Savvy Sexy Social

How to Install Social Links on your Website [VIDEO]

Amy Schmittauer — Wed, 22 May 2013 12:19:35 +0000

I took a question from my Tumblr this week on a little design advice to integrate social media to your website. Social links are an important thing for your visitors to see so they know you’re connected but some strategies are better than others to make sure they stick around to your site more than other sites. You may remember this from a previous video I did.

But to get the basic idea of how to get the buttons on your site, I’m showing you how to do that in today’s Sexy Wednesday tutorial.

Watch How to Install Social Links on your Website:

Did you site come with social link integration or what have you done to install them?

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Post tags: design, featured, social links

Original article: How to Install Social Links on your Website [VIDEO]

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How to Know You’re Working With the Real Deal [VIDEO]

Amy Schmittauer — Tue, 21 May 2013 12:12:56 +0000

For Savvy Tuesday this week, I took a question from imyjimmy on my Tumblr. He wanted to know:

What is the common denominator of successful social media entrepreneurs? How many are actually “wantrepreneurs”? How can you tell?

Understanding a professional’s level of expertise in any industry is important when hiring or taking advice from someone for your business. Tune in to hear my thoughts on this.

Watch How to Know You’re Working With the Real Deal:

When I got my start in this industry it was because I was a ”wantrepreneur” looking for opportunities to show off what I could do to help build my portfolio and reputation. I gave my services away as much as I could to make that happen. In the right situations, that relationship works. A business is not in a position to consider social media marketing but a passionate individual is familiar with the industry and wants to help, so they work together and it’s a beautiful thing. But other businesses do need to handle their digital presence in a particular way so they hire a very specific person with the right experience. So it’s not necessarily a bad thing to be called a “wantrepreneur” or want-anything. As long as that person proves they’re own the path to greater things soon, fast and with a purpose.

That said, just like the business I mentioned earlier you may not be in a position to hire someone who just needs a chance to shine. And that’s perfectly acceptable because you need to put your business’ needs first and find what best fits that.

Before you even find out what that person looks like, you need to prepare yourself with some information of your own. Who is your customer? What are they looking for from you? What is your business plan? What is THE call to action that makes you a successful business? What are the goals that you’re looking to have accomplished by hiring someone to help you?

Arming yourself with that information is going to help you narrow down your search of the best fitting consultant to help you. You now have the questions you need to ask about their past experiences, how they’ve helped similar businesses or campaigns and why they would be the best for your project. Portfolios are a beautiful thing that a consultant should be using to win you over!

Maybe you’ve not reached the point of being able to hire someone to consult with you but are reading content online with blogs and news sites to help you get the ball rolling of understanding what you’re looking for and implement on your own. Even evaluating those sources in this situation is a similar tactic. Read as much as you can and really educate yourself so you can take action with the advice you’re reading and find what works. The more often you’re getting the same answers and seeing results from a particular strategy the more you can build trust with that resource to continue to learn from them. Like I said about portfolio items, even bloggers’ works speak for itself. Don’t tell yourself you don’t know enough about the industry to judge a specialist. Common sense is the first step.

How have you found the right people to work with?

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Post tags: consultants, entrepreneurs, featured

Original article: How to Know You’re Working With the Real Deal [VIDEO]

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Michael Port on Social Media for Business Networking [INTERVIEW]

Amy Schmittauer — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:36:27 +0000

Michael Port is a professional speaker, entrepreneur and best selling author of one of my favorite business books, Book Yourself Solid. He is also preparing to present at an upcoming CreativeLIVE session about the essentials of the book’s method. If you’re not familiar with CreativeLIVE I highly suggest you check out Michael’s session and check it out. They are an online education platform dedicated to providing free interactive business and photography courses and they’ve had some amazing instructors. Michael Port is no short of a perfect fit.

I caught up with Michael this week to discuss his thoughts on using social media for business networking:

Amy: What is your short definition of marketing?

Michael: To me marketing isn’t about communication it’s about relevancy. Anyone can communicate but if what you’re sharing isn’t relevant to the people you want to serve, they won’t pay attention. In fact, I’d like to take the word “marketing” out of the dictionary and replace it with the word “relevance”.

Amy: The Book Yourself Solid System isn’t all about networking, but it does play a big part. What’s the best strategy for building a quality network online? How do you use it without abusing it?

Michael: Lots of people will spend hours upon hours on LinkedIn and Twitter looking to befriend industry leaders. That’s great, but it’s not a great use of your time. The key to any network, whether you build the majority of it online or not, is its quality. Ask yourself: Who is essential to the success of my business? Then build from there.

What most entrepreneurs forget is that it’s important to avoid overextending yourself. Business relationships, like any other type of relationship, are built on communication and collaboration. If you don’t have time to help others, then they won’t be willing to help, leaving that relationship void. The best way to use social in this respect is to show others that you care. Comment on their published articles, respond to questions on Twitter and FB, be active in LinkedIn groups related to your industry and just be visible. If you interact with communities instead of simply broadcasting information about yourself, you will make the friends you need to online.

Amy: You deal with small businesses and entrepreneurs. How much time a day do you spend engaging with your community online? What do you think is too much or too little?

Michael: It really varies day to day for me. What you shouldn’t do is spend hours on the web everyday. Small business owners are forced to wear many hats. They don’t have time to interact all day. If you are smart about a content marketing strategy as well as social engagement, as little as 10 minutes a day will work just fine. If you are writing a lot of blog posts, or in your case, Amy, creating video blog posts, then more time is required.

Amy: In your book, you talk about the Red Velvet Rope Policy which is one of my favorite takeaways. Can you explain a little bit about what that is and why it’s important to stick with it?

Michael: The Red Velvet Rope Policy is all about seeking out the right clients. This can sound odd to some — I mean why wouldn’t you just take them all?! Well, because there is such thing as a “dud” client. When I started my business I would work with anyone, but then I started thinking “how great would it be to only work with clients that are ideal for my business?” This idea became possible when I started to define who I wanted to work with, and began to create an environment that attracted those types of clients and kept them coming back. Anyone can install these principles. If you have a small business and need clients badly, If you can’t only then try to stick to mid-ranged clients and the “A-listers” and you will be that much happier about your business. Sticking with this model ensures that this feeling will endure. I’ll talk about the Red Velvet Rope Policy in detail during my free creativeLIVE course on Monday.

Amy: Can you find those “VIP” customers through social media?

Michael: Absolutely. Let’s be very clear, your ideal customer is out there surfing the web. There are millions upon millions out their on tablets, computers and smartphones — the key is making yourself visible to them.

Amy: What can we expect to take away from your free CreativeLIVE course this Monday?

Michael: I’m really excited for this course. It’s going to be the most action-packed, free live course ever. We are going to cover all the essentials of the Book Yourself Solid method, but some of the highlights will be learning how to find ideal clients that energize and inspire you, how to understand your clients’ needs, and how to master the 4-part simple sales formula to book the business almost every time.

How to Ask a Question on Tumblr [VIDEO]

Amy Schmittauer — Thu, 16 May 2013 14:23:45 +0000

Sometimes it’s some of the coolest features of a social platform that aren’t totally obvious but add a nice touch to your content marketing plan. One that I really like is the question/answer section on Tumblr. But where is it?

Today for Social Thursday, I ecplain the very simple but important details to jazz up a text post on Tumblr to allow answers from your audience and add a sense of community around your question.

Watch How to Ask a Question on Tumblr:

Steps:

Start with a text post on Tumblr.
In the header section, pose your question and be sure to add a question mark at the end.
Once you’ve done this, a checkbox will appear at the bottom of all the fields asking if you would like to allow answers from your audience to this question.
Check the box.
Now when you’re text post is published there will be a box for your followers to provide their answer!

Are you using Tumblr? What’s your favorite feature?

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Post tags: engagement, featured, questions, tumblr

Original article: How to Ask a Question on Tumblr [VIDEO]

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How to Design Thumbnails for Facebook Apps [VIDEO]

Amy Schmittauer — Wed, 15 May 2013 12:11:55 +0000

I had a question last week about the applications on the Savvy Sexy Social Facebook page. As you will see, they are very similarly designed to help contribute to the branding.

The Facebook apps your download all come with their own default thumbnails so visitors will know what they’re clicking on, but you can design your own and upload them in their place. So today for Sexy Wednesday, I’m showing you how I made my Facebook app thumbnails with a photo designer.

Watch How to Design Thumbnails for Facebook Apps:

In order to make the photos look as clear and crisp as possible with the exact dimensions of the photos you can upload for Facebook app thumbnails, it’s good to have a photo editor like Photoshop. In this video I’m using the free alternative, Gimp.

The size of the thumbnails is 111 x 74 pixels. It’s important for you to start with that size and not shink something else so you know exactly how the image will look when uploaded.

Do you use Facebook apps?

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Post tags: applications, design, facebook, featured

Original article: How to Design Thumbnails for Facebook Apps [VIDEO]

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Book Review: Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg [VIDEO]

Amy Schmittauer — Tue, 14 May 2013 12:41:54 +0000

It’s a bit of a serious chat today on the Triple S. I just finished the book Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook.

In this book she talk about the struggles of women in the workplace, at home, basically in society overall and how far behind we are in reaching the point of 50/50.

My thoughts in today’s Savvy Tuesday review of Lean In:

Read Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg (affiliate)

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Post tags: featured, lean in, sheryl sandberg

Original article: Book Review: Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg [VIDEO]

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New Tagging Feature on Instagram [VIDEO]

Amy Schmittauer — Thu, 09 May 2013 12:38:06 +0000

Instagram took a cue from its boss Facebook and upgraded their app to integrate tagging of photos. This is a huge deal for brands because any account on the network can tag any other account (granted its public) in a picture.

Here’s what you need to know about tagging on Instagram and how to take advantage to engage your audience.

Watch New Tagging Feature On Instagram:

First you need to know that when a photo is tagged on Instagram, there is an indicator at the bottom left of the photo. It looks like this:

When you click that button the people tagged and their usernames will pop up so you can click on those to visit their profiles:

If your brand name is being tagged in Instagram photos, this is a great opportunity for exposure to your followers networks.

Some tips to help you get the tag love going for your brand:

Ask you customers if you can Instagram a photo of them and tag their account. If they’re on the network, they will appreciate the idea that your brand is going to give them a direct credit on the brand account and feel a deeper connection with you.

Ask your audience to tag you in their Instagram photos. Not only is this another way for you to see what your customers are saying about you but the photo will show up in your new tagged photos section of your profile and once you’ve approved it (or you can allow it to be automatic if you’re super trusting) it will show up and they will be featured on their account. You could even take it a step further and start Instagramming photos from people who are tagging you and really show them some love to your audience.

Tagging approval is up to you. As I mentioned, you have the option of setting your tagged photos tab on your profile to update automatically or only upon approval. So take this into consideration by visiting the settings on that tab to set to your preferred option. It looks like this:

Engage any tagging activity you get. Whenever tagging activity happens, this is an open invitation to engage your audience. So when someone tags you, like the photo. Share it. Follow them even. Anything you do to go above and beyond will be duly noted by your brand advocates. And make sure you’ve added the official badge to your website so more of your customers can find you and follow.

Make sure you’re tagging with partners. If you’re working with another company or person who complements your work, make sure to sure the love with them. Cross-promote each other by tagging photos of the other partner while at work on something. When your business friends do better, you do better. Especially if you helped.

How can you take advantage of the new tagging feature on Instagram?

Original article: New Tagging Feature on Instagram [VIDEO]

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6 Cheap Design Options When There Is No Budget [VIDEO]

Amy Schmittauer — Wed, 08 May 2013 13:06:18 +0000

Hiring a designer is an important step for your business when aligning your branding with your vision. But most businesses just don’t have the budget to make it happen and will put off other important elements of launching their business just because they don’t have a logo.

If there is anything I’ve learned as a business owner, it’s that I can teach myself how to do quite a bit with the lovely Internet. So for today’s Sexy Wednesday, we’re going to discuss my favorite options for coming up with design when you don’t have a penny to spare.

Watch: Cheap Design Options When There Is No Budget:

Themeforest

In the case of building a website, I usually recommend WordPress.org which is a self hosted platform. Meaning you’ll need to coordinate hosting with someone like GoDaddy, Blue Host or my favorite host for all my sites: Site 5 (affiliate). Once you have your site up and running, you’re going to need a layout. I recommend you check out Themeforest.net for the WordPress-friendly themes. They are much more affordable than paying a designer and the quality from those creators is getting better all the time. You will surely find something that fits your needs and not feel bad about how much it cost you either.\

Fiverr

I don’t recommend you go cheap on your logo, but I’m still gonna help you out if you have to. You can usually get a designer to make you a fairly simple logo for around $300. Since this is something you stamp on everything… websites, social networks, letterhead, etc, you should probably let a pro handle it. But when you need cheap, you gotta have it. Head to Fiverr.com and pay $5 for a logo. You might have to try a couple times to get what you want, but that’s still way cheaper than an average designer’s cost. And you can always save up and redesign the logo when you have the budget.

Gimp

If you want to take design into your own hands so you can make your own logos and images, you can always learn how to use Photoshop. But if you don’t want to pay for it, then I suggest you download Gimp: a free version of Photoshop for more robust design tools. You can find tons of tutorials online to help you learn how to use tools like this and you just might find yourself to be a badass ghetto designer… or at least that’s what I like to call myself.

Lynda

If you want the pros to teach you how to design, you can sign up for Lynda classes online. That site is like going to design school without all the other elements of school and WAY cheaper. You can get a 7 day trial just to dabble in some things and then decide which level per month you want to subscribe to after (both under $50).

YouTube Tutorials

Do not underestimate the power of YouTube and how much you can learn (from people like me!) how to do things. Like I said about Gimp, don’t be overwhelmed by it. Just search for the tutorial videos first and see if it’s something you think you can handle. Or maybe your daughter/nephew/grandson-dubbed intern can learn and help with. There is too much information out there for you to chalk up a project to not knowing where to start. Just search and watch!

Tap Into Your Network

There is likely someone that you know or someone you know knows that can help you with some design for cheap or trade. But remember, you’re not doing them a favor by “helping their portfolio”. They can do that with anyone they want. Try offering more than the same amount of value you’re asking for so it is an equal trade and they feel like it’s not just a favor they’re being talked into. Expertise and knowledge is worth a lot. Don’t take advantage of it.

How do you get design done on the cheap?

Original article: 6 Cheap Design Options When There Is No Budget [VIDEO]

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Prepare to be Googled: 4 Tips To Impress With SEO [VIDEO]

Amy Schmittauer — Tue, 07 May 2013 12:50:02 +0000

It’s very important in this day of technology and social media to know what the results of Google or any other search engine are for your name.

People be stalkin’.

Jessica had the same questions. Specifically because there are a lot of other ladies that have her same name, including someone in her own family. She’s concerned of what potential clients will find with a Google background check to confuse them that may lead them away from her business. So I answered her question in today’s Savvy Tuesday to give everyone some ideas of how you can help yourself and your SEO results.

Watch Prepare To Be Googled:

Google everything about yourself

Most people who come across more than one person when they search for your name will often add any other details they know about you like the city you’re in and/or your industry. Don’t just track what your page results are for just your name, search your name and other public details about yourself.

Always go incognito

It’s extremely difficult to get organic search results anymore, especially with Google. Because even search engines are tailoring the best content for you based on what it knows with your other connected platforms and social networks. Google actually has an “Incognito Mode” so you can search without any of your personal details being factored in (tutorial in the video). Always use this when you’re trying to learn the real results for your name and business for someone who isn’t already connected to you in some way.

Stop depending on social networks to be your website

Social networks have the luxury of showing up very high in search which is nice to help get your brand name a few listings on the front page of Google, but your own webpage ABSOLUTELY MUST be one of them. You never know when the one social network you love will crash and burn one day, which is why it’s always important to get social users to convert to your website. So if you don’t have a website for your business, there are a lot of problems with that. When you have a URL that is your name or your business name, that gives you a much greater chance of dominating the search results to attract attention to a professional source to learn more about you. If you don’t have a website, it’s hard to take your business seriously at all so get on that!

Buy your personal named URL

I own AmySchmittauer.com because that’s going to be a big helper in the SEO game. Even though I don’t have a site just for AmySchmittauer.com it helps because it is currently set to send people to SavvySexySocial.com. So if my blog doesn’t show up when they’re searching for my name, that URL might help them get to the right place. I also have an “About Amy Schmittauer page of this website that helps with those search results as well. Anytime you can factor your name into your website (which you have unlimited power over) that’s going to help. Owning your personal URL will certianly help that as well.

How are you trumping the social networks with your search results?

Original article: Prepare to be Googled: 4 Tips To Impress With SEO [VIDEO]

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Foursquare Brand Pages for Web Update [VIDEO]

Amy Schmittauer — Thu, 02 May 2013 11:22:48 +0000

Foursquare has recently updated their brand pages for web with a little bit different design, so today I thought it would be good to discuss these changes and why you should be using this location-based network. Even if you don’t have a property to check into.

Watch Foursquare Brand Pages for Web Update:

First thing’s first. Surprise! Foursquare web brand pages are asking you to upload a banner! This is nothing new as most social networks have started to switch over to the cover photo layout which allows you to brand the page and make it feel a little more like your own.

Also, if you do have a brand page that people are able to check into, you will see the photos they have taken there very prominently places. This is a big reason, in addition to tips and other forms of review on Foursquare, that a business should track the activity on their brand page so nothing unfavorable stays where everyone can see for too long before you address it. foursquare.com

The dashboard for brand pages also gives some analytics to looking further into engagement activity. This may look different depending on if you’re a brand page with or without checkin availability. (Savvy Sexy Social is a brand page you can only “like” but not check into.) But you’ll be able to see any activity from users with the information on your page and how many people are subscribing or liking it.

Tips. Checkins. Lists. Even if only some of those are available on your page for people to do, doesn’t mean you can’t further take advantage by doing each of them on behalf of the brand. For instance, Savvy Sexy Social has made a tip about my favorite coffee shop that I go to for most meeting in Downtown Columbus. Here’s what it says:

When people check in to Cafe Brioso now, they may or may not see that tip. Sometimes tips will pop up after you check in and make it really easy to get my brand in front of them. Other times, you might just see the tip when you’re looking at the reviews for a good place to go. Regardless, I’ve got my name in front of people who are like-minded to be heading to this coffee shop and who may want to learn more about me after they’ve read my review.

You can also create lists. Make a resource of the best places to work away from home or out of the office in your own on behalf of your brand. This is a great option for making people want to subscribe to your brand because they may want to save that list and refer to it in the future.

How are you taking advantage of engagement on Foursquare or any other location-based social network?

Original article: Foursquare Brand Pages for Web Update [VIDEO]

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