With the recent designation of the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) Bloch School as No. 1 in the world in innovation management research, this is yet another step in city leaders’ focus on economic development, job creation and spurring innovation and tech development.

The “Will It Be You?” PSA highlights entrepreneurs’ contributions to the economy, job creation and innovation, an especially poignant message given the economic challenges of recent years. It’s also a timely message, given the selection by Google of Kansas City for its much sought-after Google Fiber Initiative.

The road to the designation as America’s most entrepreneurial city was the result a collaboration between the Kauffman Foundation and the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, among other organizations, as part of the Chamber’s 5 Big Ideas Initiative.

The Kauffman Foundation plays a large role in the Kansas City community. Founded in the mid-1960s by the late Ewing Marion Kauffman, the Kauffman Foundation focuses its grant making and operations on advancing entrepreneurship and improving the education of youth.

If you’ve seen the Kauffman Foundation’s “City of Entrepreneurs” sketchbook video, you’ll recognize the style in which the upcoming PSA was created. During the spot, aspiring entrepreneurs will be directed to visit Will It Be You, a Kauffman-created website that provides a number of resources to help entrepreneurs get their businesses off the ground. The PSA is scheduled to run in several major markets, including Kansas City, New York City, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco. You can get a sneak preview below.

As both an entrepreneur and a long time Kansas City resident, this is pretty exciting. Starting and running a business may be one of the hardest things you will ever do, but it’s also one of the most rewarding. And Kansas City wouldn’t be where we are today without our entrepreneurs, including Kauffman himself, founder of Marion Labs; Henry W. Bloch and Richard Bloch, founders of H&R Block; Joyce C. Hall, founder of Hallmark; Cleyson Brown, founder of Brown Telephone, which would eventually become Sprint; Neal Patterson, Cliff Illig and Paul Gorup, founders of Cerner, and Gary Burrell and Min Kao, founders of Garmin, to name just a few.

So as you’re watching the Super Bowl (or, if you’re like me and are more interested in the commercials), keep your eyes peeled for the Kauffman Foundation PSA. And if you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, consider this an official kick in the rear to start pursuing your dreams. That sort of victory will be a lot more meaningful than a football score. Oh, and if you’re really smart, you’ll come to Kansas City to do it.

Go Giants!

Kansas City’s Kauffman Foundation To Air Super Bowl PSA Honoring Entrepreneurs is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

A friend sent me a link to this video yesterday entitled Stuff Social Media People Never Say. It made my day and I’m pretty sure it’s going to make yours, too.

For those of us who are immersed in the digital space, it’s easy to forget that a large percentage of our family and friends, not to mention our clients, often have no flipping idea what we’re talking about – on any given day. The world we live in has a language all its own, filled with things like @messages and DMs and Hangouts and Scoops and Pins. Nodding, aren’t you? Well, it’s confirmed, you’re a geek. As if there was really ever any doubt.

Without further ado, here you go. Note that after the jump I’ve jotted down some of my favorites, just so you won’t have any trouble remembering them.

“So, I would say that Friendster is one of the most effective marketing tools.”

“No, I don’t think we need WiFi in here” (Seriously. Who would ever say that?)

“Ohhhhh, I love CAPTCHAs”

“Who’s Mark Zuckerberg?”

“Do you know how to get my client on FourSquare?”

“Where’s this plug in?”

“The Mommy Blogger! An uptapped audience!”

“Do you know if a laptop comes with Google?”

“Does anyone know how to install Internet Explorer? I really need it.”

“I just hit 50,000 unread emails in my inbox!”

“I miss MySpace!”

“Huffington Post …… Okay great. I will have my client give you a call right away (what’s that?)”

“Bill Gates wasn’t THAT influential.”

“No, no, no no! Make sure ALL that traffic goes straight to our LiveJournal.”

“Steve Ballmer is a true visionary!”

“Okay. Thanks for cc’ing me on all those emails!”

“Do you know who Robert Scoble is? I can’t figure it out.”

“Go SOPA!”

“Can I get Facebook updates on my pager?”

“Oh no! I have too many Twitter followers!”

“Do you know I’m the mayor of this bathroom on FourSquare?”

“Oh yeah. I found that error message really helpful!”

“Who is Mark Zuckerberg?” (worthy of a double mention)

And the number one thing that social media people say all the time:

Please DO NOT share this!

Seriously. You know you laughed at this just as much as I did. Thanks to my goofy PR buddy Robb Yagmin from PS Public Relations for always being on the lookout for things that will make me laugh. And kudos to GregoryFCAfor creating the video — it was awesome!

Oh, and because I’m really nerdy, when I published this post at 9:40 am this morning, the video had 418 views. Let’s see how we can rock that baby!

Stuff Social Media People Never Say is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

A quick note? Before we dive in to how you can generate leads from LinkedIn, keep in mind that, as with other social networking platforms, one of the keys to LinkedIn success is to use the site often. I’ll talk about this more later, especially when it comes to your profile, but you’ll want to get yourself in the mindset to check in on and engage with LinkedIn on a daily basis, if not more often. Sure, it may be tough to find the time, but in my experience, diligent use of the site can pay off in a big way, an incentive that likely makes up for the investment of your time and resources.

Without further ado, let’s dive in to the 12 most effective ways to generate leads on LinkedIn.

1. Your profile

Sounds like a no-brainer, right? Yet the profile is the core of your LinkedIn presence, and if it’s not up to par, you need to make time ASAP to refine and complete your profile. A common mistake is to treat it like a resume—don’t do it! Don’t be afraid to give an in-depth look at your current experience and career history. After all, you want to give other LinkedIn users a complete look at all you have to offer when it comes to a certain industry or skill-set. Think of your LinkedIn profile as a valuable piece of real estate—maximize the space you’ve got to get the best results. A couple of other tips? Use a professional-looking head shot as your profile image, crop it closely so someone looking at your profile can almost look you in the eyes and don’t speak about yourself in the third person.

2. Connections

Aside from your profile, your LinkedIn connections are one of the most important tools you can use. After all, the more connections you have, the wider your reach, and the more likely you are to be exposed to potential leads and business opportunities. Enter your email address if you want to let LinkedIn find users with whom you’ve already connected. Or look in categories such as current and previous employers, the college you attended or your geographic location to find connections. When you find someone with whom you want to connect, don’t just click send on LinkedIn’s default invitation – that’s the epitome of impersonal (not to mention lazy). Take a few minutes to write a brief message. Maybe you met this person at a conference or event, or know him or her through a past project. Remind this person of your connection and express your enthusiasm at the opportunity to stay in touch. Those little details can translate into a big first impression, and set the stage for future communication.

3. Share content

I mentioned earlier that one of the keys to LinkedIn is remaining visible and active. Think of LinkedIn as a fast-moving information stream. Every time you make a connection, edit your profile, post content or participate in a group, you (and your profile) show up in LinkedIn’s stream. This is a mini-marketing message to your connections and the fact that you’re visible and active on the platform lets them know you’re serious about LinkedIn and it’s power. An easy way to maximize visibility is to share content on a daily basis (or even more frequently, if you can.) You probably consume a lot of content throughout the day, so why not share what you’re reading with your connections? If you want to highlight your expertise or skills, stick to sharing information that aligns with a particular industry or subject matter, and take time to write a couple of sentences that detail your thoughts on the piece when you post.

4. Answers

One of the more overlooked features of LinkedIn is Answers. Just as you can post content to your profile to highlight your expertise, you can answer questions posed by other LinkedIn users. This is a great way to demonstrate your knowledge. You’ll also be communicating with people who are outside your immediate circle of connections, giving you the chance to expand your reach. How to do it? That’s simple. Just browse the current questions, whether you look at those posed by your network or narrow them down from one of LinkedIn’s recommended categories. When you find one that you can answer, go for it! You’ll help yourself emerge as a knowledgeable source in that field, which opens the door for others to contact you regarding prospective opportunities. Aim to allocate time to do this a few times a week and you’ll be amazed at the benefits you can reap.

5. Groups

If you haven’t already joined LinkedIn Groups, consider this your wake-up call. You can find groups for certain industries, schools, cities, interests and other criteria. Join the groups that look interesting to you and start participating – just like in real life. Imagine that. Weigh in on existing discussions or start your own. When you post content to your LinkedIn profile, you can also specify that the link be shared to certain groups, which is a great way to cross-post to several different areas at once.  Think of groups as a smaller, more niche networking opportunity, but equally valuable in helping you maintain your LinkedIn visibility and demonstrate your expertise.

6. Events

Here’s a novel idea—take some of your online interactions offline! Scan upcoming events in your area that are posted on LinkedIn to find potentially valuable networking opportunities. After all, as tempting as it is to conduct all of your interaction online, there’s an intrinsic value in meeting up with people face-to-face. Once you’ve established that initial bond, you can continue to build the relationship on sites like LinkedIn and will be top-of-mind if a new job, prospective client or other growth opportunity becomes available.

7. Research

If you’re heading to a sales or other business meeting, it’s not a bad idea to spend a little bit of time doing some preliminary research. Look up the meeting attendees on LinkedIn to familiarize yourself with their backgrounds and work experience. You’ll also be able to see if you have any connections in common and, if so, can mention a mutual friend’s name as a conversation starter. Any time you can demonstrate that you’ve done your homework and have taken the time to get to know the people and the businesses with which you’re working, you make a far more effective impression.

8. Company page

Do you have a LinkedIn Company Page for your business? If not, set one up! This allows interested parties to get a snapshot of your business as well as your employees. And just as you post content links on your personal profile, you can post them on your business page, too — yet another way to establish yourself and your company as an expert in a particular industry. LinkedIn recently rolled out the ability for a company to post status updates and in our experience, this is a drastically under-used tool. Set up your page, make regular status updates – you’ll be amazed at how your brand presence on the platform might grow.

9. Applications

Applications are what I like to consider the “pimp my profile” part of LinkedIn. You can choose from a number of different apps to add features and personality to your profile. One of my favorites? SlideShare, which displays your presentations in your LinkedIn profile. I’ve landed several business leads from presentations alone, so the ability to publish your presentations so that they’re visible to your LinkedIn audience is a key tool when it comes to lead generation. We’re also big fans of feeding your corporate blog into your LinkedIn profile, which is another app and very easy to do. As you add apps, choose them with a discerning eye. You don’t want your profile to become too cluttered and hard to read. You may also want to consider installing the apps toward the bottom of your page so that your work experience, skills, recommendations and other pertinent information have a more premium placement on the page.

10. Recommendations

Speaking of recommendations, these are nifty tools that add a richer level of engagement to your LinkedIn profile. Don’t be afraid to approach current and previous colleagues and superiors and ask them to write a brief LinkedIn recommendation. You’ll want to be sure to return the favor, and you can also volunteer to write a recommendation for someone else, which will likely result in a reciprocal write-up. Recommendations are built-in testimonials, so the more you have, the more information someone can get about you, your work habits and your strengths, increasing the chance that a business prospect will approach you for an upcoming project or similar work. And you can’t get a recommendation unless you ask for one – so get going.

11. Mobile

If your schedule is anything like mine, you’re constantly on the go—and you probably always have your phone in hand, right? There’s no reason why you shouldn’t maximize the LinkedIn mobile app to stay up-to-date with your profile and connections. LinkedIn has done quite a bit of work on the app over the last year, and I think this latest version is downright snazzy. What’s more? It’s convenient. You don’t necessarily have to be at your computer to update your profile, do a bit of research or find out what’s happening with your other connections. It all goes back to maintaining your visibility on the site, and the mobile app is a key tool when it comes to facilitating a steady stream of LinkedIn activity.

12. Promote

Now that you’ve put all of this hard work into creating your LinkedIn profile, building your connections and establishing a more robust presence on the site, it’s time to promote your efforts! Make it easy for people to find you on LinkedIn. Publish a link on your other social networking profiles, your website, your blog, your business cards, your email signature—wherever applicable. And if you write a blog that contains business-related content, make sure you’ve installed a LinkedIn sharing button so that others can more easily publish your information on their own profiles.

When it comes to generating business leads, it’s all about staying visible and increasing your reach, two fundamental components that can be achieved with LinkedIn. The site undoubtedly requires a time commitment – but so do any networking or new business development efforts. There’s no easy button when it comes to building credibility and a network. And, for us, LinkedIn is one of our number one sources of new business leads.  I can assure you that your investment in the site is one of the better things you can do for your company or personal brand.

How else do you use LinkedIn to generate leads? Do you have trouble making it a part of your daily online routine, or as the site become a regular part of your digital marketing strategy? And if we’re not yet connected on LinkedIn, feel free to stalk me.

Featured image by Nan Palmero licensed via Creative Commons

Republished with permission, courtesy of 12 Most

12 Most Effective Ways To Generate Leads On LinkedIn is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

Feel free to let down your guard—a post in Facebook’s help center confirms that the messages are part of a recent Call Tracking Study outreach to better understand how many phone calls local businesses receive as a result of their Facebook page.

Obviously, Facebook is serious about wanting participation. They are offering a $500 credit for Facebook advertising if you sign up for the month-long study—not too shabby of an incentive, right? Once you’ve confirmed your participation, you’ll receive a special phone number from Facebook that you’ll need to put on your business page for one month. That way, Facebook will be able to count calls that occur as a result of the page, while also ensuring that the calls reach their recipients.

Here’s a copy of the message, courtesy of All Facebook:

With Facebook spam and hacking so prevalent, it’s no wonder that even a legitimate message like the one above was tagged as possibly suspicious. Yet it’s a smart move on Facebook’s part to stay up-to-date on these issues and let users know of legitimate correspondence—especially when it comes to a potentially valuable offer for small business owners. After all, free advertising is a pretty powerful perk.

In the meantime, we hope that Facebook will publish results of the study. Tying Facebook exposure to phone calls received can provide yet another valuable metric of what Facebook marketing can do for a business or brand. It’s our bet that businesses might not actually receive many calls as a direct result of their Facebook pages, but the proof of that will, of course, be in the pudding.

There’s a lot to be said for a well-designed business brand page on Facebook, and offering relevant information, shopping, great, entertaining, informational or otherwise valuable content on Facebook. Obviously, if you’re a small business that has a brand page but isn’t doing that, you’re probably not getting many calls. And signing up for the promotion will be a great test of that and can perhaps set you on a path to making some modifications that might make a difference.

Bottom line – it’s all about the data. The more data you can collect about the effectiveness of various platforms, the more you validate your digital marketing strategy—and can help sell skeptical parties on your efforts, too.  If you’re a small business with a brand page on Facebook and decide to participate in the promotion, we’d love to know about your results after the test period is over.

Image via Stock.Xchng/otjep

Recent Facebook Emails To Small Businesses Are Research, Not A Scam is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

Yet there’s no denying that Google+ can elevate your brand’s digital marketing strategy, especially if you put some thought into your Google+ presence before you build it. To help jumpstart that thought process, check out a recap of the recent Focus roundtable, “Getting The Most Out Of Google+ For Your Business.”

The online discussion, moderated by Janet Fouts of Tatu Digital Media, featured the insight and expertise of Community Organizer 2.0’s Debra Askanase and V3’s own Shelly Kramer. The hour-long session explored the business applications of Google+, as well as some things to think about as you establish and maintain your brand’s G+ presence. For example, what value are you adding through your business page? And why should people add your business or brand to their G+ circles?

It’s not enough to simply recycle content that’s already appearing on sites like Facebook and Twitter to build out your G+ presence. Instead, focus on the unique strengths of Google+: the ability to send separate messages to specified circles and host interactive gatherings through Hangouts, to name a couple.

Shelly, Debra and Janet also presented some great examples of businesses and non-profits that are making an impact on Google+. After all, sometimes it’s best to learn from those who are blazing a trail, then you can refine and tweak those tactics to fit your own brand or business.

The discussion was also guided by audience questions posted through the interactive Focus dashboard. Audience questions flew so fast and furiously, in fact, that the dialogue inspired a follow-up event to take place as a Google+ hangout. Stay tuned for details, and in the meantime, check out the audio recap of the roundtable to learn more about how you can harness the power of Google+ to elevate your digital marketing strategy.

A Recap Of The Focus “Google+ For Business” Roundtable is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

We have shifted to this Age of Mass Customization, a term coined by Stan Davis in his 1987 book Future Perfect. The most challenging reality of this shift is that it comes right on the heels of a 100-year long era that is almost in every way its complete opposite…the Age of Mass Production.

In the Mass Production days, scientific management was applied to minimize movement (through time and motion studies) as man did the work that machines could not. The management class was born, with its job being to ensure that workers complied with the proven ways to get work done. Decisions were centralized and innovation was the job of the functional experts. This management method made sense in an era of Mass Production.

However, like a spark to gasoline, the change ignited by the Internet accelerated everything. Customization was becoming more commonplace and technology helped make it possible—in today’s wired world, everything you want is only a click away. And as consumers we have nearly infinite options. Thirty years ago, if I wanted a logo design I would call my sister’s girlfriend who was a graphic designer. Today, I search Google for “logo design” and I get 211 million links to sources. And businesses like www.99designs.com offer crowd-sourced logo designs from competing designers from around the world in a couple of days for an amazing price. It’s all about instant gratification.

But there’s trouble in River City. The shift in the economy demands a shift in how we manage our businesses. We are moving from centralized innovation and decision making to decentralized innovation and decision making. Could any shift be more radical? Could any shift call more loudly to leaders today that doing business as usual is no longer viable?

As stated by Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of General Electric, “This economic crisis doesn’t represent a cycle. It represents a reset. It’s an emotional, raw social, economic reset. People who understand that will prosper. Those who don’t will be left behind.”

The slow recovery may not be a slow recovery at all, but instead may well be the grinding of gears as we shift from one system to another. In my book Business at the Speed of Now: Fire Up Your People, Thrill Your Customers, and Crush Your Competitors, I make the point that the shift is both challenging to see and even more challenging to address.

These challenges are complicated because one of the downsides of Mass Production management is its debilitating track record of employee engagement, which is an essential element of real-time customer service. The Gallup Organization reports that only 30 percent of employees find their workplace engaging (meaning, they willingly take action without being told to help the business succeed). The remaining 70 percent show up and do what they are required and often less. Shockingly, these numbers have not changed in 25 years.

With so many disengaged workers, the chances of succeeding in a Mass Customization world borders on impossible. So what’s a leader to do?

Making the shift to Mass Customization begins with seeing it; then, as a leader, you must face the reality that you must re-engineer your management system. Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen, Team Building, Change Management and all the other tools will not transform your underlying logic for how you manage the enterprise.

It begins by recognizing management’s new job is to enable its people to say “Yes” before that real-time, value-creating moment arrives with a customer. That demands clear direction, a line-of-sight for every employee to that direction, healthy accountability, a common business language everyone understands, complete issue transparency, and it demands that employees have the appropriate resources, tools and skills to engage. That’s what a modern management system must do.

Our modern economy operates under a new set of rules. You need to understand that to understand its implications to how you run your business.

John M. Bernard is the best-selling author of Business at the Speed of Now, a top-rated speaker, consultant and chairman and founder of Portland, Oregon-based Mass Ingenuity.

Upside Down: The Shift That Is Changing All The Rules is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

It may still be a man’s world when it comes to technology, yet we take for granted how far women have come since this industry’s infancy. If you’ve never heard of Anita Borg (pictured at right), allow us to introduce you to a visionary who embraced technology and began her computer programming career in 1969. In 1987, after years of feeling like the only girl in the room (and often times she was), Anita, along with several other smart women, formed Systers.

Systers is a prolific and diverse group of women from all over the world who share one thing in common: computer science. Systers is an email community for an exclusive group of women, and membership is considered based on a person’s level of technical training. Throughout its existence, Systers has also tackled several social issues pertaining to women in this field that has long been dominated by men. Remember the uproar over Mattel’s Barbie that declared “math is tough”? The flames of the opposition were fanned by an email list that began on Systers, sparking an outrage so widespread that Mattel eventually removed the sound byte from Barbie because of the resulting negative press.

A community that started as a small group of women sharing common experiences of their time in the computing industry has grown to over 3,000 women throughout the world. Systers members agree to various sets of rules, and must provide a short essay that details their qualifications before they are considered for the list.

This year, Systers will celebrate the 25th anniversary of its email community. The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology is hosting meetups to celebrate this anniversary globally and in several US cities, including Atlanta, Dallas, Madison, New York City and St. Louis. Systers is also in the midst of creating more meetup cities, too.

This group of smart and talented women deserves our accolades. If not for these visionaries and pioneers, women might still be intimidated by technology. Because they paved the way, women in IT are becoming more and more commonplace. These women help to erode gender stereotypes, and show us that women can do anything. Even math.

Congratulations on 25 years, Systers.

Image via the Anita Borg Institute

Systers Celebrates 25 Years Of Supporting Women In Tech, And You Can Join Them is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

Facebook users will have access to more than 60 apps that will bring a new level of transparency to what their friends are doing. Did you just eat an unforgettable meal at a local restaurant? Share the experience through Foodspotting. Purchased event tickets through Ticketmaster? Broadcast the details to your News Feed. Discovered the next must-have piece of furniture for your dream home on Pinterest? Pin your find straight to your Timeline.

And that’s not all. After the initial apps offering, Facebook is expected to add even more apps for a growing number of niche interests—think hobbies, sports and other categories.

Facebook’s New Apps: An Overview

Unlike other Facebook features that have been teased for weeks before they’re available, you can start adding new apps to your Timeline now (as pictured above). Since I’m a big news buff, one of my first choices was the Wall Street Journal’s WSJ Social app.

Once you enable the app’s access to your Facebook profile, you can dive right in and, in the case of WSJ Social, share what you’re reading with your Facebook friends. Katy jumped on the WSJ Social bandwagon, too, and snapped a couple of screenshots to demonstrate how the app interacts with your profile.

If you’re sensitive about privacy, each app gives you an option to adjust the sharing settings so you’re not broadcasting each individual action to your network. From what we’ve seen, access to these settings is prominently labeled on most apps, so you shouldn’t have to spend much time on this task.

And while these apps are certainly more personal, that’s exactly what they’re meant to be. As Hayley Tsukayama writes for The Washington Post, “The apps are all set up to use the ‘frictionless sharing’ function on the social network, meaning that users only have to give an app permission to share information once. After that, the app updates automatically to a user’s profile, letting their friends know instantly what they may be eating, studying or listening to at any given moment.” For the record, I hate that.

Invaluable Marketing Data? There’s An App For That

Of course, a deeper dive into Facebook’s apps shows their purpose isn’t merely altruistic. As Jessica Guynn writes for The Los Angeles Times, Facebook’s Chief Technology Officer, Bret Taylor, said “…expanding the Facebook platform would generate revenue in the ‘grand scheme’ but that the announcement was not ‘overtly’ about making money.’” Of course it isn’t!

The cool thing about the apps is that with this latest technology, Facebook’s developers are creating a site that is more intuitive. Based on what you’ve shared in the past, ergo what you’re most passionate about, Facebook’s algorithm will determine placement on your profile page – much like how the current news feed features posts and updates. These features are only available to people who have enabled the new Facebook Timeline and users are supposed to be able to manually override the placements determined by the algorithm. That, of course, will be a whole different set of blog posts. And, if past history is any indicator, not easy to find and do. Gotta love Facebook.

Yet the apps also have a benefit for the sites to which they connect. Spotify has reported a large spike in traffic from Facebook, and other increasingly popular sites like Pinterest will likely see the same effect, a result that could be a huge boon for an up-and-coming website. Plus, the new data that will result from this deeper level of sharing will be a veritable goldmine for businesses as they continually work to refine their marketing strategies.

“The more businesses large and small are able to understand the relationships between us consumers and the products we consume, the more targeted and effective they can make their marketing,” writes Jolie O’Dell for VentureBeat. “It’s only as insidious as capitalism itself, and this type of intelligence is the kind of thing that could quickly bring online advertising to its evolutionary apex—at least for now.”

Moving Beyond The ‘Like’

Those financial perks don’t overshadow the fact that the apps are meant to give Facebook users a deeper, more meaningful experience on the site, allowing an opportunity for further profile customization and the chance to use Facebook as a tool with which to truly represent—and capture—your daily life. And it makes sense. After all, what does a “Like” truly mean? Support? Intent to purchase? Passing interest? These new apps introduce a wealth of actions to the Facebook experience: buying, reading, eating, etc. It’s a fulfillment of Mark Zuckerberg’s promise during last year’s f8 keynote.

“ ‘We’re helping define a new language for how people connect,’” he said as quoted in VentureBeat. “ ‘When we started, the vocabulary was limited to simple, inexpressive ‘Likes.’”

What’s your take on these new apps? Are you like me and annoyed by apps that want to share every article you read with your friends once you authorize it once? Or do you see yourself benefitting from the coolness factor of some of these apps such that that little detail won’t matter? Our advice, get used to it. This is just the tip of the iceberg and the first 60 of what will likely be thousands of apps. As for us, we’ll be doing our share of experimenting, in spite of the fact that there are things about apps that annoy me.

Lead image via Facebook

Facebook Wants More Social Sharing, Rolls Out Apps is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

But before StumbleUpon can start paying off for you in spades when it comes to content marketing, you need to learn a few tips and tricks to get started. Why bother? That’s simple: StumbleUpon will increase your web traffic (and that’s content marketing) and it will also boost the life cycle of your content.

StumbleUpon is a fun social networking site, but it’s also a powerful social bookmarking tool.  Rule #1 is to be professional and make it easy for you to be found. Be sure you complete your profile with a complete bio and an avatar, and be sure and use a name that coordinates with your presence on social networks so people can find you. Using your real name for all your profiles creates a consistent presence for you and that’s just about always what we recommend.

A Secret to StumbleUpon Success: Be Social

Once your profile is complete, find a few friends. Don’t immediately add all your Facebook or Twitter friends, which is a common SU newbie mistake. You can only follow a certain number of people on Stumble and if you’re going to leverage the power that StumbleUpon brings, you need to have some savvy friends in this group to help propel your content. How to find them? Look for some Stumblers with lots of likes and views on their Stumbles. Also, as with any social networking site, don’t be afraid to ask for advice on Stumbling from these more experienced folks. Do a lot of paying it forward and earning your chops by sharing their content and liking their Stumbles. That strategy will pay off for you over time. As always, being an active part of any community is the key to success!

Pick Your Interests Wisely

StumbleUpon is a discovery engine. It helps you find things that you might be interested in, based on things you routinely “like” and share. This is kind of neat, so pick a topic you’re interested in and give it a Stumble. This can be a great way to research for blog posts or other content you might be interested in creating. You can Stumble all your interests or just pick one from the handy drop down menu.

To make Stumbling easy, add the free StumbleUpon toolbar for Chrome. Using the toolbar, you can:

• Stumble one or more of your topics.
• Give a page the thumbs up.
• Look for “more” pages like the one you are currently on.
• Share via Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter.
• Share via email or to other Stumbles using a drop-down menu. When you share to other Stumblers, this creates a notification for your friend that you have shared something and would like a thumbs up on it.

• You can change the toolbar to explore all your interests or narrow it down to one interest.
• The text bubble lets you know if others have commented on this post.
• It lists how many favorites you have.
• Clicking the house icon up in the right corner will take you to the StumbleUpon homepage.
• The “X” next to it in the corner will close the toolbar.

Cool. Now, What Can You Do With StumbleUpon?

While it’s fun to just browse, StumbleUpon can also be very helpful for finding relevant content to share across your other social media platforms and/or, as mentioned before, a great place to do research for blog post topics and/or relevant links to include in something you’re writing. This is where picking your interests helps you to find what you want to share with your followers. StumbleUpon is a HUGE resource that you can tap into for better content, more focused sharing and a place you can also just have fun!

How Do I Post a Link From My Blog on StumbleUpon?

The easiest way to Stumble a post you’ve written or something you’ve read is to use the StumbleUpon Chrome toolbar and from there, *like* any page with the thumbs up icon. If you like something that has already been added to StumbleUpon, the thumb will change from blue to green. If you are adding a new item to StumbleUpon (like a newly published blog post), you’ll see this:

On this pop up, you will want to add the link, complete all the information, tag it (SEO always matters) and write a comment. It says optional; however, this is a review for the page and adds more weight to your Stumble. Always add a review — it doesn’t have to be long, but be sure and make it interesting and fun. Lastly, don’t be egocentric. Don’t just exclusively Stumble your own blog content or the content from a client’s site. StumbleUpon likes variety, so take some time and share a variety of interesting content–that will help you reap the most benefit. The same could really be true of just about any social network and considered a best practice for sharing content, so keep that in mind.

Why You Should Get Serious About StumbleUpon

According to StatCounter, in the past 3 months 46.98% of all referral traffic was generated by StumbleUpon, with Facebook at 37.56%. Those are some serious numbers and they continue to increase. In a 12-month period, Facebook was in the lead from a traffic generation standpoint, with 46.97% — StumbleUpon was nipping at Facebook’s heels with a solid 40.10%, as shown in StatCounter’s graph (below).

Bottom line — you want your content to be seen by people? Of course you do — get it on StumbleUpon!

Another Advantage? StumbleUpon Increases Your Content’s Shelf Life

How long does your content stay fresh when you share it? Not long!

Per a recent infographic from the StumbleUpon blog, “after 24 hours a popular shared link will typically get:”

• 0% more retweets on Twitter
• 5% more likes on Facebook
• 83% more Stumbles!

Clearly, StumbleUpon is proving that it isn’t just a lightweight, random diversion in a sea of online tools. Serious bloggers are here sharing their content and you should be, too!

A Few Notes

Take it from me and don’t Stumble crap! People will give it a thumbs down and there goes your StumbleUpon street cred.

One glitch with StumbleUpon is that sometimes the views will be pretty high and the next time you go back they are down to one again. They are aware of this problem and hopefully will get it fixed soon.

To ensure that you are getting Stumbles on your blog, make sure that you have StumbleUpon on your blog or site’s share bar and list your StumbleUpon link wherever possible.

Now that you’ve received a crash course in StumbleUpon,  you have no excuses–get out there and start Stumbling! And if you’re already a fan of StumbleUpon, I’d love to hear how–and why–you use it!

Peg Fitzpatrick is a positive vibe producer, social media butterfly and all around happy person! She is Director of Marketing and Social Media Manager for Kreussler Inc., where she directs online brand management and lead generation via Twitter and Facebook. Creating a fully integrated program, Peg blends traditional marketing and advertising with new media. Peg is the Brand Sparker with re:DESIGN You, which focuses on branding and Social Media services, helping brands & individuals create a unique and special message to get noticed. She’s also proud to be Managing Partner and writer at www.12most.com, and she created the very successful #MyBookClub, hosting such well-known guests as Guy Kawasaki, Dave Kerpen and Olivier Blanchard. She has also begun speaking at events such as the #140 Conference and is honored on several of the “best of” online and blogging lists. She is thrilled to be on the Alltop Twitterati and Pluserati lists! Please follow Peg on Twitter, circle her on Google +, visit #MyBookClub and stop by her blog.

Maximizing StumbleUpon For Your Content Sharing Strategy is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

Organizing your inbox may not be high on your list of priorities, but if you can take a couple of hours during a slow evening or weekend to tackle this project, you’ll likely find this to be a worthwhile investment of your time. After all, staying organized will help you work smarter and faster, and what’s not to love about that? Let’s get started!

Gmail Filters 101

To set up Gmail filters, go to the wheel (Settings), in the upper right corner, and click Settings. Across the top, you’ll see the Filters button.

Once here, begin to create filters that will help you manage your Inbox. One of my biggest annoyances is newsletters, but I only subscribe to a handful, and occasionally, I do find something useful in one. It’s still not something I want to see every day in my inbox, and, in a fit of frustration, I sometimes delete a newsletter (or five) without reading first. So to solve the problem, create a newsletter filter that includes the words “unsubscribe.” After I created my newsletter filter, my morning inbox has noticeably dwindled.

You can also create filters for other topics and subject matter—the possibilities are limitless. For example, if you’re active on Twitter, you could set up a Twitter filter that will catch any emails sent from Twitter. That way, follow and other notifications won’t mix with your other messages—plus, it’s easier to go in and do a mass deletion if similar messages are already grouped together.

When you create a filter, you can identify multiple senders—maybe you prefer to gather your social media notifications in one place from sites like Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. You could also create a filter based on your financial service providers so that you can group bills, bank statements and other related information in one place.

Filters For Multiple Gmail Accounts

For those of us that have 2 email accounts, things can get hairy. Thanks to Google, you can create a filter that not only labels any emails from your co-workers (or other individuals) that errantly go to your personal account, but it then forwards them there. Brilliant! To set up such a filter, enter the “To” email, then create a filter with this search. Apply the appropriate label and forward it to the appropriate email address (check boxes when prompted).

I’ve created labels for any emails coming in from my co-workers by their first names, so when I’m ready to archive them, it’s easy. Here’s an example of a filter I’ve established for Boss Lady, aka Shelly Kramer:

Do you see that gray box that says “Inbox” with the “x” beside it? I click on that x, and poof—the  email is automatically moved into my Shelly archives.

Another Gmail Trick? Labels

I can’t talk about Gmail filters and not mention labels. For emails that you prefer to have in your inbox, labels are a lifesaver when it comes to organization. Use your own  system to create and name your labels. You can even color-code them to make certain labels easily recognizable. If you, like me, go a little overboard with labels, your inbox will soon resemble a rainbow. And who doesn’t need an aesthetic boost throughout the day?

One more label trick? You can nest labels, too. For example, I’ve created a label for V3 Integrated Marketing, and then I can create sub-labels for clients and other relevant topics that are grouped underneath the main V3 label. This keeps your messages tidier than using separate, main labels for each and every message.

It may take some time to get your inbox organized, but once your system is in place, you’ll likely feel more organized, not to mention more efficient.

If you’re a Gmail user, I’d love to hear additional tips on how you use filters and labels to keep yourself organized.

How To Use Gmail Filters To Organize Your Inbox is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency