Tag Archives: twitter

The Pluses of Google Plus: @LynetteRadio

Business, Technology & Innovation, , , , ,

lynette
Lynette Young screens her home page, Purple Stripe Productions.

 Just after graduating from high school, Lynette Young ran a project with 40 network engineers, all many years her senior. “I’m a geek by heart, a marketer by necessity,” admitted Young. She demonstrated both at the September 19 joint meeting of the IEEE and NJ CAMA when she taught about about Google Plus. After 2 1/2 years, she said, it is tipping into the mainstream, is bigger than Twitter, and is the second business social networking site.

Facebook is good to connect with people you already know, but  Google Plus takes you to the rest, she said. Then she gave chapter and verse on how to do it. Own your page,” admonished Young. If you are a bricks and mortar business, capitalize on Google’s attention to “local.” For instance, if  you have a restaurant  be aware that Google now owns Zagat, so your reviews are live on Google Plus

The “hangout” and the “HOA” are new and exciting tools. You gather up to 10 friends or clients, tape your conversation live (hangout) then post it on YouTube (hangouts on air). That’s convenient because Google owns YouTube. It sounds like a marketing bonanza.

If you have a restaurant, Google now owns Zagat, so your reviews are live on Google Plus. “Own your page,” admonished Young. Bricks and mortar businesses should capitalize on Google’s attention to “local.”

I must admit I am still slightly paranoid about Google knowing everything about me. Somehow I had a “slip and fall,” and I fell onto the Google Plus platform. Now I’m in a lot of “circles” though I don’t have any “circles” of my own.  I’ll look into this. If you get notified that you are in one of my circles, you might start receiving Princeton Comment in a different way. (As always, you may unsubscribe and I won’t hold it against you 🙂

A second chance to hear Young is at the PC Users Group at the Lawrence Library on Tuesday, September 24, at 7 p.m.  She will tell more about how to put together hangouts and HOAs. “Set up the webcam, invite nine people, record it, port it, done.”

But the real problem with talking heads  is — are they interesting? Present company excluded,  I think talkers are more likely to be boring than writers.

Social Media Wisdom from Maisha Walker

Business, , ,

At the risk of not doing justice to Maisha Walker’s excellent talk on social media at May’s Princeton Regional Chamber Breakfast, here are some of her tips. I really don’t want to lose track of what she said, and I think it’s valuable for many of us.

Any new marketing technique requires a 6 to 12 month learning curve — first to learn the technology, then to soak up that community’s etiquette.

Experts say a human can have only 150 close relationships, but — for social media purposes — each of those 150 people have their own networks, making social media a powerful tool.

Nevertheless, social media connections aren’t helpful until you build them into relationships and make them real and local. Meet your connections!

Make sure you actually have a tangible goal that will affect your bottom line.

Realize you are a publisher. What will you publish?

Use the 80/20 rule. Twenty percent of your content should be highly unusual, surprising, attention grabbing.

Leverage all your resources, cross market, be consistent.

Track it, tweak it, repeat it. Don’t start any social media project if you can’t measure the results. It is not about traffic, it’s about customers.

In the photo at left, she highlighted the five social media tools that she recommends: LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and WordPress.

Debbie Schaffer of Mrs. G’s, no slouch in social media herself, said it was the best SM presentation she’d heard.

Twitter May Rule, but Press Releases are Alive and Well

Business, , ,

A press release is not an anachronism, says Anne Sweeney in a press release to me! And she’s right. Here is an excerpt from her excellent copy, where she says that the press release “is the launching pad for all your “new media” efforts..” and she goes on to offer four press releases for a modest sum. 

Here to tell, in person, about how to use new media is the speaker for the Princeton Regional Chamber breakfast, Maisha Walker, founder of Message Medium. She helped digitally brand Unilever, Columbia University, and Mars Chocolate.

Hearing her will lure me away from my favorite anti-aging yoga class, so I will be at tomorrow’s Business Before Business Breakfast. Register for $25 if you are a chamber member (and that includes all my PUMC friends). 


Sweeney reminds us, as I’m sure Walker will agree, to post the press release on your website, but also on Facebook “with a quick comment and an attractive photo” and hope it spreads virally. Also  “both the Facebook and the web link will show up on Google as two separate entries.” Hmm,  I didn’t know that. 

But I do know that a print item in the Ewing Observer (full disclosure, a Community News Service paper, as is U.S. 1 Newspaper)  brought somebody last Saturday to the New Jersey State Button Show. The visitor said that, at breakfast, she read the calendar listing and decided it would be a great way to spend a Saturday. The calendar listing came from a press release, so — yes — press releases are alive and well.