Wpblab - A Wordpress Social Media Show

In this episode, Jason and Bridget discuss the partnership with Jetpack and A2 Hosting and how it impacts the WordPress space. Who benefits and why. Marketing to agencies or end users? Who is the audience and what does Automattic and A2 Hosting have to gain? Jetpack announces strategic partnership with A2 Hosting - bizjournals.com - Partnership will allow A2 Hosting customers to use Jetpack Personal at no additional cost DreamHost to include Jetpack Professional with Advanced DreamPress Packages - globenewswire.com WPWebHost to Include Jetpack Premium with its Managed WordPress Hosting - prweb.com Recommended WordPress and Jetpack Hosting Providers - jetpack.com Check the comments on Bridget's post on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bridget.willard/posts/10156775585801614 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode, Jason and Bridget are joined by Joshua Knapp of AnHonestHost. He’ll be talking about ways to gain and retain a customer base by offering services that improve their workflow. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We build companies so we have something of value. So, why are people upset when companies are acquired? It comes down to marketing and branding. Join Jason and Bridget as they discuss some recent acquisitions in and out of WordPress. https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/automattic/acquisitions/acquisitions_list https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/godaddy#section-acquisitions https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/wp-engine#section-investors https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/anheuser-busch https://prospress.com/automatewoo-joins-prospress/ Genesis and Gutenberg: https://www.billerickson.net/getting-your-theme-ready-for-gutenberg/ The Top 10 Companies Contributing to Open Source (Microsoft at the top there  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week on WPblab we have Laura Coronado the Communications Specialist at WebDevStudios. Russell Aaron and Jason Tucker will be talking with Laura about some techniques for starting and maintaining an editorial calendar, plotting your posts and allowing yourself to be flexible in order to remain timely. If you or your staff haven't created an editorial calendar yet now is your chance to get yourself educated on it, use the social link here to share this content with your coworkers and friends on social media. Laura Coronado is the Communications Specialist at WebDev Studios (which is over several other brands). She manages content and social media for 4 brands in total. She has been using WordPress for over a decade. Laura uses a spreadsheet to help with planning & keeping everything organized. She always has pen and paper handy (Bridget uses a notebook to plan out her content). On her own blog, Laura doesn’t have an editorial calendar at all It depends highly on your own goals and plans – WebDev does

Everyone knows DesktopServer. But it wasn't magic. In this episode, Jason and Bridget are joined by Marc Benzakein. He'll talk about how DesktopServer went from a development project to a common and popular workflow solution. Join in the live chat to ask questions. Interested in getting your product or service in front of our viewers and listeners? Check out how to sponsor an episode of one of our shows. Bridget Willard – https://www.linkedin.com/in/bridgetwillard/ Jason Tucker – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasontucker/ Marc Benzakein https://serverpress.com @marcbenzak | @serverpress   Gregg Franklin – handles 90% of the customer service because he’s so good with people David Jesch Stephen Carnam   Branding is something you have to do for yourself personally as well as the company you are with – Marc has been told he’s the face of ServerPress because he’s gone to so many WordCamps, but he also has his own “brand”   You want to know who these people are, you want to know that they’re people of integri

In this episode, Jason and Bridget are joined by Marcy Massura, who has an extensive background in marketing, to say the least. We're going to apply marketing principles from other industries to WordPress freelancers and agencies and give you all good reasons to use this neglected social network. You can find Marcy on the following sites: Marcy Massura & Company twitter.com – @marcymassura linkedin.com – marcymassura instagram.com – @marcymassura Bridget Willard – https://www.linkedin.com/in/bridgetwillard/ Jason Tucker – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasontucker/ Marcy Massura – https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcymassura/ Linkedin is more help focused and is more self-regulating than other social platforms. LinkedIn self-polices its groups. Have a ‘real’ photo for LinkedIn profile photo – how people would see you in real life. ^ Focus on your face and eyes Your header image is very important. Header image should communicate what you do A safe place to promote what you do, You can brag about your accomplis

In this episode, Bridget and Jason are joined by Rick Solari. Bland branding is bad branding. Allow your personality to shine. Let’s chat about taking a different approach than the norm. Bridget Willard Jason Tucker Rick Solari Bridget: Don’t be so stuck on your business model that you’re not willing to ‘shift’! Rick: Media Producer and consultant – helps people spice things up in their brand awareness, social media, videos, etc – teach how to share your true voice and gain more followers along the way! There’s a lot of people out there who continuously post the same things – very familiar/similar to others in their industry. Rick teaches people to go ‘outside of the box’ and add fun & personality to their marketing efforts. Find your voice and just speak it – scream it as loud as you can! Bridget – I always default to “as polite as possible” Humor is really tricky in this post-modern world – “skin is so thin, it’s a wonder most people don’t have skin cancer” Pushing boundaries can get you attention bu

On this episode, Jason Tucker and Bridget Willard get sentimental and invite past guests to jump on and share what they've learned recently in WordPress. We're all life-long learners. Come join in the fun in the chat and see more details in our Facebook Group.   100 Episodes since October 2015!! Bridget Willard Jason Tucker Bridget: “As we learn and grow and teach, our bio’s change and grow!” Russell Aaron Has been on WPblab off & on since the beginning and was on nearly weekly in the beginning when it was more of a Q&A show His girlfriend was super supportive of his journey in WordPress and let him spend the time he needed coding and ‘leveling up’ his skills. They now have a little boy, which is also a big learning journey for them! Never thought he could work for a company like WebDev Studios but met the right people and answered the right questions and here he is! Over 2 years with them now! If you are ever having errors, you have 3 options – make a backup and try turning things on and off, hav

WordPress is a diverse and inclusive community. So why do we have specialty Meetups? Do we need one? In this episode, Jason Tucker and Bridget Willard invite the founder of Women Who WP, Jen Miller to talk about this important subject. Jen Miller – the WPblab unofficial show producer!     Started a specialty group called WomenWhoWP – geared toward women, but open to everyone!  The setup is a little different than a traditional meetup because “woman dialogue differently”. Yvonne originally coined that phrase. They wanted to be able to share and grow and dialogue together regularly!   Why do you need a woman’s meetup?  Men don’t see how much they dominate the conversation (and how much more they are represented in tech – Bridget was one of only a few woman at a recent Developer meetup).     The way women relate at meetups is far different than the way men do. Men also ask questions differently – women tend to include more social details and stories, and men tend to get straight to the point.   Friendship is wh

You have a brand but how are you handling it? Maybe you are self-taught and have a few gaps. In this episode, Jason and Bridget are going to cover the basics of using Facebook for your business. Bring your questions in the live chat. What not to do: Do not create a Facebook profile that is not you as a real person! If you create a false profile to manage your FB page and FB takes your fake profile down, you’ll no longer have access to your Facebook page. A Facebook Profile or Timeline must represent a real person. https://www.facebook.com/help/community/question/?id=10151510422339065   The worst offenders in this area are churches. The reason why you don’t want your profile to be your ‘page’ is because profiles have mutual ‘viewing’ privileges. Would you want a business page to see your personal details when all you want is to follow them on Facebook?  Bridget: It’s lazy, it violates the FB Terms and it compromises the privacy of your fans/users/customers. Tagging accounts and people on facebook to let them

In this episode, Jason and Bridget get back to marketing basics. You have a WordPress site. So? How are you getting email subscribers? What types of strategies work and which WordPress plugins do the best job. Tune in this week to find out and join the live chat to chime in. The post WPblab EP97 – WordPress Plugins – Building Your Mailing List appeared first on WPwatercooler. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Tonight on WPblab, Jason Tucker and Bridget Willard speak with James Tryon about the pros and cons of fragmenting your brand. Should you keep all of your products together under a company umbrella or have separate identities? Let’s talk business goals and marketing tonight.   James Tryon is Lead Ambassador for Wapu.us – helps promote brand recognition for the WordPress project His company: Easily Amused Inc. https://easilyamusedinc.com/   Salesman Rick – Rick and Morty affiliate links store https://salesmanricks.com/   BlocksWP – resource for learning about Gutenberg blocks http://blockswp.com/   Runs @TheGutes twitter account (Gutenberg related) https://twitter.com/thegutes   A lot of his companies are DBA’s under his main company   It seems to be a relatively common practice for businesses to ‘fragment’ their brand and keep separate social accounts for each part of their business – Bridget thinks this is a really terrible idea…   Don’t launch a product on a squeaky clean account with 0 followers and no bra

It's easy to jump on trends, try to be extreme to get attention, but what price do you pay? Do you get eyes or alienate your audience? Join Jason and Bridget with Guest Amy Donohue this week on WPblab where they will discuss it. If you have some strong opinions, watch live and join in the chat. We're all learning, right? Show sponsored by PressedLinks Amy Donohue Twitter Instagram http://gethybridsocial.com/ Know when to take a break on your social when something bad happens. Your business is not going to fail if you take a day off to when tragedy hits.   The evolution of social can make your brand anti-social with comes to auto posting. Make sure you’re not tweeting from the dead. Show more compassion when bad things happen and take a break from your agendas. http://halfstaff.org/ https://github.com/Nomikxyz/flag-at-half-mast   Social media managers during a crisis, retweet relevant information Amy doesn't let her clients know when she is pausing their campaigns Marketing calendars should be flexible. In

Ethics in marketing? Yes. Marketing needs ethics, too. After all, many people say “marketing” like it's a four-letter word. Senior Staff Instructor at LinkedIn Learning, Morten Rand-Hendriksen joins us this week on WPblab to talk about ethics in marketing. With a passion for learning new things (including ballroom dancing with his wife), philosophy, and accessibility, Morten is well-known as an advocate for all things forward-facing in tech but realizes the ethics implications. Join us this week for the live chat to ask Morten your questions. Twitter: @mor10 Site: http://mor10.com/ LinkedIn Learning & Lynda.com Studied Philosophy at University Ethics 101 (definition) … there are two terms you hear all the time – ethics & morals – two different aspects of the same thing (two sides of the same coin) Morals – internalized understanding of what is right and wrong Ethics – a human definition of systems that you use to define what is right and wrong If you look at Ethical Theory, you are looking at Moral T

Amish-born artist Meg Delagrange has always approached social media in an unorthodox way. She’s now in a venture of Design and Marketing at Urban Southern. This week on our show we’ll talk about taking an alternative approach to marketing can sometimes be the best play. https://www.twitter.com/megdelagrange https://www.instagram.com/meg.delagrange/ https://www.instagram.com/urbansouthern/ https://www.urbansouthern.com/ Bridget: “To me, the people that really stand out in marketing are the ones who do it a bit differently” (examples, Robert Nissenbaum, Rob Giles, Meg Delagrange) Meg has a unique background that really stands out.  She’s helping to build a brand and can provide ‘unorthodox’ advice!  She puts a lot of her personality into her marketing. How much of yourself should you put online? Meg used to put almost everything online, but now that she knows herself better, she gives herself time to process first There are guidelines … you may talk about dating, but best not to drop names – you have to kn

This week's guest Isaac Irvine, a personal branding expert, will talk to us about how we can balance the promotion of our employer's brand (or clients) without neglecting our own. Be sure to tune in for this show, which will be sure to have tweetable nuggets. Join the live chat for an opportunity to ask Issac your questions, too! Isaac Irvine @theisaac https://isaacirvine.com/Social and Community Manager at GoDaddy. I love talking about #PersonalBrand | #EmployeeAdvocacy | #StarWars. #Podcast host. Opinions are mine.   Bridget: Sometimes working for a brand is like a marriage – if you get divorced, then what becomes of your identity?   Shawn Pfunder told Isaac his personal brand is ‘cheerleader (for the company)… no one really knows what you’re about’ – he was devastated at the time, because he realized he didn’t have an identity outside of what his personal facebook friends saw   https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/isaac-irvine-the-unexpected-personal-brand-coach_us_59371d69e4b04331b6694a4d   https://www

Iteration is exciting and Jason and Bridget are definitely stoked about the new way you’ll interact with WordPress with Gutenberg. Let’s chat about marketing to clients and the WordPress Community, managing change and budgets. Gutenberg Tour by Bridget Willard Tour of Gutenberg – Women Who WP – January 17, 2018 from Bridget Willard Tour of Gutenberg – Women Who WP – January 17, 2018 What is Gutenberg? WordPress Plugins “ Gutenberg is more than an editor. While the editor is the focus right now, the project will ultimately impact the entire publishing experience including customization (the next focus area).†Discover more about the project. State of the Word, 2017 Morten Rand-Hendriksen Gutenberg Hangbook Reference FAQ How can I send feedback or get help with a bug? WordPress/gutenberg A way to disable Gutenberg editor in code? #4409? Issue #4409 How can I contribute? gutenberg/CONTRIBUTING.md at master Gutenberg Theme Showcasing Gutenberg:a theme to show the potential wordpress.org ^ the theme in

New Year presents new goals and new opportunities to either make them or fail. It can go either way, so with our community, we thought we'd do what community does: support one another. This is why Jason created “Just Create January.” Every day of this month in our Facebook group, we have an opportunity to be accountable, share, and even brainstorm with one another. On this week's show, we'll chat about the motivation and results so far and what we'd like to see from all of us in 2018. BridgetWillard.com | Gutenbridget.com JasonTucker.blog There are lots of accountability & challenge groups that start at the beginning of the year; Jason and Bridget thought it would be a great idea to create something like that for marketers/creators Jason joined a blogging group – they would provide a prompt and members would write about it each day. #JustCreateJanuary was started to help encourage ‘creation’ of all kinds – blogging, design, video, web, etc. They didn’t start it to build a community – the WPblab community

Some businesses take a break, others avoid celebrating any specific day. With our increasingly diverse and global economy, how do you handle marketing around the holidays? BridgetWillard.com | Gutenbridget.com JasonTucker.blog Hashtags are your friend! Use as many as you can! There are many different holidays occurring this time of year. Know who your clients are (or who your audience is) – it may be winter here in the Northern Hemisphere but it’s summer south of the Equator Respect your unique culture – what makes sense for you/your business – your brand should be a reflection of your collective personality Scheduling during the Holidays: Be careful with automation … you may schedule something that posts at a really inappropriate time Either schedule and respond, or don’t schedule and choose to ‘go dark’ instead (many businesses choose to close between Christmas and New Year’s), but communicate either way   Buffer example: https://twitter.com/joelgascoigne/status/943024640473030657 Oftentimes, social medi

You wrote something. Now what? You can automate. You can schedule. What works best? How do you start? In this episode, Jason and Bridget will give their tips and tricks to help get you going. Jason Tucker and his 12-yr-old daughter Jessalyn ( https://jessalyn.blog/) will be attending WCUS together for the first time! (https://jasontucker.blog/10107/wordcamp-us-2017-eyes-12-year-old) WomenWhoWP will have a booth at the WCUS Community Bazaar! – Bridget will be there, say hi! Sharing and content management go hand-in-hand – whatever info you put into that CMS you are going to need to share – to get your story out there! Too many of us have a “shoeless joe” approach of “if we build it they will come” – it doesn’t work that way in real life – you need to be intentional When blogging (and communicating on social) your voice and tonality need to match – that’s what makes you authentic.  Don’t use authenticity as an excuse to be a jerk though!  How you treat your audience matters. Automation can be a problem – it ca