Archive for October, 2009
Why Is Social Media Marketing So Important?: Getting Traffic with Social Media Pt 1
Posted by: | Comments
Social sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Digg have become hot and are getting hotter all the time. Both online and offline businesses are jumping into social marketing – and for a good reason. It works. To stay competitive, you’ll want to continually build relationships and stay ever-present in the marketplace. Social media can help you to accomplish this. And, it’s fun.
Thankfully, there are simple and effective ways to use these social Web 2.0 sites. I’ll share some of those tips with you now.
Social Media Marketing Tip #1: Twitter Is Golden
Many people are using twitter as a way to connect with colleagues, family, friends, and customers. If you haven’t tried Twitter, now may be the time to set up an account and see what it’s all about. Twitter is a “micro blogging” platform where you can write (in 140 characters or less) anything you’d like. You can update people about your day, share resources, send a link to your websites, etc. – anything that you feel your followers will find useful or interesting.
When you’re a member of twitter you “follow” people and they will “follow” you.
This just means that when you log in to your twitter account you will see the messages posted by those who you’re following. Likewise, the people who have decided to follow you will see your messages.
Ex. Sally follows Janet So, when Sally logs into her Twitter account, she can see Janet’s updates on her screen along with all of the other people she’s following.
Assuming you’re using Twitter for marketing, the people you follow and those who follow you should be highly targeted. They log in because they are interested in what you and others have to say. Since there are only 140 characters allowed per “tweet” (twitter post), you’ll want to encourage your followers to follow your link for more information on what you are referring to.
If you use this social media site in the correct way you’ll gain loyal followers which leads to targeted traffic and then some very targeted customers. Some have even found Twitter traffic to be more targeted than pay-per-click advertsing and article marketing, both which have been shown to be proven methods of internet marketing.
Social Media Marketing Tip #2: Facebook for Friends
Facebook is a social media site that actually started out as a way for college friends to keep in contact. Soon many high school students signed on as well and now it has grown to being an important site for business communication. . It seems that everyone you run into today has a Facebook page. As of this writing, Facebook has over 200,000,000 active users. That’s a whole lot of potential traffic.
Just like you have followers on Twitter, you have friends on Facebook and that’s where the power of Facebook lies.
You can update your status, link to your website, and leave comments on your friends’ Facebook pages. Again, this creates a great community feeling and also very targeted traffic since people will get to know you and become interested in your opinions and suggestions before clicking through a link to your website.
New On Facebook for Solopreneur.biz
Posted by: | Comments
Have you been to our Facebook Fan Page recently? I highly encourage you to go to http://www.facebook.com/solopreneurbiz right now and share your business insights with us. We have been getting a lot of interaction lately and it really makes for a lively yet meaningful discussion.
Recently we’ve talked about:
The Most Important Things in Life (and Marketing) are Free
Social Media Made Easy
Strategies for a Slow Economy
and so much more!
I also encourage you to take a few minutes and go to our discussions page and add your business to “What is Your Solopreneur Biz?” While you are there, visit some of the awesome businesses listed! Also, please feel free to start your own discussion on the board.
If you’re not already, go on over to our Facebook Fan Page and become a “fan” today! We would love to have your input in our discussions.
WordPress Learning Curve Part 2
Posted by: | Comments
Typing Your Blog Entries Directly into WordPress is Easy
However most people do not use WordPress to enter their information, they instead use a word processing program such as Microsoft Word. This creates a whole new level of problems, since Microsoft Word embeds coding within your text and what you see is not always what you get. For instance, you may have your lists separated at the right line spacing, and indented just right with a flushed indentation for overflow; but when you paste it into WordPress all your formatting disappears and things don’t look anything like you imagined.
To help alleviate this issue, WordPress has added an icon (Kitchen Sink) for inserting your text from Microsoft Word. Simply click on the button and paste your information. The goal of inserting your text this way is that WordPress is supposed to recognize the formatting and follow all the rules you established in your original document. While this is a wonderful tool, it doesn’t always work as planned and formatting can be dropped or added within the document.
One workaround is to use the insert as plain text icon in WordPress. By pasting your text through this application, all the embedded codes are supposed to be stripped from your inserted text. At this point you can use the available WordPress icons and features to create the right look of your document in the visual tab.
WordPress also offers a preview key which acts similar to the print preview in word processing programs. By clicking this button, you are able to see what your document will look like when it actually posts to your site. This is a great tool to keep checking your document to make sure it is just right before you publish it for everyone to see.
These and many other features are standard within the WordPress administrative dashboard. They serve as a great benefit to the non-technical administrator or writer, enabling them to produce great documentation to their website without learning difficult HTML or other source coding.
WordPress Learning Curve Part 1
Posted by: | Comments
WYSIWYG…Come Again?
Using WordPress has its many advantages from unlimited themes, plugins, and widgets to open source software and the incredible knowledge forums available on the Internet. The most exciting feature of WordPress though is its HTML free zone.
For individuals who are unfamiliar with HTML coding and more familiar with using Microsoft Word, WordPress is a dream. Your website, regardless if it is used for personal blogs or business information and sales, is controlled in the administrative panel of WordPress. On that screen, the administrator has two options, to enter information via an HTML box or to utilize the user-friendly WYSIWYG feature.
For those not familiar with the term WYSIWYG it’s a term that was coined in the origination days of word processing. Prior to that time, what you entered on your word processor may not be what printed out. WYSIWYG was a term that was coined simply meaning What You See (while typing on screen) Is What You Get (when you print or publish your document).
WordPress uses the terminology “visual” to refer to the WYSIWIG editor in their system. In this format, what you see while typing is what you get when you post your article or news/information item.
In the administrator module there are two selections for entering information – either visual or HTML. The HTML screen is available to use if you understand embedded coding such as <i> </i>, which simply tells the program to italicize the text that’s in between those two symbols.
In the visual editor, things are made much simpler for you. As you type, you can utilize the icons for changing your text to bold, italic, or change the sizes or color of your text. You can also add lists in bulleted or numbered form, or create a quotation text box which will shade and indent a specific portion of your text. Using the visual editor makes working in WordPress almost as simple as if you were writing a document in Microsoft Word.
Social Media Made Easy: Harness the Power of Social Media for Your Business
Posted by: | CommentsFacebook – Twitter – YouTube – Digg – MySpace – Flickr – LinkedIn….
It seems that there is nothing these days that causes more marketing uncertainty, confusion, and frustration than the business use of social media.
We all hear the stories about wild business success and yet you find yourself struggling or not getting anywhere.
Don’t be one of the dozens of people every day who are abandoning their social media profiles in frustration and confusion. It’s like you are starving at a sumptuous Chinese buffet because you don’t know how to use chopsticks. This is a real shame because social media is the most powerful tool for business growth there has ever been. And like chopsticks, it’s not that hard when you know the tricks…
Social Media Made Easy is a four week class that will make sure you know what you need to succeed with social media. We’ll get you started right now in the most important locations and show you the strategies and tips you need for success. The webinar format will allow you to see exactly what works and what does not to enhance your reputation and build your business.
Register right now if you know that you need this help!
In Social Media Made Easy you’ll learn –
* How to use social media to position yourself as an expert and build your credibility.
* Secrets to networking and relationship building to make your use of social media more effective.
* Details for the best use of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and social bookmarking.
* How to take the exact steps which will increase your visibility quickly in order to positively impact your business.
* How to cut through the hype and confusion so your use of social media is focused and effective.
Social Media has helped rocket my business into more visibility, credibility and profitability than ever before. I want to make sure you have the right information and support to get your social media presence working for your business too. We’ll be meeting on four Thursdays at 6:00pm ET starting on October 15th. Each 90 minute session will demonstrate new ideas for using the social media sites successfully. Join me in this class as I guide you towards your own social media success.
This will be a small group learning situation so don’t delay in reserving your spot before they are gone. Here’s that link again to grab your seat for your four week path to comfort and ease with social media….
