Communication methods have changed faster than anyone could have imagined.  A website is no longer enough.

People want interaction and responsiveness from organizations large and small, for-profit and non-profit.

Organizations are struggling to decide which channels to use, what to publish, how to engage and manage conversations and who in the organization is responsible.

Equipping people is critical to the success of any online organizational presence whether it is for an association, a for-profit company or a non-profit organization.

Michelle Cullison, President of Daystar New Media, has partnered with meeting planners, association executives and speaker bureaus to create highly successful events. Explore the website and contact us to ask questions, check date availability or book an event.

Did you know that next Wednesday, June 30th, is the first official Social Media Day?
I’m celebrating and inviting you to do the same!

Join me for
Business on the Social Web-Where should you be in 2010?

Date: Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Time: 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM CDT

Location: Web Meeting

Register Now

We’ll look at the top 4 social sites (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter & Youtube) to see what new features they offer for business and how your company can benefit by using them! From sales 2.0 to relationship marketing, this webinar will reveal which social networks are best for specific business processes. Don’t miss the chance to discover the best web location for your business.

Then, we’ll open up the lines for you to take the mic so you can share your questions, favorite new features, apps, success stories, stumbling blocks and hopes for the future of social business communications.

Hope to see you on the webinar on Social Media Day!
This is an open, no cost event. Invite your friends to attend this Social Media Day Celebration.

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/424459515

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP, 2003 Server or 2000

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4.11 (Tiger®) or newer

Follow these 5 steps to create your own Youtube Channel:

1. Decide on your Youtube Channel Name. This name will entered as the USERNAME in the account creation process.
2. Go to Youtube.com and click Create Account.
   Username becomes Channel name. For corporate branding, you will likely make the username your business or brand name.For personal branding, the username should be your first and last name.
3. Develop your profile.
   Enter your website,  company name, first and last name.  Fill your profile with details about the contents of your channel. Consider how people will search for content like yours and include those keywords in your profile. Always match your text content to your video content.
4. Develop Your channel .
   Customize your channel by entering a Channel Title, Description, keywords and colors.
5. Post your first video! You can use existing professional video, create one with a webcam or utilize a simple camera like the FLIP.

Grab your Youtube Channel now even if you aren’t ready to post video.  You don’t want to lose rights to your branded Youtube Channel URL.

With a free account, you can manage and post status updates with one-click on these social sites:

• Twitter Profiles
• Facebook Profiles and Pages
• LinkedIn Profiles
• MySpace and FourSquare Profiles
• WordPress.com sites and
• Ping.fm account (a multi-account management tool that accesses numerous networks.)

HootSuite, one of my favorite One-Click Social Media Management tools, can help you manage your social presence effectively so you can spend more time doing whatever YOU want to do!  Not only can you post in multiple places, you can also schedule posts.  Scheduling your posts allows you to manage your time more effectively.  You can set up the posts when it is convenient for you yet schedule them to go out at the most convenient time for your target audience.

HootSuite continues to add functionality that makes social media more manageable.
You can get a free account by signing up at HootSuite.com.

To learn more about social media management and productivity, check out the Social Media Management Seminars at Social Media School in New Orleans.

Check out this product feature announcement from LinkedIn onYoutube.

2. In your status updates on all networks, answer this question: What information does my business audience need from me today?

3.  Relate to people on the networks as if you are seeing them in person. Ask questions. Reply to comments or messages. Engage in conversation. Then, and only then will you see the value of social media.

4. Develop systems for growing your networks.  Example: Invite all the decision makers you are working with into your LinkedIn network. Invite contacts from informal networking events into your Facebook network. Or, determine to invite 10 people from your business association memberships into your personal network each month.  Having a system will ensure incremental growth of the right audience over time.

5. Don’t be afraid to experiment with new functionality. Social media tools are still evolving. Everyone is learning.  You’ll get the most from these tools when you get comfortable with them.  You don’t have to think about how to use the phone and email for business. Eventually, you’ll feel that way about social media.  Dive in the deep end and have fun with it.

My blog URL (which works fine as an RSS feed in Facebook apps) wasn’t working for Twitterfeed. It seems a title tag was missing from the code of my new WordPress theme.  I utilized the tool Feed Validator http://feedvalidator.org/ to identify the problem.

A more common problem is finding the RSS feed URL.  With some applications, your standard URL will work as your RSS feed URL. If not, find your RSS feed URL like this:

• Open your blog in a browser as shown below.
• Left click the RSS feed icon as shown in image below.
• Select from the RSS feeds available.

There are different families of RSS feeds available. I have these two RSS options on my blog. Both work with twitterfeed.com.

http://www.michellecullison.com/feed/

http://www.michellecullison.com/feed/atom/

If you have a WordPress blog, you can also feed your blog posts into twitter using the wordpress plugin http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/twitter-poster/faq/.

Automation eases the pain of social media time drain.  Setting this up or hiring someone to do it, is well worth the investment.

Extending your blog to the active twitter sphere is a good business decision.

Contact me to hire my team to help you get started.

• Visit the business page.
• Scroll down to the bottom of the left hand column.
• You will see a link that says: Remove me from fans. See figure 1 below.

Figure 1-Screenshot from facebook fan page

To learn more about social media, sign up for social media bootcamp!

Getting your social sites integrated with each other is one way to build your following in multiple locations so you will be ready to build relationships and build your business in 2009!