Business Growth Time

Background of Carol Lynn Rivera:

Carol Lynn is a writer, content creator and your go-to person for planning, strategy and ultimately getting your marketing done. As co-owner of Rahvalor Interactive and Web.Search.Social, she builds WordPress sites, manages social marketing, writes for email campaigns, blogs and websites, puts together marketing plans and manages the rest of her creative team of writers, designers and developers. She has been in the digital marketing business since 1999.

Carol Lynn loves reading, writing, sunflowers, cupcakes and being able to work with her husband and business partner, Ralph.

What we discuss:

•  What is a good idea when it comes to content curation
• Engagement does not always translate to sales
• Build up a relevant audience
• Quality over Quantity
• Photos of behind-the-scenes
• Pictures of your actual customers
• Have customers take selfies
• Have a customer-centered approach
• Ideas for posts for the entrepreneur / small business
• People like to see you
• Think outside the box
• Be yourself, even if it's outside of business
• Reuse your content. Post more than once. Repurpose.
• Goal of a business: generate leads and make sales
• Build relationships through social media

Action Steps to take in the next 24 hours:

Take your smartphone. Take a picture. Take a tip out of your latest blog post and put on the image. Use this as your next social media status.

Where can we find Carol Lynn?

Website and Podcast can be found at: WebSearchSocial.com and Podcast

Find Carol Lynn Rivera on any of your favorite social media sites and connect with her.

In this show we discuss the latest changes on Facebook and ideas to prepare for the upcoming holidays.

Latest Changes on Facebook:

• Facebook moved the scheduler next to the blue post button (arrows on the button) (DEMO at 9:34)
• Like-gate is gone as of November 5, 2014
• Look at your apps and make sure you
• It is not about the number of likes on your page, it is about having the right target market
• With Facebook ads and retarget, you can get in front of the right audience
• Heyo's blog talked about ideas to use instead of like gate (Here's the link to their blog post)
• Remove countries on your Facebook page that are not relevant to your target market (DEMO at 9:34)
• Facebook is about the targeted followers and the reach that happens with those targeted fans
• Meet Janet's cat (12:48)
• Contests

Ideas for the Holiday Season on Facebook

• Apps like Heyo can help you with contests
• Give away an item in your local market or that has to do with your business
• This can be done using a Facebook app or Timeline contest
• Get your fans on your email list
• You can specifically target your email list with ads
• Have fans post pictures of their fun stuff
• Gift idea suggestions
• Come up with bundled packages to sell during the holidays
• People are in the buying mode during this time of year

Take advantage of Facebook ads, Facebook promotions and have a Plan!

Looking for content ideas to post on your Social Media sites?  Then you will love our Guide!  You can Download the Ultimate Guide to Social Media Content Creation...and it is absolutely free.

Ways to subscribe to the Social Media Hangout Time Show or Podcast:

• Click here to subscribe via iTunes.
• You can also subscribe via Stitcher, Libsyn and SoundCloud

 

Help Us Spread the Word!

Please let your Twitter followers know about this podcast. Simply click here now to post a tweet.

If you enjoyed this episode of the Social Media Hangout Time podcast, please head over to iTunes, leave a rating, write a review and subscribe. 

 

Rather read?  Head here for the full transcript

This segment is a short mini-lesson by Janet E Johnson. She will walk you through the ways to repurpose your content over and over so you can do less work. This will not only save you time and energy, but will give you different types of content to use across the different social media channels.

Remember, this is based on starting with a Google Hangout, but you could change it around any way that you'd like. You can start with a blog post and repurpose that into a video. So many different directions this can go!

What is covered in this segment:

• Start with a Google Hangout
• Repurpose into a short video to upload to Facebook (example I discuss was of the last show:
• Videos are easy to clip
• Download the sound file into a Podcast
• Take this content and create a blog post around the video
• Create an Image of the interview
• Take quotes out of the interview
• Turn the quote images or quotes into a presentation format and load to Slideshare
• Take text quotes and use a text-only social media posts
• Don't forget to REPURPOSE your content into multiple formats

Content Curation for Business Owners with Ralph M. Rivera

Who is Ralph M. Rivera?

He is the founder of Rahvalor Interactive with my wife Carol Lynn. They have a branded service offering called Web.Search.Social which provides web, search and social marketing to small businesses.

He is the CTO at Triberr and he teaches web development at Manhattan College in New York City.

NOTE: We had a little glitch at the beginning with Janet's internet going down for a couple minutes, so if you watch the video, it is unedited. We feel it makes it more real!

This is a must-watch because something that has NEVER happened before happens! Fun interview with LOTS of valuable content!

Here's what we discuss with Ralph:

• Content curation for business sucks! ;)
• Do you really need to publish content in a 80/20% ratio?
• Main focus is closing business
• Edgerank has lead to noise
• Simple answer: Listen to your Customers. What are they talking about?
• Look at why you don't get hired
• End goal about social media campaign: It is about business
• Post BETTER
• Fine-tune content and ads. Need to be willing to adapt and change as they go!
• Ralph revealed that Ryan Hanley is actually a puppet. ;)
• Are you posting on platforms where your target market actually is?
• Where are your customers? Post where they are
• Janet froze again!
• Dino Dogan is secretly a puppet...no human can have a goatee that good. :)

Where to find Ralph and their marketing Game Changer Kit!

Ralph and his wife, Carol Lynn just launched their show and it hit new and noteworthy for marketing. Their goal is to challenge the 'status quo'.  Subscribe and listen to their show at: websearchsocial.com/podcast

Marketing Game Changer Kit: marketinggamechangerkit.com

Action Step to take in the Next 24 Hours

Go online and go to ALL search engines, Google, Yahoo and Bing. Search for your name. Make a list of all the channels that are wrong and get those fixed.

 What we covered in this Show:

• Where to find the Publisher Tool (little pencil in status update)
• Publisher is very similar to a status update
• Difference between Publisher and Status Update
• Publisher is more robust and it alerts your connections when you post
• Be consistent with the Publisher
• Can you do your blog post on LinkedIn Publisher? Repurpose content used in past
• Think about where your audience is
• Helps you position yourself as an authority
• Use it to capture email addresses to build your list
• Headlines are key!
• Is SEO a factor when using Publisher? Incorporate keywords
• Should you take the readers of LinkedIn to your blog? Think about what the audience wants
• How often should you publish? Up to you, but stay consistent. Add LinkedIn Publisher as part of your content calendar
• Also depends on how much content you create to use for this
• Tagging is sorting contacts based on location, where you met, what they do, etc. Tag when you connect.
• Tag your target market - specific group
• Webinars - Tag for potential prospects
• Use the company pages too.

Listen via Podcast:

24 Hour Action Step:

Post using LinkedIn Publisher and organize your tags on LinkedIn.

Looking for content ideas to post on your Social Media sites?  Then you will love our Guide!  You can Download the Ultimate Guide to Social Media Content Creation...and it is absolutely free.

Ways to subscribe to the Social Media Hangout Time Show or Podcast:

• Click here to subscribe via iTunes.
• You can also subscribe via Stitcher, Libsyn and SoundCloud

 

Help Us Spread the Word!

Please let your Twitter followers know about this podcast. Simply click here now to post a tweet.

If you enjoyed this episode of the Social Media Hangout Time podcast, please head over to iTunes, leave a rating, write a review and subscribe. 

 

Rather read?  Head here for the full transcript

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Who is Keri Jaenig?

• Top Social Media Campaign for State of Ohio Tourism, 2013 (Managed)
• Commendation of Social Media Attainment by State of Ohio Senate, 2013
• Honorable Mention, Small Business Influencer Awards, 2013
• Achieved a #1 ranked answer on Quora: How Can You Tell A Good Social Media Strategist From A Bad One Before It’s Too Late.

Her clients typically experience increased traffic to their website, significant fan and follower engagement, new lead generation, collaborative strategic alliances, and even awards given by respected sources of their industries. Those Keri has mentored have seen lucrative growth. From another social media professional:

“You pushed me to bring my A Game to the table in running my company in ways you will never fully grasp. You keep me motivated to do my best work every day.” Keri writes regularly at her own blog, ideagirlmedia.com, SteamFeed, Search Engine People, and she has been featured at Forbes, AOL Small Business, Social Media Today, Business Insider, as well as other leading social media and marketing online publications.

What we discussed in this interview:

• Ways to build an email list. We cover ideas such as Facebook, webinar, training event, real-life event, website/blog
• The website/blog is the place to start
• Need a balance of quality and quantity
• Aim for quality AND quanity
• Visual content grabs attention
• We have 3 seconds to get attention
• Dabbling in using .gif's grabs attention
• What is your purpose for being there?
• Provide Value
• Need value and creativity
• Where is your audience
• Feature customers, tell stories and post to social sites like Instagram
• Using Special Characters
• Variety of type of posts - text only, shared post, blog post, image post
• Look at analytics so you know what is performing well
• Set up an editorial calendar - tie content with theme
• Facebook prefers things in alphabetical order
• Watch what competition is doing and don't do that
• Be the authentic you
• New Baby, Congratulations, etc...is supposedly at the top of news feed - she did a test
• As a general rule, follow a plan

 Action Step to take in the next 24 hours:

Try out the social media tool called Canva. They pre-size the images for social media.

Do hashtag research in your niche. You can use hashtagify to do this.

How can you get in touch with Keri?

Twitter: @keriyaenig and @ideagirlmedia

She also has a new program with a collaboration of businesses called Likeable League Inner Circle.

Looking for content ideas to post on your Social Media sites?  Then you will love our Guide!  You can Download the Ultimate Guide to Social Media Content Creation...and it is absolutely free.

Ways to subscribe to the Social Media Hangout Time Show or Podcast:

• Click here to subscribe via iTunes.
• You can also subscribe via Stitcher, Libsyn and SoundCloud

 

Help Us Spread the Word!

Please let your Twitter followers know about this podcast. Simply click here now to post a tweet.

If you enjoyed this episode of the Social Media Hangout Time podcast, please head over to iTunes, leave a rating, write a review and subscribe. 

 

Rather read?  Head here for the full transcript

How to get leads and grow your business with Webinars with Josh Turner

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Who is Josh Turner?

Josh Turner is the founder of Linked Selling, a B2B marketing firm specializing in fully outsourced lead generation campaigns, as well as Webinarli.com, which specializes in webinar lead generation. His company represents clients in the US, Canada, UK, Asia, and Australia, in a wide variety of industries.

Josh's company also operates LinkedUniversity.com, an online training program for LinkedIn marketing, as well as Webinar University, where you can learn how to grow your business using webinars. He has been featured in the Huffington Post, Miami Herald, and many more national publications.

What we covered with Josh:

• Webinars grew his own business at first
• They had been generating thousands of leads a month by doing webinars before he launched Webinarli
• What types of businesses best for using webinars? (Not Kimmy's type of business, unless she wants to position herself as a coach to other salon owners). Targeting other people within the business world (not the best fit for a retail establishment)
• Best way to target: combination of Facebook and Linkedin advertising, with a little bit of organic using Linkedin and email. Highly targeted on Google too.
• Get people to a free webinar landing page for them to sign up. Maybe some bonuses.
• After webinar, try to follow up with a phone call. This has worked really well.
• People like to talk to a real person
• Josh prefers GoToMeeting Webinar system
• Test webinar products out before going live with your audience so you are comfortable and know they work
• Google Hangouts have some webinar systems that interconnect with the hangout
• Webinar University - one funnel webinar breakdown case study - John Lee Dumas is doing a great job of this
• If you want to be on video during presentations, look at the Hangout option. Sharing slides the better option is GoToMeeting.
• When calling, how do you collect phone #'s? You don't want to ask for too much information at first. 2nd step is to add the phone # test reminder option. If you don't have their phone #, have a virtual assistant find their phone # using their name and email
• Integrating all the different pieces
• B2B world - Linkedin is where it is at
• Build a relationship with prospect before you go for the sale
• Putting webinars on auto-pilot after the fact is a huge benefit
• Prioritize according to what is working

24 Hours Take-Action Steps

Never done a webinar or doing webinars and want to up your game?  Find people in your space doing it well and watch what they are doing. You don't have to copy exact, but piggyback and be yourself.

How can you connect with Josh?

LinkedSelling.com

Webinarli.com

Josh's Linkedin Profile - Connect with him there

Looking for content ideas to post on your Social Media sites?  Then you will love our Guide!  You can Download the Ultimate Guide to Social Media Content Creation...and it is absolutely free.

Ways to subscribe to the Social Media Hangout Time Show or Podcast:

• Click here to subscribe via iTunes.
• You can also subscribe via Stitcher, Libsyn and SoundCloud

What Janet and Lisa discuss in this Show:

• Challenges are opportunities
• What makes technology hold people back and how to overcome technology issues? Don't be afraid to ask for help and don't be afraid to spend money
• What makes Google+ different than any of the other platforms? #1: You can actually see what you are interested in due to the organization
• How to organize your Circles, view the specific circles and how to email your circles
• What type of business should be on Google Plus?
• If you have a Gmail account, you are on Google Plus, so you should make sure you add your profile picture and details about your company. Many people do not even realize this.
• Google Plus vs Google Places vs Google Maps vs Google Plus Local ...what are all these broken down????
• A business needs to make sure their Google Places listing that shows on Google links to the right Google+ page. (Explained how to find this in the video)
• Record video through Google Plus with HOA's (Hangouts on Air). We cover some ideas on how to create videos with these hangouts.
• The Google Profile (or Page) needs to be linked to the proper YouTube channel
• Hangouts have more power on YouTube than a regular video uploaded to YouTube
• HOA's can be public or private
• Hangouts on mobile
• Lower 1/3 image - how to set it up (we explain how to set this up...step by step)

Action Steps to take on Google Plus in the next 24 hours

Take an existing Gmail account (or set up a new one if you do not have one). Set up your Profile on Google Plus that is linked to that Gmail account. Fill in the information, links, contact information and your PICTURE...a good headshot (otherwise you are a blue head).

Create a couple circles and start circling some people you know and want to connect you.

Looking for content ideas to post on your Social Media sites?  Then you will love our Guide!  You can Download the Ultimate Guide to Social Media Content Creation...and it is absolutely free.

Ways to subscribe to the Social Media Hangout Time Show or Podcast:

• Click here to subscribe via iTunes.
• You can also subscribe via Stitcher, Libsyn and SoundCloud

 

Help Us Spread the Word!

Please let your Twitter followers know about this podcast. Simply click here now to post a tweet.

If you enjoyed this episode of the Social Media Hangout Time podcast, please head over to iTunes, leave a rating, write a review and subscribe. 

Who is Gary Loper?

Gary Loper is a recognized Twitter expert, mindset coach, motivational speaker, trainer, former talk radio host, life and business coach, and highly respected entrepreneur, helping people master the business of life by Building Better Relationships.

In addition, Gary’s strong background in marketing and sales, and his 30+ years of superior customer service and 15 years of direct sales adds more depth to who he is. He teaches his audience strategies and tactics on how to become successful, to produce and maintain positive solutions, to stay in a positive mindset, and attract and manifest true wealth. He empowers people to discover their hidden assets, develop confidence and create better relationships with themselves first, before creating life and business relationships.

With 160,000+ followers on Twitter he has built a huge following based on adding value to people’s lives, sharing his knowledge, beliefs and philosophies in his messages. He has incorporated into his platform ‘Just for Today’ messages, inspirational messages that have helped people renew their hope.

What’s more, Gary has worked with some of the top coaches in the world including Bob Burg, Loral Langemeier and Eric Lofholm. He is platinum certified with the Eric Lofholm Selling System, and a certified Go-Giver Coach through Bob Burg International, and a certified ‘YES! Energy Coach’ through Live Out Loud. Studying from some of the top teachers in coaching, business and financial development, he now has a deep well of tools to assist entrepreneurs to create an abundant business as well as becoming an even better person for themselves, their family, partners, and all the lives they may touch.

What did we cover with Gary in this interview?

• Relationships affect our entire world - work on ourselves first
• People are going to do business with people we know, like and trust
• What differentiates me from everybody else? Consumers are looking for a connection
• How Gary got started on Twitter
• Talk to people vs broadcasting on Twitter and social media
• Let others you'd like to connect with know you exist - get to know each other
• Don't ask for marriage on the first date
• It's not B2B or BtoC...it's P2P... People to People - It's about building connections
• How can I serve you? How can I help you first?
• Blend the leverage of technology - schedule/automate some things
• Create lists on Twitter to follow conversations that you want to add to the conversation
• Write posts that answer other's questions and solve their problems

Action Step to take in the next 24 hours:

Twitter Profile - Most valuable real estate on Twitter. Current picture/headshot of you smiling. 160 characters in profile. These words should be your keywords that people are searching for. These are indexed on Google/Bing/Twitter search. Take out the non-usable words. Jam it full of action words.

How can you get in touch with Gary?

He is the author of 3 eBooks: Master the Twitterverse, Guide to Getting More Followers, and 37 Keys to Building Better Networking Relationships and 20 Secrets to Building Better Love Relationships.

Bring Gary to your conference, speaking engagements, organizations, networking or meet up groups, chambers, or invite him to speak on your BLOG Talk Radio. Schedule Gary to speak at your next event. Or, call 727.374.7652 or email him: Gary@GaryLoper.com.

Looking for content ideas to post on your Social Media sites?  Then you will love our Guide!  You can Download the Ultimate Guide to Social Media Content Creation...and it is absolutely free. Ways to subscribe to the Social Media Hangout Time Show or Podcast:

• Click here to subscribe via iTunes.
• You can also subscribe via Stitcher, Libsyn and SoundCloud

  Help Us Spread the Word! Please let your Twitter followers know about this podcast. Simply click here now to post a tweet. If you enjoyed this episode of the Social Media Hangout Time podcast, please head over to iTunes, leave a rating, write a review and subscribe.    Rather read?  Head here for the full transcript

How Your Facebook Page Content can go Viral using Post Planner with Joshua Parkinson

Joshua Parkinson is the Founder of  Post Planner.

His specialties: troublemaking, product development, jedi mind tricks, UI/UX, simplicity mongering, fate hacking, catching extremely quick desert lizards, Facebook marketing, copywriting, crushing the boxes people think outside of, uncomfortable situations, googling things, philosophizing, and degrading energy

His superhuman feats:
• Took app from zero to 50k users and $30k/mo revenue in 1 year
• Designed UI/UX
• Grew blog from 9k to 180k uniques/month in 1 year

 What we cover with Joshua in this interview:

• He started Post Planner in March of 2011
• Post Planner is an app that makes it super easy to post social media content to Facebook
• This app started as a scheduler, but content is the pain point, so now this program helps find viral photos, viral content and more
• Content marketing works. Their case study (with the help of Scott Ayres) proves that blogging works being that they have hit the the top 10 list of best blogs in 2014 by Social Media Examiner
• Post Planner has a Free Version and Paid Versions
• His suggestion: Post 3x per day. Morning, mid-day, evening. Mix it up with article, pictures and text posts. Schedule ahead.
• App shows the successful posts
• Run targeted Facebook ads along with your posts to add more
• Post Planner takes the worry out of coming up with content
• Are they expanding off of Facebook? A web app is coming starting with Twitter.

What can you do in the next 24 hours to take action?

Go into app on PostPlanner.com. Create your favorite pages that you want to follow. Organize those pages into a single folder.

Connect with Post Planner at:

Head here: PostPlanner.com. Under: Use it Free, Click on Sign in with Facebook.

Also, check out their AWESOME BLOG!  PostPlanner.com/Blog

Social Media and Online Tools to Simplify your Time with Janet E Johnson and Lisa Saline

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On this show Lisa and I discuss our favorite tools that simplify our marketing lives and save us time. This is a part 2 of a previous show about tools because we have so many favorites.

Facebook Tools:

#1: Heyo

Tool to build Facebook App Pages. You can use it for an email campaign, contests, about us, YouTube Channel, Pinterest Channel, Google Reviews and so much more.   Pricing: starts free for a trial and up.

#2: Post Planner

Scheduling tool for Facebook posts. You can schedule your posts, sample pre-written posts you can use, trending topics, post to multiple Facebook pages at the same time and much more offered with this tool. Pricing: Try it for free!

Google+ Tools

#1: Circloscope

Helps build your circles, who you follow and who follows you. This puts building your circles and your Google+ presence on steroids...really speeds up the process. :) Pricing: $47/year.

#2: Do Share

This is a way to schedule to your Google+ Profile. This is the only tool that we know of that can schedule your post to your PROFILE on Google+. Most schedulers can only schedule to pages.  Only downfall to this tool is that your computer must be running in order in order for the scheduled posts to go. Pricing: Do Share is FREE.

Twitter Tools:

Socialoomph

Find really good content and put it in a repost bucket. It will be recycled for you. It has the unfollow feature, helps source the right kind of hashtag sources, helps build followers and more. Pricing: Free and Paid versions

Online Tools:

Lead Pages

Squeeze page templates that have been tested and documented to convert. It is a drag'n'drop program that integrates with your email program. It helps convert sales, build your list and so much more. Pricing: $297/year

Aweber

Email campaign system for collecting emails. This also integrates with Lead Pages.

Infusionsoft

Extremely robust marketing system. There are a lot of marketing campaigns that can integrate with LeadPages.

Pricing: Set up Fee + $250 - $350/month

Do you use any of the above tools? What are your favorites? We'd love to hear your feedback!

Also, if you are a creator of a tool that you think our audience would love to hear about, please contact us so that we can review and possibly have you on our show.

YouTube Video Marketing Tips with Jessica Brace

We interviewed Jessica all about how to use videos to grow your business! She has some amazing tips in this interview. If you are currently doing video or want to do more with video, you must listen to this interview.

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About Jessica Brace

“YouTube Queen” Jessica Brace can transform your struggling internet presence into a client-attracting magnet in xxx minutes or less. Combining the atomic power of video marketing, with her passion for helping you feel both comfortable and courageous in front of the camera, Jessica helps you create compelling videos that can generate more for your business.
Best selling author of “Ready, Set, GO Make a Video: 101 YouTube Video Ideas for Your Business” and renowned video marketing and business coaching specialist, Jessica Brace helps your business leverage the power of video, build a stronger brand, expand your audience and become the “go-to” expert in your field.

Video is the top secret weapon of in-the-know businesses who want a profitable internet presence. Visibility is King of the Internet. That’s why Jessica believes 53 and 56 should be your favorite numbers. Video increases the chances of your website landing on the FIRST page of Google 53-fold! And, 56% of the people searching Google for what you offer clicked on the Number 1 search result. Compare that to 13% clicking on the number 2 result and you can see for yourself the power of video.

Jessica offers consulting, video coaching and video shoots to match your budget – and increase your cash flow.

What you will learn from Jessica is in this interview:

• Focus on Gratitude over the Fear when recording your video
• Why video works?
• You don't have to be perfect
• Video is just leaving a video voice mail
• Use the questions you get asked most often, then answer the question in a video
• If you show up as the expert will win the business
• Searches in Google love YouTube videos - Websites just show text. Videos show a video.
• Google/YouTube/Google+ all work together now
• How to use keywords in your Videos to show up better
• Local businesses have an advantage by using YouTube to show up on Google

What can you do to take action in the next 24 hours?

What are the questions you are most commonly asked in your business?  Then create videos around the answers to those questions.  Just go do it! :)

SPECIAL OFFER FOR SMHT LISTENERS:

Get a free copy of the book, her new book 'Ready, Set, GO Make A Video - 101 YouTube Ideas for Your Business.' Just pay $9.95 S/H when using this special link:  Http://ReadySetGOMakeAVideo.com/smhangout

Find Jessica on YouTube: JessicaBrace.com/youtube

Looking for content ideas to post on your Social Media sites?  Then you will love our Guide!  You can Download the Ultimate Guide to Social Media Content Creation...and it is absolutely free.

Ways to subscribe to the Social Media Hangout Time Show or Podcast:

• Click here to subscribe via iTunes.
• You can also subscribe via Stitcher, Libsyn and SoundCloud

Dan Mazzini - Founder: Hashtagify.me Dan is  the founder of CyBranding Ltd. He started this to follow up on the success of his website hashtagify.me. His goal is to make it easier for real innovators to get noticed - and create a valuable brand - without needing tons of money or having to resort to black-hat tactics. After a few months of working on CyBranding part time, since September 2013 he is now working on it full time. In this interview we get a full demo of how hashtagify.com works.  Being that the demo is visual, you may want to choose to watch via video over listening on podcast.

Here's what Dan discussed with us in this interview:

• Started Hashtagify while still in day job and now is full time in this business
• What if you are not familiar with hashtags? How to understand hashtags?
• Hashtags originally came from chat rooms
• Hashtagify is a hashtag search tool
• Full detailed demo of how to use Hashtagify

Dan's tip to take action in the next 24 hours:

1st: Make a list of the top keywords related to your subject

2nd: Start searching for the hashtags for these words on Hashtagify.me.

3rd: Find top hashtags in your field. Find the top rated ones and make a list of these from specific to less specific.

4th: Use one or two of the top hashtags you found the next time you tweet, G+, Instagram, etc.

5th: Find top influencers using the same hashtags. Create connection with them.

Points we discussed in this interview with Tim: Tim started his career back in the Army Major changes with video in the past 20 years Importance of video in social media Social media is rocket fuel for more views on your videos A sample video content marketing strategy - What assets do you have already? Tell your story and define your audience Titles to videos in the way customers would ask the question (how-to) Remember, YouTube is a search engine Measure video effectiveness with analytics tools: Brightcove, Wistia Small businesses need to just make sure the quality is good Types of cameras: Smartphones can work. Sound is what is so important. Title and Description of video on YouTube is critical! First thing is description should be website. Add captions to with keywords to your videos Add annotations (clickable hot links) Facebook videos vs YouTube videos - how to post You can turn off videos at end of yours that pop up When embed, use right aspect ratio Pin each video to Pinterest Action Step you should take in the next 24 hours: Testimonial - Interview your best client. Get them talking about your business!

Here's what we discuss with Ravi in this interview: 

• Why a business should use Facebook?
• Advice on Facebook. It does work, but it is not something that happens overnight. It is a long-term plan.
• How to keep the reach up. #1 way is CONTENT.
• Showcase/Spotlight your customers
• What you can learn using your Facebook Insights
• Following Trends - Finding 'trending topics' on Facebook - How to use and why to use it
• Visual content in the form of images and videos is growing - Practical tips on how to do this
• Mobile and Apps
• Importance of website being mobile-optimized
• Facebook ads on mobile - using for targeting
• Using graph search to target ads - why and how to do this

Gary Kissel primarily focuses on using Linkedin to build his business and coaches others on how to use it too.

Lisa and Janet love tools to help them streamline their marketing efforts in social media.

Here are the list of tools we use and love:

1. Hootsuite (Lisa). Why? Manage and monitor what people are saying about your brand, schedule on multiple platforms, manage multiple accounts, Hootsuite University tutorials and analytic reports.
2. Facebook Scheduler (Janet). Why? If you are not aware, you can set up weekly, monthly, etc right inside Facebook. It is the little clock button in the bottom left hand corner in the area where you write a post. 
3. Buffer App (Lisa). Why? Find content that you want to share and you can build it up in this app and schedule it for later.
4. Friends+Me (Janet). Why? Tool to post from Google+ Profile to other social media platforms, then post to Facebook, Twitter, or Linkedin. It is guided by hashtags where you want to repost.
5. Hashtagify (Lisa). Why? Tells you what hashtags are trending and maybe you can piggyback that trend if it works into your business.
6. Sharegrab (Janet). Why? Shows the most engaging, viral content on specific pages
7. Rebelmouse (Lisa). Why? Aggregates all your content into one website. It can be integrated within your website too.
8. Canva (Janet). Why? Different layouts and images offered to create your own graphic design. Provide $1 stock images too.
9. Where to find Stock Images? Blog.bufferapp.com/free-image-sources-list

(Janet's Blog Post on 9 apps to increase productivity)

Ryan Hanley is the founder of Hanley Media Lab, an advanced content marketing agency helping companies grow their audience, to grow their business. Ryan is the producer of the Content Warfare Podcast, one of iTunes most downloaded content marketing podcasts for over two years. Ryan is also the author of Content Warfare: How to find your audience, tell your story and win the battle for attention.

He recently  in a list of 70 Rising Social Media Stars by Mark Schaefer: The Top 70 rising social media stars. We congratulate him for that achievement!!!

In this interview we discuss with Ryan:

• Moved his show from a podcast (listen only) to a live Google+ Hangout Podcast
• 2 camps of viewers...watchers of the videos and listeners of podcasts
• Live vs Prerecorded Hangouts
• Capturing attention for a brief period of time - Attention married with trust
• Why do you do business? Telling stories
• Cost - We will overpay if we feel we are connected
• Make a connection, then offer a deal to get them in the door
• Facebook - For local business, it is highly suggested to be on it
• Idea: Post a picture of staff members and small tidbits about that person's life
• Interruptions vs Inbound marketing - build social proof
• People are talking about your business if your business is on social media or not, but with social media you have the opportunity to step in and correct the problem
• Filter to core audience
• "Digitizing the sole of your business" - Build trust first, then tell your story
• Ryan has a new book:
• Download FREE Chapter of Book

Action Step to take in the next 24 Hours

Think back to Day 1. What was your why of starting your business. Ask your customers why they think you should be in business. Connect the Why's to be the same thing. :)

Learn all about Ryan and connect with him at:  RyanHanley.com

Who is Dino Dogan?

Founder of Triberr. Lousy Mixed Martial Artist and a recovering Network Engineer. Pretty good singer/songwriter, trainer of dogs, and a blogger of biz. Fun at parties and a global force for badassery.

We discuss Triberr - an amazing blog sharing platform

• What is Triberr?
• Who's it for?
• Content curator, connector and sharing platform
• How did Dino come up with the idea?
• How does it work?
• It's about giving and sharing other's content...it will come back
• Tribber plugin for self-hosted Wordpress
• You want attention that comes from traffic
• Life's an 'and', not an 'or. :)

Dino Dogan and Mike Brooks have a podcast that interviews speakers right before they are going to do a TED talk. The podcast is called Road to TED.

 Dino's Action Steps to Implement in the next 24 Hours:

#1: Start a BLOG. If you don't have a blog, you don't have a voice! Own your own empire!

#2: You need a Tribe to help you build a Tribe

#3: Sign up for Triberr

Where can Dino be found?

DinoDogan.com and Triberr.com

Twitter Handle: @dinodogan

Mike's Company: Nuclear Chowder Marketing

Mike helps small businesses with their online marketing. He will build websites, mobile apps, manage search/inbound marketing, social media. He has a very hands on approach. His mission is his client's success.

He is a blogger, podcaster and speaker for hire. He loves helping folks succeed. As the owner of a martial arts school for over 10 years, he knows how hard it is to run a small business.

Here's what is covered in the interview with Mike Brooks:

• Why he named his company 'Nuclear Chowder Marketing'.
• It's important to stand out!
• You have 2 seconds to get people to pay attention.
• You either tell your story or someone else will.
• Myth: Content is suddenly important. It's always been important.
• Tell stories - People like to learn from stories
• When you are referred to someone, what do you do when you get their name? Google? Facebook?
• If your competition has a better story, you could lose business to them
• Guts of what you should do on a daily basis is marketing...working on making sales!
• Focus on your current customers
• What should you write about? Talk to your customers to find out what to write about.
• Talk about what is going to answer a question
• Everything is mobile - Invest in Mobile

Mike's Tip to take action on in the next 24 hours:

Make sure that their marketing messages are dialed in for conversions. Assess your website on desktop AND mobile.

Where can you find Mike Brooks?  His website: Nuclear Chowder Marketing and on Twitter @michaelsbrooks

Nick is the owner of Tech Nick Creative, a web marketing company in Minneapolis, MN. At night, he dreams about social media, web design, blog strategy, and other ways to help small and medium companies grow using the web. Nick is a speaker and instructor on social media strategy, teaching a course on the topic at Century College, Argosy University, and North Hennepin Community College. He just release his new social media book called "Shout in the Right Direction."

What we cover in this interview with Nick:

• Connect with Nick on Twitter: @nickrosener
• New Book: Shout in the Right Direction
• Biggest Challenges - figuring out your segments
• Once you figure out your segment, think about where they hang out
• Each social network is like a different language
• Maybe you shouldn't be trying to use every platform
• Imaginary Sales Person Exercise
• Tracking Systems - Hootsuite
• Have everything come back to the marketing segments
• What is your core purpose for being in business?
• Campaign calendar (instead of an editorial calendar)
• Narrow campaign to a specific goal
• Different types of metrics to measure

Action Steps to take in the next 24 hours:

Make a campaign for 1 month. 1 basic thing. Write down a Smart Goal. Then write down the ACTION PLAN.

Implement this in the next month.

Reach out to Nick or his co-author Eric on Twitter: Use #shoutbook

Find this book on Amazon - Kindle or Paperback

Lisa and Janet discuss image ideas and why to use images in this post. If you are interested in all the slides from this show and the 1st part of the series, they are available at SocialMediaHangoutTime.com/Guide. You will also receive our Social Media Content Guide when you sign up, so lots of great information for you. Janet starts out by reading 5 stats for Marketers to Consider on using images from the book, The Power of Visual Storytelling by Ekaterina Walter and Jessica Gioglio.

5 Key Stats from the book:

1. 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and visuals are processed in the brain 60, 000 times faster than text.
2. 40% of people respond better to visual information than to plain text.
3. Studies have shown that the average modern adult attention span is somewhere between 2.8 seconds and 8 seconds.
4. The visual networks Tumblr, Pinterest, and Instagram all grew during 2012, dubbed the "the rise of the social web" by ComScore.
5. 94% more total views on average are attracted by content containing compelling images than content without images.

10 Image Tips Covered:

1. Ask your fans to share their photo moments.
2. Share a picture of management taking part in the day to day operations.
3. Offer a Series of Photographs. Focus on a specific subject or timeframe of importance to your audience.
4. Share an image to celebrate a milestone for your business or organization.
5. Word images aren't made for paragraphs of texts so edit the message and keep it to no more than a sentence or two.
6. Check text color that contrasts with the background you're going to place the text over.
7. Choose images with areas that lend themselves to have text added.
8. Turn the answers to your FAQ's into an Image.
9. Teach a lesson using an infographic.
10. In order to trace a word image back to your business, make sure that the last step you do when creating the image is to add a mention of your business somewhere on the image.

Looking for content ideas to post on your Social Media sites?  Then you will love our Guide!  You can Download the Ultimate Guide to Social Media Content Creation...and it is absolutely free. Ways to subscribe to the Social Media Hangout Time Show or Podcast:

Brian Horn and Jack Mize are interviewed in this show.  Brian is a best-selling author who has helped many top celebrity entrepreneurs in the world with the online branding, search engine optimization and internet marketing.  Jack is a speaker, author, trainer and one of the most respected and sought after Online Media Marketing Strategists for small business owners and and local marketing consultants.

They discuss how they teach people how to build authority.  They have a show called Authority Alchemy.

Core of an authority...start thinking of yourself as an educator and advocate for your customer's success.

Some major points covered by Brian and Jack in this interview:

• Be an educator and advocate for your client's success
• Move how you introduce from 'I am...' to 'I help...'
• Be authentic, show flaws, not be afraid to be a real person
• Story lines - Brian's '90210 Formula' - 5 is the magic #
• Create anxiety and curiosity to your target market
• Using Profile on Facebook vs Page on Facebook - Brian explains how he uses his profile
• Use humor and use motivation in your posts
• Not using your profile to sell, but make people want to buy

Action Steps to take in the next 24 hours

1. Jack's Tip: Focus on your current customers and give them a reason to have them want to refer you to your family and friends.  Go to your 'About Me' on Facebook and other social sites.  Make sure it is reading 'I help...' vs 'I am...'
2. Brian's Tip: Head to become a contributor on CNN. Link is ireport.cnn.com.  Apply for an account.  Post a news story.  Post it.  Share link of story and now you have the authority of being on CNN.

The authority marketing really does work! Little things can

FUN NOTE:  Around the 8 minute mark in the video, Kimmy cracks a funny joke to Jack. ;)

Kimmy and Janet interview Nathan Latka, Founder & Chief Executive Officer of  Heyo.com.

Heyo helps businesses market on Facebook. We work with over 2,000 customers and brands on a monthly basis with over 100,000 total users. - 147% revenue growth from FY1 to FY2.  Named a top tech trend for small businesses by The Next Web and also Featured in Facebook Marketing for Dummies.

In this interview we cover:

• How Nathan came up with the idea of Heyo
• What does Heyo offer?  Who is it for?
• 1.2 Billion unique users logging into Facebook per month
• How to use Heyo to capture emails, drive engagement, drive sales via Facebook and other social sites
• Drag and drop campaigns that saves time and money
• New Contest Campaigns
• Is it mobile-friendly? Yes! Why that's so IMPORTANT!
• Goal is to convert into leads
• What are the best 3 apps (tabs) to set up for a small business?
• How simple Heyo is to use - No coding needed
• How Heyo can help a business stand out and be unique
• How a business got 17,000 impressions and collected 4,500 email addresses on a campaign that took less than 30 minutes to set up!  Conversion with no ads was 25%!

Action Step a Business should do to take action in the next 24 hours:

• Head over to Heyo.com and sign up for a FREE account.  Use the 1st contest you see on the upper right.  Set it an offer and test it out!

Want to run a Timeline contest?  Try Heyo's Timeline Contest Creator:  Timeline Contests Heyo App

 Head to Heyo.com to try it out for FREE today!  

 Why does Janet recommend and use Heyo herself?

• Simplicity
• Great customer care

Connect with Nathan:  On Twitter - @Nathanlatka  or @Heyo

Chat or Call them anytime at 1-800-884-8640 - Chris, Brooks, Wes or Nathan

Yes!  Grandma Mary came on our show and boy did we have a fun time of learning!  She had so much great advice to simplify your Facebook marketing strategies.

Who is Grandma Mary?  Here's a little secret...she is really Andrea Vahl.  (We discuss how this came about on our show)

Andrea is the co-author of Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies and was the Community Manager for Social Media Examiner, for over 2 years.  She specializes in teaching Facebook marketing and Facebook advertising to businesses all over the world.  She also uses her Improv comedy skills to blog as a slightly cranky character, Grandma Mary – Social Media Edutainer on her site at www.AndreaVahl.com.

Points discussed and taught by Grandma Mary:

• Don't be afraid to be different.  Have fun with what you like doing.
• How Andrea got started with Grandma Mary
• The drop in organic reach for Facebook Page owners
• Types of posts that help your page get seen - she talks about how she did a specific test putting Facebook, Twitter, Google+ up against each other
• Types of posts Grandma Mary suggests (Top 2 types) - #1: Photos #2: Link Posts
• Humor Posts work well - People are on Facebook to have fun
• Time to pay to play
• Her Facebook ad training program:  FBAdvertisingSecrets.com
• Ads Manager vs Power Editor - Blog Post: When you Need to Use Facebook Power Editor and When you Don't
• Budget with ads -  Blog Post: How to Set your Facebook Ads Budget
• Using ads to move people to your email list
• Tracking your ad conversions
• Offers to use on Facebook
• Test and Track 

In this video/podcast, we walk through 10 ways to use images.  Here are the 10 ways that we cover.

1. Post a picture of your open sign and caption it with your hours
2. Create a guessing game using teaser images
3. Showcase a product with multiple color selections and let your customers indicate the best choice
4. Entertainers, post still images of an upcoming video shoot
5. Use a split panel image and ask what option is their favorite
6. Post a series of sneak peak photos that show part of a new product
7. Display your mission statement over a staff/location photo
8. Post a photo about a local event that you attended
9. Post a photo of your team hard at work
10. Post a photo and invite users to share their best idea for a caption. (Not included) - 

Melanie Perkins is CEO and co-founder of Canva, an online platform that makes graphic design amazingly simple for everyone. Since launching six months ago, more than 1 million designs have been created using Canva by 320,000 users.

Previously, at 19, Melanie founded her first company, Fusion Books, an online design system for schools to create their yearbooks. Fusion Books is now the largest yearbook publisher in Australia and recently expanded to France and New Zealand.

We start the interview discussing their new big announcement that Guy Kawasaki became part of their team!  They actually met through a tweet, so it shows the power of social media.  Click here for full details on this announcement.

Some of the other areas we cover in this interview:

• Why Canva was created?
• The use of Canva for Designers
• Affordable stock images
• New Pinterest Layouts in Canva
• Walk-through of the 23-second guide - Video Demo
• Branding your business through images - consistency
• Canva's Design Tutorials
• Pinterest layouts walk-through
• Her advice: Just dive in and try it!
• The copy method

To sum it up, Canva saves people time, money, energy!

David Foster came from a construction background, but realized his body would fall apart.  He started with building websites.  He even created custom pages on MySpace. He launched Fan Page Engine and with the industry of the Facebook apps, he moved over to Google+ and is now working with GeekBeat.tv!

Here are some nuggets from the interview with David Foster.

Tool that posts from Google+

Tool to post from Google+ to Facebook, Twitter and/or Linkedin is Friends+Me.  With Friends+Me you can control where the post is pushed to with a #hashtag.

As a local business using Google+ links to Google Places.  This can be a main place for potential customers to find you.

Specifics to do on your Google+ Page:

• Submit photos and tag themselves
• Visual Branding and Posts
• Fill out your profile information fully
• Fill out your hours
• Get reviews

How did he get circled by over 5,000 people in a very short amount of time?

• Respond to every comment
• Search for hashtags in his area where he wants to find conversation
• Picky about who he adds

Who is Google+ for?

Any business who focuses their efforts there.  If you focus there, you will see success.  Commit to one and follow through. Set a schedule and stay consistent.  It takes time to build it.  But if you stay consistent, it will grow.

Why is Google+ scary?  So many facets, but it really is basic if you break it down and shut off some of the noise.

• Circles
• Hangouts
• Events
• Communities

David is teaching people how to make Google+ a better experience with all the above.  Circles makes it so organized.

He is now with GeekBeat.tv.  How did he find this gig?  Google+, of course!  Be sure to circle David on Google+.

Content Calendar Strategies with Pamela Muldoon

What is a content calendar?  Why do one?  Is it really necessary?  What tools can help with the content creation?  All these questions and more are answered in this podcast with Pamela Muldoon.

Who is Pamela Muldoon?

Pamela is Principal of Next Stage Media Group, a marketing consultancy firm specializing in content strategy, implementation and measurement. Head here to learn more about Pam and Next Stage Media Group.

Pam discusses how to set up a content (or editorial) calendar strategy for all your online marketing.

We discuss the below list of tools that will streamline your efforts:

• feedly
• buffer
• pocket
• Linkedin Pulse

We also talk about specific strategies:

• Setting a Timer
• Breaking down the overall year into quarterly chunks
• Breaking down your calendar into monthly segments based on your quarters
• Prescheduling Posts

 Want more content ideas?  Download the Ultimate Guide to Social Media Content Creation.

Images in Social Media can Grow your Engagement and your Business - with Lisa Saline and Janet E Johnson

Images in social media have an amazing effect on your marketing.  In this episode, Lisa Saline and Janet E Johnson discuss how images can tell stories in your social media. A picture can tell 1,000 words!  Using images to convert your social media efforts into cash!

We discuss ideas on these different types of images:

• Funny images
• Eye-Catching images
• Tips on images
• Quotes on images
• Office and Business images
• Infographic images 

Can you remember what the image is we talk about with the lady and some quote we talk about during the funny images part?

We also discuss our Kimmy and Miss Piggy image that we posted just to have a bit of fun since the Muppet Movie was coming out.  If you missed it, here it is again for you.

Angela Brooks is a former burnt-out mental health nurse who is now a nurse educator, thriving business owner, and online marketing trainer. She is married to an amazing man who has supported her continually on her business journey. Angela is also the mom of two busy boys who are very active in sports (including travel baseball!). She quickly learned how to take her business “on the move” so she could attend her sons’ games and practices.  You can learn more about Angela and her products on her site at: AngelaBrook.com.

What we covered in this interview:

• How to build a side business using ONLY social media
• How to schedule posts so you can live your life
• Specific Blogging/Social Media Process
• How she uses her unique voice and stories
• How she went to a top position in her company in 3 years (using social media, of course), when normally most take 10 years to get to that level
• What her new coaching product is about

You really can build new connections through social media! Janet and Nick met through Google+, now they have a face-to-face chat on a hangout!

Here are some things that are covered in this interview:

• How to set up Twitter Lists
• Nick's new Twitter training program: Zero to Twitter
• The excuse of not having enough time for social media
• How to use Hootsuite to create lists on Twitter and monitor all social sites
• Using Hootlet

Where can you find out about Nick Ellison and his products?

He has a FREE social media blueprint you can download:  nickellison.net/blueprint

Here's his new program:  Zero to Twitter

This interview with Mike O'Neil discusses how to make your Linkedin Profile stand out

• Formula for Success on your profile pic:  Get it cut-out.  Put in a .png file.  Put something as part of your brand behind you.  This will give people a little more attention.  2 Excellent examples: Ron Noden and Pam Demmer.
• You can put more than one picture.  At least have 5 pictures. Top 2 Pictures are most important.
• Media Wall background - perfectly blurred
• Predictions about Salesforce.com (they own Jigsaw.com) and there will be a universal dashboard connecting all the platforms 

Mike shares about his upcoming book, Rock the World with Linkedin Version 3.  

Who is Sebastian Rusk? Sebastian has developed a very unique approach to creating vibes and making noise for brands via social media.  His role as an author, emcees, speaker, influencer, personality for brands and social media strategist has enabled him to influence those around him.  His forte has been able to make his crazy ideas to reality or what makes socialbuzztv.com a reality today.  It is no mystery why Sebastian's referred to as a walking billboard and the creator of Buzz.  Now socialbuzztv.com was conceptualized and founded by Sebastian Rusk in March of 2010, so it's been a couple of years. And he's got a large background in the area of marketing online space, he's been doing it for 12 years or more.  And he has a real knack for not only thinking outside the box but showing there could be reasonable thinking inside that box.  He has a passion for social media creating buzz for brands and spreading the word on the power behind through the digital space which has been the driving force to launch socialbuzztv.com. And he has a signature look, as you can see, he has a signature look that we always see the bow tie.  So if you know Sebastian, you know the bow tie.  Sebastian's new book coming out this spring:  Social Media Sucks (If You Don't Know What You're Doing).  So, can you expand on that, how you came up the name of that for your new book coming out? In this interview we discuss:

• how to write a book with the help of Advantage Media
• social media interactions, how the world has changed to meeting so many people first online, then we meet face-to-face!
• being authentic and not hiding behind your business.
• why does Sebastian wear a bow tie?
• socialbuzztv.com
• standing out in this busy social media world

Janet Johnson and Lisa Saline talk about 10 social media tips that work.