* "Only connect. . ." E.M. Forster, Howard's End

Saturday, April 30, 2011

6 Easy Ways to Get More Visitors to Your Blog

A blog is an important asset to any business. It allows you to gain visibility as a thought leader, engages your audience in conversation, and acts as link bait. But you can only reap these benefits if you can actually get visitors to your blog. By now, we all know that content is king and that creating remarkable content on a regular basis will pay off sooner or later. But here are some simple strategies you can apply to each of your blog posts that will make your blog traffic soar quickly.




1. Make Your Blog Title Interesting and Engaging
The title is the most important part of each of your blog articles. You could have written the most remarkable content in the history of the blogosphere, but people won’t read it if they weren’t intrigued enough by the post title to click through. Also think of your blog title as a subject line; people will see your blog title in their email (if they’re email RSS subscribers), on Twitter, on Facebook, and in the search engines. Your blog title has to be engaging enough to break through the clutter on all of these channels. Here are some blog title strategies that work well:


Use numbers (examples: “5 easy ways to” or “7 best strategies for”)
Start with “How to”
Use relevant keywords people are searching for
Include benefit to reader (examples: “get more visitors” or “reduce costs”)
Be controversial (example: “Is PR dead?”)
Be specific – don’t fill your title with puns or try to be too clever
Be unique


2. Make Your Content Easy to Read
Once you get people to click through to your blog post, your article should be very easy to read so that visitors can quickly decide that your content is worth sharing. The average Internet user is impatient; if you have paragraphs of dense text, or if your content doesn’t flow, your reader will quickly navigate away without commenting or sharing. Here are some ways to make your content easy to read:


Use numbered lists
Use tags for subheadings to separate content

Use bullet points to break up large sections of text
Bold important statements for emphasis
Write at a high-school level. Don’t use too many “big” words or technical jargon.

3. Make Your Content Search Engine Optimized (SEO)
Search engine optimization is necessary if you want people to find your blog via Google, Yahoo,

Friday, April 29, 2011

What’s the Difference Between a Blog and a Website?

Thanks to Jack Humphrey http://www.fridaytrafficreport.com/whats-the-difference-between-a-blog-and-a-website/

Nothing.

6 years ago they meant two different things to most people you asked.  A blog was a specific kind of website where the author wrote long pieces about their interests, desires, art or other passions.  Most never considered making money doing it and did it as a hobby.
Then blogs were found to be the darlings of Google.  Google loved the content and the words that were added to the authors’ content in the form of comments.  Community and interactivity played a big part in the success of running a website on blog software.

Today, just about every site built on the web is built wholly or partially with blog software.
The truth is, there never was a legitimate distinction between blog sites and web sites.  They are one in the same.  A domain and a content management system = website.
Some businesses need shopping cart software to organize, display, and describe their large product line.  But shopping carts outside of Amazon and other large shopping sites don’t get good organic traffic.  Many smaller shopping cart-based sites have added blogs to deliver that content that Google so loves to rank.
Suffice it to say, pretty much no one is building straight html sites these days with Dreamweaver.  Certainly not the masses who have neither the time nor the inclination to learn html and design.  Not when you can just download WordPress, grab a domain, install a free template and be publishing within a matter of hours.

Blogs are just content management systems (CMS)
And a huge array of businesses in all markets are using blog software for their core web presence.

Blogging” is where people get confused
You are only a blogger if you primarily focus on writing content.  In that case, your biggest daily function is to produce words.
You are a publisher if you spread your work out to include marketing your site and organizing others to help with the content production for the site to buy you the time needed to take on a bigger role of gaining exposure and attracting readership.
And regardless of your daily functions above, you are a website owner.

Blog software offers the most flexibility in online publishing
It is easy for the layperson to set up without a huge learning curve.
Blogs provide the tools necessary for successful reader attraction and retention, from commenting to integration with social media via countless widgets offered by social media sites to bind blogs with their sites and communities.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

When YOU Are The Brand

We’ve gone through a strange change, from people not realizing that they need to be their own brand, to people not realizing how being the brand impacts the way they do business. It’s interesting, really. Tom Peters was the first person I recall talking about it, back in the Alan Webber days of FastCompany (The Brand Called You). Back then, we were all cubicle farmers and beige employees of the cog-world (okay, not true, but that’s what it felt like). But now, we’re getting the opposite, where people have all the tools to make a brand and do so, but don’t really know how to leverage that brand into anything resembling a business. So, in some ways, there’s been a bit of a see-saw. We used to have people that would prosper by turning their wonderfulness into a personal brand.

WE GOT THERE – KINDA

In a way, lots of us have found our way to the tools that allow us to try and build a brand. I meet finance professionals with blogs. I know videobloggers who have a day job doing research for the research and quantification sector. We have access to the tools. Not everyone’s getting themselves to the promised land by blogging, but the tools are there. We CAN try and build personal brands and that’s something.

BUT WHAT ABOUT BUSINESS AND PERSONAL BRANDING?

The trick of being in a personal brand is that there’s a big difference between being known, being known for something, and also being able to turn that into business.
I’ve got a recognizable personal brand. It took years to build it. From that, it took years to figure out how best to make business from it. Because just being known doesn’t transform instantly into business.
I met Kathy Ireland a few months ago. She went from being a model into running a successful business with over $1 Billion in sales. Her speech at the Disney Social Media Moms event made no bones about the fact that it was hard going from being known for being beautiful into being respected for her business acumen. She told lots of stories about times when she and her business partner slept on the chairs in an airport to save money between business flights. The end point: no one just hands you money and business because they know you.
Your first takeaway: make sure you’re progressing from being known into being known for something you’ve done, and then work at finding a way to build a business from that. Your second takeaway: no one wants to hand you money just because people know who you are.

IT’S STILL NOT ABOUT YOU

Being a personal brand isn’t all that useful to anyone else, if it’s just about you. It just doesn’t get people as fired up to be “supporters of Chris,” for instance. But instead, if you’re “human business workers,” all committed to improving relationship-minded sustainable human business practices, well, then I’ve got the sense that we’ll do a lot more.
As a personal brand, it’s really important to talk about everyone else as much as you can. It’s just too boring and unhelpful to tell everyone about you. It’s okay to “model the change you want to be,” or even let people learn from the lessons you’ve suffered through, but make sure you bring it back to them, and be helpful. It’s about the community you can touch and help succeed.

BE A VALUE BRAND, NOT A NAME

I just had a great stay at the Renaissance Hotel in Las Vegas a few days back. Every single staffer treated me like I was a friend, and like they were so happy I was part of their experience. They gave me such value. They had advice for where I could go. They knew some ins and outs I needed to know. It was pure value for me as a frequent traveler.
I try to be a value brand. I try to give everyone so much more than what I ask for, that you think, “wow, I really DO want to help Chris promote Invisible People, because he’s given me lots of actionable business ideas over the years.” That’s my angle, and it’s working really damned well. Be a value.

STORY STORY STORY

Connect folks to the story that brings them passion. I wrote about a charter school I visited, and learned

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

PERSONAL BRANDING BASICS FOR 2011

Batman Knew All About Personal Branding
Personal branding isn’t really my focus. It’s something that I do because it’s part of marketing and building out the new way that social business flows. It’s something we wrote about in Trust Agents in the “Make Your Own Game” part. But I’m asked about it often. Here are my thoughts for how to move the needle with your personal brand in 2011 (and yes, you should start planning now). Oh, and Batman is going to help me illustrate along the way.

PERSONAL BRANDING BASICS FOR 2011

DECIDE ON YOUR PROMISE

A brand is a promise. Christopher S. Penn quotes Ze Frank often, saying that it’s an “emotional aftertaste.” Think about it. You buy Apple because you know it’s well-designed. You buy Coke because you prefer the taste. You take your kids to McDonalds because you know they’ll eat it without a fuss. Whatever the promise, good or bad, that’s why you align with the brands you choose.
Brands as part of identity is even bigger. If you’re into bicycling, you’re a cyclist. You think that way. You eat accordingly. You spend your extra time accordingly.
Batman is defined by the goal to seek never-ending vengeance on criminals. That’s his promise. You’re a bad guy? It’s going to hurt. Batman is vengeance. And if someone else started being Batman, they’d pretty much have to own up to that promise, as well, or the brand would dilute.
Decide what you’re going to promise and start there.

DECIDE HOW TO BEST REPRESENT THAT PROMISE

First, for everyone who calls themselves something like “The Leadership Doctor” after their name, or in lieu of their name, I challenge you to find me a very big, very successful personal brand who did the same. Richard Branson is Richard Branson. Oprah is Oprah. Madonna. Lance Armstrong. Mother Theresa.
None of them were “the something someone.”
So, now that you’re a name, how do you represent the promise of that brand? I’m turningHuman Business Works into a brand that promises to help grow sustainable, relationship-minded business through helpful education and community. That’s the brand promise of HBW. By extension, my promise is that I can deliver that and that becomes part of my brand.
Batman represents his promise by executing on it, all the time. Instead of talking, he does. He executes.

BRANDS DO HAVE SYMBOLISM, HOWEVER

Don’t doubt for a moment that brands use powerful symbolism. That yellow Livestrong band shows up at quite a distance, plus echoes the Maillot Jaune (the yellow jersey) that signifies the leader and winner of

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

A SIMPLE BLOGGING FORMULA

I try to blog almost every day. I believe that daily gets more people back more often and keeps attention levels high. Many people will disagree with this, saying that it’s important to only blog when you have decent content and something worth saying. Here’s the thing: I always have something I feel is worth saying. I have months more ideas than I have time to write them. So first, and foremost, my assumption is that frequency matters. Look at how many people are subscribed to my blog via RSS (around 50K daily). That number grows the faster I post. It levels out on weeks when I slow down.
Let’s go through the formula:

STEP 1: DECIDE WHAT THE POST SHOULD DO FOR YOU

I write posts for several purposes:
  • To get a call to action.
  • To attract business.
  • To promote someone else.
  • To get links and bookmarks and reblogs.
  • To get a conversation started.
But I don’t do all of those things in every post. I start each post with a plan of what I want it to do. This post? I want you to reblog, to link, to bookmark, etc. That’s all. No solid call to action. Just some more inbound links.

STEP 2: HOW CAN I BE HELPFUL?

Every post that gets real traction on my blog comes from the mindset of being helpful to others. Other sites report news. TechCrunch, Mashable, Perez Hilton. Those sites rely on you to want what’s new. In my case, I rely on you wanting tips and advice and ideas that you can use for yourself.
So, I write every post to answer how I can be helpful. You can pick what you want people to visit your site for, but if it’s news and repeat entertainment, I find that a harder game to be in.

STEP 3: THE ACTUAL WRITING

I start with a headline. Then, I realize quite often that my headline stinks, and I go back and write a new one.
I then find a picture on Flickr under their Creative Commons area, so that I can use it with the post (unless I have one of my own to use).
My first paragraph is always a personable lead-in, usually with a question, and usually setting up the post. I know that I only have about 30 words to get you into it, and I cherish those 30 words.
I write with lots of chunking on posts that I want you to bookmark and revisit. Chunking in this case means doing things like putting subheaders in there.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Blogging: Who's your audience?

Christopher S Penn wrote a great post about marketing and how it starts with audience. What’s great about it is that it’s exactly what was on my mind since yesterday. I’ve been thinking about who my audience is at [chrisbrogan.com] and furthermore, I’ve been looking around at other people’s blogs and wondering who they’re hoping to attract with their writing. Do you know the answer about your blog? My guess is it might be different than you think.

WHO ARE YOU WRITING FOR?

This part, you should at least think you know. When I write, I’m writing for professionals who want to understand how social tools change business. Sometimes, I’m writing for larger companies to read and consider. Most times, I’m writing for smaller companies and solo business types. Heck, plenty of non-business types read and take things away from here. It’s fine by me. That’s who I’m writing for, in my mind. How about you?

BUT WHO IS READING?

When I look at the comments, the people who are reading are a mix of people. Most of the comments come from people I believe who represent small or solo businesses. Lots of you are from smaller agencies. So many of you are lurkers that I have no idea who you are, where you’re from, or what matters or doesn’t to you.

WHY IT MATTERS

Are you writing for your colleagues or your buyers? I’m going to tell you right now that I suspect I’m writing more for my colleagues than my buyers. This is generally okay. I like having conversations with my colleagues. However, I’m in business, and part of my efforts revolve around creating useful information that will encourage buyers to consider me in their solution set, depending on the product. With that in mind, you should be thinking about this for your own site. Are you writing for your colleagues or your buyers, and what effects does this have for how you write?

Sunday, April 24, 2011

AN INSIDER’S GUIDE TO SOCIAL MEDIA ETIQUETTE

SOCIAL MEDIA ETIQUETTE: YOUR APPEARANCE

  • Your avatar picture shouldn’t be a logo. We don’t meet logos at parties, do we? You can include a logo, but make it you.
  • Unless you’re a fictional character, more often than not, your avatar should be you. Amazing Simpson-like renditions of you are interesting for about four hours.
  • Your Facebook profile pic can be not you, but it often means that others might not accept your friend request. It feels creepy friending a four year old kid (avatar).
  • Your picture can be you from 10 or 15 years ago, but that first face to face meeting is going to be jarring.
  • It doesn’t take a lot of work to take a decent pic. Why use those “me cut out from posing with someone while I have red eyes” photos?

SOCIAL MEDIA ETIQUETTE: FRIENDING

  • You’re not obligated to follow/friend anyone. No matter what. Not even your mother. (I follow my mother, btw).
  • If you decide to unfollow someone, don’t make a big stink and announce why. Just leave.
  • It’s okay to let the competition follow you. It’s okay to follow the competition.
  • Famous people don’t always want to follow back. I’m looking at you, Justin Bieber!
  • You can set your own rules on Facebook. I’m in the process of moving everyone to a fan page and just keeping VERY close family and friends.

SOCIAL MEDIA ETIQUETTE: CONVERSATION



  • Commenting about other people’s stuff and promoting other people’s stuff is very nice.
  • Saturday, April 23, 2011

    Ten Blogging Tips

    Briefly, some tips:
    1. \Write to be helpful.
    2. Be brief.
    3. Tell a story.
    4. Connect others, if appropriate.
    5. Share. Often.
    6. Don’t overthink it. (It’s a blog, not a dissertation.)
    7. But be thoughtful.
    8. Don’t be mean.
    9. Publish often enough to build a relationship.
    10. But be mindful of your audience’s time.

    What else would you say? What if you were telling someone at Disney or Starbucks or the Woman’s Society for Advanced Cancer Research about blogging? Share your blogging tips?


    From http://www.chrisbrogan.com/my-best-advice-about-blogging/

    Friday, April 22, 2011

    Cyber Marketing!

    The ongoing communication revolution is not new to the marketers. The involvement of radio, television, and database marketing has added flavor into the transforming the take of marketing outcome to add better channels for all. Unlike other means of communications, digital means has better promises to increase the traffic for concerned products and help marketers to interact smoothly. People who embrace changes easily will likely to get reap most of the benefits. With the onset of digital communications discount coupons online have been encouraged to an extent.

    Web with extraordinary three qualities has managed to gained supremacy in the online marketplace.  The ability to fragment audience's attention, the low cost of digital communication, and Web as an instrumental medium for getting the things done at the right time. Taking the development of Web as a medium in levels, it is very clear that Web has something extraordinary to meet the marketer's needs easily. First being the "Mass Media" – print, television, and radio where audiences were largely unknown to the targeted marketers. The next set of communication level includes, "Addressable Media" – telemarketing, direct mail, and e-mail communication where individuals can be targeted and catered to use a particular brand and identity. Now is the age of "Interactive Media" – this form of communication is accountable for getting instant customer feedback through personalized message. It helps the company or brand to cater customers as per their unique interests and needs. Interestingly, by doing so, both marketers and consumers, do not have to pay much. They can just find a common platform to get the information of their choice and give their feedback right away.

    Furthermore, taking note of the unfolding of the massive popularity of digital revolution, two main possible scenarios can be taken in account. The popularity of use of digital television signals across the popular geographical locations and availability of personal computer at every home has made users to interact more by getting excellence customer services.

    In addition, even marketers and advertising industry have seen a shift into the way they use to process and offer services. Till now, companies used to offer Web sponsored services such as internet services mix, search engine services, and web site hosting. However, now the concept is rapidly changing. Even established companies are adding Web advertising into their kitty to make an interesting combination to lure millions of customers worldwide.



    Read more: http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-tips-articles/cyber-marketing-4576901.html#ixzz1JVQgo2Ps
    Under Creative Commons License:
    Attribution

    Thursday, April 21, 2011

    Using Article Marketing to Drive Traffic to your Website

    Article marketing is an extremely effective way of increasing the amount of visitors to your website. Article submission sites provide a free showcase to display your skills and authority in your area of expertise, with the added benefit of providing free quality backlinks to your website. Article sites like Ezine Articles, Buzzle, and Go Articles, also allow you to write a small author bio to let readers know what you're all about. You have nothing to lose by submitting your content to article directories; it's free, easy to use, and can significantly increase your readership and search engine rankings.


    Study the submission guidelines


    Each article directory has their own way of doing things, and their own editorial guidelines. Some have strict rules regarding the structure of your articles, and the types of formatting to use; others prefer articles to be written from a third-person view point. It's important to study the submission guidelines for each separate directory, and ensure that you follow their specific rules.


    Take time to craft your author bio


    One of the biggest mistakes that people make when using article marketing, is to write an author bio along the lines of "Hi, this is me. Come look at my website!" This kind of bio is unprofessional and tells the reader nothing of interest.


    Your author bio is the most important piece of information that will determine how a reader responds to your articles. You could write a top-class article that informs and engages your readers, but if they don't like what they read in your bio, they will click away and go somewhere else.


    The tone of your bio is as important as what it contains. If you want to convey a sense of professionalism, you should avoid using first-person writing in your bio; if you would like to give readers a more personal connection to you, the first-person may be the best option.


    Don't waste space with extraneous information; if you are trying to show readers how knowledgeable you are about parenting skills, there's no use including a long list of unrelated qualifications in physics and astronomy.


    Be consistent
    If you choose to submit articles to different article directories, rather than just one, make sure that your bio information is consistent across all of the directories. Don't sell yourself as a

    Wednesday, April 20, 2011

    "Bio Basics – How Much Is Too Much?"

    Knowing what to include in a biocan be intimidating for business owners, but it doesn't need to be. Just think, the last time you read someone's bio, what was going through your mind? Did you think "Wow, I still don't know what this person does" or did you say, "Hey, what's with all the fluff? I don't care what your cat's name is!" The gamut runs from skeletal to overflowing with details. It's hard for some people to know what to put in and what to leave out, so I have some very simple questions for you to ask yourself when you decide what to include – for both long and short bio pages.

    Who is my Ideal Client?
    This question should be first and foremost in your mind. Think about it: the bio is like a party invitation for your business – and there are certain clients who you really want to connect with. These are the clients who share your philosophy, who are looking to work with someone with your credentials, and who want to take their business where they know you can lead them. I love who my bio attracts. What would your Ideal Clients care to know about you?
     How long should my bio page be?
    Well, kind of like an evening dress, it depends on the occasion. You can make your bio as long or as short as you want, as long as it includes everything you want it to. Have a couple of versions prepared, a "long" and a "short" one, that you can switch up based on the situation.

    For instance, if you're preparing a presentation for a client you'd really like to work with, an Ideal Client, you might want to bring out the big guns and include your "long" bio. This would be about the size of a one page Word document. I'd also include this version right on your website, so potential clients can get a good feel for what you can do for them. This is where you get more detailed in your experience and credentials, and sprinkle in some personal details that show you as a whole person.

    Tuesday, April 19, 2011

    QR Codes, Tags, Paid Content Revolution And More!

    http://bit.ly/fQ7geN


    We may have bitten off more than we could chew this week. A couple topics could have been entire 30 minute segments on their own today and we didn’t even get to 1/2 of what we linked to this week on Facebook. Here’s the show… And here are the topics: Google Social Search (which was [...]






    Signature Line: An Overlooked, Virtually Free Marketing Tool

    Once my clients truly understand that marketing is about relationships, we start talking about how those relationships are created and maintained to determine appropriate marketing tactics for their businesses and personal styles. But no matter what kind of business my clients are in, they all have the same excellent relationship marketing tool at their fingertips: Their e-mail messages.

    E-mail messages are the most frequently overlooked (and virtually free) marketing tools available to entrepreneurs. No, I'm not talking about electronic mail campaigns, or spamming, but using the messages you send out every day to your clients and colleagues as a subtle marketing tool. You can do this by adding more information to your signature line in all your e-mail.

    How many times have you received a message from people who aren't using a company domain name in their e-mail address, so you're not sure who Bill or Sally @Hotmail.com is? Or what if you're in that position yourself? Many low cost Web hosts will forward e-mail received to you@yourdomain.com, but don't provide an e-mail address from your domain name. So how do you look professional when you're dealing with a $35 a month Web site and free Internet e-mail? You use an annotated signature line.

    Monday, April 18, 2011

    How To Build Your Website For SEO

    Search Engine Optimization is one of the most powerful internet marketing tools. If you like to start an online business, then the first thing that you would want is for many people to visit your site. This can only be possible if the website for the company finds itself as one of the top search results in popular search engines. To achieve this ranking, the website owner needs to take care of several things. Those things required creating a website for SEO is briefly given below:


    Ways to build the website:


    In general you need nine basic things to build a website for SEO. The information is listed below:


    · Think Keywords
    The search engine moves slowly through your website and the keyword matches the query that user's search. So the website should have more keywords, which makes SEO read automatically, and it will grade your site for best ranking. Including a copy will also help organize the page better so you don't just have a lot of images mucking up the page.


    · Additional content
    Once the main pages of your website are designed and have copy written for them, we need to think about what kinds of additional content we can create and where we can put links to that additional content. Part of a good link building strategy in SEO is to create well written content that people will want to naturally link to. Whether it's a ‘how-to' series of pages or an image gallery, make sure the designing of the site in a scalable fashion that can be added-to over time. This additional content will be crawled and indexed by the search engines which will help increasing the SEO rankings and traffic.


    · To avoid too much flash
    The visual effects in your website look very great. But the content or animated cartoon characters will less in a website. Because the website cannot include keywords in Flash pieces or animated cartoons, then the search engines cannot read them and they are useless to the SEO perspective. The search engines are getting better at reading Flash; however just keep it to a minimum. Most of the users of now-a-days do not like to wait for a Flash piece or images

    Sunday, April 17, 2011

    Top 10 Marketing Concepts for Small Business

    Over the past decade more and more people are getting fired, getting downsized, or getting fed up with their corporate jobs and embark on the journey as a small business owner. Unfortunately, most of the new small business owners fail to consider their marketing plans or strategy. There are many marketing concepts for small business marketing to consider and plan for, but here is our list of Top 10 Marketing Concepts For Small Business Marketing.

    Marketing Concept # 1: Consistency



    Consistency is the number one marketing concept for small business marketing only because it is left out of marketing concepts for so many businesses. I have worked with a long list of clients, big and small, that are extremely inconsistent in all areas of their marketing. Consistency helps lower the cost of marketing and increase the effectiveness of branding.

    Marketing Concept # 2: Planning
     Once small business owners decide to be consistent with their marketing, planning is the next major concept to engage. Planning is the most vital part of small business marketing or any level of marketing, for that matter, and so many owners, marketing managers, and even CMOs plan poorly. Put the time into planning your marketing strategy, budget, and other concepts presented here to ensure success.



    Marketing Concept # 3: Strategy
     Strategy immediately follows planning because your strategy is the foundation for the rest of your marketing activities. In the process of planning, you must develop your strategy: who you will target, how you will target them, and how will you keep them as a customer.



    Marketing Concept # 4: Target Market



    Target market is also another key concept for small business marketing. Defining exactly who you are targeting allows small business owners to focus on specific customers and reduce

    Saturday, April 16, 2011

    Social Media Faux Pas- Social Media Marketing Do's and Don'ts: The Top 5 DON'TS of Social Media Marketing

    Using Social Media is one of the best ways to promote your business (big or small!) but only IF used correctly!!


    Believe it or not, SPAM is not the only Social Media Faux Pas that there is going on on the top social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. There are actually (at least) 5 other Major stumbling blocks when it comes to Social Media Marketing.


    Here are the Top 5 Social Media Faux Pas-- The Don'ts of Social Media Marketing:


    1- Ignoring Your Customers: Ignoring your customers is one of the absolute worst Social Media Faux Pas. Social Media Marketing is NOT all about YOU. It is all about them--the people you are connecting with; your fans and customers! When your customers or Facebook Fan Page fans/friends make a comment or post on your page or profile (even if it's a negative one), it is important that you respond in a professional and timely manner. When it comes to Social Media and Facebook Fan Page Strategy, every source of feedback gives you and your business an opportunity to respond and improve so that you can keep your fans happy and coming back for more!


    2- Ignoring Your Competition: This is another BIG Social Media Faux Pas! Whether you are a part of the Real Estate Industry, Health and Wellness Industry, Virtual Assisting or Arts and Crafts, you can assume that you are NOT the only one! So it would be silly to just spend your time on Facebook and/or Twitter and not pay attention to your competitors as well. The great thing about Social Media is that it gives you a unique opportunity to stay in the loop with what is going on in your industry. You can use sites such as Google Alerts, Tweet-Beep or RSS Feeds to receive automatic alerts any time one of your competitors is mentioned online.


    3- ARGUING!: This might be one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to Social Media Faux Pas! Please don't argue! It is so unprofessional! When it comes to Social Media and the do's and don'ts of effective Social Media Marketing, it is absolutely critical to remember that

    Friday, April 15, 2011

    How To Subscribe to Twitter RSS Feed

    RSS is short for "Really Simple Syndication." This is a simple online mechanism that permits you to read all your favorite web content on one page. For example, consider a blog that you like. You would like to visit it everyday to see if the blogger has updated it. You can simply subscribe to the RSS feed of that blog and read the blog contents on your RSS feeder.


    Subscribing to RSS feeds enables you to find out whether a blog or website has been updated or not without having to visit it. You can read the contents of several blogs and websites from a common page.


    Twitter’s RSS Feed


    Twitter’s profile page, home page, replies page, and public timeline page have RSS feeds. When you are viewing one of these pages, you might have noticed RSS buttons in the page’s sidebar or browser. If you want to track the contents of the page without having the sign in to Twitter every now and then, you can just subscribe to their RSS feeds.


    Twitterfeed


    Twitter does not have any application enabling users to update their tweets through an RSS feed. However, smart API users have designed an app called Twitterfeed. This app automatically sends any update you make on your blog to Twitter. All you have to do is enter your blog's feed url, input the number of times you tweet. Your Twitter friends will be able to view these announcements. You can access Twitterfeed at http://www.twitterfeed.com/

    Thursday, April 14, 2011

    How To Do Social Bookmarking During Your Seo Link Building Campaign

    If you are not SEO & want to read full article so, I want to give you some overview on social bookmarking. This social bookmarking activity is highly dedicated to manage your daily work during internet surfing. Currently, major internet users are using browser bookmark tool to get it done so, they can access that bookmarks at any time. If you will use some another system during your work so, you will not able to access that bookmarks.


    In terms of social, social bookmarking will give you facility to access your saved URL across the internet with your certain login detail. You can also share your favorite URL to your network via social network. Right away, If you are owner of any blog or article or website so, social bookmarking will help you to gain your search engine visibility as well as views.


    Now, I want to share some useful tips which will help you during your SEO link building campaign.


    Profile: If you want to create strong social bookmarking profile so, you have to focus on following factors.


    1. Before submission, try to create full profile with your image and company URL.
    2. Always create your social bookmarking profile with your name.
    3. Don't make multiple profiles in same website. Try to stick with one and update it so, It will help you get good Google page rank.
    4. If you will find out some new social bookmarking website so, before creation of profile check some existing profiles. It will help you to get more ideas. You can identify some active profiles over website & try to make similar that.


    Title and Description: There are two kind of social bookmarking websites first one is Do follow and second one is No follow. If you want to gain your search engine ranking with social bookmarking activity so, you have to focus on this factor. Before submit any URL to website you have to check whether it is do follow or no follow. If website is do follow so, you can submit your URL with targeted keyword and no follow so, submit your URL with some attractive Title so, It will help you to gain click through rate during search engine indexing.


    Tagging: You are also able to add some useful keyword during submission. Tagging is very important to improve your submission crawling rate. For example, If you are working on "business management company" keyword so, tag your keyword in single phrase. It will help you to spread your link in multiple external links over social bookmarking website.


    Read more: http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-marketing-articles/how-to-do-social-bookmarking-during-your-seo-link-building-campaign-2156856.html#ixzz1IqQiCafV
    Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

    Wednesday, April 13, 2011

    4 Unique Ways to Get Traffic to Your Blog from LinkedIn Answers

    LinkedIn is a great social network for small and large businesses to reach out to relevant prospective customers. LinkedIn Answers in particular allows you to find people publicly stating that they have a specific problem or need that your product or service would solve. It’s pretty awesome.
     What’s even more awesome is that you can get high-quality traffic to your blog from LinkedIn Answers, and get some really qualified leads as well. Here’s what you can do:

    1. Create a New Blog Post in Response to a Question
    Instead of simply answering the question in full right on LinkedIn Answers, create a remarkable blog post answering that user’s question. Then reply to that question within LinkedIn Answers with a summary of your answer, and let the user know that you’ve created a detailed and helpful post to answer their question. Something like: “Your question inspired me to write a blog post on the subject, and I’ve provided even deeper analysis over there: (insert link). Let me know if you find it helpful, or if you have any more questions!” Also enter this link in a “Web Resources” field, as you can’t create linkable text within the Answer text field. Going above and beyond will show potential customers that you really do care about helping them.

    Tuesday, April 12, 2011

    Online Marketing Through Social Networking Sites

    Keep it Real
    Just as with every new communication technology, there are those who use the medium in overbearing, unwanted ways. Social networking sites are no different. The key term here is “networking,” give and take. According to Bob Baker, author of MySpace Music Marketing, social networking success stories have one thing in common: “They’re all about the ping-pong effect ? It’s you sharing yourself with and getting to know dozens, and then perhaps hundreds of people. In turn, those people mention you to their friends.”

    It’s NOT about posting, sending and otherwise spamming hundreds or thousands of others. Because interaction is a key feature of these sites, the potential for backlash is enormous. Social networking sites are back-and-forth communication forums, not broadcast media. Annoy or abuse people and they’ll tell the world.

    So what can you do on these sites? How exactly does one share his/herself and get to know people?

    Basic Online Marketing Principles
    There are certain basic online marketing principles that apply when networking online. Among them:
    - First and foremost, no spam. Communication should be individual and meaningful, not bulk, impersonal nonsense.

    Monday, April 11, 2011

    Keyword optimization and pagerank


    The important part of SEO is keyword.The keyword research should be thus done before creating and collecting content for website.For the purpose you can use the keyword research tools.Doing the research on the keywords using the keyword research tools two things shoule be kept in consideration
    .
    1.The number of time the keyword is searched.
    2.The number of website competiting for the same keywords.

    Use keywords that has maximum number of search.Donot use the the words as the keyword if the competition for that word is very fierce although the number of search is maximum.Use the keywords that has more number of search in search engine and less competition.If the competition for the keyword is less you can easily ranked above in search engine. Thuus the competition should be less to get more number of traffic.The high competitive keywords will not help you get above in saerch engine.

    Also give the keywords attractive looks by making it bold or underline it.This has direct influence on tne traffic. The top keyword can directly drive traffic towards your site. It will directly help on getting higher page rank.Analysing the top ranked website can also help for ranking well.Also link your website to the properly ranked website for getting the bettet pagerank. If you get the backlink from the website having pagerank 5 then u are sure to get the rank of 1 or 2.
    Also the density of keyword should be considered.Use keyword frequently in your content part. If you use 1000 words then use keyword for at most 10 times.Using keyword greater than this is also not proved good because if keyword is excessively used then google may take it as the spam. Use the key words at the very begining and end of content.This will strengthen your page.It is also good if you include your keyword in your page URL. The maximum traffic of the website is the direct effect of the optimization and research of keywords.Keyword resarch and the traffic and direct influence on the page rank of the site.

    If the keyword is resarched prooperly and proper keyword is use then it will drive traffic in lagre amount and thus made diret influence on pagerank of the website.


    Read more: http://www.articlesbase.com/social-marketing-articles/keyword-optimization-and-pagerank-4526019.html#ixzz1IaOdk33v 
    Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

    Sunday, April 10, 2011

    Social Media Promotion


    Social media marketing you've probably heard the term but you may be unclear as to what it is. In ‘management speak' social media marketing is ‘using social networking and user-generated content platforms to promote a product, service or content by dialogue with the target audience rather than advertising to them'. Social media marketing benefits organizations and individuals by providing an additional channel for customer support, a means to gain customer and competitive insight, recruitment and preservation of new customers/business partners, and a 
    method of managing their reputation online.

    Social media marketing is a relatively new marketing concept that involves increased social interaction on websites and has gained enormous popularity over the last year or two. There are many different types of social media and within this there are also many different websites. Social Media marketing is the fastest growing marketing technique today. Social media marketing is the type of planned marketing efforts that lead to the "Viral" spread of a company's message. This viral message creates several positive results. First, it attracts new previously unreached consumers to the company. Second, it generates internet content that is tracked and indexed by Google and other search engines. This content naturally increases search engine ranking and draws additional consumers. Social media sites are classified as internet

    Saturday, April 9, 2011

    How To Take Advantake of LinkedIn For Social Networking

    With over 25 million members, LinkedIn has grown to become a very powerful business and career management tool. Many are using it, but few have really optimized its value. Here are ten tips for creating a strong online presence.
    1. Take the time to create a robust profile. Write a summary section that clearly outlines your personal brand and value add and gets readers jazzed up about what you do. Build out the specialties section and make it keyword rich and industry relevant. Many profiles on LinkedIn are just a shell with a name and an abbreviated chronology. You would never submit a resume to a potential employer that only listed employment, so why would you use this tactic on-line when your information is available for millions of people to see?
    2. Use the endorsements feature to request and offer endorsements. People are more likely to contact you if you can prove that others have been satisfied with your work, product, or services. Adding endorsements can expedite the decision making process.
    3. Keep your profile up to date. People who use LinkedIn for a job search campaign often abandon the tool after they find new employment. By keeping your information up to date, you are more likely to keep your network strong and be able to reciprocate to others.
    4. Educate your connections. If people join LinkedIn and don't invite others, they won't get as much out of the tool and will remain several degrees apart from the people they want to meet.
    5. LinkedIn doesn't replace traditional networking, it facilitates it. Always supplement your on-line efforts with face-to-face networking.