Archive for December, 2009
Why What’s in Your Twitter Profile Matters
Posted by: | Comments“Hi, do you want to be my friend?” Thousands of people ask each other this on Twitter every day by following someone. The first thing most people do when one of these requests shows up in their inbox is check out the profile of the person asking. Because unscrupulous marketers find a way to spam any electronic program available these days, and abuse the flow of information by sending unsolicited requests through automated programs, you need to take the time to check out their profile, rather than blindly following everyone who follows you first.
When a person begins to follow you on Twitter, try to get a feel for them. Who are they? Do you share common interests? Is there something there that could turn them into a client, a joint venture partner or a referral source at some point? These are all good questions, but you must remember- they are asking the same thing about you when you follow them.
Your Twitter profile is a snapshot of who you are. It’s a quick 5-10 second glimpse into your world so someone can get to know you better. When you create an account with Twitter, you can chose from one of the pre-made backgrounds or you can use one of the many free Twitter-related tools to custom design your own. If you are really serious about branding yourself or your business on Twitter you can opt to have your Twitter profile custom made by a professional, just like a website.
Here are a few tips to think about when designing your Twitter profile.
• Keep it neat – Too many items on the page, just like a website, distract the viewer’s eyes from the content of the profile. Keep it simple and say what you need to say.
• Keep it consistent – Make sure your profile, and the wording in it, is directly in line with your brand, marketing campaign and other areas of your business you want to emphasize.
• Keep it short – Remember, you only have a few seconds to show off what you have before someone makes a decision whether or not they want to follow you back or follow you at all. Keep your point short and sweet.
• Keep it useful – What do you offer? How can they contact you? Where can they find samples? Make sure your Twitter profile is as useful as possible. People don’t like to hunt for information.
• Keep it interesting – Give your viewers a reason to talk to you. Ask them a question, make a controversial statement, do something small to get them into a conversation with you so you can determine their needs.
• Include links to your websites or even a freebie they could download.
Twitter is a useful tool for any business, but without a proper profile, the business has no identity. Make sure you take the necessary time to design a useful, branded and interesting profile so when you ask someone to be your friend, they don’t have to think twice. There are many other ways to pump up your Twitter profile, but if you follow the six steps above, you will be on a good path to developing a healthy brand.
Add Facebook or Twitter to Your 2010 Business Plan
Posted by: | CommentsYou want to make 2010 a better year for business than you’ve ever had before…
and there are powerful new tools to make it happen!
It’s time to be looking ahead to 2010 and planning how you will achieve success for your business.
Many entrepreneurs do not take the time to write a business plan to guide their decisions as their business grows. Don’t make that mistake – make sure you have an effective business plan that will grow your business and help you achieve your dreams.
You’ve heard that Facebook and Twitter are some of the most powerful free marketing tools ever and now is the time to plan how you might use them in your business. Learn the basics of business planning, explore whether these social media tools are right for your business and learn ways to incorporate Facebook and Twitter into your marketing plans for increased success.
Join me on Tuesday, December 29th at 1:00pm ET for the free teleseminar, Add Facebook or Twitter to Your 2010 Business Plan.
You’ve been thinking about using social media and now is the time to see how to fit it into your plans. You’ll learn –
- Simple five step process to an effective business plan
- 4 Tips to prevent an incomplete or ineffective plan
- Business benefits of Facebook and Twitter
- How to integrate free online marketing successfully
- And much more…
Register for the free call here.
This call will give you details of planning for your success in 2010. If you aren’t familiar with updating your business plan for the year or aren’t sure how to include Facebook or Twitter, you’ll want to be on this call. This is a business planning call so come with pencil and paper to begin work on your plan for 2010. If you can’t be on the call, be sure to register anyway so that after the call, we can send you the link to listen to the recording.
Register now for the call and then make sure to mark your calendar so you don’t miss it.
Use Social Networking in Your Marketing Plan in 2010
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You’d be hard-pressed to find someone these days that isn’t a part of at least one social network. Use that to your advantage. Join in and find ways to engage users, promote your website and increase your traffic for at no cost.
Social Networking Craze
Social networking is one of the easiest ways to stay connected to friends and family near and far. You can share pictures, stories and send instant messages when you are both logged in. This way of keeping in touch has extended into the business world and become useful as a marketing tool. Joining a social network is free so there’s no reason not to give it a try. These sites bridge the gap across the miles better than simple email.
Which sites can you use? Actually, business owners have found most of the more popular sites useful: YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace. The results from each site are different for every business so don’t be afraid to test and track which ones yield the best outcome for your business. Once you sign up with a valid email address and password, you are ready to get started.
Using sites like these, you can create a page that tells all about you and your business. Look for friends, family and business associates who are also connected so you can keep up with what is going on in their lives and businesses as well.
How to Use Them Effectively
Let’s look at a site like Facebook. It is highly popular and can be beneficial for both business and personal use. On the business side, you can post links to your website when new products are launched, new newsletters are published or sales are going on. If you blog, post links to your newest blog posts (or to guest blog posts you’re doing elsewhere around the blogosphere). Highlight contests, guest bloggers and other events that you are a part of. Have an online radio show? You can invite friends to listen to live podcasts to learn more about your business.
On a site like YouTube, you can post videos and add the links to your Facebook profile, Twitter stream, etc. Invite friends to view and leave comments.
The best part about social sites such as these is that friends and business contacts can pass your links on to others who might be interested in the topics as well. Quite possibly viral marketing at its best!
Relationships Matter
The one thing to remember about promoting your website or blog on social networking sites is not to do so just for that purpose. Relax and get to know the people you are trying to reach out to. They say that social networking can be addictive. While it can be a double edged sword if you’re not careful, setting boundaries will make it addictive in a good way by growing your business.
Just like so many other marketing tools, the name of the game is relationships. You can build meaningful ones not only with friends and family, but with your target audience and business associates on all the social networking sites like LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, Facebook of course, and others.
Comment on your friends posts and visit their links as well. As an Internet marketing tool, social networking works both ways. Don’t think of it as a means to an end but one of the more fun marketing tools you get to use to grow your business.
If you aren’t currently using any social networking platform, now is a great time to start. It can serve dual purposes in your life; both to your benefit. Each business contact you meet, invite them to be your friend or follower. Who knows? You could be connecting with a future joint venture partner or find that diamond in the rough service provider to help you take your business to the next level.
If it feels like I am speaking another language or you want to learn more about social networking and its advantages for your business, join me for Social Media Made Easy.
Planning and Overcoming Time Management Obstacles: Part 2
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To overcome these planning and time management obstacles, consider these four steps:
1. What’s stopping you?
Look at what’s holding you up. Is it procrastination? Perfection? A lack of planning? What’s getting in your way?
2. Prioritize and set goals
Prioritizing and goal setting are two very important components of time management. Goal setting is easiest to accomplish when you set a goal that is attainable and measurable and when you break it down into smaller manageable goals.
Creating a task list is another item that, as strange as it may sound, needs to become a scheduled part of your day and your week. You’ll want to spend a bit of time prior to Monday morning creating a list of tasks and goals for the upcoming week. Keep in mind that some days may be set aside as planning days, days off or meeting days.
3. Plan and schedule your day, week and month
Make sure you have time to accomplish the goals, tasks and priorities you’ve established. Set aside the time you need by planning your days, weeks, and even your month out.
To make this process easier, and to lighten your load, there are time management tools like a PDA, desktop scheduling software and the good old fashioned paper calendar, which can help you establish and maintain time management success.
4. Get help
Finally, if you’re feeling overwhelmed, it may be time to seek outside help. Consider hiring someone to manage the tasks that seem to get in the way. Often these are the administrative tasks. You can partner with a virtual assistant to lighten the load and streamline your technology and automation. You can also hire a housekeeper if daily chores are a distraction from your business. Last but not least, hire a business coach who can help you take your business to the next level.
Overcoming your time management obstacles is easy when you are able to acknowledge what they are and why they exist. From there it’s merely a process of planning how to overcome them and using the right tools to get the job done.
