New Media Prescription: Think small. Get started. Don’t be overwhelmed.

May 26, 2014 by Douglas E. Welch

It seems that every time I am at an event these days — Garden shows, Literacy Events, Business meetings — I am quickly pulled into a discussion of New Media/Social Media and how it can and should be used. almost universally, though, everyone I speak with is adrift in any new media plans. They might have a Twitter accounts, Facebook page or Instagram photos, but thy don’t know how or why they should be using them.

See more New Media Prescriptions here

It is easy to set up accounts, of course, so nearly everyone has done that. Then the accounts site there, empty, doing nothing for no one. They could, instead be spreading your message, talking to clients, selling your products 24/7, but leave them empty and they are worthless, if not outright damaging to you. If people find your accounts online, they expect to find something there and will be disappointed when there isn’t. Don’t disappoint your audience when it is so easy to feed them the information, the products, the content they desire.

In an effort to help you jumpstart your own usage of New Media, I present this selection of small, doable actions that you can take — every day — to start making New Media work for you. If you like these ideas, please consider scheduling a consult with me so that together we can craft a New Media plan that is customized to you and the needs of your life, business and products.

1. Start small

Select one online social media source and concentrate your actions there. Does your life lend itself to a more visual presentation, start with Instagram, Flickr or other photo sharing site. Set a goal to post 1 new item each day. It’s OK if you don’t make it every day, but try. In most cases, I think you will fin that you easily have at least 1 item to share per day, if not more. You just need to keep the thought in your mind throughout your day. If you do, you will be more inclined to capture those photos you may have simply walked by before.

2. Collect ideas

If you are like most people, you will easily have more than 1 item a day that you would like to share. If so, collect up these “extra” ideas in a list so that they are available when needed. Maybe you had a busy day and weren’t able to take that daily photo. No problem. Find one of your “extras” and post it today. Problem solved!

This same idea works with any sort of content. Write as many Twitter messages as you can. Take as many photographs as possible, Write articles for your blog when you are “in the zone.” Then you can easily have those off days without feeling like you have failed. You shouldn’t feel that way anyway when you miss a day, but I know from personal experience that those feelings can creep in sometimes and actually prevent you from posting in the future. Keep a ready supply of content at hand and you’ll never have to worry about content again.

Need examples of the type of info you can/should share? Need ideas of how you can use multiple sites. Check out my social media accounts below and use me as an example.

3. Expand to new services one by one

Once your feel you have your rhythm down with one service, consider adding another. In most cases, you will find this much easier than starting in the first place. If you are already taking photos for Instagram, those same photos can and should be easily be shared on Facebook, or as part of your blog or Google+ page. You have different audiences in each of those locations, so don’t worry about duplicating content. Sure, some folks may see the same post in 2 different locations, but many, many others will be seeing it for the first time.

As you add new services, you will start to develop a system for sharing your content. I have a list posted on my monitor to remind me of the places I need to share content so that I don’t forget. As it stands now, I have about 13 places I share each piece of content I create. These services ebb and flow as I discover which ones work best for me and I am constantly trying out new services as they are introduced. This might sound overwhelming, but on average it takes me maybe 5 mins to share new content to all of my other accounts now that I have my system in place. I don’t spend hours sharing on New Media and you don’t need to either.

For more on this idea, read my previous post, Benefiting from the “New Media Multiplier”

4. Produce your content and help your audience find you

I often hear from people that they can’t imagine who would be reading their content, listening to their podcast or looking at their photos. I know it sounds counterintuitive, but this isn’t your concern. Your audience will find you, no matter what, if you put your content out there. It is nearly impossible to know exactly who your audience is, but you must remember that everyone has an audience — they just need to find it.

Your job is to produce content and share it so that your audience can find you. Make it easy for them to stumble upon you through referrals from other web sites, search engines, friends, family and random synchronicity. This is the biggest reason why any of us share anything on our blogs or social media sites. It allows our audience to find us and share us with their audience — and so on, and so on, and so on!

Don’t worry about your audience. Worry about your work, your writing, your products, your promotion, your sharing. Do this and your audience will easily find you.

Getting started with New Media is equally the easiest and most difficult part of the process. It is easy to set up accounts, but it can be difficult to discover what you want and need to share there. This takes time and a bit of thought, but the advantages to be found in using New Media, whatever your goals far outweighs the difficulties. Get started today!

Great places to start your New Media journey. Pick one and get started! :

Need help jumpstarting your New Media usage? Ask your questions in the comments, email me at douglas@welchwrite.com or schedule a New Media Consult to help develop your own, unique New Media plans!

Share your “invisible self” online for better relationships – End of the Day for April 22, 2014

April 22, 2014 by Douglas E. Welch

(Originally posted as part of the End of the Day series on My Word with Douglas E. Welch)

As social media has become a larger and larger part of lives, there has been much discussion about anonymity and privacy in our lives. Everyday we are confronted with articles warning us about the dangers of oversharing, sharing our location or even our thoughts. While I do agree that there are certain things you should never, if rarely, share online, most of us error greatly on the side of not sharing enough. We have a certain invisible self that never shows up online and limits how others see and understand us. I say its time to open up the curtain a bit and let your online contacts see more about you than what you had for lunch today.

Yes, there are countless stories about tasteless, destructive or criminal oversharing, but I believe these stories are only so prominent in the press because they are so rare. News outlets report on the exceptions in the world, not the norm and this sometimes causes us to confuse one for the other. Sure, one person posted to Facebook that they robbed the local liquor store, but millions didn’t rob a liquor store, nor would they post about it if they did!

Rather, I think we often hide away from our online contacts — posting only the most innocuous, pleasant or meaningless drivel and pretending it is “friendship.” The truth is, your real friends see more than you would perhaps like the to see and know perhaps more than you would like them to know, but that is part-and-parcel of friendship. Maybe the lack of connection that people often bemoan in social media comes from our own self-censorship, rather than any limitation of the technology itself.

For this reason, I would like to call on all of us, myself included, to start to share more of our invisible lives online and with our contacts there. In my case, I share a lot online, but there are a lot of things I don’t come right out and say. People who know me well probably know my political, religious and societal opinions and you might even be able to divine them the articles I post and share. Still, I am uncomfortable, in many cases, of coming right out and saying them. Maybe I need to be better about that. Perhaps people would understand me a but better, if like me less, if I shared more of those opinions? Who knows. This is a somewhat invisible part of me that I self-censor on a regular basis.

There are many parts of our invisible lives that we can and should share, though. What do you believe? What do you want? In love? In life? in death? Who do you love? Who do you hate? Why? Why do you do anything you do? Why can be a very simple word, but it often comes with a very difficult answer.

Part of the reason for my self-censorship ( and probably yours) in sharing thoughts like this come from the fear of being judged. I have carried this fear all my life and even at 50 still feel it deeply. That said, I am also getting to be old enough that I finally understand the words, “Those who mind don’t matter and those that matter don’t mind!” Friends (and online followers) who matter will stick with you when the going gets tough and the edges get rough. Those who won’t probably — in most cases — weren’t really connected to you anyway, except via a friends list. You may not always agree with what someone thinks or says, but if there is enough commonality, the benefits of friendship remain.

Take some time to think about what your LIKE to say to your friends and then say it. Face the fear and the consequences. Engage in an intelligent dialogue with people. Maybe you’ll change your opinion, maybe not. Converting others opinions isn’t the point. Rather it is the sharing, the discussion and the deepening of relationships that really matter. Share a little bit of your invisible life and I think you will be surprised with the results.

Previously on End of the Day:

New Media 101: A Reason for Podcasting from “New Media Question Time”

April 10, 2014 by Douglas E. Welch

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 0:44 — 25.3MB) | Embed

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Part of the New Media 101 series…

A quick clip from this 30 minute presentation — New Media Question Time for UCLA Voiceover Class.

Watch the entire presentation

Transcript:

There is a benefit of podcasting that works for us all — and that is that it gives us control over our product. It allows us to speak directly to our audience and so I believe anyone can benefit from that. Anybody — regardless of their career, their job, their art, whatever they are trying to do — can use podcasting to talk directly to their audience.

We all have an audience. It doesn’t matter what we do. We can be a plumber. We still have an audience. We still have customers we are trying to reach, people we are trying to effect, policies we are trying to change.

Anyone can and should start podcasting to benefit their career.

Previously on New Media 101/Blogging 101:

More information on Douglas E. Welch and Careers in New Media:

Video: Blogging 101: Who you follow is more important…

April 3, 2014 by Douglas E. Welch

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:42 — 59.7MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Part of the Blogging 101 series…

A quick tip from this 53 minute presentation — Blogging and Content Creation at the San Fernando Valley WordPress Group.

Watch the entire presentation

Transcript:

It’s not about who follows you on social media. It’s all about who you follow. Your social media feeds should have value to you. It shouldn’t be about obligation. It shouldn’t be about automatically following back. It shouldn’t be following the popular people. It’s about does what that person is saying have value to you. Because that is where you get the value out of your social media use — in that way. Say, as an example you have a friend who is an expert on knitting. There know everything there is to know about knitting and that’s all they post about on Twitter and Facebook is knitting, knitting, knitting. It’s great content! I don’t care. Ok. I’m not a knitter. It doesn’t mean that person doesn’t have value. It just means their information doesn’t have value to me. Ok? Follow those people who have value to you. If you see a Twitter come through — if you see a Facebook post — come through and you are like “What the heck is that?” Click on that link and look at what they posted recently. Look at their last 10 posts — and if there is nothing of value in there — unfollow them. All they’re doing is polluting the value of your social media stream. You’re getting less out of your use of Facebook — less out of your use of Twitter — because they’re there. Because you can’t find the good stuff. And I apply that same rule to me. I look at my Twitter stream every so often. I look at my Facebook stream every so often. I look at my – whatever — Google+ stream — every so often. I look at it and say, “If I were coming in as a person who happened to see one of my posts and was thinking of following me — would I follow myself?

Previously on Blogging 101:

More information on Douglas E. Welch and Careers in New Media:

Capture your “content” and share it! Please! – End of the Day for March 30, 2014

March 30, 2014 by Douglas E. Welch

(Originally from End of the Day on My Word with Douglas E. Welch)

After an extremely busy day yesterday, we were all pretty tired this morning and got off to a rather slow start. Thankfully nothing required us to get up an moving — until we discovered that a friend was holding a boo reading and signing at Diesel Books in Malibu. Being that he is a very good friend of ours and I need little excuse to go to Malibu on such a beautiful day — we cleaned ourselves up and headed down.

As I usually do, I took along my cameras — both still and video — and figured I could capture a bit of the reading to share here on the blog and YouTube. I do this because I don’t believe in throwing away “content” that other people might enjoy. If I am going to enjoy an experience then it is a good possibility that others will, too. They might not be able to come to the event otherwise due scheduling or, more likely, because they live at great distance form where the event is happening. Why not share the fun when it takes relatively little work to do so?

You’ll be seeing the results of today’s event in a few days, but as always, it makes me wonder why more people — especially creative people — and businesses — especially bookstores — don’t make more of an effort to share their events in whatever way possible. For me, taking few pictures, grabbing some video — even with a smartphone — is far preferable to doing nothing. Events, once passed, are lost if you don’t do something to capture them. More importantly, everyone NEEDS to be capturing their content because this is the media you will use in selling the current book, song, movie, etc and also the media you will use to sell your NEXT book, song, movie, etc. If you don’t capture this content, you are crippling yourself, your sales, your promotion and possibly even your career.

It is so easy to capture and share content these days. We really don’t have an excuse for NOT capturing it. OUr smartphones take 1080 HD video and record CD quality sound. Our point-and-shoot cameras take pictures far better than anything in the past. It is the “will” that is lacking. Most of us have still not realized the deep importance in capturing our content. We don’t make it an automatic part of our life and work. We let things happen and then let them go without ever realizing the value these events carry for our future.

People often ask me why I go through the effort of capturing content for other people. First, I gain value from the content by sharing it online, on my blog and YouTube. The subject the event also gains value from increased exposure and the chance that an audience will stumble upon their book, music, etc and find they that they like it. Third, I also do it as a way of showing (and hopefully) convincing others of the value of capturing their content. It is “Real World Example” of how to capture it, how to package it and how (and why) to share it. By providing a good example, I hope to bring others along with me on this New Media journey.

The next time you are involved in a creative project, an event, a fundraiser, whatever — please, please, please at least consider capturing the content surrounding the event. Share your photos via Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and others. Upload the video to YouTube and share it on social media. Send links to the content to everyone involved and ask them to share it with their friends, family and business contacts. I think you will greatly — and pleasantly — surprised by the results.

Previously on End of the Day:

Video: Blogging and Content Creation with Douglas E. Welch – San Fernando Valley WordPress Group

March 20, 2014 by Douglas E. Welch

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 53:27 — 847.5MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Douglas E. Welch, writer of Careers in New Media and several other blogs, presents on Blogging and Content Creation to the San Fernando Valley WordPress Group (54 mins)

This talk contains the following topics:

Why you should be blogging for yourself, your career and your business?
Where do you find content for your blogs, podcasts and social media?
Capture the content that already exists in your life and work
Let people “behind the scenes”
Create “series” to make it easier to develop content
Read voraciously!
Share your content everywhere

Music: “Rocket” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) under Creative Commons License.

Follow New Media Tips on Twitter at http://twitter.com/newmediatips
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Why should you blog, podcast and share? – End of the Day for March 11, 2014

March 12, 2014 by Douglas E. Welch

This post originally appeared in My Word with Douglas E. Welch

As you can tell by this blog (and my others) I have been putting a lot more time into writing new content and sharing content from others over the last several months. Partially, this is because I now have more time to create content since I am no longer doing day-to-day computer support, but also because I have a great need and desire to share my interests with others. It is so fun when someone comments on a recipe or gardening post, finds a TechnologyIQ post that solves their computer problem or enjoys one of my photographs. There is certainly a lot of reward in that, but I also blog for another reason — to share what I do and how well I do it with others.

The writing and sharing that I do is directly designed to provide what, I hope, is a good real world example of how blogging, podcasting and social media (in fact, all the New Media tools available) can be used to improve your life and the lives of those around you. This improvement then leads to money-making projects and consulting contracts where I can go even deeper in helping others share their (and their company’s) story with the world. This is exactly how I came to work as a blogger and representative for Troy-Bilt back in 2011 and 2012. They discovered my work on the web and when they had an opportunity to hire people to represent them, my name was already in their mind. This is a great example of “attracting opportunity” instead of spending your days looking for work.

These “End of the Day” blog posts are a bit of departure for me. They are much more personal and reflect not only on my work but also my life in general. This demonstrates another idea I cultivate, too, though. A blog is really just a reflection of your life and work, not matter what the topic. The best blogs use real life as an opportunity to illustrate important concepts and teach important lessons. On several of my blogs I even have series entitled “Real World Examples” where I highlight just this idea. When anyone comes to me asking how they can get start blogging I always say “start with your life.” What interests you most? What are your biggest questions? What questions do you get asked most? There is much knowledge (and blog content) to be found there. Even more, their is an audience out there waiting for your to share your ideas, your thoughts, your questions with them. All you need to do is speak to them.

In an effort to attract more opportunity to me in the coming months, one of the best ways you can help is by sharing my blog posts, my podcasts, my shared items, everything I do with those people you think might be interested. Share a link via Google+, Facebook or Twitter. “Like” on Facebook or YouTube. Email a blog post to someone you think needs to see it. Opportunity is a numbers game. The more people who “stumble upon” my work, the more opportunities that will appear. If I help you in any way with my work here, please help me, yourself and your friends and family by sharing it further. This allows me to continue creating more useful material for all of you!

Check out the share buttons at the bottom of every post on every blog here at DouglasEWelch.com. This makes it easy and convenient.

Previously on End of the Day:

Event: Douglas speaking on Content Creation, Professional Blogging and the Eco-Sphere of WordPress – Tuesday, March 18, 2014, Tarzana, CA

March 3, 2014 by Douglas E. Welch

I’ll be speaking on Content Creation and Blogging at the next San Fernando Valley WordPress Meetup. Come and join me and Glen Bennett, who will be speaking on “The Ecosystem of WordPress” and how it can work for you.

Event: Content Creation, Professional Blogging and the Eco-Sphere of WordPress

Date: Tuesday, March 18, 2014 7:00 PM

Location: Tarzana Recreation Center, 5655 Vanalden Ave, . Tarzana, CA (map)

FREE

RSVP using Meetup.com

Description:

Creating content is an ongoing demand for any website, in particular a WordPress site. Yet doing so, keeping it fresh and keeping it consistent can be a tough challenge.

We have a professional blogger, Douglas Welch, with over 10 years of writing experience that will be sharing his work flow and many years of accumulated “how to” information. With plenty of opportunity to ask questions and interact we hope that this will provide just the knowledge and inspiration to make your WordPress site sing.

Then we will have a presentation from Glenn Bennett on the ecosystem of WordPress, bet you didn’t know that they had one! An ecosystem is a community of living and non-living things that work together. In the WordPress world there is a vast network of resources to be tapped and to link into. Find out more about what exists and how to use this ecosystem to really take of with your own WordPress site(s).

Bring your blogging questions! I always make a point of allowing plenty of time for Q&A every time I speak, so this is your chance to get your most burning blogging questions answered.

Take a Picture Already — End of the Day for February 16, 2014

February 16, 2014 by Douglas E. Welch

(Originally appeared on My Word with Douglas E. Welch)

I’ve always been one to take a lot of photos, but you may have noticed more photos lately in my social media streams and here on the blog. I figure that I always take photos, so why not share them more widely and see what results. I often use these photos to illustrate my other blog posts, like the those in the “Interesting Plant“, “Garden Alphabet” and “New Food” series here and on A Gardener’s Notebook. Bloggers always need photos for their blog posts and I believe that the best one’s you can use are those you take yourself. This prevents any copyright issues and somewhat guarantees that you have the photos you most want to use.

View a slide show my Flickr Photostream

Photos are an important part of any blog post. They make it more attractive, help illustrate the point and also give a visual element when the blog posts are shared on Pinterest. Google+, Facebook and Twitter. There are so many reasons for taking and using photos, I am often surprised when other bloggers don’t use them.

My photo subjects range as widely as the subjects of my blogs. One day I will be shooting flowers, the next a family event and the next photos to illustrate a recipe I recently made. Sometimes people wonder if it isn’t a lot of work to take photos, but I always figure that it is no extra work, really. I am going to be doing something or attending an event anyway Why not take some photos to remember the event, share with the other’s involved and also end up with content for the blogs. It seems I am getting 2 or 3 times the effect for the simply effort of taking a couple of pictures.

A recent trip to the Antelope Valley Indian Museum in Palmdale, CA

Someone, a long time ago, told me the best way to take great pictures is to take a lot of pictures. Today’s phones and smaller cameras make it easy to carry a camera wherever you go, so why not use it. When something catches you eye — take a picture. When you see something you might use to illustrate a blog post, school or business presentation, charity project — take a picture. Even if you think something might be only interesting to you — take a picture. It can only benefit you in the future!

Typically, you can find all of my photos on my Flickr account where I tend to upload everything that might be of use. View a slide show my Flickr Photostream. This isn’t every picture I took, but rather a cull of those things that might be interesting to myself and others. I also tend to post items to my Facebook Wall, especially family and school-felted items so that others can tag them and share them with their friends and family. A subset of my pictures also appear on Instagram, although those only include photos I shared through the Instagram app. You’ll see these photos included in my Flickr, Facebook and Google+ streams, too. As for Google+, I am sharing photo sets there more frequently, but you’ll already find links to sets and collections posts to the blogs and other accounts. Finally, links to all my photos also appear in my Twitter stream. So, you should never be at a lost to find my photos on whichever service you use most frequently. You’ll also find I share a lot of blog posts from other sources on how to improve your photography or just enjoy it more. Watch my social media feeds for those posts.

I hope you enjoy my photos. If so, please take a moment to Like, Favorite and Share them with our friends. The more people that see them, the better. If you REALLY like something, and would like to include it in your publication, advertisement or web site — i’ll give you a good price for licensing it. Drop me a line!

Previously on End of the Day:

Video: WordPress Wednesday 7: Embedding YouTube Videos

January 15, 2014 by Douglas E. Welch

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:57 — 40.9MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Short WordPress tips to ease your way, especially if you are just getting started with WordPress.

How to embed YouTube videos (and more) in your WordPress blog posts.

See previous episodes of WordPress Wednesday in this playlist

Music: “Go Kart” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) under Creative Commons License.

Follow New Media Tips on Twitter at http://twitter.com/newmediatips
Like New Media Interchange on Facebook at http://tinyurl.com/newmediacareer
Circle New Media Interchange on Google+ at http://tinyurl.com/gplusnmi

Subscribed 46: Scott Berkun – author and speaker on creativity, leadership, philosophy

January 3, 2014 by Douglas E. Welch

Subscribed 46: Scott Berkun

If fine myself reading and sharing a lot of content from Scott Berkun, so it only makes sense to highlight him here are part the Subscribed series. Scott’s recent article, How to overcome cynicism, was a great example. It can be easy to fall victim to to cynicism in life and business and I salute him for taking on such a chronic issue.

How do you overcome cynicism in an environment determined to maintain it?

You overcome a toxic environment by walking out the door. Unless you happen to be a powerful person in the organization, it is not your fault that the environment is cynical, broken, dysfunctional, toxic, demented, twisted or incompetent. Managers and executives are paid a great deal more than the average employee and the main thing that comes with that pay grade is accountability. If the place depresses you, look upwards: the people in power make it this way. It’s uncommon for people in power to be motivated to make big changes since they like being in power.

Read the entire article

From Scott Berkun’s web site…

I’m an author and speaker. My work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The Guardian, Wired magazine, National Public Radio, The Huffington Post and other media. I taught at the University of Washington, blog for Harvard Business and BusinessWeek, and have appeared as an expert on various subjects on CNN, CNBC and MSNBC.

My latest book, The Year Without Pants: WordPress.com & The Future of Work released in Sept 2013 and was named an Amazon.com best book of the year.

Read Scott’s entire biography

Get The Year Without Pants from Amazon.com

Other books by Scott Berkun

What are some of your favorite Subscriptions? Share them here in the comments!

Previously highlighted on Subscribed:

Subscribed is a Careers in New Media series highlighting the Podcasts, YouTube Channels and Blogs that I follow on a daily basis. Check out this entry, and past entries, for some great New Media Content — Douglas

Video: WordPress Wednesday 5: Learning about WordPress using WordPress.com

January 1, 2014 by Douglas E. Welch

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:07 — 29.0MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Short WordPress tips to ease your way, especially if you are just getting started with WordPress.

A quick introduction to setting up an account/blog on WordPress.com and posting your first blog post.

See previous episodes of WordPress Wednesday in this playlist

Music: “Go Kart” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) under Creative Commons License.

* Follow New Media Tips on Twitter at http://twitter.com/newmediatips * Like New Media Interchange on Facebook at http://tinyurl.com/newmediacareer * Circle New Media Interchange on Google+ at http://tinyurl.com/gplusnmi

Subscribed 37: Podcast Community on Facebook

May 11, 2013 by Douglas E. Welch

Subscribed 037: Podcast Community on Facebook

This week’s Subscribed entry is a bit of a departure as it isn’t a podcast, YouTube Channel or blog, but rather a Facebook community dedicate to Podcasting. The Podcast Community has nearly 800 members and a depth of new media information not found in many other places.

The Podcast Community is a place for questions and discussions, not just announcements of upcoming shows and guests. If you have a new media question, this is one of the best places to get it answered. You’ll find a wide variety of advice, guidance and support in this community.

What are some of your favorite Subscriptions? Share them here in the comments!

Previously highlighted on Subscribed:

Subscribed 36: The Rusted Vegetable Garden with Gary Pilarchik

May 4, 2013 by Douglas E. Welch

Subscribed 36: The Rusted Vegetable Garden with Gary Pilarchik

Both a blog and YouTube Channel, Gary provides a wealth of gardening information. I subscribe to both the blog and the YouTube Channel, although I discovered him through his channel first. I find myself making lots of notes when I watch his videos. I am trying to grow more vegetables her in my garden and I find that my 40 year old knowledge of vegetable gardening can be quite lacking sometimes. It is great to have a straightforward demos and advice to turn to when I need a refresher.

Subscribe to Gary’s YouTube Channel

What are some of your favorite Subscriptions? Share them here in the comments!

Previously highlighted on Subscribed:

Subscribed 35: Houzz.com

April 27, 2013 by Douglas E. Welch

Subscribed 35: Houzz.com

Houzz.com is one of my main sources for new thoughts on home and garden these days. I originally thought of it only as a way of finding home furnishing and design ideas, but I quickly discovered it also contains a huge amount of gardening and landscaping content, too. If you follow my social media accounts, you will find I am often sharing articles from Houzz.com. Sometimes these articles are about the design of a garden — both landscape and hardscape. At other times, there are great review articles of a particular type of plant or plants for specific uses and locations. This is one of the few sites where I subscribe to both the RSS feed and the Houzz.com Email Newsletter so I am sure to never miss a great article.

Houzz.com also has companion iPhone/iPad and Android apps for your mobile devices.

What are some of your favorite Subscriptions? Share them here in the comments!

Previously highlighted on Subscribed:

New Media Prescription: Your blog’s editorial calendar starts with your personal calendar

April 25, 2013 by Douglas E. Welch

In my New Media Consulting business, I am often asked, “How do I get started? What should I blog about? When should I do it?” With most clients, the first place to start in developing some sort of editorial calendar for a blog begins with their very own personal calendar. The milestones in your calendar — those important events — are the beginning of any great blog.

While most people see their calendar as a reminder of upcoming events, each item on your calendar can and should drive various new media activities, as well. There are blog posts to be written and published weeks or even months ahead of the event itself. With such a ready supply of “content” for your blog, why not start here?

Both readers and search engines love a regular flow of content from blogs, podcasts and YouTube Channels. It will make them return again and again. It will lead them to subscribe to your mailing lists, RSS Feeds and Channels. When they do this, they are giving you permission to enter into their lives whenever you have something interesting to say. Do not abuse this permission, but also do not ignore their desire for new information, new content, new videos, etc.

The Calendar Blog Process

If you want to get started with your blog — or add more content to an existing blog — here is a process I use. It all begins with my calendar.

Find the next immediate event on your calendar that you want to share with others. For this event, and subsequent events, do most or all of these steps.

Look back 1 month, 1 week and 1 day before the event and place calendar reminders to post event information to your blog on these days.
Create blog posts noting these events. Included further information as it becomes available closer to the event

If possible, pre-write your blog posts and schedule them to automatically post on the appropriate day.
If the event is a ticketed/RSVP event, note when ticket sales and registration begin

It is as important to post this information, at this time, as the information/date of the actual event, as people may need to purchase tickets/RSVP quickly.
Create a blog post describing the event and linking to the Ticket/RSVP page
Post (or schedule the post) to appear on your blog 1 day before tickets go on sale or the RSVP list opens. (Watch this blog for an upcoming video on how to schedule posts for WordPress and Blogger blogs)

If your event is not ticketed, publish your first post about the event at least 1 month ahead or sooner if possible.

Typically this post is in the form of a “Save the Date” post with as many details as you can provide ahead of time.

Share photos, video and links from previous similar events, if you attended in the past

Remember to collect as much content as possible during each event, so that you have plenty of content to include for subsequent occurrences

Repeat this for every event in your calendar, creating a constant schedule of calendar items to drive regular posts on your blog and promote your activities.

Make a point of including these blog posting dates (1 month, 1 week, 1 day before) for each event as you add it to your calendar.
“Working in Reverse” will insure that you do not “forget” to promote your events in the future.

Schedule Followup Posts

Add an event to your calendar NO MORE THAN 1 WEEK, after. Post photos, videos and a recap of the event for those that could not attend.

General Rule: The longer photos and video stay in your camera, the LESS LIKELY you will be to post them
Followup recaps are, in some ways, even more important than the pre-event announcements, as they contain information and content for those who could not attend the actual event, as well as reminders of the information for those that did.
Recaps allow attendees to easily share your content with their audience. This allows you to effect an even wider audience.

Further Notes:

A badly promoted event is a waste of time for you and everyone involved

This is especially true if you are not being paid for the event. In these cases, promotion of yourself and your work may be the only payment you receive. Don’t squander this opportunity by failing to promote well.
Sometimes you may need to do the majority of the promotion if the event organizers do not promote it fully. It is in your own best interest to do so, even though it is extra work. Don’t rely on organizers.

Promote your events and activities — even if the public cannot attend — so that your blog readers can at least see and hear about your work

Post photos, video and notes about these events/share as much as you can
Give your readers a look “behind the scenes” whenever you can. This is very popular content for most readers.

Promote your colleagues and friends events using these methods and ask them to do the same with yours

When someone shares your content, they are willingly providing you access to their entire network. This often includes people who are unfamiliar with your work.
Everyone involved with an event should make a point to promote everyone else involved in that event. It greatly expands the audience exposed to your promotion.
Create pre-written blog posts, social media messages that people can cut and paste, ReTweet or Share. Reducing the work/friction involved in sharing makes it more likely that people will share your message.

It should be obvious that events are time sensitive. Do not miss the opportunity to fully promote your events. Put your promotion milestones in your calendar with as much importance as the event itself. Otherwise you may find yourself putting out great effort for very little reward.

Use this link for more posts in the New Media Prescription series

Subscribed 30: Tod Maffin: Making the Digital World Human Again

March 23, 2013 by Douglas E. Welch

Subscribed is my series highlighting the Podcasts, YouTube Channels and Blogs that I follow on a daily basis. Check out this entry, and past entries, for some great New Media Content — Douglas

Tod Maffin: Making the Digital World Human Again

Lots of great New Media advice to be had here on Tod’s site. Blog posts on improving how to you set up and use YouTube, blogs, podcasts and more. It is always a pleasure to find Tod’s content in my RSS stream.

Recent blog posts:

The Secret of the Red-Bold Email
CBC Radio “Real Life Chronicles” Shows
Switching from WordPress.com to the Self-Hosted WordPress
YouTube’s Secret Link That Will Boost Your Channel Subscribers

FromTod’s web site…

“Tod Maffin is one of North America’s leading digital marketing experts, specializing in viral and ROI-based campaigns for sectors from human resources to real estate to education.

Maffin, president of engageQ digital, is one of the country’s go-to commentators on the impact of accelerated technological change and innovation on the business and economic environment and can speak to every aspect of technology and resulting implications for the world in which we live.“

Link: Tod Maffin: Making the Digital World Human Again

What are some of your favorite Subscriptions? Share them here in the comments!

Previously highlighted on Subscribed:

Subscribed 029: CookAppeal – Food-Wine-Fun

March 15, 2013 by Douglas E. Welch

Subscribed is my series highlighting the Podcasts, YouTube Channels and Blogs that I follow on a daily basis. Check out this entry, and past entries, for some great New Media Content — Douglas

CookAppeal

This is another one of the many food blogs I follow. I regularly re-pin and repost interesting items from all these blogs. They also help me keep in touch with what is happening in food all over the US and even other parts of the world.

Recent recipes and articles from CookAppeal include Apple-General Tso Glaze Stuffed Cornish Hen, Cherry-Lemon Pecan Cake and 5 Spices Beneficial to Your Health.

From the CookAppeal web site…

“I experiment with Flavors”… Elizabeth Stelling, hails from her home state of Texas and has been involved in the food industry via institutional, fast food, B&B’s, ethnic eateries and other restaurants since she was fourteen. Now living n New Jersey she has ran her own cafe, teaches culinary classes, runs a small boutique catering and staffing business, restaurant consulting for NJWBO, is a personal chef and shares her love of cooking with local, organic, healthy, and natural ingredients with the community. Chef E is a member of Slow Food and the American Wine Society, Princeton, New Jersey. She has published written works of poetry and media pieces, as well as ran Open Mics in the Princeton, NJ area.”

Link: CookAppeal

What are some of your favorite Subscriptions? Share them here in the comments!

Previously highlighted on Subscribed:

Archive: Douglas talks Careers and New Media with Bigg Success – March 10, 2010

March 10, 2013 by Douglas E. Welch

Originally appeared on BiggSuccess.com

Career Success with New Media

We were happy to visit with Douglas E. Welch today on The Bigg Success Show today. Douglas is an expert on building the career you deserve and spreading the word about your talents using social media. Among other things, he’s the host of two great blogs and podcasts: Career Opportunities and Careers in New Media. Here’s a recap of the conversation:

Read Douglas talks with George & Mary-Lyn on The Bigg Success Show! with complete text transcript.

Listen to Douglas talk with George & Mary-Lyn on The Bigg Success Show!

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