Twitter | Solo Mompreneur

My RSS was a Mess – Michelle Shaeffer Saved the Day!

Today’s post is not only about publicly thanking my brilliant friend, Michelle Shaeffer, for her help but also about the power of online connections.

For 23 days, starting January 1^st, my RSS was a mess!

The problem:

Feedburner was not updating my blog’s feed
Comment Luv was displaying OLD posts
Aweber was not generating scheduled Blog Broadcasts to my list
Kindle could not publish my blog
Subscribers to my blog were not receiving updates

Those were 23 VERY LONG and frustrating days. To add fuel to the fire, being in the midst of a month-long blogging challenge, the timing of this pain-in-the-patootie issue couldn’t have been any worse.

Through Michelle’s expert knowledge of the web and websites and her “creative Google searching” talent, she discovered what was happening with my feed and fixed the problem for me.

So what are the biggest takeaways from this miserable RSS/blog feed fiasco?

The people you connect with online can be more precious than any gemstones in the world.
Value those in your center of influence.
Offer help to people when they need it. If you can’t help, direct them to someone who can.
Don’t ever underestimate the power of online connections.
True and lasting friendships are priceless.

By the way, this isn’t the first time Michelle has come to my rescue.

And I want to proclaim, publicly, something magical and magnificent would be missing from my life without her in it.

You can follow Michelle on Twitter and become her Fan on Facebook.

Filed Under: 30-day Blogging Challenge, Blogging, Building relationships online, List Building, RSS, Social Networking Tagged With: AWeber Communications, Blog, Facebook, Feedburner, Google, RSS, Twitter

How to Fail Faster than a Speeding Bullet in Social Media Marketing

By Melanie Kissell 7 Comments

The goal of business is to sell information, products, or services and make money.

In order to accomplish that goal, you need to alert your target audience of your existence.

Potential customers can’t buy a product or service if they don’t know about it!

Social networking sites not only allow potential customers and clients to meet you, get to know you, and most importantly, trust you – they help you attract people who have an interest in the information, products, or services you have to offer.

Have you been spending a lot of time on social media venues and not seeing a return on your investment of that time?

Is “clueless” how you feel when you work so hard and the sales barely trickle in?

Here’s how to Waste Your Time and FAIL FAST in social media: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blogging, Building relationships online, Internet Marketing Tools, Making money on the internet, Social Media Marketing Tagged With: Blogging, Facebook, Social Media, Twitter

A Confused Audience Won’t Take Action and You Won’t Make Sales

By Melanie Kissell 14 Comments

Today’s post is a sequel to “Twitter update – What Are You Cooking for Dinner Tonight?”

Consistent and Clear messaging across social media venues is what you want to aim for in your communications with your target audience.

Nothing breaks down trust and destroys credibility faster than being all over the map with messages that confuse your target market. And once they get confused, they disappear!

To keep your prospects, clients, and customers from doing the disappearing act, you need to strike a “balance” of sharing relationship-building messages and messages that are promotional in nature.

Be a savvy social media marketer and use the 80/20 rule (or even the 90/10 rule!) when posting your messages. The majority of what you share should be focused on relationship-building.

Thanks to my awesome mentor and colleague, Jessica Swanson, I’ve learned buckets full of tips and strategies to build lasting relationships with mompreneurs and moms who want to ditch the 9-5 and work from home.

Now it’s my turn to share them with you.

The best way to begin building a relationship with your target audience is to offer them your tantalizing freebie!

Here are 50 “free offer” ideas from my mentor to me to YOU: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Brand yourself online, Building relationships online, List Building, Online Marketing, Small business owners, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking Tagged With: Jessica Swanson, Marketing your services online, Shoestring Marketing, Social Media, Twitter

Twitter Update – What Are You Cooking For Dinner Tonight?

By Melanie Kissell 11 Comments

If your small business is in a culinary niche, then posting a Tweet like “What’s for dinner tonight?” is totally appropriate. It’s directly related to your business and what you have to offer.

But if you’re NOT in a food-related industry, then what?

Most likely you’ll just “confuse” your audience and we all know what happens when they get confused, right?

They don’t take action.

As online marketers, we sometimes get mixed messages about the most effective ways to use social media to build our businesses.

I’m sure you’ve heard, by now, it’s never socially acceptable to send out a boatload of sales pitches on social media sites.

So if we’re trying to build a business and make sales and we’re not supposed to try to sell anybody anything, then what in the world are we supposed to be sharing with our target audience on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media venues?!

Certainly not what we’re cooking for dinner – once again, unless the information is related to your niche.

Your social media updates need to be a delicate balance of messages in these two categories:

1.) Relationship-building messages

2.) Promotional messages

My next post will go into detail and give some specific examples. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, please give me some of your ideas of what a “relationship-building message” would look like and one that is “promotional” in nature.

Are you sending out both?

Thanks and I’m looking forward to reading your comments.

Filed Under: Blogging, Brand yourself online, Building relationships online, Online Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking Tagged With: Facebook, Online Promotions, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Twitter

Marketing Strengths of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn

By Melanie Kissell 7 Comments

Even though volumes of information has been published and shared about social media marketing, are you still wondering “why” you should have a presence on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn?

And more importantly …

Are you still a bit fuzzy about the core marketing strengths of the Big 3?

Today’s post is going to be concise (My thought is that you already have a PLENTIFUL collection of tips, reports, e-courses, and e-books about social media).

Who doesn’t?! Unless you’ve been residing under a cabbage leaf, your inbox and your hard drive is over-stuffed with social media basics and marketing strategies.

Maybe I should hold a contest to see who’s storing up the MOST social media stuff! Would you be the winner?

Marketing Strengths

Facebook:

One of the fastest growing social networks
Find people from every industry, age group, and demographic area
Great way to brand yourself and your products and/or services
Allows you to further relationships with prospects, customers, and potential customers or clients
Ideal place to start if you are new to social media

Twitter:

Fast and easy to use
Search feature allows you to find, not only people, but you can also search by subject to find your target audience
Can be used to drive traffic to your blog or website
Twitter profile is the easiest to create

LinkedIn:

Known for its use by professionals (business-to-business networking)
Great place to demonstrate your expertise
Join groups formed around specific ideas or industries (you can join up to 50 groups)
Allows you to connect with people in your niche both in your geographical location and from all over the world
Excellent venue for building your community and finding potential customers

Which list of strengths would best serve you and your online marketing business?

Filed Under: Brand yourself online, Building relationships online, Online Marketing, Small business owners, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking Tagged With: Facebook, LindedIn, Marketing your services online, Online marketing strategies, Social Media, Twitter

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

By Melanie Kissell 4 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...]

Filed Under: Blogging, Building relationships online, Customer Care, Online Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking Tagged With: Blogging, Facebook, Internet business success, LinkedIn, Social Media, Twitter

Tweet Longer and Add Some Oomph

By Melanie Kissell 12 Comments

I’ll openly admit that I’m a Twitter-holic. (I know. They have support groups for people like me).

There’s something fun and really easy about Twitter’s micro-blogging platform that fits nicely into my marketing strategy. And it’s a free social media platform so it definitely fits into my marketing budget.

Once in a while I am challenged, though, to fit my Tweets (messages) into 140 characters or less. Sometimes I just need 5 or 10 more characters and sometimes more than that.

I discovered a great free tool that allows me to Tweet longer when I want to.

If you find that you’re also in need of extra characters when you’re tweeting, check it out. It’s called “Twitlonger”.

Visit www.Twitlonger.com

While we’re on the subject of Twitter, did you know that you can schedule your Tweets in advance?

As a busy mom, small business owner, and online marketer, I’m always on the lookout for time-saving and organizational tools that will help to make my days run a lot smoother and less stressful.

“Social Oomph” is a no-cost tool that I can’t be without! If you’d like to save lots of time and get your Twitter messages scheduled a day in advance or a week or more, check it out.

Visit www.SocialOomph.com

Are you a Twitter fan, too? What Twitter tool or application do you like best?

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Filed Under: Building relationships online, Internet Marketing Tools, Micro blogging, Online Marketing, Small business owners, Social Media Marketing Tagged With: Free marketing tools, Shoestring Marketing, Social Media, Twitter

10 Ideas For Using Twitter As A Results-Driven Marketing Tool

By Melanie Kissell 14 Comments

Listen to this post if you like!

I’m a big fan of Twitter and I believe Social Media Marketing is essential if you’re trying to build your business online.

You can’t turn a blind eye, ignore the fact, sweep it under the rug, or crawl into a hole of denial. Take a look at television ads these days. Social media venues are here to stay!

The last time I checked, Twitter is growing in popularity by 40% a month! If you’re struggling or confused about out how to utilize Twitter as an effective, results-driven marketing tool, let me share some strategies that will help you to get the most out of Twitter.

Keep these guidelines handy for using Twitter to brand yourself and market your business:

Provide value and share biz tips and tools
Create anticipation
Drive conversation
Showcase your Biz
Announce important events and product launches
Build community
Be helpful and answer questions
Brag a bit! You deserve it. And show a little personality!
Experiment with giveaways, discounts, and contests
Post surveys

In keeping with proper and acceptable etiquette, make sure that less than 10% of your Tweets involve any kind of selling or promoting. So what should you be Tweeting about?

Re-Tweet information from your followers that you find useful, funny, or relevant.

Share Twitpics – the most opened links on Twitter!

Communicate newsworthy items and events and be sure to ask your followers to Re-Tweet messages for you.

Speak in your authentic voice and show why your biz and you are pretty cool!

Send out welcome Tweets to new followers (no selling, please) and become the go-to person in your niche by providing helpful tips and resources and answering questions from your target market.

Promote what you want to promote, but keep relationship building your highest priority.

Not quite sure how to “brag” the right way on Twitter?

The biggest challenge is getting over the “fear” of bragging. My friend and colleague, Cathy Goodwin, can help. Just get her mp3 recording and 25-page workbook by going to: BRAGGING 101 (This is my affiliate link and I give it my highest recommendation) Tiny investment – Big results!

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Filed Under: Bragging, Building relationships online, Internet Marketing Tools, Online Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking Tagged With: Bragging, Cathy Goodwin, Free marketing tools, Marketing your services online, Twitter

Because Bobbye, Martha, and Heather Asked

By Melanie Kissell 15 Comments

Nothing spells disaster faster than not having the right tools to market your business – especially if you are trying to market on a shoestring budget.

This is a sequel to a recent post on the Solo Mompreneur blog entitled, “What’s Your Business Building Cast Iron Skillet?”

I’m writing this because Bobbye, Martha, and Heather asked. These are three exceptionally talented bloggers and small business owners I met through joining a 30-day blogging challenge. (Be sure to click their names and check out their amazing talents!)

These three lovely ladies asked me to share the tools I use to market my business – my “Cast Iron Skillets”.

So here’s what I use to cook up some tasty marketing messages and spread the word about my business:

Free Headline Analyzer: I love this tool and consider it a must-have. It measures the “emotional marketing value” of your words. It’s great for crafting blog post titles, landing page & sales page bullet points, and article headlines. And it’s fun to use!

Social Oomph: This is the best time-saving tool in my arsenal. I use it to preschedule Twitter updates – a day or two or three in advance! So when I am away from my computer or working on other projects, my Tweets will automatically show up in my Twitter stream at specified times throughout the day.

Ping.fm: With one click of my mouse, I can send out a post/message to ALL of my networks at once! I’m currently subscribed to 15 different networks. It’s another time-saver and a real convenience.

Survey Monkey: I really like this free easy-to-navigate platform for creating surveys and polls. Google Docs are also a great choice.

Audio Acrobat: I have lots of fun recording Audio Notes here to send out to my list, publish in my ezine, or post on social networking sites. They have some really cool templates, too.

My Marketing Cornerstone: This is a series of OUTSTANDING webinars and accompanying workbooks created by my mentor and colleague, Jessica Swanson. I return to this information again and again!! This $97 bootcamp took me from ZERO success to targeted subscribers and sales!

To search for other bloggers in my niche and to keep up-to-date on what people in my niche are talking about, I use:

1) Icerocket

2) Blogpulse

3) Technorati

So there you have it – My business building Cast Iron Skillets!

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