Orange Juice

I have been beating myself up trying to figure out how to upload a photo from my mobile phone to my Serif Group facebook page. Although I haven’t mastered it completely, I have figured out how to do it.

All you need is a WordPress blog and WordPress for iPhone. The WordPress for iPhone app allows you to post blog posts as well as mobile photos and allows you to post them to your blog. Your Facebook for business page allows you to pull in RSS feeds of your WordPress blog onto your site and it will automatically pull into the Notes section of your business page.

Go to edit setting in your business page and enable Notes to publish to streams in the application settings of the Notes application. Then choose Edit under the same Notes application and go to the right sidebar and edit your import settings. You will see the screen below.

Then enter your blog’s feed url and you’re there. As you can tell from my last post, I still haven’t perfected it. It looks you can only upload vertical photos (there isn’t a rotate image preference on the WordPress for iPhone app).

I would also like to be able to  have the photo appear in the stream, but I haven’t found any way to do this. I look forward to your suggestions in the comments section if you have an easier way.

Can I upload a photo and change my status on my business facebook page from my mobile phone? If this appears on my facebook page then I guess so.

I’ll explain how on my next post.

Today I am headed to SocialSouth, a social media conference in Birmingham, AL, and I am excited to learn a thing or two while I’m there:

• How can a national brand’s social strategy translate to regional/local businesses?
• How can traditional agencies make the transition to the social space?
• Is Twitter here for the long-term? What’s their revenue model?
• How can an employee of a business keep up with all of the latest in the social space but still be a productive asset. -OR- How can a business outsource their social strategy and implementation while also being authentic?

Follow me on Twitter for updates at the conference and let me know if there are any questions you want me to investigate while gathering with other leaders in social media.

Social in Lexington

Are you in the Central Kentucky area? Join me and Whitney Pannell at the Women Leading Kentucky September luncheon leading a discussion: Internet, Twitter, Facebook & More: A Waste of Time or Useful Business Tool?

Twitter and Facebook for business: an introductory workshop

Do you want to know how to use Twitter? Should you use Twitter for business? How can it help you and not overwhelm you? We’ll address these issues in our introductory workshop for users just getting into Twitter and Facebook for business.

This workshop will give a basic overview of Twitter and some great tools to help you leverage its power to keep your finger on the pulse of your industry, and monitor what people may be saying about your company or industry. We will also introduce you to common Twitter etiquette and suggested best practices.

Even if you have a small business you can effectively use Twitter as a personal tool to network with others and engage in meaningful conversations.

Facebook is a great tool for connecting with old friends, but did you know that it can be an effective way to spread word about your business or organization?

At this workshop we will show you how to set up your business most effectively on Facebook, and introduce you to other tools to get the word out about your business to local users on Facebook.

We will also briefly discuss other social tools to assist you in managing multiple accounts, as well as what people are saying about your business on the internet.

Cost to attend is $50 and seating is limited. Register today!

First workshop- 10am-1:00pm  on May 12th  sold out

Second workshop- 10am-1:00pm on May 27th 

Offices of Serif Group and Inbox Orange

207 East Reynolds Road, Suite 210, Lexington, KY 40517

The last hour will be a casual and informal lunch conversation. Lunch will be provided by Corky’s Ribs and BBQ.

Advertising & graphic design agency, Serif Group, has office space available. The office is located on the second floor of 207 East Reynolds Road, Suite 210—between Nicholasville Road and Lansdowne Drive.

Amenities include: conference room, contemporary décor, utilities included, convenient location, a spacious, free parking lot, lots of sunlight, kitchen area, and a private office space. See photos on our Facebook page.

It would be an ideal location for an independent professional looking to move out of their home. Rent is affordable and includes utilities. For more information, contact Jackie or call 859-271-0701.

I’m amazed at how my TV-viewing habits have changed over the years. Our first TiVo box opened up new life for us in a way that was more fulfilling than our current cable provider-issued DVR box, but that’s another story. We can now watch Survivor in 40 minutes instead of 1 hour. The Office in just over 20 minutes instead of 30. That’s a lot of extra minutes gained for housework, reading, or more realistically, surfing the web.

But what does this say about people who are supposed to watch TV for the commercials? We’re advertising agency owners, ferpetesake! However, the other night we spotted a commercial that was actually worth stopping for: the new H&R Block “Second Look” spot. The guy with one eye was too “eye-catching” to pass up.

Upon devoting 30 seconds of our lives to it, Bill and I agreed that it was great. Just what is needed these days to cut through the clutter of TV advertising. It’s not enough to sound intriguing, you must have intriguing visuals to get viewers to stop fast-forwarding.

What do you think about that spot? Disgusted like these folks? Or did it get your attention, too?

I’m not a big text person, so when I received one the other day I was curious to find out who it was. It was AT&T texting me about American Idol Season 8. Funny, I didn’t ever remember signing up to receive text alerts from American Idol or AT&T. With economic pressures mounting look out for companies Spamming via text. Although some would argue that the AT&T message was not Spam because it was free, it did ruffle some feathers.

As an email marketer, I fight the uphill perception battle that Email marketing is Spam. I figured the best way to combat this perception is to learn about SPAM and try to help others understand what they can do to fight it.

What do we do with all of the junk we get? If your Spam filter isn’t catching everything these sites may help:

Spam information resources:

Federal Trade Commission

Spamcop.net

The Spamhaus Project

Spambusters.org

Abuse.net

Spamresource.com

Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group

Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email

International Mail Consortium

Spamlaws.com

Email Sender Provider Coalition

Conference on Email and Anti-Spam

Get Net Wise

Melon Stork

Spam Blockers or Services

Spam Assassin

S-Mail

Blue Bottle

Join us for an Orange Open House at the offices of Serif Group and Inbox Orange to celebrate the first anniversary of Inbox Orange, an email marketing firm.  Please drop in and visit on Wednesday, January 7, 2009 from 4-7 p.m. We will enjoy catering by Corky’s, drinks, and networking—and don’t forget to grab a swag bag of goodies provided by our clients before you leave! Click here for a map and driving directions. 

One more thing …

In keeping with the Christmas spirit. If you live in the Lexington area the local Ronald McDonald House needs your help. As you may or may not have heard, the Ronald McDonald House had a flood in their house due to a leaking fire sprinkler system on Monday. As a result, many, many gifts collected for sick and hospitalized children were ruined.  If you would like to help the Ronald McDonald House out in this critical time of need, they have asked for folks to help the House with either gift cards to stores like Kroger and Wal Mart or to simply consider making a financial contribution. There was quite a bit of damage to the room they had the toys in and they will also need to replace some or all of their board room furniture.

How does a busy person stay up to date with Facebook, blogging, Twittering (tweets) and discovering new media trends? I am not exactly sure, but I can tell you that is isn’t easy. Between working on Serif Group, Baby publictions and Inbox Orange projects and building my knowledge base about the ever-changing landscape of new-media marketing I find it difficult to even type this very blog update. I preach to others how blogging is a great way to reach your customers and become a ‘thought leader’ in your industry, but I can’t seem to follow my own advice. (See this article about blogging)

Last week I finally signed up for Myspace-though I have yet to make it mine. On Facebook my friend list grows, but my status updates don’t. I even have my status updates on Facebook linked to Twitter to make it easier. But, to this day, I have 28 followers on Twitter but only a total of 29 updates-EVER.

Not only is Myspace on hold, but so is Delicious and StumpleUpon. I’d even love to explore Ning a bit more, but can’t find the time to stay up on my Google Analytics & Adsense accounts let alone my Commision Junction account.

Work smarter is an option, but I’m looking for anyone with other ideas. Are you experiencing the same problem? Is it just that time of year? Let me know what you think. Which social media tools do you find not worth the effort? Which ones do you swear by?

Whenever I get some downtime I’ll finish reading the 4 books that I have lined up to read and then maybe, just maybe I’ll add some more contacts to LinkedIn.

Dang, Shaun Ring made us look GOOD!

We were so excited about having a story about us in last week’s issue of Business Lexington. We couldn’t believe it when we got our copy in the mail and saw that our photo was featured on the cover and the table of contents! Talking about exposure that money can’t buy. Bill and I are grateful for the opportunity to work and live in such a wonderful community. Thank you Smiley Pete Publishing, Kathie Stamps and Shaun Ring Photography. (BTW, the week before the story came out Shaun ran a very creative promotion using Twitter and Facebook which resulted in our professional photos. I highly recommend you check him out as his photography is just as outside-the-box as his marketing.)