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WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

May 26, 2011 By Mason Leave a Comment

If you own or run your own business or blog and don’t send out email newsletters what are you waiting for? It’s so easy, a cavemen with dial-up could do it!

One of the most basic marketing concepts is staying in front of your past and potential customers. A regular email newsletter to your contacts is a user-friendly tool in your marketing arsenal.

Don’t know how to design and send out mass professional looking emails? There are ESP (Email Service Providers) that will do it for you.

Don’t have a lot of money? Most packages start at $15-$20 a month.

Don’t have a lot of time? Once you nail down your template, it’s a matter of quickly changing the info and sending out the new email.

Don’t want to spam people? Send it out once-a-month or quarterly.

I recommend Constant Contact or AWeber. This is not a paid advertisement nor am I a spokesmen for them. I actually use them both and am happy with their service. There are other quality ESP’s as well.

Before a business looks into social media, I ask them if they have an email newsletter. If they don’t, I encourage them to start with that first.  Some customers do it themselves, others have me do it for them.

What if you only have a blog that you do for fun? An email newsletter is one more resource to drive traffic to your website. Blogging and email reminds me of another dynamic duo… “Holy Increased Traffic From Repeat Visitors Batman!”

So what are you excuses as to why you haven’t started yet?

Waiting to revamp your website.
Waiting until you have an employe to do it.
Waiting to figure out Twitter.
Waiting to feel inspired to do it.
Waiting to get your groove back.
Waiting to find the love of your life.
Waiting until you get all of your debt paid off.
Waiting until you move into your dream house.
Waiting to finish your degree.
Waiting to lose weight.
Waiting to get a handle on your kids.
Waiting for that magical season of your life where you have more time.
Waiting for that magical season of your life where you have more money.
Waiting for Jesus to come back.
Waiting to understand Lady Gaga.
Waiting for Trump to shave his head or get a wig.
Waiting for the Cubs to win the World Series.
Waiting for the Knicks to win the NBA Finals.
Waiting for the Browns to PLAY in the Super Bowl : )
Waiting for the NFL to overturn the officials’ rulings on “The Hail Mary” and “The Tuck Rule.”
Waiting for peace in the Middle East.
Waiting to be voted “Most Popular” at your High School Reunion.

Seriously! What is your excuse?

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Filed Under: Email Marketing

Make Your LinkedIn Profile Stand Out

May 19, 2011 By Mason Leave a Comment

Remember that LinkedIn profile you created and never went back to??? Well, last week I showed you a simple way to get connected to new targeted LinkedIn members. Today I want to show you how to spruce up your profile. You can make your profile stand out from the crowd by adding a YouTube video to your profile. Most LinkedIn profiles do not have videos (most LinkedIn users don’t even know you can have videos on your profile). Even if you do not have your own self-produced video on YouTube, you can find a video that relates to your industry to give people more information regarding what you’re all about.If you do have your own video on YouTube, LinkedIn will become one more avenue to bring exposure to your video, get your information out there, and grow your number of views.

Step 1: If you do not have your own YouTube account or gmail account sign-up for a new gmail account (it’s free, you can have all mail forwarded to your main email address, plus google is always coming out with interesting apps that you’ll be able to take advantage of). To sign up go here: https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount

Step 2: Once you’re signed in to your YouTube or gmail address go to: https://docs.google.com/

Step 3: From there go to “create a new presentation”:

Google Presentation

Step 4: Under the “Insert” menu click on the “Video” option:

Insert Video

Step 5: Search for the the YouTube video you want and select it. Do a little re-sizing and save your document:

Search For Video

Step 6: Stay signed-in to your google account, open a new window, and sign-in to your LinkedIn account. Under the “More” drop-down menu go to “Get More Applications.” In the Applications menu select “Google Presentation” and add it to your profile. Now go back to the “More” drop-down menu and select “Google Presentation.”

LinkedIn Google Presentation

Step 7: Your presentation should appear in the presentation list for you to select. Select your presentation and your done!

LinkedIn Video Insert

Your video will only appear to LinkedIn members who are sign-in to LinkedIn. I hope you found this post helpful. If you run into any snags or have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below…

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Filed Under: LinkedIn, Social Media, Video Content, Video Tips, Tricks, & Info Tagged With: , , , , ,

Osama Bin Laden’s Death Leaked on Twitter First

May 2, 2011 By Mason 2 Comments

On May 1st, 2011 at 10:25pm EST, while President Barack Obama was writing his speech to America announcing the death and capture of UBL, a tweet was first posted on Twitter announcing that very news almost an hour before it became common public knowledge.

According to The New York Times, credit for the leak went to Keith Urbahn, the chief of staff for Donald Rumsfeld and a former Navy intelligence officer. His tweet, “So I’m told by a reputable person they have killed Osama Bin Laden. Hot damn,” was credited by The Times as the first to report the news. Keith Urbahn was the chief of staff for the former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

 

UBL's Death Announced on Twitter

 

Urbahn later tweeted, “Don’t know if its true, but let’s pray it is.”

 

Urbahn Tweets

 

With so much going on in the world today, on what seems like a weekly basis, with countries under intense violence and revolutions, social media has definitely left it’s fingerprint on this period of world history. Today, when a person experiences something significant, they seemed very inclined to share it with their friends and followers on their social networks. When someone is seeing dramatic visuals, a cell phone is pulled out to record video footage that is immediately uploaded to YouTube. Social media has become the world’s forum for everyone to join in the public dialogue on important events that matter to everyone.

Since this news has broke, Twitter, Facebook, and blogs have lit up with comments, stories, and celebration. It’s a great day to be an American and I’m glad to share with everybody via our electronic community.

 

 

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Filed Under: Social Media, Twitter Tagged With: