Do you use Facebook?  I think most freelance people are using it on some level to either market themselves or just to have a place to meet other freelancers.  But are you taking advantage of all the great groups and pages there are out there?

Since I’m on Facebook I frequently join pages or groups that have to do with writing and social media.  Some have proven to be more useful than others.  Here are some of my favorites:

Groups:

• Writing Gigs Community

Pages

• Freelance Folder
• Sharon Hurley Hall
• Facebook4Freelancers
• Freelance Writing Jobs
• The Work at Home Life
• Savvy Freelance Writers
• The Blog Squad
• Social Media Examiner

Each of these pages and groups have their own advantages and can bring something to you Facebook experience.  Instead of just hanging out on Facebook and playing games why don’t you check out some pages and groups and learn while you’re there?

Of course, I would love it if you’d join my page as well.  Danielle Gibbings McGaw is still growing but I’d love to see some interaction happening!

Do you have others that I’ve mentioned?  Do you have your own?  I’d love it if you’d leave a link in the comments!

Day 1 of the 31 Days Blog Challenge is to come up with an elevator pitch.  I remember doing this one before but I think I missed the point of it.

The point of an elevator pitch is to have a response to people question when they say, “Exactly what do you do?” (and you know if you tell them that you’re a freelance anything that is going to be the first question they ask!) – you need to have something short and sweet to tell them that explains what you do in simple words.

Now, if you look at the title of my blog I guess it isn’t exactly clear.  Text Media?  What’s that?  I guess that text media is my play on text writing and social media.  So Text Media is any type of social media that is based on words – like Facebook, Twitter, or blogging.  It can be other things as well – article marketing, bookmarking (although I’m not really big on that yet), LinkedIn…and some others that I haven’t really gotten into so we’ll leave it at that.

You should have a short version to give to those who are just asking to be polite and likely won’t sit through a 3 minute spiel but you should also have a longer version that you can use when they really do want to know what you do.

So, my short version elevator pitch:

I help people with written social media like blogging, Facebook, and Twitter.

And my longer version:

I help people with written social media like blogging, Facebook, and Twitter.  I write profiles for their social media accounts, I help set up their accounts or their blogs, and I write the content.  It can be as simple as writing a blog post for them a couple times a week or it can go as far as writing the blog post and then spreading it through their social networks.

Have you heard of this event? It’s happening on August 30th and it looks like it is going to be amazing. This is a FREE teleseminar serious that has a line up of some of the smartest women online today.

If you’re a work at home mom or a sole entrepreneur – and yes, that includes work at home dad’s, too! – you’ll want to check this out. It’s not just the same info that you hear every day and read on every blog you come across – this going to be the kind of info that you can immediately put into action and it’s original stuff!

Wondering what exactly you’ll learn?

• Establishing the right mindset to achieve more success than you could imagine possible
• Leveraging radio so you can grow your list, get more clients and position yourself as an expert
• Achieving a six-figure income in four short months with FREE marketing
• Tapping into the power of the huge, ever-growing Hispanic market
• Transforming your website into a powerhouse branding and marketing machine
• Taking full advantage of your social media tools through some great creative tips and tricks
• Making your blog ROCK so you can make more money and attract lots of new clients
• Hiring a virtual assistant to free your time and set your business alight
• Taking your networking or multi-level marketing program to new heights
• Using community marketing to explode your online presence
• Transforming your lackluster Facebook Fan Page into a fantastic, entertaining and profitable business tool

Check it out – I know I’m not planning to miss this one. Why would I? It is FREE and you all know how I love free!

When I was teaching the Administrative Professional course at Robertson College we did a customer service module and part of that was reputation management.  One of the assignments that I gave my students was to take a portion of the customer service module and break it down into a more specific subject and give us (the class) more detailed information on it.  One of my students actually chose to research reputation management with SEO.  It was really interesting to see his take on it.

The thing I remember most from his presentation is that people tend to only look at the results on the first page of searches – sometimes the second or third page – so the information that shows up there is really important.  Because people are naturally drawn to the negative you have to make sure that the only thing they see on the first few pages is positive.

What is on the first couple pages when people do a search on your name?  Personally, I love to do searches on my name.

Currently, my Twitter accounts are showing up first and then this website.  When I did a Google search (just now) I also found that I am on Gawkk.com with this video:

Bing and Yahoo get similar results. So, I’m happy with what is showing up.

One of the other things you can do is sign up for Google Alerts. Once you sign up you will be sent an email each time something comes up using your keywords – ie. your name. Yahoo has the same service with Yahoo alerts. Or try using Kurrently to see if your name is turning up on Facebook or Twitter.

So, what are you doing to manage your online reputation?

I’ve only just started making a real effort to track the results that I’m getting from my social media efforts and while it is slow I am finding that it definitely does make a difference.  What have I noticed?

• Traffic on this blog has increased
• Comments on the blog have increased
• I’m developing relationships with people that I consider to be influential
• People are starting to know who I am

I found this nifty little video on YouTube.  Short but sweet:

The last thing he talks about is tools.  I’ve found one that I like called Kurrently and it tracks what people are saying on Twitter and Facebook.  I know there are other tools out there that track keywords but I like this one because I can simply go in there and check out what people are saying at any given time.

Of course, I also use Hootsuite, which allows you to track keywords, too – but it also allows you to see things like how often people are clicking on your links.  And if you click on someone’s name (including your own), it tells you how much “klout” they have.  This is kind of bugging me though.  I mean what exactly do you have to do to have klout?  Something I need to look into a little bit more…

So what are you doing to track your results in social media?  Or do you?  Does it really matter?  Hmmm – food for thought!