Public Relations Expert offers PR Tips and Communication Advice

Join my publicist, Lisa Elia, and I as we talk about how to incorporate Social Media and Video into your publicity and media campaigns! We'll be "live" via Ustream (which I'm loving, btw...) so you can either watch us on your computer or dial in on the phone.

Join us! Click below for details:

Public Relations Expert offers PR Tips and Communication Advice

HAPPY NEW YEAR! WELCOME 2010....We've been waiting.

What a year, what a year. I'm personally very glad to see 2009 come and go. It's actually felt like 2010 for a few months now as major shifts have taken place in my life both personally and professionally. I've been waiting for 01.01.10 to get here for awhile now and it's here. Ta-da!!!

How was your New Year's Eve? What plans have you made for the first quarter of 2010? Mine include the new launch of my new branding for Marketing Makes Me Smile! Fun new look and logo to debut. Stay tuned. :0)

Brands Using Social Media Marketing

Big brands are finally starting to get it and realize the need to connect with their fans using Social Media.

Not sure if this was the most efficient way, but I was definitely impressed with their effort:

I was shopping at Bath & Body Works yesterday grabbing their awesome day-after-Christmas sales and I just had to capture their credit card machine. Check out the Fan Page advertisement in the video! Very smart, although I would have included the Facebook URL underneath.

They also ran an ad for their text messaging promotion, although I don't believe that will have an an impact at all because the screen flashes too fast to even get a chance to write down or type in a text. Besides, when people are involved in the purchase process, the last thing they are thinking about is stopping that process and whipping out their phone to go find the retailer on Facebook. Especially if there's a line! (Ummm, hello, Christmas season in a mall....)

I was lucky enough to have my sister take care of my credit card purchase while I was able to grab this quick video of the machine next to us. There was a long line and I didn't want to keep them waiting behind us. But I thought it was important to share.

Brands are becoming aware that social media is key in their Marketing efforts.

What other brands have you seen use the credit card machine to advertise?

How are YOU using Social Media Marketing? Leave comments!

@garyvee's #crushit book tour

One of my fav social media experts and all around guy who "gets it." This was taken from my iPhone at a stop on his Crush It! Book Tour. We had just spoken at a conference for women entrepreneurs the week or so before. Good to see him again and good stuff for you to hear going into the new year. For more on him, check out his site: http://www.winelibrarytv.com :0)

How To Use Twitter Lists

Trying to get organized after following more than 100 people? Tada! Twitter comes to the rescue and gives us the ability to separate and organize those really special tweeps into our own custom lists. That way you are getting more targeted responses from people. TIP: Organize people into similar "types" so that your lists become a market research too, too. Birds of a feather usually flock together.

Whether it's your client base and specific target market, or your competition, or your mentors and coaches, Twitter lists gives you the option to keep a closer and more effective eye on them.

Go to http://www.twitter.com/keri_mellott to see some lists that I've created. And if you're an amazing woman I know - let me know to add you to that list if I haven't gotten to you already!

How To Use Twitter - Basics For New Users!

Watch this video if you:

- are using Twitter for your business
- are trying to figure out how/why you can make money using Twitter by inserting links in your tweets
- are new to Twitter
- are confused about hashtags (i.e. - #in2010, #followfriday, etc)
- are totally bored but want to watch me click, talk and teach!

P.S. - Excuse my voice in the video - I think I had a cold at the time. Technology stops for no one!

P.P.S. - More free Social Media Marketing tips are found at http://www.MarketingMakesMeSmile.com :0)

A hiatus, vids and $3,000

Do you think it's true when they say: "Time flies when you're having fun?"

I can NOT believe it's been since Oct that I last blogged here, although I've been having a daily blast micro-blogging over on Twitter. Are we following each other yet? If you tweet funny, valuable or interesting tweets, please let me know how to find you there.

I've also been making quite a few videos which I'll post here and share from my YouTube profile.

Since my last post, things have been crazy!! Good crazy (mostly) and myself and my business have taken some quantum leaps on many different levels.

Marketing still makes me smile and I'm smiling more and more and clients send me great feedback and testimonials about the success they are having using Social Media Marketing strategies I teach them. My fav is hearing, "Oh my gosh - this was actually FUN!" after their first phone session with me. Love it.

Stay tuned for cool stories and spotlights showcasing some amazing stuff - like how someone brought in within a few weeks $3,000 in sales using Twitter. Yep. It's true. And you can do it, too!

What's Going On In The Male Brain?!

Ever wondered what goes on inside the male brain???

Me, too. And for us women, it's something that we all long to know about. We know we're wired differently from men, and this comes across all the time - out in public, at home, and even in business. Our relationships with men are important, but sometimes we find ourselves so frustrated, we just don't know what to do. Wouldn't it be nice if someone actually told us WHY and HOW?

I'd like to welcome into your life and circle of friends, Keri Newell and her super cute mom, Dr. Sherie Zander.

I met them this year as part of a women's networking group and I love them. They are dating and relationship coaches who help women get the man they really want, and understand the one they want to keep.

They are giving away a free class, "What's Going On In The Male Brain?!??!" (valued at $149) where you can listen to the mp3 recording. You'll learn things like:


- The Number One cause of misunderstandings between men and women… (This single revelation alone will change your relationships forever!)
-The 3 “Magic Words” all men want to hear… and no, it’s not the three you’re thinking…
-Why men have such a hard time getting in touch with their feelings… And why you wouldn’t want him to…
--and more.

I took this class and learned so much so quickly, that I signed up for their 10-week Teleclass to learn even more. You can still get in on the deal of 50% off, by the way, if you mention you read this blog. Cool!

Click HERE to get access to that free class, "What's Going On in the Male Brain?!" I can't wait to learn more. I'm a SPONGE! Join me.

Meeting Gary Vaynerchuk - A Must on Your To-Do List!

One of the best speakers I've ever seen on stage is hands down, Gary Vaynerchuk, from www.winelibrarytv.com. Although he cusses more than the ordinary sailor, it's "because I get so passionate about what I'm talking about!" he later told us audience members.

We met for the first time this week at an event we were both asked to speak at to talk about Social Media.

Gary is a genius at using social media as a platform to build his business, and is one of the few people who still prefers to do it the "old-fashioned" way - no bots or automation. He spends hours and hours each day connecting with customers and fans online. He's all about the #1 key aspect of using social media the CORRECT way - to build relationships - and I want to acknowledge him for that. Kudos!

It was a real treat to get to see Gary live and in person. His passion for what he does and his unbelievable zest for life was so refreshing to see. (I learn a lot about wine. That's helpful, too...lol)

Here we are in the pic above (with the help of my Photoshopped notepad) totally ready to "crushit" in business and in life! Can't wait until his book "Crushit" comes out soon. Whoohoo!!

Are YOU crushing it in your life????

"Made In The Valley" - The Valley Girls Grew Up!

"Like, oh my God!"

"No way!"

"Duh!"

Remember the stereotypical "Valley Girl?" Well, guess what?

The Valley Girls Grew Up! And lots of them now have successful businesses here in the famous San Fernando Valley where the name was given.



Last night at a networking event, I met Gail Lara, owner of "Made In The Valley," a retail website that features exceptional women entrepreneurs who have exceptional products. Each women is featured with her story on how and why she began to create her products and has a section on the website. You can shop online and choose from homemade gourmet chocolates, beautiful handcrafted jewelry, bath and body products and much more. They even include local delivery!

"Made In The Valley" also cares about their community by giving 10% of its proceeds back to a local charity. What a great business! Gail is a super sweet and very caring woman who is on a mission to bring back the emphasis on shopping at your local stores to help them grow. Her motto is "Buy Local. Be Local." It's a great time to remember this concept - and of course, to support your hard-working women entrepreneurs!

Gail has plans to extend the "Made In The Valley" brand to other markets soon, too.

I had a great time chatting with Gail about Marketing and Social Media, and listening to her tell me stories of being in the boardroom of corporate America for 25 years when women weren't really "allowed" to have ideas. (FYI - I'm not sure how I would have survived if that was me. Trying to have me keep my mouth shut when I have great ideas is like taking away my oxygen. Kudos to all the women who hung in there and made the guys look good all those years. You're stronger than me!) It was a great night and I love meeting people who are making a difference.

For more info and to check out the products (I hear the lotion bars are amazing!) go to www.MadeInTheValley.net.

Are you living your dream life? Use Social Media to get you there!

I'm looking forward to an amazing event next week. Success Coach, Gina Ratliffe has put together a spectacular 5-day event in Los Angeles (Tues Sept 29-Sat Oct 3rd) for those who are looking to accomplish two things:

1. Determine your true passion(s)

2. Make money doing what you love!!

The event is called "Purpose. Platform. Profits: Manifesting and Monetizing Your Dream Life."

Sounds cool, right? And what a perfect time to be talking about these topics. Forget the recession blues and turn that frown upside down! Why not make the best decision you can make and follow your dreams right now? Just go for it!

Gina's line-up of world-class speakers include:

David Neagle (Millionaire Acceleration Coach)
Marianne Williamson (#1 Best-selling Author "A Return To Love")
Gary Vaynerchuk (Host, WineLibraryTV.com, $50+ million company)
...and so many more.

I've also been given the honor of speaking at this event and will be teaching two workshops - one on blogging, and the other on LinkedIn. Gina wants her audience to learn how to use these new platforms of Social Media to build their fan base and turn their passions into a lucrative business.

There's a few tickets left! Day passes are available, too. Get yours now HERE.

I'll see you there!

Your Approach to Social Media: Pepper or Steak?

Who's your Social Media mentor? I have several mentors myself and Gary Vaynerchuk tops the list. I love his energy, but moreso, it's his very blunt and honest opinions about this new way of Marketing.

In this recent video, he explains his analogy of "Steak" vs. "Pepper" in terms of how companies view Social Media. VERY interesting and I whole-heartedly agree (and that's not because I'm a steak & potatoes kind 'o girl from the Midwest, either, even though that's true).



How do you see your Social Media efforts? Are you a steak person? Or are you just giving this a sprinkle?

DIG IN, people! Get your steak knives out. It's a delicious treat once you taste your first bite of sweet success!!

Twitter Basics For New Users

New to Twitter? I'm having fun making you these free Social Media Marketing videos, and the video below goes over the following basics if you're just getting started:

1. How to make a tweet
2. What is a #hashtag?
3. How to include links, people's Twitter names, and #hashtags into your tweets

Step three is the secret Marketing strategies you need to know. (See! I'll prove that there's actually productivity taking place on Twitter, and that no, it's not just about what salad someone had for lunch!)


Welcome to Twitter and enjoy!


:
NOTE: CLICK ON THE VIDEO SCREEN TO SEE THE ENLARGED VERSION.

Find this video helpful?

Feel free to pass along to your newbie Twitter friends, too. I was a beginner at this once, too, so I know how confusing it can be at first. Sharing is caring. :0)

Tweet, tweet, ya'll!

Social Media Revolution

Think Social Media is just a fad? WATCH THIS VIDEO. I help people understand the concepts and how inevitable its impact is on business today, and even I was astonished at some of the facts and figures in this video.

This is a brilliant presentation. Who can argue with hard, cold facts?

For those of you still kicking and screaming, dragging your feet or avoiding "taking the plunge" into Social Media, I urge you to watch this video then ask yourself whether or not you want to get left behind. It's no threat - just the facts! :0)

My take on it:

It gave me goosebumps and chills of excitement to see these facts posted because not only do I already love being a Social Media Marketing consultant, but I'm excited for those of YOU who feel so empowered after you reach out for help and learn to embrace this most powerful shift in our world today.

Where will Social Media take YOUR business in the next 6 months? Next year? Next ten years??? It's an exciting time, folks!!! Get onboard.

Need help? Contact me: Kerianne@MarketingMakesMeSmile.com

An expert who would like to share your tips?
Please leave them in the comments for everyone!

Smiles,

Kerianne

Communicate Clearly, Folks!

Here's some Monday humor for you to get your week started. I love getting funny forwards from my clients, and this one really "takes the cake." (hee hee...Ok, that was bad, I know...)

Read the cake from Wal-Mart:








"Okay, so this is how I imagine this conversation went:

Wal-Mart Employee: 'Hello 'dis be Wal-marts, how can I help you?'

Customer: 'I would like to order a cake for a going-away party this week.'

Wal-Mart Employee: 'What you want on the cake?'

Customer: 'Best Wishes Suzanne' and underneath that 'We will miss you.'

Moral of the story:

In case you get stuck with someone special, make sure you're communicating clearly. Double check to make sure the other person understands what your intentions are. Otherwise, you're left with the above scenario!

How I Landed #1 Spot on Google

Hello! I'm back from a few weeks away while on a special mission - being a Maid of Honor for my sister's wedding! Congrats to the two lovebirds and I couldn't have asked for a better new brother-in-law to come into the fam.

While I was away, my website, www.MarketingMakesMeSmile.com had quite some activity. Even though I haven't touched it for over a month, I wanted to share with you my excitement about something pretty fantastic (and something YOU can achieve, too!):

My website had landed the #1 spot on Google's search results page! And get this - it ranked above 2.47 MILLION other search results! Whoo hoo!

It's a good Marketing exercise to occasionally "Google" yourself by searching for keywords that your potential clients would be typing into the almighty search engine. My keywords were: "confused on social networking" and "confused about social networking." Both landed me top spots.

First things first. NO, I did not pay for this placement. (Big bonus, and I've yet to spend one dime on any sort of paid online advertising or marketing in over six years to bring me traffic.) I simply know how to write my metatags and headlines for my site and think about what my target market wants to know.

As we evolve into more things Web 2.0, it's becoming more acceptable to simply write out our thoughts and feelings about what we're looking for, too. My target market is definitely confused about social networking, and that's OK with me! (I'm here to help. I was where they were at one point, too.) So typing into Google "confused about social networking" is quite a likely occurrence.

Secondly, I can spell the word algorithm, but that's about as far as my technical expertise goes with SEO (Search Engine Optimization - what helps get you to the top). Google also uses algorithms to determine search ranking results. I know there's tons of metrics involved that give me that prime number one spot, but I won't sit here and pretend like I know how that all works exactly. My expertise is in Social Media Marketing, a cousin, if you will, of SEO. Math and I aren't enemies, but we're not best buds, either! Anything with a formula I hand over to one of the scientists in my family before I pass out from frustration. (Hey, SEO experts - feel free to help me out here! Thanks!)

What efforts do you take in your SEO plan for your website? Have you been successful with your own experiements? What works or doesn't work for you? Are you using the proper keywords?

Some things to think about so we can see your site sitting at the top, too! Leave a comment with your site link so we can all go visit it and get you up there in the rankings.

15 More Fantastic Social Media Resources for Foodies

For all my culinary peeps online - check out the sites below and let me know what you find. I'm not an expert or consider myself a "foodie", but definitely appreciate some good grub!

There's lots of conversations and projects happening with Social Media, and it's great to see such an interesting industry taking advantage of it. Bring on the deliciousness! Can someone invent Smell-o-vision, please?

15 More Fantastic Social Media Resources for Foodies

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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!