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It is easy to find more general Social Networks, such as Facebook, Twitter or even linkedIn. But for your internet marketing business you need to use sites that are more focused on your industry and will help you target the right audience while letting you use the most efficient tools. What is important today is not how many readers or followers you can get but who exactly your reach, readers of quality, who will be interested in your profile because they are interested in your industry, in your business. That’s why you need to focus working on the Social Networks that bring

Mashable

Eventhough it is more considered the “Daily News of Social Media”, Mashable can be an interesting tool for you to share the latest news on the Internet Marketing industry. Mashable allows you to apply as a guest blogger, but you cannot post promotional posts. However it gives writers the chance to create a promotional page about the author in return for your posts and quite some exposure. Mashable checks, if you are an expert in your field and wants writing samples, but you if you made it, this could be a great breakthrough for your company!

Gooruze

Gooruze is a Social Media site dedicated to the Marketing Community.It allows people and businesses in the marketing niche to interact through 4 platforms : forum, blogging, article and answers. They can exchange and share ideas, post articles and communicate easily. For your Internet Marketing Business, Gooruze let you link back to your blog but you shouldn’t use this network only for promoting your business, but to make connections and share information.

Sphinn

Sphinn is a great social network for your internet marketing business. It was created to help online marketers share ideas on web related topics. It offers forums to share opinions and create discussions. You can post blog posts and articles as long as they are presenting online marketing topics. Sphinn also has some interesting SEO discussions going on. You can set up your business profile and receive personal emails. Before posting articles and such, remember to review the terms of use: Sphinn is for non commercial purpose only. You can link to other site, such as your business blog, as long as it is not the only one you link to. But do not overdo it! Sphinn is very touchy about this issue, so make sure that the majority of the posts you submit are not your own.

Blogengage

Blogengage is a blogging community, where you are encouraged to submit your own blog posts, but only after you created a profile and uploaded an image. You can also vote on other people’s blog posts, discuss questions in a forum and they also accept guest blog posts, which will give you a nice backlink. Market Your Startup placed first of the Top 10 Blog posts of October!

You can of course use other more general network sites to promote your internet marketing business. But remember that targeting the right audience and using the social networks suitable for your niche is more efficient.

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A: “Hey, with your new company and all, do you do social media? I heard it can bring you lots of sales and traffic to your website!”

B: “Ah, shut up, I tried this stuff. I set up a Twitter account and a Facebook page and all and spend all this time on it and it did not get me a single lead! Social media is a waste of time!”

A lot of people, companies and entrepreneurs share this point of view. If you want to agree with them, follow these great instructions to finally proof that Social Media is a waste of time. Here is a list of 36 great ways to fail at Social Media:

# 1: Setting up a Facebook page and a Twitter account is all you need to do!

# 2: Have your niece be your social media expert, because she has 300+ friends on Facebook!

# 3: Update your Twitter account every 2 weeks, you don’t want to be a spammer, right?

# 4: Let’s create a company blog on a WordPress domain!

# 5: Sending every single link to your company website or blog!

# 6: Set your Twitter account to protected!

# 7: Make your Facebook page only visible to your fans!

# 8: Tweet about your coffee! Every single morning! Multiple times, somebody could have missed it!

# 9: Send your Followers a DM with a link to a spam website!

# 10: Not  have a single post on Twitter and expect people to follow you!

# 11: Write about yourself, all the time, everywhere!

# 12: Never, ever give advice or share a link! Don’t you ever do that, understood!!!

# 13: Use the pushiest sales talk you can think of! Create new words: Ultraextremeawesomeness!

# 14: TWEET ALL IN CAPITAL LETTERS! EXTRA POINTS!!!

# 15: Have a tirade about your competitors! They suck and it is your duty to warn people about them!

# 16: Even better: Randomly retweet other people’s tweets and send your followers to your competition!

# 17: End every sentence in your tweet with an exclamation point! Darn I am good at this one!

# 18: No matter what, do not listen to what other people have to say! Don’t read your DM’s @’s and delete ALL comments on your blog

# 19: Never use the Search.Twitter to search for your company name. Reading this could harm your company’s reputation.

# 20: Use different user names, spellings and logos for every profile you create

# 21: Now I am getting mean: Let your accountant write your blog posts

# 22: Spend a fortune on the blog design, and $ 3.00 per blog post!

# 23: Your number one goal should be: have 200,000 followers on twitter, so always follow as many people as Twitter allows you

# 24: RT your links to your website at least 2 x per hour! People are not on Twitter 24/7! You have to get the word out!

# 25: Only Facebook and Twitter really count as Social Media

# 26: Close comments on your blog! You are the boss, your customers should listen to you, not the other way around!

# 27: Oh wow, my lucky number

# 28: Talk bad about customers, with several Million users, how should they ever find you?

# 29: Use your keywords, at least twice in every paragraph, so be sure to use your keywords in your paragraphs at least twice!

# 30: Switch all your marketing budget to social media, because if you don’t find 1,000 new customers by next month, you will be out of business

# 31: Don’t waste your time reading other blog posts, especially those related to your industry! You know it better anyways

# 32: Content on your blog is not important. Rather spend this time to write comments on any blog you can find.

# 33: But don’t waste time writing lengthy comments either: Two words max, but be sure to use your keywords as your commentator name

# 34: Don’t worry about “target market”! Your product/service is so great, everyone will want it

# 35: If your blog does not get you a lead or a sale in less than 2 weeks -> stop it, it’s not working!

# 36: It is ok to copy your content from other websites and you do not have to reference them in any way. Social Media is about sharing right?

I hope you liked this little list of ways to fail at Social Media! Do you have more? Please share them and I promise I will delete them without reading!

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Best Social Networks for your Travel Business

As mentioned previously in The 5 Best Social Media Sites for Marketing your Business Online, it is important to find the best Social Media Sites for your specific industry to promote your business efficiently. Facebook and Twitter are great tools but for your business in general, but in addition to that you need to target your audience more specifically to promote your Travel Business. The easiest way to do that is by going where they already are: Travel related Social Media networks and communities, all sites that focus on the travel industry, actually. Whereas your reach on Twitter and Facebook might be bigger, your conversion rate might be smaller, as people are generally interested in travel and like to look around, but are not in “booking-mode” yet. So here is a list of Social Networks that are best adapted to you Travel Business.

Real Travel

Real Travel is a Social Network where you can post travel reviews. Your can give travel advice, present travel guides about different locations promoting your business. However, be aware Real Travel’s policy does not allow you to use the site for commercial practices. If you have a tour operator site, you should not promote your business on this site.

Dopplr

Dopplr is another great Social Network for the travel niche. There you can share your travel tips about different cities, you can present the best attractions people should visit and make lodging and dining recommendations. Make sure you never post spammy comments or they will be taken off. You do not want to be to pushy on your travel post and forum comments anyway; remember that pushy talk breaks the trust relationship you are trying to develop with your readers.

Business Travel Connexion

Business Travel Connexion is a Social Network created by American Express for the Travel Industry, rather than the travelers themselves. This Social Network is built around the idea to put travel managers in contact to facilitate networking and idea exchange. You will also find a discussion forum to let you and other industry leaders share your knowledge and establish beneficial relationships.

Skylounge

Skylounge targets business travelers and expats to connect and share experiences they gained from various business trips. They have travel tips, events and a good forum. As with all other forums, follow the following principles: Listen -> Share ->Inform -> Introduce. Skylounge is very concerned about spammers so become a trusted source of information first is essential.

Ezine Articles

Ezine Articles is an article directory, where you can create an account and upload articles to be published about a certain topic. If you are an expert on Travel to Nepal, great, write about it. You get exposure and a high quality back link, when they publish your submission. Although Ezine Articles is not specifically focused on the travel niche, but has thousands of different niches, it helps you to built credibility and you reach your target audience easily.

TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor is another great forum to share you expertise and complete the work of other writers with your knowledge. However, as great as TripAdvisor is, it is important to know that if you link back to your business page or company blog, they will most likely take them off. Although it seems that it depends on who reviews your contribution, it is important to know that your posts linking to your company blog, even if there is no commercial comments on it, might be erased. So before putting time and effort on completing their site to hope for more traffic to your blog, read  their policy carefully!

Of course, there are a lot more sites that might also be suitable social networks for your travel business. This list is to help you get started and direct you on the right path. Remember that those tools are a way for you to built a relationship with your readers, to make them aware of your business and to inform them. So make sure to keep your sales talk out of your post and forums. Share information, build trust and most importantly: Listen! These forums are run by the people that you want to sell to, so they might give you the next hot destination, so listen carefully!

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What should Your Business Tweet about?

So you took the first step and decided to use Social Media for your business. It is a great step, however you do need to know what to do with it. After you found out what Social Media Sites to use, and you personalized your profile it, it is time to use Twitter and get that cycle going. So what should you tweet about?

Tweet about: Industry News

One important topic your business should tweet about is what’s going on in your industry. To inform, update, and keep your followers interested, it is important to regularly post a tweet about the latest industry news. It shows your involvement and that you keep your business up to date and on top of things. Let your readers know what is the latest great innovation in the industry, and how the industry is going. This helps your readers understand more about your business in the broader picture.

Tweet about: Company News

Of course, another very important topic is your own business. You ought to inform your followers constantly about what is going with your business. You need to tweet about your companies news. Tweet about a new product or service, but not only that. Tweet about how your company will be/ was social involved. Let your readers know about your business evolution in the industry and on the market. You want them to be aware of what your company does and how it is done. This is part of building a trust relationship with your readers. You keep them constantly informed so they can follow you. By tweeting about your company news you give your followers a reason to keep following you. Also, Twitter is a good opportunity to inform customers about special offers. But remember to avoid pushy talk when using Social Media: the ultimate goal is to inform, gain attention of readers, and keep your followers!

Tweet about: Customer Complaints

Twitter is a great Social Media tool to communicate with your customers. This means, if your customers have complaints it is a great way for them to communicate any problems to you and for you to answer them. Don’t be scared to receive complaints, no one is perfect, and it is by answering and fixing your customers complaints that you will improve your business. When you tweet a complaint answer to your customers you make them feel important and show them their satisfaction matters. You allow your followers to give you feedback to improve your business on different levels. Give different answers in your tweet, not the same typical complaints answer. Customized your tweet to the customer and the situation. Show them they are one entity and their personal satisfaction is important.

Tweet about: Sharing Ideas/Asking Advice

Your business should also tweet about new ideas. You can then engage your readers, to get their feedback and have them share their ideas as well. One of the goals of social media is to make your followers involved, and allow more communication. Other businesses from the industry following you can also benefit fro your tweets and help you get ideas on different topics. You can tweet about an idea you have, to share it. But you can also tweet about doubts or questions and ask for advice. Social Media allows you to get opinion more directly. So take advantage of it. don’t be afraid to present your ideas and ask questions. Twitter helps you getting the information to your followers, but it also is a great tool for you to get the information you need from your followers. It is a give-and-take virtual relationship between customers and businesses, to enhance communication and take share ideas faster and more efficiently.

Tweet about: Company Blog

When you tweet for your business, you have in your hands a great way to present your blog. Tweet about your latest posts. Let your followers know where to find the information and what new topic you presents. But make sure you do not only tweet about your business. Include tweets about other blog post as well. Use links to blog posts that are relevant to your business (not from your competitors obviously) or posts about your industry, the market, the economy, and so on… It is important to show your readers you care more than just about your little bubble and that you get inform, read other people’s thoughts and share them. It makes you look involved, informed, curious and willing to always improve and bring your readers along. Plus, by tweeting about posts that are not yours you might be able to reach other possible followers that didn’t know about you. The posts writers might tweet about you as well, and allow more people to be aware of your presence in the Social Media community.

Tweet about:Yourself

An important point to remember when you tweet for your business it to be human. Do not just tweet about your company in general, or other companies, tweet about people. Have names behind ideas and topics to show your readers it is real and not just a computerized message that wasn’t thought through. Be clear and tweet about what interest your readers. Have a purpose in your tweets. Don’t just post something to post something. Remember you want to keep your followers interested. So show them that you understand them.

To put it in a nutshell: business should tweet about the company and the industry news, use tweets to share ideas and ask for advice, present interesting blogs – not just their business blog, but also others from the industry, and take advantage of twitter to answer their customers complaints and improve their satisfaction.

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Your Social Media profile is the way to give your business an identity online, to create an image in the heads of your customers and in the long haul, to create a brand. It is therefore important to personalize your Social Media Profile to make sure it is recognizable, to make it attractive for readers and not plain like any other profile. Remember Your Social Media Profile is the representation of your business online. Here is a “How to Guide” to personalize your Social Media Profile.

The Human Touch

Your Social Media Profile will have a better impact on people if there is a face and a name attached to it. Don’t be afraid to associate your name to your business, after all you are the reason why it exist. You deserve the credit! If you even put a picture, readers can get the human feel behind your Social Media Profile. You are then not just a web page, not an entity, but so much more. Edit a biography about your business, and also write about yourself. Your readers want to learn about your business. By personalizing your Social Media profile you allow your reader to learn more about you, to see who you are and what you do. So let your profile show that you are human! You can even give your profile a certain tone in your writing, use humor – but don’t not overboard!

The Caring Touch

Your profile is a great tool to show your reader your involvement in society, the topics that are important to you and so on. You can personalize your Social Media profile by showing how your company cares about its employees and the community. Talk about events in which your company participated: you can put comments about blog post you wrote on the event, or you can create and attach  a photo album of your employees at the events to your profile . Share about events within the company: present your employee of the month, make a comment about your company’s Christmas party. Show that you care! And you can also ask your readers to give you feedback on events they know about and organization that need sponsors, so that they can participate in your profile personalization.

The Visual Touch

Make sure you filled in everything you can to inform your visitors, fans or followers about your business. Don’t leave a blank section. If there is nothing to say in this section fill it with a short video about your business or a specific product; or make a slide show of pictures presenting different aspect of your business. Another very important advice: Customized the profile itself to fit your overall Corporate Identity. Change the colors so that they represent your company’s colors. Add your logo as a background or at the top of the page. Modify the set up to show you put effort into it, to have a profile that makes people interested in your business. You don’t want readers to skip your profile because they can’t read what you wrote, or because it is just another black and white page. Make sure you choose colors, font style and size that allow a good visualization of your profile. You want the information to get to your readers, so make it easy for them to find it and read it!

Answer!

Give your customers feedback an answer as promptly as possible. Don’t be scared of complaints, the way you answer them will show other readers that you care and will give your profile the interactive communication feel that it is supposed to have. Also update your profile regularly. You don’t want to have a presentation on a product/service you don’t offer anymore, or numbers that are not accurate with your current situation. It is important to keep your profile “living” to show your constant presence and evolution. Answer to customer responses, whether positive and negative and show that you listen! Remember that Social Media helps you develop a trust relationship between your customers and your business. This step in personalizing your Social Media Profile help you strengthen this relationship and keep it going.

After you set up, customize, and personalize your business Social Media profile: Ask yourself: Does my profile create an positive and inviting image in the head of my customers and is my brand recognizable? A well personalized Social Media Profile will attract the right followers as they will be able to directly see who you are and if you match what they are looking for. And keep in mind to have a good balance between the social and business aspect of your profile. Oh, and don’t forget to add your business URL!!

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The True ROI of Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing is not FREE! You are investing your time and therefore money in Social Media Marketing, and as any business investments you want to know what Return On Investments you can gain from it? Legitimate question! You should wonder, and you should know, because understanding and learning about the ROI of Social Media Marketing allows you to use it efficiently and really promote your business in the most effective way. So what is the ROI of Social Media Marketing? Keep reading to find out!

The quick answer: The ROI of Social Media Marketing is what you want it to be. Do you want to focus on better customer service? Or attract side markets to your business? Or may be you want to develop a loyal and trusting relationship with your customer? Well, then concentrate on those numbers. For some  metric examples and numbers on how to measure your Social Media Marketing check the end of the article!

Useful information

One of the first goal of Social Media Marketing is to inform. Your Social Media tools enable you to provide useful information about your business to educate your customers, and inspire potential customers that they need your product or service. The R.O.I. of Social Media Marketing then, is shown by analyzing how many of your current customers you have been able to keep and turn them into a loyal customer base and how many of new potential clients you have been able to turn into real customers. Another goal of Social Media Marketing is to teach your customers how you differ from your competition, explain what makes your product or service unique and the best solution for their problem or need, and also why there is a advantage for them and the rest of the society to follow you. The ROI of Social Media Marketing here is to see how many of your customers have started following you instead of your competitors.

Branding

Social Media Marketing helps your business gain an identity online. You establish a reputation for your business through Social Media tools, which allows targeted readers, customers and other businesses in your industry to recognize your brand, to recognize who you are and what your business represents. On the long term, the loyalty from your customers gained is the ROI of Social Media Marketing efforts. On shorter term, your ROI is the increasing number of customers and potential customers aware of your business existence on the market, and your presence online.

Customer Support and Product/Service Improvement

With Social Media tools you can reach more customers, but most of all you incite them to engage in improving what your business needs to change. You can make them feel involved, create communication and have them generate new ideas for your business – new ideas, innovation, or improvements or product differentiation, all of them will help you to stay ahead of the competition. This helps you understanding the need of your targeted readers and answer those needs the most efficiently possible. The ROI of Social Media Marketing is the feedback you receive from your customers and see how you are able to provide a better response to your customers.

Trust and a Trusting Network

Social Media Marketing has been proven to help businesses create a whole new relationship with their customers and business partners. The customer support ( as describe previously) enabled through the use of such tools enables you to drive a connection between your business and your customers. The constant attention given to your customers and your ability to keep their attention as well, gives your business the great opportunity to create, develop and strengthen a strong trust relationship with your customers. You, therefore, grow your network, on strong basis, for a long term commitment.

The ROI of Social Media Marketing can’t really be measured as a financial result, at least not initially. But it is measured through an analysis of your business, its online presence, the awareness you were able to develop, and quantity and quality of the followers you were able to gain and keep, and the identity you created for your business.

Social Media Marketing ROI Metrics

Here are a couple of numbers and metrics that you should keep an eye on to measure your Social Media Marketing ROI. But always remember to gather these information before you start with your Social Media Campaign, so you can compare the before and after results !

• Search Engine results and website traffic
• Brand recognition
• Customer complaints
• Customer complaints response rate
• Product returns
• Negative comments/positive comments about your company online
• One-time vs. returning customers
• Backlinks
• Time savings (for example, when you refer your customers to helpful blog articles rather than answering them all over and over again!)

These are just a few metrics that will help you determine the profitability of Social Media Marketing, but there are many more. It depends very much on where you want to focus on. Building a Social Media Marketing campaign is more than just setting up a Facebook page and following random people on Twitter. Focusing on specific aspects of Social Media will bring you more targeted results, so establish a strategy first and monitor the results!

Social Media Marketing is a long term process, where data analysis, and not dollars amount, tells you how successful you are.

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This video answers the question, whether Social Media is a Fad or not! What do you think?

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What has changed in advertisement and marketing in the past 75 years? Well, a lot, to say the least! While people in the 50s and 60s were brand loyal, advertisement enjoying dream customers, people of today’s world suffer from over-exposure to advertisement. Advertisement is everywhere and marketers try hard to invade the last spaces that are still free of advertisment to get even more exposure for their multiple brands that have lost all of their competitive edge! Rather then following the old ways of mass-exposure, the new way is to provide relevant information to the people that are open to receive this information!

Check out this video by Scholz & Friends, a European Network of Marketing and Advertisement Agencies shows you the dramatic shift in marketing reality! Enjoy!

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You have many new ways to promote your small business startup today: Social Media is definitely the one you should consider. Why? Well, read on and you will find out!

Reason #1 – Social Media is effective.

You should use Social Media to promote your small business startup because it is an effective tool to really target your niche online. If you learn what Social Media Site is best for your niche then you are really able to target the right audience in very little time. You can effectively inform the people, who want the information and develop with them a strong business relationship. Because you are the one in charge of what is said on your profile you can really demonstrate your level of expertise and your strongest assets. Your Social Media will be effective because you are in control of how to promote your business.

Reason #2 – The Wide Reach of Social Media

Because you are using Social Media you are able to reach more people, faster. Spread the word! That’s the main reason for using Social Media to promote your small business startup. Your profile has to be open, public and inviting so that everybody can find you and stays with you. The more traffic you attract on your business blog, the more people read about your business and let other people know about you. Social Media make customers and other businesses aware of your presence, online and offline.

Reason #3 – The “Look” of Social Media

Social Media as a tool to promote your small business startup allows you to present your startup like a big corporation! It enables you to give a look “Behind the scenes” of your business that you cannot show with other tools. In another way, it also allows you to promote your small business using the same tools as your large competitors use. With Social Media it doesn’t matter if you’re big or small, what matters is using it wisely and efficiently to develop a strong and trustworthy image of your business.

Reason #4 – The Results of Social Media

Using Social Media to promote your small business startup goes even farther than just reaching out to more customers or businesses. It allows you to get the information where it’s needed, but also to show your constant presence online and the stability of your small business startup. It, most of all, gives you the chance to get feedback and change, or ameliorate, certain aspects of your business and maybe develop a stronger customer service. Social Media creates conversation, discussions between you and your targeted readers. You can exchange ideas and it helps you grow stronger, answering the existing and future needs of your audience.

Reason # 5 – Social Media is Fast

When you have created interesting and appealing content that goes viral, it will happen fast! News spread increadibly fast on Social Media. Remember the air plane that crashed into the Hudson River? It spread on Twitter long before the first News reporters showed up at the scene. It also gives you instant feedback on new products or services, your content and you can provide real time customer service to your clients! How cool is that?

Don’t you want to be part of the next marketing generation? You have to be up-to-date to be competitive and socially accessible. Why wouldn’t you take advantage of Social Media to promote your small business startup? It is targeted and effective. It gives your business a stronger image while reaching out a larger targeted audience, and on the long run, it assures name recognition for you small business startup. .

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