Video marketing works!  When we can see what it that is being sold. we are able to gather more information on the product.  We can quickly see how we can use the product or service and how it will benefit us. Granted, some of the commercial  may be made of fancy videography and the like, but in the grand scheme of things we simply do not think about that in the moment. We see this juicy, delicious looking burger and we are ready to hop in the car and abandon our diet for a taste because it just looks so darned good.

We are extremely visual creatures. We want to be able to put a picture to the name. This association creates a very strong pull towards wanting what is being sold. Think about it… would you buy something if it was being marketed by a black and white, word-only postcard in the mail? No, you would toss it out with the rest of the junk mail. But the commercials on television work. Many times they are funny or have a bit of a story there to catch interest; this is a wonderful strategy because people remember this. It leaves a mark on the watchers.

                The videos you put on your websites and social networking sites provide the same service as television commercials. They catch and keep interest in your company and your products. By providing visuals for your customers,  you are offering a way for them to relate better to you and your company. Today, people don’t want to read information, they want to see it.  (This explains why YouTube is now the #2 Search Engine on the internet. )This also enables the customer to feel that they are being more productive.

Life is hectic these days and when people take a moment to look over something or learn more about that product or service, they want to feel as if they are using their time wisely.  If all they have is a blog to read they may not take that time. Videos are also helpful because they hold attention. It is easy to become distracted when reading something, but when the information is in the form of a video it is much harder to ignore. All in all, videos put your company on the map. They have worked for countless other companies and they can work for you.

1.            You Need to Identify Your Target Audience:  Identify your target audience and utilize the Social Media Marketing sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.  Sign up, create accounts and get busy participating in a meaningful way. Whatever product/service you have to see – there are people willing to listen and buy. All you have to do is interact. This is good old fashioned networking.

2.            You Have to Engage and Establish Relationships:  You are not just speaking to the masses you are creating relationships with this type of marketing – you have a captured audience but you are communicating on a more real and relevant level. This kind of marketing lets you not forget that you are dealing with real people. You do not want to open yourself up to people in an unprofessional manner but you do want to share from your perspective. People appreciate it when you do. Social media is all about the conversation first. Don’t just hop on and start blasting your business – people will shut down and shut you off in a minute.

3.            You Must Establish Yourself as an Expert:  Be engaging and share from what you know. You will naturally share what you know on the expert level – this is what you are comfortable with and also the information you know inside and out.

4.            Finally, Capturing Leads is the Last Step to Start Your Launch:  When someone shares with you about a client that would be interested – capture that lead and follow up with it. You are a business and you are involved in relationships. Don’t forget you are both. Once you have leads captured, you can turn the contact information into marketing campaigns on the side.

These ideas may seem simplistic but they are crucial to your Social Media Success online

More and more businesses are investing more time and money into Social Media Marketing (SMM) than ever before.   The reason is clear, Social Media Marketing (SMM) has proven to be a great investment of marketing dollars.

Both the benefits and the processes for planning and implementing a successful SMM campaign are important in understanding how to maximize your return on investment.

To execute a successful SMM campaign, what are the core factors?

1.     Know what your story is.This is the core of effective marketing.  It needs to be credible and what your target market can relate to.  Remain authentic.

2.     Define your goals and metrics well.  How do you intend to measure your success and how you plan to attain it are important ideas to have clear before you begin.

(The first two tips affect the third.)

3.     Where are you going to find your audience?  You will be better able to find where they are online if you know who it is you are trying to reach.

4.     SMM takes time and effort. Determine honestly if your business is ready for SMM involvementand the time investment you must make.   You cannot simply create a Facebook Fan Page and a Twitter account and consider your SMM complete.  If that is your plan, your business will be betteroff if you just did nothing at all. Remember, if you are not socializing through these networks, your SMM campaign will fail.

Remember, you must listen and respond to your audience and you will be able to influence them.  When you decide to engage in a SMM campaign, dedicate yourself to it all the way and you will find that as your network grows, your business will prosper.

Now, if you don’t feel you have time to do this, consider an easy solution: hire us as your Social Media Manager.  We can implement and manage your SMM campaign for you.  Contact us at www.ExpandYourBizOnline.com

Call  520-549-3203 or (cell) 520-661-1740Email: support@expandyourbizonlline.com

Is Social Media a Fad?  You can decide using after reading these facts:

1.       Facebook tops GOOGLE for weekly traffic in the US -it is the #1 Website on the Internet

2.       Years it took to reach 50 million users:

• radio                                      38 years

• TV                                         13 years

• Internet                                 4 years

• Ipod                                       3 years

• FACEBOOK                          200 million users IN LESS THAN A YEAR!!

• IPAD downnloads                      1 billion in 9 months!

3.    The average Facebook visitor spends a whopping 44.6 minutes a day on the site.

4.    Facebook alone get 570 BILLION page views a month, which is 8 times the number of page views that GOOGLE.com gets.

5.    YouTube is now the second largest SEARCH ENGINE-video is the preferred method of obtaining               information

6.  ADVERTISING FACTS:

• 78% of consumers trust peer recommendation

• Only 14% people trust advertisements

• only 18%  of traditional TV campaigns have a positive ROI

• 90% of people skip TV ads via TiVo/DVR

• 24 of 25 Largest Newspapers are Experiencing Record Declines in Circulation

• However, 60 million status updates happen on Facebook daily.

What do these facts translate to:  Social Media has caused a paradigm shift in the way we communicate with each other. This highly viral word of mouth advertising is reaching your customers-do you know what they are being said about you?

So you see, Social Media has probably already been impacting your business whether you know it or not.  Businesses today should not ignore these facts or think of social media as just a fad.

Social Media: Are you ready to manage it?

If you’re looking for ways to generate traffic to your site without paying for it, consider these techniques.

1.            Search engine submissions are a great way to increase your traffic and to help with page rank. Search online for search engines sites that accept links without charge.

2.            Link exchanges are a free technique that will help you increase your traffic. Incoming links and outgoing links work well to increase search engine ranking.

3.            Classified ads online offer free ads and a lot of people review them when they are looking for items or services whether for business or personal use.

4.            Another great tip is to join forums that are geared toward your target market. Post your link in the signature line and in the advertising section of the forum.

5.            There are a number of link directories that are target-market specific. Search online for the ones that meet your needs and submit your link to those directories.

6.            Article marketing is a great way to increase your traffic through the bio in your article. Submit articles to directories that are geared toward your target market and include a link to your site in the bio.

7.            Finally, we saved the best for last.  Testimonials are perfect for generating traffic and work in two ways. The first is on your own personal site, since they lend credibility to you and are a recommendation that you have served others well with your products or services.  The second way they can help you is for you to submit testimonials to others’ websites. You give a recommendation and in most cases, you can place a hyperlink to your site, under your name, when you submit your testimonial.

There are so many different ways you can increase your traffic. Some are free to use while others charge a small fee. Free is not a bad thing and will require some work, but it will be worth the time investedin the end.

Social Media Marketing (SMM) is a form of internet marketing, which seeks to achieve branding and marketing communication goals through the participation in various social media networks like You Tube, My Space, and Face book, and social web applications like dig, delicious, reddit, and Wiki. The goal of each SMM program varies from business to business, but primarily involves building brand awareness, increasing visibility and through this process, sell a product or service.

Social Media Marketing is becoming an essential marketing tool for connecting with customers and optimizing online presence. Social Media describes the tools and platforms, people use to publish, converse and share content online. Video, pod cast, blogs, discussion boards and social networking sites are all tools, online businessmen can use to build relationship with their customers and keep them on their websites longer. Social media provides more opportunities for organizations to present optimized content that can be indexed by search engines and ultimately improves site rating.

To implement some of the social media elements, it is first important to evaluate your customers to create an effective strategy. If your consumers are professionals who commute, then pod casts can be downloaded and can be very effective.

Posting video content on YouTube is a unique opportunity to improve your position in Google’s universal search results. With YouTube, customers can visit the site, view your video and easily post to their own blogs, social networking profiles or websites. YouTube is a great way to reach a broader viewer and generate buzz around new products, especially if your product has visual appeal.

A blog, which includes video, pictures and text, can build interest and loyalty among customers and is also a way to improve search engine optimization. Creating such a page that is  dedicated to community will increase website visitors and become interactive.

Social media encourages social visits to your site. Keep adding fresh content to encourage customers to return regularly. With the advent of social media, consumers have become contributors, contributing to brand messaging. SMM is related to other online tactics such as SEO andSMO, but  it has a more active role in directing, influencing and suggesting the business message to its community members.

Building a lasting relationship with customers  is an on-going process for a  businessess. Social media takes this a step further by making that relationship personal through blogs. It tells about you, the person, not just about the product or service.  This aids in establishing a loyal and long-term customer.

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Facebook is second only to Google in terms of Internet traffic.   So just in those terms, it would be foolish not to have a marketing presence on Facebook.  The problem for most people at this point is that they jump in, toss up a Facebook page and make a lot of mistakes.

Three Common Mistakes and What to Do Instead

1.  No Facebook Fan Page.  You start with a Profile Page, but you shouldn’t stop there.  Create your Fan page for business and marketing, and use your Profile Page for friends and family.

You may be surprised to know that your Profile Page is limited to 5000 followers.  While it might seem like a lot more than you could ever manage right now, you will need the room as your business grows.  Marketing on your Profile Page is also discouraged.

Instead, create your Fan Page, where you can have an unlimited number of followers and can market freely.

2.  Inconsistency.  The biggest downfall after people set up their Fan Page is inconsistency.  You cannot show up now and then and expect to create a loyal following, participation and interaction.

The solution is being consistent.  You do not need to post massive updates several times a day.  Keep it simple, such as adding a great quote or a comment on a current issue and ask your followers what they think.  Or, use regular features such as a poll every Tuesday; this will keep your current followers coming back for more and help you gain new ones.

3. Keeping Your Followers on Your Fan Page.  By not inviting your followers to visit elsewhere, you are missing out on big opportunities.  You might be leaving lots of traffic and profits on the table by encouraging your Fan Page traffic to visit elsewhere in your online world.

Rather, add an opt-in box to your Fan Page.  Talk about and invite your followers to other virtual places and events, such as your blog and web conferences and podcasts, or to check out your other social marketing accounts they might also use such as Twitter and YouTube.

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Before you know it, we will be entering the 4th quarter of 2010.  It is not too late to resolve to make the most of your Social Media Marketing  and online business plans for 2010.  Following is a list of points that can help you achieve those goals.

1. For each of the social media sites you are working with, learn how to use all the features.  To      better focus on the core people that are interacting with your brand online, use the demographic information.

2. There is no value in having thousands of followers that ignore what you post, so stop worrying about the numbers.  It might look impressive to have hundreds of thousands of people in your network, but to succeed at social media marketing you need to focus on those people who are actually interested in your brand.

3. Set goals and map out a plan on how you will reach them for growth in your target demographic.

4. For your Business and Marketing Plan, add social media to it; integrate social media into your Media Planning.

5. Think about the long terms and set long term goals.

6. A bad business cannot be saved or fixed by social media, so address any problems in your Business Plan or business FIRST.

7. You are an expert in your niche: remember to write like it.

8. Remember that social media is for socializing, not selling.

9. There is not a Social Media Season, so don’t wait around for a “right moment” to start your social media campaign.

10.There are negatives in social media; make a plan to address them and don’t fear them.  Everyone has a customer now and then that is impossible to please, online or off.  Don’t let them derail your goals.

Your customers want access to interact with you and your company, and using social media gives them what they want.  Use it wisely and faithfully and you will see your business grow.

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Are you tired of taking the time to manually follow up with every single one of your potential customers? Keeping track of names, e-mail addresses, and what marketing information you’ve sent to which lead is exhausting, isn’t it?

Wouldn’t you like to have a set it and forget it system of follow-up? We are not talking about ignoring potential clients but we are talking about having a system that follows up with your future clients, giving them immediate information you may not be able to provide at that particular time.

Such a system does exist and we can set it up for! Your business is then on autopilot. Once everything is setup properly, you can forget it, and focus on your business at hand. We call that the Set and Forget It System. What is this system?

Here it is:
The Set and Forget It System does all of that “cyber-paperwork” for you. We simply set the system up, and it runs completely independently: Your leads ask you for information through a form on your web site or an email response to your ad, and the system auto-responds at any time of day or night and can send this information to them – immediately.
You can even set the system up to address each of your leads by name!
It has been proven that a prospect must see your marketing message at least 7 times before deciding to buy from you. But, if you were to contact every single one of your leads manually at least 7 times,it would get very complicated. That process could easily take you hours – even days if you could even find them.
On the other hand, when you have a Set it and Forget it campaign established, your prospects get an immediate response. You can also follow-up with them 7 times very easily. Your prospect will then be more willing to do business with you, since you have established a relationship with them with 7 points of contact.
So do you understand the benefits of the Set It and Forget It System? You put your business on autopilot, and can increase your sales by 400%!

1.You spend more time with your family.

2.You save time, reduce stress, build customer loyalty, increase conversion ratios, and make more money.

3. and many more

So you understand now why the Set it and Forget System of Automatic Responise is so important to your business. Contact Us Now at ExpandYourBizOnline.com to get started or call 520-549-3203

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