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Amy Vernon

Greater New York City Area

What do I know? Journalism, content marketing, community building, viral marketing, social networking. And more. Also: Bacon Queen.

$3.33/min

Amy donates to DonorsChoose.org ($0.00)

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76 Reviews

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Social Media Marketing Blogging Content Creation Viral Marketing Content Marketing Facebook Online Journalism Writing Journalism Social Networking

Answers 13
Reviews 76

Answers

Amy Vernon answered

What are the best ways to increase Twitter followers?

Most of the people who have hundreds of thousands have been on Twitter from nearly Day One and were extremely active, are celebrities of some sort (big-name journalists, actors, musicians, sports figures, etc.), or bought followers.

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Twitter

twitter marketing

Twitter for Business

Amy Vernon answered

What's the best way to build strong network effects?

You have to offer something different, and specialization is a great way to build mass. Friendster and MySpace were open to anyone from the start. It's harder to manage growth of a community in that way.

Facebook, by restricting its use to college students first, then to graduates with alumni email addresses, built a close system of people who were less wary about sharing personal details. By the time they opened to everyone, they already had a very strong user base that liked what they got out of it, but were moving into the "real world" and liked the idea of connecting with other people in their lives.

The lesson to be learned is that doing one thing and doing it well, or doing something for one small subset of people and doing it well, is a great way to develop a strong network effect. The network was built slowly but surely. The other networks took anyone and everyone and became somewhat of a mess.

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Social Networking

Amy Vernon answered

How do you approach / engage with users to ask them for advice on how to improve your app and other quality information?

You need to build your community from the get-go. Start with your beta testers, creating a community where they talk to each other about issues and come to you with ideas, suggestions and bugs. Encourage them to do this, no matter the issue, and respond quickly.

If you develop a community like this from the start, it's very easy to get your users to give advice on improvements and the like. You'll quickly see the beta users who are very involved, and ask them privately for suggestions of other beta users.

Beta users WANT to provide feedback, and they will provide some of the must useful feedback you can get, so long as they see you responding and taking into consideration at least some of their ideas. If you start this in beta, you'll build a community of users who want to help you succeed and want to help you improve your product, for the long haul.

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Feedback

Product Development

Amy Vernon answered

Anyone know any social marketing tools that are automated?

For being alerted to mentions about your business, try Talkwalker and Mention. However, if you want a complete view of how your business is mentioned, a free tool isn't going to cut it in the long run.

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Internet Marketing

Social Media Marketing

Amy Vernon answered

What are some of the best blogs for entrepreneurs?

Any aspiring entrepreneur should be reading Fred Wilson's blog: http://www.avc.com

Also, the team from All Things D just launched http://recode.net

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Content Marketing

Blogging

Amy Vernon answered

I'm new to Mobile App startup. How do I start spreading the word of my App? Development of the App has started.

You need to start getting into conversations with people who are likely to be potential users of the app. Finding related Twitter chats, for example, and getting involved in those chats, asking and answering questions, is a great way to build community and buzz before the product is launched.

This also will help you in your development, as things will come up that will make sense for you to include or exclude from your app, and you will find a great community of beta users as well.

Let me know if you have any further questions or need assistance in this - social community development is a crucial part of any business now, and I speak on the topic often at conferences.

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Blog Marketing

Marketing Strategy

Start-ups

Amy Vernon answered

Guest blogging should be done at which stage?

I agree with the others that you need to build your blog with your own content first. Once done, you can seek out communities such as MyBlogGuest, where like-minded bloggers find guest blogging opportunities - and you can find others who may want to contribute to your blog. But anyone you find to guest blog at this point is probably not going to be very high quality, if you don't have your own content.

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Blogging

Amy Vernon answered

Is it possible to start a Social Media Marketing Agency with not much experience in Social Media and not much money?

I have to ask why you would start an agency in an area you don't have much experience in. Perhaps you'd be better off getting at least a little experience first?

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Social Media Marketing

Small Business

Amy Vernon answered

Would there be demand for a platform that connects beauty brands and beauty bloggers for sponsored posts/advertorials?

There already are some platforms that do this - not specifically for beauty, but in general. Companies pay Triberr for the ability to recruit bloggers who use the platform to write sponsored posts.

Blogdash serves as a platform for bloggers and for companies/brands to connect, so companies can find bloggers to review products (transparently, of course).

So the short answer is, most likely yes. However, you'll want to do more research to see what other platforms there are out there (these are just two that came to mind off the top of my head; I'd imagine there are some others). There's plenty f due diligence to be done yet.

That said, beauty seems to be one of those industries that truly appreciates targeted services - those that are meant specifically for the industry. So I'd encourage you to do more investigating and, as Joseph mentioned in his response, speaking to the potential bloggers and companies you'd be connecting on the platform.

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Beauty

Blogging

Online Advertising

Amy Vernon answered

For my first job I'll be in charge of Marketing & PR for a 2 year old startup. How do I proceed?

Not to be rude, but it sounds to me as if you're in over your head. It's one thing to stretch and learn on the job; it's another to have no experience, not know what to do, and be managing 14 people. I agree with Maddie and Robbin.

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Social Media Marketing

Online Marketing

Public relations

Amy Vernon answered

Should I create a WordPress site or build a custom website?

For a news website, WordPress, Drupal or SquareSpace would be the best option. Unless you have a very large budget, building a custom site with a custom CMS doesn't make much sense.

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Web Design

Website Development

Reviews

Amy Vernon is fiercely intelligent, hard working, highly conscientious and able to handle anything thrown at her. Over the years we worked together, I saw her quickly master every new technology, initiative and project that came along. She’s witty, creative, and fun to work with.

Thane Grauel Source: LinkedIn

Amy Vernon is a bright, upbeat and very hardworking journalist. For reporters at The Miami Herald, hurricanes were the crucible of fire and Amy worked through our Big One, Hurricane Andrew. Reporters from our bureau were housed at a hotel that had a generator. While power never failed, the building was socked hard. Only a few cell phones worked. No one ever seemed to know when the next deadline was. Amy worked tirelessly and always had a smile to encourage co-workers.

David Blasco Source: LinkedIn

Amy is a master marketer, she is a true innovator in "new" media she will be remembered down the line as one of these people who were part of shaping social media, constantly finding new ways of marketing a product online, she is doing an amazing job at SmakNews I couldn't think of a better marketer to work with.

Michael Abehsera Source: LinkedIn

Amy Vernon was easily the hardest working "cub" reporter at The Miami Herald during out time there together: She consistently went above and beyond the call of duty by enterprising interesting stories, and cultivating sources on her beat. She readily volunteered to pitch in, and regularly made all deadlines and delivered high-quality coverage in Broward County. I highly recommend Amy Vernon as an intelligent, hard-working, fun, and compassionate writer, editor, and producer.

Amy Alexander Source: LinkedIn

Amy is the goods. Born with ink under her fingernails, she has turned herself into a great post-print journalist with a huge online following but also all the stuff you expect from a trained news pro — quality, work ethic, and plenty of style. Whatever you think you need, give her a shot. Amy has a way of making things happen.

private private Source: LinkedIn

Amy was a rock solid reporter who could handle the disruption of change with aplomb. That she reinvented herself to tackle the digital age is testament to her flexibility and grit.

Doug Clifton Source: LinkedIn

Amy is a social media rockstar with better grammar than your English professor. If you have the pleasure of working with her, you will find it easy to penetrate all things Web 2.0.

Neal Rodriguez Source: LinkedIn

I've had the pleasure of working with Amy on many occasions in the social media realm and she has an instinctual knack of finding top quality content. She is dedicated, organized and the hardest working person I know. She goes above and beyond to help others. Her writing and editing skills are top-notch; she can inform and entertain. She is a leader who is personable, a person that can take the initiative to do what needs to be done. I've experienced first hand the way she will guide and encourage others to be the best they can be. Amy will be an asset to any company or organization. I highly recommend Amy.

Donna Chaffins Source: LinkedIn

I've never seen anyone work harder than Amy. No task was too big or too small for her to take on. Unbelievable attention to detail. She can multi-task like no one I've ever seen. Impressive management skills, lots of fun to work with.

Jane Lerner Source: LinkedIn

Amy is one of the most prolific, versatile and dedicated journalists that I have ever had the pleasure of working with. She cares deeply about the science of journalism, but she is also adaptable to its ever-changing structure. Amy embraces digital media, while reamaining true to her solid news judgment. Her ability to manage a variety of employees at various skill levels is a testament to her excellent management skills. Although I did not work directly with her, I know that her leadership skills were key to the well-functioning newsroom that she ran. Any organization would certainly benefit from Amy's tenacity, tender toughness and her tenure.

Gayle T. Williams Source: LinkedIn

Amy gets results. She know her away around web 2.0 like nobody else.

Liz Johnson Source: LinkedIn

Member since August 2013