LinkedIn | Solo Mompreneur

Meet And Potatoes For Saucy Social Media Success

I’ve got a question for you today I bet NO ONE has ever asked you …

“How do you meet potato people online?”

These are the members of your target audience, fans, followers, and fellow bloggers who add the “starch” and the “thickener” to your social media sauce.

They’re the people who are vital in “congealing” your social media success!

Potatoes spend their life underground.

You may be feeling like the people you need to meet are hiding underground. Maybe your blog isn’t seeing much activity these days and you’re hearing crickets chirp when you publish a post.

For starters, you’ll want to grab some pointers on how to develop those all-important relationships with other bloggers.

Kiesha Easley of “We Blog Better” has just the H.E.L.P. you need! She explains how this four-letter word contains the critical components of builidng relationships online in her article, “The #1 Secret to Getting the Most out of Social Media”.

Bloggers form a very special bond and they’re some of the neatest potato people around!

Potatoes can be red, yellow, white, purple, and brown and they come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and textures.

You can’t expect to have any semblance of success by participating in just one social media activity. Blogging may be your all-time favorite social media platform and that’s great. It’s my favorite, too.

But you need to create a presence on a variety of platforms if you want those potatoes to come up out of the ground.

Give podcasting a try. Your target audience will love hearing your voice and it adds a nice personal touch.

Join some groups on LinkedIn that are related to your niche. LinkedIn is currently the best business-to-business social media venue and the members are very responsive professionals who value interaction.

Create some videos and post them on video-sharing sites like You Tube, Vimeo, Viddler, and One True Media.

Or you might enjoy turning your blog posts into a series of slides on Slideshare, writing press releases, article marketing, or doing book reviews on Amazon.

Make it your goal this week to meet some potato people and start creating saucy social media success!

Your turn …

What are you doing to build strong relationships with other bloggers?
Do you have a social media success story you’d like to share?
Who are some of the coolest potato people you’ve met online?

Follow @MelanieKissell

Filed Under: Blogging, Social Media Success Tagged With: Blog, Kiesha Easley, LinkedIn, One True Media, Potato, Slideshare, Social Media, Viddler, Vimeo, We Blog Better

Two Ears and One Mouth – Do the Math

By Melanie Kissell 41 Comments

Have you noticed how much talking everyone is doing on the internet?

Some people refer to it as noise.

People are Tweeting up a storm on Twitter.
Blog posts and articles are being published by the thousands.
Facebook status updates are rolling in like there’s no tomorrow.
Teleseminars and webinars abound.
Group discussions on LinkedIn are too numerous to count.
Internet tv and radio channels are sprouting up faster than weeds.
New freebie offers keep appearing as if magic.
Podcasts and videos are being produced at lightning speed.

To coin a phrase from my friend, Martha Giffen, “It’s all good!”

It’s not only good, but all the talking people are doing is essential to success as an online marketer.

BUT …

With all the “talking” going on …

Who’s doing the “listening”?

Do the math — Maybe there’s a reason we have TWO ears and ONE mouth.

Listening is a critical communication skill. If you want people to listen to what you have to say and your intention is to build a lasting relationship with your target audience, you’ve got to stop some of the talking and learn to be a better listener.

Have you ever had a conversation with someone who won’t let you get a word in edgewise? You can’t shoehorn in a word if you tried?

That person was doing zero listening.

So don’t just jump from one online activity to the next, to the next, to the next in an effort to gain the attention of your target market.

Instead, become a better listener by tuning in to the needs of your prospects, customers, and clients.

Listen to the questions they’re asking.
Listen to the problems they’re facing.
Listen for emotional triggers and clues to their frustrations.
Listen to the comments they post on your blog.
Listen to discussions they’re having on forums and in groups.

How well you listen has a major impact on your effectiveness as a small business owner, your ability to influence and persuade, and on the quality of your relationships with others.

So listen up!

Have you mastered the skill of listening?
How do you listen to your target audience?

Filed Under: Blogging, Building relationships online, Customer Care, Entrepreneurs, Online Marketing, Small business owners Tagged With: Facebook, Internet Radio, LinkedIn, Listening skills, Online marketing, Small business, Target market, Teleseminars, Twitter, Webinars

“Tug of War” For Entrepreneurs

By Melanie Kissell 30 Comments

Website or Web Presence.

Which one is tugging harder?

You can have a website that resembles designer fashionwear — with all the latest trendy tools and trimmings.

Peachy.

I mean, after all, who doesn’t want to LOOK good, right? And not only is form important, so is function. You’ve got to have a website that’s working for you — easy to navigate, captivating content, and one that won’t have people clicking away in seconds.

Your work is cut out for you.

It’s not an onvernight accomplishment to design a website that educates, enriches, entertains, and engages your target audience.

Website is pulling pretty hard on that rope!

But what about web presence?

I’m sure you know this by now. To have success on the internet, you’ve got to be seen everywhere. You can’t hang around on your website all day and expect to create a presence online. Ain’t gonna happen.

But being seen everywhere takes mounds of time.

Joining conversations on Twitter, answering questions on Quora and LinkedIn, participating in forum discussions, submitting articles to article directories, interacting on Facebook, recording audios, doing interviews, hosting teleseminars, publishing blog posts — WHEW! And this is only a partial list.

Looks like web presence is pulling pretty hard on that rope, too!

So which one is going to win the entrepreneurial game of “Tug of War”?

Website?

Or Web Presence?

You tell me.

Filed Under: Blogging, Brand yourself online, Building relationships online, Internet Marketing Tools, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking Tagged With: Facebook, LinkedIn, Online Communities, Online Visibility, Quora, Social Networking, Tug of war, Twitter, website design

Straight Talk On Why You Should Use Social Media To Market Your Business

By Melanie Kissell 2 Comments

The new way of marketing with social media is not just a different set of rules; it’s a whole new game. Marketing is being totally transformed and the internet is a game changer.

For the minimal cost of internet service, it’s possible to reach the entire world from your computer.

The days of old fashioned (traditional) advertising are numbered. Have you noticed how many newspapers and magazines are either closing or moving online?

Even television commercials (yuck) are slowly becoming less and less effective. Why? Because more people are spending their valuable time online and much less time sitting in front of the television.

The game changer, the internet, has created lots of different venues for reaching prospective customers and clients. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Blogging, just to name four, are all effective platforms for engaging your target audience and making valuable and lasting connections that can lead to sales.

Social media venues are ideal places small business owners can go to interact with their target market and with other business builders. The days of shouting out sales messages are over! Entrepreneurs can now create their own communities based on their passion, products, or services.

Know what’s really cool? [Read more...]