Twitter Chats Archives - Motherhood, Marketing, and Medical Mayhem

Building A Chat Transcript

It used to be so easy, I used “What The Hashtag” to plug in the hashtag, select the dates, and voila – you’ve got yourself a chat transcript! Then Twitter changed the rules and “What The Hashtag” was no more…but now there’s Storify. I learned about Storify recently when Amber Cleveland used it to create a transcript when she was the #SMChat Customer Service moderator on April 11, 2012. I tried it myself this week, and although it wasn’t quite as simple as set the dates and press a button, it was definitely easy enough for me to create.

Here’s my first Twitter chat transcript – what do you think?

http://storify.com/sharonmostyn/smchat-s-3rd-birthday-revisiting-social-media-val

There were definitely some pros and cons to

PROS:

Easy to use
Intuitive – and if you didn’t know what to do yourself, it provided some great tips

CONS:

Would love to select a date/time range and press “go” to get a complete transcript
No evident way to select multiple Tweets at once and move them to the “story”

What do you like or dislike about Storify? Do you use something else to curate chat transcripts? Please leave me a comment below to let me know! Thanks!

Leap List: 29 People to Help Your Marketing
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Leap List: 29 People to Help Your Marketing

General Updates, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter Chats

Leap List: 29 People to Help Your Marketing

The kids getting ready to "leap" off a terrain jump in Park City

The kids getting ready to "leap" off a terrain park jump in Park City

In 2010, I posted the Olympic Dream Team for Internet Marketing – a list of people from all aspects of the Marketing world who were providing thought leadership at that time. In honor of Leap Day (February 29th), I’m revisiting that list and giving you 29 Online Marketing thought leaders. Some of these people have remained on the list because they are consistently providing compelling and insightful information. People have dropped off the list, not through their own actions, but because my focus may have changed and others became more important to my current Marketing information needs, or it could be that we have simply lost touch. There are a few new names on the list that either I should have included back in 2010 or that we’ve only become acquainted since the original online Marketing Dream Team list was created. There is no particular order to the list, I’m excited to see posts from any of them in my Twitter stream, Facebook timeline, Google+ circle, or email inbox.

Bonus: Rachel, April, Andrea and Sara Beth – the ZipSetGo team (I added the ZipSetGo team and their #TNI Twitter chat as a bonus because their focus is travel rather than marketing, but I think it’s a great example of using social media marketing for the travel industry!)

OK, I cheated a little by combining people and companies on a few of the entries, but sometimes there were just too many smart people in one company to list them all! I consistently get valuable information and insights from these people and I respect their opinions. Even though we may not always agree, they always give me something to think about. Whose Marketing insights do you look forward to reading each day? Please add them in the list below…

2011 – Year in Review
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2011 – Year in Review

General Updates, Marketing, Medical Mayhem, Motherhood, Social Media, Twitter Chats

2011 – Year in Review

2012 New Years Fireworks photo by Meaghan Mostyn

Happy 2012!

Here’s my recap of 2011 in numbers:

15) Flights of steps I had to walk down TWICE – during both a fire drill and an actual earthquake!

10) Number of #smchat Twitter chats I hosted this year. Please join #smchat every Wednesday at 1P ET, especially on the 3rd week of the month when I moderate the #smchat Marketing topics!

7) Nights in Turks and Caicos (my favorite vacation destination).

5.8) Magnitude of the August 2011 earthquake that shook most of the East coast including my office building (see 15 flights of stairs above).

3) Events I spoke at in 2011 – Affiliate Summit, Marketing Profs and Baltimore AMA in the AM – and the number of Proms that the kids attended!

2) Number of “day jobs” in 2011 – more on that as the new job is ready to be “launched” in mid-2012!

1) Number of completely available (no planned events) weekends in 2011… AND the number of times I was on TV talking about social media!

Plus more emergency room / urgent care visits than I’d care to admit, so let’s just say we’re still keeping our “frequent flier” status!

Leave a comment below and let me know your “numbers” for 2011!

Book Marketing Recap – Part 2 Marketing Methods

A few weeks ago, I was the moderator for a great #smchat conversation on book marketing and publishing. There were so many insights that not only was I able to compile one post-chat blog post, I created TWO! The first half of the chat was on book publishing and the post below contains some of the book marketing insights I learned from the lively #smchat discussion:

Q4 You’ve written a book-now what? Do you need special book marketing skills? What role does social media play?

@JimKukral: Book marketing starts at book conception. BEFORE it’s written.

@WhereitBlooms: But SM does help in determining your audience. Is there a need for the book? Who will have interest?

@ambercleveland: A4. Tons of book marketing resources available, do your homework. Social media plays a huge role, gives audience access to authors

Q4b: How soon should you begin promoting your book before it is finished & is it possible to promote “too early”? @akstout18 asks, “Is there a risk in letting ppl know about your book idea before it’s finished?”

@thehealthmaven: Use SoMe to find out where your target market is & what they are taking about, build & leverage tribes before book comes out

@AndreaPatten: Non-fiction gets submitted as a proposal. fiction needs 2b complete

@novelpublicity: For fiction, you definitely want a completed and polish manuscript before submitting. Nonfic has different rules

@CreativeSage: For non-fiction, submit an outline + 3 chapters and your marketing position (after your research) to agent/publisher (cont.) For novels/memoirs, the writing is more key, often need to finish book & get editor before submitting manu.

@JimKukral: Nobody is going to steal your idea. Block and tackle. Ideas are worthless, implementation is everything

@novelpublicity: New authors often worry about ideas being stolen. Once you see how hard it is to sell an idea, you’ll get over that 😛

Q5 Videos, TV spots, print and online display ads – what’s the most inventive way you’ve seen a book marketed?

@ambercleveland: A5. Use a QR code on your business card that takes them to your site where they can purchase your book

@CreativeSage: Inventive video “trailers” & author interviews; integrated approach w/ social media, PR, targeted mktg, crowdsourcing

@novelpublicity:Do you see the little button on my Twitter avatar? That’s called a PicBadge, and it’s another creative marketing tactic (cont.) PicBadges are all about solidifying your brand – keep a primary author page, integrate book in picbadge (cont.) I actually blogged about that today with a step-by-step guide on how to create a PicBadge for your book > http://t.co/DIP2u4CN

@tcgagency: Q5 Sending advanced copies to a small group of people and asking them to leave an Amazon review, good or bad.

@PegFitzpatrick: #FollowMyLead: http://t.co/HoPJpaTs – Awesome book video: by @FollowMyLeadCQ

@sharonmostyn: A5 I love book trailers! Author @ToniMcGeeCausey talks about them here http://t.co/WuNE0TIn

(cont.) Also interesting when authors interviewed-ex. @barbaravey interview of Tori Carrington http://t.co/N5cWerOl (cont.) Also love videos by fans/friends about #books, like this by @shelleyryan http://t.co/n91EgOL0 for @thecontentrules

@novelpublicity: Create a truly engaging book trailer, then purchase PPC advertising on YouTube. I’m doing that with > http://t.co/VyS53lLU

@ProminencePR: The hangout feature on google + is really great. You can invite key people that you want to network with.

@LarsDHHedbor: What’s the best way to reach out to book clubs? GoodReads presence? Amazon Author pages? Other?

GoodReads.com got a mention by several of our participants, one going so far as to say it is “is the single most important site for writers, even more so than Twitter and Facebook.”

If you are really interested in the book marketing topic, @ambercleveland recommends #BookMarketChat with @ClaudiaC Thursdays at 4PM ET. And we’ll end with this reminder from @JimKukral: Nothing can happen until you write something. Get to work.

Book Marketing Recap – Part 1 Publishing

A few weeks ago, I was the moderator for a great #smchat conversation on book marketing and publishing. There were so many insights that not only was I able to compile one post-chat blog post, I created TWO! The first half of the chat was on book publishing – different ways to have your book published: traditional or crowd-funded, indie publisher, self-publish, e-books and their formats, etc.

Here are some of the book publishing answers I learned from the #smchat participants:

Q1 What is the difference between “traditional” and “crowd-funded” book publishing? Advantages to each?

@JimKukral: Crowd-funding, or crowdsourcing is how I’m pre-funding my next new book series. Raised over $20k so far.

Q2 Everyone’s an author these days, is it getting easier to get a book deal or is self-published the way to go?

@DigitalKaitlyn: A2 I think it’s almost harder to get a book deal because there are so many writers now, self-publishing is a great way to start

@tcgagency: A2 At the same time, I read about one author who left his publishing house to pursue a bigger audience/profits with self-publishing.

@ambercleveland: A2. If you self publish, important to use multiple available platforms – Smashwords, Kobo, PubIt, Amazon, eBooks…etc

@JimKukral: Best advice. No agent or publisher needed. Write a book, get it out there. Learn how to market it. Over and over.

Sounds like the consensus to Q2 is self-publishing – so Q2b why would anyone go through a big name publisher?

@ambercleveland: A2.b. Advantages to big publisher is better access to libraries and bookstores

@adinfini: I think the big guys do have a better understanding of the marketing side of selling the books than most authors

Q2c: If self-publishing, are there any aspects that really would be better if you enlisted the services of a professional?

@ambercleveland: A2. c. Get professional assistance with editing and designing the cover (unless you have great graphic skills)

@CreativeSage: You may need to hire yr own publicist because trad. publishers won’t do enough—AND you promote yr book too

Q2d from @WhereitBlooms: If you self-publish do you hire an editor for proofing and input?

@tcgagency: Editors give you a fresh set of eyes on structure, flow, where needs beefing up, etc. That always makes for better writing.

Q3 Do formats matter? Is it better (or more-effective) to publish an e-book before you try a printed version?

@adinfini: Q3 in some ways ebook is harder to market

@CreativeSage: It would make sense to try e-book format 1st, but a good editor & book designer are most important, look professional

There were several sub-questions on the ebook publishing topic – the first from @akstout18 – Is CreateSpace the best platform for self publishing?

@sharonmostyn: Instead of CreateSpace, @JimKukral suggests BookBrewer & @ambercleveland likes LightningSource

@thehealthmaven asked, “Curious: How many books do u order/month? I love books – my ipad, book shelves are filled, but rarely walk into a book store anymore”

@lesleyridge: …my rule of thumb: reading for fun – iPad; book I will want to markup/underline for future reference, in-store buy

@sharonmostyn: ebooks are convenient but prefer “physical” book-like bookstores who can help recommend books I’ll like.

Want to know what else we talked about? Please visit the second part of the Book Marketing Recap – Social Media and Other Marketing Methods. One of the most provocative Tweets was from @jettzworld, “Everyone may be an author but ever few are writers. #justsaying,” to which Alex from @tcgagency replied, “I’d say it’s the other way around. We all write emails, Tweets, etc. But how many complete a creative work like authors?” So maybe there’s hope for me yet!

Marketing and Social Media – Community Building

: Join #SMchat every Wednesday at 1PM ET

The Twitter chat #SMchat is a community that I have been a part of for quite some time now. Every Wednesday at 1PM ET, there is a great conversation about a social media topic. Since March 2010, on the 3rd Wednesday of each month, I have been moderating the Marketing session of the Twitter chat #SMchat. Occasionally there will be guest moderators when I’m not available, but generally a few days before the chat, I write a framing post so people joining the chat can have the questions in advance. It’s not required that you read the framing post to join the Twitter chat, but it does give you an opportunity to read the related links and to formulate thoughtful answers to the topic.

The Marketing and Social Media topic for June 2011 is Building Communities and starting this month, you can find the framing posts on the new #SMchat website at: http://socialmediachat.wordpress.com/

Please feel free to leave a comment either below or at the new #SMchat website and join the conversation every Wednesday at 1PM ET to chat about social media.

Content Marketing Strategy

: Content Rules!

Content, content, content! Content is King! With the recent Google “Panda” and “Farmer” search engine optimization (SEO) updates, Google has taken a stand against websites that provide little original content. So I thought content might be a good topic for the Twitter chat #SMchat on May 18, 2011 at 1P ET.

I’ve talked to a few people about content recently and I’ve asked two special guests to join me to discuss Content Marketing on #SMchat: Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs, and Danielle Leitch, Executive Vice President of Client Strategy at MoreVisibility.

Ann spoke with me about her new book, Content Rules, written with C. C. Chapman and personalized especially for me (see photo) after I spoke at the MarketingProfs Digital Marketing Forum and what she said makes sense to me:

“My feeling is that you can’t have a Social Media Strategy without first having a Content Strategy. How can you speak before you know what to say?”

Danielle also recently discussed content strategy during the new #MVchat Twitter chat on May 12, 2011. If you haven’t joined #MVchat it’s a good place for a quick (half hour) discussion on different internet marketing topics. #MVchat is held on Thursdays from 3:30-4P ET. After the chat, I asked Danielle about content driving online revenue and she said:

“Content is essential when it comes to providing value to the user, positioning well in SERPs, creating sticky site or social account and establishing self (business) as industry leader. All of the above will contribute to revenue generation in one form or another – so YES, content directly correlates to making money online. Measuring time versus value for that content production is critical for ROI analysis. Don’t produce content for the sake of text – offer value in all content delivered.”

It appears that Danielle isn’t the only one who thinks good content equals more revenue. According to a MarketingSherpa case study on Content Marketing: Inbound strategy pulls in 25% more revenue, 70% more leads http://bit.ly/ldyBs2

I’m very excited that these smart ladies will be joining us and I’ve got several questions for them and for everyone who will be participating in #SMchat:

Do you think sites with good SEO practices have been impacted by Google’s Farmer and Panda updates?
Do you have a Social Media Strategy? A Content Strategy? If both, which came first and why?
Nearly 1/4 (23%) of all social media messages contain links to content http://bit.ly/kUJBO0 – how do you make it easy to share?
Have you found content=revenue like the MarketingSherpa Content Marketing case study? http://bit.ly/ldyBs2
Now that we’re not just writing brochures, how can you repurpose content to minimize overload on creators? http://bit.ly/m7gtVE

Look for answers from Ann (@MarketingProfs) and Danielle (@DanielleLeitch), along with me (@SharonMostyn) and the rest of the #SMchat crew on May 18, 2011 from 1-2P ET! We look forward to seeing you there! Can’t make it or just shy? Leave your question or comment below and I’ll make sure you get an answer.

Video – The Other Search Marketing Method

: Video Marketing an Upcoming #SMchat Topic

According to web metrics company comScore, YouTube was named the second-largest search engine, so it makes sense to add video to your website. Do you have videos on your website? I haven’t added any videos yet, but Gary Vaynerchuk got his start by creating a video blog on wines and has become a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author!

Here are some questions to ask before you add videos to your site the way Gary V did:

What kind of videos will work best on your website? Humor? Testimonial? How-To? How important is it for the tone of your videos to match the tone of your website?
How do you get the videos to play on your site? What video player should you use?
Do you copyright your videos? How? Has anyone been sentenced to “copyright school”? http://politi.co/dOyh7V
Is SEO a part of your video strategy? How else do you integrate video into your marketing?
What video metrics should you track? How do you track it? http://bit.ly/g00kBV

We’ll be discussing these questions and more during the #SMchat session on Wednesday, April 20, 2011 from 1-2P ET. Please join us or add your insights to the comments section below.

Can I Pick Your Brain? Sure, Why Not?

: My Grandparents’ 50th Anniversary

20 years ago this week, my grandfather passed away. I still miss his easy, laid-back manner and willingness to help anyone. My grandfather would patiently explain things for hours. He never got frustrated when I didn’t understand something, and I wasn’t the only one he took the time to help. Sometimes he even helped people who didn’t necessarily want help…there was one time on a trip to (French-speaking) Canada when he helped someone push a car during a snowstorm and because of the language barrier we’re still not exactly sure how that person actually wanted my grandfather to help! I only remember him telling me “No” one time, when at 13 I wanted to buy a black string bikini – it was the kindest, firm refusal I have ever received.

I’ve seen several posts on why you should say no when someone asks to “pick your brain” and, as I learned from my grandfather, I have a hard time saying no. I may not be able to spend a huge amount of time, or answer every question, and it may not be on the timeframe you desire, but I am generally happy to share the knowledge that I have.

Here are some of the posts I have seen on why NOT to let someone pick your brain:

Lisa Barone, 15 Ways to Handle ‘Pick Your Brand’ Requests
Chris Brogan, Audacity of Free
Tamar Weinberg, The Audacity of Free: Products and Services Edition
Peter Shankman, An Open Letter to Kami Watson Hurse, APR
Nicole Jordan, No, You Can’t Pick My Brain
Kevin Dugan, Can I Pick Your Brain?
Sandy Jones-Kaminski, Are You on the National No Brain Picking List

Many of the people I read saying “no” are consultants, and while I truly understand their need to make money, I’m confused as to why they think having a conversation about what they do for a living is a bad idea. I personally like Barry Moltz’s response – pay it forward by letting them pick your brain, but do it on your schedule and set your own limits.

I’m using this as the topic for my 1-year anniversary of moderating #SMchat on Wednesday, 3/16/11, at 1PM ET. Here are the questions I am asking:

Have you ever had someone “pick your brain” (yes/no)? If so, how often? If not, why not?
Does your answer depend on how well you know the person who asked or the type of company they represent?
Would you be more likely to participate if you were in the beginning of your career or once more established?
Could a “brain picking” session could turn into an advantage, either personally or professionally?
Is blogging/participating in online chats/answering online Qs/etc. the same thing as having your brain picked?

I’m hoping my online friends will be able to shed some light on both sides of the topic. Let’s talk about it then. Please feel free to comment below if you can’t make the chat or if you would like to bring up something I have missed.

Social Media Etiquette Best Practices

: Gold seal from Crestock Stock Photography

I’ve seen several Tweets and blog entries on Twitter auto-posting recently and it seems to be something that is being tested and possibly even becoming a social media best practice.

In case you’re not sure what I mean by auto-posting, in this example it is scheduling a social media interaction on Twitter in advance of the actual Tweet being posted. IMO (in my opinion), auto-anything takes the social out of social media, but maybe you can change my mind and explain how it can be considered a best practice. I un-followed Guy Kawasaki of Alltop because of his repetitive auto-Tweeting and I’ll do the same to anyone else I suspect of regular, non-personal social media interactions.

Social Media Etiquette Best Practices will be the topic for the #SMchat Twitter chat on Wednesday, January 19, 2011 at 1PM ET with the following questions:

1) What are some social media etiquette best practices? How do you make sure to fit them into your social media marketing plan?

2) Does auto-posting violate the best practices of social media? Does it matter if you are online when the auto-post?

3) What advantages or disadvantages of auto-posting? Does auto-posting make social media interactions less personal / authentic?

4) Do you feel you “know” the people you interact with on social media? Why or why not?

5) Other than the “usual” – who (companies or individuals) is a good example of using social media best practices?

Please feel free to leave examples (good and bad) of social media etiquette best practices, including auto-posting if you think that’s a best practice, in the comments below. I will be happy to discuss them with you on Weds, 1/19/11 at 1P ET on the #SMchat Twitter chat hashtag – see you then!