What a great wife I was to help him out that way.

When Jon and I first met I was a bit of a mess…I won’t go into why or anything right now, but take my word for it I was.  Of course, one could also argue that he wasn’t too much better off himself and that we did a bit of saving each other.  The only thing I know for sure is that he saved me.

This man who can hold his ground with me, love me, laugh with and at me…this man…he saved me 10+ years ago.  We met fresh out of high school, Jon and I,  certain of our disdain for the world around us.  Both also fresh out of relationships…though I would argue my last relationship before Jon was a bit more meaningful than his last before me, but that’s neither here nor there…Uncertain of my self worth and unsure of whether I even cared,  I was truly a mess.  Jon loved me unlike anyone I’d ever been with.

He loved me.

All of me.

He didn’t care how scarred my past was…or how many lies I had told to make myself seem more interesting.

This was his song to me then…and it’s still my favorite NIN song.  I’m not that same girl now, but I remember her…and I remember the love that saved her.

Another song that I felt was descriptive of myself at the time and one that I would play on repeat was this Stir song, Climbing the walls.

I’m thankful everyday for Jon, but today I’m reminded a little more vividly of the little whys that get lost in the day to day.  I’m a lucky girl.  He’s a lucky guy.

Our ‘song’ I guess now is this fun song by Weezer, Trippin Down the Freeway – I smile the instant it comes on, it’s Jon’s ringtone, and it’s the truth.  We’re in this forever.  And I am sure ‘our song’ will continue to change as we do. (And yes, I realize how corny this song is.)

What are you listening to this week?

If you’re playing along with us this week, be sure to read more information on Tuesday Tunes, link up, and to visit as many other participants as possible!

Like what you read? Try these!:

1. Tuesday Tunes – Songs that Stay
2. Tuesday Tunes – Embracing My Individual Personality
3. Tuesday Tunes – Join Us

Music fuels my soul, calms my fears, and is healing to my heart…every week I share a special song with my readers through Tuesday Tunes. It’s become a place for me to connect with my friends in a way that was previously unexplored and allows me to share a passion with my friends…you guys.

My passion for music.

Want to play along? Each week we’ll be sharing songs that speak to us, either at this very moment or throughout time. Joining in is super easy, just find the song’s video on YouTube, grab the embed code to add in your post, and write a post (long or short…doesn’t matter) telling us – the reader – why this song means to you or what message it’s sending this week.

After you’ve done that head back here to High Impact Mom and link up! Be sure to visit at least 5 other sites and enjoy getting to know your friends a little better through music.

As an aside let’s keep it fairly respectable…some of us might be listening at work or around children.

You can find all of our Tuesday Tunes here!

Like what you read? Try these!:

1. Tuesday Tunes – Songs that Stay
2. Tuesday Tunes – My Chair is Silver, What Color is Yours?
3. Tuesday Tunes – Sound of Winter

If you haven’t given them a listen, now is the time.

Awesome anytime Silverchair fills my grunge need by combining their dirty guitar riffs with melody and a great hook.

Able to change their sound easily to captivate the grunge girl’s heart with Miss You Love, Silverchair had a song for every one of my moods.

What are you listening to this week?

Link up with us and share your songs!

Like what you read? Try these!:

1. Tuesday Tunes – Sound of Winter
2. Tuesday Tunes – Songs that Stay

Scumbag Groundhog

And this? This is exactly how I imagine they feel.

What’s making you smile on the internet today?

Photo Credits: Imgur

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The very first thing you need to do is Sign into or sign up for a Facebook profile.  If you’re one of the few people left in the US who hasn’t created a personal FB profile now is the time.

I want to take a minute to briefly discuss the difference between a FB profile and a FB page.  According to Facebook’s Terms of Service, FB profiles are only intended for individuals and are not to be created by businesses, hence the creation of FB pages.  FB pages give your past, present, and future clients as well as your brand advocates an avenue to keep up with your current events, sales, accolades and more.

After logging in or signing up, visit www.facebook.com/pages and click on the create a page button.

First thing you’ll need to tell Facebook and it’s users is what type of page you would like to create, based on the type of business you have – you see there are 6 categories and from there you will narrow further – in this case we’ll use ‘local business or place.’

Now you’ll need add the basic business information for your business.  Begin by choosing the category; here again you will chose ‘local business’, but there are many more niche choices available to narrow the categorization (feel free to look at those and see if one fits your business better).  Next, add the business name, address and phone number to get started, review and agree to the terms of service, and click get started.

After the initial creation, Step 1 is to add your brand’s logo. – Use personal photos if your brand is mainly comprised of 1 or 2 people, or stick with your brand’s logo to maintain brand consistency.  You’ll need to Upload the image either from your website or your computer before moving on.

Step 2 is the time when you want to ‘invite’ as many of your contacts as is possible—friends, family, business acquaintances.  You can also import your contacts from various email accounts and other connect social media networks.

I have ‘Include a message’ starred because I think this is a very important step—this allows you to comment on your wall post and let your friends know that you’ve created a page for your business venture.  These posts are more likely to be viewed by the people you’re inviting and it sets you up for an opportunity to open communication with potential clients immediately.

You also want to make sure the ‘like this page’ is checked so that it automatically ‘likes’ your own page (wouldn’t want to look like you didn’t like your business would you?).

Step 3 is where you add your business’ basic information. This is also where you’ll add your business’s website URL (if applicable).

Use the About section to tell prospective clients and FB users who you are, what your business is, company motto and mission, and other basic information.  This of this as your elevator speech.  This will appear on your left side bar and is always visible.  Be sure to use keywords, location details and any information you would want first time customers to know.   Also keep in mind only the first 160 characters or so are immediately visible from the sidebar so you’ll want to use your most descriptive words first.

Now you’ve done it! You’ve created a basic local business Facebook page!  Facebook kindly also gives you steps and tips on how to better optimize and utilize your page right from the beginning.  Now you’re ready to promote, interact, and learn from your visitors.

Good to Know After Page Creation

On the left sidebar you’ll see your brand logo and a series of tabs (getting stared, wall, info, etc)  if you learn how to or hire someone to manipulate FB’s xbml code you can have a personalized branded fb page and tabs.  Next you see the about information that you inputted earlier and the amount of people who ‘like’ your page (this will grow obviously), below this you have the option to add this page to any other pages you may be the administrator of, subscribe to the page via RSS and share the page in a group, on your wall, or in an email.

In the right side bar you’ll see the avatar, that is the profile picture, of anyone you have given administrator access to, the option to use your FB page account as a profile (this opens up some other capabilities not otherwise available), your notifications, the option to advertise on FB, view your pages insights (which is something you’ll want to pay attention to), and the location from which to invite any friends you forgot to invite earlier on in the process.

Every Facebook page can have it’s own unique vanity url, or username, however think and choose carefully because once you’ve chose a url it cannot be changed.  Simply chose the page you want to designate a url for and check the availability.  Occasionally FB requires that you have 25+ ‘likers’ before allowing you to claim your url, this is where all of those people you invited earlier comes in handy, a branded url is important for all businesses and protects your brand from a competitor using the same name.

• •Use ‘Insights’ page to learn more about your ‘likers’ and customers.
• •Create a Facebook Page ad to drive hyperlocal and specialized traffic to your new page.
• •Invite friends to share your page with their friends.

Let me know if you have any questions!

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This month, instead of content strategy, I decided to learn a bit more about the world of relationship marketing and it’s relationship to Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter for businesses.

To do this I am reading Mari Smith’s The New Relationship Marketing; the book’s tagline reads: “How to build a large, loyal, profitable network using the social web.”

Who doesn’t want to do this? 

I have not met with a single client who wasn’t interested in building a large, loyal, and profitable network online.

Since Facebook is the social network of choice locally, it pays to know your information and to be able to provide it in a clear and personable fashion.  Mari’s newest book promises to equip me with knowledge that I can impart on clients, both locally and nationally.  Written in Mari’s own personal style, I can almost hear her Scottish lithe as I read along, the portion of the book that I have already read is engaging, passionate, and human.

Mari is also offering a set of webinars that you could attend breaking the book down for you that is free to attend for purchasers of the book.

I’m looking for actionable tips I can use in my own digital marketing as well as with clients in this book.

I can’t wait to devour this book as I did Content Strategy for the Web and share my thoughts with you the last Wednesday of this month!

If you forget what I’m reading mid-month and can’t find this post you can always keep up with what I’m reading by checking out my ‘I am Reading’ widget in the far right sidebar.

What the Girls are Reading

This month the girls and I are starting The Chronicles of Narnia set with The Magician’s Nephew.  Set in a time of struggle, British schoolchildren Polly and Digory inadvertently tumble into the Wood Between the Worlds, where they meet the evil Queen Jadis and, ultimately, the great, mysterious King Aslan. KG is especially excited since she’ s seen all the movies and has read most of the set on her own.  The Magician’s Nephew is her favorite so far and she’s looking forward to sharing it with KJ.

I cherish this time I am able to spend with the girls, cuddled up on the bed and wrapped in blankets, enjoying one of my favorite pass times.

Time travel.

Via book.

Do you have a favorite book or set of books to share with your child?

What is on your reading list this month?  Let me know what’s on your shelf in the comments!

Image Credit: Mari Smith & Wiki

Disclosure: All links are Amazon affiliate links…which means I might get enough from the proceeds of a possible purchase to buy myself a glass of tea.

Like what you read? Try these!:

1. What I’m Reading Wednesday – Content Strategy for the Web
2. Content Strategy for the Web – What I’m Reading Wrap-Up

For more than a decade, CURE International has transformed the lives of children with physical disabilities and their families in the developing world through medical and spiritual healing.

What’s really fantastic is that CURE operates hospitals and programs in 20 countries around the world where patients experience the life-changing message of God’s love for them, receiving surgical treatment regardless of gender, religion, ethnicity, or ability to pay.

Wow.

Imagine what that could mean for the most remote and poorest places of the world…

Check out some of the other awesome things CURE has been doing:

• * Since 1996, CURE has performed more than 84,000 surgeries and seen more than 1.3 million patients.
• * CURE International is the largest provider of pediatric specialty surgical care in the developing world. Its hospitals specialize primarily in treating children with orthopedic and neurosurgical conditions such as hydrocephalus, cleft palate and clubfoot.
• * CURE International operates 11 hospitals in Afghanistan, the Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Honduras, Kenya, Malawi, Niger, Uganda, the United Arab Emirates and Zambia.
• * CURE International launched CURE Clubfoot Worldwide in 2006 to eliminate clubfoot as a lifelong disability in the developing world. More than 10,000 children have been treated so far.

and more.

Right now CURE International and Air1 radio host, Brant Hansen, invite listeners of KLOVE and Air1 to partner with them in a very special mission to serve the women and children of Afghanistan through knitting.

Watch this fantastic video with Brant explaining more about this mission and how YOU can help.

CURE Knit Pray Love from CURE Video on Vimeo.

Will you please pray for this ministry and think about participating in this awesome mission?

CURE also has a fun blog that lets you stay up-to-date with the organization and how you can best pray for them.

*All information was gathered from CURE International’s website.*

CURE on Facebook

Please note that I am in no way affiliated with CURE International, Air 1, KLove, or any of their affiliates and did not receive any type of stipend or payment for featuring this organization. As always, Community Features are NEVER sponsored and are always hand-picked by me. Amanda.

Images credit: CURE International 

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They even brought home the 2nd place trophy for their division!

*Congratulations girls!*

I am so thankful that the girls, my girl, have such amazingly supportive coaches who work so hard to give these girls their best!

For more inspiring photos be sure to check out: Better in Bulk, From Dates to Diapers, Not Your Momblog, The Divine Miss Mommy, Colorado Moms, Rajean Blomquist, BrainFoggles, The Centsible Life, Rachel Ferrucci, Lil Kid Things, Resourceful Mommy and Zensible Mama and don’t forget to link your own photo stories.

Like what you read? Try these!:

1. Wordless Wednesday – Hanging with My Girl
2. Wordless Wednesday – Impromtu Stay At Home Day
3. Wordless Wednesday – Disney Dino Fun

If you missed session one, you can see my Community Manager Training Session 1 notes.

These notes from session 3, Tools, are specifically written vaguely so as to not deplete the value of the class or negate the need for participation; they are only meant as a guide and as general notes.

This class’s speaker was Dawn Lacallade from ComBlu.

Goals of Session 3: Tools – Selecting the right tools to create the types of communities you want to foster for your brand.

Types of tools

• Forums
• Blogs
• Wikis
• Activity Streaming & Microsharing
• Ideation Platforms
• User generated content (UGC) platforms
• Ratings & review
• Social networks

Forum: online discussion board that allows users to interact with each other.

Pros:

• One of the few platforms for real-time dialogue
• Highly successful for uses in support as well as presales questions and answer
• Successful forums can be a great source of SEO juice, traffic, crisis management & idea generation

Cons:

• Direct relationship can be labor intensive until an MVP responder group can be grown
• Can be expensive to set up with full-functioning platforms
• It is critical to show brand engagement to drive participation.
• Unanswered questions can pose a PR risk

Blog: Online version of a journal or diary that allows an individual or a brand to have an ongoing venue for sharing information and opinions. Written in a chronological format

Pros:

• Low cost and realtively easy to set up.
• Share large blocks of conten with ease.
• Successful blogs can deliever high seo value, can have high readerships, can be a valueable tool in crisis management and can be used to give a voice and personality to a brand.

Cons:

• Difficult way to foster interaction via comments
• Requires frequent content to maintain freshness
• Difficult to access older conten  one it’s archived
• Doesn’t resonate with all audiences (ie: low tech)
• Can be hard to make a new blog stand out in a crowded field of blogs

*It may be more difficult to grow interaction with a blog, allowing social log-in in content may help with this.*

Wikis: A web-based application that allows multiple experts to contribute and collaborate to form document for information sharing.

Pros:

• Allows for collaboration on large quantities of content by man authors/experts.
• High participation medium for the most dedicated participants.
• Taps into the wisdom of the crowd to come to the best content
• Can be very successful as an internal knowledge sharing tools.
• Successful wikis can be great traffic and SEO tools and can also generate high quality content.

Cons:

• Takes an extraordinary amount of cultivation to maintain and grow an active wiki
• Only the highest participants will contribute
• Dedicated platform is required and can be costly
• Fairly limited document and content presentation types

Activity Streams/Microsharing: a short-text medium that is a fast way to pass snippets of information publically.  Users can follow individuals or brands to keep up real time.  (Example: Twitter).

Pros:

• Low cost & easy to set up.
• Real-time dialogue with customer.
• Real-time listening can deliver early PR warning system
• Successful Twitter handles can have high readership and can be a valuable tool in crisis management.  Can also be used to give a voice and personality to a brand.

Cons:

• Short format can be challenging.
• Takes a lot of attention to create a dialogue.
• Important to create a persona for ongoing dialogue.
• Difficult to access older content once it is archived.
• Doesn’t resonate with lower tech audiences. – make sure you are needing the demographic that can be found on Twitter.

Ideation Platforms: Various online platforms that encourage individuals (customers) to collaborate to solve a business, product or social challenge.  Often these platforms use voting to identify the best ideas. (Startbucks Ideas)

Pros:

• Receive and organize mass amounts of feedback for the brand that can help:
  • Improve products
  • Improve services and processes
  • Use cases/insights
  • Drives loyalty and repeat customers because the brand is listening.

Cons:

• Some platforms can have a high cost.
• Very high internal resource requirements to get full value.
• High business risk:
  • Implied expectation that highly voted ideas will be implemented regardless of business value.
  • Enough ideas are not implemented.

User Generated Content (UGC) platforms: Open Web platforms that allow users to contribute, store, and share content they have created.  This content can be in the format of pictures, slides, videos, and code. (Slideshare, YouTube)

Pros:

• Little to no cost to participate.
• Has millions of participants within the platforms.
• Surfing for new content is common.
• Crosslinking increases SEO.
• Low cost hosting platforms.

Cons:

• Very hard to get users to create and share video and photo mediums due to the high time investment involved and the technology barriers.
• Might not appeal to lower technology audience
• East to set up, harder to differentiate
• Requires consistent content generation to maintain audience.

Ratings & Review: Web-based tools that allow consumers to rate (usually via star levels) or author-written reviews about products.   Potential customers use this content as they consider purchases.

Pros:

• Customers are a more credible resource for product information that the brand in the eyes of the consumer.
• Offers both low-barrier participation with simple rating systems and deeper participation with reviews.
• Source of great marketing quotes and use case stories

Cons:

• Tool platform should integrate into commerce site.
• Off property ratings and review sites compete with brand sites
• Negative ratings and reviews will exist and should be addressed not removed.
• Can be challenging to populate.

Social Networks:  Online representation of existing relationships either personal or professional.  Platforms allow interaction, the sharing of content, uploading of files, following, commenting, and more engagement.

Pros:

• Low cost and relatively easy to set up.
• Delievers content to your audience where they are spending time, requiring little effort on their own part.
• Direct dialogue with the consumer
• Social sharing makes for low barrier word-of-mouth (WOM)

Cons:

• Requires customers to invite you to their party.
• Can be buried among many brands all speaking at your audience.
• Platform changes can be challenging to maintain.
• Customized pages will cost more.
• Difficult to draw out a discussion.

Did you attend the Tools session?  What did you think?

Learn more about WOMMA’s Community Manager Training program.

Like what you read? Try these!:

1. WOMMA’s Community Management Training – Market Context and Program Management

Ani’s music reminded me that while I loved Jon he did not make me who I was, but that I alone had that power.

Wow.

What a powerful thought and reinforcement for a young girl learning to live and love as an adult.

Ani’s unique and gorgeously raspy voice is like salve to my soul and a reminder that I am still that strong, independent, and powerful woman…perhaps even more so now.

The first song I want to share with you is Not a Pretty Girl – this song speaks to the independent me, it gives a voice to the me that sometimes gets buried in business and life.  It reminds me that that girl is still there.

The song is actually over at the 3:06 mark, but the video continues to play…

so you can feel free move on to the next awesome Ani song after about 3 minutes.

This next song is also very special to me – I had what some would call a tumultuous childhood and when I heard this song for the first time I could not honestly say I was “there” yet.  Now, years later, it’s a song that calls to me…that prompts me to remember to let things go. And to be grateful for the past, it has shaped the person I am.  Take a listen to Not Angry Anymore and tell me what you think?  Have you felt that way?

One more: It’s like she’s inside my brain.

Her music is so beautiful is makes me alternately stand up and raise my fist (or drink) and cry soul-cleansing tears.

Now you’ve heard the amazing woman sing now I’d like you to listen to her speak.

I die.
Isn’t she amazing?

What are you listening to this week? Share your link here and leave me a comment!

Image credit: Wikipedia

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