Facebook Fan Pages – Key to Social Media Marketing

The phrase “Social Media” is everywhere these days, and if you are like me, you may be a bit unclear about what it actually is… the infamous phrase “I’ll know it when I see it” comes immediately to my mind!

I went looking online for a short, easy to understand definition and found this analogy:

Think of regular media as a one-way street where you can read a newspaper or listen to a report on television, however, you have very a limited ability to share your thoughts on the matter.

Social media, on the other hand, is an active two-way street that gives you the ability to communicate and respond.

As the internet develops and evolves, the various Social Media websites are also growing and changing. Several years ago, MySpace was the place to be but it is now, generally, considered to be on the wane. Likewise, on MySpace, 33% of its users are aged 17 or less.

Ravalry is a relatively new, large community based around knitting with over 1,200,000 registered users. As you would expect, its membership is primarily female and the average member age is not available.

Facebook provides this information about its users:

  • More than 500 million active users (I recently saw the number 600 million, but it hasn’t been changed yet, on the Facebook site)
  • 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day
  • Average user has 130 friends
  • People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook

As you can see, each Social Media site appeals to and has a different user base than any other site.

One of the powerful considerations about using a Social Media web site is the fact that most of them provide a level playing field when it comes to small business owners vs the big boys. For instance, you can build a Facebook Fan page for your offline business and so can a major automobile manufacturer. Within those Facebook Fan pages, both you and the multi billion dollar car maker have the same tools and resources. On Twitter, as another example, both you and the big companies are limited to 140 characters per tweet. They can’t buy more characters and blast you out of the competition.

When considering which Social Media site to use with Social Media Marketing, you should consider the site’s membership but you should also evaluate its culture and how the members interact. It is important that any Social Media site have a population whose interests are in line with your goals and, also, that it have a structure and pattern of interaction that is compatible with your objectives.

In addition, you must keep in mind that things change on the Internet, sometimes at breakneck speed. As an example, between March 2011 and May 2011, Facebook implemented some major changes which changed the whole landscape of using it for business. Suddenly, controlling the content on a business Fan Page and using product images to build a brand became game changers… for those who knew how to do it!

While a particular Social Media site may be a good fit now, be aware that it may not always be a successful marketing vehicle for you! Monitor the efficacy of any Social Media site you are using AND also keep an eye out for the next big thing!

With all of that in mind, at the current time, I consider Facebook and Twitter to be the Social Media sites most likely to be compatible with the majority of offline businesses and their needs.

In this article I am going to briefly cover Facebook, its structure as it pertains to Social Media Marketing, discuss some of the pitfalls, and propose some strategies appropriate to it.

Facebook Marketing for Small Business

Facebook’s membership has exploded and is currently greater than 500 million, according to its own website.

It originally began as a way for college students to keep in touch with fellow students. As a result of that, the basic Facebook community seems to start from an academic basis, joining students and former students with friendship circles widening out from there. If you are like me, you will be shocked at how many members from your high school class seem to appear out of nowhere!

As part of the Facebook mechanism, possible Friends are suggested to you, based on Friends that you and the other person have in common. While you can do searches, it is hard to find and befriend a person that Facebook doesn’t think you should know. On the other hand, Facebook makes suggestions that will extend your network, based simply on friends you may have in common with someone.

Another important mechanism is the Facebook Like option, which has now been extended beyond Facebook Profile pages and Facebook Fan Pages and out into the web at large.

A third and exceedingly important Facebook mechanism is the ability to link between websites, Facebook Fan Pages, and Twitter accounts. This can be done with a variety of website creation software options. At the moment, I am encouraging my clients to use the blogging software, WordPress, for non blog websites.

With WordPress as your website management system, once you have signed up for the Networked Blogs Facebook App(lication), you can set your website to show any changes on your Facebook Fan Page and your Twitter account. Your Twitter Account can be set to show Facebook Fan Page Comments along with Posts from your WordPress website. In addition, your Tweets will be displayed on your Facebook Fan Page and your website.

Now, I know that the previous paragraph was confusing so let me give you the abridged edition! In my example, you have three web presences for your business – A Facebook Fan Page, a website built with WordPress, and a Twitter account. Any Post made on one of those three sites will automatically appear on the other two sites.

This is VERY powerful and is a REAL time and energy saver IF you take the time to plan your web marketing strategies with this capacity in mind!

With the potential of getting a three to one benefit from any of your Social Networking posts, as described above, let me go a bit deeper into the opportunities afforded to an offline business by having a Facebook Fan Page.

NOTE – It is important to understand that while a Facebook Fan Page can be considered a potential web site substitute, it offers long term hazards that, in my opinion, are not worth the risk.

Building your business’s primary web presence on a third party web site is taking the time, effort, and money to build a nice new house on land that you DO NOT OWN! You might be OK in the short term, but later down the road, you may lose you house, simply because you do not own the land.

While you may decide that it is efficient to start with a Facebook Fan Page, you should also plan to build your own website ASAP! As a business owner, you should be careful to own and control as many of your business assets as possible.

With that warning out of the way, before utilizing any Social Media site for your Social Media Marketing, take the time to read the site’s ToS or Terms of Service. Do NOT assume that you know what is allowed and what is not.

As an example, you may have multiple Twitter accounts, but each account must be tied to a different email address. Any email address can have only ONE Twitter account.

With Facebook, any human is allowed ONLY ONE ACCOUNT! This means that any Facebook Fan Pages built for any businesses will be offshoots of your primary, personal Facebook account.

If for some reason, you do not want a Facebook Fan Page to be obviously tied to your personal account, you can set the Privacy setting to obscure the connection. In the case of most offline businesses, this would not be a concern. However, I have a number of online businesses, some of which I am open about and others that I have chosen to run from behind the scenes. There is nothing questionable about doing this, I just prefer to keep the connection quiet to minimize others copying my business model. However, ALL of my business Facebook Fan Pages are offshoots of my SINGLE personal Facebook account.

Part of the evolution of the Facebook Culture is that, in most instances, it is considered appropriate to ask other members to share with their Friends about your Facebook Fan Page or your new post or any of a number of other Facebook interactions. This is markedly different from other websites and their culture, and as a business owner, it is a powerful tool.

It is perfectly OK to ask others to LIKE your Facebook Fan Page. In fact, this can be an important traffic builder for your Facebook Fan Page!

Google AdWords vs Facebook Ads

Another online marketing benefit offered by Facebook is the option to use their Pay Per Click advertising. In the Facebook universe these are known as Facebook Ads – which seems obvious, but online, things are not always obvious!

Last night, I was on a call with one of my consulting clients and she mentioned that she had just gotten a $100 voucher for Google AdWords. She wanted to know if this would be worthwhile. I said that I thought that using Facebook, creating a Facebook Fan Page for her business, and spending her limited budget on Facebook ads would be a better use of her resources, even considering her $100 AdWords voucher.

I explained it to her this way:

Google AdWords and Facebooks Ads are Pay Per Click… each ad is shown (this is called an impression) and you pay when someone actually click on the ad.

While the mechanism for figuring ad payments is the same (PPC or Pay Per Click) the basis for showing an ad differs drastically between Google AdWords and Facebook.

On the surface, the ads themselves are similar. While they may or may not have a picture included, the text or content of the ad is short and presented in plain and simple text. Ads are displayed off the side in vertical stacks or within the body of the page’s content. For the most part, these ads are subtle and unobtrusive.

However, the Ad Display Criteria is where the biggest differences lie.

In Google, AdWords are shown on the pages generated with Search Results as well as on website pages related to the Ad’s specified search term. This means that Google AdWords are displayed using a mechanism of which terms are being used in online searches. As AdWords have developed, in some instances they are also displayed according to the geographical location of the person doing the Search.

Facebook actually takes an entirely different approach – Facebook Ads are displayed in front of PEOPLE who meet the demographic requirements that you have chosen.

To simplify further, Google AdWords are displayed based on the content of the page where they are shown and Facebook Ads are shown based on the interests, and even the physical location, of the person doing the looking!

As you can see, there is a radical difference between Google AdWords and Facebook Ads.

This is one of the reasons that I feel that Facebook Ads may be far more beneficial for offline businesses.

It is also important to note that when creating a Facebook Ad, you have the choice of sending people who click either to an offsite web page or to a specific Facebook Fan Page.

All in all, I consider Facebook a strong option for offline businesses, since you have the ability to target both demographically and geographically. The potentially viral effect that is inherent in the Facebook culture is another good reason for adding Facebook in to your online advertising mix.

WordPress works well for integrating Social Media options

Finally, if you are using WordPress to build your website to blog, it is relatively easy to integrate WordPress Posts, Facebook Fan Page Posts, Twitter Tweets, and possibly even, your Autoresponder Service messages, so that each one appears on the others… AUTOMATICALLY!

Between the timesaving automation available and the three for one currently available combining WordPress, Facebook, and Twitter, spreading your company’s message across the internet has gotten MUCH easier!

Ingredients For Work at Home Mom Success

Have you ever wondered why you aren’t doing as well at your work at home business as you originally envisioned you would? Have you ever wondered just what does it take? After 4 years in business as a work at home Mom I would love to share the ingredients I sifted together to answer your questions.

All too often Moms want all the answers handed to them all at once and fall prey to one experts advice. What is an expert anyway? My dictionary says skills and knowledge derived from training or experience. It does not say someone who knows everything, who will lead you into success for free and will never unintentionally lead you astray. The truth of the matter is, there is just to much information for anyone person to have it all and while experience aids us in making decisions concerning our business, just when you think you’ve learned all there is to know about a subject, things change. The same products weren’t sold in 1950 as they were in 1960 or will they be today. Times change, fashions change, technology changes, therefore business changes. I didn’t get my web sites to the top of the Google search engines from any one Internet “expert’s” advice. I got to the top of the search engines by using one piece of advice from many different Internet “experts”.

The #1 ingredient to work at home Mom success is research, research, and research some more!

All too often Moms think once they have their business all set up, the orders will start flowing in, their pockets will start filling up and it’s all smooth sailing from then on. Not true. When I had my 1st beautiful web site full of beautiful products, I soon realized my web site was no where to be found in the Google search engines and I wasn’t getting orders because of it. I knew I had to be listed on the 1st page of the Google search engine to get customers. I did research, I made changes, I monitored the results and the I did the same time and time again. Did every change I made work? No. Did some? Yes. Now both of my web site are on the 1st page of the Google search engine. I will continue to monitor my status and make changes if necessary.

The #2 ingredient to work at home Mom success is trial and error, trial and error, continuous trial and error!

All too often Moms believe they will work less hours with their own business than when going out of the home to work. Not true. Your own business requires more hours. Hours to learn, hours to apply what you learned, hours to actually provide your product or service, hours for accounting, the list goes on and on. However, there certainly are advantages of working from home. Being at home with small children or home when your children return from school, working the hours and days you prefer not your employers, no travel time, traffic, save money on gas, uniforms or expensive office clothes and more. Personally, I find having lunch at home with my 3 year old much more enjoyable then sitting in a business lunch room with an hours old sandwich!

The #3 ingredient to work at home Mom success is work, work harder and then work some more!

All too often Moms give up because they are not an overnight success. National statistics say it takes a new businesses 3-5 years to become profitable and most businesses close up shop before they have even worked at it for a full year.

The #4 ingredient to work at home Mom success is don’t give up!

Put it all together and what do we have, research, hard work, trial and error and don’t give up! I truly believe that God wants us to succeed. He simply asks us to plant the seeds of our business, harvest the grain that is available to our business, prepare the flour for our business, mix the dough in our business and bake the foundation of our business before we get to savor the bread of our business which is our success!

Make Money Online For Free – The Beginner’s Guide Everyone Should Read!

Put away your credit card, do not open your PayPal account today because I’m here to tell you it is possible to make money online for FREE! In fact the simple truth is that there are so many ways to make money online for free that most of us spend months researching the opportunities and forget to actually take any action. Before you know it 3 months has gone by and all you’ve done is download loads of free pdf files which are basically re-hashes of each other, potentially leaving you more confused than you started.

So how do you make money online for free? The answer to that question, like so many others is of course Google. Google is like the Holy Grail – the answer to all our prayers. We go to Google with our questions and problems and we ask it to solve them. When we find a great solution, we are more than happy to pay for it. Over the years I have bought products for me like exercise programs and products for my business such as PR and marketing resources (I run a marketing agency as my day job.)

“This is not about making money online for free”, I hear you cry, “this is about buying stuff!” Correct but – to make money online for free you need paying customers. In every business deal you need a buyer and a seller. And what Google kindly does for you is provide you with an endless stream of customers, who are looking to buy what you are selling. You don’t need to go out and find your own customers, you just present your offering in the correct manner to Google and Google will do the rest.

To make money online for free you don’t need any products of your own to sell!

The key to making money online for free is to become an affiliate marketer. An affiliate is someone who makes a commission on the sale of a product. This a risk free way of getting your feet wet in internet marketing. Essentially what you will be selling is eBooks, videos, reports, programs, software, in fact anything that is downloadable. According to reports from the UK Publishers Association, the UK the share of digital sales accounted for by the consumer market for eBooks and downloads rose from 2% to 11% in 2010. This market is experiencing phenomenal growth at the moment and the beauty of this route to a new income is that it needn’t cost you a penny! Becoming an affiliate is easy (once you know how!). There are many companies already set up to help you do this. Simply type “affiliate program” into Google and you will get lots of results. I would advise visiting Clickbank.com first for several reasons:

  1. They offer lots of training on how to get started and how to use their site
  2. Many of the best publishers use Clickbank to sell their products, giving you access to the best digital products available.
  3. Receiving payments from Clickbank is straightforward, they are very trustworthy and well established organisation so a great one for you to get involved with while you are still finding your feet.

So what have we learned today? That it is possible to make money online for free by tapping into the millions of potential buyers looking for solutions to their problems on Google. That even though we don’t personally have products to sell, we can become affiliate marketers and make a commission from selling other people’s products. Of course there’s more to it than that and in my next Beginner’s Guide I will be talking about article marketing for affiliates, which will enable you to find your buyers – for free naturally!

Warning Signs of a Computer Breakdown

The scary reality about computer crashes is that the warning signs are few–if they exist at all–and even when you know what to look for, these signs can be very difficult to detect.

For this reason, computer backup is necessary every day, because it’s near impossible to know if, or when, your hard drive is at risk of an imminent crash.

I often hear prospective clients say dismissively: “Well, I just bought this computer not too long ago–it’s practically brand new–so I don’t need to worry about backup just yet.”

And that’s when I tell them about Google, the single largest owner of computer hard drives in the world.

In February 2007, Google Inc. released a study that they conducted on their own computers entitled Failure Trends in a Large Disk Drive Population. According to this study, which was the most extensive of it’s kind ever completed, hard drives are most likely to fail if they are less than 3 months old, or more than 2 years old. Basically, if you think computer backup is unnecessary because your computer is new, you may be in for a terrible shock.

But if you’re still intent on holding off on all precautionary action until you can personally perceive a problem with your computer, there are some signs that–if you’re lucky enough to notice them–may indicate that your computer is in imminent danger of a critical crash. I want to emphasize, though, that these warnings may, or may NOT, be apparent. The absence of any or all of these signs does not mean that your hard drive is in the clear.

Remember: a hard drive crash can happen unexpectedly at any given moment, and the likelihood that you will see it coming is ridiculously small, and certainly not worth the risk. Operating your business on a computer without automatic daily offsite backup is a recipe for bankruptcy, as over 70% of companies that suffer major data loss go out of business within one year.

That being said, here are several warning signs that may indicate that your computer is at risk of hard drive failure:

1. Your computer is slow to boot (turn on).

If you notice that your computer is not starting up quite as quickly as it usually does, and this decrease in speed cannot be attributed to the installation of new anti-virus software, your hard drive may be suffering from bad blocks/sectors.

Your hard drive contains magnetically coated metal disks that spin at a speed of about 5400 times per minute. If these disks (or their coating) become damaged in any way, a catastrophic failure is likely within 6 months time.

2. Your computer starts to whir, and/or make noise.

A change in the way that your computer sounds could indicate that the disks within your hard drive are having difficulty completing their rotation. Remember: your computer has moving parts, and these parts are situated in extremely close proximity to each other. Specks of dust, not visible to the human eye, can damage these disks and impede their movement, let alone the metal fingers that support these disks.

3. Your computer experiences a read/write error, or indicates that a disk has failed to respond.

According to the Google Inc. study mentioned above, hard drives are 30 times more likely to fail within 60 days of experiencing an initial scan error, than drives that have yet to receive such errors.

So how can you protect your computer against a crash?

1. The number one BEST way to protect your computer (and your business) is not to attempt to protect it against a crash, but to plan for data recovery after a crash.

The reason being is there is no fail-safe way to prevent a computer crash. Simply search “automatic computer backup” and the name of your city, province or state, to sign up with one of the many secure online storage services available.

2. Enlist the services of a reputable IT Service company that offers monthly service contracts, and have them clean and test your hard drive on a regular basis.

Regular cleaning of your hard drive will not only prolong the life of your computer, but will reduce the risk for data loss.

3. Ask your computer to scan for errors and bad blocks.

Your computer may not be kind enough to automatically alert you when sectors of your hard drive are damaged, but you can ask it to scan for trouble. To do so, follow these steps:

o Right click on My Computer.

o Select Manage, which brings up the Computer Management display that is split between a right and a left side.

o On the left side look for Event Viewer, and click the plus sign to its left. A list will appear below.

o Click System. A list will appear in the right side of the display.

o Scroll down the list to search for any red “X” Error entries. These entries indicate an existing problem.

o Double click on the red “X” entries to bring up the Event Properties display, which will tell you more about the error.

In closing, I highly recommend that you commit, right now, to backing up your computer via an offsite secure storage service. Waiting one more day to protect your business, may just be one day too many.

Social Media Marketing – Facebook, Twiter, Digg

Getting your company or personal website to rank on the three major search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN) is the quickest and most effective way to boost your sales and grow your business. Many search engine optimization (SEO) companies charge an arm-and-a-leg for ranking services, when you can do much of the work yourself for a fraction of the cost.

Marketing your business online is easier, and more importantly cheaper, than you probably realize. By using free web marketing tools and capitalizing on free social mediums you can easily drive traffic to your website and interact with your customers for no cost and very little time. Online social sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube require nothing more than a valid email account and password, and give your business free access to millions of potential customers. Social bookmarking sites such as Digg and StumbleUpon are a couple more free resources that will spread your product or message like wildfire.

Social media, also known as Web 2.0, is no longer for the kids. Don’t be fooled by the flashy profiles and young founders; networking online has become the driving force behind many marketing campaigns. Social marketing is still a new strategy for many major companies, but with literally hundreds-of-millions of users from all demographics, these free platforms provide great potential. According to a recent article on Forbes.com, social media outlets allow CEO’s and companies to interact with their customers daily in a highly productive way. Starbucks, for example, uses Twitter to get direct feedback from customers and update them on new products.

The majority of Web 2.0 users are between the ages of 18-34, and while MySpace still attracts the younger crowd, Facebook, Squidoo, and even LinkedIn are great for reaching the buying public in an innovative way. The best part about these free networks is that they come with built-in blog, photo, and email applications. These are the tools that make conveying your message and redirecting traffic to your site easier then ever.

There are two simple things to remember when setting up a social networking account: use keywords in your profile name, and use a catchy profile picture. Your profile picture is the first thing that customers will see when browsing the internet or considering your online ‘friendship.’ Your profile picture can be your logo, but in some cases it is preferable to set up an account as the company CEO, rather than as the business itself. If you are a photographer, for example, it is well worth your time to set up a Flickr profile with examples of your best work. By setting up a free account as an individual, you can blog about your work on upcoming projects, post pictures of your business convention, and interact on a more personal level. While statistics show that a certain amount of trust is already given to a social network ‘friend,’ that trust only enhances when the interaction is with an individual instead of a business.

Setting up a social profile, whether it be on Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter involves finding the “Sign Up” tab (or “Join” tab) usually located on the right-hand-side near the “Sign In” tab. You will be prompted to enter your email address and new password. I would suggest using your company email or setting up a free Gmail account using your business name.

When creating a profile on YouTube and Twitter, you will be instantly asked for a username. You basically have two options here: use your company name or use an optimized keyword name. Use free online tools such as Wordtracker and Google Keywords to research what names will attract more traffic. If your business name is already optimized, then you have the best of both worlds. Keep in mind that this will be how a customer finds you on these social platforms. When a user searches for new ‘friends,’ they will enter a keyword to find profiles. For example, if a MySpace user is searching for an Arizona Cardinal’s fan, they will type in the keyword Arizona Cardinals. If you happen to have a business selling Cardinal’s apparel, using this keyword is highly productive for you.

Use the free online tool CheckUserNames.com to simultaneously check multiple social networks for user name availability. From this site you can test your keyword optimized profile name, and sign up for many accounts quickly and easily.

When it’s time to fill in your personal information, don’t be too professional. Have some fun with it while conveying your company’s message. In order to update your personal information on MySpace, you’ll have to go to “Edit Profile” under the “Profile” tab near the top of your screen. From this page you will be able to change the look of your profile and add to your “About Me” section.

After creating your account, you will have to check your email to authenticate your profile. This is why you must use a valid email address. Follow the setup steps as prompted, and within a matter of minutes you have created your first social marketing site. Of course, it’s definitely not advised that you simply come out and post your product all over the network. That is a great way to get blocked and rejected by every user on every platform. MySpace comes equipped with a “Spam” tab to use when you send an unwanted or commercial email. If too many of your recipients mark your email as “Spam,” you run the great risk of being banned from MySpace.

Once your profiles are created and customized, it’s time to get down to work. Remember, you can have an account in every social network and can optimize each one to drive traffic back to your site. The more free profiles that you have, the more opportunity you give yourself to organically rank higher on search engine report pages (SERPS). By organically, I simply mean to rank on the top three search engines without paying for it through Pay-Per-Click strategies or paid advertising.

Each Web 2.0 platform thrives under different strategies. MySpace is a great platform for “shock-and-awe.” Search engine guru’s still typically stay away from this free medium. However, if you’re targeting a younger crowd, have a band or gaming product, this is the perfect free resource. Tools such as Pyzam will help you build your site with flair. To market your profile, use some of your email marketing skills to reach “friends.” Use a lot of art, photos and videos to convey your message. MySpace is an extremely visual medium, and you can use this to your advantage. Use banners that redirect traffic to your site. Embed links in every picture, video, and piece of artwork on your profile that will lead traffic back to your website.

In order to find your market customer, follow the “Friends” tab to “Find Friends,” where you can search by age, gender, location, and even interests. Find your customer and let them know who you are without sounding like a used car salesman. Build your profile with multiple links back to your website.

Advertising on MySpace is just as easy as setting up a profile, and, though it may take a little cash, it will drive traffic to your site. Facebook advertising is built to allow you complete control of who is seeing your ad. You create it, select exactly who will see it, how much money you are willing to spend, and an advertising timeframe. Be smart about how you word your ad, what photos or logo you use, and the money you are willing to spend. Check your numbers frequently, keeping in mind that weekends will show different results than weekdays.

After you have secured “friends” on these social networks, it couldn’t be easier to tell them anything and everything you want. For example, let’s say you have a new product coming out, or a discounted special. By simply posting a bulletin on MySpace, writing a blog, or posting a note on Facebook, you can reach all of your customers at once. Every time you update your website in any way, you should let your customers know. This is a great way to keep things interactive and personal between you and your Web 2.0 “friends.” By attaching or embedding a link back to your website, and a few bookmarking options, you are taking your social marketing to the next level.

Social mediums such as MySpace and Facebook have an amazing way of spreading photos, videos, gossip, and most of all, questioners and personality tests. By using a simple SEO strategy known as link baiting, you can drive traffic to your site. Create a simple questioner about almost anything from a users favorite things to what they had for lunch, and send it to your friends or post it on your profile. Entice your “friends” to fill out the questioner and send it to their friends, and the cycle will continue throughout the network. It may seem like a small process, but creating a small quiz or questioner will end up reaching for more people than you might imagine.

Twitter is a social network that you truly must be a part of. It’s unique in the way that it allows you to consistently update your status without being too obnoxious. The whole purpose of Twitter is to literally let your “friends” know what you’re doing in every second of every day. Use Twitter to inform customers of upcoming events, specials, and newly posted articles and blogs. Let customers know how you’re feeling about popular news, or a company event. Don’t be too professional, but send relaxed and informational messages to your “friends” on a constant basis. Embed links back to your site, or to a recent blog that you posted.

YouTube is another free social venue that is quickly becoming the SEO guru’s dream, and while it may take a bit more technical knowledge, it can be your greatest free marketing tool. Filming a short video, or throwing together a quick slideshow with music, and adding a link directing people to your site, is all the work you need to do. It rarely even matters what the video is about, as long as it’s entertaining and under about three minutes. You can simply use your Windows MovieMaker to edit the video, add music, a title and credits. Be sure to include a reference to your website.

How-To videos are, and will continue to be, in demand and creating one that is short and informational will do wonders for your website. Do a little research on Google Trends or Yahoo Buzz to find out what the hot topics are, and talk about them. If you’re a gamble, make a controversial video (or blog). If you can get people interested and talking, you will definitely get them to your site. This will also persuade people to bookmark your video (or blog) to share the controversy with others.

The key to YouTube marketing is filling your video description with keywords and links to your website. The only way that your video will be found is through the description that you give it. Be specific to either what your video is about, or what your business is about, without sounding too much like that used car salesman. Make your description as long as you need to, as long as the link to your website is within the first few lines. These will be the first words that a viewer will see in your description. By using optimized keywords, when users search for YouTube videos via Google or YouTube itself, your video will be at the top of the list. Don’t be afraid to comment on your own video, or have a friend or employee comment to get the ball rolling.

Post the videos you make on other video sharing sites such as MySpace and Meta Tube, and before you know it your video will rank on Google alongside your Facebook page and company website. If you have built your social profiles and video descriptions with smart links to redirect traffic, you should notice your numbers going up.

Another free Web 2.0 marketing tool is social bookmarking. Creating a profile on sites such as Digg and StumbleUpon is similar to creating your Facebook and Twitter accounts. Bookmarking sites are used to spread the word about interesting blogs, articles, and websites. For example, on Digg a user will post a story that he found interesting about Obama’s stimulus package. He will “shout” it out to all of his friends, where they’ll “Digg” the article and pass it to their friends. The more Digg users that see this link, the more readers this Obama article gets. The New York Times uses Digg as its number three resource to drive traffic back to its website. If you can harness the power of social bookmarking sites like Digg, you will drastically improve your traffic. This is why it is crucial that anytime you post a blog on Myspace, a video on YouTube, or an article on your personal or company website, you must add some bookmarking options for your readers.

Adding bookmarking options to your blogs involves one simple step. It’s an embed code that you will place directly into your work. Check out AddThis.com to get the code and customize your bookmarking options. SocialMarker.com is another great free resource for creating accounts on many different bookmarking platforms and easily accessing those accounts. This is a platform that will actually take you from site to site, allowing you to open an account or add your blog one by one.

An SEO strategy that has been implemented by many marketing companies is to combine RSS feeds with social bookmarking. (An RSS feed is a way of syndicating your content throughout the internet to anyone who is subscribed to receive it). Your employees should all be subscribing to your RSS feeds already. Anytime you post a new blog or article, they should be automatically notified. Their step is to choose one of the many free bookmarking sites, post your blog on that site, and thus spread the word to their Web 2.0 “friends.” If each of your employees bookmarks your blog, it will appear to the search engines that you must have something relevant and important to say. Your next step is to bookmark your bookmarking profile. This will only add more relevance to your blogs and articles.

Something to consider when doing social marketing is your online reputation, and the reputation of other users. By using the free online tool Trackur.com, you can monitor yourself as well as others across many social mediums. While this product is not entirely free, it can come in handy when you need to know the atmosphere of your online network. Tweetbeep.com is a great free resource that allows you to track who is talking about you on Twitter, what they are saying, and how often they are saying it. Lastly, by using Google Alerts and setting it up manage your online reputation as well as monitoring your competitors reputation, you can stay completely informed at all times. These are great tools for staying on top of what is new in your industry, what people in your industry are talking about, what they are saying about you, and how well your social marketing strategy is going.

Social marketing is free, easy, and incredibly useful if you know how to take advantage of it. While it’s still a new medium, and SEO guru’s are still learning how to capitalize on it, by using these simple steps you can drive traffic to where you want it absolutely free. Take some time to do your research on keywords and effective social strategies by simply Googling social network marketing. Use the sites like MySpace, Facebook, Squidoo, and LinkedIn to get your product known. Make the most of social bookmarking sites, exploit the opportunities your own employees can offer you through their online profiles and bookmarking pages. By converging many different aspects of social media, and implementing social strategies, you will no doubt watch your sales go up. It may take a little longer to see your website rank higher on Google or Yahoo, but in time this completely free online SEO technique will work towards your advantage.

Using the Power of Social Media to Market Your Online Business!

So how do you market your online business without draining your bank account? That’s a very good question, pay-per-click or PPC marketing is not necessarily the only way you can get fast results and generate more leads for your business. Social media marketing is becoming more and more popular and the best thing of all is it’s FREE!

Particularly if you are just starting out on the internet and have no experience at all I strongly suggest that you start your marketing using social media because PPC with Google, Yahoo and Bing can cost you a lot of money if you haven’t the experience with keyword research and campaign optimization. To learn the strategies to be a ‘Google Guru’ can take months when you can write an article or press release and shoot a quick video about something that interests you or share some knowledge you have about a particular subject with people, submit it and its out there for all to see. To give you an idea of the power of this social media revolution lets take a look at these statistics:

• There are more than 300 million active users on Facebook and half of those log in everyday!

• More than 75% of people using the internet read blogs!

• 20% of US adults use Twitter or some other similar service!

• 27 billion people used podcasts in 2009!

• There are 20 million viewers logging into the top 5 article sites per month!

• The top 10 book marketing sites attract more than 80 million visitors each month!

So as you can see this is BIG! This is why you need to learn how to use these incredible tools so you can build your brand, connect with your customers and very importantly position yourself as an expert. Don’t be intimidated if you’re just getting started in your online business and have no idea what I am talking about, social media really isn’t difficult and to get started try the formula I use. Write down 10 questions that you have about marketing your business and then do a Google search on a particular question and you will have a list of answers. Read through a few of them take good notes and before long you will have some great raw material to start your social media marketing.

Write an article and shoot a quick video, either using a video camera (it doesn’t have to be fancy) or webcam, each video being 2 to 4 minutes long. Submit your articles to 3 or 4 of the top article submission sites and blast out your videos to video sites and put them up on a blog. Do this consistently every day and you will soon see some significant results in your business. For more great tips on marketing listen to top earner Michael Force as he explains why you need a marketing educational platform to teach you how to effectively market your online business…

Keyword Branding – Recognition for your Business Online with Keyword Marketing

How can you get to the Top of Google, front page on the Search Engine? Keyword Branding, Recognition of your website and online business with keyword marketing is the most effective search engine marketing.

Keyword Marketing offers your Article Marketing an opportunity to get you noticed for HOT topic words before the competition. When you promote your keywords in articles you produce for online marketing, your keywords brand your website top billing on the search engines by playing the percentages game.

Search Engines use crawlers that recognize brand information as quality by word content. When your content is full of keywords used responsibly to market your product, you get better brand percentages on the crawlers and therefore higher rankings for links attached to the articles.

For instance, if I have a site with a page that talks about Search Engine Optimization, and 3% or more of my keywords in that page are ‘Search’ or ‘Engine’ or ‘Optimization’ the crawlers will begin to recognize that page brand as valuable to those keywords and the page will rise on the search engine, because the words are used, well linked, and reactive Article Marketing.

For this reason, optimizing keyword usage in valuable content filled Articles you Market to the Internet increases your brand placement. You don’t need to use the keywords unnaturally, in uncommon places, or without purpose in your article. But you do need to promote your keyword brand at any point in your article where branding helps the reader (or the crawler) to understand better, your purpose for writing the article.

Think for a moment of the words you use for fillers that really do not say anything of value.

The word ‘it’ is a favorite of mine. I’m referring to my subject, most often when I use the word ‘it’. So, why not use my subject instead. If Article Marketing is my subject, then I can replace the word ‘it’ almost completely with my brand keywords “Article Marketing” and make a branding impact without appearing to overwhelm the content with keywords.

Are you ready to Brand your Market with Identifying Keyword Optimization?

YouTube Marketing – Frequently Asked Questions

A lot of people are aware of how powerful YouTube Marketing can be. But few actually take the time to work on it, and fewer even try to really do market on YouTube the right way. This is because there is confusion about how to properly implement YouTube marketing. In this article, I will answer some of the most frequently asked questions about YouTube marketing.

How do I get my videos found?

This is done by first doing keyword research. This is very important for a few reasons.

1) It helps your video get found by the search engines and YouTube by using good related keywords in your tags, titles, and used or “sprinkled” throughout your description.

2) There are many ways to say something, and there are just as many ways to search for something. Keyword research will show you how your audience is searching for your content.

3) Keyword research also shows you more ideas for new content later. Search engines like Google also want to show you related content. Their keyword tools want you to see there are many other things related to your keywords that are in your niche that are entirely new topics. Take some notes while you do keyword research. You will be glad that you did.

How long should my video be?

We live in an age where attention is the new currency. If you can keep peoples attention, you will be rewarded for it. That being said, YouTube is not a place to put very long videos. Keep your videos “bite size” 60 – 90 seconds for the most part. If you are teaching something it’s okay to make it 3 – 5 minutes. Any longer than that and you endanger losing attention.

How do I keep their attention?

You need to give viewers a reason to stick around and watch the whole video. You need to be compelling. This is easier than you may think. The first 8 – 12 seconds of the video are very important. This is where the person watching the video will decide weather or not to watch till the end, or to simply click away. There is no magic spell you cast on people. All you need to do is tell them what benefit they will get out of watching this video. Say, in this video you will learn, see, find, etc. and then tell them the benefit they will get by watching the video.

Now What?

By using good keywords, keeping your videos short, and keeping your audiences attention, you will also be able to insert a call to action at the end of the video to get people to come to your site, comment, subscribe, sign up for your list, or all of the above. The big benefit of doing your research right is that you know people are watching your video, are targeted and interested in your content before you even click play.

Get Your WordPress Website on Page 1 of Google

Digital Marketing for WordPress Websites

If your search term is not right for your business, too competitive, or just a keyword that does not generate enough traffic, then you can be wasting your time. If you are inpatient and you do not do the market research, you can be hitting your head against a wall.

Digital Marketing for WordPress

Market research online is very easy, accessible, and honest. It’s unforgiving and available at your fingertips.

What are keywords?

In general terms, keywords are the words or phrases that people use to ask a question.

Free Tools for Market Research

This step is more often than not skipped because, let’s face it, this step is not sexy.

1. Google Keyword Tool

Google has tools that are free and that you can use to do market research. This tool allows you to tap into the database of the data that Google creates using AdWords. Google AdWords is a product that Google uses to sell advertising space to people who want to advertise for a specific keyword.

Google.com/sktool

The 3 prime metrics that we are looking for to find a keyword worth targeting are:

  • volume (how many local monthly searches for this keyword)
  • competition (# of websites advertising against this keyword)
  • commercial value

2. Google Trends

Shows us the amount of people using a keyword search over a particular time. This important because you don’t want to spend time working on SEO for a keyword that is trending downwards and fewer people are searching for the keyword.

3. Google Insights

Gives us a more deep look at search behavior about a keyword. Tells you more insights about a keyword such as where and allows you to make a more informed decision.

Three important concepts to choose the right keyword

1. Volume – the number of people searching on a keyword

2. Competition – what is our competition doing in the marketplace. What clues are they giving to Google. We need to look at the quality and the competition in the marketplace for a keyword. If there is a lot of strong competition for a keyword, then you might want to move on and choose a different keyword. If a lot of people are advertising for a keyword, then it could mean that it has commercial value around the keyword.

3. Market Samurai – eavesdropping on customers and analyze your competition to decide if a keyword is worth going after

WordPress and SEO

So we have put together a list of what we consider to be the best WordPress SEO marketing tools. WordPress is by far the best blogging and CMS tool for SEO and business professionals. One reason is because of the vast number of free plugins that are available. So, take your time to complete the market research and focus on the right keywords to increase traffic with digital marketing for WordPress.

Free WordPress SEO Tools

  • Social Locker (Free Version)
  • WP Social SEO Pro (Free Version)
  • S2 Member (Free Version)
  • WPRobot (Free Version)
  • Thirsty Affiliates (Free)

How to Position Naturally in Google Through Search Engine Marketing

Google has undeniably become the most powerful search engine in recent times. With millions of online users from different parts of the globe, Google is obviously seen as a huge marketing potential by online advertisers.

Then, here comes the Search Engine Marketing (SEM), a form of internet marketing that helps business owners to build their reputation and reach unlimited number of prospect customers worldwide. It provides online advertisers good visibility for their website on the World Wide Web.

SEM services feature paid placement, contextual advertising, paid inclusion, and the widely used Search Engine Optimization (SEO). On the other hand, top SEM vendors are Yahoo! Search Marketing, Microsoft Ad Center, and the most popular Google AdWords.

So, you want to use SEM services to have lucrative revenue for your business? You may want to use the following tactics:

You can purchase advertisements and most of the time they are on pay-per-click (PPC) basis. They usually appear on certain parts of a related page or the search results page with the headings “Featured Sites” or “Sponsored Sites”.

Also, you can have contextual advertising which are advertisements that are directly related to the content of your targeted webpage. It works this way: a network, Google Ad Sense in an instance, scans a website for certain keywords that are related to the nature of your website, when they found both pages relative, they will place the advertisement on the targeted site.

Another SEM service you can use is paid inclusion where Google charges fees for the inclusion of your advertisement or the link of your website to their search index. The above mentioned SEM services may tend you to shed some amount but you are well assured that you will have a good position on Google without doing much effort.

Moreover, the SEO strategy in search engine marketing is proven to be the most effective and widely used by online marketers though the said tactic requires some effort. Search engine optimization improves your visibility and ranking through posting quality content articles on different related sites.

The secret in SEO marketing is having original articles and it is far better to have both quality and quantity of articles. They must also have catchy yet concise titles and headlines as the first thing people will notice will contribute to their first impression of the whole write-up.

Then, post these articles on related websites so you can automatically acquire your targeted market. Keep in mind to post original articles even on different sites as posting duplicated write-ups are only counted as one.

Lastly, don’t forget to explore a lot of possibilities. Remember that the great traffic you can generate from such Search Engine Marketing tactics contributes to your ranking on Google.

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