There’s a lot of talk about social media and the need for individuals and businesses to get engaged with the conversation or relinquish control. Is this too harsh of a statement? Social media is a time commitment and keeping up with creating fresh content can be challenging. So here is social proof that with the right tools and a good foundation (we call it your Social Media Footprint), it can be easy, efficient and effective.

So what is Google Voice and is it a tool that can help simplify your life…especially as it relates to social media? The idea here is to leave a voicemail on your Google Voice account and have Google translate the voicemail into text which you can then use as a blog post. Sounds simple so I tested it out. I will use this as the basis of my blog post.

So how does it work? Go to www.google.com/voice and if you have a gmail account,  you can simply just sign in to your gmail or whatever Google account you have and type in the URL. Here is the link to get an invitation to join (it is by invite only while they are in beta): https://services.google.com/fb/forms/googlevoiceinvite/. Give your name, your email address and it’s about 4 days to get the be access email to sign up and start your account.

Does it work for creating blog posts?  The first time was a little rough since thinking and talking out a blog post is something I need to refine my skills at but I love it. I think the time limit for voice messages is 3 minutes and 18 seconds. Certainly long enough for a blog post. You can use your current cell number or get a new one however you get a new number as a byproduct so now sure how this plays out. Call your cell phone, leave a message and then you get your voice message sent to you in text and in a audio file that is embeddable, uploadable, etc. You can also setup your account to send you an IM too. I still think my Blackberry Storm’s visual voicemail is more convenient when you want to hear the voice message…my Storm is not working correctly to play the voice message on my phone but it could be me (more likely a flaw with the software).

Overall, it still took me about 45 minutes to create this blog post from using Google Voice but it is my first time around and I can only get more efficient. Also, here is the audio file that was the basis of this post. Cool stuff!

I had the privilege of being the first outside vendor to present at the Arizona Coalition to End Homelessness and Arizona Department of Education conference this week. Governor Janice K. Brewer was the featured speaker at the 16th Annual Statewide Conference on Homelessness, “Growing Home: Nurturing the Present to Cultivate the Future.”

My topic was “Social Media Marketing and Non-Profits - A Winning Combination to Grow Donation and Volunteers.” It was a packed room with non-profits from all over the state interested in using social media for their organizations. The level of participation was very high even though the majority in attendance knew very little about blogs. Surprisingly, about 90% in attendance were not on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.

Some of the interesting points that have the most interest are leveraging Google Maps to show the resources, housing and food shelters and emergency food in Arizona. What surprised me the most is that the homeless and working poor typically have cell phones and even laptop computers. This makes the need for mobile access to resources and maps that much more important. We also discussed the contributor network concept for blogs and the new Wordpress author plugin created by Mint Social that fits well for all businesses trying to solve the content problem. Below is the presentation from Monday October 26th. If you are a non-profit  interested in learning how social media marketing and online branding can help connect you with volunteers and donors, please call 602-206-8089 or email us.

I had the pleasure of presenting the following presentation at BOLO 09 last week. BOLO is the annual conference of agencyside that brings the best of digital into labs, in-person training, consulting and seminars designed for ad agency executives. They answer the question:

If there are well over 30,000 advertising, PR and marketing agencies across the U.S., why are all the events geared toward the big guys and the holding companies?

It is always interesting to work with ad agencies to learn how they differentiate themselves and what niches they work in. What is most surprising is their interpretation of social media. I get the feeling the perspective an agency has on social media comes a lot from their clients, and, the more traditional the ad agency is, the more limited their perception is of how social media fits in their business model. It goes without saying that there are exceptional full service ad agencies that are early adopted of social media and there were no exceptions at BOLO 09.

All this leads up to the presentation below. We think social media fits into all agency business models. The social media footprint model that Mint Social created was, in part, a result of working with and training ad agencies on how to implement social media for their agency and for their clients. Quite simply, social media it is as complicated and labor intensive as you want it to be. It all depends on how you get started. In our perspective, social media is a long term play that requires getting started based on the same goals you have for marketing your business. OK - let’s call it out…Generating Leads! To accomplishish lead generation in social media, Mint Social has created the “5 Points for ROI with Social Media”.

Please view the presentation below to learn more on implementing social media ROI for your business, contact Mint Social or call 602-206-8089.

SEMrush.com shows you which keywords that your websites rank for and the number of searches done for those keywords per month. This is very valuable information when deciding which pages to optimize on your current site or which keywords to target when developing content.

Why do I care?

The basis of all search engine rankings is keywords. Yes, search engines employ all kinds of technology that is beyond the average person’s comprehension…but it all comes down to words. Search engine users enter keyword phrases into a search engine to find the information they need. You need to find yourself on top for those keywords. Do you know which keywords people are entering and how to choose the most appropriate ones for your website?

Want to Learn More?

Since we are such big fans of the mommy blogger networks, here is a great article from Internet Based Moms on the topic: http://www.internetbasedmoms.com/seo/keyword-research-analysis.html

Archives show you the posts that have been published on your branded social media marketing channels. This information is part of your message syndication and also helps you keep track of when posts on certain topics were published so that it can be compared with your Google analytics and find out what conversations your market responds to.

Why do I care?

Use this data to develop content around those topics that your market finds most engaging.

SamePoint.com is presently tracking millions of conversations, taking place across in more than tens of thousands blogs and social media sites. User-generated discussions are typically not indexed by major search engines, such as Google, as they do not reside on static pages. SamePoint.com converts these discussions into web pages, or permalinks, and organizes them within a tag cloud.

Why Do I Care?

As user-generated conversations and content are becoming the dominant form of online media, consumers and marketers alike are seeking new ways to tap into the dialogue and become part of the conversation. Using a search engine like Samepoint can help you easily monitor conversations going on around your brand, product or service and allows you to inject your thoughts, feelings and solutions into these conversations.

Want to Learn More?

Check out the fresh info: http://samepoint.tumblr.com/

Twitter Counter is an app that shows you how many twitter followers you have and also provides a graph of the growth of your followers over time.

Why do I care?

This data can help to show you how fast your twitter base is growing and what behaviors you were exhibiting at the time to get growth: Tweeting about certain topics, tweeting with more frequency, @replying to your current followers etc.

Want to learn more?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter

Google Analytics represents a treasure trove of data for measuring the effectiveness of your web marketing. Use Google Analytics to learn which online marketing initiatives are cost effective and see how visitors actually interact with your site. Make informed site design improvements, drive targeted traffic, and increase your conversions and profits.

Why Do I care?:

Use Google Analytics to learn which online marketing initiatives are cost effective and see how visitors actually interact with your site. Make informed site design improvements, drive targeted traffic, and increase your conversions and profits.

Want to Learn More?

Check out this fresh article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Analytics

Search engines often use the number of backlinks that a website has as one of the most important factors for determining that website’s search engine ranking. In basic link terminology, a backlink is any link received by a web node (web page, directory, website, or top level domain) from another web node.

Why do I care?

Back links are more than a powerful measurement for the status of your SEO strategy. They can prove paramount in helping you monitor your biggest fans and harshest critics. Word of mouth has always been the strongest form of marketing and reputation creation, and links are the new voice of the people.

Want to learn more?

Here is a Wikipedia article all about backlinks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backlinks

Google Page Rank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important”.

Why Do I care?

Pagerank is the general algorithm of Google which ranks a site on the basis of its back links. In fact the main element of allocating a Pagerank to any webpage is the number of sites linking to the webpage and their own Pagerank value. This can also be taken as a popularly contest between high interest sites. This contributes directly to the overall keyword ranking of your site and, ultimately, the traffic you can bring over time. Pagerank is measure with a scale from 0 to 10—10 being best.

Want to Learn More?

You can read all about Page Rank here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_page_rank