Valuable content that positions you as an industry leader is the backbone of social media marketing. And today I want to introduce you to a free tool that makes your content easy to share – SlideShare.net

SlideShare is just like YouTube for documents and presentations. It allows you to upload your presentations (from powerpoint, keynote, open office and more) or documents (including microsoft word and PDF documents), tag them, add descriptions, and share them with the world. SlideShare can be really useful for taking your offline marketing materials online – for example you can upload your brochures, case studies, white papers, or articles. You can also share the presentations from any live speaking engagements.

The site is so simple that no tutorial is necessary, you just create an account then hit the “upload’ button at the top of the site. Choose your file, then fill in the appropriate title, tags, category, and description. Remember to use words that would help the search engines find your document!

Overall, my review is that SlideShare is a valuable tool for the small business. It makes sharing marketing materials and presentations much more user-friendly than just having a PDF available for download on your website. PDFs can take a long time to download and require that your visitors have special software, but with SlideShare you can easily embed the materials right on your website.

SlideShare also has the added bonus of the ability to make any document into a “slidecast” by adding an audio file of you talking. You also have the option of inserting a youtube video at any point in your deck. So this tool really goes beyond your standard PDFs and powerpoint slides to turn any small business document into a video.

Like any social site, at the end of the day you want SlideShare driving people back to YOUR site, so don’t forget to include your link in your document’s description.

Guest post by Elizabeth Potts Weinstein

So, tell me, why aren’t you doing video?

You have lots of excuses.

The thousands of ideas. The seemingly complex technologies. The lighting and sound and finding a quiet place in your office. The camera choices and the software options and the editing time. The hassles of uploading and hosting. The morass of promotion.

There’s tons of excuses for not doing video.

But those are not the real reason.

You’re not doing videos because you’re afraid of everyone seeing you naked.

On video there’s nothing to hide behind. It’s your verbal stumbles and nervous laughter and futzing with the neckline of your shirt. It’s your face, your wrinkles, the miscombed part in your hair. Your crooked smile and teeth and glasses. Your weird mannerisms. Your messy office.

You’re not doing videos, because video is you.

But let me tell you my secret.

Letting everyone see you naked, in all of your imperfections, is exactly what make video so delicious.

I’m naked in every video I’ve posted online. In all of my dorkyness, everything I would love to improve via diet and exercise and a few intensive sessions with a voice and acting coach. Every bra strap foible, the phone ringing in the background, the fire trucks sirens on the street outside my apartment, the way I keep forgetting my train of thought, the annoying way I play with my hair.

That vulnerability, that being real, that glimpse into who you really are, that is what will endear your audience to you.

Video is the most intimate connection you can have outside of meeting each person face-to-face. As leveraged as online video is, it’s one on one – it’s your viewers, sitting in their homes or offices, by themselves, watching you.

The more real you are, the more yourself, the more you speak your truth and let your idiotness and weirdness and imperfections show, the more your audience will fall in love with you.

So the first step is to just freaking get over being naked and decide to strip it all off – regardless of how you think you look underneath.

Meanwhile – have you done video yet? Why not? What’s holding you back? What questions do you have about online video?

I’d love to hear from you below!

Note From Laura: If you want to create informative, engaging videos like mine, Elizabeth’s workshop “3 Days to Video” is the best way to learn. But get your booty in now because it’s only available until May 12th!

Her virtual 3-day workshop covers every step, from figuring out your topic, to shooting your video, to editing, to uploading, to promotion. You’ll leave with your finished video, online and ready to go! Click here to reserve your seat by May 12th.

Elizabeth Potts Weinstein empowers solo-entrepreneurs to make a greater difference in the world and become more successful & fulfilled, by doing what is a natural extension of who they really are. She’s also a mom, attorney, author, speaker, coach, radio show host, twitter chat host, video blogging addict, tweetup connoisseur, aspiring adventurer, amateur pole dancer, people loving introvert, and truth evangelist. If you want to follow her on her adventures and learn how to find other like-minded people who are speaking & living their truth, find her at http://twitter.com/ElizabethPW or at http://ElizabethPW.com.