January 2011 Using the Internet to promote your invention
Terri Brooks helps entrepreneurs “overcome the overwhelm” of using online and social media marketing for their business. She presented information on how inventors can promote their inventions using the Internet.
Terri explained what social media is, how it works, how the different sites work together, how many sites there are, and what tools you can get to help working with these sites easier. She advocates using social media to promote inventions by using blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, online newsletters, Google Local, and StumbleUpon.
Terri said that a personal website can be setup for less then $110. However, she said that anyone thinking about a website should setup a blog first. She also provided tips for generating traffic, such as leaving a question at the end of the blog so people reading the blog will provide input and/or reply. There are many blog site providers. MyBlogGuest.com is one site that is free.
Terri also pointed out that there are 600 million users on Facebook. Facebook is separated in two sections: one is for personal profiles and the other is for Fan Pages, such as for businesses. The number one reason to have a Fan Page is to be able to take advantage of Google's search engine which will search Fan Pages automatically. After getting 50 fans the Fan Page URL will be shortened to a human-readable form. This makes it easier to index by the search engines, which makes it easier to find by others.
Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service that allows you answer the question like "What are you doing?" by sending short text messages of up to 140 characters in length, called "tweets", to your friends, or "followers." Terri suggested using Bit.ly and TinnyURL.com to help shorten URLs for tweeted links. One can join the free service of SocialOomph.com this can help manage the blog posting automatically, such as by scheduling tweets and keeping Twitter ticking over with new tweets even when you're not in front of your computer. It is possible to publish tweets even when you are asleep. There are many Twitter applications, for example, Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Twitterfeed, Twellow - a Yellow book of tweeter, and Bit.ly. Twitter is about building relationships with others.
On the other hand, LinkedIn is a professional site that caters to business persons. With LinkedIn, you will not find kids or someone's dog info on it. LinkedIn tries to avoid people spamming members. To connect to someone on LinkedIn, you must send them an invitation to connect. Each account is permitted up to 5 ignores before LinkedIn will consider a member to be a spammer.
YouTube is also another good social media site. One can make use of YouTube to post short videos of products and inventions. Visit Terri's web site for links and information. Her web address is <www.TastingTheInternet.com>. She has a free step-by-step guide: Get Your Business Online in Less than 2 Hours and For Under $100!
The following images are the slides that Terri used for her presentation.
A web surfing safety tip was offered about handling pop-up windows when surfing. Members were cautioned that they may be sucked into a club subscription even when you click cancel on the screen.
One important bit of advice from Tom Kulaga was, "Do not put things that you do not want people to know on the site." For example, "I am on vacation in Hawaii from tomorrow for two weeks" is something that should not be broadcast to the world. You will never know who will visit your house and help clean it out for you.
Tom Kulaga showed the TIA's Facebook page where info is frequently posted.
Announcements:
A new format for the TIA newsletter will be used starting this month. Igor tried e-mail and it did not work due to too many member not having email or having their email rejected when sent.
Dale Burress will be taking pictures at the next meeting for the new TIA website member directory.
Tom Kulaga said he would have information sheets for members to identify what information will appear in the directory.
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