Phyllis Zimbler Miller's Blog: Phyllis Zimbler Miller Author, page 53

Book Review: The Tao of Twitter

The book "The Tao of Twitter:Changing your life and business 140 characters at a time" by Mark W. Schaefer (@markwschaefer on Twitter) is a slim volume chock full of excellent advice for effectively using Twitter for business.

I particularly like Schaefer's use of true stories to help readers of his book appreciate the power of Twitter. Here's an example:

I had a client who resisted Twiter because she insisted that her customers had no interest in it. I conducted some customer research for her – completely unrelated to Twitter – and discovered that "social media" was the number one marketing and business issue for the majority of her customers!"

I recommend this book for Twitter beginners as an excellent way to be introduced to the power of Twitter and for Twitter advanced participants as an excellent source of tidbits of info they might not be utilizing.

As with all social media, Twitter changes so quickly that one book alone cannot be the only source of information on a specific social media platform. I have several books on Twitter, and "The Tao of Twitter" deserves a honored place among these books.

FYI – I also just read the book "Bags to Riches: 7 Success Secrets for Women in Business" by Linda Hollander (@wealthybaglady on Twitter and a fellow member of the West LA chapter of Our Common Thread).

Although the book was published in 2003 before social media had dramatically impacted the world of marketing, the book has very good advice for women or men starting their own businesses.

(c) 2011 Miller Mosaic LLC

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

Phyllis and company co-founder Yael K. Miller (@MillerMosaicLLC on Twitter) have an upcoming social media 3-part webinar series this Tuesday (March 29) to help people become comfortable with the concepts of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Learn more now.

6 Tips to Keep Your WordPress Website Up-to-Date

As part of Miller Mosaic's interest in the effectiveness of WordPress websites, we check out many WordPress sites every day.

And there are a few basic issues that we see recurring over and over.



Here's a short list of these issues:

• Website missing metatags, including title, meta description and meta keywords

Regardless of whether you think these metatags are important for being found in search engine results, better to err on the site of having them.



• Copyright out of date

Thought there is a difference of opinion on this subject, a wise course of action would be to add the new year each January 1st to your site. Thus a site created in 2009 would carry that copyright the first year. The second year it would carry 2009-2010 and the third year 2009-2011. (If nothing else you would telegraph to your site visitors that you do keep up your site.)



• Photo that no longer looks like you

If you have dramatically changed the color and/or style of your hair, gotten very different glasses, or gained or lost many pounds, get a current photo. And then there's the question for men of photos with no facial hair or with facial hair when the real person doesn't "match" his photo.



• Newest WordPress version not on site

New versions of WordPress are developed in part to prevent hacking. You need to update your WordPress website each time there is a new version available.



• Newest theme version not on site



Ditto for new versions of themes in regard to hackers – plus there are usually cool new features on new versions.

• Newest updates of WordPress plugins not on site



Also ditto re hackers and cool new features.

Bonus tip: Website styles change – even for WordPress. Make sure that your WordPress website meets the expectation of site visitors. And no Flash to cause slow load times, especially on mobile devices.

And if you need help in pinpointing what can improve your site, see our website review service (for WordPress sites and non-WordPress sites) at www.millermosaicllc.com/website-review/

(c) 2011 Miller Mosaic LLC

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



Phyllis and company co-founder Yael K. Miller (@MillerMosaicLLC on Twitter) have an upcoming social media 3-part webinar series this Tuesday (March 29) to help people become comfortable with the concepts of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Learn more now.

Avoid Unrealistic Expectations of Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is NOT an overnight miracle worker.



If your company is starting from ground zero – no social media presence, no email marketing list, no social media friendly website, no blog – you have to commit to effective social media participation for several months before looking for a good return on your time and effort investment.



If, for example, you suddenly realize you need more people to sign on for a project of your business that doesn't offer many (if any) benefits for the actual participants, you cannot hope to attract these people immediately.

You need to spend time online engaging with them, conversing with them, getting them interested in the value of your project.

Perhaps, if you are willing to spend a great deal of money on expensive prizes in a well-executed social media contest or give-away across multiple platforms, you may get a reasonable number of people to immediately say yes to what you need them to do.

But, I suspect, the prizes better be really good and you would need to offer the same prizes to several winners.

The ideal time to start a social media marketing program for your company is BEFORE you need more customers, clients or project participants. And the social media participation should be part of an overall integrated marketing plan that includes efforts in addition to social media.

If you still need more motivation to start harnessing the power of social media, read my guest article "Jumping on the Social Media Bandwagon" for Motivated Magazine.

And if you want to take a first step towards understanding the power of social media, sign up for the how-to training on the basics of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter featured in our upcoming social media 3-part webinar series starting Tuesday, March 29th.

© 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 social media marketing company Miller Mosaic LLC.

The Doctor Is In: Rx for Social Media Blues

More and more businesspeople now understand how important social media relationships are to the success of businesses.

And if only the prescription for having a successful social media strategy were as easy as taking a daily pill or even committing to 20 minutes on a treadmill two times a week, all businesspeople would probably already be onboard.

The truth is, and I admit this, that effective social media efforts can be easily hampered by the difficulty of knowing where to start and how to start.

For example, I had an exchange with someone who followed me on Twitter. I gently suggested that the company's Twitter strategy could be better. The person tweeting (I don't know who as the Twitter account only has the company name on it) said the company was aware of its lack of an effective Twitter strategy but didn't know what to do.

Here's the gap in reasoning that continually surprises me:

If you are online, presumably you know how to use the search function. Why not do a search for information on the topic you want to know about?

Thanks to the prevailing operative that social media is for sharing and not selling, there are almost endless sources of free information on effective social media participation.

So why would a company throw up its hands and participate on social media knowing the company is not doing it well?

Gary Vaynerchuk in his new (brilliant) book THE THANK YOU ECONOMY says:

Put the best people in charge of social media, not the people you don't know what else to do with. Teams don't pick the chubby, out-of-shape guy first if they want to win; you shouldn't pick the second-rate player to do something that requires smarts, empathy, and flexibility.

To adapt this statement for this blog post, your business shouldn't put second-rate energy into something (social media) that "requires smarts, empathy, and flexibility."



Here's a way to get started learning about effective social media participation:

Step #1:



Go to Twitter and put #socialmedia in the search box. You'll get the most recent tweets on this topic with links to all kinds of articles.

You don't need to read every article. Use the article headline to evaluate whether an article might be useful information for your company.

Step #2:

Print out the articles that look most promising (let's say about 10), punch holes in these, and put the articles in a three-ring binder.

Step #3:

Then each day commit to reading just one of these articles. Take note of the information that is relevant to your company.

Step #4:

After you have read all the articles, think about what gaps you have in your own basic knowledge. Then do specific Google searches for information on these gaps. (One example of a gap might be information on how to use lists on Twitter to connect with your target markets.)

Check out the top Google results and again print out the articles that look most promising. Punch holes in these and add to your social media three-ring binder.

Step #5:

Now read one of these articles one day at a time and note the pertinent information.

Step #6:

At this point you should have a clearer understanding of how your company can use social media effectively to engage with your target markets. Now go do it!



And if you want specific how-to training on the basics of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, check out our Miller Mosaic upcoming social media 3-part webinar series starting March 29th.



© 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 social media marketing company Miller Mosaic LLC.

The Doctor Is In: RX for Social Media Blues

More and more businesspeople now understand how important social media relationships are to the success of businesses.

And if only the prescription for having a successful social media strategy were as easy as taking a daily pill or even committing to 20 minutes on a treadmill two times a week, all businesspeople would probably already be onboard.

The truth is, and I admit this, that effective social media efforts can be easily hampered by the difficulty of knowing where to start and how to start.

For example, I had an exchange with someone who followed me on Twitter. I gently suggested that the company's Twitter strategy could be better. The person tweeting (I don't know who as the Twitter account only has the company name on it) said the company was aware of its lack of an effective Twitter strategy but didn't know what to do.

Here's the gap in reasoning that continually surprises me:

If you are online, presumably you know how to use the search function. Why not do a search for information on the topic you want to know about?

Thanks to the prevailing operative that social media is for sharing and not selling, there are almost endless sources of free information on effective social media participation.

So why would a company throw up its hands and participate on social media knowing the company is not doing it well?

Gary Vaynerchuk in his new (brilliant) book THE THANK YOU ECONOMY says:

Put the best people in charge of social media, not the people you don't know what else to do with. Teams don't pick the chubby, out-of-shape guy first if they want to win; you shouldn't pick the second-rate player to do something that requires smarts, empathy, and flexibility.

To adapt this statement for this blog post, your business shouldn't put second-rate energy into something (social media) that "requires smarts, empathy, and flexibility."



Here's a way to get started learning about effective social media participation:

Step #1:



Go to Twitter and put #socialmedia in the search box. You'll get the most recent tweets on this topic with links to all kinds of articles.

You don't need to read every article. Use the article headline to evaluate whether an article might be useful information for your company.

Step #2:

Print out the articles that look most promising (let's say about 10), punch holes in these, and put the articles in a three-ring binder.

Step #3:

Then each day commit to reading just one of these articles. Take note of the information that is relevant to your company.

Step #4:

After you have read all the articles, think about what gaps you have in your own basic knowledge. Then do specific Google searches for information on these gaps. (One example of a gap might be information on how to use lists on Twitter to connect with your target markets.)

Check out the top Google results and again print out the articles that look most promising. Punch holes in these and add to your social media three-ring binder.

Step #5:

Now read one of these articles one day at a time and note the pertinent information.

Step #6:

At this point you should have a clearer understanding of how your company can use social media effectively to engage with your target markets. Now go do it!



And if you want specific how-to training on the basics of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, check out our Miller Mosaic upcoming social media 3-part webinar series starting March 29th.



© 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 social media marketing company Miller Mosaic LLC.

Consistently Adding Original Content to Your Website Can Pay Off

Many of us have recently read numerous blog posts about how long it takes the search engines to recognize and index new sites. I've read anywhere from three to six months is a reasonable length of time for this to happen.

And while there are different measures of how successful a website is, my company co-founder Yael K. Miller and I like to use the Alexa ranking. Under this system, 1 is the best, and the larger the number the less popular a site is.

When the search engines return results for a specific search, the better ranked (meaning the lower Alexa ranking) are more likely to come up higher on the search engine result pages.

I just had a huge surprise when I checked the Alexa ranking of the new site HumanResourcesGlobal.com of our client Nicole Le Maire, whose WordPress website Miler Mosaic built and which has been live for less than two months!

Nicole's site's Alexa ranking was 1,450,781. While that may sound high, I've often checked the Alexa rankings of sites that have been around for years and these sites either haven't yet earned an Alexa ranking or their ranking is in the 6 or 7 millions.

Nicole's site's ranking is excellent for a site less than two months old with no major affiliate relationships to help push its recognition factor.

What does the swift success of Nicole's site have to do with the effectiveness of search engines finding your site?

There are two major components Nicole has going for her:

First, Miller Mosaic built a WordPress website that included basic search engine optimization techniques, and we coached Nicole on writing blog posts on specific topics connected to her company.

Second, Nicole committed to frequently adding original content to her site – check out her blog now at www.humanresourcesglobal.com/blog/ She is continually adding valuable original content to her site.

Does your site/blog have these two components of basic search engine optimization and continual original content being added?

Yael and I are thrilled that Nicole's dedication to her site/blog has already paid off in less than two months with an enviable Alexa ranking for someone who is doing all her own original content.

And she's not even writing in her first language! She's Dutch. As I told her, I wish most Americans could write English as well as she does.

Bottom line of this blog post?

If you have a new or old site and it doesn't have basic search engine optimization and you are not continually adding original content to your site/blog, you will have a long uphill slog to get any reward/recognition from the search engines.

Check out your site's Alexa ranking by going to www.alexa.com and putting in your site URL.

If your own site is more than a few months old and you have no Alexa ranking or rank in the 6 or 7 millions, consider making changes right now to the site itself and your activities on the site. (Also make sure the copyright on your site is up-to-date.)

And if you need help in pinpointing what can help your site, see our website review service at www.millermosaicllc.com/website-review/

(c) 2011 Miller Mosaic LLC

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

Phyllis and company co-founder Yael K. Miller (@MillerMosaicLLC on Twitter) have an upcoming social media 3-part webinar series to help people become comfortable with the concepts of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Learn more now.

Baby Boomers Can Learn Social Media Starting With LinkedIn

At a networking meeting a woman a couple of years younger than I talked about the paradigm shift needed in order to switch from our old ways of thinking about marketing to the new ways of social media.

Another woman in this networking group always appears uncomfortable talking about her business. This is probably because, in the past, we have been taught that it appears to be selling to talk about what we do.

What is wonderful about effectively using social media is the freedom it gives you to share information about what you do in a way that isn't selling. In fact, as we are casting a very targeted net, we are providing an information service for people who need the products or services we provide.

This is incredibly empowering because it takes the focus off us and transfers the focus to the people we can help with our products and services.

If you are a Baby Boomer professional or business owner who has been dragging your feet over entering the arena of social media marketing, stop procrastinating. Commit to taking one small step now.

First, start with LinkedIn.com because including a resume is something with which most of us Baby Boomers are definitely familiar. In fact, LinkedIn offers an automatic resume upload feature.

Now what is new with an online resume on LinkedIn is our photo. This is a very vital element of any social media activity but is not something Baby Boomers are accustomed to sharing.

Don't overthink this element. Just get someone to take a good photo of you without a hat or sunglasses blocking your eyes and yes to a little smile.

When you become comfortable with the idea of your photo on social media, you may then use the same photo on your business cards the next time you reprint those cards.

And be sure to include your LinkedIn profile URL on those cards if you don't yet have a Twitter account or a Facebook Page or a website. (Get a customized LinkedIn profile URL by going to "Edit Profile" and clicking on the "edit" button next to your public LinkedIn URL.)

LinkedIn provides a good training ground for interacting online with others. You can join groups on topics of interest to you and take part in discussions in these groups.

Once you practice participating in LinkedIn groups, you'll be better prepared for participating in online conversations on Twitter and Facebook.

But there's no need to rush into the next social media site. You can wait until you wonder why you ever thought being on LinkedIn was difficult before you move on to trying another site.



And if you are a CEO of a company and not yet having someone in your company participating in social media as the company representative, read this guest post of mine for CEO World Magazine: "If Your Company Is Not Effectively Using Social Media You Are Losing Out to Your Competition"



(c) 2011 Miller Mosaic LLC

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



Phyllis and company co-founder Yael K. Miller (@MillerMosaicLLC on Twitter) have an upcoming social media 3-part webinar series to help people become comfortable with the concepts of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Learn more now.

Biggest Shortcoming of LinkedIn Is the Difficulty in Connecting With Others on This Social Media Platform

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Mea culpa. I admit that I recommended people use Bluehost

Facebook, Movie Rentals and Your Business

Game-changing entertainment media news has been announced all over the