I have been doing a lot of online reviewing and revising of my social media profiles as well as considering other components of my online professional presence.

It is amazing how many things need to be revised in the normal course of business without figuring in the changes the social media sites themselves continually make.

What constantly surprises me is people who come online in Facebook groups, for example, and ask what I call “universal” questions — such as how to market online — without putting in the time and effort to learn as much as possible about their topic of interest.

Thanks to the ease and low cost of buying ebooks on Kindle, there is a plethora of easily available good advice on numerous topics. And then, once you have a fair understanding of your topic of interest, this would be a good time to get professional help.

That professional help could cover a multitude of topics, including a review of your website for how user friendly it is to a review of your Amazon book page to see how “attractive” it is to your target audiences.

Recently I have been looking at online presences for prospective clients — and I have realized how much all of us need to brush up our online images.

In order to encourage people to undertake this extremely important task, through May 31 I have a special offer: Instead of my $150 an hour marketing consulting fee (via phone), you can choose from two special options:

1. $100 for one hour via phone
2. $150 for one-and-a-half hours via phone

If you want to take advantage of this special offer, email me at pzmiller@millermosaicllc.com

(The offer has to be booked by May 31 although the consult can take place after May 31. You could also take advantage of this offer and book multiple hours. And I can also limit this offer based on the number of consulting slots available so first come first served.)

P.S. Looking for a Mother’s Day or Father’s Day gift or perhaps a gift for another occasion? Consider taking advantage of this special offer as a gift for someone you care about.

Act now to give your online presence a “fresh coat.” Email me at pzmiller@millermosaicllc.com

© 2013 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com

She is also the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and the romantic suspense spy story CIA FALL GUY.

Click here to visit her Amazon author page at viewAuthor.at/PhyllisZimblerMiller

When our sites were under brute force attack (swarms of bots trying to login to our sites), our host server company InMotion Hosting had not heard the news that this was happening all over the Internet to thousands and thousands of sites. Instead InMotion Hosting insisted it was our fault.

In response to the login attempts, InMotion Hosting shut our sites down, thus blocking us from adding extra protection to the sites. (Our main sites MillerMosaicLLC.com and PhyllisZimblerMiller.com were not affected because these sites are on a different host server company.)

Twenty-four hours later InMotion Hosting apologized for blaming us — after finally realizing it was a world-wide issue — and making us wait 24 hours to work on fixing the problem (during which time our sites were down).

If you are in business, do you listen to your customers or clients? Or do you insist that you know what is happening and that you are right?

I took psychology courses many years ago as an undergraduate journalism student, and I know that it is human nature to believe we are correct and the other person is not.

But in today’s fast-paced business world when, for example, a server attack can be initiated by someone halfway around the world in only a few moments, we need to appreciate that we do not always know everything. We should be more than willingly to listen to what others tell us.

This does not mean we have to believe everything we are told. It does mean that, if something sounds reasonable, we should check it out rather than blaming our client or customer for doing something wrong.

On the other hand, sometimes we just do not hear correctly when a client or customer asks us about something. This is why it is important to repeat back what we think we have heard in order to make sure that we did hear correctly.

One of the reasons I like email rather than a phone conversation is because the communication is in writing and can be referred back to for clarification.

Of course, sometimes either I or the person I am emailing will need to have clarification of the written conversation. But this is still more likely to foster good communication than repeating a conversation by phone.

Another reason I prefer emails is that there is a record trail. If a client says “I did not tell you to make that change” and you have the email in which she said exactly that, you have a polite way of demonstrating that she did indeed say that.

In this fast-paced world of ours, all kinds of things can and do pop up at a moment’s notice. We cannot know everything all the time. But we can keep an open mind to learning from our clients and customers what is happening outside our own world.

P.S. If you are interested in publishing a Kindle book about your expertise, click here to buy my ebook TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF KINDLE. The information can help you leverage a book to build on your brand.

© 2013 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com

She is also the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and the romantic suspense spy story CIA FALL GUY.

Click here to visit her Amazon author page at viewAuthor.at/PhyllisZimblerMiller

I am the founder and manager of the LinkedIn Book Marketing group, and I had noticed recently quite a few more comments in the moderation queue that needed my approval before being published.

I admit it did not occur to me that LinkedIn had thrown a monkey wrench into posting on a group.

Thus I am very grateful to a member of this group who sent me a message through LinkedIn alerting me to the problem and sending me a link to an article that does a good job of explaining the situation. The article states:

As many LinkedIn users have recently found to their detriment and extreme annoyance, LinkedIn’s new policy that attempts to overcome Spam requires that anyone banished from one Group, has to have all their posts reviewed before they go live in all other Groups they belong to.

Not only is this very annoying for the people posting, it is especially annoying for the volunteers who manage these groups. Now we group managers have to deal with this issue on an individual basis!

The article does explain that LinkedIn did not contact group owners to tell them about this change. At least I now know why I had not heard about this until a group member notified me.

Click here to read the entire article about this new LinkedIn group kink.

And you can check out the LinkedIn Book Marketing group at www.LinkedInBookMarketing.com

© 2013 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com

She is also the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and the romantic suspense spy story CIA FALL GUY.

Click here to visit her Amazon author page at viewAuthor.at/PhyllisZimblerMiller

While visiting family in Chicago, I ate with my sister at a terrific North Italian restaurant (see restaurant website link below).

As my sister lives in the area of the restaurant, she asked our wait person how the restaurant got out the word of its existence.

In response, the owner sat down with us and told us what he does to promote his restaurant. In turn my sister and I gave him ideas on how he could use cross-promotion with other businesses in the area as well as social media to promote his restaurant.

Here are some ideas that the restaurant could use on Twitter:

• Tweet the day’s specials
• Tweet a special offer on Mondays, which are slow days for many restaurants
• Hand out a card with the bill at the end of the meal asking people who have enjoyed their meal to tweet about this
• Thank the people who tweet on Twitter about the restaurant and include the restaurant’s website address in the tweet

Pinterest would be a wonderful social media site for a restaurant, which could pin pictures of dishes, desserts and even interesting wine bottles.

Facebook also provides opportunities to display photos along with announcing specials. And Facebook ads can be very targeted.

YouTube videos of the chef talking about the restaurant dishes could also be engaging, especially to foodies.

Blogging on a restaurant website can be a good way to share the restaurant’s origin story as well as new dishes, seasonal dishes, and other food and wine information.

Of course, the restaurant’s links to these accounts should be prominently displayed in the restaurant website.

Once a restaurant — or any business — commits to utilizing social media to share with (not sell to) prospective target markets, new avenues can open up to engaging people online in order to have customers offline.

(Here is the link to the website of the restaurant whose food my sister and I so enjoyed: fiorenzaristorante.com)

© 2013 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com

She is also the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and the romantic suspense spy story CIA FALL GUY.

Click here to visit her Amazon author page at viewAuthor.at/PhyllisZimblerMiller

Or: “What I Learned From Watching the TV Show LOVE IT OR LIST IT”

The most important attribute of good clients is clearly stating what you want to achieve.

For example, if you want to learn how to use social media, it is best to state for what purpose you want to use social media. Attract customers? Provide customer service online? Connect with potential colleagues?

Second, good clients are committed to their online marketing goals.

Saying you want to use social media to connect with potential customers and then not making the time to do so is counterproductive.

What does this have to do with the TV show LOVE IT OR LIST IT?

Watching an episode, I noticed some obvious communication gaps in what the clients expressed as their wishes. (Yes, I know these reality shows are edited so perhaps that info got “lost in translation.”)

The resulting confusion caused loss of effectiveness and satisfaction on both sides.

Here is a small but important tip when communicating by email:

When one side emails the other, if at all possible acknowledge the email immediately and say when you expect to have the answer. In this way the first side knows that the second side did indeed receive the information — and when to expect an answer.

P.S. And if you say you are going to call at a specific appointment time, do so. Or send an email BEFOREHAND rescheduling.

In conclusion, while we are all bombarded by information overload throughout our day (and night!), if we want to be good clients we do have to do our part in achieving a successful outcome.

© 2013 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com

She is also the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and the romantic suspense spy story CIA FALL GUY.

Click here to visit her Amazon author page at viewAuthor.at/PhyllisZimblerMiller