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Twitter is a relatively new web 2.0 site that is starting to gain a lot of popularity. That means that a lot of people have heard of it but it is also quite common to run into people who haven’t heard of it.. yet. Twitter.com is this social site that encourages users to post often about what they are currently doing.

A lot of people are using it to improve their marketing reach, by being an active twitterer they gain followers who are interested in what they got going on. This means people being exposed to their updates on a regular basis. For example, if you have hundreds of followers in Twitter and you decide to post an affiliate link, that means that hundreds of people have instantly been exposed to your offer. In this article I will discuss ways to maximize Twitter for your marketing, and also a big mistake to be aware of.

In order to have a fan base per say of followers in Twitter you must be able to keep their interest in you and what you are doing now. “What are you doing?” is the whole foundation of what Twitter is about in the first place. Make sure to post daily if not several times throughout the day updates about what you are doing. The magical thing behind this is that many of your contacts will be able to feel like they know you so much better, will trust you more, and feel much more comfortable about working with you. On the other hand, when you follow others you can learn about them and their possible needs.

The big mistake to watch out for is only posting affiliate links or offers on your Twitter page. This looks like Spam and many people will see you as just abusing Twitter for your own personal gain. Think of it this way, if you would not want to invite your friends or family to keep up with you via Twitter then you are going about it all wrong. As with anything you send out or provide, ninety percent should be content and ten percent (at most) advertising. So this concept is quite simple… constantly post throughout the day what you are doing.. it is usually very simple and only takes a few seconds to post! Secondly, if you write articles or provide content online, provide a link for those in your Twitter posts. You may post many things within one day, but the last thing you post for the day is usually the most important because it will be there the longest. This means that your last post for the day should very well contain a link that you want your followers to see before your start Twittering again the next day!

Another part of Twitter is contributing. As with any social site it should be a give and take relationship. Notice that give comes first… the more you give the more people will want to work with you and the more attention you will receive. Make sure to read and follow other users in Twitter. If you read something interesting or helpful then make sure to reply and say so, or even put a link for it on your Twitter so that you are directing others to more quality content. This can also be as simple as connecting with other users, if they know you are reading their Twitter page they will be much more likely to check out what you have going on too.

To get started in Twitter you should first invite contacts who aren’t using Twitter and also find contacts who are already using Twitter so that you can start following them and also start getting people to follow you. Twitter has a nice invite and find feature that makes this incredibly easy. To grow your reach even more you can start following people who follow or are followed by the people who follow you.. or that you follow. You might need to read that sentence again.. but basically you can find other users to connect with that are already connected to other users.

Now for a big tip. If you really want to maximize the potential with Twitter, you should make sure to take advantage of any plug-ins or sites that support Twitter. Here are three, but I’m sure there will be many more in the future if not already. Squidoo allows you to input your Twitter account info into your Squidoo account and then it can automatically post updates to your Twitter account when you create or update Squidoo lenses. Facebook has an application called Twitter, it automatically updates your Facebook status when you make a Twitter post. The other tool is a free WordPress plug-in called TweetMyBlog that allows you to create a two-way connection from your blogs to Twitter. TweetMyBlog allows you to use a widget on your Wordpress blogs that will display your current Twitter feed.. that way all visitors to your blog can look at the widget and see a running feed of your latest Twitter posts. If they click on that they will be brought to your Twitter page. In addition, when you make a new post to your blog, TweetMyBlog will automatically make a post to your Twitter page with a link to your latest blog post. Imagine the extra exposure you can receive by using these tools that help people see more of what you are doing.

Lastly, have fun! Twitter is a social site… so interact and enjoy!

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Darren Olander is dedicated to teaching others how to create a success online through internet network marketing strategies. He is a site owner, article writer, coach & marketing consultant enjoying the benefits of working full time from home. Learn more about him at http://www.darrenolander.com

Tags: how to use twitter, social networking, twitter, Web 2.0

While every Internet marketing start-up could benefit from social marketing sites, many newbie Internet marketers are still not sure how to utilize them.

Sure, social sites give you a lot of interactivity and allow users to personalize their sites, compile a list of favorite links, videos, music, photos, documents and share it all with friends and visitors, but how exactly does that help you develop your Internet marketing start-up business?

The first thing to understand is that there are two basic types of social networking sites, so you will need to be clear in your own mind about what it is you want to do - bookmark or network?

Social Bookmarking Sites

Social bookmarking sites allow you to build and organize your favourite links (i.e. bookmarks) AND you can choose to restrict them to selected friends or make them public and share them with everybody on the Internet.

The big advantage of social bookmarking is that your favourite links are no longer tied to one specific browser accessible from just one computer in one location.

Social bookmarking services enable users to save bookmarks on a remote web server which can be accessed anywhere where there is an online connection.

Social bookmarking sites usually categorize links with a “tagging” system which allows users to choose keywords with which to “tag” their bookmarks. Sites can then be retrieved via the tags.

You can encourage others to bookmark your articles, blogs or webpages by adding a Digg, Stumbleupon, TwitThis or other button on your page.

However, there are so many social bookmarking services, that if you added all their buttons you’d end up with more buttons than content on your page! Instead, use a service like addthis.com, which places one button on your site for a wide range of social bookmarking sites.

Social Networking Sites

Social networking sites offer a convenient method of connecting with people who share similar interests to you.

Sites like Facebook and MySpace allow you to post your advertisements and promote your products, as long as you do not simply (and stupidly) send out spam. A good site with regularly updated original content will attract traffic.

MySpace or Facebook?

It has recently been noised abroad that MySpace is no good for Internet marketing, but that is not so. It was simply a case of too many Internet marketers not knowing who their audience was.

The point is that MySpace tends to attract a younger age bracket with less money to spend than does Facebook. Get to know the sites and adapt your content to each one, don’t simply post the same stuff to both.

Another reason why some people don’t think social networking sites are good for business is that they do no more than set up a profile. Then they get stuck, don’t know what to do, do nothing. Merely being there is not enough! Find ways to communicate with the people who are there on their terms, not yours.

Go careful, though, that you don’t go overboard with the crazy applications and the “late night partying confessions” stuff if it is not the sort of thing you want your clients to see!

Whereas social bookmarking sites are simply sites for you to collect and organize your favorite links, social networking sites, being more sociable, require more time and regular fresh content updates. With social networking sites you have to work on your image!

Search Engines Love Web 2:0!

Another reason why Internet marketers should build a presence on both social bookmarking and social networking sites is because search engines LOVE them!

Search engine spiders regularly follow links posted on these sites. So, by building up your links on these sites, your website backlinks will grow, and so will your search engine rankings, which is what you need if your Internet marketing start-up is to survive, grow and thrive.

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If you found this article helpful you might like to visit http://grasp-the-nettle.com for more free articles on Internet marketing to help you master the net. You might also like to sign up to my FREE Internet Marketing Start-Up newsletter, which comes complete with a library of Internet marketing ebooks (worth a total of $136.75) for you to download free of charge. David Hurley lives in Japan, where he works as an English language consultant, editor, and Internet marketer.

Tags: social bookmarking, social media, social networking, Web 2.0

Let’s face it: it’s a big Internet out there, with millions and millions of websites. How are you going to get people to come to yours?

Social Networking

Social Networking websites are basically community websites. These are communities, on the internet, that you join and then search for people within the community with similar interests as you.

Some Social Networking websites are very small and focused, so by definition the people who join such websites are already members of a tightly focused interest group.

Such a group might be brought together by their political or religious beliefs. Or it could be something such as their hobbies, like… they love Ford Mustangs! Or making cheesecake! Sports or basically anything else that mankind has found it possible to be interested in!

So, in such a tightly focused group, almost all members without exception will be interested in the one common thing.

However, there are many other community websites where the only real common interest that most of the members could possibly ever have with one another is that they are all, members of the same site!

This is simply a function of the size and therefore the diversity of the websites in question, with websites like MySpace and FaceBook having literally millions of members all over the globe. (107 and 73 million members respectively).

Such websites generally have a membership that is wide open. Meaning that anyone can become a member, no matter what their hobbies, beliefs, or views are.

Thus, there is no general community wide commonality of beliefs or interests either.

It is therefore only natural that once you are a member, inside this online community, you can begin to create your own network of friends. Those people that have similar interest and/or beliefs to you and the products you are promoting.

This is where it gets interesting for you as an Internet Marketer!

Whatever your interests, given so many millions of members, then there inevitably will be others that have similar interests, people that you could potentially ‘bond’ with immediately. People who become prospects due to the commonality in interests.

For example, a MySpace search using the phrase ‘Crocheting’ returns plenty of results. All of them are people who might be interested in your website from a direct ‘match’ of my search term to the specific subject topic of my website.

However, run a search for a more generic (and broader) term like Internet Marketing, and you get 45,400 results. I know what your thiking… OMG how overwhelming! Take a deep breath and continue listening!

Now, it is a very reasonable assumption that anyone who is interested in Internet Marketing is trying to sell something on the web, and that they therefore need traffic to their website.

So, of course, these people would be legitimate ‘target prospects’ for what I am trying to promote.

Take it one stage further and use single word search ‘marketing’ and it returns 549,000 results.

Again, it is reasonable to assume that all of these people are at least interested in bringing their products or services to the marketplace, so, once again, traffic generation could be of immense interest to them.

So, all I need to do is to tell them about the great resource that I have available, and the deal is done… right?

Err… no! Not really… Unless the “deal” that you are talking about is having your MySpace account closed down immediately!

The thing is that the folks who run MySpace really do not want their ‘community site’ turning into a commercial free-for-all. A sort of online bazaar, and they will go to any lengths to protect their site.

So, you cannot just open your account one day and start bombarding people with your commercial messages the next.

It’s the same with any quality forum site. You have to establish yourself as a valid contributing member before you can start promoting your products. Once you have yourself established, then you can add a signature file with a redirect to a sales site, you must establish yourself on community websites too.

So, the first thing that you must do is to take some time and make an effort to create a proper profile, something that shows that there is a real person behind the newly opened account.

Then, you must start looking for ‘friends’ in the MySpace community, but you must do so gradually, as you are limited to so many friend invitations a day. Even if you weren’t inviting a thousand new friends a day… It hardly looks natural or normal. Does it?

Put it this way - if you saw that someone was inviting 1000 new friends a day, would you perhaps thinks that there was something a little bit strange or artificial about this person?

Yes - of course you would.

So, start out by becoming a real member of the community before you start promoting products. That is the bottom line.

Sure… By all means begin to invite people to be your friends, but do spend a little time getting to know them and building up a relationship before trying to get them interested or sell them in your business.

Now, the great thing about a blog site is that it is pretty natural that, after you have been someone’s ‘friend’ for a while, that you might invite them to take a look at your blog.

That is far less threatening and direct than asking them to look at a ‘full-on’ sales page, for example.

Nevertheless, it doesn’t matter what community site you are a member of, the secret is go gently and slowly, build relationships and try to nurture something at least vaguely like a ‘real’ friendship before trying to get people to visit your business themed blog site.

Use your common sense and the skills listed here and you should have success in making friends and prospects on social networking sites.

Erik Stafford is the creator of The Faster Webmaster, which shows beginners the fast, easy, affordable way to build their own website. You can visit Erik online at http://www.thefasterwebmaster.com

Tags: social networking, Web 2.0

What is Digg?

Digg ( http://www.digg.com ) is a news-oriented, or “social news” website, where the majority of its content is submitted by its users. Digg’s users also rate the site’s content, determining what’s important enough to go on the front page, and what should be removed. After signing up for a free account, Digg’s users can submit, review, vote on, and comment on news stories and other content they find on the Internet.

The idea is that instead of searching the web for useful content, people can just make one stop at Digg and see the latest current events, feature stories, videos, podcasts, and other content ‘ selected and rated by users instead of by an editor.

Digg is an important tool in building your online presence.

If a link to your content is submitted to Digg and receives a lot of positive votes and comments, your website can receive hundreds or even thousands of visitors within a short period of time. There is a great deal of the traffic that will probably quickly read the article or post and leave but, there’s a good chance that the more targeted visitors will browse your site and sign up for your newsletter and/or RSS feed which will also help you to receive incoming links, trackbacks, and social bookmarks.

You may receive comments, earn extra income, have your rss feeds picked up, and many other possibilities may come from having your content submitted. How does Digg work? In order to make your comment live, Digg requires you to enter your name and email address, and then use a password and confirmation link they email you.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: digg, social authority building, social networking

Social Networking is simply the big topic right now, and even more so if you are in network marketing. First the only social networks were all free to join networks like MySpace and Facebook. Their networks are open to anyone and everyone, have grown like wildfire and became increasingly well known. Even network marketers have joined and marketed their opportunities or products through these sites. It certainly does work even though these social networks aren’t even target audiences who would be more inclined to their offers.

However, the value of marketing on Myspace and Facebook is quickly dropping. This is due to the massive release of new and niche focused social networks. The fact is that this year alone I have seen an increasing number of professional social networks geared towards network marketers launching and becoming increasingly popular. To name a few: TalkMoola.com, Zenzuu, Friendswin, Yuwie, and Wowzza. A couple older ones are DirectMatches, AdLandPro, and even Ryze. Honestly I wouldn’t even be the least bit surprised to see a few more start-up this year - that is how much it is catching on! It is also obvious why they do become so popular among network marketers, because there is no better advertising than targeted advertising. Exposing your business opportunity, system, or product to other network marketers is simply the most effective thing to do. Once a network marketer joins you they already have had their foot in the door and are somewhat knowledgeable about the industry and can greatly help your business. However if a random person from MySpace sees and joins your business they are not nearly as valuable to you because they most likely have no idea what they are doing or what network marketing is even about.

So when network marketers are invited with the ability to join a social network full of network marketers it is almost a no-brainer. Just to clarify why I said “almost”… It is because not all network marketers have caught on to the power of social networking yet or how to properly use social networking to explode their businesses. But the ability to further expose themselves and their business to other like-minded people is extremely valuable and profitable for most. The old way of network marketing is out, and I see the future holding tight to social marketing through professional social networks. Even so, many of these new business social networks are offering incentives for those who join. These range from revenue sharing, direct affiliate commissions, and various MLM pay plans. This only supports the increasing awareness and exposure that I believe these new networks will and deserve to receive.

All professional social networks, however, are not created equal. Here are a few things you need to look out for when deciding which ones you will utilize in exposing yourself and your opportunities.

1) Somewhat Targeted or Extremely Targeted?

When looking over your social networks find out if the people involved in the social network are the type of people who would be interested in what you have to offer, or are like-minded to you. This means that if you are a network marketer looking to provide an opportunity to other network marketers then the people involved in the social network should be strictly network marketers. Does the social network include people looking for a date or love? If the social network includes this or niches totally unrelated to you then this weakens the potential of that network for you. However, if the social network is only network marketers or business opportunity seekers then it is an incredible source for you.

2) Are there limitations on contacting your friends in bulk?

Building up your friends list on social networks is one major thing you need to do to get the most exposure. This means accepting friend invitations from those within the social network and also seeking out other like-minded to add to your network of friends. The larger your list of friends the more active you will appear to be and the more people will take heart to what you have to say. It also means more people who you can send messages to through the social network. Some social networks limit the amount of people you are able to send a message to at once. For example you have 100 friends and they limit you to only 30 people per message, this is a negative thing and is especially bad if you have a much larger network of friends. On the other hand, some social networks will let you add unlimited friends and you can send them a bulletin or message to all your friends at once anytime with ease. This is what you should be looking for because whether you have 100 friends, 1,000 or even 10,000 you can send them all a message just as easily as if you were sending it to one. This means potentially huge exposure for you. If you want you can even consider it like an instant contact list of targeted prospects! However, I do warn about sending too much unwanted messages to your friends, you should try to connect with them and send them as much quality information as you can instead and then lightly introduce what you have to offer. If you consistently send what they would consider as spam messages they will just block you or remove you from their friends’ network, so using the social network properly is important.

3) Are the members free, paid, or both?

The quality of the membership is another factor. If the membership is mostly free then they are less likely to be purchase ready. However, if the membership is all paid and everyone is used to paying to be a part of the social network then these are the highest quality members you can get in touch with because they will have the money to invest in working with you. Mixed is fine though as this factor is not as important as the first two.

4) What are the other site incentives?

This is the least important but should still be mentioned. Other incentives could be the pay plan such as revenue sharing, affiliate commissions, or some type of matrix structure. It could also be other services provided with your cost of the membership such as training, tools, or other bonuses. Keep in mind, even if they do not offer great incentives but the rest of the above factors are positive I would still be excited to join.

Right now there is not a huge selection of targeted professional social networks but I am positive that the future will hold true for more and more becoming available. Personally I like to take advantage and join any social network because that is extra exposure for me, and any extra exposure is always a good thing. However when choosing to be most active in select networks you may want to consider the above factors. I have created many strong relationships, learned a lot, taught a lot, and profited a lot from those relationships within social networks. I recommend taking advantage of any professional social network, especially niche ones that have like-minded individuals similar to yourself. The benefits can be enormous.

Darren Olander is dedicated to teaching others how to create a success online through internet network marketing strategies. He is a site owner, article writer, coach & marketing consultant enjoying the benefits of working full time from home. Learn more about him at http://www.darrenolander.com

Tags: social networking

It seems as though everywhere I turn I’m bombarded with information about some aspect of social networking — Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, Ryze, Fast Pitch…the list goes on and on. I’ve been quite slow to jump on the social networking bandwagon. I did create a MySpace profile about a year ago, and recently gave up on doing anything with it, as I wasn’t seeing any results.  My new choice in the social networking arena is Facebook, which is where my target market appears to be hanging out.

Based on my use and evaluation of several of these platforms over the last few years, here’s my synopsis of the 3 primary social networking sites important for online business owners:  Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn:

Facebook:  This one is the current fad, with many people conducting teleclasses and coaching programs on how to best use it.  I do like its clean interface and easy-to-read profiles.  Many people, from all demographics, seem to be on Facebook.  The service offers the ability to add friends by searching for high school/college classmates and by searching former/current colleagues in the workplace.  The downside to the application is that you must have a Facebook account in order to view anyone’s profile. More and more plug-ins (small applications) are being added to Facebook every day that tweak how this application functions.  If you’re an author or a business owner, Facebook permit you to add stand-alone pages about your business(es) or book(s) to your profile.  Lastly, if you blog, you can plug your blog feed into your profile to update your friends from your blog every time you make a new post.

LinkedIn:  This has been the steady, reliable, social networking platform that’s very career and job focused.  Your profile consists primarily of your job history, without much flexibility to promote your business.  If your target market consists of corporate types, this is probably the social networking platform for you.  You have the ability to add connections in the same way that Facebook provides, and your connections have the ability to submit a recommendation about you if they wish.

MySpace:  I still find MySpace the most annoying of all the social networking sites, and hear too many horror stories of MySpace stalkers and of people having to close accounts due to harassment by other users.  This is still the domain of teen set, although most musicians and many artists successfully create followings here for themselves.  MySpace offers many options to personalize and customize your profile, which renders many profiles virtually impossible to read.  If your target market leans toward teens or creative types, this is the social networking site for you.

Here’s what I have learned along the way to make social networking a successful marketing strategy for your business:

1.  Pick one platform.  So many business owners spread themselves too thin by participating in several social networking sites.  I’ve discovered that you could easily devote your entire day to this endeavor and never accomplish anything else.  Pick the best platform that will get you in front of your target market and stick to it.

2.  Determine your objective.  How does this social networking task fit into your overall marketing strategy?  What’s your objective — to sell more info products, to grow your list, to develop joint venture or strategic alliance partners?  Determine your goal and remain focused on that goal in all that you do when spending your time to work your platform.

3.  Work the platform.  No marketing strategy will succeed unless you pay attention to it.  In order to successfully use social networking, you need to work your platform every single day.  Ideally, this means devoting 30-60 minutes each day on activities like seeking new friends/connections/, commenting on other people’s profiles, updating your own profile, and notifying your connections about your current activities.

4.  Be patient.  Rome wasn’t built in a day, and you won’t see results of your efforts in a day, either.  This is a slow and steady process, much the same way that face-to-face networking is.  You’ve got to be out there building relationships and helping others before you’re going to see your social networking goals realized.

5.  Invite others.  Don’t hide the fact that you’re playing in the social networking arena — invite your contacts to play along with you.  Most platforms offer you the ability to send out these invitations from your contact database. Let your ezine subscribers and blog readers know as well — never pass up an opportunity to get to know your contacts.

Like it or not, social networking is here to stay.  Follow these five tips to make social networking a marketing strategy that works for your online business.

Online Business Resource Queen (TM) and Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise on the Internet, and get more clients online. To claim your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, visit her site at http://www.OnlineBizU.com . Ask Donna an Internet Marketing question at http://www.AskDonnaGunter.com

Tags: social networking