Using Social Media Effectively for Local Business                                                     Don’t forget to say “Hi!” in the comment section!

Take A-Ways from Tuesday January 14, 2013

Social Media – Are you getting it right?

Get original – and don’t fret over fancy – reach out with social media connections in real life.

What can you do with Social Media?

• Reputation Management – make an impact on how your company is spoken about
• CommunityBuilding– start becoming part of a loyal tribe
• Branding – make sure it all relates and sends the same message
• Product Exposure – use sites like Pinterest yet remember be subtle
• Customer Appreciation – being responsive to people makes them feel appreciated
• Setting a tone for your company – will you use slang? Be formal? Friendly or judgmental? Etc.
• Humanizes your company – people want to work with people and companies “they like”
• Gives your customer a different view of you than your website presents which is always more “corporate” than most social media venues.
• Find your customers where they are.
• —  Don’t make them “StumbleUpon” you – be available and obvious on the social sites they are looking at

Class Social Media Horror story –

United Breaks Guitars

Book and the story of what happened at this Amazon link -

http://www.amazon.com/United-Breaks-Guitars-Power-Social/dp/1401937934

The Very First Social Media Concern You Should Have?  Branding

• Choose your name on Social Media carefully – look how easy it is for people to tweet KFC or BK.
• Make sure that it isn’t used online before you start using it and then claim it in all the places you think you may want to be seen.

For help see tool listed below. 

6 Simple Ways to Increase Local Followers –

 from the people around you in real life

1. Put up a big sign with your twitter name:
   

   You can give Four Square Coupons – host 4 Square Check in Parties – how else can you use this social media venue?

2. Invite people to sign in and tweet you to be sent a tweet that says they get a discount.
3. Put up a big four square symbol –
4. Give perks to the folks that sign in a lot.
5. Have a special social media night – offer a party to people who are signing up to your social media.
6. Add your Twitter name (@local business) to your email signature, webpage contact page, and other social media accounts.

4 Quick Ways to Do Social Media Better

• Consider embedding a follow button on EVERY PAGE of your WordPress site
• Content — Ensure you’re regularly sharing engaging content not using social media to “advertise.

Share content that is truly helpful, provide tips or tricks, or offer interesting insights.
Humorous content injected into a tweet for example – can add to your response.
Create content that you would actually be interested if you thought just like your customer.

• Respond to questions and comments on social media.
• Look for places online like http://www.quora.com  and forums to share your expertise – don’t forget to close with your twitter name.

Handy Social Media Tools:

• http://www.jimpix.co.uk/words/username-generator.asp – can actually create some pretty cool word combinations
• http://Socialmention.com – it’s okay will give you some idea of what is being posted…
• Google Alerts -  see how to’s below.  Use this to be notified whenever your name, company name, article title etc gets mentioned on the web.
• Tweatreach.com    This will give you the facts on how many accounts where reached with a term or hashtag
• http://checkusernames.com/
• http://namechk.com/

Great Social Media “How to” articles:

Google Alerts  for Social Monitoring  (and that includes newspapers online)

http://raventools.com/blog/google-alerts-for-link-building-and-social-monitoring/

http://socialmediadiyworkshop.com/2009/12/reputation-management-with-google-alerts/,

Related Articles:

I’m recommended articles written by Charlene Kingston on http://socialmediadiyworkshop.com .

Take a look at her site.  I find it’s easiest to take one of these topics and hop to another suggested one from there — I haven’t had the greatest results with her search.  (Are you listening Charlene?  And if you are – what tools did you use to find my mention, if I might ask…)

• Are People Talking About My Business Online?
• Twitter Search and Saved Searches
• Local Review Sites
• The Value Of Negative Reviews
• How To Respond To A Bad Review
• Social Media Secret Ingredient
• Using The Upgraded Google Results Sidebar

Keep scrolling to get to comment section!

Let me know what you’d like to learn during the next

WordPress SEO Social Media MeetUp

with

FAT Media & 180 Degrees Studio.com

The post Using Social Media Effectively for Local Business – Meetup Take A Ways appeared first on MadelineHere.

~ also known as the “Florida Manatee.”

The Homosassa and Chassahowitzka Springs and Rivers -  are very important to the species’ survival.

Two reasons for example are:

 Firstly, when water temperature drops to unusually harsh for standard Florida winter months, manatees must seek warmer waterways to stay alive.

Manatees, though large, are not well protected by a blubber layer unlike many sea mammals. They are warm-blooded animals and would freeze to death just like a human being would.  The Homosassa and Chassahowitzka springs and the rivers they become are some of the few warm water areas especially used by the Manatees during these times.

Having few natural predators Manatees are often orphaned due to something humans have done. A manatee raised in captivity can never be re-released because a Manatee's world is complex; it takes a real Manatee mother years while living in their real habitats to teach their young how to survive in the "real world." Manatees don

The second issue is that these waterways are what are keeping the manatee populations at their current levels.

For animals to survive scientists and naturalists have discovered that any species needs a certain amount of their unique supporting habitats where they can live in to survive.  This is called their “support level.”  Human beings are very adaptable and can mold areas to support them with electricity, heaters, and foods trucked in to them, etc. Manatees don’t. Without spring systems the manatees will lose a drastic amount of sheltering and feeding places.

Please see this article specifically mentioning  ”the spring at Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park” as being influential in attempts to stop Manatee deaths during unusually cold weather: http://bit.ly/OrlSentManateesWarm

How important is this to the manatee’s population and survival?

There are proper ways to swim with curious Manatees although protected as an endangered species. You can see them the video posted by Save The Manatees Org

Are these warm waters important to the over all population of the Florida Indian Manatees?

The answer can be found in another quote from a well researched and well-respected news source:  ”A record-topping 767 manatees died in 2010, with cold stress accounting for as many as 500 deaths, say figures released Wednesday by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg.”

http://bit.ly/TampaBay767DeadManatee .

How do those figures translate to real life?

That means at least a 10^th of the Indian Manatee population, possibly almost twice that much died in 2010, because they couldn’t get to waters like the Homosassa and Chassahowitzka Rivers in time not to die of cold (because of the “freak and sudden” freezing temperatures throughout Florida that year.)

Is saving the manatees important?

If you are not concerned about the extinction of a large warm-blooded species that only lives primarily in one of our states –Florida- out of all the world, you may perhaps be concerned about the welfare of humans that live in Florida.

Manatee ecotourism

  Do manatees really matter all that much?                                                                                                    

Florida's rivers are critical to the Indian Manatee population. Do manatees really matter all that much? What do you think?

“Manatees are also worth a fortune. Though there are no exact numbers on how much revenue manatee eco-tourism generates for the State of Florida, in 2008 the Sierra Club reported that wildlife viewing generated more than $3.1 billion in total economic impact for the state. With manatees being a major draw, some significant portion of that is, undoubtedly, going to counties that market their winter habitat for manatees.”

This was reported in a Living Green Magazine July, 2012, article. http://bit.ly/Y8aj31

The BP Spill was a mistake.  Let’s stop making mistakes like that.

These springs are significantly located right alongside the same coast where so many livelihoods were destroyed by the BP oil spill.  BP acknowledges they made a mistake in maintaining their oil drilling.

Mistakes like the BP oil spill happen and can cause irreparable damage.

Please do not allow the mistake of these springs, which have already been Federally designated as “Florida Outstanding Waterways,” to be decided by as small and self focused a group as the “Governing Board of the South West Florida Water Management District” (SWFWMD).   These waterways and many of the animals that live there, such as the Indian Manatee, are unique and once gone – irreplaceable.

An excellent review has been conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS, Service, or USFWS) staff from the Jacksonville and Caribbean Ecological Services offices and answers many questions  about Florida Manatees.

It can be found at: http://1.usa.gov/S4bLzt

What can be done to help the Homosassa and Chassahowitzka Rivers, Manatees, and Florida Ecotourism along with them?

I hope my writing gives you some of the information needed to understand why concerned citizens should respond to the SWFWMD’s Governing Board and tell the Governor of Florida: “NO reduction in flow to the Homosassa and Chassahowitzka River.”

That can be done on this petition at:

http://chn.ge/XBfV6H

or tweeting Florida Governor Rick Scott at:

https://twitter.com/FLGovScott  or @FLGovScott

A record-topping 767 manatees died in 2010, with cold stress accounting for as many as 500 deaths

The post For Manatee’s Sake! Don’t Mess with the Homosassa and Chassahowitzka Rivers appeared first on MadelineHere.

Have you noticed?

Life can be heavy sometimes.  Play lifts the load for at least a moment.

To say “Take the time” to be playful even feels wrong – as it is to rule driven then. Just let yourself see opportunities.

That’s the part of taking what you have and using it.  It’s

According to the Dictionary of Literary Biography, “Hoagland’s love of solitude and silent observation of wildlife rather than social conversation may have resulted from a severe stammer that still persists. This stammer has, according to Hoagland himself, influenced how he writes: ‘Words are spoken at considerable cost to me, so a great value is placed on each one. That has had some effect on me as a writer. As a child, since I couldn’t talk to people, I became close to animals. I became an observer, and in all my books, even the novels, witnessing things is what counts.’ His reluctance to speak may account for his desire to write–and be read–and for the sensitive visual, tactile, and olfactory images in his writings.” - “Edward Hoagland”  Dictionary of Literary Biography. ©2005-2006 Thomson, Gal

The post Equanimity and Playfulness – Thoughts from Edward Hoagland appeared first on MadelineHere.

Perhaps since many people do not have daily contact with horses anymore

their idea of an old horse has become skewed.

Most people only hear the ages of horses that are competing in the venue of  Thoroughbred Horse racing.

Is that were people started to think it was perfectly okay for amateurs to buy and ride horses that are 3 years old, while passing up their perfect match – because the horse is nine?

MSN Needed to Be Told Their Journalism Was Poorly Researched and Reported.

Here’s Part of what I wrote them:

MSN your comment, ” At 12 years old, racehorse Neville Bardos is well past his prime.” is a fallacy that is perpetrated by people who know little about horses, except perhaps their annual watching of the Kentucky Derby.

Race horses, like gymnasts, compete young.

However in almost every other horse related sport or activity – such a dressage, jumping, cross country marathon driving, trail riding, reining, cattle cutting horses, etc., – a more physically mature horse, emotionally mature, and experienced horse is what is used.

The equestrian sports above consider a horse at 10, as being “green & young”.  In this year’s (2012) Olympics a nine year old horse is being questioned by many as possibly being too young to handle the course.

Wikipedia says, “Young stallions come to the Spanish Riding School for training when they are four years old. Full training takes an average of six years for each horse…” meaning the horses are only “just” trained at 10 years old.

An English rider is doing extremely successfully in the 2012 Olympics on a 15 year old, with no professional commenting that the horse is “old” in any way.

Many wonderful horses are passed up by amateurs because of this misperception.

Many new riders and horse owners choose inadequately trained, matured, and experienced horses for their skills and needs because they think a horse at 5 is old.

This creates a relationship for the horse and rider that is not as strong as it could be.

It also is too bad that a young horse is not getting the “mature” handling and training from someone who understand’s it’s still “just a kid.” Backs, bones, body and spirit can be ruined by people who have no idea of the effect they are having on an undeveloped horse.

(Racehorse race very young – with very light jockeys that actually ride them in a handful of races that last only minutes, with very little time on their back even while training. And race horses are basically only trained to burst from a gate and run all out around a track – that’s not a lot of “real life” skills.)

World famous CDE Marathon driver Bob Giles once told me that a 11 years old is when a horse is finally old enough to train for something as complex as cross country marathon driving.

MSN -Please check your facts better when writing on a subject you are not expert in – as obviously this writer was not – in regards to “what is an old horse”.

Hopefully, this may validate a novice horse rider or buyer’s smart choice in buying that 12 year old horse and passing up the very green four year old.

The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food found that the average lifespan for a horse is 25 to 33, with many living older. So buying a 12 year old – you can have a strong competitor for easily 8 years, with a good riding horse yet another several years.

The post How Old Is An Old Horse appeared first on MadelineHere.

Social Media offers brand management opportunities for supermarkets.

Here are some points to take away from this slideshare I prepared as part of a presentation to Winn Dixie’s marketing department in Jacksonville:

Why social media is a value investment of time, money and resources:

Monitor:
Supermarkets can find the value in being able to monitor the community’s results to their brand. Positive things can be repeated. PR disasters can be avoided. And negative reactions can be turned around.

Take Action:
By providing forums for your customers to post their experiences and show off their purchases, you have the opportunity to access them as “testimonials.” Who better to show off what purchasing from your supermarket can add to their lives than the customers themselves.?

While 77% of American consumers say they are more likely to buy a product or service recommended by someone they know…81% go online to verify those recommendations before actually making a purchase.
Wharton University – July 2010

Control Your Branding:
While you can’t completely control your brand and branding in an era were anyone can make videos, post graphics and tweet under related names, you can at least make sure your presence, as you want it, is strong.

Social Media builds a sense of connection and community.

Connection is just what customers are expecting these days.

And what better way to build loyalty by giving communities a place they can come together, especially around the things they need for a better life?

The post Social Media Makes Supermarkets Social Again appeared first on MadelineHere.

It’s a fact.  Actually it’s a whole bunch of facts.

Today’s shoppers are influenced by the social tools they rely on.

They are relying on those tools a lot.  We’re talking cell phone, laptops, apps, and hashtags being used with the intent of reaching their grocers. Have any doubts?  Check some of the facts listed on this great info graphic by Visual.ly.

Wondering how many people think that getting online – not to check their Facebook, or play a game – but check out a supermarket site  - is the thing to do?

A lot.    The example’s below will tell you tidy facts – such as 59% of customers will check out a store’s website on their tablets.

And tweeting or having a Facebook page isn’t enough.   41%  of shoppers actually expect that following a brand’s Facebook page means that they’ll be getting special offers not available to people who aren’t friends or followers.

Perhaps the new tabs that brands can engage on their Facebook pages can help them offer up some deals to the folks that like  ’em.

Social media games and supermarket fan pages?

What about the possibility of games?  

There are plenty of time management games that require the right steps to complete a recipe.  How about something like that?

Can you imagine signing on to your grocer’s site and playing a game that requires filling your cart with the right ingredients for a meal?  Maybe the game can give  bonuses can be given to those who pick the brands on sale?

Will experiencing the supermarket online

become as important as the experience a customer has in the store?  

It may.

The post Getting Social in The Supermarket appeared first on MadelineHere.

Welcome to The Florida Institute of Hypnotherapy’s  Facebook page. We’re glad you are here.

By the way we often shorten that name here and on our page as TFIOH.

This page provides a place to discuss the hypnotherapy, our careers, our motivations, motivators, initiatives, services and breaking news.   The following guidelines are designed to help provide a quality environment for our fans. Please take a minute to read them and keep them in mind whenever you participate.

By using or accessing this page, you agree to comply with Facebook’s Terms and Conditions.

We are very excited to hear from everyone, it is important to note that postings by fans to TFIOH’s Facebook page do not necessarily reflect our opinions.  We do think it’s important to share opinions and try to foster conversation and open thinking.

We understand that hypnotherapy is a subject that you are passionate about – a passion we share. We welcome all questions and commentary, including constructive feedback.

Might we remove a post?

Yes.  We don’t take decisions on moderating posts lightly. But we do expect that participants post content and commentary that is both relevant and respectful to this community as a whole.   We will honor your right not to always agree with something we post but we do ask that your posts fall within certain boundaries of politeness and correctness.

Specifically, we do not tolerate these kinds of posts:

Abusive, harassing, stalking, threatening or attacking others
Defamatory, offensive, obscene, vulgar or depicting violence

Pretending to be someone you are not.
Hateful in language targeting race/ethnicity, religion, gender, nationality or political beliefs
Fraudulent, deceptive, misleading or unlawful
Trolling or deliberate disruption of discussion
Violations of any intellectual property rights
Spamming in nature
Uploading files that contain viruses or programs that could damage the operation of other people’s computers
Commercial solicitation or solicitation of donations
Link baiting without asking if we are comfortable with the specific instance first, particularly if we feel it is not appropriate to our topics.

(This is embedding a link in your post to draw traffic to your own site)

Would we block someone from our page?

We do not take the idea of someone being blocked from our site lightly however, we do reserve the right to remove any posts that don’t adhere to our guidelines and to block anyone who violates them repeatedly.

Customer service issue?

We recommend going ——————————————————————- for the fastest path to resolution.

Please remember we do not monitor our page 24/7.

And we will always work towards responding to you as quickly as we can.

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Thank you for joining the official 180 Degrees Studio Facebook page.

We want things to be happy pleasant and educational for everyone so we ask that you follow a few of our house rules.

Comments

Sometimes we make mistakes.  It happens.  Hopefully something we do, say, or post will make you bristle – but if it does we won’t be planning to remove your comment unless we find it does anyone of these things:

• It is just too vulgar (in our judgment),
• Includes strong anti someone or group of someone’s comments,
• Personally attacks another friend of ours,
• It is a third party solicitation we haven’t given our okay to post,

And of course –

• Anything that goes against Facebook terms and conditions.

There are also a set of core values involving kindness and care to people, nature, animals, and our planet that are important to us.  Something posted that really offends those will be most likely removed.

Keeping it real

We are always ourselves – so we ask that you be too.  Post from fake accounts or fake profiles stand a good chance of being removed if we know you’re faking.

Get Blocked?

Wow.  We really hope that it never comes to that.  But to protect our friends – and what we believe in – we will block you completely from posting on this page.

Dignity.  Respect, Friendliness.

It’s what we want for everyone who comes through our Facebook home.

Social Robots are part of the fun at 180 Degrees Studio's Facebook Page

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Here’s something to talk about – the value of curiosity.

Did you ever imagine things?

It’s good to be curious about many things

- Mr. Rogers

Curiosity is a great motivator.

Curiosity is what makes us move forward.  Curiousness allows us to imagine that the unimaginable maybe possible.  Wonder what’s behind the door has opened many doors for the sake of the human race.

Being curious gives us the impetus to meet new people – it the antithesis of xenophobia.

- Madeline Gutierrez

Have you ever stopped to think about what has gotten humanity to the places it occupies today?

Probably almost every place on this planet was either stumbled upon by someone rolling down a hill, getting washed down a river, or because someone was curious enough to wonder what was beyond the side of the pond.  In fact, there is a a book called “ The Value of Curiosity: The Story of Christopher Columbus” by Spencer Johnson.  Now I’m curious about what role the book says curiosity played in the life of Mr. Columbus.

Mr. Rodgers was always supportive about getting out and exploring the world.

Here is a video that you will give you something to share and talk about.

Even if you don’t like Mr. Rodgers - I understand that some people don’t and that’s okay. I promise the video is inspiring – if you don’t think the man in the sweater is then trust that it’s a funky cool remix by Symphony of Science’s John Boswell.

Curiosity is what makes us move forward.

Curiousness allows us to imagine that the unimaginable maybe possible.

Wondering what’s behind the door has opened many doors for the sake of the human race.

- Madeline Gutierrez

(If you haven’t heard of John Boswell, well this can be in inspiration to go to http://www.symphonyofscience.com/)

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