Welcome MetroMom Online Success TeleSummit Visitors!
If you found your way here from the MetroMom Telesummit going on now, I would like to thank you for dropping by! If you are here because you found us, please stay around too! I mentioned a few things to you such as the video talking about the “Canonical Issues”, this is to your right.
I also talked about the post with the blog tips, and SEO tips, well here it is. Please take time on my blog to view the variety of tips you will get on search engine marketing.
As suggested in my handout and my interview with Kim, please sign up for my blog feed to keep up on the latest tips for Search Engine Marketing.
Additionally, if you want incredible social media tips, sign up for my Social Media Blog.
Don’t Forget Kim DeYoung has some powerful offerings you will want to choose from below.
In addition to this blog, I own several websites dealing with internet & social media marketing. I also belong to several social media sites, and networks and would love to become your friend and follower!
My sites:
Perspective Internet Marketing
Say it Social – Corporate Social Media Consultants
Say It Community – Social Engagement Blog on Social Media Topics
Follow Me! Just click on the buttons to go directly to my social sites 
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Successful Twitter MeetUp In Wilmington!
What a fun night last night! nearly 50 Wilmington residents assembled at Howe Creek offices near Mayfair to listen to some top notch Twitter advice. For a new twist, we also streamed the Meetup in live broadcast using UStream.tv, and had 10 people watching live from various parts of North Carolina, including Colorado!
Our focus on this Twitter MeetUp was to field questions from the audience people had about Twitter, then our stellar panel answered them.
Questions ranged from “Why use Twitter”, “Using Twitter for business” and “What are your favorite applications for Twitter." Some applications discussed last night included Twollo, Tweet Deck, twhirl, and Twitter grader. Do you have a favorite Twitter application? We want to hear, please leave it in a comment below!
One other neat announcement was Shannan Bowen telling us about the Star News launching a new section of their site listing their Twitter users, and local “tweeps”, here it is: http://www.starnewsonline.com/section/news41
Special thanks to our panelists Bruce Brown of Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Realty, Steve Harrell of Sophic, Shannan Bowen of the Wilmington Star News, and William Lang of Port City Color Copy handled the Ustream PC and fielded questions that came in via the Internet. Oh, I was there of course, Ty Downing with Perspective Internet Marketing and SayItSocial.
I invite all who were there last night to please follow us, so we can follow you on your Twitter journey!
Ty Downing - @TyDowning
William Lang - @port_city_color
Bruce Brown - @brucebrownnc
Steven Harrell - @stevenharrell
Shannan Bowen - @shanbow
In case you missed it last night, here are some pictures, and the live one hour Meetup from UStream.
Ustream Video:
Google Launches an online "Qualification" course for Google Analytics
Hot off the Google press. They announced today that they will offer a online courses to people, and thus can become “Qualified.” At first glance this is very similar to their Google Adwords course. Looking forward to taking this..wait, is this going to cost $50 also??
Here are the details:
Press release: http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/annc/20090303_analytics-iq.html
Google Analytics online course: http://www.google.com/support/conversionuniversity/
Quick Power Points For Writing Blog Post’s
Some of you out there are already experienced writers, and employ great SEO techniques within your articles, so these tips will just help emphasize the need to continue, or may be new thoughts. Oh, I also assume you are using Wordpress…..I “Heart” WP…
Obviously these are just guidelines, you can adjust to them as you wish, but I have found great success with my clients with these power points!
Do you have some additional tips? I and our readers would love to hear them, please leave a comment with your tips!
Content writing tips
- 300-400 word posts.
- Apply 2-3% keyword density level (For every 100 words, use key phrases 2 -3 times)
- Hyper-link keywords/phrases (Anchor text) and then link them to pages in main site (if you have one), or other blog posts, including deep level pages. Try to avoid if at all possible hyper-linking the phrase “Click Here” but rather use targeted words, and underline them in your post, people accept the underline as a linked word.
- Occasionally, and at the END of the post, invite the reader to leave a comment, ask their opinion, remind them they can leave a video comment if they’d like. Remember you have to lead your reader, plant the idea in their mind to comment, and they will. Comments help build key word equity, and give credibility.
- Occasionally, and at the END of the post, invite the reader to “Click the “Twit This” button if they liked the post.
- Occasionally, and at the END of the post, invite the reader to share the post with the social media buttons below.
- Hyper-link to past articles.
- Link out! In your post, try to link to other well known, and not so well known blogs or sites, this makes your posts even more interesting, and you will find they (Other sites/blogs) in turn will link back to you.
- Use an image in every post. This is just a suggestion, but judging by your audience, a picture will be visually attractive, could even be funny, but helps with the emotional side. Where to find? Google, Yahoo, MSN images.
- I recommend someone on your staff, or you to sign up for Delicious, Technorati, and Digg accounts, and after each post, “Ping” all these services by clicking the buttons. You can check to see if you already have claimed your blog on Technorati, if so, it usually ping updates automatically.
- Create an interesting, perhaps a controversial poll. Let readers decide the next topic, list 5 choices…etc..(www.PollDaddy.com)
- Invite a guest blogger to write a post. (Look for notables, they will invite you too)
Section 2: WordPress backend protocol
- Increase your tags by a few, using key words, including your name.
- Target your articles into proper categories. Properly categorized posts can create tremendous key word equity within that category.
- All in one SEO Pack plugin – This is Important. Title Tags, Meta Description. Below is a screenshot of this plugin when activated, it appears below every post, below “Categories”
Title Tag – No more than 70 characters with spaces.
Remember the “title” you put into this field, will not change the title of your post. You may choose to leave this field empty if you are ok with the title of your post.
Why would you use this field? Because it can be useful to add a few more “Meaty” key phrases into the most important text on the page, the title tag. **The title tag is the most critical line of text on any web page, give this careful thought; however do not sacrifice a great article just to load a title tag with key phrases.
The title tag should be easy to read, flowing, not stuffed of keywords.
Meta Description: No more than 160 characters with spaces.
This is the second most important tag on any web page. This field gives you the opportunity to give a brief summary of your post or article. Here are 3 things accomplished with this tag:
- To describe the content of the page accurately and succinctly.
- To serve as a short, text "advertisement" to click on your results in the search results.
- To display targeted keywords, not for ranking purposes, but to indicate the content to searchers.
Keywords: This tag is important only to Yahoo, and even they have suggested lately they give less importance to this tag because people have abused this, so until I hear differently, you do not have to fill this field.
These are just some quick points…How about you? Please leave your tips in a comment below, I want to hear them! Please share this post too
Video: Twitters Spectacular Growth – Co-Founder Evan Williams
Relationships Trump Self Promotion/Selling – Social Media Is Changing Everything
It’s amazing how the landscape of the internet is evolving, especially with regards social media. The way we do business these days has changed, and unless you change your old ways of doing business, you will become extinct.. (Video Below, you must watch!)
Never since the 1800’s has this country seen such a "Social economy" shift, so it’s vital to get involved in social media, that is where people are, your community, your customers are hanging out.
Social media engagement is all about trust, if they know you, trust you, they will buy from you period. Remember "Advocacy" is your $$ ROI. If they like you as person, "they" will tell people about you and your services, thus you should not come across as ’selling’, but be a ‘contributor’.
One last tip…Don’t just ‘Fire’ and throw yourself into social media and barrage people with your services, links, etc..Remember this point: "You never get a second chance at a first impression"
I invite you to watch this video (Afterward, leave a comment if you agree or disagree with the video), as it beautifully explains the change in business practices. It’s about the relationship between an advertiser and a consumer. They’ve agreed to meet in a restaurant. The man’s feeling perfectly happy, until the woman makes a painful announcement: she wants a divorce…..watch what happens.
Are you convinced now? If you would like to learn more about our social media marketing company, drop us a note!
Wilmington Twestival Was a Complete Success!
For those of you who came out last night, (over 60 people) our Wilmington Twestival was an incredible display of how social media can impact people, and organizations for the good. Twestivals were held simultaneously last night (February 13, 2009) for Charity: Water, in an effort to raise awareness, and donations for cleaner water in under-developed lands. Twitter was the main “tool” of social media we used to organize this event in literally 10 days..amazing. Pictures of last night are at bottom of this post, if you have any to add to this, send them! Leave comments too.
How much did our Twestival Raise?
We just got our final donation called in this morning from Ana Dawson, with Pre-Paid Legal Services, she and her associates donated $220, and plan on giving a total of $500.00! So with that amount and 100% donations off ticket sales last night we will be able to donate $1,205.00!!!
Our goal was $4,000, but in all honesty, we met, and exceeded our goal. This amount will help fund clean drinking water for 1000’s of people, Wilmington, we should be proud! Remember this was a global event, I can’t wait to see the total numbers from the over 180 cities….Be sure to visit the Twestival site, and Charity: Water site for details soon.
Who else helped us last night? We had two local TV stations reporting on this event, WECT, and WWAY, take a look one of their stories here. Star News wrote a wonderful article about our event too, in fact, they were a major contributor of getting the word out; here are a couple more articles they wrote:
“Wilmington Twestival to raise money for charity”
“Do Some Good: Meet local Twitterers at the Twestival”
There were so many people that helped with our Twestival, several businesses, and gifted organizers, and I want to personally thank all of you for making this a success. Below is a list of businesses, and all Twitter’ers, and non-Twitter users that supported the event, if I have missed anyone, please send me an email so I can add you to the list!
Star News Online – Our major sponsor.
Shannan Bowen & Jim Ware..You both were awesome!
Perspective Internet Marketing – Organizing the event. (This was fun)
Ty & Crystal Downing & Tim Moore..Whatever.
3rd Street Plaza – This social media site helped stage the event.
Everyone on 3rd Street!
Wilmington Sea Dawgs – They donated 50 free tickets to their games!
Thanks Sea Dawg office & William Lang!
Spectrum Art & Jewelry – Donated a gift certificate for Jewelry.
Star Sosa…We must meet!
Indo Jax Surf School – Donated Free week of surf lessons & one private lesson.
Richard Perry, you da man! Tell Indo owner thanks! I need his name here too.
Best Buy – Donated a iPod Nano.
Thank you Mr. Manager in blue shirt.
ASAP Shirt Co. – Donated t-shirts at cost.
Rick, you printed these in one day? You are awesome!
Budget Blinds of Wilmington – Donated the money for t-shirts.
Chris & Radonna Torgeson, love the Tees, thanks so much! I hear you sell Awnings & Closets?
Le Bleu Water – Donated cases of bottled water.
Pamela Morris, you pulled some strings, so thanks!
Jerusalem Wraps Café – Donated delicious wraps and food.
Amir, what can I say, your food is excellent!
Port City Pub – Donated their bar, beer, and staff for our event.
Ed & Ed, you were gracious hosts!
Who helped organize Wilmington Twestival?
Bruce Brown - Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Realty
Ty Downing – Perspective Internet Marketing
Crystal Glass – Wife
Tim Moore – Say It Social – Social Media Consulting
Shannan Bowen – Star News
Jim Ware – Star News
Richard Perry – Akira Media
Steven Harrell – Sophic Internet Marketing
William Lang – Port City Color Copy
Jayson Conway - WWAY
Honorable Mention
Bruce Brown For all his efforts workin’ the twitter, and video waves!
Wal-Greens – Gift card for food.
Pita Delight – Gift card for food.
Wilmington Roller Derby girls for coming with free tickets. (Hi “Crasher” don’t hurt me)
Who were our local Twitter’ers last night? Please follow each other! (If you were there last night and don’t see your name below, please leave it in the comments)
Ty Downing - @TyDowning
Crystal Glass - @orangeandlime
Tim Moore - @TimMoore
Sandy Guerriere - @SandyTweets
Bruce Brown - @brucebrownnc
Steven Harrell - @stevenharrell
Shannan Bowen - @shanbow
Jim Ware – @jimware
Richard Perry - @akiramedia
Jayson Conway @4spoken
Si Cantwell - @SiCantwell
Reggie Shropshire - @coachreggie
Debbie Elliott - @TalkDebbie
Mark Fulton - @DotSauce
Margaret Harding - @m2harding
Nicole Hughes - @nic_ole
Michael Hughes - @wulfpak05
Bob Jenkins - @bobtheteacher
William Lang - @port_city_color
Rachel Livingston - @raeenna
Holly Manning - @holly2305
Bret Nelson - @binelson
Rebecca Powell - @CoastalMail
Rachel Rowell - @rachelrowell
Judy Royal - @royalja
Shelby Sebens - @shelbsnc26
Shawn Smock - @ShawnAtTalk
Radonna Torgeson - @rtorgie
Chris Torgeson - @ctorgeson
Matt Trostle - @trostle
Veronica Williams - @veronicaw
Ed Sinram - @portcitypubEd
Pictures From Last Night
Thank you everybody, we’ll see you around Twitter’ville…and Twestvial 2010!!
Twestival 2009 – Wilmington, NC – Are You Coming?
We are just a couple of days away from one incredible world-wide event called Twestival. What will happen Thursday February 12th, 2009 at Port City Pub here in Wilmington, NC?
- Social Gathering, Networking.
- Simultaneous broadcast from cities across the globe.
- Donations accepted to fund clean drinking water projects in Africa.
- Witness results of harnessing the power of Twitter, and social media.
- Free Beer, food, clean drinking water.
What else, any prizes? Of course. The first 50 people in the door get a free t-shirt! After that, a donation of $5.00 per shirt. There will also be raffles going on, here are some other prizes being given.
- One free Surf lesson.
- iPod Nano.
- Spectrum Jewelry & Crafts Jewelry.
- Tickets to the Sea Dawgs basketball.
- Who knows what else, just get your tickets!
Please, please come. Help us reach our goal of $4,000.00, the price to fund the building of one well in Africa…
Where do I get my tickets? Please go here. Looking forward to seeing you Thursday!
In the meantime, take a look at our local promotional video, as this will about bring you to tears, and explain why we are doing this.
5 Ways to Social Media Success
1) CHECK WHERE YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE
Before you jump to any social networks, communities or other tools, find out
WHERE your customers are. And the best way is to search them in the Internet,
check LinkedIn, FaceBook, Twitter, Google and Yahoo Groups and find them one way or the other. And if you still have a good relationship with them, ASK.
2) SUBSCRIBE TO THE SOCIAL WEB
Once you know, subscribe to the sites and explore. Invest in your profile, put up a photo, let people know what you like and what not, show your inner self in a professional way. You can’t expect anybody to connect with a stranger. Once your profile is in good shape connect with your trusted friends, colleagues, partners, vendors, resellers and then of course customers you know. At that stage it’s just a connection.
3) UNDERSTAND YOUR NETWORK
Learn all about the people in your network learn what they do, what their interest is, what their skills are what their goal in life is – everything. You will build up a new asset of unparalleled value compared to what you have today – your rolodex or link list in LinkedIn or whatever. You will learn the people and their behavior their interests and their pain without asking a single question. At this point you haven’t contributed – you are just an observer.
4) CONTRIBUTE
Then let the socializing begin. The next step in your social media journey is to
begin contributing. DANGER!!! DO NOT SELL – CONTRIBUTE. As you now know
pretty much everything about the people you care, show them you care – don’t
fake it – care. Help them with their challenges, questions issues. As more as you
care they will start to care about you too. Some may not but that is perfectly
fine. Always keep in mind – to too many you are the “bad guy” you are here to
sell them, people don’t like to be sold. But keep going. The more you help, the
more you contribute the more you will become part of the new party.
5) PARTICIPATE
At some point in time your contribution and blog posts, your answers and other ways you contributed will turn into PARTICIPATION to your favor. Meaning people will return to your comments to your blog posts to your arguments and 
opinions. They may fire back or concur with what you have to say in any case they will respond. Then you are in a dialog you are part of the social web and have made more connections and more contribution than you ever could outside. When you read this today – you may wonder “and when can I start selling”. Read it when you reached that point and you will recognize that you actually stopped selling – but still win customers – even more than before. This leads actually back to a very old saying: “The most successful sales people never sold a thing” and that is still the essence of selling today – just with new tools, new ways, new methods.
To read more on this subject, get the entire white paper “10 reasons sales people need to care about social media” here.
With every good wish,
Follow Tim Moore for all the latest on social media topics here our blog and on Twitter, Unite with Tim and Ty on our social media think tank BrainStorm, or email Tim directly if you have any questions at tim@perspectiveim.com
The “New” Sales Funnel
What used to be the accepted status quo “Sales Process” (identifying targets in the market, separating leads from a mass of inquiries, and distilling them through some exploration of cold calls and negotiation) has changed forever.
Social media has become the most important marketing initiative today because it has actually changed (or adapted) the “Sales Process” into the “Buying Process”. With peers talking with peers sharing advice and comments about all of their purchases and experiences, this has created a buzz amongst prosumer’s, a confidence or empowerment, that is unstoppable.
To continue to be relevant in the marketplace and avoid extinction, the “New” Sales 
Funnel has had to yield to the Prosumer’s being in control, captaining the ship, if you will. This means the salesperson’s role is now one of guiding or being a well-educated navigator in the purchasing process. As Larry McClymonds said: “The new form of relationships selling isn’t about selling anymore, it’s about helping the customers buy.”
With this new openness provided by the “navigator”, the prosumer will now reciprocate that openness (at least over time), which will result in the old “Sales Process” of the tedious, opinionated, strong arm process of selling to consumers will eventually evaporate.
One of the nicest things about this transition to the “New” Sales Funnel is that the great salespeople out there have already been doing this, that’s what makes them great and a trusted resource for our purchasing of services or goods. To them we say “Thank you”! We prosumer’s appreciate you treating us with the respect we deserve. Your reward? Our choice to give you our business.
Keep an eye out for an in depth discussion of “how-to” monitor and accurately analyze social media activity in the coming weeks.
Follow Tim for all the latest on social media topics here our blog and on Twitter, Unite with Tim and Ty on our social media think tank BrainStorm, or email Tim directly if you have any questions at tim@perspectiveim.com
