Social Media Spotlight: America’s LinkedIn Lady

Today’s Social Media Spotlight proudly presents Carol McManus, America’s LinkedIn Lady. Carol is a marketing and social media consultant for businesses, who offers executive coaching and social media consulting. After leaving an executive corporate position, Carol decided she wanted to start her own business. She started using social media as a way to get known, and after much experimentation with multiple sites, invested her time in LinkedIn. By building relationships and adding value to the conversations in LinkedIn groups, Carol was able to gain significant recognition, and began to hold speaking engagements about her LinkedIn success. Initially, her speaking events were casual, but after noticing that there was a huge ignorance and fear factor associated with using social media platforms, Carol began offering consulting services.

Carol coined the name America’s LinkedIn Lady because her speaking events became weighted towards LinkedIn, so people would refer to her by that name. She decided to brand herself around the LinkedIn platform in order to correlate with her B2B marketing strategy and professional target audience. Although she works with all social media platforms, LinkedIn has greatly helped to differentiate herself from the other social media “experts.” She has even launched her very own product, the LinkedIn System for Success! Here’s an inside look at what Carol has to say about social media for businesses…

Book Review: Marketing Shortcuts for the Self-Employed

When Patrick Schwerdtfeger contacted PMC through our blog to offer an advance copy of his new book, Marketing Shortcuts for the Self-Employed, I immediately took the opportunity to speak with him. A brief phone conversation led me to learn interesting things about Patrick; earlier he had self-published a book, Webify Your Business, and his new one is essentially an updated version. His first book received such great reviews that John Wiley and Sons, Inc. picked it up and published it. Because Patrick was very down-to-earth, educated in entrepreneurship, and extremely willing to network, I have decided to write a book review for Marketing Shortcuts for the Self-Employed. This book shares valuable information, tricks, and advice for any self-started business.

Social Media Spotlight: Swipes Lovin Wipes

This week’s featured company for our Social Media Spotlight is Swipes Lovin Wipes. An eco-friendly company owned by women, Swipes is dedicated to providing safe and natural wipes specifically designed for use before or after intimate moments. To purchase Swipes Lovin Wipes you can visit www.Swipes.com or visit www.Spencersonline.com.  We had the pleasure of speaking with Anthony Scott, Director of Business Development for Swipes Lovin Wipes, and here is what he had to say:

What social media platforms do you currently use?

Social Media Spotlight: Just Jamie Scarves

Today, Progressive Media Concepts will embark on a new blogging concept – a Social Media Spotlight that focuses on businesses who currently use social media and how their marketing strategies are helping to build their brand. We want to give our readers an inside, real-life view of how companies can grow their business, increase sales, and enhance consumer engagement. It’s very simple to sit here and write about all the benefits social media holds for companies in general, but by giving you an actual example of a business that is prospering through Facebook or Twitter will make our case stronger. Our readers can expect to find these kinds of company spotlights every Wednesday from here on out, and if you would like to be interviewed, please do not hesitate to ask. So let’s start our Social Media Spotlight with an awesome entrepreneur, Jamie Futterman from Just Jamie Scarves.

Just Jamie Scarves was launched in August of 2010 when Jamie saw an opportunity in the marketplace to sell scarves and other accessories. She has been using social media to promote her business since day 1, with her WordPress blog, Facebook and Twitter driving much of her product information to her consumers. Currently, Jamie has an e-commerce website (which she created single-handedly) but still uses social media in her daily business activities. To get a better idea of how social media has benefitted her company, we asked her a few questions.

Professional Social Networking Made Easy. Thanks LinkedIn.

If you haven’t already signed up for a account, it’s about time to jump on the band-wagon. Not only are users keeping up to date with friends and colleagues, they are open to a vast network of job opportunities, as well as the ability to contact individuals who may not be readily available to the general public.

LinkedIn shifts away from the globally understood concept of what social media networks are; i.e. Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and puts more emphasis on networking on a business-professional level. Now keep in mind, LinkedIn is not solely for personal use. Company profiles give LinkedIn users the ability to connect with not just employees of a given business, but with the business itself (granted the company page is usually run by 1 or 2 employees). Nevertheless, sharing your network with businesses and companies that interest you and are in the same industry as yourself, the abundance of informative content supplied never gets old.

LinkedIn is a job recruiter’s utopia. Don’t be surprised to have several recruiters wish to be added to your network. Their sole job is to expand their network mass, and they can be a very useful asset in looking for the last career you will ever search for.

4 YouTube Sensations That Did It Right

It’s hard to imagine that the wildly popular video sharing website YouTube.com only recently celebrated its fifth birthday. YouTube has transformed from an intriguing novelty to an entertainment and marketing powerhouse, boasting around 2 billion views per day and about 24 hours of video content uploaded every minute… that’s right… every minute. Businesses, corporations, and celebrities alike collect and maintain much attention from YouTube’s vast and varied ranks of users, making it a Mecca for anyone attempting to gain some sort of attention. Having attempted starting and maintaining a YouTube channel with dreams of turning it into something popular and entertaining, I am living proof that not every YouTube dream is realized. In my opinion, there are truly four YouTube superstars that did things right, and have attained viral start-status by way of their creativity and ingenuity.

Stepping Up Your Facebook Game with FBML

For argument’s sake, it’s safe to assume that anyone browsing blogs is actively using Facebook as a primary social media outlet. But most users may not know the complexity of Facebook from a design standpoint. For personal use, we all have basic layouts, and we fill out the information asked of us, or what we want to divulge. We then go on our merry way, connecting with friends and other acquaintances.

Facebook seems to lack the customizability of websites and blogs, so many company pages end up being mediocre and just plain boring. It’s almost like viewing a friend’s page, but for a business.
The average Joe may simply conform to Facebook’s basic profile template and accept it as a social media powerhouse. But what about the companies and businesses that want the ability to customize their pages to entice followers, increase brand loyalty, and increase consumer purchases? Is there light at the end of this tunnel?

The answer is yes, but one must practice patience and be willing to put in time and effort with Facebook’s coding system, FBML.

Facebook – New Business Horizons

Facebook has rapidly evolved from being a simplistic networking website into a world of its own. With over 500 million active users spending upwards of 12 billion hours per month browsing and scanning its pages, Facebook has become an irreplaceable part of many peoples’ lives. Facebook users range from males, females, straights, homosexuals, African-Americans, Caucasians, and an international user base with around 70% of its users residing outside of the United States. With such a vast audience at his/her fingertips, any business person or entrepreneur should be endlessly aware of Facebook’s potential to be a substantial and fantastically effective marketing tool. Any business, be it small or large, cannot afford to miss out on part of a 500 million user pie.

Introducing… Progressive Media Concepts

Progressive Media Concepts is a small business venture that was created by two young entrepreneurs, who have a proficient understanding of social media. PMC works with small businesses and start-ups to create and maintain numerous social media sites. Our company offers a variety of site management services, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, WordPress, Tumblr, Blogger, Flickr, MySpace, and YouTube. PMC’s main objectives are to collaborate with all clients, develop an in-depth perception of their industry and target market, and use that information to enhance their Internet presence. Through the implementation of social media sites, PMC will be able to expand their clients’ existing consumer base and build lasting relationships with new users. Clients can expect to see an improvement in brand awareness, a larger consumer following, enhanced SEO, and an increase in website traffic by using PMC’s services. PMC takes on the responsibility of managing targeted social media campaigns by providing a personal focus to your company.