Maui Bloggers Network Guidelines

Maui Bloggers Network

Maui Bloggers Network General Guidelines:

1. Open to bloggers who
a. live on Maui has a blog about Maui
b. blog about other topics but lives on Maui (and Maui will benefit from the blog)
b. not live on Maui but blog is focused on Maui, Hawaii (will be assessed on a case to case basis)

2. The blog should be:
a. over 90 days old (I had made exceptions to those who's been active social media circle and seriously wants to learn how to blog. If a person just owns a static website but not active in soc. media, he/she has to abide by the "90 days blog age" requirement.)
b. open to comments (no exceptions on this - I will check each blog)
c. that are updated at least monthly (preferably more)
d. that are not password-protected
e. owned by you and not from a business you work for. If it's your own business website and you have a blog there, then it's ok.

3. Membership
a. by invitation.
b. by requesting to be a member
c. blog and Facebook Profile will be checked before being accepted.
d. only the admin can add members.


Etiquette:

1. Be Nice. The goal is to build is other up and not tear each other down. I suggest following the Thumper Rule "If you can't say something nice, don't say nothing at all". Correcting or constructive criticism is ok but do it in a very tactful way and in private, with the goal to encourage and build up.

2. Be Generous. I say let's abide by the Golden Rule "Do unto others what you want others to do unto to you". Be generous in leaving comments on other member's blogs, and hope that they will return the favor, though don't be upset if they don't.
a. Aside from visiting blogs and leaving comments, don't hesiste to post links that you find that will be beneficial to bloggers.

4. Be Respectful and Sensitive. Political Views and Religious views and other hot topics that we are so passionate about should not be impossed on others.

Bog Hop (evolving - guideline are still changing, though we are on our 2nd month of doing this)

1. Once the monthly bloghop doc is up. you can link one blog post per blog of yours. one post per blog per month
2. List chronologically so we can find it easily.
3. To encourage commetns being left on the bog post itself and not the thread on the Facebook Page.

Establishing Labels a.k.a. Categories

Maui Bloggers Network
Maui TweetUp
Maui SMUG
Maui Wordpress
HooteSuite Maui
Blogging
FaceBook
Twitter
YouTube
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Instagram
Flickr
Animoto
Video
Photos
Foursquare

Social Media on Maui 2012

This morning I googled the words Maui Social Media and found that this blog is still on top of the list. I have not been updating this blog, but recently I am feeling the need to do that. There are many businesses on Maui who are jumping in the social media bandwagon and I feel the need to have a central place for reliable information on social media that the Maui Business Owners and Entrepreneurs can use.

I am plan this to be more of an aggregate blog. Stay tuned ...

Promoting And Growing Your Blog

I. Basics:


A. Know your goal in blogging

1. Personal Satisfaction - Expression of Creativity; Sharing Your Hobby or Passion; want to meet new friends, etc.
2.  To Promote My Business - should still be passion related
3.  Be A Professional Blogger - gain income through blogging                                                                   *For 2 and 3 - your blogging standard would be higher: own URL; correct grammar and spelling;  disclosures; site references, need a good web design.

 B. Establish A Benchmark And Set A Growth Goal - where is your blog at in the beginning (or at this time

1. Where are you at:. Find out from:   http://www.websitegrader.com/ / http://www.blograder.com/ / http://www.woorank.com/
2. What is your Page Rank with Google? Alexa Ranking?
3. Establish a short term goal. ex. increase daily visits by 3
4. Establish a long term goal.  ex. 10,000 page views a month

C. Install An Analytic Tool in the Blog to help monitor growth

1. SiteMeter - easier to use but limited
2. Stat Counter -
3. Google Analytics  (most used by professionals)
4. Blog Rankings - Page Rank; TopBlogsites, etc.

II. Promotion and Growth

1. Know Basic SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Why? because Google will bring visitors to your blog.

1. The blog name you choose is important  (ex. A Maui Blog)
2. How you Title your post  is important (use Key Words - ex. Where to Eat On Maui)
3. Pictures / photos has tro be labeled and or tagged. (google images)
4. Tag Your Posts (For Google Searches)
5. Use key words - don't get carried away but don't neglect either
6. ... and many more

2. Content is the King

1. Write interesting content (interesting to you and your reader; things you are passionate about).  Be human. Sure key words are important but don't overdo it.  Write with passion. Write with humor if you can (and it'd appropriate).  Be technical only if it's a technical blog.
2. Write well  - for blogs, it does not have to be too formal - it can be talk strory kind but following basic rules of punctuation, grammar and spelling is important. (my case...)
3. Length Matters.  A 250 word post is good.  If less, maybe add photos; if more decide into several posts. If not too long but long enough, chunk it, ot break up.  Make lists.  Highlight (bold) impt. words.
4. Words are good but adding photos, videos or slideshows greatly enhance the content and make the lay-out nice. Don't overdo.

3. Participate Actively in Social Media

1. Blogging Community
1. Find blogs related to your blog.  (Technorati.com; AllTop; Google)
2. Read them and comment on it. Add them in your Blogroll.  Subscribe in their feeds or e-mail newsletter.  
3. Be friends with the other bloggers.  Make an effort to get noticed by influential bloggers - be friends with them. LINKS are important. 
4. Participate in Blog Carnival and Memes: Aloha Friday, Wordless Wednesday, Photo Hunt Saturday, Sunday Scribblings, Thankful Thursday, Weekly Winners (Photos) Capture It (photos)
5. Create some loyal commenters by replying on their comments.
6. Be a guest blogger (especially on blogs with high PR) (A Maui Blog; MauiInformationGuide - PR 4 - Maui.net PR5 (Local blogs for free)
2. Facebook -
1. Know Facebook Pages relevant to your blog.  Engage there.  If the administrator allows others to post on their wall, post relevant links to your blog.  Do not overdo.  Do this only when you already have established relationship with the owner of the page.  ex.  there are many existing MAUI pages on FB.
1. Hawaii * (Community) - 938,251 fans
2. Hawaii (Travel/Leisure) - 116-514 (HTA)
3. Hawaii (Tours/Sightseeing) - 111,883
4. Maui, Hawaii - 14,762
5. Id' Rather Be On Maui - 72,192
6. MyOwnMaui.com - 36,462
7. VisitMaui - 6,504
8. A Maui Blog - 747
2. Make sure you have "LIKE (share) BUTTON" on your post.  You'll be amazed how that would help promote your blog.
3. Twitter -
1. Tweet a link to your blog post.  If you get a lot of RT's, you'd hit a jackpot! :) Make sure you have the Tweet button.
2. Follow famous bloggers and social media "true experts" and learn from them.  They will usually tweet out helpful links.
4. Other Social Networking and Social Marking Tools - YouTube; LinkedIn; Diggs;
5. Forums and Discussions
6. Attend Meet-ups
7. List blog in blog directories

4. Promote in Other Media (esp. on Maui) - newspaper (MauiTime; Maui Family Magazine, Edible Hawaiian Islands; radio, etc.; E-mail newsletter.

To Follow or Not To Follow - That Is The Question

Right now I have 5,560 followers and I am following 2,445

So what's your opinion about following and unfollowing?

Here's mine:

I follow people who tweet: 1) interesting tweets 2) informative tweets 3) fun tweets (those that make me LOL). Most of the time, the tweeples I follow tweet all those 3 kinds and I like that. In addition I follow Tweeples who 1) engage in conversation 2) RT once in a while 3) do not spam me with "here's how to make money on Twitter" kinda tweet or "buy this product" a million times.

I do not automatically follow and I hate those auto DM that thank me when I follow someone. I do not like auto DM. I usually check the profile of those who recently followed me, I check their tweets and if they are what I listed above, then I follow. Sometimes I do not follow a tweeple right away but when he or she @ me, I follow back because they "conversed". Of course when they spam me with "make money online tweets" I'd unfollow. I do not have a problem with Tweeples selling their products on line, promoting their books or blogs, or marketing some products. I am not naive - it's all part of the Twitterville. And I do it too. But I do not like it when Tweeples overdo it. It becomes annoying.

I follow some people who do not follow me. I respect their decision. I tweet a lot and some just don't like that, especially those who only follow a few. You see, if they only follow a few and I tweet a lot, all they would see is my face on their stream, and they get sick of me. So it's ok to unfollow me, and some of them just put me on their list. Some just don't like reading my "none value" tweets, they only like the informative tweets - that's fine too. I still follow them if they are worth following. And some I do not follow but put them in my list.

The other day I tweeted about my dislike of some singers who had tens of thousands followers and only follow 72 or so. I thought that was not balance at all. I know it's not good to follow everyone and be inundated with spam, but following too little in proportion to your follower is kinda unfair as far as I am concern. But oh well, that is a personal decision I guess.

Sometimes I miss a follower who @ me or do a #FF shout out. If you are one of them, tweet me @ and I'd follow you - but remember, I do not like spam tweets.

Some tweeples prefer a small group of following and followers. That's fine. I have some friends like that. Others amass thousands, but do not engage - that is not fine. I do not like those who accumulate thousands and ten thousands of followers using twitter feeds and other bot programs but they never interact at all.

For me, I like having a lot of followers and interacting with many. I think Twitter is more effective and enjoyable if you have at least 100 or more followers/following blah blah blah. But that's just my opinion.

Really, there are so many wonderful tweeples out there. We just need to decide what kind of tweets we like and follow those tweeters who tweet it.

Every now and then I see my follower list go down and I get worried. "Did I tweet something wrong?" "Did I offend someone?" But in the end it's probably someone who's offended that I didn't follow him/her back.

To follow or not to follow, that is the question ...

What are your thoughts on this?

ReThink Hawaii - Hello Maui!

Re-Think: Hawaii. That was an experience. A catalyst.

I flew from Maui to Honolulu with great expectations. I was not let down. I had fun. I learned a lot. I was inspired.

Now it’s time to apply what I learned. Time to share the knowledge. Time to put a “do it” to it.

Initially, I was thinking of a “Re-Think(x): Maui” . A mini conference or workshop to echo Re-Think Hawaii. But as I think along, the concept of Re-Think Hawaii is not exactly what Maui needs at this time. We have to start with basics here. In my opinion, Maui’s participation with the Social Media is still on the infant stage. We need a Basic 101 course, an introduction. And so an idea is conceived. Perhaps a movement. And I am going to call it “Hello Maui”.

What exactly is Hello Maui? What I envision Hello Maui to be is a one day conference and workshops of basic courses that would enable Maui’s leaders and entrepreneurs to understand what Social Media is about and how to best participate in it. We will learn how to listen and how to engage. We will form networks, we will develop friendships.

And then we will see once again that which Christine Lu has said: "when good people get together, great things happen ".

More thoughts to come ...

From "Beating Economic Crisis" to "Maui Social Media"

Today I switched this blog's title and URL from "Beating Economic Crisis" to "Maui Social Media". A lot has happened since my last post on Beating the Economic Crisis which paved the way for me to be more involved in Maui Social Media. More explanation and sharing to come. I just thought I need to this transition announcement post for now :)