1. What is Social Media Marketing for Businesses?

Social Media Marketing for Businesses is the application and use of Social Media tools such as Blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook etc. to market ones business. It is connecting with clients, customers and users on a personal, yet professional level and allowing them to have direct access to your “voice”. Social Media Marketing business application is to make “Connections” and not just “Transactions!”

2. What is the business application for Facebook, Twitter, and/or Linked In?

There are over 400 Million users of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. It is safe to say that a portion of your target market are on one or all of these tools right now. Facebook has the largest following and is entrenched as the number one social media tool in the market place. Your business needs a Facebook page because that is where you customers are going and trust to gain and share information. Twitter is the newest tool utilizing micro-blogging. Twitter is the fastest growing social media marketing tool and is the quickest way to gain access to what your customers are talking about right now. LinkedIn is the professional’s social media marketing tool, with bios looking more like resumes and the purpose is to connect with companies and peers within the same industries. It has become common practice for law firms, banks, etc. to have business LinkedIn pages, linking to their officers and employees.

3. What is the number one challenge faced with a business website?

The number one challenge that business owners with a traditional website face is that the content is static. Meaning it’s not easily updated or changeable. You must contact your web developer to make any changes and those changes will not only take time, but they will inevitably cost money. Thus, this creates rather large barriers in order for you to have consistently updated content.

4. What is the number one challenge faced with a Business Blog?

There are two very difficult challenges to overcome with a business blog. The first is overcoming the impulse to market, market, market as you would on your website or with a advertisement in a newspaper. People do not want to see that on a blog, whether it is for a business or not. They are their to connect, get answers, and leave comments. For a business blog, it is difficult to grasp this new concept, “the purpose of your business blog is to have conversations with your target market about your business, your interest and theirs just as if you were sitting down and having a cup of coffee with them”. The second challenge with a business blog is sticking with it and posting new articles each week. The posts themselves are very easy once you realize that throughout each work day, you could write over a dozen blog posts about the daily occurrences, questions that you are asked or experiences that happen. But you have to stick with it. People will constantly revisit your blog if you have new posts. If the site remains stagnate, you will loose your readership. This has always been the number one flaw of standard static websites, and can easily become the flaw of your blog if you simply let it stay idle.

5. Why do I need Twitter?

There are several reasons why you need twitter, here are a few 1.) It’s free and its use is unlimited. 2.) The updates are real time and thus people receive information immediately 3.) You are the voice of the messages so the information is reliable and trustworthy.

6. Blogs have been around for years, what makes them so necessary now?

Blogs are becoming more and more necessary because the internet has shifted from being a “content consumer” driven world to a “content produced” driven world. Anyone has the opportunity to have a blog up in a manner of minutes and produce content for the whole world to see. This is also where the content shifts from being static to being dynamic and you are able to change all of your content in a manner of minutes without having a web developer do it for you and with no costs.

7. If I start using social media will my privacy be compromised?

Yes and no. You are in control of what you put out there. If you don’t use discretion in what personal information you post then yes your privacy can be compromised. However, if you use discretion and you block your private information from the public there is virtually no risk involved.

8. I am just getting started with my business, do I need to integrate social media into my marketing plan or should I wait?

You should start integrating it now! It doesn’t matter if your business is 10 years old or 10 days old, getting started with this new form of marketing will only position your business for better growth. In fact, Social Media Marketing allows most new businesses the ability to grow with very little costs in comparison to traditional marketing which has high fees and often little results.

9. What’s the purpose of having a blog if I already have a successful website?

There are many reasons for creating a blog, even if you already have a successful website. The first would be to voice your “expertise” in the field that your business is in. Managing a business blog allows people to read about your knowledge and opinion, thus validating your experience and having better trust in the business as a whole. Another reason is it inadvertently increases your search engine optimization. There really isn’t a reason to not have a business blog.

10. I don’t want to participate in social media marketing. If I don’t will it eventually hurt my business?

It’s hard to say right now, but as each month passes Social Media Marketing continues to grow and remains a strong part of the internet and business world. However, we can say that the internet has been forever changed and if you don’t eventually adapt to having dynamic, easily update-able information on the internet then over time you will lose business.

If you aren’t yet aware of its meaning, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Simple enough, but just what is SEO and what is it for? This is a more complex matter.

Search engine optimization refers to a number of different techniques used for building websites and the content on these sites to improve their placident in the search engine results pages.

The idea of SEO is to make your website more visible to web users who search for content with search engines (which is essentially everyone who uses the World Wide Web at all).

If your website is a personal page meant primarily for yourself and perhaps a small number of family members and friends, it may not be all that important to you to have a site which is optimized.

However, if your website is business oriented, it matters a great deal.

Think of it this way: if your business decided to stop being listed in the phone book, took the signs and awnings down and stopped advertising, how successful would you be at attracting new business?

Search engines have for many largely replaced the function once performed by local phone directories.

In order to attract (and even retain) business, you need to have a high profile where your customers are likely to see you – and these days, this place is online.

It once was that if people couldn’t find you in the phone book, your business was in serious trouble. Now, of course the question is how easy it is for people to find your website.

You may have a great looking website and even use the URL in your printed marketing materials and advertising campaigns; but not everyone is going to see your advertisident in the paper.

People tend to look at web sites when they’re actually in need of something and even if a potential customer has seen your ads, it’s not at all certain they’ll remember to go to your site immediately when they’re looking for what you offer.

Instead, your potential customers are using search engines – which is why your business may need some help from a professional SEO consultant to ensure that consumers will find you when they really are looking for you.

One of the things we should look at first here is what the search engines actually see when their crawlers come to your site.

The search engines don’t know (or care) about your site’s design in terms of graphics (though they will read the alternate text for these images – if you don’t know about this important elident of web design, an SEO consultant can help you with this).

All the search engines see when they look at your site is text and nothing but text. For this reason, sites which are entirely Flash-based are not generally recommended from an SEO perspective (many visitors don’t like this either).

What the search engine crawlers are looking at on your site is the actual text contained on your website as well as the information contained in what is known as the headers of your site’s HTML, most notably your title tags.

These tell the search engine crawlers what your site is about – if you don’t include these (or use an entirely graphics or animation based site), the search engines really can’t tell what your site is supposed to be about.

This can be fatal to your site, as it basically assures that no one will be able to find you with a search engine query.

As for how the search engines determine page ranking, this is a much more complex question. The short answer is relevance: but the relevance of any given website is calculated in a number of ways.

The exact nature of the algorithms used by each search engine is different and each is closely guarded proprietary information – to further complicate matters, these algorithms are constantly evolving.

However, there are certain things which the SEO experts have managed to figure out through analysis and reverse engineering of search results and websites which are universally applicable.

This is what enables an SEO consultant to look over a website and suggest changes to the site to increase its visibility in terms of the search engines.

The alterations which can improve a site’s search engine rankings include fine tuning the copy on the site to make it tune with the site’s content, its meta tags or especially popular search terms which are relevant to the content.

There are other changes which will improve a site’s search engine ranking which are not visible to visitors to the site.

These are changes which affect what the search engine crawlers see when they visit the site and help this to more accurately determine what the site is about. There are yet other SEO techniques which your site should avoid using.

What should you avoid?

Let’s take a look at a hypothetical scenario. Suppose your kitchen wares business has a website which is doing well in the results for tea kettles, frying pans and the like.

However, you’d like to further increase traffic – how about trying to rank high in the search engine results for some other non-kitchen related search terms?

This may help to increase traffic to your site, but there are reasons why everyone doesn’t do this. If SEO really worked like that, every site on the web would optimize their content for whatever the most popular searches happened to be.

There are many websites which do this simply to get you to their site by any means. This is one of the several different SEO techniques which are considered “search engine spamming” and should be avoided.

If you’re considering working with a professional search engine optimization firm, you should avoid any company who uses this technique or any of the others which follow:

* Keyword stuffing. * Misleading redirects and link/URL cloaking. * Duplicating content between pages of a website. * Misspelling words and names commonly used as search terms. * The use of unrelated links (also known as link farming). * Or for that matter, any other technique aimed at fooling the search engines.

These “black hat” SEO methods can work as a means of generating traffic, but they only work for so long before the search engines (and the public) catch on.

Once search engines figure out what you’re up to, they often respond by un-indexing your site, making it impossible for anyone to find you with that search engine.

Don’t think you won’t get caught either; the major search engines encourage users to report these deceptive tactics. You can get better and more lasting results with ethical SEO methods; and without having to worry about having your site blacklisted.

Is Your Site Doing Well Enough In Search Results?

Unless you’re already in the top couple of results in the major engines, chances are you’d like to do better regardless of where your site stands at present.

As any expert search engine optimization consultant will tell you, SEO is a process, not a single task. It’s something that you’ll likely have to continue working on as your site slowly but steadily makes its way up the rankings.

This organic SEO approach is the most effective and will get you to where you want to be sooner or later; the most important thing is to ensure that your business’ website is optimized for search engines.

Failing to implident good SEO practices is one nearly certain way to set yourself up for a fall. It is much like the unadvertised, unlisted and unmarked business we discussed earlier.

People who are ready and willing to do business with you will pass you by, unaware that your site even exists. Whether or not to use SEO as an integral part of your marketing strategy isn’t even a question anymore – the question is how you’ll go about it.

About the Author: John S. Britsios is a Web Architect & Senior SEO Consultant, specializing in Web Content Accessibility, Usability Testing, Search Engine Optimization & Internet Marketing.

Whenever I conduct a Teleseminar interview with a thought leader in my area of interest, I often lean on the four learning styles that researcher David Kolb discovered in the 1980s.

Your listening audiences typically fit into four distinct learning styles Kolb uncovered and they are: WHY learners, WHAT learners, HOW learners and WHAT IF learners.

Which of the four learning styles do you feel that you fit into?

Regardless of your learning style, I believe anyone can become a great interviewer if they focus on what Kolb’s findings over 20 years ago.

To make it easy for you, here’s the questioning sequence template I utilize in my own interview that is a trusted friend to inoculate me from embarrassment or and criticism from blowing an interview:

WHY is (TOPIC) so important for our audience to learn more about?

WHAT is (TOPIC) by definition?

HOW does (TOPIC) work in a step-by-step process?

WHAT IF our listeners utilized the strategies you are teaching us about (TOPIC), what would their live be like in 30 days, 90 days, 1 year?

Just fill-in your topic of interest where you see “TOPIC” above and you’re good to go!

You can also ask questions about obstacles or strategies or questions that are specifically relevant to your topic and audience. But the four questions you can’t live without are the WHY, WHAT, HOW and WHAT IF questions.

I consider them my four most trusted servants to extracting the nectar from the fruit of any of my Tele-Interviews.

Although I don’t get caught-up with the percentage breakdowns of each learning style, I do follow a certain sequence based on what I believe to be their attention levels.

Fair Warning: I have no scientific evidence that support my next recommendation, other than my intuition derived from conducting over 1,200 Tele-Interviews in 15 years.

My experience tells me the correct sequence of questions are: WHY, WHAT, HOW, WHAT IF.

The sequence I utilize is counter-intuitive because most other interviewers, including Larry King, Barbara Walters and Oprah will typically ask the “WHAT” question first.

But I choose to ask the “WHY” question first because my experience has taught me that WHY learners are the least patient and tolerant of the four types of listeners.

I know lots of WHY learners and I find them to be easily distracted. Auditory stimuli and bright, shiny objects easily sway their attention away so it’s critical to focus your interview on them first.

Next come the WHAT learners in the interview sequence and then the HOW learners, followed closely by the WHAT IF learners, which is what I believe I am :-)

Again, I can’t scientifically substantiate the sequencing recommendation above, but the Tele-Interview rave reviews I get from my students and colleagues support that my sequence is spot-on.

What To Do Now: Give me your comment about this post. Do you agree or disagree with my recommendation?

When you’re done commenting, I want you to create a questionnaire template for your next interview, no matter what communication medium you choose to utilize – Teleseminar, radio, TV, hot seat on-state, face-to-face or whatever.

Practice it. Utilize it. Learn from it and you’ll find that your interview style will evolve from good to great.

Let’s take a look at these three tools in more detail to see why they work so well together.

1) JOURNALING

Journaling is a healthy habit that helps you SLOW DOWN. This in turn:

• Leads to REST and REFLECTION, which in turn leads to REVELATION. Together, these three make up the tricord of LEVERAGE. And Leverage equals speed.
• Helps ELIMINATE HURRY from your life. Love and hurry are imcompatible. Jesus was never in a hurry, not even one time. Jesus said The Greatest Commandment is to love God and love people.
• Allows you to notice and APPRECIATE the extraordinary in the ordinary things of life
• Helps you LISTEN better – to God and to people. When you learn to listen to God, you’ll learn to listen to people. When you listen to people, God will use them to coach you to become more Christ-like.
• Builds your PRAYER life and faith
• Creates time to STEWARD THE TEMPLE of the Holy Spirit – to care for the only body you will ever have
• Brings God’s PEACE that passes all understanding

There are also many, many benefits of writing. For example, a two-year study of Harvard graduates showed that the 3% of graduates who wrote their goals down earned more than the other 97% combined.

In our 8-week course, we have you ask the LORD 5 questions each week related to the topic being taught. For example, in Week 1 (The Big Picture), you are asked to write down the answers that come to you spontaneously to these 5 questions:

• Day 1. LORD, what are reasonable goals for me to set and achieve in 3 months from this Web 2.0 course?
• Day 2. LORD, who is my target audience?
• Day 3. LORD, how can I best feed Your sheep using Web 2.0?
• Day 4. LORD, what new things can I start doing as a result of using Web 2.0?
• Day 5. LORD, that do you want me to write about or share on my blog and in articles?

Not only do you benefit greatly from answering these kinds of questions, but you also benefit from seeing what other participants write. In fact, writing answers to these questions and reading what others write has become one of the favorite parts of our course for participants.

Writing down your answers and sharing them with the group leads to CLARITY, FOCUS, and COMMITMENT.

2) COACHING

Let’s start by talking about what coaching is. First and foremost, coaching is a relationship between a coach and a client. It’s a relationship designed to empower healthy people to take initiative in their own lives to grow and change. That growth and change is future-oriented. Coaching is oriented toward dreams and goals and where you want to go. It takes you from where you are to where you want to be.

A coach can be an incredible resource to help you change, achieve a goal, or discover and reach your destiny.

In doing that, coaching works with internal motivation. You’re not doing something someone else wants you to do. You’re setting your own goal in doing what you want to do. And as you do that, you and your coach will come up with a plan to achieve your goal and it will be personalized and customized toward your needs. It will work with your schedule. It’ll work with your time. It’ll work with the resources that you have available.

Your coach will help you put a structure around your goal, a structure around your plan that will help you achieve it. You’ll get perspective. You’ll get feedback. You’ll get regular accountability. And that structure will keep you on track with your change. So, instead of muddling around, trying to do something that’s unclear, you’ll create definite goals and action steps to get it done.

So, coaching is a relationship that’s future-oriented. It works on your internal motivation. It’s personalized, and it creates a structure for your growth. In summary, a coach is a person walking with you to empower you to reach your own goals.

LIFE coaches provide S.E.A. = Support + Encouragement + Accountability. Accountability is the password to your future. Coaching is transformational. How you act is a product of who you are.

Dr. Jerry Graham and I are both certified Lifeforming Leadership Coaches with a Destiny emphasis.

Working with us, two Destiny coaches, will launch you forward in your destiny. When you get in alignment with your assingment, God’s provision will follow.

3) WEB 2.0+++

What is Web 2.0+++? It’s Web 2.0 plus Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Web 2.0 is commonly referred to as Relationship Marketing, Social Marketing, and Attraction Marketing. My favorite name is Relationship Marketing because in the Greatest Commandment, Jesus said life is about relationships.

When you combine Relionship Marketing (Web 2.0) with Holy Spirit guidance and inspiration, the end result is what I call UNCOMMON Relationship Marketing — marketing by and for Jehovah JIREH! The outcome is God-sized results with massive Kingdom impact.

Jerry and I routinely incorporate prayer and Holy Spirit guidance and inspiration into our training sessions. We openly seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness first.

Listen, Jerry and I want to come alongside of you to manifest the GREATNESS that God created you for.

Ben Stewart   "He is a leader in social networks, blogs, and JOURNALING!" Randy Peck is an incredible leader with a heart that reflects Christ at all times. Randy has an insatiable desire to help others through divinely inspired insight and discernment. While Randy is a client, he also is a provider of web and internet marketing services. He is a leader in social networks, blogs, and journaling. I believe that Randy is the foremost journaler of all times. He inspires others through his God given ability helping others see their gifting while encouraging them to activate plans of action meeting their goals. Randy remains an accountability partner to help others soar! That’s Randy, a gifted medical doctor and life coach extraordinaire! Ben Stewart Founder and President FastForwarding Coaching www.ffcgo.com www.ask-dont-tell.com

David Bean   "I can feel his prayers helping me get through this family issue" Q: We assigned people to groups of two. What has your peer relationship with Renato meant to you? I look forward to Renato’s blog posts in my email box every morning so I can get words from Jesus. I can feel his prayers too helping me get through this family issue that we’re going through. It’s been a blessing for me to have him as a friend and brother in Christ – to be able to walk through this process with him and watch how he is being used by God is truly amazing. Renato: And you are a great blessing to me. I also read you blog regularly and I’m very blessed by your transparency. I know what you’re going through and, yes, I’m grateful to God to have been partnered with you. Randy: Wow. David, as I look at this picture of a father with his son on his shoulders. I’m just getting the Holy Spirit tingles up and down my body because that’s what’s happening to you. You’re going to raise up kids that are excited to be with their dad – whether it’s their natural dad or their spiritual father. David Bean Raising Up Spiritual Fathers www.davidbean777.com

"Web 2.0 is going to LEVERAGE my time in a much more powerful way" I think it was great because for me what it really showed is all the things that I need to be doing but I’m not. I don’t have time to learn all this, so I need to hear it from someone like you who has spent the last 3 years learning the knowledge. I know I need to make a lot of changes in what I am doing because I am not getting near the bang for the buck, so I need to do a whole lot more. Web 2.0 is going to leverage my time in a much more powerful way, so I’m looking forward to taking action.   Michael Stay President and CEO, Core Impact Author, The Weekly Trio www.coreimpact.com www.coreimpact.com/blog

In the process of sharing what God has deposited in you, a DAM WILL BREAK allowing God’s fresh living waters to flow through you into other people’s lives. This will bring you joy, peace, and much more.

For maximum LEVERAGE nowadays, you need to STRATEGICALLY use other types of social media that BUILD RELATIONSHIPS, drive traffic to your blog, and interface AUTOMATICALLY with it. You want to cut out as many redundant steps as possible to maximize your time.

• But what are the best types of social media to use?
• Which ones should you start with?
• And how do you get started?
• Once you have traffic, how do you turn that into profit?
• Can you begin generating revenue even before you have a list or a blog?

That’s what our 8-week course “Establishing A POWERFUL Online Presence” is all about.

Success in business or ministry is not a mystery!
It is a SYSTEM!

In October 2008, I had the privilege of hosting Mari Smith for one of my Web 2.0 webinars called “FACEBOOK FORTUNES: How To Strategically Grow Your Business Using the #1 Online Social Network.” It was Mari who chose that title.

According to Fast Company, “Mari Smith is the Pied Piper of the online world, a veritable engine of personal branding and a relationship marketing whiz.” Mari says, “I believe if you’re not strategically using Facebook and Twitter along with several other powerful platforms, you’re missing out big time on huge profits.

Here, I want to emphasize the word STRATEGIC here because there is an enormous amount of fake networking taking place on the Internet.

At the “Inside The Entrepreneurial Mind” business forum, a businessman from Chicago asked Seth Godin, “Is social networking valuable for your business? And if so, for what kinds of businesses?”

Seth’s answer in the video below is profound and right on target. Seth says, It’s worthless to have lots and lots of friends on Facebook and Twitter. What matters are the real relationships – exchanging worthwhile ideas and connections. “Networking is always important when it’s real and it’s always a useless distraction when it’s fake. What the Internet has allowed is an enormous amount of fake networking to take place. And it’s so easy to be seduced by it because there is a dashboard and a scoreboard.” That’s nonsense. “What translates is are there people out there who I would go out of my way for and who would go out of their way for me. That’s what you need to keep track of. And the way you get there is by going out of the way for them and by earning the privilege of one day having that connection be worthwhile.”

Search engines constantly change their algorithms, shuffle their indexes, merge results and share content. The only consistent thing about marketing your website to them is that what works really well today probably won’t work so well tomorrow.

That’s why you need an experienced search marketing professional who keeps two fingers on the pulse of the major search engines. If Google hiccups, we know about it. If Yahoo! gets stubborn, we’ll coax those rankings back to the first page.

Working with search engines is a long-term, high maintenance relationship and we’re dedicated to managing that relationship so you don’t have to, and at an investment you can feel good about.

So How Exactly Does SEO Work?

This is the million dollar question. And we can almost guarantee you that for every person you ask, you’ll get a different answer. That’s because marketing to the search engines is like any creative endeavor: cooking, painting, carpentry, etc.

If you ask five people to bake a cake, you’ll get five unique cakes each with different ingredients. Ask ten people to craft you a chair and you’ll get ten distinct pieces each with its own style.

Because the search engines change their ranking algorithms (the equations they use to analyze a website’s reputation and rankability) so often, and they each use such widely varying criteria, there are literally hundreds of ways to promote your site to the first page of search results.

However, there are certain universal guidelines regarding what central principles and elements are vital to your search marketing strategy. There are also very clear rules against certain practices that attempt to cheat or trick the search engines.

Fundamental Principles for Successful SEO

1. Content

Content will always be your key ticket to top rankings. Without it, any rankings achieved will be short-lived. For content to help your ranking, however, you need a lot of it and it has to be updated regularly. Most importantly, each page of content must target a specific keyword term.

However, if your site possesses content that is auto-generated or is poorly written, i.e. a human visitor would not find it useful and informative, the search engines will figure it out and demote your site, possibly even blacklisting you and preventing you from showing up in their results at all.

We develop well-written, keyword targeted content for your site that is updated consistently and monitored for rankability. Your business will enjoy the added benefit of an ever-growing resource library of information that your site visitors will enjoy and which will also help with your sales conversions.

2. Links

More specifically, one-way links from authoritative sites in your niche market. You can find out how authoritative a site is by looking at its Page Rank.

Page Rank, or PR, is a ranking system Google devised to show how much weight or authority a particular site has. No one can say the exact methodology Google uses to assign Page Rank, however all SEO experts agree that it largely has to do with the amount of incoming links a site has, how long it’s been around, and visitor activity on the site (yes Google even knows how long someone remains on your site after they click through from the search results!).

What this means for you is that you want as many high PR sites linking into your site as possible (without you linking back to them). This is because Google gives these sites a lot of respect and values their “recommendations” signaled by who they choose to link to.

If all this sounds a bit complicated, think of it this way:

Google and the major search engines analyze your website the way scholars judge academic papers. The more journals and other reputable papers cite your research and quote you, the more authoritative and “expert” you become.

We negotiate inbound links on your behalf, concentrating on links from sites related to your market whose reputation thematically relates to the reputation you’re trying to build. We also make sure these links deep-link into your website, meaning that they link to various pages in your website, rather than just to your homepage (also a sign that you’re highly authoritative).

3. Visitor Behavior

Google knows everything. Other Search Engines like Yahoo! and MSN aren’t so far behind. If a visitor clicks from their search engine into your site, and leaves immediately, Google knows that they didn’t find what they were looking for. If too many people do this, Google will drop you from their rankings because they assume you’re not relevant for that particular term. This is why site design, compelling content, and conversion analysis are important.

We offer Website Conversion Optimization in addition to SEO to help you address this particular issue.

4. Human Idiosyncracies

Google wants to know that a human is running the show. Automated SEO software, or any techniques that add hundreds of pages to your site within a week, or which create content automatically, are a dead giveaway that you’re doing something Google doesn’t like.

This won’t just get you knocked off the top 10 rankings – Google and other search engines will ban your site from ever showing up in their results – even when someone searches your exact domain name. This is why any illegal or unethical techniques will kill your business.

We hand craft every single page of information on your website and upload those pages consistently over several months.

Universally Illegal SEO Practices: Avoid at ALL Costs

Search engines may be vague about what you can do to get top rankings.
However, they are not vague about those practices that will get you banned from their rankings. For instance, Google provides Webmaster Guidelines that detail what you are NOT to do when promoting your website.

When you are looking for an SEO professional, be aware of these illegal techniques and the different “pet names” given them by dubious fly-by-night companies. We’ve provided several of them here for your easy reference. You can also download these tips in an easy-to-read PDF format.

However, with the advent of what we call Web 2.0 (interactive, dynamic websites that promote or operate as social networks), people can now easily find information and websites that other human beings recommend.

The most recent instance of this is social bookmarking. Websites like Del.icio.us, Digg, and Furl allow users to share their personal favorites (bookmarks) with others. Users tag each bookmarked website with the keywords they feel are most applicable.

Now, instead of using a search engine to find information, people can search tags that will display all websites bookmarked with that specific tag. This amounts to a human referral or vote for the site and its relevance to the subject being searched.

Other versions of social networking include blogging social networks – primarily Technorati.com. Technorati indexes blogs based on the amount of incoming links those blogs have, as well as the tags associated with their posts.

But the most popular social network is of course MySpace. Though the social giant enjoys over 20 million unique visitors every month, few businesses or website owners have thought to penetrate this incredible resource.

Lastly, two powerful new social media networks have emerged that are revolutionizing audio and video: YouTube and BlogTalkRadio. These mega networks allow citizen filmmakers and broadcasters to share their visions with the world and spread the word about what matters to them.

Few businesses realize it yet, but these media networks are potential goldmines stock full of future Speilbergs, Bloombergs, and Oprahs – all potential broadcasters of your marketing message.

How Will Social Networking Help My Site Traffic Grow?

Two out of three people online in June 2006 visited a social networking site. In fact, 1 out of every 20 website visits is to a social networking website. Experts say that social networks are starting to eclipse traffic from the major search engines Yahoo! and Google.

So if your company is not present on any of the major social networks, you’re missing out on the easiest, fastest way to access 67% of internet users.

How Do I Get Involved in Social Networking?

Working with social sites is similar to working with the media. Give them a good enough story, secret, tip, or resource that they can sink their teeth into and you’ll have an army of talkers spreading the word about you and your business.

And this translates into referrals, which convert into sales on an average of 667% better than cold leads (search engine results). So even if you reach less people through social networking, your conversions will be far higher.

We target various social networks through a variety of methods:

Article or Blog Promotion

We manage several blogs for our various clients (as well as article pages) that contain posts written purely to capture the imagination and interest of our client’s target market.

For instance, if you sell pet beds, gifts, and items, we will develop a series of blog posts or articles that discuss a controversial or “hot off the press” topic that pet lovers either find highly valuable as an information resource, or highly intriguing or emotionally stimulating. We will then promote it to various social bookmarking and blogging networks, as well as popular bloggers – who will then circulate the story and generate traffic back to your website.

Social Promotion

Particularly effective for clients who target teens, young adults, musicians, or other highly active social groups, we implement social promotion campaigns on networks like MySpace, FaceBook, Catch37, and CraigsList to spread the word about your business. Even if your business does not target the “myspace crowd,” we can almost always devise a creative campaign to get the net buzzing.

How Does Social Networking Work With SEO?

As more and more internet users begin to use tags to find information (a tag is a keyword that a human associated with a website, vs. a keyword that a search engine attributes to a website), Search Marketing professionals cannot ignore the growing dominance of the social networks.

However, we view the partnership between social networks and search engines as an excellent and balanced marriage. Sure, social networking gets you in front of people who no longer use search engines in lieu of finding their information through referrals or bookmarks/tags.

But the added, and perhaps more exciting bonus, is that while you grow in popularity with social networks like Digg and MySpace, your search rankings will continue to increase as a result!

Your popularity signals Google that you are an authority in your market according to your human audience.

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 Download Our Fact Sheet: Social Networking