This is the bomb, and I really think I can sell this type of blogging to my new students. Easy and quick, what more could they ask for. I uploaded a pic no problems, picked a title…and now I am writing a short sweet blog.

Heather lives in beautiful Nanaimo BC and teaches hands on social media marketing clinics for small businesses. Heather is also a great motivator of social media through her passionate talks and consultations… send her a message today!

The Doors are open!

There is a new way of saying thank you to the businesses where you spend your time and money….and that new way is on-line through social media sites…. Facebook and Twitter are easy examples of quickly letting the world know how pleased you are with service, food and quality of products…not to mention favorite parks, events and people….On Twitter this is called a mention by adding the Twitter handle of the business or person @KeepItSimpleSM and on Facebook you also use the @Keep It Simple Social Media

One of my favorite things to do is send a Tweet right from the restaurant I am having dinner at with an awesome photo of the artful display the chef presents…The ultimate in compliments…and promotion for that establishment.

Yes we know it is also easy to defame someone on-line too, but for the purspose of this article I am going to stick with the theme…How to say thank you on-line…

Blogging is a larger version of the thank you

My good friend and student of social media Carolyn Hill asked me the other day to give her some ideas about what she could blog about….now Carolyn is one lucky girl she lives in the mecca of resources for blogging.. WHISTLER… and todays blog is dedicated to all my Whistler social media students…I will start with ideas for real estate and then I will finish with ideas for restaurants…for Keeley from La Rua and Caramba if you’re reading this blog and feel left out just go to my Facebook Business Page and ask me to write something for you…. I’d love to.

Real Estate Ideas

• First think Life style – people are buying real estate mostly for what Whistler offers
• Write about the different restaurants – one at a time – as you experience them
• The Five different Golf Courses – How to and Tips
• How about each area or sub-divison
• Show Case a Builder of the week
• A day in the life of the Ski-hill or Ski Instructor
• How about the Non-Skier – what can they do?
• The recreation center – or other gym facilities
• A walk along the village stroll
• Write about an athelete or retired citizen
• Write a story about the municiple hall / Whistler/Blackcomb
• Emergency services – The local Police – other heros
• Your company
• Your personal experience as a local
• Write about Whistler pit falls
• Local camp grounds
• Things for kids to do
• Show the world how friendly everyone in Whistler is through Video interviews
• The trails – Hiking – Biking – Cross-country
• I’m sure by now you’ve come up with a few ideas of your own, another fun idea would be to get together with a few friends and talk about ideas to blog about, and ask people and places if you can write a story…they would love and appreciate the publicty – work together as a community, it helps inform the tourist and shows you are open minded and care about each other. You see social media works much better if you help one another … it is also much more fun! (as a side note the blog I wrote about Whistler marijuana has been my most read blog!)

Restaurant Ideas

• Study the people doing it right
• Ask customers to follow you
• Encourage tweeting and taking pictures
• Show case your chef and other behind the scenes staff
• Write about each person and the owner
• Pic of the week
• Entree of the day
• Night mares and funny stories
• What are your drinking and lift home programs
• Your pinics to go
• Contests
• Like minded vendors
• History of food
• Eating within your province
• Local farmers
• Show case Events
• Wines and pairing
• desserts mmmmmmm
• I hope these ideas spur you on to start writing passionately about your profession or establishment, I can think of many people I know who hesitated at first to write a blog and now absolutely love writing…it’s fun and a great way to say thank you to the people and businesses that have helped you along your journey to success.
• Cheers!!

This morning we were talking about people using social media…and some of our friends that don’t want to use social media ever…and why?

Facebook understands the privacy issues that a lot of people have with putting their life on stage…thus they have created even stronger settings for you to control who sees what information..

Something to consider – How would you feel if what you wrote ended up on the front page of the New York Times?… it’s called the litmus test and before you press share..think about what you’re saying and who might be reading it.

It is said that some people are not comfortable using social media because of insecurities they have within their own life or how they treat people…is this Karma?

You might be like the majority of people and want to only use social media for the marketing power it has…such as the very popular Facebook Business Page…so let’s talk about that side of Facebook…eventually we will get into twitter…but most of you are still trying to understand Facebook..

Remember – No one LIKES to be sold to – but we all LIKE to buy…

The idea is confusing at first, a business page can only like other business pages…but business pages want people to like them so they get counted as a “Like” or what was formally a “Fan”…you must like other business pages to create your community… Yes..It will take time … but don’t most friendships take time to understand and nurture…

This is why you want to share your expertise so people begin to understand what your business is all about and through this process they will begin to trust you and this is what will create loyalty.

You have been told from the start, this is not a race, quality over quantity.. but this intense fear of being left behind is making a few of you a little nervous and trigger happy… if you know what I mean..

One of my students this week here in Nanaimo Wendie Webber with The Devil’s Therapy  hit the hammer right on the nail – “I need to know you and trust you before I’ll LIKE you!”

Peter Legge once said to a group of women… “It’s not who you know but what you know – and if you don’t know anything, you won’t know anyone”… Love it!

On your journey through social media you will find it difficult at times to make sense of all this sharing of what once was valuable information that cost people money to get…after you have been using Facebook for at least a couple of months you will find the value and connection of this very powerful marketing tool.

Let me know what you struggle with when it comes to the social media maze…

Heather teaches social media marketing clinics throughout BC and lives in gorgeous Nanaimo with her family ♥

Cheers!

Alright… you’ve created a blog to keep your customers up-to-date and to attract new business… now what? You can’t sit around and wait for them to come.. it doesn’t work like that…not very often anyhow.

Who are they? The people who are going to read your blog, the people who need to read your blog. You need to be pro-active and make sure your blog is visible to as many people and web searches as possible.

Do you know once you start writing a blog you become the authority on that subject. If you write, you are an author…If you are consistent at writing people will want to follow you, especially if your material is valuable, if you are solving problems and if you are enriching the lives of your readers.

Today I registered my blog with Technorati … one of the more popular blogging sites, although there are many .. I needed to verify this was my blog … the one you are reading right now…and the code below is for TECHNORATI to find and give me the thumbs up!!!

M3BP8SAHB9WC

More ideas

Today’s Tip of the day:

 Goes out to a young realtor in Victoria that has just won an incredible opportunity to improve his health and life style… I am so excited for Dennis & Ally Guevin from DFH Real Estate… Dennis was the winner of a contest held by the Times Colonist and today Dennis wrote his first blog about his upcoming journey The Health Club Challenge

I am showing Dennis a few examples of linking web pages for better exposure for his blog… Dennis well also want people to be able to subscribe to his RSS Feed, click a like button and share his blog…

Everytime Dennis publishes a blog he will learn some valuable lessons, he will be able to track his viewers and respond to questions and comments. Dennis is going to receive a lot of mileage personally and as a business person. This is one smart idea!

Dennis will need to learn how to add links, pictures, videos and create a sticky theme layout that attracts people… he’ll need to know how to add “Widgets” to his page so he can get people to click and like and share his blog giving Dennis the most exposure possible…. I love social media…and I am so pleased to be able to help him on his quest for a healthy life…

PS. If Dennis had “Google Alerts” set up he would know right now that I just published something with his name on the World Wide Web!

Do you have Google Alerts – are you an expert in your field of business? …Remember people who write blogs are considered an “Expert” in that field… which really means you are the authority on the subject that you are writing about….

Heather lives in beautiful Nanaimo & teaches hands on social media clinics through-out BC… in small groups.. please check out her tips of the day on Facebook

Heather Clifford – KISS Media

Social Network Marketing – Nanaimo BC – Keep It Simple

Cheers!