Fall in Love With Twitter Again

On the heels of its first-quarter earnings report, Twitter seems to be struggling to keep its users active. The social-media service added 14 million active users, up about 6 percent from the previous quarter, but not as much as some analysts would have liked.


Twitter now counts 255 million active users; Facebook has over 1 billion active users. Keep in mind that an active user as someone who logs into their account once a month, not someone who’s necessarily tweeting regularly.


So what to do if you are one of many that set up a Twitter account and abandoned it? Dust off that handle, and give it another try.  Your business needs it!


1. Be patient. Unless you’re Katy Perry or Starbucks, your brand probably doesn’t have a built-in following. Your first tweet isn’t going to get a lot of traction because no one knows you’re there. So start favoriting, retweeting and replying to content that interests you.


2. Follow more accounts. Find more accounts that are more relevant to your interests, but be selective. There are accounts that may have 100,000 followers, but they also follow 80,000. How in the world will that person ever see anything useful to them? At the same time, don’t feel bad for unfollowing. Remember, when it comes to Twitter, it's basically a high school game.  Don't waste your time following someone if they aren't going to return the favor.  Twitter upkeep can get horrible at times, esp when your in the 100k range.  You almost need to have a 3rd party program to manage your follows/unfollows.


3. Be diligent. Make a point to spend even five to ten minutes a day reading, favoriting and replying to tweets. Don’t be discouraged if your replies and tweets go unnoticed. The more you tweet, the sooner you will learn what works and what doesn’t. As the days go on, increase your time but don't overdue it.


4. Say something. Try not to go days between tweets. Whether it’s a discount code, information on sales or something fun, be active. That said, don’t tweet for the sake of tweeting.  Set up a schedule and follow it.  Don't fade away from Twitter again! 

You Can Kick-Start Your Own SEO Campaign

Search engine optimization can be a confusing and frustrating topic for an entrepreneur. He or she probably knows that SEO contributes to online success but may not always understand what it entails or how to best approach it.


Consumers turn to search engines when they look for products and services online, so positioning your website so it can land higher in search results can prove beneficial. Search engine optimization involves improving elements on your website's pages as well as increasing the number of inbound links (from other sites) to raise its ranking in nonpaid search results.


A new business can be inundated by offers from SEO agencies from every corner of the world, all promising the same outcome: top rankings in search results. Some digital agencies will quote five-figure monthly retainers. Or overseas companies will promise the world for a monthly stipend of a few hundred dollars a month.


But overpaying for a service that doesn’t deliver on its promises can quickly deplete a marketing budget; selecting a poor service can result in a website's penalization by Google. The worst thing an entrepreneur can do is contract for a low-quality SEO service in an effort to save money. The cost of cleaning up the mess created can surpass the steep fee for hiring a more experienced agency at the outset.


If your business doesn't have the budget to hire a SEO agency, then take a deep breath, grab the SEO reins and follow these tips to handle your search engine optimization process internally for a while.


Optimize on the page level first. Many businesses forget one of the most important elements of search engine optimization: focusing on the text within a page of a business website.


This involves making sure that website elements are properly optimized to make a given page worthy of a high ranking on a search engine's results for a desired keyword.


Create blog posts. Not only should your business website have a blog that's updated regularly, you can assign posts to staffers that hit the keywords you're trying to target for SEO. Have one employee manage the blog and delegate writing assignments throughout the company.


Curate a social media presence. A website that has its content shared across social media will attract social signals (tweets, "likes" and shares) and also receive visits from various social media channels, which will contribute to its ranking by search engines. 

A business needs a social media footprint from its birth, and while you might not be able to afford a full-time social media manager or agency, that doesn’t mean the company's social presence should be neglected.


Look for guest blogging opportunities. Guest blogging on industry-related sites that receive a lot of traffic is great for brand exposure but can also result in other sites' taking notice of your company and linking back to your site. This is a type of natural link building that Google loves when ranking websites.


Seek out industry blogs with the potential to provide your business some exposure and traffic and then offer them guest posts. The tasks can be spread out throughout your company at first. Have a contest that rewards the employee who lands the most guest posts and reward the staffer who creates the guest post driving the most traffic to your site. This kind of competition can produce great results while building camaraderie, which is very important for a new business.


Later on, when your business becomes more successful, then you'll be able to bring on full-time content marketers or hire an agency to handle the creation and distribution of such content.

5 Tools to Grow Your Online Presence

Growing your online presence is no easy job -- especially for small and midsize business that are often lacking the brand awareness and resources of their much larger counterparts. Fortunately, now, more than ever there are a plethora of tools to help newly-minted entrepreneurs build their brand quickly and cheaply.


Here are five to help jumpstart your online-community presence.


1. Buffer to post content. Content sharing is one of the easiest way to grow and nurture your community. Yet, with more and more social platforms popping up online, content sharing can be time consuming, as each has its own style and messaging. Enter Buffer. This tool is a great way to streamline your posting and schedule on multiple platforms, making sure you’re talking to everyone where it counts. Plus, it’s a great way to keep your communications going on the weekend, a time when many users are interested in sharing online content.


2. LaunchCrew to launch campaigns. When launch day comes, startups need to get the word out to as many people to have the most impact and increase the probability of being heard in crowded industries. Often this entails getting your current followers to share with their friends, family and connections. LaunchCrew will help you do just that. It lets you cast a much wider net, practically doubling or tripling your impact. But how? By asking your audience for their credentials to be able to post on their behalf on the day of your launch. Or for any major campaign. You’ll get that initial boost you’ve always dreamed of -- the one you really need these days to break out of the pack from the very start.


3. Unbounce to create landing pages. Landing pages are now a must-have design choice to boost your online special operations. By customizing these towards a targeted audience, along with specific and relatable calls to action, it makes them way more efficient at achieving higher click-through rates. Unbounce allows you to create landing pages incredibly fast, with no technical skills required, making it easy not only to build but also to A/B test and implement the best results.


4. Click to Tweet to foster sharing. It’s ok to ask people to share. But the simpler it is, the more people you’ll get to do so. By giving out a simple, pre-composed click-to-tweet URL for your audience to tweet in seconds, you’ll find that your potential for virality is drastically increased.


5. Mention to monitor and react. Once people start talking about you, the best way to continue growing is to detect these mentions and to reply to every one of them. By doing so, it fosters a lot of motivation for them to talk and mention even more about you, creating a network of trusted brand advocates. By having alerts based on keywords -- like the name of your company, your products or your competitors -- mention allows you to stay in the know and react in seconds by connecting your social accounts directly to the app.


With these five tools, you’ll find yourself developing and maintaining a clear brand voice in no time. And it’s then that you’ll start to see your online presence heating up.

Stop Talking About Yourself So Much

Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, Oh my! Now entrepreneurs have so many ways to reach out and talk to the world. Entrepreneurship is all about building a platform of loyal advocates who are excited about listening to your message and hopefully buying from you.


That said, the five biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make on social media all come down to one important lesson: You talk too much (at least on social media). Stop talking and start listening and you will turn your use of social media into a lean, mean, money-making, advocate-building, client-relationship machine. Avoid these social media mistakes and build a wider following:


1. Avoid me, me, me; it’s all about me. Take out a sheet of paper and write down your last 10 social media posts. Whom have you written about? I bet most, and probably all, your posts are about you, your company and your greatness. Stop writing about you. Instead, use your platform as an opportunity to promote others. My personal method of doing this is through blogging about amazing people.


Every week I choose an interesting business person to reach out to and interview for my blog. By doing so I guarantee that every single week I’m offering awesome content about other people and so my friends, followers and connections get way more than they bargained for when they followed me because my posts are not just about me. A side benefit to doing this is that I also strengthen my bonds with some amazing people.


2. Pivot from always using your lips not your ears. Most entrepreneurs use social media as their lips, not their ears. Instead of spending 30 minutes a day posting, spend that time scrolling through posts by friends, followers and potential clients to see what’s going on in their lives. When something awesome is happening in the life or business of one of your followers, act on it! Send a card or pick up the phone to acknowledge it. I spend 30 minutes a day scrolling through my social-media feeds to see what’s happening in everyone else’s lives. When I see anything at all, like a celebration or a challenge in their life, I consider this to be a prompt that I must act upon.


3. Too good for social media? Forget that! Surprisingly there are still individuals and companies that are resisting social media. Wow, these individuals and firms are missing out on a free opportunity to build a following. I’ve had conversations with business owners like this and the big reason they have resisted social media is because they personally hate social media. My advice to them is to get over it!


I know lots of entrepreneurs who hate selling yet they realize that this activity is so fundamentally important to their business that they figure out a way to get good at it -- just as they should do with social media.


To build a tribe, you must be accessible in a way that people can easily learn about you and your business. The easiest way to do this is through social media. There’s a good chance that your competition is eating it up on social media, and so should you!


4. No sunshine when she’s gone? Stop whining. Do not post negative stuff via social media. Do not complain. Do not share negative articles about your competition. If you choose to post about your political preferences, do so only with the knowledge that you are probably eliminating 50 percent of your followers as potential clients. Presumably, you want to grow a following for your business. To do so, you must have posts that are inclusionary. Therefore, don’t give people a reason to walk away from your business.


5. Steer away from impersonal birthday greetings. A person’s birthday is the most special day of the year, for that person. Ten years ago, collecting a database of birthdays would have been time-consuming and cumbersome. Today, you have this information at your fingertips. Don’t miss out an amazing opportunity to honor your customers, employees and sphere of influence on their birthdays.


By the way, posting on their Facebook wall is almost equal to ignoring their birthday. Everyone is posting stuff on that person's Facebook wall. At a minimum, if you are going to post on someone's Facebook wall, put a photo or a video so at least it gets noticed among the flood of birthday wishes. Better yet, don’t post on their wall at all. Send a card or pick up the phone to offer a birthday wish.


Social media offers entrepreneurs a unique opportunity to build a tribe by listening, acknowledging and honoring others. Shut up, start listening and thrive!

Facebook Isn't the End All, Be All for Social Marketing

Question: Given the not-so-recent changes in Facebook visibility of posts among fans, how useful is to still concentrate the part of social media effort on Facebook? Also, with your findings, how profitable -- from the traffic generation point of view -- is to invest in FB paid advertising?


Answer: A few years ago, you could say, “I’m on Facebook, that’s my social strategy.” Not any more.  The majority of the online audience in the U.S. (52 percent to be exact, according to comScore) is using two or more social platforms -- about an eighth of the audience is using seven or more.


Should you be on Facebook?  Yes, absolutely -- if you have content that’s appropriate for Facebook. But don't focus on all of your resources on Facebook. Instead, be everywhere.  If you have photos, be on Instagram and Pinterest.  If you have wisdom, be on Twitter.  There are a lot of social platforms. (Have you heard of Secret or Whisper yet?) You should use them each if you’ve got something appropriate to offer.


But the buck doesn't stop at social, you should also use email (think newsletters), and you should also think about paid search and SEO.


I can’t speak to your specific company and your strategy, but I can give you this: Try everything and measure your returns so you can balance your mix.


If you are trying to sell product through an ad, you should measure everything in terms of ROI.  That’s easy math.  How much did you spend to get the returns you can track through those efforts?  Eliminate the costly and double down on the efficient.


If you are trying to establish awareness or interest in your brand, the calculation is a little harder.  What you care about here is how you can best deliver your message to the perfect audience. How much are you willing to pay to speak to the right audience, how can you be sure the audience you want is the one you buy and how do you measure the effect the message has on them? (Hint: Clicks don’t measure brand impact.) This also requires not just buying access to the audience but experimenting with what to say to them when you’re in front of them.  The placement doesn’t make the impact, the creative does -- the placement gives your creative the eyeballs it needs to succeed.


Big companies have access to advertising opportunities that small businesses may not. But even small businesses have powerful advertising tools available to them through self-serve features on Facebook, Twitter, Google and others. Take a look at the ads you get on each platform -- you can bet many of those are from small businesses.  Do they work?  Well, some of them are priced on a cost per click, so if you are willing to pay the bid price for each click you get then they are very efficient. But the onus is on you to give them a reason to buy both before and after they click.


In closing, you need to keep track of sales on what works and what doesn't.  If you test the market on a paid ad and it isn't working.  Try something different or a new approach.  Try all the platforms out there. 

Zero to 23,900+ Twitter Followers Without Spending a Dime

As social media is becoming more engrained in our everyday lives, it is becoming imperative for businesses to get on board. And Twitter is huge for companies, as it provides a place to share news, engage with loyal customers and attract new ones. But it isn't easy.


While some opt for quick fixes, like buying followers (something I have never done), I don't see the point in these sketchy tactics. It may offer short-term spike, but it doesn't provide the kind of engagement that organic followers do.


When I joined the social media movement I was just an observer for the first few months. But by remaining consistent and sticking with daily-following methods, my account began to grow. Now with more than 23,900 followers, people often ask me for advice on growing a following on Twitter.


Here are a few very simple ways to grow your following (along with the process of what I do on Twitter) that you could also implement on your other social channels.


Return favors. Follow people that retweet or favorite your tweets, especially when they take the time to read articles you've written and share a comment with you. Also take the opportunity to engage when possible. The more you reach out, the more folks will return and reciprocate -- by following or making comments.  You can apply this across all your social networks.


Remain active. Follow new people every day even if you can only afford a few minutes on each network.  I usually do this on my phone while I am waiting on someone.


Widen your net. People say quality over quantity?  True, however, I would rather have both to maximize your reach.  You must continue to build your community -- whether online or offline.   I've met many of my community contacts from my tweets or share.


Make retweeting a habit. Although I have many followers to focus and respond to, I make my rounds every day to retweet at least one new person a day.  This sometimes will give you a fan for life.  You can apply this same exact method to grow your following and community on any of your networks.  I love Instagram, I spent a month focusing on following, in no time my social media presence grew there very quickly. That said, you must be consistent in harvesting your following and engaging with others on a daily basis


Pay attention. Keep your eyes open for those who retweet you often or share your blog.  Favorite a tweet to let the individual know you see them.  At a later point in time, perhaps return the favor as time permits.  How does this help with your following?  The more people see that you appreciate their efforts, they will more likely retweet you whenever online. The more visible your brand or Twitter handle lands on other pages, the more likely you will generate more organic following.


Stay focused. Tweet relevant and high quality content.  People will regularly visit your page to share your tweets.  When people are excited to pass along your message, additional branding and visibility to your account.


Keep networking and engaging. Take it offline. These days, people share their love of food, nature and other passions. For instance, if you are passionate about photography, organize a photo walk. When you take social media offline, people will share photos of you along with your Twitter handle to their audience, in turn you will get more followers. This is a great way to start a conversation online and offline.


Showcase your skills. Twitter is a great place to show off your talents, especially writing and photography. If you are a writer with informative, pertinent content, put it on Twitter. Same goes for amazing photos.  People will share your articles or images and this will give you visibility to more admirers.


Find influencers. Reach out to other thought leaders and feature 10 people on your blog.  They will be happy to share your content to their readers and this will also grow your readers as well as followers.


Diversify. Do not put all your eggs in one basket. With this last point, apply these ten tips in other social channels where the methods may fit to grow your network.  Technology changes very rapidly, it's smart to keep a pulse on the current social world.


I hope that these points will help you grow your brand.  Remember the more seeds you plant, the larger the harvest.  An hour a day focusing on following will give you a robust community.

5 Tricks to Get Influencers to See and Share Your Content

On the Internet, messages are meant to be heard. From high-powered advertising agencies to in-house marketing departments to individuals with a few hundred Twitter followers, everyone yearns for their message to be conveyed and shared. Finding a high-powered industry influencer can help jump start a sharing craze and kick your message into viral overdrive. A single retweet, blog link or public compliment can do more than you think.




So what can you do to improve your chances of an influencer noticing and sharing your content online? Start by following the five simple rules below.




1. Don’t expect a social media miracle.
Let’s start with an unfortunate truth for those on the hunt for influencers’ attention. Trying to reach out via social media likely won’t cut it. With anywhere from a few hundred to a few hundred thousand Twitter mentions and/or Facebook comments per day, influencers simply won’t have the time or opportunity to see your message. You can go ahead and try, but the chance of an influencer hearing you might be slimmer than winning the lottery. As for an in-person encounter -- forget it.


2. Instead, get creative to get an influencer’s ear. 
Since simple social media outreach likely won’t do the trick, you’ll need to find ways to get creative. Getting in touch with an influencer’s official PR agency or management team is a decent step, as is mining closer connections for an introduction. But for most influencers, making contact in a unique or innovative way can be key to the introduction. Consider a self-promoting website with plenty of personality similar to Matthew Epstein‘s brilliant Google Please Hire Me.


3. Show some passion! 
Hand in hand with showing off your creativity is finding a way to show insane amounts of passion for your work. Craft a pitch with just the right amount of passion and moxie so that the influencer you want to reach can’t say no. Venture for America, a program that pairs talented college grads with startups in burgeoning cities, asks this of their new fellows, most of whom are just weeks removed from receiving their diplomas. VFA’s “make contact” challenge saw one success story in a fellow who met with Dan Gilbert, CEO of Quicken Loans, by citing their mutual desire to rebuild Detroit. Another got in touch with Joe Kennedy, CEO of Pandora, by conveying his passion for companies at the intersection of tech and music.


4. Keep your content short and to the point. 
Obviously, your content needs to be razor sharp and engaging. More importantly, it needs to be easily digestible. Getting the attention of a major influencer is a difficult task by itself but convincing them to wade through a lengthy introduction or setup to get to your main point is simply asking to be ignored. The elevator pitch is a decent solution to this dilemma, but even that may be too long. Consider using various forms of micro-content to get your concept across in seconds.


5. Flattery never hurt anyone. 
Who doesn’t like compliments or a personalized pitch? Be sure to make any potential influencer feel good about why they should help you. Saying some nice words and having a good attitude is an incredibly low risk, high reward way to strike up a conversation with an influencer.  Do your own research.  Learn what they like and want.  Then, make your move. 

Niche Market / Keyword Info

This post is based on an important truths about search engine traffic:

Truth: When you enter a market (begin to target a set of keywords) for the first time you don’t know really anything about it.
You don’t know what keywords have traffic.
Yeah, Adwords Keyword Tool gave you some numbers, but in case after case, those numbers prove to be nothing more than symbolic. When you actually get into the market and start your SEO, you inevitably find that some keywords that apparently had “28 global searches a month” or whatever, actually bring hundreds of visitors and keywords that have “20,000 searches a month” don’t bring near as many.
Furthermore, you don’t know what keywords convert. You can make educated guesses, and based on principles, you can make intelligent assumptions, but until you’ve got the data, you don’t properly know.
This of course, is the reason why affiliates used to start a campaign by testing a market with instant PPC traffic. That allowed them to know their conversion metrics from the first week, and know the “real” numbers that Adwords doesn’t tell you straight away. Of course – and sadly – that’s no longer possible, so we need to take a different approach.
Think of this…
The BEST situation you can have in any market, is one where you know what keywords can provide easy search traffic, and you know what keywords convert for the affiliate offer you want to promote. As soon as those keywords are in your head, no one can take them from you. Yeah, your site can lose rankings, or get penalized, but who gives a shit? You know those keywords are profitable. You want what you did to get traffic from those keywords. And you can do it again. And again.
That in mind, here’s how you get to that point, without PPC, in a new niche, as quickly as possible.

Is Content Really King? Maybe. But In The Beginning? Definitely!

Here’s a secret some – maybe a lot – of new affiliates don’t know:
Advanced affiliate marketers don’t do much “niche research”. They know their niches already. They’ve had profitable sites before, they know certain markets, they know the right keywords, they know what sells. They keep hitting the same markets over and over again and keep replicating the same results… Google slaps be damned.
If that’s not you, the first thing you need to to do in a new market, is bomb your site with content targeting as many keywords as you can, that you THINK might have traffic, and THINK might be profitable.
Then you start your SEO.
On a new site your SEO shouldn’t be too specific anyway. You should be working on building up the authority of your domain name, and building those root domain backlinks to set yourself up for the specific keyword domination that will come later.
Why do you do this? It’s like fishing.
You’re casting a bunch of lines into the water, in all different places, to see where you get bites.
At first, the new content you add will do nothing. It will sit there – anything from a week to a month – depending on your market. But as your domain authority grows (thanks to your link building), some of those posts will start showing up in the SERPS for some of those long tail keywords we always talk about. 

THAT’S when things get exciting…
As soon as one keyword pops up… one keyword where you got traffic without even trying… that’s a sign.
You go back to that post, you consider the monetization, you try to improve it, you drop some internal links to that post (with the right anchor text) from other posts, and you see if you can grow that traffic… and if you can sell with that traffic. If you can’t improve the traffic or make sales… no problem. You wait for the next keyword to pop up. If you can. BOOM. You’ve got a keyword that’s in your bank so that you can draw on it and it’s potential FOREVER.
And if months pass and NONE of these keywords pop up? You couldn’t even get a few visitors from long tail keywords with all that content? It might be a sign that this market is too competitive to begin with. You take the hit, and you move on, happy that you didn’t waste even MORE time in that space.
Do you see why this is infinitely smarter than the alternative approach?
I mean the approach where you have some affiliate offer and you pick a keyword, then spend months SEOing it, riding all your hopes on that, only to rank for it and find that it doesn’t have as much traffic as you thought, or it doesn’t convert like you thought?
The approach I’m talking about in this post is one where you’re minimizing the possibility that factors out of your control – unexpected occurrences like the Adwords data being wrong – could hurt your profitability.
You’re maximizing the number of decisions you’re making that are backed by experience and data. It’s a TOTALLY different ball game.

Start Now…

If you’ve recently entered a new niche, or you’re about to do so: Give this a shot.
Do some keyword research. 
Grab 20 keywords. (adjust as per your budget)
Have 20 good articles knocked up. It’s a $100-$150 investment. Small for what you’ll get out of it.
Publish them on your site
Continue with your SEO
And watch your traffic stats.
Do this in enough market and you’ll be operating like a super affiliate before you know it.

The Social Media Experiment

First of all, we hope everyone had a great Memorial Day Weekend!  Hope you guys were all safe and had some fun, but also had time to reflect and give peace to those that have served and payed the ultimate price.


Now on to this entry - 'The Social Media Experiment" -  I wanted some facts to prove that women have it easier in marketing than men.  Weather it be online, or in person.  A sale is a sale, but why is it that women have a slight edge over men?  Because they have certain features that lure men into buying almost anything?  Or is it that they do have skill in the field?  I've found that both are the correct answer.

I, myself have been in marketing now for over 4 years and have been fairy successful.  However, it took countless hours of training, numerous sleepless nights of SEO, and many months before I started to turn a profit.

Last Sunday, I created a fictitious Facebook profile, made it a "classless" female with numerous inappropriate pictures and a fake background story.  The point was to see how many friends I could gather and then launch a few campaigns to see if I could generate any profit.

The results were above and beyond what I had expected.  In a mere 7 days, I had accumulated 3,300 friends, 700+ messages, and a handful of comments on the pictures, statues updates, and on the wall.

I then launched a few simple campaigns to see if I could  gather intelligence on the traffic and if they led to any actual sales.  In the end, I got some good traffic and even a few sales with minimal work.

The point is, is that anyone can make countless profiles, rinse and repeat this process, and with time and dedication you could add this to your stream of income.

The process can then be duplicated to other streams of social media, such as Twitter and Google+

With all this research done, I can safely say, that even with my 4+ years of experience and all the training I've done, a simple fake profile could ultimately out-sale me in the end with the same amount of effort.

I will keep conducting this experiment and also expanding it to add to my many income streams.

Remember guys, don't be afraid to try new avenues.  Even if you fail at something, it could still prove to be useful in the learning curve.   

Welcome Back!!

After a "minor" break...which was actually a long break.  We have decided to re-launch the blog and assist people in changing their lives.  When the blog first went live way back when, we received numerous feedback's and questions. After helping every single one of you, we want to get back out there and help spread the word again!

Starting very soon, we will be doing our normal posting and also adding some more info to the blog.  We are going to do a little remodeling, but not much.

Stay tuned :)  Lot's of things are coming your way!!

 

Blog Update 12 - 10 Laws of Social Media Marketing

Leveraging the power of content and social media marketing can help elevate your audience and customer base in a dramatic way. But getting started without any previous experience or insight could be challenging.
It's vital that you understand social media marketing fundamentals. From maximizing quality to increasing your online entry points, abiding by these 10 laws will help build a foundation that will serve your customers, your brand and -- perhaps most importantly -- your bottom line.

1. The Law of Listening
Success with social media and content marketing requires more listening and less talking. Read your target audience’s online content and join discussions to learn what’s important to them. Only then can you create content and spark conversations that add value rather than clutter to their lives.

2. The Law of Focus
It’s better to specialize than to be a jack-of-all-trades. A highly-focused social media and content marketing strategy intended to build a strong brand has a better chance for success than a broad strategy that attempts to be all things to all people.

3. The Law of Quality
Quality trumps quantity. It’s better to have 1,000 online connections who read, share and talk about your content with their own audiences than 10,000 connections who disappear after connecting with you the first time.

4. The Law of Patience
Social media and content marketing success doesn’t happen overnight. While it’s possible to catch lightning in a bottle, it’s far more likely that you’ll need to commit to the long haul to achieve results.

5. The Law of Compounding
If you publish amazing, quality content and work to build your online audience of quality followers, they’ll share it with their own audiences on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, their own blogs and more.
This sharing and discussing of your content opens new entry points for search engines like Google to find it in keyword searches. Those entry points could grow to hundreds or thousands of more potential ways for people to find you online.

6. The Law of Influence
Spend time finding the online influencers in your market who have quality audiences and are likely to be interested in your products, services and business. Connect with those people and work to build relationships with them.
If you get on their radar as an authoritative, interesting source of useful information, they might share your content with their own followers, which could put you and your business in front of a huge new audience.

7. The Law of Value
If you spend all your time on the social Web directly promoting your products and services, people will stop listening. You must add value to the conversation. Focus less on conversions and more on creating amazing content and developing relationships with online influencers. In time, those people will become a powerful catalyst for word-of-mouth marketing for your business.

8. The Law of Acknowledgment
You wouldn’t ignore someone who reaches out to you in person so don’t ignore them online. Building relationships is one of the most important parts of social media marketing success, so always acknowledge every person who reaches out to you.

9. The Law of Accessibility
Don’t publish your content and then disappear. Be available to your audience. That means you need to consistently publish content and participate in conversations. Followers online can be fickle and they won’t hesitate to replace you if you disappear for weeks or months.

10. The Law of Reciprocity
You can’t expect others to share your content and talk about you if you don’t do the same for them. So, a portion of the time you spend on social media should be focused on sharing and talking about content published by others. 

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How to Change your Life, Entrepreneur, Make Money Online, Fast Cash, Online Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Grow Your Business, Business, Business Start Ups, Fast Money, Quick Ways to Make Money Online, Online Money, Make 6 Figures in a Year, How to Make Money Online, Social Media Marketing, Make Money with Twitter, Make Money with Facebook, Work from Home, Change Your Life,Quick Cash, Quick Money

Product Review 8 - FaceBook Influence

Facebook represents a huge marketing opportunity. Approaching 800 million users some argue it has changed not only how we communicate and connect, but our vocabulary and very culture as well. Marketing on Facebook, done right, requires a lot of trial and error. Those who know me, understand I’d much rather learn from the trial and error of others than only my own :-) … Which is why I was looking forward to taking a look at FB Influence (aka Facebook Influence), and writing this review. In this post, I’ll cover what FB Influence is, who is behind it, who it’s for, what’s included, what I like, and what I don’t like. 

FB Influence Review (Facebook Influence)

Facebook is a marketing opportunity that cannot be ignored. The ‘stick rate’ of visitors is nearly as amazing as the return rate. Many of us get the fact that Facebook is huge, and some of us have run some ads campaigns, tried different things to get more engagement, but wonder what’s working for others. Are there better results to be had for marketers? The creators of FB Influence think so, and based on what I’ve seen in the course, there’s much for me to learn as well.

 

What is Facebook Influence?

Facebook Influence (or fbinfluence) is a series of  training videos spanning four modules of what it takes to be successful marketing using Facebook. The content is delivered by Amy Porterfield who has partnered with Lewis Howes and Sean Malarkey to help with promotion and support. There are also a handful of bonuses that come with the course, designed to help people implement the strategies and tips taught in the course.

Who is Amy Porterfield?

She’s the instructor and voice on all the videos in the course. I first met Amy at BlogWorld in 2010 in Las Vegas. More recently we both attended a private marketing event in San Diego. She worked with Tony Robbins years ago directing content and marketing for his events, and has also authored Facebook Marketing All-in-One For Dummies, worked with top online marketers where she was project manager for some very large product launches. She was also the community manager for SocialMediaExaminer.com.

To be honest, the few encounters I’ve had with Amy I find her to be pleasant and sharp. However, what I learned  from her watching some of the videos in the course, along with the PDF downloads and bonuses, has left me even more impressed. She knows her stuff!

Who is Facebook Influence For?

Facebook Influence is ideal for small business marketers and solo-preneur marketers who are struggling to tap into Facebook as a source of traffic, leads, and customers. If you value your time, or are frustrated with your results thus far, what Amy teaches will save you a ton of time implementing proven Facebook marketing strategies.

What’s Included in Facebook Influence?

There are a total of 4 modules

FB Influence Modules

• Module 1 – The Foundation for Facebook Success: Amy covers the approach she’s proven over the years when it comes to marketing on Facebook, how to properly create a branded Facebook page for your business with the clever Welcome Tab, important stuff in the Facebook dashboard, and how to find a community manager for your Facebook page.
• Module 2 – Growing a Lucrative Fan Base: In this module Amy covers “5 Proven Strategies to Grow Your Fan Base” along with tips and strategies for using Facebook as a lead generator for your business, getting into your friends newsfeed for more growth, social plugins and tools that work.
• Module 3 – Creating Massive Engagement: Amy says that creating engagement is key to building relationship with fans and friends on Facebook. There are also some common mistakes many make when looking to build engagement, she shares those and “surefire strategies” for creating engagement. She gets into how to use and promote events on Facebook as well as monitoring tools to help you track your progress.
• Module 4 – Fans Into SUPER FANS: From customer service, to using page photos as free Facebook ads, to running more profitable Facebook ad campaigns, to building an online store for your Facebook page as well as an action plan to go along with this module, Amy seems to cover all the bases for grooming fans into “Super Fans”.

Amy Porterfield shares Facebook marketing strategies in an easy to understand way.

 

FB Influence Bonuses

In order to help customers successfully implement what is taught in the modules, they have also included several bonuses. See if FB Influence is for you.

• Bonus #1 – How to Create Your Social Media Strategy to Rapidly Increase Exposure: Don’t want to be a social media expert? In this 34 page straightforward PDF presentation, Amy suggests taking the “social media” pressure off yourself so you can focus on your expertise.
• Bonus #2 – The Three-Step Lead Generating Facebook Blueprint: Moving fans from Facebook to your newsletter or email list is key to growth. Amy shows you her blueprint in this single page PDF.
  Turning Fans into Super Fans (from fbinfluence sales page)
• Bonus #3 – “Change Is Good” – Exploring Facebook’s New Features: In this 54 page PDF covers recent changes to Facebook, and what small businesses can do to leverage the changes to their advantage.
• Bonus #4 – How to Cash in on Facebook Places and Deals: This is outstanding for local businesses, but contains strategies every business can consider. This 51 page presentation also covers how to leverage the 4 type of deals.
• Bonus #5 – Turning Fans Into Super Fans: This single page PDF is helpful in describing visually the progression from Potential Fan to Super Fan. Learn more about FB Influence.
  
  

  What I Like About Facebook Influence?

   The training is laid out in a non-overwhelming (very important) manner. I find Amy’s delivery of content efficient, and with zero fluff. It’s apparent that she knows why people fail with Facebook marketing, and starts things off helping you develop a strategy for your own Facebook marketing.
  I found myself coming away knowing what needs to be done to take my Facebook marketing to the next level, but I’ve taken training courses before and inevitably there are questions you have when I start implementing… This is what I find to be the best part of this course. Claim your copy instantly here.
  Bonus #6: Similar to what was offered with Video Traffic Academy  customers also get access to a private Facebook group where they can ask questions and learn from others in the community. This allows you to see what is working and tweak your efforts to leverage what works.
  

What I Don’t Like About Facebook Influence?

While I haven’t yet finished every nook and cranny of the entire course, there are no real blunders to speak of. Sure they could offer DVDs to mail to customers, but that would certainly put the price out of range for many, so in that way I’m glad they didn’t offer that option.
While not a deal breaker for most, if there were one thing I’d like to see, it would be downloadable versions of the videos. When possible, I prefer to listen to training at 2x-2.5x normal speed to get through the material faster.

Bottom-Line on Facebook Influence

For someone who is either considering Facebook as a marketing platform, or want to take their Facebook marketing to the next level this has to be the most valuable course on the subject. It accounts for some of the recent changes to Facebook, as well as the ones coming. Amy indicated there there also going to be update videos added to the course as Facebook introduces changes that impact marketers.
At the current launch price ($97), this is probably one of the most valuable courses on Facebook I have seen. I’ve seen similar courses (with less ‘real-world’ actionable content) priced 10x and 20x higher than this.  

Get your copy here.



Keywords:
How to Change your Life, Entrepreneur, Make Money Online, Fast Cash, Online Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Grow Your Business, Business, Business Start Ups, Fast Money, Quick Ways to Make Money Online, Online Money, Make 6 Figures in a Year, How to Make Money Online, Social Media Marketing, Make Money with Twitter, Make Money with Facebook, Work from Home, Change Your Life,Quick Cash, Quick Money

 

 

 

 

Blog Update 11 - Social Media Wrap Up

Those 3 weeks flew by!  I hope you guys can understand a little better how important the three main social media outlets are, and how to properly use them now.  Let's just do a minor run down of each again.

Twitter - Millions of users world wide.  Limited to 140 characters per tweet, which is decent to get your message across.  Very important for a business or an affiliate marketer to have.  Can gain mass followers who can view your tweets and have the chance to retweet to their followers.  Very powerful tool in marketing.

Facebook - More of a personal use.  Real friends that you know or you have met.  Don't want to clutter up your wall with your ad's and drive your friends crazy. However, the Fan Pages are powerful outlets to get your business name out there.  Gain "Likes" and target your clients.  Run some promotions and advertise your products.

Google+ - Newest form of social media.  Growing faster then Facebook did.  G+ is a good place to meet new people and share share share.  Find people in your targeted niche group and just run with it.  Start a hangout and promote your products. 

There are a few other social media outlets out there that I didn't toss in the mix.  StumbleUpon, Digg, Myspace, and many more.  You should really look into all of them and get a feel for what works best for you and your company. 

Overall, Social Media is a very important part of business.  It's 2012, not 1970 anymore.  Times are changing, technology is advancing, and you need to get your name out there.


Keywords:
How to Change your Life, Entrepreneur, Make Money Online, Fast Cash, Online Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Grow Your Business, Business, Business Start Ups, Fast Money, Quick Ways to Make Money Online, Online Money, Make 6 Figures in a Year, How to Make Money Online, Social Media Marketing, Make Money with Twitter, Make Money with Facebook, Work from Home, Change Your Life,Quick Cash, Quick Money

Blog Update 10 - Google+ Tips to Success

The launch of Google Plus brings yet another avenue to the fore for marketers to promote their products and services. The only difference here is that Google Plus comes with the backing of a brand as big as Google. Google Plus has been built to meet the communication needs of people in a way that they can interact through their messages with people in general, as they do while tweeting and also to create a more personal space for interaction with friends, akin to a platform such as Facebook. As Google Plus marches ahead gradually in terms of numbers of users, it offers a great platform to marketers which they can only ignore at their own peril.

1. Reach Out to People through Google Plus and Gmail

Google Plus offers excellent opportunities for e-mail marketing apart from the very obvious platform that it offers for content sharing and interaction. Marketers will do well to understand the myriad opportunities it holds. Communicate your message directly to those who follow you and e-mail it to others on your contacts list. Make the most of the multiple avenues on offer for promotion.

2. Build and Share Circle Specific Content

Depending on how popular your product or service already is your interaction will happen broadly along two lines. Your existing customers who have added you to their circles form one set of people and the others are potential customers you communicate with through public messages meant for everyone’s consumption. Use your discretion to share the message with the specific group. Build exclusive channels for communication with clients.

3. Interact with Consumers

This is expected of any platform when it comes to promotion. In a market saturated with products, the way you differentiate your service from others, gives you an edge over your competitors. If you have not established your presence on Google Plus already, do it now. Reach out to consumers and get the first mover advantage on a platform that your rivals may be neglecting for now.

4. Use Analytics to Get a Measure of the Traffic and ROI

When it comes to business, the talk of revenues is inevitable. Use Google analytics or other tools to quantify the reach of your brand communication. Compare that against the kind of response your product has generated in the form of sales and revenues. Analyze and pitch for a more result oriented approach.

5. Stay Prepared for the Integration of Google Plus with Google Search

Google is a powerful name in the virtual world. The popularity of its search engine makes available ample opportunities in terms of new features. It would not be far-fetched to expect Google to integrate its search facility with Google Plus. The platform will then gain more popularity and as other marketers make a beeline for this platform, you will be better placed to cater to more people after having already established a foothold.
Just as Google experiments with its search tools in order to bring convenience to its users, innovation can be expected for the already features packed Google Plus. It is up against tough competition from the established brands such as Facebook and Twitter but for marketers the kind of audience that Google Plus offers is also large enough. As long as they can convey their message, the more the number of avenues, the better it is.



Keywords:
How to Change your Life, Entrepreneur, Make Money Online, Fast Cash, Online Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Grow Your Business, Business, Business Start Ups, Fast Money, Quick Ways to Make Money Online, Online Money, Make 6 Figures in a Year, How to Make Money Online, Social Media Marketing, Make Money with Twitter, Make Money with Facebook, Work from Home, Change Your Life,Quick Cash, Quick Money

Product Review 7 - Lump Sum Profits

I have posted a program like this before a few weeks ago.  A few people purchased it and have done well for themselves.  I received numerous emails and messages a day about the product reviews and I love it.  Most people give me praise for bringing these process into their lives. This product is another "flip" site guide that will show you how to flip websites with ease.

You see, Lump Sum Profits shows you in indepth detail how to build a small website that can rank on the first page of Google within days using clever methods. With traffic coming in, you can quickly sell it on flippa or elsewhere for a couple of hundred dollars.

These types of websites can be built very quickly, ranked very quickly and sold fast for high dollars. Some marketers strictly do this and make a huge amount of money every month.

In addition, Lump Sum Profits also tells you how, step by step, to buy websites at low prices, fix them up a bit and sell them for HUGE profits. Sorta like flipping houses — but with websites instead.

Again, many marketers have made a killing in buying and selling websites! You can too if you copy this process.

Lump Sum Profits Review Tells You What To Do First If You Buy

If you decide to buy Lump Sum Profits, then I recommend you immediately do the following to gain the MOST out of this incredible product:

* Read the Ditching The Stress Monkey Guide
* Listen to the interview with John about how he sells little, ugly sites for $3k – $7k.
* Watch Ryan Moran Video about the secret source for buying websites for pennies on the dollar, even though they are already earning steady monthly incomes.

The above three pieces of Lump Sum Profits will REALLY get your mind flowing on incredible possibilities of buying and selling websites.
Once you finish going through the above Lump Sum Profits content, you will quickly begin to know and understand …

» That you can build tiny, little sites and FLIP them for lump sum paydays (depending on their traffic and income), which you can reinvest or pocket.

» You can buy established websites and hold onto their income or FLIP them for lump sum paydays.

» Ryan Moran’s secret source for finding sites that are just begging to be bought for cheap!

The above 3 pieces of content alone, found on Lump Sum Profits, is WELL worth the price of this product. Yet, there is a TON more information including indepth Case Studies of actual Lump Sum Profits buyers success, that reveal their secrets on getting huge amounts for selling website!

Visit Official Lump Sum Profits Webiste [ Click Here ]

Keywords:

How to Change your Life, Entrepreneur, Make Money Online, Fast Cash, Online Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Grow Your Business, Business, Business Start Ups, Fast Money, Quick Ways to Make Money Online, Online Money, Make 6 Figures in a Year, How to Make Money Online, Social Media Marketing, Make Money with Twitter, Make Money with Facebook, Work from Home, Change Your Life,Quick Cash, Quick Money, Lump Sum Profits Review, Lump Sum Profits, Make Money with Lump Sum Profits, Website Flipping, Make Money with Website Flipping

Blog Update 9 - Google+ Marketing Tips

It was just a matter of time before Google created some real competition for Facebook. My prediction for Google Plus is that the technically more savvy and early adopters will flock to it, while the majority of people will continue with Facebook. However, there is much to be said about an early mover advantage yet! And, since Google rules the search engines, it may well be in your interest to setup a home on Google Plus. Here are 10 ways you can market using Google Plus. Google Plus also just launched their Business Pages.  Sort of like the Fan Pages that Facebook has.  Your personal page and your business page are both strong social media outlets you need to be apart of.

1. Setup a solid profile. Your entire Google Plus experience starts with the profile. Just like on Facebook, your profile is key, so spend some time building it correctly. Start with a good head shot. And, if you think the advice is commonplace, just look at some of the pictures on Google Plus now. When you show up in people’s steams, all they will see is a thumbnail. So, choose something where you really stand out. Craft your introduction well. Make it so that people would want to add you to their circles. And, Google Plus allows for live links in the introduction itself, so make the most of it. Add links to your website, blog, LinkedIn profile, etc. These links will also help index your main websites as well as give you some strong back links.

2. Add relevant and remarkable images. My hunch is that Google will index the pictures you share (unless you’ve kept them private). So, use images you want found in the search engines. If you are a speaker, add pictures of you speaking. An author? Add pictures of you at your book signing. The idea is to convey the right brand image.  It's important to have pictures.  It makes you look real and not some spam bot just trying to push your product across the internet.  Company logo's are a must.

3. Make sure your profile is OPEN to search. This is key, since Google reigns supreme in the search world, the chances are that your profiles will be indexed VERY quickly. When you hit edit profile, the very last item on your profile is “Search Visibility.” Make sure you have checked the box that says “Help others find my profile in Search Results.” Make sure you aren't hiding yourself from your fans or consumers.

4. Optimize the links to the right of the profile using keywords. Again, a great SEO feature. What are the chances that Google will value these links highly? Pretty good, I’d say. If only to encourage people to use Google plus. On the right hand side of your profile, you can add links and the text that goes with it. Make sure you use the RIGHT keywords to connect to your website. Don't use a phrase like "My Website"  Use a strong keyword that goes along with your site or product.

5. Use “Circles” to communicate with clients, prospects, media, etc. This is perhaps Google Plus’ greatest selling point. Most people’s lives have layers – professional, personal, acquaintances, etc. And, Google Circles allow you to make the most of the layers. For example, you can create a circle for prospective clients. And, then cater specifically to them with industry news, a solid case study, etc. (Tip: While Google will inform a person that you have added them to a circle, it won’t tell them which circle.) This is great if you have more then one target niche.  Sports, Outdoors, Health and Writers could all be different circles of people you are targeting.  Don't send an ad out for authors that has to do with sports.

6. Use +, Comments, and Share to boost relationships. At the heart of all good social media marketing and networking lies the power of relationships. As you interact with others, show support for their ideas. The +1 on Google is akin to “Like” on Facebook. You can also +1 and comment when you see fit, and you can also SHARE within your own stream. Someone posted a great article on your stream?  Make sure you "share" it and show interest in what others are saying.  This way they will spend more time looking at your stuff.

7. Add videos to your profile. If only from an SEO perspective, the chances of your videos being indexed into Google’s search is higher. So, if you have online video, share it. For example.  For my blog, I do a webinar every Wednesday.  I then post it on my Facebook Fan Page, My Facebook Personal Page, My Twitter, and then Google Plus.  The video is on YouTube, but it gets indexed a lot faster due to the fact that I post it on Google Plus.  Drives more traffic to your page and more consumers will be interested.

8. Add your industry or business name as a “Spark.” Sparks is a new Google Plus feature, and still in development. But, something tells me that this will also tie into search results or effect them in some way. For now, use it like you would a Google alert, and setup SPARKS for your name, company name, and industry terms. You can also always follow industry news using SPARKS. For example, I have technology and business as my SPARKS, and I follow the top articles in those areas.  This will let new people find you faster.  You always want to reach out and find new customers and fans daily.  Keep the ranks fresh.

9. Market research –ask questions and use Hangouts as needed. Google Plus is a hot bed for market research right now. People are a LOT more engaged there right now because it is a new playground. It reminds me of Twitter in the early days. Google hangouts incorporates video chat with circles. Want to invite all your sales people for a quick Monday morning meeting? How about a Hangout? Hangouts are also cool for promoting products or even just talking to your fans about your current products.

10. Get a custom URL to share your Google Plus profile. Just like the early days of all social networks, there will be a huge rise initially as people try to fill up their circles. And, as time goes on, this will slow. Make it easy for people to follow you, get a custom URL. You can do so at http://www.gplus.to. Even though it's a 3rd party site you should still set it up.  Google Plus doesn't have a feature to do it and it should be done.  It's better to have a name for your profile URL, rather then 8848495956030. 

Keywords:
How to Change your Life, Entrepreneur, Make Money Online, Fast Cash, Online Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Grow Your Business, Business, Business Start Ups, Fast Money, Quick Ways to Make Money Online, Online Money, Make 6 Figures in a Year, How to Make Money Online, Social Media Marketing, Make Money with Twitter, Make Money with Facebook, Work from Home, Change Your Life,Quick Cash, Quick Money, Google Plus Money, Make Money with Google Plus

Blog Update 8 - Facebook Marketing How Too's

Can Facebook actually be used to bring in leads, opportunities and sales to your small business? The Answer is Yes! Myself and my clients do it every day.

You can’t use Facebook for your business the same way you use it for your personal life – you need a clear social strategy in place before you’ll see results. This isn’t hard to do, and can easily be achieved in 10 minute sessions a few times per week. Automate your status updates, then visit your Facebook page to produce discussions and answer questions.

Here are some of the most common questions my clients ask me about Facebook marketing:

Do I have to use Facebook’s paid advertising?
Nope, but if you have the income, it doesn't hurt in the long run.  Depending on what type of business or product you have. Everything I teach in my blog is mostly free, minus some product reviews that do cost little to nothing.  You can use Facebook to bring in leads without ever touching their paid advertising features but if you want to target certain groups or audiences, then the Facebook Ad's aren't too shabby.

What are a few Facebook marketing tips?
Engage with your audience. You’d be surprised a small amount of time has on the number of fans on your Facebook page. Taking a few minutes a day to interact with the people on your page will make you see huge results from Facebook. Another tip is to use photos on your Facebook page. The new design displays photos prominently. Most businesses don’t feature photos. Upload a few today!


What’s a basic Facebook marketing plan?
Here’s my 3 step overview to Facebook:
First, send people to your Facebook page. No one will like your page unless they know you have one.
Next, use automated social media tools to schedule content and status updates.
The third step is to jump in and engage. Make your page a fun and lively experience by encouraging fans to interact on your page. Don't forget to use the added tabs feature to give your users free content or promotions!

Does Facebook offer business accounts? Can I create a business profile on Facebook?
You’ll need a personal profile in order to create a page for your business. “Pages” are the Facebook equivalent of Facebook business accounts. Fan Pages are easy to set up and are a must.

What’s the difference between a Facebook page and a Facebook profile?
Facebook profiles are for personal use and you are only allowed one profile per user. You can always recognize a profile page if you see the “friend” option. Only personal profiles have friends. Facebook pages on the other hand were designed to be used for businesses and you can create as many pages as you like. You’ll know your on a Facebook page if you see a “like” button.

How can I see who is looking at my Facebook page?
Facebook offers in-depth user data about your page, called Insights. You can access this by going to “edit page” in the top right corner, then clicking on “Insights” on the menu on the left-hand side. Insights includes information on the gender, age and location of who is looking at your page, as well as which types of status updates are the most popular.  This is a great Free feature that Facebook has, so you can track who is actually looking at your page.  It's all about numbers!

What’s unique about Facebook when compared to other marketing channels?
Unlike traditional marketing, where you can only hope that a small percentage of people you are trying to reach will pay attention to your message, on Facebook, they’re already paying attention.

You’re not popping up a billboard on the highway in the hope that you will capture someone’s interest as they drive by. Everyone who Likes your page is raising their hand and expressing their interest in learning more about your business. Your customers are already on Facebook, so why not plant your business where they already are?

How many friends can I have on Facebook?
Facebook use to only allow you to have no more than 5,000 friends. Once you reach 5,000 you’ll simply be unable to accept new friend request. This has changed however in the past as Facebook likes to play with their own numbers. However, Facebook pages allow an unlimited number of “likes”. This is one of the many reasons you want to use a page and not a personal profile to promote your small business on Facebook.

How do I get a custom URL on Facebook?
Custom URLs also known as “vanity URLs” are made available once 25 people like your Facebook page. This allows you to create an easy to remember facebook URL such as http://www.facebook.com/PittsburghCWS instead of the long numerical URLs that are initially assigned to pages. You can find this option by clicking on “Edit Page” in the top right corner of your Facebook page, then choose your username in the “Basic Information” section. This makes your page look more professional.

How can I create a custom landing page for my Facebook page?
My favorite free app for creating custom landing pages is called Static HTML  and you can find it by searching for it from within Facebook. This is a great app because it’s completely free, has no ads or branding from the app, and even allows you to create distinct content for fans and non-fans. That means you can create one of those cool “click like to get our exclusive content” landing pages for free. You can insert any HTML into your custom landing tab including videos, images, or opt-in forms. Right now, you can have a maximum of 3 custom tabs.

How do I post on Facebook as my company’s page instead of my personal profile?
Facebook allows you to switch between your personal profile and your page. To make the switch, go to Account in the top right-hand corner and click on Use Facebook as Page. In the pop up window, click Switch to (your page’s name). That’s it! You’re now using Facebook as your page and can leave comments on your own or other pages. This is a very strong tool.  You can go to other Fan Pages, under your company name and make posts.  Driving traffic back to your own Fan Page.


Keywords:
How to Change your Life, Entrepreneur, Make Money Online, Fast Cash, Online Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Grow Your Business, Business, Business Start Ups, Fast Money, Quick Ways to Make Money Online, Online Money, Make 6 Figures in a Year, How to Make Money Online, Social Media Marketing, Make Money with Twitter, Make Money with Facebook, Work from Home, Change Your Life,Quick Cash, Quick Money

Product Review 6 - Grit City Publications Promo

Yes, I know I have mentioned them a few times.  Today's product review will be short and to the point!  Grit City Publications just launched their three newest titles on April 1st!  It's time to get the word out and get on board.  You don't know what an Emotobook is?  You need to check this out.  It's the new rage and the fan base is growing huge in numbers.  Don't be left in the dust and out of the conversation.  More titles will be coming soon over time.  As the community grows, the fan base grows, and hence the Revolution is born. 

Grit City Publications is based out of Pittsburgh, PA.  Great community to be apart of.  I, myself, are not a very big reader, but even I jumped on board and fell in love with these things!  This new medium of fiction is just awesome.  There aren't any other words for it to be honest. 

Here are the 4 titles right now.  You can always view the main site to see what it's all about!

Grit City: 7-Part EmotoSerial --> Mystery/Urban Fantasy
The story is called Grit City. It's a mystery based urban fantasy story that follows a freelance journalist through this malicious city. It seems the main character is rough and tumble, but I think he may encounter some supernatural powers. It's a series of stories and I've only read the first one so far. But I'm really impressed with it. You can find the direct link here!

Swing Zone: 10-Part EmotoSerial --> SciFi/Romance
The story is called Swing Zone. It's a sci-fi/romance story about this kick ass woman named Mia Blacharde. She's an archeologist and finds this cool artifact that has something to do with these two cities. One is a big metropolis and the other is a farming community. Mia is torn between a hunky guy in the rural area, but her brother is a military honcho in the big city. It's intense. You can find the direct link here!

Lingering in the Woods: 1-Part EmotoSingle --> Viking Fantasy

The story is called Lingering in the Woods. It's a viking fantasy story about this Shaman named Chrigle in ancient Findland. This guy has spiritual powers and has to use them to get his tribe through this forest and also protect the tribe's hunters. I don't want to give anything away, but it's a really cool take on the old good power vs. evil power. The illustrations they use are really something. Great story! You can find the direct link here!

Suburbians: 1-Part EmotoSingle --> Violent Thriller
The story is called Suburbians. It's a sick and twisted thriller story about these teenagers who are all about racist hate and violence. It really had me on the edge. These kids murder someone and then it's all about the coverup and finger pointing. It's like Stand By Me on crack, if you've ever read that book or watched that movie. Crazy intense. You can find the direct link here!

When I first looked into emotobooks, I thought they would be like some kind of e-comic book. They're not! They're a brand new medium of fiction which portrays character emotions in abstract art. I'm hooked! You should really check it out today and spread the word.  Even if you don't like reading, like myself, I guarantee you will get into these!


Keywords:
How to Change your Life, Entrepreneur, Make Money Online, Fast Cash, Online Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Grow Your Business, Business, Business Start Ups, Fast Money, Quick Ways to Make Money Online, Online Money, Make 6 Figures in a Year, How to Make Money Online, Social Media Marketing, Make Money with Twitter, Make Money with Facebook, Work from Home, Change Your Life,Quick Cash, Quick Money, eBooks, Emotobooks, Grit City, Lingering in the Woods, Suburbians, Swing Zone, Fiction, iPad, iPod, Apple, Mac

Blog Update 7 - Facebook Marketing

Everyone, absolutely everyone, seems to be using Facebook now. According to Facebook's own statistics, people spend more than 700 billion minutes monthly on the platform.

Therefore, it's essential that your company explore ways that your audience segments are using the social networking platform and develop a corresponding plan. Too many companies merely configure a Facebook Page, randomly post to it until they get bored, and then leave it to gather dust for months at a time.   
What would it mean to your business if you instead developed a clear Facebook Marketing strategy and then executed on it with precision? What would it mean to your business if you thrilled your prospective clients on Facebook? The potential marketing opportunity on Facebook is tremendous for many businesses, and quite possibly for yours!


It's not that Facebook replaces your other forms of marketing. But your prospective customers are spending time somewhere. And you want to connect with them and increase the time they spend with your brand. And so if they are on Facebook, and if they are on Facebook a lot, it behooves you to develop a plan to interact with them on Facebook in a way that adds value to their experience.

To that end, here are 15 ways to better Facebook Marketing for your business:

1. Decide Why You Have a Facebook Page

As with any marketing vehicle, to maximize returns for your business you want to understand why you are doing the marketing in the first place, define your marketing goals, and develop a corresponding strategy. Your audience may value Facebook as a customer service vehicle for your business. In other cases, it might be an appropriate content or news source. In other cases, an appropriate sales source. In other cases, your fans may just want to "talk" with you and feel a part of it all. Align your Page to your strategy, and define associated success metrics.

2. Create Custom Tabs

When you start your Facebook Page for your business, your Page has a standard set of "tabs," including a Wall where posts and comments are published and an Info tab with general information about your company. You can extend the capabilities of your Facebook Page by creating custom tabs. For example, the Creative Web Solutions Fan Page includes a "Welcome" tab  with links to various types of content and products, and with a could have a place for a promotion for your product.

3. Edit Your Tab Order

Your Facebook tabs appear in vertical order on the left side of your Page. Right under the list of tabs is a small "Edit" option. You can use this to customize the order of your tabs (outside of the Wall and Info tabs). This is useful especially if you want a certain tab towards the top, or all the way at the bottom of the list so that it stands out more. With the CWS Facebook tabs, for example, the "Welcome" tab has been placed just below the Wall and Info tabs, and the Blog tab at the bottom of the list.

4. Post More Than Once a Century

We've all seen them. Facebook Pages where the business was overly excited when setting up their Page, with 7 posts the first day, and then no more posts the following three months. Just as with any marketing for your business, if you are going to do it, then do it well. By ignoring your Facebook Page for months at a time, you send a message to your audience that you just don't care. So decide if a Facebook Page is something your business needs, and if the answer is yes then at least stick to some type of posting schedule.

5. Use Facebook Ads

Paid advertising in Facebook is a great opportunity for your business in that Facebook enables you to target your audience for your ads in many ways. You can specify the age group, gender, and geographic area of those that will see your ads. Not only that, you can specify the specific interests of your audience as broadly or as narrowly as you'd like. You can set your bid price and campaign budget, and test as many ad images, headlines and ad copy as your heart desires. And if you decide that your campaign is just not working, you can stop the campaign immediately, thus lowering your risk of overspending on your campaign.

6. Get 'Em to Sign Up

Giving your audience something of value in exchange for a registration or sign-up can be valuable to your business, as it enables you to have an ongoing conversation with those who have expressed interest. So, hold a competition or sweepstakes, or simply offer a sign-up form for something of value in return.

7. Send an Update

Facebook Page Administrators are able to send messages to everyone who "Likes" their Page. So when you have something of value to let your fans know about, send out an update and make them aware. Just be very prudent with the frequency of this technique. Send stuff to your fans only when it really matters. Doing it to often will just upset people and you will lose fans faster then you can gain.

8. Have a Dialogue

If someone takes the time to comment on your Facebook Wall, answer them. Think about it, if someone calls your business, you answer the phone and you answer their questions. Same with email. Same with a form submission from your website. And it's the same with Facebook. Building relationships is a huge part of business.  If you can't take the time to answer questions of your fans, they will simply just leave your page and not come back, thus hurting your profits.

9. Go Beyond Your Page

Facebook now enables you to navigate through Facebook "as a Page." Therefore, you can post to other Facebook Pages that you "Like." (Note, this is only for Pages for which permissions have been configured to allow third-party posts.) Just be extra careful with this, as you should post to another Facebook Page ONLY when you have something of true value to add. And be very respectful of the Page owner. DO NOT SPAM. It's just bad marketing. And also serves the risk of your own Fan Page being flagged and ban.

10. Use It as a Content Platform

Use Facebook as a publishing platform and as a channel for extending the reach of your content. If you write a blog post, update your Facebook Page and let the world know about it and have access to it. Not everyone is going to visit your blog everyday. The more that you can write once and publish in multiple locations, the more likely that your valuable content is going to reach your audience. Take for example the CWS empire.  After I publish this new blog post, I will then update my Fan Page, My personal Wall, my Twitter, and my Google+ to get a huge out-reach to let my fans know that a new post has been made.

11. Make it "Shareable"

What can you offer your audience that's of value? That they would want to tell their colleagues about? Facebook is all about sharing and interacting with others. If you truly focus on giving as much value to your prospective customers as possible, they will return the favor by letting others know and providing their own network with the opportunity to experience such value. For example, this could be an eBook, an exclusive offer, a cool competition, etc. It can even be just deliciously awesome content. Doing this is just simple math.  1 of your fans, share your post.  That said fan has 3,000 friends.  That's 3,000 people that aren't your fans yet that have now seen your post.  Now what if someone shares your post again to their wall with there 2,000 friends? The viral aspect of this is huge.  1 Fan shares your updated post could out-reach to millions.  Sharing is very important.

12. Make Some Stuff Exclusive

We humans are funny. We often want what's just out of reach. (Heck, it makes life more fun that way!) So dangle something of value to your prospective audience but make them "Like" your Page in order to get it. They win. You win. Everyone wins. For an example of this, with the CBMall tab in the CWS Facebook Page, prospective entrants can get a free access to over 100,000 products just for liking the fan page.

13. Turn Fan Activity into Advertising

With Facebook Sponsored Stories, a business can essentially turn fan activity into advertising. Sponsored Stories, available in the Facebook self-serve ad tool, enables you to promote your business by displaying positive fan updates that specifically mention your business, or to promote news feed stories about a viewer's friends "Liking" your Page.

14. Leverage Facebook Insights

Facebook Insights is a set of analytics that tracks usage and interaction with your Facebook Page. It's available free to every Page administrator. Leverage the Insights data by seeing how people are using your Page. What content is of most interest? What is just not resonating? And then adjust your Page activities accordingly.

15. Integrate, Integrate, Integrate

As with any marketing, individual efforts in a silo are rarely the most effective way to go. Instead, integrate your marketing wherever possible. For example, with CWS Fan Page, the look & feel as well as the messaging, etc. are consistent across the website, Twitter feed, email newsletters and Facebook Page. Your campaign is sure to be more successful, the more integrated you make it.

So in closing, figure out how your Facebook Page can best serve your audience, and then knock 'em out with amazingly valuable stuff. Be crazy good! Your customers and prospective customers are sure to appreciate the enhanced experience, and your business is sure to benefit. Whether you have your own product, or you want to dedicate an entire fan page based on an affiliate product, it's a good marketing aspect to get involved in.  You can have as many fan pages as you want, just be sure you can manage them all.


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Blog Update 6 - Twitter Take 2

I know Wednesdays are reserved for the mini-webinars.  However, I decided that the next few weeks are more important to discuss Social Media outlets then you guys seeing my ugly mug talking.  So for the next few weeks, instead of a weekly Webinar, You guys get a double treat and double update.  Since this week we are focusing on Twitter, I will go more in depth on the topic.  Monday's post was a huge guide to Twitter.  It will take you some time to go through and read all about everything you need to know.  This update will be simple and to the point!

I hear the debate all the time, and no, I'm not talking about the Presidential debate - I'm referring to Twitter.

Should we consider Twitter to be a marketing tool or is it just for people who have a lot of time on their hands and the need to jibber-jabber all day long?

I will be honest, I was an early adopter of Twitter and then I walked away from it. I couldn't see the value. Recently, my viewpoint has changed. For the past year plus I have been addicted.  Not for the social aspect, but for the marketing aspect.

Think of Twitter as a means to get instant public messages out to your audience, whether it is an audience of colleagues or potential customers.

Twitter is becoming an increasingly important platform for online communication and, yes, conversation. TechCrunch reported that Twitter is receiving 8 million unique visitors per month and about 3 million messages are posted daily.

How can we use Twitter as a marketing tool?

Good question. Let me see if I can help you guys get a general understanding.

Twitter As A Learning Tool:

As I mentioned, over 3 million messages are posted everyday. Are you mentioned in any of them? What about your company? This might be a good time to find out. Twitter provides a search engine that allows you plug-in company names, brand names, topics and even personal names. How is your buzz level? Are there any negative comments out there? If I were you, I'd use the search engine to check in a regular basis.

Today, I found out that BMW made a customer unhappy and he Tweeted about it. I learned that Weather Underground has some really cool iPhone applications and that the chocolate cake at Macaroni Grill is deadly.

All that was posted today, along with hundreds of other trending topics.  Justin Beiber is HUGE right now.  So, whether you are engaging on and participating in Twitter or not, someone may just be tweeting about you or your company.

Use Twitter as a Media Outlet:

You can use Twitter to post news or updates about your company or products. However, please don't do this before you become familiar with the format and etiquette of Twitter. The best way to do this is to post a link to the full content of the news or update. Think of what's valuable to your consumers and let them hear about it first on Twitter. You'll be amazed how your following will grow.   

A Promotional Palace:

It's not uncommon for companies to post promotions, sales, or specials on Twitter. An example would be Dell, they do it well. It's important to remember that Twitter is about conversation and breaking news, so be sure if you are posting promotional information that you make it conversational and personal. If I want an ad, I'll turn on TV. 

Create Character in Your Brand :

Twitter is a fantastic tool in giving your brand a voice and a personality. Being successful in Tweeting, you will have to put forth your personality and a unique style. That's what makes the difference and can increase your Twitter following and make it a successful marketing tool for you. Remember you only get 140 characters per tweet.  So make sure you can get the message across without just spamming product links!

Customer Service and Chit Chat :

As you begin to use Twitter you will notice that it's all about conversation. It's about talking to your prospects and consumers, interacting with them. If you are not going to do this, don't use Twitter as a marketing tool, it simply won't work. Make friends, be a friend and reply. Show your followers that you want to engage and be involved with them - this provides optimal customer service and that you are, in fact, personable.


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