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Social Media Marketing Tips

admin — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 13:30:55 +0000

How can you accomplish your online branding goals as efficiently as possible?Social Media Marketing (SMM) has become a popular alternative for online business branding. Companies don’t think of social sites (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Linkedin) as “websites for kids”. They are valuable Internet marketing and networking resources for business. On the other hand, there are 4 major issues involved with diving into SMM without the proper knowledge and strategies. These can “make” or “break” your success in social media marketing:GETTING STARTED IN SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETINGMake wise choices from the beginning and move forward with a “plan of action”!Prior to getting started in social media marketing, you need to nip the urge to join every single social site on Google. It does not hurt to have a presence everywhere on the Internet, though there is no advantage in wasting time setting up a social account that is not used. The site owner may delete it – OR – it will get outdated and look unprofessional. Plus, there is no way that you can “work” them all unless you have a team to help you. You will still want to be discerning and make a “plan of action”. You need this to properly brand your business through social media marketing. You also need this “plan of action” in order to “position” your company correctly from the beginning. This concept holds true in Internet marketing in general. PROPER SET UPMeet your social market where they work and play on the Internet!You need to learn how to “set up” and “position” your company with the “best” social networks and websites. Some initial positioning details to consider: (a) determining which are the “best social sites” for your niche and interests, (d) choosing the right user name for your individual profile links, (c) choosing the most attractive profile information and media to share, (d) developing a knack for filtering activity according to what is appropriate at a particular social site, (e) establishing a time schedule that permits working as many networks as possible, (f) choosing the best initial connections … and so on. Keep in mind that “Account Settings”, network protocol, niche and viral marketing all go hand in hand throughout time. Additionally, some social sites have a more playful environment than others; even those with a professional focus. You need to select websites that not only fit your company’s focus, but also the personal interests of the individual(s) that will “work” the social media marketing process for you. Note: Don’t let the “playful” networks defer you. One of the goals of social media marketing is to reach your target markets where they work and “play” on the Internet. IMPLEMENTATION: WHAT TO DO & WHAT NOT TO DODon’t just “wing it”; move prepared to market effectively for your business. Your activity should include a predefined social media optimization (SMO) strategy. This SMO is a combination of search engine optimization (SEO) and social media marketing (SMM). It expedites the professional results that you require for your business. It is easy to assume that SMM is simply setting up social networks and marketing. Although this is part of the process, social networking is not all that is involved in social media marketing. It is suggested that you have a website and a blog. You need to search engine optimize any personal resources prior to SMM. You need a second set of keywords that do not conflict with your personal virtual properties, though compliment your efforts. Content is key to this offsite marketing process, therefore blogs, articles, comments, discussions, images, videos, link … everything SMM needs to correspond with the SEO. There is a fine line to what is considered advertising and marketing; spam or valid content. Some social sites are flexible and others are not. You need to move into a virtual realm with a professional plan of action and work the network according to the infrastructure provided, though with intent to produce rapid conversions.TESTING, TRACKING & REFININGYou will need to test, tread, track and refine before you can run with a strategy. As with an offline business plan, your online branding strategy will need “tweaked” and updated for the following reasons:(a) The Internet is constantly changing, you will need to update accordingly.(b) Search engine rankings, blog / website traffic and subscribers mean absolutely nothing if you are not able to convert this activity into sales.You cannot move forward if your plan of action is not working for you. PRIORITIZING TASKS: MONEY & TIME MANAGEMENTAs the old saying goes, “time is money” …If you get one major point from this article, prioritizing “time” and “money” is what you should remember. Internet marketing is not easy for most; especially when you are merging into unfamiliar arenas. Time and money are the “double edge sword”. Handling your own online branding is only time and cost effective if it is making you money. The reality is that you will not drive conversions nor make money at first because it takes time to learn Internet Marketing. This is time that busy professionals do not have, therefore you either have to put in the extra hours or hire an expert to do the work for you. If you choose to do your own search engine optimization and social media marketing, then you need to prioritize whether the bulk of your activity is on the Learning, Researching or the Implementation (Content, SEO, SMM) at any given time. The advantage is that you can adjust this as needed. Regardless, a proper online branding strategy will include both the technical and social, therefore they are all one in the same, time consuming, process.Online business branding and social networking appear to be easy, on the surface, though not a simple process. There are defined strategies that should include both search engine optimization (SEO) and social media marketing (SMM) in order to create a process called social media optimization (SMO). This SMO is actually the online marketing that you want to do for your business. When done correctly, the SMO will produce immediate responses that are easy to track, increase sales and creates a popularity that contributes to fast branding success. You can change the sales / marketing conversions for your business within a few days or gradually “divide and conquer” your competitive online business arena. In other words, your business can market as aggressively or conservatively as needed. This is based on how your company is equipped to handle growth.In this generation of Social Media Marketing and Search Engine Optimization, it is to your benefit to learn how to properly brand your business online or find someone that knows how to do this for you.

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About the Author:

Lea Charlton has been a leader in the

5 Reasons Why Twitter Social Networking is the Next Big Thing

admin — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 14:50:30 +0000

If you haven’t heard of Twitter you should. I know Twitter is popular on the west coast, but haven’t reach mainstream yet.But the reasons why Twitter will be the next big thing is the same reasons why anything becomes popular.Here’s the top 5 reasons.1) It is easy to use. Nothing complicated ever became popular. At least not until it became easy to use.Twitter is very easy to use. All you basically have to do is, tell it “What You Are Doing?”2) Texting is very popular. Are you around young people? Young people barely use the phone anymore.Cell phones are so, 2000….These days the mobile communication of choice is texting. The same reasons why texting is popular so will twitter. Twitter is basically the online version of texting.3) Highly adaptable. Why is RSS so popular? Because of it’s simple context and it’s adaptability.These days RSS is used for everything. From Podcasts, to newsfeeds… to video feeds, to friend feeds.To stream flickr pictures, web blogs and everything in between. It is very adaptable.This is the same reason Twitter will be popular. It could be used for anything. It is very simple, therefore it could be used for multiple purposes.4) People are nosy… Yes, people always what to know what other people are doing.There are people who go on AIM (aol instant messenger) just to read people’s “Away Messages”. That’s right, they go onto a communication platform, not to communicate, but to just read what other people are doing.Twitter is basically AIM away messages… it’s what people want, stripped of the non-essential stuff.5) Twitter will connect people. A weird phenomenon on Twitter is, special groups dedicated to a particular purpose forming on Twitter.People join the group, and follow one another.These days when one works in lonely cubicles or home offices, it’s nice to connect to other people.

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Social marketing with Twitter – A Traffic Experiment

admin — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 22:50:54 +0000

In this article I want to share my experience with Twitter.

I love to explore new fields and I was wondering how good is the social marketing that people are trying to do. I read a book with tips on how you can improve your twitter experience and how easy it is to drive traffic to your site with a short post of 140 characters.

In the book there was an example how the author get 20-30 visits to his site from just one post when he has about 1000 followers. OK… I started to think – if I have 3k followers then I can have 100 visitors to my site with just one post.Sounds great, right?

And here comes the experiment… I’m web developer and I thought I should try making a tool that is twitter-related. Obviously when I try to pull traffic from twitter I should make a tool or share information that is targeted to these users.

So I made a small tool where you enter your twitter details and it displays a map of your twitter followers. It is a visual representation of the locations of the user’s followers.In this tool I used the twitter API to pull the list of followers and then I put pins on Google map (this is the tool: http://friendloc.webily.com/).

It is free tool and I don’t have anything put on this page to generate leads or any attempts for monetization of the traffic. It is just an experiment for now… so… let’s see the results.I have more than 2k followers on twitter and I posted 2 updates about this tool. I made these posts in the most active time on twitter. Actually this is what I supposed is the most active time – the evenings in USA, because most of my followers are Americans.

From these 2 posts I have total of 12 visitors to the site. Not a great result, but I suppose it can be improved if I’m more active on twitter. You see… you need to establish connection with your followers and bring really valuable (and mostly free) information. And you should chat with them more actively. I love twitter and I find really great information and resources from the post of the twitters I follow. When I love the posting I try to thank the poster and build a relationship… I discuss the resource shared with him and this is a kind of becoming friend with this particular user.

If you make lot of friends there probably your results will be better.

So try to give valuable information, try to interact more with your followers and you’re on the right path to drive targeted traffic to your site.

And just a quick comparison with the other traffic sources I used:Digg – 30 visitors in a month;ViralNetworks (post in the forum) – 20 visits in a month;LinkedIn (news posting in 2 groups with about 1 mln members) – 18 visits in 2 days;StumbleUpon – 10 visits in 1 week;Facebook (I have less than 200 friends there) – 7 visits in a month.

I think LinkedIn performs best from these social sites I tried.

Total of 133 unique visitors in a month. Not a great result, but for the time spent (1 hour to build the tool and 10-15 minutes to post on the social sites) I think it is not bad. If you write an article in 10 minutes and drive this traffic it is great. 10 articles in a month and you have 1000 visitors. If you manage to monetize this traffic then… this is the way to make money on the internet.

Hope you find my experiment and the results useful.

Thanks for reading and wish you luck!

Web developer, SEO expert, internet marketer. You can find the autor’s portfolio and some useful php scripts at plxWebDev.com

Social networking promotes business and agriculture

admin — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 21:31:33 +0000

Social networking promotes business and agriculture
ELLSTON — After the last chore is done and the stars are shining, chances are Landi McFarland will be on her computer. Many nights, she is doing bookwork for Hoover Angus Farm, a family seedstock business she operates with her parents and grandparents.

Social Bookmarking Submission by Brute Force SEO

admin — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 12:52:29 +0000

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Social Media Ventures, Inc. Announces Renewal of Online Advertising Banner Promotion With YourNetPlus.com for the …

admin — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 09:34:46 +0000

Social Media Ventures, Inc. Announces Renewal of Online Advertising Banner Promotion With YourNetPlus.com for the …
JERICHO, NY–(Marketwire – 08/06/10) – Social Media Ventures, Inc. (Pinksheets: SMVI – News ) announced that it has renewed its online banner promotion for its social networking site for pet enthusiasts, PetsPlaces.com ( www.petsplaces.com ) with YourNetPlus.com. Banner advertising for PetsPlaces.com will be featured on over two hundred active web portals in the United …

Read more on Marketwire via Yahoo! Finance

Social Media Marketing Training-the Marketing Power of Facebook Events

admin — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 18:52:11 +0000

One of the most powerful tactics in marketing that Facebook has, is The Events app.

It is something that can do three things:1) It can establish you as an Expert in your field.It is focused on featuring you and your message. It will help maximize your exposure and also introduce you to new people via the News Feed. This will help you become more visible as well as branded. This is a win win situation for you and your message.2) It can help push your message out as worthy of Listening to.This is critical. Many people have great messages, but do not really “get out there” enough to be heard. Facebook events can help alleviate that challenge. it can create visibility that you once only dreamed of-and continue to do so.3) It can start a Connection process with people who are checking out your event.

Many people that may have never heard of you, will connect to your event, and to your event page. The event page is a GREAT place to network as well with the people that you invited. All you do is go tp your facebook profile, and type in “events” in the search box. The events page pops up, and you will see”create an event.” Follow the directions as it is a wizard fill in the blanks template.

Ands here are 2 critical marketing moves:1) Have someone host it for you.It will add more credibility with what you are doing. People seem to pay more attention to a Facebook event when it is hosted by someone else and promoted by someone else.2) Have other people invite their friends for you.This ia a great way to expand your reach with facebook Marketing. The secret is to let others become the broadcasters of the event, and you become the “conversation” that is talked about. You then can build your brand beyond where you are, and get it out past where you are currently.We call this “3rd Party Broadcast Marketing.”A third party broadcasts your event to as many people as they possibly can, and then broadcast again. Broadcast it across the social media landscape. On Twitter. OnPlurk. On Pownce. On myspace. And then let the viral marketing start to happen by putting up a youtube video about the facebook event.Facebook events are a powerful platform to start building your brand. I would suggest that you come up with a powerful topic that people wouild be interested in, and then put an event together for it. It is how you market on facebook and Social Media Marketing.

Doug Firebaugh

Social Media Training Network

Doug Firebaugh is one of the top Social Media Strategists and MLM Network Marketing Trainers in the world. Over a million people a month read his training ezine. He spent the last 10 years traveling the world speaking and training on Success. He lives in Birmingham Michigan, and you can receive a FREE subscription to his training ezine-

http://www.passionfire.com

Security Issues Abound as Social Networking Goes to Work

admin — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 02:51:28 +0000

Employees use two types of social networking sites. They bring their Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and other identities to the office. At the same time, they use professional social networking – LinkedIn and others – for more “official” duties.

It has the potential to be a major problem. This Newsfactor piece based on Forrester research identifies social networking as a key element of the ongoing corporate Web 2.0 wave. By 2013, the firm says, social networks will constitute a $2 billion chunk of what will be a $4.6 billion sector.

Hopefully, organizations will catch up on the security front. The piece says that only half of Web filters deployed by Barracuda Networks are blocking MySpace or Facebook. Those who are doing so are trying to guard against virus and spyware and to maintain employee productivity. It would be interesting to understand how many of these organizations understand that social networking sites are great avenues for phishing and other social engineer exploits, and for dishonest or ignorant employees to send vital information beyond the firewall.

This is a nice CNN overview of the flow of social networking into the corporate space. What the author doesn’t say is that the evolution of social networking from consumer to business use is precisely what happened with cell phones, Wi-Fi and other tools: People used them in their private lives, liked them, and brought them to work. In this case, the writer says, more secure, corporate-aimed offerings are available. Yammer, for instance, is a business version of Twitter. Other corporate social networking newbies, according to Forrester, include Awareness, Communispace and Jive.

One of the advantages of the fact that new technology has moved from the consumer to business world so many times in the recent past is that experts consider the security issues more quickly. There seems to be a bit less denial. This Legal Technology piece offers a good description of social networks, and references a Black Hat presentation that looked at insecure features of social networks and identified the biggest vulnerabilities. They include cross-site request forgery (CSRF), cross-site scripting (XSS) and the lack of a mechanism to validate the security of customer applications. The writer offers seven tips for safely using and administering social networks.

This is not all theoretic: Business people are using social networks – and the bad guys are going after them. For instance, SPAMfighter cites reports from The Washington Post’s Brian Krebs about spear phishing attacks against about 10,000 LinkedIn members. The story says social networking sites often are the target of spear phishers because users are used to getting e-mail from other members. This e-mail purported to come from support@linkedin.com and carried the subject line “Re: business contacts.” Recipients following the instructions in the e-mail installed a malicious program aimed at stealing sensitive information from the computer.

There is a lot to worry about. Dark Reading offers a scary vignette on how dangerous a social networking site can be. The big problem is that there is no way to simultaneously optimize security and interactivity. To a great extent, emphasizing one comes at the expense of the other. Dark Reading runs through some of the problems, and links to pages that describe in more detail seven of the most dangerous activities: impersonation and targeted hacks; spam and bots; “weaponized” applications; XSS and CSRF; identity theft and corporate espionage.

Carl is a contributing editor to Communications Technology magazine and has held staff positions at InternetWeek, tele.com, Cable World and Cable Marketing magazines.

Are Social Networks for You?

admin — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 06:51:23 +0000

Are Social Networks for You?

To succeed with social networking sites, you’ll likely need a staff member who has a passion for working with these kind of websites. You will also need to create goals to understand if the time commitment is worthwhile. For instance, if you’re trying to enlarge your community, how many new people linked with your cause would make your time worthwhile? Be open to alternative goals, too: Perhaps your basic purpose with social networks is just to get your name in front of the younger members of your audience and promote your product or services. Think through the challenges and opportunities carefully, and then decide whether social networking is right for you.

How to use social networking sites?

Social networking is a fast-growing innovation, tapping into the rising influence of user-generated communities such as blogs, wikis, networking, and bookmarking sites. By joining these online communities, you can build relationships and promote your products & services.

Actually online social networks attract members who spend over shared interests and opinions. That creates a club and trusted group of virtually connected friends or associates. So when a member or blogger recommends your product, commands your service.

What are the benefits of social networking on the Internet?

Social Networking sites presents lots of benefits for small businesses.

They are typically free to join and easy to use

Social networking sites allow businesses to connect with both customers and other associated businesses.

The Internet never closes, so advertising through social networking sites has the potential to reach many more customers than using traditional forms of advertising.

The biggest benefit of using social networking sites to promote your business is your ability to build a network of loyal clientèle.

Social networking sites take “word of mouth” online, and small businesses have much to gain.

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Social Networking What it is and Why Your Business Needs it

admin — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 10:52:00 +0000

You may have heard these terms bandied about and wondered what exactly they are and (more importantly) what they mean for your business.

So let’s dig right in and get some answers. First, some definitions.

Social networking is actually a pretty broad term. It basically means any time of relationship-building amongst a group of people with a common interest (business or personal). However, that term has taken on a whole new dimension online, where social networking sites (MySpace, Linked In, Facebook) are popping up faster then you can say “Will you be my friend?”

These Web sites are designed around helping people network and build relationships via online, instead of the more traditional face-to-face networking meetings.

Which leads us to Web 2.0. No, it’s not a technical upgrade of the Web (I can hear all the sighs of relief as people everywhere realize they don’t need to be downloading or learning new software). Rather, it’s a new way to use the technical aspects of the Web to build better relationships with people. So it includes blogging, podcasts, social networking sites, video, webinars, etc.

Actually, what it really is is a shift in mindset. Rather than using these tools because they’re cool new tech gadgets, we’re using them to bring a more human element to the Web.

Now social marketing is used interchangeably as social networking, but that’s actually a misnomer (according to Wikopedia). Social marketing is an old term, which refers to marketing for the good of society or for social causes and has nothing to do with any of this.

So, back to social networking. This is wonderful news for business owners out there because it fits right in with how customers buy. Namely, people buy from people they know, like and trust. So building relationships using Web 2.0 techniques is a fabulous marketing strategy.

And many Web 2.0 techniques are either free or very low cost. All the social networking sites have free accounts (some have paid upgrades, but it’s still low). Podcasting can be free (or you can pay a very low fee to do the recording via the phone.) Blogging can be free (Wordpress is the best blogging software out there and it’s free). Uploading a video to YouTube is free.

You get the picture.

Now there is a downside. The downside is it does take time. So if you’re already feeling overwhelmed and frazzled, yes this could feel like another huge to-do on your list.

Which is why I’m going to tell you right now not to go there. There is help. Virtual assistants (also known as VAs) can assist you with these social networking tasks. Also, some marketing professionals (such as myself) offer social networking packages to do it all for you, so you don’t have to manage it or even learn much about it.

In other words, you don’t have to go at it alone!

And you also don’t have to spend hours and hours on these tasks either. Pick ONE thing to do, then spend 1-2 hours a week on it. Once that’s mastered, than add a second task. (Or get it into a system so you can outsource it and then bring on a second task.)

Obviously the more time you (or someone on your team) can devote to social networking, the faster you’ll see results. But I don’t want you to beat yourself up if you don’t have a lot of time to do it or money to outsource. Do what you can and let the rest go.

The other thing to keep in mind is it also takes time to start seeing results. None of these techniques is for immediate results or a quick infusion of cash. These techniques are long-term strategies. They’re very effective, but they’ll take some time.

As for what to start on first, that’s up to you and what appeals to you (and what you think will appeal to your target market) but I’ll give you a quick summary of a couple of the major ones along with pros and cons:

1. Blogging.

Pros – This is a terrific way to build traffic to your site. My blog gets a tremendous amount of traffic and much of that spills over to the rest of my site. Plus, I have a Wordpress blog, so it’s built into my Web site and it comes with RSS and pinging and everything else a good blog should. (Did I mention it was free?)

Cons – You need to do some writing. And it does take time. (Either yours or someone on your team.) You should plan to post at least a couple of times a month – more is better.

2. Podcasting. (Podcasting is like having your own little radio show, except the audio is downloaded into an iPod rather than broadcasted.)

Pros – This is a terrific way to add credibility and build trust with your customers. Audio, especially when listened to on a podcast, is very intimate. You end up building a tighter bond with your customers than through reading alone. Adding audio to Web sites has been shown to increase conversion rates. (I.e. more people will buy whenthere’s audio involved.)

Cons – Time (you got to make time to do your podcast, and once you start, you need to do it regularly). This is also a bit more technical than blogging – you need to upload it to your site, to podcast directories, etc. Unless technology comes really easy for you, I would suggest finding someone to help you out (at least to get you started). And if you have a really dreadful voice I would think twice about doing a podcast.

3. Video.

Pros – Like audio, adding video to your site is great for increasing conversion rates. It adds a level of intimacy and helps your customers feel like they really know you.

Cons â€” Technical and time. For audio, all you need is a phone. Video you need a camera, a video editor, etc. Of course, once it’s done, you can use it in a lot of places, but getting it done may feel overwhelming.

4. Social networking sites. This is fast becoming a great way to find customers, form relationships and drive traffic to your site. However, before you dive into this, there are a few things to keep in mind. First, there are some 200 social networking sites out there and I’m sure that number continues to grow. But, MySpace enjoys a whopping 80 percent of that traffic. So it only makes sense that 80 percent of the time you’re devoting to social networking sites should be devoted to MySpace. And don’t think MySpace is just for kids! I’ve only been playing around with it for a couple of weeks and I’ve already made some pretty good connections, plus I’ve noticed a spike in my traffic and sign ups for my newsletter. My friend Nancy has as great primer on how to use MySpace for business purposes.

The other two social networking sites I’m on are LinkedIn.com and Ryze.com. What I like about those two is they’re more focused on business, plus they don’t take a lot of time (so they fit nicely in the 20 percent of my time for the other sites). MySpace can be a time sucker, so just be aware of that.

Pros – Great for building relationships and appears to be good at driving Web traffic.

Cons – Takes time (Sensing a pattern here?) Also it’s very easy to waste a lot of time on MySpace as well.

My suggestion is to pick one of these techniques to start with, do it for awhile and see what happens. If you start seeing leads and results, stick with it and maybe add another one. If it looks like it’s not worth it (takes too much time and you’re seeing too few results) try another.

Michele PW (Michele Pariza Wacek) is your Ka-Ching! marketing strategist and owns Creative Concepts and Copywriting LLC, a copywriting and marketing agency. She helps entrepreneurs become more successful at attracting more clients, selling more products and services and boosting their business. To find out how she can help you take your business to the next level, visit her site at http://www.MichelePW.com. Copyright 2008 Michele Pariza Wacek.