POD For You

[SagArt]

I'm sure you all know that promotion and marketing can be a big ole' pain in the arse. The statements most often made are "how the heck can I address all that" or "I'll never have time to design another t-shirt if I have to spend hours running around marketing my products!"

Well, that used to be true ... but not so true anymore.

One of the toughest things to do is address the dynamic social networks because there are so dang many of them. To be effective, you have to keep adding fresh content to all of them and honestly ... there just isn't enough hours in the day to address each one of them individually. So, I don't ... yet, I add fresh content constantly. I do that by utilizing tools that reduce my time-on-task with my marketing efforts.

I personally believe that automation is the key to alot of marketing and promotional headaches and it frees up your time for that which you love, designing.

(Continued in next post just so you know I'm posting here.)

[SagArt]

There are tools that allow you to streamline your marketing and promotion and they work like a charm and take very little time to accomplish on a daily basis.

Following the advice of social media and Web 2.0 experts, you have established your own blog and joined a number of social sites, including Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, LibraryThing, and Upcoming.org, among others. Now, the experts say you must add content to each of these accounts regularly to keep them dynamic. So, how's this supposed to make your life easier?

Relax. With some careful planning, you can streamline the process of keeping all of your Social Web accounts fresh and engaging without breaking your back or the bank. The trick is to make your social accounts work together. Most social sites use the concept of open source to make it easy for developers to write applications that enhance the features of the site. For our purposes, we will look at applications that can help us streamline our existing presence in the Social Web.

To demonstrate what I mean about streamlining the process, I'll start with an example. Imagine that you have the following social media tools and accounts already in place on the Social Web:

A WordPress Blog
A Facebook Profile
A Facebook Page
A MySpace Page
A YouTube Account
A Flickr Account
A Twitter Account
An Upcoming.org Account
A GoodReads Account

Your 6 Step Plan to a Streamlined Social Web Presence
Step 1: Optimize Your Blog Feed

The very first step in streamlining your presence in the Social Web is burning your blog's feed to Feedburner. This is a free service, and obtaining a FeedBurner account will help you to easily manage and track your feed subscriptions. Once you have burned your feed to FeedBurner, note the URL of your new feed, which will look something like this: http://feeds.feedburner.com/MyBlogName .

Step 2: Feed Your Blog Now

You want to make sure that you are getting the most mileage from your blog posts. To do so, feed your blog entries into all of your social accounts that offer blog feeding applications. Remember that each social site may provide its own different way of accomplishing this.

Facebook, for example, allows you to feed your blogs into the Notes section of your Facebook page. Click Edit in the Notes box of your Facebook page and find the option that allows you to import notes from an external blog.

Feeding blog entries into MySpace is a little different. Find and add the application RSS Reader. You can access many MySpace applications by clicking More/Apps Gallery from the main menu of your MySpace homepage.

It is possible to feed your blog posts into Twitter, but blog posts are typically too long for this purpose. If you read on, I will clue you in to a better solution for streamlining your micro-blog entries.

Step 3: Maximize the Use of Your Multimedia

Maximize the exposure of your images and video clips by adding galleries and badges to your blog or Website, and by feeding your images and videos into your social networking profiles and pages.

WordPress has many plugins available for integrating Flickr images. My favorite right now is Flickr Tag, a plugin that allows you to easily place your Flickr images right into your blog posts, and create galleries.

A Flickr badge is a snippet of Flash or HTML code that you can place on the sidebar of your Website or blog that will pull in and highlight random or specific photos from your Flickr account. Find out more by going to: http://www.flickr.com/badge.gne.

Similarly, you can embed video galleries into your blog or Website by using your YouTube channels. After you've added videos to your YouTube channel, you can generate code for a video gallery and place this code on your Website or blog.

To feed images from Flickr into your Facebook page and MySpace profile, find the appropriate application and add it. For Facebook, I use an application called My Flickr; for MySpace, use Happy Flickr.

You can place videos on your Facebook page by implementing an application called YouTube Box, and using the application YouTube Favorites, you can display video clips on your MySpace profile.

Step 4: Integrate Other Social Tools

The way in which you proceed in step 4 depends entirely upon which social tools and Websites make up your Social Web presence. In the example I have created, we have accounts with Upcoming.org (a social event calendar) and GoodReads (a niche book sharing and author site) that have not yet been integrated. By searching the applications in Facebook and MySpace, you'll find that Facebook offers an application that allows you to integrate your Upcoming.org events, and both Facebook and MySpace include applications that allow you to display your GoodReads books and book reviews.

Step 5: Take Advantage of Streamlining Tools

Using the social tool, Ping.fm, you can add short posts to your mini feeds on Facebook, MySpace, and your micro-blogging sites like Twitter and Jaiku. Ping.fm is a useful tool that lets you post one brief entry, or often a status update, and feed it into a number of social sites.

Step 6: Research and Repeat

The very nature of the Social Web is connecting people through social platforms and applications; therefore, when deciding whether or not to invest time and resources into a new social tool, it's best to research the ways that tool will accommodate your existing Social Web presence. Can you feed in your blog posts? Does it allow you to import images from a photo sharing site or video clips from from your video sharing community? Have sites like Ping.fm integrated the new tool yet, or do your existing social sites offer applications to integrate the new tool?

When you do decide to integrate a new social tool or Website, do so as best you can by repeating the applicable steps presented above.

When I blog about products, I ping it out all over the net. When I twitter about products, I ping it out all over the net. I get instant feedback from everyone in my social networks, I get my products in front of millions of people almost instantly.

Continued next post - So sorry about the length.

[SagArt]

Now let's talk about Twitter for a moment. (I'll try to keep this shorter)

Some have the opinion that Twitter is just a glorified gab session ... once again, nothing can be farther from the truth. Twitter is a unique way to promote your products too!  The one thing you don't want to do is spam twitter with tweets only about your products. I use the 4-6 tweets to 1 promotional tweet formula so that I make a contribution of communication along with a few tweets about my latest and greatest product offerings (you're supposed to laugh here).

Before someone raises their hand and says, "Sag, I can't tweet all day as I won't get anything done!" Well folks I have to work too and I sure don't tweet all day because I love automation.

I use TweetLater to do most of my tweeting for me and can schedule tweets weeks in advance. I just got this newsletter from TweetLater and I think you might be interested in the content. It follows:

How To Use Your Personal Status Feed
 
The personal tweet scheduling engine and Status feed that you get as part of your TweetLater account has so many potential uses.
 
I thought I'd mention a few here. It may spark further ideas and lead to one or more "Aha!" moments for you. :-)
 
If you have a blog, you can put this feed in the sidebar. It will contain only the tweets that you schedule for your Status Feed account. This can be added to your blog regardless of whether you have your Twitter stream in your sidebar or not. This feed doesn't contain any of your Twitter tweets.
 
You can very easily use it to put a "Thought Of The Day" section in your sidebar. Or, if you know your users' birthdays, you can schedule a birthday wish for each one and display that in the sidebar. Perhaps you'd want to have a "Daily/Weekly Recommended Site" in the sidebar. You can use it for quotes, revealing "secrets," anything that will make sense for your site and visitors.
 
It's brief, punchy, and can be very powerful.
 
If you run a business, the  potential uses are even more.
 
The Status Feed can be the channel where you announce special deals, discounts, coupons, etc. Since you can include links in the tweet, you can point folks to a page where they can get more information.
 
You can put the feed on your site, and/or you can ask your
customers to subscribe to the feed. I think in an age of information overload, they will appreciate the fact that the
messages will never be more than 140 characters. Imagine if folks subscribe to the feed with their mobile phones, and they get your short and powerful messages wherever they are at that moment.
 
I think this is a very powerful way of showing appreciation and respect for your customers' valuable time. Give them a very brief (but alluring) notice and let them decide if they want to get additional information. That's often better than sending them a ton of info, just to have them ignore it, gloss over it and miss the most important point, or unsubscribe because they're already getting too much to read every day.
 
I hope this has helped you to think of creative ways you can use this personal tweet stream of yours to your full advantage.

I also use feedly.com for my rss feeds of some of my shops and tons of rss feed material.

Before I finish, I would like to make two recommendations:
1. Take the time to go and listen to our own Loxly's geekcast.fm podcasts. You will learn so much to help you move forward with your marketing efforts.

2. Join Make Money Online at http://www.nyfalcon.com/forum because it is stocked full of great posts giving you information that you need for your marketing efforts. Great forum!

Okay, I'll stop here as I have probably overwhelmed everyone with too much info. Just take your time, and explore alternative ways to get it done easier and faster - yet cover a lot of ground with your marketing and promotion efforts.

You can do it, if I can do it - and that's a fact! Hugs to all of you and wishing you nothing but success!
Sag



 

[SagArt]

And forgot this too: I use TweetDeck to help me follow tweets and friends. It is an awesome application and will make it so much easier to follow your buddies and make new friends.

Forgot this: If it's alright to do, I'll keep adding more marketing and promotional information here about applications you can use to help you with that effort. I'll give everyone time to digest and kick the tires on what I've already posted, but add more in the future if you want it.

[garyoa1]

BANG, BANG, SAW, SAW, HAMMER, HAMMER...

::: yes dear? :::

::: what am I doing? :::

:::: well, I'm adding on cuz Sag needz the room :::

::: really? You actually like what I'm doing?  ::::

::: that's odd ::::

::: ok, I'll carry on :::

::: thanks dear  :::

BANG, BANG, SAW, SAW,  HAMMER, HAMMER...

[SagArt]

  I sure do need the room!

This might interest some of you who are looking for content for blogs. Just thought I'd mention it.
http://www.bloggerlinkup.com

See there, I told you I needed the room! 

[GearGems]

 

Yikes, I've had my head buried in my designing so much that the only one of those that I've ever even heard of is YouTube... and of course I don't have an account there.  Guess I'm not at all a social butterfly, but more of a recluse spider, at heart...

[SagArt]

Yikes, I've had my head buried in my designing so much that the only one of those that I've ever even heard of is YouTube... and of course I don't have an account there.  Guess I'm not at all a social butterfly, but more of a recluse spider, at heart...

GearGems, start spinning your web and catch all the attention you deserve for your products. Start slow, until you are comfortable with whatever application you want to try then expand your reach when you're ready to conquer new ground. Loxly's podcasts are full of great information and she will give you tips in a lot of these areas, plus the Make Money Online is a host of great info. Just take your time and do it at your own pace.

[garyoa1]

Yeah, knew all that stuff was there but never used it. Will I? No clue. Kind of gets away from my "core competency". (First time I heard that from CP I cringed cuz I could see it comin' too). 
Writing anything is not really my forte'. I have a few hundred on my mailing list and last time I sent a newsletter was... before xmas.    But we shall see. Need motivation.    Of course money is always a good one but making products is of more interest. And I'm assuming pretty much everyone here is the same. But ya gotta dew wutcha gotta dew. Selling designs is a good ting! But selling at half the price I have marked is a bery bery bad ting!

Decisions... desicions...

[Kate]

Some things I'm a bit leery about.  From what I understand, you have to put a real name into facebook.  I have a blog that I worry about someone showing up at my door and bothering my family. 

How do you handle this?  Do you just let it all hang out with your real name and personal stuff?  Or is there a good way to put in some boundries.

I know in Facebook that you can restrict it to family and friends, but if the idea is to promote, that makes it useless. I was going to create a pseudonym until I heard about their removing of any name that didn't sound legit.  Apparently the whole point behind Facebook is to make you all personally available to anyone out there.

[SagArt]

I disagree garyoa1, because I've read your posts in forums and you are a good writer. I think because we are so mentally geared to designing that we miss the obvious.

In all seriousness, I could take this forum and slap up 1000 blog posts just from the content in here. Blogging is about relating or communicating with people. We all do it everyday in forums and many of those posts everyone makes are perfect for a blog, but I don't think they realize it. Even humor is a huge draw for people!

Example: Look at the post I did to GearGems above. I could easily take that, add a couple of words and slap in a couple of links and Presto- instant blog post. Garyoa1, you are a good communicator therefore a good blogger, but you just don't know it yet.

[SagArt]

Some things I'm a bit leery about.  From what I understand, you have to put a real name into facebook.  I have a blog that I worry about someone showing up at my door and bothering my family. 

How do you handle this?  Do you just let it all hang out with your real name and personal stuff?  Or is there a good way to put in some boundries.

I know in Facebook that you can restrict it to family and friends, but if the idea is to promote, that makes it useless. I was going to create a pseudonym until I heard about their removing of any name that didn't sound legit.  Apparently the whole point behind Facebook is to make you all personally available to anyone out there.

Kate, I really don't worry about using my real name on facebook because the degree of danger that it presents is so minimal compared to dangers we face in our real lives. I do approach everyone with respect, and REAL personal stuff I don't put on social networks. Now the definition of REAL Personal is defined by each individual because for me saying something like - oh, I hate doing dishes, or I love my kids and granddaughter - is not what I consider real personal. I think you have to approach everything online knowing that what you post is going to be read by people you wouldn't necessarily invite into your life.

If you approach it with that in mind, I think the danger level is minimal.

[GearGems]

Kate - I'd be leery, too.  Remember back in the old days when the Internet was a naively friendly place, and everyone shared absolutely everything on their "personal web pages"?  Well, I don't know if you go back that far, but at some point, "they" let all the crazies with computers in, and while I didn't have someone knocking on my door harassing me, I did have someone who decided he/she didn't like me and stalked me around everywhere on the net that I went for a whole year and even through several changes of e-mail address before I could successfully shake him or her off my tracks.  In today's scenario with MapQuest and GoogleEarth and all, it would be very easy for something like that to scale up from "mere" virtual to actual physical harassment.

Pseudonyms - I won't go anywhere without one!  (Now that would make a good t-shirt design, wouldn't it?  I just put that one on my to-do list, for whenever I get out of this hole and actually begin designing again!  :(  )
 

edited for typo

[kayecee]

*sputter* I.... wow.... uh....

Wow! Thanks Sag! *hands Gary the nail gun and a truckload of plywood*

I'll have to come back in later when I have time to read and digest some more.

Kate.... with my Facebook, I use Kayecee and my last name if it helps.... of course, a lot of people online know my real name and where I'm from... I don't try too hard to hide...

Gary.... you entertain us, so other people would like ya just fine.... if you twitter or whatever, just sorta do the same thing, but drop in a link every now and again...

[BarbD]

 
 
Just when I thought I was almost caught up on my reading and research.

Thanks for the loads of info Sag. Very helpful.

*runs to figure out just what the heck she's talking about*

[garyoa1]

Communicutter, Sag? I'M NOT TOO! LOL

Yeah, I can ramble on and maybe for my off the wall shops but I really don't have that much interest in 'em. That's where I let my hair hang down. But there is no way in helk I can link them to my main "why I'm here in the first place" shop.
 
As far as my main niche... well, I really have to watch what I say and do or it could offend a lot of folks. The whole thing can be quite controversial so I have to write and review a few times. I just can't jot down a thot and post it. Which is why it's been 6 months since my last newsletter!

The designs also have to be "official" like and not really vary "much" from the way they "should" be. Generally down to earth and serious. Humor is fine, but it has to be tasteful. Nothing off color allowed. Ever! I even got screamed at for even carrying thongs! Even tho I sell some. So if I ramble on there like I do elsewhere I may have a posse after me

Uh... wut the helz that dust cloud behind me from? 

[SagArt]

There are risks with everything you do online.

Did you know I had a whacko woman drive me nuts for a period of time? Yep, and it wasn't a social network she found me in. It was CP's forum. This chick has some serious mental issues and a ton of username personalities so you never knew for sure who was approaching you. She finally got into some real bad legal trouble with another person she was doing it too, and last I heard ... she was ordered to get mental help. So, it can happen anywhere.

I just use common sense but I don't empower fear to confine me, because if I did ... I wouldn't leave my house or do anything online. Kate, you need to be comfortable with whatever you are doing so if it bothers you, I wouldn't do it or at the very least just go real slow with it. You can fudge a bit with your name if you want and it makes you more comfortable. I don't do that only because everyone pretty much knows who I am because I'm windier than a popcorn fart!

[SagArt]

garyoa1,
I think you are a fantastic communicator and writer, but I understand your limitations. Let me give you an idea that you can rope, ride or shoot it. It might make writing those newsletters a bit easier for you.

Instead of twisting yourself up in knots trying to write something, you might want to approach it in a little different way that takes less time and worry. I do this and it works great and about to launch a another one.

Start a buyers club that gives a buck or two off of a couple of products only for your newsletter subscribers. You can send a newsletter out as often as you like and the content is so easy as all it contains is your products, a short description of the product, and your done. You can also put verbiage in your site encouraging people to sign up for your newsletter to receive savings on select products. It grows your newsletter subscribers and draws traffic through a "call to action". You can run one a month, two a month or whatever suits your schedule. But, it does remove the gut wrenching battle of writing content, it delivers value, and it draws traffic. Just an idea you might want to think about when it comes time to hammer out that newsletter again.

Oh, and thankx fer the addition. It looks real purdy. Hammer Hammer ... Saw Saw 

[BarbD]

Sag, can I ask how you do the discount? Is it a hidden/private section that you lump products in for whenever you do a newsletter? 

[garyoa1]

Ah. the ole' secret sale bit.  Bin doin' that fur yeerz now.  But I slash. Sometimes just a buck or two over cost. But I hear ya. I shood. Jus' don't wanna! LOL From feedback on my newsletters I know they want to hear from me more often. I'm kinda insane... but lazy az helk.   

Ok, now who's gonna paint this frikken' place! 

[garyoa1]

Barb, I do it two ways. The "occasional" secret sale newsletter and another that can only be found on my main page. (Yeah, links to hidden sections) The one from my main page is a kind of "woot" deal. Changes at midnite every day. Or... when I think of it.  Just one or two products, generally.

[thespottedolive]

Wow! Super post Sag! 

I've already been incorporating much of the automation stuff and I have to say it's great! I use Twitterfeed to automatically post new products and blog posts to Twitter and Facebook. I will definitely be looking at all of the other recommendations you included here.

I look forward to more of your insights! Thanks so very much!!!

Debbie
The Spotted Olive

[thepixelgarden]

I just use common sense but I don't empower fear to confine me

This. A thousand times this. The media is saturated with exploitations that are fine-tuned to manipulate you into being afraid, all so that you'll watch their show or buy their product.

Hey, there's an idea for a blog entry! Even if it is a bit soap-boxy.

[SagArt]

Sag, can I ask how you do the discount? Is it a hidden/private section that you lump products in for whenever you do a newsletter? 

You got it gal! Stick them in a hidden section from the public and then link to them so only newsletter subscribers get the advantage of the savings.

[thepixelgarden]

Sag, can I ask how you do the discount? Is it a hidden/private section that you lump products in for whenever you do a newsletter? 

You got it gal! Stick them in a hidden section from the public and then link to them so only newsletter subscribers get the advantage of the savings.

Clever idea. But how does one do it with Zazzle? As far as I know, you can't do hidden sections there.