectures from top founders and CEOs. Get social media training for your business!

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Dan Martell, Co-Founder of Flowtown Introduction to Social Media Marketing

How to use social to launch, position your messaging and get distribution.
Foundation: Keywords and Position
Take a Guess
Deal in High Volume
Utilize Tools
Stew Langille, Vice President of Marketing at Mint.com Creating Engaging Content

Creating content in a variety of mediums – writing blog posts, engaging tweets or video/podcast/etc.
Content is King
Talk about the problem, not about your solution
Distribution
Engaging blog writing / tweeting
Writing great headlines
Laura Lippay, Search and Social Marketing Consultant Improving Your Search Rankings With Social Media

A look into how search and social interact with each other
Using Search to Own Social
Control the Discussion
Feed Traffic Back
Social Sucess = Search Visibility
Writing great headlines
Jeff Widman, Founder of Brandglue.com Leveraging Your Audience to Increase Your Reach

What makes people want to share? How to make your content shareable – technically and psychologically.
Social Means Sharing
Make it easy
Ask at the right time
Social Proof
Building Twitter Followers
Website
Build an Initial List
Jonathan Strauss, Co-Founder of awe.sm Optimizing and Measuring Your Impact

This section is focused on the metrics and analysis side of social.
Conversion Metrics
Simple URL tracking
Social Conversions
Word of Click
Email to share
What should you track?

Table of Contents

Over 6 lectures and 3.5 hrs of content!
Gain traction when starting with nothing
Set effective social media goals
Create content that relates to your audience
Optimize your search visibility with social media.
Turn all this social buzz into real momentum
Optimize your content for Facebook
Measure the effect of your campaigns

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Dan Martell

Online marketing, social media, technology, startups and working my @ss off to change the world.
Dan Martell skydives and snowboards and believes running is among the secrets to a fruitful life. But the 31-year-old Moncton, N.B., native insists business is his sport.

With a background in computer programming but no formal business training, Dan’s passion for technology and business has meant he has had a hand in launching several companies to date.

Dan has been described as not having a “knowing-doing gap.” At 25, and just 10 months into his 2004 start-up, Spheric Technologies Inc., the Canadian firm was landing so many deals south of the border that instead of seeking visa sponsorships for his traveling employees, he moved quickly to set up a U.S. office. Growing by an average of 152% per year, Spheric raked in three business awards before he sold the company in mid-2008.

An award winning Entrepreneur, Dan recently co-founded Flowtown, a social marketing platform focused on helping small businesses achieve real results in the world of social media. Now living in San Francisco, Martell spends the majority of his time looking at ways to build a bridge between Silicon Valley and New Brunswick. As an informal angel investor, he is active in advising entrepreneurs using the Lean Startup approach to gain market adoption.

An avid reader who dreams of remaining a lifelong student, Dan invests in startups whose opportunities and ideas he can get excited about. His philosophy is to build companies that solve the business problems he faces. He takes risks in work and life and focuses on the journey over the reward. Martell is relentless in his work ethic – if a job has to get done, he’ll do it right away.

Martell is a board member of Propel ICT and StartupWeekend, a startup advisor to YearOneLabs and 500Startups. He is passionately involved in facilitating micro-lending to entrepreneurs in developing countries through the non-profit, Kiva.org.

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http://ude.my/2epv6

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Almost anyone can learn how to make a website. Software programs that create the code for the user have turned what used to be a complex process into a simple task that even a child can master. However, just because you can make a website doesn’t guarantee that your website will be easy to read or interesting for the reader. Fortunately, with a few simple techniques, you can make your website content engaging. Break up Content Studies show that people read information differently on the web than they do in print. For example, website users only tend to read small amounts of information at a time, and they are less likely to read all of the information. For this reason, experts call the web a “non-sticky medium,” meaning that readers won’t stick around to read every last sentence, especially if the information is poorly organized or if there is too much text on a page.

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How to Make a Website Interesting and Easy to Read

Source: SiteProNews Recent Articles

So when it comes to deciding which social media platforms make the most sense to use, the options can be overwhelming – if you let them. However, with a little focus, guidance, and strategic thinking, you can just as easily simplify your choices.

What follows draws from our 6-week “Social Media Kick Start” Virtual Boot Camp, which expands on these topics with self-paced learning modules.

Let’s start by keeping these two very important questions in mind: Where is your audience now? And where are they going to be?

Even if your target audience isn’t on a particular social network right now, consider the fact that involvement is social networks is growing exponentially. (Heck, if Facebook were a country, it would have the 4th largest population in the world!) Not everyone was on the Web 5-10 years ago, but you could see where the trend was going. Same thing with social networks. Here’s how to dive in confidently.

1. Start with the Big Three.

That’s LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. The odds that your audience is on one or more of these platforms right now is very high. And if they’re not on there, they will be by the time you finish reading this. Now, of the three, LinkedIn is the only one that doesn’t get tarred with the “It’s just for kids goofing off” brush. But consider this: The measurement company ComScore reported in April that the majority of Twitter users are 35+, and the 18-34 age group is growing as fast as the 55-64 age group. As for Facebook, InsideFacebook.com reports the largest group of users is between 26 and 44 years old, and the fastest growing demo is women 55 and over.

2. Budget your time and money.

These are your resources, and if you’re a small business owner, you’re using them with care these days. A platform like Twitter is about as simple as it gets – 5-minute sign up, a few communication conventions to learn as you go, then the Twitterverse is your oyster. Facebook, on the other hand, goes about as deep as they get in terms of customization opportunities. Consider learning and growing in this platform as a work in progress, and add, edit, expand and refresh as you go. Even LinkedIn has a lot of detail possibilities, too, but they also have a very helpful tool that tells you how complete your profile is, which can guide you through what options you need to finish to take maximum advantage of its features.

3. Follow the FUN!

It may sound frivolous at first, but there’s sound business sense behind it. First of all, as you play with each of the Big Three platforms, you’ll learn more about your own communication style, and how you like to experience your friends, contacts, and colleagues. Twitter presents quick snippets of insight, links, conversations, and opportunities to brainstorm on the fly. LinkedIn is more professional, following traditional and formal conventions. Facebook is all over the map, with nooks and crannies that’ll surprise you even after months of frequent use. In other words, if control is what you want, Facebook may be your nemesis, but if you dig spontaneity and possibilities from any direction, then hop on board.

The bottom line: if you pick a social network that you dread going to, you’ll find a way to put it off. If you’re not participating in the social network, then you won’t get much value out of it! What’s more, if you hate doing it, that’ll come through in your interactions. No one wants to connect with an unpleasant person. It’s just not good for business.

On the other hand, when you “follow the FUN,” you’ll make time for your social networking. You’ll laugh at the countless pathways – and diversions – available, and you’ll be able to get focused on the results you’re after with confidence and nimble clarity.

Then, as you expand beyond the Big Three, you’ll have a better sense of how to play in the social arena, and what features support your goals and style. Love taking photos? Love talking? Want to try out video? PowerPoint wiz? There are networks that support all media channels.

Some say at least 537, and counting.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

%%3 Tried-n-True Ways to Decide Which Social Media Tools to Use%%

3 Tried-n-True Ways to Decide Which Social Media Tools to Use