Posts Tagged ‘social networking sites’

I have read a lot of blog posts, opinions and teachings online, even from a previous mentor, saying that to be successful online, you have to brand yourself high profile, develop your own product, make it go “viral” and be the “buzz” on all the social networking sites.  And that unless you are adding thousands of new followers on Twitter each week, you don’t “get” the importance of it for developing your online brand.

Maybe.

And some act as if there is no place for you online unless you make yourself highly visible and position yourself as the “go to” guy.  So if you are don’t want to be in the spotlight, and are uncomfortable aligning yourself with the mega-star gurus, then you had better quit the internet now or focus on an online support role such as a forum moderator.

I totally disagree.

I think there is a place online for everyone who wants to be online.  If you play to your strengths, understand your core competencies and talk in “your own voice”, then you will find your own market.  And there are still very good businesses to be hard through automation – which doesn’t require you to have a “name” online.

I agree that if you thrust yourself into the spotlight, it’s highly likely that you’ll develop a wide customer base and more quickly, than people who don’t, simply because more people will gain “fast exposure” to you. 

But you will also have customers even if you prefer to fly “under the radar”.  After all, there are lots of people who have made very good money by doing just that, like Michael Green and Chris Freville.  And if you just said “who?”, doesn’t that prove my point?

So, which way do you go?  Follow the pack to guru status or fly under the radar?

Actually, the choice is not consciously yours.  How you become successful online depends totally on your personal style and preferred method of working. 

If you are independent, free-thinking and largely self-reliant, someone who doesn’t need a great deal of social interaction, you will probably be more successful playing to these traits and staying “low visibility”.  But remember that this strategy takes time and effort to build business momentum.  If your work is high quality, you will get more loyal customers.  In time you will be the big fish in your small niche market.  Having “cracked” one niche market, you will find moving into another easy because your name will not be highly identified as a niche specialist, outside your niche. 

On the flip side, if you are a party animal, someone who thrives on not just “playing hard” but being seen to be playing hard, someone who desires to be “known” as a guru, then you will get more out of being “high profile” online.  Becoming widely known and highly visible will certainly catapult a fledgling business into a cash cow far quicker than the “under the radar” approach.  However, there is a risk that a high profile “guru” cannot enter other niche markets without losing credibility as an expert.  (Hence the common use of “niche names”).

So when you start your online business, decide what kind of person you are (ask your friends and family if they agree!)  Follow the business development profile that suits YOU.  If you aim for “high profile”, when you’re really a “stealth flier”, you will be uncomfortable in your role and less successful than you would have been if you were “true” to yourself.  Likewise, trying to be a “best kept secret”, when you want to shout “look at me” is similarly doomed. 

Be yourself online.  Stay true to you when branding and marketing yourself online.  That’s what the true “gurus” do. 

As an online niche marketer, you’ll have a bevy of competition tailing your progress, so you must work hard to stay ahead of the pack and maintain control of the demographic.  There’s no better way to get the results you want than to develop a relationship with your niche target audience.

No niche marketer has ample time to send out personal emails to each individual prospect and customer, but you can create a persona or use your own identity to develop brand recognition among your niche market.

First, you want to allow your customers to put an image with the name of your brand.  This was a “big one” for me!  I felt very uncomfortable putting up a picture of myself.  But it doesn’t have to be a photo of yourself.  Some niche marketers use stock photos of stand-in models or graphics that depict a representation of the niche itself.  It doesn’t matter as long as your target customers can “see” you in their mind.

Next, start allowing your prospects to get to know you on more than a business to customer level.  They should know a little about your background – what got you into this niche?  Give them a story that lets them know you feel their pain, understand their needs, or want to help them on a genuine level.

Become the go-to person in your niche.  If other niche marketers who are your competition have a hands-off status on social networking sites, using them for funneling traffic via links only, then you be the sole entrepreneur who goes one step further and heightens the peer-to-peer communication with your online contacts.  

Niche marketing success, as all savvy online marketers know, requires several elements:

1)   You have to choose a profit-pulling target market;

2)   You need to know what keywords they’re using to find the solutions they’re after;

3)   And you need content to attract your audience to your offers for conversions.

But where is the best place for niche marketers to position this valuable, expertise-laden content?

Article marketing works.  Everyone agrees on that.  But then again, so does social marketing (done properly).  Everyone agrees on that too.

The argument about articles versus social networking sites has been brewing for quite some time.  Advocates of article directories say that social networks have too many restrictions or are too time consuming to learn how to use.

On the flip side, niche marketers who utilize the world of web 2.0 embrace the new platforms that help them build attractive web pages without having to learn complicated code.  And, they argue, article directories that perform best (such as Ezine Articles) also have limitations on how and where you can be promotional within the body of the content.

Fortunately, marketing is not a one-or-the-other thing.  But, if your goal is imply to use one or the other, your best bet is to do a split test of the two. 

Your best bet is to do a split test of the two, if your goal is to simply use one or the other.  

Split testing is when you’ll take similar content (same keywords targeted, same length, for example), and post to one article directory and one web 2.0 site, tracking the results of traffic and conversions. Then when you have a winner, you alter one element – such as testing out a different directory or social network – and pit it against the former winner until you know which site(s) perform best for your niche marketing needs.

Successful niche marketers like to have a good balance of articles on directories and web pages built on social networking sites.  The choice is yours!

Keywords can be the curse of your online existence. Some marketers don’t understand the concepts of keywords, and they either don’t use them at all or use too few to really help them make a dent in dominating their competition.

You’ll be using keywords all over the web as an Internet marketer.  You need to use them before you enter a niche to find out if it’s a profitable area to build and showcase your expertise.  You use them to help develop an outline of what your consumers want to know.

Once your product is complete, you use your keyword list to help you drive the right kind of traffic into your virtual real estate.  Keywords will be used on social networking sites (in the URL and content).  They’ll be used in the articles that you submit to directories.  They’re also used in blog posts, forum threads, and pay per click marketing tactics, too.

So how should you amass an arsenal of keywords that you can use in your online marketing efforts?  For starters, brainstorm a list as comprehensive as your mind will allow. This is essential.

Start broad and then take each broad keyword and drill down deeper.  For example, if you are writing an info product on swine flu and the possibility of a pandemic evolving from it, your initial keywords might be swine flu, pandemic, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and so on.  A related list of keywords would probably include bird flu, survival, and so on.

Use a variety of free and paid keyword tools to help you gain more words and phrases in your list once you’ve exhausted the brainstorming process.  Use more than one keyword research tool because each one will vary in its results.

The fact is that if you target keywords that your customers are not searching on, you will not get your potential customers to your site.  Don’t let keywords worry you.  Do some keyword research.  Find out what keywords your customers are searching on, target those keywords and you will have an avalanche of traffic!

Whenever you’re immersed in the difficult task of trying to make money online, you want to secure as many shortcuts as humanly possible without sacrificing the quality of your efforts.  PLR, or Private Label Rights, is one way you can shorten your investment of time and lessen the amount of money you spend for your site’s content needs.

Many different types of Internet marketers use PLR in a wide variety of ways.  Basically, you find a PLR site with the kind of rules that fit your niche needs (every site has different rules so check carefully that you will be allowed to do what you want to do before you buy!), buy the set of PLR and then use the content as your own.

Here are some ways the PLR might be used online:

·         As web content

·         In autoresponder emails

·         As blog posts

·         On social networking sites like Squidoo

·         As forum answers whenever someone asks a question

·         As bonus material for a product you’re selling

People who operate PLR sites with content for sale will tell you how the can be used.  They should also tell you if the PLR has a limited number of packages sold or if there are no set restrictions on how many people can buy the batch.

The best way to use PLR content is to alter it to make it as original as possible. This ensures that the search engines feel your content is altered enough to be considered unique.  You are best advised to change the graphics on a PLR product, even if the PLR package comes with graphics.  If you don’t you will be competing directly with everyone else who bought the same PLR and who also didn’t alter the graphics. 

Graphics needn’t be expensive.  The Warrior Forum Special Offers (WSO) always have excellent graphic artists offering special deals to help you make the most of PLR.

With Facebook recently overtaking MySpace as the number one social networking site, it is definitely worth taking a look at if you are in business.

According to a study done recently by the Aberdeen Group companies are using sites like Facebook to improve the interactions they have with their customers. The study showed that companies that use social networking sites are 17 times more likely to improve customer satisfaction than companies that don’t use them.

If you already have a profile on the site but aren’t sure how to leverage it for networking, brand visibility and gaining feedback–check out these top tips for boosting your reach through this hot social tool.

1) Take special care in filling out your profile: You will want to take the time to thoroughly fill out your profile, especially making sure to include your website address and your interests and activities. People appreciate this type of insight into the person behind the business.

2) Join and contribute to groups: Joining groups relevant to your niche is a good way to reach your target market and share your knowledge. Be sure to comment in the discussions and post helpful tips and links.

3) Start your own group: Taking the group idea up a notch, why not create your own group? Be seen as an authority while forming relationships with other members you have invited. Encourage conversation and participation and include a way for others to find out more about your business when you fill in your info as the administrator for the group.

4) Update often: This doesn’t mean you need to spend hours on the site, but for the time you do carve out, update your status and add relevant, helpful links, photos or information to your profile. Because these types of updates show up through the News Feed function for others, you are creating a viral spread of information that helps build your brand and create familiarity.

5) Suggest, recommend and introduce: If you know people you think should be introduced, then facilitate that. Recommend and suggest resources to others. All of these activities create community and contribute to the awareness of both you and what you have to offer.

6) Import your blog posts: You can use the Notes application to pull your blog posts into your profile. NetworkedBlogs is another application that is great for giving your blog exposure. The posts you import with this app appear in others’ news feeds, adding to your expert status and credibility in your particular niche.

7) Create a Page for your business: Facebook Pages are a nice option because it allows you to have a whole separate profile for your business. You can invite others to join the page, post relevant items, hold discussions and “naturally” promote your services or products. The best thing about it? Facebook is ranked so highly in the search engines that by giving your business a page, it helps your business rank highly as well!
 
Personalize your friend requests: It is a good idea to add a friendly message when you are making a friend request. People are more likely to remember you and it’s just a good relationship-building practice.

9) Promote your events: If you are holding sales, teleseminars, courses, live events or anything of the like, you can create invites for your friends to receive with all the relevant information included. This is great for increasing participation and driving traffic.

10) Place targeted ads: “Social Ads” as they are called on Facebook are another option. This can be a powerful way to increase brand awareness. With these ads you are able to select targeted demographics for your campaigns.

Remember, it is about relationship building, not “push” marketing. A few cautions: make sure you never do anything that could be seen as spam. Take time to explore the privacy options on your profile and keep in mind how all of your Facebook activities may be perceived by your potential clients and customers.

Once you really jump in and get involved I think you will find Facebook to be a fabulous tool for both networking and visibility. If it is overwhelming, take it one step at a time–but don’t stand on the sidelines any longer. After all, it’s not just for college kids anymore!

Christine Gallagher, MLS, MSIS, founder of CommunicateValue.com, teaches solopreneurs and small business owners how to use online marketing and social media to communicate effectively and authentically and attract more business. For FREE tips on how to build profitable relationships, leverage technology and create your own successful online business, visit http://CommunicateValue.com Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/social-marketing-articles/create-visibility-for-your-business-on-facebook-top-ten-ways-845996.html