Internet Marketing For Small Business

Here’s a great article  and video by  Nic Baisley – a movie reviewer from The Film Snobbery, with some great tips on how to construct your film’s  Press Kit.

Movie reviewers are going to be a big tarket audience for you to reach, to help you get the word out. Here The Film Snob reviews a press kit sent to him, and informs us how it helped to get his attention, how it started forming positive opinions about the film, and how there was plenty of info for him to create his review with.

http://filmsnobbery.com/2009/09/08/tutorial-proper-press-kits-part-1-screeners/

Can’t wait for part 2.

Here are some more Twitter tools and tips to help you get tweeting.

I use Tweetdeck.com to organize all my Twitters.

I search Twitter with search.twitter.com. Search for your subject, your name, your company’s name, your competitors’ names etc. to see what people are talking about. Start talking with them, and building relationships.

You can also search for hashtags on Twemes. Hashtags are a tagging system on Twitter where you put a # in front of any word you like. They are kind of like Technorati tags that way.

Use #hashtags to groupd your tweets on one subject. More info on how to use hashtags here.

Use RT – this means ReTweet – to take someone else’s Twitter post and send it to your followers. To use it just add RT to the top of your tweet, followed by @originalsendername, and their original message.

RT @originalsendername original message

Search Twitter users bios on Tweepsearch. Find people in your industry or genre to befriend.

Share photos on Twitter with Twitpic.

Check out popular videos on Tweetube. Share videos on Twitter with Tweetube. 

Why did someone unfollow you? Check out Tweet Effect to find out which of your Twitter updates might be responsible for people following or leaving you.

TweetLater is an excellent tool for Twitter automation. You can automatically follow those that follow you – and send an intro message with it. Some marketing experts say this is the best way to build authority. Others disagree. Your choice. Tweetlater also lets you program your tweets to send at specific times, though I think that’s kinda crummy. You’re not in a dialogue if you’re not there.

Visit the TwiTip (Twitter Tip) blog which is edited by Darren Rowse from ProBlogger Blog Tips. Follow Darren on Twitter.

Vist the Twitter Fan Wiki to look for tips or info, or to add your own.

How To Get more Followers
Kevin Rose just put out his list of how to get more Twitter followers. Kevin would know – he is the founder of Digg and has over 88,000 followers on Twitter making him the second most followed after President Obama.

Want to check your stats or see who else has loads of followers? Top Twitter users posted here on Twitterholic?

Follow me on Twitter – Twitter.com/ireneduma

I just found this Facebook marketing tips guru who actually has really smart and doable tips. Her name is Mari Smith, and if you subscribe to her emails, she will send you 7 easy marketing tips for Facebook. I am up to day 4 so far find them very worthwhile.

Tip #1 is all about setting up your profile page properly. Tip 2 is your profile pic, Tip 3 is about how to make your blog posts appear in your Notes section of your site automatically, and Tip 4 shows you some cool business applications or tools that you can use with Facebook.

Mari also has a Free Facebook Tips ebook  (and non-free social media classes and VP courses.)

Mari is also a Twitterer and posts her Facebook tips on Twitter too. You can see them all by using this Twitter Search Tool and querying Mari Smith and new #FBtip = Mari Smith’s #FBTips

Did you notice this  # sign in front of a word #FBtip  – it’s a hashtag. Learn  what are hashtags here.

Tags: hashtags, Mari Smith, Facebook tips, marketing with Facebook

Twitter was quickly adopted by kids to broadcast what you are doing. Adults quicky called it fritter. But surprisingly Twitter has grown quickly among lots of time-challenged adults who dig the micro-blog limit of 140 characters and it has quickly become a tool of choice for social networking geniuses and advocates like Gary Vaynerchuk of winelibrarytv.com and Chris Brogan who writes about social networking business strategies.

So – the bottom line is Twitter is yet another tool you can use to build brand, fans, and community. The question is -

Should you Twitter?

I think if you have a business or are your own business, like many artists are, then yes, I think you should consider Twittering, or definitely know why you are not. And here’s why. This is where the new business is going – it’s going to the web and since this is how they play, then if you don’t want to be left behind, you might consider playing there too.

The good news is Twitter is easy, Twitter is quick, and that makes it a good place to start practicing this new “dialoguing” business that’s changing the rules and the game.

How to Twitter?

Twitter is touted as mini-blogging or micro-blogging. You are allowed only 140 characters to write a post so they are very short posts, kind of like a Facebook status. You can update often throughout the day, and let people know what you’re doing. You can update from the web, or by texting from your cell phone.

But there’s no sense in jumping on the Twitter bandwagon if you don’t really know why you are doing it. To that end, I found this great article which outlines a Twitter strategy for bands. It is super comprehensive and smart, and explains how to make Twitter a part of your branding and marketing plan. It’s written by Ariel Hyatt of Ariel Publicity, a music PR firm, but this strategy will work for authors, artists, filmmakers, photographers, entrepreneurs or the self-employed too.

In the Musicians Twitter Roadmap article above, Ariel interviews Laura Fitton, who explains how to use Twitter to create a community and promote yourself even if you are new to “social networking.” They talk about how to sign up and set up your profile, create the right brand, linke to Your Mobile Phone, how to find friends and follow them, who to follow and more, in nice and easy to understand English.

What to Twitter?

There are lots of gurus out there telling people what to Twitter. The thing to remember is that Twittering isn’t about the direct sell, but about building relationships and trust. This is becoming more important as the consumer public is becoming more knowledgable and wary of the hard sell or scams, and also more apt to do a ton of research online before buying. There is a general trend toward more authenticity and transparency too – fans want to know you and hear your thoughts and opinions, not those that your PR person made up.

One way to build fans and friends is to join in on the conversation. Do a search on Twitter using this Twitter search tool for words like your name, your book titles, your genre or your topic of expertise – and you can reply to people using the @ sign. Add your two cents worth, or point out a link to that subject on your or someone else’s blog.

Use twemes.com or tweetchat.com and do a search for hashtags – those are like Technorati tags for Twitter. What are Hashtags you ask? Click on that link to find out.

How to find Twitter Friends.

Social networking is all about friends. The more you have the better. The article above explains how to find friends. A new tool launched just 3 weeks ago can also help.

Mr Tweet helps you find friends by analyzing your current network and suggesting new friends and members whose feeds may be of interest. Just follow Mr tweet then wait for a DM, or direct message from the service. I did, and just got myself a load of new friends to follow.

Automate Twitter
But just a bit. Die hard Twitter users and social networkers frown on automation because it’s the antithesis of the spirit, which is all about communication, dialogue and transparency.

But I think setting your Twitter posts to automatically update your Facebook status is fine. To do that go to your Facebook account and install the Twitter application. Then set it to allow status updates from Twitter. You can change this anytime.

I think sending Twitter updates to your MySpace page is also ok, especially if you are like me and don’t go there very often anymore. Twitter has created customizable “badges” which are widgets that you can embed onto your MySpace pages as well as onto other websites and blogs, which will show your latest tweets.

My fave Twitter friends

I like having “friends” who are really smart and passionate about their subjects, go deep into it, and have no trouble sharing what they know. When I pop onto twitter via the web, I am always guaranteed a link to a fascinating article, post or news item from Gary Vaynerchuk, Chris Brogan, or Ken Nichols to name just a few.

They are also good examples of how to Tweet useful tweets. I really don’t care that you are eating breakfast, or are tired, or are going somewhere – unless I am stalking you. If I just admire you, I’d rather you spare me and just tell me what you learned when you got there.

Twittering isn’t for you if:

• your audience doesn’t use it
• you absolutely don’t have time
• you don’t care about listening
• you don’t like sharing

Should Screenwriters Twitter?

How serendipitous is this? My new Twitter friend Jill Golick whom I met via Ink Canada Facebook Edition just posted an article called Twitter and the Wired Writer. How did I find it? She Tweeted it.

More Tips on Twittering Real Good from some bright minds
Check back often as I will be updating this whenever I come across a great article.

• How To Use Twitter by Guy Kawasaki, the power entrepeneur, explains how he uses Twitter as a Twool. Excellent advice and some more great reasoning on why you should use Twitter as a marketing tool.
• Twitter Power Guide eBook. For the more advanced Twitter user familiar with Google Reader, RSS and Yahoo Pipes, this FREE ebook is just out from Christopher Penn – savvy marketer, blogger, podcaster and podcamp founder. Not to be missed.
• To get up to speed with Google reader, here’s my How To RSS guide with Google Reader.
• Darren Rouse of Problogger and Twitip writes his thoughts on the blogging VS Twitter debate, and how the two platforms compliment each other.

Last but not least Follow Me on Twitter

What about the importance of the MSN Search Engine? How important is that in our Search Engine Optimization program and for getting traffic to our site?

While Google is the undisputed king of the searches, the MSN Search Engine still gets 5-10%. Considering there are millions of searches performed, that’s a lot.

It reminds me of an early internet marketing tale where Disney scrapped a web site built in Flash because the plugin only had 93% penetration. “Why would I not want to sell to 7% of millions of people?” was the logic. That’s hard to argue with.

So, yes and abs0lutely. Do optimize for the MSN Search Engine. And here are a few tips on how to do that from my bud Frank Carr. Frank writes about internet marketing and how to Earn Online Cash - because he knows how.

• The MSN search engine likes clean HTML code – so try and be error free
• MSN still takes meta tags into account especially the Description tag.
• Use strong and bold tags for your keywords.
• MSN doesn’t like subdomains as much as the others, so Blogger blogs will have some trouble, but doesn’t mind hyphens in the domain names.
• MSN isn’t concerned with page rank or authority, so an inbound link is a link is a link. And you want links.

I’ve just summarized a few of the tips Frank writes about in his article. Read the complete article Earn Online Cash By Optimizing for MSN Search Engine for more details and tips on how to get more traffic from the MSN Search Engine.

Tags: MSN Search Engine, MSN Live Search, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, internet marketing for bands

Hi friends, media peeps, small business owners, and starving artists. Here is an amazing list of over 400! tools for Photographers, Videobloggers, Podcasters & Musicians compiled over at Mashable.

Mashable, for those of you that don’t know, is a site dedicated to finding the scoop and the latest news on what’s happening in the world of social networks online – or in other words – what’s new for web sites and the Internet and ultimately we who use them. I know that’s simplistic, but as time goes on I see no need for differentiating web sites from social networks or 2.0 apps or other labels. It’s the way the web is growing.

But back to this amazing list. It has been compiled from previous posts written on Mashable and is a must see if you are a photographer, videoblogger, podcaster, musician, artist – or any other person who is producing your own media, or own publicity for that matter.

The list is lovingly divided up for Photography Gods, Video Gods, Musicians etc. I can spend weeks here exploring them all and probably will. Here are a few that are particularly calling out to me.

• MUSIC SHARING APPLICATIONS AND WIDGETS
• PHOTO PRINTING/BOOK CREATION
• STOCK PHOTOS
• VIDEO MASHUPS

Oh, but there’s a link to a whole new page that lists 33 Ways to Watch Free TV Online.

Gotta run.  Bob Wiseman is discussing his multi-media performance work at The Rock Can Roll Festival 4

There’s always something going on here in St. John’s.

Tags: tools for photographers, tools for videobloggers, tools for podcasters, tools for musicians, tools for bands, Bob Wiseman, Rock Can Roll Festival, list of tools, mashable 

Here’s my first quick post for the How to Market Cheaply and Effectively Using the Internet For Starving Artists and Other Small Businesses. It’s a quickie, and comes from an email I had with Alison Humphrey, who is working at Sarrazin Couture film production as well as at Stratford Shakespeare Festival (a multi-talented artsy gal!)

Here is my big time and money saver for companies in industries with notoriously small marketing budgets: use WordPress blog software to build your web site.

You will get more bang for your buck.

Here are 2 sites I put up for tv/film production companies using WordPress. These are using free WordPress themes to dress up their site a bit.

• Streely Maid Films producers of Diamonds in a Bucket
• PWK productions producers of Puppets Who Kill

WordPress themes, or templates, are kind of like “skins.” It’s the same WordPress engine underneath, but the theme can make the site look quite different. It’s kind of like dressing up Barbie.

There are also fancier WordPress themes called Premium Themes. These make WordPress sites look more like a magazine site. For these sites below, we used the wonderful WordPress WordPress Revolution Magazine theme by Brian Gardner

• Author Paul Quarrington
• Moving Stories Film Festival. Watch for the June 15th big announcement at BookExpo.

You can also do an all out customized original WordPress with your own design.

Production costs gets more expensive as you go from top to bottom of the above list, but looking at the Canadian TV scene, I think the top ones are fine. There’s little point spending thousands of dollars on a site if no one comes to it – or worse – when they get there, it really wasn’t worth the effort.

So – build your site using WordPress, then take that extra money and build a WordPress site for each of your film productions. Audiences are starting to expect this.

By using WordPress for each film’s site, you can start your site early and build hype and Google authority. You can cross promote the site’s existence during your promotion and publicity, and then invite fans to come to the site, interact and leave comments. You build fans. You can also grab their emails so you can send them news about the show, or other upcoming shows.

With the money you saved building your web site, you can now put more money into other marketing initiatives – like building really cool EPKs or electronic press kits. These will have all the necessary things up on your site ready for press and journalists to download. The easier it is for them to gather their information, the more likely it is that they will write or talk about you.

The more I do this for clients (and myself) the more I think this is smart.

WordPress is still becoming hotter and hotter. With a monstrously huge fan base that keeps developing for it, it’s become a huge Lego for web sites, allowing you to add really cool functions and plugins – like send to a friend, or forums, or notify me.

I can go on and on – but this is enough to get you thinking. I will write more about WordPress in other posts

I love lurve WordPress.

Quick apologies for not writing for a while. I have been really busy – yes the standard excuse – and though I have started about 20 posts all pretty much geared to helping small production companies, authors, theatre companies or businesses on how to market cheaply and effectively using the Internet, I haven’t finished any of them. I just haven’t had the time to complete them accordingly.

Consequently, I find myself saying or writing the same things over and over to clients in emails or telephone calls. Surely, there’s got to be a more effective way to get that information out?

Then poof – the answer came to me. Yes – I will blog it!

So, what I will try to do is keep that perfectionist streak at bay and just write quickly – preferably after I write an email to a client – and just use some fancy copy and paste work, and pop the info from email into a post.

That way it will all be here on the site and I can refer you to the right page and have fancy links or pics ready for you so that you can check things out quickly and see what I am referring to.

Perfect. We’ll see how it goes.

Here are a few things I have been busy with:

• Author Paul Quarrington’s web site
• Moving Stories Film Fest site
• Getting my second degree black belt in tae kwon do
• Directing and editing the cutest series of interviews for the Writer’s Union called Elevator Pitch – a Bookshorts production of course

And now big news. I am moving to Newfoundland!!! Yes – I am running away to fulfill a lifelong dream of being an artist, and have found the most wonderful community of filmmakers, people, and spirit right here in Canada on the Rock. St. John’s is like Paris in the 20s. Well, almost. Kind of. Pretty much.

No worries. I will be back-and-forthing a lot between St. John’s and Toronto (feeling guilty about the carbon footprint all ready) and we’ll always have the Internet! I love the Internet.

Have any questions you need answered? Email me irene @ strangeduck.com

I need to learn to use Skype with video. Anyone know a good tutorial?