ThePodcastSisters

Podcast Sisters 61 - Handling Negative Feedback on Your Blog or Podcast

This week's Podcast Sisters Podcast, we discuss tips and advice on how to handle negative feedback on your blog or podcast.

Have you ever experiences unexpected negative comments on your blog or podcast - Krishna, Heather and Anna share what they have done when they have received feedback that you might find discouraging.

We'd love to hear from you - what thoughts, feedback or suggestions do you have for future content? Or perhaps you have suggestions for subjects you would like us to cover?

You can post your comments here or mouse on over to our Podcast Sisters Friend Feed room.

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Boost Your Business With Online Video

You have no doubt seen the proliferation of video's on the web this year and probably noticed how impactful they are in bringing your brand to life.

Heather has actually made a recent purchase of a Flip Video which she enjoys using to capture video's on her travels and she also uses them on her main website.

But what if you are camera shy or don't have the excitement of a Wiggly Wiggler's backdrop to share with your community?

You don't have to have to create video with you as a talking head - you can be inventive with the backdrop you choose, record your voice alongside a screen capture or create a PowerPoint slide presentation and do an accompanying voiceover.

I've been doing this kind of video for about 3 years and have used online video for lead generation and delivering online study programmes about personal branding and marketing strategies.

If you are not sure where to start, friend of the Podcast Sisters (and a previous guest) Leesa Barnes has a three minute video on what to look for when choosing video capturing software. And while you on that page you can find other video's she has done on her blog. Access the video HERE.

Do let us know what questions you have about creating video online and we'll see what we can do about covering your questions on a future podcast.

NOTE: Leesa's video is a primer for a virtual seminar she is hosting on 23 and 24 July 2008 about how to boost your business using video. If you are interested in that course, make sure you scroll down the page and enter in the VIP code (VID 723) so that you will get into the virtual training for just US$20).

Ego Surf To Check The Health Of Your Personal Brand Online

One of the strategies I advise my clients is to ensure that they "ego surf" - in other words check what others will find when and if someone looks for them in the search engines.

I recommend that you check this each month and make sure that you check your name and your company name both with and without the "" around your name.

A great reason fo doing so is you just never know what you might find when checking the visibility of your personal brand online.

Today I checked against my name and to my suprise there was a wonderful testimonial posted by someone about the assistance I had given them about branding, blogging and social media.

Many times people may link back to you if you have a business blog and it's easy to check incoming links especially if you are blogging using Wordpress.org as the links are clearly there for you to check in the Wordpress dashboard.

In this particular case the person had linked to my profile on LinkedIn a social netowrking site used by professionals. I'd never have known that they had written such a great testimonial which has in fact led to another business opportunity if I had not checked my search results in Google.

So if you are worried that Googling yourself is vanity, get over it! You just may be suprised with the wonderful testimonials about you online. Go go one "Google Yourself" today - it may give you a great boost and is far better than a chocolate Easter Egg - and will have much longer lasting results!

Create a branded Facebook ID

Have you wondered how to make sure that you recall your Facebook ID?

Well Faceto.us is a new online free tool to help you customise and brand your Facebook ID.

As an example, my Facebook ID has been shortened to www.faceto.us/krishna and I also registered www.faceto.us/krishnade which is easy to remember and easy to understand when speaking it out loud to people.

I highly recommend you go and register your shortened Facebook ID today with a branded Faceto.us URL to help you build your personal brand online. Oh and don't forget you can connect with me at Facebook too!

And if you would like to know about 4 other online tools I recommend for creating shorter URL's you will find all the details here in this Biz Growth News article.

How to make money podcasting...

... was the question a journalist asked me today. Karen Coleman is a friend who has a radio show on Newstalk, one of the national radio shows in Ireland and I was speaking to her about whether she would like to join us at PodCamp Ireland next week as I know she had expressed an interest some time ago to start podcasting and blogging.

Like many people in business, they often think about how they can spend time creating a podcast which then turns into immediate profit. Karen was concerned that podcasting would not be a financially interesting option for her.

How to monetise and profit from podcasting is a conversation that Paul Colligan and I have had a number of times and Paul is great at getting you to think about developing a strategy for your podcast.

If you are in a situation where you are just getting started podcasting, if you do not have a specific brand or great reputation with a solid following (ideally having build your list) then to be frank, it's highly unlikely that you will be able to monetise your podcast immediately. Podcasting however, just as blogging, is a great way to build your reputation, express your expertise and build your personal brand, from which many opportunties will flow as we have covered on recent shows.

This week I had the opportunity to speak to Leesa Barnes, who I first got to know of via my good friend Andy Wibbels when Leesa was a coach. Leesa is now an author - her new book "Podcasting for Profit" will be formally launched next week and we recorded a podcast for The PodCast Sisters - we'll broadcast it when I'm here left on my own and Heather and Anna are off on their foreign tour!

We had a great conversation and covered a lot of great tips and strategies about profitable podcasting.

However if you can not wait for the show, you can mouse over to get a couple of chapters of Leesa's book and if you do so before the 25 September 2007, she will invite you to a live 75 minute teleclass about podcasting for profit. Leesa has declared the 25 September podcasting for profit day so if you are wondering how you can take your podcast to the next level, do make sure you join her.

Why it's important to edit your podcast

There is a current trend on the web for business leaders to make themselves and their businesses more accessible and real. That is one of the reasons that podcasting and video podcasting is becoming popular as they enable to to connect to the people behind the company.

As we have covered in the show podcasting is becoming ever more accessible and you can even create a podcast over your phone.

However that does not mean that we should take less time and attention over editing our podcast.

Just yesterday I was directed to a recording of a teleseminar which had been held with three business leaders I really trust and respect - it was a preview of an upcoming programme they are leading and as it's in the US and I won't be able to attend it I thought I would listen to the preview call.

The problem was that the person hosting the call had put the content on the web but without editing their general chit chat at the begining of the call.

You might say that's great you get a chance to hear what is going on behind the scenes. The impact to me however was that I found it detracted from why I had gone over to listen to them. They were talking about who had mailed the invitation to their list, the links of the the website and what wasn't working etc etc.

Now some people might think that is wonderful, but frankly if you are looking to make a great impression with your potential clients I highly recommend editing that out. After all, on TV other than the Friday Night With Jonathan Ross Show, you never see the experts in the green room - and on Jonathan's show the guests are well aware that they will be caught on camera at any time. They probably have a green room for the green room!

So take a little time to edit the begining and end of your podcast - you can be sure that it will reflect a much more professional personal brand. But do let the authentic you come across in the main body of your podcast.

Oh and when looking for links for this post, I find Jonathan's has his own podcast too.

Making money through podcasting

Though we have not had this question from any of our Podcast Sisters community as yet, I know I often get asked questions about how you can make money through podcasting.

If you are using podcasting in your business, one of the key reasons that many business leaders invest in podcasting is to build a community and engage with specific stakeholder groups from clients to employees.

We can refer to products and services in our podcasts so that we encourage people to purchase and invest in them.

We can also look at sponsorship deals where people will pay you for sponsoring segments, again promoting their brand to your podcast listeners.

It all depends on the strategy you want to follow and what is appropriate and on-brand for your business.

I was interested to read about a different take on how to profit from podcasting today from Mike Southon of Beermat fame.

Mike offers his Beermat community access to podcasts with people he interviews - you can subscribe to get the shortened versions on his website if you are not a member of his Beermat club.

Mike has been building the Beermat brand and has a strategic alliance with The Daily Telegraph in the UK so his podcasts also available on their website.

The opportunity he is now exploring is offering to interview other people for podcasts that they can post on their own site. He is offering to do an interview for an hour in your office or in a London studio and then his podcast production company will edit the audio and create:

• A ten-minute ‘Beermat podcast
• A 30-minute podcast
• A transcript of the podcast
• access to ‘Podcasting on a Beermat’, how to make the most of your interviews.

And the cost of your investment for this would be £1,490 + VAT (approx US$3000 plus VAT).

I wonder if Leesa Barnes has other examples such as this in her new book "Podcasting for Profit"? I hope I get the chance to ask her if she agrees to be interviewed on "The Podcast Sisters". Only one thing Leesa - we don't pay our guests US$3000 or even US$3. We will buy you a coffee the next time we see you though!

The W list: aka women who blog

One of the reason Anna, Heather and I started "The Podcast Sisters" was the fact that we wanted to encourage those of us, and especially women, who are not so comfortable with technology to venture into the world of Web 2.0 and new media to grow your business, based on our own journeys and experiences.

Yesterday I came a across a blog post from Valeria Maltoni the author of the Conversation Agent  who has started a “W list” - a list of women who write great blogs.

I posted about the list over at Biz Growth News and referenced a list that had been compiled in 2006 of women bloggers in Ireland created by Mary Gilmartin prior to the 2007 Irish Blog Awards.

So here is the list as it currently stands - and of course I had to add Kate one of our "Podcast Sisters" listeners whose blog we featured recently and Claire and Heidi who have both been recent guests at "The Podcast Sisters".

Come on "Podcast Sisters" listeners - if you are a woman who has a great blog or know a woman with a great blog, leave a message in our comments with the name of the female blogger and the URL of their blog. Or if you prefer, send us an email. We will update the master list at the end of the month. We can't wait to hear from you and add you to our growing list of women who author great blogs!

You know how great blogging has been to help you express your personal brand - so enough of being shy - make August the month for shameless self promotion! And of course lets also share a little link love!

For the meantime, here is the list as it stands today:

• advergirl Leigh Householder
• Back in Skinny Jeans by Stephanie Quilao
• BlogWrite for CEOs Debbie Weil
• Biz Growth News by Krishna De
• Brand Sizzle Anne Simons
• Branding & Marketing Chris Brown
• CK’s Blog CK (Christina Kerley)
• Communication Overtones Kami Huyse
• Conscious Business by Anne Libby
• Conversation Agent Valeria Maltoni
• Corporate PR Elizabeth Albrycht
• Customers Rock! Becky Carroll
• Deborah Schultz by Deborah Schultz
• Diva Marketing Blog Toby Bloomberg
• Email Marketing Best Practices Tamara Gielen
• eSoup by Sharon Sarmiento
• Flooring The Consumer CB Whittemore
• Forrester’s Marketing Blog Shar, Charlene, Chloe, Christine Elana, Laura and Lisa
• Get Fresh Minds by Katie Konrath
• Get Shouty by Katie Chatfield
• Inspired Business Growth by Wendy Piersall
• Kinetic Ideas Wendy Maynard
• Learned on Women by Andrea Learned
• Liz Strauss at Successful Blog by Liz Strauss
• Lorelle on WordPress by Lorelle VanFossen
• Manage to Change by Ann Michael
• Management Craft by Lisa Haneberg
• Marketing Roadmaps Susan Getgood
• Moda di Magno by Lori Magno
• Modite by Rebecca Thorman
• Narrative Assets by Karen Hegman
• Presto Vivace Blog Alice Marshall
• Productivity Goal by Carolyn Manning
• Spare Change Nedra Kline Weinreich
• Talk It Up Heidi Miller
• Tech Kitten by Trisha Miller
• The Copywriting Maven Roberta Rosenberg
• The Blog Angel by Claire Raikes
• The Engaging Brand by Anna Farmery
• The Floozy Blog by Kate Coote
• The Origin of Brands Laura Ries 
• The Podcast Sisters by Krishna De, Anna Farmery and Heather Gorringe
• Wealth Strategy Secrets by Nicola Cairncross
• What’s Next Blog B L Ochman
• Widows Quest A L Farmery
• Wiggly Wigglers by Heather Gorringe

Myspace or Facebook - which one to choose?

If you have been joining us for our recent podcasts you will know we have been exploring new social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter.

I recently wrote an article titled "Which Social Networking Site Should You Use?" and proposed that given that many of these networks are available at no cost, I take the approach that why not ensure that you build a profile to reflect your personal brand on-line in all the different online communities, so that if someone looks for you they will be sure to find you.

Today I was reading an interesting article that covered MySpace and Facebook and did an analysis on them both. If you listened to our recent podcast about Facebook you will know that we are fast becoming fans of Facebook and you will see that the author of the article, Mark Sullivan, is also predicting that Facebook will be king.

What do you think? If you are on Facebook already, be sure to introduce yourself as a friend of the PodCast Sisters won't you?

PodCamp Ireland organisers collaborate through Jaiku

As we have been talking about social networking on The Podcast Sisters recently, I thought I would check in with you on whether you have joined any of the new social networks we have been talking about?

What would encourage you to join a social network?

Now some of us are really into high tech and would be at the bleeding edge of Web 2.0 tools.

Some of may be at the leading edge and some of us may be training behind and that is just OK.

Just like networking off-line, we often join an on-line social network as our high tech friends invite and encourage us to do so.

This week, we have been meeting to plan the first ever PodCamp Ireland event - I am definately the non techy amongst the PodCamp Irish team of Bernie, Conn, Ken and Brian!

PodCamp Ireland is a no-cost conference about social  and going to be taking place on the 29 September 2007 in kilkenny, Ireland.

For us to keep in contact, we are using Jaiku - a social network similar to Twitter (we covered Twitter on the Podcast Sisters Show 8 - what is Twitter?)

Bernie has set up a podcamp channel that you will find at #podcamp on Jaiku. We will be posting our updates through Jaiku, so we get them in real time in email or on our mobile phones for free. If you want to find out what's happening with the planning of PodCamp Ireland, why not head over to Jaiku and sign up today - and remember this is a no cost tool.

You can even take the HTML code and add it to your blog as I have done on Talking Coaching and Todays Women in Business.

Another thing about Twitter and Jaiku is that they both show up in Google - take a look for example just by putting "podcamp Ireland" into Google and you will see the Jaiku podcamp channel show-up on the front page.

This is great for building your personal brand on-line but do take care in managing your digital footprint! Remember when you are in Google you are in Google - and it can happen very fast, so be careful what you write. For example, I posted an article today on Todays Women in Business and it showed up in Google alerts in less than 30 minutes.

So who would you like to encourage to join you in a social network - friends, family, colleagues, clients?

Why not try out what you are learning about social networking and set up your own community and then invite others ? And if you do so, make sure you let us know here what social media tool you are trying out and your learnings and experience.