Here are the eight key points we have highlighted:

•    Educate Your Niche
•    Share/Promote Industry News
•    Build Connections from Groups
•    Tell Your Connectors What You’re Looking For
•    Ask Questions & Find Answers
•    Research & Schedule Meeting (Phone Conferences, Webisodes, Face-to-Face)
•    Build Rapport with New Connections
•    Close The Sales

Social Media News:

Facebook to Google: ‘Don’t be evil’

Mistake #1 – Not integrating your blog with your website
Easy Fix:
•    Sub-domain (e.g. http://blog.website.com)
•    Website Folder (e.g. http://website.com/blog
•    Separate Domain (e.g. http://thisismyblog.com)

Mistake #3 – Publishing Inconsistently
1.    Businesses that blog at least 20X per month generate over 5X more traffic than those that blog fewer than 4 times per month.
2.    Businesses that blog at least 20X per month generate nearly 4X more leads than those that don’t blog.
Easy Fix:
•    Create an editorial calendar for regular publishing
•    Will address more on this solution

Mistake #4 – Publishing off Topic Content
Easy Fix:
•    Defining your blog focus (What are you trying to accomplish?)
•    Generate a list of keywords pertaining to your industry (Brainstorm a focus point)
•    What does your audience want?

Mistake #5 – Offering No Content Variety
Easy Fix:
•    Text-based copy
•    Charts or graphs
•    Audio content (podcast)
•    Cartoons
•    Infographics
•    Guest blog articles
•    Curated lists
•    Industry-related book reviews
•    Q&A
•    Videos

Mistake #6 – Failing to Encourage Engagement
Easy Fix:
•    Keeping Comment Open
•    Monitor & Reply to Comments
•    Don’t Moderate Comments
•    Ask Questions
•    Listen to Feedback

Mistake 7 – Neglecting to optimize your search
Easy Fix:
•    Identify Your Keywords
•    Optimize Blog Content with those Keywords

Mistake 8 – Implementing a Poor Blog Design
Easy Fix:
•    A Call-to-Action in Every Post
•    Subscription CTA
•    Social Media Sharing Buttons
•    Post Previews
•    Clear Connection to the Website
•    Fast Page Load Times – Pindom (free tool to tell you how long it takes to load your blog)

Mistake 10: – No sourcing content
Easy Fix:
•    Curate Content (CurationSoft, Scoop.it) Content curation is the collection and sharing of content such as articles, videos, pictures, tweets, songs or other pieces of digital content.
•    Welcome guest bloggers

Mistake 12 – Failing to Promote Content in Social Media
Easy Fix:
•    Create a Presence
•    Expand Your Reach
•    Share links to Blog Content in Social Media
•    Make Social Sharing Easy (Social Media Share Buttons) on every post and/or pages

Mistake 13 – Ignoring Blog Analytics
Easy Fix:
•    Measuring Monthly Visitors
•    Traffic-Driving Keywords
•    # of Blog Subscribers
•    Comments Generated
•    Page Views
•    Leads & Conversion Rate
•    Inbound Links
•    Social Media Share = # of Tweets, Retweet, Facebook Shares

Mistake 15 – Expecting Overnight Success
Easy Fix:
•    Don’t Give Up

For all mistakes and easy fixes from Hubspot, subscribe and download their FREE e-book  “15 Business Blogging Mistakes and Easy Fixes”.

I want to hear from you! What blogging mistakes have you learned to avoid? What was your most dreadful or easy fix?

Social Media News:

After protest, Congress puts off movie piracy bill

1.    Listen to online dialogue and craft a relevant message

2.    Find influencers who drives conversations and speak to their followers

3.    Become more socially-conscious for 2012

4.    Ask for support to spread your message

5.    Increase your community reach

Interested in purchasing the book “Implementing Word of Mouth Marketing” by Idil Cakim?

Social  Media News by Reggie Juzang:

Apple Mini-Stores Coming to Target

Target has confirmed that it will be introducing 25 Apple mini-shops within its stores this year.

Facebook, Google, others face charges in India

Indian prosecutors are taking Google, Yahoo, Facebook and other networking sites to court for refusing to remove material considered insulting to Indian leaders and major religious figures

Social media widens scope of Nigeria fuel protests

A nationwide strike and demonstrations have unleashed years of pent-up frustrations in Nigeria over its kleptocratic leaders, and the rage has grown even stronger across social media this week.

Our Corporate Cosmo team created a WordPress powered website for the “2010 Miami’s Best Vegetarian Restaurant” Vegetarian Restaurant by Hakin. This natural and healthy restaurant services Caribbean vegetarian cuisine, vegan meals, healthy deserts, living foods, fresh smoothies and a health food store. The owner Hakin, has received great reviews in the media and outstanding customer testimonials throughout the blogsphere. But unfortunately, he was lacking a strong foundation website. We came up with a theme to match his restaurant atmosphere and provided a home based for his culinary masterpiece.

Web Design Features:
•    Customized WordPress Website Design
•    Food Gallery
•    Online Menu
•    Customer Testimonials
•    Press Room/Media Reviews

Have our team create a WordPress website with a unique design to fit your brand. Call Corporate Cosmo Internet Marketing today!

I’m currently a member of 50 LinkedIn groups. Out of the 50 groups, 12 are social media and internet marketing. Even though I have increased my connections and met some informative social media professionals, I was not generating much leads from these social media groups.

Two months ago, I started a collaboration project with an advertising and marketing company for music artists. One of the objectives was to scout for independent artists to be featured on their entertainment portal. Well, the first platform I jumped on was the music groups on LinkedIn.  As I was scouting and conversing with independent music artists and record labels, I starting to noticed an increase in my connection. Plus, I have received an increase of inbox messages asking for assistance with their social media presence.

Let’s stop for a minute. Once again, I have joined 50 groups, 12 are social media and internet marketing, and 12 are music groups. Out of the 12 music groups, I have increased my connection by almost 11% in less than two months and a 5% increase in leads of music artists who were interested in social media marketing.

Trick #1:  Expand your reach of professionals outside of your industry
A group of professionals of the same genre can provide industry news, creative strategies/ tactics, encouragement or even referrals. But, interacting outside of your industries and targeting your ideal audience are the keys to generating leads. This means, you would have to join groups of people who are seeking for your expertise.

Trick #2: Don’t advertise your services
Become a thought leader and provide assistance by answering other people questions. I’m not a pushy person, so I don’t mention my profession unless I have been asked. I would only provide an opportunity for these independent artists to gain more exposure.  Once your target audience knows you’re informing them instead of trying to sell your services, they will review your profile and contact you. Trust me, this trick always works.

Trick #3: Build a connection while on the job
Oh yeah, I just thought of another trick. While you are working on your client’s projects and interacting with their target audience, you can also increase your reach and generate leads as well. Just be mindful of the stipulation outlined in your service agreement or contract.

Give some of these tricks a try! Find your top groups, listen to what the members are saying and start engaging. The more informative and visible you are, the better chance of you generating leads and closing sales. I want to hear your thoughts. What LinkedIn group strategies have you implemented and have noticed great results?

Street Radio Magazine will reflex the voice of Marcus Boyd who will bring a wealth of knowledge in the music industry. In 1998, Marcus Boyd was signed to Too Short along with this group “Al Block”. The group’s single “Paper Chase” went platinum off the Too Short Nationwide Compilation. He has worked with Jazzy Pha, Polo Da Don, Lil John, Ludacris, Too Short, Young Bloods, Bone Crusher and a list of other major artists. Mr. Boyd has worked for record companies such as Zone 4 Inc, Grand Hustle and a number of other labels. “My mission is to give talented artists back the stage,” said Marcus.

Nan Ross brings her social media development and content management knowledge to the table. Ms. Ross is a Social Media Strategist and holds a computer technology background for over 15 years. Nan’s career really began to take off in 2009 after starting Blog Talk Radio Show “Social Media with Nan Ross” (formerly known as The Nan Ross Show). The show went to become “Blog Talk Radio’s most popular marketing show” shortly after 17 months and featured some of the top marketing experts in the industry.

Street Radio Magazine mission is to provide a platform for artists who are the social commentary of their neighborhoods, the club bangers and the DJs who masterfully respond to the energy of the crowd. Street Radio Magazine’s platform consists of a music, podcast interviews, videos, blog posts and weekly contests featuring independent artists and DJs.
If you’d like to find out more about Street Radio Magazine, or would like to be a featured artist or DJ, please visit http://www.streetradiomag.com. For website design, social media and internet marketing services, please visit http://www.corporatecosmo.com.

Copyright infringement of music, video, photos and blogs has become the norm in the Web 2.0 world, but this practice is illegal. As business owners publish and share content via social media, they need to understand the legalities of delivering content. For example, what is copyright? Copyright is the rights of the creator of the work, or inheritance, not the person who possess the content. Copyright will protects text and picture from websites, even though the copyright symbol is not visible. But, since social media is about sharing and educating, we have the right to practice fair use of copyright content. What is Fair Use versus Copyright Infringement? Fair use allows anyone to reproduce work, but subject to limitations. Some of the limitations may consist of using small portion of the work, teaching/educating, scholar criticism and news reporting. Although, even small portion of the work would need be referenced to the original creator.

Here are a few suggest to avoid any illegal or unethical online content practices:

• Provide an excerpt with a link to the original article.
• Use proper citation, quotation and reference in your article or blog post
• Read copyright disclosure before usage
• Establish a code of ethic of acceptable behavior

During this week episode, we will discuss the ethical and legalities of online content. We will highlight the following key points:

• Legal Issue of Internet Use
• Ethical Use of Delivering Content
• Fair Use vs. Copyright Infringement
• How To Respect the Original Creator
• Code of Ethics for Bloggers & Journalists

Last week’s show, “How To Use Your Website as the Ultimate Branding Tool”, we discussed some key features entrepreneurs need to implement on their website to effectively marketing their brand.

• Testimonial/reviews pages
• Portfolios or other visual elements of Your Work (Pictures or Videos)
• Opt-in Forms Requesting Additional Information from Visitors
- Registration form – “It’s not enough for you to introduce yourself to your visitors. Success and relationships building require your visitors to introduce themselves to you” – Relationship Marketing on the Internet – Roger C. Parker
• Links to media appearances, speaking engagement announcement
• Blog
• Social Media Widgets
• Personal Advertisement of Other Services You Provide
• Call to Action (Displayed on home page and within your pages)
• Audio podcast of interviews, commentaries.