New Media Mavens Blog

Promote your Business and Your Work with an E-Book

Always dreamed of writing a book but want to fast track the process?

Consider an e-book! You get to show off what you know instantly. And with an amazing new platform, you can do it for free. Check out Fast Pencil's amazing array of publishing possibilities. You can even invite your friends or colleagues and your team can write an e-book with ease. Now that's taking social media to a new place.

This could kick a whitepaper's butt! What do you think?

Alison Woo, Chief Media Maven

Twitter is growing! What will it Mean for Entrepreneurs?

Psst....here's some secret squirrel news!

Tomorrow Technorati, one of the world's largest search engine directories for blogs, will anounce they are launching a Twitter edition. Read more about it today's Tech Crunch.

What does this mean for you entrepreneurs out there? It means it time to up your game. Are you on Twitter? It not, it only takes a minute to get on board. And as we always say, it's not about the tools, it's about strategy.

Twitter is an amazing tool to talk to and listen to your customers. The latter is probably THE most important tool you can use for gathering business intelligence.

What's the one thing you want to know from your customers? Click "Comments" below and share!

Alison Woo, Chief Media Maven

How to Use This Summer to Move Your Business Forward

I love summer! Just last week, I had the great opportunity to visit one of my favorite places, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and see the glorious roses in the Cranford Rose Garden. It looks like a Monet painting come to life! (For more pics, friend me on Facebook and see the whole album!)

And this weekend's holiday just cemented all the reasons summer remains one of the best seasons in the year. Life slows down. We get to remember what's important.

It's so easy to get caught up with the day-to-day practice of working in your business that you don't have time to work ON your business. That stops today.

Nine weeks from today will be Labor Day. That means if you commit yourself today, you can do something amazing so that by the end of the summer your business could be further ahead than before.

Here are some things that can move you forward that you might consider:

• Tackle a new market: create a whitepaper, a new landing page for your website, book speaking engagements to your new target, submit articles to industry publication.
• Grow your online presence: Join Twitter; go to sites such as www.whoshouldifollow.com and start following others in your sphere of influence.
• Give your website a facelift: Shift to wordpress.org and create a blogsite instead of a separate website or blog.
• Engage in conversations on a daily basis: Commit to blogging daily instead of 3-4 times a week; ask your customers to join you and ask the questions they want answered; direct message people on Twitter talking about what you specialize in; go to LinkedIn.com and answer questions.

The goal of all of this is creating a new thought process around your business. If you want more out of  your business, you're going to have to invest more. Make this summer more meaningful.

Life is not static, it's dynamic. Make sure your business reflects where and who you are right now.

What will you commit to this summer? Join us and let's make this summer the most impactful yet!

Alison Woo, Chief Media Maven

How to Increase Your Influence

Last night, Lena and I had a chance to do what we love best: Talk to entrepreneurs about how to become experts in their field. During our teleclass, we talked about why it's important to become and expert and most importantly how you can showcase your expertise.

This morning I woke up really thinking about quantifying it as a formula. And that's when I stumbled up on this blog post from a blogger who went to WordCamp Chicago. (Don't you love when you attract just what you need at the right moment?)

Amy Ravit Korin writes:

According to Micah Baldwin, founder of #FollowFriday, if you truly want to be influential online, just influence one person.  He even provided a formula to back that up:

• Influence = Reach [Brand*Expertise*Trust], where reach is a multiplier of influence.

Let's break down that formula.

Expertise: This is the place to start. You have to develop an expertise in your field. You do that by putting in the hours, logging the miles and doing the work. This isn't about instant gratification. I's about actually knowing what you need to know so you can become the trusted resource. Sorry, no short cuts here.

I also want to say that learning never stops. It's not enough to be THE marketing genius of 2000. That's over. What are you doing to increase your learning right now?

Brand:There are whole books dedicated to this topic. But simply your brand is what your customer thinks of you. That's based on their experience with your business, product or service. Let's take two companies that offer a similar product like Mcdonald's and Burger King. They both offer hamburgers, French fries and shakes. But chances are strong that when you think about each one of them, you think something different. It could be something as simple as BK's "Have it Your Way" tag line that reminds you that you will get the burger made the way you want it. But brands matter.

Trust: You have to earn trust. And you do that by delivering on what you promise over and over again. It takes time to build trust and it can take a second to lose it. I hate that, but it's true.

Put all these things together: Expertise + Brand + Trustand now you share that with every one of your customers, clients and prospects.

Reach: New media can help you extend your reach by attracting followers (Twitter), gaining friends or fans, (Facebook) or connecting to colleagues (LinkedIn).

All together that adds up to create influence.

Influence is the new currency. While you can't take that immediately to the bank to deposit it, you can leverage it to yield far more than just a monetary amount. Influence or thought leadership confers respect, status, and things you can't buy. Ultimately people will come to you because you have significant influence. You will attract clients and possibilities and books and speaking engagements and a whole host of things you never even dreamed of.

Isn't that why you went into business in the first place? To make your mark. To do things the way you believe they should be done and not march to someone else's drummer?

What do you think influence will do for you?

Alison Woo, Chief Media Maven

P.S. Want to learn more on the power of influence? Here are some other good resources:

Micah's article, http://mashable.com/2009/03/02/measuring-online-influence/

And Paul Worthington (looking like a scruffier version of Paul Rudd) http://mashable.com/2009/03/24/brand-influence/.

Looking for a Place to Stop and Listen? Try NYC's High Line

As we come to the end of the month and our conversation about what's new, I felt inspired to share a fantastic video of NYC's newest urban space. It's called the High Line and it's the wonderful idea of community activists and donors in the meatpacking district. Elevated tracks were transformed into an oasis of calm. Every nook and cranny offers a stunning city or water view. And those delightful wooden chaise spaces and benches encourage everyone to stop and converse.

We spend a lot of time talking about how important it is to share and listen to your customer. We don't just mean using your computer and technology only. You need to find places to do so face-to-face, too. As Coleman says in their ads, this is the ultimate social networking. If you're a NYC business, The High Line is the perfect place to go. Make it informal. But most of all, have fun!

Ah, the High Line! Just another reason why I adore this city.

Alison Woo, Chief Media Maven

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Building a Community: Why Belonging is Important

In my copius free time, I like to take quizzes. You know those little apps you see on your friend's Facebook profiles or the ones on website that tell you how smart you are or who you should marry. Killing some time on a lazy Friday afternoon, I took -Time Out NY's "Do You Belong Here?" quiz. Being an ardent New Yorker, how could I not?

Good news! I aced it. See!

DO YOU BELONG IN NYC?
Absolutely.
You would never dream of moving anywhere else, and we've insulted you by even suggesting you might leave. You love every single thing about this town, right down to its adorable water-bug infestation. Click here for suggestions about how to really enjoy NYC.

Do you belong in New York City?

Apparently I do belong here in the town I grew up in and love. New York City is a tough town. And while I love it more than any other city than even my other favorite, (wait for it...) Paris, it's not the kind of place where the living is easy, for a myriad of reasons. But you get used to it. When I come here from being in Charlotte (where I also live, crazy, yes!) I have to give myself a day or so to ease into being back. The pace, the attitude, the no-smiling, no-look anyone in the eye thing takes getting used to again. But I wouldn't trade this city for anything in the world.

Taking the quiz reinforces how important belonging is to us humans. We like to belong. Dare I say, we need to belong to something, someone, someplace.

Do your customers feel like they belong to your brand? To your business? To your vision? That cannot be overlooked in the total brand experience. Customers who feel like they belong become your most passionate brand evanglists.

Using technology you can create a number of places where you let your customers know that you want them to feel like there's a place just for them. For some customers that could be your Facebook page. Or maybe it is your blog. Point is you need to have a place just for your customers to let them bask in your love.

Remember, it's not just about the cash transaction. You're building something bigger.

Where do you let your customers know they belong?

Alison Woo, Chief Media Maven

What's New on Facebook? Vanity URLs

Beginning Saturday, June 13, Facebook users can now have their own url instead of the current, cumbersome one i.e. http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?&new_box_added_id=2558160538#/profile.php?id=1212264627&ref=profile

Now your profile will look like this:  www.facebook.com/yourname. Much cleaner don't you think?

Read what Facebook has to say:

From the beginning of Facebook, people have used their real names to share and connect with the people they know. This authenticity helps to create a trusted environment because you know the identity of the people and things on Facebook.

Your new Facebook URL is like your personal destination, or home, on the Web. People can enter a Facebook username as a search term on Facebook or a popular search engine like Google, for example, which will make it much easier for people to find friends with common names.

So on Saturday click on http://www.facebook.com/username/ and you'll see this form:

Select the name that Facebook suggests or choose your own then click on "set username".

You can do the same for your Facebook Fan Page however right now Facebook is only allowing pages with 1000 fans to obtain a vanity url. This seems to cater to the big brands and not to the small business owner. There are ways to get around this though -- you can do what we did -- purchase a domain and point it to your fan page. Example:  www.MavensFanClub.com points to our book page.

What do you think of the idea of having a vanity url? 

Regards,

Lena Claxton

New Media Maven

Cutting-edge New Media Information: Mediabistro Circus - Day 2

We're exhilarated by the amount of info we heard yesterday. Everyone ready for Day 2? Can you stand it???

What's the Latest in New Media? Find out at Mediabistro Circus - Day 1

The big day is here and we'll all be under the giant media and new media test to find out cutting-edge information direct from the industry's leaders. Stay tuned to this blog today and tomorrow to help you find out the very latest. Keep reading and send us your questions by posting your comments here.

Roadtrip: Join us at the Mediabistro Circus!

It's the first day of June and growing up in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, this day always reminded me that summer is just around the corner. What's a great thing to do in summer? Take a road trip!

Join Lena and I in NYC on June 2-3 where we will be at Mediabistro's Circus. This is THE event of Internet Week in NY where the discussions will be all about the latest in technology and the merging of traditional and new media. Fantastic people such as Timothy Ferriss ("4 Hour Workweek") and BlogHer's COO Elisa Camahort Page

Can't be there in person? Then tune into this blog where we'll be live blogging the entire event so you can read everything that's going on from your own computer. You'll be able to see our pics, read our Twitter accounts and everything we have to say from this one location. We'll be posting on both days, Tuesday and Wednesday. So send us your favorite questions for your new media rock stars!

This is going to be a LOT of fun!