Unfortunately, more often than not, instead of using social media as a two way conversation relay, many businesses are using it as a bullhorn. They are telling their audience all about their business but not really engaging them in a way that encourages them to be their most passionate fans.

Getting to this level requires that you get to know your followers and allow them to get to know you. That means putting the social back into social media.

The Benefits of Getting Personal

Engaging in real conversations with the people in your social network provides many benefits. Primarily, it allows you to get to know their likes and dislikes, what motivates them, and the things they are passionate about. Additionally, it allows them to learn the same things about you which promote a comfortable relationship between you.

You will be in a better position to meet the needs of your customers and prospects if you know what their real goals and dreams are. For example, most people want to make more money. There are hundreds of ways that can be done but, generally, people have a specific idea on how they would like to earn that income.

If you are selling a business opportunity, you won’t really know whether or not the business is a good fit for them unless you take the time to get to know what your prospects are all about. Your business opportunity may require them to handle inventory. If they don’t want to deal with that, then you may be wasting time trying to convert someone who isn’t really interested in what you are doing. And if you manage to get that person signed up, they will be more likely to drop out because that’s not what they truly want.

Your social media marketing will be more effective because you will have a deeper understanding of who your target market is and how best to approach them with your marketing message. Lastly, but certainly not least, you’ll be building long lasting relationships that will enrich both your business and your life.

How to Bring Social Back to Social Media

Getting personal on social media outlets is really not that difficult. All it really takes is an adjustment in your mindset. Instead of talking shop all the time, bring up other subjects of interest. Look for common ground between you. For example:

* If you both are trying to go green, you can talk about environmental issues as well as share tips on how to live a more eco-friendly life.

* For those with children, you can talk about the challenges of parenting.

* Current events are always good conversation fodder although some topics, like politics and religion, can be tricky.

* Go to their profile and see what they are talking about and join the conversation.

* Visit their blog and talk to them about topic they wrote about.

It may feel a little awkward at first, especially if you are not used to just starting a conversation with “strangers”. The more you do it, though, the easier it will become. Eventually, it will feel like you are conversing with old friends. After all, strangers are really just friends we haven’t met yet.

For more tips on how to use social media to rock your business, visit my archives. Are you ready to spend less time working and more time on the things you really enjoy? Then start a conversation with me about a home based business that lets you earn full time income working part time.

(photo credit: PublicDomainPictures)

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While you can do just fine with a basic Facebook profile, the social networking site actually has a whole catalog of widgets that you can add to your profile which will make connecting with other Facebook users easier and more effective. Here are just a few useful widgets I found that you can use to turn your Facebook profile, or fan page, into a lead generator.

(Please note that some of these applications require a fee to use them. Also, you may need to sign into Facebook in order to use the links.)

* YouTube Box – With this application, you can add YouTube videos to your Facebook profile. This is an excellent way to combine your video marketing with your Facebook marketing.

* Testimonials – This Facebook application is perfect for consultants, network marketers, and other product or service providers. It allows people in your social network to leave testimonials on your Facebook profile. Testimonials are a wonderful way to prove to potential clients that you can get the job done.

* RSS Graffiti – Although Facebook provides a default blog widget you can use to post your latest blog posts to your Facebook profile that may not be enough. This widget will import articles from RSS feeds that you specify. Great for if you have more than one blog or you want to add feeds from other social networking sites.

* Promotions – Got a product launch coming up? Having a big sale? Then use the Promotions application to set up interactive campaigns, such as contests or giveaways, on your Facebook profile or fan page.

* Mailing List – Both Constant Contact and MailChimp have applications that allow your Facebook visitors to sign up to your newsletter or mailing list right on your Facebook profile.

* Social Oomph – This application is for when you want to submit status updates but just don’t have the time. You can schedule status updates to be posted on your Facebook profile at times you set. Great for promoting events or letting people know about new products.

* I Am Green – Now eco-friendly Facebook users can network with other greenies using this application. Learn from the pros and get others interested in the green movement.

* Twitter for Facebook – Twitter and Facebook are like peanut butter and chocolate. Good separate but even better together. Incorporate your tweets into your Facebook profile with the Twitter for Facebook application. You’ll also be able to find your Twitter friends on Facebook and let your Facebook friends know that you are on Twitter.

* Skype Me – Skype is a VoIP phone service that costs pennies to use. If you have a Skype account or thinking about getting one, this application will allow users to call you right from your Facebook profile. Skype also has a call forwarding feature so you don’t even have to be online to take the call.

* Extended Info – Although your Facebook profile does have space for you to tell people about yourself, sometimes what’s available in the Facebook options is not enough. Extended Info is an application that allows you to add additional, custom information to your profile. If you had a personal profile, this would be a wonderful tool for adding information about your business.

* Discussion Boards – Discussion Boards is an application that allows you to run a small forum on your Facebook profile. Sometimes a full fledge forum, like VBulletin, is just too much. And with Ning now charging for space, your options are limited. If you want to run a small, intimate forum for your friends and prospects on Facebook, then the Discussion Board application may be a perfect fit.

* Welcome Tab for Pages – This application allows you to create a welcome page for people who visit your Facebook profile or fan page. You can add text, photos, and video. The page can be set as a landing page on your profile.

There are tons more applications that you can use to customize your Facebook profile. Take a few minutes to browse the directory until you find something you like. For more tips on using social media to market your business, visit my archives. If you are searching for the perfect home based business that saves you money and helps you earn money, contact me or visit my online business tour.

(photo credit: MrTopf)

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Search For and Connect with People

LinkedIn has a search function that allows you to look up members in specific industries, companies, positions, educational levels, by name, and even by keyword. Some of these features require you to upgrade your LinkedIn account to the Pro level in order to use them. But you will be able to find and contact people who have a need for your products, services, and opportunities.

Join Groups Filled with Your Prospects

Like most social networking sites, you can connect with likeminded individuals on LinkedIn by joining groups. Use the search function to find groups related to your interests or business type. Not only will you be able to interact with potential prospects but you can often trade ideas on how to make your mutual businesses better and more profitable.

Alternatively, Start a Group

If you can’t find a group that fits your needs or you have a unique idea for one that will attract people in your target market to you, then start a group. The one caveat to this is that you need to be prepared to run the group. A lot of people get caught up in the excitement of building an online meeting place that draws people to their business that they don’t realize the work involved in maintaining the group and keeping it relevant. If you are willing to put in the time, then you can definitely reap rewards from your efforts.

Use the Event Feature to Network Offline

LinkedIn has an event feature that lets you post information about events, both online and offline that you may be hosting. Additionally, you can find events that other people are hosting which will provide opportunities for you to meet with potential prospects in person.

Answer Questions in the Answer Section

Perhaps one of the best places to meet and impress prospects is through the Answer section of LinkedIn. This is the place where people post questions ranging from seeking business advice to how to better use LinkedIn. Taking the time to answer questions in this section helps to position you as an expert and encourages people to seek you out whenever they need help again. This can be just the thing you need to open the door to a long term relationship.

Direct Ads Campaign

If you’ve got money to spend, the LinkedIn will happy to post your marketing materials on their site. They have options for both companies with large budgets (over $25,000) and people with small budgets. Click on the Advertising button at the bottom of the LinkedIn site for more information on their program.

Because LinkedIn is a business oriented site, it makes the perfect place to look for prospects interested in joining a home based business opportunity. Take some time to get to know this often overlooked social site and you may be surprised at how much you get out of it.

For more social media marketing tips, read other articles I’ve written about using social media outlets to build your business. If you want to take the next step and build a green business that lets you make money while saving the planet take an online tour of a profitable eco-friendly e-commerce business or contact me directly.

(photo credit: nan palmero)

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2. Search Engine Marketing – An Internet Marketing Strategy That Needs to Be in Your Toolbox
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4. Search Engine Marketing – Tips for Getting to the Top
5. Search Engine Marketing Tips for Capturing Real Time Twitter Traffic

LinkedIn is a place for businesses and professionals. It mostly used by people to connect with human resource managers, recruiters and companies who may be hiring for open positions. Networking on LinkedIn is also a good way to get connected with other business owners and to find entrepreneur types who may be interested in starting a home based business rather than rejoining the corporate grind.

The only drawback to networking on LinkedIn is that you are limited in your ability to contact people on the site. With their free account, you can only email up to 3 people per month through the site. Therefore, you will need to either upgrade your account or look for other ways to contact your prospects. Do note that you can write off the fee for an upgrade as a business expense on your taxes. Talk to a qualified accountant about how this works.

But don’t let that stop you from taking advantage of all that LinkedIn has to offer. Here are some tips on how to use LinkedIn to your advantage.

Get Connected on LinkedIn

Fill Out Your LinkedIn Profile

One of the tenets of attraction marketing is to position yourself as an expert in your field. This is the angle from which you should approach your LinkedIn profile. You should list job experience and other relevant information that helps paints a picture of you as the person to go to for information about your business opportunity. Depending on the industry your business is in, this may require some creativity on your part.

Build a LinkedIn Profile for Your Business

LinkedIn also provides an option to build a profile for your business. You will be able to submit a description, categorize it by industry, and even add a link to your business’ webpage. When people do a company search, your business will display in the results depending on the criteria they use. Be aware, though, that you must have an email address that is associated with the company.

Additionally, if you are in network marketing, be sure that the name of your company is in compliance with their rules. Some network marketing companies do not allow the parent name to be used in any marketing materials or websites you create.

Add Your Blog and Twitter Account to Your LinkedIn Profile

Adding your blog and Twitter account to your LinkedIn profile is easy and provides additional exposure to your other web properties. To add your blog to LinkedIn, sign in and then click on Profile. Click on “Add Application” and a list of items you can add to your LinkedIn profile will display.

If you have a WordPress blog, then select the WordPress option. For all other blogs, select the BlogLink option. On the next page, make sure the “Display on my profile” and “Display on LinkedIn homepage” is checked and then click Add Application. You will then be asked for your blog address and the application will automatically display the posts from your blog.

To add your Twitter account, go back to your profile. Make sure you are on the Edit My Profile tab. Click on the Add Twitter account option and fill out the information. Your latest tweets will then be displayed on your LinkedIn profile.

Customize Your Links

You probably already know that you can add links to your website and blog to your LinkedIn account. What you may not know is that you can customize the titles of those links to actually reflect the name of your site. On your profile, click Add Website. From the dropdown box select Other and in the box that appears enter the name of your website.

Add Recommendations from Clients or Business Partners

In marketing, social proof is very important. People take what others have to say about a person, company or product into consideration when making purchasing decisions. Connect with customers and other business associates on LinkedIn and ask for recommendation through the Ask for a Recommendation link (found on the Edit Profile page). These will display on your profile once they have been completed.

Add Presentations Using Slideshare or Google Presentations

Additional marketing on LinkedIn you can do is to upload a business presentation to your profile using a Slideshare account or Google Presentation. Since there is no video widget available on LinkedIn at this time, a presentation is the next best thing. You can make your own presentation or check with the network marketing parent company for presentations you can distribute.

Create Your Profile in Multiple Languages

If you are targeting a non-English speaking demographic, such as the Spanish community, you can create a LinkedIn profile in another language. This will make your profile more accessible to people who may have difficulty with your primary language. You will also extend your exposure on the network.

Now that you have your profile attractively put together, next week I’m going to detail some ways you can reach out to others on LinkedIn.

For more social media marketing tips, read other articles I’ve written about using social media outlets to build your business. If you want to take the next step and build a green business that lets you make money while saving the planet take an online tour of a profitable eco-friendly e-commerce business or contact me directly.

(photo credit: Mario Sundar)

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Use the Google's real-time Twitter feed to your advantage.

Optimize Your Description – Along those same lines, search engines use the bio block on your Twitter profile to describe your Twitter page. Therefore, your bio should be a real one that describes you. Additionally, you should try to include your target keywords in your description. For example, if you are targeting “search engine marketing” then your description could say something like, “I am an affiliate marketer interested in search engine marketing…”

Optimize Your Tweets – Just like your description, your tweets should include the keywords you are targeting and preferably within the first 20-30 characters of your tweet to make the most of their search engine marketing value. This is because the search engines include the first 30-40 characters of your tweet in the title tag. As we just discussed the title tag influences how web pages are index in the search engine catalog.

Tweet Often – Since it is a real time search engine, the most current results for the search query will be shown. This means if you want to stay on top, you’ll need to tweet often and probably during times when most people in your target market is using the search engine. This search engine marketing tip can quickly become an unwieldy task so you’ll want to use a tool like Tweetminer (now Pluggio) to schedule tweets to be posted throughout the day.

Link, Link, Link – Don’t forget to include links back to your content so readers can get the full story. The same Twitter etiquette rules apply so spamming is a no-no. However, don’t be too modest and avoid linking to yourself at all cost. As a search engine marketing bonus, the links do show up in the search result. When people click on it, they will be sent directly to your web page.

Build a High Quality Following – You and your Twitter followers are linked internally. There are rumblings that having Twitter followers whose Twitter profile has a high Pagerank linking to you will give your own profile a boost. Even if this is not true, you want people who are engaged and willing to spread your content around which will give your search engine marketing a boost.

Social media is too big to ignore and search engines are only going to find more ways to integrate social networking sites into their products. To stay competitive, you must keep an eye on search engine marketing in addition to your social media marketing activities. For more tips and ideas on how to create a marketing strategy that reels in the business, visit RockYourBusinessOnline.com.

(photo credit: yufujamar)

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Between newspapers, education, business websites, personal blogs, social networking, and online magazines, the amount of information available on the internet continues to grow exponentially. Users turn to search engines to sift through it all and find the information they need to solve a problem they have. Search engine marketing is all about making sure your site gets listed within the first few pages of the search engine result for keywords that bring qualified prospects to your business.

Search enging marketing is a great way to increase website traffic.

Make no mistake, search engine marketing is complicated endeavor. In fact, a whole million dollar industry sprang up around the concept of optimizing web pages so that they rank well in the big three search engines. However, I’m going to share a few simple search engine marketing tips that will give your website the boost it needs to rank well and generate leads.

Choose Your Keywords Carefully – Keywords are the foundation of your search engine marketing strategy. So to say it is important that you choose the correct keywords to target is an understatement. You are going to have to do some research here and find out the keywords your customers are using to source the products, services, and information you are selling. Luckily there are several tools online that can help with that.

- Aaron Wall’s Keyword Tool will tell you how many times a specific keyword, and variations of that keyword, have been used for in all of the search engines.

- Google’s Keyword Tool will generate a list of keywords based on a starting word you input.

Keyword research is an art in and of itself which we will cover more in-depth in a later article.

Optimize Your Web Pages for Your Chosen Keywords – It is important that the search engines associate your website with the keywords you have picked out. Therefore, for your search engine marketing to be effective they need to show up in the right places on your web pages.

- The title of your articles should include the keyword, preferable within the first 4-5 words and you should use your keyword within the first few and last sentences of your article.

- The keyword should be sprinkled liberally throughout the written content on the page. You want to shoot for a keyword density of 2-3% but definitely no more than 5-7% of the total amount of words on the page. Over usage of keywords can get your website flagged as spam and kicked out of the search results.

- Video and audio need an accompanying text description. Search engines can’t parse video or audio so you need to add keyword rich descriptive text that tells the search engine what it’s all about.

- Images should contain keywords in the alt tags. Not only does this allow your images to get ranked in image search engines but it helps impaired users understand what the image is about. Special browser read the image text and tells the user that there is an image and what it is.

- The categories and tags you use should be keyword rich.

- The description meta tag of both your website and individual web pages should include a keyword rich narrative of what the user will find when they click through to your website. Search engines use this description on the search result pages.

Build a Portfolio of Keyword Rich Backlinks – Offsite optimization is just as important to search engine marketing as onsite optimization. When you or other people link back to your website, you want to make sure they use keyword rich anchor text. This also helps the search engine associate your web page with your targeted keyword.

For example, if you are using search engine marketing to rank high for the keyword ‘home based business’, you want to make sure that when your website is referenced that the keyword ‘home based business’ is used when linking to you. Search engines interpret these types of links as a vote that your website or web page is the best source of information on that particular topic.

This is, by no means, is an exhaustive tutorial on search engine marketing. However, using these tips will get you going in the right direction towards dominating the search engines. For more tips and information on using search engine marketing to grab prospects and explode sales, visit RockYourBusinessOnline.com.

(image credit: Edgeworks Limited)

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A good SEM strategy can send a constant flow of traffic from search engines.

The definition of search engine marketing, also known as SEM, is optimizing your website and internet marketing strategies so that your site ranks high in the search engine for targeted keywords. If you remember, keywords are those words and phrases your prospects use to find information related to the product and services you offer.

For example, people looking to start a home based business may enter the keywords, ‘start a business’ or ‘home based business ideas’. Unless the results they get have a lot of spam in them, most people will not continue past the first 1-3 pages of the search results. Therefore, the goal of your search engine marketing efforts is to get your website to rank within those first three pages, preferably the first page, for the keywords your target audience is using.

Now before you rush to your website and start loading it up with keywords there are a few things you should know about search engines that will make your search engine marketing more effective.

* Search Engines are Dynamic – Google, Bing, and Yahoo are selling a service just like you. They want to provide their users with the most relevant results for their search terms as they can. They are constantly evaluating web pages to make sure they are still good enough to be included in the search results pages. This means you must always be doing some kind of search engine marketing to maintain or improve your position in their indexes.

* Search Engines Don’t Rank Websites – Now this may seem like crazy talk especially after that long explanation on how search engines rank websites based on keywords. In all actuality, search engines rank individual web pages. This is a good thing because you can target a wide range of related keywords to maximize the amount of search engine traffic flowing to your site.

* All Keywords Are Not Created Equal – Ranking well for specific keywords is at the heart of your search engine marketing strategy. However, not all keywords are the same. Some keywords will send you prospects who are only doing research on a topic and others terms will send you people who are ready to buy or invest in the product you are selling. You need to rank for both and build a sales funnel that will send them to your “Buy Now” button.

In next week’s follow up article, I will go over some specific search engine marketing tips that will move your site to the front page of the search result for your targeted keywords. Search engine marketing is just one of a ton of internet marketing strategies I use to generate leads for my business. Get access to other effective ways of grabbing customers and exploding sales by heading on over to RockYourBusinessOnline.com and signing up for my free report on why 97% of home based businesses fail and what you can do about it.

(photo credit: Sean Dreilinger)

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Here are a few free Twitter tools you can integrate easily on your WordPress blog to optimize your social networking activities.

1. Twitter Tools - This WordPress Twitter plugin provides a couple of cool and useful functions. The main one is the ability to automatically tweet your blog posts to your Twitter account. Other options include using Bit.ly to shorten URLs, add hashtags to the tweets and to post a daily or weekly digest of your Twitter tweets on your blog.

2. Tweet This Plugin – This WordPress Twitter plugin adds a Retweet button to each blog post so visitors can easily tweet your posts through their Twitter accounts. You can also set the plugin to automatically shorten URLs and to send new and upcoming blog posts to your Twitter account. The nice thing about this plugin is it keeps track of how many people retweeted your post using the button so you can see at a glance how popular the article is.

3. TwitterLink Comments - The producers of CommentLuv also created a WordPress Twitter plugin that allows a commenter to add a link to their Twitter profile each time they leave a comment. Let’s face, if people see they can get an extra link that will promote their projects, they will usually leave a comment.

4. Twitter Widget - Twitter Widget by TwitterCounter is not a specific WordPress plugin but it might be nice to have on a blog. This widget tracks Twitter users who most frequently visit your blog. This is nice for creating a sense of community and for rewarding active users with a little publicity.

5. WordPress Greetbox - This isn’t a Twitter tool per se but it still is a great plugin. This tool detects where your visitor came from and greets them with a personal message that you define in the admin panel. So for example, if your visitor came to your blog by clicking a link on Twitter, they will be greeted with a custom message that says something like, “Hi Twitter user, thanks for stopping by my blog”. This is great for personally welcoming people to your home on the net.

There are many more Twitter tools for WordPress that you can use to create community and to help you manage your social networking. You are only limited by your creativity and imagination.

Twitter is just one way I drive targeted leads to my website. To learn how to use Twitter to generate business gain access to other marketing tools that will explode your sales go to RockYourBusinessOnline.com. Sign up for my free email tutorial on why 97% of home based businesses fail and what you can do to be a part of the 3% that achieve personal and financial success.

(photo credit: Mr. Boombust)

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If this sounds like your situation, here are a few business tips I picked up in my journey as a small business owner that will help you put a little more breathing space in your day.

1) Outsource Time Consuming Tasks

One of my favorite business tips that really helped me was to hire people to handle tasks I had no time or interest in dealing with. As a new business owner, it is tempting to try to do everything yourself in order to save money (especially if you don’t have any in the first place). In the long run, however, you end up losing money due to missed opportunities because you were tied up doing non income producing work.

If you hired a virtual assistant for an hour a day at $25 and then spent that hour talking to prospects that purchase $50 worth of products, not only did that virtual assistant pay for herself, you came out ahead $25.

2) Make Good Use of Technology

Another good one out of my bucket of small business tips is to make good use of both online and offline technology to help you run your business. There are tons of software applications out there for both your cell phone and your computer that will help you get a handle on your daily tasks, customer contact and financial affairs among other things.

For example, I love Twitter and I use it extensively to market my online shopping business. However, sitting in front of my computer and tweeting for hours a day just did not work for me. So I looked around the internet and found a few Twitter tools that let me automate my tweets which allowed me to spend more time talking to prospects while still getting my sales message to my community of followers.

3) Get Prospects to Filter Themselves Out

You can usually tell which ones are the good quality business tips by how long and how often people have been promoting the idea. One tip that has been offered for years but which is still ignored by new business owners is to only sell to your target market.

A lot of new entrepreneurs chase after customers under the mistaken impression that everyone they meet should be their client. The truth is not everyone is going to need or even be interested in what you have to sell. You want to focus your attention only on the people who are interested in your products. Spend some time figuring out the demographics of your target market and you’ll find it much easier to sell to your prospects.

I have been using these business tips for years with success. For more tips and tools to help you build the successful business you’ve been dreaming of, contact me or visit RockYourBusinessOnline.com.

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