Inbound or Die!

Sales has always been synonymous with service in my experience.  Thanks to Hubspot.com and the opportunity to become certified in Inbound Methodology, I now identify with being a sales educator.  It has always been like a sixth sense to me to know that my job in servicing customers has been to identify their problems and educate them about exisiting solutions knowing that when the opporunity (product or service) was presented they would make the best choice for themselves.

Inbound

Inbound Methodology was second nature to me.  I have known for years that people are becoming more educated.  It is an insult to their intelligence to push off products or service on them while ignoring what they are saying.  So many people do not understand yet that they need to adapt to the habits of the customer and help them feel happy about what you have to offer. The days of cold calls, spam e-mail, and hard selling has long been over, thank goodness.

Awareness

Businesses who continue business as usual will die. I knew this in 2010 when I read "Engage or Die," by Brian Solis. It was the best birthday present my husband could have given me.

"We live in amazing times. Perhaps what makes it so special is that the present is rewriting the future for so many things held sacred over the years. So many industries, processes, politics, beliefs and myths clouded or seized our responsibility and capacity to force innovation and ultimately the change that is needed and long overdue. At the root of this however, is what fuels evolution and revolution…"

Not everyone understands the concept of Inbound. I knew there was more to being successful in growing an business in these times. I just could not put my finger on it.  I was hesitant to branch out any further a couple of months ago. I researched university programs, and I thought I had found a solution until I stumbled upon the offer from HubSpot.  

Onward and upward

As I took each class, I found myself saying, "A-HA, that's it!"  It was not so much that I did not understand the first steps of Inbound Marketing, how to attract visitors; I was weak on how to convert them.  With this formal training, I feel hopeful and confident that 2016 will be a year of growth, and I hope that I can be an example to others in helping to change marketing for the better for all. 

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Top 1% Kred Influencer: What is Kred?

On February 1st, I received this notice in my e-mail after being on Kred for about one two months.  I discovered Kred through my network at XeeMe, and I have been very impressed to learn about my level of influence.  Followers are also able to endorse their friends by giving Kred.

The Kred Story provides a snapshot of who you are influencing and who is influencing you surrounding a variety of topics.  You can keep track of the people you engage with and the number of interactions on posts. Check out my Kred Story here:  Saving Stories and sign in to see your own if you have not already  Be sure to connect you account to Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.


You can embed customized widgets that show off your Kred.

If you received the original Elite Influencers Badge Reward, check your inbox for the newly designed badge that can be embedded on your website or in your e-mail signature.  Kred is collecting screenshots of your blogs and web sites with the embedded badge.
 


The Kred score is based on two areas of performance:

Influence:  Your ability to inspire others to act based on responses in the form of tweets, replies, and mentions.  The highest score for influence is 1000 points.


Outreach:  Outreach is based on how well you tweet, reply, or mention other people.  The highest score at this time is 11.

To learn more, see the Kred Blog.

Related articles

• Influencer Consolidation As Kred Owner PeopleBrowsr Buys Swaylo, The Loose Thread Of Facebook's Threadsy Buy
• Kred Previews Message Graph to Influencers in NYC
• Humans still crave recognition
• Kred brings transparency to influencer and outreach analytics

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Yes, Pinterest boards can disappear

Heart drop! I logged onto Pinterest to upload a pin, and all my boards were missing except seven which are contributor boards.

It just so happens that the board I want to add my pin to has disappeared along with the rest.  I scooted over to Pinterest Support and am relieved to find they are aware of the problem even though they do not have an explanation for now other than:

"Some pinners are reporting that some of their boards are missing.

Our team is looking into this issue and hopes to have it resolved soon.  We will keep you updated in this help article!"

See Issue: Missing Boards. 

I subscribed to the thread so that I would receive e-mail updates as to any changes.  I am trying for seven more Pinterest followers to break 1000, but I guess that is not possible tonight with 7 boards and a pin that will not fit on either one.

I am a little relieved to see that the board (Free Genealogy Online) is accessible on my personal account:  Robin Foster.  I pinned my uploaded pin from that account, and I am able to view it using my business account along with my missing board.  My personal account is connected to the board that is missing on my business account. 

So, I try to repin the pin from the board that was missing.  Are you dizzy yet?

That's okay, because as I went to select a board that had not disappeared, I found all my 178 boards were there again!  

So Pinterest boards can disappear.  The issue occurred from 19:00 to 23:00 EST at least this evening. Are you interested in learning how to backup your boards?  See:

Source: naptimeisthenewhappyhour.com via Robin Foster: Genealogy & More on Pinterest

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Frostbox creates a full backup of social media data

Frostbox offers automated backup of social media applications such as Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, LinkedIn, Vimeo, Foursquare, Instagram as well as Gmail.

Create a full copy of all your vital data from the major social media networks, and keep it updated on regular basis. During their beta, the service is FREE.  

Online Security Breaches Free infographic

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Listing likes at Listly

I joined List.ly this week.  It is important to curate your own articles through social bookmarking so new people can find your content.  I have a network at StumbleUpon which I have used for years and will continue to do so.  Right now, my favorite bookmarking site is List.ly.

I love the option to embed your lists like this Pinterest list I created:

Pinterest

View more lists from Robin R Foster

Pretty sleek, eh?  You can drag the Listly bookmarklet to your favorites bar to easily add items that you come across to a list:

Bookmarklet

 I can create a list, track my views and points.

An upgrade for $99 gets you even more:

 Be sure to find people with similar interests to follow. Become an authority on a topic by sharing the useful content you find, not just your own. Otherwise people will not continue to visit you.  See you over on Listly!

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Door opens for Google+ pages to communicate outside the circle

Google+ pages now being able to join the conversations that are happening out their circles is huge news.  I have been frustrated for some time with having to circle someone and then wait for them to circle the page back in order to share or comment on a post.

Now Google+ page owners are not limited and can network with all Google+ users.  To learn more, see:  Google+ Now Allows Pages to Interact With All Users, Analytics Coming Soon from HubSpot.

I could not wait to try interacting with one of my pages.  Here is one of the ways I will work to increase the visibility of Extend Your Reach: 


1.  Search Google+ for topics that are being discussed that Extend Your Reach can participate with a +1, share, or comment.

Search  : social media strategies

 2.  Join the conversation in a meaningful way:

Extend Your Reach Comment on post of person not in circle.

3.  Shared in community: 

Extend Your Reach G+ Community

When I visited the post by The Social Photographer, I subscribed to the weekly newsletter and received a free e-book on HDR photography. 

One challenge that I have with this particular community is that it was created under my personal G+ profile and not under the Extend Your Reach page which did not exist at the time.  So it takes a little more effort to link the community to the share. It does not come up in the drop down menu for the Extend Your Reach page posts.

To avoid this yourself, make sure that you create your community using the page profile.  I have not found a way to combine the page and community thus far.  

If you have been contemplating creating a Google+ business page, the ability to now communicate with everyone on G+ via your business page may just tip the scale for you to get started today!

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6 ways to grow your social influence

 Free Big Collection of People Silhouettes Vector Graphic

Just  today, I was in the middle of doing my own thing when a friend who was having a challenge needed some tech help.  I thought to myself, "This is just what social networking is all about."  After the experience, I realized that in that one interaction I had build my social influence in several different ways.  I figured I would share with you a few of the ways you can build your social influence.



 1.  Create good content consistently.

In whatever our niche, we need to be searching for the best resources and information.  We need to take what we find and process it, and know the people in our communities well enough to share in a way they can grasp and implement easily.

It really does not matter if we are sharing the same information out there.  We all have different followers with different needs who would much rather learn from us.

2.  Get involved in different communities.

If you feel stagnated, perhaps you need to branch out where new people can learn about you and where you can find fresh ideas to bring back to your network.  Get involved in new communities by sharing your expertise and answering questions.

Find ways to collaborate not compete with other leaders.  Do not wander in and out of different communities at your leisure.  Make yourself available on a regular basis.  Brainstorm together on how different communities can unite to reach common goals.

3.  Introduce the newbies to your network.

It can be pretty intimidating for people trying to break into a new community.  Keep your eyes open, and stand ready to  help break the ice by sharing posts, retweeting, and suggesting others follow. Sometimes it only takes one person to get others to notice the newbie.

4.  Assist with problem solving.

If you are aware of what is going on in your community and others, you will find people who are looking to resolve problems.  Don't be afraid to help or give advice. You might be the best person to help because you have the time or because you had to work your way out of a similar challenge.

This is the best way to grow your influence.  Others will be watching and still more will hear of you from those you assist.

5.  Don't just broadcast.

Even though time is short, be sure to work toward having conversations that can reveal what people are thinking about the things you post.  If your posts are not generating a response of some kind, you cannot really tell if you are being heard or if people are even interested.

Asking questions, taking surveys, or providing a "call-to-action"  are forms of communication.  Ask people to share, +I, or "like."  Just asking people to respond with a yes or no can help you learn more about your community.

6.  Don't just sell.

Many people are afraid to spend time volunteering service.  Some do not want to give anything away free.  If all our efforts are spent selling and none on providing free information or a product now and then, people will lose interest.  My first webinar on creating income opportunities online was given by Jason Alba.  He suggested that we should spend the first year building our networks.  He is an expert on building social media profiles and sharing content.

I first started out by writing my own posts and sharing other people's content on Twitter.  My followers grew to 2000. Many are very generous about sharing.  The relationships I have are strong from putting service first. 

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What in the world is XeeMe?

When much of what you do depends on networking, sometimes you feel like you are all over the  place without a way to successfully  organize, plan, or measure results.  How do you keep generating content and successfully marketing yourself and engaging at the same time?

Does this sound familiar?  The more networks you are on the more difficult the challenge becomes.  I have known for some time that I needed to find a more efficient way.  Just over a week ago while I as on Pinterest, I saw someone pin a XeeMe badge similar to this one:

Source: xeeme.com via Robin Foster: Genealogy & More on Pinterest

Out of pure curiosity, I clicked on it, and I am so glad I did.  XeeMe is a free site where you can organize all your social media presences.  Instead of your followers needing to keep track of all the places you share resources and information, they only need the one simple XeeMe profile link where they can access all your social sites.

You can link probably every known site that you have a membership to on this one XeeMe profile.  You will even discover some very cool emerging sites that will help you grow your social influence.  The reason this community works so well is because you make friends on XeeMe who are not just consumers of information.  They are "super networkers" who will collaborate with you and share your work with their networks.

This is my XeeMe profile:  http://xeeme.com/RobinFoster

All My Social Sites

 I created my own background and categorized all my links to make it easy for my followers to find the topics which interest them the most.  I have met and connected with scores of people this week from across the globe.  I am grateful to each of them for welcoming me and sharing.

After this first week, I have discovered I have become much more aware of what is happening on all my networks, and I am more able to engage in conversations a timely manner.  I keep my profile up and it is easy to click and share and monitor across all platforms.

I have even been able to (of all things, LOL) find more cool places.  I will begin to share some of the new places I enjoy in upcoming posts.  For now, if you have not checked out all my social sites, please visit and poke around a little.  If you like what you see, you can create you own place to:  XeeMe.  If you do, let me know below, and I will introduce you to the friends I have made there.  If you are already on XeeMe, and we have not connected yet, post your profile on the comments below, and I will be "Xee-ing" you!

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6 ways to spark activity on your Facebook page

Being an admin of your own Facebook page can be frustrating if you are not attracting the traffic you would like.  I am sharing five things with you here that will help grow your community and spark conversations among your fans if you remain vigilant.

Before we dive in, let me just say that Facebook is a place of many distractions.  If you want to get people's attention, you need to post consistently; your posts need to outshine all of the others things being shared.  You also need to figure out what times of the day most of your followers will most likely see and respond to what you post.  There is nothing wrong with taking a poll right on the page to see who is paying attention to you.

Collaborate with other pages

1.  "Like" other pages using your page profile

Sometimes the majority of folks who have liked your page are your friends or family who get a lot of activity coming their way from you.  What you need to do is search within Facebook for pages similar to yours and copy/paste the URLS onto a document.  Select pages that are very active and share quality content regularly.  Pages with 500+ likes are preferable. 

You will need to like the pages using your page profile and not your personal profile. If you attempt to search these pages while you are logged on as your page profile, it will not be as easy to find them. That is why it is best to do the searching first and save them in a document that you can access while you are logged using your page's identity.

"Like" each page on your list. The admin of each page (sometimes there are more than one on a page) will get a notification that you liked their page, and they will come and check it out.

2.  Pick posts from the other page's newsfeed to share

When an admin of another page that you "liked" visits your page, make sure you make a good impression by having already shared content from their page.  There is a special way you need to do this. 

After you have "liked" a significant number of  pages (50 or more), you will start to receive great resources in the newsfeed of your Facebook Page.  Select a post to share.  Be sure to "like" the post.

You can share posts from other pages right from your newsfeed. When you do this, ALWAYS include "Shared by" and tag the page by putting a "@" and typing the page name. The page will come up in a drop down menu while you type. Select it. This provides a live link from your page to the page where the post came from.

The Facebook page will appear in the drop down menu as you type.

 

Members of both pages have a bridge they can cross to check out the other page. You access your page's newsfeed by switching from your profile to the page profile and clicking on "Home." This is a wonderful way to network.

 

Notice the post has a live link to The Slave Dwelling Project Facebook Page, and sharing the album photo takes up quite a bit of real estate in the newsfeed.  It will be fun to watch the activity from this post:







The Slave Dwelling Project

 3.  Feature another Facebook page


African American History featured page likes.



Choose a different page to feature on your page each month that offers resources to complement the ones you offer.   Discuss the page you choose in a blog post or in a post on your Facebook page.  Set up the page likes on your page so that the page you choose to highlight is featured.  Your fans will be able to like that page right from your page.  Send a message to the page admin to announce they were chosen to be featured.  See if that does not get you a mention and a link back to your page!

You will find the place to add featured likes by clicking on "Edit Page" on the Admin Panel.  Then click "Featured."

Reconstruct your posts

4.  Post mostly visuals

Saving Stories

If you are posting using the page profile, your page posts have the potential of ending up in the newsfeeds of your followers.  When they "like," share, or comment on a post, Facebook will continue to let your posts show, and their friends may also see when they interact. 

For sometime now I have noticed that when I post a photo and add the link to my articles, the post gets seen and shared by more people.  There is not much to compete with a post like this in my fans newsfeed either.  When I post these large visuals, they know it is something important, and that the post contains a link to an article of substance. 

This particular post above was shared four times from my page, Saving Stories.  At least three of the shares were in different communities, and the virality was 43% on this post according to the insights. 

It is more imporant now than ever that we get as much attention as we can on each post.  Think of creative things to post.  Share photos along with links instead of just sharing a link.  Share more video, but share a very short thought along with the video to introduce it.

5.  Share some small gem of your expertise

Make at least one of your posts each day a useful resource. Share why the resource will solve a problem.    At least once a week, share an article you have written.  Ask your community members to give their opinions about what has worked or not worked for them. Allow for short or yes/no answers.

People more than likely come to your page to learn more about your product or service.  You can find something each day that relates to what you do so that they feel like they are learning something from you.  When it is time to buy, they will rememeber you and they will share their experience with their friends.

6.  Share something inspiring or humorous (in good taste of course)

It's not so bad! Put a smile on your face!





Daily Morning Picdump No. 140

People want to feel good, and they want to have a chuckle every now and then.  Share quotes and sayings and let your sense of humor shine through.  Slow down, and create opportunities for your community to have those moments.  Be sure to ask them what they think or how they feel.  Once you get a response, help to keep the conversation going a little.  If your commumity has been silent for a while it will take a bit of effort to get them to open up.

I hope these six suggestions bring you results.  They have really helped me as I have stayed consistent.  You are invited to join Extend Your Reach on Facebook. Just like click the Like box on this page.  Also, we have a new G+ community.  Until next time, you can follow me on all My Social Sites. 

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Update a prime section on your Facebook fan page

Image via CrunchBase

Are you looking to grow your fan base on your Facebook page?  If you are looking for ways to improve your page, this week in the Extend Your Reach Community on G+  we are reviewing Facebook pages and the types of things that make good posts and how often we should post.

While I have been reviewing the pages that I chose to track, I have noticed that some pages could use the "About" section more effectively.  The "About" section is one of the first things a person notices after the cover photo.

You want to help everyone who lands on your page to be able to find your website or learn more about your product or service.  Another reason that you want to give more thought to the "About" section is that search engines pick up the data you include there.  Be sure to include the following in the "About" section:

1. your fan page name
2. your product /service name or your mission
3. local businesses should include the full address

See 7 ways to optimize your Facebook fan page SEO right now for further explanation.  

If you keep this section within 140 characters, the whole message will show in the search engine results.  Take a look at the example below.  The about section on this page keeps the fan page members confined to the posts on the page.  This section could be used more effectively to help visitors link to:

• your personal profile
• your website
• products or services

Now take a look at the Extend Your Reach Fan page:

Extend Your Reach

Notice visitors have three choices for engaging further:

• website
• personal profile
• blog

Not all of this section will fit in the search result snippet, but these section is used more effectively.  It can more easily be picked up by search engines because of the keywords, titles, and URLS.  Review your fan page to make sure you have made good use of this space.

If you are looking for more ways to upgrade your Facebook page, see 7 ways to optimize your Facebook fan page SEO right now.  

Related articles

• 7 Key Ways to Optimize Facebook Fan Page SEO (along with Mozinar Q&A)

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Facebook turns down the volume, Google Plus lets you choose

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In case you have not heard yet, you can now control the number of notifications shown in your newsfeed on Google Plus.  This comes after Facebook has diminished the number of fan page posts that show in the newsfeed leaving fan page admins scrambling to recoup.

I admire how Google has made it possible for the user to decide how much or how little they want to see.  Check out the visual:

I inserted an arrow which points to where you can adjust what shows in your newsfeed.  The choices are:

• Show nothing from your Following in Home Stream
• Show some posts from Following in Home Stream
• Show most posts from Following in your Home Stream
• Show every post from Following in Home Stream
• Also subscribe to notifications for all new posts

I have mine set all the way to the right because I do not want to miss a beat.  Try it, and come back and let us know if you notice a difference or prefer one setting over another.

Don't forget to "like" our Facebook page, Extend Your Reach!  We cannot create a shorter URL until we have 30 followers.  I post helpful articles I come across each day over there.  

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404 Error: Have a back up plan

English: 404 Error Symbol Deutsch: 404 Fehler Symbol (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Have a backup plan.  That's probably not the advice you need in the middle of something going wrong, but I am glad I have different options available to me especially when facing challenges with technology.  Today's challenge happens to be with Pinterest.  Like several other users, I could not access a board that I edited.  It turns out boards edited or created Monday, November 26th are not able to be accessed.

Pinterest assures they are safe and are working to fix the issue (It is now fixed 2:37 PM EST). When I went over to the support section I found a notice:

Issue Board 404 error https://support.pinterest.com/entries/22499898-issue-board-404-errors-cannot-access-some-boards

If you are like me, I hate the 404 Error message. I cannot say that it helps to be on different social networks when this happens because I have a whole new set of followers on Pinterest who do not follow me any place else.  My number of followers there have surpassed every other community except Twitter.  After I discovering the source of the problem, I thought about how I would proceed if in fact I would lose access to a board forever.  I am considering these options:

1.  Create a .PDF of boards with the most number of pins and followers.

Source: naptimeisthenewhappyhour.com via Robin Foster: Genealogy & More on Pinterest

2.  Pin the same content on my personal account.  Then if there is a glitch, I can simply make the business  account a contributor to the new board.

Either way, if you were to lose a board, you would loose followers to that board, and everyone that follows the board may not be following you.  You would have to keep track of who follows a board from the notifications.  Then let them know about your new board. You will have to prepare in advance by checking your board followers by clicking on the link to them on the top right of each of your boards.

I just checked, and while I was talking with you, my boards became accessible again.  No more, 404!  I do have to fully implement a back up plan though - just in case!

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Discipline to go the distance

It's been a whole year and eight months since I last posted on this blog.  Those of you who have followed me during that time on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn know how active I have been.  Over that time we have seen the rise of Google+ and the surge of Pinterest.  I have helped create countless Facebook pages and coached a few of you on different platforms.

Believe it or not, I was too busy to even catch wind of Pinterest until a few months ago.  I am happy to say that I have been able to find a whole new set of friends there that I did not know before.  We are learning from each other.

All this experience has helped me to be able to go the distance.  My father called it "burning the midnight oil." When I am a wee bit tired, I can still feel the inspiration I need to keep going.  That is because I love people and connecting people to the resources they need.

Of all the place I have built so far, there is no place where I can put up my feet, reflect, and share what is happening so that you can process it.  It just feels right that I should do it on this blog. Technology is changing so rapidly.  It is impossible to keep up.  I will, however, embrace the resources that have the biggest potential to help build a community on the path of least resistance.

English: Red Pinterest logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I will be catching you up with what I have learned over the past year.  I will do it in bite sized pieces because that I how I digest knowledge.  For starters, I worked on cleaning up my Pinterest profile a bit lately.


1.  I updated my profile so that when someone stops by, they can tell exactly what I am about.

2.  I uploaded a professional looking photo.

3.  I converted to a business account.  You can read more about those here:

Source: blog.hubspot.com via Robin Foster: Genealogy & More on Pinterest

4.  I began creating covers for my Pinterest boards.  Hopefully they will make people more curious.

Example:

Source: pinterest.com via Robin Foster: Genealogy & More on Pinterest

5.  I stop by Pinterest a few minutes each day to see what has been shared that I can repin.  I also share my content there.

6.  I decided not to follow people who only have 50 or so followers because I need to keep my number of followers about even with those who follow me.  I did get a notice from Pinterest, so I will be careful not to follow too many folks which is hard to do because so much great content is shared.

I have some advice for those of you who cannot find your niche on Pinterest:  Join anyway and offer the alternative that you do not see.  If you have great visuals and provide a worthwhile tool or service, it is worth the effort.

Genealogy is a topic that would be very difficult to compete with against all the travel, recipe, and craft pins.  I am glad that I was brave enough to take the leap even after not finding to much to offer from the pins, boards, and pinners I searched.  I did try to get a few to join in with me there, but most people saw no reason to join.  You can be that reason for someone!  We will talk again soon.

Related articles

• Pinterest launches business accounts
• 8 1/2 types of content that go viral on Pinterest
• How to Setup Your Brand New Pinterest Business Page

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Back up your Facebook or Twitter account with SocialSafe

SocialSafe Explanation .. Introducing Wall Backups from Pascal Wheeler on Vimeo.

Have you ever wondered what you would do if your Facebook account was hacked and you lost everything?
Protect your photos and posts with SocialSafe currently for $6.99 using a PayPal account.  You can back up your contacts, profile, photos and posts on your computer hard drive and another device to browse later without needing to be on the internet.


 Image via CrunchBase
As you back up regularly, you will be able to explore your time line of updates, friends, and photos and watch how you and your friends change over time. SocialSafe (@SocialSafe on Twitter) has just recently added Twitter back ups.  If you want to learn more about SocialSafe, visit:

Backup & Save Facebook Account Data with SocialSafe (Binary Head)

SocialSafe: Get Your Facebook Data Out of Facebook (Mashable)

SocialSafe adds Twitter back-ups - we have giveaways (eu.techcrunch.com)

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