When was the last time you had a professional portrait taken?  If you answer high school graduation, you need to get on the ball!

Today’s photo-friendly media options, including LinkedIn, Facebook, company websites and blogs, provide numerous opportunities to post your photo as a site enhancement.

You might encounter an unexpected need for a professional photo as I recently did.  Consider this scenario:  A newspaper reporter calls to request an interview.  You, of course, oblige because you want to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to build your personal and business presence in the community.  Their next request:   Please send a high resolution picture to accompany the article.  Will you be prepared, or will you panic and send the best digital picture you can manage on short notice?

The solution is actually quite simple.  Set an appointment at a photography studio at your local mall or find a local freelance photographer specializing in headshots.  For approximately $75 and in less than 30 minutes, you should be able to complete a ‘photo shoot’ with two outfit changes, select your pictures, pay, and be out the door with high resolution pictures in-hand on a CD.

Why wait until you get caught in a bind?  Schedule your photo op now!

If you’ve done any reading on the Twitter marketing, you probably realize that tweeting can be an effective, cost-free or low-cost solution for marketing your business. All too often, however, we may be left wondering what to tweet about our businesses. We are under the mistaken impression that we simply have nothing worthy of sharing.

A good tweet can not only inform your followers about new developments in your company, but it can also educate, inform, or entertain them. Once you achieve visibility, both your company profile and your client prospect levels will rise. The word of mouth that can come from a particularly intelligent tweet or series of tweets can result in hundreds or thousands of dollars in free advertising.

If you provide tweets that appeals to your followers, you’ll gain credibility and be on your way to forming a valuable relationship. This can be very powerful from a marketing point of view.

If you’re looking for things to tweet about in relation to your business, consider some of these ideas. This is a list of 19 reasons to tweet about your business and help you get started today in utilizing this amazing promotional strategy for your business:

- Starting a new business
- Celebrating a company anniversary
- Publishing of a new article or series of articles
- Publishing of a new blog post related to your business
- Publishing of a book or ebook
- Promote a book signing
- Receiving an award
- Announcement a partnership
- Promote a specific product, service, event, contest or fundraiser
- Promote a product or service that is holiday themed
- Promote a sale or holiday sale
- Promote a campaign using your company products
- Announce that you’re available to speak on particular subjects
- Promote a public appearance on television, radio or in person
- Launching of a website or blog
- Website or blog anniversary
- Announce free information or resources are available
- Sponsoring a workshop, seminar, conference or teleseminar
- Announcement of a new strategic partnership or alliance

While there are many other reasons to tweet, these ideas should help you jumpstart your creativity.

PS. reply to this blog post to send me a question.

With all this social networking going on, sometimes it still seems like people don’t really connect with each other. You know? So, I’m trying out a new social tool – my telephone. Hey, you might have one too!

Why don’t you engage and give me a call next week?

Next Monday, I’m launching Office Hours with Crystal. For two hours each week, I’ll be sitting here by my phone, eagerly anticipating your phone call.

You’re invited to call me up and chat about whatever’s on your mind. We can check out your blog or website content together. Talk about your upcoming book or the articles you’re writing. Working at home, starting an online business, the latest gadget or gizmo, Lady Gaga’s newest video… It’s all fair game.

Really, I just want to learn more about the people I’m hooking up with online, and I want to give you the chance to get to know me better too.

The hours will vary each week, because  But you can find out about my open office hours each week by visiting my Facebook page.

I’m looking forward to talking (for real!) with you soon.

Full color, tri-fold brochure design for a Los Angeles based Dentist.

Executive Aspirin handled the entire project from design through digital printing. Other elements of the project included logo design & business card layout.

“Something funky, something fresh.”

A good logo can often be summed up in a few words. When Mario Archuleta approached EA during a recent Chamber of Commerce mixer, he described what he was looking for with a simple four word sentence, we immediately went to work designing a logo that reflected this sentimental perfectly.

Social media are no longer just for tech-savvy teenagers and computer wizards. Now companies are using social media to get their messages out to a broad audience at a very low cost (typically for free, though with the investment of staff time).

In fact, a University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research study recently looked at the use of social media among America’s largest charities and found that 89 percent of nonprofit organizations are using them in some form, including blogs (the most common among nonprofits), Facebook, and Twitter.  In fact, U.S. nonprofits are now more actively engaged with them than U.S. businesses and academic institutions[1] are.

Below we de-mystify 10 of the most popular (and easy to use) social media outlets available to businesses.

1. Facebook

Facebook allows an organization to start a group, which entails creating an informational profile and inviting people to join the group as virtual members.  An organization can invite anyone with a Facebook account — board members, past colleagues, supporters, etc. — to join its group and can update its information any time with links to its Web site, promotional videos, pictures of staff members and volunteers, etc. For detailed instructions on how to create a Facebook page, see the TechSoup article on “Beginner’s Guide to Facebook“.

2. MySpace

MySpace is similar to Facebook in that a nonprofit organization can create a group with a profile to share information on its cause and allow interested MySpace users to join the group as members. MySpace also offers a service called MySpace Impact, which is a directory made up of nonprofit profiles that MySpace users can search to find and join causes that resonate with them. Before joining MySpace Impact, your organization will first need to create a MySpace profile. DIOSA Communications, a firm that specializes in Web 2.0 marketing for nonprofits, offers 75 best practices for nonprofits interested in using MySpace. (Read more here.) Once your MySpace page has been created, you can sign up to be included in the MySpace Impact directory by clicking here. Your profile will then be visible to MySpace members searching for organizations promoting causes that interest them.

3. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is similar to MySpace and Facebook except it’s focused on connecting professionals in similar fields or with similar professional interests. LinkedIn recently started an initiative called LinkedIn for Good, a forum for raising awareness and funds for nonprofits around the world. LinkedIn allows nonprofit organizations to create their own pages on the site to share information with the over 40 million professionals in the LinkedIn community. Members of LinkedIn can add “badges”  to their profiles highlighting organizations they support. Any member of LinkedIn can click on a badge to get to the nonprofit’s page. For more information on LinkedIn for Good and to see sample profiles created by nonprofits, click here.

4. Care2.com

Care2 is a new social networking option that links individuals and organizations that support the same social causes. Users of care2.com choose the causes that interest them when they create their profiles. A nonprofit organization can market its cause through Care2 by either creating a cause-focused group or joining another cause-focused group, making it a great place to promote events or to solicit supporters for a petition or for donations. To join and create a group, click here.

5. Twitter

Twitter is one of the latest social media tools available to nonprofits. Twitter is a micro blogging tool, meaning that it allows a person or organization to post short messages, questions, updates, and announcements to its members. A nonprofit organization and the Twitter members who opt to follow the conversation on the organization’s page interact with each other by posing questions, asking for advice or opinions, posting notices about events or activities, or sharing links to articles – all in 140 characters or fewer. Nonprofits use Twitter to send frequent, short updates to their followers. Twitter allows nonprofit groups not only to promote themselves but also to find out what their followers are saying[2].  Change.org shares 10 Twitter Tips for Nonprofit Organizations here.

6. YouTube

Video has always been a compelling way to capture people’s attention. YouTube, which is the leading forum for posting and viewing original videos online, allows people to upload and share video clips on http://www.youtube.com/ and across the Internet through Web sites, mobile devices, blogs, and e-mail. YouTube now offers a Nonprofit Program, which provides a format for charities to post videos promoting themselves and their causes through free nonprofit channels. Videos posted on the nonprofit channel may highlight public service announcements, footage of activities and events, calls to action, etc. Additionally, the channels allow nonprofits to use Google Checkout (which does not charge fees) to collect donations. A variety of organizations, including the One Campaign and the Clinton Foundation, are participating in YouTube’s Nonprofit Program to post videos on the channels that promote their causes. Share our Strength recently created a YouTube video advocating for people to get involved in childhood hunger issues.  See the YouTube Nonprofit Program Web site for more information on the Nonprofit Program, to read a tip sheet on how to use the nonprofit channels, to obtain advice on how to run video campaigns on YouTube, and for guidance on how to save time and money editing videos.

7. Podcast

More and more, people are looking for concise information in a downloadable format that allows them to listen on their own time. Podcasts, which are audio (or audio and video) files distributed over the Internet that can be downloaded either on a computer or onto a portable audio player such as an iPod, provide an inexpensive way for a nonprofit to connect with people in a way that will fit in with their schedule. Beyond information sharing, podcasts can be used to generate buzz to visit a nonprofit or participate in an event. For example, many nonprofit museums are now providing free podcasts on their Web sites with sneak peaks of new exhibits. A 2006 article written by Karen Solomon and posted on TechSoup provides guidance on how to create and promote a podcast. (Read the article here).[3]

8. Wiki

Wikis are Web sites containing customizable content that can be updated and changed by users. Wikis can be public (anyone on the Internet can edit), protected (visible to the public, but only editable by a set of selected users), or private (only authorized users can view or edit the wiki). The tool allows for information sharing and collaboration among a wide network of individuals and can also help an organization store information and ideas exchanged among users. Additionally, a wiki can be used to post questions or topics for debate or to track opinions and thoughts that a wide range of people have on a topic.

Free or low-cost wiki services are available to nonprofits. Some of the more popular providers are Bluwiki, EditMe, and PBWorks.

9. Blog

Blogs are online journals that capture commentary and dialogue among a set of online members. Companies operate blogs for a variety of reasons, including reporting information, providing a forum for members of the blog to share information, and sharing opinions and engaging members in debate. To keep the communication open and creative, blogs should not be highly monitored. At the same time, blogs require staff time to ensure the dialogue is continuing and stays fresh. Two popular services to help create a blog easily are Blogger.com, which is free, and TypePad.com, which has more advanced services starting at $5 per month.

10. RSS Feed

The term “RSS feed” may sound highly technical, but “RSS” actually stands for “Really Simple Syndication,” and it is in fact, really simple for a nonprofit to establish its own RSS feed. An RSS feed automatically delivers summaries of Web content that is being changed frequently, such as that on news sites, wikis, and blogs. Nonprofit organizations that have a blog should publish an RSS feed to share blog updates. RSS feeds are typically read through a feed reader, such as Google Reader, which pulls together stories and headlines from all the RSS feeds the individual subscribes to. Subscribing to an RSS feed requires locating the RSS symbol on a Web site, clicking on it to get the URL to the feed, and then pasting the link into your feed reader. RSS feeds make it convenient for constituents and supporters to see frequently updated content without having to check a Web site on a regular basis. RSS feeds may be driven from your blog (posts to the blog will be added as a news feed), from your content management system, or from an online service. For more information on each option and to get links to services that can develop your RSS feed, click here.

Out here on the wild, wild web, users’ attention spans are short. Your competition is just a click away. Is your web content engaging your website visitors? Or sending them to check out the next guy (gal)?

According to Chase’s Calendar of Events, June is Effective Communications Month. For internet entrepreneurs, that means it’s the perfect time to evaluate how effectively you’re communicating information on the world wide web.

A website that lists your phone number and an email address is no
longer considered “effective communication.”

Online communication tools like blogs, articles, and community forums have contributed to an internet culture that wants the information they need to be easy to find. And they want it right now.

The increasing usage of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter means internet users want to engage with businesses like yours in myriad ways.

The rules have changed. Are you keeping up? If you need some help, here are my five rules for writing web content that “wows.”

1. People use the internet because they want helpful information they can use right now. So give it to them. That will give you credibility with consumers.

2. Forget everything you learned in your English composition classes. When you’re writing for the web, write like you speak. Leave out the jargon and complex sentences. However, good grammar and proper punctuation are still essential.

3. Be consistent. It’s not enough to write a blog post or update your social media sites once every so often. Publish information regularly. Blog editorial calendars and marketing schedules can help you stay on track.

4. Be everywhere. Internet users expect to be able to communicate with you in multiple ways. Your website alone won’t cut it. Set up a Facebook page. Get blogging. Post regular tweets to your Twitter account. You might even want to set up your own social network to get your clients communicating with you, and with each other.

5. Remember that you don’t have to do it all on your own. Feeling overwhelmed by the myriad ways to communicate on the internet? Consider partnering with a virtual assistant to help you communicate more effectively.

The cardinal rule of press release writing is this:

A press release must be newsworthy.

But rules are made to be broken. And the role of press releases has changed.

No longer do you need to go through the media to reach the masses. Instead, you can get the masses to come to you by publishing your press releases online.

When you’re writing a press release for online submission, it doesn’t need to be newsy.

Here on the Internet, your audience isn’t only traditional media. Now it’s your consumer. And your consumer probably isn’t online searching for news. More likely, he’s here looking for information.

The person who provides that information is the first person he will think of when he’s ready to make a purchase decision.

So, how can you go from writing newsy releases to informational?

I like to turn my articles into press releases. They’re already informational, and by putting them into a different format, I can get more exposure for work I’ve already done. Gotta like that.

Make sure, too, that you include your keywords in the title and throughout your release so it will show up well in the search engine rankings.

Now, where you should submit your press releases online? I’ve put together a list of some of the best press release submission sites for you to use.

When you do submit your release, read the rules of the press release sites first. They each have different criteria and will reject releases that don’t follow their rules.