As time goes on, perhaps a year or two from now, maybe more, I believe sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin will be used more and more for searching the web. It will be a different kind of search than one does on Google; searches geared toward people, businesses, or experts in a specific area.

You will want to be found on Linkedin when someone searches for your profession or specialty in your area so you might as well start now. Here are a few tips I learned from Lewis Howes during the Social Media Success Summit.

Edit your profile using keywords. If you want to be found by location, add your city or area where appropriate. Basically that is it. I guess that’s really only one tip, but it’s a biggie! Let me explain a bit further. Look at the sections of your profile to see where you can add your keywords. For example, my profile read ‘Owner at Webs by Wagner’ so I changed that to ‘Web Designer at Webs by Wagner’. There is my keyword used once. Under Education my profile read ‘Lakeland College’ so I changed that to ‘Lakeland College, Sheboygan WI.’

Do you see the pattern here? You can do the same thing with your profile but before you do, go to the search box and type in your keyword or phrase. I typed in web design and I finally found myself on page 5. After making the changes, I found myself on page 1! Several weeks later, I am no longer on page 1 because there are a lot of other smart folks out there who learned these tips as well. However, because I added the location words, I am found when the search is for ‘web design Sheboygan.’ My focus area is near home so that is how I want to be found and I am content with these findings. If I wanted to be found nationally or even globally, I would continue to experiment with keywords in my profile. I’m also found when searching for Social Media because that is what I write about most often.

Changes are made in real-time so you don’t need to wait a few weeks to see your results, as with search engines. It’s always fun to be number 1, so give it a try! And then check back in a month or so and see if you are still number 1.

If you have any questions, just let me know. I’ll be glad to help.

I finally got around to setting up RSS Feed through Feedburner. There are always so many options but I like to see what I’m going to get and not go too crazy starting out. A while back I added code to the Hub City BNI web site that would display feed from BNI national and wanted to try that on my site. Didn’t take me long to find the site where I could generate the code – Feed2JS.

I had to change a few parameters and add the newly created feed URL which I picked up at Feedburner. Feed2JS (JS stands for javascript) then generates the code to copy and paste into the web page wherever you want the feed to display. Check out what it looks like on my site and you might want to give it a try. Webs by Wagner

The most important rule I keep in the forefront of my brain when writing for the web is LEAVE OUT EXTRA WORDS. Even when I’m writing an email, I have a tendency to write the way I speak and anyone who knows me knows I speak with too many words! So I read after I write and take out the extra words like ‘that’. Try it sometime. I bet you will find an extra ‘that’ or two, as well.

Rule no. 2 – SUCCINCT – Take as much space as you need, but get to the point. I wrote a post a few weeks ago about my amazing garden. It was off my usual topic on this blog but it was short and to the point and the title clearly stated what it was about. I didn’t go off on a tangent in the middle of an article on blog post tips. The same is true for my post on vision correction surgery, which segues into my third and final point for today.

It’s perfectly fine to add a TOUCH OF PERSONALITY to your business blog. The goal is to connect with potential clients and customers. You don’t need to become chummy with them, but you do want to BUILD CONFIDENCE AND TRUST. Coming across as a real person is part of building that relationship.

Watch for more posts on blog writing tips. I’ve learned a bit in my 10 years writing for the web and I’m anxious to share. See How to Write a Great Blog Post in Just 15 Minutes (or maybe 35).

Thanks bunches for reading.

Oh I’m sure we’ll do a little tweaking yet, but Bill Prusow, owner of Pros 4 Technology is quite happy with his site as it stands right now. The best part about web design is the nothing to something feeling. I’ve always used the sewing analogy. In my previous life, BC (before computers), I did a lot of sewing. It’s a pretty good feeling to take a piece of cloth and turn it into a shirt or dress or pants. Of course they didn’t always turn out like I thought they would, looking at the pattern. Same is true with web sites. They don’t always turn out like the picture I have in my head or sketched on paper. Sometimes the things I want to do, just don’t work, or at least I don’t know how to get them to work. So I try something else. No seam ripper required!

As for Pros 4 Technology, Bill joined BNI a few months ago and I was delighted to have a fellow geek in the group. Officially, I am a geek-wannabe, not a full-fledged geek. But hey, we all have to have goals in life! Bill and I can talk geek-speak together and we hit it off right away. It was plain to see from the get-go we have a very compatible philosophy about business and how we treat our clients, so I feel very comfortable recommending Bill to people I know and meet and Bill feels the same.

I also recently created a site for Integrated Home Systems of WI, which was a referral from Bill. The site is a work-in-progress at this time. It’s live and working but will be expanded upon soon. You can check out both sites at my portfolio.

Bill and I are now promoting each other even further by linking on our web sites. He has a great new online backup service that could save so much time, worry, and aggravation if your hard drive should fail. And fail they do; we all know that. You don’t need to live around Sheboygan, Wisconsin to get in on Bill’s backup service, so check it out.

I spent 2 hours this morning on the phone/web with a mastermind group facilitated by Dave Thackeray of Word and Mouth in Liverpool, UK. Also in our group are 4 women from the US (including lil-ol-me from Wisconsin), and one man from Romania. Talk about a small world! We are all doing different things but our common thread is social media.

I had several firsts in preparing for this event. First off I had to make a 60 second introductory video. I had no problem with the time constraints, partly due to the 60 seconds I have prepared and presented this past year in BNI. I did however have a tough time finding a nice backdrop. I used my new smart phone to record the video so I needed a place for it to stand up without toppling halfway through. I needed a place with a decent amount of lighting but without glare. And I needed a quiet place. Sufficed it to say, I tried 4 different rooms before I got this to work and even then, apparently my skinny door looks goofy!

Then I wanted to edit it to cut out me turning the camera on and off at the beginning and end. Luckily I had a program to do that but I have only used it for editing audio. Figured it out pretty quickly and that wasn’t too bad. Unfortunately that messed up my mouth and voice working together so I’ll have to work on that the next time. I couldn’t afford to take anymore time on it last week.

The next ‘first’ was uploading my newly created masterpiece to YouTube. Yes – that is right, I was one of the 10 remaining people on earth to have never published to YouTube! It was extremly simple once the site stopped messing with me about my Google ID. I did have to go back to the editing software once because YouTube didn’t like something about the way I saved it. Also easy to fix.

All-in-all, the video production was a bit painful but aren’t ‘firsts’ often that way? Now it’s behind me and I learned several things to make it less of a chore the next time. I think that was part of Dave’s plan. Either that, or he just wanted to mess with us.

My time spent was well worth it considering the experience of our first meeting. I’m already looking forward to our next session in July. Today was spent getting to know a bit about each other and where we have been and where we want to go. I’m anxious to find out where everyone is a month from now.

Dave did a great job organizing and facilitating. I think he sums up our main focus quite nicely on his Linkedin site, “Social media may be the latest buzzword, but technology is only a tool for mirroring what successful businesses have been doing for centuries: building incredible customer relationships.”

Thank you Dave and Sam, Adrian, Jess, Victoria, and Karen.

No matter how organized you think you are, you’ll probably pick up a tip or two from this short video. But please, no frogs for breakfast!

I found this article extremely relevant today considering some of these questions and fears came up yesterday during my Linkedin and Twitter presentation. So I want to acknowledge Peter Wylie’s great post and pull out a few of the myths and comment on them. The complete post is linked below.

Myth #1: My Customers Aren’t on Social Media - That statement is completely blown away by the stats. People are out there, they are taking the time, and they are searching and learning every day. For some, social networking and internet searching is a hobby. Nothing on TV, not much else going on, you can always find something to do online. My philosophy is (to steal a line from A Field of Dreams), If You Build It, They Will Come. OK – so there is a little more to it than that, but you have to start somewhere.

Myth #3: I Don’t Have Time to Manage Social Media – It’s like anything else marketing or sales related, you have to find that happy medium between doing the work and getting the work. I think we all struggle with it to a certain degree – I have web sites calling me at this very moment but I have set a goal of posting or at least tweeting something almost daily and I really didn’t want to just retweet this article. For some small business owners it may prove beneficial to hire someone to write and post for them. I know I’m stating the obvious here, but not all entrepreneurs are good writers, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have great things to share about their business.

Myth #5: Social Media Is Hard Work – Perhaps — but what part of your business has not been hard work? Was it easy to take the plunge and set out on your own? Is it easy to put in that bid on a project along with 10 others and then not get the job? Is it easy to work 7 days a week to get your new business off the ground? I think the answer to all of the above is a resounding NO! However, are you passionate about your business and want to share it with the world, or at least our little part of the world? I believe most small business owners are totally committed to their business and will do almost anything to make it successful. So let’s not be afraid to embrace this new way of sharing our passion. We are so fortunate to have so many inexpensive options. We can experiment and have fun and for many of us, it only costs us a bit of time.

Let me know your thoughts.

Full article posted by Peter Wylie at – http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/top-5-social-media-myths-debunked

With my eye surgery just one week ago, I could have had better timing when scheduling my 10 minute presentation at Hub City BNI meeting tomorrow morning. And to add to my crazy schedule, I volunteered to do a presentation on Linkedin and Twitter after the meeting. But surgery was scheduled only 10 days prior and I wasn’t going to change the BNI plans at that point. I planned for a few days of minor pain but never took into consideration the vision might not be 100%. A few more notes to be made and a quick laptop check  to make sure I have all programs and files needed, and I’m all set. It will be what it will be.

I have learned so much in just the past few weeks and I find this social media craze to be fascinating and fun! To put the finishing touches on my presentation, I have been doing searches on Linkedin and joining groups. I have also perfected my profile so that I am found in the top 5 (usually no. 1 or 2) when searching locally. Local business owners are my target market so that is where I need to be found. And for the record, I don’t believe this is a craze; social media marketing is what a web site was 10-15 years ago.

10 years ago when I was just getting into web design, it was pretty tough to convince business owners in our conservative part of Wisconsin of the need for a web site. Today, if you aren’t found on the web, your business doesn’t exist. Unfortunately there are still those without a web presence but they are few and far between. The difference with social media marketing, I believe, is it will be an easier sell than web sites were 10 years ago. Social media is a business owner’s ticket to being found on the web and getting the word out to potential clients. Furthermore, if you are the first among your competition to use social media, you will stand out and shine!

I will touch on blogs tomorrow too. Don’t forget about your blog. It’s the center of your social media marketing plan.

A friend of mine sent me a link to a new service from Constant Contact called Nutshell Mail. I’ve been using it for almost a week now and I find it’s a great time-saver. You can check it out at http://www.constantcontact.com/about-constant-contact/ns/index.jsp

NutshellMail allows you to add your social media accounts and even choose subjects you are interested in. All activity from your accounts, as well as any activity related to the subject(s) you choose will be sent directly to your email inbox. It’s so simple to setup and so convenient to use. Best of all, it’s FREE!

Check it out and let me know what you think of it. Thanks to Dione Gisch for sharing and thanks to the creators of NutshellMail and Constant Contact.

I’m taking things a bit slower this week as I had PRK (Photorefractive Keratectomy) or laser vision correction surgery done Tuesday afternoon. I’m not a stranger to vision correction; I had RK on both eyes 16 years ago and went from something like 20/300 vision to nearly perfect. And 5 or 6 years ago I had LASIK on my right eye because the vision had slowly gotten worse with age. The LASIK gave me both near and distance in the right and my left was still good, so I was a very happy camper. But with age and time, the left eye wasn’t really doing much of anything anymore and the right eye has been doing all the work, especially the distance. So the goal with this surgery is mono-vision, right eye still doing the distance work and the left will be for near.

As of yesterday, the newly fixed eye was seeing 20-50 close-up, obviously not where I want to be but I’ve been told it can take a couple weeks for that to straighten out. Except for the first hour or so, the pain has been minimal but I am trying not to stress it too much. That is difficult when all my work is in front of the computer or reading. I am trying to get a few other projects done as well; the kind that don’t need my near vision so much.

A big thanks to Dr. Peter Foote and his staff in Milwaukee and Dr. Sharon Roberts and her staff in Plymouth. Dr. Foote assures me all went perfectly, so I’m expecting my vision will be amazing real soon! Dr. Roberts does all the pre and post-op visits and has put up with and answered my bazillion questions!

Each of these surgeries has been an adventure, but I would highly recommend them to anyone who has problems with contacts and glasses. I’ve not regretted the 2 before this and I don’t expect I will regret this one either. Stay tuned . . .