Tag Archives: Social Media

Karen Bardsley Shares the Olympic Experience — Kitting Out and Olympic Village

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Zeb Welborn
The owner of Welborn Social Media and the founder of The Tutoring Solution.My goal is to help business owners share the passion they have for their business with as many potential customers as possible.By helping passionate people achieve their dreams I am helping to create a society of passionate leaders that will help inspire others to make their dreams a reality.
Latest posts by Zeb Welborn (see all)

Karen Bardsley from Welborn Social Media

For the last week I have been preparing for the Olympics with Team GB Women’s Football in Loughborough. It feels similar to previous England camps with the exception of a few new faces from Scotland and Northern Ireland, heaps of brand new Adidas kits and let’s not forget to mention staying in the same hotel as the Team GB Men’s Football. I was eating dinner and I casually looked up to see my hero, Ryan Giggs sitting directly across from us.  I kept pinching myself to make sure all of this was actually happening. I’m going to have a lot of bruises. It was surreal. Surreal seems to be a word I have used a lot recently.

“Kitting out” is something I will never forget! The first day I arrived at the preparation camp I met up with the rest of the Team GB Women’s Football squad and I was escorted through a specialty Adidas shop with a personal shopper who assisted me with sizing and selecting my Team GB clothes and equipment for the tournament for about ninety minutes. Pinch. I’m not sure I have ever felt so special. Everyone was so friendly and helpful, the smiles were endless. Pinch. The best part of the whole day had to be the #takethestage photo booth that Adidas set up in the match kit room. They had a bucket full of props and we were allowed to take as many pictures as we liked. They told us to tweet as much as we wanted about the kitting out process. My teammates and I were taking photos of absolutely everything. I still don’t think I have gone through all of them yet! Interviews and press photos immediately followed the process. So fun. Pinch. I feel absolutely honoured to have been selected to be a part of such a historic event! Pinch.

Karen Bardsley Kitting Out Adidas #takethestage Photo Booth Karen Bardsley #takethestage

Yesterday, we drove south to London. The Olympic Village was our next destination. I have NEVER experienced ANYTHING like the Olympic Village before at any major tournament. The place was just crawling with security, there probably isn’t a more secure place on the planet at the moment. This means social media too! Athletes are not allowed to post any videos taken during the games, or in Olympic training grounds, venues or staging areas. Such a bummer! However, we are allowed to tweet and it is certainly encouraged but we have to be careful where we take photos.

Karen Bardsley London 2012 Olympics Team GBTeam GB Women's Football Olympic Village

The first thing athlete, coach and staff member have to do is get accredited to get into the village. We were taken to a staging area where we were given all of our paperwork and then asked to queue to have the information input into databases and finally a physical accreditation was laminated and hung on alanyard. After that process we were loaded onto a red double-deckerbus. These buses are used to shuttle everyone all around the village, I love seeing them all around the village. It’s so very British. Anyway, this bus took us to the main dining hall, which is massive! It is absolutely enormous, it can seat thousands upon thousands of people at once – I’m talking about multiple airlinehangers big… HUGE! There are food stands from all over the world in order to cater to all pallets. Anything we could probably think of is in this dining hall and the best thing of all…it’s open twenty-four, seven!

Lunch went over very well but it was straight back to work for us. We were lead to our apartment blocks where we promptly had a meeting with the staff members of Team GB housing and Dame Kelly Holmes. She gave such an motivational speech about her experience as a member of Team GB and what it took to win her medals. I feel she helped put a lot of things into perspective for us. Pinch. Immediately after Kelly’s speech myself and seven others were escorted once again to a press conference. That was a new and good experience for me, I was definitely a bit nervous but with the help of our press liaison it all went very smoothly. I learned a lot but most importantly, “pay attention to the question!” Fortunately it didn’t happen to us, but so often people assume they know what is going to be asked and end up completely forgetting to answer the question that was actually asked. How embarrassing!

Team GB Athlete Karen Bardsley

http://www.teamgb.com/athletes/karen-bardsley

Follow Karen’s adventure on the Welborn Social Media Blog and on Twitter!
@klbardsley

Noé Gaytán Joins Welborn Social Media

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Noe Velasco
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Noé Gaytán

After I graduated with my BA in studio art, I knew that establishing proper web presence was the next step for me. I bought my first domain and set up my first web site using WordPress.  I started shaping my Tumblr to be a more “professional” blog where I posted my writings, art, and events. In February I started working on what came to be Nomad Art Project, a traveling art gallery I run out of a tent, and used KickStarter to help fund the project. This was a way for me to stay more involved with art, but more importantly, a way to help out other artists looking to show their work. A strong sense of community and “paying it forward” has always been important to me, which is also one of the reasons I wanted to join Welborn Social Media.

When Zeb first offered me a position, I was excited to join the team. I spend so much time on the internet anyway; it made sense to finally get paid for it. I think the internet is a pretty fascinating thing. As humans, we can enjoy keeping in touch with friends and family on Facebook, find people with similar interests on Tumblr, or share our videos on YouTube. For business, the internet is more than just a place for social entertainment; it is a vital part of their success. Want to let your customers know the latest news? Writing a blog post is a great way to get the word out. Don’t want to pay for printed coupons? Post a link on Facebook. Want to show up on Google? An effective SEO campaign can go a long way. Knowing the right tools can make all the difference.

For a small business, it is essential that they tap in to their community. With people spending more time on their computer than watching TV, and becoming ever more attached to their smartphones, the best way to engage a 21st century community is through the internet. Social media marketing is great in that it reaches the most people in the easiest way. And if you’re good at it, it can come across so seamless and natural that a business becomes less of a “company” and more of a “friend”. That is why I enjoy the work I do. It’s not so much about “link building”, its more about “community building”.

Making the Most of Twitter

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Karen Bardsley
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The way people interact with each other is changing. More and more people are communicating and interacting with one another then ever before. But before you say, “Well, social media allows more people to connect but it doesn’t mean that the connections are meaningful.” Take a moment and think about how you are interacting with people. Are you sending out mass messages or are you encouraging personal relationships? Are you engaging and strengthening communication with people or are you simply talking to people because it is convenient?” Do you only communicate when you want something? How much time do you spend making an effort? Your relationships are only what you make them. Like it or not, the facts still remain.* You are in control of your social media experience.

Let’s focus on Twitter. Twitter can be a very educational and fun resource. Not only is it great for keeping people informed about your daily life but it’s the conversations that are most rewarding. Interactions are fast, short and generally straight to the point. One of my favorite uses is simply asking people questions, there is a fantastic community spirit on Twitter, most people like helping fellow tweeters or just giving advice. One of most under utilized tools on Twitter is the search tool (www.twitter.com/search), type in a few key phrases and you’ll get an incredible amount of information back. It’s a great conversation starter!

One great way to get to make connections is to find experts and joining their group of followers and friends. When you are doing your search make sure to check out Bios, websites, links, number of followers and read their tweets to see if their content is relevant to you. If you decide it is, see if you can “join the conversation.” Content rules in social media and twitter is no exception so make sure what you contribute isn’t drivel; be genuine, be thoughtful. Reply to tweets, use direct messages but most of all befriend people and gain their respect through meaningful interaction and conversation.

 

* Twitter is a powerful tool, there are: over 465 million accounts, 175 million tweets a day and 1 million accounts are added to Twitter every day. In the U.S. alone there are 107 million users, 33 million in Brazil and nearly 30 million in Japan. “The busiest event in Twitter’s history is now “Castle in the Sky” TV screening 25,088 tweets per second (previous record was the last minutes of the 2012 Superbowl with 10,245 tweets per second).” Statistics and facts – http://www.blogherald.com/2012/02/22/twitter-2012-infographic/

Can I Use My Competitors Name in Google Adwords?

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Zeb Welborn
The owner of Welborn Social Media and the founder of The Tutoring Solution.My goal is to help business owners share the passion they have for their business with as many potential customers as possible.By helping passionate people achieve their dreams I am helping to create a society of passionate leaders that will help inspire others to make their dreams a reality.
Latest posts by Zeb Welborn (see all)

Google AdWords Logo

The first thing you need to do when determining if you can use a c0mpetitor’s name to market your product is to find out whether or not the name is trademarked.  If the name you’re using for your Google Ad campaign is not trademarked then it is acceptable to use your competitor’s name throughout your Google advertising efforts.

You can check to see if the keyword you’d like to bid on is a trademarked term by visiting the Trademark Electronic Search System website – http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/index.jsp and clicking on Trademark Search on the left.

Competitors using term AdWords

Competitors using the word ‘AdWords’

Through a common consensus among Google Adwords advertisers it currently appears acceptable to buy trademarked names in Adwords if you don’t mention the product or service on your site, so long as you don’t mention a trademarked name in your ad, you don’t try to harm the competitors reputation and you don’t make comparisons with trademark infringements.

If you plan on bidding on a competitor’s keyword in Google Adwords take precautions.  If Google receives any complaints from your competitors they have the ability to cease your advertisements from operating on the search engine.

Lastly, local trademark laws can be applied to Google Adwords advertising . . . In a recent California federal district court they determined purchasing a trademarked keyword constituted “use in commerce” under the Lanham Act penalizing the company who purchased the keyword term to run their advertising.  However, the company in question was purposefully trying to deceive customers into believing they were accessing the trademark term’s website.

To summarize, it is best to check with your lawyer first to make sure you are not infringing upon trademark rights, but as a rule of thumb as long as you are not purposefully being deceptive and you avoid using the keyword on your website or in your ad copy then it is acceptable to bid on trademarked keywords.

If you would like to receive more tips on how to manage Google Adwords, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media or Online Marketing Campaigns please sign up for our newsletter by clicking the link below and providing some information.


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Share Your Passion. Grow Your Business.

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Zeb Welborn
The owner of Welborn Social Media and the founder of The Tutoring Solution.My goal is to help business owners share the passion they have for their business with as many potential customers as possible.By helping passionate people achieve their dreams I am helping to create a society of passionate leaders that will help inspire others to make their dreams a reality.
Latest posts by Zeb Welborn (see all)

As an owner of both The Tutoring Solution and Welborn Social Media I have been committed to helping others achieve their goals.  Our motto, “Share Your Passion. Grow Your Business” is helping us build more successful business using the internet and social media.

Zeb from The Tutoring SolutionAs a tutor I inspired students to perform better in school by showing how learning could help them achieve the goals they set for themselves.

As a social media expert I help businesses grow by sharing the passions business owners have for their business with others.

The Tutoring Solution put me into contact with many business owners across the United States and after working with them I’ve come to admire many of them.  They are passionate and focused, determined and creative.  The most successful business owners have a strong sense of purpose and a desire to help others.  Those business owners lead rewarding lives.

We want to help more people lead rewarding lives.  We want to help people become passionate, focused, determined and creative.  We want to inspire others to achieve things they never thought possible.  When people are passionate, focused, determined and creative and when they reach a seemingly unattainable goal, they are happier . . . and the world becomes a better place.

We want to make the world a better place.

By helping small business owners share their passions, we are showing others that passion and commitment can help make any dream a reality.  We want to use our skills and knowledge to share your passion. Social media is the perfect tool to give your company a voice and to interact with the customers you need.  Let us help you grow your business.

To honor our commitment to inspiring others to excel we have teamed up with The Tutoring Solution to offer five scholarships to students across Southern California.  The Pursue Your Passion Scholarships asks students to write an essay describing their passions and how they plan to use their scholarships to help others. If you’re interested in finding out more information about our Pursue Your Passion Tutoring Scholarships please click on the link.

If you’re interested in finding out more information about how social media and Internet marketing can help share your passion contact Zeb Welborn today – (909) 973-9089 for a free custom analysis for your business.

Social Media Strategies Vs. Tactics | Marketing Vs. Advertising

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Lacey Welborn
Lacey and her brother Zeb Welborn founded Welborn Media. She has designed and launched websites, several projects, marketing materials, a podcast, a book and more. Her passions include her family, her friends, creating things and helping businesses grow.
Latest posts by Lacey Welborn (see all)

Marketing vs. Advertising

Advertising: The paid, public, non-personal announcement of a persuasive message by an identified sponsor; the non-personal presentation or promotion by a firm of its products to its existing and potential customers.

Marketing: The systematic planning, implementation and control of a mix of business activities intended to bring together buyers and sellers for the mutually advantageous exchange or transfer of products.

When talking with business owners and decision makers we are constantly inundated with questions about ROI, or Return on Investment.  While platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Google have attempted to address those concerns the fact remains that it is difficult to track the complete ROI benefits social media can bring to a business.  Advertising makes it very easy to track the ROI of a particular campaign because it’s a one-shot deal which can be easily tracked.  Marketing on the other hand is very difficult to assess because it encorporates the overall plan of a business to attract new customers.

Marketing is a strategy, and advertising is a tactic that can be an implementation of a marketing strategy. However, advertising does not usually work alone toward its goal. Other tactics such as market research, media planning, public relations, product pricing, distribution, customer support, sales strategy, and community involvement are implemented alongside advertising. All of these elements must not only work independently but they also must work together towards the bigger goal. A tactical executive may be very skilled at putting into motion plans to get results, but fail to see the bigger picture. That is why they may confuse advertising for marketing. Strategic executives will have a better grasp on bigger concepts, but may not understand the best way to reach their customers.

In Chet Holmes’ book, The Ultimate Sales Machine, he tells us there are three types of executives, “A full 90 percent are what I call ‘tactical executives,’ while 9 percent are what I’d call ‘strategic executives.’ And only 1 percent – the most effective executives – possess the rare combination of both tactical and strategic abilities.”

Ultimate Sales Machine, Three Types of Executives. 90% Tactical, 9% Strategic, 1% Both

Holmes goes on to say, “Tactical executives think only in terms of making the sale for today. They don’t understand strategy . . . Strategic executives will often look at the situation from a global perspective and see if they can develop some high-level strategy that might help to solve the problem. These executives are brilliant. They create concepts, ideas, and strategies that most would never adopt. But strategic executives are not good at, or interested in, tactics. Hence, I’ve seen many big ideas that never come to fruition because strategic executives fail in the implementation of their big ideas.”
How far ahead do you see?
The executive who thinks both tactically and strategically can develop the big ideas and the big strategies and also use discipline and determination to see those brilliant strategies implemented at the tactical level. And just for the record, the second type of executive, the strategist, can often be paired with a strong tactician and be very successful. However, the strategist may have to keep explaining and selling his or her ideas again and again to the tactical executive.”

Social media is most effective when it is used as a strategy and not a tactic.  While a social media campaign can include some tactics and advertising features, it is most successful when used as a tool to market to potential and current customers.  When done properly social media can have a profound impact on any business.

To use social media properly it is imperative to become a social business.

 

GM Still Loves Facebook

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Lacey Welborn
Lacey and her brother Zeb Welborn founded Welborn Media. She has designed and launched websites, several projects, marketing materials, a podcast, a book and more. Her passions include her family, her friends, creating things and helping businesses grow.
Latest posts by Lacey Welborn (see all)

General Motors Facebook

General Motor’s decision to end its $10 million Facebook advertising campaign is big news in the social
media world. Many skeptics have used GM’s decision to pull their advertising dollars from
Facebook as a way to attack the effectiveness of social media marketing for businesses.
However, these skeptics fail to recognize the difference between social media marketing and
social media advertising. GM still loves Facebook and recognizes the importance of social media marketing, but has
failed to recognize the correlation between the Facebook advertising feature and profits. GM’s
decision to pull money from Facebook advertising has nothing to do with the effectiveness of
Facebook as a social media marketing tool.

GM is still spending 30 million dollars on Facebook content promotion. Despite having ceased
paid ads on the site, the car-maker continues to make full use of the social network. Their
Facebook page remains very active with several posts every day. This includes links to articles
about their products and their partners, as well as more traditional advertisements.

GM Facebook Post After Pulling Facebook Ads

GM stopped using Facebook Ads, but will continue producing Facebook Content

GM has built their Facebook following to 345,000 people through Facebook advertising. The
massive following they now have allows them to stop using Facebook ads, because
their 345,000 Facebook followers act as a built-in referral network to bring more customers
to their Facebook page. Facebook page interaction will attract new followers on a consistent
basis without advertising because their followers can interact with the page and share it with
their friends. The more “likes” they get, the more exposure they get.

According to a Mashable article, GM issued the following statement: “We are reassessing our
advertising, but remain committed to an aggressive content strategy with all of our products and
brands, as it continues to be a very effective tool for engaging with our customers.”

Don’t let people convince you that Facebook is not a useful tool because GM has pulled its
advertising dollars from Facebook. Arguments can be made either way about the effectiveness
of Facebook advertising; however, it remains clear that Facebook content promotion is
highly effective to engaging with a captive audience. Many other companies, including car
manufactures, say they do not plan on pulling their Facebook ads any time soon. Experts agree
that the ads can be an important part of a marketing campaign, but it is important to implement a
complete strategy that interacts with its audience in ways that keep their attention after bringing
them in with an ad. As a Ford representative put it, “It’s all about the execution. Our Facebook
ads are effective when strategically combined with engaging content and innovation.”

GM’s decision to pull their money from Facebook advertising may also not just be because
of the effectiveness of Facebook, but of GM’s decision to cut massive amounts of advertising
expenditures. GM also made big news recently for stating that they intended not to purchase a
$3.8 million dollar Super Bowl ad this year. Leading many to believe the new Chief Marketing
Officer, Joel Ewanick is seeking ways to cut his expenditures and is not cutting his
advertising just from Facebook ads, but across the board.

As a marketing tool, Facebook has proven its effectiveness time and time again. The percentage
of companies using Facebook to expand is increasing every month and sees no signs of slowing
down. Those companies that do not adapt to social media are missing out on a large captive
audience. In an increasingly digital world, traditional methods of advertisement don’t have the
same pull they used to. However, Facebook still has a lot to learn in terms of figuring out the
marketing game and knowing what exactly it has to offer. As its products continue to evolve,
companies that want to use social media will have to continue to adapt. We highly encourage
any business to develop a Facebook page and use Facebook as a way to connect with current and
potential customers. Having a Facebook presence is a built-in referral network. Don’t miss out
on the opportunity.

The Hunger Games, Reputation Management and Our Newest Clients

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Zeb Welborn
The owner of Welborn Social Media and the founder of The Tutoring Solution.My goal is to help business owners share the passion they have for their business with as many potential customers as possible.By helping passionate people achieve their dreams I am helping to create a society of passionate leaders that will help inspire others to make their dreams a reality.
Latest posts by Zeb Welborn (see all)

The excitement about the new movie, The Hunger Games has led to a social media explosion. The marketing team for The Hunger Games movie have used social media effectively to promote the new movie. In The Hunger Games and Social Media, we’ve pointed out the ways in which they’ve used social media to promote the movie . . . some you can use directly to promote your business.
Hunger Games Movie uses Social Media Marketing

Lately we’ve been receiving a lot of interest from businesses about managing their online reputation. With websites like Yelp, Angies List and Apartment Finder, it’s no wonder . . . online ratings can have a significant impact on your bottom line. As online reputation managers we can come up with plans and policies designed to make your ratings on those sites higher. If you’re interested in finding out more about how we can improve your online reputation be sure to read our article, Yelp, Angie’s List and Other’s Spur New Career Path . . . Reputation Manager.
Angie's List Super Service Award for System 1

We’ve been extremely busy as we’ve begun working with two of our newest clients:

  • Technology4Medicine is a leader in laser and photon technology for dentists. The use of photons in medicine and healthcare can be used to improve our quality of life. The laser equipment Technology4Medicine uses reduces the use of drugs, can be minimally or non-invasive, reduces or eliminates pain, and allows for faster recovery time. This is great news for providers and patients.
  • Transparent Mortgage is attempting to make the mortgage process more transparent giving the consumer full access to the mortgage process. They have a strong commitment to raising the industry standards for client care, open access to information, and social and ethical responsibility.

Technology4Medicine and Transparent Mortgage are incredible organizations and we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to work with passionate leaders to expand their online presence.

Lastly, remember we can give custom presentations to any business who’s interested in seeing how Internet marketing and social media can help their business grow. Call us today at (909) 973 – 9089 to set up an appointment.