What Does It Take To Be a Social Strategist? [INFOGRAPHIC]

Starting in Social Media? The 5 P’s of a Perfect Program So you are new in this Social Media revolution. You may or may not have been an innovator or early adapter – or perhaps you are still cautiously implementing Social Media into your business. This article isn't going to convince you WHY to use Social Media, but rather teach you HOW to best use it. Create your Perfect Program with your plan, position, platform, people and performance. The 5 P’s of a Perfect Program - Social Media Success: PLAN: Social Media Strategy Prior proper planning prevents piss poor performance. Establish goals (recruiting, training, client interaction, PR, branding, education, culture, etc.) POSITION: What’s Your Point? Differentiate your content Become the expert in your industry Link, link, link! PLATFORMS: Tools and Tactics Over 350 mediums for sharing online – how do you have the time for all that?! PEOPLE: Internal and External Audiences Once you have a strategy and Social Media functionality figured out, what is next? PERFORMANCE: Return On Investment? Connect:

The 10 Commandments Of Social Media Content Marketing It was in 2002 that the first social media network emerged with the funky name of Friendster, which to my ear sort of sounds like a hybrid cross between a “Friend” and a “Hamster”. As with any good idea it was quickly copied (“ripped off” is another phrase that comes to mind) and MySpace was created and launched in 2003. This social media network dominated for the next 5 years as teenagers became addicted to the interactive and multimedia rich, self publishing web platform that allowed them to share music, content and information with their friends. The addictive power of the social network was on display to many parents as dinner tables around the world were deserted by teens after gulping down their meat and potatoes, as they rushed off to their computers to continue their “MySpacing” In 2008 Facebook surpassed MySpace and became the dominant social network. Since then we have seen the rise of the “smart phone” connecting people to the web without wires or a desk bound computer. 1. 2. 3.

Creating original content remains top issue for B2B marketers | Industry News - KoMarketing Associates Written by Industry News on January 6th, 2012 According to MarketingProfs and the Content Marketing Insitute's recent study, titled B2B Content Marketing: 2012 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends, about one-quarter of marketers' annual budgets is spent on content marketing. In addition, nine out of 10 B2B marketers are currently using content marketing to grow their businesses, while around 60 percent plan to increase spend in the area over the next 12 months. However, content curation remains the biggest issue. Researchers found that 41 percent experienced challenges producing the type of content that engages prospects and customers. Similar results were found in an earlier study from HiveFire, which revealed the No. 1 content marketing challenge to be creating original content (73.6 percent). Time may be an issue for marketers who utilize social media to distribute content, such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Editing Text On Your iPad? Speed Up The Process With SwipeSelection More than a few people have been clamoring for Daniel Hooper’s thoughtful iPad text editing concept to become a real thing since his video started making the rounds, and now all you mobile text editors have reason to celebrate. Thanks to the efforts of an intrepid iOS hacker named Kyle Howells, that awesome vision of quick-and-painless text editing has been realized with a new (and free) iOS tweak called SwipeSelection. Even if you aren’t a seasoned grammarian (or a beleaguered copy editor), SwipeSelection strikes me as terribly useful tool to have at your disposal. Instead of having to poke at precisely the right point in a word or sentence to fix an error, SwipeSelection allows you to drag a single finger across the iPad’s keyboard to place your cursor. Need a bit more speed? Drag with two fingers to add some extra oomph to the process, which comes in especially handy when you’re grappling with a more than a few paragraphs. [via iDownloadBlog]

What Is the Point of: #Hashtags? Whenever a new Web trend comes along, there are people who ask, "What is the point of this?" If millions of people are using something, there has to be a reason. In our What Is the Point of... series, we'll explain it to you. This week, we're asking, What is the point of #hashtags? What Is a Hashtag? The hashtag was invented as a label for groups and topics in IRC chat. how do you feel about using # (pound) for groups. Related: The First Hashtag Ever Tweeted on Twitter - They Sure Have Come a Long Way It caught on. Twitter Makes It Official By July 2009, Twitter had realized what an ingenious trick its users had invented, so it began to turn hashtags into links. Related: How To #FollowFriday In 2010, Twitter introduced Trending Topics, so Twitter users could see what the world was talking about right this minute. Then something terrible happened. Trending topics became completely full of stupid. But it's getting better. How To Use Hashtags Lead image via Shutterstock.

10+ Best Apps For Your Dropbox If you’ve been using Dropbox for a while, you may not have noticed that a whole ecosystem of applications have been built up to use the service. Over time, these apps have sprung up to fill all of the little holes Dropbox left unfilled. There are apps now for just about everything. It’s possible to sync Google Docs to Dropbox, automatically send Gmail attachments to Dropbox, play music in a browser from your Dropbox music files, encrypt your Dropbox, easily host a website or blog in Dropbox, collect URLs and web clippings to Dropbox and to automate file syncs between all of your social networks and Dropbox. 1. DropItToMe is a service which allows you to set up a URL specifically for your friends and clients to use for uploading things to your Dropbox. JotForm lets you create an online form for people to fill out, which then gets saved to your Dropbox. 2. Many people use services like InSync to perform a Dropbox-like sync for Google Docs to their home computer. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

How to Become a Freelance Hard-Ass and Get Paid What You’re Worth 9inShare40 Want to learn how to turn your passion into a revenue-generating business and make an impact? Join Brazen Careerist for an innovative online bootcamp for aspiring entrepreneurs called The Big Idea, March 6-31. One of the big challenges of launching your career as a freelancer is figuring out how much to charge – and convincing potential clients you’re worth that amount. Do you start at $15/hour? About five years ago — maybe one year before the recession hit — I quit my full-time job in book publishing to go full-time freelance. But as thrilling as the switch from nylons to bunny slippers was, building up a strong client base was tough, and I struggled for years to figure out how much I was worth — and how to find editors willing to pay it. When the recession happened, I realized I had to diversify, so I got my career coaching certification. In both cases, I was afraid. I suppose that last question was at the crux of it all, especially in the case of my coaching practice. 1. 2.

10 Social Media Tips for Bloggers Liz Borod Wright, a freelance writer based in New York City, runs the popular travel blog, Travelogged. She is also a social media consultant and an adjunct for social media at Columbia Journalism School’s continuing education program. When it comes to building an audience and driving traffic, bloggers are turning to social media with record results. Instead of relying on organic search or (gasp) IRL friends, successful bloggers know they have to develop a following on key social networks as a way to promote their brands and ultimately get more clicks. Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon and now Pinterest provide the savvy blogger with plenty of opportunities to attract new readers and engage with regulars, but it can be overwhelming if you’re new to social media or if you only use it for fun. Here are 10 tips to help bloggers navigate the increasingly complex world of social media — while still making time to write content. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Which Blogging Platform Should I Use? Joomla is primarily a CMS, which, as a side option, may also double as a blog. Wordpress is the other way around. Its primarily a blogging platform, and additionally, with a few hackles, may double up as a CMS. I'm with you on absolutely HATING WordPress. Many sites are misinforming users and stating that WordPress is a good CMS - WRONG! Yes, there are countless plugins and things to make WP into a fully fledged CMS, but it's a blogging platform. Yes, there is a ton of help to solve most issues with those plugins and customizing WP. I'd tried Joomla, Drupal, and well over a dozen others. I have been using ExpressionEngine for several years now. For blogging, I DO encourage people to try WP. For building a complex site where any data can be content and a chronologically styled blog style is not desired, then EE is what I use and recommend to my clients. EDIT > add: Everyone loves free and open source.

26 Tips for Writing Great Blog Posts Do you blog? Feel like you’re trying to reinvent the wheel time and again? Looking for some ideas to simplify your content creation process? What follows are 26 tips, from A-Z, to help you create optimal blog posts every time you sit down to write. #1: Anatomically Correct A blog post contains several areas that require our attention and care. Eye-catching titleIn-text links to landing pagesSidebar/banner calls to actionSocial sharing buttonsCall to action at the bottomRelevancy—making sure the post is relevant from top to bottom Parts of the blog anatomy. Example of more anatomical parts to include in your blog posts. #2: Blogging Platform By knowing the ins and outs of your blogging platform, you’ll ensure that your posts look as good as they can. Whether you’re working in platforms such as WordPress, Tumblr or Posterous, it’s good to stay up to date on the features and new versions. WordPress' editor where you can toggle between visual and HTML editing functions. #3: Categories #4: Description