4 Biggest Social Media Mistakes

Let's kick your Social Networking results up a notch! BAM! Just a quick question....how is Social Networking working for your business?

If you answered...

UM....I think pretty good. OR

I am not really doing anything with Social Networking. OR

Working for my business? Say what? OR

I have friends online. OR

Not really sure.

You have a HUGE goldmine waiting for you. The biggest challenge I see in Social Networking is that business professionals are making some SERIOUS mistakes and actually MISSING out on new leads, referrals and clients.

As always, I love to be part of the solution. I am GIVING you a no charge, completely complimentary Social Networking training where I will share with you the 4 biggest Social Networking mistakes and how to fix them. Yes....you will walk away with information you can instantly use.

Here is the first couple of keys to make this work for your business:

1. You have to show up. Sorry....I will not be offering a replay of this because lets face it - if this is really important to you right now, you will make this happen.

2. You have to implement instantly. How many times do we go to seminar after seminar after seminar after seminar (you get my point) and do absolutely nothing. We have a feel good period that generates very little for our business. So this will be different. I will give you ACTION ITEMS that you can instantly implement. WOO WHO!

I guarantee this will be some of the best time you invest in your business. I want you to generate more results right now with what you are doing in Social Networking?

Haven't started or still trying to figure out if you need Social Networking.....then this is the right webinar for you!!

Please join me Thursday, July 28th 12-1:30 PACIFIC Time. https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/983213731 Is this short notice...not really. What I have found is that most business professionals sign up for webinars and then forget they did that and then miss the webinar thinking they can just watch a replay and then never do. Sound familiar?

I am going to invite you to take action now....if you want to create different results in your business then start doing things differently.

I am so excited for you to be part of this. https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/983213731

I look forward to seeing you on Thursday.

Big hugs,

Sabrina Gibson

PS The great thing is if you don't find the webinar helpful, you can continue doing what you are doing in Social Networking and generating the same results you are now.

Facebook 101 Guide for Business

by Sean Supplee

With Facebook being the largest social network online it’s easy to see why you should have your business on it. The amount of exposure that can be generated from it is phenomenal. However with social networking and running your business there are a number of things you need to do in order to maximize your presence and keep a respectable figure.

1 – Review your profile

You will want to give your profile a solid overview and fix up any of these features you might not have already. I recommend using a mix of business and personal use since you are only allowed to have one Facebook account. Doing so will also increase your respectability as people will get to know you on a more personal level as well.

Check your photo, While personal photos are good make sure they are not to over the top and put people off. It’s always great to show your personality in a photo as it is the first impression a new friend/business partner is going to see.

Update your bio to give a little information about yourself and other ways of getting in contact with you. If you run a personal blog aslo include a link to it.

Connect with others but be sure to add a personal message. This always helps break the ice and connect with people on a more personal level. Include things about yourself such as what you do and ask them a question in return. I can’t tell you how many times someone has sent me an invite that told me all about them but gave no interest into me and what I do. By going a little more personal and acknowledging seeing a site of theirs or commenting on their blog etc goes a long way.

Create a Friends list, By creating friend lists of business and personal you can control what people see. Simply click on account – edit friends and then create a new list or add each person to a list. This will help with keeping your feeds separate from business and personal.

Controlling You Facebook Chat, Since you already created a friends list and added people you will notice that within your chat feature you can sign offline or online to that select group. This can be helpful if you only want to directly chat with people from your personal list.

Facebook page or Group – It’s always good to have a place to connect with your business partners and customers. This is used well through groups and or a Facebook fan page. It allows users to connect with you directly and talk about your site.

The most important thing in all of this is engagement. By connecting with people and interacting with them you can build all new levels to your business. This includes partners, joint ventures, quality backlinks, sharing on a social media scale and more.

10 Twitter Tips for Bloggers

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So it looks like 2009 is going to be the year of twitter.

#1 Update Your Twitter Profile

Under settings you can add a url, make sure this link is your blog address. This means that when you get new followers and they view your profile they’ll have a direct link to your blog.

#2 Twitter is the new RSS

When you visit any established blog you will see the orange RSS feed in the top right hand corner. Now most people won’t check their RSS feed everyday, but most twitter users will, hence I think twitter will be the new RSS. At the moment a standard button for twitter hasn’t been established, but you should be adding an image next to the RSS link that points to your twitter page.

#3 Follow The Leaders In Your Industry

When you first start out you’ll probably know a few people you want to follow, but it’s quite daunting to figure out who the movers & shakers are in the Twitersvere. If you Follow MrTweet you will be given a list of people who you should be following. If you’ve posted a few updates and a good bio then some of these people will follow you back, so let the networking begin.

#4 Install TweetDeck

Once you install this software onto your computer it opens up a whole new twitter experience.

When someone your following updates it will ping and let you know someone has tweeted. It allows you instantly reply to updates, and it will monitor for anyone who replies to one of your tweets. No more frantically refreshing the homepage to get that twitterfix!

#5 The TweetMyBlog Plugin

This nifty plugin allows me to have my twitterfeed in the sidebar of my blog.

It will also automatically update my twitter account everytime I make a new post, and if you have established good relationships then you should see instant traffic.

#6 The Sociable Plugin

Once installed this plugin makes it easy for readers to share your content. Be sure to tick the “TweetThis” function so that people can tweet about your blog post in seconds. Providing you produce good Pillar Content the amount of extra traffic could be huge.

#7 Use Search To Get Found

Have you seen people post updates with a #nerdpickuplines or similar? If you use the search function then you will this is a way of trending and picking out what is popular. By tweeting about popular topics not only will you have topics to chat about at the watercooler but you’re being part of the community, which will bring more traffic back to your blog.

#8 Use ViralTweets instead of E-mail Capture

The thinking about offering a free report in exchange for your readers email is that you can follow-up and email them about new blog posts. Whilst email lists are fantastic the chances of ytour reader telling all their friends about the free report are pretty slim. If you study the offer on my sidebar you’ll see that anyone who tweets the message automatically follows me, and posts a link to my main website – long term much more valuable than an individual address.

#9 Be Yourself

Twitter is a big social network that works on the basis of “What Are You Doing?”

If all you’re doing is blasting adverts over the twitter network then you’re not going to make any friends, and you’re wasting your time. Conversly if you use it a “Micro Blogging” site and post things that aren’t worth whole blog posts it will work fantastically well for you, and help establish a relationship with the readers of your blog.

#10 The Power Of The Retweet

This final point is probably the most important for traffic generation.

When someone you’re following posts a link to a blog post and you like the content you go to tweetdeck and hit the little arrow button. This automatically retweets the link to the content, and shows your followers you’ve found an article you think they would like to read. By retweeting great content you will gain the respect of your followers, and get on the radar of the person who wrote the content.

Finally if do write a hot topic article then be sure to make sure to tell people that you want it retweeted.

Happy Tweeting

Andrew

Google Slowly Rolling out Google+

Google is rolling out their new social network Google+ to only a select group of people such as Google insiders, technology geeks, social media stars and journalists . From what I've heard and read it's off to a good start. But do we need another social tool, and will everyone jump on board?

The central components of Google+ are Circles, Sparks, Hangouts, Instant Upload, Huddle and Mobile. Let's look at each one:

Circles: This is a group management tool, similar to Facebook's List feature, but probably more effective. You can create your own circle of friends, family, colleagues and others so that you can share what you want with whom you want. If you share content with your Book Club circle, for instance, then your Runners Club won't be able to read it. This feature should help people to share more because they can choose who sees what and want to keep their personal lives separate from their business.

Sparks: Sparks is a recommendation feature where you can share your favorite restaurants, museums, movies, events, etc. with people having the same interest as you. Once you create your interest lists, Google will even recommend links and content to you.

Hangouts: This feature is a multi-person video chat service. You can create open chat rooms where members of your Circle can stop by and "hangout".

Instant Uploads: Capture pictures and video with your Android or iPhone and upload directly to Google+.
Huddle: Think of Huddle as a group messaging service. Create temporary groups so you can plan gatherings and meetings without all the text messaging and calling that you'd normally do when you try to gather a group of friends or colleagues together.

Mobile: Geo-location based, this feature will display results of what stores, restaurants, etc, are in your area. It also allows you to check-in while you're on the go, and see where your friends are. Use the Huddle feature and gather your friends on the spot. Right now, the Mobile feature can only be used as an Android app, but the app for the iPhone is coming soon.

Is there room in our lives for another social network? Can Google convince Facebook and Twitter users to make the switch? Opinions vary. Some say that Google+ will only be a big hit with the tech geeks and social media gurus. Robert Scoble, self-proclaimed tech geek and early adopter of Google+, says that most "average users" are locked into Facebook and probably won't consider a new social tool - or at least not until they hear from their friends about the glories of Google+.

Another opinion from Chris Voss, Social Media Leader and serial entrepreneur, believes that it will be easier than both Facebook and Twitter. It's a cleaner user friendly layout, and it is integrated with your Google G-mail. Watch his video: http://bit.ly/jgEU3V

What about Facebook? Will Zuckerberg react and duplicate Google+'s best features? Rumor has it that Facebook has already called a press conference. What's up their sleeves is anybody's guess.

As for me, I did sign up for a peek at Google+. I'm curious, and geeky enough to want to give it a try.

Eydie Stumpf

Twitter Tip of the Day

Unique Tweets get Re-Tweeted ... plain and simple. AND ReTweets lead to more followers ... nuff said. And one way you can dominate your niche on Twitter is to be the FIRST to Tweet breaking news on your topic.

Eydie Stumpf

2 Free Ways to Use Google for your Busienss

Here are 2 ways you can use Google for your business!

1) http://google.com/alerts
2) http://google.com/places

Use them, they are FREE, We all love free right?

Natalie Gouche, Social Media Strategist

Internet Marketing Blogs

How to use Internet marketing blogs to drive traffic

Internet marketing blogs are a great way to drive traffic to your web site. If you aren't writing one now, you should start. Search engines love blogs and many times blogs show up very high in search engine results.

Knowing this, you can start one or many blogs to direct traffic into your main web site. You can build a blog as a part of your existing site or you can create it so that it is stand-alone.

Either way will work fine, but remember to add links in your writing that point back to your main site. Don't just link to the home page, but pepper links that direct your reader back to many of your pages so that most of your site is represented.

I recommend Blogger or WordPress to create your new blog. They are both easy to learn and use and they both have great features and you can customize either one with templates.

You can host the blog on their server or on your own server. I recommend the latter because your url will look more professional and reliable.

On Blogger, your domain will be:

yourname.blogspot.com

And on WordPress, your domain will be:

yourname.wordpress.com

But if you host it on your server, your domain will be:

yourdomain.com

Having a dedicated domain to host your blog is easier for your readers to remember and will look more professional.

Another reason to host your blog on your own server is really important. Perhaps more important than the above reason. Sometimes, blogs hosted on the services' server will just up and disappear. There is no reason. It is just gone. What a shame to lose all your hard work for no apparent reason.

Tips for writing a successful blog

You can write about anything, but it should relate to the web site that you are linking to. Write about something you are passionate about. For example, I would write a search engine marketing blog or internet marketing blogs.

Let your personality show. Ken Evoy of SBI! calls it using your "voice." A boring blog won't make much of a stir. Don't be afraid of taking a stand. Start a little controversy and get people talking about you and your blog.

Post regularly - at least a couple of times a week. I regularly read a blog by Seth Godin, a great marketer, and he posts several times a day, a few days a week. If you don't post often, you can lose your following very quickly.

Add an RSS feed so visitors can subscribe to your blog. When you post to your blog, they get an automatic notification to check it out.

Another internet marketing blog tip:

Search for and read other blogs in your niche. Add your comments to their posts. Most blogs will allow you to add your url to your comment. That link points back to your site and builds your incoming links. It is useful for building relationships with others in your industry. (Do I hear joint ventures?) Use this, but don't abuse it. No one likes SPAM links or sales pitches.

Here is a great blog post from elance.com about how to make your blog go viral and get good traffic. Good information.

Barry Davis, Idea Box Marketing & Design

Interesting Facts and Resources

1. Facebook reached 500 Million users! Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, has also announced the launch of Facebook Stories, showcasing interesting ways that people have used the social network around the world. What's YOUR story?

2. Want to add a bit of Splash Color to your photos? Sign up for a free Photobucket account and easily add special effects to your images.

3. Top 5 Mobile Commerce Trends. Do you find yourself working on your iPhone or Android as much as you do your computer? Here are some mobile apps which might make your phone time more productive.

4. 10 interesting facts about Microsoft you may not have known.

6. Top 20 sites to improve your Twitter experience.

from: Eydie's Office

How to "Reface" Your Facebook Photostrip

by Eydie Stumpf

As you might have already seen, Facebook has made some changes - again - to how it looks and works. Fan Pages have lost their tabs, a photo lightbox has been incorporated for better photo viewing, and you can now just hit enter on your keyboard to submit a comment.

With all these changes I've seen an increase of email in my inbox with questions. One question was about 'refacing' the personal profile photo strip. Refacing is not a feature which Facebook implemented - but by a very inventive user by the name of Alexandre Oudin.

The latest Facebook trend is to "reface" either your personal page or fan page photo strip. I have to admit that refacing is one of the tasks on my to-do list, and so I did some research in order to learn more about the technique.

Before I begin, I'm betting that many readers are wondering why refacing your photo strip would be something they might want to invest their marketing dollars in. It's not a must have item, however; a refaced profile would certainly stand out and re-enforce your brand.

(Please note that Facebook, in its infinite wisdom, has decided to make the photo strip on Pages random and not fixed, as they are on personal profiles. I wanted you to understand that little issue BEFORE tackling this project).

Based on the fact that the images are random on Pages, some businesses are creating photo ads containing calls to action. Instead of having just a picture of a product, event, etc, they are creating small promotional ads. These ads, appearing in the photo strip could be special promotions, discounts, tips, or promos for upcoming events.

How to create the refacing effect is a bit detailed, and you'll need a photo manipulation program such as Adobe Photoshop or Elements.

Here's a quick overview of the steps:

* Begin with a base image which is at least 692 pixels wide and 540 pixels high. To create the left side profile image, crop your base image from the left to measure 180px wide to 540px high.

* For the rest of the photos you'll have to remember to begin cropping 20px below the top of the image. From the right side edge of the base image take a crop that's 492px wide and 68px high.

* Keeping in mind that there is a 2px gap between each profile picture, crop five images each sized at 96.8px wide and 68px high.

Now you are ready to upload your pictures. First upload your left side profile picture. Do not tag this one. Next, upload the remaining five pictures - uploading the far right one first then moving on until the last picture you upload is the one on the far left. Important: tag each picture as you upload them. The picture on the far left should be tagged last.

It may take a few tries to get the pictures cropped correctly and uploaded properly, but be patient, it will be worth it in the end!

Social Networking: Establishing Your Credibility

by: Edie Stumpf

Imagine being able to connect with millions and millions of people all over the world. Now that social media has become a tremendous venue to connect, you have the opportunity to meet, and network with, people you wouldn't have normally ever met! Whether they are on the other side of the world - or just down the street - NOW is the time to begin reaching out and connecting.

Without establishing social media credibility, you will not attract quality connections or business. When you position yourself as the person with the right answers, then you will reap the benefits. But how do you create that credibility online?

First impressions count. Your probably have about 10 seconds to capture someone's attention online so it's imperative that you make it your best 10 seconds ever.

Let's take a look at your bio/profile:

Begin your profile by telling people (potential customers) what you do. Tell them what your expertise is...and don't forget to add your purpose (brand). The one thing lacking when networking online is that emotional connection. People also want to know that you have a personal side so give them some information which shows that you're not all business. Hobbies, favorite books, movies, music, etc.

Another way to make that emotional connection is by adding a headshot. Not wedding portrait, not a picture of you and the kids - or the pets. You must upload a picture of YOU. If your favorite picture of yourself is one of you in a group, then crop yourself out. People want to buy from YOU, not from your spouse, friends or pets.

Double check your bio/profile. It should be professional without being too self-idolizing or stuffy, and it should also show your human side. Be real, be authentic, and be transparent.

Now that your profile is working for you, the next step is to Be Social. Social media is a venue that allows you to communicate your message. Don't get in the habit of just broadcasting promotion information. You need to be talking WITH people more than talking TO them.