Archive for Social media
Stop Yelling in Your Front Yard – Get a Niche!
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Today I’m going to briefly talk about your niche or target market. This is so important, and I wish more people got why it’s so important to have a specific niche you focus your marketing efforts on.
What is marketing, really? Marketing is just communication. And who do you want to communicate with? Obviously, I’m going to say your target market – a group of people who have common interests and common problems and that you can find hanging out (online and offline) in the same places. And hopefully this niche or target market is something or someone you’re passionate about helping, glad to spend time with, passionate about working with.
So why do you need to pick a target market, why can’t you just market to anyone/anywhere? Because if marketing is simply communication, then NOT choosing a target market is like trying to get your voice heard by the rest of the world over all the noise being made by all the other people communicating (marketing). This is especially true when you’re communicating (marketing) online.
I recently read this book, and I loved how she put this. It really made it clear to me, so I’m going to put my own twist on it and use it for you: Trying to reach everyone/anyone online, it’s like going out in your front yard right now and yelling at the top of your lungs that you have a fantastic teleseminar going on next week. Almost no one is going to hear you! Maybe your neighbor to the left or right will hear you, but they probably aren’t interested in your amazing teleseminar. You think you’re going to reach everyone (hey, I’m yelling really loud!), but you’re going to end up reaching no one that’s actually interested in what you’re yelling about.
If you want to communicate something to someone, whether it’s to get them to do or buy something, think something, feel a certain way or believe something, you need to know who you want to communicate that thing to. And the clearer you are about your target market, and the more passionate you are about it, the more likely your income is going to start growing.
So stop yelling in your front yard – go get yourself a niche!
If you want more information about picking and marketing to your target market, check out my free webinar this Friday. There’s no pitch, it’s not a preview call, it’s just good information that will help you market your business online. See you there!
The Secret to Social Media – Time
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Social Media is everywhere. It’s in your email inbox, it’s on the news, you see articles everywhere, and if you do a search for Google you’ll get millions of results. So of course, learning about social media isn’t too difficult. You can find blogs, videos, ebooks, teleseminars, and hundreds of other tools to teach you ways to use social media. So why do so many people still have difficulty actually getting started with using social media to market their business?
One of the biggest reasons I hear is time. Lack of time, not enough time, don’t want to spend the time, wanting to spend the time doing something else. You can’t make more time, no matter how much you learn about social networking and online marketing. You have time or you don’t. If you need more time, you have to find it or spend less time doing something else.
So if time is what’s standing in the way of marketing your business online, you basically have three ways to resolve this time issue. Which way you choose depends on which means more to you, time or money.
1. Just jump in and figure it out on your own. You’ll make mistakes, it will take time, but it’s the cheapest way to get it done – money wise. This is probably the most expensive if you’re talking about the time you’ll need to spend. One positive point to this method is that you’ll know how to do it, so even if you decide to outsource at a future date, you’ll have a good idea of what should be happening. I used this method to get my basic foundation in understanding how social networking and online marketing really work, and to see the results once you finally learn how to do it right. But believe me, it took more hours out of my day (and night) then I even want to remember!
2. Learn from others who have already spent the time learning. Like I mentioned above, there are hundreds of products you can buy, listen to, read online (and offline) to see how others are using social media and online marketing. This will also take time, time to read – time to listen – time to learn – time to implement, but no where as much time as Option 1. Of course, in exchange for less time and benefiting from the time others have spent, you’re going to spend more money than Option 1. So your cost increases but your time decreases.
If you take this route, just be aware of what you’re purchasing. Talk to other people who’ve bought products, ask for recommendations. There’s a ton of information out there, but it doesn’t mean that all of that information is good or that it’s going to fit your needs. And don’t forget to take advantage of the tons of free information out there, to get you started for free.
3. Outsource your online marketing. This is going to save you the most time, of course. And, consequently, cost you the most of the 3 options. A huge benefit to outsourcing is that it allows you the time to do what you really enjoy, what you’re best at. My clients usually come to me after spending some time trying out Option 1 or 2. But even after getting training, or spending the time to learn on their own, they find that they still don’t have the time or the desire to take on the task themselves. What they like is that I come up with a strategy and then make it happen for them.
My final note for you is that online marketing has to be done consistently, so whatever option you decide to try out, make sure you commit to a consistent schedule. Social media can have a huge impact on your business, allowing you reach out to people you otherwise never would, to teach people you’d normally never meet, to grow your business in ways you never thought you could. So whatever way you decide to integrate online marketing into your business, whether by spending more time or more money, as Nike says – Just Do It!
Have a great day!
How to Use Twitter to Build Your Prospect List
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I have a few posts on my blog about how you can use Twitter to promote your business online. For example, you can use it to build your credibility and to get people to your website. But of course, you need to have followers for any of that stuff to work, right? Maybe you’re just starting out on Twitter, or maybe you have followers but you seem to have hit a plateau and your number of followers isn’t increasing. I have a few tips for some simple ways you can build up your Twitter following…
1. Follow other experts in your niche/field – I call these your mentors – other people in your field who have achieved what you’re trying to. By following and interacting with these mentors, you’re going to be reaching out to their thousands of followers who are obviously interested in the field or niche you work in. If those followers like what you have to say, they’ll in turn follow you. Here are some things you can do to start interacting with your mentors and at the same time their followers.
• Tweet about how they’ve helped you – I know that I have taken classes, attended teleseminars/webinars, or otherwise learned some great info from my mentors. So if you’ve learned some great stuff or they helped you succeed in some way, tweet about it. Let them know how they helped you or what they did for your business. They’re going to appreciate the kind words and most likely will re-tweet it. This will get you in front of all those followers, and also work on building your relationship with that expert.
• Re-tweet their messages – This helps you in two ways. They’re probably going to thank you for the re-tweet, which gets your name into their Tweet stream. Also, you’re offering helpful information to your own followers, which continues to build your reputation as a resource of good information.
• Always be thinking about how you can help them. You have to remember that Twitter is about relationship-building, not just about pushing your own information out there. Take your list of mentors you want to build a relationship with, and then start working on that. (Remember that you don’t just want to focus on potential clients or customers, but you also want to develop relationships with people who are already at where you want to be.)
2. Following people – When you follow someone on Twitter, many times they’ll click through to your profile. If they see Tweets that are of interest to them and you’re not just pushing Tweets out about “Buy my stuff,” then there’s a good chance they’ll follow you back. Don’t just follow people randomly though, and be sure you don’t exceed the allowed follow-to-following ratio. Try to keep the # of people your following less than the # of people following you. Now if you’re just starting out, you can begin by following people who are following those experts we just talked about. You can also search at sites like Twellow.com to find people who match your target market.
3. Automate, but automate wisely – You can certainly automate parts of your Twitter strategies, but remember that Twitter is all about interaction and relationships. So be sure you only automate tasks that don’t require a response or that you don’t need to be directly involved in. Once you get to hundreds and thousands of followers, you’ll definitely want to pull some tools in to help you with both the automated and personal tasks involved with using Twitter. Two tools I recommend are Hootsuite and Tweet Adder. Hootsuite is free and used online through their website, and allows you to schedule Tweets and post status updates to multiple sites at once. Tweet Adder is a download to your computer (it costs $55, but has a free trial period), and allows you to automate the process of adding followers. It also allows you to search for the right followers that fit your ideal client profile.
If you’re just starting out on Twitter, or are wanting to really ramp up your followers list, I’ve given you some good ways to get started. Twitter is a great way to start getting more traffic to your website and adding prospects to your marketing list. So take advantage of it! I hope this gets you started.
6 Simple Steps to Social Media Success
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As I’ve gotten more and more familiar with social networking and online marketing, and as I’ve helped more of my clients use it to market their own business, I often hear over and over the same frustrations with it.
“I know I’m supposed to be online, or on Twitter or on Facebook. So I set up my profile, but I’m just not getting how it’s supposed to get me business.”
“I see people being successful marketing their business online, but I’m confused on what to do. How come I can’t make it work for me?”
People will try to copy what they see someone else doing on these sites, but they don’t see the whole picture. So they end up missing steps at the end, or in the middle, or the beginning. And then obviously they’re not going to see the results they were expecting or hoping for. So here’s 6 simple steps you can use to get started the right way with social media.
Step 1 – Understanding who your ideal client is, knowing where to find them, and figuring out what their problem is that you can solve. Then figuring out how you can peak their interest, build a relationship with them, and become known as a resource to them using online marketing/social media strategies. Finally, getting very clear on exactly what social media is all about. It’s not about selling, selling, selling. It’s about making connections, working on relationships, connecting with potential clients and eventually getting those prospects back to your hub (your blog). Which brings us to…
Step 2 – Setting up your blog. I am always pushing this issue on my clients and the people I talk to about online marketing. I view your blog as the foundation, the hub, of all of your online marketing efforts. A blog serves so many purposes. It’s a place where you can show your expertise, offer free information, peak prospect’s interest in the service or product you provide. Your blog is also where you can continue to connect with your target market, adding widgets, plugins, badges etc. to connect them to even more of your social media profiles. The whole format of a blog increases your search engine possibilities. And your blog is where you will capture your prospects’ information so you have more than one chance to sell to them.
Step 3 – Set up your social media profiles correctly. You want to fill them out completely. Use the plugins and apps available on different sites to incorporate your different sites and your blog, and to maximize your time by only having to post in one place vs. having to post to multiple sites.
Step 4 – Start connecting. Join groups that share your interests or that are of interest to your ideal client or customer. Find people to follow that you admire and can learn from. See what they’re doing that works and then try it out to see if it works for you. But don’t be afraid to think outside of the box and try something completely different. Do pay attention to the etiquette of each particular site, because you certainly don’t want to irritate anyone. Start building relationships with mentors, prospects, peers – the whole time directing them back to your website where you can continue building on the connection you started developing on the social media site. As you get out on these sites, you’ll find people trying to sell you on the newest trick or tip to get the most followers or friends. But honestly, you want to focus on developing quality connections with people, not focusing on the quantity.
And you have to remember that your ultimate goal is to get people back to your blog, get their contact information, and continue to build up the “know, like, trust” factor with them, until you convert them to a client or customer.
Step 5 – Slowly start adding other online marketing techniques. Don’t try to add everything in at once, because you’ll just get overwhelmed and give up. But once you have the top sites (I recommend Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube), you can start pulling in some other online marketing strategies to ramp up your website traffic even more. Things like article marketing, squidoo, bookmarking sites, forums, teleseminars, just to name a few. Social media isn’t the end all to making millions of dollars a year. It is a great free (money wise, but definitely not free time wise) way to get new business, if done correctly, but it’s not all you should be doing.
Balance it out with some other techniques, be consistent, and follow up with your prospects – and you will see results. You’ll start to see more traffic to your website, which will lead to getting more emails, which will lead to more clients, which of course leads to a bigger business and more money.
Step 6 – Convert those prospects into clients. You can have the hugest list in the world, you can have thousands of emails. But if you don’t do something with those, if you don’t follow up, that won’t mean a thing. This is the final step of online marketing, and without this step, all of your efforts in the 5 steps before won’t mean a thing. Yeah, sure, you’ll get those few people who will sign up with you right away, or buy your product after tweeting with you a few times. But that’s really the exception, and not the rule. The majority of people aren’t going to purchase anything from you until they (what? you know the answer) “know, like, and trust” you. And you build this up with follow-up and interaction with your list. So you have to follow-up, you have to do what you say you will, you have to offer information and resources.
If you want to get more detail on each of these steps, and find out how you can use online marketing to increase your business and make more money – attend my free webinar on February 19th. Click here to sign up.
3 Natural Ways to Use Twitter to Promote Your Blog
Posted by: | CommentsTwitter is more than a trendy way to chit-chat with people from around the world; it’s a powerful promotional tool that can be very effective if you want to promote your WordPress blog easily and quickly.
There are hundreds of sites and programs that tell you how to make money with Twitter. But if you believe in being genuine, ideally posting and replying to Tweets in real time, then anything that promises to fully automate the process, bring in a huge number of followers within minutes (quantity vs quality), or resorts to sneaky tricks, should be avoided.
Is it possible to use Twitter successful as a promotional tool in a natural way? Yes, if you know how to use it properly. When used properly you can attract new customers and meet like-minded people who can help you to improve your business whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned marketer.
3 Natural Ways to Use Twitter to Make Money with WordPress Blogs
1. Research Your Blog’s Niche
By entering what you want to research in the Search feature in Twitter you can see what people are talking about in the niche you’re targeting. This can help with ideas for blog posts, articles, products or at the very least deliver interesting content to your Twitter followers if you simply retweet what you find.
If you want to conduct searches that are more comprehensive and automated than what Twitter offers out-of-the-box, you can use one of the many free or paid services that give you more options. Twitter search services analyze information on Twitter based on the keywords you specify, e-mailing you the results daily or weekly.
2. Network
Twitter allows you to network with people in your niche(s) from around the world.
It’s worthwhile to be friendly and chatty with fellow Tweeters, to trade tips and techniques or simply use Twitter for entertainment at times, but if you are serious about making money with your Wordpress blog and growing your business, it’s wise to use Twitter to find people who can help.
To learn more about anyone you meet on Twitter be sure to:
- read a few pages worth of their tweets
- read a good number of their retweets
- see how they interact with other Twitter users via replies. Do they reply to other Twitter users or do they just churn out pitches/tweet their own horn for the most part? Are they a real person tweeting in real time, or possibly just a bot or someone a marketer hired to tweet on their behalf?
- visit the website they list in their profile and find out more about them in the About section (hopefully they have one).
- look at who they follow. Do they seem to be doing reciprocal follows (the number of followers they have is close to the number of people they follow) or are they more selective about who they follow? (much smaller number of follows than followers). If it’s the latter, you can get a sense of what and who they value by looking at the profiles of the people they follow.
Tip: Send out personal, relevant replies to other people’s Tweets, not spammy Direct Messages, to introduce yourself. It’s also smart to occasionally retweet other people’s tweets if the information is suitable for your followers. Retweeting is an easy, fast, non-invasive way to show interest in and respect for other members of the Twitter community.
3. Promote your blog and products
I save this for last because you should do it, absolutely, but it’s one of the most misused and abused things on Twitter. If you’re in online marketing, and even if you aren’t, at some point you will get a spammy follower who direct messages (DMs) you with an offer that is neither personal nor useful and just wastes your time. Some marketers tweet offer after offer, often nothing more than an affiliate link, to try to sucker people into buying yet another get-rich- quick system, etc.
Ideally you should promote your blog in a variety of ways on Twitter, not only by posting links to products for sale. Provide value and interesting content, not just offers. Post links to articles on your blog that also promote your products and services, or your views, etc. and share your thoughts about other products and services, even free ones, that your followers might find helpful.
Yes, there are many sites and articles that are devoted to how to use Twitter to make money, but if you care about delivering value to your customers and potential customers and form solid business relationships, then using Twitter in a more natural way, in my view, is the better way to go.
Lillea Woodlyns, an active member of Australian marketer James Schramko’s private coaching forum, offers tips and reviews of the best tools and techniques to make money with WordPress blogs To sign up for her FREE series, ‘WordPress for Success’ visit: http://www.speedonlinewealth.com/blog/about-lillea/
5 Ways to Get More Visitors to Your Blog
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We’re going to continue on with the blog theme. I’m kind of liking it. If you have any questions you’d like answered or your own thoughts about blogs that you’d like to share, please leave your comments. If you have a really good question, maybe I’ll feature it in a future post.
So today we’re going to talk about some ways to drive more traffic, more visitors to your blog. If you don’t care if anyone but your mom or your dog reads your blog, well then move along, nothing to see here. But if you’re writing your blog because you actually want people to read it, you might get some use out of this post.
1) Register your blog on the blog catalogs. Go to sites like Technorati, BlogCatalog, MyBlogLog, just to name a few. You can submit your blog, pick a topic and keywords that describe your blog. Now when people go to these blog catalog sites, if they’re looking for a subject that your blog fits, up comes your blog on the list.
2) Network with other bloggers. You can do this in a few ways. Comment on other bloggers’ posts. Remember that you want to contribute something to the conversation, and become part of the community. So please, please don’t just go around putting “Nice post” or “Great idea” on a bunch of different blogs. That’s not going to do you any good, I promise you. Another big tip – don’t try to sell something in your comments!
Another way, which I talked about in an earlier post, is to use these new connections with other bloggers to find guest posters for your blog or to find guest poster opportunities for yourself on other blogs.
3) Focus on one topic. Don’t be all over the place. Get specific on one topic, and cover that topic well. That way people will know what to expect from you, and will see it’s consistent. If you’re trying to attract a certain kind of person or company, be sure the topic you pick is something that is of interest to them. And keep it relevant to your company’s products or services, if your blog is business related. If you sell dog toys, blogging about cat food isn’t going to help your traffic. (No idea why someone would blog about cat food, but you get the idea.)
Focusing on one topic also helps you with your SEO. The more relevant information you have for what someone’s searching for, the more likely your website will come up in the search.
4) Link to others. When you link to other blogs or websites, it gives your blog credibility. If you’re offering information, and not afraid to send your readers off to other websites, you will become known as a great resource for your readers. And don’t worry, if you’re writing relevant and interesting content, they’ll come back after they go check out that neat site you just told them about. Just like with a lot of online marketing, it’s about giving information. There’s so much on the internet, that if you give your readers a little help with directing them to good information they can actually use, it will only increase the number of people who come back to your site. So don’t be afraid of a little “link love.”
5) Write interesting blog posts. No matter how much you follow the first 4 ways, if you’re posts are boring or don’t help your readers in some way, they won’t be back. Be yourself, inject your personality, and be consistent. Make sure you know the audience you want to attract and what they want to read about. Then write it, and if you need to get some help, then get someone to help you write. Just make it so good that people can’t wait for your next blog post (no pressure here, huh?).
Ok, that’s 5 ways you can get more visitors and keep them coming back. Have a great day and I’ll see you soon.
