Business blogging experts Patsi Krakoff and Denise Wakeman are known as The Blog Squad™. With two decades of business, marketing and sales experience, Patsi and Denise help professionals set up and optimize great business blogs. They also operate a “blog crisis prevention program” - dedicated to extreme blog makeovers for boring blogs.

Hundreds of professionals have saved time, energy and aggravation using The Blog Squad’s services, blogging books and programs to set up their blogs and learn best blogging practices.

Patsi and Denise offer pragmatic, no-nonsense, how-to guidance and are committed to helping you Attract, Sell and Profit by integrating blogs with other online marketing tools such as newsletters and ecommerce systems.

Grab a copy of our free white paper, “The Great Internet Challenge: How to Get Your Business Found on the Web”.

The Blog Squad will be presenting on Blogging and Branding on February 21.

In Preview Call #5, I answered your questions
about the Social Media Telesummit. I also shared
with you interviews with clients who are using
social media in their businesses.

Here’s what we covered:

• How a blog helped a professional organizer save around $2000 in marketing costs;
• How podcasting helped a baby boomer take early retirement;
• How a relationship coach with over 20 years experience in the corporate world is now using blogs and podcasts to create multiple streams of income;
• The ways you can use social media to stay relevant to your clients even when the economy slows down.

Important Update

Time is running out. There’s only a few days left. Once the Social Media Telesummit begins on February 20th, you won’t be able to sign up. Grab your seat right now by visiting this link.

In Preview Call #4, Darren Barefoot, Paul Colligan, Krishna De, Karin Hoegh and Sherman Hu join Leesa Barnes to share with her their social media successes. Here’s what these 5 Telesummit speakers shared on this call:

• How Sherman Hu uses social media to fit work into his family life (and not the other way around)
• Where Darren Barefoot lives today as a result of social media (he’s working on his tan)
• What Paul Colligan uses to dominate the search results on page 1 in Google for specific keywords (a very simple strategy)
• How Krishna De uses social media to help her appear on page 1 in Google next to a Hindu deity
• How children are benefiting from the social media tool that Karin Hoegh built

Important Update

Be one of the next 15 people to register for the Social Media Telesummit and receive Darren Barefoot and Julie Szabo’s ebook called “Getting to First Base: A Social Media Marketing Playbook.” Click here to register for the Social Media Telesummit today.

In Preview Call #3, The Blog Squad, Denise Wakeman & Patsi Krakoff, joined Leesa Barnes to talk about the Top 7 Social Media Tools. Here’s what they chatted about:

• The difference between microblogging and blogging
• Which social media tool is a must-have in every person’s social media toolbox
• Why sharing photos online is an excellent way to build your expert status
• The many ways to share videos online besides using YouTube
• The simple way to understand podcasting that even your grandmother would understand
• How to decide which social media tool you should use first (we give you 3 solid steps)
• How Leesa and The Blog Squad met (you’ll love this story)

IMPORTANT UPDATE

The next 25 people to register for the Social Media Telesummit will get a copy of Darren Barefoot and Julie Szabo’s downloadable book called “Getting to First Base: A Social Media Marketing Playbook.” Visit this link to register your spot for the Telesummit.

This 3 minute video explains what is social media using the example of the film Gone With the Wind.

In Preview Call #2, Leesa Barnes is joined by Sherman Hu as they answer the most common social media myths. Here are the myths that Leesa and Sherman addressed on this call:

1. “Social media is only used by teenagers.”
2. “I can’t make money with social media.”
3. “Social media is just that - websites used for social reasons.”
4. “If I use social media, I won’t be able to control the information and I’ll expose myself to weirdos.”
5. “All this stuff is way too techie for my tastes.”

Important Update

The PAYMENT PLAN option to register for the Social Media Telesummit ENDS at 11:59pm EST on THURSDAY January 31st. After that date, you’ll have to pay in one installment. Click here.

Social networking. Social marketing. Web 2.0.

You may have heard these terms bandied about and wondered what exactly they are and (more importantly) what they mean for your business.

So let’s dig right in and get some answers. First, some definitions.

Social networking is actually a pretty broad term. It basically means any time of relationship-building amongst a group of people with a common interest (business or personal). However, that term has taken on a whole new dimension online, where social networking sites (MySpace, Linked In, Facebook) are popping up faster than you can say “Will you be my friend?”

These Web sites are designed around helping people network and build relationships via online, instead of the more traditional face-to-face networking meetings.

Which leads us to Web 2.0. No, it’s not a technical upgrade of the Web (I can hear all the sighs of relief as people everywhere realize they don’t need to be downloading or learning new software). Rather, it’s a new way to use the technical aspects of the Web to build better relationships with people. So it includes blogging, podcasts, social networking sites, video, webinars, etc.

Actually, what it really is is a shift in mindset. Rather than using these tools because they’re cool new tech gadgets, we’re using them to bring a more human element to the Web.

Now social marketing is used interchangeably as social networking, but that’s actually a misnomer (according to Wikopedia). Social marketing is an old term, which refers to marketing for the good of society or for social causes and has nothing to do with any of this.

So, back to social networking. This is wonderful news for business owners out there because it fits right in with how customers buy. Namely, people buy from people they know, like and trust. So building relationships using Web 2.0 techniques is a fabulous marketing strategy.

And many Web 2.0 techniques are either free or very low cost. All the social networking sites have free accounts (some have paid upgrades, but it’s still low). Podcasting can be free (or you can pay a very low fee to do the recording via the phone). Blogging can be free.

You get the picture.

Now there is a downside. The downside is it does take time. So if you’re already feeling overwhelmed and frazzled, yes this could feel like another huge to-do on your list.

Which is why I’m going to tell you right now not to go there. There is help. Virtual assistants (also known as VAs) can assist you with these social networking tasks. Also, some marketing professionals offer social networking packages to do it all for you, so you don’t have to manage it or even learn much about it.

In other words, you don’t have to go at it alone!

In Preview Call #1, Leesa Barnes shared her journey on how she used social media as a lead generating tool. Here’s what she shared on this call:

• The mistakes she made in her own business in 1998 that put her in debt
• How a silly answer almost cost her the freedom to cross the US/Canada border back in 1998
• The person who changed everything for her (and what she was using to help her own business boom)
• How a cease and desist letter from a law firm proved to Leesa that she was doing the right thing
• The tactics she’s using today that helped a publisher find her to author a book

Important Update

The PAYMENT PLAN option to register for the Social Media Telesummit ENDS at 11:59pm EST on THURSDAY January 31st. After that date, you’ll have to pay in one installment. Click here to register for the Social Media Telesummit today.

Attendees and speakers, please login to get the information.

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