• How should you develop — and deliver your brand message?
• How can you prove to your boss that social media is, indeed, a wise investment?
• How do you plan an effective social media strategy– without overdoing it?

The following four articles provide excellent ideas. Click the headline to access the full article.

No one ever bought anything in an elevator

The true meaning of “elevator pitch.” [Seth Godin]

How to Tell Your Business Story in 60 Seconds or Less

This short article provides an excellent method for quickly framing your “elevator pitch” or “brand message.” [Entrepreneur, by Carmine Gallo]

Dear Executive…

A brief letter to a corporate executive that addresses, “What’s the ROI” of social media marketing? [Jason Falls, Social Media Explorer]

The Dangers of Half-Assing Your Social Media Efforts

This article examines the pitfalls of doing TOO MUCH when planning your social media strategy. [Mitch O'Conner, DreamGrow]

Image: twobee / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Facebook. Twitter. Shoutlife. LinkedIn. Dopplr. Google+. Plaxo. Blogger. WordPress. Shelfari. Goodreads. Writer’s loops. Conference loops. Endless loops.

By the time I finish updating my status, writing my blogs, tweeting, pasting my bulletins, my newest pictures, my URLs and YouTube links, recruiting friends, recommending friends, sharing reads, rating reads, ranking reads, ranking friends, tagging friends, responding to posts, responding to friends, responding to blogs, ranting, reblogging, re-bulleting, re-accepting (plants, gifts, pinches, bits o’ karma, flowers, flare, tickles, candy, drinks, siege warfare by angry goats and lil green patches–what the heck is a lil green patch anyway??) it’s time to repost my status–and respond to those responding to my status who are reading their walls, shuffling friends, organizing bookshelves, recommending contacts and waging mob wars.

By then, the day is over. I have missed my hair appointment, my deadline and a conference call, needed to go to the bathroom three hours ago, blown off dinner, ticked off my friends (who live in town and did not check my wall to see why I never showed up), neglected my Significant Other, alienated my family, and defaulted on my mortgage.

I’m already grossly behind on an article and some reading, on projects for friends and the synopsis I owe my agent… and yet I cannot tear myself from Facebook because I might miss something important–say, another lil green patch–and then I will have gone from being behind with writing, reading and work, to being behind with the relational fiber of my life that is supposed to make the reading, the writing, the work all meaningful.

Bouncing back and forth between the social, networking and professional sites I signed up for to catch up with friends, connect with readers and promote my work, it’s plausible that I might never have time to write another book–or if I do, it’ll be 360 pages of 140-character one-liners.

I don’t know half the people in my extended network, but they came highly recommended. And even though I may not actually know Marlene in Dekalb, I’m fascinated by how white her teeth are in her picture and the fact that her relationship status just changed from “In a relationship” to “Single.” I’m wondering if they broke up or she forgot to change it before her last boyfriend. And if I know any friends of friends willing to dish.

I’m fascinated by hub friends, who seem to know and be on everyone’s page, horrified at how many colleagues know schoolmates who have seen me do stupid things, appalled friends’ exes who never had the decency to settle down more than one degree away.

It gets a bit uncomfortable–I worry if raucous friends will offend the straight-laced among my network (or vice versa). I wonder whether I’ll say something dumb that will haunt me forever–or at least until it scrolls off the new bulletin list, pushed down by the newest rants, requests, ramblings or reciprocal idiocy of others.

The only way to know, of course, is to stay pasted to the screen. I find that trolling for feedback is an especially convenient time to spy on high school friends and frenemies, the real lives of people I only see in suits, my exes, my readers (it seems only fair), my colleagues, my neighbors.

And I am at peace with my virtual social life, holed up like a voyeuristic hermit, my picture neatly made up in the window as I sit stinky and unkempt at home in my sweats.

One of these days, God willing, I’ll start a new project. Crickets will chirp from the void that was my blog. The status line of my Facebook page will stare blankly at no one. Invites will turn kudzu on my homepage, and my Shelfari shelves will grow dust. Concerned friends will send notes like morose pings into the ether as I wrestle with metaphors and confront the empty page, wishing I could trade my Roget’s for the tiniest lil green patch or bit o’ karma.

***

Tosca just sent you a lil green patch.

[Accept] [Decline] [Ignore] [Wage Mob War Instead]

#caffiene

Tosca Lee is the author of Demon: A Memoir and Havah: The Story of Eve. She is also the co-author with Ted Dekker of the NYTimes bestseller Forbidden. The next book in that series will be out this summer.

A sought-after speaker and former Mrs. Nebraska, Tosca was a senior consultant for a global consulting firm until turning to writing full-time. She holds a degree in English and International Relations from Smith College and also studied at Oxford University. Please visit her web site at toscalee.com.

This post was originally published on the blog of my friend, Steve Laube. (Steve is a literary agent who represents Tosca Lee.) When I read Tosca’s article, I knew my readers would appreciate it, too. Tosca graciously granted permission to reprint her musings here at Blogging Bistro.

If you’d like to submit your own guest column, check out our guest post guidelines.

This is a guest post by Peter Claridge. If you would like to submit a guest article, please check out our guest post guidelines.

You can’t have failed to notice Fiverr.com in the last 12 months. But if you haven’t been to the site yet then I recommend you  check out whether you want to buy gigs to help you promote your blog or offer services and earn a few beer tokens.

While $5 doesn’t sound like much (actually it’s $4 after Fiverr takes their cut), if you can provide a service that doesn’t take long to do or can do a whole batch of them very quickly then it can add up sooner than you might think.

1.  Choose A Suitable Username

The jury is still out on the ranking algorithm used by Fiverr in the search results but recent changes seem to have placed a lot of emphasis on the username and you’ll find usernames which match the keywords you searched for ranking near the top.

Try to include keywords related to the services you plan to buy in your username. This could change in the future so consider other factors like number of completed gigs, ratings, freshness, etc.

Fiverr has said in the past that they try to give new gigs more exposure but that’s not apparent judging by the current search algorithm.

2.  Make Small But Interconnected Gigs

One of the ways the top sellers make their money is to provide a range of interconnected gigs for people to buy so once they’ve bought one they can buy a second and third gig from you.

One area where this works very well is if you are offering SEO-related gigs. For example, you might offer to write an article for $5, then you can offer to post that article as a guest post on your blog in another gig for $5. Then you can offer your social bookmarking service to get the new article indexed for another $5. Next, offer to spin any article for $5 and before you know it you have turned a $5 customer in a $20 one (well, $16 after those fees!).

When you have interconnecting gigs, don’t forget to mention them when you deliver your project.

3.  Make Gigs That Can Be Done Quickly In Batches

Remember, you are only being paid $4 to do the gig so don’t go giving yourself an ulcer spending 10 hours a day to earn $10. Make sure your gig is small enough to do in 10 minutes or can be done in batches.

There are plenty of “I will write anything you want in sand” kinds of gigs, but if you have to drive to the beach you’ll spend more on gas than what you earn!

If you batch them together in to 10 or more gigs then you can easily finish it off in an hour. (And on a side note, if you offer a “will write anything in sand” gig, why not take a video as well as a photo and reverse the video so that as the sea recedes the message is revealed?)

If you are a writer, work out how much you can write in 10 minutes on a topic you love and then quote that in the gig, If you can write 300 words in 10 minutes then offer a 300-word article on that topic for $5.

4.  Offer Bonuses On New Gigs

You are competing against thousands of other sellers on Fiverr so offer some kind of incentive to get people to buy your gig and generate reviews.

One way to do this is to offer a bonus to the first 10 buyers or so. The bonus needs to be so valuable that the buyer wants the bonus more than they want the actual gig.

If you are already an established seller then you might already have enough of a following so that when you launch a new gig you don’t need to offer such a valuable bonus.

5.  Ensure Your Gig Is Up To Date

I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve not bought a gig because the last feedback date was from 6 months ago. I wasn’t sure if the user was still active or if I’m just wasting my time buying the gig.

If you have been out of Fiverr action for a while, update the gig descriptions with today’s date and say you are back and offering the gig again. This way people will know that you are available to deliver even though you were not on the site for several months.

Before I sign off I’ll leave you with one more piece of advice: Your job description page is your sales letter. Make the description appeal to what the person wants. Including a video can increase your conversions no end.

Peter Claridge is the Online Marketing Manager for Agriya and has a huge amount of experience helping fixed price job sites getting exposure. Agriya was the first company to release a Fiverr clone script which is now used by most of the top 10 Fiverr alternatives.

Related Article

• Buy and Sell Professional Services for $5 at Fiverr.com

Join me for five social media workshops — take one or take ‘em all. The workshops are sponsored by Everett Community College Corporate & Continuing Education Center and are at the beautiful new East County campus in Monroe, WA.

You do NOT have to be a student at Everett Community College to take these workshops. These workshops are geared for adult entrepreneurs, small business owners, lifelong learners, and cubicle dwellers who are interested in learning how to use social media tools. The workshops are targeted for people who consider themselves “technologically challenged.”

To register for a workshop, click the link at the end of each course description.

*Note that this series will also be offered Spring Quarter, so if you can’t fit it in your schedule this winter, pencil the course in on your calendar for:

• April 12 – Facebook
• April 26  – Blogging
• May 10 – LinkedIn
• May 24 – Twitter
• June 7 – YouTube

Social Media For Business Series

Sign up for all five classes and save $45. Fee $300
For information on how to get the series discount, contact Everett Community College Corporate & Continuing Education Center (425) 267-0150.

Business Blogging Basics

Thursday, February 2, 2012
6-8 PM
Everett Community College Corporate & Continuing Education Center East County Campus
Tye 303, Monroe, WA
Fee: $69

If you want to build your business online, blogging can give you a very good return on investment. Learn to identify blogging topics and blogging strategies to increase your company’s visibility and credibility. We’ll evaluate several blogging platforms, and you’ll learn how to create blog posts that lure readers and keep them coming back for more. This class meets at the East County Campus in Monroe.

To register for this course, click this link: http://www.campusce.net/everett/course/course.aspx?C=687&pc=14&mc=&sc=

Facebook Pages for Business

Thursday, February 9, 2012
6-9 PM
Everett Community College Corporate & Continuing Education Center East County Campus
Tye 303, Monroe, WA
Fee: $69

Use the world’s largest social networking site to promote your business. During this intermediate level hands-on class, you will create and customize your Facebook Business (Fan) Page and learn how to publish enticing updates that help you build your business. Participants must have a personal Facebook profile set up prior to enrolling in this class, and should have basic proficiency with Facebook.

To register for this course, click this link: http://www.campusce.net/everett/course/course.aspx?C=598&pc=14&mc=&sc=

Boost Your Business With LinkedIn

Thursday, February 16, 2012
6-8 PM
Everett Community College Corporate & Continuing Education Center East County Campus
Tye 303, Monroe, WA
Fee: $69

Learn how LinkedIn can help you network with other professionals, attract new customers, and discover job opportunities. We’ll discuss how to craft an enhanced profile and solicit recommendations. You’ll learn techniques for growing your network through Groups, applications, and a Company Page.

To register for this course, click this link: http://www.campusce.net/Everett/Course/Course.aspx?c=733

Expand Your Brand, One Tweet at A Time

Thursday, March 1, 2012
6-8 PM
Everett Community College Corporate & Continuing Education Center East County Campus
Tye 303, Monroe, WA
Fee: $69

Known as a micro-blog, Twitter is ideal for building your brand reputation, 140 characters at a time. During this workshop, you’ll learn how to craft tweets that provide value, how to cross-promote your Twitter updates on other social networks, and how to entice your followers to pass on your brand message.

To register for this course, click this link: http://www.campusce.net/Everett/Course/Course.aspx?c=734

Broadcast Your Business with a YouTube Channel

Thursday, March 15, 2012
6-8 PM
Everett Community College Corporate & Continuing Education Center East County Campus
Tye 303, Monroe, WA
Fee: $69

Forty-eight hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. It’s no wonder that YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine. With users who range from 18 to 54 years old, YouTube is an ideal medium for local businesses to broadcast product launches, interviews, tutorials, ads, and more. Learn how to create, customize, and optimize a YouTube channel that will increase your company’s reach.

To register for this course, click this link: http://www.campusce.net/Everett/Course/Course.aspx?c=735

Share With a Friend

If you are unable to attend these workshops but have friends who might be interested, please share the link to this post with them: http://www.bloggingbistro.com/?p=10023

Book Laura to Speak With Your Group

Laura Christianson is available to teach workshops and keynote at your conference or event. For more speaking topics and to book Laura, visit the Speaking page.

Social Media Quiz

1. How many texters would rather text than talk?

A. One in three

B. One in five

C. One in ten

2. What percentage of Americans stream mobile video at work?

A. 27%

B. 42%

C. 64%

3. What makes a Twitter update most sharable?

A. It includes a link to an article, video, or photo

B. It includes a verb

C. It is less than 80 characters long.

The amount of statistical information about social media is mind-boggling. Mat Siltala from Dream Systems Media made it easier for us to wrap our minds around the data; he compiled Facebook, Twitter, and general social media stats in visual form:

Quiz Answers:

1. A. One in three texters would rather text than talk.

2. C. 64% of Americans stream mobile video at work.

3. B. The most sharable Twitter updates include verbs.

Should you purchase .xxx domain extensions to protect yourself?

Businesses and colleges are rushing to prevent their names from falling into the hands of the pornography industry by buying up the new “.xxx” website extension. [The Seattle Times]

The average British person is under the influence of alcohol in three-quarters of his or her tagged Facebook photos

…According to a new study. [ZDNet]

When Should You Launch Your New Blog?

How much planning should you do before you launch your blog? Or should you launch it on the fly? [Darren Rowse, ProBlogger]

5 Email Marketing Tips for Increased Open Rates

You want people to open and read your e-newsletter, right? But sadly, the vast majority of all e-newsletters don’t even get opened. Here’s why, along with tips to help yours get opened. [Ashley Zeckman, TopRank]

Top 15 Most Popular Social Networking Sites

[Raul Kaevand, DreamGrow]

I’ve found several excellent articles on other people’s blogs and recommend that you read them.

Each headline has a hyperlink embedded in it. Click the headline to read the complete article.

1. 20 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Use Social Media

by Jeff Bullas

2. Select your airplane seatmate from Facebook and LinkedIn profiles

Fox News
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is developing “meet and seat,” which allows travelers to pick seat assignments based on common interests, business connections or even the looks of their fellow passengers – via Facebook and LinkedIn profiles.

3. One in Four Starbucks Transactions Now Done Via Card, Including Mobile

by Todd Wasserman, Mashable Business

4. Strict Rules Aim to Stop Pupils and Teachers from Getting Too Social Online

by Jennifer Preston, New York Times

Social media misconduct among teachers and students result in strict new guidelines at school districts nationwide.

Join me for five social media workshops — take one or take ‘em all. The workshops are sponsored by Everett Community College Corporate & Continuing Education Center. With the exception of next week’s Facebook workshop, all courses will be at the new East County campus in Monroe, WA.

Here are details for each workshop in the series, as well as a description of next week’s Facebook workshop:

Facebook Pages for Business

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

6-9 PM
Everett Community College Corporate & Continuing Education Center (in Everett, near Boeing)
Room 204
Fee: $69

Use the world’s largest social networking site to promote your business. During this intermediate level hands-on class, you will create and customize your Facebook Business (Fan) Page and learn how to publish enticing updates that help you build your business. Participants must have a personal Facebook profile set up prior to enrolling in this class, and should have basic proficiency with Facebook.

To register for this course, click this link: http://www.campusce.net/everett/course/course.aspx?C=598&pc=14&mc=&sc=

Social Media For Business Series

Sign up for all five classes and save $45. Fee $300
For information on how to get the series discount, contact Everett Community College Corporate & Continuing Education Center (425) 267-0150.

Facebook Pages for Business

Thursday, January 19, 2012
6-9 PM
Everett Community College Corporate & Continuing Education Center East County Campus
Tye 303, Monroe, WA
Fee: $69

Use the world’s largest social networking site to promote your business. During this intermediate level hands-on class, you will create and customize your Facebook Business (Fan) Page and learn how to publish enticing updates that help you build your business. Participants must have a personal Facebook profile set up prior to enrolling in this class, and should have basic proficiency with Facebook.

To register for this course, click this link: http://www.campusce.net/everett/course/course.aspx?C=598&pc=14&mc=&sc=

Business Blogging Basics

Thursday, February 2, 2012
6-8 PM
Everett Community College Corporate & Continuing Education Center East County Campus
Tye 303, Monroe, WA
Fee: $69

If you want to build your business online, blogging can give you a very good return on investment. Learn to identify blogging topics and blogging strategies to increase your company’s visibility and credibility. We’ll evaluate several blogging platforms, and you’ll learn how to create blog posts that lure readers and keep them coming back for more. This class meets at the East County Campus in Monroe.

To register for this course, click this link: http://www.campusce.net/everett/course/course.aspx?C=687&pc=14&mc=&sc=

Boost Your Business With LinkedIn

Thursday, February 16, 2012
6-8 PM
Everett Community College Corporate & Continuing Education Center East County Campus
Tye 303, Monroe, WA
Fee: $69

Learn how LinkedIn can help you network with other professionals, attract new customers, and discover job opportunities. We’ll discuss how to craft an enhanced profile and solicit recommendations. You’ll learn techniques for growing your network through Groups, applications, and a Company Page.

To register for this course, click this link: http://www.campusce.net/Everett/Course/Course.aspx?c=733

Expand Your Brand, One Tweet at A Time

Thursday, March 1, 2012
6-8 PM
Everett Community College Corporate & Continuing Education Center East County Campus
Tye 303, Monroe, WA
Fee: $69

Known as a micro-blog, Twitter is ideal for building your brand reputation, 140 characters at a time. During this workshop, you’ll learn how to craft tweets that provide value, how to cross-promote your Twitter updates on other social networks, and how to entice your followers to pass on your brand message.

To register for this course, click this link: http://www.campusce.net/Everett/Course/Course.aspx?c=734

Broadcast Your Business with a YouTube Channel

Thursday, March 15, 2012
6-8 PM
Everett Community College Corporate & Continuing Education Center East County Campus
Tye 303, Monroe, WA
Fee: $69

Forty-eight hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. It’s no wonder that YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine. With users who range from 18 to 54 years old, YouTube is an ideal medium for local businesses to broadcast product launches, interviews, tutorials, ads, and more. Learn how to create, customize, and optimize a YouTube channel that will increase your company’s reach.

To register for this course, click this link: http://www.campusce.net/Everett/Course/Course.aspx?c=735

So it was with great delight that I accepted an invitation to teach a workshop on social media marketing at the Focus on Farming Conference Thursday, November 3 at Everett’s Comcast Arena.

My breakout session starts at 3:30 p.m., when conferees are likely to be worn out and experiencing severe information overload.

Instead of forcing you to listen to me talk for an hour, we’re going to do a couple of hands-on exercises that will help you formulate a social networking strategy you can begin using immediately.

Here’s a PDF with descriptions of all the breakout workshops.

The theme of this year’s conference is “Harvesting Opportunity.” According to an article in The Herald of Everett:

“Speakers include attorney Bill Marler, an advocate of strong food-safety policies; award-winning Seattle chef Tamara Murphy; and Graham Kerr, the chef, author and TV personality known as the “Galloping Gourmet.”

New this year is a 17,000-square-foot trade show with tractors, feed, fertilizers and other wares for the agriculture community.”

Click here for more info about the Focus on Farming Conference.

Photo Credit: Patrick Hajzler

But Delicious is back, and it’s better than ever with the addition of a feature called Stacks. Stacks allows you to collect and share a collection of topically-based links, videos, and images in an appealing, user-friendly manner.

This short video demonstrates Stacks:

http://youtu.be/HcgtFUN8bgE

If you’d like to follow my Delicious bookmarks, just click this Delicious link.

Please share a link to your Delicious profile, so we can follow you, too!