This post originally appeared on Strategy Stew — because that’s the blog that attracted the #WordCarnival host, Tea Silvestre.  I’m posting here because I’d like you to consider doing something similar in your industry.  Blog carnivals aren’t just for bloggers – this is a truly creative way to engage other thought leaders in your industry and build wonderful and profitable relationships.

I’m blown away by the speed at which online media changes.

Yesterday I participated in a Blog Carnival.  Basically this is how bloggers build traffic and comments to their sites when they first get started.  It used to be very popular “back in the day” — which was about five or six years ago.  CAN YOU EVEN BELIEVE THAT?

“Back then” all the big names were having these blog carnivals.  Those people have grown their brand and their readership lists and are now “over” the whole blog carnival thing.  But there are millions of newbies out there who have yet to understand the power and the fun of blog carnivals.

Did I say that blog carnivals help you build traffic and readership for your blog or site?  I’m saying it again if I didn’t. I’m not sure why the people I interact with don’t talk or do blog carnivals so much, but it’s still a powerful tool — especially if you’re new to the online marketing world.

Here’s an updated primer on blog carnivals

1. Have a blog. It helps to have a blog, otherwise, why bother.
2. Participate in a blog carnival. Check out www.blogcarnival.com.  It’s a great place to start learning about carnivals and participating in one.  Don’t try to host one until you’ve participated.
3. You troll the blogs in your subject area and find ones you like.  You invite them to participate in the carnival.  That part is easy.  Then it gets a little sticky.
4. Find a niche in BlogCarnival.com and submit your article. That’s really all there is to that.  In fact the hardest thing will be finding a niche you want to participate in.
5. Read the posts. Then you go over to the other posts and read their articles, post comments, etc.  It’s a great way to meet people and build relationships

The next thing you’d want to do is look at hosting your own blog carnival.  My new friend Tea Silvestre did just that and added some new twists to her #wordcarnival by adding a free converence line so that you can participate even if you’re not at Twitter.  I can honestly say I hadn’t thought of that.

It was a smart and cozy group and I was happy to meet some wonderful, creative folks.

Hmmm.  Maybe I’ll participate in some more blog carnivals from now on.

Involver is an easy to use Facebook Tab Tool that integrates social media channels into your Facebook page

I visit a lot of Facebook business pages. I’m always poking around, checking out different small businesses, liking and commenting. That’s part of what being an internet marketer is all about.

In many cases, the Facebook page is my first point of contact with a business. When I get there, I’m looking for the goods. I want to see what they are all about and what they have going on.

More often than not though, I’m greeted by pretty well nothing. Sure, there’s the info tab. But the navigation guide on the left is pretty bleak and leaves me wondering, is there anything else you’re doing online?

Creating tabs on your Facebook page is a golden opportunity to highlight what else your company is up to on the web. Many businesses shy away from them, however.

They’re not sure how to get things set up.

Or they break out in hives when they hear works like HTML code.

Or they search for apps and get inundated; so many of them are glitchy, hard to set up or come with a fee.

The tool that I’m going to share with you today is one of the easiest Facebook tab integrations that I have yet to come across. There are TONS options available, but this one stood out for me because of how simple it is to set up. And the best part? Totally free!

Facebook tab tool – Involver

The folks at Involver (http://www.involver.com/applications/) allow you to choose 2 social media channels to integrate in your page. (You can go beyond this with their paid options, but the costs are a little high for a small business). My favourites personally are the Twitter, Flickr and You Tube integrations.

In a few clicks, you can have these up and running on your Facebook page. Just follow these instructions:

• Log into Facebook as yourself the person (not the page)
• Go to http://www.involver.com/applications and click the “Install” button on the app you want to integrate
• You will then be prompted to choose which page you want to add the application to. Select your business page.
• A button will come up, asking you to “Add”. Click it.
• You will then be asked to fill in your company name, and your phone number. (they will only ask you this with your first app). Plunk in your info, click to accept the terms and hit “Save changes”.
• You will then be brought to a page where you can get the tab configured and link it to the social media account. So for Twitter for example, it will ask you to add your username (don’t forget to click the “add” button). Once you have the settings filled in, click “Save changes.” Note – you are always able to go back and adjust the settings.
• Go back to your page, and you will see your new tab. (If you don’t see it right away, give it a couple of minutes). Your likers can now check out all your recent activity.
• Power tip: If you want to be a little more clever, you can change the default name that’s generated on your tab. So, for the Twitter tab, the default name is, you guessed it, “Twitter”. Go to the “edit” area of your page and click “apps.” Find the app that you added and click “Edit settings.” You can now enter a “custom tab name.”

To see an example in action, have a look at my You Tube tab (http://www.facebook.com/MartinaIring?sk=app_57675755167) that was created with Involver and note how I’ve customized the name to “Small biz videos”.

Use Involver to Create Customers Out of Facebook Visitors

Your Facebook page should not be a standalone entity. To be effective, it needs to integrate your communications and drive your Facebook fans deeper into your business and deeper into the content you produce. Some fans may never go to your website again after the first visit (or maybe they never even visited it in the first place!).

By adding these tabs, you can encourage your likers to check you out on other online channels, expose them to what you’re up to and hopefully connect with you there too. And if they’re say not on Twitter yet, they can still get the benefit of all the great stuff you tweet. You are creating a page that is a valuable source of information.

You’re also boosting your credibility. You’re giving off the impression that your page is well cared for and that you’re darn savvy. These tabs look pretty fancy, don’t you think? So they were easy as pie to implement. Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me…

So give Involver tabs a try and come back and let me know how it went. Feel free to share links to your Facebook page so I can come and check you out. And if you have other applications that you love for getting tabs, let us know.

On Monday July 25, 2011 between 7:00pm and 8:00pm ET there’s going to be a Tweet Chat about the SMBInfluencer Awards.

What are the SMBInlfuencer Awards?

The small business space has become increasingly crowded and overwhelming.  Even if you troll around the small business internet space, it’s unbelievably easy to be confused about who is an expert in what and which companies provide what service.

This is why co-founders Anita Campbell, publisher of the award winning Small Business Trends and Ramon Ray from SmallBizTechnology.com put their heads together and came up with a way to recognize the companies, leaders, gurus and media organizations that help and influence small business every day.

This project started in June with nominations pouring in from all over the internet.  And the voting period started about a week or so ago.  To get some more background and see the field of SMBInfluencers, visit the SMBInfluencer site and browse around.  Feel free to vote for the people who have influenced you and helped you in your business.  You can vote daily and you can vote for more than one person.  So head over there and give it a try.

Join the #SMBInlfuencer Tweet Chat (Use Hashtag #BBSMBchat)

If you’ve never been in a tweet chat, you will find this an engaging and thrilling experience.  A tweet chat is a live conversation about a specific topic that is going on in Twitter.

You can participate in this Twitter chat by joining us on Twitter — search on the hashtag #BBSMBChat and weigh in withyour tips, insights and ideas. Or follow the action at the Tweetchat room: http://tweetchat.com/room/BBSMBchat

For all the details about the Tweet Chat and the SMBInlfuencer awards – Read the press release for SMBInfluencer Awards and Tweet Chat (#BBSMBchat)

Are you getting the most from your Facebook Fan Page?  If you’re an industrial business, you may not even think you NEED a Facebook Fan Page.  I’ll simply say that you do.  Now that the population of Facebook users is over 650 million.  If it were a country, it would be the third-most populated country in the world.

When I talked to Phil Simon, author of The New Small he told me that people spend an average of 45 minutes a day on Facebook — that’s a virtual ETERNITY in computer time!  It’s time for YOU to figure out how to take advantage of some of that Facebook time for your business.

What Do You Want Your Fan Page Visitors to DO?! (Call to Action)

A disclaimer here — it might take you longer than 5 minutes to figure out what you want your fan page to do — AND this is the most important part of the process.  The DOING it is EASY — I promise!

What’s your audience doing on Facebook?

The best place to start is to focus on your audience.  Facebook is a casual place — think of it as a party on the patio or a happy hour.  People might be thinking or talking shop, but that isn’t their purpose.  The purpose is to make personal connections and have a little fun.  So you’ll want your call to action to be a little on the light side.

• Build Your Community

Start easy by building your fan base and asking people to “LIKE” the page,  That’s what I did on the DIYMarketers Fan Page.  Since I’m not currently promoting anything special, I’ve defaulted to a “Like Us” call to action design to build the DIYMarketers community.  When I have a special event or launch a new product or service the community might be interested in — I will replace the “Like Us” tab with a special offer.

• Promote an Event

If you’re going to be at a trade show, use your Facebook Fan Page to invite people to a special event that you’re having at the show, run a contest around the theme of the show, etc.

• Direct People to Your Site

Don’t forget that Facebook owns the list on your fan page.  To grab those visitors for your own company, you need to drive them to your site.  So make sure that you have a call to action that drives them to one of your landing pages.

• Provide Information

Because fan pages are so customizable, you can actually use the fan page space as a way to provide information and education to your audience.  You can actually insert links and videos for your audience to download.

Make a Good Fan Page First Impression Using High Impact Designer

I’ve been frustrated about the lackluster status of my Facebook Fan Page.  I’d seen all these cool ways that people are using theirs (check out Guy Kawasaki’s Enchantment Page – it’s one of my favorites).  You’ll notice that good fan pages are interactive and buzzing with community chit chat – AND they also have organized calls to action to get the community engaging with your brand.

Until recently, I thought I needed to hire a developer to customize my fan page — but I can be my own developer with this nifty new app I found called High Impact Designer.

I learned about High Impact Designer from their CEO, Jim Kinland who reached out to me to tell me all about this great new and easy to use applications.  Jim and I chatted for about an hour over the phone.  Feel free to listen in on my conversation with Jim Kinland of Template Zone (free download) and High Impact Design as he takes me through an account set up and shows me how easy it is to create a FREE tab for your Facebook Fan Page.

What I LOVED About High Impact Designer

This online application is SO EASY to use that you can honestly have a Facebook Fan Page designed in about five or ten minutes.  Of course it too ME longer because I had a terrible time choosing from among the templates that were offered and then playing around with the different customization features.

The dashboard takes some getting used to – although it is fairly self-explanatory.  I would recommend that you get absolutely clear on what you want to offer, the copy you want to include and the call to action because once you see all the design possibilities, you will end up spending a lot of time playing around.

What Confused Me at First

The free version of the program will only give you one page.  Once you publish to that page, you will be able to design more tabs, but you will not be able to publish them.  You will have to go into the App within your Facebook account and delete the tab from there.  Then you can go into High Impact Designer and publish another tab design.

It took me a while to figure that out — but I’m a do first, read the manual later kind of person.  Your experience might be different.

High Impact Designer Does eMails and Landing Pages TOO!

I spent a lot of time talking about Facebook Fan Pages – but that’s not all you can do with High Impact Designer.  You can also create customized email marketing designs and landing pages.   Those aren’t available just yet (at least not to my account).  But Jim told me that High Impact Designer will integrate with the top email marketing providers like Constant Contact or aWeber in much the same way that it does with Facebook.

I recommend starting with the FREE version of High Impact Designer and playing with a variety of designs and offers.  Then once you’re a pro, you can upgrade for more features.

Bottom Line on High Impact Designer

This is a super DIY Marketing tool.  I love how easy it is to use.  If you’re long on time and short on money and looking to make your Facebook Fan Page look more professional – High Impact Designer is a great application.

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Have You Seen The Hashtags? (it looks like a number sign or the pound key)

If you’ve been using Twitter lately, you may have noticed tweets with hashtags in them.  They look something like this: #sbbuzz, #DIYMKTG, #brandchat, etc.  Don’t be alarmed, there’s nothing wrong with your computer.

The Birth of the Hashtag

The use of the hashtag on Twitter started on September 18, 2008.  It was created by journalists in St. Louis who were looking for a way to group the tweets about the Vice Presidential debate.  They started using #vpdebate as part of their tweets.

Since then, the hashtag has grown exponentially in popularity; mostly as a keyword tag so that people who are at a shared event can ultimately group these conversations together.

Tweet Up, Chat, Discuss and Brainstorm — Here’s How

I’ve been invited to lots of local Tweet-Ups.  I’ve been to some, but it’s often tough to fit in a drive across town either in the morning or the evening.  Now, you can get together with a group for a virtual party using th hashtag and your choice of third-party Twitter tools such as TweetChat or TweetGrid.  Here’s how to pull it together.

1. Decide on a hashtag (tag, keyword) #DIYMKT is one I created for our DIYMarketers community.
2. Head over to http://twitter.com/hashtags and follow them. (If you currently don’t have a twitter account, just go to www.twitter.com and click on “join the conversation.”  Create your profile and you’re ready to go.
3. I would also recommend that you create a blog page as a summary of your Tweet Ups and updates for the group.  Here is the example I’m following: http://sbbuzz.biz/ Notice how they’ve done a terrific job in giving you a real flavor for what their group is about and also wonderful instructions as to how to join and participate.
4. The next thing you want to do is head over to www.tweetchat.com where you can create a chat room with your designated hashtag.  They will ask you for your twitter name and password.  It will take you to a page that looks just like your Twitter home page.  It will ask you for the “room to enter”  this is where you put in your hashtag i.e. #DIYMKT.
5. Another option is to use TweetGrid.  TweetGrid allows you to follow multiple hastag’s and accounts all on one screen.  It’s a terrific way to manage and participate in several conversations.
6. Now it’s time to promote.  Nothing big and fancy necessary here – simply invite a few friends, give them the hashtag and tell them to tell their friends and so on.  You may not have a huge audience at first, but give it time.
7. Rinse and repeat.  The power of these tweet chats and virtual parties is in having them regularly, because not everyone can come all the time and your community will grow over time.

Be on the lookout for #DIYMKT chat coming your way next week.  Start a chat of your own and leave the details as a comment on this post.

What other chats are your favorites?  Tell us here.

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My @DIYMarketers Twitter account has been acting up.  And in my troubleshooting journey I discovered something BRILLIANT: A Twitter Policy.

My Twitter account hasn’t been sending me e-mails about the people who are following me.  In the process, I decided to go and search out some new people to follow and see if I get any of them to follow me and get the notification.  In my search for the term “DIY Marketing”  I discover Rob McNeely.  He’s apparently a famous guy that hosts a radio show called “Startup Story.”  SUPER guy to follow and I wasn’t following him.  Shame on me.

When I clicked over to his web site — I found that it went to a landing page called “Twitter Policy and Philosophy.”

When you realize that this guy has something like 30,000 people following him, you can see why he would have a “policy” for people who are on Twitter.  But why wouldn’t you have a process or policy for your social media anyway?

Create Goals and Objectives Before Policies

The wonderful thing you’ll notice about Rob’s Twitter Policy is that he is very clear on what he uses Twitter for and his policy reflects his social media objectives; he uses it to connect and meet new people.

That said, he’s taken the time to figure out how he wants to relate to Twitter as a medium and he goes point by point to explain:  Here are some snippets that will give you a taste.

1. Privacy

I will respect your DMs. Please respect mine.

2. Content and Subject Matter

Your screen time is valuable. I promise to make my tweets as interesting and non-boring as possible. I am a news junkie and read about a dozen websites and blogs from around the world on a daily basis.5. Spam, Self Promotion, and Commercialization3. Responses, Replies, and Pitches

I will do my best to respond to all @ replies and direct messages. However, due to my limited bandwidth, I may not always get to them, and sometimes, a few will slip by and I may not see them. Please do not take it personally if I do not respond.

I openly accept all pitches for Startup Story Radio, but please use the Startup Story Radio Contact Form to send them to me.

4. Following/Unfollowing

I am very Libertarian when it comes to following people. I look at Twitter like a large cocktail party, and the more people at the party the more interesting it is for me.

I am not big on Twitter spam. I will unfollow and or block you if you are DM spamming me or just keep following me to get me to follow you. I am pretty open to following most people. If I don’t follow you, there is a reason.

Why Stop at Twitter, Create a Policy for LinkedIn, Facebook and all your other Social Media Tools!

A common issue among small businesses and marketers is how little time we have for everything.  If you don’t have policies and rules set up around your social media channels, then you will either get sucked in – or your brand image will suffer.

Here’s a quick Social Media Policy How-To:

1. Define why you are using each social media tool and what you want to get out of it.
2. Tell people how you will behave and what to expect from you.  On Twitter, who do you follow, who do you not follow, etc.  The same thing goes for LinkedIn.  Different people use the tools differently – tell people how you will use this tool.
3. What’s your spamming policy and how do you want people to contact you?  Spam is everywhere.  Depending on how you use your social media channel – you’ll want to tell people where you stand.  We are all busy, tell people how you want to be contact, what you respond to and what you don’t.

Thanks Rob!  This is something we all do, but few have put out in public.

So, I’m curious, what’s your Twitter Policy?

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