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Posts Tagged: Technology Speaker

5 Steps to Import Your Blog into Facebook

This morning I was working with a client, trying to explain over the phone how he can pull his blog into his new Facebook Page, and I felt as if I was playing that game where you sit blindfolded and have to get someone to draw something you are thinking of, using verbal communication only.

Somethings are just easier to do yourself than to try and explain. I ended up writing the directions down and sending them via email, but by 3pm, I had two other people asking me this same question on our Gettin’ Geeky Page so I figured I’d better get this out!

Since you put a lot of effort into a blog, you want to get all the exposure you can. You can import your blog into your personal profile on Facebook as well as your PAGES. Here are the steps to follow (it may sound a bit confusing but hang in there!)

1. Go to your PAGE and click on EDIT PAGE on the left.

2. Go down to APPLICATIONS (sometimes you have to click on BROWSE MORE . The search box is in the upper left- type in BLOG and you will see several options including NETWORKED BLOGS (SOCIAL RSS is another good one).

3. When you click on the Blog app you will then need to click the link ADD TO MY PAGE (under the picture on the upper left). If you have multiple pages, it will ask you to choose which page to add it to.

4. Now you go BACK to your PAGE and select the Blog tab that should now be showing. You will have to now pull the blog into the tab from here. You are almost finished.

5. There are a few boxes to check and then you must SAVE your settings and then TEST the publishing to make sure everything took.

There … that wasn’t so hard now was it?

Share your blog address here for all of us to check out too!

@GinaSchreck

July 29, 2010 | Filed Under Facebook, Facebook PAGES, Social Media, Technology | Leave a Comment

The iPad Project: Surviving a Week without My Laptop

On our recent trip to Hawaii to attend my sister’s wedding, my hubby convinced me to leave my laptop at home and just take my iPad and phone to stay in touch with the world. It sounded interesting. It sounded a bit scary.

The challenge was, I was conducting a Webinar the day after we got home and then speaking at a conference two days after that and I was concerned that I may need to sneak in a bit of early morning work on these while away and didn’t feel completely confident it could be done on my iPad. I saw it as an opportunity though; One that would help me finally find a place in my heart for this lovely iPad, which up until now has just been an oversized iTouch or expensive iPod. Sure I had a few fun apps on it and the Schrecklet loved playing games on it, but I had not moved it into a business tool category yet.

So I mustered up the courage to kiss my laptop good-bye, just for the week, and pack my iPad.

Here are some of my observations and benefits of traveling with my iPad:

1. Checking in and going through security at Denver’s International Airport was much smoother than when traveling with a laptop. Not only did I not have my big red laptop case, but TSA didn’t even require that I take the iPad out of my purse. Smooth sailing through security …except for that bottle of nail polish at the bottom of my purse! Curses–I usually catch those small items and stick them in my pocket! (NOTE: The TSA folks in Honolulu did not have the same smooth-sailing policy and required me to remove the iPad from my purse and lay it in a bin by itself.)

2. When sitting on the plane and the antsy 9-year-old boy in front of me slammed his seat into the reclined position, the iPad did not get lodged into the tray or seat back like my big laptop usually does! SWEET benefit I had not anticipated!

3. Obviously the small size made it great for throwing in my bag and heading down stairs to grab coffee and do a wee bit of work before the Captain woke up and the added benefit was that I didn’t look like a total idiot bringing my laptop poolside when I should have been relaxing. The new cool-factor served as kind of a disguise for any workaholic! (Which I’m not! I know, denial is one of the signs, but really…I’m not!)

4. Aside from music in my iTunes library, I had a collection of great magazines, podcasts and audio books that I had downloaded before we left, and before we even landed in Honolulu, I had read an issue of Wired Magazine, listened to half of Tony Hsieh‘s book “Delivering Happiness,” and one TWIG (this week in Google) podcast! Nothing says geeky vacation like laying on the beach with a few good episodes of This Week in Google with Leo LaPorte, Jeff Jarvis and Gina Trapani! (Can’t you hear the ukuleles in the background now?)

I do have to admit that the iPad connectivity was sketchy and I could not get online many times to even check email, so I ended up at the end of the week loving my (HTC) Nexus One phone all the more! That baby doubled as a great camera, email reader, Facebook app for posting content, a GPS navigator for getting us around the island, and of course a phone occasionally for making a call here and there! (NOTE: I do not have the 3G service on my iPad so I could connect, or try to connect, to the Marriott’s wifi service, a few others I met there were trying with 3G service and could not get a strong enough signal)

There were a two apps I had loaded onto my iPad that helped get me through the week though.

1. Thanks to the prompting of my tech-savvy and Mac enthusiast assistant, Marci Dahms, I signed up for LOG ME IN, which allows you to access a desktop (previously set up) so that in an emergency I could pull documents or files off of my PC at home and work on them and send them to a client in need, which did happen.

2. Because I had Docs To Go loaded on my iPad, I could open and edit a Word doc with no problem. This is also what you would use if you wanted to show a PowerPoint presentation from your iPad. (You would need to add a $69 adapter that connects to the projector.)

So all in all, can you survive on your next business trip with only your iPad? I say of course you can…as long as you bring your smart phone!

Let me know if you have successfully traveled with your iPad sans the laptop. I still feel that with a little more time, I CAN make another attempt at it.

@GinaSchreck

July 26, 2010 | Filed Under Mobile Technology, Technology, iPad | Leave a Comment

10 Twitter Do’s + 5 Twitter Don’ts = BIG Twitter Success

After two years using Twitter, and spending 6 months writing my Gettin’ Geeky with Twitter book, I have pulled together my top Do’s and Don’ts for using this powerful social engagement tool. There are so many tips and techniques for Twitter success, but these will be a good foundation for anyone wanting to build their business and manage their brand using this simple social engagement tool. You may not agree with all of them (and I encourage you to add your tips to this list in the comments), but I have found these the best way to build an authentic Twitter feed with minimal spam and maximum conversation that leads to new friendships, new learning and yes, new sales!

1. DO start by writing down your goals for being on Twitter. Is it a PR tool for you? Will you just be a Twatcher (someone who reads tweets but never posts anything)? Is your goal to connect with potential customers, or send readers to your blog? Write this goal down and keep it near by. Without a goal you can easily get sucked into that Twitter trap of sitting for hours and reading everyone’s posts and adding useless content to the already polluted stream. Having 1,000 followers is NOT a good goal. I can show you 1,000 naked spammers if that is your only goal.

2. DO take time to build your nest before starting to fly. Fill in your profile, giving people some information about you, a link to your website, blog or even LinkedIn profile, so they can see you are a REAL person and learn more if they want. Show your personality in that 160 character bio-HA! Most importantly is to be sure to load a good headshot of …YOUR HEAD! Don’t load a picture of your cat or truck or baby picture. People want to connect with a person, and more importantly, they want to conenct with YOU!

3. DO follow SMART people. Start by following writers and thought leaders you enjoy as well as those in your industry that you can share information with. Don’t get caught up in following the “Recommended” twits that Twitter suggests or celebrities, unless this is your industry. You can sprinkle those in later, but it can derail your focus as you read hundreds of possibly useless posts.

4. DO use a Twitter tool to manage the information flow. If you start feeling like it is information overload, realize that it is “filter failure.” Tools like TweetDeck and Hootsuite will help you manage the information flow. You do not need to read every tweet that comes raging by like a fast moving river. These tools will help you “pool” the tweets from your favorites into different columns or lists that you set up until you have time to read them. (More info on this in episode #55 of Gettin’ Geeky)

5. DO ReTweet good stuff. If you are following smart people, you will be getting smart info in your stream. When you retweet, you let others know you appreciate their information as you provide good content to those following you! (Be sure to use the RT etiquette which is to always give credit to the originator of the content)

6. DO jump in and reply to tweets that you have something to say on. Show people you are here for the conversations and not just to dump your information. If you look at your Twitter stream (look at your profile page) you should see a good mix of @replies, RT’s and great content from you.

7. DO think before you tweet! Before hitting send on that nugget of information, ask yourself if it is interesting or helpful. Many of you know my motto is “Be Interesting, Be Helpful, or Be Quiet!” Sharing personal information about watching television or what you are eating is neither helpful nor interesting. If you are telling me what movie you’re watching, perhaps you can give us a great line from the movie and have people guess, or you can tell us a lesson learned from the movie.

8. DO anticipate people ReTweeting your great nuggets. If you are posting something that you feel is helpful or interesting enough, then help people ReTweet it by making it short enough for them to fit a short comment and their Twitter name. To do this you want to aim for 120 character tweets–I know, it’s not easy!

9. DO make your links “clickable.” When posting a link to a blog or website, on Twitter, you must start with http:// instead of www. The http:// makes the link clickable. The only person who will go through the trouble to copy and paste your link into a browser is your mom, and even she will wait until later to do it. Bottom line, make it easy for folks!

10. DO add pictures, videos and other fun add-ins to your Twitter stream to allow us to SEE into your world. Most mobile devices can snap a pic and upload it to Twitter either via MMS messaging (text) or by using an app. Write a short tweet with the pic and share!

11. DON’T send people an auto Direct Message that tells them you are a cheesy spammer right off the bat. If you ARE a cheesy spammer, you may not want to tell us to unfollow you so quickly. When I get a direct message (DM) from a new person I follow and it reads “Thank you for following me, I can help you make thousands of dollars from your Twitter stream. Here is my gift to you: http://ImAnIdiot.com” I click UNFOLLOW and depending on what the spammer said, I may UNFOLLOW and BLOCK! Direct messages should be real messages from you to the other person that are not intended for anyone else to see. Here’s more information on how to use the DM feature.

12. Don’t protect your tweets. Go back to your goal-why are you on Twitter? Unless you are using Twitter for an internal communication tool (in which case, most of these tips will become useless to you), you really shouldn’t care about who reads your helpful nuggets. You do not have to follow them all back. Remember people who are following your posts will only see what you decide to send out. Make it easy for people to get your information. Protecting your tweets is a hassel for others.

13. Don’t use the verification services that make followers authenticate themselves to prove they are not spammers. YOU do the work. Remember, you don’t have to follow everyone back, but don’t punish those you were trying to attract in the beginning.

14. Don’t send every tweet to Facebook and LinkedIn. Be selective on what posts go where. Each of these sites reaches a different audience (for the most part) and requires different information. There are some nuggets that will go everywhere and some only to one or two of the sites. Using a tool like TweetDeck or Hootsuite will allow you to pick and choose which sites will receive your post.

15. Don’t listen to every so called “expert” telling you her Do’s and Don’ts on how to use your Twitter account. If you jump in and explore you will find the tools you like and a way that works for you.

Add your favorite Do’s and Don’ts~

@GinaSchreck

June 21, 2010 | Filed Under Gettin Geeky, Marketing, Twitter | 11 Comments

Becoming Mayor of Tipsy’s Liquor World & Other Technology Dangers

I “performed” last night at IGNITE Fort Collins a fun comedy routine about the dangers of using today’s technology. The IGNITE programs are spreading across the globe (and one is coming soon to Second Life for those who can’t get to one physically). The basic premise of the IGNITE programs is 15 or so presenters are selected to give a 5 minute presentation each. These presentations must have 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds, making them fun, fast, and highly entertaining. Last night the presentations ranged from “Being Married to a Gamer” and “The Anatomy of a Harmonica” to “Understanding the Barter System.” Each one was unique and FUN!

Here is my “comedy routine” I titled “Becoming Mayor of Tipsy’s Liquor World & Other Technology Dangers”

If you’d like to see more of the entertaining presentations from last night’s IGNITE Fort Collins event, check them out HERE.

Happy Friday and REMEMBER DONT TEXT and WALK without your iHELMET.

@GinaSchreck

June 18, 2010 | Filed Under Gettin Geeky, Social Media, Technology | Leave a Comment

Tending to Your Social Media Garden

I love spring and summer. I love sleeping with the windows open and hearing the birds in the morning. I love waking up at 5:30 to go out in my garden to water the flowers, skim leaves out of the water fountains, making sure the water levels are up, and frequently planting a new potted plant that I found the night before. I even enjoy pulling a few weeds here and there. My husband asks, “Is the garden ever finished?” I try to help him see that a great garden is a daily commitment. It is never finished, it just keeps getting better and better.

Growing your social community is a lot like a garden. It takes a daily commitment to do the work each day. You will need to check on your relationships, nurture a few that are wilting and even pull a few weeds each day. Too many people want the beautiful garden without doing the work. Those are the people who end up buying fake plants or paying someone to come each week to do the work for them. Let’s take a peek into both of those Social Media Gardens:

Buying fake plants is the same as those who jump into the social media arena and connect with thousands of people that they have nothing in common with or that they really have no interest in conversing with. They just want the appearance of a big garden. Take a look at the “FOLLOWER” list of some people and you will see it filled with spammers, porn accounts and the default Twitter bird picture that shows it is most likely a spam account. Now look at the profile page of that gardener and you will find one way conversations that are most likely automated. Little if any @replies to people because this gardener is simply focused on sticking more fake flowers in the dirt.

While there is nothing wrong with paying for a little help, and who wouldn’t want a gardener to come and help make your garden look its best each week, BUT you have to be careful that the gardener doesn’t take over your vision or your garden might end up looking like Disneyland with sculpted Mini and Mickey in the front yard! There are tools that can help you automate SOME of your social media chores, but you still have to get out in the garden to nurture the relationships each day. An example of a problem that can arise when you replace your presence in the garden with automation, is posting Facebook PAGE updates using fabulous tools like TweetDeck, Hootsuite or any other third-party tool and not paying attention to comments or questions that might be posted. You will not always see comments or questions unless you walk through the Facebook Page garden.

If you are going to hire someone to help you, be sure you don’t abandon the garden. There’s just no way around the fact that SOCIAL media tools are still about the SOCIAL! Without the daily work, all of the time and effort you put in to start your garden will return nothing but weeds.

Here are 4 tips to simplify your work in the garden.

1. Start with a plan. What kind of content will you be providing? Who is the community that you will be connecting with?

2. Log in to each of your sites each morning. Welcome newcomers, provide value to your community, respond to questions or comments. Be social.

3. Use automated tools (TweetDeck, Hootsuite, etc) to schedule posts for regular events or tips that you provide.

4. Take time to enjoy your garden- post fun content – recognize loyal followers- show your personality!

What are your tips to keeping a beautiful social media garden? Share them here with other gardeners!

@GinaSchreck

June 10, 2010 | Filed Under Facebook, Gettin Geeky, Social Media, Technology, Twitter | 1 Comment