BusinessBlogAngel

Small Biz Marketing Idea from Tim the Ideas Guy

One of the things that continually delights me about 'doing business online' is the rather more 'abundant' mindset which tends to go with it - compared with the 'scarcity' attitude so typical of 'old school', 'bricks and mortar' business where typically your competitors are 'The Enemy'. I used to watch what they were up to with derision or 'professional envy'. The thought behind that was something to do with there not being enough business to go round - hence 'scarcity'.  Doing business online however, is a totally different ball game. Your competitors can be very useful to you in all sorts of ways, the most basic being 'watching and learning'.

Last week, I came across a guy on Twitter called TimboReid, who describes himself as "Dad. Marketing Ideas Guy. Podcaster. Blogger. Closet Rock Star." I can't remember now why I started to follow him, but follow him I did and it was what happened next that I want to share with you, because to my mind, it was a thing of business beauty...

Kick-Ass TeleForum: How to Promote Your TeleSeminars Using Joint Ventures

Nothing to do with social media per se... other than how I heard about this (saw Kick-Ass Karen Skidmore's tweet):

There's a new TeleForum which many of you will want to know about...

In How to Promote Your TeleSeminars Using Joint Ventures, Karen will be sharing, "What you need to know about using other business’ databases so you can get more clients registered for your own teleseminars."

Full information and registration can be found here:
http://www.kick-assteleclasses.com/how_to_promote_teleseminars.php

Are YOU using Social Media to grow your business or brand?

I'm so excited! Last night, I emailed all my clients and mailing list subscribers announcing the new BusinessBlogAngel's Social Media Inner Circle. I wanted to give them a bit of head start before I blogged about it here, but since the Qualifying Calls start tomorrow, I can't wait any longer!  Whether you're already using social media or not, this Social Media Marketing Intensive will deliver tangible results, slash your marketing budget and achieve an unparalleled 'ROI' to boot. Click on the image for the full lowdown.

Qualifying calls Friday 5th, Saturday 6th and Tuesday 9th December.
Click Now for details.

Twitter Gold - follow and be followed

OK, so I promised regular Twitter Gold, didn't I?

Apologies that it's taken a while (there's lot's of other stuff going on which I'll tell you about later), but in the meantime, here are 3 more nuggets for you.

This time, they are all to do with Twitter itself, specifically how to find people to follow and attract more followers of your own...

1. Promote your Twitter Profile on your blog or website.

If you want to build your network, you need to let people know they can be a part of it.  The following link was posted on the official Twitter blog a couple of weeks back now. It leads to French blogger Vincent Abry's blog and a selection of wonderful little graphics or buttons you can add to your blog or website.

Check them out here: www.VincentAbry.com

Twitter Gold - 3 Really Useful Social Media Marketing Resources

Had a conversation with @JoannaYoung today in Twitter... went more or less like this:

Me: Ur experiment's pushed me to add 'subscribe by email' to [this blog] Not that there's owt new to read :)
Joanna: Maybe the new subscription box will tempt you to blog something...?!
Me: I have a lot of explaining to do - and lots of great stuff to share! But no idea where to start!
Joanna: You could start with just that - where do you start when you've so much to share?
Me: You're so wise! This'll sound like procrastination :) but I promise to post something by the end of the day!
Joanna: I'm not wise Claire, but I have learned that writing what you know and where you're at is best way to go :-) 

Well, technically, the end of the day happened over an hour ago. However, since I'm still up, fuzzy logic says the day's still going... ergo, I made it.  So "where do you start when you've so much to share?"

 

Sharing content - ShareThis er... share research

I know, I know... it's been ages since my last post... there's just so much going on. I'll update you on all that as and when, but in the meantime, I just had to share this with you:

Remember that ShareThis research I blogged about early August, well there's more... the following is taken from the latest ShareThis update:

* Email is still primary channel for sharing – 69% of adults cite email as the primary source of sharing information

* Less than 1/3 of online adults said they learned about the new content from generally shared content sources such as YouTube, a wiki, or social networking sites

Writing with confidence - project confident writing (reprise)

In my last post, I mentioned that I'd been thinking about Joanna Young... Coincidentally, I had an email that same morning from Karen Swim of Words For Hire with a secret mission all to do with that same amazing lady...

Joanna has just moved house to the west coast of Scotland. As a result, she's been offline for some time. As Karen pointed out, for a prolific blogger like Joanna, a week or so offline must feel like an eternity - and Brad Shorr along with Karen and fellow blogging/Twitter friends Robert Hruzek and Daniel Smith came up with a lovely idea: to welcome Joanna back to the blogosphere with a collection of posts on her various friends' blogs featuring our favourite posts from her Confident Writing blog. I've raved about Joanna on this blog several times and clearly I'm not alone in recognising her greatness. It speaks volumes that virtual friends want to do this for her.

Anyway, I've had a good rummage around her blog and, continuing the 'confident writing' theme, have opted to highlight a 'round up' post she did earlier this month which features a whopping 8 posts from the archives all about what to write when you're feeling stuck. So...

"Welcome back Joanna - we've missed you - we love you - you are the mutt's nuts!"

8 From The Archives To Help You Free Your Words by Joanna Young  at Confident Writing

Writing with confidence - project confident writing

Was coaching a client this morning - teaching her about the technical stuff, showing her round the admin interface and talking about effective blog writing etc. when the topic of 'what to write when you don't know what to write' came up.  I immediately thought of a brilliant post on this topic which Joanna Young wrote on this blog.

Here are 3 super simple ideas to try when you're stuck:

1. Post a video. Got to YouTube, search one of your keywords and see what comes up. Chances are there'll be something fun or interesting or both. Use the 'embed' code to have the video appear on your blog.

2. Post a quote. Google 'quotes about xxxx' replacing xxxx for one of your keywords. Simply posting a really thought provoking quotation can sometimes be enough. Or at least provide the inspiration you need to write a quick 'top' and 'tail' for the quote.

3. Post about a post. Go to Technorati and search for your keywords under Blogs to see who else is writing on your topic. You'll almost certainly find something recent and relevant that you can create a post around - inserting a key paragraph of theirs, or simply linking to them. Remember to Trackback, or comment on, the original post.

There are loads more ways to get inspiration - what are your favourites?
Where do you go for blog content inspiration?

ShareThis - social bookmarking to promote your blog

I haven't really being saying much about social bookmarking here at Business Blog Angel, have I?

It's the classic small biz 'issue' of spending so much time working 'in' your business that you can't find the time to work 'on' your business, and rightly or wrongly, maintaining this blog always takes second place to client work.  BUT, if you are a business blogger and you are not yet using the wealth of free social media tools to promote your content, then you are missing out on a lot of the power of blogging for business. I'm talking now about social bookmarking, social networking, blog directories & communities and micro-blogging.

Joanna 'Confident Writing' Young - My Secret Weapon & Success Story!

OK, truth be told - in her role as Business Blog Angel Team Blogger, Joanna (left), had prepared 2 posts sooner than that last one - it was me that held them up because I wanted to finish something else I was working on before they went out.  Seems reasonable doesn't it, but it was taking ages to do.  Fortunately for me, Joanna is a stickler for regular and consistent posting and she took the initiative and wrote an alternative post which she knew we could publish straight away.

Now that blockage is removed, I feel the urge to share a few random thoughts with you. Since I haven't written here (other than my Holiday Greeting) since October 12th this may ramble on a bit, but anyway... staying with Joanna for a moment...