Online Marketing |

Leveraging Your Business with Podcasting

February 10, 2012 By Debra Simpson Leave a Comment

Debra Simpson teaches Podcasting With all these new social media technologies you have the opportunity, like never before, to dramatically increase your online visibility. With increased visibility comes increased leverage for your business.

You’ve heard content is King, and it still is! But how do you keep up with all of it. The first step is a WordPress based website. The second step is content.

What is a Podcast?

Wikipedia defines a podcast as a type of digital media consisting of an episodic series of files (either audio or video) subscribed to and downloaded through web syndication. The word is a neologism derived from “broadcast” and “pod” from the success of the iPod, as podcasts are often listened to on portable media players

Podcasting can be a very easy, enjoyable way to get more content for your site and give your business, and message a much wider reach. Podcasting can increase your online visibility and brand you as an expert in your field. Did I mention it was easy?

In this workshop you’ll

set up and optimize your Blog Talk Radio account.
integrate your Facebook and Twitter account.
learn how easy it is to schedule your show.
learn strategies for finding guests.
learn how to find show you can be a guest on.
learn how to work in the studio and chat room.
walk away with a very valuable tool for sharing your business online!
and much more.

What do you need for this workshop?

You’ll need your laptop and a credit/debit card (just in case you want to purchase/upgrade something).

Friday, March 15th
9:30am to noon
QLN Conference Center

Friday, March 30th
9:30am to noon
Hera Hub

Filed Under: WordPress Tagged With: Audio, Content, Marketing, online marketing, Podcasting

More About Using Twitter for Business

October 20, 2011 By Debra Simpson Leave a Comment

First post in the series: Is Twitter Right For Me?

Following others and being followed

When you follow somebody on Twitter, their tweets appear on your Twitter timeline much like you can see your friends’ status updates on your Facebook ticker. The big difference between Twitter and Facebook is that you don’t need other people’s approval before you can follow them on Twitter.

Every time you post a tweet, it appears on the Twitter timeline of all the people who are following you. If you’re posting on Twitter as a business, you need followers on Twitter so that you can get your message out about your company, products, and services. Twitter also gives you the ability to have conversations with current and potential clients using the promotional tweets system.

So, you just need to follow as many people as possible and start tweeting about your products like there is no tomorrow, right? Not so fast. You need to have a plan, a strategy to make the most of Twitter, before you start following a bunch of people.

Sharing with your followers and retweeting

When you start following others on Twitter, you need to share useful information with them so that they want to follow you, too. The information that your followers are interested in may vary depending on their focus and interests. But they’re probably not dying to read a ton of tweets in a row in which you praise your products and services. If you take that approach, prepare to be unfollowed massively on Twitter.

You need to strike a balance between your marketing message, useful information about your industry, and some personal elements to give people a feel for the human side of your company. Along with all these elements, you also need to share useful tweets that others post on Twitter. Sending your followers a tweet that you’ve received is called retweeting, and it’s considered part of the social currency on Twitter.

Retweeting goes well beyond giving credit to whoever shared something, it indicates that you respect or like this person’s opinion, thoughts, or whatever he or she tweets about. Also, when others retweet something you’ve posted, you can start to get your message out in the Twitter world — but you have to start by retweeting messages posted by other people before you can ask them to retweet your messages.

Filed Under: Twitter Tagged With: How To, online marketing, Social Media

Is Twitter Right for My Business?

October 17, 2011 By Debra Simpson 1 Comment

This is the first episode of an ongoing series on Twitter, what it is and how to use it for business.

Twitter is one of the most popular social-media sites on the Internet, but how can you use it to get more business?

On Twitter there are over 100 million potential customers are talking, sharing ideas, and shaping communications in a way that we’ve never experienced before. This social network has shattered traditional marketing and communication concepts. In the world of Twitter, collaboration and customers are king.

Twitter is a social network that gives you the ability to post messages of 140 characters or less. It’s a network with members throughout the world, and when you send out a message, Charles in London and Mary in California can read it at the same time. Imagine the possibilities for your business!

If you understand the concept of sending a text message from phone to phone, you can pick up Twitter easily. Tweets are a form of micro-blogging that have enabled users to share massive amounts of content in the form of short text messages that they send to unique sets of people or entire groups. Twitter is one of the original platforms for micro-blogging, and it has ruled this space since its creation in 2006. Micro-blogging has increased the speed of information ten-fold, in contrast to writing a blog post or writing an in-depth consumer report.

Filed Under: Twitter Tagged With: online marketing, Tips, Twitter

Creating Your Social Media Hub

September 4, 2011 By Debra Simpson Leave a Comment

Often small business owners tell me it’s hard to incorporate social media into their day. I’m sure you have felt that way at times too. There just don’t seem to be enough hours for all that we already have to do, like checking and answering emails.

With so many people around us telling us what we should be doing with social media, it’s hard to know exactly where to start. Then when you do decide to jump in, you feel overwhelmed with the prospect of creating a profile, or page.

It doesn’t have to be that way. You can Learn from Deb all you need to know in language you understand, plain old english. Join me Monday, September 19th from 9:30am to noon in Oceanside at Quantum Learning Network. I’m going to show you how to create a page for your business on Facebook, how to add your company to LinkedIn’s company pages, and the tools you’ll need to make your social media marketing effortless.

I’m starting the four week series (there are individual class prices too) with blogging. If you have a WordPress, whether it’s self hosted using WordPress‘ software or a free blog at the shared site WordPress.com, you’ll:

learn how to hand feed the search engines with the information you want them to have so your site is found easily.
learn how to add video and audio to your blog.
about different sources for content.
discover how to monetize your blog.
play with widgets to add extra content to your blog.

Of course, you’ll have me right there with you to answer any questions you have about using your blog.

After the first week and WordPress we’ll jump into Facebook. In this seminar we’ll be:

creating and/or optimizing your Facebook business page.
setting goals for your page.
importing your blog content so that it is automatically shared on your page.
customizing your page to help you achieve your Facebook goals.

We’ll move on the LinkedIn the following week. In our LinkedIn seminar, you’ll be:

optimizing your LinkedIn personal profile.
adding your company to LinkedIn’s Company Directory.
discovering new ways to meet your target market and interacting with them.

In our final week together, we’ll visit Twitter and put a social media plan together. Your blog will do the heavy lifting for you, leaving you to engage your followers and connections. You’ll see how your Social Media Hub works together to deliver your message, show your expertise and entice others to find out more about you and your business.

If you’re ready to go for it now, here’s the registration button. If you want more details, visit Learn From Deb.

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