Do You Poken?

At a recent TEAM referral network event in Santa Anita, I was fortunate to meet Sabrina Gibson, a Social Media guru. She was giving away Pokens, the hottest new thing to make your connections easier. I had never seen them before, but got it right away. This will make collecting relevant information so much easier! Just wanted to pass on the information so you can get started with this device as well.

Wouldn't it be cool to be able to meet people, and get their contact information right away, without needing a pen or paper? Poken solves the problem of remembering email addresses and screen names of every one so you can contact them again. It allows you to quickly swap information. Just touch Pokens and connect. Poken holds your contact information: name, address, email, mobile phone, and your social networking account names: FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others. Already know your friends profiles? Even better: when you Poken and they Poken, you will automatically have updates when they open a new social networking account. As soon as your friend has registered his Poken, and you have registered yours, the information automatically appears in the Poken hub. And what is really cool? You can follow your Twitter account right in the Poken hub as well, and even update it from there.

Hope you get on the bandwagon soon, so when we next meet, we can Poken as well.

Happy Networking

Dr. Kaaren

Upcoming Workshop Gets My Attention

A month or so ago, I was approached by three different people for coaching about how to use online media. It was a compliment, and an inspiration to develop a workshop that I am starting next week. In order to take the topics in the order my participants want, I sent them a survey to take. I welcome your input on this as well. When I have 100 responses I will publish the results here.

Please go to My Marketing Survey and answer the four questions. You will remain anonymous throughout, so feel free to tell me what you really think, and fill in the blanks if you have other thoughts about ways you are currently marketing your business.

After you have completed the survey, you will be invited to use the free version of Survey Monkey. Try it. You'll like it.

Happy Networking

Dr. Kaaren

Which Social Media Platform Are You Using?

In putting together a presentation, I just found this information through one of my Twitter connections:



So which sites are you using to market your business? And how are you doing that?

Just ran across a great summary of a vast array of marketing tips by Joshua Horton. He suggests the following: Article marketing, video marketing, and blogging. And he suggests a pretty hefty schedule at that: write two articles each day, shoot two videos each day, update your blog daily, and add 30 to 100 friends each day minimum.

I don't know about you, but that sounds like a lot of work. So I say, pick the most popular site, and work on that one for a while. And remember, this is about business, and bringing value to the table. So when you post, keep it professional, keep it relatively brief, and make sure it isn't just an add for your business.

Happy Networking.

Kaaren

PRESENTING YOURSELF AS A PROFESSIONAL

Thanks to Chris Kokalis of CKME Group Inc. for the following featured tips. Chris is someone I greatly respect, and from whom I have been learning how to more effectively use social media to promote my business:

CKME Marketing Tips: Presenting Yourself as a Professional

Chris has parterned with Brenda Bernstein, http://www.theessayexpert.com to review twenty LinkedIn profiles in the past month, and found that more than half of all recommendations on LinkedIn contain errors. Since writing recommendations are an important feature to enhance relationships with those in your LinkedIn network, these tips from Brenda Bernstein http://www.linkedin.com/in/brendabernstein will help in writing more professionally:

1. "Don’t write your professional writing like you’re in a chat room. I know, it takes so much longer to write "tonight" instead of "2nite," but the latter is just too informal. Use real English! ‘Nuf said (hey, rules are made to be broken!)
2. Use proper grammar and sentence structure. Use discretion when starting sentences with “but” or “and.” Avoid run-on sentences and sentence fragments. One tip is to read your writing aloud to make sure it makes sense!
3. Don’t write as you would speak, unless you are writing a very chatty blog. So, like, you know, I totally do not even do that OMG! When you're in the world of formal writing, leave out words and phrases that are not essential to getting your point across. Avoid using well, like, for sure, you know, and any other phrase that takes you back to your high school years.
4. Proofread! Use a spelling and grammar checker at the very least, and come back to your work a day after you write it to give yourself a fresh perspective. With our social media profiles, it is especially easy to get ourselves in trouble with our written words because there is no spell checker. Do not use that as an excuse! Copy and paste your profile into Word or another program with a spell-checker before you publish it to the web.
5. To facilitate tip number 4, do not wait until the last minute to write your copy! Hastily written material is more likely to contain errors and to reflect less favorably on the writer. Give yourself the time and space to write an impressive and professional product.

One of the services Brenda Bernstein offers through www.TheEssayExpert.com is reviewing LinkedIn profiles to check not just for writing errors, but for the organization, strength and style of the profile. If you would like her to review your social media profile or take a look at your blog post, feel free to email her at brendab@theessayexpert.com. "

Chris KokalisPresident/CEOCKME Group Inc.

414-755-2410 Milwaukee Office

310-492-5058 Los Angeles Office

www.ckmemarketinggroup.com

www.socalliveonline.com

www.linkedin.com/in/ckmegroup

www.twitter.com/chriskokalis