Sarah Wallace To Speak at Social Media Breakfast Maine No. 7

I will be speaking at the upcoming Social Media Breakfast Maine to be held Friday, February 12th at the MPX facility at 2275 Congress Street, Portland, Maine.

My topic will be social media policies. Before using social media for your business, it is important to have some policies in place. This will save you time [hence money], the chance of possible redundancies or a seemingly lack of customer service.  Brad Lawwill (general counsel of Pierce Promotions) will also be speaking.  SMBME events are hosted by Amanda O’Brien and Kyle Pouliot of Hall Web. Here is the EventBrite link to register for February’s Social Media Breakfast Maine.

Sarah Wallace provides blogging, Twitter, Facebook, web copy, e-mail and press release writing services, editing and consulting to clients in a variety of industries. To learn more about her work experience and services, click on the tabs above.

Why Social Media is Like Shedding Holiday Weight

As the new year starts and I realize the holiday season’s refined sugars are now resting permanently on my hips, I can’t help but note that social media is much like shedding holiday weight…

You know you should be working hard it at, it’s only beneficial

Obviously, the benefits of shedding unnecessary pounds is an improvement of your health and overall well being.  With social media, the benefits of working hard is the continued growth of your online presence which promotes an awareness of your talents, expertise, services and products.

You’ve got to make sure you carve out the time

Similar to exercise, many say the biggest challenge with social media is carving out the time. I’m not going to say it’s easy, but it’s definitely a must. And, if you don’t seem to have the bandwidth, consider delegating to either someone in-house or outsourcing the effort.

People will say to you “Wow, you’re doing really well, good for you!”

It’s true, after you shed some pounds people will say how great you look. And, by increasing your social media presence through more followers, fans or engaging with your customers, people will take notice and recognize your success.

So, let’s do it, I’ll get my hips on the treadmill and let’s all make an effort to maintain our online presence. Bring on 2010!

Sarah Wallace provides blogging, Twitter, Facebook, web copy, e-mail and press release writing services, editing and consulting to clients in a variety of industries. To learn more about her work experience and services, click on the tabs above.

Sarah Wallace Pictured in Maine Magazine

I can be found on page 13 of this month’s Maine Magazine. I actually hate pictures of myself but I’m very flattered to be part of a publication that is very beautiful in terms of its photography and very rich in its content. I’m hoping this print publication will stand the test of time, a rare thing these days.

Here, I’ve been caught (laughing so hard that my eyes are closed) at the Maine Marketing and AIGA Snowball in Portland, Maine. For me, functions like these are a testament to social media translating to being social in real life and finding a way to blend the two together.

Sarah Wallace provides blogging, Twitter, Facebook, web copy, e-mail and press release writing services, editing and consulting to clients in a variety of industries. To learn more about her work experience and services, click on the tabs above.

Podcamp NH: Inspired Sharing and Learning

Steve Garfield at Podcamp NH

It was appropriate that Podcamp NH took place at the New Hampton School’s beautiful campus as it set the stage for inspired sharing and learning.

Coordinated by Leslie Poston (@geechee_girl) of Uptown Uncorked, the two day event drew attendees from all over New England and held sessions covering topics such as blogging, social media, podcasting, video and more.

Unfortunately, I was only able to attend the last part of day two, but the afternoon was quality time well spent.

My first session was led by Cappy Popp of Thought Labs who informed us of upcoming changes to Facebook. The next session was led by Christine Major (@cmajor) of Awareness Inc. who moderated a Battle Decks session. This improv meets PowerPoint slides session gave us all a good laugh but was also a reminder that we need to hold the interest of our audience, whether it be in Battle Decks or with our real life customers.

My last session was led by video blogging pioneer Steve Garfield of SteveGarfield.com (@stevegarfield) and author of Get Seen.  Steve gave a hands on presentation on how to produce video and use it for online visibility (well, as much as he could fit into his 45 minute time constraint).

Steve’s session, in my opinion, is what events like Podcamp NH and social media are all about. Here’s why… Steve is not only a pioneer and expert in his field but thoroughly enjoys sharing his knowledge. You can tell by the way he gives tips through his vlogs and answers people’s questions on Twitter. And, his enthusiasm for helping people online translates even more in person. He literally puts the “social” in social media and, in fact, may even substitute “social” with “sharing.”

Wait, I think I may have answered the question to my previous blog post “If You Could Rename Social Media, What Would It Be?” Note to self… “Sharing Media.”

Point being, social media and events like Podcamp NH allow us to connect and learn from experts in their field and also from one another. Anyway, I look forward to the next Podcamp NH in June and thank you to Leslie for running a great event!

Sarah Wallace provides blogging, Twitter, Facebook, web copy, e-mail and press release writing services, editing and consulting to clients in a variety of industries. To learn more about her work experience and services, click on the tabs above.

Bill Cosby Uses Twitter and So Should You!

Recently, Bill Cosby joined Twitter and has quickly gained numerous Twitter followers/fans.  Keep in mind, Bill Cosby has never gone away, he’s always been around producing and touring. He’s just new to Twitter and he’s smart in reminding us that he’s still around and now hip to reaching out to his fans through social media.

My impression is that it’s a blend of himself and an assistant on Twitter but that’s fine. He’s letting us know what he’s up to and that’s what social media is all about. Being social.

Likewise with your own business or brand, people may know of you but you should cross promote on all levels to remind people you are still there and doing great things.

Sarah Wallace provides blogging, Twitter, Facebook, web copy, e-mail and press release writing services, editing and consulting to clients in a variety of industries. To learn more about her work experience and services, click on the tabs above.

Is Social Media Like the Baby Einstein Scam?

If you haven’t heard, Disney’s ever so popular Baby Einsten childrens videos are being sued by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood saying the videos make false claims about making your child a genius when, in reality, they may be decreasing attention span. It’s being labeled as the “Baby Einstein Scam.” Is this what we’ll be saying about Social Media in five years, that it was all a scam?

First of all, I will say that my daughter was born in ‘03 and we had quite the collection of Baby Einstein DVDs.  Did I have her sit catatonically in front of these? No. Did I have her watch them occasionally while I made dinner? Yes.  And, if she did watch these movies, I would usually watch with her and we’d talk about the images we were seeing. I did not think these DVDs were making my daughter a genius but, in hindsight, Baby Einstein marketing them as a genius making tool, perhaps not the best approach.

So right now everyone, and me included, is claiming that Social Media is the must-need tool and everyone’s doing it. It’s the “genius maker” of the business world, if you will. Will all this hype and popularity lead to Social Media’s downfall?

In my opinion, in five years, the term may run its course but not some of its tools. We’ll probably just be referring to Social Media as just plain media and marketing again and there will be no need for the Social Media tag. Will we call it a scam? No. Will we definitely recognize that some portals and analytic programs worked better than others? Yes.

I am prolific user of Twitter and have had most of my client inquiries through that particular portal. So, as a living proof that you can grow your business through Social Media, I cannot ever say it was a scam. I will be able to say what methods worked best for me. Besides, isn’t that what happens with  trends, we all have our different experiences with it? For example, I’m sure there are some who really enjoyed their laser disc collection in the mid-90s…

Sarah Wallace provides blogging, Twitter, Facebook, web copy, e-mail and press release writing services, editing and consulting to clients in a variety of industries. To learn more about her work experience and services, click on the tabs above.

The Status of Twitter Lists

Today a friend tweeted to another friend that he was tired of hearing about Twitter lists and wanted to use them. His sentiment is like mine and many others, in wondering, what the hell is going on with these Twitter lists?

The idea of Twitter’s list feature is to allow people to curate their own lists of people they like to follow. Whether it be their favorite celebs, industry contacts, funny people etc. Lists would be public by default or could be made private. Other Twitter users could also subscribe to them.

So to follow up on the status of this feature I went to Twitter’s blog and found the company’s latest mention of the Twitter lists was September 30th. The post titled “Soon to Launch: Lists” states that the feature will be in limited testing and will be launched for all accounts soon.

In the meantime, Mashable has been updating its blog covering Twitter lists and assuring us that they are live but only for a small number of users (see Twitter Lists are Alive [Updated]). Mashable, in a roundabout way of breaking Twitter’s rule, does point out that those who have been given the privilege of using the lists feature have been asked NOT to tweet about it.

I then found this article posted by the New York Times Technology section from just yesterday (September, 21st) titled “Twitter Chief Talks Lists, Traffic and Revenue” which interviews Twitter co-founder Evan Williams who states that currently Twitter lists are only offered to a few thousand users and will be available to everyone the end of October.

So according to Williams, we’ll all be making our lists and checking them twice by month’s end.

STATUS ALERT!
As of 8:21 pm EST, @mashable tweeted that Twitter is now expanding the new lists feature to 5% of users. Are you one of the 5%?
“The suspense is terrible, I hope it’ll last…” – Willy Wonka

Sarah Wallace provides blogging, Twitter, Facebook, web copy, e-mail and press release writing services, editing and consulting to clients in a variety of industries. To learn more about her work experience and services, click on the tabs above.

Try to Find Balance When Using Jargon in Your Blog

The purpose of your business having a blog is to convey to readers that you are an expert in your field. Once you become a viable source of information, people will also be interested in approaching you for your product or services.

So, be transparent and let your expertise and knowledge shine through but try to find a balance between jargon and layman’s terms.

For example, if you are a law firm trying to reach out to the general public, lots of legalese in your blog may make reading it complicated and may either intimidate or annoy potential clients. And, if you are a telecom provider and you discuss DWDM then explain that the acronym stands for Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing.

Sure you’ll have readers who may understand these terms, but others may not. Try to be an expert while catering to a wide audience.

Sarah Wallace provides blogging, Twitter, Facebook, web copy, e-mail and press release writing services, editing and consulting to clients in a variety of industries. To learn more about her work experience and services, click on the tabs above.

Sarah Wallace Becomes Blogger for Guiding Stars

I am very proud to announce that I will be a guest blogger for the Guiding Stars web site. Guiding Stars is an objective food rating system that rates food based on nutrient density using a scientific algorithm. Rated foods are marked with easy-to-follow tags indicating 0,1,2, or 3 stars. The more nutritional value a food has, the more Guiding Stars it receives. If a food doesn’t receive a star – it means it doesn’t meet the rating system’s criteria.

The Guiding Stars system can currently be found in supermarkets, restaurants, college dining halls, school cafeterias, hospitals, part of health and wellness programs and even as an app for the iPhone.

Sarah Wallace provides blogging, Twitter, Facebook, web copy, e-mail and press release writing services, editing and consulting to clients in a variety of industries. To learn more about her work experience and services, click on the tabs above.

Your Followers are Like a Box of Chocolates…

As my writing business has grown and I get busier, I admit I was getting lazy about checking my new followers on Twitter.

Last week I got a call from a potential client based out of Boston. Turns out that person had been following me on Twitter for about a month but I hadn’t been following him. Luckily it all worked out but I was frustrated with myself for not being more attentive to my followers.

I’m sure after awhile we all get a little relaxed about it and yes, some may be spam but others may be that crown jewel contact you’ve been waiting to connect with. Your followers are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get!

Sarah Wallace provides blogging, Twitter, Facebook, web copy, e-mail and press release writing services, editing and consulting to clients in a variety of industries. To learn more about her work experience and services, click on the tabs above.

Need a press release? Checkout Sarah Wallace’s Fall Press Release Promotion which ends December 30th.