Twitter and Facebook help Queensland Flood Victims

I am writing this post from my evacuation location
following flooding in Brisbane.

The Brisbane River broke its banks two days ago and
now thousands of homes are flooded and the river has
entered the CBD of Brisbane, Queensland's capital.

The CBD and 115,000 people are without power as a result
of the need to cut power to flooded areas.

Boats and pontoons have been racing wildly down the river,
totally out of control.

Queensland Police kept people informed via Facebook and
the Twitter #qldfloods messages kept information
flowing from people being affected by the floods. The tweets
also provided safety information and were running
at a couple of hundred tweets per minute. Queensland Police
also monitored the Twitter posts and were very quick to
make tweets to correct myths or rumours that were passing
on inaccurate information.

Current indications are that 11,900 homes had water througout
the entire property and 14,700 were partially affected by the
Brisbane floods. 2,500 businesses were flooded over the entire
property while 2,500 were partially flooded.

While the flood level in Brisbane ended up 1 metre lower
that of the 1974 floods, the damage is still devasting
as the population is twice that of 1974 and there has been
a lot of riverside development since.

Many homes have the flood water at roof levels and people in
the upper reaches of the river experienced flood levels greater
than the 1974 floods.

The flood in Brisbane is mirrored throughout the whole State
as 75% of Queensland is under water (Queensland is 6 times the
size of the UK). The city of Ipswich is 30% under water with
homes and buildings destroyed.

Some of the more devastating floods are out West in towns like
Chinchilla, Dalby and Condamine which have been totally evacuated
twice in ten days. Cities in the north like Marborough, Bundaberg
and Rockhampton have also had thousands of people evacuated.

The most dramatic, frighteneing and emotionally disturbing floods
occurred on the range above Brisbane at Toowoomba and the foothill
towns of Grantham, Helidon and Withcott.

People were walking down the main street of the major city of
Toowoomba when a 7 metre walk of water raced through the CBD
drowning some people, throwing cars and containers around like
corks and leaving cars piled up on top of each other.

The 7 metre wall of water then raced down the range gathering
speed and smashed into a number of country towns such as Grantham.
The devastation at Grantham is beyond belief. It has been totally
razed as if a bomb blast hit it. One house with a faimily of three
in it was lifted off its stumps and smashed into splinters with
no visible evidence of the house remaining.

12 people are now confirmed dead and 43 missing.

Hundreds of people have been saved from the fast running
flood waters via Army and SES helicopters, some
plucked from the roofs of cars and houses.

Brisbane and surrounding areas are now in shock and face
a huge cleanup and rebuilding task - with much of the
infrastructure destroyed (roads, bridges, water treatment
plants, etc.).

Thanks to wonderful support from NZ and interstate
and the Defence Forces. The Queensland Police and
State Emergency Services (SES)were courageous and
amazing. Community volunteering and collaboration
has been outstanding.

As the Premier said, "This flood may break our hearts
but will not break our will!"

Social Media Strategy: What will you give up in 2011?

Social media strategy implies a direction, a path or purpose.

Fundamentally, it implies a choice - choosing one focus other
another.  So, social media strategy implies exclusion as well as
inclusion.

The challenge is to make the choice - decide what you will focus
on and what you will give up (or exclude).

If you try to cover all social media for example, you are not
being strategic.  You will not achieve your goals because your
focus and energy will be too dispersed.

Two top marketers have gone public recently to explain what
their marketing strategy is for 2011.

Seth Godin has stated that (after 12 New York bestsellers)
he is giving up writing books for traditional publishing
to focus on publishing "in whatever form" works for his readers.
The Wall Street Journal suggests that this will take the form of
"electronic books, via print-on-demand or in such
formats as audiobooks, apps, small digital files
called PDFs and podcasts".  Seth indicated that the majority
of his blog readers have never bought one of his books
in a bookstore.

Dr. Mani - Infopreneur, heart surgeon and creator of The
Children's Heart Foundation - has decided to give up
traditional email marketing as a primary marketing approach
and focus more on social media marketing. He expressed
considerable disappointment at the low opening rate of
his emails in 2010.

These two top Internet marketers have changed their
social media strategy to reflect changes in audience response
experienced in 2010 and earlier.

So the question remains about your social media strategy:
What are you going to focus on in 2011 and what will
you give up to make this happen?

If you want some guidance in that choice, why not join
us in the SquidooRoo social media training program where
we take you through the choices re content creation,
social networking and promotion - all elements of
social media strategy.

***********************************************
Ron Passfield, PhD, is a Giant Squid100 and
social media consultant.

His 6 month social media training program
is available at:
http://www.squidooroo.com

Sign up now for a FREE ecourse
in social media marketing:
Social Media Marketing Tips

Social Media Marketing: How Squidoo Builds Community

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***********************************************
Ron Passfield is a Giant Squid100 and
social media consultant.

His 6 month social media training program
is available at:
http://www.squidooroo.com

Sign up now for a FREE ecourse
in social media marketing:
Social Media Marketing Tips

Social Media Marketing: Growing with Squidoo

I joined Squidoo in 2007 and I have been reflecting on what this
social network has meant to me.

What I value is the encouragement to pursue your own interest
and passions and to share them through the creation of Squidoo
lenses (of which I now have 100+).

Squidoo itself is highly innovative and very supportive of innovation,
so I found that I could give expression to my creativity.  This has
been a particularly rewarding aspect of Squidoo.

The Squidoo community is exceptionally supportive and willing
to help at every turn - whether you are a newbie or an experienced
Lensmaster trying to become a Giant Squid (50 excellent lenses).

Squidoo has helped me grow in confidence in my online endeavors
and to create my own online products.  The work of  other very
talented Lensmasters and writers is a constant source of inspiration
and stimulation.

I value the friendships I have made on Squidoo and the
shared experience of working within this nurturing environment.

I think we all need a home within the social media environs
and I consider Squidoo home.  From there I can actively
engage with other social networks - such as Facebook,
Twitter, Hub Pages, LinkedIn and Redgage - and feel
comfortable that I have a contribution to make.

So in a very real sense, I feel as though I have been growing
up online through Squidoo and its evolution.

Why not join the hundreds of thousands of people who have
now built over 1,800,000 Squidoo lenses (websites)?:

CLICK HERE to add Squidoo to your social media marketing

***********************************************
Ron Passfield is a Giant Squid100 and
social media consultant.

His 6 month social media training program 
is available at:
http://www.squidooroo.com


Sign up now for a FREE ecourse
in social media marketing:
Social Media Marketing Tips
 

Social Media Marketing : The Third Tribe

There appears to be two opposing "tribes" that inhabit
social media.

The first tribe, the goldiggers, consider social media
a goldmine to be mined mercilessly without any consideration
of the impact on the community environment within the
various social networks. For this group, it is okay to
auto-generate thousands of artificial user identities and
spam blogs with auto-generated posts. It is okay to deceive
people with misleading headlines or trap them into
auto-subscription to heavy monthly payments. It is the
tribe of false promises that is full of hype and deception.
The Golddiggers war cry is "crush the competition".

The second tribe, the moralists, focus only on the
community dimension and consider any form of marketing on
social media to be sacrilege. This tribe adopts the moral
high ground and emphasizes community at the expense of
commerce. They overlook the fact that many people nowadays
(because of forced layoffs and the economic climate) earn
their living online. They consider it immoral to ask people
to pay for information or advice (that has often been
generated through years of trial and error and considerable
expense in time and money).

The Third Tribe subscribes to the view that social media marketing
is a means of building relationships, developing a customer base,
optimizing websites and blogs and creating personal wealth.
Beneath this assumption is a values set that reinforces
truth in marketing, collaboration, sharing, genuine and deep
relationships, personal rights, mutual learning and community
capacity building. Members of the Third tribe believe that
it is appropriate and necessary to offer people in social networks
valuable information and resources that meets their needs
and to do so at a reasonable (not inflated) price. At the same time,
they are willing to use their knowledge and skills to build up
the confidence and capability of other people (at no charge)
and readily work to support various charities or Tribal Leaders
who are actively working to make a difference in our world
and communities.

The Leaders of the Third Tribe are Darren Rowse, Brian Clark,
Chris Brogan and Sonia Simone, some of the world's top bloggers.
These leaders are dedicated to bringing together people who
share the Third Tribe values and aspirations and offer a
platform for this to occur. They charge a monthly fee but
over-deliver in terms of value with their sharing of their
knowledge of what works in Internet marketing and social
media marketing (and they have the track record).

I joined the Third Tribe at the time of its launch and have
valued the monthly interviews, the Q & A calls, the links to
resources and the active Forum. It is a real experience to
become immersed in the sharing of knowledge and skills of
people who are ethically building their wealth (both
financial and social equity) through social media marketing.

JOIN TODAY to get instant access to the wealth of resources
and information available:
Join The Third Tribe

Here's a sample of the resources (podcasts, transcrips and action
worksheets) that you can access immediately:

• Product Launch Strategies: What Always Works and What's
Working in 2010 -Jeff Walker & Sonia Simone
• How to Get Your Customers to Do Your Best Marketing for You
- John Jantsch & Chris Brogan
• Email Marketing Strategies that Work - Sonia Simone
& Brian Clark
• Action Email: Copywriting Tips for Insanely Effective
Email Marketing - Dave Navarro & Sonia Simone
• Internet Business Models: Part One — the Problogger model
Darren Rowse & Brian Clark
• Internet Business Models: Part Two — the Chris Brogan model
Chris Brogan & Sonia Simone
• Internet Business Models: Part Three — the Copyblogger model
Brian Clark & Sonia Simone
• Internet Business Models: Part Four — the Zen Habits model
- Leo Babauta & Darren Rowse
• The Quick Start Guide to Making Money Online
- Johnny Truant & Sonia Simone
• Advanced Affiliate Marketing with Social Media and SEO
Glen Allsopp & Brian Clark
• Traffic Jam: Brian Clark and Jon Morrow on Traffic-Building
Strategies - Jon Morrow & Brian Clark
• Behind the Scenes of an Online Product Launch -
Johnny Truant & Sonia Simone
• Become a Better Writer - Chris Brogan
• Capturing the Power of Video Marketing - Darren Rowse
and Dave Kaminski
• How to Translate Ideas into Action - Chris Garrett
and Sonia Simone
• Five Strategic Ways to Use SEO for Public Relations
Brian Clark and Lee Odden
• The Critical Keys to Success with Google AdWords
- Brian Clark and Geordie Carswell
• Advanced Link-Building Strategies for SEO
- Brian Clark and Greg Boser

********************************************************

Ron Passfield, PhD, is a Giant Squid100 and
social media consultant.

His 6 month social media training program
is available at:
http://www.squidooroo.com

Sign up now for a FREE e-course in
social media marketing:
Social Media Marketing Tips

The Web 2.0 Mindset: collaborative marketing

Marketing on Web 2.0 sites through social networking requires
a change in mindset away from the traditional Web1.0 mindset.

Unfortunately many traditional Internet marketers have
been contaminated by the thought processes embedded in
Web 1.0 technology.

The change in mindset for Web 2.0 requires a shift to:

• a collaborative mindset - away from the competitive mindset
• natural organic growth - away from an obsession with SEO
• long tail, tag approach - away from a small number of keywords
• community consciousness - away from self-centredness
• web ring orientation - away from individual, disconnected sites
• open window mentality - away from a trap-door mentality.

Increasingly Web 2.0 involves collaborative marketing - you "like"
my Facebook Page and I reciprocate.  You comment on my
Squidoo Lens and I reciprocate. You rate my photos on
RedGage and I reciprocate.

The focus with Web 2.0 and social networking in particular is
very much about participating in, and contributing to, the community.

...and yet many top marketers today, steeped in the old ways of
doing business online, tell us that we have to "crush the competition".

It seems we are confronted and confounded by two conflicting
paradigms and the confusion is intensified by people using the
competitive mindset of Web 1.0 to promote Web 2.0 tools
and resources.

Explore how to develop a Web 2.0 mindset
and build your skills in social media marketing
with the SquidooRoo Training Program:
Social Media Training

SEO for Wordpress Blogs

via AudioBoo

Posted via email from Ronpass posterous

In this podcast, I discuss various ways to improve the search
engine optimization for your Wordpress blog.

I mention the SEOPressor Wordpress plugin created by Daniel Tan.
I have been using this since June 2010 and it has given a great boost
to traffic to my blog on social media marketing.

It has helped dozens of people to get on the first page of Google
for their primary keywords.

Daniel brings a wealth of experience to the creation of SEO tools
as he has spent considerable time optimizing websites for
offline businesses.

The reviews of SEO Pressor are very positive as is my own
experience.  It's almost like having an on-hand tutor telling you
what you should do to optimize each individual post.  Better yet,
you get instant feedback on how you are going in terms of a
percentage (up to 100% optimization).

SEO for Wordpress blogs is much more than backlinking,
though this certainly helps.  You also need onsite optimization

which gives you on-page leverage and actually adds value to
your backlinks.

So if you want to really leverage all the work you do in creating
posts for your blogs, you should try out SEOPressor:
CLICK HERE for On-Site Optimization for your Wordpress Blog.

***********************************************

Ron Passfield is a Giant Squid100 and

social media consultant.

His 6 month social media training program 
is available at:
http://www.squidooroo.com

Sign up now for a FREE ecourse
in social media marketing:
Social Media Marketing Tips