Blog Marketing

Online Marketing : Social Networking

And Internet Marketing Quick Start Tips

Source: By Maria Nadeem on site :

http://www.businessbord.blogspot.com/

Having a website for your business simply isn’t enough if it doesn’t

have a high visibility. Your objective should be to get your website

noticed, and the way to do that these days is by writing about it,

and getting it written about in blogs and other social media sites.

Some of the social media tools that you can use to help achieve your

objectives include Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and related forums

and blogs.

Twitter is the newest social media tool to appear with a reputation that

has grown extensively in a very short period of time and now ranked as

the third most used social network. Twitter’s attraction is that it offers

a very simple way for people to connect with each other, even President

Obama is known to use it. Twitter is an effective business marketing

tool to point to your website and/or blog updates.

Facebook is one of the largest social networking site around, with more

than 200 million active users worldwide. It offers fantastic business

features and the opportunity of making business contacts. Facebook

now has “Pages” you can promote your business on and get “fans”.

Another attractive feature of Facebook is the advertising opportunities

which reach your specific demographic. There is also an “Events”

feature to help with your internet marketing.

Integrating blogging into your marketing plans is an effective way

to connect with your target audience. Blogs are useful places to post

questions and get feedback about products and businesses.

A business blog is an effective internet marketing tool because it

contains specific industry related content. Search engines will pick

up on the keywords and phrases used and attract a high number

of visitors.

Here are some tips to get you started in your social

networking and internet marketing.

1. Set up a business blog. For an online business, they are perfect as you can build awareness, establish expertise and create a practical communication channel between you and your customers which is ideal for building trust and reputation. Business blogs are generally successful because they allow you to connect directly with your customers and give them an avenue to communicate directly with you.
2. Track and identify those blogs where your consumers hang out and integrate yourself into this community. Post interesting content, make contacts and form relationships. Time spent creating awareness around your brand in this environment is time well spent because you are so significant within that position.
3. Append your signature to all blog comments and outgoing email messages as it offers a personal and effective, and free, way to market your business. Insert your keywords, into your URL in your signature line. Make the actual link your URL. The keyword link to your site may help your search engine rankings.
4. Use video to show your product or service, particularly popular are ‘How to..’ videos. Put it on your blog and website and send it to YouTube. You can also post it at YouTube and simply embed it into your sites.
5. Open an account in a couple of social media networks such as Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Create content that is highly relevant and link worthy. DO NOT SPAM the groups, you’ll lose followers and fans very quickly if you do. Some groups such as Facebook will close your account.
6. Learn Twitter etiquette. The main rules are, don’t spam, spammers don’t last long on Twitter. Always give credit for retweets, don’t do spammy auto direct messages.
7. Add links from your Twitter and Facebook pages to your blog, website and email.
8. Have a plan as to how you will research and investigate social media networks and follow it. Don’t rush things, learn the ropes first.
9. Don’t directly promote your business all the time. Instead, offer ways to help others such as providing resource links, articles and helpful tips.
10. Link to other blogs and websites. Links are what search engines and users make good use of, and search engines need them.

Consumers don’t only want to communicate with each other;

they also want access to the businesses and companies they

buy their goods and services from. Your customers want to connect

with the real people behind the company and know what you are

doing and planning to do.

Business owners are becoming more aware how important using social

media as one of their internet marketing methods really is.

Consumers are more internet savvy, have more access to information

and can search and compare easily. They expect (or at least want)

a company to provide them the information they need and want with

the ability to interact with the company. Social media marketing is

a way to connect to consumers on a more personal level. Now is

the time to put your energy into looking at and learning about

these social networking sites as they are set to radically change

the way businesses communicate.

Something about author:

Michiel Van Kets provides article services for Idea Design, a Tampa Bay

web design firm committed to working with clients to develop their

online Web presence. For information and advice on web design,

blogs and twitter and internet marketing, please visit the website.