The Power of Social Media

The power of social media continues to amaze and delight me. I was on twitter today, and asked my followers what advice they had on email marketing campaigns-my client wants to launch one next month. Within a matter of five minutes, I had six replies with helpful advice and people offering to send me information. That, my friends, is the real power social media has on any blogger. Heck, you don’t even have to have a blog to interact on twitter. So this got me thinking, what else can social media have the power to help you with?

Social Media Helps You Market Your Business

OK, this one might be a no-brainer, as that’s probably the one most people think of. But there’s more to it than you may think. I don’t just mean sites like twitter providing a platform for you to throw your latest link out and get a response. I mean there are some very experienced people out there, and they can help give you guidance and advice on the best ways to market your blog or business, and you get this help for free! You also get opportunities to be a guest blogger on other people’s sites, which not only raises your credibility, but also, provides yet another place for people to find you. Social Media is also a great way of getting exposure for your name, or the name of your business.

Social Media Gets Your Business Exposure

You don’t have to shove your blog down people’s throats to get this exposure either. Every time you make a tweet, or stumble a post or get on Facebook, or whatever social media site you’re on, your name comes up on the screen for everybody to see. My client uses his company’s name as his ID. I use a version of my own name, not Jberry Marketing, but since I’m a consultant, I wanted my own name to be known. You may not think posting, or tweeting, about what you did today is a valuable marketing tool, but if somebody starts to care about you on a personal level, they are much more likely to visit your blog or business; at least to check it out, it nothing else. Social media can also be a powerfull tool in helping those less fortunate than you.

Social Media is an Excellent Organizing Tool

Right now on twitter, Danny Brown and Suze Muse (pardon me if I’ve left anybody off) are promoting a charity that they came up with and organized called  the 12k for 12k challenge, I have provided the link here so that you can check out this worthwhile cause for yourself. But my point is that they have never even met in person. They have done all this work via social media. I also heard stories over the holidays about people on social media sites that organized groups of people to go down to local food banks to donate food. Again, most of these people never met in person, they just saw a message on the social media site they were on and decided to respond.

There is no doubt that social media is very powerful in terms of marketing, especially when you are talking about blogs. But there is so much more to it than that. I am just beginning to learn all that it can help me with. What about you? How has social media made a powerful impact on your life?

I’ve added the 12for12 challenge link to my blogroll on the right,  for those of you that would like more information.

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Marketing Your Blog Through Comments

Marketing your blog is vital, if you want to get as many people as possible to hear what you have to say. There are a lot of different ways to go about doing that, but one of the easiest and most effective ways to market your blog is through comments. I’m not talking about the blog comments left on your post, I’m talking about the comments you leave on other people’s blogs. You can also do this on many websites as well. The more the better, but there are some things you should think about when using this marketing approach.

Find Websites or Blogs in Your Niche

When you start utilizing the website to find blog posts or articles to leave comments on, try typing keywords into google that match your niche, or interests. It isn’t much fun reading through a bunch of posts that bore you to tears, and besides, there are so many blogs out there that you are bound to find plenty that truly interest you. And if marketing is your goal, you’ll find much more success on blogs or websites that are talking about the same topic you do. One of the goals here is to grab attention and interest with your comments so that other readers will want to check you out. If your comment provides new ideas, insights or even controversy, people are more likley to click on your name and pop over to your blog to see what you are all about.

Leave Blog Comments That are Sincere and Honest

I do not advocate commenting just for the sake of marketing, I am emphasizing how it can help you market your blog. One of the worst things you can do when leaving a comment is spam (by this I mean leaving your URl or advertising your services) a blog or website. Besides many bloggers moderate their comments and wouldn’t approve anything like that anyway, so it’s just a waste of time. Only leave a comment on a blog, if you feel you have something to add to the conversation, even if you just want to tell them how their post has educated or helped you. Sincerity and honesty are hard to fake, and if the blogger or other readers really think you’re providing something of value, they will consider you much more credible, and in my opinion, credibility is the cornerstone to any good marketing campaign.

Keep Up With Responses to Your Blog Comments

The key to marketing through blog comments is starting a conversation and networking with other people in your field. Leaving one comment and forgetting all about it after that, negates the work you put into the original comment. Most blogs allow you to sign up to get emails if there is a response to your comment, I suggest you take advantage of this. It’s a great way to build those business relationships and learn a lot about your industry as well. Another plus to this is that, in many cases, leaving comments on other people’s blogs will enhance your chances of getting comments on yours. You’re putting your name out there and marketing who you are, what you do, and the service or product you provide, so people will start to recognize your name. That being said, it can take quit a while to get a lot of comments on your own blog. In fact Chris Brogan wrote a great post about blog comments that talks about how do deal with that.

Marketing your blog is part of what all bloggers should do. There is a lot of different ways to go about it, but I have found this one of the best, easiest, most educational ways to to this; besides it’s fun getting to know people this way. What do you think about marketing your blog through comments? Has it worked well for you? Do you support other methods of marketing you feel work better? Why not leave me a comment, and tell me what you think?

Blog Content That Moves Your Readers

Providing quality blog content isn’t always as easy as it may seem. There are a lot of things you have to consider, if you want readers to click on your post, especially with social media sites becoming more popular and competitive. The bottom line is that you are trying to utilize your blog to market yourself, product or services, so you want to make sure you’re writing content that will raise your credibility.

The first thing to consider is what your blog post for the day will be. You can get great ideas from comments left on your blog, comments on other blogs with similiar content as yours and social media sites like twitter and StumbleUpon. Once you have a good idea, you have to come up with a relevant and eye-catching title that will help market your post. There’s a great, detailed post about blog titles at ProBlogger that can help you with this particular aspect. Once you have an idea and you have come up with a marketable title, you reach the hardest step; actually writing the post.

As with everything else, the best blog content is written by people that are passionate about the topic they are writing on. There are millions of blogs out there, so finding a completely original idea is almost impossible. If your readers feel your passion through your words, you’ll have a much easier time marketing it. You also want to put your own spin and personality into it. Danny Brown at dannybrown.me wrote a great post on how to be a leader in social media, and the same information can hold true when creating blog content.

The best advice I can give you here is to let your voice shine through. If you’re quirky, let your readers see that in your blog content. If your serious and more academic, try and give your readers a comphrehensive guide through your topic. Just be yourself and write content you’re passionate about, and readers will be moved by your honesty and the information you are providing them. You should also do the same on any social media site you are on. It will help you stand out above the crowd.

@BostonSarah on twitter just reminded me that being open to discussion with your readers is another important factor in creating blog content, and I couldn’t agree more. You do this by inviting comments, suggestions and even disagreement with what you’ve written. Let your readers feel like they are part of the conversation, and they will want to keep coming back for more.

What have I left off? What do you do to create blog content that moves your readers? Please leave a comment, and let us know.

Internet Marketing Through Twitter

Twitter is all the rage, but it is fairly new so many people aren’t sure how best to utilize this form of social media for maximum internet marketing opportunities. In a nutshell, twitter is a platform for website owners or bloggers to befriend each other and keep up with what’s going on with them. This is basically the technological way to network, and has become a must in the business world.

The way it works is you follow people you are interested in hearing from or about, and who you think are best to market your product or business to. But, keep in mind that this is social media; key word being social, so you don’t want to just dump all your latest blog posts on them, you want to interact with them. You are only allotted 140 spaces so your “tweets,” which is what your messages are called, are limited. This has been a major plus for many users, as they don’t have to read through a bunch of drivel. On twitter, you have to get to the point and fast. You can also reply to tweets others on twitter are posting, or send them a direct message that only they will see. This is how you build up the networking relationships that are vital in internet marketing.

In fact, there’s been a great deal of articles on how Twitter can be used for marketing purposes and I think most of them can be condensed to the simple aim of tracking and directing attention. Twitter allows you to monitor how influencers think or feel, and hopefully you get feedback through blog comments as well. Twitter isn’t the only form of social media, but it is the hottest one going right now. So, what are the biggest benefits to using twitter?

Personal Branding. This is what I mean by getting attention and directing it. Social media is one of the best ways to get your brand into the public arena, and it’s free! If you want to get a new blog or website noticed, this is really the fastest route to take.

 

Driving traffic to your site. Twitter can be used to get traffic to your websites, blogs or the sites of friends. Not only will new followers check out your site to find out more about you, they will also begin to respond to your tweets by clicking on the links you provide to them. One note here; make sure that the content you are tweeting about is useful in some way. Nothing will annoy the twitter community more than what’s called “link dumping,” or thinking automated responses are great ways to market your blog. But, if you or somebody you know has a blog post that you feel will inform, entertain or cause people to think, by all means share it with your followers.

 

Managing Your Business. Because you only see the tweets of those you are following, and vice versa, companies can use twitter as a business platform. Sign your employees up, and you can send out messages to them through this system easier and faster than even through emails.

 

Keep in touch with clients and customers. There’s a system called the Twitter Feed, which allows you to send tweets directly to those who sign up for your feed. This is a great way to utilize your client data base and market your company to people that are already interested in you.

 

There are many more benefits to twitter, but you really have to go on and found out for yourself. If you have a website or blog, if you want free and powerful avenues to utilize internet marketing and if you have a business you want to promote, social media has become the best way to go about it. How about you? How do you use twitter? Have I left any important information out? Please leave your comments, suggestions or questions and let’s learn together

 

Tips for Creating a Successful Blog

Blogging has been around for a while, but a lot of people still think of it as something people do to spout off random thoughts. Surf around the internet a bit, and you will see how wrong that thought is. Just about every business I know has either added a blog as a companion to their website, or they are in the process of doing it. But, many of them don’t know how to go about starting it, or helping it grow.

First we’ll start off with what a blog is; according to ProBlogger, one of the best sources for blogging there is, “- a blog is a type of website that is usually arranged in chronological order from the most recent ‘post’ (or entry) at the top of the main page to the older entries towards the bottom.” These entries can be found on the internet by doing a google search for the topic or company, or you can find them through social media. There are just as many types of blogs as there are people blogging. There are blogs that talk about people’s daily lives, blogs that focus on politics, The Huffington Post being one of the most popular in the niche, and blogs that provide businesses the opportunity to tell the public more about their services and/or products. You can see, it really runs the gamut. While there are more and more people starting blogs on a daily baisis, it can be hard to understand how to begin.

Pick a Good Blogging Platform

By this I mean, sign up for WordPress.com, Blogger, Typepad or any of the many other platforms that are out there. These websites give you access to easy-to-use templates that allow you to write your posts, insert pictures, audio and video, insert the relevant keywords that help you get picked up by search engines like Google and monitor your visitor comments; and that’s just to name a few. They are all really easy and fun to use. If you are starting a blog for a business, you may want to hire a ghost writer that already has experience in blogging. This will save you time and, in the long run, money. If the ghost writer knows what they are doing, they can get your blog noticed more quickly by search engines and the public.

Come Up With a Clear Focus for Your Blog

This is realy important. You want to make sure your blog sticks to a main topic. That isn’t to say that you can’t branch off into relate topics. For example; my business is internet marketing, and my blog has categories that fit into the large scope of my topic. So, let’s say your business creates websites; you could have categories on your blog like Reviews of New Computer Technology, Different Reasons You Need to Upgrade Your Website or Content Management for Your Website. You see how these are all related to website development, but broad enough to give you enough material to write about? A good way of trying to figure out what categories to write about is to ask your clients, check out related blogs or asking others in your industry what their thoughts are.

How Often Should You Blog

There are two schools of thought on this. Some feel it is best to update your blog daily, while others believe this just inundates the reader and is too much. Personally, I think three posts a week is good. First of all, three posts give your readers enough new information to want to check back on a regular basis, and more importantly, the search engines scour the internet several times a week looking for new information on websites, so posting three times a week ensures you’ll have new stuff for them to find each time.

These are just a few tips to help you get started. I’ll be writing more indepth articles on blogging, in the coming year. Please let me know, if I’ve left any important tips out, or if you have information to share with the readers. Your comments are vital to everybody who visits.

What is Social Media

What is social media? If you are somebody who blogs a lot, loves reading blogs or has a website, you probably already know the answer to this question. But, as I’ve recently discovered, there are many businesses that are in the dark when it comes to this phenomenon. In fact, several friends of mine have told me that the high-powered companies they work  for are beginning to ak what a “tweet” is.

That, however, is about to change. In a New York Times article Vindu Goel said, “the venerable Wall Street Journal will activate a revamped version of its Web site, WSJ.com, early Tuesday morning,” and  “one aspect of the redesign is radical, and if it’s successful, it could provide lessons for other news organizations trying to build deeper connections with their readers: New community features will allow WSJ.com’s million or so paid online subscribers to comment on every story, pose their own discussion questions, e-mail one another and set up profiles that will allow others to see what they’re doing on the site.” That, my friends, is social media. But it isn’t just news outlets that are starting to take notice, businesses of all kinds are jumping aboard, especially any business that has a website or blog.

Search Engine Watch defines social media as “a category of wesites that is based on user participation and user-generated content. They include social networking sites like LinkedIn or Facebook, social bookmarking sites like Del.icio.us, social news sites like Digg or Reddit, and other sites that are centered on user interaction.” So in case you haven’t noticed, Facebook aint just for kids anymore, it’s serious business. In fact, anybody that has a website or blog that promotes their product and/or services is missing out on free marketing opportunities, if they aren’t engaged in social media forums.

Besides the social media sites mentioned above, there is also twitter and stumbleupon . The basic idea is the same for all of them, sharing information and promoting your business website or blog, but they work in slightly different ways. I will go into more detail about each one in upcoming posts. For now the important thing is to learn what you can about social media and figure out how to utilize it to your advantage.

This article has just skimmed the surface, so if  i’ve left any important information out, or you have insight to share, please leave a comment and tell me what you have to say.

Why Your Business Needs Internet Marketing

Internet marketing sounds like a new term to many people, but it has actually been around almost as long as the internet itself. Any business that has a website is probably already familiar with this. For those of you that don’t know what this type of marketing is or why it is so vital, especially in today’s economy, pull up a chair and read on.

What is Internet Marketing

There are many aspects to this type of marketing strategy; to begin with anything you do online that has your company’s name attached to it is internet marketing. Whether you are simply sending out an email with your business website address in the signature, commenting on interesting posts you are reading online or signing up for some type of service that asks for your URL, you are marketing your business. Computers today and the software that goes into them are so sophisticated that they can track these website addresses and that in turn gives your website’s information to the search engines. Ok, that part might be a bit more technical than you are interested in, but the point is these are all tactics used by marketers to get your company’s name out there.  But there is much more that goes into it.

When you hire a professional to market your business for you one of the first things they will probably do, and if they don’t you should question who you hired, is set up accounts at the social media sites lite twitter and bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon. Again, these are tools on the internet that help build your brand identity. With social media the goal is to build up relationships. This is really no different than the concept of joining your local Chamber of Commerce only on a much wider scale. The same conversations you would have at a networking event are the ones you should be having on these social media sites. You want to engage in conversation, not hit people over the head with your product; some people call this “schmoozing.”

Why Internet Marketing Is So Important

Here’s the deal, there are billions of people floating around the World Wide Web, and if you aren’t taking advantage of the access you have to them, you are missing out on one of the best marketing platforms out there. I’m not saying you should ignore traditional marketing for your business, after all it is tried and true. However, internet marketing has the ability to help leveling the playing field between you and the big guns out there. People on twitter are just as likely to listen to what you have to say as they are to Wal-Mart. On top of that, many of these marketing avenues are free, so why wouldn’t you at least try them? Creating a website is just the first step, making the most of your website by using it to market your business has really become a must. I’ve mentioned a few of the ways you can market your company and business through the internet, please feel free to leave me your thoughts and suggestions on avenues for marketing I may have left off.