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By Gayle Hawks in Featured

socialmediamktgThe term social marketing has been used to describe two different things. The first thing it is used to describe is a process of marketing to improve the social condition of the world. The second definition is used to describe the process of using social networking sites and online tools to market a company. I will be using the second definition as my focus for this article.

Social marketing made a big splash in the world of Internet marketing just a few years ago. New Internet activities like blogging, video clips, and other viral marketing devices caught on quickly, and soon outpaced established online advertising methods like keyword ads and banner ads. Because of this new trend in online advertising, many companies have begun to broaden their marketing campaigns to include social marketing strategies.

Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and GoWalla
These social media sites are receiving the most attention these days from online marketing experts for companies large and small. The power to influence yielded by these websites is immense. There are many excellent articles that have been written detailing good methods and strategies to employ for companies large and small who desire to engage the public using these sites. Even if you’re not actively marketing your company on these sites, it’s important to maintain a presence on them so that you can monitor what is being said about your business and about your competitors.

Blogging
Blogging is still one of the most popular social marketing strategies currently being used by companies and websites to attract customers and web traffic. Blogging is a web log that provides readers with a periodic posting of information. This information is written by a topic expert and usually relates to the focus of the website or a company’s products and services. In order to be successful, a blog needs to be formatted as a discussion or informative article, it needs to include links to the site’s product and services pages and it needs to offer a way for readers to leave their comments and carry on discussions with the blog writer(s).

Viral Video
Another popular form of social marketing is the use of video. This marketing strategy involves uploading fun or interesting video clips to a website, such as YouTube and Vimeo in the hopes that people will like it and tell other people to view it and pass it on. This creates word of mouth advertising that can spread like wild fire. Think about the effects of some of the popular videos that you know of (“Charlie bit my finger!”, “United Breaks Guitars”, and a host of others. Videos, when they’re effective and truly go viral can generate millions of views.

eBooks
An older, but still effective form of viral marketing is the eBook. An eBook is basically a short manual or basic “how to” guide that is offered free of charge to people who complete a requested task. For example, you can offer an eBook to people who sign up for your website’s newsletter or who enter a drawing on your site. The main purpose of giving away an eBook is to attract people to your website, however, it can also help you to develop an opt-in mailing list for your company. In order for an eBook to be a successful social marketing tool, it will need to provide valuable information.

Social marketing online is an ever changing, evolving landscape. It’s important to engage, participate, and monitor what works and what doesn’t work. Most importantly, social marketing allows your company to have a direct link with customers and potential customers. It allows you to directly engage your niche audience and strategize a method to reach them that is beneficial for your company and for them as customers.


Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we’re eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Online Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding business cards design or business card management.

By Terri Seymour in Featured

facebook-logoSocial media marketing is absolutely essential in today’s online business world. It has taken the internet by storm both professionally and personally. Social media marketing means to market your business with the use of social networks, blogs, message boards, discussion groups, online communities and other such media. Some of the most popular social network sites are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.

Social marketing involves a lot more than just signing up and pasting up your page. You need to maximize your page’s effectiveness and keep it fresh, updated and alive. Below are 10 things you can do to optimize your Facebook page to make sure your business is getting the maximum benefits.

1. Create an Effective Profile – Do not use a half-done profile. Fill in your profile completely. This is for your business so be professional yet show people you care about your customers and will be there for them. Make sure your photo (if of yourself) is professional. You could also use your logo. Let people know what your business can do for them. Write an effective mission statement. Let your visitors know why they should do business with you but be careful what you reveal for security reasons.

2. Get Your Visitors Involved in Discussions – This is a great way to get your visitors to “Like” you and to keep coming back. Start helpful and informative discussions about topics related to your products or services. For example: if you sell home décor, start discussions about home decorating ideas, budget decorating, home improvement, etc. Encourage people to join the discussions and leave their business signature for more exposure.

3. Customize Your Page – Don’t let your page be one of the cookie cutter pages like everyone else. Customize it to fit your business needs and the needs of your visitors. Use images that brand you and your business and make it enjoyable and memorable.

4. Events and Contests – Keep your page alive and active with special events and contests. Each time a fan RSVP’s the event, it shows up in his profile. And so on and so on. Thus creating a ripple effect for your business.

5. Special Offers and Sales – People are always looking for good deals and special offers so don’t disappoint. Show your visitors you want to give them the best possible deal on your products/services.

6. Multi-Media Integration – Use audio and video content for your page. Audio and video can be extremely effective in capturing and holding the attention of visitors. According to webnox video is 58% more effective than just using plain text!

7. Make Your Tabs More Memorable – Facebook does allow you to change the usual boring tabs to more suit your needs. Make them unique to your page and business. You can also change the order in which you present your tabs. You can find easy to follow online tutorials on how to do this.

8. Utilize Your Sidebar – Take advantage of your sidebar space. This is a great place for testimonials or newsletter sign-up forms. You can also use this space for affiliate links, a survey for your visitors to help improve your page/business. Add links to your main website or special offers you may have going.

9. Add a Poll to Your Page – People like knowing their opinion matters so add interest to your page with a poll. You can add them using a free poll creator from Vizu. Polls can attract attention and encourage your visitors to interact with your page.

10. Post Regularly – I cannot stress this enough! Do not start your page and then let it sit for weeks at a time. You have to be there every day updating, adding new content, checking things over, and finding ways to improve your page. I recently started using social marketing and unfortunately need to take my own advice on this one. I have just not been involved enough with my Facebook page but that will soon be changing. The hold that social media has on the internet is astronomical so do not be left out in the cold!

So far I am involved with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn so feel free to come over and see me. I would love to see your page as I am learning more about this phenomenal marketing tool. I hope we all can use these types of sites to help each other improve our business and increase our sales!


Terri Seymour (also known as “The eBook Lady”) has over ten years online experience and has helped many people start their own business. Visit her site at http://www.seymourproducts.com for resources, $1 and $2 resell ebooks & software, articles, affiliate programs, RSS feed, and a free business ebook with Master Resell Rights.

By Laura Wimble in Featured

Web-2.0Creating a “buzz” around products, services, businesses or an event is a requirement from all clients. There is no social media marketing wand that someone will wave and a target audience will automatically start coming to your site. And what works for one brand may not work for another.

The process of creating buzz doesn’t start from creating a Blog or creating a video, it’s a social media strategy that encompasses social media and word-of-mouth marketing. We have compiled a list of social media tools that companies use to build their social media marketing mixes.

By Ivana Katz in Featured

Today one of the most popular ways to market any business online is using Facebook. Facebook allows you to put your business in front of thousands of people using different tools and if done properly you can establish a relationship and credibility with a large number of people who in turn will visit your website and purchase your products and services.

Facebook Marketing Begins with Your Profile

The first thing you need to look at when you start marketing on Facebook is your profile page. Does it look professional – at least to your professional contacts? If you are using Facebook as a social site as well then you can use privacy lists to determine who sees what and so still ensure that your professional contacts see a professional profile. It is from here that most of your other Facebook marketing techniques will flow.

Using Facebook Pages to Promote Your Business

In addition to your profile page you can also have a number of ‘Facebook Pages’ which are specifically for advertising your business and building your list of professional contacts (or fans). Facebook pages can generally include more advertising as it is all about your business.

For starters you should have your business name as the title, information about your business (such as what you do, when you started, etc.) and some contact details and your website address.

As with Facebook profiles you can also add applications that further extend the usefulness of these pages for marketing.

Facebook Groups

Once you have set up your profile and pages you may want to consider either joining a few Facebook groups or setting these up yourself. The advantage of joining groups is that they already have a membership that you can advertise your link to. The benefit of starting your own is that you will have more flexibility in how the group is run. Whichever way you decide to do it, Facebook groups are useful for promoting your website and business. Facebook Ads

Facebook Ads are the new Google Adwords. They are a PPC form of advertising that is quickly gaining popularity and holds a number of advantages over Adwords such as better targeting based on information entered into people’s Facebook profiles.

Facebook Connect and Integration

Integrating your website with Facebook and using the Facebook Connect features can also help to improve your visibility on Facebook and also make your website easier to join and more exciting. Allowing your visitors to comment on Facebook using your website or to share links from your website on Facebook can help to spread your message virally.

Facebook Applications

Another popular tool you will find people using to promote their business (or even as a business in itself) are Facebook applications. Creating an application can allow you both to make money through the application itself as well as sending people to your website. Depending on the application you create and how you market it this can become very popular and even create a viral marketing effect.

Facebook is an incredible internet marketing tool and you should consider using it to promote your business using Facebook profiles, pages, groups, ads and their integration features and applications.


Ivana Katz of Websites 4 Small Business makes it easy for you to get your business on the internet. If you’re looking for a professional and affordable website designer, visit www.web4business.com.au and download a free website plan. Join our Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/Websites4SmallBusiness

By Lani and Allen Voivod in Featured

Optimizing FacebookIf there’s one thing we hate, it’s to be the bearer of bad news. Okay, we know, who actually likes to be the bearer of bad news, aside from your gossipy Aunt Edna? But we digress.

We’ve had more than a few businesses and organizations reach out to connect with us on Facebook recently who have set their business/organization up as a personal account, known in Facebook parlance as a “Profile.” These are well-meaning folks who have amassed hundreds of connections – “Friends” – and we’re just going to be blatant and capitalize the terminology for ultimate clarity.

These businesses/organizations are at risk to lose all the equity they’ve built on Facebook. Immediately, suddenly, and without prejudice.

By Titus Hoskins in Featured

list buildingYears ago, when I first started in online marketing, all the rage was something called “list building”. I immediately jumped on this subject and started gathering every list building technique one could possibly imagine. It very quickly became one of my most favorite areas of Internet marketing to explore; so much so, that when I reached my first goal of getting 1000 subscribers, I was so pleased with myself, I even wrote an ebook on list building.

But that was then, this is now.

Since that time, online marketing and even the web itself, has changed tremendously. And we are not talking about small changes or minor adjustments here – the web has fundamentally changed from the core up. People simply use the web in a different way than they used it 10 years ago. It has become so much more of a user-friendly place, so much so, that marketing on this friendlier web has become a whole new ballgame.

By Dave Talbot in Featured

marketingThere are many different methods of marketing your business website, on-line shop or e-commerce website, but for many business owners there seems to be a bit of confusion between what is considered generic back link building and what is a true social marketing campaign, and more to the point what is the aim of each marketing strategy?

Different SEO and web marketing companies will of course employ different methodologies to promote a site and more often than not you get what you pay for so to speak. Equally there is bound to be a crossover in campaign strategies the debate of which could go on for months, but the purpose of this article is to highlight the key differences and aims of each type of campaign not what any single campaign should contain.

By Willie Crawford in Featured

For online marketers who have been around for a while, it’s no secret that email marketing “is not what it use to be!”

For many online marketers, conversions rates are a mere fraction of what they use to be. At the same time, there are a few marketers that I’ve chatted with who have experienced no significant drop in conversions. These are all marketers who have built incredible subscriber loyalty over the years.

For many online marketers, the biggest problem is email deliverability. Their email is simply not getting through. Email is being filtered so heavily today that often less than 20% of a large ezine mailing gets delivered.

There are things you can do to improve your email deliverability, such as run it through a spam checker prior to sending it out. Top mailing list management systems, such as http://ProfitAutomation.com , have built in systems that allow you to grade an email against the Spam Assassin database prior to sending it. If your email scores higher than a 2, I personally would revise it to lower the score.

I’ve talked to friends over a year ago, who often confided in me that they sometimes sent out emails and got absolutely NO response. They wondered if anyone even received the emails or read them.

Many savvy marketers also realized that a business totally dependent upon email was not a very solid business. They realized that what they really needed was a database that contained not only names and email addresses, but physical mailing addresses. That way, if something dramatic ever did happen in the world of email, they could just shift their marketing to direct mail, and still be in business. This is one of the reasons that you started seeing some online marketers offering loss leaders on CD or DVD. It gave them the perfect tool (excuse) to build out their databases. They knew that email could someday go the way of fax broadcasts.

Some of my in-the-know friends have also shared with me that many ISP’s now monitor things such as email delivery rates, bounce rates, and open rates. They use readily available data, and if a given ISP or third party list host had a dismal record, they may block ALL email from that source.

That’s pretty scary. I was also told that a few well-known list management providers were having emails coming off their servers BLOCKED, or “black holed.”

If ISPs are tapping into database that reveal which mail servers send out a lot of mail that has very low open rates, for example, and blocking email from those servers, that does very well spell the slow death of some email marketers… unless they move their list to other platforms.

Ok, so I just painted a pretty dismal picture for some marketers.

When I was in the military, my bosses always told me that they wanted the truth from me. They insisted that I not “sugar-coat” the facts. However, they also told me not to bring them problems, without also bringing them viable solutions.

Solutions to the email deliverability issue are out there. For example, paid “sender verification” is one that is often suggested.

One that I’ve looked at many times over the years is some type of direct-to-desktop solution. That’s one where your subscribers install tools that allow your communications to tap into technologies not even dependent upon email.

The objection always brought up when discussing direct-to- desktop applications, is that there’s only so much desktop real-estate, so a person can only subscribe to so many of these independent channels.

Another solution that I like very much is building your list on a hosted platform, so that communications take place within the system.

A good example of this can be seen on the social networking site Sokule, pronounced “so cool.” The Sokule community is built on a platform that looks and feels a lot like Twitter, except that it’s built for marketers, so you are encouraged to market on the platform. In fact, there are several built-in features that allow members to monetize their community membership.

While members of many social networking communities tend to de-emphasize getting lots of followers, Sokule is different. Sokule seems to encourage you to get as many followers (called “trackers”) as you can in two ways:

  1. They have a quasi-currency, called “sokens” that you can offer to other members to reward them for following you. You earn these sokens, and then you offer them to community members as a reward for following you. In a way, you can buy followers.
  2. They allow upgraded members to direct message ALL of their followers a maximum of once every three day. That means that in a very real way, when you build a following on Sokule, you ARE building a list.

When you set up your Sokule account, you enter three of your areas of interest. This allows others to search the database for members with like interest, whom they can then track (follow). In theory, this means that when you send out a direct message, your message should be going to people interested in the same topic.

Just as with an email list, you need to respect your trackers on Sokule, and provide genuine value to the relationship.

To check out Sokule, visit my profile page at: http://Sokule.com/postit/williec

There you can see how you can personalize your profile and monetize it. The links that you’ll notice on the left side of the page are to five of my pet websites. There are also links on the left side of the page that promote Clickbank products. Those links are coded with MY Clickbank ID.

My old military bosses would be proud of me today. Yes, I came bearing bad news. Email marketing as it once was is dying an agonizing death. However, I also did as my old bosses taught me and presented you with a viable, proven solution.

In future articles, I’ll share with you some more solutions to “the email problem.” For now, check out Sokule. Sign up for a free account and take it for a test drive. It’s quicker to do that at:” http://Sokule.com/williec The key to survival in business, just as it was for me in the military is to be aware of and adapt to changing circumstances. That’s something you’re now ready to do.


Willie Crawford has been marketing online for 13 years, and used article marketing most of that time (writing over 1500 articles). His favorite tools for automatically distributing his articles, videos, podcasts, and press releases is the automated submission site: http://EasyPushButtonTraffic.com

By Jason O Connor in Featured

Twitter is a micro-blogging site that asks you a basic question, “What are you doing?” It allows anyone with an account to write up to 140 characters in a text field as a means to update, comment, promote or communicate to others who are “following” you. When people follow you, they see what you’ve recently contributed when they login. They see your “tweets”, which are the messages you leave.

And of course you can follow others who tweet about the things that interest you. As an Internet marketer you may want to follow other Internet marketers, for example.

Like anything, and this is especially true of working with social media, the more you give, the more you get. In other words, the more often you tweet the more activity you’ll generate. Some suggest that you tweet a few times a day, every day. Not every tweet needs to be profound. But they should all be useful.

It’s important that you don’t abuse Twitter for marketing and promoting your products, services or affiliate links. Most of your tweets ought to be about offering your followers useful and valuable information. Only once in a while should you try to use Twitter to promote something. Otherwise you’ll be perceived as a spammer, and no one wants that tag.

Imagine if you had a large number of people following your tweets? Some people have tens of thousands following them. If you had something to promote and you had a large following, you could quickly and efficiently alert a lot of people of your promotion. It acts sort of like an opt-in mass emailing blast to your house email list, but it’s a heck of a lot easier and faster. This is the power of Twitter.

One thing that I’ve noticed with Twitter is that it can seem overwhelming at times. The sheer information on Twitter, the ‘how-to’s', tutorials and all the other ubiquitous advice on how to use and take advantage of it can seem hard to understand and implement. So here’s an easy-to-understand list of the top ten ways in which you can use Twitter to market yourself, your business and your website.

The Top 10 Ways To Use Twitter for Marketing:

  1. Use it to promote new pieces of content you or your company create to drive traffic to your site. From online articles to blog posts or from videos to webinars, each time you add something to the Web that is of value, tweet about it and include a link. (Most people on Twitter use www.TinyURL.com to take a long URL and make it short.)
  2. Use it for learning new marketing ideas, strategies and techniques. If you follow the right people, and you have to be picky about who you follow, you’ll get pointed to a good amount of useful tutorials, videos, e-zines and other things that teach you about marketing.
  3. Use it to get new customers. Use Twitter’s search to find people who may be interested in your product or service. There are many ingenious ways to search for people on Twitter. For example, if you sell red widgets you could go to http://search.twitter.com and find people who have tweeted specifically looking for red widgets. To do this, type the following into the search box: red widgets?
    1. You’ll notice a lot of the results will be of others selling red widgets. These ones will all obviously have links in them to direct people to the site they’re selling red widgets on. To weed these people/tweets out, use the negative sign like this: -http red widgets?
    2. Since every link has ‘http’ in it, using the negative sign in front of it will cause your search results to not include any tweets with links in them.
  4. Use it to build your email list. Use Twitter’s search to find people who may be interested in the monthly newsletter you send out to your opt-in house email list. Invite these people to join.
  5. Utilize Twitter plugins or add-ons such as TweetMyBlog or The Twitter Updater, which both automatically make tweets of every new blog post you publish. Also check out TwitThis. When visitors to your website click on the TwitThis button or link, it takes the URL of the Web page and creates a shorter URL using TinyURL. Then visitors can send this shortened URL and a description of the web page to all of their followers on Twitter. Finally, look at TweetLater, a service that allows you to write lots of tweets at once and then schedule them to go out over time.
  6. Use it to build buzz about an upcoming product or website launch.
  7. Use it to better brand yourself or your business. Remember, when someone wants to learn more about you or your company, they are increasingly using sites like Twitter for research. You could easily use Twitter to establish yourself as an authority in your field.
  8. Use it to update followers on breaking news regarding your company. If your company is mentioned in a new article, tweet about it and include a link to the article. Or if you’re at a conference or trade show, you could tweet what you’re doing and invite people to visit you in person.
  9. Use it for business networking, master-mind groups (see Napoleon Hill), and getting yourself seen by high-profile people in your industry.
  10. Use it as an instant messaging system to keep your and your team on the same page during projects. This is especially useful for those who work with teams spread out in different cities or countries.

You should note that this top 10 list is not in order of importance or in any particular order. I suggest that you give Twitter a try if you haven’t already. See if you can apply a few of these techniques and tactics to help you take advantage of Twitter as a marketing tool.

And one more important thing to remember is that there is no silver bullet in marketing. You should always be trying and implementing numerous tactics when marketing your business. Don’t only rely on Twitter or any other one thing. Instead, use Twitter (or any other Web 2.0 site) as simply one more tool in your entire social media and marketing toolbox.


Jason OConnor is an Web consultant, writes for The Net Gazette, a Web marketing newsletter, and owns Oak Web Works, LLC, a Web design and marketing company at http://www.oakwebworks.com/

By David Berkowitz in Featured

It’s time to atone.

Some may appreciate the timing, as it coincides with yesterday’s observance of Yom Kippur, Judaism’s Day of Atonement, the climax of a period of repentance. Everyone has some sins to atone for, including marketers and agencies trying to engage consumers through social media. Today, we’ll confess.

On the Day of Atonement, one of the most memorable prayers is a short confessional where a series of sins are listed alphabetically in Hebrew. It’s unlikely anyone reciting the confessional has committed all such sins over the past year, but one recognizes that these sins have been committed. Some sins listed are so broad, such as scorning and sinning willfully, that most likely everyone will have committed them.

Below is our confessional, for marketers and agencies. Similar to the spirit of the liturgy, we haven’t all committed all of these sins, but most of these transgressions should be familiar.

We Have Sinned

  1. We have awkwardly applied metrics like click-through rates to social marketing programs when we could have found more appropriate ways to quantify results that aligned with our business objectives.
  2. We have bribed consumers to be our friends without devising ways to connect with our real fans and sustain communication with them.
  3. We have ceded control of our social programs to interns, or lawyers, or those who are not in the best position to be the faces and voices of our brands.
  4. We have deceived ourselves, falling in love with our ideas without considering what would provide value for our target audience.
  5. We have eavesdropped on consumers, instead of actually hearing them and listening to them.
  6. We have failed to monitor social channels for discussions of our brands and competitors.
  7. We have guessed at our target audience’s interests and activities rather than conducting research that could have provided real answers.
  8. We have hurried into the newest, most-buzzed-about social spaces without developing a strategy.
  9. We have imitated when we could have innovated.
  10. We have judged competitors harshly for making the same mistakes we made.
  11. We have killed ideas that were spot on in favor of pet projects that we wanted for our portfolios.
  12. We have lost consumers by organizing social architectures that were impossible to navigate coherently.
  13. We have mismanaged social marketing by shoehorning it into someone’s job description.
  14. We have neglected to integrate social marketing with broader marketing programs.
  15. We have overreached, hoping for content to go viral without investing in resources to properly create, distribute, and promote it.
  16. We have partitioned our organizations so rigidly that we can’t plan earned and paid media together.
  17. We have quarreled over who should own social media in our organization.
  18. We have repurposed creative and messaging from other channels when we should have adapted or created it for these social spaces.
  19. We have shortchanged social marketing by planning campaigns instead of ongoing programs.
  20. We have tuned out consumers’ criticism when we could have engaged with them to better understand it, or we could have learned from it to ensure other consumers wouldn’t have such problems in the future.
  21. We have undervalued and underfunded social programs to such an extent that we have set them up for failure.
  22. We have violated consumers’ trust by not being fully transparent as to our identities and objectives.
  23. We have wronged consumers by not respecting their privacy.
  24. We have xenophobically avoided any forms of social media beyond the ones we use ourselves.
  25. We have yelled when we could have conversed.
  26. We have zigzagged between the path we knew was best and the path that was most convenient, even when we could have prevented our transgressions.

Acknowledging these sins is not the same as absolving ourselves of them, but it is the first step on the path to repentance. What we can hope and strive for us that next year, should our community as a whole revisit this confessional, the transgressions will seem more alien — a memory of how we were and a sign of how far we’ve come.


David Berkowitz is Senior Director of Emerging Media & Innovation at digital marketing agency 360i. You can reach him here.

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