[Video] How to Create an Email Signature in Microsoft Outlook 2007
May 1st, 2010 // 10:52 pm @ Jay
I send/receive a ton of emails on a daily basis. I make sure that every email includes my name, company name, contact information and links to all my social networking profiles.
These easiest way to do this automatically is to create an email signature. Every time I create I new message or reply to one, the information is automatically added. Plus, I use the opportunity to promote my monthly email newsletter at the very bottom.
Watch the video below to learn how to create your own email signature.
If you are viewing this through your RSS reader, you can view the full post here.
What are some of the most creative email signatures you’ve seen?
Category : How-to &My Blog &Social Media Marketing &Tips & Tricks
Cheat Sheet for Tweeting “Retweetable” Tweets
April 13th, 2010 // 7:38 am @ Jay
Getting people to “retweet” your Twitter posts is a great way to get yourself more exposure and reach.
I just read a great blog post by Aliza Sherman (@alizasherman), “Tweeting 101: A Twitter Cheat Sheet” on WebWorkerDaily.com.
In the post, Aliza discusses some of the reasons for using Twitter such as branding, communications and community. She also talks about how to use Twitter and how to make your tweets “retweetable.”
This is a great resource and I highly recommend that you check it out.
Category : My Blog &Social Media Marketing &Tips & Tricks
Is Your Social Media Username Available?
March 23rd, 2010 // 9:06 am @ Jay
If you’re like me, you participate on a lot of social networking sites.
Part of signing up on these sites is picking a username or vanity URL (i.e. Facebook.com/JoeSmith). I try to keep my username consistent across all the sites I spend time on. I do this for three reasons:
- My personal brand is important to me and using something like “JayTheVikesFan22″ isn’t as descriptive as “JayLane”
- I want to make it easy for other people to find me and connect with me online
- It’s easier for me to remember my username or vanity URL if I consistently use the same thing
Nothing is more frustrating to me than when I go to a site to create a username and find out that the username/vanity URL I want is already taken. For example, I had to settle for Facebook.com/jaylane2 instead of what I wanted (Facebook.com/jaylane). I was able to get the vanity URL I wanted for my company Facebook page though (Facebook.com/JayLaneMedia).
I recommend going out and signing up for accounts on social networking sites (i.e. Twitter) even if you don’t have immediate plans to use them. They are free and it doesn’t hurt to be a little proactive.
There are great Web sites that will go out and check what usernames/vanity URLs are available for you instead of making you go to each individual site.
Check out a couple of the options below.
namechk
namechk is a free service you can use to see if your username is available on some of the most popular social media sites (145 of them to be exact)
In the example below, I’ve typed in “joesmith.” You can see that it’s available on quite a few sites.
KnowEm
KnowEm is a provides a similar service but they will actually go out and register the usernames for you depending on the type of account you sign up for. They have a free service similar to namechk.
My suggestion to you is to check on your desired usernames (your name and/or your company name) to see what’s available.
If the usernames are available, go sign up and protect your personal brand.
If you don’t, you might regret it later.
Have you found any cool tools for protecting your online personal/company brand?
Category : Cool Tools &My Blog &Social Media Marketing
PPT Presentation: Growing Your Business with Social Media
March 16th, 2010 // 10:00 am @ Jay
Below is a presentation that I gave last night at Social Media Club of Evansville.
Category : How-to &My Blog &Social Media Marketing &Tips & Tricks
Great Twitter Post With Tips For Newbies
August 17th, 2009 // 3:49 pm @ Jay
Today, I came across a wonderful blog post “Trying Twitter On For Size? 10 Tips For Newbies” by Honeybee Consulting.
They outline 10 tips to help newbies get the most out of Twitter.
Here’s a basic rundown:
- Sign up – You have to start somewhere
- Find some friends – Check out other peoples’ Twitter feeds
- Don’t worry about numbers – Don’t get caught up in the number of people you’re following or vice versa
- Sit back and listen to the conversations
- Mention others in your tweets
- Retweet others posts
- Talk about what’s important to you
- Be authentic
- You don’t have to tweet about everything
- Enjoy yourself
Check out their full blog post for all the details.
Category : My Blog &Social Media Marketing
Give Customers/Prospects a Reason to Connect and Make it Easy
July 28th, 2009 // 12:28 pm @ Jay
Nowadays, more and more companies are putting links to their Facebook pages, LinkedIn profiles, YouTube pages and more in their online marketing efforts. These are sites where their customers/prospects are hanging out anyway.
The goal is to EASILY give your customers/prospects as many opportunities as possible to connect without being too aggressive. Through these connections, you can really see the personal side of a company plus, in some cases, get access to great promotional offers and other value-added content.
Lately, I’ve seen a huge spike in companies inviting me to connect with them via social networking sites. They want me to become a fan on Facebook, follow them on Twitter or watch their videos on YouTube.
There’s one main problem.
They’re not giving me a compelling reason to connect.
I will typically only connect with a company if they:
- Have a product or service I believe in
- Offer special promotions or discounts
- Provide value-added content and resources
In addition to the three points outlined above, it has to be EASY for me to connect.
Today I received an invite that sparked this entry. I got an email from Calistoga Cafe promoting one of their sandwiches (I wrote about Calistoga’s email marketing efforts in a previous post). At the bottom of today’s email, there was a link to visit them on Facebook for special offers. See below.
Instead of linking directly to their Facebook group page (I would recommend businesses setting up a Facebook page over a group. Here’s a good article about the difference between the two), they gave me a general link to Facebook and a search term to look for their page. How many people are actually going to take the time to do this? Also, their Facebook page says absolutely nothing about special offers.
I love eating at Calistoga and I really think they are missing an opportunity to connect with their loyal customers.
There is something to be said about making an effort and getting out there on the social networking sites. At the same time, everyone is doing it now. You have to do something to stand out.
Give people a reason to want to connect and make it easy.
Category : My Blog &Social Media Marketing
Twitter Guide for Business
July 27th, 2009 // 10:08 am @ Jay
Clients are always asking me about Twitter and how it can help them grow their businesses.
I came across a special Twitter guide for business on Twitter’s Web site today and thought I’d share. It explains a lot and gives some examples of how businesses are using Twitter. Enjoy!
Category : My Blog &Social Media Marketing
It’s Important to Have Good Facebook Manners
April 17th, 2009 // 7:34 am @ Jay
Category : My Blog &Social Media Marketing
Current.com’s Video – “The Twouble with Twitters”
March 23rd, 2009 // 12:53 pm @ Jay
Can’t decide if you want to jump into the “twittersphere?”
Check out this hilarious video at Current.com. >>
Category : My Blog &Social Media Marketing
How do you organize information?
May 7th, 2008 // 12:46 pm @ Jay
One of my biggest struggles as an interactive strategist is staying on top of industry-related news, trends and information. I don’t have the luxury of focusing on one area of internet marketing. Clients look to me to provide guidance for a wide variety of things including Web site development, search engine marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, etc.
I currently subscribe to a ton of RSS feeds from a variety of different sources. I’ve been using my iGoogle home page to manage my RSS feeds. It works because it shows me the last three posts from my favorite blogs.
(On a side note, setting up an iGoogle page is really easy. When you’re looking at Google.com, look up in the upper right hand corner. You’ll see an “iGoogle” link. Click this and you’re on your way. If you have a Google account, you can view this page every time you log in regardless of your location)
Yesterday, I read an article on Ian Lurie’s Conversation Marketing blog about Google Reader and how he uses it to prioritize and organize all of his feeds. Check out his post on solving “Internet marketing overload”. >>
I read a related post a few minutes ago on Dosh Dosh (a blog focusing primarily on Social Media) that was also very interesting. The author write about he sorts through all of the information to find what he’s looking for. The comments to the post are also helpful because a bunch of people wrote about how they organize info. Take a look.>>
Hopefully you find these posts as helpful and informative as I did.
Category : Social Media Marketing
