First and foremost, I need to give thanks to all my Corporate Cosmo Email Subscribers. Your love and support is greatly appreciative. The increase of subscribers makes me tickle pink!

Most importantly, I am proud to share some exciting and upcoming news with you. After airing a live domestic violence show on UStream, I wanted to be more attentive to social awareness topics that are dear to my heart. As an online advocate, I value curiosity, awareness and clarity. It is in my destiny to provide the proper resources to help others during their most challenge times of their lives. 

My BlogTalkRadio show, “Social Media with Nan Ross" (formerly known as the Nan Ross Show) will have a new air time and day. “Social Media with Nan Ross” the live audio streaming show, will air twice a month on Wednesdays @ 2:00 pm EST. The show will focus on social media technology, mobile devices applications, new media and social networking. The show is scheduled for Wednesdays, September 29 @ 2:00 pm with Ryan Goff, the Social Media Marketing Director for MGH Modern Marketing. He will enlighten us on how social networks and mobile devices are drawing customers in to brick and mortars by the means of location based media. So, I’m excited and looking forward to hearing from Ryan Goff. 

Airing in November on Ustream, the "Nan Ross Show" will be an interactive, entertaining yet informative webisodes based out of Atlanta. I’m proud to harness the power of social media to tap in to discussions traditional media shy away. My goals is to  provide the avenues to reach viewers from diverse backgrounds to spread awareness on domestic issues, poverty, education, gender equality, HIV/AID, other diseases and environmental health in the Atlanta community and beyond.

The production of the "Nan Ross Show" would not be possible without the generous contribution of two very special ladies who came into my life, Era Nichole, Freelance Journalist and Tramaine Bailey, Author, Poet and Actress. After appearing on my previous shows, I’m proud to announce Era Nichole and Tramaine Bailey as the co-hosts for the Nan Ross Show. The upcoming show, “The Hidden Truth”, will premiere in November (TBA). Era and Tramaine will share their experience with a young man living with HIV and with AID Atlanta, a non-profit organization providing education and support services for people living with HIV and AIDs.

The Nan Ross Show will be pre-recorded and aired twice a month on Thursdays @ 7:00pm EST. During air time, Era Nichole, Tramaine Bailey and I will appear in the chat room during show time.  This is another way the Nan Ross Show cast will engage and encourage feedback from with the viewers.

I’m excited for the new and upcoming changes for my brand and my partners as well. Social media provides anyone the ability to brand their personality and share the interests that matters to them the most. Having a voice can make a difference to your lives as well of the lives of others.

My next guest, Era Nichole, a Freelance Journalist, head writer and Public Relation Specialist, will offer some smart ideas on how to create fresh, unique content just by the activities business consultants and coaches perform on a daily basis.

Era Nichole, a New Orleans, La native where she developed the passion for the Arts and Communications. She currently has a A.A. in Communications from, the University of Phoenix and currently working towards her B.A. in Communications & African American Studies at Georgia State University. Era began her career and currently with Tonnae Nicole Cosmetics as a head writer and Public Relations Specialist. You can also view some of her work in monthly in depth articles in Overflow Magazine out of Chicago, Illinois. Freelance Journalist Era Nichole has her own production company Arcani Productions that specialize in Event Speaking, Voice Over and Blog Production. You can find excerpts of her work on Facebook.com/EraNichole.

The Nan Ross Show
Thursday, August 26, 8:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Show Page Link: http://budurl.com/n87l
Call-in#: (347) 324-3703

Last week show, 5 Tools to Rapidly Getting Clients to Your Blog, was a blast! I was up until almost midnight, responding back from the wonderful comments on Facebook and Twitter.

Steve Martile and Hani Mourra from BloggingForCoaches.com did a wonderful job schooling the audience with some of their powerful tools to rapidly getting clients to your blog.

Steve Martile is the Blogging Marketing Specialist and Blogging Consultant for BloggingForCoaches.com and a Career Coach at Freedom Education. Check out Steve’s accomplishments:

• Generated 5,000-6,000 unique monthly visitors to his blog
• Built a mailing list of 2,400 qualified email subscribers
• Qualified leads and sold life coaching services.
• Generated 500 new leads in 7 days using one technique
• 30,000+ views on my Youtube Channel

Hani Mourra, Steve’s partner, is the “Video Guy” for BloggingForCoaches.com and the Online Video Coach for EasyOnlineVideoTips.com. (My kind of guy!) He teaches his audiences how to use online videos as an effective and powerful marketing tool.

Be sure to listen to the on-demand recording of 5 Tools to Rapidly Getting Clients to Your Blog.

Let me know what you think about the show! You can subscribe to the show on iTunes by clicking on the iTunes icon to the right-side of the player. Or, you can favorite the show by clicking on the heart shaped icon to the left of the player. Either way, I would love to hear your feedback!

The last show, I interviewed Jim Garland, CEO of Sharp Details, Inc. and the Author of “The Practical Guide to Exceptional Living”. Jim provided the audience easy to understand and easy to use concepts on what small businesses need to do to take more control over their life.

We had covered the following key points:

• Gain Control of Our Time & Avoid Information Overload

• Attract Partnerships and A Great Team

• Set & Reach Our Goals for Success

BIO: Jim Garland is an entrepreneur, business owner, author, professional speaker and business consultant. He started his first company Sharp Details, Inc. from the trunk of his car as a boat cleaning service in 1991. Today Sharp Details, Inc provides corporate aircraft cleaning and support services to Fortune 100 and 500 companies, has 60 employees and produces $3,500,000 in annual revenue.

Click Link to Listen to “Control Your Life and Thrive with Author, Jim Garland” http://budurl.com/l4pr

Free PDF worksheets covered in the book “The Practical Guide to Exceptional Living:

THE GRATITUDE LIST, THE GOAL FILTER, THE LEGACY GOAL, THE MIND DUMP

Start Your Own Virtual Company with Gail M. Reid, CPA and Author

Have you recently received the pink slip or just ready to take the plunge into entrepreneurship, but unsure where to start? Then, this is the show you don’t want to miss.

To survive in this shaky economy we need to avoid overhead cost, become more efficient, and heed sound advice from an expert, Gail Margolies Reid.

Gail Margolies Reid is a CPA, small business consultant and the Author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Low-Cost Startups. She will offer her insight and expertise on how to become a virtual entrepreneur and the key ingredients of a startup business.

For my live listeners, you will have a chance to win a FREE copy of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Low-Cost Startups. Plus, all book purchasers before May 15 will receive a FREE 30-minutes consultation with Gail Reid. Consultation includes: starting your new business, ideas or issues concerning an existing business or any common tax concern that does not require special research.

We will highlight a few key points from her book:

• Matching Your Talents to a Winning Business Idea
• Writing a Business Plan
• Doing Your Homework and Research
• Developing a Pricing Strategy

Bio:
Gail Margolies Reid is a CPA and small business consultant. In 1987 she started her own home based CPA practice which she built into a small firm, catering to businesses of all shapes and sizes. During those years she managed to meet every tax filing deadline and chaperone field trips, cheer at Lacrosse matches and travel at every opportunity. In 2008 Ms. Reid sold her business to focus on writing, speaking, consulting and everyday living. Ms. Reid has two lovely grown up daughters and lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband.

Visit Gail M. Reid Blog

Purchase The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Low Cost-Startups

Nan Ross Show
Start Your Own Virtual Business with Gail M. Reid, CPA and Author
Show Date and Time: May 6, 2010 at 8:00 PM EST

1. Building a Brand Plan – Create a brand plan that will give you a clear and simple story.

• Who are you?

Building a brand is about creating a unique and compelling story about your brand.

• Who are you selling your product to?

If you do not understand your customers, then how will you make a brand promise that will be relevant to them?

• What are you selling?

• How are you going to market your product?
• Why should they care about your product?

Building brands is about creating a compelling story, a big idea, then developing a strategy that will help you achieve it – long term and short term.

2. Remain Focus – Paul uses the Wizard of Oz analogy. Dorothy had a clear mission to get home to her family. In order for her to achieve the mission, she had to visit the Wizard. But along the route, there were witches, poppy fields and flying monkeys.  All of these things were short term distractions which could have prevented her from achieving her goal.

The more distractions, the less focus and the more confusing your story will be.

One of the biggest problems facing most businesses is the need to prioritize and focus, whether they are a start-up company or a Fortune 500.

3. Standing out from the crowd. It’s all about differentiating and standing for something.
Paul uses the example of his first client, Computer Literacy, an online book store. Computer Literacy did not have the marketing dollars nor the traffic to compete with Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Borders. How did they differentiate themselves? They change their name to Fatbrain. Remember, the littlest thing makes a big difference!

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the brand ‘Google’? Yes, the king of search! Google continually reinforces that message to be branded in your mind.

Not only should you be recognized for standing for something, but you should stand out from everyone else. How? Look at the comparisons between Google’s home page and the other search engines. Google has a simple page with one search box, while their competition overloads their pages with news and advertisement. Simplicity is one of Google’s strategy to stand out from the rest.

4. You’re not going to win the lottery, if you don’t buy a ticket. How are you going to join the debate? If you’re not part of the conversation, you can’t influence the conversation. Brands are changing the way people think and becoming more engaged with their users. They are utilizing social media, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to find their audience, create buzz around their brand and receive honest feedback about their product.

5: It’s all about the details. Branding is all about experience. What are you doing to create a unique experience for your brand? Since advertising is expensive, interacting with our community is the most effective way to building your brand.  When someone interacts with your brand, whether it is how you answer the phone or how you package your product, the experience creates a touch point. Unique or unusual touch points get people talking about your business.

BIO: Paul Parkin, the founding partner of SALT Branding, an integrated branding consultancy. Paul’s career in branding spans a wide range of sectors, for Fortune 500 clients such as Disney, EMBARQ and Microsoft as well as VC-funded start-up like Mobile 365, Scale Venture Partners and Vinfolio.  SALT Branding help clients bring their business strategies to life and help them create effective results that support their marketing investment.

For more information about SALT, please visit www.saltbranding.com

Subscribe to Trends blog, please visit www.trendsinbranding.com

Follow SALT on Twitter: www.twitter.com/saltbranding

Click Here To Listen to Paul Parkin on the Nan Ross Show

Show Topic: Creating A High-Profile, High-Traffic, and High-Profit Blog Isn’t Rocket Science!

Nan: How long does it take to become a successful blogger?
Steph: It depends on how you define success. On average, it takes about a year. My blog has been around for five years. It took two to three years to get my blog going.
A lot of people give up too fast.  It is difficult to reach success with blogging in six month. Give yourself time. It is more about pacing yourself instead of sprinting. It is about building up a community and watching it spread like wildfire.

Nan: What website would you recommend for new bloggers?

Steph:

Problogger – monetizing your blog, writing content, blog design, collaboration, blog   critiques
Copyblogger – copywriting tips and advice for bloggers and internet marketers
Seth Godin – Seth Godin’s riffs on marketing, respect, and the ways ideas spread.
Aaron Wall – SEO Book – web visibility and SEO strategies

Nan: Should someone who is new at blogging learn ‘how to blog’ or ‘how to write’?

Steph: If you play a sport a lot, you get better at it. If you write a lot, you will be better at it.  You’ll probably want to learn more on how to blog initially, and as you start to get into the groove then you get into how to write.

• Understanding the Fundamental of Blogging

It does not matter if you are an amazing writer, if no one knows that you are blogging. You have to know the fundamentals of blogging to attract your audience to your blog.

Nan: How often should we be posting on our blog?
Steph: There are a lot of theories out there. It’s basically anywhere between no more than a few times a day to no less than once a month.  If you do more than a few times a day it’s too much and no one wants to follow you. If you do less than once a month, they will forget about you. The norm is 1-2 times a week.

• Find You Pattern and Stick with It

Nan: What should the length of the blog be?
Steph: Look at your niche and try to fit into their format. If you are writing on a video game review, you probably don’t want ten pages; if you are breaking news, then a few paragraphs may be sufficient. However, if you are a computer programmer and write a post on new technology, then you may be expected to write more lengthy posts.

The most successful blogs are usually one page and a half.

The listen to the show in its entirely, click on the below link and enjoy!

Creating a High-Profile, High-Traffic and High-Profit Blog Isn’t Rocket Science

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Blog Blazers Book Review – Video

How to Use Video to Promote Your Blog- Video

10 Hot Tips for Bloggers

How to Use Podcasting to Promote Your Blog

The Nan Ross Show

I invite you to listen to the show for blogging tips and strategies.

Creating a High-Profile, High-Traffic and High-Profit Blog Isn’t Rock Science

with Stephane Grenier, Author of Blog Blazers

To Purchase the Book Blog Blazers

For our next show on January 14th at 8:00PM EST, I will feature Carol Dunlop, SVP Marketing and Publication of Creative Service International, Inc. Carol is a published author, web designer, graphic specialist, Web 2.0 strategist who mastered the tools of visual communication and design. Carol Dunlop will offer all attendees a FREE copy of her e-book “7 Strategies to Convert Your Web Traffic in Web Clients” and a FREE website consultation. You will be crazy to miss this opportunity!

The Nan Ross Show
January 14 @ 8:00 PM EST
Call-in Number: (347) 324-3703

Guest: Larry Weintraub, CEO of Fanscape
With his extensive years of entertainment marketing experience, Larry Weintraub, CEO of Fanscape and along with his partner, Terry Dry, have replicated the music industry marketing models to help well-known brands like Chili’s, MTV, State Farm Insurance, NBC and M&M Racing, to connect with their fans and customers to drive word of mouth.

Building a Following:
A two-way communication strategy is essential for building a following of an audience who loves and supports your brand. Since this marketplace is highly competitive, differentiating your brand and consistently staying in touch with your audience is crucial to survive in your industry. Asking for feedback and comments from your followers, along with your response, is a two-way communication line. “You talk to one person, make them feel really special and they will tell someone else about you” said Larry. That is how you will grow a following and an audience. Unfortunately, the relationship building process does not happen overnight. You must allocate a large amount of your time to this one-to-one communication.

Using Multiple Platforms for Communicating
Nan: A large part of my audience consists of artists and creative people, ranging from music producers, graphic/web designers and book writers. What communications tools would you suggest for my audience for promoting themselves and their work?

Larry: It is less about the tools and more about the communication. You do not need to go to tons of other places, but you need to keep up and manage all the big ones that are happening, for example email marketing, Facebook, Twitter and a blog are all crucial to the success of any promotion these days. The reason why I say all is because you will have fans that will follow you everywhere on Facebook, Twitter and/or Myspace, but on the other hand, you may have some that will only stay on one platform. Therefore, you have to cater and communicate to them as well. There are new and groovy tools that come out every single day. Do not feel the need to do everything – stay with the basics.

Practice Giving Value
Everyone loves a gift, especially in social media. Larry says, “Give more and things will come back to you”. When true value comes from the heart, it can be the momentum for your success. Giving away a chapter of your book or having a blog as a resource for information is an example of giving value. The more you give something away free the more your followers will come back. The more you become successful, the more you look for ways to help others. With that in mind, Larry has set a fine example of giving value by generously providing his keen insight and passion for social media to his clients and his audience.

Setting Goals
Success in what you do in life is geared around goal setting. If you want to become successful in social media personally and professionally, take some time to set realistic goals. For example, set a goal to “have ten people who listen to your show, turn into ten more”. Setting goals will help determine if your strategy is working for you. However, to achieve your goals also involves consistency. Whatever strategy you choose for your digital marketing plan, set goals, make a commitment and stay consistent.

I am not a social media big shot, nor did I ever claim to be one.  However, I am passionate and enthusiastic about giving to my audience and about the authentic aspects of social media.  So, whatever digital strategy you create for your brand, for yourself, or for your business in 2010, social media is about meeting interesting people and learning new ideas from your followers.  Love what you do, broadcast it – and rock the world!

To listen to the show – Fire Up Your Digital Marketing Strategy.