Syndicating Your Content Online
Show Notes: September 12, 2011

What's a Social Media Hub [ 15:12 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (11)

Today’s episode focuses on using a blog to create the hub of your social media marketing strategy. Sites talked about today were:

WordPress.Com, WordPress, Facebook, LinkedIn , HootSuite and Twitter.

Syndicating Your Content
Show Notes: January 24, 2011

Blogging, The Center of Your Social Media Hub [ 14:02 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (27)

In this episode of Syndicating Your Content you’ll learn a bit more about using a blog as the heart of your social media marketing strategy.

As shared in our previous Syndicating Your Content episode, the RSS feed (Really Simple Syndication) is what takes your blog post and delivers it to the sites its been asked to deliver your content to, like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and your blog subscribers.

Syndicating Your Content
Show Notes: November 29, 2010

Free Blogs versus Self Hosted Blogs [ 15:04 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (15)

In today’s episode I shared information on having a free blog at WordPress.com or Blogger.com versus having a self hosted blog like Syndicating Your Content.

Have you ever said the words “Here’s my website, but the information’s a little out of date” and blushed a little out of embarrassment to anyone who’s asked for your web address? Or do you Google your name, business name or keywords and your site doesn’t show up on the results?

You know, it doesn’t have to be that way anymore.

People expect you to have a relevant, up-to-date web site. Especially if you’re a small business. It’s as common as a handshake, and now it’s just about as simple as one too.

Enter WordPress.

WordPress is an open-source (read: free) content management system (aka CMS) that’s taken over the internet. Over 13 million websites (http://en.wordpress.com/stats/) are running on WordPress including People, The New York Times and Wired Magazine as well as Syndicating Your Content.

So what’s the fuss?

Isn’t WordPress just for blogs?

WordPress is for more than blogging. One look at The New York Times will tell you that it’s not just for telling everyone about your dog’s latest escapades anymore.

Over the past few years WordPress has grown from a simple blogging platform to a robust publishing system that can do just about anything you want it to, provided you have the coding skills.

And if you don’t have the coding skills, WordPress is perfect for getting your web presence set up in a matter of hours instead of weeks. And you don’t have to bug that recalcitrant web guy to change the copyright date on your web site.

So why should you use WordPress?

1. SEO: Google loves wordpress, and you can easily get on page 1 of google with strategic keyword placements in your blog posts.
2. Control: Once you have WordPress installed, you have control over all your content. You can edit your pages to your heart’s content, as easily as you can create a Word document.
3. Looks good out of the box. WordPress comes installed with a clean, professional-looking default theme that allows you to change the header image and background without touching a line of code.
4. Change when you want to. Since your content is completely separate from how the site actually looks, you can change the theme whenever you feel like it without touching your content.
5. You can blog. Or not. There is no rule that says you have to blog. Honestly. But if you want to, WordPress is built to handle this. Or you can just hide the feature if you don’t care for it. I would, however, keep some sort of regularly-updated something on the site. Make use of the blog for news, announcements, coupons, specials or sales instead.
6. Huge user base and support. There are millions of WordPress users. And you’ll be able to find the answers to your questions and problems pretty quickly out there on the web, or find someone to fix your problem for you. WordPress.org even has a pretty extensive knowledge base and well-monitored forums.
7. Inexpensive. There are thousands of free and inexpensive themes for you to install to change the look of your site. If you’re the DIY type, you can learn enough to be able to make WordPress look how you want for free. If you’re not the DIY type, there are more than enough people out there who can make your site look the way you want it for anywhere from $500-$3000.

Gone are the days where small business web sites are held captive by too-busy web guys. And gone are the days where a small business had to pony up a second mortgage to pay for a site that looks halfway decent only to never be able to change a thing.

WordPress puts control back into your hands, right where it should be.

WordPress Mastery, 101

Nov 3, 2010 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM PT
Nov 10, 2010 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM PT
Nov 17, 2010 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM PT

I remember when I first discovered WordPress. I had been blogging since Feb. 2005 at Blogger.com. I had been attending online expos at the time and, in January 2007 learned about WordPress and self hosted sites.

I programmed my first blog, moving North San Diego Business to a self hosted blog. Through the years I’ve chosen to focus just on WordPress blogs. To me it’s the heart of my content syndication strategies.

However, I’m sensitive to the budget issues facing the small business community and have found a WordPress blog service, Free Blog Factory. They fill a great need in having a self hosted blog, but not having the budget to have the blog custom designed and built.

Free Blog Factory is hosting a free webinar tonight, November 3, 2010, then again November 10th and 17th entitled WordPress Mastery, 101 to show you how easy it is to use WordPress as your website. If you have time, sign up and check it out.

If you check it out, let me know what you think? Is it a service that might benefit you?

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!

Join Social Spin CEO Bradley Will and co-founder Russell Yermal as they bring you 60 minutes packed of top-notch Social Media Training.

+++++5 Part Formula to Build a Better Blog+++++
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM PT or
Tuesday, November 9, 2010 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM PT

This webinar will give you the 5-part secret formula to building a blog with more traffic, better content and making you more money!

We will also give you first glimpse at our brand new Blogging Starter Kit which teaches any newbie on how to dominate online with their blog. This is the answer to solopreneurs who want a self hosted WordPress blog, but don’t have the budget to have the blog custom programmed. You can test drive the blog for FREE for the first 30 days.

I’ve been blogging since 2005. I started at Blogger and discovered WordPress in January 2007. I’ve had two self-hosted blogs and have been programming in WordPress exclusively since then.

North San Diego Business came out of a need to show the small business community, in 2006, what a blog looked like, and what it could do. To that end, the weekly North San Diego Business At Large podcast came into being.

When Facebook and Twitter came into the small business community you saw a plethora of “social media masters” come out of the woodwork. Their fees ran the gamete, but were usually pretty hefty. One firm was asking $500 a month for their services. It seemed to me that some were cashing in on the craze. More power to them!

However, some in the small business community were left in the dust. Dazed and confused, they left business sponsored social media events without a clue how to implement social media into their business.

So when I hear of yet another Social Media Mastery series I have to ask a few questions, especially when the series costs you an arm and a leg. Here are the questions I would ask.

• How long has the “social media master” been around?
• Does the “social media master” have a blog?
• Are they blogging regularly?
• Have they been blogging long?
• Is their blog at wordpress.com or blogger.com?
  (there are some exceptions to this question)
• Do they have a Facebook profile?
• How many friends do they have?
• Do they have a Facebook page?
• Do they have any custom pages on their Facebook page?
• How many fans do they have?
• How many connections on Linkedin?
• How many followers do they have on Twitter compared to how many Tweets they’ve sent out?
• Do they share information online or just promote themselves and their services/products?
• Do their course outlines tell you what you’ll be learning?
• Have you heard of them before?

Where can you get a lot of information about social media without shelling out a lot of your hard earned money?

Social Media Examiner
Mashable
Chris Brogan
CopyBlogger
HubSpot
Inside Facebook
Search Engine Guide
Search Engine Journal
Search Engine Watch
Daily Bloggr
Duct Tape Marketing
Social Media Coaching Center
Specky Boy
Square Martini Media
Tech Crunch
Social Time
Tripwire Magazine
WebPro News

Got a social media story to share? Feel free to comment!

Today I listened to an audio interview with an online marketer, branded as a platform specialist. During the interview it was mentioned that you really don’t need a website. The interviewer was taken aback and asked what the marketer meant. The marketer replied, “you can use a blog instead of a website.”

I’ve heard that so many times….”oh, it’s a blog.” While I can appreciate that at one time blogs really were not visually appealing, but baby, those times have changed. There are so many free and premium themes to choose from, and so many ways to customize the blog that the days of you seeing stacked posts are long gone.

One of my favorite themes is WP Remix. It has ten different homepage designs, fifteen plus interior pages, gallery pages, photo and product pages. It’s extremely flexible and doesn’t require programming knowledge to create new pages. It also has a blog page for all your posts.

WordPress has come a long way and is an ideal solution for a small business owner with a tight budget, but plenty of sweat equity. Additionally, the benefits of having a blog if you’re using social networking sites like Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and YouTube are tremendous. You can let the blog do all the heavy lifting by syndicating your content online.

If you want to give blogging a try, go to WordPress.com, which is the free blog site and open an account. If you really love blogging, you can easily export out all your content and bring it into a self-hosted blog, like Syndicating Your Content.

I just received my Amazon order. I invested in some new books so I can keep abreast of the changes in social media. I already own Social Media Marketing: An Hour A Day and Blog Marketing and wanted to purchase Mari Smith’s new book, Facebook Marketing: An Hour A Day. It only made sense to pick up YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour A Day, and the newest book out…Success Secrets of the Social Media Marketing Superstars.

I’ll be reading this last book over the two next weeks and will give you a recap of each section. It covers strategies, principles, applications, and social media websites.

I highly recommend any of the above books as fabulous additions to your social media library. Let me know what you think? What’s your favorite social medial book?