Do:

Target event invitations by location. You can target by country, state or even city. If you are having a happy hour or a wine club pick up party, do not send your invite to all fans - send it only to those in your area. The bigger the event the larger the radius. No one is going to travel 2 hours to go to today's happy hour.

Post interesting and relevant content! Keep your fans interested and engaged by providing interesting news, information, etc.

Create a short vanity URL. Any Fan page with more than 25 Fans can create a shortened URL for their page as opposed to the lang ones automatically created by facebook, similar to ours:
Get your URL out there! Once you have a short URL, put in in your signature, on business cards, marketing material, etc.
Link your fan page to your website with a "become a fan" button.

Link your blog to your fan page. If you have a blog, use Social RSS to have your blog content automatically transferred to Facebook.
Use the "send an update to fans" wisely - and sparingly. Most people's in-boxes are inundated and overuse will cause you to lose fans, not gain them, so save this for important messages. Post general updates and product info to your wall.
Accept or ignore causes, pages, etc. as appropriate and as you wish your customer’s to perceive you and your business (religious, political, etc.)
Engage your fans. Reply to their posts and respond to emails as you would your regular email in-box.
Update your page as frequently as makes sense for you and your business. Post photos, specials, recipes, ask opinions, etc. Keep it interesting!
Seriously consider allowing your fans the option to post. Many businesses have their page set so that only they can post, which can come off as very self-serving. Encourage engagement by your fans!
Save time and energy. Link your fan page to your Twitter to update both at once.
Post and tag your fans in photos of your events. However, use discretion when posting! You will not create good will if you post unflattering photos of anyone.
Send an invite to become a fan over and over. Once, maybe twice is enough. Sending more than is rude and intrusive.

Over use event invites. I have sometimes receives 4 or 5 invites from the same business within minutes. This is not a way to gain fans - it is a way to lose them.
Only use your fan page to sell, sell, sell. Yes, people realize that you are business, and you wish them to buy your product or wine, but who wants to go anywhere where they are just going to feel "sold to?". Mix it up and post some things just for fun and interest.
Instant message people as a means to sell something! (No, for the third time, I don't want to become an Avon Rep)

Making a Quick Impact Online as a New Blogger

You have become adept at social media. Your next step is to start blogging on your own. There are many ways to begin. Study other bloggers’ work and then start to blog about your business and about your passions.
As the technology continues to be more and more developed, it is more important for than ever for business people to use blogging as one of their main avenues of communication. Content in the form of a website was considered the most advanced way of delivering content to other people for a very long time. However, the content found on websites is now deemed to be static. With the advent of blogs, which has been around for several years at this point, the content that is being shared online is dynamic. The content is fresh and new content is being offered (and delivered) on a very frequent and regular basis.
As a business person, you will be doing yourself and your business a tremendous disservice if you don’t start to blog about what you do, what you have to offer, and how you can help other people to solve their problems. Blogging is definitely a means to your being able to build relationships with other people and to interact in a very effective manner that will hopefully lead to greater success for you and your business.
As a new blogger, one of the challenges is to deliver regular, high-quality content on a frequent basis. It is one thing to be able to write a few blogs and be done with it. It is quite another thing to write and publish two or three blog articles a week on an ongoing basis until the end of time.  It is very important to build up your momentum when it comes to your blog. Once you have a rhythm established, you will find it less difficult to keep up the pace of frequent blog articles.
Being a blogger involves a serious commitment. You can’t simply start writing and expect to be a success in one second. Just like it is with all relationships in life, you need to build your online relationships. You very well may someday be earning a nice amount of money from your blog, although that could be down the road a bit. Initially, however, you should focus on your first (and one of your most important) objective, which is connecting on a personal level with other people. You have made a commitment to creatively come up with new ideas on a regular basis and the commitment is not only for you and your business but is also for the people whom you are trying to reach. As a new blogger, in the beginning, there are several stages that you will experience. They are:

• Listening: When you first start to blog, you should do as much research as possible. You should research topics about which you are interested. Additionally,  you should read the blog articles of other successful bloggers so that you can focus on what they do that has made them successful.
   
• Euphoria: You have done a lot of research and you are confident that you are ready to actually start writing and to share your interesting and valuable thoughts with other people. You may very well experience a feeling of euphoria after you have launched your blog. People will start to read what you have written and you will be on top of the world.
   
• Fear: Once you have moved past the initial stage, you may see that your readers are not reading your blog articles as faithfully and consistently as they were in the beginning. You begin to feel afraid that you won’t be able to come up with new and exciting topics to keep them enticed.
   
• Being in control: Once you are more deeply into your blog writing, you may start to feel that you must write. It may not seem as though you are having as much fun anymore. The longer you think about it, the more frustrated you start to feel.
   
• A feeling of isolation: You get the sense that, of all of the bloggers in the world, you are the one with the most difficulty when it comes to creating new ideas. You start to feel as though you are working in a vacuum and that everyone else has a large, good-quality readership and that those readers interact regularly with the other bloggers. It will come to you also.
   
• Resentment: You start to feel resentful about having this huge commitment that you have made to blogging every week. The mere idea of blogging makes you uncomfortable.
   
• Acceptance: If you did the right thing all along when it comes to your blog, you will have moved past all of the obstacles that you felt were preventing you from becoming a successful blogger. You will begin to understand why you made the commitment to blog in the first place. You start to feel excited about writing your blog and striving to come up with new ideas on a regular basis.
   
• Determination: At this point, you have put a blogging strategy in place. Your goals should be reasonable and not impossible to reach. You will need to develop the blog by continuing to offer valuable, useful, and perceptive information on a consistent basis to your readers. Another one of your goals should be to engage your readers and generate interesting and thought-provoking discussions on all sorts of interesting topics.
   
• Constantly learning: Once you start blogging, you will see that you are also learning a great deal from other people. The more you learn, the more interesting and insightful information you can offer to others.

Conclusion
The stages that have been described are, in some ways, very similar to the stages of grief. Not unlike those stages, it is important to persevere until you have gotten to the point emotionally where you feel really upbeat and excited about what you are doing and until you gain the confidence to know that your contribution to other people (in this case, in the form of a blog) is valued and helpful.
 We are pleased to provide you with the insightful comments contained herein. Please contact us at CompuKol Communications for further discussion on how we might be able to assist you and your team and don’t forget to “like” our Facebook page.

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Get yourself out there – Make sure that you are on Facebook and updating regularly with your newest properties. Make sure you’re connecting your inventory with Google friendly sites such as Trulia and Zillow so that your homes will show up when prospective buyers Google certain neighboorhoods.
Understand the medium – Find out how people use Twitter to search for homes (much in the same way Twitter can be used to search for jobs). Make sure that you’re using the same terms that searchers are. If there’s a preferred hashtag for your city (#phx for Phoenix, for example), make sure to use it.
Utilize the technology – With a $100 Flip video camera and some basic movie editing software, you can use YouTube as a showcase for home tours and customer testimonials. A very low entry cost to open up a whole world of buyers.
And of course, make sure to read over all the other advice we have for Small Businesses getting into Social Media; much of it is applicable no matter what industry you’re in.

Using Social Media to Become a Subject Matter Expert

The arrival of the Internet has drastically changed the way we do business.  Therefore, it has become increasingly important to differentiate yourself — to stand out among your competitors and to be known as an expert in your area.  Why is it so important?  The answer is simple. People simply want to deal with someone who is credible and knows his subject well, and the only way to earn that confidence is to be an "expert" in your area.
The arrival of social media has made it much easier to be known as an expert in your field.  You can market yourself, your products and services, and at the same time, stay in close contact with your clients and customers, while also networking with new people.
Here are two ways in which this can be done:

1. Using social media to promote a product, service, skill, expertise, etc, referred to as social media marketing.
    
2. Using it as a medium to network with new clients and develop active relationships or social media networking.

The bottom line is this:  you are looking to build a "relationship" — a level of trust between you and your customers or visitors to your site. 
To become an "expert" in your respective field, use social media in the following ways:

1. Create a positive brand image. Make sure that you are seen as somebody who is knowledgeable and well informed. Develop your personal brand by establishing a reputation in your niche. Always be sure to present yourself in a way that ensures that you will be perceived by people in the right way.
    
2. Join various social networks. Create your own profile page on all networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc, or any networking site that is relevant to your industry or niche.  Be sure to regularly post content on these sites.
    
3. Participate in online forums and discussions. You can answer questions posted by other users, spread information about your work, as well as discuss topics associated with your field.
    
4. Create your own blog and website. Blogging is one of the simplest ways to share information on things you want to talk about.  By posting quality content on your blog, you can not only demonstrate your knowledge but also have rightful ownership over it.
    
5. Maintain and grow your network. Again, sites like Facebook and LinkedIn are excellent places to connect with people working in your area of expertise. 

Conclusion
With the help of social media, you can create a unique identity, distinguish yourself from everyone else, and promote yourself as an expert in your chosen field.

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7 Ways to Get Your Blog Posts Shared On Facebook

Article Complements of ProBlogger

Get More Views on YouTube

Article Complements of Chris Brogan

 

I just stumbled upon something interesting:

If you are uploading videos and you want them to be found better via search, you might consider which category you use to classify them. Because I just noted that there are only four being listed in the advanced search functions: Science&Tech, Howto&Style, News&Politics, and Gaming. So, every video I’ve ever posted to YouTube is currently under “People&Blogs,” and thus, if I’m hoping someone searches me by some kind of category versus a keyword, I’m invisible.
With that in mind, I looked around for some tips to share with you on how to get more views on YouTube.
How to Optimize YouTube Videos for SEO.
How to Boost your SEO with a YouTube Channel.
YouTube SEO Tips (this one was really useful to me.)
YouTube Basics for SEO.
How to Optimize Your YouTube Videos (the slideshow has some useful bits, for sure).
Another way to do better on YouTube is to Get Seen.
Yes, there are other video channels, but YouTube is the boss when it comes to search.

There are few things more embarrassing than getting caught with damaging materials on social profiles, particularly by a relative, employer, or competitor. What we posted weeks, months, even years ago can come back to bite us. That’s the nature of social media in many ways – to allow us to expose ourselves. The degree to which we do so, however, is often what gets us in trouble.
Drunk tweeting, getting tagged in Facebook photos doing less-than-appropriate activities, even breaking the law – all are things that have not only caused embarrassment but have also helped get people prosecuted for crimes. Even if you’re not out murdering people, companies are using social media as part of background checks when looking for employees. It’s a dangerous world, indeed, this thing we call “sharing.”
Depending on how active you are in social media, you should probably considering “cleaning” things up. I was recently asked by a friend to help her go through her social media profiles before she went job-hunting. It seemed that most services out there were geared towards businesses finding juice about us rather than us finding our own juice.
One exception was Socioclean. After reviewing it this morning I noticed a few things that impressed me:

Private Screening

People ask why we don’t review many Facebook apps and services. The answer is simple – I don’t want anyone having access to post on my wall. Call me paranoid, but when the Facebook or Twitter permissions screens pop up, they almost always grant permission to post. Socioclean passed my first test – get info (which I don’t mind giving) and don’t post anything on my behalf.
Upon further examination, the site “feels” secure. I have our Mr. Paranoid investigating further but for now, all is well.
Perhaps most importantly, it only scans what is accessible by the public. Private messages are excluded from the search.

Paranoia FTW!

The search screen prompted me for keywords. At first, I thought, “Oh great. I have to think about this?”
Instead of entering keywords, I let it run on default. Above, you’ll see part of the initial report I received. Keywords that were flagged without my prompting were fire, balls, and kill. Yes, I can see how those words, when used inappropriately, could be a problem:
“If my boss thinks he can fire me, he has another thing coming. Tomorrow, I’ll chop off his balls and kill him.”
Thankfully, I didn’t use the words in that order or context.

Photo Tagging – The Hidden Killer

Sometimes, it isn’t necessarily what you say but rather what others say about you.
So, you’re out on the town and one of your girlfriends snaps a shot of you doing a drunken table dance. She puts it on Facebook and tags you in it. Either you don’t monitor Facebook enough or you’re just so active that the photo makes it onto your profile page and off too quickly for you to see. Either way, it’s not a good thing when a student in the 3rd-grade class that you teach finds it.
In the example above, words like BJ, ho, and blunt were found in images associated with me. Thankfully (again) they did not point to pictures that put me in a bad light, but I’m thankful for being able to monitor those.

Clean the &$#*)@ Off Once a _____

Fill in the blank. Once a year? Once a week? It all depends on how active you are and what you do. Definitely do it before searching for a job or shortly after getting arrested.

How To Get Your Business Found Online.

Business owners are often sitting ducks when it comes to the amount of no information, misinformation and sometimes outright lies they are told about getting their business found online.

They pay people to help them with their websites and are given as evidence of their 'success' that they can find their website when they look for it by name! This is deceptive and very dismal practice.

Other lies that are told to business owners is that they have to pay to advertise their business online and while they are having the money prised from their hand, they are told nothing about the benefit of organic (which they don't have to pay for) search.

In other cases people are sold websites with no contact details, flash sites that appear to Google as basically a blank space, and yet others that look very fancy, but have no chance of being found online, with pictures that take an age to download, poor coding with no descriptions, no content that relates to the key topic and no chance of being useful. Sometimes even with typos.

So what is a business owner to do? How do they tell the shysters from the people who actually have the skills and the intention to provide a site at a reasonable cost that can be managed easily and kept up-to-date?

Like anything else, it is important to know what you need to know to purchase well. This is a good habit to form, since it means that you can hire good help for whatever you might be looking for, as well as understand what is important to YOUR customers when it comes to looking at your offers.

For your website, the key is getting the information you want people to know about you, on the site from the outset.

For local businesses, looking to service the local market, then keep these things in mind:

Website Checklist

• Your phone number clearly visible in a prominent position. Don't make them have to look for it!
• Location - with map is a good idea if you have a store or premises where customers visit.
• What You Do - amazing how often I see websites where I have to hunt to find out what business they are in.
• Locations you service (if you go to customers)
• How to order online (or by phone) if people out of area want to buy from you
• Contact email. Forms are okay but many people like to know what your email address is so they know you are a real person not some scam artist. 
• Contact links to your other social media platforms, Twitter, Facebook - if you use these! Don't put them on there if your only tweet is from 18 months ago. More on social media and local business here
• Link to your blog. And yes, you should have a blog and it should be posted to regularly
• Description of your business in the code for your site.

Good links to your site from other sites is important, so look for opportunities to get links from authoritative sites. That will help you get found online. Check out the free directories that you can submit a link for local traffic.

There are many free products that can get you found online - even when you don't have a website.  Expect to pay for quality information from your advisors.

Before all this though, think about your strategy for your website and your presence online. Think about how it fits within your overall strategy for growing your business.

What purpose do you want it to serve?
How will you resource it?
How will you measure how well it is working?
How will you integrate what you are doing online with your offline marketing?
How will you monitor the statistics on your traffic and interpret them?

Planning is imperative for a good web experience. Even if your website is doing well, it can do better.

Like anything else in your business, you need to know the right questions to ask, and the way to oversee your results and review, review, review. Tweaking can be a simple thing that brings great results.  Get your website analyzed and really know what situation you are in right now, so you can take steps to always be improving.

And make sure that you have a way for me to buy something from your website if I visit!

This by no means a comprehensive list but if you start with the basics right, your website will have a much better chance to provide you with good results.



Contact me if you'd like more information.

Lindy Asimus
Business Coach
Mobile: 0403 365855
lindyasimus@gmail.com
www.lindyasimus.com
www.designbusinessengineering.com

The internet is full of drunks.
OK, not actual drunks. BUT, people who are acting as if they are under the affects of alcohol…no self restraint and poor judgment. In social media terms, this can lead to some downright ugly posters.
You know, those people who bitch, start fights…anything to get a rise out of you and/or your company.  Dealing with them can easily escalate into a PR nightmare, causing your company unwanted attention. Here is a basic trouble shooting guide to dealing with the problem kids.

1. Is the poster a current/past employee of your company?
   1. If YES…you have a lot more power on your side to deal with this person. If they are a past employee, it is in your best interest to block the person from commenting on your channel. While this is fairly easy to do on Facebook, Twitter is another matter. Hopefully you were proactive and had the employee sign a social media policy. If the poster is a current employee, talking with them about the issue can help both sides to connect and understand the best way to handle the posting.
   2. If NO…go to step 2
2. Does the post fit into one of these categories?
   1. Reasonably Offensive. Does the poster use inappropriate language/post offensive images relative to your audience? Ex. Go F**k yourself Florida State.
   2. Libel. Is the statement false, harmful to those it’s directed at and made without adequate research into the truthfulness of the statement? Ex. Muvico Theaters kills babies and feeds them to orphan.
   3. Combative. Is it the apparent intention of the poster to create an online fight by attacking other posters and/or using the above points to create drama?

In all three of these instances you have the right to delete the post. If the person repeats the offense, it is within your best judgment to block the person. Even though Social Media is supposed to be an open conversation, it also needs to be within reason and truth.
A Word of Warning
Do not delete a post if it reflects your company in an unfavorable light. Instead use the opportunity to address the issue to the best of your ability. Give specifics with time lines so the person and viewers know you are serious. This could help to head off an upcoming PR crises.
There will always be trouble makers, especially online. Dealing with them should be delicate and professional. This trouble shooting guide can take you through this ordeal, leaving your company on the road to positive PR and higher profits.

Article Complements of Visual Alliance Media

Editor’s Note: The following is a guest post written by Melissa Barker, who specializes in online and social media marketing for Siber Systems.
The infamous leak of 100 million Facebook user pages in July of 2010 caused a scare among users and created what may turn out to be a golden opportunity for potential Facebook competitors. A security researcher by the name of Ron Bowes created a script that downloaded the information that users chose to make publicly available from the Facebook User Directory. Hence, this alleged leak was actually nothing more than the collection and publication of user information already made public by 100 million Facebook users.
In addition, Facebook suffers a host of other privacy concerns including:

1. Facebook users are confused by the complex security settings and most of them were unaware of their personal data being public
2. Hackers have repeatedly defeated Facebook security to harvest user information
3. A growing number of Facebook applications provide easy access to member data
4. Facebook’s own connect buttons make user information readily available to other sites

The net result is that user privacy on Facebook is virtually nonexistent. With security being brought to the forefront of users’ minds, it is an ideal time for a more security-conscious social network to make a grab for Facebook’s massive membership. One prime candidate, although still in Alpha, is Diaspora. This new social networking site touts the not so subtle security centric slogan, “Share what you want, with whom you want.” They stress user ownership of all content shared with friends. Other social networks are in the works for release in early 2011 as well, such as Google Me.
The notion that Facebook is not going to continue to be the only game in town may sound a little crazy given that their user base has exceeded 500 million. But if history proves anything, Facebook’s ‘monopoly’ is temporary. Taking a look back at the last decade alone, there were two cases in which the public feared a company was ‘taking over’ the internet.
In early 2000, people were panicking that AOL was taking over. The AOL and Time Warner merger further stoked these fears. However, the mega-media conglomerate faltered for a number of reasons, chief among them was a single-minded focus on mining the then lucrative Internet dial-up access business, while ignoring the growing importance of broadband Internet access.
MySpace is another example: officially launched in January of 2004, it attracted over a million users within just a month. By 2005, MySpace was the king of the Internet, with a base of nearly 80 million users. News Corp. purchased the swiftly growing social network in 2005 for a cool $580 million. New management wasted no time in trying to monetize MySpace by inserting advertising into almost every aspect of the user experience. MySpace peaked in early 2007, with 150 million users, but due to the barrage of ads, it began a steep decline in membership that plummeted to 109 million users by mid-2010. The morale of story is that Internet titans come and go rapidly.
Why should this matter to businesses? The answer is simple. Keeping an eye on these emerging social networks enables a company to be in on the ground floor, seizing market share, and reaping profits from a growing customer base. Given the large user base Facebook has acquired, businesses should continue to market there, but remain vigilant for other valuable social media marketing opportunities in 2011. The importance of diversification in marketing efforts also holds true for social media marketing. Focusing all your marketing efforts on Facebook could prove to be a dangerous strategy in 2011.
Melissa Barker specializes in online and social media marketing for Siber Systems.  Siber Systems creates and markets a wide range of software for both professional programmers and the general public.  The company’s best-known products are RoboForm and GoodSync.  RoboForm, first released over ten years ago, makes logging into websites and filling online forms faster, easier and more secure.  For more information please visit http://www.roboform.com.

 

 

 

The Art of Writing Effective Commercial Tweets

Twitter is all the rage among business owners. They have recognized for quite a while how important Twitter is for the success of their businesses. However, it is not only about using Twitter, it is about writing effectively for business.
Writing effective commercial tweets, if done correctly, is a real art form. When you sit down and decide what to write, it is best to have an outline of sorts in your head as to how to proceed. There are levels of success that are directly related to the tweets themselves, such as being retweeted and getting “favorited.” If someone favorites your tweets, you are really successful.
There are several elements that must be considered before you tweet even a single character:

• The language that you will be using
• The medium: Communication
• The system: social networking and distributed messaging
• The interaction: the call to action
• The content: branding, marketing and sales

When you tweet about your business, it is important to be as graphic as possible within the limitation of words. You want to attract as large a number of people as possible with you tweets. In short, you want to attract as many current and potential customers as possible. The content of the messages must touch people in a personal way, including discussing lifestyle, values, cost, etc. It is very clear to marketers that the topics must be chosen very carefully if they are going to affect other people in a profound manner.
Your tweets must always have a personal flavor to them and they must always entice the person reading them enough to want to read more and more and want to become more and more interactive. With online marketing and communication, viral is a good thing. However, with that being said, a great deal of communication is successful because it appeals to people on a more intellectual and subtle level. People love to read about things that help to to better themselves and strengthen their professional persona. Also, when you furnish a Call to Action, you are not just providing a link back to your website but you are also asking your readers to share, like, recommend, tweet and forward what you are offering.
In order for your business to succeed online, it depends on the willingness of the readers to get engaged and stay engaged as well as their willingness to share what you are offering to other people in their online communities.
What do your tweets convey?
When you tweet for your business, your objective is that you leave enough of an impression on your readers to make them want to speak about how wonderful you and your business are. Along with that, you want your readers to think of you and your business every time they come across your company’s branding. Not only are  you hoping that your readers are aware of your brand but you are also hoping, ultimately, that they buy what  you are selling.
When you tweet for business, you are providing useful and direct information that people can absorb and use in quick, easy spurts. Your tweets (in words) must provide a great deal to your readers. They must act as words and images and their appeal must be very powerful. The more appealing your tweets are, the more people will want to interact with you.
What appeals to your readers?
All social media (including Twitter) will only succeed if the reader becomes engaged. You, as the human, are the only one who can convey anything meaningful about your offerings. Unlike in traditional marketing, you must use words alone to attract customers.
The language that is used in your tweets has a totally different flavor than it would in traditional marketing. In tweets, there is a lot more first person used than in traditional marketing. The two methods of communication are equal in their effectiveness and each one hold value within its given context. The linguistic approach that is used in social media appeals to people on a very basic and emotional level.
What types of content are your readers looking for?
The types of content that appeal to your readers when you tweet are recommendations, announcements, requests, questions, answers, invitations and offers. Your tweets should be succinct and clear and very appealing. People don’t have time or patience for anything long or involved online. That is precisely why Twitter is so tremendously successful. Of course, always remember to read over your tweets before you send them. Errors are distracting and they create a negative impression. It is one thing to appear human and it is another thing altogether to appear flawed.
Conclusion
With Twitter being such a vital part of your business’s social media marketing campaign, it is important to embrace all that it can contribute to your business and recognize that it is very creative in its own way. Tweet as much as possible and as often as possible. You and  your business will be pleased with the results.
We are pleased to provide you with the insightful comments contained herein. Please contact us at CompuKol Communications for further discussion on how we might be able to assist you and your team and don’t forget to “like” our Facebook page.

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One of the fastest ways to bring in money is by making affiliate recommendations.
Affiliate marketing is when two marketers come together – one with a product and one with an audience – and they split the profits on any sales they make together. The affiliate sends traffic to the product creator’s sales page, and the product creator closes the sale and gives a commission to the affiliate for every paid referral.
You can become an affiliate for nearly anything – from Dell computers to beer-making machines to books and products on sites like Amazon.
This will be old hat for most, perhaps.
But let me ask you this, O Grizzled Veteran…
…do you have a systematic, strategically planned program of making affiliate recommendations?
I thought not.
You can get started right now by thinking about what might already be on people’s minds — you know, like their New Year’s Resolutions.
For that category, you could make affiliate recommendations for products that deal with weight loss, exercise, finances, relationships, productivity… oh my, there’s a lot of opportunity here, yes?
Put your thinking cap on, sharpen your pencil, and plan your promotions.

Small businesses are perfect candidates to use Social Media to help them reach as many potential customers as the big guys. It tends to level the playing field and allow the small business access to the same  opportunities as the bigger companies with deeper pockets.
Let me give you an example of someone who wouldn’t normally use Social Media…a dentist. Dr. Irena Vaksman is a dentist in San Francisco who works in a building with several other dentists. Her husband set her up with a Facebook page, Twitter profile, YouTube channel and a website. She uses Yelp in addition to these platforms to share reviews of her services. Last October, she partnered with Groupon and offered a deal for X-Rays and an exam. This brought her 320 new patients and helped to distinguish her from the hundreds of other dentists she competes with daily. She uses YouTube to share dental and health procedures.  She uses Facebook to engage her community base and Twitter to share tips and pointers.
According to a recent University of Maryland study the percentage of small businesses utilizing social media has doubled from 12% to 24% in the last year. Small businesses are seeing the value and adding a line item into their marketing budgets for Social Media…rightfully so!
Would you like to get 320 new customers? I think you should be adding the Social Media line item to YOUR budget. Don’t be afraid about the dollars; Social Media can fit into any budget. You can do it yourself OR you can hire a firm to handle it for you. Whatever option you choose, just do it! Remember…whether you do or not, your competition is.


 Article complements of Visual Alliance Media

Article complemntes of Social Media Explorer



Editor’s Note: The following is a guest post from Ilana Rabinowitz, Vice-President of Marketing for Lion Brand Yarn Company.
These three concepts are not new ­– in fact they are age-old techniques that merchants have used whenever they came to public markets to sell their wares and stood face-to-face with the customer. For a while, in the era of mass media, these vital elements were lost, but now, digital marketing tools like websites and social media give us the opportunity to recapture elements of that personal relationship.
What has also changed are the customers. They are bombarded with messages and showered with choices. They need some way to tell the difference between you and the competition.  These three concepts, ideally suited to the mechanics of social media, will help make the competition virtually disappear by creating a place in the universe of products and services that is yours, and yours alone.
1. Storytelling

When you communicate by telling a story, you influence people by helping them decide for themselves what the truth is.  That was the premise of the movie, Inception: the most powerful idea is one you are able to come to on your own (an application of the first rule of storytelling 101: show, don’t tell.)
Stories are told in “about us” pages, on YouTube and on blogs. This about us page from Top Secret Recipes, is an example of effective storytelling.  Todd Wilbur, the owner of the company, shares his struggle to replicate his favorite store and restaurant-bought foods using recipes he found online but was always disappointed in the results, so he set out to create recipes himself. He went from  being a guy who couldn’t hold a job to a becoming a best-selling author just as his bank account was about to run dry.  Even though the story is over 1,000 words long, it holds your attention, and in the end, you want to buy his recipe book, even if you don’t cook.
What if you sell something as simple as notebooks or pens?  How do you tell a story about a so simple a product? Look at what Moleskine or Shaeffer Pens have to say about their products and you’ll see how a great story can wrap itself around even simple office supply products.
Daily Grommet uses the art of storytelling to sell products through videos. On this site, a new product is featured every day in a video where the story of the company and the product explain why this item has made the cut of this carefully curated video blog.
Why is storytelling so important?

• People can relate to brands through their stories. Stories are humanizing. People connect with stories.  (So it’s important for real people to appear in stories.)
• People remember details and messages more effectively through stories.  Storytelling helps people create images in the mind and these images “stick” better than just talk. (So don’t shy away from the colorful, quirky details that give your story character.)
• Storytelling conveys the unique evolution of your brand. Beyond the benefits and features is the journey of journey of how your business came to be and why it endures. (So make sure you convey the sense of time, history and journey–a journey the visitor will share with you.)

2. Emotion
In a world with virtually unlimited choice, people don’t need more data, they need information that helps them make a choice. Most people believe they make decisions by weighing all the facts, the pros and cons–but research shows that this is not the way it works.
Jonah Lehrer explains the decision-making process in his book, How We Decide. He tells the story of a man who had a brain operation to remove a tumor.  After having the tumor removed, the patient experienced a strange side-effect.  He lost his ability to make a decision.  He understood the concept of deciding, and the need to make a decision, yet even the smallest decisions became overwhelming.  He could not decide something as simple as whether or not to get dressed in the morning because he was confounded by all the factors that went into making the decision. His inability to make a decision led to the loss of his business, financial ruin and the end of his marriage because, like all of us, he needed to make hundreds of decisions every day of the week in order to move forward.
The renowned neurologist, Antononio Damasio, who treated this patient, realized that the man exhibited no emotion when relating the tragic turn his life had taken.  Damasio concluded, based on this and the location of the area of the brain that was removed, that emotions play a key role in decision-making. Emotions provide a form of shorthand, that takes the myriad factors in the decision-making process, and collects them into the feelings that actually drive us to make choices.   If we weighed all of the pros and cons of every decision using all of the rational factors at our disposal, we would not even be able to place a single food item into our cart at the grocery store because we would be considering too many details.  Trying to evaluate the nutritional evidence, the tastes of every family member, the relative cost of other similar items, the conflicting opinions on the value of buying organic, the price per pound, and the space in available in the refrigerator, would have us standing in front of a bin of onions until the store closed.
If you would like to see just how effective emotion can be as a selling tool, I can think of no better example than the famous scene in Mad Men when Don Draper is pitching the slide projector that was eventually called the Kodak Carousel.  His pitch is so filled with allusions to family, good times, blessed events, shared happiness–all the experiences that give rise to powerful emotions, that by the end of his presentation, you don’t really care what he is selling–you want it.
Once you realize that the reasons we act are deeply rooted in an emotional and mostly subconscious process, you begin to understand that connecting with people in a way that moves them is more important than sharing a list of product benefits.
3. Purpose and Meaning
Something marketers have learned from the way consumers respond to extraordinary brands, is that a brand has to stand for something.  When a brand has a greater purpose than selling its products, it creates meaning for consumers that keep it top of mind and makes the buying decision easier.
Target is an example of a chain of stores that embraces higher purpose while (not coincidentally) creating an extraordinary and uplifting shopping experience.  I walk into Target and I feel good about the well lit, colorful store design, the unique and beautifully designed products and the neat and organized condition of the store.  Target doesn’t just look good–they are dedicated to the value of good design.
I also know, from print ads, the website, and the company’s social media, that they have been named one of the most admired companies; that they make significant contributions to charity, especially education; and that they are committed to diversity in their hiring practices. Over 3.5 million people “like” their Facebook page, a virtual engagement-fest where one post often receives over 1,000 comments.  Target has earned my loyalty.  I don’t even consider shopping at another store if I can find a product there and I always walk out with unexpected finds.
Companies with higher values inspire loyalty. They stay on our radar and come to mind when we need what they have to offer.  They keep us interested in their work and engaged with what they have to say.  That doesn’t happen with companies that are simply about selling products and making profits.
Check out the websites and social media platforms of some of the most successful companies doing this.  What you see is a genuine, sincere commitment to goals, values and purpose that go way beyond (but never neglecting) making the best product.  What social media provide are ways for the customer to participate in the purpose and to provide insight that keeps you and them on track.  Here are a few examples of such companies:

• Zappos does not just talk about selling shoes, its goal is to make customers happy and their extreme devotion to customer service make this lofty goal a reality.
• Starbucks strives to “inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.”  That’s why so many writers, students and entrepreneurs feel at home creating, learning and building a future for their business on their laptops in Starbucks stores.
• Jet Blue doesn’t have a mission statement. Instead they focus on core values–safety,  caring, integrity, fun and passion, which makes you feel like part of the team when you help clean up the plane.
• Whole Foods is guided by the words, whole foods, whole people, whole planet.  Shopping here is not just about stocking up on fruit–it’s a way of shopping that supports a lifestyle choice.

These brands have created a place of their own.  Not everyone is going to love the place a brand carves for itself, but for those who do, their brand will be warmly embraced, and no other place will do.
Now, take a look at the brands you admire.  Can you point to those that are good storytellers, that use emotion well in communications and that have a greater purpose than their product alone?
Rabinowitz approaches marketing with an uncompromising focus on the customer and a grounding in psychology and neuroscience to understand what motivates people to make buying decisions.  She believes that businesses need to develop their own media as a means of creating a branded experience for customers.  She has spoken at digital marketing conferences including Web 2.0, Blogher Business and Internet Retailer. She is the author of a book about psychology, a book about mindfulness and co-author of a book about the culture of knitting. Follow her on

Complements of Jamie Lynn Morgan from her blog on NW Marketing 411 News


You have been blogging for some time and you don't seem to be getting any traffic. Now you won't always have people that will comment, (although that is nice because feedback is always welcome), but if you have analytics set up on your blog you can tell how many people are visiting and how long they stay on your site. If it seems like people aren't staying very long and you aren't getting very many hits these are some things to consider.
Are you being these three things?

1. Believable
2. Genuine
3. Transparent

Nothing will turn a reader off quicker than a blog post that appears to be made up, fake, and full of sales pitches. There is nothing wrong with your blog having it's own "voice". After all you are the author and your personality is going to be what draws readers in and keeps them coming back for more.

You also need to make sure that everything else that you do with your marketing whether it is on or offline your blog should be the center of everything. Link back to it in social networking sites, encourage people to submit it to news share sites, and make sure it is listed in your marketing materials.



Now maybe you are being the three things mentioned above (believable, genuine, and transparent), but you still aren't getting anyone to read your posts. Maybe you are forgetting to do some of the things mentioned here:

• Appearance: Use visual elements such as video, images, icons, graphs, charts, and other enhancements to make the post more appealing or catch the readers attention. (notice graphic above)
• Keep it clean and to the point: No one wants to read something that just goes on and on about the same point. 3-5 paragraphs is a good starting point, but remember that sometimes it will take a few more than that to get your point across. Just make sure that you stay interesting and on point.
• Link to appropriate sources: If you quote someone or are talking about a specific place or business link the text back to the original source. This promotes good will and is also a great way to help out your fellow businesses or partners.
• Write powerful headlines: Headlines should provoke, confront, and speak directly to your readers.
• Include reader friendly lists: People are skimming articles more and more and giving them an easy to read list will encourage them to stay a bit longer.
• Write how-to-articles: It is never a bad thing to provide people with information. It establishes you as an expert and you can gain new customers due to your knowledge of a particular subject.
• Use storytelling: When you use an interesting story to draw your readers in and in turn it makes you approachable and they realize you are a human being.
• Interview other people: Sometimes you have a story to tell your readers, but you aren't the best person to do that. Interview someone who has more knowledge on the subject and they in turn will share the post with their sphere of incfluence.
• Write reviews: If you have used a particular product, gone to a local restaurant, or just have an experience you would like to share write about it.
• Post consistently: Nothing makes you lose readership or discourages people from frequenting your blog than not be consistent with your posts. If you are going to be away and unable to post then tell your readers or ask someone to come in and provide guest posts in your absence.

As this year comes to a close and we start planning for 2011 it might be a good idea to take a look at what you have done with your blog this past year and decide to start adding some of the elements I talk about above. I am sure your readers will Thank you!

 

 

Using Online Review Services

Nowadays, particularly in this economy, you have very little time to waste when it comes to your business. You don’t want to waste time with products, services and businesses that don’t really provide you with what you need.
Our economy today is very different than our economy of the past. There are several profound differences, which have paved the way for online search and review services that can really help business owners to get what they need quickly and effectively. They are:

• High levels of unemployment
• Less discretionary income
• Falling home prices and foreclosures
• Many scammers and snake oil salesmen
• Faltering traditional media, especially newspapers
• People putting their trust in their friends, rather than in advertisements, promotional materials, and sales techniques

All of those factors have provided a perfect platform for the birth of online search and review services. Those types of services, such as Yelp among others, feature unsolicited reviews from "real" people, not paid journalists, on a variety of local businesses from restaurants and dentists to clothing stores and electricians.
Many of the online search and review services began in the 1990s and now serve as a directory for businesses in many cities in North America, the UK, and Europe. People have written millions of local reviews in many languages.
The databases of these types of services contain directory information including store hours, phone numbers, address and driving directions. Business listings can be accessed via mobile browsers as well as computers and tablets. In addition to the reviews, site visitors can find events, special offers, and discussion forums.
Is your small business on an online search and review service yet?
Any business can set up a profile for free, but your organization can appear on one of the sites even if you don't put it there. They license basic business information from third-party data providers who gather that type of information from public records and other sources. They also get business information from the communities of which they are a part.
Since your customers will be talking about you in the cities where you have an online presence, it makes sense for you to take control of your profiles on those websites — set up your profile and answer  automated questions; it all takes very little time. The administration pages for business owners offer many choices for sharing information to make it easy for users to know exactly what to expect. If you provide the information that prospective customers are looking for, they’re more likely to become reliable, paying customers. So fill out as much information as you can and keep it up to date.
To help business owners get the most out of their online presence, online search and review services offer free tools for business owners to accomplish the following activities:

• Communicate with your customers– privately and publicly
   
• Track how many people view your business page
   
• Add photos, a detailed business description, up-to-date information, history, and specialties
   
• Announce special offers and upcoming events
   
• Recommend other businesses

To reap the benefits from these types of sites, you should recognize the "community" aspect of this social media platform, ie, you must participate — but not simply for self-promotion. Here are five beginner mistakes to avoid:

1. Don’t use online search and review services to leave bad reviews of your competition
    
2. Don’t use them to promote your friend's business
    
3. Don’t use them to “talk up any business in which you have a financial interest (they will find out and you will get blacklisted)
    
4. Don’t create an account, list yourself, then never log in again
    
5. Don’t protest and try to say that you didn’t read the Terms of Service

Reviews are the backbone of these types of sites, and people wonder if they are primarily used for people to complain about their bad experiences. However, statistical analysis shows that the vast majority of reviews range from neutral to five stars (the highest rating).
Business owners are advised to use negative or neutral reviews as an opportunity to engage with consumers and to offer solutions to problems:
Negative reviews are an unfortunate — but entirely normal — part of doing business. Don't be surprised to read the occasional negative review. While it's important to look for patterns in your reviews (the bread is stale, the same employee is repeatedly described as rude), you should take any individual perspective with a grain of salt. Some of the best advice we've heard has come from within the business community.
Contacting reviewers should be approached with care; Internet messaging is a blunt tool and sometimes good intentions come across badly. We've put together some examples to help you get this balance right.
Keep these things in mind as you're crafting a message to your customer:

• Your reviewers are your paying customers
   
• Your reviewers are human beings with (sometimes unpredictable) feelings and sensitivities
   
• Your reviewers are vocal and opinionated (otherwise they would not be writing reviews!)

You can feel confident that the people who work at online search and review services will help you to gather useful information for your business for several reasons, including that:

• The salespeople don't have back-end administrative privileges that would allow them to alter the  review databases
   
• Sales people sign agreement that s/he will not write reviews of any business while working for the online search and review service

Conclusion:
With the possibility of opening your business up to negative reviews, should you avoid setting up a account with one of these services? Given today's marketplace where customers have many avenues available for finding information as well as voicing opinions; the wise choice is to be proactive and manage your online business presence where your current and prospective customers will congregate. The common wisdom is to "Fish where the Fish are." Geomarketing, ie, local targeting, is becoming more important — and more prevalent. The best advice is to do some homework: check out the online and review services, sign up as a consumer, write and read some reviews, participate in the forum discussions and then carefully fill out your profiles. Make sure that your profiles are complete and that you are actively engaging with the other members of the online search and review services of which you are a member.

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