Get a FREE Self-hosted blog from OneMan’sGoal.com

Marc over at OneMan’sGoal is offering to register your domain name, set up your blog and host it for you for 6 months- all for FREE.

Well, okay, so its not completely free- though you don’t have to pay for it. It’s more of an exchange. You will write three blog posts for him, and he’ll host your blog for FREE. But, if you can write, but aren’t real tech saavy with setting up a self hosted blog, or don’t have the money to pay for domain registration and hosting right now- this could be for you.

There doesn’t even seem to be as to how many people can take advantage of this offer.

If this might interest you, can check out Marc’s original post on this offer here. Good Luck and have fun!

I Just Joined Twitter! Follow Me!

After commenting slightly multiple times on how Twitter can be a great marketing tool, I’ve finally taken the plunge and signed up to try it out. I’ve always been a little bit skeptical of exactly how useful it can be in the marketing sense, so now I’ll finally get to try it out myself!

Since I’m involved in so many other types of social media, it will be interesting to find how relevant it will be to me- and how often I’ll end up using it.

If you’re at all interested in eMarketing and the different types of new media, or if you’re interested in knowing what I’m doing from time to time, follow me on Twitter to stay updated!

I’ll be sure to keep you informed on the success rates I achieve with Twitter, and how it compares to the types of social media I’ve used before.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Independence Day!

I originally planned to celebrate today by providing you with links to all of the cool July 4th Blog posts, complete with free images and unique news. But, it looks like the majority of bloggers have taken the day off.

So, instead, I decided to introduce you to BlingEasy in a fun way. BlingEasy! was brought to my attention by a post by Shoemoney, in which he uploaded a few pictures of himself and “blinged” them. I did the same.

Feel free to visit BlingEasy.com in order to upload your own photo and bling it out with all of their animations. It’s very easy, and a great way to have a little fun. Enjoy, and Happy 4th of July, everybody!

How to Twitter Market and Socially Advertise

My first involvement in social media came my Sophomore year of college when I finally joined Facebook, although I was skeptical the year before, calling the network “stalker net.” It was around this time that Facebook was growing rapidly, becoming an extremely effective way for college students to meet eachother while at university, and keep in touch upon graduation.

That was in 2005. Facebook has come a long way since then- becoming a vital social marketing tool for many companies, along with many other social media mediums. I’ve put together a list of some social media tools and how they can be used for marketing purposes. Enjoy!

Facebook:

Where it all started (for me). Start your own group and begin building members. Create your own company and begin gaining fans to notify of your new products or services. Create an application that is fun, functional, and advertises your brand. Or, if you are your own brand, create your own profile and begin adding your friends, and networking with potential clients.

For more information on Facebook Marketing, be sure to check out “I’m on Facebook– Now What,” a book that’s on my reading list, written by Jason Alba and Jesse Stay. This book explains the different parts of Facebook and how to get the most out of Facebook. It helps you learn how to use Facebook to further your career, business, or job.

Blogging:

There are endless marketing possibilities in blogging, so long as you play by the rules. Blogging is essentially your own publication- you are free to market yourself as often as you would like. The key is to maintain a balance between relevant quality content for your visitors and marketing yourself. Remember that the content you provide will help to add to your reputation and build you up as a thought leader and expert in your field. Blogs also give you the forum necessary to address and clear up any controversy or attacks on your company.

Podcasting or Videocasting:

Provide your viewers / listeners with some useful information and content, once again building yourself or your company as the expert in your field. You can also feature some new or popular products either as a podcasting series (if it’s interesting enough), or as a feature in each episode.

RSS Feeds:

Get creative! Some think that RSS feeds can only be applied to your blog- updating your regular readers when there is a new post. RSS feeds can reach much further than that- think of adding a feed to your product page to notify customers of new products or services being offered. Or use RSS feeds to deliver your email newsletters to those that wish to receive the content in a reader. Offering a choice will greatly increase the perceived value of you and your brand.

Twitter:

Several companies have began to use Twitter’s 140 available characters in each ‘tweet’ to market their brands and companies, as well as reach their customers on a more personal level. Twitter can be used to inform “fans” or followers of upcoming products, special events or promotions, addressing controversy or bad publicity, and any other company announcements. For more information on how to use Twitter to better market yourself, visit the PandemicBlog post Twitter Marketing by Bernardo Sosa.

So, how do you use social media to market your company, its products, or yourself? Please share with us!

This post was written as an entry in An Island Life’s first ever group writing project.

Professionalism and Computer Color: What do YOU think?

A few months ago one of my friends was purchasing a new laptop. At first she wanted to get the red Sony VAIO, but decided against it because she felt it wasn’t as professional as a typical gray or black one. I was at Best Buy a few days ago looking at some of the newer styled laptops, and was surprised to see a variety of colors: white, off white, designed, pink, green, and red.

It got me thinking again- would the majority of potential employers or clients consider it “unprofessional” or “juvenile” if i showed up for a job with a pink or green or red laptop in hand?

I personally think that it makes you stand out a little more, and may even show that you have a fun and creative site in addition to being sleek and professional.

What do you think? Please let me know, and hopefully we can get a discussion going!

The New Gen Y: Embrace Them

I was going through my feed reader yet again and found an incredible article on ReadWriteWeb.com through a recent PandemicBlog post. This article, “Why Gen Y Is Going to Change the Web,” begins to explain to the older generation that they must adapt to this new generation, who are or who will soon be working for you. I wanted to be sure to share this with my readers.

This post is also meant as somewhat of a wake up call. Do not reject change. It’ll hurt you in the end. Your way may have worked in the past but times have changed. Blogs will bash you and other companies or services will take over, to leave you to die out. Maybe not today, or tomorrow. But if you resist the change and do not embrace the technology while it’s not too late, you will cease to exist.

I highly recommend you read through the article, but there’s a few points that it makes that I wanted to highlight.

Article Highlights

• We, the “Y” Generation, grew up on computers: Some of us took college courses through a computer screen, we expected professors and employers to respond to our emails within two hours, or they were considered “slow.” We surf the web for fun, instead of watching TV.

• Work isn’t our whole world: We expect more than your older employees may have- don’t block our networking sites, it’ll hurt you in the end. We’ll spend a few hours on your clock trying to figure out how to get around it. Once we do (and we will), we’ll still use it. Don’t block Gmail or other email sites. It’s unnecessary and stupid. Your mail server isn’t the only one that exists. Don’t want to give us what we want? Hire somebody else. We’ll work as consultants.

• We soak up everything: news, politics, educational content, howto videos. We put everything in a feed reader or our inbox and just read, read, and read until we get sick of it for the day. Then, we go to sleep, wake up, and read some more. Bottom line? We’re smart and stay educated on what matters in our personal and professional lives.

Erica’s Personal Input

And a little bit I want to add to the content of this article:

• Consider individuals with less “years of work experience” if they apply for a position that “requires” an extensive amount of experience. We may have more knowledge and be better for the job than those with “10 years work experience.” I graduated from college in three years and taught myself how to successfully market online within 6 months, and am actively learning more and more at an increased rate. Your applicant with ten years of work experience- he may have simply pushed paper for ten years. One year experience of the Gen Y could = 5 years experience for a Gen X.

• You are marketing to the Gen Y crowd now. What does this mean? Don’t rely on traditional mediums. That means stop spending so much money on those damn Superbowl commercials and create some online viral marketing campaigns. We’re not all Pepsi- we can’t spend money just to spend it. Give us a user generated content campaign (like Doritos did when they asked their audience to make their own commercials). Find us- we’ll be online, with the television on in the background as noise.

• Respond. Did somebody say your website has a problem? Fix it. Suggest an improvement? Consider it. Seriously consider it. And don’t put together committees and meetings in order to decide on something. The internet is immediate. We don’t need to have proofs of newspapers like we did in the past. Take a lesson from Google. Throw your site out there and see if it works. If it doesn’t? Fix it as you go. This whole new generation is about communication. Don’t shut the door on it.

Thanks to Brennan White at PandemicBlogs for making me aware of this article and making me think even more than I already do every day!

Thanks to Sarah Perez at ReadWriteWeb for writing the article that inspired this post.