I’ve come across the question myself. If I post this photo do I need to credit someone? How many words can I share, and what if my blog doesn’t showcase the quote properly…here are some words of wisdom from Seth Godin to help you navigate this question yourself. (Just in case you were asking the same things.)

Simple Thoughts about Fair Use by Seth Godin

Google changed their search algorithm a couple of weeks ago. The changes brought traffic changes to many sites, including some big names. Google’s algorithm always remains a secret. As soon as the changes are made, people who rely on Google spend time trying to find a way to make sure their site continues to rank.

Content is still super important. Your blog posts, updated content and your social media accounts will.

Carol from Brandeur (http://www.brandeur.com) shares:

Spammers, scammers and site scrapers around the US are freaking out about their traffic drops, while legitimate businesses with something real, unique and useful to say are in the sweet spot. It’s never been more important than it is right now to blog consistently, and engage via social media.

So it really is all about content. How does your content creation measure up? Do you wish you had more? We can help. InSights develops social media strategies, can help you create your content, and get your website noticed by the search engines. Let us know if we can help.

Content – Content – Content

1. Make sure that you use short headlines that will influence someone to click because they have to get the rest of the story.
2. The first sentence of your post is also critical. It’s what people will see when automation happens to the various social media sites.
3. Tell a story in your post with relevant keywords.
4. People like quick bullet pointed lists, it makes the content easier to skim.
5. Be positive and inspiring. That gets huge response and share rates.
6. If you have a new post, share with the words: “new post” or “this just in” to let people know that it’s not something they’ve seen before.
7. Share at the times of day when your audience is likely to see your content. Early morning, evenings and weekends.
8. Share appropriate content at appropriate times. Business news early in the business day, inspiration and entertainment evenings and weekends.
9. Inspire, inform, educate and repeat.
10. If you want comments on your post, ask for them. If you don’t ask we don’t answer.

What do you think?

We’re all busy.  One of the top complaints from small businesses is they don’t have enough time to do social media and run their business.  I think the problem is right there.  Being on social media should be part of running your business.  You network, right?  You help customers out and build relationships in order to increase sales.  Guess what?  That’s what social media is all about (or should be, if you’re doing it right).

Sometimes we get asked if we can do social media for a client.  We certainly can help clients understand which social networks to use and some strategies for using them (including training), but the whole point of social media is that it puts YOU directly in contact with your customers (and potential customers).  So, while you may hire a salesperson to help, you’re probably not outsourcing your sales outside of your company.  The same goes for social media.  In order to capture the true power of it, you have to do it yourself (or at least someone in your company does).

Chris Brogan had a good outline of what to spend your time on if you’re pressed for time.  If you have 3 hours to spend time on social media (and this can scale with whatever you can spare), spend 1.5h listening (reading blogs, twitter, facebook, etc.), 0.5h commenting and 1h creating your own content (video, audio, blog, tweets, whatever).  Figure out how much time you can spare, and try to divide it up similarly.  Even an hour or 30m a day is better than nothing.

How do you find time for social media?

This is a guest post by Sarah Worsham, CEO & Web Strategist at Sazbean Consulting and blogging at Sazbean.com. Sarah is passionate about creating Internet strategies to help companies reach their business goals. Sarah provides guidance through Internet Marketing, Strategy & Business consulting. Connect with her on Twitter, Facebook or the Sazbean Facebook Page.

We spend our lives hoping , wishing, and wanting other things. Why is that? Shouldn’t we be happy where we are at? Logically this should be so, but in reality, we have been so media blitzed about what we should want in life and therefore don’t even know who we really are. The power of the media has, in many cases, overwelmed our conscience thinking and therefore programmed us into thinking about an alternate reality than the one we live in.

I believe that the latest trend in social media and its use has started to help relax the grip of traditional medias hold on us. With an end user content driven media, we can live in real time and learn to make our own decisions again. What do you think the future of this form of media is? Any speculations? Have you seen the signs?