Blogging is a Fashionable Business!

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Fashion and beauty bloggers with popular blogs which have diverse and engaged audiences are the newest influencers making them sought after partners for fashion and beauty brands.  These bloggers post photos of themselves wearing the free clothes, accessories and cosmetics that brands send them, host parties for brands, walk runways and even star in television commercials like Lindsay Calla of Saucy Glossie.  Fashion blogging has become a serious business!

Check out the links below to learn more about the business of blogging:

• The Business of Fashion Blogging

• Fashion Blogging is Creating a New Era of Influencers

• Fashion Bloggers are the New Fashion Icons

• Fashion Bloggers, Posted and Represented

• The Business of Blogging | Elin Kling (See Kling's blog, here and a video Kling did with H&M, here)

• Who's The New Judge of America’s Next Top Model? BryanBoy! (See BryanBoy's blog, here)

• Fairchild Fashion Media Buys Blogger Network of BryanBoy, Elin Kling, Rumi Neely and Anna Dello Russo

• Fashion’s Top Bloggers Make It Work For The Gap

• Beauty Bloggers Design a Color Collection for MAC

• Fashion Bloggers on the Runway

• Marriage of fashion and social media

• How a Blogging Duo Is Changing Fashion Photography With Animated Cinemagraphs

• Straight Talk: A New Breed of Fashion Bloggers

• What I Wore's, Jessica Quirk wrote a book based on her blog

• In 2010, fashion blogger Gabi Fresh became MTV's first Twitter jockey

 

More on using your social media influence for good

Tweet We blogged previously about using your social media influence for good.  Since then, we noticed a few more articles about ways non-profits can connect with donors and volunteers in the digital space who are looking to use their social media influence to do good:

• Why Social Media Is a Game-Changer for Causes
• How can philanthropists make the most of social media?
• 11 Innovative Crowdfunding Platforms for Social Good
• Can UNAIDS Crowdsource a Strategy to Combat HIV/AIDS?
• 3 Innovative Ways Non-Profits Are Leveraging Blogs 
• Do Celebrities Really Help Online Causes?
• 1MillionShirts Leverages Social Media to Help Clothe Africa

TIP: How to Embed an Excel spreadsheet on a web page

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Got an Excel spreadsheet that you want to post on your blog or web page?  Read Microsoft's tutorial on using the Microsoft Excel Web App to embed spreadsheets on your websites and blogs and making them interactive.

How to use social media to find a job!

Tweet Just as a negative social media presence can harm your chances of being hired by a prospective employer, a positive social media presence can help you land a dream job!  With so many Americans currently unemployed, job seekers must find a way to stand out in the crowd, here are a few ways to use social media to gain a noticeable social media presence:

Twitter

• Find recruiters or industry leaders with Twitter accounts, follow them and occasionally engage with them to learn more about them and the companies for which they work.  Developing a good relationship here can lead to an invitation for an off-line meeting.
• Re-tweet or share any industry-relevant information that you find.
• Post links to your blog posts.
• Learn more at  Mashable's "How to: Find a Job on Twitter"
  

Facebook

• Be sure your personal Facebook page has the appropriate privacy settings so any questionable content there cannot be found by a potential employer.
• Create a business page focused on your job search where you should post your resume and links to any professional web content you have created or any articles written by or about you.
• Use the Notes section as a blog where you can post ideas and points of view about your industry.
• Be sure to update your status regularly.
• Get your friends to "like" your page and spread the word about your job search!

Blog

• Start or update a blog regularly to showcase your expertise and point of view.
•  You may want to import your blog into Facebook's Notes.
• Follow other relevant blogs and comment on any interesting posts to engage with industry peers.

Video

• This may not be appropriate for all industries, but creating and sharing online videos that highlight your talents, expertise, creativity and points of view may help you to get noticed by hiring managers.

LinkedIn

• The ultimate social network for job hunting - Erik Qualman's Socialnomics video tells us that "80% of companies use social media for recruitment" with 95% of those companies using LinkedIn!
• Be sure to create or update your existing profile with your work history, education and other relevant experience as well as links to your blog, Twitter or Facebook page.
• Write a thoughtful and descriptive headline for your profile.
• Be sure to connect with anyone in your address book that currently has a LinkedIn page and ask them for recommendations.
• Join (or start) industry groups and post an ad describing the job you are searching for in the jobs section of each group.  Be sure to actively participate in any group you join by sharing great ideas and information with your peers and it is a great way to get noticed by potential employers.
  
• Add applications to your profile that will pull your blog posts, Twitter updates or even presentations that you have created and shared online.
• Post and answers questions.

Social media resume

• This is a virtual copy of your resume that can be hosted on your website or your blog.
• Add video, audio or images that showcase your expertise.
• Make your resume shareable by adding a sharing utility such as Share This, Add to Any or Add This that site visitors can access readily to share with others.
  

Social media: Manage and update all your social media outlets from one source

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If you are a business owner hoping to tap into social media to market your business  there are some shortcuts to help you reach out to your audience on the various social networking platforms (Blogger, WordPress, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) without taking too much time from your already busy schedule.  Sites like Postling, Posterous, Ping.fm, Hellotxt and desktop applications like TweetDeck offer you a one-stop way of posting to all your social media accounts at once or just a select few at a time.  Many of these sites can also be accessed directly via your mobile phone or by using a downloadable mobile appication.  An added benefit from these services is that you can create and preschedule your blog posts and status updates to post at a desired time so you don't have to worry about being at your computer at the desired posting time.

Social Media: Importing a blog into Facebook's Notes

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Facebook users can share their blogs by importing their blogs into Facebook as 'Notes."  Importing your blog to Facebook pulls in the full content of each blog which means that readers no longer need to visit your blog.  So if your goal is to increase trafffic to your blog - especially if you use your blog to make money - then we suggest using the Networked Blogs app in Facebook which just gives a thumbnail view of each blog post and requires readers to visit your blog in order to view full content.

WordPress users, watch this tutorial to learn how to import your blog into Facebook:

Social Media: Blogging for your business

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Blogging is yet another way you can tap into social media to market your business and engage with current and potential new customers.  You can incorporate a blog into your company's existing website or have a stand alone blog (some companies just opt for a blog instead of a website).  many opt for a free blog hosted by Google's Blogspot (Blogger), TypePad or WordPress.   The key thing to remember if you start a blog for your business is this - content is king - so be sure to keep it interesting, keep it informative and keep it relevant!

Below are some short tutorials that we found to help you get setup with a new blog using Blogger, TypePad or WordPress.


Blogger



Word Press



Type Pad

Get acquainted with Microsoft Office: Word 2007 and 2010

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Check out Microsoft's video demos to help you get off to a productive start using your new Word 2007 or 2010 software:

• Word 2007

Watch this video for tips on how to make your documents look great in Word 2007

• Upgrading to Word 2010 for 2003 users 

 

The latest Word programs have great new features, we blogged previously about using Word 2007 as a tool for blogging.  For articles and video how-to's for accomplishing specific tasks like blogging using your Word software, check out the Word support page.   Here are a few to help you get started:

• Mail Merges 2007 / 2010

• Tracking changes 2007 / 2010

• Creating tables 2007 / 2010

• Creating tables of contents 2007 / 2010

Microsoft's Word team blog offers more great tips and news and information on your Word software

Is Social Media right for your business?

Tweet 2.6 million users "checking in" on FourSquare

27.9 million+ bloggers in the US

Facebook has over 103+ million users (including 300,000+ business pages)

Nearly 106 million people "tweeting" on Twitter

143.2 million unique viewers on YouTube in June 2010 alone!

These numbers are staggering! More importantly, they represent the number of people that are a potential audience for your business if you use one of these sites. But is social media the right avenue to engage with your current clients and promote your brand to gain new clients?

While a social media strategy may not be right for every business, there are many that can positively measure the impact of a Facebook page or Twitter account on their bottom lines! Erik Qualman gives some great examples of businesses (large and small) that had great success using social media in his video Social Media ROI: Socialnomics. The New York Times also tells us some success stories of small businesses who saw a great return on investment from their Twitter marketing efforts.

If your company has a small (or non-existent) ad budget, social media may be the answer. Most social networking sites are free to use so for only the cost of your time, devoting a few minutes a day to "tweet" on Twitter, post an informative blog relevant to your product/service or share interesting links or photos on Facebook can result in increased exposure for your company and increased sales. So are you ready to embrace social media for your business?!

NMC has gone social, follow us on Twitter and "like" us on Facebook)

How to use Word 2007 as a tool for Blogging?

Tweet Microsoft Word 2007 is a great tool for writing documents although you can write documents with Word 2007 you can also use it to publish a blog with a new and superb feature that has been added to Microsoft Word 2007. In addition to all the useful features which it shares with the previous versions of Microsoft Word, this new feature allows you to use Word 2007 as a tool for blogging.


Here are some simple steps to use Word 2007 as a tool for blogging

1) Open a blank Word 2007 document and click on the office button
2) Click on new and select new blog post
3) A new ribbon displaying the blogging tools will appear.
4) Click on the button that says Manage Accounts.
5) Click on New as the next dialog box appears.
6) The following dialog box will appear
7) You will have to choose the platform you use for blogging from
the list Wordpress or Blogger and then click on the next button.
8) Fill in the information for your website and decide whether
you want it to remember the password or not you can also see the
Picture options button as Word 2007 is capable of uploading
images to some blogging platforms.
9) You can start writing for your blog right away.
10)After finishing writing, click on Publish and select how you want
to publish your blog. You can also open an older post in Word 2007
by clicking on the open existing button.
11)As you use Word 2007 as a tool for blogging, you will
be able to add categories to the blog posts, and Word 2007
will immediately connect to the blogging platform you use
and download the listing of categories.
12)If you like to use Word for writing your documents, you now have
the option to use it for writing posts for your personal blogs.
It has now become an incredible post editor as you can use
Word 2007 as a tool for blogging.

Does your business need a website?

Tweet In short, yes! Having a web presence ensures that your customers and potential customers as well as potential employees or business partners can find information about your business and the products/services that you offer. For some companies, one or two pages are sufficient to give information on products/services, location, hours of operation and contact information. For others, a web store, blog or even multimedia content such as a video may be the best way to represent their brand on-line and gain new business.

In this video, the Better Business Bureau suggests asking yourself if customers already find your business using the web and also if your competitors have a website. If the answer to either of these questions is yes, then you need a website.

Once you decide to invest in a website, consider the following:

What domain name best represents your company? You will have to find out if the domain name is available and purchase a license.

What information needs to be on your website? Address,contact information, hours of service, information on your products/service

How can you stand out from the competition? CONTENT RULES! What information will you provide to visitors to make them go with you instead of the competition.

What images best represent your brand? Your site must have a consistent look and tie in to your logo and off-line branding/marketing materials.

You will need a web hosting service to make your website "live." Do a Google search to find web hosting services. (Note: NMC offers web hosting and domain name registration services)

Last, you will need to design your website. For business owners with limited budgets, WordPress (see tutorial) and Blogger (tutorial here) are simple, free, do-it-yourself options for creating a website (yes, you can use these blogging sites to create web pages and you won't have to worry about finding a web host). For companies desiring a more complicated site with many pages or multimedia elements, it's best to go with a knowledgeable web designer, such as New Millennum Computers, that can help you to create a sleek, professional-looking website that also meets your business needs.