Even though this isn't completely social media related I wanted to share this with everyone.

This summer I had the opportunity to go to Pisco, Peru and work with an organization (Pisco Sin Fronteras) that is rebuilding the town of Pisco after the devastating earthquake they had several years ago.

While there, I was able to coordinate a delivery of new toothbrushes to local school children through the Global Grins program.  I highly recommend the Global Grins program to anyone who is going to be doing any sort of volunteer work or has students doing volunteer work.

Global Grins is easy to work with and they provide a box of 144 toothbrushes for you to distribute to local children and communities all over the world.  All they ask in return is for you to send them photos and/or video of you and where you are distributing the toothbrushes too.

Below is a link and a photo of what I was able to accomplish through my small delivery to the school children at Ludoteca in Pisco.

Please spread the word about this great organization.

http://globalgrins.org/Global_Grins/Mandy_Reinig,_Peru.html

Me with some of the students brushing their teeth!

Hi Everyone,
Many times people will ask, "how do I get my blog read?" or "What do I right about?".  In this post Alia, an avid blogger, discuss six simple strategies/tips on how to write successful blogs that generate interest and readership.

Six Simple Tips of Successful Blog Writing

Before you even start a blog, you need to know the purpose of starting one. Many people do it for money, but approaches differ and so do the results. People, who claim to be experts, will tell you a lot on successful blogging - about SEO, keyword stuffing, tools and platforms. But the most important characteristic of all successful (and money-making) blogs is a genuine desire to help people. If you want to help people genuinely, then other techniques will follow.

Find out your niche first

What are you really good at? Are you a financial whiz kid or are you a technology geek? Do you have an expertise (such as stock market analysis) which will be of real help to people? Decide on your field (or fields) of expertise first. When you are choosing a particular field you are good at, you can provide a lot of value to people.

Have a list of topics for a period of time

This ensures that you do not waste too much of time thinking about topics. Also, do not forget to make a calendar of publishing the topics. While you are creating a list of topics, keep the requirements of your target audience in mind. For example, you can publish a post on protecting savings in a volatile stock market situation.

Use popular keywords

Popular keywords, though not the only method, will keep your blog on top of search engine listings. Use Adword Tool from Google to find out the most popular keywords related to your niche. Use keywords which are both directly and indirectly related to your niche. For example, if your blog is related to insurance products, life insurance can be a directly related keyword while life expectancy can be an indirect keyword.

Do not do keyword stuffing

Use keywords as long as it appears to be a natural part of a sentence - do not force keywords on a sentence. Also, do not overuse keywords. The ideal keyword density (number of keywords divided by the total blog post length) should not exceed 2%. Search engines treat an excessively high keyword density as an act of spamming.

Blog regularly

Do not be a one-blog wonder. Keep supplying your target audience with fresh and unique information. Follow the calendar you have made (see the second tip) as closely as possible. You do not need to blog daily literally, but blog often.

Respond to your readers

Readers usually post their comments and questions on your blogs and they look forward to your inputs. Do not miss out on regularly addressing your readers. This not only answers their questions but also gives them the impression that you genuinely want to help them.

The above tips may not necessarily ensure that you will make a hugely successful blog, but these principles are proven and time-tested. The idea is to genuinely help people on a specific area and establish yourself as an authority on your chosen niche.

I hope you are able to use these tips in your blog writing.

About the Guest Blogger

Alia Haley is an avid blogger who loves blogging on tech and luxury portal. She is always on a lookout for the latest gadgets and cellphones in the market and recently added a Sony Ericsson android to her collection.

Today I had the honor and the privilege to present an all day workshop on social media with 3 other colleagues from around Europe at the EAIE (European Association of International Educators) Annual Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.  It seemed to be a huge success and I think we converted several international educators to social media users.

Below is our presentation from today's session so you too can be a part of the experience.  Feel free to comment if you like.  We covered quite a few topics in this one day session and I hope we get to repeat it next year.

I was recently sent the below linked article (and image) and thought I would post something about it since I haven't posted in awhile.  (BTW - the reason I haven't posted is I recently changed positions and moved to another state so it is has been a bit hectic).

http://www.insidefacebook.com/2011/09/06/hootsuite-tweetdeckdecreases-feedback/

Anyway - the above article and below image indicate that the engagement rate is much lower for posts auto-posted through the various platforms listed results.  Basically, this article says that auto-posting results in lower rates of comments and "likes" of posts than if someone logs into each platform and manually enters the post.

My question on this is how would someone manual post to all the various mediums and still be able to do other things (if you job isn't solely social media related).  But, the question could also be - do we need to be posting the same message to all of the various forms of social media out there or is all this posting just creating too much noise?

These are my questions for those of you who read this - Is posting the same message everyone creating social media noise and thus causing people to ignore the post? Do we need to post to every social media platform or are there key ones and are  there certain messages that should be posted to only certain social media platforms?  Are social media posts become the new ignored email phenomenon? 

I have my own ideas on this but I would love to hear what other people have to say on this and I will hopefully come back there with my thoughts.

Please let me know what you think!