Phyllis Zimbler Miller's Blog: Phyllis Zimbler Miller Author, page 51

The Seventh Excuse for Not Using the Power of Social Media

This seventh excuse of the eight excuses I wrote about for a FastGush.com guest post smacks of people purposely believing this in order to have an excuse:

7. I can't do Twitter because I don't have a smartphone



Hey, I have a smartphone and I don't use it for Twitter. I'm a very fast typist so I'm much happier tweeting directly from http://twitter.com

I'm not sure how this belief that you need a smartphone to participate on Twitter occurs. Why would people assume that something so widely discussed is NOT available through a website? But many people have told me the reason they are not on Twitter is because they don't have a smartphone.

Let me assure you that all you have to do is go to http://twitter.com/ and sign up in a few minutes and you'll be able to participate.

Now in addition to accessing Twitter through the website you can access Twitter through a smartphone as well as numerous other applications. For example, my business partner uses Tweetdeck.com on the web (although Tweetdeck also has apps for smartphones).

If this myth is the only excuse you have for not participating on Twitter, you now have no excuse. But I would suggest that you get our free report at www.MillerMosaicPowerof3.com to help you with an effective Twitter profile bio.

If you don't know what you're doing, you may end up doing the ridiculous thing I wrote about in the blog post "What I Learned From My Favorite TV Show JUSTIFIED."

And as an added bonus to encourage people to overcome their fear of social media, I've written a special free report on this subject "5 Tips for Overcoming the Fear of Social Media."



You can read all 8 excuses now on FastGush.com.

Plus read the blog post about the first excuse: "I don't have time to do social media"

The post about the second excuse: "I have nothing to say on social media"

The post about the third excuse: "People in my target market aren't on social media"

The post about the fourth excuse: "I'm not a techie"

The post about the fifth excuse: "I'm not a good speller"

The post about the sixth excuse: "I don't have a professional headshot to use on social media profiles"

© 2011 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) is the co-founder of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic LLC.

Get the free information "8 Social Media Marketing Mistakes" and "Social Media Marketing Does Not Magically Work; You Have to Work It" at www.facebook.com/millermosaicsocialmedia

What I Learned From My Favorite TV Show JUSTIFIED

The season two finale of the FX show "Justified" reminded me of a very important lesson for all of us in business.

Near the end of this episode the hero, U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant), drives up to the home of the bad guys. At that moment I noticed that the driver's side of his car had a huge dent.

At first I was startled. Then I remembered that a couple of episodes ago, while driving, he was rammed by some other bad guys gunning to kill him.

Aha, I thought. Someone paid attention to this small detail and realized that Raylan had been too busy since then to take his car to the body shop. He needed to still be driving his car with the huge dent.

Then I thought: Attention to detail. That's so important in business.

Here is one example of the opposite of attention to detail:

Someone followed me on Twitter so I checked out the person's Twitter bio. The bio was what I would call obnoxious – stating that if you were "too lazy" to create your own Facebook Page this person's company would do it for you.

Too lazy? Creating an effective Facebook Page now usually requires technical skills as well as marketing skills. And I wondered how many people responded to this obnoxious bio.

To get a feel for the reception this bio was getting, I checked out the number of people this Twitter account was following compared to the number of people following the account. Huge discrepancy. There were very few people following the account compared to how many people the account was following.

In other words, this inattention to detail – the way you say something in a 160-character maximum Twitter bio – can make a big difference in the reception received by your Twitter profile.

Although a Twitter bio is very short, it is NOT an unimportant detail. In fact, it is a very important detail to which this person should have paid attention. The person could have pitched the Facebook Page service without insulting potential customers.

In the press of daily business, it is easy to overlook the little things. And this is especially true when we don't have someone, as on a TV series, assigned to check for continuity in what we're doing.

But to the extent that you can, do pay attention to the details. It's often the littlest things that can influence how someone perceives our company. And we want that perception to be positive both online and offline.

© 2011 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) is the co-founder of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic LLC.

Get the free information "8 Social Media Marketing Mistakes" and "Social Media Marketing Does Not Magically Work; You Have to Work It" at www.facebook.com/millermosaicsocialmedia

How My Novel That Takes Place in 1970 Threw Me Into the World of Social Media

For the last 40 years I have wanted to share my experience as a new officer's wife in 1970 during the Vietnam War (and right after the Kent State shootings). Although now a long-time feminist, I still wanted people to know what it was like when we new officers' wives were considered appendages of our husbands.

And about 20 years ago it appeared I might get to tell this story on the silver screen. But the two producers who optioned the story decided I had to first write a book.

By the time I wrote the first draft of a novel (to protect the innocent as well as the guilty), the producers had moved on. This left me to spend the next 20 years writing and rewriting the novel as I continually got rejected by book agents and book publishers.

And then in 2008 I decided to self-publish thanks to the ability to do POD (print on demand). Now I wouldn't have to face the prospect of having thousands of books stacked in my garage.

At the same time, while engaged in my addiction of buying books on Amazon (it is just so easy to do!), I noticed that Amazon was having its first Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award competition. Of course I entered.

Lo and behold, my novel "Mrs. Lieutenant" was named a semi-finalist – and Amazon gave each of us an Amazon page on which to promote our book.

One day I noticed a comment thread of some semi-finalists and checked on this new communication tool. A semi-finalist had something I didn't have on my Amazon page – a blog! (Full disclosure: At that time I didn't even know what a blog was.)

That did it! I had been a journalist for years and had an MBA from Wharton. I couldn't let this opportunity slip by.

I felt like Alice falling down the rabbit hole. I entered a strange new world filled with blogging, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.

When I listened to a teleseminar and the speaker talked about the VA I thought she meant the Veterans Administration. (VA actually stands for virtual assistant.) And when she mentioned JV, I thought she meant Junior Varsity. (JV means joint venture as in joint venture partner.)

Thanks to my Amazon addiction habit (sometimes addictions can come in handy), I quickly found books to help guide me on what I discovered to be an amazing journey.

Suddenly the barriers to entry for advertising and marketing expenditures – how many book authors can afford TV ads and billboards? – could be overcome by strategic utilization of blogging and social media sites.

The first time I went to Twitter.com to sign up (having heard about this site on that same fateful teleseminar), I read the announcement about letting friends and family know what I was doing. And I thought: "What am I doing? Why would anyone care?" And I clicked off the site.

A few days later I returned to Twitter. If these people I trusted thought this social media tool was going to become really big, I should at least try it.

And I fell in love!

Somehow I got "it" almost immediately – "it" being the incredible power of 140-character tweets. And with the help of the Twitter books (bought on Amazon of course), I began to figure out how to utilize this strategic marketing tool to promote the blog posts I had started writing in connection with my novel (see www.mrslieutenant.blogspot.com)

Right then my younger daughter, Yael K. Miller, had finished a communications internship at a Hollywood talent agency and was about to look for a marketing job.

Instead I proposed forming a company together and, after we had learned how to use social media for ourselves, we would coach other book authors and business owners in the strategic use of social media.

And in May of 2008 Miller Mosaic, LLC was born. The rest is history – our social media footprints and those of our clients are now all over the web!

All because I was determined to preserve a slice of women's social history from 1970.

© 2011 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) is the co-founder of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic LLC.

You can get her novel Mrs. Lieutenant, which was a 2008 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award semifinalist, for 99 cents on Kindle at http://budurl.com/MrsLTKindle

Use Videos on Your Website to Increase Engagement With Prospective Clients or Customers

Your website is your home base for all your social media activity. As such, you want to optimize the engagement that takes place there between you and your prospective clients or customers.

Short videos can do this very powerfully. Your passion for your business or subject can be showcased by what you say about yourself and what you offer. (See, for example, the video on the home page of the WordPress website we did at www.merchantprocessingpros.net)

And an added advantage is that you can have your videos do double duty. Upload them to YouTube where they can be found through keyword searches. Then import the videos from YouTube into your website.

But if you're not a videographer, how do you get these videos?

First, of course, you can hire a videographer to do short videos in a studio setting or you can video yourself.

Or a second option, for another example of double duty, you can have a friend (or a videographer you hire) film you while you give a live presentation on your subject.

There are two main advantages of this second option:

1. Because the primary focus is on your talk, you won't have to worry so much about speaking to a camera. Instead you'll be speaking to a live audience and the camera will record you.

2. You have "raw" video that can be edited into short videos for different purposes.

Here's an example of how this works:



Yael and I gave a live presentation on using social media to look for a new job, and we had someone video this entire one-hour presentation.

The only instructions we gave the person was NOT to get the audience in the video. This is so we didn't need permission from anyone to put the video or segments of the video online.

Then Daniel Hall announced a contest as part of his Speakers Cruise Free program. In order to enter a person needed to provide a YouTube link to a short video demonstrating the ability to speak in front of a live audience. (The speech did not have to be on the subject submitted for the cruise talks.)

Yael and I decided that she was the best candidate of the two of us for this particular project. We watched our hour-long presentation to choose the segments of Yael speaking that we thought best represented interaction with a live audience.

Then Yael did an intro video segment to clarify what the short video represented. She edited the intro and the designated clips into a coherent video and then uploaded the video to YouTube. (You can see the result at http://goo.gl/SUiS6 — and we'd appreciate it if you "like" the video.)

And of course we still have the original video, so we can take segments from it for other purposes when the occasion arises.

In conclusion, speaking in front of a live audience is a good way to introduce yourself to prospective clients and customers. Combine this with creating a video of your presentation and you'll have additional engagement opportunities – ones that can be viewed around the world.

© 2011 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) is the co-founder of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic LLC.



Get the free information "8 Social Media Marketing Mistakes" and "Social Media Marketing Does Not Magically Work; You Have to Work It" at www.facebook.com/millermosaicsocialmedia

Do You Have a WordPress Self-Hosted Site or Blog and Need Help Making Changes Yourself?

Yael and I often write posts for this blog and as guest bloggers on the subject of why we love WordPress websites. Thanks to WordPress software, once the self-hosted site or blog is up, people can make changes to their own sites.

But we admit that sometimes the written instructions for how to make these changes are not very clear. And this can be very frustrating.

Now Yael has created a series of short how-to videos to show you exactly how to make changes on your site.

And these videos are updated whenever changes in WordPress itself affect how things on a WordPress site are done.

Here are the videos in this how-to set:

How to Create a Page
How to Create a Blog Post
How to Add a Category
How to Add Tags
How to Edit a Post Title and a Post URL
How to Upgrade Plugins
How to Update WordPress — including special instructions for the plugins WP-Print and Hello Dolly

As a preview for how helpful our videos are, watch the below video "How to Add a Post Image and Thumbnail for the Thesis Theme."

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Special introductory price of $67 — good through Tuesday, May 10, at 9:00 pm Pacific. Then price goes to $97:

Buy the Miller Mosaic WordPress Videos now!

P.S. Once you buy this set of videos, you get all updates and new videos for free! And we'd love to know if there are any other how-to WordPress videos you'd like to see.

(c) 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

The Sixth Excuse for Not Using the Power of Social Media

This sixth excuse of the eight excuses I wrote about for a FastGush.com guest post has shades of vanity:

6. I don't have a professional headshot to use on social media profiles

Have someone take a photo of you in good light with no sunglasses or hat and with a smile. (No low neckline either.) You don't need a professional headshot – just a nice one.

Here is the really important thing to keep in mind about the photo you use on your social media profiles:

Authentic is what you want to appear. If you appear in a professional headshot that makes you look like a movie star but not who you really are, you do not understand what social media is all about.

Social media is about having conversations online between real people – people who don't always have a good hair day or whose bags under their eyes haven't been eliminated by PhotoShop.

After all, if you meet someone in person you want to be recognized by your social media headshot. And this is unlikely to happen if you have a professional "movie star" photo taken.

Hold on – I'm not saying professional photographs aren't good. I am saying that, if you decide to have a professional photograph taken for your social media photo, have it be the way you really look. You shouldn't feel compelled to look fabulous in your social media headshot.

And if you are tweeting for your company, it is still better to use a headshot than a corporate logo or, for example, a scenic photo associated with your website design.

People relate to people. When I'm skimming my Twitter feed to read the most recent updates, my eye is more strongly attracted by the headshots of the people I know than by their Twitter usernames. (And especially given the size of those photos in the Twitter feed, a good headshot is definitely more memorable.)

When I decide to follow people on Twitter, the presence or absence of a headshot on their Twitter profile weighs heavily in my evaluation. (For some of the other points that I consider, see my blog post "5 Twitter Profile Tips")

And remember, you can always change your photo as easily as you upload it originally. You're not stuck with the first photo you upload.

One question I have been asking myself: If my hairstyle hasn't changed, how many years after I upload my headshot do I need to switch to a new photo? And, of course, this means substituting my new photo on all social media sites on which I participate.

If you have any opinions on this question of how closely your photo needs to match your age, do leave your comments below.

(You can read all 8 excuses now on FastGush.com.)

Plus read the blog post about the first excuse: "I don't have time to do social media"

The post about the second excuse: "I have nothing to say on social media"

The post about the third excuse: "People in my target market aren't on social media"

The post about the fourth excuse: "I'm not a techie"

The post about the fifth excuse: "I'm not a good speller"

© 2011 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) is the co-founder of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic LLC.

Get the free information "8 Social Media Marketing Mistakes" and "Social Media Marketing Does Not Magically Work; You Have to Work It" at www.facebook.com/millermosaicsocialmedia

5 Twitter Profile Tips

I've just looked at the Twitter profiles of several people who have just started to follow me in order to evaluate whether I want to follow these people back. And, as always, I see the same Twitter profile errors over and over again.

Thus I'm again going to share some basic Twitter tips to help people who are making these errors.

Premise: The effective use of Twitter revolves around connecting 1) with people who share information that interests you and 2) with people who are interested in the information you share. People need to know about theses interests before following you.

Problem: You are brand new on Twitter. What are the basics you should do for your profile before you start following people? (In other words, the Twitter profile errors I spot are of people NOT doing the following.)

1. Upload a headshot of yourself with no sunglasses or hat blocking your eyes. FYI — If you put yourself in a bikini (just saw this), I'm not following you because, regardless of what you share, you have chosen to use a photo that I feel is not appropriate for Twitter. And while you can use a corporate logo or a scenery photo instead of a headshot, people connect more with faces.

2. Include a bio about yourself that gives the kind of information that would encourage people interested in your brand to follow you. I don't mind knowing how many children you have and whether you're married or not IF I also know what you'll be sharing on Twitter. If you can't fit all that in your 160-character bio limit, leave out the children and spouse. FYI – If you have no bio, and even if you have a link that I may check, I'm probably not going to follow you because you didn't make the effort to include a bio.

3. Post at least two interesting tweets (NOT "I just joined Twitter") on your profile before you start following people. These tweets should indicate the kind of information you're interested in sharing.

4. Do use a color for your links that people can actually read. (I just saw baby blue links that I found almost impossible to read.) People like to know what they are clicking on before they click.

5. If you don't have a website to link to from your Twitter profile, use a link to your LinkedIn profile or your profile on some other social media site rather than passing up the opportunity to share a link on your profile.

After all, if I'm taking the time to personally check out your Twitter profile, I do want to find information there that helps me decide whether our interests are similar. If you have no photo, no bio, no link or only an unreadable link, and no tweets, how can I evaluate what you are about?



If you want help with setting up an effective Twitter profile, see the Miller Mosaic FREE report at www.MillerMosaicPowerof3.com with step-by-step explanations.

© 2011 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) is the co-founder of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic LLC.

Get the free information "8 Social Media Marketing Mistakes" and "Social Media Marketing Does Not Magically Work; You Have to Work It" at www.facebook.com/millermosaicsocialmedia

The Fifth Excuse for Not Using the Power of Social Media

This fifth excuse of the eight excuses I wrote about for a FastGush.com guest post has shades of your high school English teacher:

5. I'm not a good speller so I might make lots of spelling mistakes



Then write your tweets or updates in Word, do spellcheck, correct, and then copy and paste into your social media conversations.

Look, Twitter and other social media sites have their own "language". You do not need to add to this by misspelling words so that people have to spend even more time puzzling out what you mean.

There are a number of common grammar, spelling and punctuation mistakes I see made all the time. Here's a cheat sheet to help you with these AFTER running spell check:

Know the difference between:

1) their/they're

Their faces lit up with anticipation. (their – possessive)

They're waiting for you. (they are – subject and verb)

(Also note that their and there are NOT the same words.)

2) your/you're

Your face is sparkling. (your – possessive)

You're always right. (you are – subject and verb)

3) it's/its

It's been a long time. (it has – subject and verb)

It's nice of you to visit. (it is – subject and verb)

Jane put on her coat. Its buttons shone. (it – possessive)

Know when to use apostrophes:

1) The passenger's seat was uncomfortable. The passengers' seats were uncomfortable. (possessive – use apostrophe)

2) The passengers were uncomfortable. (plural noun – no apostrophe) (Pay special attention to this – people frequently use possessive when they mean to use plural.)

In English, only proper nouns are capitalized:

1) The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is a terrific museum.

2) I often visit the art museum.

In direct address, commas set off the name of the person being addressed:

Yes, John, I am going to the movie. Dan, are you going with John?

Recommended stylebook: The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White

If you memorize the above cheat sheet you'll be well ahead to having basically correct social media updates. Of course, then there is the use of abbreviations to fit things into the 140-character limit on Twitter. But that's for another time.

(You can read all 8 excuses now on FastGush.com.)

Plus read the blog post about the first excuse: "I don't have time to do social media"

The post about the second excuse: "I have nothing to say on social media"

The post about the third excuse: "People in my target market aren't on social media"

The post about the fourth excuse: "I'm not a techie"

© 2011 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) is the co-founder of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic LLC.

Get the free information "8 Social Media Marketing Mistakes" and "Social Media Marketing Does Not Magically Work; You Have to Work It" at www.facebook.com/millermosaicsocialmedia

Who Should Be Tweeting for Your Company?

My social media marketing business partner Yael K. Miller and I strongly believe that the ideal for company social media engagement is that the CEO of a company should be active on Twitter.

This doesn't mean there aren't other company accounts with others handling those accounts. But it does mean that the CEO should have an account and be engaged on a daily basis with what is going on in his/her competitive environment.

Unfortunately, I often come across CEOs or senior people who do not want to participate in social media. One such person told me the interns can do this.

But let me ask this question: If the interns mess up, whose company have they messed up?

A few days later speaking to the person who wanted the interns to do this, I was gratified to read Geoffrey A. Fowler's article "Are You Talking to Me?" in the April 25th Wall Street Journal Report "Leadership: Information Technology."

The article subsection "The Boss Should Tweet" begins:

Many companies now have official Twitter handles and Facebook pages for their brands. But it helps set the tone and personality of a brand if the boss weighs in on the conversation personally, says Mark Silva, senior vice president of emerging platforms at marketing agency Anthem Worldwide.

Fowler describes how Sherry Chris, CEO of Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate LLC, began tweeting in 2007. "I thought it would be much more authentic—although time consuming—to become engaged myself," she is quoted in the article.

And true to most people's initial social media experiences, at first she wasn't sure it was worth the effort. Then she experienced the aha! moment that those people who do "get" the power of Twitter usually experience.

If only I could bottle that aha! moment and sell it as a downloadable product to help people instantly realize the power of Twitter. But as with most worthwhile things, this aha! moment is usually not an overnight experience.

It takes an open mind, persistence and perseverance to get over the initial hurdles to understanding how to effectively use Twitter to connect with prospective customers and clients for your business. This effectiveness requires having conversations rather than pushing sales messages.

If you DO commit to participating on Twitter for the long haul – and to learning best practices from those people you follow – you can look forward to reaping the benefits that this amazing social media platform offers you.

And if you want help with setting up an effective Twitter profile, see our FREE report at www.MillerMosaicPowerof3.com with step-by-step explanations.



© 2011 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) is the co-founder of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic LLC.

Get the free information "8 Social Media Marketing Mistakes" and "Social Media Marketing Does Not Magically Work; You Have to Work It" at www.facebook.com/millermosaicsocialmedia

The Fourth Excuse for Not Using the Power of Social Media

For all you non-geeks, the fourth excuse I wrote about for a FastGush.com guest post on not harnessing the power of social media is:

4. I'm not a techie

Hey, I'm not a techie either. But I have an open mind to learning new things, and I just plug away until I succeed or ask someone for help.

Let's face it – there is usually a learning curve for almost anything worth doing.

Do you remember the first time you tried using a computer for word processing? After a couple of days of looking at a cheat sheet for how to copy and paste, save, etc., you probably could do it on autopilot.

Now I'm not promising you autopilot for social media, because some aspects of social media sites change often. (Facebook, I'm talking about you.)

And also your own business (products and services) may change over time, requiring changes in your online marketing plan, which may mean learning new social media techniques.

I am promising that, if you have an open mind to learning new things, you can "catch on" to effectively using social media without being a techie.

In fact, social media is not really technical at all. We're not talking about programming and we're not talking about messing up your website because you tried to add just one new photo.

We're talking about starting slowly, even just on one top social media site, observing what others are doing, reading blog posts or books on best practices, and following the best suggestions.

Of course, it can sometimes be difficult to discern what the best practices are. For example, you might mistakenly believe that it is NOT a good idea to send a unique personal message with each Facebook friend request you send. In actuality, it is a very good idea to do this.

And here is one very good thing about social media as opposed to websites that you can't make changes on yourself:

You can easily revise and refine your social media profiles as often as you want. For example, you can change your Twitter 160-character profile bio whenever you feel you have something better to say. Therefore you don't have to wait until you have the "perfect" Twitter bio before starting to participate on that social media site.

(For a free report on setting up an effective Twitter profile see www.MillerMosaicPowerof3.com)

If you are still concerned about trying new things and looking "stupid," get the book MINDSET: THE NEW PSYCHOLOGY OF SUCCESS by Carol Dweck. It's a quick read and it may be just the thing to give you the courage to jump into this brave new world.

And if you jump in with an open mind to learning new things, you may be surprised how soon you experience the aha! moment. That's the moment when you grasp the power of social media to help your business get in front of your target customers and clients.

(You can read all 8 excuses now on FastGush.com.)

Plus read the blog post about the first excuse: "I don't have time to do social media"

The post about the second excuse: "I have nothing to say on social media"

The post about the third excuse: "People in my target market aren't on social media"

© 2011 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) is the co-founder of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic LLC.

Get the free information "8 Social Media Marketing Mistakes" and "Social Media Marketing Does Not Magically Work; You Have to Work It" at www.facebook.com/millermosaicsocialmedia