Josh’s Getting Married …

My brother Josh is 47. He’s always wanted to be married, never gave up on his dream, just never met the right person until he found Michael Chandler … a wonderful woman and fellow journalist (he at the LA Times/Tribune, she at the Washington Post).

I am thrilled beyond belief that they have found each other and welcome Michael to our family with open arms – she ROCKS!! We don’t know when the wedding will be but it can’t come soon enough.

What are YOU doing to follow your dream??

Josh & Michael's Official Engagement (self) Photo

Some great ideas and examples for ’selling’ Social Media to your future champions

Chris Brogan posted some great content today about helping to win over the skeptics and get your Social Media agenda greenlighted.

Adoption, and willingness to invest in new social media-oriented programs, is ramping up slowly,  too slowly for me and the projects I’m trying to get off the ground.

I bet many of you are having the same issues.

In an effort to get the corporate sponsorship and commitment required to “green light” SM projects, you need additional resources … ideas, tools and examples of successful SM implementations.

How do you find your champions and equip your  mission to be successful?

In my book, proven success stories and shared best practices are some of the surest ways to communicate potential and win over the skeptics. There’s a boatload of both in Chris’s post, “Get on the right side of the Fence”.

Read it here

photo credit: ScottieT812

How to Add Your Microblogging Network to Ning – In 5 Minutes or Less « ShoutEm

How to Add Your Microblogging Network to Ning – In 5 Minutes or Less

Posted by: Ivan Brezak Brkan on: 27/02/2009

In: Featured| Help & Tips Comment

So, you like Shout’Em and your users are shouting all the time. However, you want to integrate it with your site even more. Well, for those using Ning networks, it just got that much easier.

What is Ning?

While Shout’Em lets you create your own microblogging network similar to Twitter or the now defunct Pownce, Ning lets you create your social network think Myspace. While Ning has lots of neat features, it does unfortunately lack microblogging. This is where Shout’Em comes in – with widgets

Do I have to be an administrator of the network?

No, certainly not. While we let admins add their Shout’Em networks as full pledged parts of the network, users can add the Shout’Em application for Ning themselves to their profile and load their message streams. So let’s get to it:

For admins – How to add Shout’Em to your network

Select the Manage tab;

In “Your network” settings click on Features;

Select Text box from the available features and drag it to your layout;

Go to your Shout’Em network and click on Widgets in the footer;

Copy the code from the “For Ning admins” option;

Locate the Text box you added on your network and click Add Text or Edit;

Paste in the code and save;

You’re done – Howly Shout’Em Batman Good job

via How to Add Your Microblogging Network to Ning – In 5 Minutes or Less « ShoutEm.

10 Ways to Build Your Blog Community with Twitter « ShoutEm

10 Ways to Build Your Blog Community with Twitter

Posted by: Ivan Brezak Brkan on: 25/03/2009

In: Help & Tips Comment

Every blogger, no matter how ambicious or dedicated to his or her blog – wants a community around it. Easier said than done of course. To build a community you have to get people engadged around the premise of your content and then make it as easy for them to interact as possible. Both with you and each other.

3 Reasons Why Twitter Rocks for Your Community

It’s less tedious than forums. As any other type of website, forums have a specific organization scheme that users need to learn. Put in there signatures, private messages, subforums – and it’s not really the simples solution. Also, a forum you create has to start from scratch. From zero users to a community. What if you have both article comments and a forum – what will the user choose to do? With too many choice, he may just end up staying quiet.

to read the rest of this post,
visit 10 Ways to Build Your Blog Community with Twitter « ShoutEm.

Google Analytics Blog: Web Analytics Tips & Tricks: Using Google Analytics to Create an Optimization Plan

Web Analytics Tips & Tricks: Using Google Analytics to Create an Optimization Plan (posted Tuesday, March 24, 2009 on Google Analytics Blog. Click link for full article)

Let’s face it, your website is never really finished. Testing pages is an inexpensive way to manage a constantly shifting audience and market. It’s great for:

1. Increasing ROI on your advertising
2. Teaching you about the likes and dislikes of your customers
3. Trying out alternatives used by competitors
4. Breaking down preconceptions about what works
5. Convincing a stubborn boss to try something new

What and where to test?

So where do you start? First you need a goal. What do you want users on your site to do? Complete a form, buy something, sign up for a newsletter? Without a goal, it’s difficult to optimize, so you should be sure to define one if you haven’t already.

Once you have a goal, you can use Google Analytics to identify those pages that are having the biggest negative impact on the total number of people “converting,” or achieving that goal. These are the pages to test.

Top landing pages report

(Content > Top Landing Pages)

This report gives you instant insight in how well (or poorly) your landing pages are performing. You want to find pages that have both high “entrances” and a high “bounce rate.” These pages are costing you a lot of visitors.

Goal visualization report

(Goals > Funnel Visualization)

The funnel visualization in Google Analytics shows you where people leave during your buying process. For example, the below report shows that 40% of the 200 potential buyers left during “Step X” in the checkout process. Average order value is $100. This means the merchant is losing up to $8,000 in revenue every month due to “Step X.”

Twitter Implicated in Mayer/Aniston Breakup – a strong endorsement for TweetStats

Twitter Implicated in Break Up Between Aniston and Mayer.

It's all in the analytics, dude.

Smart move Jenn!! Bury the details in a sordid celebrity gossip story that you know we’ll read. Love it!

I always say that the best way to get people interested is to bring awareness of something to them indirectly. Now I refer to this tactic as ‘fringe’ marketing. I used to refer to it in my corporate partner management days as ‘indirect channels’.  SSDD.

Anyway, who can resist an article about how Twitter played the Devil in the breakup between Aniston and Mayer (I didn’t even know they were apart)?? I couldn’t, even as I sit here thinking about the proposal I’m supposed to be writing.

But if you read to the bottom, you realize that Jennifer Van Grove (of Mashable) is brilliant – she’s using TweetStats to show Mayer’s upward spiralling Twitter trends, and it’s very cool analytics.

btw, not surprised really that Mayer’s tweets are as poetic as they are, considering the source ).

Chris Brogan on Social Consciousness as part of Social Media

SXSW Flash Panel: Corporations & Social Media on Vimeo on Vimeo

Chris Brogan is one of many who are actively committed to supporting social causes

Chris Brogan has a big voice. He’s a top blogger, marketer, and entreprenuer/innovator around social media.  But one thing Chris does, usually in the background, is to support the OTHER kind of social – helping the community and in particular those who need our help.

This partnership with the community represents the best of the web – using our influence, access and personal relationships to drive good. Here, Tyson Foods works to help end hunger, and Chris starts a fascinating panel with a nice, long discussion about Tyson and their great efforts.

As social computing is becoming more and more mainstream, people want to know how it fits into what they’re already doing. The short answer … it helps your audience understand you better and find reasons to like (or not like) you. When it comes time to make a purchase decision, who will be chosen?? The nameless, or those who have made a positive impression on you one way or another??

I’d love to start a list of philanthropic efforts that are supported by people and enterprises. Got some to share?? Post them (and their links here)! Tag them “philanthropy”!

And watch the video – it’s pretty great!!

30+ Apps for Doing Business on Facebook

30+ Apps for Doing Business on Facebook.

In my continuing quest to help others use tools better, more efficiently, and more expertly (without having to figure it all out themselves), I wanted to share this blog post with you. It’s from Josh Peters, a freelance social media consultant from Salt Lake City, Utah. He authors a blog at Shuaism.com.

“Think LinkedIn is the only place for business? Facebook is growing rapidly and it’s becoming a destination for businesses and business professionals alike to establish a presence. Here are over 30 Facebook applications to help promote, network, communicate, collaborate and accomplish more with your business.”

Click on the link to view the entire post – it’s a keeper for sure.

Do you have any suggestions or best practices that simplify online communications, marketing, or outreach??

If you’re USING any of these tools and ideas already, what do you think?? Which are your favorites??

Submit To All Social Bookmarking Websites At Once | BloggerStop.Net – Blogger Help, Templates, Widgets

I’m on a mission to help streamline all the tools and processes around using social applications for personal and business use.

Aggregators are things that take one act and repeat it for you automatically, so you can concentrate on the real value of finding and commenting on things that you feel are useful or important. Create a post and share it so that anyone anywhere can find it, using any platform.

Submit To All Social Bookmarking Websites At Once | BloggerStop.Net – Blogger Help, Templates, Widgets.

TypePad One: An EXCELLENT Training Resource for Bloggers

Right now I am using WordPress for my blogs, but this resource page from TypePad, another excellent blogging platform, can be extremely helpful.

TypePad’s excellent online resource for business bloggers bloggers

TypePad offers a valuable service by sharing free blogging classes on things such as basics, SEO (search engine optimization – how to make it easy for people to find what you want them to find about you and your business online), and business blogging best practices etc.

That’s just the beginning, but it’s a great place to learn more. And their blogging tools are great too! Check out my friends’ blogs: Ron Miller and David Meerman Scott – both use TypePad and are excellent examples of clean, functional, info-packed blogs.

TypePad One: The Resource for Bloggers.

You can be an excellent blogger too — this resource page is a perfect place to start. If you need ideas to help you get started, let’s talk!!