The Bella Buzz: Successful Web Design, Internet and Social Media Marketing Strategies from Desiree Scales, CEO--Bella Web Design, Inc.

New Startup Created Solely with Social Media: Idea Anglers

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This week on The Bella Buzz podcast, we are very excited to have with us the founders of an online business incubator called Idea Anglers. Brad Shimp and Neal Rohrbach regularly participate in a twitter chat called SBBuzz, which we have mentioned during previous podcasts. Over the course of the weekly chats it became apparent that Brad and Neal were involved in something rather interesting, so we invited them to join us on this week's episode.

It is an amazing story as we discovered that these two entrepreneurs had developed this concept, executed the launch of a web site, crafted a business plan ... and this appearance on the Bella Buzz podcast is the first time that they have actually heard each other's voices! It is a testament to the ability to collaborate online, using the tools of the live web. This ability will only be made easier with new services such as Google Wave introduced to the world during Google I/O 2009.

The concept behind Idea Anglers is to develop a community of experts who can provide specific insights for an entrepreneur who is looking to launch a new business. If you are willing to provide guidance to someone who has an idea but needs a little help with executing a business plan, then Idea Anglers wants you!

And if you are an entrepreneur with a business idea or a concept that needs a little more refinement before it can hit the big time, then visit the web site to sign up for the Newsletter and stay informed about the stable of experts who are constantly being added to the roster.

Business owners looking for resources can sign up for Membership at Idea Anglers and share as much or as little of their idea as they feel comfortable with, and begin to tap into the expertise that has been assembled via this online community.  The founder's passion can be summed up in a simple statement that "no good idea should be wasted." Their intention is to use the social networking and communication tools that are expanding the capabilities of the web, combined with the passion of Web 2.0 participants to share and assist others, in order to nurture a new businesses to fruition.

We are very excited to watch Neal and Brad take this concept to great heights, and will share in their excitement as they toast the first company to achieve their exit plan, launched with the assistance of Idea Anglers.

Desiree and I plan to volunteer our own time to participate in the Idea Anglers community, both as experts as well as business owners looking to gain knowledge about achieving our goals.  If you have an interest in becoming a member or volunteering your time as an expert, visit the web site at IdeaAnglers.com.

Theme music for The Bella Buzz is Fallen by Digital Chemistry, available for download at the Podsafe Music Network.

You can subscribe to The Bella Buzz directly from ITunes by following this link, and we would be happy to receive listener feedback and ratings at The ITunes Store.

Desiree Scales Featured on Blog Talk Radio's Connecting Women

Desiree was recently on the Connecting Women show on Blog Talk Radio with Dr. Fern Kazlow talking to Faten Abdallah about social media strategies and branding. Listen in below. The show is about an hour long so be prepared to spend a little time here. Hope you enjoy and pick up some great pointers. Listen closely for the "Flight Attendant Effect" tip from Desiree!

 

How Do you Really Calculate Social Media ROI?

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Our conversation on The Bella Buzz podcast today is a very important one for business owners, marketing managers, or anyone who is interested in determining how to measure the Return on Investment (ROI) that can be achieved via social media strategies.

Hosts Desiree Scales and Joe Magennis break down the numerous ways of evaluating the success of online marketing efforts. However, there is no accepted standard that has been developed to capture and measure the time invested in participation versus the return that has been gained.

Google Analytics is a good place to start to ensure that you are tracking and analyzing the traffic that is on your site. You can see a clear picture of the traffic coming from the various social networks that you are participating in. We are in a paradigm shift as far as what reliable metrics should be evaluated regarding social media marketing.

Social media analysis at this stage might be closer to evaluating a branding campaign. Brand exposure can be measured in terms of the number of impressions that are generated with an determined value assigned to that exposure, such as you see with a sponsorship investment.  There is no exact correlation between the the number of people who see the Philips brand on the Arena in Atlanta and the number of units sold in a market, but there is obviously a long term benefit that the brand gains by being associated with that sponsorship.

Desiree had a conversation with a client Casual Image about establishing a blog and social media campaign.  They decided outdoor design would be the topic for those who love to barbeque and enjoy their time on their patio. The topics included in the blog will sometimes actually point his community to other web sites and online sources of content, so won't be captured by his Analytics reports, however it will most certainly generate additional followers because of the value his content provides.

One metric that does work in the social space is comments, so getting a community to start commenting on your blog, or YouTube video channel, or Facebook status comments will give you a good view of how much brand exposure you are getting and could be used as a measure of success.

A real life case study that shows the results of a social media effort, which has garnered significant ROI whether it is exactly measurable or not, can be seen by the ability of @ComcastCares to push the negative corporate imagery off of the first page of Google.  A great discussion on this topic can be found at Blog Talk Radio.

Starbucks has implemented an online & offline effort that drives traffic to their Twitter page using posters. Here is a link to the article relating the campaign.

The way to justify the implementation of these campaigns will be to present anecdotal evidence from companies that have seen real results in the past, and to agree on a few metrics that can be used to measure progress such as blog comments and video views. Once these results are demonstrated over a period of time, the business rationale will be established.

How would you assign a value to a Twitter follower or a Facebook fan?  Is that something that can be included in an ROI calculation?

Theme music for The Bella Buzz is Fallen by Digital Chemistry, available for download at the Podsafe Music Network.

You can subscribe to The Bella Buzz directly from ITunes by following this link, and we would be happy to receive listener feedback and ratings at The ITunes Store.

A Conversation with Online Conferencing Company Founder Stephanie McKee of Whistletree

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Our guest on The Bella Buzz podcast this week is Stephanie McKee from Whistletree, an audio conferencing and webinar enabling company. Hosts Desiree Scales and Joe Magennis first encountered Stephanie when they participated in the weekly SBBuzz.biz twitter chat, which we have discussed here in previous episodes.

During this past week's chat, the topic turned towards podcasting and various tools to use for turning conversation into digital content.  After the chat was completed we decided to invite Stephanie on the show to tell us a bit about the company's services.

First we hear about how Stephanie and her husband Ed, who is a founder and technical lead for Whistletree came up with the name while visiting Hawaii.  They came across a giant monkey pod tree that inspired the graphical branding of the company.

As with all good business ideas, the concept arose as a response to a need in the marketplace for a quality business to provide these telecom services.  The target audience that gravitates towards Whistletree tends to be clientele who are doing frequent multi user training calls.

Users can record a conference call via telephone or Skype, and upon completion the conversation is turned into an MP3 file and distributed through typical podcasting networks. The call can be listened to again via a phone call, or embedded into a blog or a web site.

Organizations who are having budgetary confinements to traveling are taking advantage of this service as well, gathering and communicating via a conference call format.

Whistletree also features an Authors' Corner at their web site where a current book will be featured by the company, and they invite an author to participate in a call where readers can interact directly. 

The company has been in business just over two years, with Ed having begun coding on the system about 2.5 years ago.  Whistletree prides themselves on excellent customer service and are responsive with help regarding any issue that may arise.

We were happy to have Stephanie on The Bella Buzz podcast, and wish her and the entire team the best of luck with their business!

You can subscribe to The Bella Buzz directly from ITunes by following this link, and we would be happy to receive listener feedback and ratings at The ITunes Store.

Theme music for The Bella Buzz is Fallen by Digital Chemistry, available for download at the Podsafe Music Network.

Desiree on the Startup Lucky Online Show with Aronado Palcencia

I was featured on the live-streamed video show called http://www.startuplucky.com today and interviewed by Aronado Placencia, the show's online host. We had a lot of fun talking about online marketing for startups. He definitely asked some controversial questions, but the interview came out pretty interesting in the end. I held my own quite well. Its a 23 minute interview so be prepared for that before you go and view it. I'll be editing it and posting it on our main site in a few days. I hope you enjoy listening to us banter about social media, Twitter lunacy and and social engagement! Watch the interview here http://tinyurl.com/qly5qh 

Your First 100 Days of Social Media Marketing: A Guide for Business Owners

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To borrow a completely random time line from the mainstream media covering politics these days, the hosts of The Bella Buzz podcast Desiree and Joe discuss ways to counsel new clients on their first 100 days using Social Media tools.

It is sometimes hard for us to remember what it was like when we first started using these amazing communication tools which are now a common element in our everyday lives.  We didn't adopt them overnight, there was a gradual incorporation of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and the myriad of other networks into our activities. We work with our clients in helping them understand the process of adopting these elements into their online marketing strategy.

For a business owner who is hearing the social media buzz in the press and trying to determine how they will incorporate all of them into their business, it can be a very daunting challenge.  Joe put the question to Desiree, "How would you go about assisting someone who has come to you looking to start participating in the world of social media?"

Her immediate response is that you need to have a solid foundation to work from and that foundation would be a great website.  In her words, "a fast loading, easy to view web site that represents your brand"...."the web site is the more formal voice, while social media is the more informal voice" .. From there the next place is to start writing a blog.  By crafting a blog about your business or area of expertise, the very thing that you are passionate about, it will provide a comfort level for communicating your ideas in a concise manner. It will also provide you some content that you can multi-purpose by integrating it into the social networks.

Working with clients, the push back against the development of a blog or adopting social media comes in various forms; time constraints, concerns about writing skills and fear of putting too much information out there in a competitive environment are the most common.  In each case there are counter-arguments to be made justifying the efforts in the long term.  The competitive issue we will save for another podcast, but while we're on the topic, a podcast is a great way to overcome the writing and or time concerns because it takes a simple conversation and turns your authentic voice into content for the blog.

The next tactic is to determine one social network where you will participate and focus by creating a profile.  Attempting to jump in and participate in too many of them at once might lead to burnout and dissillusionment so our recommendation for the first 100 days is to choose one and become involved.

Something to keep in mind is that 100 days is just an arbitrary timeline and using these tools for that time period will not provide you with the full scope of the experience. You will only scratch the surface of what you can discover. It is a place to start and provides a milepost to measure your progress and comfort level of using social media.

Once you have had a chance to sample the networks, you may find that differences in the way that each community interacts will be more or less suited to your own personality.  Jamie Turner, The 60-Second Marketer, once told Desiree that Facebook is like a pub where there are established friends sitting in comfortable places.  Twitter is more like a cocktail party where there are different conversations about different topics happening all around you, and LinkedIn is more like a formal business networking event.  Find the one that is most comfortable and start participating.

How have you handled your first 100 days participating in social media? What would you have done differently? And how would you help out a friend who is looking into participating in the conversations? 

Let us know, we'd love your feedback in the comments or via Twitter.

Small Business Twitter Chat, SBBuzz Creator Pamela O'Hara Guest

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The Bella Buzz welcomes SBBuzz Twitter chat creator Pamela O'Hara to the podcast. Hosts Desiree Scales and Joe Magennis were excited to have her join on this week's episode, to provide some details regarding the concept of the weekly discussions that take place as small businesses talk tech on Twitter. As well as, what it takes to participate in this recurring dialogue among small business owners worldwide.

Pamela is from BatchBlue Software which is a company dedicated to building software solutions for small businesses.

The idea for conducting the chat came about at a company staff meeting one morning as discussions revolved around existing clients who were having some challenges distinguishing ways to take advantage of different online communities such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. Having already participated in the #journchat Twitter chat, Pamela felt that directing one towards the small business owner could be very effective.

By networking at a small business event in New York, plus reaching out to their existing contacts with invitations via email and tweets, about 40 people joined in the very first conversation including Pamela's partner Michelle Riggin-Ransom as a co-moderator.

The process begins by developing a batch of questions that will pose as guides for each week's chat. Pamela solicits questions via Twitter earlier in the day, plus she receives direct messages and emails from participants with specific requests of the guest speaker. It becomes a very collaborative conversation.

Desiree informed us that she will be hosting a webinar during the Twitter Chat on Tuesday April 28, 2009 with guest speaker Tim Berry. She is inviting others to join her via online desktop collaboration and on conference call, to watch her participate in the chat. Anyone can decide to jump off at any time to participate directly in SBBuzz themselves at any time.  If you would like to join in on the webinar email Desiree for conference login information. 

The scheduled time for the weekly SBBuzz chat is from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm ET every Tuesday, and although some have expressed challenges with attending during the evening due to other conflicts, many in the participating audience have responded that it works better than trying to chat during the workday hours.  Pamela is however thinking about finding some other moderators for hosting daytime chats.

A great new offshoot at the SBbuzz.biz blog is a guest post series called "Continuing the Conversation" in which extended versions of the chat are written by participants who had more to say than 140 characters would allow.  As we have mentioned here on the Bella Buzz podcast, this elevates the importance of using the comments section to expand upon the topic as well. 

In the long run, gaining an understanding of businesses who are using social media ... meeting people, getting good ideas, learning and networking are the benefits of participating in the chats. It is a relationship building tool that anyone can feel comfortable joining and participating in. 

And if you can believe it ... Pamela is originally from Rome Georgia, now living in New England (and does not like sweet tea), while Joe and Desiree are from Boston and Chicago respectively, both now living in Georgia!

Please let us know in the comments what you think about the concept of Twitter chats and if you think you might be participating in some yourself.

Kutcher Can Have His Millions, Business Owners Want Authenticity

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This special edition of The Bella Buzz podcast is in response to the mania that has taken over Twitter in a race to reach certain milestone number of followers.  Today a Twitter user was the first to reach 1 million followers. Our hosts Desiree Scales and Joe Magennis want to address the small business owner who may be on the fence about using the social networking tool to help expand their business now that Twitter has become a different animal of sorts.

Without rehashing the details of the Ashton Kutcher race with CNN to break the million follower mark, and a subsequent first tweet from Oprah Winfrey, the concern on The Bella Buzz is that the impression may be given that the number of followers and celebrity stature are the most important aspects of Twitter. We cannot emphasize enough that the value of Twitter is making real connections with real people who are contributing something to the community in a way that is helpful and giving, and in some way has a legacy effect of sustainability for the overall well being of the web.

The recording of this podcast with our youngest fan, Joe's daughter, eight month old Lily in the background, is a demonstration that being real while contributing good content is more important than polished media with no substance.

There is a challenge for any social media consultant working with clients about how to use these tools to full effect.  Joe shares his experience representing a band on Facebook and on Twitter in such as way that it does not decieve the followers into believing they are communicating directly with the musicians, but it does contain an element of inauthenticity that is contrary to true social networking.  His ultimate intention is to demonstrate the value of the communications and migrate the function of posting and talking to the fans to the actual band members. Desiree believes that we will see the mega-celebrities like Oprah designating the task to subordinates in a way that reduces the true connectivity of the medium.  Possibly the role of a social media consultant on the large scale accounts will be to filter the incoming messages for the client.

The act of discovery on line is like walking into a room full of new people each day, and each person might have that nugget of information that will make the difference in how successful you are.  Never in mass communication have we had the opportunity to interact with knowledgeable, informed people .. willing to share what they know.

If the goal of Twitter is to ramp up the user base for a sale to a potential buyer, then the door opens for the open source micro-messaging platforms. This will be a topic for future exploration, but we will soon have the ability to develop and grow your own community around a particular niche.  All of the tools that are necessary to connect will be easily installed on your own servers and you will be able to eliminate the clutter of celebrity while maintaining the benefit of Twitter like communications.

To reiterate, it does not matter whether you have one or one-million followers, the value will be derived by participating in conversations, helping each other out by connecting with these tools and discovering new concepts and ideas that never would have been presented to you otherwise.

We are here to help each other to succeed, and the power of Twitter is that it provides a platform where we can discover, connect and communicate in a way that benefits us all.

What do you think about the celebrity aspect of current Twitter campaigns.  Do you turn off the noise to take full advantage of the dialogue?  Are you a small business owner still not certain about the value that social networking can bring to your company?  Let us know, we would love to continue this dialogue in the comments below.

Using Comments as a Business Tool

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Our hosts on The Bella Buzz podcast, Desiree Scales and Joe Magennis discuss the use of commenting on blog posts and activity streams, as a way to contribute to the overall conversation on the web.  Each blog post should simply be the catalyst for a conversation, with the comments from the readers & listeners as the different ingredients that combine to form an even more interesting dialogue.

The idea for this topic began with a simple statement from Desiree on her Facebook profile, that turned into a multi-post article that helped direct one (if not many) readers towards a better understanding of how to use an application. We applaud the integration of commenting functions in social networks, particularly Facebook. 

Unlike mass media outlets which are a one way dissemination of content, a blog post or a podcast is an open invitation to engage the audience like never before.  Taking the time to add to the post via a well thought out comment is a great way to develop a significant relationship on the web and to promote your own brand by demonstrating your knowledge and understanding in a very meaningful way. Comments allow you the opportunity to fully express your opinions beyond the limitations of 140 characters.

But it's not all about using comments to promote, as may bloggers are extremely concerned about comment spam and comments blatantly designed simply to link to your own profile.  Done correctly, you have inserted yourself into a topic that could lead to other opportunities. As a small to medium sized business owner, you should make it part of your regular efforts to respond to the posts that you read with a comment .. you will find it can lead to greater rewards.

There are also networks on the web that allow for a follower/following relationship for comments. As you contribute to blogs around the web your followers can see your messages in a social way.  This is also great for blog owners as a single commenter with a large following can lead many others to see your original post.

Integrated blog commenting tools such as Disqus and Intense Debate are great examples of these types of networks, while the web service BackType takes a more holistic approach to tracking comments via email address. A great advancement on the Disqus system is the integration of Facebook Connect as part of the social sharing of your comments, and may even disintermediate the need for having yet another social network to participate in... by having your comments feed into the Facebook Activity stream you are reaching your audience and sharing your web participation with them.Your Facebook followers can see your activity on the web, migrate to the site where you left the comment, and participate in the ongoing conversation.

As a site owner you have business decisions to make regarding the implementation of commenting systems on your own site.

In discussions with companies venturing into the use of blogs and social networks for the first time, a typical response is voiced .. "we'll do a blog but we want the comments turned off, we don't want anything bad to be said about us on our own web site!" ... This is improper thinking about how commenting can help a business owner.  Positive comments are of course peer to peer endorsement that carry much more weight than any content you could every write. A good comment can also help you to expand upon the meaning of your original post by drawing out more examples that make your point, making your content even better.

Negative comments give you two opportunities; one is to address the deficiencies that are voiced in the comment and become a better organization, and the second is to craft a response to the negative comment that demonstrates to the rest of the readers that you are listening, responsive and engaged. Don't fear negative comments .. embrace them and use them as a tool.

In the end, don't overlook the power of comments on the web. Feedback via comments is in many ways a motivation to continue producing the great content that we all enjoy on the web, and can be a great tool for business owners to use to help expand brand reach.  

Do you leave comments around the web? Are you contributing to the dialogue by jumping in to the conversation.  Are you a site owner using comments to expand your business? Let us know, we'd love to hear from you.

Twitter Chats Deliver Real Time Conversations

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This week's Bella Buzz podcast is focused on the topic of participating in regularly scheduled Twitter chats. Desiree Scales and Joe Magennis explore the finer points of locating chats, how to participate in a chat, and what the takeaway expectations might be.

The conversation kicks off with the exciting discovery that Desiree was hightlighted in an article at the Small Business Trends blog titled TweetChats - The Cool New Way to Network and Learn on Twitter. Desiree is prominently presented as participating in the SBBuzz conversation on March 24th.

Twitter Chats are a relatively new phenomenon where a group of individuals conduct a conversation on Twitter around a particular topic using a hashtag (#).  For example, Desiree was exposed to the weekly #JournChat conversation by Rebekah Lovell from Renown Promotions.  Each Monday evening the conversation revolves around journalism, blogging and public relations practices and strategies.  There is an official web site that recaps the night's events and archives prior conversations at JournChat.info.

The chat for small and medium sized business owners is called SBBuzz or small business buzz, conducted every Tuesday evening from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm Eastern time.  The archival web site is located at http://sbbuzz.biz.

It is recommended that the best way to follow these conversations is to use web applications developed to filter out all of the other twitter noise and let you focus on the hashtag. For example you can enter the hashtag phrase at the web site TwitterFall.com, or you can use Search.Twitter.com. What The Hashtag.org is a Wiki that is developing a resource about all of these developing chats. .. or simply use a desktop application like Tweetdeck that will allow for search columns isolating the topic.

For a business owner, there is actually an opportunity here to start your own Twitter Chat around a topic that you are interested in. It would be interesting to develop a niche conversation where your expertise could be demonstrated and a community grown. These conversations start out with small numbers of participants but with some consistency and diligence could grow out to something very meaningful.

While our conversation was wrapping up, the SBBuzz site sent out a tweet with a list of "power contributors" to the chat and Desiree was prominently posted on the list.

NOTES: It appears that the integration of the Bella Buzz podcast into the RSS feed may have knocked some people off of the subscription list, so if it doesn't appear you are getting new updates please re-subscribe through your favorite RSS reader.  Sorry for the inconvenience.

Also .. The iTunes store has accepted the podcast feed!! So you can subscribe via iTunes at The Bella Buzz

FINAL NOTE: School vacation is upon us next week, so we will be taking a one-week hiatus and return for the next edition of The Bella Buzz on April 13th.