May 14 marked the fifth birthday of my blog.

It’s seen two URLs, multiple names, and numerous iterations. If you’ve never visited the archive, you can trace my beginning blog posts about apartment life and the environment and discover my first posts about social media.

Despite writing about the death of blogging one month ago, this blog is not dying. I don’t know why I haven’t shared anything in the past 30 days but it’s not for lack of internet activity. I continue to tweet and update stuff on my new Facebook community, and I’ve recently dabbled with newer media tools such as Pinterest and Fuzz.

What you can expect between now and May 2013.

• You can expect to learn theoretical and social business applications of new and emerging media.
• You can expect to read more articles specific to small- and medium-sized business.
• You can expect to appreciate new voices as part of the ongoing Feature Friday series.
• You can expect to gain insights into case studies and best practices on web marketing, along with interviews with leading practitioners.
• You can expect to discover new bloggers and voices in the online space.
• You can expect to follow news about a Twitter e-book I plan to publish this year, and you will have an opportunity to become an affiliate.
• You can expect to see what people are saying on my complementary new and emerging media communities I created on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can expect to win free prizes by liking and commenting in the Facebook community.

You can expect wonderful things.

Please continue reading Happy 5th Birthday to My Blog and leave a comment if inspired.

Ari Herzog is currently seeking a full time position in social media. Connect on LinkedIn today.

Discover more articles on new and emerging media.

It seems that every month there is a newspaper article about the death of blogging. Editors talk.

Verne Kopytoff wrote a sensationalist headline in the New York Times in February 2011 entitled, “Blogs Wane as the Young Drift to Sites Like Twitter.” I and others responded at the time why Verne was nuts and blogging was very alive.

Another year and another headline, this time in my local newspaper, The Daily News of Newburyport, in the form of an editorial entitled, “Blogging Dies Its Slow Death.”

As if.

The editorial cites (but does not link to) this University of Massachusetts Dartmouth report, yet the latest in a series of annual reports that compare blogging trends in the Inc. 500 over time, that elaborates corporate blogs are disappearing and corporate Twitter accounts are gaining notoriety.

It’s Kopytoff all over again.

The fallacy of such reports by UMass Dartmouth is while the trend may be true for corporate blogs, it’s definitely not true for consumer blogs. Take a look at NM Incite’s report of 181 million blogs and you’ll quickly observe the trend of dying blogs is hardly true.

I grant the Daily News editor that the news is not all grim. He does write, “There’s no doubt that the blogosphere remains strong, at least for now. There’s an estimated 170 million blogs out there, many of them maintained by private individuals. But their growth has slowed over the past two years, and data indicates the growth has reached its peak.”

NM Incite doesn’t indicate any peak and the number of blogs continually added to Alltop is not waning either. So, what’s going on here? Why must headlines continue to be printed about the death of blogging?

When will part 272 be published?

Please continue reading The Death of Blogging: Part 271 and leave a comment if inspired.

Ari Herzog is currently seeking a full time position in social media. Connect on LinkedIn today.

• Why Blogging is Still Not Dying
• The Importance of Guest Blogging

This is a guest blog post by Liz Krause.

Hive photo by kakisky.

Nearly 10 years ago while self-employed working from home, I spoke to a friend who had an office job and to my surprise she told me she could never work from home and preferred her work place. It is not too often you come across people who share these sentiments.

Today, I’ve got a great job that although is often spent in the office, it allows me to also work from home. I’m a huge proponent of telecommuting for a number of reasons but also am realistic that not everyone is cut out for a work at home lifestyle even if they think they are.

Working at home is a privilege, but creating the right environment and having the right tools is what will either keep you happy at home or land you back in the office.

Home Office Business Essentials

Telephone
Telecommuting from the home office requires a solid phone connection. I’m not referring to cell phones, although these are important as well. Companies are gradually moving more towards seeking the help of SIP Trunking providers to deliver VoIP (Voice over IP) solutions in the hopes of not only cutting down on their operational expenses, but because of functionality when employing telecommuters.

For example, with a VoIP system, companies can assign a full Direct Inward Dial phone number so people can call direct to you; or they can simply add you on as an extension, such as extension x301. The flexibility is that the phone number is tied to your phone’s IP address and should you ever move or relocate or even if someone replaces you, the company can simply redirect the number to the new IP address anywhere in the country without any disruption to the phone number.

Keep in mind with VoIP, phone numbers are not limited to a specific area code because they VoIP through the internet rather than actual physical lines as is the case with traditional phone service.

This is particularly important for businesses that tend to move around a lot. For my and my husband’s software business where he is a programmer for the picture framing industry , he has always worked from home. But we are those type of people that just get bored being in one place too long so we move around every few years.

We use a company called Vocalocity which is a Hosted VoIP Provider and all we have to do is unplug our phone from the internet and plug it back in at the new location and we are back in business. Our phone number stays with us and our customers have no idea we even moved since there is no interruption to service (calls will automatically go to voice mail when unplugged, unlike a traditional phone line which would give a busy signal).

Internet
It is expected that everyone has internet access these days, but there are a number of rural areas which still do not have high speed internet. When you telecommute, expect to be sending and receiving emails and files between coworkers and clients, and being part of video conferencing meetings and live webcasts. These are technologies designed to make it easier for telecommuters to communicate with their fellow employees.

In addition, if using the internet for phone service as mentioned above, then it is even more crucial than ever to have a high speed connection with sufficient bandwidth to meet the load of both data and voice.

Printer/Scanner/Fax
It’s important to have a good printer in your home office and I suggest getting a laser printer instead of an inkjet. Although these are more expensive, the ink cartridges last longer, the ink won’t bleed if it gets wet, and they provide a better print quality output.

The scanner is important because there will be times when you have to scan a form, document, contract, checks, receipts, etc., to submit to your coworkers or boss. In regards to faxing, you can look at online faxing solutions such as EFax or iEtherFax, which allow you to use the internet to do all your faxing; no additional phone line or fax machine is required.

To save space, a three-in-one machine will be more practical and convenient. Look for specials because these can get pricey. For example, a few years ago we had to do a large multi-month mailing and rather than pay a local printing company, we chose to buy our own printer. That was cost effective until ink cartridges and our drum kit needed replacement and cost us $400. We are still dragging our feet on making the purchase.

Work Environment

Identify and alienate any distractions
Distractions get the best of us. Today, I planned on getting to work early and was on my way until my husband offered to make me a cup of coffee. Ten minutes later, I was again on my way until I remembered to take a jug of water for my desk. Instead of arriving early, I was 10 minutes late. Life is different when you work from home — it’s harder!

Telecommuting is not the same as self-employment
As a self-employed individual, I could decide at 2 p.m. that I needed to go grocery shopping and I finish my tasks later that evening. When working as a telecommuter, you still answer to a boss and it is important that you work just as if you were in the office with set hours and discipline.

Little things like taking care of paying utility bills, keeping in touch with your parents, taking the pet to the vet — these are things that previously had to be done outside of work hours, and suddenly we think we have the liberty to do it during work hours because we work from home. Unless it is approved that you can work a flex schedule, you must keep to your hours and in order to do that with any productivity, you must eliminate any distractions that keep you from fulfilling your job responsibilities.

Track your tasks and accomplishments
One of the issues with telecommuting I have experienced in the past is having a boss or superior who is a micromanager. Expect them to struggle with trust issues such as wondering if you are really working your full hours, are you slacking, are you getting your work done, and so forth.

Keep a chart of your tasks and what you are spending your time on. You don’t have to say you are doing this but, should you ever need it, it is available in your defense. What I have found works well is to send weekly or even daily reports of what you are working on and what you have accomplished. This small effort will go a long way.

Before you jump on the telecommuting bandwagon, take stock of what is truly expected. You might be surprised and find yourself looking at the office work environment in a new light — cubicle and all!

Do you have experience telecommuting? Any questions for me?

Please continue reading Tips and Tricks for Productive Telecommuting and leave a comment if inspired.

Ari Herzog is currently seeking a full time position in social media. Connect on LinkedIn today.

• 8 Social Media Tips to Memorize Now

How many times has your social media consultant, the local chamber of commerce, a conference presentation, and your favorite blog encouraged you to create a Facebook fan page?

“It’s the largest social networking site, and you’d be crazy to ignore it!” someone cries out to you.

“You can reach 800 million people with a single update!” urges another.

“Your fans want to identify with you!” insists the third.

What do you do? You follow their encouragements and create a page. You promote the heck out of it — and your friends, their friends, and their lovers click over to “like” the page.

And then — nothing.

Whether you have 100 fans, 1,000 fans, or 30,000 fans, you notice that every time you post an update that is shared among those fans’ walls, a small percentage are liking, commenting, and sharing. You grow frustrated so you change the format of the updates. You post pictures because you know pictures speak a thousand words. You embed video but they don’t go viral either. Same response. You can understand that 90% of blog readers are lurkers but you don’t understand why you can’t tap into the Facebook market. You begin to hate that consultant and those blogs.

I don’t blame you. But it’s not their fault.

Part of the blame rests on your shoulders for focusing on the number of fans. That’s just a number and numbers don’t mean as much as names. Anyone can click a like button; it takes a fraction of a second. Focus on the fans who interact with you, whose names frequently like, comment, and share what you post. Focus on the fans who love you and not the ones who merely like your page.

The rest of the blame rests with EdgeRank, a Facebook algorithm that determines what every user will see in their news feed. Based on the three variables of affinity, weight, and time decay, it is this formula that is the cause of 84% of your Facebook fans to never see your page updates. Simply stated, Facebook assumes the lack of your fans’ liking, commenting, and sharing is enough reason to not show your updates to your fans.

Genevieve Lachance, a virtual assistant to businesses, provided the following infographic to explain EdgeRank and why it’s so important.

To defeat EdgeRank, you must follow Brian Carter’s 4 tips to increase Facebook page visibility:

1. Try to get more likes and comments with every post. Every post that doesn’t get responses lowers the value of your page. Ensure everyone who posts to your page knows this and is capable of doing the next bullet item.

2. Explicitly tell people why they should like and comment on your posts. This directly correlates to increased metrics.

3. Consider Facebook advertising or showing your page posts as ads to increase the number of fans. Then increase your engagement tactics so you can reach a higher percentage of new fans.

4. If nothing works to engage fans on your Facebook page, remember that lower visibility may increase your cost per customer and directly correlate to losing profit potential. Maybe your page should die and you should use Facebook advertising alone to send people to your website to reduce the number of steps and save costs per customer.

Thoughts?

Please continue reading Why 84% of Your Facebook Fans are Lurkers and leave a comment if inspired.

Ari Herzog is currently seeking a full time position in social media. Connect on LinkedIn today.

• Forget Increasing Twitter Followers or Facebook Fans – Be Meaningful Instead
• How to Gain Fans on Facebook

Mark Schaefer introduced his first book, “The Tao of Twitter,” on his blog on February 15, 2011. In that blog post, he wrote, “Every Twitter success story, case study, and business benefit has a common formula.”

I emailed him for more information.

Mark, what does that line mean? What’s the formula?

If you dissect any Twitter “success story” it may appear like luck. And to some extent there is a certain randomness to Twitter. Yet I think people can increase their chances of creating business benefits by following this formula that seems to be behind so many successes. First, be mindful and systematic about who you follow and engage with. Don’t just sit back and expect people to follow you because you have a Twitter account. Find interesting people who may care about you and what you do.

Second, you have to show up. Sharing content and engaging with people is the catalyst that makes things happen. If you are passive or stalk the Twitter stream, you probably won’t make many meaningful connections.

Finally, at the root of most success stories is a relationship built on trust and helpfulness. If you go into Twitter with the mindset that you are trying to “sell” or market to people, you’re probably to fail. Instead, focus on building relationships and the benefits will come.

There aren’t any Twitter rules?

No, I don’t necessarily think there are rules.

I think there are some best practices, some etiquette that probably would be helpful, but I am all for creating your own experience on Twitter. And if you bother too many people, you’ll probably hear about it!

Which Twitter tools do you recommend to people?

There are tons of useful apps out there.

I use Hootsuite as my primary dashboard.

For people just starting out, I recommend looking into Twellow. It’s a great place to find interesting people to follow by industry, hobby, common interest, or geographic region.

Back to your book. What inspired you to write it?

I had been teaching some social media classes and developed a little guidebook to help my students remember key ideas and terms. One day after class, a student told me that the handbook was worth the price of the entire class! At the same time I was constantly frustrated by people asking for help on Twitter — it’s just not something you can explain in a phone call. Fleshing out the handbook into a book seemed to make sense.

Why did you decide to self-publish it?

About two years ago, I had been approached by several publishers about writing a book.

I decided to self-publish for two main reasons. First, the publishers have an expectation of a book tour. I don’t have the time for that. Second, they expect a certain amount of heft to the book. Heft equals price point. A former journalist, my style is to tell a story, get the job done, and end it. I was not going to write a book with a lot of filler that people would not read. What’s the point?

It made sense for this particular topic and my priorities and I approached it as a learning experience. I produced a book that people can read in 90 minutes and feel like they have really learned something. I’m proud of that. A bonus is that it is selling very well, completely via word of mouth. It has also been picked up as a text book by at least five business schools, including Michigan State University, which also makes me feel like I am making a positive contribution.

There are so many publishing options these days. I love what Seth Godin is doing with the Domino Project. He’s got it right. Tell the story and be done with it. A no-fluff model. I like that.

McGraw-Hill published Mark’s second book, “Return on Influence,” in February 2012. He said he needed editorial support so decided to work with a traditional publisher. I encourage you to visit his marketing blog entitled {grow} to learn about the connections between companies, reputations, and profits. You can tweet Mark @MarkWSchaefer.

Please continue reading Mark Schaefer on The Tao of Twitter and leave a comment if inspired.

Ari Herzog is currently seeking a full time position in social media. Connect on LinkedIn today.

• Facebook Twitter and LinkedIn – The Truth

With names such as SEO Forum, SEO Outsourcing, and Herbalife, it is pathetic that despite clear instructions that real names are required when adding comments, people continue to leave comments with their company names or other search engine optimized keywords.

I wonder if these people are following a manual when commenting. Do this, do that. I also muse if human beings are commenting at all or if sophisticated robotic scripts are doing the work.

My comment review process is simple:

No real name, no approved comment.

Any questions?

Please continue reading …and Blog Comment Spam Continues and leave a comment if inspired.

Ari Herzog is currently seeking a full time position in social media. Connect on LinkedIn today.

• How to Identify Spam in Blog Comments
• Reintroducing Blog Comment Moderation
• 97 Percent of Blog Comments are Mollom Spam

A student in my social media marketing class asked me how she can find employees who work at certain companies.

I created a video in response — for her and for you.

Enjoy and learn:

Please continue reading How to Find People on LinkedIn and leave a comment if inspired.

Ari Herzog is currently seeking a full time position in social media. Connect on LinkedIn today.

• Diverse Summaries of 13 LinkedIn Users
• 9 LinkedIn Users Describe Themselves
• Why I Changed My LinkedIn Summary

On the heels of my popular advice why some people suck at emailing me requests to publish their guest blog posts, I received a message with the following subject line:

Professional Copywriting for Sci Fi Talk

My first instinct was a recruiter found my resume on one of the online job boards where I posted it with my desire to work in social media marketing, and that this person wanted me to write articles for a science fiction website.

Alas, no.

Howdy Ari,

[and she listed 5 links]

I’m willing to give anyone the benefit of the doubt.

But, red flags were raised.

First: Why isn’t Imogen including a last name?

Second: Why would I care about her age?

Third: Why would she think I’d accept a guest blog post for a fee?

Fourth: Why does she think I’d want her to write for me if she writes about everything under the sun?

Fifth: Why is she a professional writer but employs grammatical errors?

Sixth (and yes you saw this coming): Why does she think I run scifitalk.com? Has she not been a researcher for five years?

…and seventh: Why are other people receiving the same exact email?

I want you to write for me. I want you to share your best ideas on social media marketing to educate, entertain, and engage with my other readers here. But I want you to be a real person. Am I asking too much?

Please continue reading Meet Imogen: A Fake Wannabe Guest Blogger and leave a comment if inspired.

Ari Herzog is currently seeking a full time position in social media. Connect on LinkedIn today.

• Meet Everett Bogue: A Blogger Who Only Wants Blog Readers Who Tweet Because Everyone Else is a Low-life
• The Downfall of the Inconsistent Blogger