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Jennifer Mattern

Jennifer Mattern is a professional blogger and freelance business writer, and a former online PR and social media consultant. In addition to writing about social media issues at Social Implications, she also blogs about freelance writing, business writing, and indie publishing. She is currently working on a nonfiction book for freelance writers tentatively called The Query-Free Freelancer, and is the author of the Web Writer's Guide e-book series among other e-books. After launching a music PR firm in 2004, she moved quickly into online public relations and social media work due to the social Web savvy of the independent music client base. She continues to work actively in social media through her writing and blogging as well as through her own Web development projects.

social media professional

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Whether you plan to use social media for better PR outreach, marketing, or just listening to what customers have to say, the social media tools you use can play an important role in your business. What’s equally important is who uses those tools in your company’s name. Should you handle social media profiles yourself, or should you turn to a professional who can help you develop a solid social media strategy? [click to continue…]

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social media professional

Credit: BigStockPhoto.com

Whether you plan to use social media for better PR outreach, marketing, or just listening to what customers have to say, the social media tools you use can play an important role in your business. What’s equally important is who uses those tools in your company’s name. Should you handle social media profiles yourself, or should you turn to a professional who can help you develop a solid social media strategy? [click to continue…]

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social media time management

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Social media can be effective both for personal and business networking (and even for marketing). But there are so many social media sites and tools that it can also sometimes feel overwhelming. They key to getting the most out of social media without wanting to throw in the towel is to find the right social media time split. [click to continue…]

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It’s hard to believe we’re already nearing the end of this year. But that also means we’re on the verge of starting a new year, with new hopes and new goals. Have you set your personal or business New Year’s resolutions yet? If you’re short on ideas, social media might be able to help.

Here are three ways you can use social media to come up with and set your New Year’s resolutions, and maybe even stick with them. [click to continue…]

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social network tag cloud

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In the past I ran a small music PR firm where I assisted musicians with online PR and social media. Now I follow an even stronger passion, working full-time as a writer. Years of experience working with creative professionals and in my writing and publishing business have shown me the power social media can have in creative industries. [click to continue…]

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Google Plus Brand Pages

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When Google Plus initially launched, both personal and business users flocked to the site. But before long those business users were told that their accounts weren’t welcome on the social network yet and that they would be deleted. Instead Google wanted to roll out a separate feature or profile type for businesses and brands — Pages.

After what felt like a painfully long wait, Google Plus Pages were finally recently unveiled. But were they worth the wait? Let’s look at both sides. [click to continue…]

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data mining

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When it comes to social networks these days, I sometimes feel like the big players are in the middle of a war. And I don’t just mean they’re competing for our attention. It’s starting to feel like a race to the bottom on the issue of user privacy. I have to wonder if pure social networks are dead or at least dying in favor of what Eric Schmidt calls an “identity service.” [click to continue…]

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Alienate social media followers

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You know that it’s important to build your network or community when you use social media tools. But it’s equally important that you maintain that community if you really want to benefit from social media use. Whether you use these tools for personal or business networking, there is little point in engaging via social media if your friends and followers no longer care about what you have to say. [click to continue…]

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social shopping

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I’m almost finished with my holiday shopping. But many people are still in full swing. Or maybe you haven’t even started yet. No matter where you are in the process do you think social media played (or will play) a role?

In this day and age I’d be very surprised if social media didn’t affect our holiday shopping in at least a small way. How? Here are a few examples of how social media might play a role in retail sales and your holiday shopping decisions. [click to continue…]

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Content Marketing

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There’s a new (well, sort of new) buzzword making the rounds these days. “Content marketing.” Whether you’ve been doing it for years (under its other names) or are just now jumping onto the quality content bandwagon, content marketing is a concept you’re bound to come across in social media.

Let’s take a look at content marketing today — what it is, what’s great about it, and what’s not so great about yet another social media buzzword like this. [click to continue…]

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Are you using Google+ yet? I’m not usually one to jump into new social media tools until they have reasonable saturation within my target markets. But I was excited to give Google+ a try (largely because of the selectivity users have using the circles feature). Now that I’ve spent some time playing with the new network, overall I’m impressed. That said, a few hiccups are expected with any new tool. And I have three requests or suggestions for Google+.

Google Plus Post

Example of a Google+ Post in my stream

Here are those requests: [click to continue…]

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