Unilyzer

Shel Israel

Rebecca — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 04:13:18 +0000

Shel Israel speaks and advises on social media. Co-author of Naked Conversations–how blogs are changing the way businesses talk with customers, The Conversational Corporation, a DowJones e-book, and Twitterville, how businesses can thrive in Global Neighborhoods [ Portfolio Sept. 3, 2009]. He has contributed editorially to BusinessWeek, FastCompany.TV, and Dow Jones. Ad Age ranks this blog at #78 on the 2009 Power 150 business blogs.

Since 2005, he has interviewed more than 375 people in 38 countries on social media’s impact on culture and business. He has interviewed a diverse set of people, ranging from Michael Dell, founder of Dell Computers to Wael Abbas, who posts hidden-camera videos of Egyptian police brutality on YouTube to Isaac Mao, China’s first blogger and GM Vice Chairperson Bob Lutz. He is regularly interviewed by traditional and online media and have addressed audiences in eight countries on social media related topics. In November 2008, he was honored to become the first American to keynote at CNBloggercon, China’s largest social media conference.

He is a senior fellow to the Society for New Media Research (SNCR) and serve on the advisory boards to the Social Media Club and SmartBrief on Social Media.

Follow Shel on Twitter: @shelisrael

Read Shel’s Blog: Global Neighbourhoods

Peter Shankman

Rebecca — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 04:13:18 +0000

An entrepreneur, author, speaker, and worldwide connector, Peter is recognized worldwide for radically new ways of thinking about Social Media, PR, marketing, advertising, creativity, and customer service.

Peter is perhaps best known for founding Help A Reporter Out, (HARO) which in under a year has become the de-facto standard for thousands of journalists looking for sources on deadline, offering them more than 100,000 sources around the world looking to be quoted in the media. HARO is currently the largest free source repository in the world, sending out over 1,200 queries from worldwide media each week. HARO’s tagline, “Everyone is an Expert at Something,” proves over and over again to be true, as thousands of new members join at helpareporter.com each week.

In addition to HARO, Peter is the founder and CEO of The Geek Factory, Inc., a boutique Marketing and PR Strategy firm located in New York City, with clients worldwide. His blog, which he launched as a website in 1995, (www.shankman.com) both comments on and generates news and conversation.

Peter’s PR and Social Media clients have included the Snapple Beverage Group, NASA, The US Department of Defense, Walt Disney World, Abercrombie and Kent, The Ad Council, American Express, Discovery Networks, New Frontier Media, Napster, Juno, Dream Catcher Destinations Club, Harrah’s Hotels, and many others, and he sits on the board of the Scott-e-Vest, the world’s first technologically enabled clothing line.

Peter is the author of Can We Do That?! Outrageous PR Stunts That Work and Why Your Company Needs Them (Wiley and Sons 2006) and a frequent keynote speaker and workshop presenter at conferences, and tradeshows worldwide, including The Affiliate Summit, South By Southwest, The Public Relations Society of America, The International Association of Business Communicators, CTIA, CTAM, CES, PMA, OMMA, Mobile Marketing Asia, and the Direct Marketing Association.

A marketing pundit for several national and international news channels, including Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC, Peter is frequently quoted in major media and trade publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, New York Daily News, Associated Press, Reuters, CNN, and USA Today.

Follow Peter on Twitter: @skydiver

Visit Peter’s Blog: www.Shankman.com

Blog Writing Tips

Rebecca — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:51:21 +0000

Creating quality content for your blog can be an overwhelming task, especially if you’re not an experienced writer. You will find that the more you write, the easier the exercise becomes. This is the system I use when I write articles for the Unilyzer blog.

TIP #1: Plan Your Articles
Map out 20 -30 article titles ahead of time. This keeps your topic mix fresh and helps avoid writers block. If you know the direction you’re going, you don’t have to re-think each time you sit down to write a blog post.

This is also a good time to plan keyword placement. Make sure your articles are informative, but also have a 2-3% keyword density to maximize your search engine optimization. Investing time in crafting your blog post titles. Spend some time and think about a title that will attract and captivate the imagination of your target audience.

TIP #2: Build Off Other Content
You don’t always have to reveal earth shattering news or tips on your blog. It can be just as effective and valuable to your audience to make recommendations, product reviews, or point them to other informative websites. One example of this is embedding a YouTube video in your blog post, commenting on the video, and then add some suggestions or recommendations of your own. The key is sharing information or videos that your audience will care about, not any video will do.

TIP #3: Have a Point and Get To It Fast
Blog posts should be at a max 500 words. The key is drawing your audience in with the first 1-2 sentences. Replace the lengthy introduction paragraph with one sentence. The second sentence should be your thesis, argument, or point that you are trying to make.

TIP #4: Simple Language
Most of your audience will be people who want to learn something from your article. Short sentences are attractive, easily readable and understood. Like getting lost in translation the point you so anxiously wish to make can be lost by the time the reader finds his way to the end of a long sentence. (an example of what not to do)

TIP #5: No Excuses, Just Do It Already
Writing and procrastination have a tendency to go together. The worst thing you can do is not update your blog on a regular basis. Blogging 4-5x per week will yield amazing SEO benefits. Stop putting it off until tomorrow and start typing something now. You’ll get better with each blog you write.

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