Benefiting From Social Network Sites

Of all the aspects of Social Media Marketing (SMM), social networking sites or profile sites have attracted the most attention from main stream marketers as they involve huge potential markets that run into tens and even a couple of hundred millions.A study co-authored by a Wharton University of Pennsylvania (USA) professor found that consumers are far more likely to buy a company's product if they are "network neighbors" of an existing customer.

The report continues to note that "results indicate that a firm can benefit from the use of social networks to predict the likely hood of purchasing".This study evidently has identified the network marketing potential inherent in these social profile sites.

Online social network sites enable people to create profiles, describe their interests, share thought and connect with other people.They are becoming a cultural phenomena with examples including MySpace, FaceBook, Frienster, Hi5, LinkedIN and more.Socially they provide a place to digitally hang out and make friends.Commercially it is a place one can potentially get some serious viral marketing using word of mouth as individuals rave about your product, company or service.

This is created as one online friend tells another online friend that tells another online friend and so on.Indeed an angle that has been identified for marketing profile sites include creating communities around a company or a product allowing customer and potential customers to discuss the company or product freely.Such communities can then be used to collect market intelligence, correct perception and direct discussions ultimately encouraging sales.Companies in the US like Helga and Burger King that have MySpace profiles have attempted this avenue with some level of success.

For smaller web business without much of a work force, marketing social profiles poses two major problems.First is that these sites tend to be mercurial.Since most are used by teenagers and young adults, they have the tendency to migrate to new services very quickly.For example Freindster was among the first social profile networking sites.By late 2003 it had over 20 million users.In 2005 it slipped to under one million members as many migrated to the formerly great MySpace which is believed to have built its membership to over 200 million members.

Then guess what, today Myspace is so yesterday.The new kid on the block getting reviews in international business magazines is FaceBook.These major shifts occur as new services come with better functionality.So a web business could take time to work a particular hot profile site only to see its efforts reduced to naught in a matter of months.

The second problem is that marketing social profile site takes time.It involves frequent blogging, updating of your profile, visiting tens of other profiles daily as you look for friends etc.Considering that all this effort may not get sustainable results as users shift to new services makes one wonder how can a small website benefit from social sites?

Just like news and bookmarking sites, the easiest means to benefit from profile sites is to target them for link popularity.If you can remember link popularity which is expressed by Page Rank (PR) can assist a site to improve its Search Engine traffic.Profile sites usually have high PR which you can "siphon" to improve your websites PR.And though this may take time, the effort has sustainable results you can count on.

About the Author

The author recommends an All-in-One Small Online Business website builder called Site Build It.

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What I Wish I Had Known About Websites When Just Starting My Business

I have been around computers for years, but only really started to embrace websites in the past 5 years.

As I have learnt and grown there is a pile of stuff that I wish I had known about websites when I was first starting out.Recently a number of start-ups have been asking my advice for beginners, so here are a few of the things I wished I had known when I was starting.

1.Domain names and web hosting are two different things

Starting from the simplest things.

Your domain name is just like your registered business name.It is the name of your business on the web.It can be your regular business name or it can be your keyword or keywords.

Your web hosting is the electronic equivalent of the landlord who leases you office space for your business.Your web host is the location where your business lives.

The other big lesson about domain names and web hosts is it pays to shop around.You can and will save thousands per year by doing your own research.Check out the forums and reviews for the most reliable companies with the best prices.Don't take your web developer's word as gospel.Generally they want to sell you their own package (with a huge cut in it for them).

The other thing I wish I had known is to buy more bandwidth, email accounts and domains than you think you will need.1GB storage, 3 emails and only 1 domain will get you nowhere fast and if you are like me you will max it out at the most inconvenient time.

It's not that big a deal to change your hosting.If you find a good one, they will manage the transfer for you, making it all quite seamless.

2.80% of all web designers don't know what they are doing (but will charge you a fortune in the process)

This is the most frustrating thing I have learnt.

Most web designers (especially the ones at the budget end of the market) cannot build a website that will generate good search engine rankings if their life depended on it.They have absolutely no clue about SEO (search engine optimisation) and will sell you designs that are search engine poison.The problem is most of them can talk a good fight and will baffle you with jargon that hides that they have no idea what they are doing.

You may get an attractive site, but it has no way to be found in search engines.Often the sites are all in flash, the keywords are useless and there are no decent metatags.And it generally would have cost the poor business many thousands of dollars to do.

If any of your web designers tell you it will take at least 6-12 months for search engines to find you then run away.A good SEO designer can have you ranking in search engines in less than a week.

If your designer insists they will make all the edits for you and that you can't do it - sack them.They are just trying to keep you hooked in to them.

If your designer insists on building you your own personal programs to run the back end of your database, newsletter or autoresponder - they are ripping you off just to make you stay with them.

If you have been caught out don't panic!You can choose a new web developer to update your site or hire an SEO expert to go over your site and improve things.

3.Good SEO Copy is vital to your website

Your website has 2 audiences - humans and search engines.

Unless you write in a way that search engines like and "get", your human audience will never find you to read your information.But ...if you write only for search engines, then it will appear stilted and unnatural.

You need to write your copy so that it is persuasive to both humans AND search engines.This is an art form and a science that takes many years to master.

Most copywriters are not trained in SEO, so while you may get great persuasive copy for your human readers, you may not get the search engine results you are looking for.A good SEO copywriter will cost you, but they are worth it in terms of business and search engine results.

4.Buy pre-packaged rather than tailor made

Wherever possible buy commercial pre-packaged products for things like your auto-responders, affiliate programs, shopping carts, newsletter broadcasts.

This means that the bugs in the programs generally have been ironed out before you get to them, they work with the features that you want and need, and they are cheaper!

The most critical piece is your auto-responder.You get one shot at choosing the right one, as every time you change your auto-responder program due to tough anti-spam laws, all of your lists must elect to resubscribe to your mailing list.You can kiss up to 75% of your list good bye each time you shift.

5.Akismet and Captcha are your best friends

If you have any forms on your website, comments sections on your blog or other methods of interactivity, insist on some form of human identification such as Akismet or Captcha.

They are the boxes down the bottom that ask you to type in the letters you can see.75% of all comments on blogs these days are spam.Akismet or Captcha reduces the number you see, so you are not manually deleting them every few minutes.

If you don't have something like these on your website and you have a form, expect your email box to attract the attention of spammers when their robots (yes they have their own versions of spiders out looking for vulnerable sites) find your address.

6.Host your own blog on your own website

Blogs are brilliant - but don't be tempted to host your blog on a site such as Wordpress or Blogger.

If you are going to go to the trouble of hosting a blog, do it on your own site (and not just publish to your site).

7.You can learn to do it yourself

There are piles of courses out there to help you learn.

Some are great and some are very expensive wastes of time.Do your research before you sign up for anything and check out some of the free courses available.

About the Author

Ingrid Cliff is a freelance writer and the Chief Word Wizard of Heart Harmony - a writing services studio that helps put your business into words.

For a free copy of the "7 Secrets of Compelling Copy & Powerful Words" visit her website http://www.heartharmony.com.au "> www.heartharmony.com.au .

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Building Authority And Search Engine Optimization For Higher Rankings

In the pursuit to deliver a better Internet experience, google, Yahoo!, and the other major search engines diligently build better algorithms for ranking websites.While link popularity (the number of incoming links that point to your website) is still a valid search engine optimization tactic, it is far less vital to good rankings than trust and authority.In other words, if your website is considered authoritative, Google and Yahoo!will place it on the first page of organic listings for the competitive keywords you pursue.

The concept of trust and authority for search engine optimization is still hard to understand for many people.This article describes how a website becomes considered authoritative and explains the steps a website owner can take to build the authority of their website to enjoy higher organic rankings.

How A Website Becomes Authoritative

The best way to understand how websites become authoritative through search engine optimization is to consider research papers.

For example, if a particular research paper is cited by other research papers, it becomes credible.As more people cite the research paper, especially authorities in the same field as that of the paper, it becomes trusted and authoritative.Just like if Stephen Hawking cited a paper someone else wrote on black holes, others would consider the paper authoritative because Stephen Hawking is considered an expert in the field of black holes.

Authority through search engine optimization works in the same way.For example, when operating a website that publishes articles about golf, attracting links from Golf Digest or The Professional Golfers Association would increase the authority of your website within the field of golf.Basically, the more authority you have, the more likelihood you will place high in the organic listings of Google and Yahoo!

Building An Authoritative Website

Building an authoritative website through search engine optimization is difficult.

This is why many website owners turn to an seo company.First, you must carve out a successful keyword inventory that targets and forms the foundation of your search engine optimization efforts.This requires extensive research, competitive analysis, identifying existing authorities in your field, and knowing how well those authorities control the keywords you want to target.

Second, you must build a satisfactory number of critical incoming links to your website.Ideally, these search engine optimization links should come from websites that are authoritative within your field.It isn't usually easy (picture trying to get Stephen Hawking to cite your research paper), but with time and effort, it can be accomplished.By slowly working to attract incoming links from trusted and relevant content websites, mildly relevant education websites (or .edu domains), and social media websites, you will grow the authority of your website.As your authority grows, as will your rankings in Google and Yahoo!for your targeted keywords.

Receiving Qualified traffic

One of the main advantages to having an authoritative website is that the time, effort, and money invested in search engine optimization will begin to bring in qualified traffic over time.

As your website ranks higher, it gains exposure and respect, which attract more incoming links.The more this happens, the more authority you gain, the more exposure to qualified traffic you receive.

Building the authority of your website is a good search engine optimization strategy.Considering partnering with an experienced Chicago SEO company, or a search engine optimization company anywhere, to deliver the best results.

About the Author

Aaron Wittersheim writes informative articles for Whoast, a Chicago SEO company.

They help their clients boost their ROI through cutting-edge, ethical search engine optimization.Chicago serves as their headquarters, but they help clients nationwide.

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Marketing through a Recession

The debate is over a we are facing up to flat sales, a global downturn and even the prospects of a full-blown recession. With the media pumping out gloomy and wildly differing recovery timescales, businesses everywhere are quickly preparing for the inevitable rounds of cost-cutting.

And as the Board settles in for a rough ride, one of the first budgets to be hit is good old Marketing. On the face of it, this may sound like common sense - after all, if no-one is buying, why spend money promoting to an unresponsive audience But while arecessiona and amarketinga are never going to be the best of bedfellows, any marketer who has lived through previous downturns will proffer an alternative view, suggesting that abattening down the hatchesa may not be the best tactic for interim survival before the eventual return to growth.

This safe, tried-and-tested strategy aims to ride it out, suffering lower sales but achieving cost-cutting to suit. Now, this may appease the finance guys and shareholders but it does little for long-term recovery in whatsoever will, by subsequently, be a entirely famished and competitive marketplace.

If you afreezea your listed advertisement plans until all and sundry has agreed the bad times are more than, you may get hold of yourself playing an costly activity of pick up-up. In different libretto, dona t be astonished if your spare knowledge competitors pass through been functioning on your befitting clientele all through the adowntimea , chipping in other places at relationships you undergo planted higher than a number of years.

Now leta s consider an choice, which as well accepts the hunger for dealing with charges but chooses to attentiveness on improved niftier commercial to assert the companya s profile once riding out the storm.

Along furthermore well-built times ahead, the temptation is to remove every ad crusade, brand launch and roadshow, once doing the minimum of PR a subsequent to all, who requests to admit to yet another bad sales quarter The accurate information is that this will perhaps be the policy engaged by certain of your rivals.

But leta s agree an option take a look at, one where your team re-involve their efforts almost about fewer objectives.

Originally off, a re-worked commercial time table should recognise that a downturn has a finite lifespan a as soon as it would go on for one or two period, lastly it will be followed by a fragile recuperation, but a recovery nevertheless. This should be constituted into the calendar, exercises and exercise management.

Preparing the calendar of behavior
Here are few examples of a absorbed use of your advertisement drive:

- At the start, style sure your workforce are up to momentum in addition to enforced modifies to brand assignment, promotions and so on. Your customers will glance to their record chief or abet engineer for mind so keeping each person all set in addition to the responses can without difficulty aid the relationship during demanding times.
- Book as well as your in existence buyers to appreciate their changing entails, once informing each other of your plans. Ita s improved they find out that a producta s venture is bogged down initially-hand than be left in the evening time.
- Subsequently, accept as true that those possibilities who, beforehand the downturn, were procurable to accomplishing a covenant. Keeping each other aware of updates relevant to their defy may help one another book their schedules with reference to your own plans, becoming a low-key beta neighborhood once objects are still, for case in point.
- Dona t fail to notice the additional random contacts a as an instance longer-period enquirers a who can be kept aware of your companya s thoughts on trends, subsequent technologies and your strategies to meet these developments.
- A broad aim during is a balanced relationship in addition to your receiver a after all, an candid check of the situation is likely to be far superior came across than either no communiqu� or messages that are unrealistically up-strike.
- If you use external agencies for activity management or PR, believe bringing a few of the extra quintessential forecast in-house. In addition reducing bills, this still helps form your teama s accomplishments and their interpreting of how to handle the organization in the ensuing.

The first indications of bounce
At a couple direct we will after all pop out to see the first symbols of healing OK, more feasible administration stats appearance a couple degree of stability. All your efforts performing as well as your clients vicious they understanding faithful you to go after any market or technology changes on their behalf a useful or negative a and, whenever the ad atmospheric condition fits, will be ready to book plus you. By envisaging for this period, we will knowledge all set our arecession way out strategya plus each being client and can commit assets to their hitherto shelved guess.

The end result is a managed sales promotion slowdown in conjunction along furthermore your clientele, at long last leading on to a as one precise schedule for a bring in to abusiness as usuala . And all for a dropped advertisement use combined and a collaborative manifestation to buyer admin.


Near to the Architect

Based in the UK, Glyn Yarnall has on top of twenty existence commercial episode, plus ten years as an Period in-between Brain of Advertisement/Consultant for multi-central B2Bs, not-for-benefit and admin, particularly for US-based enterprises wishing to step up their European presence. Extra articles and case studies can be found at:

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The Keys to Developing Successful Marketing Strategies

A successful marketing strategy is judged by how effectively it can be used. Many people know that a successful marketing strategy puts a lot of different factors into consideration and uses these factors as a collective.

There are, however, five main keys to developing successful marketing strategies. Every successful entrepreneur will tell you that these five always play a part in the development of a successful marketing strategy:

1) Strengths - A successful marketing strategy always considers the various strengths that a company has. These strengths should be present within the company and the company should be able to use it in order to achieve the desired goal. It is clear that every company has strengths which it could use to gain advantages over the competition. These strengths could range from having more resources to having more experience. The strategy must utilize the strengths to the maximum. Every effort expended should be directed towards the achievement of the goal.

2) Weaknesses - Just as every company has strengths, every company also has its weaknesses. A successful marketing strategy needs to take these weaknesses into account and help people overcome them. A successful marketing strategy should be realistic regarding its weaknesses in order to truly be effective.

Successful marketing strategies have often turned potential weaknesses into strengths. Anything is possible with the right manipulation of a company's strength. By taking account of the potential weaknesses, a company will be able to find ways of coping for those weaknesses. They could actually remedy those weaknesses and make sure that they will not be the downfall of the company.

3) Opportunities - Successful marketing strategies have always taken advantage of every available opportunity for advancement. By taking account of existing opportunities, a company will be looking at the various stepping stones that it can use in order to achieve success. Various opportunities are always available in a market.

However, these opportunities are often shrouded and need a keen eye and a good sense to take advantage of them. In taking advantage of opportunities, however, the company must not lose sight of the main goal through which it can measure success.

4) Threats - Since the market contains opportunities for the company, it should also be mentioned that it does contain threats. People should be aware of any potential even that could bring a company to its knees.

Successful marketing strategies have always included methods of riding out these threats and adapting to them in such a way that they will endure them. The most successful marketing strategies, in fact, have actually been able to turn these threats into opportunities. Take BMW for example: when it was faced with the threat of being forbidden to manufacture airplanes, it took to manufacturing cars. That's a great way of turning a threat into an opportunity.

5) Implementation - A marketing strategy needs to be implemented in order to be successful. The implementation is the final test of how successful a marketing strategy actually is. It could be clever, it could be simple, it could be cunning, and it could be obvious. The successful marketing strategy is always implemented. Without this final test, the marketing strategy is just a marketing strategy. Success is determined by the use, not by the design.

These are the five keys to a successful marketing strategy. Mark them well, for they might help you to achieve success someday.


About the Author

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