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Networking, Social Media And Internet Marketing

The Internet has of course allowed outreach and communication on a scale, with a speed, and at an inexpensive cost level never even rivaled before in recorded human history. Those who wish to make money on the Internet can use this power to their advantage. For these social media that we are talking about don't need to be limited to personal or friendly communications, yet at the same time their nature as such can open them up to use as friendly, inviting, non-pushy means of making sales.

All good salesmen have always known about the importance and power of social networking. Time was that this had to be done by getting involved in offline activities. This could have been joining the local YMCA, church groups, community outreach program, flag football team, and so on. It could also include getting commentaries or articles published in the local newspapers (agreeing to be published for free in exchange for certainty of being published), and just generally giving out one's business card wherever one regularly went or shopped, such as the local gas station, the bakery, and so on.

Social Networking's power lies in the fact that it's non-confrontational and the people who are being targeted for sales feel that they are making the choice to buy or possibly buy at the time that suits them, rather than being targets of a "one meeting close" where they will feel the pressure to "buy now!" and then experience buyer's remorse. With networking, too, the prospects feel they are doing business with a friend; thus there is a sense of trust, and a sense of helping out a friend while feeling they can be sure of getting something good in return.

Now, social media networking on the Internet multiplies the power of networking while also making it far less expensive and easier to do. There are many options to choose.

Facebook
Now the Internet's leading social networking site, you can use it to find millions of potential clients. Join groups, continuously update your profile status, write on your wall, meet people. It's easy to spend all day and night here if you're not careful!

YouTube/Video Jug/MetaCafe
Free online video posting sites are amazing creations. After acquiring extremely inexpensive equipment, some of which now comes free with new computers, you can make video after video and put them up at these sites. Make them instructional and/or entertaining and put good metatags on them, and you'll have prospects streaming to your email and website after a while. You're giving out free entertainment or advice--that's always very attractive.

Twitter
This extremely simple to use social networking site is working wonders for Internet marketers who use it right! All you do is "twitter about" something you've done or are doing a few times a day in a couple of hundred characters or less. Believe it or not, if you are constant you'll build a following who will become more and more interested in you and what you do.

Squidoo
Build a better Squidoo "lens" and the virtual world will beat a path to your splash page! It's a lot of fun, too!

These are just a few examples of the top social media for Internet marketers, and it can be seen just how powerful social networking really is.

How Network Marketing Works Online

Online network marketing means marketing of products or services over the internet. It is a comprehensive term that means marketing a product or service with the help of a network of representative or agents who are self-employed. It is often considered that network marketing or MLM exclusively over the internet is next to impossible. However, this is not true. Online network marketing similar to any online business is considered to be a number game. This is because it has been seen that only 1% of the people who visit the sites shows interest in the business.

However, online network marketing deals with generating leads, qualifying the leads and finally following the leads till an action is taken which may be either buying the product or joining the business as an agent.

The working of an online network marketing starts with generating leads. The first question that comes to our mind is how leads can be generated. Online network marketing becomes easier if there is an already existing website. But where there is no existing website, a website needs to be created. The newly created website should be linked to the MLM Company’s website. The newly created website should be submitted to the different search engines and countless ways should be adopted to drive traffic towards it. Besides, an electronic newsletter has to be published. It must be about a relevant topic and also on a usual basis that helps to build a significant list of subscribers. However, a significant amount of time is required to create a considerable amount of traffic and subscribers to the site.

However, leads should also be generated in different ways. The two different ways that can be used are paid advertisement, which can be used both for the business and also the product and paid leads.

The next step in the process of online network marketing is qualifying the leads. However, the online generated leads are already prequalified as they have searched the site and at least interested in knowing in details about the offer. This saves a lot of time that is wasted in offline lead generation. Another way of generating qualified leads is paid advertisement or paid leads. In both the cases time is not wasted in trying to generate a qualified lead as they themselves search the site. Thus it becomes easier as the people interested in the offer themselves visit the site and make necessary inquiries.

The final step in the process of MLM business is to follow the leads till they take an action. The advantage that online network marketing provides is the capability to automate the follow-ups. Whenever a person visits the site, his email address should be added to prospect’s list and then follow-up messages should be sent to them periodically. Auto responders can also be used for this purpose. This is software that helps in sending follow-up messages that are pre-written to the prospect’s list periodically. Thus the process can be automated and thus saves time that can be utilized in generating leads.

Running an online network marketing business is not easy. It involves lot of hard work, persistence, commitment and consistency. Online network marketing is an end to the cold calling that is needed in offline lead generation. The work of sponsoring and selling is left on the internet. Most of the online MLM companies have online tools that help them to flourish their business. The online tools are the websites that are personalized and the opt-in page. Any prospect having interest in network marketing business will visit the site and leave his contact details like name, email address in the opt-in page.

These people can then be sent follow-up messages periodically till they take an action. In this process cold calling the prospects can be avoided but the prospects can be acquainted with the business as well as contact can be made with them online.
The use of internet has totally changed the network marketing business. The new trend of MLM business is network marketing that is based on the internet. Online network marketing has made the network marketing business easier. Earlier people used to talk to others and thus generate leads for their network marketing business. But now it is done through the internet which does not require personal interaction with the leads. It is a passive means of spreading the message of the business to the prospects.

Smart Marketing For Trade Shows

Participation in trades shows has seen a positive growth since 2002, continuation of exhibiting at trade shows has brought many questions to marketing managers.

Making your trade show exhibiting experience a success depends on "SMART - Strategies":

* Single out your objectives for exhibiting, one focus should be on reaching your trade show audience on their level, remember they have economic concerns too. Give them solutions, and they will be returning customers.

* Marketing - continue to grow your entire marketing package, do not solely rely on trade show leads. Pre-Show phone calls to prospective clients reminding them of your trade show display number. Finding out well in advance what their focus for the next 12-24 months will be, you can give them product teasers that will be valuable solutions. One on One contact at trade shows is all part of networking, being in front of buyers, why not continue to be in front of buyers during your normal work week?

* Average - this is a trade show don't, your trade show booth staff as well as your trade show display should have the power and the image that goes above and beyond average. Don't settle for anything less, the larger exhibitors in your industry did not get where they are by being average. Exhibit Design & Graphics that create a powerful statement, will show your audience that your company is knowledgeable & a leader in your the industry, no matter the size of your exhibit booth.

* Research the variety of shows you will be exhibiting at, find exhibiting success stories to help you will your decisions on what trade shows to focus on. Finding the best trade shows that will fit your marketing needs. Research light-weight exhibit solutions to help save costs and offer flexibility.

* Training your booth staff - properly and often. Communication with your trade show booth staff is communication with your trade show audience. Making sure they are well versed on your marketing objectives and goals. Being able to convey your message about your products and services. Having a cool trade show booth with all the bells and whistles can send your message loud and clear. But, if the cake is not baked all the way, the frosting is not going to go down very well.

Exhibiting at trade shows is an entire package of all the right elements.

Susie Kleiner, Freelance Article Writer, Internet Marketing Specialist at Chicago Trade Show Display by Tradetec Skyline Chicago

Ecademy.com

Ecademy.com is a social networking site founded in 1998 and focused in connecting business people. Ecademy.com has more than 300.000 users but the best of it and what make it different from other sites in this niche is that there the people come first and the business comes after as a consequence of the first. I’m in passion with the sharing feeling that I see in there.

Social Media Marketing Strategy

Why You Should Use Social Media in Your Marketing Mix


One of the basic keys to building a successful internet business is driving traffic to your website or blog. Without traffic, your business simply does not exist online. It's a common misconception that you can only get traffic from the search engines. While search engines usually will provide the bulk of your traffic, there are many other ways to drive traffic to your website other than thru the search engines.

One of the latest techniques for driving targeted traffic to your website is using what are called social media. Social media are websites and applications that specialize in sharing and discussing information among other interested people. The major social media include sites like myspace, facebook, technorati, stumbleupon, and digg to name just a few. If you are not utilizing any of these in your current marketing mix then you are missing out on a substantial volume of free, targeted traffic.

The first thing you should do before jumping into the social media marketing game is to explore some of the more prominent social media sites, learn their rules, and learn how they basically operate.

Here is a list of the major social media sites:

- Youtube (video)
- MySpace (social networking)
- Facebook (social networking)
- Technorati (blogging)
- Digg (blogging)
- Stumbleupon
- Metacafe (video)
- Propeller (blogging)
- Twitter (micro-blogging)
- Blinklist

There are many other social media sites out there and new ones spring up all of the time. However, the sites listed above account for approximately 85% of social media traffic and therefore focusing your marketing efforts on these sites will likely be very effective.

Once you have taken the time to familiarize yourself with the above websites, the next thing you should do is read the spam policy of each site. The owners and users of the social media sites hate spam with a passion. Therefore, it's very important to disguise your commercial intentions as meaningful content. Better yet, instead of disguising your intentions, actually submit relevent, quality content that users of social media will appreciate. If you do this you are likely to see a huge flow of traffic.

The bottom line is this: if you want the social media sites to work for you you need to work with them rather than against them. And this means providing users with meaningful content, not a bunch of bogus information and spam links.

http://mashable.com/2009/03/23/social-media-marketing-budgets/

How To Reach An Audience

To reach an audience, you have to know how to choose the right target audience, the right medium, and the right message. You can’t communicate with everyone in the world. Great communicators know how to direct their messages toward an audience they can realistically expect to reach, whether that audience is a roomful of people or a single employee.


Here are five questions that will help you find the right audience:

1. What do you want to do? Be specific about what you want to accomplish. If you have a fuzzy message or unclear goals, you won’t have a logical audience to target.
2. Who can help you get it done? Communicate with the audience that can help you do what you want to do. If you need your television fixed, don’t bother telling the entire neighborhood. The only audience you should be communicating with is the person who sold you the television.
3. Who would want to help you do it? People do things for their reasons, not yours. Look for an audience that has a strong reason to help you.
4. Why would an audience listen to you? The information age constantly bombards people with messages. Why should they listen to yours? Reasons include your position of authority, your knowledge of the topic, or your eloquence.
5. How accessible is this audience? If you run a convenience store, an ad in a large metropolitan daily newspaper is not going to do you much good: Most of the audience is out of your reach. However, if the paper has the regional edition for your area, an advertisement in that edition would reach an accessible audience.

After you’ve narrowed down your choice of audience through these five questions now you have to evaluate your choices to find the ideal audience. Your ideal audience should have the power or authority to do what you want it to do. For example, if you want a raise, you need to talk to the person who has the authority to give it to you.

You need to choose the right medium to convey your message. Each medium has its strengths and weaknesses. Use the medium whose strengths match the requirements of your message. For example, if your message relies on visual impact, don’t try to convey it by radio. If your message is complex, don’t try short audiovisual advertisement spots. It would be better to convey it through the print media.
Perhaps the best way to convey your particular message is through public speaking. For example, if you’re a developer and you are looking for public support to build a shopping mall, a public presentation would be more effective than a newspaper advertisement with pretty pictures of the mall.
Whatever medium you decide to use, take your time in deciding how you will use it. Make your presentation attractive. For example, if you’re speaking publicly, don’t show up in old wrinkled clothes and uncombed hair. Don’t send out a brochure with a hard-to-read type jammed tightly onto pages of cheap paper, or make a DVD with shaky images in a dull setting.
Timing and the length of your presentation are critical to your success. For example, if you’re selling Christmas cards, don’t send out your catalog on December 10th. If you’re presentation is too long, you’ll lose your audience, whether your presentation is a three-hour speech or a twenty-five page brochure.

Once you have a target audience in mind and have selected the right medium, the next step is to present your message in the most appealing and effective way. The first thing you must do, is choose your subject carefully. The right subject will be one that addresses the needs and wants of the audience. If you can identify those needs and wants and convince the audience that what you propose will satisfy them, you will get the response you want.
For example, if you want to motivate your sales force, you might want to talk to them about making money and beating the competition, two very powerful motivating topics for salespeople.
The more you know about the subject, the better your presentation will be. Always stick to the subjects you know well and be prepared to back up your statements with carefully researched data.
The best way to do your research for a presentation is to cast a broad net, collecting all the statistics, examples, and other data you can get your hands on. Then narrow down the information and use the materials that will support your “unique selling proposition” or USP. This is the core proposal that convinces the audience to do what you want them to do.
Whether you’re trying to make a sale, inspire greater productivity, or propose marriage always look for the unique selling proposition, and use the materials that back up your unique selling proposition the best.

You can have the right audience, the right medium, and compelling facts, but if your message is not organized correctly it will fall flat. Your message needs to have three main parts:

1. An introduction. An introduction is the main attention getter. You will never be able to communicate if you cannot grab your audience’s attention. The introduction should lead into the main body of the talk.
2. The main body. The main body of communication presents the most compelling point. The most effective way to do this is to subcategorize the main body into three parts, one part presenting your compelling point, and the other two parts setting it up or explaining it.
3. The conclusion. A good conclusion reinforces what you have said.

Summarize the main points briefly, distilling your message into three or four short, memorable sentences. Your conclusion should invite the audience the act. Your message isn’t complete until you’ve told people precisely and persuasively what you want them to do.
Finally, a conclusion should inspire your audience. It is always effective to end with a challenging question, a glowing promise, or a strong statement of your most compelling point.

The purpose of communication is to make things happen. If nothing happens as a result of your speech, letter, or presentation, then you have failed. You should judge the success of your message by looking at both the short-term and long-term results.
In a short-term success, the audience enjoys the presentation and understands the point you are making. A long-term success moves the audience to take the action you want them to take.

Technology helps us communicate messages faster and to a larger audience than every before. But technology does not create the message. Communication is still a human activity, having to do with meanings, understandings, feelings, needs, and ideas.

Source: Joe Love and JLM & Associates, Inc.