But some marketers think it’s a colossal waste of time. Is it worth the time and energy it takes to launch a social marketing campaign?

Well, to evaluate whether social marketing is a worthwhile strategy, let’s look at some of the ways that social marketing can build your business

1) Viral marketing. Putting your company and your products on sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Squidoo, and FriendsWin encourages people to tell their friends about you.

The more you interact with other internet users through these sites, the more people will become excited about your products. And when you’re excited about something, don’t you naturally want to tell other people about it?

There’s a common myth that people only tell friends about negative experiences with companies and products. It’s simply not true. Myspace didn’t acquire 330 million accounts without viral marketing. Likewise, FriendsWin didn’t add 25,000 subscribers in 3 months without word-of-mouth referrals.

Even products as simple as Beanie Babies (remember those?) were wildly successful because people told their friends about them, not because of aggressive ad campaigns.

2) Connecting with other business owners. Social marketing not only allows you to connect with potential buyers; it puts you in touch with other entrepreneurs who are marketing similar or complimentary products.

Gone are the days when every internet marketer acted like he or she was on an island, well-distanced from competing marketers. Today’s internet business environment demands that marketers work together toward mutual success.

Internet users simply don’t have the time and patience for endless advertisements, so it’s imperative that marketers work together to sell complimentary products to targeted, interested buyers.

For example, let’s say you’re selling high quality pizza baking stones. You could develop your marketing plan from scratch, and rely on SEO and pay-per-click to find customers who want to buy your pizza stones.

But what if, through your social marketing efforts, you found Joe, who sells premium pizza cheeses, sauces, and other ingredients imported from Italy?

Through cross-selling, you and Joe could develop a “one stop shop” where pizza lovers could find everything they need to bake great pizza at home. His customers don’t have to scour the internet looking for the perfect pizza stone, and your customers don’t have to hunt for premium pizza ingredients.

Providing this kind of convenience could easily generate more sales than either you or Joe could generate on your own.

3) Quality backlinks to raise your search engine ranking. Social networking sites like Myspace, FriendsWin, Squidoo, and Facebook all have tremendous pull with Google and other search engines. Linking to your website or blog from these sites can substantially improve your own search engine position.

It’s also an excellent way to get backlinks from people who like your products, and from other internet marketers. Remember viral marketing? Backlinks from customers and fellow marketers are simply an extension of this type of marketing. Even better, backlinks are not only highly effective, they’re free.

Sure, social marketing can be tedious and time consuming. There will always be entrepreneurs who tell you that social marketing takes up too much time to be effective. But if you have the patience and the vision to grow your business through social marketing, you’ll gain some pretty enviable advantages that will help you and your business succeed.

To learn about a new social networking site that is blowing the doors off of Myspace, please visit my FriendsWin page. Right now, you can also make money recommending the site to others, no matter whether you currently have a business, or are just looking for a legitimate way to make money on the internet.

This exhaustive study conducted by the Royal Institute of Technology has found that content marketing and custom publishing are methodologies which are not valid and should not be considered as a part of any advertising or marketing plan, project or program.

For the last three years, using the world’s largest Cray SuperComputer, The Royal Institute of Technology found that content marketing has not been working. Reference – Study >>Doktorand Yt – Och Korroslonsvetenskap >> Published 2009-12-10. The results are not pretty, especially if you happen to be in the content marketing industry using this methodology to deliver advertising, marketing or branding messages to a core audience. The study uses extensive data mining, double blind statistical data drumming, data appending with reverse metrics and fourth level search data from Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and InfoUSA to better understand the true long term results of content marketing.

Here’s what they found in brief:

• RIT studied 15,114 Content Marketing and Custom Publishing campaigns
• 98.7% of those campaigns “had not and could not” deliver any measurable level of success
• There was also “no” measurable – Return On Investment for all 15,114 marketing campaigns studied over this three year period
• Only .02% of all end users engaged in these campaigns or had any further conversation with the provider
• Custom publishing provided only 1.7% message penetration to any core audience – what so ever

Wow, we’re in real trouble here. All those years of hard work down the drain – in one big scientific FLUSH!

And we’ve spent the last four months creating, developing and we’re about to launch an incredible video content marketing project. Man, that’s a bummer.

Sorry for the bad news. I guess all you content marketers are going to have to dust off those old resume and get cracking with the job searching. You know what? Maybe I’ll send my new video content marketing project to The Royal Institute of Technology and let them put that in their supercomputer and smoke it! What do you think?

Hey – we’re here anyway. Want to hear about our little project? It’s for a charity and Stella Pop is donating our time.
Cool here it is… a tidbit of Stella Pop and Goodwill’s new and not yet released video content marketing project.

DC Goodwill Fashionista’s “ReUse.ReCycle.ReFashion with Miss DC “

It’s a viral video project all about Goodwill and Recycling starring Miss DC 2009 and the Goodwill Fashionista which was conceptualized by Stella Pop and developed in partnership with Goodwill of Greater Washington. The rap-opera song was written by Kokayi (Grammy nominated rapper from DC) and performed by both Jen Corey (Miss DC 2009 and Kokayi as a fresh musical hook for the video series launching in late December. It was recorded and mixed at Sweet Spot Studio under the creative direction of Nicolas Laget and Kokayi. Having never been in a recording studio before, I can say “in the sweet spot” is exactly right for this musical team lead by Kokayi. I can’t dance but I was secretly in my mind getting on a seriously disturbing and scary groove. Enough said about my dancing.

The complete song will be available at iTunes and if you buy the song there’s good news, Goodwill receives the benefits of your purchase as a donation. All the money raised by Goodwill is used for enhancing the dignity and quality of life of individuals, families and communities by eliminating barriers to opportunity and helping people in need reach their fullest potential through the power of work. Goodwill’s vision is that every person has the opportunity to achieve his/her fullest potential and participate in and contribute to all aspects of life. So get over to iTunes and purchase the song. Maybe even give away a few downloads to friends and family.

This viral video series was filmed over a four month period and documents the interior and design rejuvenation of Jen’s (Miss DC) new apartment with items purchased at Goodwill stores throughout the Washington DC area. And when I say purchased, I mean we spent almost nothing for an apartment full of ” household bling.” The great thing about all these items is that they were lovingly donated by good people from all over the DC community. That is sweet!

By the way, recycling is Jen’s platform for the Miss America Pageant which is taking place at the end of January in Las Vegas. Make sure you vote for her, she’s talented and very down to earth.

This partnership between Stella Pop, Jen Corey – Miss DC 2009 and Goodwill of Greater Washington is an excellent example of content marketing in the form of an independent viral video project. Don’t tell Goodwill all this nice stuff I’m about to say, it just might go to their heads but they have an incredible marketing team and have created a highly successful content marketing program highlighted by their blog – DC Goodwill Fashionista.

The blog is a true collaboration but the main writing talent behind it is Gillain Kirkpatrick who also stars in the video as Jen’s partner in crime and shopping buddy. Stella Pop has been honored to work with this amazing non-for-profit organization and it has been a truly educational and an uplifting experience so you can understand our excitement about the upcoming video launch.

Can I can tell something? The song and video are awesome and fun, if I do say so myself. And, the video turned out to be extremely cool, heart warming and was filled with lots of goodwill from everyone involved. Stay tuned for the first video installment which is coming soon! Around the end of December.

Stella says, create content that connects with your audience. It doesn’t always have to be so literal and direct to get involvement and illustrate your brand message. Want the perfect example, check out DC Goodwill Fashionista. You can find this article at www.YoStella.com

PS – The scientific study is not for real but you probably already figured that out – hope you’re not mad and enjoy the ringtone download provided below.

We’ve included a free ringtone for you to download that is a tiny taste of the rap-opera song “A Dream Without Boundaries” coming with our video series.

Thanks again and click here for the download.

Stella’s Pop Factory is a creative service company located in metro Washington DC, our friends just call us Stella Pop.

Stella Pop is a soda brew crew that between mixing up handcrafted concepts flavors, serves up high-fizz design and outside-the-pop-bottle thinking for our clients. Our firm is styled after a creative soda factory, we have consistently won high praise for exceptional service and expertise in advertising & marketing including content and concept development, creative services and brand optimization.

“We don’t make the Pop, We make the Fizz!”

Let us mix up a fresh new flavor for your brand today.

There’s no denying that Twitter is a social networking phenomenon. Let’s face it; once Oprah got on the Twitter train in April this year (2009), you knew it was probably something you should check out. Despite the fact that it was originally meant to help teens keep track of each other, it has grown up considerably over the past year. In fact, the vast majority of the network’s users are adults, not kids. Only 11% of Twitter’s users are between the ages of 11 and 17. Twitter has become much more than just another way to find out if your friend is at the coffee shop or if Ashton Kutcher is vacationing in the Caribbean. Talk to a teen, and they’ll probably tell you that Twitter is lame; they’d much rather go on Facebook to have longer chats, exchange photos, and play games.

So why the adult interest? The 140-character limit on posts would, at first, not seem to lend itself to anything more than “At the grocery. Lines are long.” But Twitter is about a lot more than just sending mundane messages into the ether. Though Kutcher beat CNN in a challenge to gain a million followers this spring, CNN acquired a ton of followers themselves. To date, they add up to over 2.8 million people receiving their breaking news. (Sure, Kutcher still has them beat at over 4 million followers, but that’s a lot of people who get instant updates without turning on the TV.) You don’t have to follow Britney Spears; there are news organizations like NPR and CBS, politicians like Barack Obama, John McCain, and Al Gore. Keep up with sports by following the Twitter feeds from the NBA, NFL, or MLB.

Though it may seem daunting to have countless tweets clogging your phone on a big news day, there are ways to narrow it down and even conduct research. Do a search through a Twitter aggregator so you can stay tuned into the news only you care to read about. Twist, Tweetizen, and Twitturly are three aggregators that can help you narrow your searches by topic, filter lists based on keywords and tags, form groups to facilitate discussion on a particular topic, and keep a tally of how many times the news story, video, or picture has been posted or retweeted. Got a product you think is going to take off? Check out the buzz on Twitter, invite people to join your group, it’s all free advertising.

There’s big business to be found on Twitter. More and more companies are jumping on the bandwagon to offer links to websites, coupons, information on new products, sale announcements, and more. There are rumors that advertisements will soon be included in the network. Twitter could charge a small fee and not have to look for content. It’s all provided for free by tweeters.

Twitter is even becoming a great place to find a job. Companies that are looking for social-media savvy employees have decided that the best way to find them is to go to the source. As job boards become more saturated, hiring professionals are finding more of what they want on Twitter, and at a cheaper cost than advertising on the regular boards. Many HR professionals will accept tweeted questions like “what should I wear to the interview?” and tweet back an answer in reasonable time.

It isn’t all sunshine and roses for Twitter right now, October numbers reported the first decrease of unique domestic users. It’s only 8%, which still leaves a whopping 19.2 million, but that’s enough to worry some investors. New features, like retweets and lists are in place to help reverse the trend. The question that has yet to be answered is why the drop, and is it truly a concern? It’s possible that it’s just a settling in period, especially with more youth users moving on to other social networking options. But with so many adults and businesses finding ways to work more efficiently and economically with this tool, it seems unlikely to fade away any time in the near future.

Twitter’s undeniable popularity is backed by more than fad and fancy. There are few options out there that allow you to make a brief, instant connection with potentially 19.2 million people in such an easy, cheap and fun way. Whether you are job hunting, researching a product, or just keeping up with your favorite sports team, Twitter has an application to help you achieve your goals for both business.

Written by the co-owner of http://mantywebdesigns.com/
This article can be reproduced in whole or in part, providing this byline is included along with a followable link to http://mantywebdesigns.com/

This exhaustive study conducted by the Royal Institute of Technology has found that content marketing and custom publishing are methodologies which are not valid and should not be considered as a part of any advertising or marketing plan, project or program.

For the last three years, using the world’s largest Cray SuperComputer, The Royal Institute of Technology found that content marketing has not been working. Reference – Study >>Doktorand Yt – Och Korroslonsvetenskap >> Published 2009-12-10. The results are not pretty, especially if you happen to be in the content marketing industry using this methodology to deliver advertising, marketing or branding messages to a core audience. The study uses extensive data mining, double blind statistical data drumming, data appending with reverse metrics and fourth level search data from Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and InfoUSA to better understand the true long term results of content marketing.

Here’s what they found in brief:

• RIT studied 15,114 Content Marketing and Custom Publishing campaigns
• 98.7% of those campaigns “had not and could not” deliver any measurable level of success
• There was also “no” measurable – Return On Investment for all 15,114 marketing campaigns studied over this three year period
• Only .02% of all end users engaged in these campaigns or had any further conversation with the provider
• Custom publishing provided only 1.7% message penetration to any core audience – what so ever

Wow, we’re in real trouble here. All those years of hard work down the drain – in one big scientific FLUSH!

And we’ve spent the last four months creating, developing and we’re about to launch an incredible video content marketing project. Man, that’s a bummer.

Sorry for the bad news. I guess all you content marketers are going to have to dust off those old resume and get cracking with the job searching. You know what? Maybe I’ll send my new video content marketing project to The Royal Institute of Technology and let them put that in their supercomputer and smoke it! What do you think?

Hey – we’re here anyway. Want to hear about our little project? It’s for a charity and Stella Pop is donating our time.
Cool here it is… a tidbit of Stella Pop and Goodwill’s new and not yet released video content marketing project.

DC Goodwill Fashionista’s “ReUse.ReCycle.ReFashion with Miss DC “

It’s a viral video project all about Goodwill and Recycling starring Miss DC 2009 and the Goodwill Fashionista which was conceptualized by Stella Pop and developed in partnership with Goodwill of Greater Washington. The rap-opera song was written by Kokayi (Grammy nominated rapper from DC) and performed by both Jen Corey (Miss DC 2009 and Kokayi as a fresh musical hook for the video series launching in late December. It was recorded and mixed at Sweet Spot Studio under the creative direction of Nicolas Laget and Kokayi. Having never been in a recording studio before, I can say “in the sweet spot” is exactly right for this musical team lead by Kokayi. I can’t dance but I was secretly in my mind getting on a seriously disturbing and scary groove. Enough said about my dancing.

The complete song will be available at iTunes and if you buy the song there’s good news, Goodwill receives the benefits of your purchase as a donation. All the money raised by Goodwill is used for enhancing the dignity and quality of life of individuals, families and communities by eliminating barriers to opportunity and helping people in need reach their fullest potential through the power of work. Goodwill’s vision is that every person has the opportunity to achieve his/her fullest potential and participate in and contribute to all aspects of life. So get over to iTunes and purchase the song. Maybe even give away a few downloads to friends and family.

This viral video series was filmed over a four month period and documents the interior and design rejuvenation of Jen’s (Miss DC) new apartment with items purchased at Goodwill stores throughout the Washington DC area. And when I say purchased, I mean we spent almost nothing for an apartment full of ” household bling.” The great thing about all these items is that they were lovingly donated by good people from all over the DC community. That is sweet!

By the way, recycling is Jen’s platform for the Miss America Pageant which is taking place at the end of January in Las Vegas. Make sure you vote for her, she’s talented and very down to earth.

This partnership between Stella Pop, Jen Corey – Miss DC 2009 and Goodwill of Greater Washington is an excellent example of content marketing in the form of an independent viral video project. Don’t tell Goodwill all this nice stuff I’m about to say, it just might go to their heads but they have an incredible marketing team and have created a highly successful content marketing program highlighted by their blog – DC Goodwill Fashionista.

The blog is a true collaboration but the main writing talent behind it is Gillain Kirkpatrick who also stars in the video as Jen’s partner in crime and shopping buddy. Stella Pop has been honored to work with this amazing non-for-profit organization and it has been a truly educational and an uplifting experience so you can understand our excitement about the upcoming video launch.

Can I can tell something? The song and video are awesome and fun, if I do say so myself. And, the video turned out to be extremely cool, heart warming and was filled with lots of goodwill from everyone involved. Stay tuned for the first video installment which is coming soon! Around the end of December.

Stella says, create content that connects with your audience. It doesn’t always have to be so literal and direct to get involvement and illustrate your brand message. Want the perfect example, check out DC Goodwill Fashionista. You can find this article at www.YoStella.com

PS – The scientific study is not for real but you probably already figured that out – hope you’re not mad and enjoy the ringtone download provided below.

We’ve included a free ringtone for you to download that is a tiny taste of the rap-opera song “A Dream Without Boundaries” coming with our video series.

Thanks again and click here for the download.

Stella’s Pop Factory is a creative service company located in metro Washington DC, our friends just call us Stella Pop.

Stella Pop is a soda brew crew that between mixing up handcrafted concepts flavors, serves up high-fizz design and outside-the-pop-bottle thinking for our clients. Our firm is styled after a creative soda factory, we have consistently won high praise for exceptional service and expertise in advertising & marketing including content and concept development, creative services and brand optimization.

“We don’t make the Pop, We make the Fizz!”

Let us mix up a fresh new flavor for your brand today.

Promote your blog? Why would you want to do that? Honestly, if you have to ask yourself that question you probably shouldn’t even have one. The whole purpose of a blog is to document your thoughts, views, and opinions on a particular topic, issue, or subject. What good will your blog do if no one reads it. In addition to sharing your thoughts with the rest of the world, did you know that you could also make money from your blog? You can signup for affiliate programs or other programs like Google Adsense. If you are using your blog to make money then you will defiantly want to promote it.

When it comes to promoting blogs, there are many blog owners who decide to let the search engine do the work for them. Search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN use special techniques that reads the content on your website. That content is then used to rank your website with particular keywords. This means that you run a blog on graduating from high school in New York, there is a good chance that your blog will appear in searches done on New York high schools. Although many blogs are successfully ranked in search engines, not all are. That is why you are advised against relying solely on search engines, when it comes to promoting your blog.

As previously mentioned, if you love meeting with or talking to people online, there is a good chance that you belong to a social networking website or community. The individuals that you talk to and that are in your community are likely the individuals that you wish to target. Since most social networking websites work to connect internet users who have the same goals and common interests, there is a good chance that your online friends will enjoy reading your blog. But, before they can read your blog, you have to let them know that it exists.

When it comes to promoting your blog on social networking websites, you have a number of different options. Your first option is to include a link to your blog in your community profile or profile page. This will allow other community members to checkout your blog, only if they wish to do so. The other way is to inform your online friends of your blog through private messages. Once you join a social networking website and create or join a network of friends, you should easily be able to communicate with those friends. Sending each of your friends a private message with information and a link to your blog tends to be more effective than just placing a link in your profile or on your profile page.

Although there is a good chance that you are already a member of a popular social networking website, you may not be. If you are not already a member, but would like to become one, you will need to find a social networking website to join. This can easily be done with a standard internet search. In your search, you will likely find a number of popular network sites, such as MySpace, Facebook, FriendFinder, Yahoo! 360, and Orkut. Before becoming a community member at one of these networking sites, you may want to first examine the website to ensure that it is everything that you want it to be.

As you can easily see, there are a number of different ways that you can go about promoting your blog on online social networking websites. You never known, but, in addition to promoting your blog, you may also make new friends along the way.

Home business coach, Khyl Ng wants to help entrepreneurs find the best online businesses available today. The businesses come with professional support and training resources that can guide even those with no experience making money online toward success. Kindly check out the website, http://www.K-HillzOnline.com lists only those businesses that gone through a thorough screening process to ensure they are legitimate, money-making ventures.

Just in case you need a refresher, Twitter (www.twitter.com) is a unique micro-blogging tool that lets users communicate with their “followers” in quick text messages of 140 characters or less called “tweets.”

Social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube are typically most effective when they are appropriately integrated with each other and with a company’s existing marketing efforts, since each one provides distinct benefits and advantages in an integrated social marketing plan. But Twitter – even when used as a stand-alone social networking strategy – can be a powerful tool in any small business marketing toolbox.

Some of the benefits of using Twitter in your marketing mix include:

• Highly targeted audience: The people who choose to “follow” you on Twitter are already interested in hearing what you have to say, or they would not have followed you to begin with. This provides you with an audience of folks who have specifically opted-in to receive your messages and want to listen to what you have to say.
• Instantly reach your “followers”: When you post something to your Twitter account (referred to as “tweets”), the message is instantly sent to your followers in the way they have chosen to be contacted. This could be a text message sent to their cell phone, posted to their Twitter page on the web, RSS-fed to a Facebook page or profile, etc. Regardless of the method your followers have selected, your tweets appear within a few seconds.
• Generate traffic to your web site: By adding links in your tweets, you provide followers with direct access to your web site, to other social networking profiles, to your blog, etc. Again, if your social marketing has been properly integrated, all of this will lead back to your web site, generating more traffic and new visitors.
• Improve your search engine rankings: By optimizing your Twitter profile (and integrating your social marketing efforts), you can build valuable inbound links to your web site, which is key in improving your site’s position in the search engine rankings.
• Increase brand awareness and online visibility: Being active on Twitter gets your business name in front of customers as well as the general public everyday, which in turn helps build name recognition and improves brand awareness for your business.
• Enhance customer service: Many businesses have found that by using Twitter, they can respond to customer needs (or complaints) very quickly and efficiently, allowing them to improve their level of service while publicly demonstrating their responsiveness and commitment to customers.
• Manage your online reputation in real time: By monitoring Twitter for mentions of your business name, key personnel, product names, etc., you can keep track of what people are saying about your business and to respond or intervene quickly if necessary. There are also free tools available to help you monitor your reputation in Twitter (like Twilerts and Tweetdeck), which can make it very easy to monitor your reputation online.

These are just some of the ways in which Twitter can benefit your business, and as social networking continues to grow in popularity, there will surely be even more features, new uses, and business benefits to be gained by using Twitter.

Whether you are just thinking about using social marketing or have already started to use it, Twitter can be a great tool to integrate into your social marketing strategy as you go forward. And for small businesses that are serious about marketing, the value of Twitter is pretty clear.

Lauren Hobson, President of Five Sparrows, LLC, has more than 16 years of experience in small business technology writing, marketing, and web site design and development. Five Sparrows provides professional website, marketing, and social networking services to small businesses and non-profits at affordable prices, giving clients access to customized services that meet both their needs and their budgets. More at www.fivesparrows.com

It’s all about relationships

Sex might sell but don’t be fooled – most customers are looking for more than a one night stand. We’ve spent years introducing technology to cut out the middle man only to find that the customer still wants to talk about their feelings. Businesses who choose to nurture an ongoing relationship reap the benefits with higher $$ sales, repeat business and free advertising in the form of word of mouth. Too many businesses are content with just playing the numbers game, safe in the knowledge that their flashy and slick approach will still dazzle enough customers to keep them warm through winter. Those customers quickly move on once they realise they’re not much more than a statistic, worthy only of bland, generic marketing campaigns with little thought to their actual wants or needs.

Who’s doing it right: Kudos to the Bigpond team on Twitter (@bigpondteam ). They know you’ve been screwed over in the past and they just want you to know that they are listening.

Who’s doing it wrong: Companies AND individuals who have an account in every social media port and use the same tired, old lines on all of them. Broadcasting the same message through such a diverse range of applications does not a strategy make.

Shortcuts aren’t just for keyboards

Despite the fact that many aspects of our lives continue to be made inexplicably easier with each passing year, there will always be a special group of people looking for a shortcut. 10,000 followers on Twitter in 3 days; a popular blog with scrapings of everyone else’s brilliant content; instant You Tube fame complete with sponsor interest and meme infamy. It alienates those willing to invest time and effort and irritates almost everyone who has to put up with the result. And yet it continues because unfortunately it works. Those who succeed (and even those who don’t) then get to take it to a new level – selling the secret shortcuts to finding the shortcuts.

Who’s doing it right: Stephen Fry deserves his resurgence in popularity for all the effort he is investing in his personal and professional brand. He blogs, he tweets, he’s available on iTunes. While consistent, his interaction is intermittent enough to be genuine. And all of this in between filming prime time television and celebrity hob nobbing.

Who’s doing it wrong: You’ve got 10 examples sitting in your inbox right now.

Losing control can be fun

Those hippies were on to something! By loosening the grip on their brand, some companies have been able to experience something out of this world. Whether it is the integration of user generated content into a campaign or refusing to censor the dissedent voice in forums, brands have been communicated in the voice of the customer in a bold new way. Unfortunately sometimes the experience can be a disaster, sure to cause painful flashbacks for decades to come. You can play it safe and minimise the risk, you just need to know what you’re getting into, do it with people you trust and, of course, everything in moderation.

Who’s doing it right: I love this example of SUNY New Paltz and left it strategically under the noses of my previous employer’s management team. It’s a great reminder that if you’re doing things right you have no need to fear the odd negative comment.

Who’s doing it wrong: Nothing sticks out more than the Chevrolet Chevy Tahoe campaign which turned into an anti-SUV broadcast faster than you can say “Canyonero”. It shouldn’t be a deterrant to UGC though, merely a mistake to learn from and improve on.

Play by the rules or else

As I’ve posted previously, I get frustrated at the way red cards go flying up whenever someone doesn’t conform to the rules of play of social media. For such a collaborative, scalable, unique, innovative concept it sure has a lot of rules and penalties. The world wide web should be big enough for all of us to play nice and if it isn’t then at least show a little appreciation for the diversity of the game. It’s a bit like that new AFL ad, where they show you all the decent sports you could be watching instead of AFL.

Who’s doing it right: In its simplest form, I think the blogging community is getting this right. It amazes me how a few widgets and a different perspective can create such a unique user experience. Even the stock standard templates allow anyone’s personality to shine through if they choose.

Who’s doing it wrong: Me. The fact that I have just listed 4 examples of who’s doing it right and wrong by my opinion clearly demonstrates that I don’t practise what I preach. So piss off.

I’m a Sydney based Digital Planning Director with a serious interest in social media and technology, fascinated by the way they are evolving, clashing and collaborating. My blog is based on both my previous experience and the experiences I am yet to have.

1. Use Twitter Facebook and so on to find friends, family and those who you look up to. Celebrities, pop icons, politicians or even news personalities are all online, easily accessible to anyone who has a Twitter account.

2. Use Social Networking to stay up to date on the news. A variety of news organizations using Social Networking as a way of displaying the latest and most “breaking” news stories they have. It is fastand simple.

3. Use Social Networking to hire people. You can get to know them and their services easily. More so, it is very easy to find people to handle those freelance jobs you need just as hiring someone to design a logo for your business or someone to write content for your blog.

4. Use Social Networking to meet new people, locally or internationally. It is a worldwide service to connect you to just about anyone you want to be connected with.

5. Use Twitter Facekbook and MySpace as a way of networking, to building up the followers you have so that you can always have someone to chat with or even promote.

6. Use Social Networking as a way of socializing when you are sitting at home, working your work at home businesses and feeling lonely doing so. Of course, you may find that you can easily use Social Networking too much and fill up your day with Tweets instead of work.

7. Use Social Networking as a way to alert the public of upcoming events, promotions or discounts you may be having. You may find it very easy to use Twitter to promote specials within the online community or even on the larger scale.

8. Use Social Networking as a way of learning something new. If you have a programming question, for example, you can easily throw it out there and most often, there will be an easy to reach answer within your grasp.

9. Use Social Networking as a tool to manage your thoughts and ideas. If you have a new idea,bounce it off your followers.

10. Use Social Networking to be yourself even when you have an unpopular opinion. Social Networking can be used for many more reasons too. You are unlimited here.

Des Green – http://www.socialnetworkingcashsecrets.com/ Des has been involved in Social networking for several years. If you sign up for our 5 day ecourse right now!! We will give you Twitter – A How to Tips and Tricks Guide ebook. By going to: http://www.socialnetworkingcashsecrets.com/

So why are so many small businesses hesitant about social marketing, or seemingly scared of using social networking sites as part of their regular marketing activities?

It could be as simple as not having the time to take on a new marketing activity, or maybe a lack of familiarity with sites like Facebook and Twitter makes them seem hard to use. It’s also possible they’re concerned about negative comments showing up on social media web sites, or worried about employees using these tools appropriately for business. Whatever the reasons, social media marketing is here to stay, and small businesses are going to have to face their fears if they hope to leverage its value as a marketing tool and stay relevant with their customers today.

If you are one of the millions of small businesses afraid of jumping in to social marketing, here are five good reasons you should overcome your fears:

1. Your customers already expect it – More than 86% of consumers recently surveyed by marketing agency Prodo said that they believe companies should incorporate social marketing into their regular marketing activities. Add that to the fact that Facebook now has more than 300 million users, Twitter has experienced quadruple-digit growth this year alone, and more than 50% of online Americans use social networking sites on a daily basis, and you can clearly see where your customers are spending their time. Put simply: you need to be there, too.
2. Social marketing has become mainstream – Think back a few years to when many small businesses didn’t have web sites yet. They thought “sure, it would be nice to have a web site, but it’s not really necessary for my business.” Now, of course, most small businesses have at least a basic web presence, and web sites are considered a standard part of doing business. The same is happening today with social marketing, and it won’t be long until it is considered just as standard as having a web site.
3. It doesn’t have to take a lot of time – When implemented properly, social marketing can be a quick, easy marketing activity that can be seamlessly blended with your regular marketing activities. By integrating your social networking profiles with each other, with your web site, and with your existing marketing initiatives, you can minimize the time spent on social networking while maximizing the return on your investment. It’s no longer an option to just do nothing – if you need help developing a social networking strategy, find a professional to help you.
4. Your message can reach a vastly larger audience – By using social marketing, you increase your reach online to potentially thousands (or millions!) of people who may not otherwise have a chance to see your message or know your company. Rather than waiting for visitors to find your web site and discover your business, social marketing allows your message to travel further through the social channels you use, as well as through viral events where people share your information with their own networks of friends and associates.
5. Ignoring social marketing will not make it go away – Like it or not, social marketing is quickly becoming the way in which smart businesses connect and communicate with their customers and potential customers. It not only improves a small business’ web visibility, but can also improve search engine rankings (Google already includes results from social sites, blogs, videos, and other alternative media along with regular web site results), and can help create “buzz” about a small business as well.

So if you have been apprehensive about adding social networking to your marketing mix, there’s no better time to face your fears and get serious about using this technology to enhance your online presence, reach new prospects, and meet your customers’ expectations with social marketing. The longer you wait to jump in, the larger the gap grows between “outstanding” and “overlooked”.

Research has shown that customers go for brands that they are comfortable and familiar with. The way to achieve this is by reminding your clients of your products and services heritage. Also, show them the complementary relevance of your products. During anniversaries, companies should take the opportunity to recount the accomplishments of their brands, innovation and contribution towards bettering the lives of their customers. This helps create a connection with clients.

Today, points of customers accessing information are numerous, they include television, radio, posters and on the increase the many avenues provided by the internet. Websites, blogs, social networking sites and chat rooms among others are channels that a business owner needs to learn how to navigate through. This is mainly due to fact that your target market is bound to visit these sites.

I think any business person who understands the value of addressing the needs of his customers will impact and influence the market. As much as companies establish their brands in the market and strive to deepen customer loyalty, there is need to ensure that they provide sustainable business operational reliability. This is because the cost of disappointing a client can result to grave consequences.