Internet Marketing Tips from Denise Wakeman

10 Ways to Support Charity Through Social Media

This post is a collaboration between Mashable's Summer of Social Good charitable fundraiser and Max Gladwell's "10 Ways" series. The post is being simultaneously published across more than 100 blogs.

 Social media is about connecting people and providing the tools necessary to have a conversation.#10Ways.

That global conversation is an extremely powerful platform for spreading information and awareness about social causes and issues. That's one of the reasons charities can benefit so greatly from being active on social media channels. But you can also do a lot to help your favorite charity or causes you are passionate about through social media.

Below is a list of 10 ways you can use social media to show your support for issues that are important to you. If you can think of any other ways to help charities via social web tools, please add them in the comments. If you'd like to retweet this post or take the conversation to Twitter or FriendFeed, please use the hashtag#10Ways.

Kick Start America - How You Can Help Get Our Economy Back on Track

In previous posts I've told you about Dave Lakhani. Dave is quite brilliant in my humble opinion, as a marketer, a masterful speaker, and top notch trainer. I'm always blown away when I hear and see Dave present. I study his language and style because it works. I've been a fan for some time and his latest project seals the deal for me.

Dave recently published How to Sell When Nobody's Buying which sold out online and in bookstores within 8 hours of the launch.

In conjunction with the book and media buzz he's getting, Dave is launching an initiative called Kick Start America.  I heard about it in April and he's officially announced it today.

Watch Dave's video in which he explains why he's created Kick Start America.

If you want to be connected with a very powerful person (tons of connections), potentially get a lot of visibility, and contribute to helping entrepreneurs around the country, then take a look at Dave Lakhani's plan to Kick Start America and reboot the economy. It's pretty impressive.

I'm not selling anything here. Neither is Dave, though there is a fee to participate which helps offset costs; Dave is putting in $150K of his own money. I'm in. The potential visibility is nice but it's not my primary motivator. I believe strongly in what Dave is setting out to do and I want to make a meaningful contribution. In fact it dovetails nicely with my passion for Kiva.org which supports entrepreneurs around the world in the form of micro-lending.

I wanted to let you know about this opportunity. Maybe it resonates with you too.

Related Post:

Dave Lakhani on How to Sell When Nobody's Buying

How I'm Using Social Media for My Big Five-0 Kiva Birthday Challenge

I'm four days in to my Big Five-0 Kiva Birthday Challenge and figure it's time for a brief update. I've done the math and in order to meet my goal of $5,000 in loans (at $25 per loan minimum), I need an average of 7 loans per day. That means as of this moment, I'm a bit behind and should have 28 loans by the end of today.  (Hint, hint!).

Current stats:

• 20 Member
• 22 Loans
• $625 raised
• 12.5% to goal

However, I have not sent out a blast to my email lists of approximately 10,000 people. I'm waiting on that until closer to my actual birthday so I can get some momentum around that day. I have sent personal emails to key people in my community inviting them to participate.

I am using social media in a big way.  Here's how...

Social Media Marketing Industry Report (free!)

Just released: Social Media Marketing Industry Report...

Michael A. Stelzner, the king of white papers and CEO of WhitePaperSource, surveyed over 900 marketers about their use of social media and came up with some surprising results. Some of the stats include:

• 88% indicated they were using social media for marketing purposes
• 72% have been using social media marketing for a few months
• 64% of marketers are using social media for 5 hours or more each week
• 39% are using it for 10 hours a week
• 81% say the number-one benefit is generating exposure, followed by increasing traffic and building new business relationships
  

The report is totally free to download. No opt-in required. You can also get access to a one hour social media class with Mari Smith, Chris Garrett and me, interviewed by Mike Stelzner. Check it out.

In the report, you're going to also learn the top 10 questions marketers have about social media marketing. This is gold.

When you click through to download the report, watch the video intro. Stelzner really knows how to use video. And check out all the ways you can share the report. It's a masterful presentation of valuable content that is already getting a lot of attention and it's only been available for a few hours (at the time of this blog post).

Whether you're an experienced online marketer or just getting started, this is an important report for you to read and study.

Go get your copy of Social Media Marketing Industry Report: How Marketers Are Using Social Media to Grow Their Businesses.

Is Twitter Secure?

I recently got a question from a friend on Facebook asking me what security concerns they should have around twitter. For example: can someone find out where they live. Frankly, if you post anything on the Web or give your personal info to any site, it can probably be hacked and anyone can find you. Do a Google search on your name and see what comes up beyond the good stuff that you want found like blog posts and articles.

A friend told me she found all of her race results from various marathons and other running events and she was shocked they were online. I wasn't. Race organizers post all that stuff online. We like it when we want to look it up. We don't like it if we don't want others to know about our personal life.

I digress. I put the question out to my peeps to see what their suggestions were re: twitter security. Personally, I recommend never posting anything you don't want anyone to know. Period. I also recommend you read an excellent article on Marketing Profs by Michael Stelzner about The Dark Side of Twitter.

Got a tip or thought about twitter security and what you can do to stay safe online? Share it here in the comments section.