"I see God in my fans. My fans are my religion" Lady Gaga

This is the final article in the social media strategies series "Let's Get Engaged"


I don't know about you but I have a love-hate relationship with stats. I love them in the sense that they give me an idea of where me and all my blogs stand but the part I hate most is that now I feel a pull towards checking them on a daily basis and sometimes more than once a day.  I literally have feedburner, google analytics, and "add this" at the top of my list on my bookmarks place so that I have easy access to them. Success in social media is knowing what engages your audience the most and their reasons for coming to your blog. This is how I found out that the theme of "Cross Cultural Caring" and my friendship with Marisa was being followed as well this is how i know that many of you out there love Andy Spandy's webisodes.

But the funny thing is that after one year of being steeped in the world of social media, my audience continues to surprise me and I literally never know how they will react. Sometimes I will post something thinking "This is gonna be hot!!!" and I get little or no hits on that blogpost. And then there have been other times where I posted something that I did not spend alot of time preparing or putting much effort into and the hits for that blogpost are almost through the roof.

If there is any one thing the social media world has taught me is if I want success, I sometimes have to work while others play but in turn I later get to play while others work. I absolutely cannot put things off because I don't know what will happen on the internet the next day or even in a few hours. If I don't have my blogs ready, I could miss a gigantic wave of opportunity that would have brought me a ton of hits and visitors to my site. I have to work hard during downtime and then wake up the next day to find that the hits on one of my blogsites is literally peaking with a flood of visitors.

I liken the relationship between me and the internet to that of surfers and the waves on the ocean. You have to prepare, watch, observe, and then when the moment comes you just leap out with your post or blog. Some waves that you thought would be great, aren't that great once you are riding it. And waves that you thought were nothing can turn out to be beyond your wildest expectations and imagination. If there is anything I've learned this year is about little I do know about social media and each day when I wake up, I feel like I have to climb the ladder all over again, but this time with a little bit more wisdom than yesterday.....


Blogging Like a Pro: A 10 part crash course

This is the fifth article in the social media strategies series "Let's Get Engaged"

I get a kick out of watching celebs like Naomi Campbell who know how to laugh at themselves and their meltdowns.  It is one thing to be laughing with someone the way we would be laughing with Naomi in this clip.  It´s another things to be laughing at someone the way society is laughing at Charlie Sheen and his meltdown. And it's been very interesting to watch how social media has been playing out in this whole situation.

If you haven't heard by now, after Charlie Sheen's meltdown that resulted in the cancellation of 2 and a half men, he got on twitter. One day later he has more than a million followers and has broken the guiness world book of records for the most twitter followers in the least amount of time. In addition to that, he is getting endorsement deals and has become a money making machine....all because of his meltdown.

Lots of facebook friends and lot's of twitter follows means that you are well loved....right. WRONG! And that is where we have to be careful in our interpretation of stats and numbers. WIth the spread of social media and the popularity of friending or following someone, we need to keep in mind that cyber relationships aren't even in the same ballpark as real relationships. In reality, I have no clue what all the people who friend me or follow me think of me or if I'm in the "good books" with them. Perhaps half the people following me on facebook and twitter are really spies!

The reason why I wanted to bring this up is because although Charlie Sheen set a record for twitter followers, recent polls via eonline showed that the majority of people do not see Charlie Sheen in a good light and do not think he is headed in a good direction. I am so blessed to be surrounded by great people who remind me not to get into numbers too much. It's sometimes tricky having to deal with stats while at the same time not letting them rule me.

Social media is not the same as having a good honest old-fashion face to face chat with someone. The information that you can gain about someone through body language beats anything you will get in a tweet.  Social media can bring you closer to someone, I'm not denying that. But it also gives that person the opportunity to create a controlled version of themselves to put out to the public. You see what they want you to see. It's a sense of reality but it's controlled reality....sort of like the Matrix.

I want each of you out there to have the best possible experience in whatever form of social media you partake in. As someone who is part of the media world, I am on your friend and I am on your side. This is the reason for my words. I want you all to have perspective when dealing with this medium of communication. Remember that a meltdown is only funny when you´re laughing with the person, not at them.....

This is the fourth article in the social media strategies series "Let's Get Engaged"

I will never forget the day that I found myself returning back to my apartment after a course in spanish. Just before I had left for my lesson, I discovered a new program called Hootsuite but had no time to get it set up. After my lesson, the last thing I wanted to do is have to create another account and a password. I feel like this would be the millionth time that I would have to do it. More than anything in the world I wanted to turn on the t.v. and just get away from the world of social media. But I stayed disciplined and the moment I got into my apartment, I headed towards my computer to finish the process of setting up Hootesuite. Not only was the process short and painless but little did I know that the time that I took out to set up Hootesuite would save me hundreds of hours of valuable time as well as give me the leading edge on the social media world. There is no other tool that has enabled me to organize all my different social media accounts as well as help increase the level of engagment between me and my audience.

Hootesuite has won several awards for being the best social media tool and rightfully so. As a blogger, having the right tool is a big key to my success. When a million things are happening in the world of social media, the last thing you want is to be working with tools that break down. To give you an idea of how face paced it can be, I'll give you a true life example. As you know, I recently redid a blogsite. That same day, earlier that morning before the makeover was the day after the King's Speech won the Oscars and a few hours later Lady Gaga releases her new music video "Born this Way". I had to be very aware of these events happening and see if I could use them for leverage to draw people to my blog. And then several hours later the blogsite makeover began. It gets intense around here!

But thanks to Hootesuite and the great level of organization I had, I knew what was happening up to the moment and like a surfer, I was well prepared to catch the big wave and use these events to my advantage the moment the news broke. And hootesuite was a great way for me to stay in touch with the world and check in even while I was doing the blogsite makeover.

I'm at a point in my blogging career where I want to give praise where praise is due. And recently I became a proud affiliate of Hootesuite because I want it to be as accessible as possible. You'll notice that there are Hootesuite banners and badges on all my blogsites, so now all my visitors can experience this awesome product that has made ALL the difference in my blogging career. There is definitely a special place in my heart for companies like Hootesuite, Dlvr.it (publishing my content to the web), and Social Oomph (scheduling your tweets).  HOOT! HOOT!

HootSuite Social Analytics ~ Info Sheet

View more documents from HootSuite.

This is the third article in the social media strategies series "Let's Get Engaged"

Doing a blogsite makeover was like doing surgery or even entering into a volcano.........there was preparation  before, during, and after the actual event. Being well versed in blogger, a decent amount of preparation and good communication with the other party on what they wanted makes all the difference between a good well done makeover lasting several hours or a disastrous makeover that could last several days or weeks.

The day before I did the makeover, I began preparing in little ways. I looked at all the blogsites I normally use and I went to articles on how to do tricks and hacks and I saved the ones I knew that I would need. That way when I was actually doing the changeover, I had bookmarked everything I wanted to do or changed so when the time came, I could quickly refer to it while in the midst of doing the makeover itself.  I also had to be prepared and have a backup plan because when you deal with HTML and codes, it goes one or two ways....either it works or it was SUPPOSED to work.

Every blogsite is a little different but there are certain things that should be consistant in every blogsite. On my check-list of things to make sure are there were a favicon, numbered page navigation, a search bar, and some kind of widget that will give easy access to twitter, facebook, rss feed etc. There has to be a counter and a share button. I get all my share buttons from addthis.com. Not only that I am signed up to their twitter and facebook so that the moment there is new news on social media or sharing tools, I know about it.

And don't forget that in addition to all those changes, you have to add some things as an added benefit to those who come. As a general rule of thumb I like all all my blogs to feature the feed of another blog and I arrange it so that when people click on the link to another blogs feed, it will open up another tab. That way people don't actually leave my blogsite when going onto another blogsite.  Having made all my preparations, it was then time to enter into the mouth of the volcano,  in blogger terms we call that the HTML!!!

When I uploaded the template, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the blog had a search bar already installed as well as a customizable navigation bar where I could customize a mini menu where people will have access to the store, fan site and where I could arrange it so that people can subscribe to the RSS feed all in one place. I actually wound up saving time because the template was so well designed that I didn't need to add a search bar manually or a widget for access to different social media sources. In addition, the two colums to the side give plenty of space for me to add widgets to stream in twitter, flicker, and feeds from other blogs. The best part is that there is still lots of space to add more widgets in the future.

After the changeover, it was important for me to check in and follow up on the blog to make sure that everything is working right. When working with codes, you never really know how things are going to go.  The basic changeover had been done and now it's just to make sure that the blogsite has been maximized for the highest level of engagement. Little things like having a good commenting system installed like Intensedebate can and will make all the difference in future. I use Disqus too and recently I updated some of my other blogsites with Disqus.

The whole blogsite may seem like a beautiful cake but the cherry on top definitely has to be the installation of  twitter anywhere.  It's a neat hack that makes user twitters profiles show up when you hover the mouse over their twitter account name. From there users can follow that person on twitter or they can click on the account name and go straight to that person's twitter page. A big thanks to @rahuljrark

Bamboobino is the name of the blogsite that I madeover and here you can see the example of all the hacks and widgets as well as the template that I installed. If there is any doubt in anyone's mind about whether any of the changes I made to the blog made a difference, I'll let you know that on the first day after the makeover within a 24 hr period there were more than 40 subscriptions to the blogsite's feed.

One of the biggest challenges of trying to make a name for yourself through the internet is that people can neither see you, nor hear you, or interact with you face to face. This is why good design is a fundamental on a blogsite....it is where people are going to get their first impressions of you.  And what a well done blog design can do for you is tell your site visitors alot about you even before you've type one word on a blogpost.

Check out this page with 100 inspiring quotes on design.....

Image by thaths via Flickr
This is the second article in the social media strategies series "Let's Get Engaged"

"In the beginning God created the earth and the earth was without form...."

That biblical quote is probably what I would use to describe the majority of blogs that I come across.....without form!  Most people's idea of a blog is to sign up for a blogsite with blogger or wordpress, put some pics of their family friends and life and then sit and wait hoping to get hits.  Unfortunately they lack one vital ingredient.....a good template.

As an experienced blogger who has worked with 6 websites (3 of them with more than 1000 hits), I can tell you right now that a good template is the foundation for a good blog and it is the life of the party.  Many blogs fail because there is no design element, the writing is bad, and there is nothing else on the blogsite for me to do other than read the blogpost and then be on my way.  In short, it's Indiana Jones and the Template of Doom!

Recently I had a new assignment and that new assignment was to do a makeover for a blogger blogsite.  Just like any other blogger blogsite, this blogsite had a default Blogger template. But that wouldn't be the case by the time I was done with that blogsite. I was determined to pull out all stops and showcase the very best of the blogging community as well as as just what the platform Blogger is capable of. My very first step in this whole makeover would be to find a WICKED template. From experience, I knew that all my work would be worth nothing if we didn't have a good template.  And this time would be especially important because this particular blogsite was for a business and so I also had a specific criteria to fulfill.

So what does one look for in a good template?  It's a combination of good looks and functionality.  There are literally thousands of templates out there, some good and some bad. One of my favorite resources is allblogtools.com  They were the very first website I went to when I started to learn tricks and hacks in blogger. Alot of the fancy stuff you see on my blogsites is a result of an afternoon spent reading their articles. They recently got a makeover themselves and are better than ever. And their collection of templates never ceases to end.

One thing I loved about their blogsite is that they show their most viewed and downloaded templates. That's one trick I use to save time, when I see that a template has a high number of downloads, there is often a good reason for it. I happened to click on "Most Viewed Templates" and it listed one particular template that caught my attention. Little did I know that this template would later on become the chosen one, the one to rule them all!

When planning for a new template, it is important to read the reviews on that template. Templates are like pets & shoes.....they look so good in the store but once you take them home, it's when the fun starts or stops!  A great site that came as an invaluable resource during this time was bloggerstyles.com  There really is no other site like this site where you can look up reviews and ratings for any template your are considering. It has a unique rating system where it gives a template bronze, silver, or gold depending on how well a template fulfills a certain criteria. I consider bloggerstyles.com an invaluable resource for helping me determine the functionality of any template that I'm interested in and because of the great rating systems, I saved myself hours and possibly days of time because I was able to narrow down my choices based on their reviews.

Some other websites that I constantly refer to is Cool Tricks & Tips. I've learned some WICKED hacks and codes through them and they are a great reference for templates. As well btemplates.com has helped me tremendously with their excellent variety of templates in an easy to read format.  When it came down to narrowing my selection, I like to refer to 3 or 4 websites and read the different reviews on that template. It may sound mundane but trust me when I can say it will save you a big headache later.

Make sure that when picking a template, you pick one that matches your level of experience. In fact, I will let you know that this website you see right now, Tango 2 the Moon was my very first blog that I branched out from blogger's default format and used a template. This template actually was relatively easy to install and there is only a medium level of customization involved. My other blog Creatively Complex, the one I did for a rock band was the template where i needed the highest level of skill. I used a template called Zinmag Remedy and it's a cool, sexy looking template but did require a great deal of customization. This is the  kind of template you want to use only after you've had a little bit of practice with other blogs templates and doing hacks and codes in blogger.  For those of you who may be just starting out and don't quite know where to begin, the template "Notepad Chaos" is one of the most popular and easy to install templates available.

From there I researched this template and checked out reviews on other blogsites as well as looked at the number of downloads and hits for this particular template.  And of course uploading the template was just the first part, I had to add some hacks and codes which I will cover in another post in this series. What I will say for now is that the moment I uploaded the template, it was love at first sight....

Image by Eddi van W. via FlickrLet's Get Engaged! That's the name of this 6 part blog series on social media strategies.  Recently I found myself beginning to dish some of my deepest secrets to blogs, blogging, and social media. It was then that I realized that within the past year I've accumulated enough knowledge on this topic to write a a good 6 part blog series. A huge part of the reason why I have such a desire to do this is because I really want to give back to the blogging community. I know that I get praised for being a good writer but it goes way beyond that, I'm not just a writer, I'm a blogger who is involved in social media.

 And not only do I blog, but I put together blogsites and have had experience in helping put together blogsites for others that will help increase the level of engagment between them and those in cyberspace.  And a key part of my success is the tools I use and have available to me as well as having access to great websites that contain wicked templates and mind blowing articles on tricks and hacks for bloggers.  I owe so much to these people, websites, and companies that put so much time and effort into being a great resource and now it's my turn to take time out to acknowledge them and give them some exposure.

 And I just want to note here that social media is such a massive topic and different people from different walks of life and backgrounds are going to use it in different ways. I'm a blogger and a writer who is well versed with the Blogger platform and how it works.  All the experience, tricks, and hacks I know are about blogs and specifically with blogger. But that doesn't mean that someone who uses Wordpress can't benefit from my words and experience :)  Now that we've cleared that up we are ready to start!

The secret to social media is engagement. I pour through hundreds of articles and the word "engagement" always pops up. Engagement is how much your visitors are interacting with your blogsite.  Engagement is the holy grail of social media, the most coveted thing but seemly impossible to achieve and something that nobody really knows how to find or where to begin.....until now.

Engagement is not something that I can teach you to do in one day but if you stick with me through this blog series you'll see how the theme of engagement is weaved and hopefully by the last post in the series, you'll have a better grasp on how to engage your audience. So get ready as our hunt for the holy grail begins....

Blogs featured on our hunt for the holy grail include:

"Indiana Jones and the Template of Doom"

"Open Blog Surgery"

"Who Gives a Hoot?"

"Facebook Frenemies"

"Surf's Up!!!"