Solid Communications

From Chernobyl to Chocolate

 

Felix, Simon (age 9), and Ada Swerdlow at their home in Mozyr, Belarus  in February 1986, two months before the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.  Four years later, Simon was on the first rescue flight bringing children from Belarus and other contaminated regions to Israel.

Simon Swerdlow, 13, was about to board a plane for the first time in his life.  He thought that this trip, like the summer vacations he had taken with his parents and his brother Igor, would be an adventure.  “I was excited,” he said, “but also nervous because this would be my first time traveling alone.  And I had no return ticket.  That was scary.”

The year was 1990, and 250 children were boarding the first international evacuation flight taking children out of the radioactive zones around Chernobyl, four years after the nuclear disaster occurred.

When the children and their parents arrived at Minsk Airport, they found an airstrip and an unfinished construction site.  “We were stranded there for three days,” said Simon.  “My parents had no luggage, we had no blankets.  People were sleeping on concrete.  The bathrooms were unfinished.  The organizers brought us food from the city and they did their best, but it was random stuff.  A banana, an egg, some juice.”

As Simon was about to board an old Romanian airliner, he turned and looked back at the airport.  His parents had climbed the bulwarks of the unfinished airport building to reach the top deck and were gazing down at him from behind glass panes.  They lifted their hands in farewell.

Twenty-five years later, Chabad’s Children of Chernobyl is still bringing children out of the affected zones to receive medical care not available in the former Soviet Union. 

On April 26, 1986 the Chernobyl nuclear power plant suffered a series of explosions triggered by uncontrolled power surges, and the resulting fires sent a plume of highly radioactive smoke and fallout over large parts of the western Soviet Union and Europe, with an estimated 60% of the fallout landing in the Belarus region.

“We kids didn’t even know how bad it was.  But our parents knew.  Because almost every doctor and scientist in our town left with his family.  They took no clothes or luggage.  They said goodbye to no one.  They took their wallets and their families and they disappeared.”

How to Become a Successful FreelancerPart II: The Working Life

• Introduction
• Part I:  Getting Started
• Part II: The Working Life
• Part III: Presentation and Marketing 
• Part IV: Communication Skills
• Part V: Money Management
• Part VI: Additional Income Streams

 

To be a successful writer or freelancer you must approach your work day with a high level of professionalism.  You are now your own content creator, receptionist, project director, and marketing department all rolled into one. 

This segment of "How to Become a Successful Freelancer" will give you tips on organizing your working day and taking care of your most important asset:  yourself.

A Year by the Lake - From Healing to Helping: Transparency and Readership

  
 

I'm a writer.  I write about sex, love, chocolate and football.  There's not much capital investment required—I just convert my brain juice into income.  I'm frequently asked what it's like to be a writer and work from home.  So I've decided to add another dimension to this blog—total transparency.

I make mistakes.  Sometimes I'm almost paralyzed by fear.  Sometimes my brain turns to jelly right before a deadline.  But I love what I do and I can't conceive of ever giving it up.  It kind of amazes me that people are interested in my lifestyle, but I also passionately believe that more people should take that leap, have faith in themselves, and start their own businesses.   Entrepreneurs are the creative engine and the backbone of America's future.  I hope my hard-earned lessons and simple joys will give just one person the courage to reach for their dreams.

So I'll be writing about my journey of the last year, since I started my creative copywriting career.  I made abysmal choices, expensive mistakes.  I also had amazing moments of insight and joy.  I learned that problems are not a crisis—every problem has a solution; you just need to find it.  Recently I broke a stamina barrier—working 10 days in a row until 1 or 2 am, including an all-nighter with 1 hour and 15 minutes of sleep.  Author Tim Ferriss says he doesn't think it's possible to have more than four creative hours a day.  Timmy honey, let a woman twice your age teach you something about creativity and stamina.

To be honest, I find it very awkward to be this transparent on my business blog.  After all, this is a blog that I created to impress clients, not showcase my ineptitude.  I feel as though I'm about to be fileted like a fish.  I'd rather be transparent about my love life than journal about my writing choices.  But that's how it all started . . .

As part of my creative writing business, I write several blogs.  Among them is a little known private journal about my love life . . . or to be more accurate, my lack thereof in that department.   In May 2009 I suffered a horrendous breakup and found myself out on my ear.  My crimes were that I was "fat and boring" and couldn't skateboard in high heels like his new playmate.  Whatever.  To help myself get through the pain of being abandoned and tossed aside like a used Kleenex, I journaled about my dating and healing process on my private blog, A Year by the Lake.

Amazingly, that blog attracted clients who were looking for ghost writers.  Sex and relationship coaches are frequently under pressure to produce new material for their websites and blogs, and to stay current with newly released books--in addition to an already full schedule of coaching, speaking and seminars.  I've been told I have the "life experience" and sense of humor required to adopt the voice of a busy sex coach and basically take over their writing schedule.   What fun!  I get to write about flirting, role play, tantric sex, you name it.   By being transparent about my pain and my own stupidity, I have grown from healing myself to helping others, and having a sense of fun and joy about it. 

So I'm making a commitment to you to share the real life of a working creative copywriter.  The joys, the hurdles, the light bulb moments, the odd synchronicities, and  the occasional zaniness that  infects us when we let go of control and just ride the rapids of life.

Featured Business: Albion Dedini

Normally I feature my clients on this blog, but I just have to give a shout out to my friend Albion, who has just uploaded his new website (which he designed himself)!

If you live in the San Luis Obispo area, please check out Albion's massage therapy website and call for an appointment. You won't be sorry!

Abion uses Esalen-style Swedish massage and gentle deep tissue techniques, with elements of Shiatsu and Tui Na to unwind and release soft-tissue restrictions, and to provide pain relief, ease of movement and deep relaxation. 

His Atascadero studio is in a beautiful small garden setting, which is very relaxing, private and peaceful. Photos and a 'first time' client form are available on his website, Albion Didini. 

Social Media Insight: Bogus "Paper Doll" Followers

It's quality that counts, not quantity.

Back in September, I wrote about outsourcing social media, and how some unscrupulous firms use multiple 'bogus' accounts to build your social media 'membership'. 

Today, I see sad proof that this practice is not only engaged in by overseas outsourcers, but also by firms here in the US. Below, I have copied the text of a listing on Elance.com requesting the setup of 250 Facebook and Twitter 'users' by a firm in Columbus, OH.  Notice how the job provider is asked to use 'one of the supplied photos' for each account depending on whether it's supposedly male or female.  This means there is no way this company intends to set up accounts for valid employees. 

So if you end up using a firm like this to handle your social media, you'll be paying them to produce 'followers' that are paper dolls--not one is a real person interested in your product or service! (Actually I think this drive is to produce ad revenue and clicks, but there's no real difference--it's all paperdoll traffic.)

Here's another example of why numbers don't matter if they are not correlated with quality . . .

Let's take a look at Twitter account Foodimentary.  (Foodimentary is a generic food trivia site, so I'm not picking on some poor individual blogger here.)  Foodimentary has 248,355 followers.  Impressive!  But if you go to Tweepi.com and pull up a list of this account's followers, over half of them have NEVER TWEETED.  NOT ONCE!  Of the remaining half, about 10% have not had any activity in over 3 months. 

Twitter limits the number of people you can follow to about 10% of your fanbase.  So, for instance, if you have 2,500 followers right now, you can go out and follow 2,500 plus another 250 = only 2,750 total.  Therefore, you should be making every follower in your Twitter account work for you--by  buying your product, reviewing your product, or retweeting your messages.  So get rid of that deadwood, and replace those 'dead numbers' with live people who are interested in your product! 

Work Smart! 50 Ways to Organize and Shorten Your Day

  
  

Do you work from your home or car?  Have a home office?  Would you like to be better organized? 

 These 50 tips will help you achieve more in less time and help you be more productive. 

Self-employment has been rising by 4% per year for the last ten years, which means that every year there are nearly 10 million new small business owners.  And with the available power of internet outsourcing and mobile technology, it’s now possible to work from your home, boat, or vehicle even if you are a salaried employee. 

But how does one make that transition?  How do you focus when there is no longer a cubicle to trigger that work reflex in your brain?  How do you filter out distractions when your work becomes your life, and your life becomes your work?  How do you cope with the increasingly longer days, now that you are also your own marketing department, accountant, and janitor?

Simple.  You learn to get highly organized.  And then you stay that way.

Tim Ferriss: 10 Tips to Maximize Your Marketing

In this episode of Rise: The Rise to the Top, author David Siteman Garland interviews Tim Ferriss, bestselling author of The Four Hour Work Week, and The Four Hour Body. 

Whether you are an author, fundraiser, corporation, or small business owner, this clip contains points and suggestions that I'd like to call out for my readers.  These points were true 100 years ago, and they are still true today.  They are also still ignored by 99% of people engaged in marketing, including those in the business of marketing.  Tim admits to spending $18,000 with a PR firm that accomplished little to nothing for him. 

How can you maximize your marketing efforts?

Featured Client: Tasty Image

• Featured client:  Tasty Image
• Location:  Jupiter, Florida, USA (Nationwide Franchise)
• My assignments:  Writing all print campaign materials, Twitter and Facebook fanbase building and posts, coordinating with graphic design artists, content calendar promotions, and writing fantasy stories for the kids' sites.

No doubt about it, this account keeps me both busy and happy!  Tasty Image is an online chocolate company and national chocolate franchise that prints your edible image on chocolate.  Take a photo, email it to Tasty Image, and they will print it on chocolate CD's, business cards,  photo frames or lollipops. 

Tasty Image has an online store where orders can be placed directly, and the company also offers affiliate sales opportunities, two franchise levels for new business startups, and direct sales of the Chocolography Imaging System, which looks easier to operate than those blasted copiers at Office Max.

Every day brings a new project or series of projects.  I get paid to research the health benefits of chocolate and encourage people to order chocolate gifts that make other people happy.

Life is sweet!

 

Featured Client: Chris Cognac

   
 

• Featured client:  Chris Cognac
• Location:  Los Angeles, California, USA
• My assignment:  Writing coach, ghost writer, and draft editor for Chris' in-progress memoir

Chris Cognac leads a double life.

Chris is known to FoodTV fans worldwide as the host of The Hungry Detective, a judge on Iron Chef America, and author of a newspaper food column. 

He is also a respected LAPD detective, helicopter pilot and child sex crimes specialist.  He turned to food writing as a way to empty his bucket of demons.

"The 'bucket' is a place in my soul where I put all the bad shit that I see working the streets of South Los Angeles as a cop and as a detective.  The only way I could empty my bucket of demons was to do something good and fill up my 'other bucket' which would bring balance to my life."

Chris' story is raw and gritty.  A big guy with a big heart, he is at times hilariously funny and at other times he shares the bloody pathos of holding dying children his arms, unable to save them, and the sheer horror of shooting someone and being on stakeout in the most dangerous neighborhoods of LA. 

He also takes us behind the scenes of the FoodTV network in a series of wild and funny vignettes that include having a FoodTV host over to his house for dinner (what do you serve besides panic?), and drinking with hard-partying Anthony Bourdain and the crew of Iron Chef America.

We'll be publishing occasional excerpts  and giving fans updates on the progression of the book.  You can join Chris on Facebook too: 

• Facebook:  Chris.Cognac
• Chris Cognac blog:  The Hungry Detective

 

Featured Client: Experts Town

• Featured client:  Experts Town
• Location:  Spain
• My assignment:  Weekly articles on wine, written at an expert level.  Social media development on Facebook and Twitter

Experts Town is dedicated to providing a place for discussion and reading at an expert level.  Right now the site focuses on four main areas--business intelligence (analytical applications, data mining, predictive analysis), golf, sailing and yachting, and wine.

That's where I come in.  I'm the wine expert at Experts Town.

My articles published to date include:

• Do Fruit Flies Ruin the Taste of Wine?
• Serving Wine in Warm Weather
• What are Tannins?
• Pairing Wine and Food
• What Does it Mean to 'Filter' or 'Fine' a Wine?
• Cooking with Wine
• Are Winery Yeasts Synthetic?
• Sulfites in Wine - Nothing to Sneeze At
• Wine and Health

More articles are coming soon, including an autumn food-and-wine pairing with a recipe for Osso Bucco; disgusting things in wine; and what beers winemakers are drinking during the 2010 harvest.

If you haven't yet joined an internet wine forum for online discussion and education, try Experts Town's sister site, SocialVintage.com.

Having trouble communicating?

Sometimes it pays to hire a professional.   

I thought this video was particularly poignant and funny because I so frequently find myself in competition with outsourcers from India and Malaysia.  I lose bids on  great jobs because the employers decide to go with the lowest bid--and writers in these countries can work for $5-$10 an hour. 

"Oh yes.  We speak purrfect Ehnglish, sir.  Wewilltakeverygoodcareofyou, sir." 

There are three problems with outsourcing to non-native Americans who have 'pretty good' English:

1. Their skills are not as good as they claim, and you will probably end up re-outsourcing the work.  I see these jobs all the time on Elance . . . "Redo copyedit," or "Redo ghost writing chapters."  There ARE very good English-speaking writers abroad, but the best tend to charge competitive rates, even though their cost of living may be lower.  After all, if you're just as good as a writer-editor living in New York or California, why not charge the same rates?  So it isn't really a function of where the writer lives; it's a function of how much they charge.  You definitely get what you pay for.
2. Unless the writer is an American living abroad, foreign English language writers just don't get the culture.  Marketing and writing are skewed toward stereotypes.
3. Your project may end up getting further outsourced.  Many of the 'companies' that advertise on outsourcing sites get the work for $7-$10 an hour and then farm it out to underpaid (yet educated) labor at $3-$5 an hour.  Emphasis is on speed and turnaround; there is very little supervision of the final product.  Basically, your work is slammed into a writing mill.

Special warning for outsourcing social media - Some outsourcing firms promise almost unbelievable numbers of followers.  Thousands.  Hundreds of thousands.  A million.  How do they propose to achieve this?  Their laboring denizens each have 10-12 Facebook and Twitter accounts (at least).  Their accounts APPEAR to be American citizens.  They are paid pennies per click to join the client's page, thus racking up huge membership numbers for you, but zero-zilch-zip in terms of quality followers who are actually interested in your product or service. 

Social media outsource warning #2 - Beware of firms that might be using spamming software to acquire followers.  These codes have been banned by all reputable social media sites, and if your account grows too fast it will be suspended by the site.  You will lose all your contacts and have to start all over again, with a new email and a new identity.  Your IP number (computer ID) may also be flagged.

Is Anyone Feeding Schrodinger's Cat?

Here's an inside peek at a ghost writing assignment I had last week . . .

The purpose of the assignment is to explain quantum mechanics to a lay audience, and to prepare the reader to understand the possible realities that underpin key concepts of visualization. 

In other words, are thoughts really things?  Do our thoughts have a tiny degree of tangible substance?  And can we create a new life, a new world around us, simply by willing it into existence? 

A New Mug and a Pat on the Back

Everybody should start their day with a cup of coffee and a pat on the back.  I just got this nifty box in the mail from EzineArticles.com with a new mug, leather coaster, and Door County Coffee, with a note thanking me for becoming rated as a top author-contributor.  Thanks, Ezine!

The coffee mugs are a nice and unexpected gesture from EzineArticles.com to thank all their top authors for submitting clean, professional copy.  Of all the online article distributors, Ezine has the most stringent rules--no live URL's in the text, no contact information in the story itself, and absolutely no product pitches or self-promotional statements.  Each story must be able to stand alone as an informative news piece in order to make it past Ezine's requirements and editors.

This is why it's important to have a PR person with some journalistic background writing for you--someone who knows the difference between a story and self-promotion.  It may seem counter-intuitive to put stories out there that seem to have nothing to do with your product or service, but if the stories are high-quality, centered on popular topics, informational, and read like real news those stories will get picked up and re-published, carrying your firm's tags and contact information with it.  Ideally, you should even be getting some calls or emails from media writers looking for more information. 

We were also awarded a badge and placement on a select list of links by travel site Tripbase for my wine industry blog, Central Coast Wine Blogs.

Featured Client: Brigit Binns

 

Client: Brigit Binns 

Location: Hudson Valley, New York, USA

My Assignment: Introduce Brigit to the best food producers and wineries in the central coast for her forthcoming project, The Central Coast Wine Country Cookbook

Brigit's sparkling personality and love of good food shine through in her cookbooks, which number 23 and counting.  Besides her own cookbooks, Brigit is the author of some of the most popular cookbooks in the Williams-Sonoma line.  As a culinary co-author, she has also helped celebrities and chefs bring their projects to life on paper.  Some of her celebrity clients include:

• Michael Psilakis - Kefi, New York City How to Roast a Lamb
• Joachim Splichal - Patina, Los Angeles The Patina Cookbook 
• Lorraine Wallace (daughter-in-law of the late Mike Wallace and wife of FOX News' Chris Wallace) Mr. Sunday's Soups

I led Brigit into the belly of the culinary scene—literally!  We started with some introductions to my favorite wineries, a selection of small, midsize, and larger producers and moved on to visits with local cheese, olive oil, beef and market growers.  Brigit, who spent many happy summers on a central coast ranch as a child, was having a ball.  And as the indomitable author of the popular culinary blog roadfoodie.com, she was clearly no stranger to adventure.

 

So I upped the stakes a little and put her in touch with a family of fishermen operating out of Morro Bay.  Brigit was given a tour of their boats and thoroughly instructed in the life cycle, challenges and dangers of fishing the Pacific.

 

The highlight of our culinary exploration, however, was a wild boar hunt with professional guide Matt Tupen over the gloaming hills of Dubost Ranch in northwest Paso Robles.  I haven't had so much fun in years!  Recipe:  put two adventure-loving women in an ATV with a good-looking hunter and then go slipping and sliding through muddy hills and valleys looking for bacon on the hoof. 

 

Wild boar are prevalent in the wilderness areas and vineyards of the central coast.  They are omniverous, with a wild diet that includes mostly wild grains and grasses, but also small animals—generally frogs, lizards, squirrels, and other small prey that they catch around watering holes.  They are wary and nocturnal, and so most commonly seen near sunrise or dusk.

 

Our prize—a 200 pound wild boar—was mentally carved up into roast and ribs while he was still hanging from a tree limb.  Most of the boar was parcelled out to friends, but some found its way into Brigit's rich, dark boar cassoulet which she immediately proclaimed a "Pasoulet" and served with some robust Paso Robles syrah.  A toast to Brigit—and we await with great anticipation the release of The Central Coast Wine Country Cookbook.  .

 

 

 

Custom Toolbar for Solid Fans

 

Solid Communications now offers a free customized toolbar!  Just click on "Download Our Toolbar" in the right column.  The download is safe and non-invasive.  It's also loaded with all the stuff I'd like my clients to have:

• A Conduit search box
• Link to Solid Communications for free marketing and branding guidance
• Facebook button
• Twitter button
• Jabberclub button—allows you to access video from your computer or YouTube and instantly email or Tweet the video link
• Snap Shots—gives you detailed information on sites related to your recent search or promotion topics, and even a visual snapshot of relevant pages
• A world time zone clock
• Skype button—free telephone conversations to numbers around the world
• Weather button—displays the current temperature right on the bar, and daily forecast in the hover box

Make your own customized toolbar to share with clients and customers at Conduit.com.  It's a great way to provide functionality and added value to your customers and readers.

It's also easy to delete the toolbar if you decide it's not your cup o' tea—just right click on the toolbar and uncheck it on the displayed list.  But I hope you take it for a test drive!

Featured Client: Advaita Art & Lifestyle

  

• Client: Advaita
• Location: Riga, Latvia, Europe
• PR Firm: New Leaf Creative Strategies--overseeing entire US brand and product launch
• My Assignment: All print and media communications, commentary on US brand planning, editing European-based web and marketing copy, content calendar planning, news releases, ezine articles, product pitches, social media, and building editorial contact databases

First of all, I love all my clients.  I am so incredibly fortunate in that I can choose to work with clients that fit me like a little black dress. Does that sound selfish?  Well when the dress fits, I am a knock out, professionally speaking.  A ill-fitting relationship doesn't do anything for the provider or the client.   

The Advaita account is one of the most exciting in my portfolio right now.  Eva Chen at New Leaf Creative Strategies is at the helm of the US brand launch, and I am staggered by the detail that Eva is able to manage--distributors, trade shows, national advertising, sales support materials, packaging, and liasons with the European owners and marketing staff.  Yowsa.

As a sub-contractor, the variety of activity coming my way is exciting, too.  My projects include:

• writing mini-articles for distribution to ezines and blogs
• researching topics on sleep, wellness, yoga, recharging energy, meditation, creativity and acupressure
• writing and distributing press releases
• researching and preparing product pitches to blogs, catalogs and magazines
• pitching story ideas to the editors of national magazines
• building contact lists of key bloggers in multiple industries
• working with the US marketing team (just 4 of us!) to fine-tune planning and implementation
• creating content calendars for print and social media release
• daily social media building on Facebook and Twitter
• looking for creative co-promotion opportunities
• approaching potential celebrity spokespersons

Advaita produces an upscale  line of health and wellness products designed by yoga instructors, artists and engineers.  Every product is meant to engage all the senses, promote well-being, and inspire creativity. 

        

Based in Latvia, Advaita products are in high demand in Europe, and this summer the company is releasing its line of products to the U.S.   Headlining our summer marquee is the ECO Pranamat by Advaita.  The Pranamat is based on the ancient 'bed of nails' concept.  Unlike a yoga workout mat, or a sleeping mat, the Pranamat is covered with sharp plastic petals--212 hard plastic lotus flowers with pointy petals are attached to the mat. 

When one lies on the mat, the petals push gently into the skin, stimulating energy meridians and circulation, and triggering the release of endorphins.  Increased circulation also releases the hormone oxytocin, which creates a serene feeling of contentment and self-esteem.  The mat can be used to energize or relax, depending on how it is used. 

Unlike other acupressure mats (which are usually inexpensive knockoffs of this brand) the Pranamat has a completely eco-wise construction and fine materials are used in every detail, right down to the Advaita 'lotus' logo embroidered with fine German thread on a natural linen cover.

Welcome to Solid Communications

 

Greetings everyone! 

The last year has been a time of momentous sea changes in my personal and professional life.  So it’s strangely appropriate that this month I am excited to announce that my fledgling PR and copywriting business is changing its name to Solid Communications.

Central Coast Wine Blogs—my free source of marketing news and advice for wineries—will continue to grow and thrive, and I will continue to accept winery clients whenever possible.   My CCWB fans will continue to receive my free monthly newsletters with timely tips and free marketing guidance for wineries.  The wine and food community in the Central Coast has always been my first love and I am thrilled to death when local wineries turn to me to help them achieve their dreams and goals.  Plus, it gives me an excuse to get out and about and meet with my friends and wine associates frequently!

In recent months I’ve discovered that about 90% of my business is coming from sources I had never expected, and that my skills as a copy writer, ghost writer and social media manager are in demand by companies around the world.  So I would like to invite all of you to join my current mailing list and receive free monthly information that will help you increase business and find new clients.  You can join my mailing list by subscribing to my blog in the right column, or ... just follow my blog by clicking on the Facebook widget on the right!

In future posts I’ll be providing free advice for marketing your business and building your brand—tips derived from questions I am asked by my clients and problems I’ve encountered, plus examples from real life.

I’d like to just take a moment to catch you up on what I’ve been doing recently!  Here are a few of my current clients:

• Meridith Powell, MotionFirst, author of 42 Rules to Turn Prospects into Customers
• Advaita Art, the US launch of Pranamat Eco products
• New Leaf Creative Strategies
• Rob Coats, author of Connect and Grow Rich
• Michael O’Donnell, StartUpBUSINESS.com
• SocialVintage.com
• Brigit Binns, author of Central Coast Wine Country Cookbook (2011)

I’ll be featuring each client and more about their projects, marketing, and social media plans on my blog at Solid Communications. 

In my spare time, I’m also working on two cookbooks, a non-fiction book on the sinking of the  Oceanos, and a series of eBooks, a couple of which have already been published and reviewed:

• 50 Tips for Cellar Rats: How to Get (and Keep) a Great Job as a Winery Cellar Rat or Harvest Intern
• How to Sell Winegrapes and Promote Your Vineyard
• Managing Your Tasting Room
• Building Your Brand
• Facebook for Small Businesses (Bonus Chapter: How to Use Twitter to Build Your Brand)
• The Power of the Positive Word

I’d like to invite you to join me on a journey of discovery—how to use tips and tricks from social media, global outsourcing, and professional copywriters to make your business shine! 

Warm regards,

Mary B.

5 Social Media Mistakes to Avoid

 

Whether you are a small winery, a restaurant, a jewelry designer or a boutique bakery, here are 5 tips for making social media easier and more effective to use.

1.  Don't get all excited about using social media until you have someplace to send people. Establish your priorities. First make sure you have a great website and an updated, effective e-commerce page. I highly recommend establishing a blog, too. Tablas Creek has an award-winning winery blog, and the Creekside Inn does an excellent job of blogging and using Facebook to attract repeat customers and referrals. Use a blog to post fun facts, photos, behind-the-scenes glimpses of your business and product, and employee biographies. This gives your social media contacts a rich environment to visit when they arrive at your site. The point of engaging in social media is to entice people to visit your e-commerce site and buy your product. Ergo, your first priority is to make your website, e-commerce page and blog so effective that people simply can't leave without buying.

2.  Don't try to do it all.  Digg, StumbleUpon and dozens of others are not really necessary.  Unless you have scads of time or another favorite social media platform, focus on using just two—Facebook and Twitter.  In fact, you can link your Twitter and Facebook accounts together so that when you post on Facebook, your posts are simultaneously published on Twitter.  That way, you only need to focus on ONE social media platform.

3.  Don't ignore the power of social leverage.  While you are focusing on one social media site, put your minions to work spreading the word!  (Minions, by the way, are not dwarves or servants.  The word is descended from the French mignon, or 'little darlings'.  I like it!  I have an army of online minions.)  And so will you if you follow these  two simple steps.  Put social media 'buttons' on your blog posts so your followers can Digg, Stumble, and Tweet your posts to their friends and the tweetosphere.  (Look at the bottom of this post and you will see my buttons.)  Give postcards to your retail customers that include your blog address, your Facebook name, and your Twitter name.  Then your customers will become minions and begin tweeting, stumbling and digging in your service.

4.  Don't neglect your social media site. Once you've established them, create a plan for building membership and traffic.  Devote at least 1/2 hour a day to your social media sites.  Some people find it useful to create a content calendar.

5.  Find a balance between casual conversation and brand building.  Earn respect by sharing information, resources and links.  Engage in personal conversations.  If all you post and send are commercial notices and 'invitations' you'll end up being blocked by the very users you most want to reach. 

10 Tips for Successful Business Blogging

The first step is to choose a blogging platform, and there are a lot of great ones out there that make blogging so easy you can start writing and posting to the web within minutes.  Once you’ve decided to launch a blog and chosen a blog interface, whether it’s custom-designed, self-hosted, or a popular service like Typepad or Blogger (see Blog Software Smackdown for other top choices), it’s time to face the initially daunting aspects of design and content.

1.  Choose an appropriate layout and design

If your site is going to be very informational, with multiple fact boxes and links, then a 3-column layout may work best. It will give you more space to post information, and you will be able to place titles and boxes higher on the page so readers will see them when they first log on.

However, if you plan to write in a personal essay style, the 3-column layout is too busy—it will distract readers from your message. For this type of blog, a simple 2-column layout is best, one for writing, and one for links and information.

Choose a color scheme that is similar to your website, but give some thought to what colors mean to people. For the Women Wine Critics Board I chose strong colors, dark blue and orange, because the people writing for that site have strong, sensible opinions (and it’s also a subliminal protest against pink "women’s" wine sites and Barbie doll connotations). For a winery blog, I chose sky blue and green because they match the blue of the buildings, and have a connotation of sky and earth—which is a big part of the winery's product and story.

Busy backgrounds—plaids and prints—draw the eye away from content and slow down the page loading time. Also, backgrounds that look to others like grandma’s wallpaper may be intuitively perceived as unprofessional. Use these designs sparingly, in thin blocks or borders, to add emphasis and visual interest.