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Social Networking: 7 Steps to More Traffic by Connecting and Repurposing Your Social Marketing

11 2008 Wednesday

By Donna Gunter in Featured

I’m lazy by nature and like to do as little work as possible. Therefore, when I have the opportunity to automate tasks, I jump at it. As I started getting heavily involved in social networking, I quickly became frustrated with having to update my status at several sites, as well as trying to figure out how to introduce my blog, my articles, and my ezine to my social networking audiences.

Get Paid To Socialize On Facebook

09 2008 Wednesday

By Francis Featherby in Featured

If you are like most people that spend time on the Internet you have discovered the Web 2.0 Revolution. The real attraction to these sites is the fact that it provides the members a sense of community. It seems that new social networking sites are popping up daily. My Space and Facebook have taken the Internet by storm.

Amazingly these communities are free to join, but each does have its own set of terms and conditions. Many casual Internet users enjoy places like Facebook as a way to keep in touch with friends and relatives. Business owners have found that social networking offers an opportunity to share and learn from others.

Facebook has an enormous community and it is said to double in size about every six months. As of February 2008 Facebook claimed a membership of over 75 million users. A nice feature of this community is that there are networks and groups within the membership.

This allows a member to be in contact with other people that have similar interests. Although the majority of users of Facebook fall in the eighteen to thirty-five year age range, you will find members there of all ages. But an important note is that the 18 - 35 year olds are the perfect audience to market to.

So now we can talk about the advantages Facebook provides to business owners. As mentioned earlier, this is a great way to get to know others with like interests, thus providing a place to share and learn from each other. But Facebook has provided much more than that to business owners.

Strangely few people know how to use the many features available to them to the maximum potential. It really is possible to substantially increase your income while having fun on Facebook. But you have to learn about the features and set your profile and settings up appropriately to enjoy these benefits.

Details of how to do this is beyond the scope of this article but a suggestion is thinking carefully and having a plan before you begin setting up your profile. You really need to know what you want to accomplish with your membership.

Your profile allows others to read and see what you are all about. So if you simply tell the viewers that you are a wife and mother you will not necessarily be seen as a business person. And if you say that you are into horseback riding and that you have a range you are likely to be seen as a horse-lover and be contacted by people with similar interests.

But if your goal is to make money with Facebook you will want to include information that will assist in the endeavor. Facebook provides many features that can be useful to business owners and others. Joining networks and groups will enable you to find other people with similar interests. You can also learn about particular demographics of a group or network. Obviously Facebook can be used to advance the growth of a business and to actually generate money. But there are particular methods that a member should use if he is to receive maximum advantages from this social networking community.

Francis Featherby -Make Huge Amounts Of Money From Facebook! | Amazing Information For Making Money On Facebook!

Need More Prospects For Your Business? Try This Social Method

09 2008 Monday

By Jaz Lai in Featured

Anyone who claims to surf the net all the time but do not know what social networking is all about is probably living in a cave somewhere. The Internet has completely changed how network marketing is done and you will need to learn to adapt to the latest trends before your prospecting methods become obsolete.

If you seriously desire to build a huge network marketing downline, there is no reason why you should not harness the power of Facebook for your network marketing business because Facebook is ranked as one of the most visited sites on the planet!

Here are a couple of benefits for using Facebook:

You get the pleasure of adding your targeted friends (and prospects) to your profile. The people you add might reciprocate because Facebook sends an email notifying that you’ve added them to your list of friends. However, don’t just add any friends… always target friends in a network marketing group, home business group, networking group and so on. These people are your target market and you should add these people into your sales funnel.
You can also create your own Facebook group and invite your new friends to join. You can call that group an ‘Network Marketing Millionaire’ or ‘Online MLM’ group to get like minded people to participate. You can use this group that I created as an example: <a href=” http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=19217593800” target=”_blank”></b>Internet Network Marketing</b></a>
Besides just creating a group, it will be to your advantage if you create a weekly plan and post useful content to your group. You can contribute stuff like articles, blog posts and even videos! You aim is to product value so that they will sign up for your own network marketing newsletter online,
Send email blasts or broadcasts to your network marketing group and make sure you give them quality content so that they will trust you and treat you as their leader. Once you have developed sufficient trust and respect from your group, you may safely recommend your business opportunity to them. Do it well and they may even beg you to sign them up without you selling them anything at all!
You can also broadcast your content on your friend’s Funwall every few days or weekly.
Help people, don’t ask for help immediately. When people see you as a person who is willing to go out of their way to help others, they will believe in you and take your recommendations seriously.

Facebook is definitely the way to keep in touch with your prospects and you can drive tons of traffic to your website even when people locate your site through your personal profile page.

Beside Facebook, another one of my favourite social networking site is MySpace.

MySpace offers an interactive environment facilitating a completely user-generated network of friends, personal profiles and links to blogs, groups, photos, music and videos - the perfect ground for a network marketing business!

Gone are the days of cold calling telephone books and genealogy lists. By harnessing the power of MySpace, you can drive lots of targeted traffic to your lead capture pages and build your network marketing downline very quickly.

Here are a couple of tips that you can use to drive traffic using MySpace:

Your profile is your greatest weapon. You must create a profile that completely stands out. Don’t hard sell others but rather offer value and covey to prospects from your profile that you are a leader… someone that is important.
Use MySpace to add as many friends as you can to your profile. You can never have too little friends. Another advantage of adding many friends is that people who view your profile will be able to perceive you as a very popular person (because you have lots of friends).
Create your own group in MySpace. You can use it to start a network marketing community on the Internet. Network marketing is all about interacting with others and if you can use this strategy well, you can connect with people from all walks of life (you might not even meet these people through conventional means).
Invite targeted friends - especially those who are interested in network marketing! You want to create a targeted group of friends within your network. But make sure you don’t jump the gun and offer your business opportunity to them right away. Make sure you build the relationship first.
Post useful content to your network marketing group. Make sure you provide value to others and they will respect you as an authority on network marketing.
You can also encourage your group members to join in the fun and contribute content. That way, your network marketing community learns to interact with one another and you don’t have to post so much content.
Join other people’s groups and make friends with them
Learn to use bulletin boards. When you have new content or products recommend, you can blast out the messages to the bulletin and your friends and group members will be able to view them.
Always stay consistent and persistent. Building a network takes time and you cannot expect to get results overnight.

Both Facebook and MySpace are one of the best places to network and build your network marketing business. Learn to make friends and build a community and you will drive lots of traffic to your network marketing sites.

Jaz Lai is an online prospecting expert. Download your free white paper and audio on how to use the internet to Double or Triple your organization within the next 30 days. Available for the next 24 hours only, click below for instant access :

http://www.HowToNetworkMarketing.com

If You Whine At Facebook’s Redesign: Calm Down!

09 2008 Wednesday

By Catharine P. Taylor in Featured

SO, ONLY MOMENTS AFTER I finally tried out the new Facebook yesterday, I came across this item on Gawker (via siblog Valleywag): “700,000 Facebook users join ‘I hate the new Facebook’ page.” And all I could think is, all of those magazines that have gone through redesigns over the years are lucky they didn’t have social media around to let readers tell them what they really thought.

I also thought, “What a bunch of whiners!” There were complaints about the redesign seeming “big” because it appears to employ a larger font size. (Hey, wait ’til your eyes go through the change of life, pal). Others were that all the tabs — an attempt on the part of the Facebook people to declutter the page, I’d suspect — were making Facebook slow to load. That was not my experience.

As I did spend a little quality time trying to see if there was an equally robust “I Love the new Facebook” group, I found that most groups that fit that search term were mocking the redesign, claiming the reason they liked it was because it’s “creepy” and makes it easier to stalk people. As I don’t have time for stalking, alas, I didn’t really delve into why.

But getting back to all those redesigned magazines over the years, I think the biggest problem with the new Facebook is that it’s different than the old Facebook. People tend not to like different, at least at first. Old designs, be they in static old print or online, tend to be easier simply because we’re used to seeing things organized in certain ways; not necessarily that those ways are better. As a veteran of both print and online organizations, I try really hard to give designers of these huge redesigns the benefit of the doubt.

For me, the new Facebook is a mixed bag. My favorite feature is probably “The Publisher,” a toolbar high up on Facebook that makes it far easier to share links, photos and other content. I always felt that with the old Facebook it was surprisingly hard to share a link, and that I was always indulging in a lot of errant clicks between me and sharing. As we are now deep into the Twitter era, it’s also cool to see individual updates be front and center on the page, though I agree that perhaps bold, 14-point type isn’t exactly necessary.

The small thumbnail ads have been moved from the lefthand side of the page to the righthand side, which from a reading-from-left-to-right world view probably makes them even less obtrusive. Might not play as well in China. And here’s the biggest change, and one I support simply because I want Facebook to make money somehow: there are actually two ads down the column instead of the usual one.

To some, this makes Facebook the new MySpace — but c’mon people, go back to MySpace for a sec and remind yourself how commercial it is. It’s no contest. Facebook is still one of the least ad-saturated sites on the Web.

My biggest beef is in how apps are displayed and how that will affect advertisers who want to build the ultimate Facebook app. On my old Facebook page, the apps were buried at the bottom of an increasingly long page. In the new Facebook, they seem to be sequestered behind a tab called “Boxes,” though the redesign also allows users to create specific tabs for specific applications. Seems to me, and to some of the whiners, that no one will ever bother to go and discover these apps, and that’s a damn shame for app lovers, and advertisers, everywhere. The counterargument, as one of my many Facebook friends pointed out, is that the old design suffered from apps overload.

But, ultimately I quibble. I’m sure the new Facebook redesign, as different as it is than the old Facebook, is a work in progress. I’m also sure that the people at Facebook will listen to user complaints. But even before it officially launches, it’s time for the people who hate the new Facebook — and anyone at Facebook who is getting all tied up in their underwear over the complaints — to calm down. Give it some time. At least parts of it will grow on you.

Catharine P. Taylor has been covering digital media and advertising for almost 15 years. She currently writes daily about advertising on her blog, Adverganza.com and can be reached at cathyptaylor@gmail.com

Navigating the Social Media Landscape

07 2008 Monday

By Leslie Russell in Featured

You know what Facebook and MySpace are. You’ve heard of people twittering. You read a couple of blogs now and then, and you must admit, you already know that your company’s firewall prevents you from watching YouTube videos at the office. What you don’t know is how these social sites might connect to your marketing plan.

Exploring social media - such as blogs, social networking sites, image hosting sites and social bookmarking sites - is becoming increasingly essential for businesses. Social media marketing (SMM) allows you to build your company’s reputation as an authority in your field while engaging your consumers in an open dialogue. Most importantly, it helps you drive up site traffic, meet conversion goals and bolster search engine marketing results via links and quality content - all while supporting your traditional marketing efforts.

What People Aren’t Saying About Social Media

06 2008 Wednesday

By Jennifer Horowitz in Featured

Social Media, Social Networking, Leveraging Web 2.0 - it’s known by many names and it’s all the rage!

Let me start by saying I am a fan of social media, I personally choose to participate in social media. However when you read about social media, you often only hear one side of things - the message is clear - Participate or miss out! And while I do believe that is true, I think it’s not always that simple.

There is so much to read, so many different opinions. It can be overwhelming. First you have to decide which sites to participate in and then you have to create your account and learn how to participate. It’s often confusing.

I am not saying this is an excuse not to participate. In fact I am writing this article to provide some helpful tips so you can participate. .

I think attention to the details is really important, so I want to cover all the small items that people aren’t really talking much about.

Facebook: I started on Facebook as a way to connect with old friends. I had all kinds of games and the crazy apps (applications) that Facebook offers. When I started networking for business I realized that all my business connections were going to have access to all of this personal information - photos, wall posts, they’d know which Sex and the City character I was most like (if you’ve spent any time on Facebook you’ve likely seen this app on people’s profile).

I understand that using social media to open up and connect with people is one of the benefits. Allowing prospective clients to get to know you helps build trust and relationships.

But do I really want people to see every little silly app I mess around with? Do I want them to see the crazy pics from high school that have been posted?

Ultimately I decided to clean off some of the silliness that wasn’t really important to me and I left the rest. I figured if I’m opening the door and letting people peek in, there is no point in censoring anything. So I jumped in and started adding “Friends” that were business connections.

Of course if you are only using Facebook for business, then you don’t have to think about these issues. If you do plan to use it for both - just spend a few minutes thinking about what you do and don’t want to share.

Twitter: Make sure you think about what name is best for you. I chose EcomBuffet (my company name) but have now realized that people are searching for me by my full name and not finding me. I would have been better off choosing my name. Not a major issue, but something to consider if you haven’t picked your name on Twitter yet.

There are varying opinions about how often you can Twitter (or tweet) and not annoy people. Some people say once per hour, others say once a day. There is no hard rule about this. You do want to consider it carefully though. If you tweet too often, people may get annoyed and stop following you all together, or just remove their cell phone updates. That means when you have important updates, people aren’t going to get them at all or as quickly as they could have. You want to find a balance. For me, I have been tweeting about once a day. On some days when I have more to share, I may tweet a few times day. Every time you tweet, ask yourself if it is really information people will want to know. If you are sure every tweet is useful and serves a purpose then you can tweet a little more often. If it’s fluff and all self-promotional, then you should probably do it less (or not all some may say).

Social bookmarking buttons: There are so many buttons you can add to your articles for people to bookmark or vote for your content. Digg, StumbleUpon, RSS Feeds, TwitThis etc - My concern is that we are adding so many different options and people become so accustomed to seeing them that they ignore them. And with so many buttons people may get confused and just ignore them. I don’t know what the solution is for this yet. I previously wasn’t using any of these buttons. I realize I am missing out because of that, so I am now going to selectively use them. I don’t have a perfect plan in mind, I am just going to play with using some of the more popular ones and see what happens.

MySpace versus Facebook: There is a lot of confusion about the MySpace versus Facebook issue. The general consensus is that MySpace has been trashed and isn’t worth the time. That isn’t entirely true. There are still people making money off MySpace. The key to remember is that MySpace is a younger crowd with a lower income and Facebook has a higher income and is older. The best thing you can do is study both - see what others in your industry are doing, see how you see yourself fitting in and most importantly, come up with a plan. So many people just jump in and set up a profile and then don’t know what to do next. Just being there doesn’t mean the money is going to pour in. You need to engage people, you need to come up with something that people will want to see, hear or read.

Is it too late to join now? The answer is no! Studies show that most of the social media sites are growing in popularity and traffic and participation is increasing month over month. Just remember, the rules change as these sites evolve, so be sure you are current on what is and isn’t acceptable participation.

Check it out; see how you think you can fit into the space. But remember its not all about how you will benefit. If you don’t have something to offer (information, resources, insights, news etc) then people aren’t going to be interested.

How does all of this really help me make money? Consumers are much more educated and demand much more than they used to. We are all hit with so many sales messages daily; we start to tune them out. What used to work doesn’t work (or at least not as well). In order for your business to succeed and grow, you need to adapt.

People are looking for more information and companies they can trust. Selling has become more about creating trust and building relationships.

Social media helps you connect and establish trust. Any one social media activity may not lead directly to a sale in any given moment, but it helps you establish a presence online; and in your prospects mind. If you get yourself out there and share information, you will increase your following and have a base of people that trust you that you can market to.

That covers it for now. Keep the questions coming in!

Jennifer Horowitz is the Director of Marketing for EcomBuffet.com. Over the past 10 years Jennifer’s expertise in marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has helped clients increase revenue. Jennifer has written a downloadable book on SEO and has been published in many SEO and marketing publications. Jennifer is the editor of the popular Spotlight on Success: SEO and Marketing newsletter. Follow Jennifer and stay current on SEO, marketing, social media and more. http://twitter.com/EcomBuffet

Why Bother With “LinkedIn” or “Facebook”?

05 2008 Thursday

By John Clark in Featured

That’s what I used to ask myself as numerous acquaintances kept tagging me to be part of their realm of contacts in FaceBook.com or LinkedIn.com. It seemed a nuisance until I sat down with an old contact, Don Tinney from EOS Worldside (EOS=Entrepreneurial Operating Systems). Don is an EOS Implementer whose job is quite simple. He says simply, “We make millionaires out of owners of small to medium size companies”. So maybe he has something to say I should know.I was in both LinkedIn and FaceBook and didn’t see the significance. My business was humming along just fine and didn’t need the distraction. Don forced my mind open a bit and so I took it upon myself to find out if there was some gold to mine there that I had missed. Like hunting for Morel mushrooms, it went from “none to be found” to being surrounded with all kinds of uses. Here is my quick rundown of uses in the hopes all our business partners can begin to take advantage of these tools.