Marketing Success with Social Media, Blogs and Groups
Published December 7, 2011 | 
Proven Market Strategies
Proven market strategies are vitally important when targeting your market niche through social media networks and linking to blogs that are popular within the market niche.
Tweet, Mention and Link to Blog Posts and Social Networking Posts — It can be a great strategy to recognize through tweets, mentions and links to posts you find made by other individuals if you determine what they’ve written is something that would be of interest to your audience. And, if your goals are to win social media friends, expansion of your network, and get your name and expertise known, providing good fresh content for your followers is one of the best ways to achieve the results you want.
Build an email list and send informative mailings to it on a regular basis – Add a “Join My E-mail List” sign-up box on your website and the good news is that Constant Contact and other e-mail marketing service providers make it easy for you to do this. 
The first place people look when they want information about you is your website. So don’t ignore the chance to begin building a relationship with them when they visit your website.
Ask your customers for their e-mail addresses and permission – No matter the method of communication, tell customers about your e-mail communications and ask if you can add them to your list. Put out a sign-up book if you have a physical location. If what you do is internet-based, send a follow-up e-mail after an order and ask if they want to join your list.
Ask those you meet at networking events and at trade shows – Networking events and trade shows are great places to meet and find people that would like to join your list.
Join and participate in local business groups – You also may consider participating in leads groups as well, many times a great source of business for many small service businesses is referrals.
Small business is now the most trusted group in America and globally. According to studies prepared by different research organizations (i.e. Pew Research Center, etc.) small business is the most trusted institution in the global economy. Believe it or not, more than churches, colleges, and technology companies. And most certainly more than either labor unions or large corporations.
Marketing Success with Profiles, Places, Groups & Articles
Published December 5, 2011 | Proven Market Strategies
Professional profiles for yourself and/or your business on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Google Profiles (Google+ will also use this profile). There may also be several profiles for you that you don’t know about, so be sure you claim ownership to any profile you find on the Web. You want to make sure the information presented is correct and accurate.
It is important to be sure each of your profiles has a link to your website. In fact, most people you give a business card to will misplace or lose your card, just as likely, the chances are great they will type your name into their favorite search engines to an effort to find you. Therefore, having and maintaining a profile on the leading social media sites will make your information available for them to find you and the link to your website.
You also need to claim your place on Google Places. Before you do, understand that listings on Google places are no longer just for fast food establishments or retail stores. Anyone can search for any type of service their looking for by location, and in addition, Google provides a list of companies that match the service they searched for in the location that’s specified. Another thing to be aware of is that if you reside in a big city, there’s no guarantee your places profile will show up in the first page listing results. But having a profile gives you an edge, and sometimes an edge all you need.
Social media discussions groups that appeal to your target niche customers, is a good way to reach them directly. First, look at what you sell, and search for topic-specific and/or location-based discussion groups. Be sure to reserve a few minutes a day to read and analyze the conversations, and don’t forget to join in the discussions when appropriate, for the purpose of making informative comments or posting useful resources. This is important, so if you don’t have time to do this, you can assign an employee, or contract a freelancer to assist by scouting out and identifying conversations that you may want to join in.
Write helpful informative articles related to the services you are expert in and provide. Place some of the articles you write on your own site, and be sure and distribute the articles to other sites that reach your audience and make great use of contributors’ articles. And don’t forget to include “about the author” information along with a link to your website. In doing this, you will help get yourself and your company known, and more importantly, help establish your credibility.
Finally, keep in mind that each of these is just a component of your marketing strategy, some may not strategically fit with what you do, and everything can change as the market evolves.
New Media – Establishing Ground Rules
Published October 5, 2011 | Establishing Some Ground Rules
It should go without saying that whatever you decide to create should always be associated with your brand in one way or another. Whether the content is a post on your blog or a video created and uploaded to YouTube, make certain that the content items follow your brand and trademark guidelines. You should also make it a major focal point of consideration to strive for consistency. Understand that different Twitter profiles from different departments is something you really don’t want to see happen, and taken as a whole which most in the market niche would, it makes your brand look indistinct, ambiguous or worse, schizophrenic. To make certain none of this occurs, you need to establish some definite ground rules for the content you and others you designate in your organization create, and make certain that everyone thoroughly understands and follows them.
The truth really is the only way to actually prevent a social media marketing disaster is by taking the time to both educate and provide established guidelines to your employees. 
The good news is a social media policy you develop really doesn’t have to be very complicated, but in order to truly protect your the brand you and others have diligently worked to create and build, you need to establish ground rules for any employee’s participation in social media. It’s become obvious and many are in agreement as well, that you can’t take away the freedom of your employees to engage in social media networking sites, but at the same time, you must protect your company’s brand.
To achieve this end, your should make it your main objective as part of your social media policy to establish guidelines that effectively harness the power of social media as a branding tool, but yet prevent any public relations disasters that might occur by using codes of conduct that are formal, but not too overbearing and domineering. The guidelines you assemble and establish need to be simple, clear and easy for everyone to understand so that explanation and clarification is not an issue. 
The success of your guideline and policy efforts should become clearly evident if the final draft allows employees the freedom and opportunity to be their selves online, while at the same time, serves to protect your brand.
Even though it can be a major and daunting task, whatever you do, don’t put off doing this critical component of your social media strategies. You really want to avoid at all cost, your brand becoming the victim of the next public relations disaster.
New Media – Create Interesting Content
Published October 4, 2011 | Generating the Content that Generates the Greatest Interest
When it comes to creating content make sure your content is fresh and dynamic, it’s definitely critical that your content can be mixed, matched and tailored for different niche groups. Traditional communication professionals have been accustomed over the years to creating only a single press release when they are launching a product, or single event and service. This might work for just a single niche or when the media is intermediary in affect. Understand the candor and openness of social media makes it almost mandatory the specific narrative be tailored for the context in which it occurs.
You really need to begin customization of your content for each market niche that is of significant matter to you, and base it on where the consumption will occur. Take for instance, that you locate a series of interviews that will help address a specific customer service issue, a young niche (teenage) will have interest in hearing from different people (of course, with different personalities) than a different niche of investors might. And you can also choose to upload and post the interviews on your company’s Facebook page for your younger demographic niche, and then distribute to investors directly. Don’t forget that the language choice will also be important.
You probably know by now, with so few opportunities to make an important lasting impression, it’s imperativ
e you get it right in just a few words (remember people don’t like to read a lot). We’ve become a world of headline scanners (so much information to skim through), so bold headlines will draw the attention of your market niche, and that they find it provocative, intriguing or engaging is crucial. Don’t be misleading, but be fast, because once they’ve clicked on through or read further, then release the storyteller inside you, and grab them and keep them interested and reading the purely old-fashioned way. Its human nature, that no one can resist a great story, whether it’s told through different media including video, or as an article with attention getting imagery or a post.
Having said all that, what’s the best outcome you think you can hope for… attention? Most definitely, but to take it one step further, if you can get your audiences to share content, and with it goes the implied validation of your ideas and concepts, then you’ve really won.
Video Science! Truthy Project Detects Online Deception
Published October 2, 2011 | 
Have you ever strongly questioned tweets you receive or read on Twitter as possible fraud, especially when it comes to the political world? In case you didn’t know many of the tweets are created by automated computer programs or “robo-tweets,” so no wonder they are suspect messages, especially when it happening within an era of “digital deception.” This video features scientists at Indiana University that are using Twitter to investigate the nature of truth, lies and politics. Check it out and maybe you can tell when some things aren’t what they seem.
Warning! Both political campaigns and special-interest groups are setting up and using countless fake Twitter accounts and creating the notion of broad grass-roots political manifestations where none exist. In case you don’t know, faking political movements has been termed “Astroturfing.”