Web & Social Media Consultants, Sara Isenberg & Karen Kefauver, team up to teach “ABC’s of Integrating Social Media with your Website“

• Class: ABC’s of Integrating Social Media with your Website
• When: Tuesday, February 21, 2012, 6:30-9:30 PM
• Where: NextSpace, 101 Cooper Street, Santa Cruz
• REGISTER NOW at City of Santa Cruz Parks & Recreation, activity #15200, $79.00 (city residents), $98 (non-residents). https://online.activenetwork.com/SCInstaReg/Start/Start.asp or call 831-420-5270 Mon-Thur.

Many small businesses are harnessing the power of social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or blogging to promote their businesses. These social networks can help drive current and new customers to websites – but only if the social networks and the website are properly integrated. Learn how to do this in a class with two Santa Cruz consultants and social media experts.

Sara Isenberg and Karen Kefauver will provide the tools to help connect business’ websites – where core products and services are explained – with social media networks through a discussion of best practices and concrete tips as well as time for questions and answers.

Sara Isenberg (http://saraisenberg.com) is a web consultant and project manager who helps clients plan and manage web, social media, and email marketing projects. Karen Kefauver (http://karenkefauver.com) is a journalist and social media pro. For more information: http://saraisenberg.com/classes/

The Winter-Spring City of Santa Cruz Parks & Recreation catalog arrived today! Get ready to start 2012 with information and inspiration about Marketing, Website planning, and Social Media. In January and February 2012 I’m teaching (and co-teaching) three classes with two of my favorite collaborators, Kathryn Gorges and Karen Kefauver.

If you receive the paper catalog, our classes are listed on page 34. You can also view our classes online here. All will be held at NextSpace, 101 Cooper Street, downtown Santa Cruz.

Online registration opens on Tuesday, January 3 at 8am. Here are the steps to find our classes online (or register by calling the Parks & Rec office at 831-420-5270 Monday-Thursday).

>> Click on the right side blue box “Register NOW with instaReg”
>> Click on “Register for Programs”
>> Click on the left side “Special Interest”
>> Click on “Show Courses” under each of the following class titles:

• ABC’s of Your Marketing Makeover, Tuesday, January 31, 6:30-9:30pm, $79.
• ABC’s of Planning Your New or Revamped Website, Tuesday, February 7, 6:30-9:30 pm, $79.
• ABC’s of Integrating Social Media with your Website, Tuesday, February 21, 6:30-9:30 pm, $79.

Read the class descriptions here. If you have any questions, contact me here.

Website: http://saraisenberg.com
Blog: http://saraisenberg.com/blog
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SaraIsenbergConsulting <= Visit & click “LIKE”
LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/saraisenberg
Twitter: @saraisenberg
About.me: http://about.me/saraisenberg

Here are some great resources with tips and hints on blogging for business.

• How to Improve Your Blog – A collection of 110 informative tips from a wide variety of bloggers. Some of my favorites include:
  • Resist the Urge to Overplug — make it more than self-promotion.
  • Short Attention Spans Rule — keep it short.
  • Gimme News I Can Use.
• Six Reasons Every Brand Should Blog — From Huffington Post blogger, Paula Berg:
  • “Despite the evidence in favor of blogging, with the rise of Twitter and Facebook, many brands are reluctant to blog. While blogs can be a lot of work, they provide a foundation for information on the web and an owned platform for your social business.”
  • Brand Identity: A blog provides a low-cost, long-term venue to continuously bring your brand to life.
  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO): A blog provides an informative resources for anyone seeking information about you or issues related to your brand.
  • Control the Message: A blog provides you with a platform to accurately tell the important brand stories.
  • Social Media Home Base: A blog provides a long-term home for content than can be continually accessed and pushed through other social and traditional channels.
  • Lead generation: A blog can help grow your business
  • Analytics: Blog analytics can help you perfect your online communication strategies and improve ROI.
• Good Blogging Etiquette for Guest Posting Hopefuls — from Tutorial Blog:
  • “As bloggers, wanna-be writers and hopeful freelancers, we hear, probably on a daily basis, just how important guest blogging is. We know we should be guest blogging which means we know we should be actively seeking out new blogs and new sites as potential homes for our precious content.”
  • Sugar & Spice & Everything Nice — add your own kick and spunk.
  • Make the Host Blogger’s Job as Easy as You Possibly Can
  • Be Yourself, But Try to Fit In Too
  • Don’t Be a Stranger – don’t just blog and vanish.

Lately I’ve disappeared into the dark hole of non-blogging. Facebook and Twitter haven’t been much of a focus for me, either. Even if your life (professional, social, or otherwise) revolves around social media, it’s good to take a break. I’ve taken such a break from “myself” — blogging, tweeting, posting only minimally — but have continued to be active with social media both for clients and in my volunteer endeavors. Recently I’ve been tweeting and posting (Facebook) for TEDx Santa Cruz. Amazingly, this event is coming up in just a few days: June 11, 2011. As a first time in Santa Cruz event, the organizing committee has been and is excited, nervous, thrilled, amazed, and sometimes overwhelmed. We just got some great local press in this morning’s Santa Cruz Sentinel. The speaker lineup is great. Tickets are selling like hotcakes, so get yours soon! I hope to see you there!

About.me has a cool and easy to use interface that allows you to quickly build a personal and dynamic splash page that points visitors to your content from around the web. You can sign up for about.me, and create a page very easily. I’ve had a great time playing around with my profile, so I just wanted to share, and they’re recently added a little video introduction to Vimeo.

My about.me splash page is: http://about.me/saraisenberg.

All about about.me from about.me on Vimeo.

Another cool infographic. From SocialCast. The Hectic Schedule of a Social Media Manager.

Infographic from Socialcast

Here’s a cool infographic from Mashable and Postling showing how small businesses are using social media to engage:

Yesterday (2/10/2011), Facebook introduced a major set of changes to the Facebook Page layout. Everybody’s blogging about it so here’s mine. Rather than reinvent, here’s my collect of other worthy blog posts to read if you want to learn about this new change. The essential update (for me) is that, whereas before I could post on other Pages just as my individual profile self, now I (a Page owner) can post as my Page’s identity. It’s a bit schitzy getting used to it. As soon as we all do, Facebook will probably introduce another change.

An Upgrade for Pages
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150090729064822&id=10381469571

Facebook Pages Manual
http://www.box.net/shared/9e5jiyl843

Facebook Pages Get A Redesign (PICTURES)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/10/facebook-pages-redesign_n_821635.html

Facebook Launches Pages Redesign
http://mashable.com/2011/02/10/facebook-pages-redesign-2/

What the New Facebook Pages Mean for Users & Owners
http://mashable.com/2011/02/10/what-the-new-facebook-pages-mean-for-users-owners/

Facebook Unifies UI As It Rolls Out New Design For ‘Pages’
http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/10/facebook-unifies-ui-as-it-rolls-out-new-design-for-pages/

New Facebook Features useful for dentist
http://socialmediadentist.com/blog/?p=337

Big Opportunities for Small Businesses in Facebook Pages Redesign
http://socialmediatoday.com/suzannevara/269583/facebook-new-pages-redesign-comprehensive-step-step-guide

Pay Attention to These 7 Facebook Page Changes [Video]
http://socialfresh.com/pay-attention-to-these-7-facebook-page-changes-video/

7 Things To Know About The Facebook Page Changes from Social Fresh on Vimeo.

5 Ways You Can Make the Most of Facebook’s New Page Layout
http://blogs.constantcontact.com/commentary/5-ways-you-can-make-the-most-of-facebooks-new-page-layout/

Will You “Like” These Two Updated Facebook Features? (3/3/11 update):
http://blogs.constantcontact.com/commentary/will-you-like-these-two-updated-facebook-features/

Thank you for attending our Santa Cruz Parks & Rec class Expand Your Reach With Social Media on February 1, 2011.

My presentation is available for viewing or downloading here:
Download Presentation [PDF]

Upcoming Classes:

1. ABCs of SEO – Basics of Search Engine Optimization (with co-instructor, SEO expert, Steve Penny) on Feb 15, 2011.
2. Build a Free Blog or Website with WordPress.com on March 1, 2011.

Details about the classes and registration, see: http://saraisenberg.com/upcoming-classes/

For more resources, see:

• My collection of best SEO Resources: http://saraisenberg.com/2010/10/16/best-seo-resources/
• My collection of best Social Media Resources: http://saraisenberg.com/2010/07/22/social-media-resources-linkedin-facebook-twitter-blogging/
• Review: http://www.mindjumpers.com/blog/2011/01/the-impact-of-social-media/
• Full HBR Article: http://hbr.org/hbrg-main/resources/pdfs/comm/sas/16203-hbr-sas-report-r3.pdf

Thanks!
Sara
Website: http://saraisenberg.com
Blog: http://saraisenberg.com/blog
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SaraIsenbergConsulting
LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/saraisenberg
Twitter: @saraisenberg