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Social Media: News to Use

Social Media: News to Use ~ How You Can Use Social Media Sites for Success

it has become increasingly obvious that social media is the best way to market online because it is a blending of technology and social interaction. Implementing a social media marketing strategy is the key to a successful marketing campaign.

Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, You Tube, Pinterest and Google + are now considered the best social media sites to use in your social media marketing plan. Marketing on these social media sites varies in method, but each site has their own unique value. Targeting your key online audience and demographic is vital to your online marketing success.

Facebook offers the use of free business web pages called fan pages where compelling content can be used to help brand your product. The new Facebook Shop application is proof that social networks are emerging as channels for branded marketing. You can feed your post stream to Twitter via Facebook applications. It is not suggested to use your Facebook profile to sell your product. Personal profiles by definition contain personal information about yourself, your family and close friends. Your Fan Page should be a 70/30 mix of business (70) and inspiration (30) in the form of articles, quotes, upbeat stories, photos and videos.

Twitter is difficult to master but can create large amounts of indirect business leads that you can target based upon the use of advanced research tools. The key is to only follow relevant people within your market and providing added value service. Figuring out the best strategy is vital to your success and it does require a large amount of loyal followers to prove worthwhile. You can build your following quickly but be careful to always stay involved in the online community that you have targeted.

LinkedIn is the most trusted source among professional individuals and is the best for high quality leads. This is the site that will provide the best opportunity to build your credibility. Make sure to join and participate in groups so that when you are ready, you can share your product to everyone in those groups. You can reach your target audience by showing that you are a proactive business with a professional outlook.

You Tube is one of the most visited sites on the internet by millions of users every day! Create your own You Tube channel to build subscribers. Create a hub by linking your website to your Facebook fan page, Twitter profile, Linked In profile and You Tube channel.Viral marketing is created through the use of networking in social bookmarking, video (You Tube) and photo sharing websites. Create a buzz related to your online business by creating contests and surveys.

Pinterest is the visual way to share your ideas, likes, products and services.  It gives us that wonderful thing like show and tell that we did as children, the same way we played with toys in roles,  You show the world what your interests are and share what you have to offer.

Social Media Optimization (SEO) and attracting online traffic to your website is key but is not limited to marketing and brand building. Today’s intelligent businesses are integrating social media participation into all aspects of their organization such as recruiting and customer satisfaction.

Day to day maintenance of your social media sites can be time consuming and involved, but is very important to your success. There are tools such as Hootsuite and Social Oomph that are proving to be an asset. In the field of Social Media Strategy, we use these tools daily to assist clients, but prefer, in business, to use more hands on strategy and utilize these tools in addition to the personal touch.

Building your brand trust online is the most difficult thing to achieve but once you start to receive Likes on Facebook, mentions and retweets on Twitter; referrals on LinkedIn and subscriptions to your You Tube channel, Sharing of your Pinterest Pics, all directed toward your website (your hub); Continue with this the strategy and soon you will be on the path to success.

Aggravations! Why is it That......

Aggravations! Why is it That......

When the price of oil rose dramatically, gas prices rose just as dramatically, but when it is dropping like a stone, gas prices still stay really high?

 When you are a Substitute Teacher, you get remarks like, "I don't gotta listen to you, you aren't a REAL Teacher" or "My Teacher would let me"?

 Like drivers, who forget how to drive in snow, returning students forget the rules and have to be reminded of what you told them in June, at least 10 times during the first 3 days of school! ?

When I am not in a hurry, I get the road to myself, the parking lot is empty, everyone is ahead of their schedule and people pay in cash....BUT when I am in a hurry, the traffic stinks, there are no close parking spaces, and people are paying by check or credit card! ?

On the Hottest Day of the Year, ALL of the Cooling systems in EVERY building I go to are not functioning properly! OR on the Coldest Day of the Year, the Heating goes on the blink! ?

If I didn't need something, I would be stumbling over it for months, But when I specifically go looking for it, it has mysteriously disappeared! ?

My new and favorite socks get lost in the dryer, but , my holey pantyhose can be found stuck to everything! ?

When my teenage son wants or needs something, he is underfoot till he gets it, BUT when I ask him to do something small for me, he is the invisible boy! ?

NO one needs me or talks to me UNTIL I get on the phone! ? GO FIGURE!

Writing is an art form that chooses YOU!

Writing is an art form that chooses YOU!

Writing, for me, is like breathing, I have to do it to survive.  

Word Pictures are basically the foundation you build on to create a buzz - if you can make someone see a picture in their head, they GET YOU, and your poem, Blog, or article. If it makes them think, feel, even get emotional, then you have done your job to the best degree that you can. Create, Motivate, Compromise, Improvise, Relate, Communicate - All Action Words - Turn that Passion for all of these into Action and Put Down the thoughts that will help others to do these things as well.

Sharing your gift, gives a gift to others who, hopefully, will in turn give back to you and others in their path, some call this Paying It Forward. To really move someone, is to reach into the deepest part of their mind, soul and secret dreams and give them something that they are searching for - something real that brainstorms ideas and creativity within them. Motivational speakers use different tools to get people going, humor, incentives, advice and guidelines.

Writers use the written word to produce the same results. We give of ourselves, our hopes, our goals, our vision. Creative people are the souls with the most Optimistic, Sometimes Pollyanna approach to life - we play that glad game in our hearts and spill it out onto the paper.

Now, don't be thinking that we don't have bad days, creative though we are, we hit walls, have frustration and blockages, come up against rejection and doubt often enough to make some want to quit. But as I have said, we need to write, as though we were a plant and writing was the energy we feed on. Sometimes it is our Sun, Moon and Stars, Magic and Mastery.My advice to all that want to do this is to take your love of writing to a level that exceeds your comfort zone - try a style that you have never done before - get out there and show yourself and the world that you can do anything you set your mind to!

What writing feels like

Diamonds in the Rough Edges of Life

SoCalMediaSurfer-MiccilinaPiraino

Life is like a diamond in the rough.  There is hidden potential there; you just have to put pressure on it, let it ride for a time, evolve, change and grow and before you know it the true worth is revealed.  Every life has its rough edges, its un-shiny moments, where we feel that we will never overcome and get to be the sparkling gem that we could and should be.  How do we get there, what can we do?

Patience is the key – it takes a lot of time – sometimes generations for a priceless gem of a life to emerge from what looks like a worthless hunk of coal. There are bright and shiny “Diamond” moments to every season- when we are looking at a long, cold winter that hangs around for months of dreary skies and cold, icy wind – We can look at the beauty of a rare sunny day,  sparkling on the new fallen snow or the trees looking ghostly white  with a winter coat, icicles winking from branches.

While we are waiting for the beginning of our summer fun, we can listen to the birds joyfully singing in the spring days and watch the leaves unfurling in bright green banners of color.  While we wait on vacations to far off places, we can see the wonders of our “Home Place” with new eyes, open to the possibilities.

When we are lamenting about the shortness of vacations or the end of our summer activities, we can look forward to the pretty colors of autumn and the coming holidays to be spent with family and friends.  Each cloud has that “Silver Lining”; we just have to look for it – Each piece of coal has the potential to be a priceless diamond.

Each person, if motivated and open to the unlocked recesses of their own worth, can be a diamond in the rough edges of life.  If given the chance to evolve, grow and change in engaging, upward ways, each soul is a valuable asset to themselves and to others.  If we look hard enough, we can turn every negative into a positive and every rough edge into a smoothly polished work of art.   


Take Life As It Comes and Be Flexible.  Enjoy!  Micci 

Glitches, Gadgets and Gremlins!

SoCalMediaSurfer-MiccilinaPiraino (This Post is Meant to be Satire!)

Did ya ever have one of those days?  LOL  Yeah, I had one of those days today!  Everything that I tried to do to new designs, new pages, new blogs, just went wonky on me!  I found that pages I was designing came out with errors on them, gadgets I tried to download, just suddenly stopped working and some things moved on thier own, I swear – I got Gremlins!

My writing means alot to me, when I write things, I write from the heart and I really don’t rehearse,  or write from notes, so it is all off the cuff and original to that moment.  So when the glitches happen and I have been writing non-stop for an hour and suddenly everything disappears and can’t be rescued, that old saying that should be drummed into every writer’s brain – SAVE and SAVE OFTEN – came to mind – ayup, was supposed to do that, but I was on a roll….uh huh! 

It is never the same twice, so when I rebuild it from scratch, it’s a whole new Blog – I feel as if something precious was lost.  Live and Learn, Ok, so I am a recent convert at some of this Techie stuff!  I admit that I AM NOT smarter than a Fifth Grader and be done with it!  My eighteen year-old runs rings around me in what used to be my area of expertise!

YES!  I was a designer of web pages when geekiness was not cool!  Don’t want to date myself, but Rick Springfield was playing Doctor on General Hospital and LoverBoy was struttin their stuff in Hot Red Leather Pants!  Okay, it was the 80′s, so I am sadly out of date on alot of new design, gidgets, no, midgets, awww heck, I mean widgets!

I learn fast so I actually had my teenager give me some pointers, now if I could just find the post it he left for me…..Shoot and Sugar, bet I threw it away with my left over sandwich.  Oh well, back to the drawing board  Tomorrow, I will tackle and conquer that silly techie stuff if it kills me and it just might, lol. 

I am having as much trouble with this as I did learning the IM lingo, but I did get that finally – OMG, my BFF has been LHAO at me all this time, I just didn’t know it!  Sooooo….now I get to get some rest and try not to dream of widgets, gadgets, web pages and design error messages – Good Luck on that one!  Run Away, Run FAR Away and Be Afraid, Be VERY Afraid!  For if there is a power outage on the Eastern Seaboard, the West Coast or a big computer crash at some whosit corporation tomorrow, you may just have gotten my Gremlins!  They multiply with feeding, you know.  CYA! Micci

Gadget Gremlins!

POETRY AND PROSE - SUMMER 2014

FULL MOON’S GRACE

Lovely Lady, Light Up The Dark,
You Show Us Many Moods Each Phase;
Shine On The World To Make Your Mark,
Float Above Us In Starlit Skyways.
Golden Huntress, Lonely And Blue,
Ever Changing In Wondrous Duty;
Trusting Minds And Hearts Speak True,
Loving Eyes Gaze On Your Beauty.
Wolves Howl By Your Bright Yellow Glow,
You Watch Eager Lovers Embrace;
You Rule The Tides, Both High And Low;
Always With A Smile On Your Face.

RAINBOWS

Multi-Colored, Jeweled Tones, Faceted With Light,
Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo & Violet;
Sunshine & Rain Combine To Form The Arch;
Each One A Miracle, Gladdening The Heart &
Creating A Feeling Of Joy Within The Soul.

LUCK

Wishing Stars, Pennies In A Fountain, Promises Made, Vows Spoken; Wishes Granted, Dreams Woven, Fantasies Abound of Legend & Lore;
Poetry and Song – All Speak Of The Power – Mythic Rhyme;
Magic, Odes & Epics, Good, Bad, Indifferent, Ever Present & Changing.

WAVES

Waves Can Be Good, Waves Can Be Bad,
Waves Can Make You Feel Happy, Or Make You Feel Sad;
Waves Can Make A Sound That Seems So Alone;
Waves Rush To Shore – Searching For A Home.
Waves Of Destruction Can Flatten Your Life,
Waves of Rage & Anger Can Only Cause Strife;
Waves Of Emotion Can Conquer Your Heart,
Waves Of Devotion Can Be A Great Start.