Social Media Marketing

I’m writing this post from a veranda with a great view of the north-west Adriatic coast of Croatia, where I’m currently on vacation. This trip is different from our previous vacations in that we’re staying a full 5 weeks, so I needed to bring my laptop to stay in touch with my clients (after I finish this post I need to send an email newsletter for a UK-based client).

Although I did a pretty good job of making sure I have all my passwords with me, I was given a shock by Facebook when I tried logging in for the first time after we landed here. Although I entered my user ID and password Facebook recognised I was trying to log in from a different geographical location and, as a security measure, forced me to confirm my account. At first I thought, great, I like this, but then the trouble started: Facebook used a very unusual method of confirming my account – it asked me to give the names of seven of my Facebook friends! Although I only have a few hundred FB friends, I certainly can’t remember all of their names!

Facebook showed me pictures of no fewer than seven of my friends – but not their default profile photos, but random images from their photo albums, where my friends were sometimes pictured from the side, with other people, or in poor image conditions.

Somehow I managed to confirm my account after two tries, so now I am OK. The moral of this story for you: know thy Facebook friends if you’re planning on traveling abroad.

Twitter has just released a free iPhone application, available from the iTunes Application Store.

What’s new is the ability to use some of Twitter’s features without having a Twitter account, namely, you can use Browsing trends, read Top Tweets, find popular users, and check public tweets geographically nearby you.

Are you still trying to figure out Twitter and how you can use it to promote your business? Try downloading this training session from my Contacts 2 Clients series.

If you have an online presence, most likely a brochure web site, you’re very likely thinking it’s not really bringing you any new business. In most cases it’s “I built it, but they never came.”

Some years ago I was in a similar situation, but I discovered blogs. When I realised how powerful they are in

1. generating more traffic to my site
2. pre-qualifying the visitors
3. giving me points in Google

I just had to re-build my web site using blogging technology.

But then I discovered social media: Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, etc. and found a way to connect those external sites to my own blog. Now every time I post on my blog, my Linkedin and Facebook pages are updated, and an automatic “tweet” is sent to my Twitter account.

If you’d like to learn more, please consider joining me for a 3-hour seminar on business blogging, social media and email marketing I am hosting on April 29, in Oakville, at the e-Spot.

Eric Laffoley, a small business owner based in Burlington, is one of my happy clients said about the last session (or play on YouTube):

As if you needed any more reasons to attend one of my highly acclaimed business training seminars, I am adding another one: attend any Contacts2Clients business seminar in April, May or June, and you will be entered into a draw for a chance to win an Apple iPod Nano with video, a value of $190 (with tax included).

My 3-hour seminar will give you tools and knowledge to use the internet to generate leads, build relationships and close more deals using simple online marketing strategies: business blogging, social media networking and opt-in email marketing.

Click here to learn more about the seminar, see testimonials and to register

Contest rules are simple: attend one of my paid training seminars and each time you attend you will be entered to win the grand prize. The grand prize is one Apple iPod Nano in orange. Only one grand prize will be awarded at the final seminar in June when all attendees’ names will be entered into the draw. Your chances of winning the grand prize will depend on: how many times you attend a Contacts2Clients seminar, and on the total number of attendees. The prize will be drawn by computer at Random.org

A few years ago I redesigned my email marketing consulting web site into a blog. Very soon after the rebuild, I started noticing:

1. more traffic to my site
2. the visitors were more interested in what I do
3. higher Google page ranking

If you type in the words “email marketing consultant” into Google, my blog comes up on page one of search results, and it’s been coming up on page one since November of 2008, when I first tested it.

Today, as soon as I publish on this blog or any of my other blogs, I can be sure that Google will index my new page within half an hour. This kind of response from search engines cannot be expected with a regular, “static” or brochure-type web site.

If you’d like to learn more, please consider joining me for a 3-hour seminar on business blogging, social media and email marketing I am hosting on April 29, in Oakville, at the e-Spot.

See and hear what one of my happy clients said about the last session (or play on YouTube):

If you’re new to social media, you’ve probably been wondering how you can make money using Twitter, but if you consider yourself an experienced user of social media sites such as Linkedin and Facebook, you may have been wondering how Twitter is (going to be) making money! The service itself is free, and we can’t see any ads when we log in to our Twitter accounts, so how is this company going to monetize the service?

They have made some deals already, with search companies such as Google and Yahoo!, but nothing significant enough to pay for all the development and infrastructure that’s been poured into Twitter.

Well, the cat seems to be out of the bag: we’ll soon start seeing promoted tweets. According to this Twitter blog post, advertisers are going to be able to purchase keywords for Twitter searches, and the service would insert these sponsored tweets at the top of search results pages. There’s an important difference in how Promoted Tweets differ from “traditional” search engine ads: the tweets will be already part of each advertiser’s regular Twitter stream, in other words, Promoted Tweets will not be “ads” that only appear in search results.

We’ll all watch closely how Twitter users react to this new “feature,” but hopefully Promoted Tweets will prove to be a welcome addition, rather than an nuisance.

In case you’re interested in jump starting your own Twitter activities, consider my self-study program “Contacts 2 Clients: Using Twitter to Boost Your Business.”

You probably heard that Social Networking is the next great thing (among others), so I’d really be surprised if you never heard of Facebook, but Linkedin is probably one of those hidden-gem online resources you may not be so informed about.

While Facebook started as a students-only networking site which in the last 2 years has become the place to be online for anyone, including businesses – and big businesses as well – Linkedin started as a closely-knit professional networking site, and remains true to its origins to this day.

Today Linkedin has over 36 million users world-wide. That’s a great place to hang around if you’re looking to grow your business: either by finding clients or customers to hire you as a consultant, or buy your products. But Linkedin works for you on another level, too: it can provide contacts to help you grow your practise or business by supplying services and/or products you need to grow.

For example, if you’re a product designer, you can link up with a local speciality print shop owner to supply 3-D decals for your products. The printer can in turn hook you up with engineers she may have in her network to hire you as a consultant – and the circle continues – you get the idea…

I use Linkedin for both of these purposes I outlined above, but also for one more, not so apparent one: to grow my email marketing list! You see, the way Linkedin is structured, you cannot easily send mass emails to your whole list of contacts, so if you have several hundred, or even several thousand connections, it would be close to impossible, and certainly not very practical to send each one a personalized email.

That’s why you need to find a way to selectively “move” your Linkedin connections to your own email list (hosted by your Email Service Provider of choice), so that you can reach out to them with information and special offers targeted to their particular needs.

One way that’s been working for me is: I create events, such as my free tele-seminars, and then use Linkedin’s application called “Events” to create a page where I can describe the event and in effect advertise it. From there I go on to send an invitation to my Linkedin contacts – I can send it to 50 recipients at a time. I only send one invitation and leave it to them to take action: if they are interested they follow up by registering on my web site – outside of Linkedin – in effect adding their name to a special list I create for each event.

One of two Email Service Providers that I use and recommend is MadMimi. Their deceptively simple email editor is the easiest-to-use I’ve found after testing a dozen or so email service providers over the years.

Recently, MadMimi added a cool feature that all of you social media fans will simply love: the ability to add a set of icons that link to your favourite social networking sites, such as Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook. Just pick the sites you use regularly and Mimi will place specially designed icons to the bottom of your emails automatically.

These are the sites currently supported:

MadMimi is still free to use for as long as your list is under 100 subscribers! Try MadMimi today!

Check out also these related articles on my Email Marketing Blog:
Cool New Tool for MadMimi
MadMimi Brings the Fun Back to Sending Email “Blasts”

Boris’s seminar was filled with incredible, usable information on how to make my business more visible on the web. His deep understanding of the inner workings of the web and email is apparent and his presentation is very interactive. This seminar is a must for anyone who is interested in learning internet/email best practices and how to maximize this effective marketing medium.

Boris’ Top qualities: Great Results, Personable, Expert

Nelson Martins
General Manager at DiPaolo CNC Retrofit Ltd
DiPaoloCNC.com

Note: This testimonial was originally published as a recommendation on Linkedin

If you ever attended one of my seminars, please leave your own comment – Thanks!

Did you know that 70% of all sales now start as research on the Internet – are your ideal clients finding you?

Invest 3 hours and I guarantee I will teach you how to:

	Attract Contacts (Generate Leads) creating a powerful online presence what makes a good web site: basics of design, layout and content search engines: basics of SEO or how to build a Google-friendly site web site is not enough – what else you need online attracting visitors (contacts) with relevant and useful content blogging article writing participating in online forums, etc. online networking (Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter) entice visitors to sign up to receive more information about you and your services or products with discount coupons special reports or whitepapers on your topic of expertise regularly published email newsletters how to integrate all your online efforts
	Build Relationships (or, How to Get Prospects to Know, Like and Trust You) follow up with automated and semi-automated messages, delivering your expertise via email create communities, followers and friends engage with your audience in a meaningful conversation once they know, like and trust you they’ll be ready for the final step
	Close Deals (or, How to Convert “Friends” to “Raving Fans”) use gentle email marketing tactics to introduce your services or products to your contacts close deals on line or off line – depending on your business model finally reach your business goals in 2009 – regardless of the state of the economy

Please visit the Contacts to Clients page to learn more and to register.