I had the pleasure of attending IGNITION WEST conference last week in San Francisco. Organized by Business Insider, the event explored the future of Mobile.  I was really excited to be in a room full of people interested in one of the hottest trends right now.

The Current Trends in Mobile

The Business Insider’s team kicked off the conference with the discussion on the current trends in mobile…the growth of smartphones and tablets, the platform wars, and how consumers are using mobile devices. 

Last year the number of smartphones sold exceeded the number of PCs sold and the potential for growth in mobile is still enormous and in fact, we’re still early (835million SmartPhone users vs. 5.6billion DumbPhone users).

 View the Full Slide Deck.

The Future of Mobile Apps

Continue Reading “Pearls from IGNITION WEST: Future of Mobile conference”

Wow, I guess technology literally changes every day!  Two weeks ago I taught a workshop for NYC Webgrrls on the benefits of building Facebook Landing pages, bringing them the latest and greatest techniques of Social Media marketing. “Visitors who visit your page and land on a custom Welcome page are 47% more likely to Like your page”.  Starting March 30, creating a landing page on Facebook will no longer be possible!

Facebook announced, last week, that starting March 30, they are forcing all Facebook Business Page owners to convert to the new timeline format, which will completely eliminate the custom landing page option. In fact, a call to action on a Facebook business page will now be against Facebook’s terms and conditions! (see more details below)  (Note: you can still use your custom tabs in your Facebook Page).

New Facebook Page Layout:

(click to enlarge)

Continue Reading “Facebook new business page layouts…what you need to know”

The 2011 Holiday Season is fast approaching and to kick it off we are organizing a dual-city Webgrrls International Holiday Celebration December 6th with the San Francisco Webgrrls and December 7th with the New York City Webgrrls, and when the Webgrrls Community gets together, it becomes an industry event, not only about revelry but also about the celebration of the achievements of women in technology and business.

December 6 – San Francisco

The San Francisco Webgrrls Holiday Celebration will be Tuesday, December 6th at the Techsoup space. 

We will toast to success and ring in the Holidays with a wine and cheese affair with some great wine, great raffle prizes, and a great San Francisco crowd. Get more information and RSVP!

December 7 – New York City

The NYC Webgrrls Holiday celebration will be Wednesday, December 7th at Wix Lounge, a co-working and event space for creative professionals (located steps from Union Square).

We will have a great menu and can share a toast with some great wine & beer,  and some amazing people. Get more information and RSVP!

Webgrrls International has a lot celebrate this year! A new site, new technology, our workshop line-up has grown offering new information and new skills to our members and community, our regular and small business membership continues to grow. San Francisco Webgrrls has a new chapter leader, Anne Ward, and is growing exponentially and the NYC Webgrrls is having its best year. The Webgrrls Blog, Webgrrls Wisdom, continues to influence as our subscriber base continues to grow. We have created some great momentum for 2012. It has been a very rewarding year for many of us.

Come and celebrate with us!

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Everyone seems to understand that it’s important to have a “brand” as branding is the foundation on which your entire online marketing ‘platform’ is built.  But more and more people are asking me: “How can I build a brand on the various Social Media platforms?”.

Social Media is Nothing New

Before we dive into the tips, it’s good to realize that Social Media is nothing new and we all have been doing it from the beginning of time…Social Media is about connecting with people.  What has changed are the tools.  The tools now allow us to make that human connection on a whole different level…having access to people from all over the world where information travels at the speed of light!

Tips for Building a Brand on Social Media

1. Define your brand…your story
   In Social Media, your brand story appears in your bio or tag line.  Make sure to write a great bio/tag line that tells your story. 

   Things you should include in your Brand Story

   • Identify What You Value
   • Identify What Makes You Unique
   • Identify How You Want To Be Perceived
   • Identify Your Specialty
   • Identify Your Target Market 

   Here are 3 examples on Twitter community that tell a great story:
   

   

   One important note is to tailor your bio for each community if necessary.  The target audiences that you want to reach in different communities might vary, so, you have to know the community in order to speak to it’s members in a language that they understand and expect.

   Also, remember to use keywords that you want to be found under in your bio as this is how users of that community will find you.

2. Use a Great Photo
   I can’t stress this enough.  Your photo is the human connection.  Make sure that it is clear and portrays your personality.  Can you guess which photos I think you should use?
   
3. Engage with your community to build relationships
   Because there is so much going on in everyone’s lives today, engaging with the community members is the only way to stay on top of their minds.

   How do you engage?

   • Ask Questions
   • Answer other people’s questions
   • Comment on people’s posts
   • Respond to people when they try to reach out to you

   To help you manage your Social Media communications, you have to monitor what people say about your brand and respond in a timely manner. To monitor what people say about your brand, you can use Google Alerts, Addictomatic, and Twitter Search.

4. Be Remarkable!
   In order to succeed in Social Media, you have to be remarkable!  The power of Social Media tools are SHARING features, where people can easily pass something they like on to their networks.

   People share remarkable things

   People want to connect with remarkable people

5. Be Ubiquitous
   You have to create multiple streams of YOU on all the different social networks but you have to create a “HUB” (usually your blog/website) where people can find all of the info about you in one place. 

   

What do you think?  Do you have any other tips for building a brand on Social Media, please share in the comments!

Drive more traffic, increase content consumption, and encourage user participation…Gamification has become a most exciting mainstream technique that marketers rely on.

Gamification is the process of using game thinking and mechanics to engage audiences and solve problems.

Game dynamics are now entering every aspect of daily life. Good games take players (aka customers) on a journey. Early Gamification techniques only involved adding simple game mechanics like points, badges and leader boards to websites and apps. But, what I discovered at the Gamification Summit in NYC, an incredible 2 day event, is that it is not enough. The gamification journey should give the user something to learn and master, encourages people to stay engaged with your brand and have FUN in the process.

Extrinsic vs. Intrinsic Motivations: (what motivates people)

Continue Reading “Drive more traffic, increase content consumption, and encourage user participation with Gamification”