Communicate Your Way to Success

HOW TO USE WRITING (AND OTHER FORMS OF COMMUNICATION), INSTEAD OF DOLLARS, TO ACHIEVE YOUR MARKETING GOALS.

BY M ICHELLE FONTA INE , FBSMARTY

FACEBOOK.COM/FBSMARTY

TWITTER.COM/FBSMARTY

GOOGLE ‘ FBSMARTY ’ FOR YOUR CHOICE OF CONTACT

My official ‘Bio’

MBA Assumption College 2002 (finished a dream) Corporate Marketing Communications until 2005

◦ Managed large budgets, trade shows, advertising, websites, literature

This business started in 2005◦ Started as web, graphic, photography – marketing◦ Now specialize solely on Social Media for business◦ Teach entrepreneurs and manage for clients◦ FBSmarty and Social Media by Michelle

Things about me most people don’t know

• I owned a craft store called ‘Cozy Corner Crafts’ in the mid 80’s – teacher of ‘things to make’• Always an entrepreneurial heart but needed

corporate income to raise three children• My daughter told me to ‘teach Facebook’ 5 years

ago• Mom of three, grandmother of 4 • Second home is in Prescott Valley, Arizona

You have a great product or service……but not a huge marketing budget…

You needTo Be FOUND!

Be FindableWebsite

Images

Other Website

Pinterest

Twitter

LinkedIn

Other Website

Facebook

Even Generically…Social Media by Michelle

Google+ Page

How Search Works

Think like a Consumer

We research WHEN we need to

We are educated consumers

By building your base of content ◦ I am searching, and getting ready to

purchase, will I find YOU?◦ Will your personality come through and

resonate with me?◦ Will you be answering my specific

questions?◦ Will your content guide me into your

sales funnel?

Picture your audience (persona) when writing

One of my personas is a baby-boomer entrepreneur. They want simple to absorb social media points they can put into place for their business.◦ Walk me through it◦ Keep it simple, I am very busy◦ Show me visual how-tos

Understanding these connections…..

Google is SEARCH

Google is the ‘momma’ search engine (98% of searches)

24/7 Google ‘bots’ crawl the Internet and bring back fresh content to the ‘momma’

‘Momma’ sorts it all out (indexes it) When someone types in a search, she finds the best results and puts it in priority order

She uses over 400 different criteria (called algorithms) to do this

Getting Credit where Credit is DueGOOGLE AUTHORSHIP

Personal Google+ Profile Tied to your Google Authorship Currently, Google+ profile more impactful than a Google Business Page

Fill it all in!

Google Authorship

Google+

Blogging – where, why, how and what?

Blog…. Where?

Most recommend WordPress.org which is the self-hosted version of WordPress.com WordPress.org site can BE your website or be inside your website The SEO credit is yours Hundreds of plug-ins (similar to widgets) – lots of flexibility

Why? Your Blogging Website is the Center of your digital world!

BLOG – Your Digital Asset

Twitter – 140 charactersfast streaming

YOUTUBE or Facebook Video

ENewsletter – The In Box

FACEBOOK3 posts a day

How to Find Blogs to Follow and Learn From

http://www.google.com/blogsearch

What - 4 Items to blog about

Offer product or service specifics Answer prospect’s questions Teach your customers how to use your products Let them see what other customers thing

Blog Tips and Tools

K.I.S.S. People do not read a ‘screen’ as they do ‘print’ Break up text Paragraphs no more than 6 lines Clear white space between paragraphs Short sentences Appropriate visuals Bullet points Most sites should write to high-school grade level

*Flesch Kincaid Readability

Check your ‘readability’

Brainstorm and organize ideas withmind-mapping

www.mindmeister.com has free level for up to three mindmaps.

http://socialmediabymichelle.com/blog/2011/05/use-mindmaps-to-find-blog-ideas/

Blog Tip Create checklists or comparisons - valuable time savers

I created a comparison of three major custom app; Lujure, ShortStack and FaceItPages

Link to their sites in your blog They will notice!

Easy Graphic Design

We need them but don’t always have a graphic designer in our back pockets!

www.canva.com easiest non-graphic design interface out there! Free to very inexpensive ($1.00 per photo).

Include Reinforcing Data

Links to references Add facts and figures and link to the source Linking to the source is ‘attribution’ – giving credit to that author

Keyword Research Tool

• Google tool• You do need to enter a credit

card to access this area (just in case you decide to run an ad)

• There IS enough value to explore what people are actually putting into searches

• You can use these terms in your blog posts

http://moz.com/blog/visual-guide-to-keyword-targeting-onpage-optimization

Write once, use many times!

Reuse Conference Presentations

Video recordings – record it using Snag-it, ScreenFlow, Camtasia, GoToMeeting

Upload video recording to a service like SpeechPad to convert audio to text

Blog posts – transcribe into text, make many blog posts! Podcasts – strip the audio from the video recording Use it as a free gift to get people to sign up for your email list

Top Level Strategy Video – Free Gift Strategy

Podcasting• Podcasting set to explode in 2014• Michael Stelzner, Cliff Ravencraft• Audio is so mobile and convenient• Easier to absorb than reading a book

due to multitasking ability• Planning and discipline are required• Entertain, inform, educate• New form of blogging

Blog with YouTube Create a video – if it is a tutorial, check out my favorite screen capture program

◦ Snagit -http://www.techsmith.com/snagit.html ($49 one time)

Upload to your YouTube channel◦ Add description there

Embed the video into your blog post and add text around it.

Bonus, also pin that video to your Pinterest board!

Creates traffic from your blog to YouTube, from YouTube to your blog, from Pinterest to your YouTube or Pinterest to your blog

Blogging vs YouTube 2 – 5 years put YouTube (video) and Blogging closely together – they actually work very well together

Shortcuts and Amplification!

Shortcuts◦ Sharing the link to your blog post on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ (through one

posting on a dashboard)

◦ Pin the image in that blog to Pinterest which creates another inbound link into your website/blog

◦ Set your Instagram app up to share to your Facebook business page as well as Instagram and Twitter – 15 second videos done and up in the snap of a finger! FREE WHITE PAPER AT FACEBOOK.COM/FBSMARTY

◦ Upload presentations to Slideshare and share them on LinkedIn (Slideshare is considered a sleeping giant)

Amplify with Social and your List

Use ClickToTweet to create easy to share Tweets Tie your blog to post to Facebook OR schedule them through your social media dashboard (Hootsuite or other)◦ Don’t do both◦ Networkedblogs.com

Email summary of your blog post (s) to your email list. Links in email lead into your website where the blog resides. (SEO)

ClicktoTweet

Create your desired tweet Generate new link Use the embed code as your link behind your text.

Grow your Email List

Rather than ask for blog subscribers, grow your email list! I use MailChimp – look for the subscribe or signup form tools in your enews platform.

Add signup forms to your website, Facebook page, bottom of blog posts…

Next Steps

Video Recording available If you’d like to see and hear the video recording from this session (which is much more interesting than plain old slides!), head over here -

https://www.facebook.com/FBSmarty/app_100265896690345

Thanks!

Michelle Fontaine,FBSmarty and Social Media by Michelle

CommunicateFullCircle CourseChoice Segments

In class or on-line,Recorded,Support group,Two teachers at every class

#cfcsm, cfcsm.com

Thank you!

In addition to teaching, Michelle Fontaine (FBSmarty) manages social media for clients Check out communicatefullcircle.com for further scheduled training OR schedule one on one time at fbsmarty.com