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One of the perqs of living in the San Francisco Bay area is being close to the action. For example, tonight I attended the latest WordPress SpeedGeeking event held by the San Francisco WordPress Meetup group, graciously hosted by Zach Berke of Exygy. Automattic was out in force. Old friends were caught up with and new friends were acquired.

And of course some of the coolest WordPress around.

So what is this “speed geeking” thing anyway?

Good question…

Speed Dat^H^H^HGeeking, WordPress-style

SpeedGeeking is round-robin lightning talks. Presenters occupy tables placed around the room, and people move from presentation to presentation every 5 minutes. I’ve done this before, presenting hRecipe plugin for WordPress at the April 2011 WordPress San Francisco SpeedGeeking. It’s fun.

Obviously, the potential for widespread panic is latent, but our host Zach has that all figured out: we count off 1 to the-number-of-presenters, each getting a number which becomes our “group.” Every five minutes, Zach queues up the music, and we shuffle en masse to the next station.

Since I was with Group 4, we started with station #4.

#4. Better WordPress image filtering

Station #4 was inhabited by Ben Sheldon, the thoughtful blogger driving Island 94 and 2012 Code for America fellow.

Ben explained that hyperlinking around images in WordPress is a chancy proposition. Fixing the styling with pure CSS and jQuery makes for poor and fragile solutions. Much better to use WordPress filters and handle the necessary markup on the server.

All it takes is a little bit of code in one’s functions.php file. Ben also presented some very good advice for asking WordPress questions on forums. Key: know what question you’re really asking.

Here’s Ben’s blog post with downloadable PDF: WordPress image filtering.

#5. Sidekick Plugin for WordPress administrators

Gaird Schlesinger is one of the driving forces behind Mighty Digital, a San Francisco-based design shop. Lately, Gaird and rockstar WordPress colleague Dimas Begunoff have been doing a fair bit of WordPress work, one of the results of which is the WordPress Sidekick Plugin.

It’s all about the little things, those little things which really matter:

1. Expanding and collapsing post listings.
2. Starring favorite posts.
3. ID column really helps when developing custom code.
4. Lists the modified date as well as the publication date.
5. Live search, find terms on every part of a post or page, not just content.
6. Site visibilty notice, don’t forget to ask Google to index when your new site goes live.
7. Page count for menu children.

And more! Sidekick is really cool and really useful, especially when you find yourself spending (what feels like) most of your waking hours scratching around in the WordPress administration interface. Dimas is happy to tell you more about WordPress Sidekick Plugin.

#6. Important Media sustainability blog network

David Anderson owns and operates Important Media, a consortium of 18 blogs focusing on sustainability. Each blog has full editorial independence. David built Important Media using WordPress Multisite, which he states is indispensible. Expect to see more about Important Media here on Website In A Weekend in the future. For now, visit sites in the Important Media Network.

#7. Livefyre real time conversations on WordPress

I met Jenna Langer of Livefyre at a San Francisco Blog meetup almost two years ago(!?), and since then, Livefyre has really started to take hold in the blogging community. It’s like having a Twitter feed dedicated to each blog post.

Here’s some of what Jenna told us about Livefyre:

• Livefyre comments still owned by bloggers
• Installs via plugin
• Makes comments social, uses @symbol for reference
• Tracks back from twitter. Facebook coming.

If you have (or want) a lot more engagement on your blog, seriously consider Livefyre. Read more from Justin Germino AKA DragonBlogger about converting to Livefyre commenting.

Update from Jenna:

One thing to add is that we do have SocialSync support with Facebook – you enter your Facebook Fan Page and Livefyre imports comments that are left when you post a link to your blog.

Thanks Jenna!

#8. SEO Translate

Jason Thai presented a new WordPress plugin for helping with translation which leverages the Microsoft translation services. The angle is that the plugin is part of Fox Translation’s offering. While machine translation is not usually very good, the plugin makes a great start, and critical text can be cleaned using Fox services when necessary.

SEO Translate offers 35 different languages, and check out Fox Translate as well.

Also, Jason is looking for case studies using the plugin. If you have notion to try it out, leave a comment below and I’ll get you connected with Jason.

#9. Salon.com – WordPress CMS, for real

Is or is not WordPress a CMS.

The answer to this depends a lot on who you ask.

If you were to ask Salon.com, they might say something like “WordPress CMS? It’s close enough, we can work with it.”

And work with it they did.

The new Salon.com WordPress-based site features:

• Custom built in-house theme.
• Administrative backend is on a different domain, with htpassword access protection. This is really good for security.
• Articles are given Priority and Shelf life to establish publication precedence.
• Custom edit panel with images, notes pool, improved approval process via editor
• Algorithmic front page construction using priority and shelf life.
• Image crops are automatically set in theme for custom presentation depending on context.

All in all, an amazing piece of work. Visit the new Salon.com.

#10. Pagelines

If you haven’t yet heard of Page Lines themes for WordPress, you probably will soon. I didn’t get the presenter’s name, but I was impressed enough to sign up as an affiliate to PageLines (not aff. link here, though). The framework features drag and drop design with no coding necessary, it’s listed on WordPress.org themes, and it can handle child themes (the recommended way to develop these days).

The options settings page is pretty amazing for PageLines. Worth checking out if you’re a theme junkie.

#11. Full website, no content!

Karla Leibowitz presented freedirectoryguide.com, which is built on genesis, nothing in website, all built using shortcodes, multiple sidebar patterns, client-driven seo. I can’t do better than the description on the SpeedGeeking announcement page, so here’s a partial quote:

Karla is using the theme display and the category structure, the admin interface, and taking advantage of easy and rapid deployment of SEO ready new “pages”, but is able to nestle, with shortcodes and page templates, information from an exterior source into the WordPress framework. This work also demonstrates location based search, google maps, and page access by URL eg: www.mysite.com/searchfor?what=this&where=there&who=me

Visit Karla Karla as well.

#1. Responsive web design

Richa Avasthi is a a long-time blogger, from back when blogs were cool. Or weren’t cool, I guess, depending on your perspective. She blogs at The Emotional Pumpkin, which is built on a custom, responsive web design to work well on any device, browsers as well as mobile. Go ahead, check it out The Emotional Pumpkin on all your browsers, at the same time. It’s really cool.

Also, she is super-smart so you can learn stuff too.

#2. Learn That on Cloud Flare

Rosevita Warda, Learn That reports that moving to CloudFlare content delivery network had a major positive effect on her traffic. With the numbers to prove it, the CloudFlare results graphs are amazing, and if I can get permission to post them here, I will do so.

The short answer is that traffic went up and bounce rate went down. Since Learn That relies on traffic for revenue, this is a Bona Fide Big Deal.

Rosevita has no association with CloudFlare, other than being a delighted customer. Best type of testimonial there… she drove down from Sebastapol, California to present these results. That’s, like, 50 miles on a Monday evening.

#3. TekPals’ TPSunrise Theme

Ed Ehrgott owns and operates TekPals, a boutique design outfit located in the heart of San Francisco’s Mission District.

What I like about Ed’s work is that it’s classical web design, done right. For example, his TP Sunrise theme (available via WordPress.org) provides an options panel, sidebar menus on demand, and has an optional, resizeable and responsive slideshow. That is cool.

And Ed totally gets it. Here’s a quote from a recent blog post about creating your blog’s message:

In my experience in developing many sites, I’ve actually found that the most challenging part of the process is defining the organization’s message. I actually believe that developing a website is the best thing that any organization can do because if forces a reflection on what the organization is all about.

This is good advice for most everyone with a website, including myself.

It’s a party!

As mentioned, when the music queues, it’s time to move. And the music was great.

After exercising my 1337 haxors skilz,¹ I now have a copy of the SpeedGeeking playlist. Which I am informed pulled double duty as Zach’s wedding playlist. Or maybe the other way around. Whatever. Here’s a treat from the playlist:

Good stuff.

Questions? Comments? SpeedGeeking for fun and profit?

And what about you? Are there any SpeedGeeking events in your area? If not, why not? You could host one! Be sure to send me details, I’ll link to your SpeedGeek event right here.

If you have any questions about any of the presenters or presentations, let me know and I’ll see about getting those questions answered.

Post from: Website In A Weekend

WordPress SpeedDating in San Francisco (you know you want it)

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I was doing a little due diligence the other day, seeing where Website In A Weekend was landing in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), and this came up:

Michelle is a Staff Author on Website In A Weekend

Michelle is a Website In A Weekend Staff Author by dint of writing a series of eight articles on Practical Virtual Assistant Tips for bloggers. I have no idea why Google decided to list Michelle this way, it certainly wasn’t planned.

I don’t even know how to plan something like this, even if I wanted her featured.

Someone really good with SEO could probably figure it, or at least increase anyone’s chances at getting listed this way. But the serendipity works for me.

And being a guest author might work for you…

Guest authors on Website In A Weekend

The usual state of affairs for guest authors on blogs is you, the potential guest author, send out a post to another blogger, who more than likely insists on holding your copyright (“exclusive right to publish”), and posts the article under his or her own name.

That’s how it used to be done here on Website In A Weekend as well.

But no longer.

We’ve started creating accounts for all guest authors, and all blog posts written by guest authors (about 80) will be published under their byline.

This is cool, because each author can then use Google+ and author tags (which are being implemented here) to get authorship credit on Google search results.

Upcoming guest authors

Right now we have nine articles in queue, to be published over the next 6 weeks or so:

• Bob Hayles from Juicy Maters weighs in on getting the blogging work done, even when it’s no fun.
• Anca Mosoiu of Tech Liminal starts a semi-regular “Ask Anca” column, helping people with WordPress issues.
• Vincent Tan, the Polymath Programmer, has contributed an article about electronic publishing from his Singularity (for curious scientists and artists) electronic magazine.

These have been in the works for a while, and I hope you will visit and see what these fine people have to offer.

Interested in publishing on Website In A Weekend?

Website In A Weekend has been operating two and half years now. We have just under 500 articles published (495 with this article), and we’re looking forward to an exciting 2012.

If you’re interested in joining us, send me an email (david.doolin@gmail.com) with a pointer to your blog or website, and a brief explanation about what you would like to publish.

Note: We’re really picky around here. We don’t do link exchanges for any reason, and do not accept articles intended on promoting products and services of no interest to Website In A Weekend readers. For example:

Good: An article explaining how you used a content distribution network for timely delivery of heavy images supporting your online magazine for hockey goalies.

Bad: An article promoting the benefits of prophylactic podiatry for your SEO client in Peoria. For the few readers from Peoria (Hi!), I’m sure there are better ways to reach them. They aren’t reading Website In A Weekend because the old bunion is acting up.

Fundamentally, if it benefits readers, we’re inclined to run it, if it doesn’t, we’re not. Use common sense.

Post from: Website In A Weekend

Michelle Mangen scores Google #1 result

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WordCamps are great fun, offering a little bit (or a lot of bit) of something for everyone. Last year, I had schedule conflict with Burning Man. This year, I’ve already got my ticket.

By design, WordCamp travels around the globe. If you live in a major metropolitan area, chances are there has been, or will be one near you, within the last (or next) couple of years.

But WordCamp San Francisco is The Big One!

And this year is no exception. The depth and breadth of the WordCamp 2011 speakers is outstanding.

How it works

WordCamp SF 2011 is roughly divided into two tracks: 1. blogging, and 2. development.

I’ll be spending my time in the development sessions. There is a lot of very cool development happening under the “WordPress hood” (that’s bonnet to the rest of the English speaking world). The WordPress code base is pushing 10 years old now, and that’s often senile in software development years.

Fortunately, the WordPress engineers are very carefully modernizing the core code over time. You can see the results: faster, more secure, more stable code, all at the same low price of free!

On the blogging and website side, the focus is more on projects and publication: Who has been doing What with WordPress. You will find presentations about how WordPress is being used for Unicef, for CURE, for historical documentation of a US Marine battalion deployment to Afghanistan and many other globally relevant topics.

What’s your plan?

If you’re within driving distance, and I know some of you are, consider coming down for at least one day of WordCamp.

In my opinion, here’s one of the most important reasons for you as a blogger to attend:

You will meet a very large number of successful bloggers you do not know.

WordCamp draws a different audience than Blog World. This is a good thing. There is overlap; I know a couple of people who attend Blog World who will be at WordCamp. But overall, it’s a different crowd. Again, a good thing.

If you’re attending, at least wave at me during lunch!

ROLL CALL: who’s gonna be there? Drop a quick comment, and we’ll have a WiaW lunch meetup on Saturday or Sunday.

Post from: Website In A Weekend

The biggest, best WordCamp ever: San Francisco 2011

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Point blank: there is no such thing as completely “free” software.

All software has a cost.

This is thermodynamics. It’s mandatory. TANSTAAFL.

What many people believe is “free” software was actually paid for by someone else, then liberated for widespread use under one or more permissive licenses. And that’s a good thing.

But it’s not really free; the programmer – or someone else – is still on the hook for:

• Paying the rent. If the programmer doesn’t have a place to live, no programs.
• Food. Hard to code when you’re hungry.
• Electric bill, connection: not free.
• Hardware: Somebody paid for a computer somewhere down the line.

Code doesn’t wish itself into existence. Somebody, somewhere, at some point in time made sure the tab was covered, whence “free” software was emitted. The payer might be a spouse, a parent, the government (i.e., taxpayers), a previous client. Perhaps the coder spending his or her free time programming. Whatever. At some point, money changed hands.

Free software is cheap

Once a piece of code is written, it’s available for infinite copying. So the price goes down, fast, as does the perceived value.

Low perceived value may induce cognitive dissonance.

We get this amazing WordPress system for free (!). It slices, it dices, it does everything but the dishes. So why does adding some teeny little XYZ feature cost $500 dollars?
Well, no one has paid for it yet.

XYZ will be free after someone pays for it.

Free software is expensive

Free software costs just as much to develop as any other software. A real person who eats real food and requires a real roof over his or her head, preferably with a modicum of climate control, costs real money.

The code itself, it doesn’t care whether it’s free or not.

It takes as long to write the code as it takes. Sometimes code can be written very quickly, sometimes, not so fast.

Ultimately, the cost of free software, like the cost of anything else, is measured in mortality. Someone spends life to create it. Isn’t it amazing they give it away? Freely!

By all means enjoy the incredible ecosystem created by the culture of free and open source software. The internet, the web, is all built by individuals contributing their time and possibly their own money.

And understand this: every dollar, ducat, ruble, or whatever you spend on free software is a contribution to the community.

If this is a problem, build your own internet.

What does free software mean to you?

WordPress leverages the free software running the internet to provide a free online publication application for everyone in the world. The mission of WordPress is to democratize publication.

Ponder that a few moments, and if you feel inspired, jot down a few notes below about free software, what it means for you, for your business, as a philosophy, or anything else you feel is relevant. Especially, think about participation and how you might contribute back to the community.

I’m taking 5 good answers from readers, then I’m closing comments.

Post from: Website In A Weekend

Why Free Software costs so little… and costs so much

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The focus of this post is a bit different than others I’ve written. The reason for this is because I need to get something off my mind. So a mini-rant is coming up- you’ve been warned. :) I recently joined several groups on LinkedIn, with the intention of meeting other people working within the social media space. I was hoping to learn, connect, and be enriched by belonging to these groups.

Several of the groups required moderator approval to join, which led me to believe that the content would be of high caliber.

So far (and I’m about two weeks in) all I see is people using the discussions as a way to push their content out- and not, really, to have any discussions.

The couple times I replied to people’s questions or inquiries, the questioner never acknowledged or responded. Someone was asking for assistance with a few business questions, I offered to help connect them with potential resources or referrals- and again, got no response.

This annoyed me and then made me angry.

Why? Because – and really – what’s the the point of reaching out to connect with people… and then not ever following through when a connection is begun?

I understand that we’re all busy, and we’re all trying to manage information overload. Social media can be more than just a distribution channel– but hardly anyone is using it as more than a push content mechanism.

If you saw my earlier post on gaining attention in social media you will understand what I mean. Most of these people are just yelling into the wind. Even the ones who manage to capture my attention with a great or provocative headline then proceed to push their content on me – the headline pulls me in, because it seems like a provocative or interesting question.

But instead of creating a dialogue, they move right into “And the answer is here, in my blog post.”

Now, I wonder if they are doing this to build links as well, and that may be all they are looking for. But here’s the thing- if you’ve written a good enough headline to make me clickthrough, shouldn’t you DO something with my attention while I’m there?

Why are you trying to get me to click through again?

When you’ve done the hardest part – capturing my attention – why not back it up with some good information, stimulating dialogue, something that makes me want to know more or dig deeper? Give me that, and I’d ultimately click to your blog post on my own.

The more clicks you put between me and the information I’m interested in, the less likely I am to move forward.

Similarly, if a thread is called “Discussions”- shouldn’t we all be discussing something?

Now, I definitely understand that one purpose of business social networking is to promote your business and your services. But the most successful way to do that is by providing relevant and useful information, and making suggestions when people ask. When you are seeking information, it just makes sense to thank the people who responded- even if their information wasn’t exactly what you needed. I mean, here’s the thing- in real (offline) life, don’t you say thank you when someone helps you? Even if their information wasn’t ultimately that useful? I know I do.

Why do online connections warrant any less courtesy?

As for me, I’m going to monitor the groups for another two weeks. If nothing changes, I’ll withdraw from the groups, and try to find another place to make connections, rather than just be overwhelmed by self promotion.

How about you? What strategies do you use to create and maintain strong connections?

Share your ideas here by commenting below.

If you’d like to access my audio, “Psychological Strategies for Building Social Media Influence”, you can get the free audio here

Rachna Jain is the amazingly energetic entrepreneur driving Social Media Marketing Strategies, where you will find in-depth discussion of the latest technology and techniques in social media marketing.

Post from: Website In A Weekend

Social Media Can Be More Than a Distribution Channel

(Reading time: 4 – 7 minutes)

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Whether you are new to social media, or have been using it for a while, you know that there are many questions on social media and if it works for small business. There are people who are reporting notable success with it, while others feel like they are wasting their time with it. Yet more and more money is being invested in social media. So how do you get the most benefit from your efforts?

When we look at social media, we can see that one of the biggest benefits of social media marketing is how easy it is to get started. Anyone can sign up for a Twitter account, or a Facebook account and start using them right away. It’s easy to put up a blog, and, of course, to engage in the conversation.

Getting started is too easy!

But while getting started is easy, the thing to remember is that the ease of use of social media tools does not directly correlate to how effective they will be for your business objectives. There are many people who take all the “right” actions in social media, but still feel like they don’t know what they’re doing. They are spending hours on Twitter or Facebook each day, but not seeing the results they want.

Stated another way, you need to think social media strategy first, and tools second.

Very often, people get overloaded with social media simply because they don’t have a strategy. Someone says they should be on Facebook- so they join. Someone says to get on Twitter, so they do. Someone else says to stay connected via LinkedIn- and they do. And it goes like this, on and on, because the number of sites you “should” be on will never stop increasing- and there are hundreds more social media sites coming online each day.

If you constantly jump from site to site, you risk wasting time and losing money.

Instead, start by considering your social media strategy. If you don’t have one yet, let me offer five suggestions and some advice for building one:

Strategy #1: Understand your social media business objectives

Business objectives might include outcomes such as increasing your network, becoming more visible, positioning yourself as the top expert in your field. Business objectives may also include outcomes such as growing your database, increasing blog visitors, and improving your online reputation.

While several of these can be accomplished in parallel, for the most part, stick with one objective at a time, especially if you’re newer to social media. Select one goal and focus on it.

What is the one outcome right now that would move your business forward in the most significant way?

Strategy #2: Acknowledge the time frame for your business objective

Social media is not a quick hit strategy and it can take a certain amount of focused effort to start seeing returns. If your time line for results is too short, you will feel like you’ve wasted time. If your time line is too long, you’ll feel frustrated, when it seems like results aren’t happening fast enough. For example, if you want to add 100 names to your database, you can probably accomplish this in 4-6 weeks. If you want to position yourself as the top authority in your niche, it will probably take a bit longer, especially if there is a reasonable amount of competition.

Right-size your time line to the size of your business objective.

Strategy #3: Focus on depth rather than breadth.

While it can be tempting to be join 100 social media sites, you risk spreading yourself too thin, and diluting your resources. Better to select 2, 3, or 4 sites which you can commit to participating on regularly, than joining 100 sites you never have time to access.

Repetition is an important element of building recognition and reputation. Focus deeply on a select group of sites, and participate as fully as possible. This means interacting with others, uploading and sharing content, adding to the conversation, and being helpful where you can.

Strategy #4: Test your levels of participation to define how much is enough.

There will be a sweet spot in terms of time put in and results obtained. This is true for any business process. Try participating very fully for two weeks, and see what your results are. Participate slightly less often in week three, and see if your results change. By focusing on measuring one specific business objective, you’ll have a good sense of how much effort you need to make on the social sites in order to reach your desired results.

Strategy #5: Adopt new technology thoughtfully.

There are multiple tools you can use to implement your social media strategy. Typically, you want to use the tools which are easiest, most cost-effective, and which provide the best results. Don’t adopt every new technology blindly, but then, on the other hand, don’t delay when a new technology can help you accomplish your business goals faster or easier.

Remember, the ease of use of social media tools does not correlate with their effectiveness in your business. Craft your strategy first, and then use tools to execute it. That’s the right order for business success.

How about you? What kinds of social media strategies are you pursuing right now to meet your most important objectives?

Share your progress by commenting below.

And if you’d like to receive my ecourse on Building Influence in Social Media, you can get that here: Build Influence e-course

Rachna Jain is the amazingly energetic entrepreneur driving Social Media Marketing Strategies, where you will find in-depth discussion of the latest technology and techniques in social media marketing.

Post from: Website In A Weekend

5 Tips for Social Media: Strategy First, Tools Second

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I’ve just had a very painful blogging experience, involving someone whose work I rather like: I’m refusing to publish an article submitted for guest posting.

Let’s back up a bit…

Long time readers (bofem) know that blogging (whatever that means) is only a part of what I do. I spend a fair amount of time programming, learning new technology, and working with my clients. Anyone who has connected with me on LinkedIn also knows I have far too much education, and my professional connections span an unlikely range of people from Berkeley professors to Florida tanning salon owners to boiled peanut salesmen from Georgia.

All good in my book.

Long time readers also know I have published articles on Website In A Weekend by anonymous and – this is important – pseudonymous authors.

These authors are anonymous to you, but not to me. I have a policy of connecting via LinkedIn with all authors who I publish here.

I have made no exception.

And that’s what’s painful.

Because I really want to make an exception in this case.

But I’m not going to and here’s why.

My personal goal for Website In A Weekend is to use it as a platform for developing real, absolute expertise with respect to WordPress, blogging and to a lesser extent, online sales and marketing. Now, I don’t especially care for the terms “guru” or “expert,” and you won’t find me claiming to be an expert on much of anything, but I do want people think of me when they have a problem to solve in this space.

In short, I’m building authority.

When I publish something from an “anonymous” author with whom I’ve connected on LinkedIn, I can assert that I know who that person is, and why I’m willing to vouch for that person’s authority and credibility.

As stated above, I maintain professional relationships with a wide range of people, spanning a number of communities. By communities, I’m also implying a subculture with many unwritten rules governing social behavior within the community.

Anonymity has no place in those communities.

The article I want to publish is really very good. It’s covering breaking technology, right on the heels of Scoble. It’s well written. The material is useful and interesting to readers of Website In A Weekend.

So what’s the problem?

The author of the article requests full anonymity and won’t connect on LinkedIn.

I had to think about this one. Should I break policy just this once? The article is excellent. I like the author, and in fact have spent some time mentoring that author. But think. It’s a slippery slope, and what’s the long term upside for me? A blog post? At the expense of credibility?

Publishing on Website In A Weekend may not seem like a very big deal. And perhaps it isn’t. But it’s still publishing. And publishing in the large is a partly matter of doing a lot more publishing in the small.

At the least, blogging is “good practice for the real thing.”

Folks, this stuff is as a real as you make it. As serious as you want it to be. Anonymity surely has a place in the wider scheme of things, of that there’s no doubt.

But where is anonymity’s place in the content and relationship market place of blogging?

And how do anonymous authors get paid?

I’m asking these questions in good faith. This has been painful. However, while I’ve made up mind for now, I’d like to hear what others have to say. Given the current brouhaha erupting around anonymity’s kissin’ cousin privacy, this discussion is timely and relevant.

~~~~

For what it’s worth, I instituted the LinkedIn policy after having an article submitted by a somewhat controversial blogger who, at the time, was publishing anonymously. I accepted on the condition of a real head shot and a LinkedIn connection.

Going forward, I’ll be making LinkedIn connections mandatory for mentoring as well. I’m not charging anything for mentoring (probably another gross mistake), but seriously, I need to know who I’m spending my time with.

Post from: Website In A Weekend

Blogging Anonymously – A painful experience – Saturday Morning Surfing

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The idea for this post came to me due to joining a new dance studio. As some of you may know, I’ve recently taken up social dancing in a big way. Now, I tend to do everything in a big way- really digging into something for a few weeks or months until I’ve gotten whatever I wanted from it. I change hobbies often, but I’m super committed while I’m there. 

Anyway, I’ve been taking a mix of private lessons and classes at Dance Bethesda, learning, so far, the basics of foxtrot, waltz, salsa, tango, rumba, and swing. The instruction has been top notch, and I’ve made significant progress in just a few weeks. My instructor is talking about me taking part in my first competition by November of this year; it might be my very own version of “So You Think You Can Dance?” (I’m still determining, for myself, what the answer to that question is!)

The reason I wanted to write about my dance studio today is that they are doing several things very well in terms of creating a fan base and following. The strategies they are using are ones you can use, too, to build your fan base through social media marketing.

Strategy #1: Be as inclusive as possible.

One thing that impressed me, a lot, about joining the studio is how friendly and welcoming everyone has been. Of course, it is called SOCIAL dance, but a key strategy is to make newcomers feel welcome and included. We all have some anxiety about being the “new kid on the block”, whether in real life, or online, so be as welcoming and inclusive as possible. You might include a warm and friendly welcome video on your site, or you might make a special effort to reach out to new followers or friends.

Whatever you do, make people feel welcome- they will stick around much longer.

Everyone is looking for a place to call “home”- and since it has to be somewhere- why not have that be your blog, website or business?

Strategy #2: Start as early as possible.

Dance Bethesda is just rolling out a kids dance program, starting ballroom and Latin dance lessons for children as young as 5. Not only will this help them build another level to their training and instruction, but it’s a smart long-term customer strategy. It’s likely that these kids will continue to take part in studio activities for multiple years, and they are likely to get their parents involved too.

For you, think about how you can broaden or widen the range of people you work with. You might create some informational products, or do some live trainings, or offer new products or services to aid more people across the business cycle.

When you start early, you create longevity and lifetime customer value.

Strategy #3: Spice it up.

Dance Bethesda not only offers lessons, but they also offer training for competitions, as well as dance focused cruises. They hold weekly dance parties for all sorts of holidays, and try to keep their clients interested and learning. How can you offer new and unexpected value to your network, so that they are continually learning and investing with you?

How can you use different offerings to cement your ties with your existing client base?

Strategy #4: Integrate your marketing.

The studio uses online and offline methods to drive people to the door. They are using Facebook and email newsletters, for instance, and also advertising in the local neighborhood. Although most of us probably focus on online methods, offline ones still work. And you can build a stronger business by using both. Don’t overlook the fact that some of your future best customers can be right outside your front door.

Take time to build your local networks in addition to your online networks.

Strategy #5: Have fun with it.

Dance Bethesda has a lot of fun- and they share it. New pictures are posted regularly on their site, and they continually invite you to take part in the fun. How can you create a fun or more exciting experience within your business? Remember, everybody likes to feel like they are part of something cool and unique and interesting and enjoyable.

How can you bring these qualities into your business more fully?

But wait! There’s more!

And the final strategy, of course, is to track your progress and give the process time to work. Tracking helps you know what’s working, so you know what to do more of- and being a little bit patient gives your marketing time to take root and grow strong.

If you want to build your social media fan base, these strategies will help you do so more successfully. Select just one to start with, and build up from there.

What about you? What strategies are you finding effective in building your own fan base, online or offline? Please share your best ideas by commenting below.

If you’d like to access my audio, “Psychological Strategies for Building Social Media Influence”, you can get the free audio here

Rachna Jain is the amazingly energetic entrepreneur driving Social Media Marketing Strategies, where you will find in-depth discussion of the latest technology and techniques in social media marketing.

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5 Strategies for Building Your Fan Base: A Case Study

(Reading time: 4 – 7 minutes)

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The idea for this post came from noting lately that people are just blanketing the social media airwaves with lots of content, lots of links, and lots of “look at me” “like me” “buy from me” type messaging. While some degree of self promotion is acceptable (and expected) within the social media space, there are effective (and noneffective) ways of getting noticed.

It’s important to understand how to get attention and manage attention within the social media space. As I’ve been spending more time lately on Twitter, I’ve been noticing more often how many people are yelling into the wind.

Yelling is pushing

The way I think of it, “yelling into the wind” means you keep pushing your ideas, thoughts, agenda- without taking part in any conversation or providing relevant links or substantive content. As I noted above, it means that your updates consist mainly of  talking AT people, rather than with them, and your main focus is to try and move people to buy from you. While, again, you can sell in social media, the general approach is more of soft selling, typically, than a direct imperative.

As you think about sharing good content and taking part in the conversation, you might be wondering, “does this mean each and every contribution I share has to be unique or brilliant?” Luckily, the answer is No. Not saying that you’re not brilliant, but, frankly, who needs that much pressure?

4 types of tweets

As I scanned my own set of Twitter updates, I noted that I seem to routinely offer one of four kinds of content. The four kind of updates are: ones where I’m advancing my brand, ones where I’m sharing good information, ones where I’m connecting more deeply with friends and colleagues, and ones where I’m advancing my authority or expert status. Let’s analyze each of these more thoroughly:

1. Advancing your brand

Advancing your brand helps people know you better on a quasi-personal level. These updates are not as mundane as what you had for breakfast, but they might include something fun or interesting you’re doing, which helps people know more about you.

In my case, these include updates about my pottery classes, upcoming concerts I’ve bought tickets for, and the like. They might also include other hobbies or interests I have, or unique ideas that just occurred to me.

As I’ve been traveling quite extensively over the past few months, my updates have rounded out to include pictures of places I’ve visited, as well as commentary on restaurants and attractions. My goal with these type of updates is to promote myself in a certain way- as an action-taker, and someone who is interested and active in life. This works because I want to work with clients who are like this too- and it’s interesting to note that people who connect with me because of my hobbies often end up working with me in some capacity.

Showcase what demonstrates who you are.

2. Sharing good and useful information

These would be updates that show people the causes and issues which matter to you. These can also help advance your brand, and help you make new connections, so these serve many purposes. Remember that most people are humanitarian, and are attracted to others who want to make a difference. When you can share about causes you’ve contributed to, or which are important to you, this helps people know and like you.

Sharing good information updates would also be ones where you are providing links or information to interesting news or relevant issues to your target audience. When you are viewed as a valuable contributor to social media, people are more naturally going to pay attention and respond to the content you share.

Share information relevant to you and your audience.

3. Engaging in direct conversation

Direct conversation helps you connect more deeply with people you already know. These are conversations about events you might be attending together, as well as updates where you compliment or promote someone for their achievements or contributions. The goal with these is to make sure they are relevant and significant- not just “we bought new purses at the mall”- but instead, “Susan showed her amazing fashion sense and helped me pick out a fabulous new purse.”

Think acknowledgements, not just statements.

4. Building your expertise or authority

Again, there is overlap between this subset and the others. The goal of these updates is to demonstrate that you are careful, conscientious, and well versed on the issues impacting your industry. These help build your brand, and can often bring you new business opportunities.

For example, recently, I answered questions about Joomla, WordPress, and psychology- each of which is an area of expertise for me. One of the people I helped actually hired me to consult with them on their WordPress blog. So these kinds of updates do work for business.

Demonstrate your authority, when appropriate.

What’s your Twitter focus?

So take a look at your own particular stance and positioning within your social media sphere. Are you focusing too heavily on one kind of update, at the expense of the others? Remember that people like to do business with people they like and respect. You can assist the development of these feelings by offering different kinds of updates conscientiously and with intention. If you pay attention to this advice, you’ll be sure to get noticed by the people you most want to reach.

So what do you think? Are there other kinds of updates you think should be on this list? Or do you have any comments about this content? Please feel free to share below.

If you’d like to access my audio, “Psychological Strategies for Building Social Media Influence”, you can get the free audio here

Rachna Jain is the amazingly energetic entrepreneur driving Social Media Marketing Strategies, where you will find in-depth discussion of the latest technology and techniques in social media marketing.

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4 Types of Tweets: Don’t Yell Into the Wind!

(Reading time: 5 – 8 minutes)

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With all the emphasis on the “social” in social media, there is a growing interest in how social networking is changing our interpersonal psychology.

In fact, I was recently interviewed for an article on this very topic. It was an interesting interview because it moved me to think more deeply about the ways in which rapid, instant communication and information sharing is impacting our personal perspectives and relationships. And I believe it is having discernible effects.

3 keys for social network psychology

From a personal perspective, I see social networks as changing our psychology in three key ways:

1. We find it easier to compare ourselves to others.

   This can have pros and cons, of course- dependent, most of the time, on whether we are doing “better than” or “worse than” those in our social networks. The problem with comparing ourselves to others is that we’ll always find people who are better, or worse, than us. Clearly, our own sense of self and personal viewpoint needs to rely on something else than social comparisons.

2. We have access to more resources than ever before.

   If you are stuck or need help, you can ask on Twitter, and get almost instant feedback or solutions. This can be a life-saver, or, at minimum, very useful, depending on your context and circumstances. By having more access to resources, we are better able to reach our personal goals, which can help us feel more confident and secure.

3. We can approach people more easily and more fluidly.

   It’s easy to send a Facebook “poke” or a small gift to someone you’d like to meet, but haven’t yet met. This can be a low stress, low rejection way to make contact. Access via social networks can help us live into the idea that there are only a few people separating us from people we’d most like to know. (The “six degrees of separation” idea.)

These are all great benefits, but there is a cost.

Cost of social networking

What are the downsides of social networking in terms of our personal psychology?

1. We might mistake digital intimacy for true intimacy.

   True intimacy comes from shared experiences and shared meaning, most of which occur real-time, face to face. It can be easy to get caught up in your own hype or your own online popularity, without remembering that when the computer shuts down, so does your social life. We need a balance between digital and real-life intimacy in order to be truly fulfilled.

2. We might regret high levels of transparency.

   I often tell clients, “Google never forgets”, which means that items you post online will mostly likely be accessible forever- or, at least, for a very, very long time. If you post something in a fit of anger, or with poor judgment, you might be living with regret about this for a long time. Feeling regret and shame around something you did, which you can’t control, has huge psychological implications.

3. We get caught up in numbers, forgetting its about relationships.

   Ok, admit it, when you log into Twitter, don’t you check on your number of followers? I know I do. Partly, of course, this is to make sure my ideas and messages are being well received- but, also, of course, it’s a sign of growing popularity and increasing reach.

Is fame the answer?

So many of us want to be famous, and social media gives us a chance to experience that rush of attention and focus. Who wouldn’t want to be seen as a “social media rock-star?” The reality is, though, that in terms of real relationships, our capacity to be deeply connected to people is limited to about 10 people.

Even if you have thousands in your tweetstream, my belief is that the functional benefit to you does not increase exponentially as your followers grow.

Certainly, more followers or friends means more pathways of information distribution. But there will always be a core group who will focus on you, invest in you, and purchase from you; and it takes more than a few Tweets to activate larger and growing numbers of these people.

In terms of relationships (and I’ll write more about this in another post), I see social networks as changing our relationships in very significant ways, too.

We know more, and faster

We have greater real-time updates of what people are doing- this can help us understand them better, in ‘micro-slices’ because we see how and where they are investing their time and energy. We can read profile pages and learn new things about people we know and love. Of course, the greater access to knowledge also increases the rate of and rapidity of communication, which can sometimes leave us scattered and unfocused because we have too much information coming in at once.

It is easier to ’shadow’ key people in our lives (or people we want to know), we can more easily “social engineer” meetings and connections. We might find it easier to make small talk, because we already know something about the person from his/her blog or podcast.

At the end of the day, social networks are useful for helping us find others like us– but do not trump the immediacy and benefits of real-time, real-life conversation. It is easy to be seduced into thinking that everyone in your social network is paying attention to you, all the time, but that is most likely not the case.

Who pays most attention to you?

The people who pay most attention to you are going to be those who meet you in real life, spend time with you, or are referred by other people. In order to most fully benefit from social media, we need to focus on both online AND offline connections. This means that you build a network of people online, and also aim to meet them in real life as soon as you can. Similarly, you must also build a network of “in-town” connections who can provide a sounding board, direct referrals, or other kinds of “real life” assistance.

When you focus on building both online and offline networks, you’ll have the best of both social worlds.

What strategies do you use to maintain strong relationships online and offline? Please give us your best ideas below.

And, if you’d like to access my 21 lesson e-course on building influence in social media, you can do that here: Build Influence e-course

Rachna Jain is the amazingly energetic entrepreneur driving Social Media Marketing Strategies, where you will find in-depth discussion of the latest technology and techniques in social media marketing.

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How Social Networks Are Changing Psychology