• Sign up for several of the top free social networking sites, like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. These sites are simple to navigate and user-friendly (even for the technology-challenged!)
• Fill out your profile – This is important to your social media marketing success. Include links to your websites and blogs, which helps you get links back to these sites, increasing your search engine optimization (SEO). Include business contact information like email and telephone as you will WANT potential clients to contact you!
• Keep them coming back for MORE by offering something for free, industry news, valuable information and resources, or maybe even a contest to attract a broader following. Analyze your target markets and hone your message accordingly. If you sell organic-cotton baby clothes you would want to target your message to moms, business women perhaps, or owners of baby boutiques. People want VALUE so give them what they want and they’ll keep coming back for MORE!
• Include a photo of yourself – People want to do business with someone they know, like and trust. A professional photo, not one of you and your children, aligns you with your business name and company, a great branding opportunity! 
• In this medium, less is more. Don’t be too salesy with your message, and don’t tweet about what you had for breakfast. You want to reel in potential customers, not scare them away. Get back to the basics of your marketing message and don’t over sell. If your message is perceived to be ‘spam’ you’ll get blocked by the social media sites and prospects. You want a fan base, not an “I Hate Your Business Because You Spam Me Too Much” club. 
• Keep it simple – Showcase your knowledge but don’t “talk down” to them. Social media is a great way to test what messages work and don’t work for your potential customers. Keep your language/message breezy and friendly (but with a professional edge). 

Social Media Marketing Tips is a post from: VA Business Coaching Blog

Some of the better known blog forum sites are: Blogger Forum, Bloggeries and Blogst Forum. A basic Google search will yield vast numbers of forum sites; it’s worth checking to see how active any forum is prior to registration, so you are joining the busiest, most popular groups.

Be certain to carefully read any forum rules prior to posting and abide by them. Also, don’t alienate potential visitors by submitting multiple posts just containing the link to your blog.

You are not limited to advertising your blog link or accumulating traffic on these forums; you can ask others to point out its positive and negative aspects; ask people to critique the style, layout and content.

Bear in mind opinions may widely differ, but it doesn’t mean something is bad if one or two people don’t like a particular aspect – it could be a matter of personal taste.  However, if you consistently get negative comments about certain parts of your blog, take the time to think about what changes you can make to improve them.

Return the favor and critique other blogs. Not only are people more likely to help you if they see you are willing to reciprocate, by viewing lots of blogs you get an idea of what works and what doesn’t and you’ll learn to more objectively view your own.

Reading forum posts allows you to pick helpful tips and tricks from other blog owners on topics like content, advertising and affiliate marketing. Absorb as much information as possible and make notes on anything of interest; then implement them to make your own blog more successful.

Don’t expect to post your link on a few forums and quickly gain hordes of traffic – you will only get out as much as you are prepared to put in. Advertise your blog on as many forums as you can to gain maximum exposure and you will be rewarded with a steady increase in traffic.

Jeannine Clontz, owner of Accurate Business Services, a VA practice, is an author, writer, speaker and VA Business Coach specializing in providing professional business coaching to established and start-up virtual assistants (VA’s).  For her FREE audio CD “What’s Holding Back my Business Success?”,  a 2-month trial in her Insider group coaching program, or 1-month trial of her coaching club visit:  http://www.VAbizcoach.com; or contact her at: coach@VAbizcoach.com.

Generate Free Blog Traffic With Blogger Forums is a post from: VA Business Coaching Blog

This week in Part Two, we’ll learn how to follow the right people and why using patience over the long-term will give you the best results for your business.  

Following the Right People 

There are a lot of online marketers who have used Twitter to help increase exposure to their clients. Twitter marketing gurus like Guy Kawasaki, Dave Peck and Chris Brogan should be on your Twitter list. 

When choosing people to follow, look at their bio information and make sure they fit your target audience.  You will not only capture them, but you can capture their followers, too.  For some, this may mean finding larger corporate conglomerates that have followers that would have interest in your product, too. 

For example, if you sell organic products, you would probably find people interested in your type of products following Whole Foods’ Twitter account.  

You may also want to spend some time following your competition.  This allows you to see what kind of tactics they are using to increase their own Twitter following. 

Smart online marketers monitor their competition on social networks to see what they’re doing right and then doing it better. It’s also easier to see when your competition has failed and how you can avoid their missteps.  If your competition rarely posts to Twitter and never responds to negative posts, you can quickly fill the gap and create a more loyal following. 

Patience is Required When Using Twitter For Business:

 Businesses who utilize Twitter to market their brand or products should consider it a long-term strategy. Gaining access to your targeted following will not happen overnight, but if you use the proper strategies, and be consistent, it will happen.   

Above all, don’t SELL to your Twitter following like you would to the average person online.  Twitter followers will quickly see your sales pitch and unfollow you in the blink of an eye. 

Take a more gentle approach to market to your followers.  Instead of sending tweets that say, “buy now”, use a more subtle approach like, “Do you need a product that does XYZ? This one does.” 

Instead of posting that your new product has just launched, instead, post the features and benefits of your new product to your blog and post something to Twitter like: “Check out the benefits of our latest product that does XYZ”, and then end the Twitter post with the URL to your blog. 

Always reply to any direct tweets that people send you. Don’t ignore your following.  If your Twitter following gets too large for you to handle, consider outsourcing the work or having an employee take on some of the hours needed to tweet, retweet and respond.

 Twitter is an integrated, holistic approach to marketing. That means staying transparent, interacting with the Twitter community and staying interesting. The quickest way to kill off your Twitter following is to be boring. 

Jeannine Clontz, owner of Accurate Business Services, a VA practice, is an author, writer, speaker and VA Business Coach specializing in providing professional business coaching to established and start-up virtual assistants (VA’s).  For her FREE audio CD “What’s Holding Back my Business Success?” or a 2-month trial in her group coaching program visit:  http://www.VAbizcoach.com; or contact her at: coach@VAbizcoach.com.

How To Increase Your Focus and Target Twitter Followers (Part 2) is a post from: VA Business Coaching Blog

The path to increasing your targeted Twitter following has several parts:

•  Finding and following the right people
• Posting relevant information and news to keep them engaged
• Making sure you never spam followers with auto-tweets or posting the same information and URL over and over
• Follow only smart online marketers who are leaders in their industry.

 Let’s take a closer look at each of these tactics: 

Find the Right Way to Follow People on Twitter:

Before you start following people, make sure you have a few interesting posts. Most people on Twitter will not follow you back if your Twitter feed is blank.

After you’ve created a Twitter presence, start following your target audience. The easiest way I’ve found to locate my target audience is to go to Search.Twitter.com and type in keywords related to your target audience.  

For example, if you are selling an iPhone application, type in keywords like “iPhone,” “bought an iPhone,” “iPhone app,” and other related keywords that people may have used to discuss their iPhone needs. Follow these people. If you post interesting, relevant things, there is a good chance they will follow you back. 

You can also find your target Twitter following by clicking on the “Find People” option on your Twitter page; type in keywords and relevant industries and locations to find your followers. Start following these people.

Post Relevant Information & Keep Them Engaged:

Post interesting news and reviews about your product, but don’t forget to also post related industry news. For instance, if you sell a particular gadget, also post news about other gadgets.

An important tool in gaining focused and targeted followers is to use retweets.  If you see a relevant post by another Twitterer, retweet them.  Not only are these Twitterers more likely to follow you, but you also gain access to their followers.  Just click on the “Followers” tab on their Twitter page, and start following.

Be generous with your retweets—it’s one of the few tried-and-true ways of gaining a following.

You can also utilize search.Twitter.com to search for your brand name.  This is a key research element to find out if your customers are happy.  Be sure to follow them and thank them. If you find angry, disgruntled customers, follow them, retweet them, and ask them how you can remedy the situation.

This could lead to people reaching customer service reps on Twitter, and then telling the Internet all about the great service that came from a company they had just recently been bad-mouthing.

Never Spam Your Followers:

If you spam your followers, they will unfollow you quickly. Spammy posts could be: Posting the same URLs over and over again; only posting about your own products; having a Twitter handle like: MyAwesomeProduct100 instead of: NameofMyProduct; and asking insincere questions.

If you sell cars, it would be insincere to post a question like: What is the best car on the road? Twitter users are very savvy and jaded consumers. They know when a brand is being disingenuous.

Next week – Part 2

Jeannine Clontz, owner of Accurate Business Services, a VA practice, is an author, writer, speaker and VA Business Coach specializing in providing professional business coaching to established and start-up virtual assistants (VA’s).  For her FREE audio CD “What’s Holding Back my Business Success?” or a 2-month trial in her group coaching program visit:  http://www.VAbizcoach.com; or contact her at: coach@VAbizcoach.com.

How to Increase Your Focus & Target Twitter Followers (Part 1) is a post from: VA Business Coaching Blog