Forgive me friends, for I have sinned…. it’s been over a month since I lasted blogged! How quick time flies, when you’re having fun. I’m still getting over Xmas and yet I look at my calendar and find out Easter is only just around the corner…. yikes!

Whilst we’re on the topic of time, I read an interesting article last week that said “one edition of today’s Herald Sun (for my American friends that’s like your New York Times and for my UK friends that’s like your Daily Mail) contains more information in it than someone would come across in their entire lifetime if they were living in the 14th Century!!”  Did you know that what you learn today is outdated in 6 weeks time!!

The world is moving at such a rapid rate, no wonder many of us are feeling completely overwhelmed. Every day there seems to be a new social media site, tool, app, gadget coming out that apparently we ALL must try…..which brings me to today’s blog post: Spend LESS time focusing on your vehicle (the tools) and MORE time focusing on your compass (your destination).

So what does this mean? Think of the tools like modes of transport. For example Twitter, Facebook and the new kid on the block (this week!!) Pinterest can all transport your message and brand across the social web. These vehicles are of no use to you if they don’t help you arrive at DESTINATION SUCCESS (aka your business mission and vision). What I’m seeing happen in business at present is people catching Twitter train to Sydney and then they find out Pinterest is a better, brighter ride so they’re jumping on that plane to Perth which puts them in a holding pattern, arriving at DESTINATION NO WHERE!

If you have an accurate compass: you know WHERE you’re heading and you know WHY you’re heading there, the HOW: the vehicle, will take care of itself. Don’t let the zillions of blog posts, articles, seminars, webinars, bla bla bla distract you from your game plan, especially when you’re new on the social web. Let your competitors chase bright shiny objects whilst you cut through the clutter and forge forward!

Ahhh I hope that feels better and your anxiety levels have reduced. And please don’t forget to ENJOY THE JOURNEY!

So until we meet again on the social-sphere, bye for now!

Kylie Bartlett – The Web Celeb

I trust you all had the most fabulous Xmas and are gearing up for a HUGE 2012 (I know I am!!)

It was opportune that I stumbled across the legendary Frank Kern’s State of The Internet Address for 2012  this morning. It motivated me so much that I felt compelled to share my excitement with you in the hope that you too get as much out of it as I did.

I studied with Frank last year and just from implementing his teachings, I put a whopping $120k extra into my bank account in under 3 months. Have I got your attention yet???? There are not many ‘gurus’ I listen to or take notice of (you could count them on less than one hand), but when Frank talks, I listen and just as importantly, I implement!

I’m staggered, watching many social media/internet marketing gurus frantically scrambling to learn all they can about all the new whiz bang social media platforms & upgrades….. Google +, Empire Ave, Timeline, Ticker, new webinar software, widgets, plugins, bla bla bla so they can be ‘first to market’ with their new found knowledge. In fact, I’ve been criticised by many for not joining them. “You’re so yesterday Kylie if you don’t jump on board…….” Yeah right!

Now don’t get me wrong, there is nothing really wrong with this approach, it’s a very noble gesture, learning everything you can so you can ‘educate the uneducated’ as long as you not relying on making any money from this activity. But if you are, this approach is flawed without, what Frank calls ‘the 3 imperative pillars’.

I don’t want to spoil the video for you (don’t you hate it when people tell you all about the plot of a movie, before you’ve seen it!!) but here is a sneak peak of what it’s about:

• It explains the only 3 business pillars you should be focusing on and which ones should be given the most attention, focus and priority and why
• It outlines the number one reason why internet marketers are failing and what to do about it
• You’ll learn why it’s imperative you have a ‘magic bullet’ in your product and service offerings

So stop whatever you’re doing now, grab a cuppa and take 45 minutes out of your day to watch this video. Honestly, it could be the difference between whether YOU succeed or fail in business in 2012.

Click on the image below to watch the video!!

Until we meet again in the ‘social-sphere’, bye for now!

Kylie Bartlett

I hadn’t even planned on writing this blog post today but when I came across my business hero Gary Vaynerchuk’s short video on Inc.com this morning I felt compelled to start writing!!

Gary explicitly (don’t watch this video if swearing offends you) explains in his short speech that too many businesses are treating social media marketing the same as a hormone induced, 19 year old boy on his prom date. Too many businesses are looking for rapid monetization from their social-media marketing efforts. In my own words (from my signature Facebook Training Program), you have to ‘FLIRT’ before you can ‘CONVERT’.  You have to build an authentic, transparent, genuine relationship with your followers, fans and customers first before asking them to go home with you.

Gary Vaynerchuk spoke recently at Inc 500′s Conference in Washington D.C. Conference and here is a snippet of what he said.

“When businesses first started exploring the Web, they didn’t see immediate monetization either. E-commerce has taken off. Customers got over their fear of inputting their credit card numbers into a computer. Social-media marketing’s monetization will come, too, he says. “People don’t want to embrace culture shifts because it’s not going to happen in the next 20 minutes,” he says.

“When I hear people debate the ROI of social media? It makes me remember why so many business fail,” Vaynerchuk says. “Most businesses are not playing the marathon. They’re playing the sprint. They’re not worried about lifetime value and retention. They’re worried about short-term goals.”

So what should you be doing? Think long term, and consider how you can earn life-long customers. Says Vaynerchuk, “Social-media marketing is like going Beyonce on your customers. You’ve got to put a f—ing ring on it.”

Here’s a snippet of Gary’s speech at Inc 500′s Conference.

Enjoy!

Until we meet again in the ‘social-sphere’, bye for now!

Kylie Bartlett – The Web Celeb

If you’ve ever wondered how to shorten very long URL links and addresses (you know the ones that are as long as your arm!!) , you’re gonna love today’s Facebook 2-Minute Take-Away Tip!!

Not only will this quick video show you how to shorten the URL but it will also show you how to gain access to all the valuable stats, clicks and analytics associated with this new shorten link and the best part is this clever service is FREE!! You no longer need to log into the backend of your website to find out your traffic stats, www.bitly.com takes care of this for you.

But wait, there’s more (no you’re not getting any steak knives!!), it will also automatically generate a QR code for you that you can use instead of posting the URL. If you don’t know what a QR code is, don’t panic, I’ll record a quick video on this, later in the week (look out for it!!)

Once you’ve watched the video, jump on over and set up your account at: www.bitly.com

Enjoy!

So until we meet again in the ‘social-sphere’ bye for now!

Kylie Bartlett – The Web Celeb

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ok, so before we get stuck into today’s Facebook 2-Minute Take-Away Video Tip, have you watched the first 3 videos on the new Facebook Changes? If not here is a quick link to them:

• Video 1: Privacy Settings
• Video 2: Creating Lists
• Video 3: The New Newsfeed and the Ticker

So today’s Facebook 2-Minute Take-Away Tip is all about the new Subscribe feature.  This new feature is designed for people who have a personal brand (more so than just a business brand). It’s a great way for fans of your personal brand to read about and watch what you’re up to without them being one of your personal Facebook friends. This is a great feature for journalists, celebrities, public figures etc. to raise their profile. If you’re familiar with Twitter, it’s a very similar feature to their social network platform.

When Facebook launched this new feature it automatically subscribed you to everyone that you’re already personally friends with. In today’s video, I demonstrate how you can ‘unsubscribe’ to someone. There is no real point in doing this if they are still your friend, as they will still see your posts (unless you customise your post settings). If you no longer want a person to see your posts, you need to either delete them as a friend or choose the customise option when posting and type in their name in the ‘hide’ option.

The ‘subscribe’ feature becomes valuable when you want certain people to only see certain certain posts. For example, I might want to share a photo of me partying with my friends with only those that are friends with me on my personal profile (subscribers who are not friends with me, won’t see this photo) but I might want to announce a new event I have coming up, in which case I would post this to my wall using the ‘public’ setting so my subscribers see it.

Watch this quick video where I demonstrate exactly how to use this new feature.

So until we meet again in the social-sphere, bye for now!

Kylie Bartlett – The Web Celeb!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Now hopefully you’ve all watched video 1 on privacy settings and video 2 on creating lists from my Facebook 2-Minute Take-Away series?? If you haven’t, go off and watch them now as the next video, on the ‘new’ newsfeed and ticker, will make more sense to you and you’ll gain more from it!

I believe the ‘new’ newsfeed is a positive improvement. Now you get to view, without a mouse click, both your recent news and your tops news at the same time.  If you haven’t visited Facebook for a while, when you log on, the first thing you’ll see are top photos and status updates posted while you’ve been away. They’re marked with an easy-to-spot blue corner.  If you check Facebook more frequently, you’ll see the most recent stories first. Photos will also be bigger and easier to enjoy while you’re scrolling through.

Top Stories

In Facebook’s words, top stories are:

Your top stories are stories published since you last checked News Feed that we think you’ll find interesting. They’re marked with a blue corner and may be different depending on how long it’s been since you last visited your News Feed.

We determine whether something is a top story based on lots of factors, including your relationship to the person who posted the story, how many comments and likes it got, what type of story it is, etc. For example, a friend’s status update that might not normally be a top story may become a top story after many other friends comment on it.

If you’ve been away for awhile, you’ll see the top stories that happened since your last visit at the top of News Feed.

We’ve also added a control in the top right of each story where you can mark or unmark as a top story. This will help us improve your News Feed over time. If you see something that isn’t interesting in top stories, hover over the right side of the update in question, click the arrow and click ‘Unmark as top story’ from the menu.

Ticker

Ticker, on the right-hand side of your account, lets you see all your friends’ activity in real-time. When you hover over an item on ticker, you can see the full story and join the conversation as it happens. Ticker updates itself as as stories happen. This gives you a more complete picture of what your friends are doing, right now.

Be sure to watch this quick that will step you through the new newsfeed and the ticker!

Until we meet again in the ‘socialsphere’ by for now!

Kylie Bartlett – The Web Celeb!

Click here to view the embedded video.

I hope you enjoyed yesterday’s video on how to change your privacy settings under the newly updated Facebook. If you haven’t seen the video CLICK HERE.

Ok, so today’s Facebook 2-Minute Take-Away Video Tip is all about CREATING LISTS. Many people are complaining that’s they’re not enjoying the new Facebook changes but if you set up your privacy settings, your notifications, your subscriptions and your lists correctly then the changes will truly work in your favour!!

In summary, lists are a great way to view your news feed. One minute you could be just wanting to check up on what your mates are up to and the next you could be checking up on what your competitors are saying on Facebook. Shhh no one knows what lists they’re on, so have no fear if you do have a ‘competitors list’, they won’t know you’ve popped them in it.

You can have the same person in multiple lists. For example you may have popped someone in both your Sunshine Coast list and your Prospects list.

Don’t forget to go and individually customise what you’d like to read from each person, in your list. For example you may want to only see the photos of Jenny in your friends list but you want to read the status updates from Sally in the same friends list. The more specific you get with your lists, the more you’ll enjoy the ‘new’ Facebook.

BIG TAKE-AWAY TIP!!!
Think about what this means for you and your ability to use Facebook as a form of sales and marketing…. If people are now being encouraged to put people into lists and customise what they see in their newsfeed, what does this mean for people who have been ‘voyeurs’ (sitting in the stands), for people who have just been list building and not positively contributing to the Facebook community, who spam people’s walls? I’ll tell you what it means…. it means they won’t make it onto anyone’s ‘worthwhile’ lists and their posts will either get lost in the clutter or they will be deleted as a friend. WILL THIS BE YOU??

More than ever, you need to be:

• Actively contributing to the community and stop expecting people to just interact with you – relationships are built on multiple dialogue
• You need to be real, congruent, transparent and authentic if you want to make it onto the lists of others with similar characteristics
• Embracing these new changes (or delete your account) because one thing is for sure, with competition like Google +, the changes are going to constant!

So go ahead and watch this quick video and drop be a note if you have any questions, I’m here to serve!

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s video on the new TICKER and NEWS FEED.

So until we meet again in the social-sphere, bye for now!

Kylie Bartlett – The Web Celeb

Click here to view the embedded video.

Wow I go offline for a couple of days and I come back to a new look Facebook!

I’ve been inundated with cries for ‘HELP’ from my Facebook fans over the past couple of days so I thought I’d put together a series of Facebook 2-Minute Take-Away Video Tips to help you better understand the changes that have occurred on Facebook and how to take full advantage of them.

As there are many changes and so I don’t overwhelm you, I have broken the changes up into small, bite size pieces for you.

Today’s Facebook 2-Minute Take-Away Tip is all about PRIVACY SETTINGS. I know you probably want me to get into the juicer changes first, like the new ticker and new lists but I believe it’s important that you have your privacy settings set right for you first before you start playing with all the other added features.

If you have any questions about Facebook’s new ‘Face-Lift’ that I haven’t answered, please drop me a line and I’d be only too happy to shoot a video answering this question for you.

Tune in to tomorrow’s Facebook 2-Minute Take-Away Video Tip, it’s all about CREATING LISTS.

So until we meet again in the social sphere…. bye for now!

Kylie Bartlett – The Web Celeb!

Click here to view the embedded video.

In today’s Facebook 2-Minute Take-away Video Tip I am going to show you how you can change Facebook’s news feed to suit your specific needs. You may only want to view the status updates of your friends, your family, your prospects. It’s all possible with a couple of clicks. Watch this quick video to learn more!

Let’s face it, Facebook can be very addictive and before we know it, hours can pass as we leisurely scroll through the news feed. My advice is if you really want to use Facebook as a successful sales and marketing tool, get efficient with how you spend your time on it. Changing the news feed to meet your business needs is one of way of achieving this.

I hope you enjoyed today’s tip. Please drop me a comment and let me know what you think and if there is any other clever tips you’d like to learn; let me know, I’m here to serve!

So until we meet again in the social sphere, by for now!

Kylie Bartlett – The Web Celeb

Click here to view the embedded video.

Have you staked your claim online? Have you secured your business/brand name across all the popular social media networks? Do you own all the most popular domain name combinations of your business name?

If you haven’t then today’s Facebook 2-Minute Take-away video will teach you how!

How tragic would it be if you’d spent precious time, money and energy coming up with a unique business brand and yet when people searched for it online, someone else owned your online real estate!! Don’t let this be you, go watch this video and secure your plot now!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Until we meet again in the social-sphere, bye for now!

Kylie Bartlett – The Web Celeb!