So someone asks you: “What’s your Twitter name?” And you look at them like they are a loony. Twitter? Huh?

And then the next person asks you, “You blog, right? What’s the URL?”

Hold it. What happened? In the seeming blink of an eye, suddenly there’s all this new so-called ‘social media’ on the web, and you know nothing about it.

What’s worse, is that everyone else seems to be there already. It’s like you went to the bathroom, and when you came out, the party moved on, leaving you in a dark room with empty glasses all around you.

Time to drop everything and catch up with the party… quickly! Quickly!

And let’s say you catch up with the party…

You’ve got your blog, your Twitter name, and all of those things. And no matter how fast you run with it all, it doesn’t seem to be making much of a difference.

The world IS moving, you can’t safely ignore it. And yet chasing after it isn’t working. What to do?

Innovation is a no-no.

There is a teaching in Sufism that speaks against innovation. Well, not all innovation, and only in certain circumstances.

This is sometimes where people get the idea that Islam is anti-science or anti-progress. Not true.

In the twelth century, during Europe’s ‘dark ages,’ Islamic culture had some of the most advanced universities, scientists, and doctors in the world, at the very cutting edge of modern technology. The problem with innovation is that it can feed on itself.

Innovation is forbidden when it becomes a false idol.

We’ve come to think about technology as ‘computers’ or ‘science.’ But, the word ‘technology comes from the Greek ‘tekhnologia’ meaning, an interest in an ‘art or craft’ (Oxford American Dictionaries).

The problem comes when someone studies technology for its own sake. For our personalities, our egos, the lure of ‘newness’ is strong. New sensations and learnings can encompass all of our attention, immerse us in the experience.

This can be a good, because immersion is a great way to learn. The problem is that with something like all the innovation happening in web technology, is that there is no defined ‘end’ point. There is no way to tell externally when you’ve done enough.

If you get caught in this loop, you can emerge months or years later, having totally lost track of the path you are on.

The irony is- people want connection. The irony of web-based social media like blogs and Twitter is that it’s coming out of the deeper hunger to connect to community, to love, to Source. Yet all of this innovation in the internet can leave you exhausted and isolated- even if you’re good at it and like it.

As you may already know, that connection you’re yearning for is in your heart, not Twitter. It’s in the hearts of other people, not in the technology. If you forget that, you’ll be lost. By remembering your true intention, then technology can be useful to you.

So do I blog and Twitter, or not?

Well, I’ll give you a definitive answer: it depends. It depends on your business, and the hearts of the people you are trying to reach.

If you work with younger adults or teens, or with engineers or gadget geeks, then yes, you’re going to want to meet them where they are, which is usually on the cutting edge of the latest toys. If you don’t, it may not be as critical. And, even if you suspect that a good portion of your audience is found in the ‘blogosphere’ as it’s sometimes called, there’s still no need to be so urgent about it.

How do you proceed? Well, take breath, connect to your heart, and let’s take a look.

Keys to Technology

• Your current website and newsletter is not obsolete!

Don’t panic and discard what you’ve got now. Just because all of this new stuff is out there doesn’t mean what you already have isn’t perfect for what you’re doing. My bicycle is more than fifteen years old, and it gets me around just fine. And, if you haven’t even gotten your website done yet, it’s still more than worthwhile to finish.

• You don’t need the latest, just adequate. Unless your business is about social media and cutting-edge web technology, in which case you probably aren’t even reading this article (hiya!), then forget about Twitter, Pownce, Digg, Stumble-Upon, del.icio.us for right now. You don’t need anything but entry-level basic. Just start reading some blogs, without being in a rush. Here’s a few to start with:

Dawud Miracle

Michael Martine

Adam Kayce

• Set a 1-3 month ‘safe zone’ of learning.

As you begin to learn, tell yourself that you don’t have to do anything about it for one to three months, that you are just going to learn. It will work even better if you find a friend or colleague who can give you an hour or three for a personal guided tour of this stuff.

This approach doesn’t just apply to blogs, but it applies to most anything new you need to learn about your business. And, once you understand the basics, the more obscure pieces will come MUCH more quickly.

You might actually find yourself enjoying the technology.

With blogs and other social media, remember that technology is just a tool, and that the craft you are studying is not blogs. You are involved with the craft of connection, and you’re just learning a new tool to do what you already know something about.

Don’t let gurus rush you. Take a breath, and dip in. You may find that all of this innovation and technology can actually increase your connection to what you care about most.

Mark Silver is the author of Unveiling the Heart of Your Business: How Money, Marketing and Sales can Deepen Your Heart, Heal the World, and Still Add to Your Bottom Line. He has helped hundreds of small business owners around the globe succeed in business without lousing their hearts. Get three free chapters of the book online: http://www.heartofbusiness.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mark_H_Silver
http://EzineArticles.com/?Does-the-Cutting-Edge-of-Social-Media-Really-Pay?&id=1241111

Yikes! I recently stumbled upon someone’s social network profile creation & management services through a Google Alert that was in my inbox this morning. I was so intrigued by what I was reading that I had to post on this blog twice today.

While the services were relatively inexpensive, I believe they were a little over-the-top.

I’d rather educate my prospective clients and then hope they see the value in my services than to add a bunch of hype that isn’t true.

First of all, there’s no such thing as the “top” 50 or even “top” 25 social networks. Most people who are involved in social networking are not using 25. They’re probably using closer to 2 or 3, really. They’re definitely using MySpace or Facebook (or both) and they may also be using LinkedIn, Biznik, StartupNation, Twitter, Yahoo! 360, Plaxo, Bebo, Friendster, or Windows Live Spaces.

Some people, like me, are using upwards of 12-13 networks but I’m not really “using” them all. Some are set it and forget it types and some I just don’t have the time to actively maintain at the moment.

So, if someone is trying to sell you a service in which they set you up on the “top” 50 social networks, that’s insane! Not only is that completely unnecessary, but it’s also unmanageable. It will be so difficult for you to really maintain 50 social networks that you will probably become jaded and forget the whole thing. Or, your profiles on some networks will become so stagnant that they reek of abandon – and that is about as bad for your business as stale advertising.

Really, set in mind a goal of 10 or less networks you think you want to participate in (and then go sign up for my e-course so you don’t go crazy thinking about how you’ll ever find the time) and try not to have social network fever and sign up for every one that you come across.

And remember – spice it up with other social media as well. Social networking doesn’t work as well if you’re not interesting.

• Create an account on YouTube and link to videos you like every now and then.
• Create an account on Snapfish or another picture-sharing account and post pictures when you go on vacation or to a business networking event or conference.
• Start a blog – a real blog, not just one on MySpace or Bebo. You can get them at wordpress.com OR better, download WordPress and install it (or have it installed) on your business’s website.

But just trust me on this, you DO NOT need 50 or even 25 social networks. Pick a handful you will be active with and then trust in viral or buzz or word of mouth marketing to do the rest.

One of the interesting dynamics that make social media a potential boon to marketing is that many social networks are connecting across multiple sites.

I recently came across a social media site that used a spidering technique to find you (and your friends) at other social media sites and help you link across networks.

What this dynamic does is provide the opportunity to develop a network that is not only site specific, but integrated to include multiple sites. This can help you maximize the total number of friends in the total number of networks you’re a part of.

This makes it less difficult to discover if a friend is involved in other social media sites and offers opportunity to expand your own network through multiplied opportunities to connect with others.

Social media is providing both an extensive personal experience as well as offering marketing potential. On a personal level you can share your thoughts in blog form, you can share your latest photography. Users are downloading originally designed audio and they are challenging all of us to share in personal opinion.

While separate blogs and forum boards exist, and are still going strong, the role of social media is that of a convenience store as compared to a specialty shop. In one location you have so many options at self-expression and connection that it can make other forms of online media seem a little dull in comparison.

In some cases I suppose a social media site can seem a little indulgent, but it can literally mean thousands of individuals receiving impressions about you and your business. In most cases social media is not reserved simply for personal thought conveyance. Businesses will routinely use it to share contemporary ideas and encourage new connection.

As a new generation finds less and less in common with traditional forms of media they are also finding social networking to be a meaningful alternative to many other sources previous generations found important.

For instance this new generation is less inclined to identify with traditional radio or newsprint. If they want information they will access it online. They won’t watch evening news they will download video when they want – online. When they want music they are more inclined to listen on a social media site or a place like Pandora. If they really like a song they will purchase it online for their mp3 player.

It’s not even that this generation hates these more traditional forms of media – they just don’t get the lack of immediate gratification in the on demand world they live in. It simply doesn’t fit their life.

That being said, a social media network allows them to access entertaining videos posted by members. They can preview songs they may like, but never hear on traditional radio, and they can find information often written by their favorite musician or actor.

This is the world this generation lives in, and if you are a web-based entrepreneur this is the world in which you will best reach them. That may seem like an overstatement, but it’s true. This culture is all about connection and if you aren’t willing to take your message to them you will not likely be heard. This is the power of social media.

Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects. Make A Website in minutes with HighPowerSites or Build A Website with BuildAGreatSite. Start your own ebook business and Resell Ebooks with BooksWealth.

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http://EzineArticles.com/?Social-Media-Provides-Ultimate-Connection&id=1203319

So I discovered yet another social network – this time things are a little different. It’s a website that sort of takes things like MySpace Groups & Facebook Groups and pimps it out majorly. It’s called Ning.com and the premise is built around the notion of creating “your own” social network.

You’re really creating your own “group” but I’ll play along with calling it a “social network” because I suppose it can be classified that way as well.

Either way, I took the bait. I created my own. Self Employed Mamas Rock. That’s my new social network. I’m looking for members so if you’re a rockin self employed mama, you need to be there!

But really, is there such a thing as social network addiction? Can you really have too many social networks? Here’s my list so far. I think it’s getting ridiculous. How about you?

• Facebook (friends & biz)
• Biznik (biz)
• LinkedIn (biz)
• MySpace (friends)
• Bebo (who knows; I created it ages ago)
• Plaxo (friends & biz)
• StartupNation (biz)
• Active Rain (biz)
• Multiply (friends & fam but I haven’t even set up my profile yet)
• Twitter (biz)
• Squidoo (biz)
• Ning (who knows? I’m just breaking the ice with what it can do)
• Friendster (friends but it’s been ages)
• Indiepublic (just joined about twenty minutes before I joined ning.com)

I don’t want to be a victim of social network addiction! Then I’ll need to start an entirely new group called Social Network Addicts Anonymous… 

Using these outstanding and unique sites can seem a bit overwhelming at first, but taking the few minutes to learn each will help and taking on only one at a time will also benefit the learning experience greatly. All of the types of Social Network Marketing are similar in some ways. Taking these similarities into play, let’s look at some tips other than navigation that I can help with.

Choosing about five keywords to get you started with your blog sites, web sites, and other places that you can use keywords, will increase the chances of landing on page one of the search engines. Then, as you add keywords to your list, it will be easier to use them and remember them properly. Same principle as the memory test where you start with yellow, red, blue, and green…then add purple. So now you remember yellow, red, blue, green, and purple. Then, add one more keyword each few days or so to your list for the Social Network Marketing places you go.

Visiting blog sites you enjoy, on topics you already know about, will create an at home feeling for you, very comfortable. My favorite teacher once told me to “write what I know” Same principle here. If you don’t know about surfing lingo, don’t try to comment too much on a surfer site “Dude”.

You have a lifetime’s experience with making friends, again, do what you know, make friends on the blog sites. Picture this, you wouldn’t bust into a social party and dance about singing loudly about your fantastic business opportunity, terrific product, or incredible service. Make friends first. Find people with like interests, so you have a fun time chatting. Put yourself in the comment receivers seat, would you want that comment on your blog, social network page, or in your email box?

Most importantly, you cannot break a blog or social network. If it’s totally messed up, you can always delete everything and start over if you want, or just delete the things that you aren’t happy with and repost them. Social Network Marketing is just that, social. Let’s be friendly and really get to know a bit about each other before we start pitching business opportunities. People are cool! Let’s talk sometime.

Stephanie Haile enjoys teaching new people to the Internet how to navigate and become comfortable with their computers. She is a business owner, wife, mom, pet lover, and beach enthusiast who writes, reads, and helps others create a residual income for financial stability. Google Stephanie Haile and get in touch or give her a call and find out about how her business can help you! 321-745-6202

Stephanie Haile AKA Wavecritter
http://www.StephanieHaile.com
http://www.StephanieHaile.info

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http://EzineArticles.com/?Social-Network-Marketing&id=1040671

Every system needs to evolve to survive and the way the web works is no exception the new elements on the block are those strange square symbols you see at the bottom of web pages or scattered about here and there on news stories. These are the web 2.0 elements from the rise of social bookmarking comes a new way of getting traffic to your website.

A lot of people are now having their own space on the web either from MySpace or something similar from these pages in cyberspace they can add pages to that area for personal or general distribution that the individual finds useful providing it has got a social bookmark corresponding to that site.

For example if you go onto sky news site and you see a particular news story that is of interest to you and you would like to keep a copy of it located in your cyberspace you would click on the Squidoo if you belong to that or the yahoo space or MySpace symbol and log in and then you’re done it can be a personal part of your space or shared part of your space.

Many internet marketers are just starting to realize the power of these social bookmarking sites and the way they can be used to get your website spidered or indexed very quickly. The way to do this is for example you create your web page and at the bottom of the page you add the social bookmarking scripts.

These java scripts can be found on a number of sites just search for social bookmarking scripts then copy and paste the required script or elements you want into your web page and there you go. After completion of adding these scripts you will see a number of these little square box elements appear on your web page. Make sure you use the yahoo element then click on this and add the content of your site to the yahoo web page by using your yahoo id then adding it to your personal or shared space by repeating this for all the different elements and social bookmarking sites and your web page starts to attract the big spiders to come and index your page.

The problem with all this is social bookmarking sites eventually will get bogged down with people just trying to sell you something all the time and that starts to generate social bookmarking spam. So the idea is to use this system sensible don’t go trying to get involved with everybody on MySpace try to find your own niche only and then target your market.

Most internet marketers are sensible and realise that your reputation is on the line and if you act very irresponsibly you will lose your customers and customer’s confidence. By acting in a defined responsible and accountable manner then your business will grow online into something worth developing.

Social bookmarking is very new and there is time to set out your market stall online to the MySpace / YouTube generation and make your business be a part of the good side of social bookmarking and web 2.0 elements or we are faced with waiting for the next major change in web structure and elements to occur for marketing opportunities.

© 2007 Andy Bolton 39 Liverpool,
Hot Air Balloons
Reduce your Carbon

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http://EzineArticles.com/?Social-Bookmarking-And-Web-2.0-Elements&id=1020173

But do you know where to start? You don’t want to end up spending hours and hours maintaining your social networks because you didn’t have a solid social network marketing plan from the beginning.

Introducing a free, 4-day e-course that will help you get started on a social networking plan.

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• which social networking sites are right for your personality type & internet exposure desires
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By Wendy Moyer

To those of us who use social networks frequently, or are familiar with the way the social web works, this post will seem self-evident.

However, in conversations with a couple clients and individuals lately who are unfamiliar with social media marketing, this question has consistently cropped up.

The main problem people have is reconciling making friends with possible ROI.

What you need to know is that by adding friends or accepting friend requests, you are taking one more step to building your authority and visibility in your industry, which WILL lead to ROI (in the form of traffic, sales conversions or whatever your goal) as people recognize you as a leader in your field and choose you over possible competitors for services and products they need.

Here are 5 general, point-by-point reasons friends matter on social networks:

1. Relationship building.

The whole reason social networking is successful is because its very foundation is built on creating and maintaining relationships with people.

Start conversations, introduce yourself, do everything you can to put yourself out there and meet as many people as possible.

If you like the person or company you’ve built a relationship with, you’ll probably recommend them to your friends, and vice versa.

If you make friends with someone in a related industry, you’ll benefit from recommending their services to your clients, and they’ll benefit from recommending you to theirs (e.g. a web designer recommends a social media marketer they like, a Realtor recommends a mortgage provider they know is honest and effective, and vice versa).

2. Referrals and recommendations.

You matter to me, and I matter to you, because if I like that really cool video you sent me, I’ll visit the site its from to look for more.

If I digg that awesome article and send it to my friends, or they see I dugg it, they might check it out too. If I get an awesome deal on this website’s service, I’m going to send you there.

Or if I hear from you about it, I’m going to go there. If I find a fan page for a product I love, I might stop by, create a profile, and add myself as a fan, then tell all my friends about it.

You do the calculations.

3. Access to more user info.

Many sites hide people’s profiles until you add them as a friend. Thus, adding someone as a friend is a good way to communicate with them in a more personal setting.

4. UGC, or User-Generated Content.

The more friends you have and interact with, the more content is produced on your site or page, and the more visible it becomes.

If you have a ton of people talking on your Facebook fan page, for example, all that content is adding to your area’s ability to be ranked on the search engines AND attract more users.

5. A large social community.

The more people you add as friends and the more you get to know them, and they you, the more popular you or your social networking profile becomes.

Soon, you have a large community of supporters that further reinforces your authority and leader status in your industry.

What better way to brand your company and communicate a specific message to a mass of people?

Wendy Moyer writes for search engine marketing company AuthorityDomains.com. Authority Domains offers a host of Search Engine Marketing and Social Media Marketing services in addition to an SEM Blog.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Wendy_Moyer
http://EzineArticles.com/?5-Reasons-Friends-In-Your-Social-Media-Networks-Do-Matter&id=1194032

By Gregor Spowart

All of a Twitter

This month has seen yet another technology take off in a big way.

Twitter is a really simple tool that lets you post simple status updates (of 160 characters) throughout the day, much as you do in Facebook, and share them with people on Twitter. But where Facebook only allows you to share updates with your chosen friends, anyone can see your Twitter updates. Treat it as a micro-blog and you’re pretty much on the right lines.

The same issues with blogging apply to Twitter, You want to have a big following and to do that you have to write great content. If you’re already an established authority on a subject then it’s far easier to get a big following, but the great thing about Twitter is that it has a much smaller membership than the blogging world, so the possibility of becoming an authority figure is much easier.

So where do you start?

I started by looking up some of bloggers that I like and started to ‘Follow’ them. They often ‘Tweet’ or post an update where they mention a particular blog that they’re reading or mention a particular development and it’s quite interesting to read what they’re saying and what they’re reading. You can also listen in on what they’re saying to the people in their network so you can see who they consider to be people worth listening to and you can follow them too.

It’s pretty much like evesdropping (and not far off stalking!) when you approach it this way. But if you’re lucky, some of the people that you’re following might follow you and then, all of a sudden, you effectively have the ear of an authority in your chosen area.

That’s great, but what’s even better is that they have the ears of a huge network of other authorities and if you tweet something or post something insightful or useful enough then it’ll very quickly get distributed to this huge network of authorities.

So the questions are:

1. How do you get people to follow you?
2. How do you use this tool effectively?

How do you build a network?

Well, this is pretty hard, but there are plenty of blog posts offering ideas that you might want to try. What I would do is to have a really cool profile picture – one that’s really eye catching, distinct and memorable, a link to your blog (that will, of course, have loads of interesting stuff in it) and a very catchy profile – it has to be short (160 chars I think), so take time to make it punchy and attractive.

It’s not easy, but if you start to follow someone, you can guarantee that they’ll be checking out your profile so make it brilliant – nothing less. If they like what they see then they’ll follow you. Most importantly, make sure that all of your tweets are really worthwhile, cutting edge, thought provoking stuff on the subject matter of the network you’re trying to get into. You can tweet about your favourite colour and your broken toenail once you have good sized network. At the moment you’re marketing yourself so make sure you’re got something good to say, If you’ve got something interesting to say then people will want to follow you. Once you start to get a few followers then a natural momentum should begin.

How do you make the most out of Twitter?

Who knows? The main thing to remember is that good content always works. If you post good stuff then people will love you for it. If you read a good article then post a link. If you post lots of good articles then you could maybe post your latest blog entry. Perhaps you just read something and it struck a chord with you – why not mention it and share the love with your friends.

Imaging the power of having the ear of loads of authority figures and then when you post your latest blog entry then all pile in to read it! And it’s not just that they all pile in to read it – it’s that they read it and if they like it then they stumble it and digg it and add it to delicious. Imagine the size of that extended network? Imagine the sheer traffic that would drive to your blog?

But like everything else, use it sensibly. Don’t spam – you’ll lose all of your friends, be an outcast and probably die a loner in the gutter somewhere. Instead, use it as you would with your real life friends. Recommend stuff, share stuff, ask for favours, offer favours. Treat the people on there as you would treat your real life friends.

Good luck!

To receive free SEO and website email tips, click here

Gregor Spowart is a partner in Mass Media Design, a Website Design and Internet Marketing company based in Reading (Berkshire), Swindon (Wiltshire) and Cardiff. Gregor is an SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) specialist.

Search Engine Optimisation, Reading

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gregor_Spowart
http://EzineArticles.com/?How-To-Be-REALLY-Popular-In-Twitter&id=1183102

Ever feel like you’re in a race against the competition for clients? Let me tell you this: constantly hounding them for their business is not the way to go.

But there are three sure-fire things you can do to set up shop so that clients are coming to YOU instead of you running after them all the time.

1. ASK FOR IT. It may seem like the simplest, silliest thing to mention here, but I cannot emphasize enough how important it is for your marketing materials (including website and blog) to include a “call to action.” It’s OK to assume that your visitors and prospective clients want to know how to get in touch with you. So, help them out by telling them how to do it! You’ll notice that on every main page of my website, I include a call to action near the bottom. On every single page.
2. DO A GOOD JOB. Another very simple (well, maybe not always) thing to do. This is not rocket science. If you do a good job, your clients will come back to you. You don’t even need a fancy shopping cart with autoresponders and all that jazz. Just be your amazingly fabulous self, do a great job, and you’ve locked in a client for life. Yes, it’s great to keep up with your clients to remind them that you’re still around, but you don’t need to chase them down with sales and discounts. In fact, your repeat clients will pay for you at a premium because they understand from experience how valuable you are.
3. CLEARLY EXPLAIN WHAT YOU DO. Even I am guilty of not clearly explaining what I do, which is why I’m in the process of creating clear-cut proposal for each of my services, and they will be available for prospective clients to download when they visit my services page. If your services are outlined clearly enough, clients will know what you do and won’t click away out of frustration, boredom or disinterest. If they need something you provide, they will contact you.

A fourth, bonus sure-fire way to get clients coming to you is to make sure you are easy to contact. Don’t be elusive. If you’re a virtual assistant, at least include an email address. But, including an actual contact form is best.

If you don’t have a contact form, download the freecontactform.com’s .zip file and get to work. You’ll need a webhost that supports .php (and not all plans do – don’t assume this – that’s why I like siteground).

Try these out! They work for me.

Cheers,

Tia Peterson
All American Admin