In case any of you have noticed how quiet it has been around here lately it’s because many exciting things have been going on – most notably that I have OFFICIALLY joined forces with my friend Karen Wilson to form Wellman Wilson Consulting!

What does that mean?

All the blog posts I’ve written here have been merged with Karen’s on the new site.  All the services I offered will still exist, but Karen and I will offer them together offering more bang for your buck.

Please visit

Please come and check us out at our new home at www.wellmanwilson.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/wellmanwilson, on twitter at www.twitter.com/wellmanwilson and by signing up for our newsletter.

If you already receive my newsletter, that list will be merged with the new Wellman Wilson newsletter.

I will slowly be dismantling this site so please bookmark the new one and visit us there – we plan to offer regular advice, tips, and services for business owners looking to understand and maximize the use of social media.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 Lara Wellman

You have a Facebook page, but have you noticed the URL for it is long and cumbersome?

Did you know you can easily change it to something easy to remember and share?  Here’s how!

Visit www.facebook.com/username

Mine is already set but you just need to pick the page in question from the drop down menu and it will provide you with a box to enter your vanity url.  It will then let you know if that name is available and if it is you can claim it!

WARNING: You can’t change it later, so be sure you know what you want before you make any decisions!

It’s that easy!  Go and claim your vanity url now and then you too can tell people to check you out at a url as easy to remember as this: www.facebook.com/larawellmanconsulting

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 Lara Wellman

I enjoyed giving an intro to social media talk to the Educational Support Professionals yesterday in Nepean.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 Lara Wellman

I’m thrilled to announce that Karen from the Media Mesh and I are running a one day workshop on February 26.

Here are the details – I’d love to see you there!

What: One-day social media workshop

When: February 26, 9 am to 4:30 pm

Where: Anna Belanger & Associates, 1097 Bank Street, Ottawa

Cost: $124.99 + taxes and fees

Join us for a day of social media learning and planning as we cover some of the main content areas for your social media presence:  Twitter, Facebook, and having a strategic plan!

Learn in a small and intimate setting with two experienced social media consultants/strategists.  (The registration for this event is capped at 10.)

This full day event will involve opportunities for networking and includes coffee, drinks, snacks and lunch (provided by Wow Mom – Homemade to Go).

Schedule:

9:30 am
Intro to Twitter (with Karen Wilson)
Learn about the basics of Twitter, including:  what it is, the unique language of Twitter, where and how to find people to follow, the art of following strategically and the most pertinent question of all: what to tweet about.

or

Twitter – what comes next? (with Lara Wellman)
Ready for more advanced use of Twitter? You’re tweeting but taking the next steps seem overwhelming. Streamline and organize your use of Twitter by learning about the use of tools like HootSuite and Tweetdeck, how to schedule tweets, how to use lists, and how to host and take advantage of Twitter chats.

11:00 am
Facebook 101 (with Lara Wellman)
With over 800 million active accounts, Facebook is an ideal location to connect with your audience in a space they are already regularly visiting. In this session we will go over how to set up a business page, what kind of content works best, the importance of engagement, and how to get more people to like your page.

or

Facebook 201 (with Karen Wilson)
Take advantage of the power of Facebook to create a more robust marketing campaign for your business, products or services. We’ll talk about the options available to you, including page customization, plugins, extra tabs, applications and creative uses of the platform to increase brand awareness on Facebook. We’ll also touch on EdgeRank and the impact it has on Facebook Pages.

12:30 – 1:30: Lunch/networking/general discussion

1:30 – 4:30: Social Media Strategy

The key to really successful use of social media is having a plan!  Most social media tools are free, but time is not, so you want to use it wisely to achieve the greatest benefit. That’s where the plan comes in.

Together we will go through a general template to use to put together your strategy and then we will break into smaller groups, giving you time to brainstorm and to work on your plan.

Everyone will get one-on-one time with Karen or Lara to talk about specific strategies that would work for your business.

This week I have been bombarded with online videos and stories that have touched me beyond belief.  First there was the story of a man who made a beautiful love video for his wife’s birthday. He’s since passes away from cancer. I sobbed.

Then, the amazing story of a girl with autism who was completely uncommunicative until the age of eleven and now has a blog! She inspires me and what she will be able to do to help people understand those like her…  there’s nothing like it!

Lastly (for today) this lovely Ottawa girl Hélène who suddenly got ill this past summer and now needs a lung transplant. What is most inspiring about her is that she’s taking this journey as an opportunity to be positive and raise awareness about the importance of organ donation.

I’m always been big on organ donation – I think it’s SO important.  I signed my driver’s license the minute I got it back when I was 17. But that was before they became laminated cards you couldn’t sign.  Now you can register online to be an organ donor. I didn’t realize you could do that! I filled out the form immediately.  Will you?  It’ll take five minutes and could save many lives one day should tragedy befall you.

Take the time to watch Hélène’s video and help her spread her message. Both she and the cause deserve it!

If you want to help you can also donate to Hélène to help her with the cost of relocating and waiting for an organ.  I’m pitching in $5. It’s not much, but if a lot of us do it, it’ll add up!  Will you?

Having a Facebook page is a great way to stay engaged and connected to your audience – whether for your business or for your blog.  Having your content filter through their news feed increases the chances that they will remember to visit your site and that you will stay top of mind.

There are many ways to get people to like your Facebook page but my biggest and simplest piece of advice is that you need to make it EASY for them to do it.  Taking out barriers makes people far more likely to do things.

Today I’m going to walk you through the steps for installing a widget on your blog or web site. (This tutorial assumes you already have a Facebook page.)

1. Go to your Facebook page and select Edit Page in the top right corner.

2 Select Resources from the left hand menu

3 Select “Use Social plugins” -> scroll down until you see the “like box” option

4. Choose your preferences.  

1) Insert the page URL you’re building the widget for

2) Choose how wide you want the widget to be

3) Decide what features you want included. You can have a sample of the stream but in this case I turned it off because it was too narrow and didn’t look great. There is a preview to the right, decide what you think looks best as you play around with it.

4) Click on “get code”

5: Get code. 

Depending on your site you have three different options for the kind of code you can grab to put onto your site. For my wordpress blog <iframe> is what was required.

6. Post to your web site.

Because there is no one way to do this, depending on what kind of site you have, I will leave this step to you.  This is how the Kids in the Capital widget look when done. Now people can like the page without even leaving the blog!

I hope this was helpful – please let me know if you have any questions!

When my friend Karen from The Media Mesh decided to start a business book club, I teased – mostly because I am one of the worst culprits of buying business books and then never actually getting through them.  With the club as incentive I got through the first club book and am  now happy to tell you what my take on the book was. If you’re interested in finding out about being a part of the book club, check out Karen’s site.

Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions - Guy Kawasaki

The book (as per its web site) ” explains how to influence what people will do while maintaining the highest standards of ethics. The book explains when and why enchantment is necessary and then the pillars of enchantment: likability, trustworthiness, and a great cause.“

My take

Be real

It’s a great book that reminds us to be real, genuine and helpful.

A lot of it seems like common sense, but sometimes I think it takes spelling things out obviously to remind us just how important these things are.

It’s the whole “you catch more flies with honey than vinegar” thing that I strongly believe in.  You get much further in life by being kind and friendly than by being angry and pushy.  Kawasaki simply outlines the how and why with some great examples.

Great practical tips

Kawasaki spends a lot of the second half of the book giving ideas on HOW you can be enchanting, sometimes bringing in specialists (like Mari Smith, a Facebook expert who I really enjoy) to talk about areas he realizes others know more about.

Again, a lot of what he said is common sense, but it’s nice to have what you’re doing reinforced, or to have a reminder to be doing it.

Conclusion

I enjoyed the book and was able to create a relatively easy to do list for myself from it.  I like that I walked away feeling good about how I do things.

My one real criticism of the book were his case studies.  He closes each chapter with a real life example of enchantment.  For some reason I found the examples weak.  I don’t know if he was going for something very attainable and realistic, but instead they felt to me like random examples pulled from a small sample selection.

Personal examples

That being said, here is an example of how I’ve been enchanted by a company.

Mabel’s Labels is a Canadian company that creates sticky labels “for the things kids lose”

In the summer of 2010 I attended a blogging conference in New York City.  As I waited for my flight home I tweeted that I was sitting at the gate on my own killing time.  One of the four founding partners of Mabel’s Labels saw my tweet, happened to be taking the same flight and found me at the gate and introduced herself to me (we had never met).

We sat and chatted for almost an hour, mostly not about business, and although I’d heard of the company before my estimation and personal feelings for the company sky rocketed after this interaction.  Since then, I have interacted with this same partner on twitter many times, as well as other partners of the company and their social media representative (they are all very responsive!) and have seen just how fast and authentic they are at engaging with their customers online.

Do I think it’s realistic for the owner of a company to spend time with every potential customer? No. However, I have since become a big advocate of their company, use their labels exclusively for my kids, and brought them in as a sponsor of a conference that I ran in my own city.  I believe in them and spread their word, and that came from someone responding in a really enchanting way to a tweet I sent out expecting no response.

Here is an example of how I WASN’T enchanted:

A few months ago I was planning a vacation.  I put out a simple and general question on twitter about one of the decisions I needed to make about that vacation – one that anyone who had been on a similar type of vacation could answer.  Someone referred me to a travel agent on twitter and when I asked her my question and told her I had already booked the vacation through another channel, she told me that I should then talk to that person for any answers to my question.

Her unwillingness to answer my question because I was not her client gave me such a bad feeling that I now have little desire to work with her in the future.  In fact, when I needed further help with the same vacation I went through another agent despite probably having gone with her before the interaction.  A little bit of “free” and “friendly” advice can go a long way to being enchanting.

I hope you check the book and Karen’s book club out – both are worth your time.  There will also be a twitter chat on January 11 from 8-9 using  #mediameshbbc.

I’d love to hear examples of how you’ve been enchanted! 

“You catch more flies with honey than vinegar”,

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Catch_more_bees_with_honey_what_does_that_mean#ixzz1iyLXLiz1

2011 was a big year for me – I started  a business, began (officially) consulting in social media, ran a social media conference (put together in a matter of months), all while working around my family.

Chris Brogan chooses three words every year to guide him for the year.  They aren’t new year’s resolutions so much as words to try to keep in mind throughout the year.  Many others have followed in his steps, including Suze. I decided choosing three words for myself would be a great way to start out the new year.

1. Focus

I love social media and web communications. This past year I’ve done workshops (big and small), speaking engagements, one-on-one coaching, and strategies for solo-preneurs and for much bigger organizations.  I write for online publications, I co-run a blog about things to do with kids in Ottawa, I have a personal blog, and I write on this blog.

I have a lot of new and exciting projects starting this year, including facilitating an online class in the Algonquin College Social Media Certificate Program, we’ll be starting to plan Social Capital this month and I will be producing some learning modules for sale on my web site instead of doing as many in person workshops.

I have a reputation for being a bit all over the place. I enjoy it all but I haven’t yet REALLY figured out what direction I’m really trying to go in. This year my goal is to try and figure that out. Focus on the areas I really enjoy and figure out how to grow those areas.

2. Organize

Anyone who knows me knows that organizational skills are not my forte.  Running a business without being organized – not ideal.

This year I am going to work on being more organized, implementing systems to help me keep on track (which will help with #1) and thereby possibly being a little less frazzled.

3. Produce

I have been talking for awhile about creating some products. This year they will become a reality.

An e-book, some videos, and online workshops/teaching modules all to help people understand the basics of social media and how they can use the tools for business.

I have great hopes for wonderful things in 2012 and look forward to sharing it all with you!

What are your three words for 2012?

I recently met Nathan Richer, owner of Virtual Alchemy, at the Orleans Chamber of Commerce Business Showcase and was thrilled when he agreed to write a guest post for the blog.  Nathan specializes in Internet Marketing and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and is a wealth of great information.

Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt was quoted saying “Mobile is pretty much the answer on everything”. In fact, the search engine giants are considering “mobile first” for all future endeavours. This makes sense since there are about 5.3 billion mobile users compared to a paltry 1.7 billion Internet users.

Google is preparing for the Mobile future….are you?

There are several ways you can attract and retain customers/clients through the use of mobile marketing but today I wanted to focus on Text Message Marketing.

What is Text Message Marketing?

Text message marketing is similar to e-mail marketing but using mobile phone numbers instead of e-mails. You build a database of mobile numbers which provides you with the ability to send out text messages to your faithful followers.

I want to be clear that I am not talking about spamming people with useless advertisements. Instead, text message marketing can be a great tool for offering value to your customers and building long lasting relationships along the way.

Who Can Use Text Message Marketing?

Any business that is looking to communicate and build relationships with their customers or clients. It is an excellent opportunity to add value to your customers overall experience.

Some of the ideal businesses that use text message marketing include:

• Restaurants
• Retail Stores
• Event Organizers
• Real Estate Agents
• Night Clubs
• Schools
• Churches
• Fitness Studios
• Medical Professionals

The list goes on and on…

How Does Text Message Marketing Work?

A business will need to purchase a mobile marketing platform to set up campaigns, store mobile phone numbers, send messages and even set up appointments. There are some pretty good and inexpensive mobile platforms out there so be sure to shop around. Be prepared for a monthly fee as most platforms charge based on the number of text messages delivered.

Once you sign up for your mobile platform you will be given a short code, which is just a number (usually 5 digits) that people will text your “Keyword” to. Next you will have to create a “Keyword” that represents your business or promotion. Often this keyword will be your business name or something related to your services or products.

The mobile platforms are generally user friendly and shouldn’t take long to set up. Once it is up and running you will need to start building your mobile database by promoting this service.

How to Promote Your Mobile Marketing Campaign

Here are a few examples how you can build a mobile database.

Restaurant Owner
Set up a tent card on your tables that says “Text Restaurant to 54321 for Exclusive Coupons”. Next time your restaurant is experiencing a slow day, just send out a text message that reads “Show this text to your server before 10 pm and receive 10% off your meal”.

Since text messages have a 97% open rate, your restaurant will be busy in no time.

Real Estate Agent
Put a message on your lawn sign that says “Text House to 98764” and have your mobile platform send an automated response with the details of that house. Not only are you providing details of your listing but you are also building a list of potential buyers that you now have access to.

Dentist
Professionals are able to use Mobile Marketing to record mobile numbers and set-up appointments. This will allow you to automatically send a text message to your client reminding them of their upcoming appointment.

These are just a few examples how you can use text message marketing to increase your revenue while providing value to your customers or clients.

The mobile industry is going to continue growing so now is the time to consider adding text message marketing into your overall marketing plan.

Thanks for the great post Nathan!  I would adore it if my doctor or dentist texted me to remind me of appointments!  Go visit Nathan at Virtual Alchemy to learn more about SEO and Internet marketing – he’s got a great promotion on a web evaluation going on right now!

One of the biggest reasons people don’t want to get involved with Twitter is that they believe it will take too much

Image via CrunchBase

time.

I believe that you can get a lot out of Twitter with just ten minutes a day.

Challenge

I challenge you to spend ten minutes a day for the next two weeks doing the following:

- Reply to all the tweets directed at you (@mentions)

- Follow back anyone who followed you that seems to be a good fit for you

- Follow 10 new people. Find new people in lists, and by seeing who people who you already follow follow.

- Retweet (at least) two things.

- Reply to (at least) two tweets in your stream.

- Tweet something about what you’re doing.

Spend the rest of your ten minutes reading what other people have been saying.

After two weeks, let me know what you think!  Was it that hard? Did you make new connections?