As you all know, the faithful tribe we're attracting here online…everything is moving so fast today on the web!

One of the most amazing examples of how to use social media to bring us all together..and as a relevant example is the CNN/Facebook integration

yesterday  bringing the memorial service of Michael Jackson to us online.What a breathtaking experience! I really got it…I was enthralled by the fact that I as a 50+ woman was chatting and sharing comments and thoughts as the service progressed.What a feeling of total connectivity to the experience. This is the power of the disruptive chaos we are all in right now in the world!

Can you tell I'm excited?

I often write that by engaging in this brave new world is part of my philosophy and practice of "Living Young!"

The great news is that the demographics are showing that we're not alone…there has been a 515% increase in those joining Facebook over 55+ years old-can you believe it? One of the key values to living young forever is to have a strong community around you…not be isolated. This is a great way to stay  engaged and in touch…What do you think?

Found this fascinating piece on the aging demographics on …twitter today..on the Social Media minute…for the full article..go here:

http://bit.ly/zidAj

Social media moves so fast, it's hard to keep up.

Facebook Demographic Is Aging A research firm recently took a look at the data Facebook uses to know which ads to serve up to its users. Facebook's Social Ads platform has revealed that the number of users between 18-24 has grown only 5% from January to July of this year. Meanwhile, the number of users aged 25-24 has grown 61%. The 25-53 year-olds have grown 190%, and the social networking service has attracted 515% more people aged over 55.

What do these numbers mean? Well, in terms of growth, Facebook is attracting a much more mature audience. It should be pointed out that the number of young users has not perished, but the growth in other demographics is just taking off. It may be that Facebook was originally embraced by younger groups, and now parents and grandparents are signing on to keep up to date with their family members. Along the way, adults are discovering that Facebook is a fantastic utility for keeping up with their friends as well.

Also, this is ad-based data, which also is aimed at those in the 25-34 age bracket who have more disposable income that those 18-24. Another factor that points to skewed or incomplete data, the iStrategyLabs numbers say that high school and/or college students on Facebook have declined by 16.5% and 21.7% respectively. This might show that fewer Facebook users are reporting their school affiliation. However, that's doubtful, as many Facebook-ees identify themselves by the academic institution they're a part of."

This is a cool subject and I'd love to hear what your thoughts are?

Always here to help you Social Media newbies avoid costly learning boobs…Why?  I've made most of them of course! This is a great blog post by Al Ferretti of ….http://twitterwatchdog.com. He is from my town..Minneapolis/St. Paul and is a real pro at Twitter!

Today, I'm celebrating Independence Day by doing what I want to do…no deadlines, no busyness, no "have to's "or "should do's!" I am enjoying a wonderful day of"puttering" online and off. As a Canuck I was wondering what to do on July 4th -other than enjoy the fireworks and special times with friends and family! Oh is that what we do? Gotta love it! We do that July 1st in Canada!

Online I have been playing and connecting with new people and really catching  up! I love connecting with people, especially famous authors

and thought leaders. This is one of the best parts of social media for me…connecting with experts in a conversational way…best news is.. they have been responding back! One of the people I jut heard from is Barbar Sher…I am pumped! I hope she will be one of my first guests on the new radio/vlog show! OOPS …almost let the cat out of the bag..more on that later!

Barbara Sher is the  perfect person to discuss the changing face of work and careers in our second half of life…

More on that later….need to get back to my favorite form of meditation….puttering!

Enjoy the summer weekend!

"Do you wonder why you are losing followers on Twitter?

You might be making mistakes and not even know it. Here are some of the reasons why your followers on Twitter would leave you:

Automatic Direct Messages: These things are very annoying, and there is nothing personal about them. For example, "Thanks for following me! Be sure to check out my website!" is considered a spam. What's worse is when people resend the same message a few days later to tell you the same thing, like one is not enough.

Blasting Tweets: Are you one of those people who send out ten or more posts at once that cover up the entire wall? You need to give others a chance to speak up. When you spam like that, all people see is a wall of your smiley face picture. If you ever wonder why you lose a bunch of followers on Twitter all at once, this could be the biggest reason.

Over Promoting: Do you only post about your website? People will think you are a robot if all you do is talk about your website and tell people to check it out. Try to connect with others by interacting on Twitter. If somebody posts something interesting, then you can talk about it, and share it with your followers.

Proper Follow Up: When people ask you questions through a "@reply" or direct messages, make sure you respond to them. You may have posted something interesting that caught their attention. Connect with these people and they may recommend you to their followers later.

Keep It Clean: Many people use twitter at work. Profanity is not something they can afford to have flashing on their computer. Most people will immediately unfollow these types of users.

Just remember, tweet others the way you want to be tweeted."

I am always looking for ways to encourage you to jump on board the Social Media Train and use these tools to dramatically save you time, make more profits in less time, with less effort! Here is a great piece of info from a fellow Canuck, Erin Blaskie. I love her stuff!

Enjoy! Let me know  how it goes for you…!

Recently, Tweetdeck announced an upgrade and this made a lot of people very, very happy. The reason? Tweetdeck used to experience some bugs and Adobe Air did not make that any easier. Now, Tweetdeck is back with an improved interface and a fabulous new iPhone app.

However, some people are still perplexed at why one should use Tweetdeck over just going straight to a browser, accessing it via a mobile device or using something over Tweetdeck.

Here are three ways to use Tweetdeck to improve your Twitter experience:

1. Categorize Your Twitter Followers

Tweetdeck has these things called "groups" and you can setup as many of them as you want. Once setup, you have the ability to then list them in columns for easy access and so you can see them at all times. Some of the columns I recommend include: clients, team, favorites, tech tips, etc. Categorize the things that are most important so you can converse with your rock stars in a much easier way.

1. Use Tweetdeck to Clear Replies You've Seen

Do you ever find your @ replies just get to be overwhelming? If so, use Tweetdeck to "mark them as read" so that you know you've either seen it or actioned it and you can now move on. The worst thing about the browser interface is that you can often forget if you've replied or not and then spend a lot of time going back into your history. Tweetdeck eliminates that.

1. Setup Notifications to Play When Tweets Come In Directed at You

Now, some people may find this distracting but as more and more people use Twitter as their primary means of communication, you can use Tweetdeck to be notified immediately as to when someone mentions your name or messages you directly. This will help you stay on the top of your game without being too distracted by e-mail and telephone.

These are just three ways that you can use Tweetdeck to improve your Twitter experience. It helps with automation, ease of use and helps to keep that conversation going.

Erin Blaskie is the owner of Business Services, ETC - A Global Internet Marketing & Implementation Firm. Her company helps businesses from around the world take their practice online and create huge success using various internet marketing tactics. Erin herself has been featured in three print books ("Becoming an Online Business Manager" by Tina Forsyth, "My So-Called Freelance Life" by Michelle Goodman, and "The Official AWE Emerging Trends Guide 2009" compiled by the Association of Web Entrepreneurs), honored as Office Arrow's 2008 Runner-Up Business Woman of the Year, interviewed by countless gurus and media personalities (John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing, Sheri McConnell, Stacy Karacostas, Gina McNew) and featured in major news publications (ABCNews.com, Ottawa Citizen and Employment Journal).

Is Seth Godin, marketing wizard right? Is Free the new currency in Social Media Marketing? Then that makes Malcolm wrong…?

I enjoy all three of these experts and follow them religiously…We are constantly battling this very same issue..and in this "age of attention" or "attention deficit" in the marketing world it is getting harder and harder to get heard..seen yes..but heard? Listened to? -enough that people will trust you to buy from you whatever it is you are offering? This is commerce as I used to understand it!

I've been enjoying the visit of my two teen nieces and sister in law -their first visit to Minneapolis the shopping mecca here in the midwest…and have been away from the digital world for a few days….hope you missed me? Thought I'd give you a gift this morning of a heated debate amongst three of my favorite experts in the changing world of digital marketing and business!

As a tip…make sure  you have downloaded the new Mozilla Firefox 3.5 version-it is blazing fast and oh it is FREE!

Go here to download:  http://bit.ly/fQSLP

For those of  you who have a desire to write that book, expand  your platform and really learn from the best in information products…my teacher,mentor and colleague ALEX MANDOSSIAN is having a Preview call July 2nd, for his Virtual Book Tour course.

This 2-hour training is specifically deisgned for authors, info marketers and entrepreneurs
who want to combine the power of info mktg and the Internet to accelerate biz growth …

A replay will be available 24 hours after the event if you register on or before July 2nd.

Follow this link to learn more…..<a href='http://www.1marketinglive.com/cmd.php?af=736398&p=14'>Click

So here is the delightful post from one of my all time favorite marketing experts, Seth Godin..Enjoy!

"Malcolm is wrong

I've never written those three words before, but he's never disagreed with Chris Anderson before, so there you go.

Free is the name of Chris's new book, and it's going to be wildly misunderstood and widely argued about.

The first argument that makes no sense is, "should we want free to be the future?"

Who cares if we want it? It is.

The second argument that makes no sense is, "how will this new business model support the world as we know it today?"

Who cares if it does? It is. It's happening. The world will change around it, because the world has no choice. I'm sorry if that's inconvenient, but it's true.

As I see 'free', there are two forces at work:

In an attention economy (like this one), marketers struggle for attention and if you don't have it, you lose. Free is a relatively cheap way to get attention (both at the start and then through viral techniques).

Second, in a digital economy with lots of players and lower barriers to entry, it's quite natural that the price will be lowered until it meets the incremental cost of making one more unit. If a brand can gain share by charging less, a rational player will.

Conde Nast (publisher of the Wired (Chris's magazine) and yes, the New Yorker (Malcolm's magazine)), is going to go out of business long before you get sick, never mind die. So will newspapers printed on paper. They're going to disappear before you do. I'm not wishing for this to happen, but by refusing to build new digital assets that matter, traditional publishers are forfeiting their future.

Magazines and newspapers were perfect businesses for a moment of time, but they wouldn't have worked in 1784, and they're not going to work very soon in the future either.

We're always going to need writers, but the business model of their platform is going to change.

People will pay for content if it is so unique they can't get it anywhere else, so fast they benefit from getting it before anyone else, or so related to their tribe that paying for it brings them closer to other people. We'll always be willing to pay for souvenirs of news, as well, things to go on a shelf or badges of honor to share.

People will not pay for by-the-book rewrites of news that belongs to all of us. People will not pay for yesterday's news, driven to our house, delivered a day late, static, without connection or comments or relevance. Why should we? A good book review on Amazon is more reliable and easier to find than a paid-for professional review that used to run in your local newspaper, isn't it?

Like all dying industries, the old perfect businesses will whine, criticize, demonize and most of all, lobby for relief. It won't work. The big reason is simple:

In a world of free, everyone can play.

This is huge. When there are thousands of people writing about something, many will be willing to do it for free (like poets) and some of them might even be really good (like some poets). There is no poetry shortage.

The reason that we needed paid contributors before was that there was only economic room for a few magazines, a few TV channels, a few pottery stores, a few of everything. In world where there is room for anyone to present their work, anyone will present their work. Editors become ever more powerful and valued, while the need for attention grows so acute that free may even be considered expensive.

Of course, it's ironic that sometimes people pay money for my books (I view them as souvenirs of content you could get less conveniently and less organized for free online if you chose to). And it's ironic that I read Malcolm's review for free. And ironic that you can read Chris's arguments the most cogently by paying for them.

Neatness is for historians. For a long time, all the markets for attention-based goods are going to be messy, which means that there are going to be huge opportunities for people (like you?) able to get that most precious asset (our attention) for free. At least for a while."

As always…I love to continue the conversation! What do you think?

Hi, as I perused Problogger's latest notes, he wrote a quick article about Aweber…..the communications service that most of you know that we use.

As a reminder, Aweber is a list manager which uses methods to make SURE that your subscribers want to be subscribed.

As we always say, internet marketing is ALL about making REAL relationships with people….on Twitter, you need to offer opinions, interaction with others AND you can make offers of your products and services.

Those who JUST offer products or services….whether it be on Twitter, Facebook, your website, your blog….etc…..are quickly seen by prospective customers/alliances as "spammy" and are rejected.

All the top internet marketers offer great VALUE….and also offer a combination of free and "for fee" products and services.

So, back to Aweber….how does it fit in?  Aweber makes it easy to send emails, keep track of people who have subscribed to your lists or programs….and send out your blog entries via email (for those of your subscribers who want this method of subscription).

Aweber is very disciplined about ensuring that users "double opt-in"…meaning anyone who subscribes has selected to register with you….and then they get an email which requires them to click on a link to "CONFIRM" that, YES, they do truly want to be on your list.

This step is important to ensure that EVERYONE who you may be contacting has truly subscribed to be there….and will not feel "spammed" by you!!

What is neat about Aweber is that they continually improve themselves…..so last weekend, they add some additional flexibility/options for "Follow-up" messages…..that is the messages that you send with instructions or a welcome when someone has signed up for your list.

Here is Darren's article giving a little more detail….enjoy! :

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2009/06/24/aweber-introduces-more-sophisticated-timing-options-to-autoresponder-messages/

Hi, everyone, I just saw an article by one of our favorite mentors, Paul Colligan….and he reminded me of an obvious point of which I know I fail to remind people.

Twitter is fun to go and and peruse….but it is a bit different than Facebook and other social media sites in that, using Twitter gives you legs and power beyond JUST being on the site itself.

By using Twitter to add your thoughts and connect with others, you gain threads to many, many people…..who can be sources for you and more importantly potential customers and connections for you.

This is why so many people who know and use Twitter are fist thumping that Twitter IS good for business.

Well….better to listen to Paul directly….so here is the link:

http://www.paulcolligan.com/2009/06/22/why-twitter-matters-and-makes-me-money-and-why-so-many-miss-it/trackback/

Have a good day!!

Barb

Here is a link to Paul's article…take a peak.

Hi all, Elizabeth and I are helping our good friend Trudy today with a teleseminar for her community about Social Media…..to share our learnings.  As you know, we want to help other business entrepreneurs and small business people capture the marketing potential of social media and the web!!

So, one of the things we want to share is WHO do Elizabeth and I like to keep up on…..so that we are taking in the latest teachings and perspectives on social media and how to harness the marketing power of the web?

So, here is our list:

Darren Rowse….known also as"Problogger".  Darren is a blogging expert hailing from Australia….both for personal AND for business.  Check him out: www.problogger.net.

Mashable: The Social Media Guide.  Mashable is a site with various authors on EVERYTHING to do with social media.  You can also follow them on Twitter and other social media sites: www.mashable.com

Denise Wakeman is one of our favorites. She is a member of the "Blogsquad"…with her partner, Patsi Krakoff.  But ALSO, Denise is an energetic and VERY knowledgable researcher, writer, and speaker about internet marketing.  Her personal site: www.biztipsblog.com has tons of great insights and sharings of her findings that can help all of us!!

Mari Smith….the "Pied Piper of Facebook".  Officially, she is a "Relationship Marketing Specialist".  Mari has lots of smart simple insights on Facebook and frankly Twitter and Social Media tools.  She is a wonderful, pleasant resource for any of us wanting to better use Social Media!!  Check her out too! www.marismith.com.

Have a great day!!

Barb

Tonight is a really important deadline to SAVE your own name on FACEBOOK! Yes it  means staying up  late on a Friday night-after a long week…but I can assure if you do it..you will be so happy that you did! This is a very important reminder for all of you interested in building yourself as an expert online and off. So on the stroke of midnight in the east,9:00pm PT… go to your Facebook home page and put in your own name and save it. If you want to learn more about it…goto Facebook home page now and at the top of the page there are links directing you to more information.

Please please please do this.

This small step will position you first(and this is for forever). If people are looking for you in a google search..you will come up first AND  also gives you incredible SEO positioning.

Even if you don't understand what that means…do it anyway!

Take the leap as I did many years ago and take the advice of someone with a great deal more knowledge and experience than I..

I went to Godaddy and purchased elizabethharrington.com. I have thanked this person many times for that sage advice and of course so glad I acted upon it! Many people have tried to get this name (there are alot of people with my name apparently!) but I got it first…and for you with your online presence becoming increasingly valuable as more and more people "google" you..well then you can see why this is very important.

Better yet this Facebook tip is FREE!

On to today's marketing tip…

People are always asking me how to really use Facebook and Social Media to market their businesses .

I teach it, write about it, coach and consult about it…in fact am blatantly crazy about the value of it!

Today I came across this terrific article-from Twitter- where else!

This is an excellent article that explains why it is so useful in a very simple and straight forward way.

I heartily recommend you read it and implement as much as you can.

"One of the great things about the Facebook platform is that it provides you access to a large audience of more than 200 million people worldwide at a low cost. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't have a strategy in place for what you are trying to achieve.

Whether you are a small local business, or even a well-known product or service, you will need to give some thought to your audience, like: who are they; how do they want to be spoken to; what messages would you want them to receive; and what are the tactics for having them interact with your message. So let's go through some of your options when it comes to social networking marketing. For more of this article go here and click on this link: http://bit.ly/cOVT5

Get outside this weekend and breathe the June air…move your body, and be glad you are alive and able to appreciate all that you have going on in your life. I'll be there with you!

Over eighty percent of Twitter users (most of whom work in small businesses) polled in a recent study by MarketingProfs, say they expect their company's use of the social media service to increase over the next six months.

A large majority, roughly two-thirds, of respondents said that Twitter is either "somewhat" or "extremely important" to their company's current operations, compared to only 29 percent who say it is "not very important."

Twitter was ranked in the survey as second only to company blogs as a valuable social-media tool.

"This data shows that Twitter users, typically early adopters, no longer think of Twitter as just a personal networking tool, but as something that can provide real value for their company or business," said Ann Handley, chief content officer for MarketingProfs.

"Much like Facebook, Twitter is now moving into the business mainstream."

For more info on this and to read the full article go here: http://bit.ly/dnx6T

So excited to be part of this wildly fun advneture called Social Media! Love being an entrepreneur AND better yet..love teaching other entrepreneurs to be self reliant and ahead of the curve!

Share your comments-please! We really want you to share in our conversation!

Microblogging platform Twitter has 32 million users, an increase from about 2 million a year ago, according to research mentioned in the Wall Street Journal. Some Internet measurement services show that figure increasing 50% to 100% month over month. While it is not clear that Twitter will become as large as social networks MySpace and Facebook or video-sharing site YouTube, the company could certainly have 50 million visitors by the end of the year

Time has a terrific article on the future of twitter…go here to read it! Thanks to Denise Wakeman of The Blog Squad for posting it on my Facebook wall..don't you just love this new language…? As  you know we are here to point you in the direction of what's hot, what's happening, and why it is useful for you to be in the know..now!

Reading from @time http://bit.ly/Vz7LG

Wall Street has come up with 10 ways that business will use Twitter-here are the first 2!

More to follow.

1.) Hyper-local marketing. Twitter is currently being used as a marketing tool for small businesses. At the same time the local outlets of some of the largest retailers in the world, which are often competing with local vendors, are turning to Twitter as well. As an example, Twitter users can follow the local pizzeria or the store's owner. Since Twitter is still mostly a person-to-person service and not a business-to-business service, it is likely that the Twitter relationship will be with the owners of small shops. With access to their Twitter addresses these small shop owners can send customers news about special offerings, sales, new merchandises, store hours, or events. International companies which operate through thousands of locations are beginning to use the same methods to gather their own lists of Twitter names. Recently, Starbucks launched a multi-million marketing program in which the company put up advertising posters in six major cities and attempted to "harness the power of online social networking sites by challenging people to hunt for the posters on Tuesday and be the first to post a photo of one using Twitter", the company said. The project seemed like a good way to get the company's brand in front of a large number of people online and encourage them to search for ad messages in their cities.

One of the by-products of Starbuck's marketing foray into the world of Twitter illustrates how social media can be used against a company. According to Alternet.org, filmmaker Robert Greenwald who has done a short video critical of the way that Starbucks treats employees, entered the Twitter contest as a way to get out news about his new film.

Twitter has the potential to drive substantial amounts of business to retailers as diverse as the local clothing store or the Gap (GPS), the local car repair shop or the Jiffy Lube franchise, and the local deli or the McDonald's (MCD) even though there may be adverse publicity from unhappy customers or disgruntled employees. The time may come when multinational oil companies with local gas stations can tweet people who want to save money on gas costs when the price at the pump drops a few cents, since Twitter users can follow local businesses and companies closely by zip code. The hyper-local marketing aspects of Twitter have the opportunity to move billions of dollars of business to and from retailers based on targeted marketing.

2) Outdoor ads are used almost everywhere in the world because of their simplicity and the relatively low cost of creating them. Current estimates are that global outdoor advertising sales will be a $30 billion business this year. One of the great weaknesses of older ad media, like outdoor billboard marketing and newspaper display, is that results have been nearly impossible to measure effectively. Twitter will change that. Up until recently, marketers could survey whether people remembered what they saw on outdoor ads and measure the number of cars that passed a sign on any given day. Using Twitter opens up the opportunity to make a very large and nearly unmeasurable medium measurable.

Marketers using outdoor ads will have to give Twitter users an incentive to report that they have seen a billboard. A Twitter user who sees an ad for a Toyota (TM) Corolla could be encouraged to send a tweet to the local dealer. In exchange he could get a pint of oil or a T-shirt. He will obviously have to come to the showroom in order to get that promotional item. The same principle will apply to newspaper display ads, a shrinking category which is disappearing so fast that it is helping to destroy the newspaper industry. Some display ads have coupons, but the ability of a newspaper advertiser to get reactions back from consumers though Twitter help make another hard-to-measure medium at least partially interactive.

If the use of Twitter to measure these categories of marketing are even modestly successful, it could completely change the marketing methodology and advertising investment that companies are willing to make in outdoor media. That category includes billboard, telephone, taxi, and public transportation. Because Twitter can be used on mobile devices as well as PCs and since Twitter allows messages of a maximum of 140 characters, the reactions to outdoor ad messages can be instantaneous. Conversely, relying on e-mail responses or postings on MySpace or Facebook requires a much longer and more complex process for both the end user as well as the company. Many people will not take the time to follow through if the incentives to do so are modest. It only takes a few seconds for a Twitter user to indicate that he has seen an outdoor ad or newspaper display message by texting.

.