Phyllis Zimbler Miller's Blog: Phyllis Zimbler Miller Author, page 54

Social Media Does NOT Magically Work: You Have to Work It

You know those weight-loss commercials where a belt or a

Creating an Event on LinkedIn

LinkedIn gives you the opportunity to create an event and

Google Changes to Its Algorithm Sparks Debate About Sites Such as EzineArticles

Google's recent changes to its algorithm (weighted more in favor

How Do You Convince People of the Value of Being Active on Social Media?

I received a very nice comment on my guest blog

What I learned About Social Media Marketing From Watching the Oscars

Watching the Oscars on television here in Los Angeles, where the entertainment industry is the town business, is always an interesting experience.

While the gowns of the women are something to see, what I find most interesting are the tidbits of social media marketing insight that one can glean.

First, passion makes a difference:

The double hosting team of Anne Hathaway and James Franco was a display of opposites. Hathaway's obvious enjoyment of hosting was paired with Franco's obvious lack of passion. He seemed to be sleepwalking through the event (except when he flashed a smile).

When you're engaging on social media, mean what you say. Don't sleepwalk through creating relationships.

Second, what you wear can detract from what you are saying:

Image is important on the Kodak stage as well as on social media. For example, wearing large dangling earrings can be distracting in a headshot, a video or a live performance.

If the spotlight is about you and what you have to offer, keep it there and get rid of extraneous props or information.

Third, remember that in today's online world everything lives forever:



Whether online or on stage, you do want to remember that everything you say or do can be watched (or read) over and over again.

This means, for example, that even for a 140-character tweet you should check your spelling and what you're saying before hitting the submit button.



Finally, the Sprint commercial in which a mother offers to help her daughter compose a tweet:

This funny commercial should be a warning bell if you aren't yet active on Twitter. You should get onboard before the ship sails without you.

In conclusion, there's a whole year ahead of us before the next Oscars. Let's all use this time to improve our online presence.

While we can't hope to have as many followers on Twitter as Ashton Kutcher has, we can all hope to improve our social media relationships. But it does take practice.

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) is the co-founder of Miller Mosaic Social Media Marketing. Download the company's free report "5 Tips for Staying Top of Mind With Your Prospective Target Markets" at www.millermosaicllc.com/los-angeles-s...

Google Alerts Notifies Me of an Online Social Media Marketing Opportunity With Best Army Wives

Google Alerts notified me that the site BestArmyWives.com was dedicating

Google Alerts Notifies Me of an Online Social Media Marketing Opportunity

Google Alerts notified me that the site BestArmyWives.com was dedicating a month-long book club discussion to my novel "Mrs. Lieutenant."

I immediately emailed Irion Arce, the creator of the site and the book club, and discovered that the page wasn't suppose to be live.

As this was a terrific opportunity, I offered to help her launch the book club — and she changed her website page to the book club launching March 1st.

Together we've been getting out the word about this month-long event. And she happily agreed to my offer of running four free webinars to discuss the book.

This extension of a daily online discussion to a weekly webinar discussion seemed natural — one more social media opportunity to create relationships with potential book fans.

I would appreciate it if you would share the information about the book club launch with your friends who might be interested:

Website Best Army Wives Launches Book Club March 1 With Novel "Mrs. Lieutenant"

Learn about the discussion beginning March 1st.

Register for the free weekly webinars at www1.gotomeeting.com/register/701292089 (We'll discuss the novel along with the 5th season of the TV show ARMY WIVES — premiering March 6th — and being a military spouse today.)

Read the entire novel for free on BookBuzzr.

Read the entire novel for free on Authonomy.

And read my guest post "How My Novel Birthed My Marketing Business."

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) is the co-founder of Miller Mosaic Social Media Marketing. Download the company's free report "5 Tips for Staying Top of Mind With Your Prospective Target Markets" at www.millermosaicllc.com/los-angeles-s...

Facebook Changes Create New Opportunities and New Tasks

There is so much going on with Facebook Page changes – some of this is good for businesses; some of this is somewhat odd.

For example, the good news is that admins of Pages now get notifications when someone posts a comment, etc. on the Page.

The bad news is that I had to individually turn off getting the notifications myself for several Pages on which I'm the admin because Miller Mosaic created the Page and I'm a backup admin "just in case."

To help clarify some of the new Facebook Page information, I took all the info from the Facebook Page official tour (which a Page admin can currently take on the Page) and put it on a blog post so the info would be in one place. You can read that post now.

And I'm currently filling a large three-ring binder with tons of information on these changes. (Different people focus on different pieces of the overall changes.)

Then when Yael and I have tested these recommendations (we are doing this now), she and I plan on offering a FREE webinar to go over what we think are the most important changes from a business marketing perspective.

One favor: Could you "like" our brand-new Facebook Page "Miller Mosaic Social Media Marketing" at www.facebook.com/millermosaicsocialmedia

This new Page is a little bare right now because we are testing out things on our other Pages first.

(By asking for help we quickly got the 25 people to "like" this new Page that we needed in order to get a customized URL for the Page.)



Why did we create this new Page?

Because we need a Page with the words "social media" in the title, which is searchable inside and outside Facebook. When we set up our "Internet Marketing Tips" Page the term "social media" wasn't yet being widely used. See this Page at www.facebook.com/powermarketing

After the events in Egypt in which the words "social media" were used in all the news stories we read, we realized the term had now entered the mainstream and people would be searching on the term.

(Note: As of recently a Facebook title can be changed if less than 100 people have "liked" the Page. This isn't an option for our "Internet Marketing Tips" Page.)

In fact, I just answered a question as to why a photographer might not be getting more people to her Facebook Page. I told her one problem could be that she did NOT use the word "photography" or the word "photographer" in her Facebook Page title. Thus it would be difficult to find her in a Facebook search or through search engines if you weren't searching on her name. (And she has more than 100 people so she can't change her Page title.)

In conclusion, whenever Facebook makes major changes, the whole Facebook platform becomes somewhat unstable and does weird things in weird places. At the moment this means taking advantage of the new Facebook Page opportunities is a somewhat frustrating experience. Big breaths. This too will (hopefully) pass.

Anyway, please "like" our new Page now. And we'll keep you posted on Facebook Page changes.

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) is the co-founder of Miller Mosaic Social Media Marketing. Download the company's free report "5 Tips for Staying Top of Mind With Your Prospective Target Markets" at www.millermosaicllc.com/los-angeles-s...

Official Facebook Tour of Changes to Facebook Pages

If you are an admin of a Facebook Page you can go to the Page and take an official tour of the changes. I've reproduced all the information below so that you can have the official tour in one place instead of clicking on each info box.

Here is Facebook's official information (I have NOT edited for grammar or capitalization):



Showcase Your Latest Photos

• The most recent photos that you post to your Wall or photos that you tag your Page in will appear here. This area will not include any photos posted by your fans.

• To hide a photo, roll over it and click

Navigation Where People Expect It

• Navigation links are now on the left, just like on people's profiles.

Show the Top Posts on Your Wall

• You now have two Wall filters. You can show posts by your page and top posts from Everyone, a new way for people to see the most interesting stories first. As an admin, you'll have additional filters for viewing posts on your page.

• To set a default filter for your Wall, go to Edit Page.

Use Facebook as Your Page



You now have the flexibility to interact with the other areas of Facebook as a page.

• Get notifications when fans interact with your page or posts

• See activity from the pages you like in your news feed

• Like other pages and feature them on your page

• Make comments as your page on other pages

To try this new feature, you can click the link here or go to Account above and select Use Facebook as Page.

New settings

• You can set defaults for your email notifications and how you post to your page – as yourself or your page. You can also select which featured pages appear in the left column.

• To manage your settings for email and posting preferences, go to Edit Page and Your Settings. To select which pages appear in Likes, go to Edit Page and Featured.



Learn more: http://www.facebook.com/help/?topic=upgradedpages



© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) is the co-founder of Miller Mosaic Social Media Marketing. Download the company's free report "5 Tips for Staying Top of Mind With Your Prospective Target Markets" at www.millermosaicllc.com/los-angeles-s...

Social Media Participation Important for SEO

The dental hygienist told me that her husband the podiatrist is spending a great deal of money each month on SEO (search engine optimization).

While she cleaned my teeth I tried to explain why it's important that he is also active on social media if he wants to keep his high Google search engine ranking.

Thus I found it fitting that, back at my computer, I watched Michelle MacPhearson's video on how important social media is becoming for search engine results. She said that businesses not yet using social media as part of their marketing plan should start doing so.

After watching the video, I checked out a post of mine that just went live on TheBloggersBulletin.com titled "Would You Start Driving a Car Without Learning How to Drive?"

I said in part in this post:

I sometimes see a person whose LinkedIn personal profile (you know, the one listed under PEOPLE) is in the name of the company, which is in violation of LinkedIn's terms. On the other hand, you can have a LinkedIn company listing under COMPANIES after you've set up a personal profile (if you have a professional email address).


More frequently I see someone whose Facebook personal profile is in the name of the company, which is in violation of Facebook's terms. (See http://budurl.com/readFBterms ) Instead, you should have a Facebook Page (formerly a fan page – now a Page that people "like") to use for your business.

Bottom line? Watch this video from Michelle MacPhearson on why social media should be part of your marketing plan.

Then read my post at TheBloggersBulletin about the importance of learning how to use social media effectively.

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) is the co-founder of Miller Mosaic Social Media Marketing. Download the company's free report "5 Tips for Staying Top of Mind With Your Prospective Target Markets" at www.millermosaicllc.com/los-angeles-s...