Social Media Marketing

2011-11-21T14:55:00.001-05:00

2011-08-16T10:53:00.001-04:00

Jack Canfield's "The Success Principles" Live Group Workshop, Saturday, Aug. 20th http://ping.fm/H7OhD

2011-06-18T16:42:00.001-04:00

Great kiteboarding site: http://ping.fm/keTdB Visit it. Manny @doralchamber http://ping.fm/ISJav

2011-06-16T15:30:00.001-04:00

SEO Strategies that Really Work and Social Media Marketing (SMM) -Basic & Advanced Strategies REGISTER AT:
http://ping.fm/csvCq

2011-05-17T19:44:00.001-04:00

Search Engine Optimization SEO Seminar Miami, May 19th, 9am http://ping.fm/E9O0D

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2011-03-01T02:18:00.001-05:00

Guerilla Marketing Seminar in Miami with Ed Tate March 24th - REGISTER NOW: http://ping.fm/XK9Bf

2011-02-22T10:05:00.001-05:00

Teaching LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter course at College of Business and Technology CBT in Kendall. http://ping.fm/cp4NM

How to Promote Your Business Using Social Media Tools

2011-02-05T17:14:00.000-05:00

How to Promote Your Business Using Social Media Tools

By Owais Siddiqui

   Business promotion can be done in a very quick manner through social media tools. Presently, it is the fastest way to reach customers as most people are regular internet users. Social media tools are not as expensive and cumbersome as the traditional marketing methods. Before hiring a social media company, you need to establish your marketing requirements. There are numerous social-media options and a prestigious company dealing with this would advise you to use a proper combination so that the maximum number of people can know about your services. For instance, you can get a streaming video uploaded on a commonly visited website or post a link on a social communication platform. In addition to that, you can post a video link on your company website instead of promoting the video directly.

   It is very important hire a marketing company because you cannot market your products online on your own. Such companies are aware of the tips and tweaks which can increase the online visitors of your websites and the customers of your services. Hence, getting professional help can make lot of difference.

   You should select the social-media tools according to the nature of your products and services. For instance, if your company deals in electronic gadgets and you need to promote a new portable hard drive through social network media, you need to upload a video on one of the streaming websites. In this way, your users would be able to understand the functionality of this gadget. It is hard to understand how an electronic appliance works by reading text. Hence, using a video for promotional purposes would be an impressive practice which has a lot of positive impact on any campaign.

On the other hand, if you are providing educational services, creating a video for marketing purposes would not help a lot. Instead, a social-media company would advise you to upload information regarding your services on a social community website and post the related links along with it. Thus, the social-media options vary from one business to the other.

As an entrepreneur, you need to analyze the promotional requirements of your business and take steps accordingly. Social-media is much faster as compared to all the other marketing methods. Along with that it is one of the interesting options as well. Most people are regular users of social community platforms as it is one of the best ways to get in touch with known people.
For more information on Houston SocialMedia Company Visit webdesignhouston.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Owais_Siddiqui

http://EzineArticles.com/?How-to-Promote-Your-Business-Using-Social-Media-Tools&id=5800238

Posted by: Manny Sarmiento - manny@nmx2.com
http://www.nmx2.com/

Facebook is Dead! Social Media Marketing Top 5 Predictions for 2011

2011-01-10T13:26:00.000-05:00

"Facebook is Dead" - Social Media Marketing Predictions for 2011

Facebook is a nice Social Media toy! Facebook is not very nice! Facebook is disruptive! Facebook is annoying! Strong remarks huh!

The problem with Facebook is that it is not a tool that lets you engage with clients or potential clients. A good social media marketing tool allows for proactive and real engagement with people.

So what is good about Facebook. I call it the law of large numbers. With over 500 million users and 53% of them active, I look at Facebook as being able to "touch" large numbers of users.

Engagement though, is another issue. Facebook does not lend itself to practical engagement, or establishing a on-on-one relationship with potential clients. Which is what you want to do with a practical social media marketing tool.

So what are the Top 5 Social Media Marketing tools you should use, other than Facebook, that will have an impact on your business in 2011? Lets count them down:

5. Foursquare. Although it is not suitable for all types of businesses, Foursquare has done it's homework and has become a tool for businesses that are frequented by clients. It is an free, high-impact, engaging tool that can bring in new clients and keep them coming back.

4. YouTube.com and Video. Youtube and other video sites such as Metacafe get indexed on Google and other search engines faster than your web site. You must have a Youtube video chanel and add at least one video per month. Videos should be no more than 4-5 minutes long and the description and tags should have relevant keywords to your business.

3. MerchantCircle.com. One of the best local directories on the web, other thatn Google Places, Merchant Circle allows you to list your business for local searches, connect to other local businesses and invite your friends and business contacts. Merchant Circle is listed on Google search engine result pages often. You must be on Merchant Circle in order to be more competitive in your local market area.

2. PRLog.org. Social media press releases are the best kept secret in social media. A posting on PRLog will get indexed very quickly. Social media press releases are free and easy to send. They are one of the most effective ways to get your business showing on Google.

1. LinkedIn.com. Amazingly, I find many professionals are not on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is one of the most professional and useful social media sites. I rank it well above Facebook as a marketing tool for your business. LinkedIn has two very practical tools for proactively marketing your business, Groups and Answers. These tools if properly used will dramatically increase your engagement with potential clients. LinkedIn is a must for any professional.

By utilizing these 5 tools correctly you will dramatically increase traffic to your web site and engage potential clients, making 2011 a profitable year for your business.

Manny Sarmiento - New Media, New Marketing, Inc.
http://www.nmx2.com/
http://www.linkedin.com/in/mannysarmiento
http://www.facebook.com/newmedianewmarketing
http://www.twitter.com/nmx2

Create a Social Media Marketing Machine

2011-01-04T10:40:00.000-05:00

Create a Social Media Marketing Machine

By Miami Phillips

Social media marketing. What the heck is that exactly?

As someone who has been marketing socially for years I can tell you there is no one single answer for that.

This we know. Many people are dramatically changing their lives by earning amazing incomes from home by following some simple steps.

We can define marketing as "using words and images to sell products or services".

So basically marketing is sales in print. Of course, now we use audio and video as well as text, but we are still doing the same thing. That is we are convincing someone to buy or do something!

Social marketing is simply using the power of 'social' sites to do the exact same thing.

Social sites include any site where people gather in a group and offers an opportunity for a marketer to introduce products and services.

Anyone can do it - and they do! Unfortunately, most do it badly which hurts those of us who know how to market correctly.

There are unspoken and unwritten rules concerning marketing that most marketers ignore at their peril (no business = no profit!)

My purpose is to help you (if you are interested) sidestep these challenges as best I can and show you the path to creating an income providing a sorely needed service - great marketing.

Social media marketing can greatly improve your bottom line - but if not done correctly can hurt you just as badly!

Here are 3 ways NOT to use social media marketing...

1. Do not use social media marketing to make false claims or false statements. This is a bad idea anyway as almost anything you say on the Internet stays around forever! So do not write things you might ever want to retract!

2. Make sure you follow up on your marketing. Many failures attributed to social media marketing are actually failures in the original creators to take advantage of the many tools available to document what is working, where it is working and with whom. Armed with this information it is much easier to target your next piece of marketing.

3. Ensure your marketing is omnipresent. It is much more challenging to get your message heard if you broadcast to multiple social media platforms at once using tools readily available. For instance pingfm.com will broadcast your short messages to all of your social accounts at once.

Here is the good news. Social media marketing has not been taken over by the big guys - yet.

But they are coming. And when they figure it out - the little guys will be sucking hind you know what!

So if you are thinking this is the time to take advantage of a phenomenal opportunity that will only come once in a lifetime - you are absolutely correct. And I suggest you get to it!

About The Author

Coach Miami Phillips helps smart business owners, entrepreneurs and work-from-home businesses take advantage of the incredible opportunities available online through his popular blog at [http://social-media-marketing-machine.com]Social Media Marketing Machine.

He is also a lifelong personal development seeker helping people find their way through life and the web. [http://www.miamiphillips.com]Find Happiness. Visit the site for a free book "Three Steps To Finding Happiness Now".

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Create-a-Social-Media-Marketing-Machine&id=5505874] Create a Social Media Marketing Machine

Posted by: Manny Sarmiento - New Media, New Marketing, Inc.

Search Engine Optimization Training Offered in Miami

2010-12-21T15:56:00.000-05:00

New Media, New Marketing and the Doral Chamber of Commerce present, Search Engine Optimization SEO Seminar: "How to Get Your Business Found on Google", December 28th, 8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Search Engine Optimization SEO Seminar

"How to Get Your Business Found on Google"

December 28th, 8:30 a.m.

   Free Afternoon Social Media Seminar with Prepaid Attendance

   85% of consumers are looking for goods and services online. Are they finding you or your competitors? How can you make sure they find you without the expense of paid searches? In this seminar you will learn how to set up and optimize your new or existing pages for the three major search engines, Google, Bing and Yahoo, including the URL, also known as domain name, and other parts of a search engine friendly web design.

   You will dramatically improve your search engine (SEO) results with what you will learn in this seminar. In this seminar we will cover the following topics:

• What Google and the other Search Engines are looking for in your web site

• How to choose a web site designer and how to make sure they do a great job for you Comparing html site to Flash, PHP and design platforms for web sites

• Options available for designing web sites yourself The basic mechanics of building a web site that the search engines like All the web site elements required for good SEO

• How to read the "Source" of a web site How to find the keyword that people are actually searching for

• How to submit your web site to the search engines Which tools work to help increase your web site rankings

• How to incorporate Social Media Marketing strategies with your SEO strategies for maximum search engine rankings In the last part of the seminar we will examine and critique your web sites live

Who should attend this seminar?
- Online Marketers
- Marketing Executives
- Web Developers
- Product Managers & Brand Managers
- IT Programmers
- Business Owners
- Business & Marketing Consultants
- P.R. Professionals

Attendees can register at http://www.nmx2.com/search_engine_optimization_training.htm

Location:

Fairfield Inn and Suites Miami Airport - 4101 NW 11 Street, Miami, FL 33126
Fee: $27* by December 26th / $47* after December 26th / $57.00 at the Door /

*Includes free afternoon Social Media Seminar with prepaid attendance only. Register for free afternoon session here: http://www.nmx2.com/search_engine_optimization_training.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j22S4aAct0g

2010-12-19T20:27:00.001-05:00

Act fast if you want to cut your 2010 taxes: http://ping.fm/did1x

2010-12-16T22:51:00.001-05:00

Search Engine Optimization SEO Seminar http://ping.fm/JbmBM

2010-12-15T23:09:00.001-05:00

http://ping.fm/0n8BX

2010-12-15T05:24:00.001-05:00

Padro and Company CPA Blog Post http://ping.fm/45dhj

2010-12-13T03:27:00.001-05:00

Jack Canfield's "The Success Principles" Live Group Workshop, Saturday, Dec. 18th http://ping.fm/ZlsrO

Is Social Media Marketing Important? The Queen of England Herself Has Joined Facebook!

2010-11-09T20:06:00.000-05:00

Is Social Media Marketing Important? The Queen of England Herself Has Joined Facebook!

By Courtney Jewell-McElroy

Yes, it's true. The Queen herself, Queen Elizabeth the II has realized that Social Media is an important communication tool.

The Huffington Post reported this past week that Queen Elizabeth is now on Facebook.
According to the release in the Huffington, the Queen has launched a series of official pages offering the website's 500 million users daily updates on her engagements.

The Queen (an 84-year-old British monarch) plans to be featured in videos, photos and news items all of which will be released on her new Social Media Marketing profile on Facebook.

The Queens Facebook page was scheduled to go live today. Princes William and Harry have been very active on Social Media and one can only speculate that those activities played a role in the Queens decision to jump on this networking bandwagon.

The Facebook Fan Page will be a corporate account, so people will be able leave messages or comments for Buckingham Palace on the site and find details of royal events close to their homes. Because the Queen has chosen to create a corporate Facebook page - and not a personal account - people won't be able to request to become friends with the queen.

A royal official was quoted stating "If you are going to have an online presence in 2010, you just have to be on Facebook."

The Facebook page is the Queen's latest social media venture - the Royal Family already has an account on the Flickr photography website, joined Twitter in 2009 and set up a video channel on YouTube in 2007.
This is just another example of what an important communications tool Social Media is and it pays to be there and be posting consistent quality content that includes articles, images, videos and more. For more information about Social Media marketing visit http://www.assureassess.com/.

Article by Courtney Jewell-McElroy
CEO, Assure Assess Corp.
http://www.assureassess.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Courtney_Jewell-McElroy

http://EzineArticles.com/?Is-Social-Media-Marketing-Important?-The-Queen-of-England-Herself-Has-Joined-Facebook!&id=5352461

Posted by Manny Sarmiento
http://www.nmx2.com/

VY7DSZJWY8EY

Using Social Media Effectively

2010-10-27T19:25:00.000-04:00

Using Social Media Effectively

By Biba Pedron

Today social media is everywhere. When you hear about a company and you want to know more what do you do? Personally, I look them up on the web. Most companies have an online presence. So why don't you have enough online presence? If you're a solo-entrepreneur or small business owner, you need to have a profile and be active on social media. How else are we to learn about you in this day and age?

Something must be holding you back. Do you understand how social media and social networking function to get you business? Are you comfortable getting clients or communicating effectively behind the screen?

With more than 500-million users on Facebook, more than 50 millions on Twitter and 70 millions on Linkedin, it is time to sit back and learn about integrating social media into your marketing plan. The biggest advantage of social media is that it is free, even if you just start your business you won't need a big budget to promote your products or services. It's well worth the time to spend to really understand how it works. Working with a coach is the most timely and effective way to learn how to use social media to turn your contacts into clients at a rate you can be proud of.

I always suggest to my clients who are new to social media to sit down with a daily plan and spend just one hour a day (at first) to attain a routine. After they perfect their routine, just 15 minutes a day will be enough to keep the client flow. If you use your time strategically you can just spend a few minutes a day keeping up with the three major sites.

The Six Effective Online Marketing Strategies:

1. Have an effective profile. People should immediately understand who you are, what you do and what the benefit is of choosing your products or services over someone else's. Think about a visual and text based elevator speech. Developing a great pitch will keep clients interested in using your products or services.

2. Join groups related to your target market. Look for Facebook Fan Pages, Linkedin Groups and other online networking groups related to your target market. Check the profile of the members and invite at least 20 people a day. Yes, you can do this in just minutes! I will show you how.

3. Send a personalized message. When you invite people don't just click on the invite button to send the, by default message, which just says something like "I would like to add you to my network." A personalized message should mention that you are in the same group, which shows that through similar interests you could have synergy in your businesses. How can you help them with their problems? Ask them!

When contacts accept your invitation, again send a personalized message with more info about you, how to reach you on other social media sites and always finish your message with your call to action. What do you want them to do next?

-visit your blog or website

-sign-up to you mailing list or newsletter

-sign-up to your free offer if you have one (and you should definitely have one)

-sign-up for a consultation

-call you

What ever is the next step, let them know.

4. Post at least twice a day on your page, you can use ping for example to save you some time. The same post will be distributed in each of your social media pages in just one click. (See, I told you just a few minutes!)

5. Drive people to you blog or website. You want potential clients to learn more about you and to join your list.

Remember that your "friends" or contacts on Facebook, Linkedin, or Twitter don't belong to you. If your Facebook account gets hacked, you run the risk of losing all of your contacts. Now if you drive your contacts to you mailing list, you will never loose them and you will be able to communicate with those contacts on a regular basis for years to come.

6. Be consistent - whatever you do, don't stop after a week or a month. You must be consistent in your daily tasks on social media, the same as you must be consistent in your marketing. That's why I ask for one hour a day from my new clients, to make a non-negotiable routine.

Just like face-to-face networking, social media results don't happen overnight. Your hard work will become effective if and only if you are consistent, invite people continuously and contact people on your list a little every day. When you communicate on a regular basis and give valuable information clients will be ready to buy from you, not from your competitors.

Using those simple tips, your contacts will know you, like you and trust you, and this loyalty will convert to paying clients.

To get more tips like these ones to grow your business with proven offline and online networking strategies, download your Biba's networking kit at http://www.theconnectionqueen.com/

Biba Pedron helps solo-entrepreneurs to network like pro, by teaching them highly effective follow-up systems to maximize their networking and social media results.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Biba_Pedron

http://EzineArticles.com/?Using-Social-Media-Effectively&id=5134896

Posted by Manny Sarmiento - http://www.nmx2.com/ http://newmedianewmarketing.blogspot.com/

Gateway Sucks - No More Gateway PCs for Me!

2010-09-27T16:12:00.000-04:00

I used to swear by Gateway PCs. Recently I purchased two Gateway Laptops thinking that I was getting a wonderful deal through HSN. The first Gateway I purchased worked great at first but two weeks later the "O" key popped out all by itself. Two weeks after that the "P" key popped out all by itself.

I called customer support to learn that I would have to send the PC back to their Texas facility to get it repaired (at my cost). I sent it back and two weeks later I got my laptop back. The keyboard, which was originally illuminated and had controls for sound and Media Player was not working. I had no volume nor media control on the keyboard template nor any function keys to serve as sound level or media controls.

I got back on the phone to attempt to call them. I sent the PC to be repaired just under the wire before the warrantee expired. I received the repair receipt telling me that the repairs were under a 90 day warrantee. I got a recording telling me that I could not speak to tech support because "my pc was no longer under warrantee". I could not speak to a real person. I was referred to the web site where I got the same response from a chat conversation. I was referred to emailing tech support! Urgh!

I am still waiting to get a response from tech support.!

The second Gateway Laptop I puchased from HSN was beautiful, but slow as a snail having dinner! have Norton full suite running and I am very careful about opening emails and other programs.

I haven't even tried to speak to tech support because I figure that I will have to send this other laptop to Texas to get it fixed!!! Urgh!

My next laptop or PC will NOT be a Gateway PC. I think that I will go back to Dell or maybe try HP. I never had an issue with my Dell PCs.

I wrote this blog to get your attention and to make sure that you do not get tangled with a Gateway PC or Laptop when you purchase your next one! What has happened to customer service. I can definitely tell you that Gateway does not care about me nor you! Their customer service sucks!

Manny Sarmiento
http://www.nmx2.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/mannysarmiento

8 Steps to Creating Your Social Media Marketing Plan

2010-09-18T10:13:00.000-04:00

8 Steps to Creating Your Social Media Marketing Plan

By Kathy Colaiacovo

Creating and online marketing strategy is vital when making the decision to add social media to your marketing campaigns/plans. A plan is needed to assess the viability, know what steps you will need to take and to aid you in staying focused on your goals.

Your plan can also help you save time by ensuring you follow a systematic approach to the tie you will invest in social marketing and network. The social networking part can easily take you off track and eat up your time if you do not pay attention to the overall picture of what you are trying to accomplish.

Here are the basics steps to any social media plan we setup for clients:

Assess

Look at what is available in your market, what competitors are doing and find out if your customers in fact using these social media channels. These answers may help you determine the goals

Purpose

Define your main purpose for using Social Media and identify the various social media channels to use.

Goals

Set at least 3 SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely) goals and create an action plan to help you reach these goals. What steps will you take to reach these goals.

Content

Create a plan for what content will be published - blog posts, tweets, facebook page updates, youtube videos. This plan should include the topic of content and also how often and via what channel it will be published

Keywords

Part of the content planning would be finding the keywords your customers use when searching for your service or product online. If your business has some technical jargon that customers rarely pick up on - it is unlikely that is how they will search online for the solution to their problem (your service or product). It is imperative to find keywords they are using and add these targeted key words into your content..

Optimize

Look at all the platforms available and link them together as much as possible to help you save time. ie. Link your blog to twitter and your facebook page so when a blog post is published it will automatically feed an update to the other networks. Be certain to make a flowchart so you understand what automatically goes to what network in order to avoid any cross posting.

Track

As much as you can track your results do it. Keep a record of your contacts/ facebook friends/page likes/twitter followers/linked in contact /newsletter subscribers and results on Google for your name, business and keywords. Check the results every month and see how it changes. Read your analytics on your website and adjust keywords/tactics to fit with what is working well or not form these reports. With social media marketing, businesses may set goals related to brand identity and levels of engagement.

Schedule

Take time to schedule in all the aspects of your plan and work at it to keep on top of it and following the plan. Stay focused and use your time wisely.

Following these steps will help you network much more effectively and in a way that does not find you looking up from your computer wondering where the last hour went. Stay focused!

Kathy Colaiacovo, is a Virtual Assistant whose firm specializes in Social Media Services but also assist their clients with many other business support needs; websites and maintenance, blogs, newsletters, ezines to name a few. Clients value this support in order to create the time needed to grow their own business.
Kathy invites you to learn more about working with a Virtual Assistant by inviting you to sign up for their monthly eNewsletter, you will also receive a complimentary copy of their Social Media Guide.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kathy_Colaiacovo

http://EzineArticles.com/?8-Steps-to-Creating-Your-Social-Media-Marketing-Plan&id=4669918

Posted by Manny Sarmiento - New Media, New Marketing, Inc

http://www.nmx2.com

The Moooooo Book!

2010-08-28T12:34:00.001-04:00

The Moo Book is Coooooool !

Social Bookmarking - Effective Web Site Marketing

2009-12-28T16:29:00.000-05:00

Social Bookmarking - Effective Web Site Marketing

By Groshan Fabiola

When trying to develop a successful online business, seo (search engine optimization) services should be your number one concern. You may have the best products on offer, the most advantageous deals and the highest quality service, but what good does it do your business if no one knows about them? Or, why not try to improve your online marketing strategies and eventually double or even treble the number of customers? This would only take a little effort on your part, and the benefits would be countless.

There are many ways in which you can drive targeted traffic to your web site and eventually boost your ranking with the main search engines such as Google, Yahoo! or Msn. Increasing the popularity of your link is very important and this can be achieved in a number of ways, such as submitting your web site to certain directories, submitting articles that are rich in keywords to specialized article sites and directories, or social bookmarking.

For those of you who are less familiar with the notion of social bookmarking, this is a form of advertising your web site to social media. The concept of social bookmarking is by no means a new one, but this form of promoting services and products has seen a tremendous growth only recently.

How can your online business benefit from social bookmarks? It's very simple. With high quality one-way links from social bookmarking sites and the inherent amount of traffic, there will be nothing but benefits for your website. Socials bookmarks can bring hundreds or even thousands of unique visitors to your web site on a daily basis. From this point on, it's up to you to turn visitors into loyal customers.

With the obvious benefits of bookmarking, the question is not whether or not to use this form of web site marketing, but how to make the most of it. For optimal results, it is highly advisable that you let search engine optimization specialists complete this task for you, especially if you are not very familiar with the Internet in general and with social bookmark sites in particular.

For your site to be indexed a lot faster by the major search engines (if it's a newly developed one) or for quality traffic to be driven to your web site, you need to take into account several factors that have to do with the quality of the social bookmarking site and the content that you supply to such sites. Needless to say that the content needs to be accurate, good quality and original. Having said this, you will probably understand why it is better to use a professional social bookmarking service provided by search engine optimization experts.

There are thousands of social bookmarking sites out there, many of whom are not even worth visiting because of their poor quality and the fact that they are not search engine friendly. Can you tell the difference between a good social bookmarking site and a poor one? A seo expert certainly can.

Your success with social bookmarks does not lie in their amount, but greatly depends on their quality. This is the most important reason why you should consider using a professional social bookmarking service.

For more resources about social bookmarks or about social bookmarking service, please visit these pages.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Groshan_Fabiola

http://EzineArticles.com/?Social-Bookmarking---Effective-Web-Site-Marketing&id=3240346

http://www.nmx2.com

Your Twitter Account - The 7 Most Important Steps to Be Effective

2009-12-19T15:55:00.000-05:00

Your Twitter Account - The 7 Most Important Steps to Be Effective

By Sally Witzky

I recently completed three back-to-back social networking presentations for small business owners and one of the most burning questions coming from the audience always surrounds how to set up an effective Twitter account.

This blog post isn't designed to give you step-by-step instructions - you can get that from a number of places - including the Twitter 101 Guide for businesses. But we wanted to share our "traction tips" on what we believe to be the most critical things to think about when setting up a Twitter account for your personal brand or your small business.

Listed below are the 7 most important steps to gain social traction for your Twitter account:

1. TWITTER HANDLE. Be sure that the Twitter handle you choose is both memorable, it serves you well and is as short as possible. Keep in mind that people connect with people which means ideally we like to see Twitter handles in the name of the person. Often that becomes a challenge because your name may already be taken, it's too long or you'd prefer to use your company name which we'll address in a moment. While we don't recommend using all caps for sure, we do recommend using initial caps where it makes obvious sense. For example, @guykawasaki can be (and is) @GuyKawasaki.

2. MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS: For those of you who have personal brands as well as businesses, you can (and should) set up two accounts: one in your personal name and one in your business name. That way, you get the benefit of both. Your personal account should be bringing your listeners value based on your own knowledge and building of one-on-one relationships with others, and can and should include some of your own personality and humor. Your business or company account can be more focused on helping people strictly as it relates to the company and what value the company brings and shares to others. You don't need both necessarily; take a look at your own situation and figure out which is best. You certainly can have an account that has your business name as your handle with your photo and name. Or vice-versa. Weigh the pros and cons and figure out what is best for your individual situation.

3. PHOTO CRITICAL. For your personal brand account, your photo or avatar should be a photo of yourself. For goodness sakes, don't use a photo of your dog or kid, or a photo of you as a kid - unless you really are a kid (and then perhaps Twitter should be used only with some adult supervision). And it's probably not a good idea to put up just any photo of yourself. Your photo - whether on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook - is a reflection of you and your personal brand. Make it count. Invest in a decent photographer, pay attention to your wardrobe - even hire an image consultant if you feel it necessary. People will see your Twitter photo each and every time you send a tweet or post - adding up to thousands of times. Think of tweets as your own branding campaign - like your target audience seeing mini TV spots of you over and over again. If this is your business account, then your company logo - or a very memorable graphic representation of it - should be used. Traction tip: remember that Twitter (as well as LinkedIn) only allows for a square photo less than 700kb in size. Make it bold and impactful in that small space.

4. FILL THE BIO. Many people don't take the time to write a good bio and so they get in a hurry and just write something lame. Irrelevant. Meaningless. Your Twitter bio, while short, says a lot about you. In fact, it says everything about you. Aside from your avatar, it is your image to the world. Pay attention. It's like your resume only short. Very short. But just like a tweet, you'd be surprised what you can say in a few words. Or what your bio says about you. One of my favorite lines is one from Mark Twain or perhaps attributed to T.S. Eliot, who said "If I had more time, I'd write a shorter letter." The point is, take the time. Write pithy. Edit. Review. Edit again. Get not only to the heart of who you are but, most importantly, who you serve. To whom do you bring value to? Be sure they are mentioned. Business owners? Moms? Kids? Runners? When people read your bio, your "story," they need to see a bit of themselves in it. They need to relate to you. While you don't have to take up the entire character space, we don't want you to sell yourself short - but we also don't want you to sell in this space. Just keep it simple and don't try to do too much: simply get the person to the next step and the next step is to follow you or, if they're already following you, to connect or converse or contact you.

5. LOCATION. So we have some pet peeves about this. People don't realize how important it is to not only use the location field but also to use it correctly if you expect people to find you and follow you. If someone leaves this field blank, then it says they were either lazy or don't want anyone to know where they're from. I'd rather see something in this field, than nothing. Geez, at least let us know what country or state you're from. But some people use UberTwitter and then have their UberTwitter code in the field, which is meaningless if I'm looking for location to be a connection with the person. What's worse, is that their Twitter handle won't be picked up in Twitter directories such as Twitterholic or Twellow. Which means, if I'm looking to find people close to me, I won't find that person. So adding the proper location is important if you want more people to find you - and particularly important for local businesses, sales professionals or freelancers. Traction tip: use the main metropolitan area closest to you. For example, I live in Chesterfield, VA but in the Richmond, VA area so I use Richmond VA. Most people won't be looking through all the suburbs to find people. And best to use that City, ST format as well.

6. FILL IN THE URL. Sometimes people leave the URL field blank but don't do that. If you don't have a website you can find a URL to put there. You can use the link to your LinkedIn or your multi-media VisualCV profile, particularly if you're looking for a job or building your personal brand. Or you can set up a PeoplePond page with your social profile and use that. Or a simple Google personal profile. Even your YouTube channel if you work with a lot of video. Traction tip: we want this URL is an active, engaging place - either a blog or a site that not only has further contact information for you but also has further content - content that is relevant to what you do, who you are and, most importantly, who you help.

7. TWITTER BACKGROUND. Ideally, you want to design a custom background for you or your business that is branded to you. Not a designer? That's fine. You can use the Twitter backgrounds and colors to at least match your brand temporarily, until you get started. There are also a number of free Twitter backgound services you can use. But, just like your photo, your Twitter page is a reflection of who you are and your company so don't leave it to chance. Just like anything else, sometimes you only have one chance to make a great impression. So find a designer who will create a Twitter background page for you - budget of $100-$200 will usually more than suffice, depending on how much graphics you need created. If you can't find someone, call us and we'll create one for you.

So those are what we believe are the 7 most important set-up steps to creating an impressive and effective Twitter account - one that will get you the most traction from a branding standpoint. If you still need help, no worries. Just contact the Traction Group, the social marketing agency for small business owners, and we'll be glad to answer any questions you may have. Remember, WHAT YOU TWEET is just as important, if not even much more so. We'll share some traction tips for that as well - in a future article.

Sally Witzky is owner, chief strategist and "tractioneer" of Traction Group LLC, a Richmond VA based social media marketing agency. She helps small business owners and speakers develop an online brand strategy through social media and she coaches people who want to develop their personal brand. For more than fifteen years, she has led advertising, direct marketing and brand development initiatives for Fortune 1000 companies including Citizens Bank/RBS, Champion Mortgage, Saab, FMC and Mercedes-Benz. She can be found on Twitter as @SallyWitzky and @TractionGroup and blogs at http://TractionGroup.com.

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The Power of Newsletters by Joel Comm

2009-12-12T14:40:00.000-05:00

The Power of Newsletters
By Joel Comm

A top-earning AdSense website will have a number of different elements: it will have high quality content filled with valuable keywords; it will have the right ad units in the right place well blended into the page; and it will have a steady stream of traffic flowing in from various sources to click the ads that the feed the funds.

Gathering that traffic can be hard work. You can take the easy route and simply pay for ads on AdWords. That works fine as long as you’re paying less per click than your ads receive per click. Swapping links will certainly be a part of your traffic acquisition strategy, as will search engine optimization. But all that takes effort... so you want to make the most of it.

You’ve probably heard that old business maxim about new clients costing ten times more to pick up than holding on to old ones.

The principle is exactly the same for websites.

If you’ve attracted a user to your site, you want to make sure he comes back. If he didn’t click on ad during his last visit, he might click next time. And if he did click on an ad during his last visit, then that’s definitely the sort of user you want returning.

Satisfying your users with valuable content will help, but even the most satisfied user can still forget to check your site regularly. That’s why a newsletter is such an important tool.

You should always be trying to capture your users’ email addresses. You’ll be able to remind them that you’re out there, tell them that you have good information and suggest that they come back to your site. You can’t put ads in the newsletter itself yet (although Google say that’s on the way) but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be using a newsletter.

One way to create a newsletter and use it to generate ad clicks is to fill it with original content and make sure that your URL is well displayed. If people feel that they’re getting good content from your newsletter, they’ll come to the site to find out more.

The other method is even easier. Every time you create a new blog post or write a new article simply take the first paragraph or two and paste it into your newsletter template. When the template is full, mail it off to your list. To read the rest of the article, those old users will have to visit your site.

If you’re not sending a newsletter to your users, then not only will you be unprepared when Google wheels out ads in newsletters, you’re also missing a valuable traffic opportunity now.

Joel Comm is The Internet Revenue Expert.

Online for over 20 years, Joel teaches people how to make money in the digital age. The recognized authority on Google AdSense, Joel teaches how to multiply your AdSense income at theadsensecode.com To ask Joel Comm a question about making money online, visit http://www.AskJoelComm.com Joel invites you visit his AdSense Forums at http://www.adsensechat.com

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Why Do Social Media?

2009-12-07T10:57:00.000-05:00

Why Do Social Media?
By Katie Colbourne

Over the last 6 months or so people keep asking me 'what is social media', 'how are you using it' 'why do it, 'what exactly is your job?'. I will (hopefully) try to give you a brief introduction to social media, some tips and why companies from big conglomerates right down to small businesses should use it.

Social media is online conversation. It's the 'new word of mouth' - Conversations that were previously happening offline are now happening online in 'viral ecosystem' type communities. Viral is the keyword here as if a topic is provocative/ interesting enough it can spread online like gossip in a small town - this is what we call Digital Interaction. You've probably all heard of Twitter, Facebook, Linked IN, Flickr, YouTube etc right, and if not ... WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN??? On social terms these communities allow us to interact with friends, catch up on the latest news, see whose flying high, who really isn't and generally have fun interacting online. In marketing terms, these are all potential goldmines.

If you put it into perspective; Facebook for example now has a user base that if it were a country it would be the fourth most populated place in the world! Just this week it was announced that Facebook now has surpassed 300 million users across all demographics AND is now making enough money to cover its costs. These are stats that you can no longer choose to ignore. So what would I say to a company whose competitor is doing a lot of social media, but they see it as a waste of time as they are lucky enough in these times to have a huge budget for mainstream advertising?

I would say break away from the old-school advertising 'shout our message the loudest' model and do it. Consider that the average person is exposed to over 3000 advertising messages every day. 1. Consider that messaging and interaction is no longer one-way it is multi-directional amongst all stakeholders. So why invest all that surplus cash, when most people will ignore your message, your message will be too mainstream and you can reach a much more targeted audience DIRECTLY online through conversation at a much cheaper cost and at real-time? ROI is high with social media as the only cost is human capital.

Social Media has evolved marketing, with a new 'communications model'. Today customers want more; they don't just want an information feed, they want interaction and acknowledgement from brands. When they buy products they like to buy into the whole brand, this is particularly true amongst our future generations, the millennials, of which 96% have joined a social network.

2.Don't ditch traditional methods completely as Social media is a compliment not a replacement and compliment really is the operative word here. There's a need to use social media to support existing messaging not replace it completely.
Using it is about being clever. Once you join you have to realise that you are no longer in control - you have to relinquish control - now this is where people get scared, but it works. There tends to be a lot more respect for brands who are on social networks opposed to those who aren't.

But first you need to listen, only then should you participate and interact and then engage your customers. You can't just use social media to blast out your messages you have to talk to them about what they want to talk about and be honest. You can of course use social media to sway/influence conversation but you need to realize that honesty is the ONLY policy in social media and if you are too corporate or pushy you will put people off.
Some brands have official communities and accounts as this can be quite a good way to try and tie in all conversation, keeping it on track and preventing profanities.

"But how can it really benefit my business??" I hear you ask ....
• Facilitates conversations between all stakeholders - providing direct connections
• Targets those consumers who have moved away from traditional media
• Provides behavioural insight and innovation through connections
• Multiple profiles - leads to organic growth amongst search page rankings
• Increases brand profile / reach

How have we benefited from social media?

Social media has opened up many new opportunities for us that previously we wouldn't have thought possible. We have had interest from new markets and started dialogues with people who are potential partners. We established our own Twitter page around five months ago and were amazed at the amount of interaction almost straightaway. Today Twitter is one of our top referral sites, not only to our own website, but also for campaigns we have worked on. By maintaining interaction levels you constantly keep your customers/target audience engaged, bringing you ever closer to your customers first hand.

It is early days however, and at the moment we are looking into ways to try and quantify social media into real ROI for our corporate clients as we're constantly hearing 'conversation is great but where's the value?' - this is where as professional marketers we need to see and tangibly demonstrate the grey - it isn't just black and white anymore.
So ... it is here to stay, it's not a fad, it's a fundamental and undeniable shift in the way we communicate with current customers and potential customers, so don't get left behind! Even the Government are on Twitter and if Barack Obama used social media to get to the White House3, we can all use social media to reach out to customers.

Footnotes
1. Shenk, David. Data Smog - Surviving the Information Glut. HarperEdge, 1997.
2. The National School Boards Association. Simply-speaking.blogspot.com. http://simply-speaking.blogspot.com/2007/08/social-networking-in-education.html
3. Brooks, Rich. What Businesses Can Learn from Barack Obama's Social Media Strategy. Jan. 30th, 2009. http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/rich-brooks/social-media-strategies-small-business/what-businesses-can-learn-barack-obamas-soci

Article featured at: http://www.OnlineMediaAnalyst.com

Katie Colbourne advises clients on how to integrate complex social media reputation planning into their marketing strategy through the use of extensive background media research and knowledge of emerging media. Prior to this, Katie worked client-side for Toys R Us across their advertising and marketing departments, working on various targeted DM and PR campaigns, national press media planning and advertisements as well as the TV commercial core-brand messaging.

Article by: Katie Colbourne

Social Media Executive

Volume Group Ltd - http://www.volume.co.uk

If you want any further information, or tips or advice, contact me using the any of the options below.

Twitter @VolumeGroup

katie.colbourne@volume.co.uk

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2009-11-27T03:08:00.001-05:00

Social Media Marketing Introduction N Mx2

View more presentations from Manny Sarmiento.

Quality Content -- The Key To A Successful AdSense Site

2009-11-03T14:29:00.000-05:00

Top-Quality Content -- The Key To A Successful AdSense Site
By Joel Comm

Google’s got a problem. We’ve all seen it. We’ve all had to deal with it. We’ve all been frustrated by it.

Enter a search term at Google and about a quarter to half of the results on the first page will be garbage. A couple of meaningless paragraphs and plenty of ad units and in-your-face banners.

The SEO is excellent. The content is terrible. And you can be sure the revenues are rock bottom too.

I’m not interested in building sites like that, and no one else should be either. They’re a waste of time for the publisher and they’re a waste of time for users too.

And they’re also completely unnecessary.

Creating top quality content -- the sort that builds loyal users and gets ad clicks -- is easy. You don’t have to be a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist to create good articles. And you don’t have to write like Hemingway to create Web pages that bring users back.

You just have to write the sort of content that people find interesting. That’s all there is to it.

The best judge of whether an article is interesting is you. If you find your content enjoyable to create, there’s a good chance that your users will find reading it appealing too.

One of the easiest ways to create interesting content is to write product reviews. Whatever you like to do in your spare time is going to have plenty of products. That’s true whether you’re playing golf, building home entertainment systems or doing home improvements.

You already know which of those products are the best and which are disappointing.

Write short reviews of the products you own -- or would like to own -- and you’ll provide valuable information for users.

And you’ll also bring up highly targeted ads.

When you’re looking to create a new site rather than pick topics that you know have high-paying ads, pick topics that have high interest for you. You’ll be able to create better content, and you’ll have more users who will return regularly and give your site a solid base.

Joel Comm is The Internet Revenue Expert. Online for over 20 years, Joel teaches people how to make money in the digital age. The recognized authority on Google AdSense, Joel teaches how to multiply your AdSense income at The AdSense Code. To ask Joel Comm a question about making money online, visit http://www.AskJoelComm.com

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