Phyllis Zimbler Miller's Blog: Phyllis Zimbler Miller Author, page 46

Privacy Settings on Google Plus Profile

Although Google+ is still in beta, if you have received an invitation to join you may be wondering which parts of your profile can be seen by whom.

Let's start at the beginning:

When you sign into your Google+ account, you are on the home page (the little home icon at the top of your Google+ screen).

Click on the profile icon and you'll be on your profile.



Let's say you've already filled out your profile information and now you want to check your privacy settings:

Click on "Edit Profile" in the top right-hand corner. And then you can go section by section deciding who can see what.

Hover over the icon next to the section title and you'll see what the current setting is.

For example, in "bragging rights" I see that I have "visible to everyone." But when I click on the section icon I can change from "Anyone on the web" to any of these other choices:

"Extended circles"

"Your circles"

"Only you"

"Custom"

If you do change a privacy setting, remember to hit "save" before leaving that section.

Of course, if you are participating on social media to get in front of your target customers or clients, you will want to make most sections visible to everyone.



Just remember the difference between personal and private. Personal is attending a theater performance; private is having a fight with your spouse. Personal is good on social media; private is not!

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company Miller Mosaic, LLC, which offers "done for you" and "do it yourself" social media services including marketing-focused WordPress websites.

Visit Phyllis' "about" page on Google Plus.

Information about Phyllis' fiction books and ebooks is available on her Amazon author page at http://budurl.com/PZMAmazon

Are You Marketing to Your Target Audiences?

Whether we're promoting professional services, products or books, we tend to think that "everyone" should want what we have to offer.

The truth, of course, is that only specific target audiences need or want what we are promoting.



(For example, if you are selling dog beds, people with dogs would need or what dog beds. If people don't have a dog, unless they are buying a dog bed as a gift for a dog owner, they don't need or want this item.)

When it comes to marketing, are you targeting your efforts at specific audiences?

Or are you tossing your general marketing efforts out into the whole world, hoping the info will stick somewhere?

To identify your target audiences, ask yourself questions. This is akin to tossing a stone into water and watching the concentric circles expand out from the stone.



Who are the most likely buyers of your products or services? What do they need to know about your products or services to realize these are for them?

Who are the second most likely buyers for your products or services? What does this second group of potential buyers need to know to be motivated to take an interest?

Many years ago I worked for a product placement agency (putting products in movies). I taught younger agency staff how to write persuasive "pitches" to companies that might want to participate in a specific movie.

I said that we didn't write what we thought was exciting about the movie's opportunities, but what the company's representative had to hear to understand that the movie was a good opportunity for his/her company. In other words, we had to switch our POV (point of view) from our own to that of the potential company participant.

And this same POV is what we need to have when considering our target audiences: Not what we want to say about our products or services but what the potential target buyers need to hear to be motivated to be interested in what we have to offer.

While this sounds easy to do, it often isn't.

The first step, though, is awareness of the need to switch to this POV.

P.S. You might enjoy reading the Site Sketch 101 guest post "3 Ways Social Media Can Get You Out in Front" at http://budurl.com/socialmediainfront

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company Miller Mosaic, LLC, which offers "done for you" and "do it yourself" social media services including marketing-focused WordPress websites.

Visit Phyllis' "about" page on Google Plus.

Information about Phyllis' fiction books and ebooks is available on her Amazon author page at http://budurl.com/PZMAmazon

What I Learned From Touring a House Construction Site

Touring a new home construction site with one of the principals of the interior design/architecture firm was an important lesson in adapting to a client's needs.

While the firm principals had specific design ideas, they had to modify these ideas to meet the cultural design requirements of the client.

And this ability to be flexible is important for all of us who work with clients, whether in marketing or any other profession.

Yes, we may have very strong convictions about the "best" way for a website home page to look or the "best" floor covering for a particular situation. But we are not going to be the people living with the website or the floor covering.

We don't need to abandon our ideas. But we do need to be able to meld our ideas with the desires of the client to find solutions that please the client and ourselves.

Here's an example from my own experience:

Yael and I recommend our website clients only use URLs that are .com – otherwise a client may be helping his/her competition when someone types in the URL with .com instead of the client's .biz or another extension.

Yet recently a website client wanted the .net for his website URL. It was important to him, so we built the site on that URL. Now it's up to him to help people find his site.

Of course, sometimes being flexible can lead to an even better solution than either your idea or the client's idea. This is a terrific example of two heads being better than one.

The other important thing we all have to remember is that we can't know everything about our field. There are always new things to learn – and that's what can make life exciting.

And having said that, I need to spend more time exploring the features on Google+ – the next big frontier in social media connections.

© 2011 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company Miller Mosaic, LLC, which offers "done for you" and "do it yourself" social media services including marketing-focused WordPress websites.

Visit Phyllis' "about" page on Google Plus.

Information about Phyllis' fiction books and ebooks is available on her Amazon author page at http://budurl.com/PZMAmazon

Everything You Do on Social Media Sites Reflects on Your Business

Social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn have brought innovative (and usually free) promotion opportunities for large and small businesses.

Yet with this abundance of new opportunities comes the risk of displaying ourselves and/or our businesses in less-than-favorable light.



Let's take a few examples to clarify what I mean:

If you were sending out a press release, you would want to ensure that everything is spelled correctly and is grammatically correct. Yet when you leave blog post comments and, for example, link back to your business website, do you take the time to check your spelling and sentence structure?

Even if your business has nothing to do with correct spelling and grammar, people tend to judge us by how we present ourselves. And blog post commenting filled with errors does not present a professional image.

What about photos?

People are especially attuned to body language, so the photos used on our social media profiles can be sending negative signals of which we may be unaware.

For example, for professional positioning we should be careful NOT to use photos that have sexual connotations. Such connotations are often present in photos with a woman's (or even a man's) head held at a certain angle rather than the head held erect.

And what about those photos of a woman wearing a low-cut neckline that appears to deliberately display her cleavage? How professional an image is this?

While it may be easy to simply upload whatever photo you have online when creating a new social media profile, it is extremely important that you choose a photo wisely. We all know the saying how much more powerful one photo can be than words. So the photos we use on social media are doubly important.

And what about foregoing a photo in favor of a logo, for example, on your Twitter profile? That choice could solve the concern of sexually suggestive personal photos. Yet such an impersonal visual image could hinder the relationship creation goal of most businesses on social media. (People like to connect with other people.)

This is why it is important to plan a social media strategy before your company actively engages on social media sites. It may be, for example, that you will decide to have five different employees, each with his/her own Twitter account and personal photo, tweeting for the company. Or you may designate one person (with his/her photo) to be the company representative on Twitter.

Now Google+ has launched with numerous ramifications for businesses as well as other major social media sites.



With few exceptions, right now while Google+ is in beta, there are only individual accounts – although widely available business accounts are expected sooner or later.

Setting up a personal Google+ account (at this writing you need an invitation to do so) should be considered in light of professionally positioning yourself on this new social media site.

The headline you write under your name along with the photo you use and the updates that you post all reflect on your business image. Are you clear what you want to reflect and what you don't?

While the old saying in publicity was that it didn't matter what people wrote about you as long as they spelled your name correctly, today's global Internet world makes what people say about you very important. And you want to ensure that people aren't saying negative things about you based on inappropriate photos, etc.

In conclusion, be your own best publicist – always present a professional image throughout the Internet, even on "social" media sites.

P.S. And if you need help with setting up or effectively using professional social media profiles, check out our "done for you" and "do it yourself" social media services at www.millermosaicllc.com/services/

© 2011 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company .

Visit Phyllis' about page on Google+.

Information about Phyllis' fiction books and ebooks is available on her Amazon author page at http://budurl.com/PZMAmazon.

Marketing Is All About Benefits

If you are actively participating on social media to promote your brand, book, cause or business, you probably want to increase your sales (or donations).

But the question is:

Why should the audiences you are targeting on social media care about your brand, book, cause or business?

In other words, what's in it for them?

Let's take an altruistic goal – donations for a cause.

There are so many worthwhile causes. How do you make your cause stand out?

By connecting with your target audiences in a compelling manner, which often entails using true stories to form an emotional bond.

For example, making a bald statement that someone is collecting funds for "souped up" toy trucks that find IEDs in Afghanistan is not compelling.

Yet the story of one man's determination to bring his brother safely home, resulting in saving the lives of six soldiers, is compelling.

(Read my "Mrs. Lieutenant" blog post about this story and then hopefully you, too, will feel the compelling urge to donate for more "souped up" toy trucks.)

Marketing online or offline requires persuasive "selling." Yet that "selling" should not be "pushing" what you're promoting. It should be about what benefits the target audience gets from buying or donating to what you're promoting.

Your company may produce the best multivitamins in the world. But what is important to your target audience members is what benefits they would get from taking your multivitamins.

Whether you're using online or offline strategies to get in front of your target audiences, present the benefits in a compelling (although always truthful) manner that creates an emotional bond with your target audiences.



© 2011 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company Miller Mosaic, LLC, which offers "done for you" and "do it yourself" social media services at www.millermosaicllc.com/services/

Visit Phyllis' "about" page on Google Plus.

Information about Phyllis' fiction books and ebooks is available on her Amazon author page at http://budurl.com/PZMAmazon

The Trust Factor of Social Media

Once again I saw a comment (this time on a LinkedIn book marketing group discussion) challenging the effectiveness of social media and asking for statistics.

And once again I contemplated how difficult it is to "prove" the results of social media — just as it is difficult to prove the effectiveness of advertising on the side of a blimp or the effectiveness of a banner at a sports arena.

So what is social media really about and why should your company care?



Social media is about building the trust factor.

Imagine you are one of 20 companies manufacturing and selling specialized hiking equipment. As people's lives often depend on the effectiveness of their hiking equipment, this is an important purchasing decision.

Potential customer Mary checks out the websites of all 20 companies. Many of the sites do not provide the names or photos of the company owners or anything personal about the company leaders.

Several of the company sites provide links to the company's Facebook Page and maybe some videos uploaded to YouTube.

Only two of the companies provide links to an active Twitter account where the individual or individuals tweeting for the company are identified by name and where people's questions are answered promptly.

Mary decides to check out these two companies by directing questions to them on Twitter. She wants to evaluate each company's answers and the apparent interest in providing speedy feedback.

Perhaps Mary has had a problem with a piece of equipment from one of these two companies. Contacted through Twitter, the company handles the problem quickly and follows up with a discount offer for Mary's next purchase.

She also asks an important question of the other company on Twitter. But this company doesn't respond to Mary's tweeted question. Instead, the company continues to only push out sales messages via its Twitter account.

Now Mary decides to purchase several pieces of hiking equipment. Which company do you think she'll buy from?

When buying equipment to which she is entrusting her life, she can be expected to buy from the company whose trust factor she now believes in – the company that handled her problem quickly when contacted through Twitter.

This ability to effectively build your company's trust factor with potential customers is the power of active and committed participation on social media. And while this customer trust factor may not be easily measured, it is there if you have built the trust factor through your company's social media activities.



The question for your company is:



Are you using social media to effectively build the trust factor with your potential customers?

© 2011 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company Miller Mosaic, LLC, which offers "done for you" and "do it yourself" social media services at www.millermosaicllc.com/services/

Visit Phyllis' "about" page on Google Plus.

Information about Phyllis' fiction books and ebooks is available on her Amazon author page at http://budurl.com/PZMAmazon

Using Social Media to Connect With a Global Audience

Are you thinking globally for your business? For example, are you a service professional only thinking local when you could be thinking globally?

I spoke to two service professionals, one whom is fluent in three languages and one who is fluent in two languages. And I challenged both professionals to see how their knowledge and talents could be brought to a much larger audience than they are currently targeting.

Restrictions on this global goal:

One professional's license is only good in California. But she also has an inspirational book that can be the springboard for international webinars on the book's topic.

The other professional is not completely comfortable giving talks in the language that is not her first language. But she can speak in her first language in global webinars.

Why are there now global opportunities for previously "local" businesses?



Because the Internet continually offers new communication connection options. And these options provide your business with opportunities for a global perspective.

For example, Google+ in beta has a live webcam option called Hangouts. If you're already on Google+, you can start talking to other people on Google+. Consulting gig anyone?

Meanwhile Facebook has announced an arrangement to connect your Facebook and Skype accounts. You can go from reading someone's update in your news feed to contacting that person through Skype.

All kinds of technology now exist that enable you to share your expertise and talents with people all over the globe. Yes, it may sometimes take effort to find the best technology for your own global needs. But even if you can't find what you need today, it will probably be available tomorrow (at least in beta).

Evaluate your business model right now to see if you can take your business global. And if you need help with this, contact Miller Mosaic.

© 2011 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company Miller Mosaic, LLC, which offers "done for you" and "do it yourself" social media services at www.millermosaicllc.com/services/

Visit Phyllis' "about" page on Google Plus.

Information about Phyllis' fiction books and ebooks is available on her Amazon author page at http://budurl.com/PZMAmazon

Are Your Social Media Profiles Correct?

Not all social media sites are created equal – in other words, the terms of service of social media sites are not the same.

And it is important to know the difference if you are using social media to get in front of your business' target audiences.

Facebook:



When you sign up for Facebook, you are required to sign up in your own name. In other words, the name of a PERSON. You then create a personal profile, preferably with your own headshot, and decide on your privacy controls.

Once you have done this, you can create a Facebook Page (formerly a fan page) that is for your business. People "like" this Page rather than "friend" your personal profile.

Yes, I have written about this before, but I continue to see people making the mistake of signing up for Facebook in their business' name. And unless Facebook has granted you an exception, Facebook can without warning remove your incorrect profile no matter how many friends you have.

If you are currently in violation of Facebook's terms of service, you can now switch your incorrect profile to a Page without losing any "friends." They automatically become "likes."

LinkedIn:



The same is true for LinkedIn as for Facebook. When you sign up you must create a personal profile in your own name. That's why profiles are under the PEOPLE category on LinkedIn.

(As a matter of policy I do not accept invitations from people whose profiles are in their company name nor do I "friend" incorrect Facebook profiles.)

Once you have a personal profile on LinkedIn, you can create a company page if you have a professional email address (NOT gmail, hotmail, aol, yahoo, etc.). A company page is then listed under COMPANIES on LinkedIn.

As LinkedIn is the professional social media site, I highly recommend you include a headshot with your profile – and make that profile photo available to be seen by everyone. Social media is about personal connections, and you want to help harness that power by including a personal headshot.

(LinkedIn has recently changed the "look" of profiles. If you haven't checked your profile recently, do so now.)

Twitter:

Twitter is the opposite of Facebook and LinkedIn. You can choose any Twitter username you want if it is available (and presumably Twitter has algorithms to prevent "offensive" usernames). Then you can put your company name and hot link in your Twitter bio.

But I still recommend that you put your own name, rather than the name of your company, in the NAME field of Twitter profile settings. Again the reason for this is because social media is about personal connections.

And I prefer to see a headshot rather than a company logo as the Twitter profile photo. There is the personal factor, of course, but there is also the problem that photos in a Twitter stream are tiny. Thus a logo often becomes unrecognizable when reduced to that size.

(I notice the photos rather than the usernames when I'm scanning my Twitter stream and I bet most people also do this.)

Google+:

Google+ is still in beta and the focus is on personal profiles, meaning joining Google in your own name, although there will be brand entities sooner or later.

Here again a good headshot is advised – and I recommend the same headshot used for all of the above social media sites (if not all the other social media sites on which you may also be).

In conclusion, take a few minutes now to check that your Facebook and LinkedIn profiles are in compliance with the terms of service of those sites. You'll look much more professional if you are correctly participating on these sites.

© 2011 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company Miller Mosaic, LLC, which offers "done for you" and "do it yourself" social media services at www.millermosaicllc.com/services/

Information about Phyllis' fiction books and ebooks is available on her Amazon author page at http://budurl.com/PZMAmazon

Nielsen and Facebook Combine to Measure Impact of Online Brand Advertising

Article first published as Nielsen and Facebook Combine to Offer Online Campaign Ratings on Technorati.

As Fast Company reported in the E.B. Boyd August 3rd article "Facebook Is The New Nielsen Family" Nielsen will start offering on August 15th a service via Facebook to measure engagement with brand advertising.

While protecting the privacy of people on Facebook as well as the advertisers, the Online Campaign Ratings (OCR) will take the data from ads viewed elsewhere on the web and then the Facebook database will be searched to identify demographics of the person viewing the brand advertising.

In other words, online advertisers will get demographic info on people exposed to brand advertising, which doesn't usually ask for someone to click on a link (which can be measured).

Of course, as the article points out, "only about half of Americans are on the social network which means that OCR can only provide accurate demographics on about 42%, on average, of a campaign's impressions."

The main focus of the article, besides announcing this new service, is that advertisers up to now haven't had the data to support spending on online brand advertising. And, supposedly, now they will this data.

But for those advertisers who have been paying attention to the social media revolution, especially on Facebook and now about to go wide on Google+, waiting for proof of effectiveness of online brand advertising is very misguided.

First, measuring the number of people who have seen the brand advertising does not correlate to how many people will be influenced by that advertising to interact with that brand on social media or, as the end goal, buy that brand's products or services.

Second, advertising is not what social media is about. Social media is about interactions with brands. Thus brands that are relying on traditional advertising, albeit online, are missing the point.

Brand advertising has now morphed into brand engagement, and that's what brands should be doing with their online "advertising" budget, regardless of what this newest measurement tool shows (or doesn't show).

If you have a brand and you're not engaging on social media, you're already way late to the conversation. Instead of worrying about measuring the demographics of who saw your brand advertising, start acting on engaging interactively online with your current and prospective customers to ensure that they receive good customer service from you and not just "lip service" advertising of how great your brand is.

© 2011 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company Miller Mosaic, LLC, which offers "done for you" and "do it yourself" social media services at www.millermosaicllc.com/services/

Information about Phyllis' fiction books and ebooks is available on her Amazon author page at http://budurl.com/PZMAmazon

3 Tips About Social Media From the Movie "Cowboys & Aliens"

1. It's good to help other people reach their goals.



Harrison Ford, who starts out as the quintessential "bad" rich rancher, learns through the course of the story that, when you help others, you ultimately help yourself.

This is particularly true of effective social media. When you support other people on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and now Google+, you are ultimately creating a community of people who can help you when you need it.

2. It's good to pay attention to small details.

Olivia Wilde ("13" on "House") saves the planet Earth by noticing the potential in Daniel Craig's character. She realizes before anyone else that he could be the key to finding the hideout of the aliens so that Earth can be saved.

In using social media to connect with your target audiences, paying attention to small details often matters. For example, putting your own name in the name field in Twitter profile settings instead of repeating your Twitter username in that field can help create relationships that can benefit your business.

3. It's good to share information that can help others.

Harrison Ford tells the story of how, as a young boy, he became a man thanks to the knife that he now gives to the young boy in this story. Spoiler alert: The current young boy uses the knife to save himself.

On social media sites, if someone asks a question that you can answer, do so. This may lead to an online relationship that results in a new client or customer. And even if nothing comes of this, you'll feel good about sharing what you know.

Bonus tip: "Cowboys & Aliens" is a good story. Via your social media participation do you share your own story of why you're passionate about what you do?

© 2011 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company Miller Mosaic, LLC, which offers "done for you" and "do it yourself" social media services at www.millermosaicllc.com/services/

Information about Phyllis' fiction books and ebooks is available on her Amazon author page at http://budurl.com/PZMAmazon