Beth Gasser

16 Oct 2010

50 Sources of Inspiration for Blog Content

October 16, 2010 By Beth Gasser 1 Comment

REMEMBER: Write about something you are passionate about; it will show in your writing. Write to the needs of your readers; they’ll establish you as an expert and look forward to what you have to say.

1. You are welcome to think of and write the content yourself, especially if you enjoy writing.

2. Don’t forget to ask staff if they’d be interested in writing articles.

3. Check with Receptionist/Customer Service Department for commonly asked questions, and address those questions with answers in your next article.

4. Use all or part of case studies for articles. If none have been written yet, use client projects or service scenarios to demonstrate problem/solution oriented articles. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blogging

25 May 2010

Each Time I Teach, I Learn

May 25, 2010 By Beth Gasser 1 Comment

It’s no secret that I have a passion for rural Minnesota and helping small businesses. That is why I love traveling around Minnesota, teaching others how to grow businesses or non-profits using technology and the web.

For each hour I spend researching, writing curriculum, driving, and delivering speeches, I bet I get back tri-fold from the experience. Each person I meet has amazing ideas, insights into their industry, questions that challenge me to think, and humor to round off my day. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Inspiration, Rural Small Businesses Tagged With: Inspiration, rural minnesota, teaching

13 May 2010

Using URL Shorteners to Make Your Work Easier

May 13, 2010 By Beth Gasser 1 Comment

It has happened to me several times; I’ve been talking to someone about Bit.ly or a URL shortener and realized they have not been introduced to this feature. Let’s take a minute, go over the basics of URL shortening, and help you get the most out of this social media tool. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With: bit.ly

05 Jan 2010

A Gift for the Social Media Enthusiast in Your Life

January 5, 2010 By Beth Gasser 1 Comment

Belated holiday gifts, Birthday, or early Valentine’s Day ideas…

Need a great gift idea for that special someone in your life whose own life is encompassed by social media efforts? While an ergonomic computer chair is a great idea, I guarantee you that the best thing you can give them is the gift that keeps on giving.

I’m talking about writing an article on your blog or a guest article for someone else; no strings attached. Take your passion and writing skills, and donate a little time toward something that really matters. We’ve all had requests from others to write an article about this or that. Think of your friends, clients, and colleagues; then go back through your notes or emails and follow through with a few requests.

If you haven’t had any recent requests for guest articles, then choose a few topics that you LOVE and write from the heart. Give a shout out or a link to someone who you care about who also has a common interest or expertise in that area. There is no better way of expressing your gratitude and best wishes for 2010 than to create positive, helpful, and inspiring content for others.

photo credit: smajee

Filed Under: Blogging, Inspiration, Marketing

17 Dec 2009

Twitter Giveth and Twitter Taketh Away

December 17, 2009 By Beth Gasser 1 Comment

Only a short time ago Twitter added the much talked about “RT” button. For days I read nothing but negative tweets with #fail hashtags. Nobody seemed to like it. I was hesitant to use it, but forced myself to give it a try. It was easy to ReTweet with a push of the button. However, it made following RT bread crumb trails more difficult. It also resulted in seeing people I didn’t normally follow appear on my home page. “Who is this?’ often ran through my head.

But, my biggest gripe with the RT button was the fact that using the button meant that I wasn’t allowed to add my personal comment before the RT, explaining why I thought it was worthy of my time and endorsement.

Well, today I need not ponder the issue any further. I logged on early this morning to find the button gone. My first and only tweet thus far today:

I guess it’s back to the old way of ReTweeting. I really won’t miss it. And you?

Filed Under: Twitter Tagged With: retweet, rt, Twitter

16 Dec 2009

Managing Fan Pages on Facebook Just Got Easier

December 16, 2009 By Beth Gasser 6 Comments

We’ve all done it. We’ve opened our Facebook emails, read an emailed comment from our Fan Page that ignited our creative juices, and hit reply only to realize that Facebook doesn’t allow you to reply this way. Not anymore!

Facebook recently launched the capabilities of replying to comments via email. In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a message from Facebook in each of the emails that reads, “New Feature: Reply to this email to comment on this post.” This is a fantastic feature for anyone who manages a fan page. Manage multiple fan pages as I do, and it is a gift. Today, I’m referring to it as my special holiday gift from Facebook.

I’ve always monitored comments via email. My email feeds into my Blackberry. Now, I can reply faster and easier to keep discussions going and without logging into Facebook. This saves me a ton of steps, not to mention a whole lot of time. Thanks Facebook!

*Hint: Don’t try to reply to emailed messages from last week. The feature wasn’t implemented and is likely not to work on older messages.

Filed Under: Facebook Tagged With: Facebook, facebook for business, fan pages

07 Dec 2009

Top 10 Reasons Why Twitter is Bad

December 7, 2009 By Beth Gasser 4 Comments

1. You might get more than one opinion. If you love to live in a world that revolves around you, do more talking than listening, and shun open-mindedness, then Twitter is a bad idea for you. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Twitter Tagged With: gasser, hutchinson, minnesota, top 10 list, Twitter

19 Nov 2009

Google Friend Connect as a Marketing Strategy

November 19, 2009 By Beth Gasser 1 Comment

If you frequent blogs, you’ve maybe noticed a box like this (pictured left) in the sidebar titled “Google Friend Connect”, asking you to “Join this Site”. If you are like me, you skipped over it for months, hurrying on to articles and other business at hand.

Luckily, one day I took the time to explore Google Friend Connect and learned that it is much more than a friendly application. I’ve discovered a few great ways to use Google Friend Connect for business that I’d like to share with you.

Social marketing is all about meeting people where they like to be, adapting to the tools they prefer. Many people love this tool and choose to follow blogs by joining via Google Friend Connect. In fact, I’ve been asked hundreds of times to follow someone using this tool. As soon as I added it to my site, people started to join. While my preference is still via email/feedburner, I make the extra effort to join using Google Friend Connect. It is just one more option in building community, and hey, that’s what makes social media so great.
Google Friend Connect makes a great tracking mechanism. I frequent hundreds of blogs, some of which I bookmark. However, when I’m out visiting blogs and investing time in my blogging relationships, I like to stay focused. Each time I see a Google Friend Connect option, I click on the “Join this site” button. I am quickly added and my picture displays. It acts as a visual cue for me if I come across this site again. I know I’ve been there before, as I’ve left a bread crumb trail-of sorts.
When I’m looking for other blogs to follow or people in niche areas, I use “Google Friend Connect” to view profiles and blogs that others are following. This tool provides a nice one page of info on each blogger, and I can quickly see what blogs they follow.
It keeps emails organized so I don’t have to. I don’t want to keep track of people’s emails whom I may or may not want to contact in the future. However, on many occassions I have wanted to personally email a fellow blogger. Google Friend Connect has their email on file, which I can quickly access.
This tool also relies on gravatar pictures, which I love. I often see people I recognize who’ve joined a blog before I arrive. Seeing their picture and recognizing them plays into my trust factor and influences my decision to join too.

Take a minute or two to check out Google Friend Connect and see if it’s right for you. If you use it in other ways, please share with me. I’d love to hear your strategies.

Filed Under: Blogging, Google Tagged With: Google, Google Friend Connect, join this site, marketing strategy

17 Nov 2009

The Three Pitfalls of Business on Facebook

November 17, 2009 By Beth Gasser 2 Comments

Setting up a fan page on Facebook is a great way to reach people who are passionate about what your business or organization does. However, the choices you make when setting up your page dictate the success and effectiveness of your fan page later. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Facebook Tagged With: business on facebook, Facebook, fan pages, setting up fan pages, uses of facebook

11 Nov 2009

The Mystery Business

November 11, 2009 By Beth Gasser 4 Comments

Every town has one; a mysterious business that nobody seems to know what they do. No one seems to know another person who works there, and the mysterious business seems to elude social events and sponsorships that other area businesses use to thrive. I wonder if these businesses know they are so mysterious. I wonder if it’s intentional or a horrific series of decisions that have led them down a path that has accidentally ostracized them from the rest of the community. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: blogs, small business, small towns

09 Sep 2009

5 Tips to Writing Regular Blog Posts

September 9, 2009 By Beth Gasser 3 Comments

One of the most common concerns small businesses have about starting a blog for their business is the task of writing regular blog posts. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blogging, Inspiration Tagged With: blog, Blogging, minnesota, small business, writing articles, writing blog posts

17 Aug 2009

You know the look…

August 17, 2009 By Beth Gasser Leave a Comment

You know the look. That blank stare you get when you mention something the other person hasn’t the slightest idea what it is. Mention Facebook and people warm up immediately. Mention Twitter and they freeze. Why is it that Twitter is so hard for people to get? Well, there is good reason why people don’t openly embrace Twitter, and I believe it has to do with a sense of “lack of control”. We live in a country where we try to be in control of almost everything from our careers to the people we marry (both of which are predetermined for millions of people elsewhere in the world).

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Facebook, Google, Social Network, Twitter Tagged With: Google, retweet, rt, social media, Twitter

28 Jun 2009

Dead in the Water: 5 Common Mistakes People Make Networking Online

June 28, 2009 By Beth Gasser 3 Comments

I spend an average of three hours per day networking with people online. Granted some of this time is answering emails and reading blog posts, but much of my time is spent networking with people to learn valuable information, techniques, and new tools to pass along to other small business owners and people interested in learning social media. Therefore, it should come to no surprise that I have accumulated a list of things that make it difficult to quickly and effectively communicate with people. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blogging, Facebook, Twitter Tagged With: 5 mistakes, gravatar, twitter bio

22 Jun 2009

How Many People Does It Take to Change a Light Bulb – A Twitter Story

June 22, 2009 By Beth Gasser 1 Comment

Guest Post by @ConfessionsMom

If it’s a microwave light bulb we’re talking about, the answer is quite a few.The light in our microwave is something I apparently took for granted. When the original, several year old light bulb recently burned out, it took me by surprise. I opened the microwave door, expecting to see something obvious. Instead, I found no where the light bulb could be. I couldn’t even remember where I used to see the light coming from inside the oven. My husband looked too and was stumped. Hmmm… I decided I could live without a microwave light, until the next time I overheated a cup of coffee. I couldn’t see into the oven until it was too late. I had coffee everywhere. As I grumbled through the clean up process, I decided to turn to twitter. Within seconds, I received this tweet, “How to Change a Microwave Light Bulb http://bit.ly/YgSF3 from @jennhollowell [Read more...]

Filed Under: Twitter Tagged With: crowd sourcing, light bulb, microwave, Twitter

07 Jun 2009

Are All Famous Dave Restaurants the Same – Twitter Knows the Answer

June 7, 2009 By Beth Gasser Leave a Comment

Recently our family took a trip to St. Cloud, MN to visit family. Upon driving through town, I noticed St. Cloud has a Famous Dave’s restaurant. We love to treat ourselves to Famous Dave’s occasionally, but we’ve never visited this particular location. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Twitter

04 Jun 2009

Can the Power of Twitter Get the Smoke Smell Out of Your House

June 4, 2009 By Beth Gasser 3 Comments

I own a rental property and recently stopped over to paint and clean before the next tenants move in. When I opened the door, a gust of cigarette smoke hit me. Being a non-smoker, I immediately started worrying how I was going to get such an overwhelming scent out of the house. I opened windows, but that wasn’t enough. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Twitter Tagged With: rental property, smoke smell, smoking, Twitter

05 Apr 2009

Social Marketing Results in Less than 60 Minutes: One Great Example

April 5, 2009 By Beth Gasser 2 Comments

Rachel Ray can whip up a great meal in less than thirty minutes, so why can’t you create some fantastic social marketing results in a half hour too? You can. The following is a great example of the power of social networking tools; put to use this week by Beth Gasser, owner of Confessions of a Mom website.

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