LinkedIn Polls - My first one!

I created my first poll on LinkedIn. Pretty cool! It lets you poll your 1st level connections for free, gives you the URL (see below) and shows you a graph of the results. Great for market research! What question(s) do you need answered for your biz????

Here's my question for you:

How much time PER WEEK do you spend on your Social Media Marketing (tweeting, Facebooking, networking, blogging, etc)?

Please click the link to see the answers and choose your vote!

http://polls.linkedin.com/p/49864/nciur

I want to also know the most frustrating, annoying, complicated parts so I can better serve those who are looking for answers. I think I'll do another one. What fun! (It's the little things....)

Thanks for your input and comments on the blog.

Cheers!

I want the new iPhone 3Gs!

I want the new iPhone 3Gs! Of course I'm an Apple fan (for almost 10 years), but I wasn't one of the millions to jump on board and grab the first mobile piece of genius that Steve Jobs & Co. came out with. At the time of the very first iPhone launch about 3 years ago, I was actually employed at AT&T. The sense of excitement and anticipation of how this new-fangled technology would affect the world was unlike anything I've ever experienced. We actually had hired extra security guards to secure the store and the crowds because it seemed to be the biggest thing since sliced bread and everyone wanted one! That was a crazy week...

Regardless, I've been a Crackberry, er, Blackberry user for about four years now, and love it. The main reason why I didn't jump all over Apple's newest family member was because to me, I needed the business functionality of the BB more than the entertainment purposes which the iPhone provided. It was cool, but not functional enough to me.

HOWEVER, now that I can't seem to stop taking digital movies and tons and tons of digital pics, I think I need to make the switch to the obvious Mac-daddy (no pun intended) - the new iPhone 3Gs. I've been debating about buying a Flip Cam (retails $149+) but now that this video feature is on the newest iPhone, it's lookin' like a winner. And I've been out of my phone contract for awhile now, so I'd get the best price, which is also a consideration for someone who disklikes making two-year long purchase decisions..lol.

Here's the link to the sales video for it:

http://www.apple.com/iphone/guidedtour/#medium

Anyone have any feedback on this product? Did you have the older version(s)? What do you use your iPhone for? Why would or wouldn't you buy this newest phone? Anyone find any glitches yet? Is it true AT&T won't let you use the MMS feature yet?

Can't wait to hear your opinions! Thanks to those who have already answered this on my Twitter account. Keep it coming!

Come meet up in Beverly Hills this Friday!

I love supporting other positive women who are out there making big things happen! So many things happening here in Los Angeles and if you're into fashion and beauty from the inside out, then please get in touch with the gorgeous Ungenita!


She will be launching her company this Friday at the Luxe Hotel in Beverly Hills and I can't WAIT to attend. If you're local, please contact her blog to see all the great details. Would love to see you there!

Funny Facebook Glitch

A view from my back-end Home page on my personal Facebook profile, top right-hand column:



Anyone else seeing this funny 'lil oversight? Must be on a developer level. It makes me laugh every time I see a "suggestion" on my page to add...myself. What a great suggestion! Random.

haha..it makes me laugh. I had to take a screen shot after seeing it a few times now. Is this happening to anyone else?

Facebook Hits 250 Million Users. WOW.

Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, sent out a note on Facebook today with a heartfelt "thank you" resulting from his web-baby receiving its 250 millionth sign-up. That's a lot of people, ya'll. He says it was never intended to be about anything other than allowing people to connect and share with others. I agree and it's plain to see that although they are doing a great job at monetizing the site via Facebook Ads and such (comment this if you've done a campaign - we're curious!), the basic premise still remains the same. Great job, Facebook! Considering the rapid amount of growth, don't you think they've done a pretty good job of handling it all?

Here's a short video showing the growth. When did you join?

A friend of mine, BRI, 17, on America's Got Talent 2009!

(Note: NBC Universal has copyright of this video and disabled embedding for blogs - but GO TO YouTube TO SEE IT!!! They are allowing it there!)

Proud to know this amazingly talented up-and-coming artsist, BRI! Check out her audition on this season's "America's Got Talent."


We first met back when I taught music Marketing at a school she was attending in Hollywood a few years ago. This girl can sing, play and has a great and friendly personality, too.

GO BRI!!!! We'll be rooting for you to go all the way.

Let's show the world how beautiful viral marketing can be - share this video with everyone you can on all of your social networking sites. Exposure is key in any business. Especially show business!

FREE Twitter Class This Friday!

Recently a lot more people have been asking me to give them additional Twitter Tips, so I came up with an easy and efficient way of doing it. I want to gift to you some excellent and FREE Twitter education so that your business can start seeing immediate results this Summer!

Register now for this Friday's FREE class where I'll be teaching you:

"3 Easy Ways to Build Your List and Make Money on Twitter"

Friday July 17th, 3:00-4:00pm PST/6:00-7:00pm EST

The class is valued at $297 - you will NOT want to miss this opportunity!

On this free call I will be giving you:

- specific, detailed steps to take that you can implement right away
- the recorded presentation so you can go back and review the material
- a live Q&A session to ask me your burning questions about Twitter

No beating around the bush, being too vague or throwing you a bait-and-switch. Just plain 'ol facts that I've learned about Twitter by spending thousands of hours researching what works and what doesn't work. I can't wait to share them with you! (And no, Twitter is NOT all about telling us what sandwich you just ate.)

But HURRY - I only reserved 99 spots available. Register HERE. Pass this along to your friends who need Twitter help and join me on Friday!

Using Facebook for Personal vs. Business Use

Today I need your advice on something Facebook-related.

The #1 reason why I joined Facebook awhile ago, was to solve the problem of having a place online where my friends and family could see what I was up to. I had been on MySpace for a looooong time (think when Mark Zuckerberg was still in college) and that profile morphed into a networking and info-sharing powerhouse for me. But as this happened, my privacy began to fade away, and I began to limit certain personal things for the sake of protecting and keeping things "safe."

So I had turned to this new thing called Facebook. At the time, hardly anyone was on it, but it seemed people were migrating over with the same idea. I liked the privacy settings and to this day, I only allow access to friends and family I actually know. Mostly I am concerned about protecting my son and more personal pictures, videos, etc that belong to the family. People who know me know that I'm very protective of this, yet am a part of this "share-everything-online" generation. Such a contradiction, I know!

However, now that I'm helping folks learn how to take advantage of these social networking sites for their business, they are "finding" me and it doesn't make sense if I don't "friend" them back. It's part of the online ettiquette we all know about. (I hope.) It's just rude not to. And Social Media is all about relationships. Bad start to a possibly great future.

Is it true that Facebook will shut you down for having two accounts under the same name? I'll be digging through the legal jargon and Terms Of Use here shortly to find out, but have you encountered this?

I have created a fan page for my company, Mellott Marketing Group, which is advertised all over my blog here in hopes of bringing in some much needed work. I can direct these friend requests to that page, yet doing so gives them the ability to see my personal account for 30 days. This seems to defeat the point of keeping it personal, but, hey, I don't make up the rules. I just question them. ;0)

My particular skill-set and knowledge on Social Media has just recently been given a new level of respect, and there is an overwhelming number of people who are asking for my help in explaining it all. What to do, what to do???

Please tell me your feedback, advice, or take this opportunity to vent, too.

What are your thoughts on privacy issues and sharing your real life experiences with the world wide web? I know what certain people in my life think about it already, and if you're a Babyboomer who's comfortable and sees value in posting things online and sharing with others, please comment back and tell us why.

Thanks for your feedback on this one!

Cheers,

Kerianne :0)

Facebook Usernames for Small Businesses

Just a quick update:

Facebook has lifted the temporary limitation for Fan Pages who want to get their vanity username but have fewer than 1,000 fans. As of 12:00am last night, small business owners and others in this same boat can now grab their unique URL. Yay!

General names are still not available, such as "pizza" or "marketing," but I was able to score my next choice: "marketing help." I would like to be the first person that people think of when they need some Marketing help, especially in the field of Social Networking. I love this stuff!

So, welcome to my new page: www.facebook.com/MarketingHelp. Please go there and become a fan so you won't be left out in hearing all the latest news affecting your business!

By the way, becoming my fan gets you in the loop of the latest social media happenings. If I hadn't been doing research, I would have never heard about this opportunity. So stay close to me for more tips, tricks and free advice!

Cheers,

Kerianne

P.S. Are you looking for some serious help in understanding all of this Social Networking stuff and how it applies to your business? I have the solution! Have you seen the details on my upcoming 8-week TeleSeries yet? Early Bird Special pricing runs thru July 8th! Check it out ASAP! www.MarketingMakesMeSmile.com/MMG/class

Sharing is Caring

I never claim to be a techie to the extreme, but every now and then I dive into the Computer Science part of me and figure something technical out. After all, unless someone shows us how to do something, we're on our own to figure it out. (Unless you hire a great Social MEdia Marketing Coach, but no shameless plugs here...heehee...)

One of the most crucial components to success on the Internet is how viral your content can become. Let's remember a basic rule of Marketing - you could be the best lil company in the world, but if nobody knows about you, then you might as well close up shop. That's where Marketing & Advertising come into play.

In today's online world, learning how to get the word out to as many people as possible is HUGE. Even more significantly, allowing users to SHARE your brilliance is even better. Work smarter, not harder, right?

I'm proud to say that today I learned how to add the "Share This" link to my websites. (Look! It's down below each of my posts now! Whoohoo!) I was reading an article on Facebook vs. Google and wanted, of course, to share the news. I clicked on the "Share This" link at the end of the article and sent it to my FB and Twitter communities.

After you "share" something, a box pops up and says, "Thanks for sharing!" and offers you the options to share on more sites. It also gives you a "Get this button" option. I clicked on that last option and went to go sign up for my new Share This account. It's an easy 3-step process and allows you to set up all of your domains with this new widget. (A "widget" by the way, is an add'l online thingie that stands on its own, but can be added to your website to add valuable content. It usually is used for viral purposes and connects to another site. For example, you can see my Twitter widget to the right of this post. It helps you get to my Twitter account by simply clicking through it.)

Have you set up your "Share This" buttons yet? If you are satisfied with simply posting to the web for your own enjoyment, don't worry about it. However, if you would love for at least one other person to spread your words through their entire online network and possibly help grow your business, then I highly suggest you sign up today!

Happy sharing!!