The Social Media Blank

Posted on September 2, 2010, 1:40 PM, by Jason Houck and received No Comments ».

As we all know every enthusiast involved with social media sees, defines and uses it in different ways. I have come up with a unique and fun way to see how you view social media and its aspects. I will be posting a total of 10 sentences in which you fill in the blank. Have fun!

The most important thing about Twitter is ______.

I prefer ______ over ______ on Facebook.

The most common mistake on Linkedin is _______.

In the next 5 years, I predict social media will ______.

The most positive result I have seen from social media is ______.

I use social media to _______.

The social media platform I use the most is _______ because _______.

I consider Twitter to be ______.

I think the social games on Facebook are ______.

On Linkedin, I ______.

I am always looking to engage and interact with you in a creative and unique way while having fun. As a result, I have created this post.  Please pick 1 or more sentences and in a comment fill in the blank to your sentence. Until next time, Happy Blogging.


Tags: , , , ,

Common Mistakes Job Seekers Make

Posted on September 1, 2010, 6:11 PM, by Jason Houck and received No Comments ».

Job seekers make lots of mistakes. I want to focus on what mistakes job seekers make on social media sites as well as voice mail and e-mail.

On Facebook, job-seekers use party pictures or pictures of a vacation spot as their profile picture. Also, they fail to give a clear meaning in their Bio what they are looking for in a job, fail to list contact information and job history and leaving their profiles non-private.

On Twitter, they mix personal and business use on the same account, lack of personal branding, lack of networking and building relationships.

On Linkedin, they are not putting time and effort into their profile picture to reflect who they are honestly. Also, they fail to find their audience and develop their brand and fail to be descriptive in their professional headline, not customizing the profile URL to be more precise and self explanatory.

In a voice mail, job seekers speak too fast and not clearly, not clear in the reason they are calling and fail to leave full name and call back number. Also, not having a personalized greeting for when the potential employer calls back.

In an email, most common mistakes include not attaching a resume correctly or in the right form, misspelling of words, not using complete sentences, no complete thought, no personalized signature and using descriptive words in the email address instead of their name.

The impact of these gaffes becomes negative and leads the employer to wonder if a person can survive in a social environment as well as be an asset and create success for the company.

These gaffes can be avoided by never trying to be someone you are not, be comfortable with yourself, always be truthful and honest. Ask yourself the question, “Is this me”? If so practice on making yourself better, listen to constructive criticism and be willing to learn how to conquer this social awkwardness. Always use spell check and for your emails and proofread before sending.

If not avoided the negative impact can be mitigated by being given a chance to learn and improve from information and feedback from the employer. In return, show the employer you can improve through action of what they have conveyed to you.

I hope you have enjoyed this post. If you feel I have left something out or want to add to a certain section, feel free to let me know in a comment.

Tags: , , , , , ,

Blog World Expo Attendee List

Posted on August 29, 2010, 9:14 AM, by Jason Houck and received 9 Comments ».

I am very excited to announce I will be attending Blog World Expo this year which takes place on October 14-16 in Las Vegas, Nevada and what better way to network and connect early by getting to know each other. To make this possible, I am compiling a list of who is attending and which state they are from. This will give you a chance to get to know one another and take the opportunity to follow each other on twitter. If you don’t know someone then get to know them. You never know it could be the beginning of a great new relationship.

Arizona

Kristi Hines – @Kikolani blogs at Kikolani.com

California

Babette – @BakeSpace Founder of Bake Space and #TECHmunch

Speaker Kelly Shibari – @KellyShibari President & CEO of HourGlass 8

Jennifer Holder – @JenJenHolder

Calvin Lee – @MayhemStudios Graphic Designer for Mayhem Studios

Jennifer Beese – @WriteOnGlass Community Manager at Write On Glass

Nina Hartley – @NinaLand Sex-Positivity Guru at Nina Hartley

Ruben Orozco – @RubenOrozco Founder of @TweetFind and TweetFind.com

Canada

Jon Angevine – @JonAngevine Associate Broker at Calgary Realty

Speaker Nathalie Lussier – @NathLussier blogs at Raw Food Switch

Speaker Maggie Fox – @MaggieFox Founder & CEO of Social Media Group

Colorado

Speaker Lucretia M Pruitt – @LucretiaPruitt blogs at The Social Joint

Florida

Syed Balkhi – @SyedBalkhi Designer for Uzzz.net

Sandi McKenna – @McMedia part of @MidLifeRoadTrip blogs at Mid Life Road Trip

Leigh Caldwell – @ThemeParkMom blogs at ThemePark Mom and Traveling Mama’s

Stephanie Fauquet – @MommyMusings blogs at Mommy Musings and Traveling Mama’s

Georgia

Jessica Kirkwood – @HeyJK Curates at Hands On Blog.

Jennifer – @Mami2Mommy blogs at Mami 2 Mommy

Rick Griffin – @RickGriffin part of @MidLifeRoadTrip blogs at Mid Life Road Trip

Illinois

Speaker Carleen Pruess – @Carleenp blogs at Beauty & Fashion Tech

Louisiana

Speaker Bridgette – @BridgetteLA Speaking on Friday at 12:15 about creating a blog network using @DoubleDutyDivas as an example. She blogs at Experimental Mommy

Shannon Hurst Lane – @Cajun_Mama blogs at Shannon Lane & Traveling Mama’s

Nevada

Eleanor Prior – @TheLVTweetUp blogs at Las Vegas Tweet Up

Desiree Peeples – @MommyReporter blogs at Mommy Reporter

Pete Housley – @PeteHousley Sr. Consultant/Partner at Naughty PR

New Jersey

Robert Halper – @JNJVideo Manager of Johnson & Johnson Health Channel on YouTube

Amy Vernon – @AmyVernon Director of Viral Media Strategies at BlueGlass Interactive

New York

Loxly a.k.a Deborah – @Loxly Photographer & Digital Artist for Loxly Gallery

Ted Rubin – @TedRubin Creator of @OpenSkyProject

Speaker Jason Keath – @JakRose founder of @SoFresh blogs at Jason Keath

Barbara Bellesi – @TheWriteWoman and @CollegeBoundNet blogs at College Bound Creator of #CollegeBound

Gina LaGuardia – @GinaLaGuardia and @CollegeBoundnet Creator of Gina Laguardia & #CollegeBound

Kim Clune – @KimClune Writer, Web Designer at This One Wild Life CO-Founder of BTC4Animals

North Carolina

Speaker Kelby Carr - @TypeAMom blogs at Type A Mom

Oregon

Mary Rarick – @Mary_Rarick blogs at Portland Family

Del – @DeltheDad blogs at Del The Dad

Kristin – @OurOrdinaryLife blogs at Our Ordinary Life

Pennsylvania

Speaker Cecelia Mecca – @CoolBabyKid Editor at Cool Baby Kid, Co-Founder of @DoubleDutyDivas

Allison Boyer – @Allison_Boyer blogs at After Graduation

South Carolina

Heather Solos – @HeatherSolos blogs at Home Ec 101

Texas

Natanya Anderson – @Natanyap blogs at Fete & Feast

Karen Bantuveris – @VSpotMom & @VolunteerSpot curates the blog at Volunteer Spot

Zane Aveton – @Zaneology blogs at Zaneology

Kate Buck – @KateBuckJr Founder of KBJ Online Fly Girl @SocialSmack

Washington State

Bob Dunn – @CatsEyeDesign blogs at Savvy WordPress

Judy Dunn – @CatsEyeWriter blogs at Cats Eye Writer

Jason mKey – @JasonmKey blogs at Spark Plug Digital

Aaron Hockley – @AHockley blogs at Picture Pundit

Brian Crouch – @BrianCrouch in attendance with @Behringer blogs at Behringer



Stay tuned as I will be updating the list daily. If you know someone that I don’t have listed let me know at @Blogluvr29

Tags: , , ,

Are You Choosing The Right Digital Advertising Agency?

Posted on August 25, 2010, 4:26 PM, by Jason Houck and received 4 Comments ».

Social media presence is the means of presenting yourself as a brand both online and in the digital world. Unfortunately, not everyone knows how to develop such a presence. When such a problem arises, they immediately turn to an advertising agency for help. When it comes to choosing a digital advertising agency there are many factors, which can dictate how you decide which one is best for you. The appropriate research on an agency will ensure you don’t run into a digital PR catastrophe, or waste advertising dollars.

Some ad agencies have a way of marketing their services in such a way as to trick you into buying fans for their pages, to give the illusion of a “social presence”. Being unknowledgeable about such strategies could easily influence you to pick an agency that isn’t appropriate or experienced for the services you need. If you pay close enough attention to these agencies and their strategies, you will notice they only have 300-600 followers with no interaction. An agency with successful digital strategies has well over 1000 Twitter or Facebook followers. Below are characteristics of an agency you want to avoid in your digital agency of record selection.

• Tweets about themselves, and what THEY are doing constantly
• Does not re-tweet others tweets and never involved in conversations on Twitter
• Uses automated following programs to gain their audience and followers
• Has a Facebook page containing posts with no link
• Can’t provide success stories or share any case studies of their work
• Has a very small following on Twitter and very few likes on Facebook
• Social media pages have little to no subscriber activity
• These firms claim to be social media or digital experts and give seminars for free or at very little cost.

(When is the last time you heard of a real expert giving away free advice?) It is important that the agency you choose understands your business. That is why one of the most important criteria when choosing an advertising agency is ensuring that they know as much about your brand as possible, and that they appear to take an interest in what you do. If they do not then this should be ample enough reason to continue your search for an agency to represent you.

Digital social media and the online world lives, breathes, evolves and constantly changes. Digital advertising agencies have to be able to grow and adapt to a fast paced evolving digital and social media landscape. The whole globe is going digital, and online is the new high street. With a little homework, you can make the right call and will be well on your way of working with an agency that has a confirmed record of success and has the credentials to prove so.

If you are already working with a digital agency or currently interviewing with a digital advertising agency, take a moment in your discovery phase to answer the following questions about the agency.

1. Is the company willing to show you case studies from their client’s digital campaigns?
2. Do they have a digital portfolio?
3. What social media services do they offer?
4. How big is their team’s personal social media presence and audience?
5. Does the company have testimonials from their clients?
6. How many followers do they have on Twitter?
7. How many likes do they have on Facebook?
8. Is their business on Google Maps and do they have ads placed on Google Maps?
9. How is their company using Foursquare?
10. Is there CEO or Creative Director actively using Yelp or Foursquare?

If you answered “No” to more than one of these questions, it is definitely time to start looking for a more digitally savvy advertising firm.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Question Of The Day 8/24/2010

Posted on August 24, 2010, 10:07 AM, by Jason Houck and received No Comments ».

I am starting something new here on the blog. I will be asking a question of the day on twitter and taking your responses and compiling them into a blog post. Along with your answer, I will be linking back to you either to your blog, Twitter account or Facebook. So lets get started.

As a kid, what was the theme or character of your lunchbox?

@SolakNC – The Mercury Space Capsule
@Catsee – Justice League Characters
@Naruo_homewood – Tom & Jerry
@Tkharmonic – Wonder Woman & Barry Gibb
@OneMomsWorld – Metal Rainbow Brite
Neesee Stafford – Rainbow Brite, Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake
Adam Cohen – He-Man
Karen Critcher – Brown paper bag
JBryEkard – Toy Story
Jared Starks – Brown paper bag or blue thermal
Bob Dillon – Roy Rogers

Thanks to all who participated. Be sure to follow me on twitter @blogluvr29 and look for my next question of the day.

Tags: , , ,

The Age of Stock Photography

Posted on August 18, 2010, 9:42 PM, by Jason Houck and received 3 Comments ».

A picture can either make or break an advertising campaign. Are you being creative and using one that your business created or being generic and using a stock photo? You may ask, “What is a stock photo”? A stock photo is a photograph that can be licensed for public or commercial use, which are usually found on professional stock photography websites such as Shutterstock, iStockPhoto, or by simply doing a Google search for a specific type of photo.

When a business uses these types of photos for a digital advertising campaign, they encounter positive and negative results. There are many pros and cons that we would like to share with you that can influence the campaign.

Pros
• Saves you time
• Endless Choices
• Professional Quality
• Great way to save on Marketing Costs

Cons
• Difficult to differentiate your brand and target
• Image overuse in the online world
• Not being original
• Lack of creativity and not being unique

As you can see the use of stock photography can have its advantages and disadvantages. I personally do not like to use stock photos. I look for something that sets apart from others, makes something unique and gives a brand and clients brand a fresh image. A unique digital advertising agency should be producing creative digital ads with professional quality through live photo shoots and interactive video content that best suits the targeted campaign, which makes them original, real and successful.

I completely understand that time is of the essence and you may not have the time to create your own personal digital ads but for a brand to be focused you must plan and produce for originality to be in full force. As a result, your campaign becomes one of a kind, influences and sells with positive results.

Tags: , , , , ,

Interview with The Precise Agency

Posted on July 24, 2010, 11:13 AM, by Jason Houck and received No Comments ».

I recently got to know a dynamical company with positive results. This company is The Precise Agency Group that influences pop culture through advertising. I first got to know them on Facebook then on Twitter and was amazed at how they interact and engage with their followers while building and maintaining professional relationships. I contacted the CEO (Michael Hendrix) to see if he would be interested in doing an interview with me and without hesitation he said yes. Interview is as follows.

What made you want to start The Precise Agency?

My passion for influencing people IE consumers, voters drove me to enjoy using new platforms and emergent technologies to influence others. I also have a very creative and out of the box mind set that is a big advantage in my field of digital advertising.

When did The Precise Agency get started?

I started my company four years ago when it was not cool to be using social media platforms. People just kind of looked at me strange when I told them what I did :)

What services does The Precise Agency offer?

We offer all types of digital advertising, marketing, and digital PR services.

How many offices do you have and where are the locations of them?

We have four offices and they are located in:

New  York, NY
Dallas, Texas
Philly
Ft Lauderdale

How many clients do you currently assist?

Around 35-40 depending on the open projects and the month.

Do you have any examples of work you have done for clients?

We have plenty of case studies.

How do potential clients contact the Agency?

Through Facebook or the web. Once in awhile we will get a walk in or a phone call.

As I continued to speak to Michael, I felt this deep connection that his clients say they have with him and the team at Precise Agency. He conveyed to me that they are 100% dedicated to their clients with positive results in helping them and their business grow which made it easier for me to build a relationship with the company.

The Precise Agency Group also specializes in many other areas to market your brand such as getting your brand on numerous social media sites, blogs, web development and internet marketing with detailed attention. If you are interested in learning more about Precise and how their creative team can build a strategy around the needs of  your companies success, contact them via website or connect on Facebook and Twitter as well as subscribing to their YouTube channel which showcases their amazing work. If you do then your company will shine the Precise way.
Photobucket

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Question of Mate Selection

Posted on July 22, 2010, 12:46 PM, by Jason Houck and received No Comments ».

PhotobucketWe all want to find the right mate right? When getting to know a potential guy or girl, do you ask them a certain question to help make the process easier?  I have came up with some great questions for you to put into action for your next mate selection.

  • What do you look for in a relationship?
  • How would you capture my heart?
  • Do you know the value of a date?
  • Are you in touch with your inner child?
  • Do you have a clear path in life?
  • Where do you see yourself in 5-10 years?
  • Are you good at conveying your needs?
  • What do you do for fun?
  • Do you like surprises?
  • What do you consider the most romantic date?

These are just a few of hundreds of questions I can think of to ask in determining the right mate. Now, I want to hear from you. What questions do you ask? Do you even ask a question? Leave your answer in a comment. Have a great day!

Tags: , ,

Blog Promote – 7/18/2010

Posted on July 18, 2010, 2:23 PM, by Jason Houck and received 1 Comment ».

I am starting something new here on the blog. I call it blog promote which will consist of me highlighting a blog and sharing with you what it is about and sharing with you three favorite posts.

Today I will be highlighting Susie Kline and her blog (Motherhoot). I have developed a successful connection with Susie because she is always there to lend a virtual hand and offer support.

Susie is located in the Chicago area and has been blogging since June of 2009. She is 100% committed to her loyal husband and successful 3 sons. In addition to being devoted to her great family, she has a wide array of hobbies which lets her convey her creative side. These hobbies include writing, painting, art, knitting and fusing glass.

Susie is great and successful at so many things in life and online. One thing in particular is her blogging in which I will now share with you 3 of my favorite posts.

If you would like to learn more about Susie Kline and her other fabulous blog posts, follow her on Twitter and check out the Motherhoot blog. Also, be sure to check out her store which you can get your Motherhoot apparel and goodies.

Until next time, Happy Blogging.

Tags:

Operation Protect

Posted on July 14, 2010, 1:54 PM, by Jason Houck and received No Comments ».

Do you care about your future? Did you realize our kids are and mold your future? The future is currently in limbo by school districts cutting vital programs such as art, language, sports and after school activities. These vital programs give our children the chance to be creative, grow, learn and mold our future.

My dream is to get every twitter user by state to donate $1.00. The money collected by each state will be distributed evenly amongst each individual district. For example, if we raise $12.00 that is enough to pay a teacher for 1 hour of lecture or referee for a basketball game.

If you find this idea a great one and care to support, then let me know in a comment. I also, urge you to convey and share your ideas on this matter. So lets join together as one and protect our future ( Our Kids).

Tags: , , , , ,
« Older Entries