Using Social Media

Twitter Help: An Abysmal Failure

I drafted this letter today to put in the mail. I thought maybe I could get as much response posting it here though! March 27, 2013 Twitter, Inc. 1355 Market St, Suite 900 San Francisco, CA 94103 To whom it may concern: I have had a long-time Twitter account, going on three or four years at this point. My user name is @doreenmartel. After trying several times unsuccessfully to obtain a new password I am writing a letter in the hopes that SOMEONE will take the time to help me. First things first: In October of 2011 my account was…

Making the most of Twitter

By Doreen Martel

Twitter is a very helpful tool for marketing. Twitter can help freelance writers earn more money when they depend on page views for a portion of their income. While there are tools that are effective to help you manage Twitter, none of these tools is going to help you “get rich quick” they will however help you manage your social media accounts more effectively. Remember, if you depend on page views for any portion of your income, Twitter provides a lot of value for a small investment of time. More page views means more earnings. Twitter is a powerful social…

Successful SEO using social media marketing

By Doreen Martel

Can you use social media for better SEO? Search engine optimization is one of the most crucial factors involved in getting your website noticed. However, link-building is a critical part of this process and one that is too often overlooked. Finding the right links is a critical component of any social media campaign and one that should never be overlooked. With new tools like Facebook Like Button, Google’s 1 and other similar tools, there is no valid reason for ignoring the obvious benefits of linking your work to these tools. Developing links is not always an easy proposition – however,…

Twitter – How effective is it for marketing?

By Doreen Martel

Maximizing Twitter’s effectiveness Freelance writers, online marketing professionals and bloggers may be overlooking the potential for a great Twitter advertising campaign for their products or services. Learning how to use Twitter effectively is one of the most important steps that must be taken to get the most out of Twitter. While Twitter is free to use, it is important to understand that it is a tool that can be most effectively used when reaching out to an audience. Interaction and information are the two primary things that are required to be effective when using Twitter. The art of interaction It…

How to create an effective social marketing plan

By Doreen Martel

Common social media plan issues Frequently, social media specialists think that opening an account on popular social media sites and throwing a bunch of information into the feed is the best way to attract attention. Nothing could be further from the truth. Social media marketing requires a well thought out plan that provides solid information to followers, and offers relevant information while promoting. Social media marketing involves sending a positive message to potential customers. An effective social media plan can help improve credibility, increase sales and reach out to new customers. However, a poorly designed social media marketing plan can…

Promoting Your Work Part 2

By Doreen Martel

Yesterday, we started talking about some effective ways of promoting your work. When you are prolific writer, it is generally more acceptable to “spread” your work out over many sites versus promoting all of it in one place. In many case, some work simply does not work on some sites. Here are some additional ways of promoting your work, potentially increasing earnings. Facebook For those who already have a Facebook account that has a time line that is filled with friends, co-workers and family members, consider starting a page for your writing. You will need to promote your Facebook Fan…

Promoting Your Work Part 1

By Doreen Martel

Since all freelance writers are taking a beating on their earnings, especially those who depend on revenue share, there is an ongoing requirement for most of us to find unique and innovative ways to keep our work circulating through a potential new audience of readers. In theory, this should not be that complicated, though in practice, we have almost all found out that it is easier said than done. I don’t have any magic bullet and I assume most of us do not. With that in mind, I thought I’d list some of the things that I have done that…

SEO for Freelancers: Panda changed things

By Doreen Martel

For many freelance writers, SEO work was fairly simple to do, you used a specific set of keywords a certain number of times in an article. The irony of this is that sometimes SEO phrases that didn’t make a lot of sense wound up in articles, making them search engine friendly (hence the name search engine optimization) while nearly ignoring the reader. The goal was simple: Provide fair to middle of the road content on a regular basis that would attract the attention of the search engine bots that spider your site. Today, this is no longer a good metric…

Understanding the importance of social media marketing

By Doreen Martel

While it may be tempting to think that social media marketing is not necessary, the reality is. In this business environment, finding any edge that a company can acquire over a competitor is critical. As more people use the Internet to make buying decisions, having an effective social media marketing plan is crucial to the success of business. Whether you are marketing a service or product, there is an audience available online in nearly any demographic group. We are no longer bound by the borders of our state, county, or for that matter any other geographical boundary. It is not…

Social Media – is it worth the time?

By Doreen Martel

As the changes in Google begin to settle in (for better or worse) writers are searching for methods of making their work relevant and get it read again. The ever increasing bar on quality will remain a mystery to most since quality is typically a feature or function of the person reading any given article, blog post or guide. There are few sites that do not encourage a writer to post their best quality work, however, the term “quality” is not quantified by most writing sites, not easily defined by most writers and above all, purely subjective based on who…

Bookmarking Site Reviews: Stumble Upon

By Doreen Martel

A common tool for writers to use for promoting their work is social bookmarking sites. These sites typically require manual input of specific information and allow you to share links to your work. One of the challenges associated with these sites of course is how to use them most effectively. StumbleUpon is simple to use, but you do have to watch their terms of service and make sure that you do not violate them. It is also important to note that Stumble Upon is a “no follow“ site and does not give your website any valuable backlink credit through Google. …

Social Media Reviews: Four Square

By Doreen Martel

Four Square is another social media site where you can promote your work. However, unlike Twitter and LinkedIn, getting people to read your work may be a bit more challenging. Four Square is a “what are you doing now” site that allows users to check in from various locations. It is not recommended for all types of promotional campaigns because of the limited scope of what it is capable of doing. Four Square is simple to sign up for and you can update your status from various automated tools such as HootSuite by simply linking it in your dashboard. You…

Social Media Reviews: LinkedIn

By Doreen Martel

LinkedIn can be a very powerful tool if you understand how to use it effectively. Unlike Twitter and RedGage, it is not appropriate to market everything you write at LinkedIn. In fact, I am of the opinion that you could do yourself more harm than good if you overuse LinkedIn for promoting your articles. Let’s take a look at LinkedIn overall. Signup Signing up at LinkedIn is fairly straightforward, you simply sign up with your name and email address. Once your account is established, it is a good idea to fill in your profile, upload your photograph and set up…

Social Media Reviews: Twitter

By Doreen Martel

Twitter is an incredibly powerful tool if you take the time to learn how to use it effectively. Make no mistake about it, you will likely get a ton of “bot” followers and you will have to regularly clean out your followers list. If you are incredibly dedicated (and have time) you can approve each follower individually. The fact of the matter is that most of us cannot spend that kind of time. So, here are some of the features of Twitter that can mean a difference between getting readers to your on-line work and not getting readers. Signing up…

Promoting your work matters

By Doreen Martel

While it is fun to think that you are going to write the next great novel, most freelance writers are going to spend hours a day working on their online content on paid to write sites, paid to view sites or their own blogs. However much you enjoy writing, chances are that you are going to grow discouraged if you do not see results from your writing. Not all writing sites pay up front payments, instead they depend on page views to generate income for their writers. This is not all bad, but this is where promotion comes in. Freelance…