Social Media Tools Put To Good Use

Infographic on how Social Media are being used, and how everything is changed by them. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We are all on the go. Our time is getting more precious than ever as we make every effort to keep up with the writing challenges, and the need to build an author platform. So what social media tools would you consider using? I found a site where the 10 best sites are listed. These sites will not only help you become more social media savvy but will help you keep track and monitor the activity. You will want to know if you are wasting your time and spinning your wheels.

10 Little Known Social Media Tools You Should Be Using — Now

BY NEIL PATEL

Editor’s note: A version of this article previously appeared at KISSmetrics.com.

Social media is everywhere. It’s in our homes, places of worship, schools and, of course, our businesses. Everywhere you look, people are using social media and are talking about it. And it seems that every week a new type of social site pops up.

And as the number of social networking sites grows, so does the number of services that are created to measure, track and monitor those services. What’s a marketing professional to do?

To help you cut through the clutter, here are the 10 must-use social media tools that can not only help you make sense of your social media efforts but make them more effective.

1. EditFlow
EditFlow is a plugin from open source content management system WordPress that allows you to manage your editorial team seamlessly.

With it, you can get a snapshot of your month-to-month content with the calendar feature. It also offers improvedcontent status beyond WordPress’ default draft and pending review. And user groups can help you keep your team of writers organized by department or function.

Who should use it and why: Any business owner who manages a multi-author website should give EditFlow a look. This tool can keep all of the things that are important to a multi-author blog in one spot so management is easy, clean and documented.

2. TweetReach
This tool allows you to see how far your tweets travel. For example, with TweetReach I can search my blog and come up with these results. It breaks down how many people your messages reach and how many tweets it took to reach them. For instance, TweetReach can tell you how many times your tweets have been shared by retweets, replies and other standard tweets.

Who should use it and why: From a social media manager to a small-business owner, basically anybody who is interested in finding out how effective his or her tweets are based upon the number of people they touch should consider using TweetReach. It can also useful from a metric standpoint in terms of justifying the results of your social media campaigns with senior management or partners.

3. ArgyleSocial
This Durham, N.C.-based startup is a social media platform that aims to help marketers connect the business dots with the social media dots. ArgyleSocial offers a single dashboard to monitor Facebook and Twitter that allows you to delegate tasks to your team. It also offers easy reporting on the ROI of your social media efforts.

If you’d like to be an affiliate, you can use ArgyleSocial’s white label brand and resell the social media platform to your clients. All of your accounts can be wrapped up into one bill and sent to you to distribute or absorb as an included service.

Who should use it and why: From the social media manager to the one-person business that needs to prove to management, clients or themselves that their social media campaign is paying off. Read more here.

Make Way for the Energy of Spring!

Make Way for the Energy of Spring!

5 Tips For Energetic Spring Clearing

By Elaine Seiler

As spring comes to the winter climates, we humans seem to come alive with vitality. We are suddenly driven to plant flowers, tidy our yards, and clean, clean, clean. As you clean out your closets, pack up your woolens and bring your spring clothes out of their storage places, remember it is important to clear the energies from those spaces as well. 

Every person who entered that closet, every physical item that was stored in the closet, has an energy that left a residue or shadow in that space. Spring cleaning from an energetic perspective means clearing those old energies as much as it means tidying, dusting, folding and sweeping.

How do you do that? Here are some ideas:

1. Burn an incense stick with sage or frankincense to clear and rebalance the old energies that were in the closets, in the nooks and crannies deposited there from the emotions you held in the past.
2. Put a quartz crystal or amethyst geode in the corners of your home or closets and infuse them with a sincere prayer that they hold a positive energy throughout the spring and summer.
3. Visualize a pyramid of clear bright white light coming down from the other dimensions and settling perfectly over the closet or over your entire house. Do this exercise in your mind’s eye, knowing and trusting that when the pyramid settles over the area of your focus that it will clear, balance, renew and refresh the energies within it. Then, in the weeks to come, whenever you think of it, refill the pyramid with clean, clear energy. Ask your Guides or angels or the Beings of Light to keep the energies clear and as harmonious as possible to best support your process.
4. You can also use your body to clear and clean the energies in the space on which you are working. Imagine your body is an energetic vacuum cleaner or giant filtration device. Open up to the energies of the other dimensions; allow them to flow down through your crown charka, or the crown of your head, and pass through your body like a pulsating screen. Allow those vibrations to pass through your body and out into the field around you. The energies coming from the other dimensions are too fast to be utilized on earth, but our bodies have the ability to step the energy down to a rate or pulsation that is useable by us here on earth. The energy passes through our bodies and out into the field, changing or transforming the field and clearing it just as if it were a filter or vacuum as mentioned above. You can raise the energies if they seem too slow and dense. You can dampen them down if they feel too fast and intense. You can anchor them if they feel too wild and erratic. You can tuck them if they are too stretched out. Just use your imagination to play with and adjust the energies and trust that what you imagine is actually able to unfold. You more powerful than you ever imagined.
5. For the energies around you to be clear, YOU must be clear. Therefore spring cleaning means clearing and cleaning, balancing and harmonizing the energy in and around you. You can:

• Use sage or frankincense or another incense to clear the energies around you just as you used it to clear your closets.
• Use a crystal to clear your personal field just as you did your closets.
• Use color to shift the energies in your immediate field. Visualize yourself bathed in whatever color you intuitively feel you need, to either clean the field or to balance it. You might then feel the need for a second color infusion to bring you the frequencies you need after the space has been cleared.
• Use sound to clear, balance and refresh the field on which you are working – the sound of the human voice in an “Om,” the sound of a Tibetan bell ringing pure and clear, the sound of a crystal bowl, humming with vibration. 

Any or all of these tools will assist your clearing process. So as spring comes knocking at your door, don’t let it knock you over. Face the March winds and spring flowers knowing that you can cope with whatever comes your way physically and energetically. You are in charge of your reality. 

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About the Author: Author and energetics expert Elaine Seiler (SAY Sigh-ler) is at the forefront of explaining humanity’s “energetic evolution” and how we can cope and thrive in the face of rapid change. Elaine is a life and career coach, researcher, mother and grandmother. In 1992, after 20 years of work as a career consultant and life coach, she discovered energetics, the study and use of multi-dimensional energies and their interplay with life on earth. She is the author of Multi-Dimensional You: Exploring Energetic Evolution and Your Multi-Dimensional Workbook: Exercises for Energetic Awakening. Learn more at www.transformationenergetics.com and www.multi-dimensionalyou.com. Contact Elaine at Elaine@transformationenergetics.com.

No Fear Public Speaking Tips for Writers

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Writing isn’t just about putting your story to paper, finding an agent, publisher or even self-publishing. It’s about sharing your work with others. And with that comes public speaking. Yes indeed, it’s the old “I gotta get out in front of people and talk about my book” ploy. It’s not easy for a lot of writers to do. Surprisingly enough, many writers don’t even think about it until they get in front of a group of people for the soul purpose of talking to their target audience about their beloved project that has taken them a long time or even a short time to produce.

Cat Woods offers up some great tips on how you can feel comfortable and confident sharing your writing in front of others.

Connect the Dots for a Successful Public Presentation

by Cat WoodsFast Fact: Public speaking is not high school speech class.Evidence: Me

During my demonstration speech (you know, the one where you can’t even hang on to your note cards because you have to SHOW how something is done?), I crushed the eggshell I was supposed to decorate.

After another I shook so badly, I couldn’t walk back to my seat in a straight line.  If a cop had been present, I’d have landed a DWI for sure.

As far as I was concerned, the word speech should have been reserved for tenth grade English and diagramming sentences.  Since that time, however, I’ve presented at social organizations, professional organizations and Young Writers’ Conferences.  I’ve found myself at the front of the room in libraries, schools and churches.

The moral of this story: If I can speak in public, so can you.  It’s as simple as connecting the dots.

1. Connect with your topic.  You’re a writer.  You’re passionate about the process, the business, literacy, your book, your genre, your audience, etc….  Whatever you are speaking about, make sure you are engaged in the topic.  You must first believe before you can ask others to do the same.
2. Connect with yourself. Before entering a room, take a deep breath. Give yourself a pep talk. You are smart, funny, warm and compassionate. You know this topic like the road map of veins on the top of your hand.  Stand confidently, no matter how uncertain you feel.  And for heaven’s sake, wear clothes you like.  If your new suit is stiff, you’ll be stiff.
3. Connect with your audience.  Right off the bat, you must personalize your presence with the guests in the room.  Smile—the kind that reaches your eyes and not just turns the corners of your mouth.  Maintain solid eye contact.  Make each individual in your audience feel as if you notice them and are personally thrilled that s/he is here.  Your audience’s comfort level has a direct impact on your comfort level.  Breaking the ice is your job.
4. Connect your audience to your topic.  This could be the single most important connection you make in a presentation.  To keep audience members from memorizing the vein patterns on the backs of their hands, you must engage them immediately and make them feel as if they have a stake in the presentation.  Give them a reason to be there and a reason to listen.  Make it personal.
5. Connect with the energy and use it to guide your presentation.  Watch your audience for cues on when to elaborate or when to gloss over something.  Presentations are not about you.  They are personal experiences between your audience and your topic.  You are the messenger.

So, how do we connect the dots in a way that draws a cohesive picture and would garner A’s from our English teachers of high school past?We must do a little research.  We must know our audience and the reason behind our presentations.  We must have clear goals.  We must care so deeply about our topics that we can allow our presentations to meander within the confines of our expectations.Last week I spoke to a fourth grade class.  January was the teacher’s month to help her students make a real world connection between what they learn in school and how this knowledge is necessary and applicable into adulthood. Read more here.

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• How to Cure Fear of Public Speaking – 8 Proven Ways To Overcoming Fear Of Public Speaking (onetrouser.com)
• Public Speaking on Short Notice (podiumproapp.wordpress.com)
• Overcome Public Speaking Reluctance By Thinking of Your Audience Rather Than Yourself [Public Speaking] (lifehacker.com)
• Public Speaking (and Book Promotion) For Introverts (psychologytoday.com)

It’s Free: Why Not Use It?

Image by webtreats via Flickr

Utilizing social media tools is extremely important for anyone who is looking to network and connect with others. The great thing about using social media tools is that most of them are free. When we look at the most popular social media tools, such as Facebook, Twitter, Blogger or WordPress, we find that they are popular because they are free but also because they are easy to navigate and establish a profile.

There are so many tools that can be used to network and find others who have similar interest, but where do you begin to find them? And how do you know which ones are free and which ones cost? I recently found a site that tracks all of the great social media tools that are out there, Social Media Examiner. This site has case studies, how-to, research and videos on all things social media. You can sign up for their newsletter and keep up with current trends.

Check out these popular posts from their site!

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/top-5-twitter-tools-for-social-media-community-managers/

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/top-10-small-business-facebook-pages-2011-winners/

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/34-google-resources-for-your-business-advice-from-the-pros/

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/12-social-media-tools-recommended-by-the-pros/

It takes time to build an online platform. There is a lot of help out there and the Social Media Examiner is just one way to help you get started and keep up. Have fun building your online presence, especially if you are getting all the tools you’ll need for free.

Related articles

• Tips for Marketing on Twitter (leadersmerchantservices.wordpress.com)

What Good Is Self Publishing?

 

If you’re wondering what benefit self publishing is to you, then you’ve asked a good question. Here’s the thing, your project is done and your ready to start selling. The only wait time is you preparing to upload it on a site or sites of your choosing, that’s it. Self publishing gives you control and on one else. Making more money with book sales has never been easier. Book distribution on various sites, gets your book to a designated audience.

If you just want to publish to share information, you can do that too. If you happen to make money while sharing your specific information, then self publishing is a win, win situation for you and your target audience. Feel free to give your information away. It’s totally up to you. Getting a book out for others to enjoy is ultimately what all authors long to do. Whether your book is a mystery, picture book or memoir, self publishing is the best way to get your quality information to the masses without having to wait on a publisher or agent to say when.

What good is self publishing to you? Feel free to share your thoughts.

 

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• Bloggers Are Self-Publishers (nfaa.wordpress.com)
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