The following excerpts are from A Survival Guide to Social Media and Web 2.0 Optimization: Strategies, Tactics, and Tools for Succeeding in the Social Web by Deltina Hay

Copyright 2009 by Deltina Hay. All rights reserved.

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A Social Bookmarking Strategy
The first thing to do is get a good feel for a number of social bookmarking sites. There are some popular sites listed at the end of this chapter and on the resource CD. Choose a couple that represent your interests. If you do not feel inclined to do the research, I recommend starting with Delicious.com, Technorati, and StumbleUpon. Using these three sites should give you a broad reach into the world of social bookmarking. Before you begin using a bookmarking site, it’s important to become familiar with the guidelines. Some sites are much more stringent than others about bookmarking your own sites, or representing a business of any sort. It is best to go forward informed rather than risk getting a reputation for ignoring the rules, or worse, getting banned from a site.

As you develop your social bookmarking strategy, keep in mind that the Social Web is about interacting, sharing, and collaboration—not self promotion. Bookmark, tag, and comment on sites that interest you, and connect with others who share similar interests. You will be amazed at how many people you ultimately reach. There is nothing wrong with
bookmarking your own Web pages or blog posts, as long as the site allows it; just balance those contributions with others.

I know I sound like a broken record on this point, but fill out your profiles completely! You don’t want to go through the trouble of bookmarking a bunch of sites, only to have others not even know how to find your Website if they find your bookmarks engaging enough to click through to your profile.

Create a list of your best key terms to use as tags and use them as often as they apply to the sites you bookmark. Use your best tags within the descriptions you give each of your bookmarked sites as well. Many of the social bookmarking sites have developed social networking characteristics as well. If available, you should join groups that are relevant to your area of expertise or interest, and subscribe to email updates for those groups.

A Crowd-Sourcing Strategy
Crowd-sourced news sites are different from social bookmarking sites in that they focus on sharing news and information about stories, Websites, and blogs, as opposed to sharing bookmarks to Websites or blogs. As a result, you want to use a different strategy for these sites than you would social bookmarking sites.

There are a lot of crowd-sourced news sites out there, so you may want to explore a number of the sites we mention at the end of this chapter in the book or on the resource CD to get a feel for them. You should be able to choose a few sites that are good fits for your message.

As always, fill out your profiles completely so that others can find their way to you easily.

Add some of your more newsworthy blog posts, Web pages, or online press releases to each of your chosen crowd-sourced news sites. Pay close attention to each site’s submission guidelines and do not add information that does not adhere to their guidelines or is not a good fit for the site. When considering whether to add something to one of these sites, ask yourself if it is something you would find newsworthy and if you would naturally share it with others. Just like with social bookmarking sites, be sure to offset your own content by contributing other content as well. You will get a natural following of readers from these sites if you contribute regularly and engage in the conversations that happen around topics of interest. The advantage to this strategy is that you can hone in on your target audience by seeking out and commenting on topics relevant to your product, book, or message.

Many of these sites have also added social networking features, so explore any additional ways the sites may offer to connect, such as groups.

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Beyond strategies for social bookmarking and crowd-sourcing, this chapter also includes real world examples of social bookmarking and crowd-sourcing in action, as well as lists of some popular social bookmarking and crowd-sourcing sites, such as Technorati and StumbleUpon, reddit and Mixx, respectively. The resource CD offers linkable resources and four fillable PDF forms called “Social Bookmarking Strategy,” “Crowd-Sourcing Strategy,” “Social Bookmarking & Crowd-Sourcing Submission Form,” and “Social Bookmarking & Crowd-Sourcing Tracking Form.”

A Survival Guide to Social Media and Web 2.0 Optimization: Strategies, Tactics, and Tools for Succeeding in the Social Web by Deltina Hay

416 Pages, Indexed, Resource CD with fillable forms.

Buy from Amazon or…

Exclusive offer for Social Media Power readers: $18.00 including US shipping:

Listen to the interview here…

BiGAUSTIN’s Womens Business Center presents Conversations Breakfast Series on Thursday, July 16 from 8:30 to 11:00 a.m. (Registration begins at 8:00 a.m.) Is your business Web 2.0 ready? Learn how to optimize and market your business using social media and Web 2.0 at this event held at BookPeople (3rd floor). Topics include:

• Building a Solid Business Foundation in the Social Web – Deltina Hay, Author of A Survival Guide to Social Media and Web 2.0 Optimization
• How to Use Video to Dominate Local Search – Weston Norton, Reel Social Media
• Building Lifelong Relations Through Social Media – The Romeros, Social Media Experts

For details and ticket information, visit www.bigaustin.org

An optimized foundation is essential to overall success in the Social Web. This series will show you how to achieve it.

Author, publisher, and Web developer Deltina Hay will explain:

• what an RSS feed is, and why you need one
• how to start a blog without breaking your back or the bank
• the basics of social bookmarking and crowd-sourcing
• why you want to share your images and video in media communities
• in which social networking sites you should establish a presence
• how to use a social media newsroom to highlight your presence
• how to optimize your Social Web presence
• how to integrate your entire Social Web presence to save time and money
• why you will need an optimized Social Web presence to survive in the future Internet

Instructor: Deltina Hay

Multi-session Series Class:
Class #1 - Introduction to Social Media & Web 2.0 Tools and Technologies
Class #2 - Building an Optimized Foundation in the Social Web
Class #3 - Integrating Your Social Web Presence

Class Date and Time:
Wednesdays, July 1, 8, 15: 5:00 p.m. EST

Cost: $30, includes audio recording and handouts

Click here for more information.

Building a Strong and Integrated Social Web Presence presented by Deltina Hay

This class will show you how to set up and implement essential social media tools like blogs, social networking sites, media communities, and social calendars. Learn how to integrate them so that your workload is greatly reduced.

Discover how to blog once, upload a photo one time, enter an event in one place, and feed all of it into your social networking pages, your blog, and your Website.

Creating this type of dynamic presence is necessary for success on today’s Internet.

This process does not have to be difficult or ridiculously time-consuming. Careful planning can make it practically painless!

Join us for another information-packed edition of Publishing University Online:
Wednesday, June 24, 2009 – 11:00 am PST/ 2:00 pm EST

About the Seminar:
The seminar cost is $49 for IBPA members and includes the hour-long seminar with participation, three free playbacks and the Power Point presentation to keep and review.

To register and for more details, click the link below:
More information and to register for Webinar

Throughout the day on Wednesday, May 27, Deltina Hay, owner of social media consulting and Web 2.0 development firm Social Media Power and the independent press Dalton Publishing, is heavily involved in panels and workshops as part of the conference.

Early on Wednesday morning, from 8:30 to 10:00 a.m., Deltina is a guest speaker for a panel discussion entitled “Octopus Marketing: The Multiple Tentacles Approach to Creating Book Buzz Online (Web 2.0).” She will share the stage with Bob Baker (Spotlight Publications) and Maggie Lichtenberg (Open Heart Publishing). The publishing pros will provide insight into Internet book marketing, specifically touching on the importance of a strong Web presence created using social media and Web 2.0 strategies.

That afternoon, from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m., the social media maven hosts “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Fundamentals of Web 2.0 and Social Media, but Were Afraid to Ask,” a panel covering all aspects of the Social Web. From social networks to blogging, multimedia sharing to RSS feeds, this panel provides the answers you’ve been searching for to enhance your Web presence. Steve Mettee of Quill Driver Press and Kathleen Gage, The Street Smarts Marketer, assist Deltina in this discussion.

And for those craving a hands-on, straight-forward approach to implementing social media tools, Deltina will hold a workshop, titled “How to Build a Strong Technical but Manageable Presence on the Social Web,” on Wednesday afternoon from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m. This class will demonstrate how to build a strong Social Web presence without the confusion often brought on by technical jargon. Learn to set up the essential social media tools, including a blog, social networking profiles, media sharing communities, and social calendars, and integrate them to reduce your workload. Discover how you can blog once, upload a photo in once place, enter an event to one social calendar, and feed all of it into your blog, your social networking profiles, and your Website.

Look for Deltina Hay’s forthcoming book A Survival Guide to Social Media and Web 2.0 Optimization: Strategies, Tactics, and Tools for Succeeding in the Social Web due out from Wiggy Press in April 2009. And, if you’re looking for an affordable way to create a powerful presence in the Social Web but cannot attend IBPA’s Publishing University conference, check out Plumb Social, an innovative new Web 2.0 service offered by Social Media Power.

The most effective way to easily build an optimized site is with WordPress. Yes, WordPress is a blogging platform, but it can also be used as a content management system (CMS) to power your entire Web site.

Use these resources to get a good feel for how WordPress operates:

• WordPress
• Empowered by WordPress
• The book, WordPress for Dummies

And, for an explanation of the basic elements of a WordPress site, check out “The Basic Anatomy of a WordPress site” post on Empowered by WordPress.

Planning your Site:

Make an ambitious list of what you would like to have on your site. Don’t hold back on an idea you may have for your site based on an assumption that it will be too difficult or too expensive to implement.

The plugins available for WordPress are at:

• http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/

This site will give you ideas on the types of things you can add to your site. You will discover that you can easily utilize plugins to accomplish seemingly difficult functions.

I find these are pretty typical functions most entrepreneurs, small businesses, authors, and publishers are looking for:

• Image Galleries
• Streaming Video
• E-commerce
• Amazon Widgets
• Blogs/Podcasts/Vidcasts
• Random Quote Generators
• Newsletters
• Mailing list sign-up
• RSS feeds from other sources
• Events listings
• Forms for submissions
• Social Media Newsrooms

Choosing a Theme:

• Go to http://themes.wordpress.net/

Make certain you only search for themes that are “widget ready.”

• You can also purchase themes from TemplateMonster.com. Again, make certain any theme you choose is “widgetized.”
• Do not choose a theme before you plan your site, however. You want your theme to accommodate your content, not vice versa.
• Choose at least twelve themes that you like. You will find that you will not be able to use many themes that you choose for various reasons.
• Try and look only at the overall look and feel of a theme, with the idea that the colors, fonts, images, and most anything else can be customized to fit your needs.

Installing WordPress and Beyond:

• Use the following documentation to help with all of these steps:
  • http://codex.wordpress.org/Getting_Started_with_WordPress
  • http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Lessons

• Installing WordPress
  • Choose a host. WordPress works best on a WordPress-friendly host. I use WestHost. They are affordable, reliable, and have fantastic tech support. Their personal starter plan for $6.95 a month is all you will likely need.
  • For a list of other WordPress-friendly hosts, go to WordPress.org.
  • Carefully read the installation guide on WordPress.org. WordPress is installed differently when you use it as a CMS than if you only use it to blog.

• Next Steps
  • Installing your theme
  • Customizing your theme
  • Deciding which plugins you need based on your initial plan
  • Installing and setting up your plugins (Always read the readme.txt file!)
  • Setting up your sidebars
  • Building your pages
  • Posting blog entries

On Open Source Etiquette:

The developers have put a lot of time into these projects. Please show them respect by:

• Never deleting the credits from the footer of a theme, or from a plugin
• Making donations to the open source developers whose plugins you are using

When using the support forums:

• Always search the forums thoroughly for an answer to your question before posting.
• Give back if you can: check the recent posts for questions from newcomers you might be able to answer.

Here are some sites powered by WordPress to help inspire you:

• AlaskanArtandPhoto.com
• AccoladesPublicRelations.com
• DaltonPublishing.com
• EmpoweredbyWordPress.com
• LesMcGehee.com
• OwenEgertonNewsroom.com
• JoeOConnellNewsroom.com
• GaryKentFilmmaker.com
• RicWilliams.com
• KelleyBurrus.com
• OwenEgerton.com
• RobertStikmanz.com
• AmyWink.com

And, if you’re looking for even more information, rest assured that help is readily available to you. WordPress and the people who contribute to it are perfect examples of the Social Web in action. On WordPress.org you will find a plethora of help, not only from their documentation, but also from the community that has sprung from this demonstrated spirit of interactivity, sharing, and collaboration.

And don’t forget to have fun!

Copyright 2008 by Deltina Hay. All rights reserved.