To prevent a disproportionate level of resource becoming focused on Facebook it is important to have a wider e-marketing strategy that has considered and incorporated as necessary other e-marketing methods.  Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and ‘Pay per click’ are important, as are Google adwords, Promoted Tweets and viral promotional campaigns.  These elements work best in combination, often referencing one another and linking into a wider marketing strategy.  Also remember there is no point spending valuable resources on a Facebook campaign if the basic elements of  product, price, and place have not been sufficiently considered.  A full marketing plan which considers all promotional opportunities should be in place and the value of other, non-digital promotional tools in the marketing mix should not be underestimated.

Facebook is great to use for signposting, reputation building and has many benefits not least the cost and analysis options.  When you consider costs you should include the time it takes to prepare content, interact with the Facebook community and always review the actual translation of interest in a Facebook campaign to sales generated.  Never forget the bottom line, no matter how much enjoyment you get from your digital marketing exploits.  The figures must back up the investment so it is essential to review the success of Facebook campaigns in terms of sales and income, not just clicks and traffic.  By regularly checking your approach to e-marketing and making adjustments in your campaigns as necessary you can get the most from an easy, cost effective marketing option without it dominating your time for little reward.

Wide geographic reach

The internet enables every business, no matter how small, to have a global reach.  Take care not to get too swept away – clients in Asia may seem glamorous but remember the postage costs!

Low cost

Advertising through Google Adwords and Facebook Ads is a low cost method of reaching a wide audience.  A Facebook page for your business provides a venue for customer dialogue without the need for webpages to be built and hosted.  E-mail campaigns with offers and news keep you business on your customer’s radar.  Just make sure you have the time to respond to the interest your campaigns generate.

Analysis

You can also take advantage of the intelligence gathered on your customers and who, where and when they interact with your campaigns.  The analysis, available from internet based adverts, is incredibly useful for reviewing marketing campaigns and planning future ones.  It can also help you find new customers by targeting potential groups shown by the analysis to have an interest in your products.

Measure results

The best way to check the effectiveness of a campaign is through the statistics for how much interaction it has generated and how that has translated into sales.

Personalized and targeted

You can tailor your messages, offers and focus a campaign on the customers most likely to respond.  You can refine it even further to provide a personalized offer to customers based on their previous purchases, interest groups and demographics.

Accessible

An e-marketing campaign makes it accessible and easy for the customer, they do not even have to leave the couch!  In just a few clicks an advert or email can direct them to your site and to making a purchase.

Listening

The best way to build good relationships with your customers is by listening to them.  If you provide the forum to tell you what they think of your service and products, then listen to their views, you can tailor your product offer, customer services and product placement to get ahead of your competitors.

FeaturedContent Gallery is a WordPress plugin through iePlexus which produces a good automatic spinning picture gallery of the articles or even webpages that you can utilize anyplace in your concept.

Totally easy to customize, the actual Featured Content Gallery through iePlexus is extremely simple to incorporate. Decide to automate the actual plugin and just put in a customized area in order to every article or even web page you need to screen and also the gallery will certainly display the actual picture, a good auto-generated thumbnail within the top carousel, and also the name as well as very first couple of outlines associated with page/post textual content. Superior choices permit additional changes associated with customized thumbnail pictures, textual content, and gallery designs.

Using well timed Tweets aimed at targeted social media users can build your business reputation and help you reach a wider audience.  Use the comment, or sequence of comments to tweak people’s curiosity enough to click on  the link.  If users enjoy your comments and find them funny or stimulating they will remember your username and avatar so that the next post attracts their interest or they become a follower.  If you use an URL shortener to make your web address Tweetable then ensure it will re-Tweet properly, Bit.ly is considered a good option.  Keep Tweets short and worth sharing and use hashtags related to your comment.  If someone re-Tweets you keep the momentum by reTweeting them back.

Once you have some interest in your posted comments you can build the image and profile of your brand.  The next step is to convert that interest into traffic to your website and ultimately conversion to sales.  By using feedback on your brand and products from Twitter you can work out the elements of your campaign which have attracted people’s attention.  Use this to refine your campaigns and get the most from the time you put into your Tweeting.

Remember anything you send out is promotional including emails, letters, tweets, product packaging even the side of your van!  One of the biggest promotional tools at your disposal is yourself.  Attend business breakfasts, go to industry networking events and plug away to whoever will listen about how great your product or business is.  Offer a freebie with your business details on and always have business cards to hand then the next time the person you were chatting to needs a product like yours it is easy for them to find your contact details.

You can also write about your business or product and capitalize on a wealth of free marketing opportunities.  By using keywords which relate to your product for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) you can create extra traffic to your web pages and find new customers.  By blogging, writing for ezines and creating interesting content for your website that will be picked up by search engines you can access a wider internet based market.  For customers who are not part of the internet community send out press releases to the local press, they are often keen for content, especially if they don’t have to write it themselves!

If you are finding it tough to go it alone then work with a supplier or complementary product.  More promotional opportunities are good for them too and sometimes two heads are better than one.  So if you find yourself lacking inspiration or feel shy about self-promoting, find someone else to work with who can help you with ideas, share the costs and get twice the result for the effort.

Listen

Genuinely listen to the feedback you receive on Facebook. Don’t simply use your Facebook page to make announcements or show products but genuinely interact with the people commenting and liking your profile.  If you want people to keep viewing your page you need to give them a reason to return so make it interesting for them and let them see you are interested in their comments and feedback.  By using the interactive nature of Facebook in the correct way you can make your customers feel part of an exclusive community related to your product.  You can also find out more about your customers to improve your market share and customer satisfaction.

Research

Use your Facebook page to get feedback which can help you refine your Facebook marketing approach and also target your company and products more effectively to your customers.   You could pay a marketing company a great deal of money to carry out research for you.  However by using your Facebook site you can get direct feedback on your products and marketing campaigns.  You can also use the range of tools provided by Facebook to analyse the statistics of the people visiting your page and which postings generate the most engagement.

Make changes

Update your page regularly to adapt to current trends and keep the page interesting for return viewers.  With regular review of the different strategies you try on your Facebook page you should be able to identify what types of post increase activity on the page and ensures the page is buzzing with interest.  Engagement through the page needs to be continual and requires time to be invested in responding and monitoring the comments and content.

Keep it stimulating

Facebook is an informal marketing environment so you should make sure posts, links and pictures are stimulating and fun.  By using humour and being aware of topics trending for the demographic you are targeting you can keep the buzz around your page and ensure customers have an incentive to keep looking and contributing on your page.  It is important not to rely on too much automated posting as your community will quickly notice if you lose the “human touch”.

Good campaign content

To get the most out of the resources you put into e-marketing it has to be an engaging campaign.  It doesn’t need to be flashy or expensive but the content has to be stimulating.  You do not want customers to treat your campaign emails as SPAM or become annoyed by their content or frequency.  Customers who enjoy the content and offers contained in an email campaign will become more engaged in the business and are more likely to follow links to your website and offers.

Use the statistics and analysis

By using the intelligence you can gather on your customer base from the statistics and analysis offered through services like Google Adwords and Facebook Ads you will be able to identify trends and target groups.  This will enable your business to build customer profiles which assist with plans to deliver what they want and also to identify potential new customers.

Personalization

Making your customers feel special by personalizing your emails, offers and campaigns to their particular interests and purchasing history is more possible than ever thanks to e-marketing.  The instant nature of e-communication and the building of internet communities to engage through e-marketing allows a new level of  response and targeting.  You can demonstrate a high level of customer care through swift responses to issues raised and dialogue with clients.  There are also opportunities to tap into a wider internet community through the interests and groups enjoyed by your existing customers.  You can even tailor your products to the trends you see emerging through comments and email dialogue.

Up at the top, you will see the name of your WordPress site.  Underneath which you will see any announcements that pertain to you; for instance, if there are any upgrades available, you will see these here.

The Dashboard is split into two halves.  On the left half will be your posts that you have created thus far, any comments you may have received to your posts, an incoming links to your posts, and finally, an outline of your recent posts.  Below that will be links to read others’ posts and it is called the What’s Hot section.

The right half of your Dashboard, at the top, will have a place for you to create what is called a Quick Post; in other words, instead of navigating the Dashboard to the New Post section, you can simply post directly from your Dashboard.  This section is incredibly useful if you have no links that you need to contain within the post, such as if you are simply giving your readers a quick update.

Below that, there is a section called Recent Drafts.  If you have any posts that you have started and have not finished and published, they will be here in this portion.

Underneath that will be a section called Stats.  This will show you how many visitors have come to your site and on which days.  It will show you what posts are most popular with your visitors, as well as your Top Searches, and what posts have been most active.  Now, all of this information is simply the beginning.  Don’t feel overwhelmed, as the rest of the information will be easy enough to learn with some practice.

Along the very left hand side of your Dashboard will be all the tools you need to create your site in the image in which you wish to have it.  These tools will prove invaluable when creating your site, and here each one will be explained.

Along the left, you will see such sections as Dashboard (where you are right now), Upgrades, Posts, Media, Links, Pages, Comments, Feedbacks, Polls, Ratings, Appearance, Polls, Users, Tools, and Settings.  As you are a new user, here I will simply explain Posts and Appearance, as these are the first two tools that you need to create your site the way you wish.   Depending on your own choice of which is most important, you can choose to change the Appearance first, or you can write your first Post.  This part is up to you.  I will begin with Posts.

Under the Posts tab, there are four subtabs; the most important of these for a WordPress newbie are Add New and Categories.  When you click on Add New, a page will open up that looks very much like the Quick Post portion of the actual Dashboard; only from here you are able to upload pictures, add links, and do much more than you can with simply the Quick Post.  Up in the right hand corner, you will see options to save your post as a draft or to publish it to the web when you are finished.  Once you are finished, you click on Publish.  Another page will open with a link at the top that says View Post.  You can then view your post as it looks on the web.

From the Categories tab, you are able to create categories in which you will be able to place new posts.  This makes it simpler for people to find exactly what they may be looking for when they come to your site.

The next, or first, depending on your point of view, item on the agenda is the Appearance tab.  From here, you can choose to edit your theme, add widgets, or change the background.  All of these important topics will be explored in more depth in subsequent articles in this series.

To be of help when there is a problem you need to have a dialogue with your customer.  It is essential they can easily communicate with you and that you listen and respond in a timely manner.  The methods you choose for facilitating that communication therefore must go both ways.  Digital, interactive services available through the internet and social media today can make this process much easier.  Twitter is one such service which is transforming the way companies deal with customer service, making it more personal, accessible and responsive than ever.

So why should your business use Twitter for customer support?

Low cost  - Twitter is free and it takes very little time to register.

Save time - Use your working hours more effectively as the time between Tweets can be used to do research or deal with other customers.

Track and review - You can track all mentions of your products and business on Twitter and respond to any problems or negative comments.  When you respond you will have a record of all the interaction between your business and the customer to enable you to review the complaint handling.

Tweet beep - This is a service which picks up mentions of your brand.  If your business or customer service is being discussed on Twitter your brand will be picked up and you can monitor the conversation.

To get the best from Twitter as a customer service tool you must use it effectively.  You need to make people aware that you use it, deal with Tweets swiftly, provide a good quality of response and always be honest.  Be aware that poor customer service can be magnified very rapidly with the speed of social media.  Remember Twitter is just a tool at the end of the day and should be part of a wider mix of customer contact options.  Not everyone has entered the world of tweeting so remember to have other methods for supporting customers available.  By taking this approach you will build trust in your brand and business and win loyal customers who use the Twitter community to spread the word about your good service.

Relationship management, is not just about making the most of it when customer service goes well.  It is about doing things in the right way when something goes wrong.  You can build a great reputation by dealing swiftly and effectively with problems.  There are many tales of woe from customers left hanging on a support telephone line for hours waiting to be connected to someone.  Customers find it frustrating to only deal with an answering service and then have to call repeatedly to have a problem dealt with.  With the speed of communication today and the way people interact digitally it is important that your business is not targeted for poor service in an email or Facebook campaign.

To prevent problems and get the best from your reputation building efforts it is essential to have a dialogue with your customers.  Listen to what they enjoy about your service and products then find ways to enhance that.  Ask them about what they do not enjoy and find ways to improve then take this feedback and act on it.  A happy customer will come back time and again to do business with you and will tell their friends.  But an unhappy customer can inform an entire digital community in just one Tweet or email causing huge damage to your business reputation.

Easy

Make it easy to interact.  Make it easy to click from Facebook page to website to purchase.  If relevant, show videos of your products so people find it easy to understand what they do and how to use them.

Fresh Content

If you want people to keep viewing your page you need to give them a reason to return so make the posts and comments relevant, stimulating, interesting and post around 2 or 3 times per day. Keep the content lively and engaging by referring to wider topics than just the products on offer.  Postings should be relevant but stimulate a conversation on related topics so you can keep the engagement with your page at a high level.  Offers may stimulate purchases but try not to annoy the community with too many, there is a balance required.

Like and Share

Optimize the use of these tools.  Use “like” on ads and web pages to generate traffic on your Facebook site.  Through “Share” you can capitalize on the wider Facebook community which may have an interest in your products or the topics generating interest on your pages.

Link

Regular signposts should be provided on your Facebook page directing customers to web pages, blogs, Tweets and your wider promotional campaign.  Link to other sites and groups too.  This may generate some reciprocal linking plus your site will register more activity.  Use “notes” to link to blog where more detail can be found on your brand, business and related topics.

Listen

Genuinely listen to the feedback you receive on Facebook.  Don’t simply use your Facebook page to make announcements or show products but genuinely interact with the people commenting and liking your content.

Personalize

Facebook is a friendly environment and by making comments and by taking part in discussions it shows you are aware of your customers and your relationship with them is more than superficial.  This builds the kind of customer loyalty and reputation for attention to detail and personal service that enables businesses to get ahead of their competitors.

Review

Use the analysis tools.  Measure what works and stimulates interest on the page.  Check which elements of the page are leading customers to actually making a purchase.  If you get something wrong apologize, make it right and work out how to prevent it happening again.

All good marketing strategies should have a set of SMART objectives and e-marketing is no exception.  You should have an idea of what your goal is in order to most effectively take advantage of the many potential benefits from e-marketing.  The strategy should consider the cost and time commitment required for any e-marketing campaigns you wish to include in your wider marketing mix.  This is very important as e-marketing builds a much more intimate relationship with your customers and if you don’t have time allocated to tending to those relationships you may find your customers “fall out of love” with you very quickly.

The main advantage for small business is the cost.  When you work with a small budget where little expenditure is available for marketing, the low cost of email based marketing or creating a Facebook page is a very attractive.  A great deal can be done yourself without the need for costly services from other providers.  The advantage of having a strategy is that you can consider the overall costs, including time and man power for running, responding to and reviewing en e-marketing campaign.

You can also consider the best mix of digital media for your product and your specific business requirements. Websites, email campaigns, sms campaigns and social media all offer different opportunities for engagement with both your existing customers and potential new customers.  Get the mix of media right, and ensure you have the resources to support your campaign, and your reputation will grow within the digital communities you target.  If you get it wrong you can be sure the digital community will spot that too.

The speed of response makes e-marketing ideal for small businesses but it can also be their downfall if something goes wrong.  Planning is the key to avoiding the pitfalls such as a Facebook page with no community and no interaction or an email campaign which recipients file in their spam bin immediately.  Plus don’t forget that as part of a wider marketing strategy digital marketing campaigns still need to apply basics of product, price, placement and promotion.  So before you race into using e-marketing take some time, think and plan your approach, write a strategy (it doesn’t need to be long or complicated) and ensure the image you promote with your digital campaigns is one you can be proud of.

WordPress 3′s User Sign Up Interface for Setup

WordPress 3′s welcome screen has undergone a large overhaul for improved security and better functionality.  There are now choices to choose your own username and the ability to set a password.  It used to be that you were given the default username of “admin”, which was a huge security risk in all of the previous releases of WordPress.  This is simply better, as now there is not the chance of hacking into another’s account by simply choosing a taken password.  This is now solved with this new welcome screen.

WordPress 3′s New Default Theme: Twenty Ten

The Kubrick theme was always the default in previous releases, and has since been retired with the new WordPress 3 version.  The Kubrick theme is not even a part of the installation package now.

This brand new theme, Twenty Ten, has built-in support regarding themes, personalized headers, and the ability to create background modifications.  There is also support for menus built in, as well.  This is a brilliant move on WordPress’ part to provide users with enhanced functionality and security. The creators of WordPress plan on churning out a new theme each year and updating security as needed.

Personalization in WordPress 3

Personalizing the header background was something unheard of in past releases of WordPress.  In WordPress 3, you can now personalize your header directly from the administration panel.  The new Twenty Ten theme also allows users to improve their background for their post pages from the administration panel, as well.  There are many options for personalization, such as changing colors or uploading photos to set as the background.

<Theme Options>

<Custom background>

<custom header>

WordPress 3′s Simpler Navigation Menu

The exciting menus management feature is among the most anticipated and demanded highlights for WordPress end-users.  This new feature can make it easy as pie for users to include new navigation menus within their WordPress-powered blogs, as well as websites.  Coding experience is not required, as it is as simple as drag and drop to include the various drop down menus that you require.  You can include outgoing links, categories and pages in a single menu just using the navigation menu’s administration feature. This is an awesome, as well as powerful, feature to make WordPress site management increasingly easier for WordPress users.

Final Ideas on WordPress 3?s Brand New Features

It’s evident from each one of these changes that WordPress is certainly going down the path of becoming the fully-featured publishing system of the future.

There is always accommodation for improvement; however, this extensive improvement in WordPress 3 shows the actual dedication of WordPress core developers and also the WordPress community towards the world’s most popular publishing platform.

the Dashboard

Timeline – get to the top of your followers’ timeline or people like your followers as a identified Promoted Tweet.

Geography - targeting of your Promoted Tweets can be aimed at a particular country or US state.

Search – Promoted Tweets are shown at the top of search lists when Twitter users type in a topic to view or for searches on their particular interests.

The advantages are that you can re-ignite interest in your brand or campaign from your existing followers and also spread your campaign message a little wider to Twitter users.  They start off as regular tweets on people’s timelines but then can be promoted to appear again and remind people of the message or initiate a fresh round of activity.  The objective it to get a conversation going and the message re-tweeted, replied to and added to user’s favourite lists. The promoted tweets are visible not just on Twitter.com but also on Tweetdeck and mobile apps such as Twitter for iphone or Twitter for android.

Promoted Tweets are a cost effective promotional tool as you pay only when someone re-tweets so you are only paying for direct campaign activity.  The service also enables you to gather data on your campaign and thus review and improve your Promoted Tweets. Analysis can be found via the Promoted Tweets dashboard and as this provides instant intelligence on your campaign you are able to respond very quickly to successful or unsuccessful promotions.  Twitter is now expanding it range of Promoted Products and working with the social media dashboard Hootsuite who will run Promoted Tweets in search and highlight Promoted Trends.

• Is digital marketing an integral part of your wider marketing strategy or has it been ‘tacked on’ to your previous marketing plans?
• What percentage of your customers come from the internet?
• Is your website a vehicle for processing sales or just showcasing your products?
• What are you doing to monitor your digital campaigns?
• How successful have previous e-marketing initiatives been and how much did they cost?

If you find you have more questions than answers in response then it may be time to review your e-marketing plans.  Most businesses will find that from time to time it is necessary to look at these factors and use their monitoring of digital campaigns to review and revise their approach.  The most successful businesses review their marketing campaigns regularly to look for new opportunities to promote their brand and raise their profile.  The benefit of many digital methods of promotion is that they have built in analytics tools to enable a very rapid assessment of the impact of your campaigns.  From this information you can build upon the foundation for your marketing efforts from the initial objectives you set for the marketing strategy.

With so much competition for customers and the wealth of websites and social media potential clients are bombarded by you cannot afford to let your website, email campaign or social media profile go stale.  Furthermore with the interactive nature of digital marketing relationships are far more personalized and ongoing so your campaign must keep the interest and energy.  Without regular review and changes to the message and tone you will soon have a community which is bored or feels that they have heard it all before.

The nature of social media and the communities that build up on Facebook creates “tribes” with similar interests and demographics.  This enables Facebook ad campaigns to focus in on the communities you wish to attract to your products more effectively.  Your campaign can target Facebook users by location or demographic and once the interaction with a community has started it can spread easily and quickly through the use of a Like button on the advert.  To help refine your targeting, once you are using Facebook ads you can find out who is clicking on your adverts. This allows for real time monitoring of the campaign and gathering of statistics which will be useful for future campaigns.

Administering and paying for the campaign is also simple. You only pay for clicks on your ad or views of your page, you can test your ads first and it is easy to start or stop a campaign quickly.  This speed of response is why Facebook ads are a key part of any e-marketing approach.  By using Facebook ads your business can get ahead of the competition through responding swiftly to interest in your campaign and building a dialogue with customers.

To most effectively use an email campaign all these elements should be considered as part of a wider e-marketing strategy. You can also buy in assistance from companies which provide email marketing services.  The services they offer fall broadly into two categories, blanket emails and opt-in emails.  Opt-in emails are a more targeted approach as those receiving the email have already chosen to do so.  This should ensure your emails are taken more seriously and not immediately consigned to the trashcan.

Opt-in email providers can help you achieve your email campaign goals with a range of services.  Rates will depend on the number of email campaigns you run, number of recipients and the server/speed requirements.  However this type of marketing is generally available for a low cost per contact compared to some other marketing methods.  The service can manage the lists of email addresses you send to them enabling segmentation of email addresses according to demographics and other details.  They will also be able to provide automated email sending services and source commercially available email lists with recommendations on the email list providers you use.

During and after the campaign the service will be able to provide analysis on the effectiveness of the campaign and details of those who engaged with it. They can also assist with the design of emails and newsletters or offer templates for you to use when constructing the email content.  Advice is also offered on how to most effectively link to social media.

WordPress features as not just a blog; they have an effective database that can act as a complete CMS (content management software). This assists you in building a whole website employing this software.

Among the reasons which WordPress is really popular is really because it is extremely easy to use. It also offers thousands of plugins which can be installed to execute nearly any function you can ever need to boost your website. These vary from shopping carts, article web directories and regular membership scripts to powerful SEO features, contact types and automated social bookmark submitting.

There tend to be literally thousands of plug-ins available, as well as thousands of video lessons to educate you on how to make use of WordPress that is also a big plus. Although it really is very simple to use, there is a small studying curve into it. If you need to improve the actual functionality via plugins, you may want to watch some of the tutorials even though all plugins can be installed using the click of a button, since the installer is made into the actual dashboard within the administration panel.

You can obtain a free WordPress site by going to www.wordpress.com. This may be a good starting point by trying out the software program before having a paid-for hosting site for your business. Even if you have a current website, you can incorporate a WordPress blog into your site.

Another benefit of using WordPress is that it can be completely personalized. You may install themes the same exact way you set up the plug-ins. One click and you may change the appearance of your website, meaning you do not need to hire anyone to design the custom theme for the site.

Individually, I do not understand why anyone would wish for a website which is not powered through WordPress. The search engines like Google love this particular platform, also it enables a business proprietor to sustain their web site themselves when they so select. Even in case you are paying anyone to design your website for you, it is normally much more affordable to get a WordPress website designed than it is to have a static or even other CMS website created. Then you possibly can take more and create any little changes, as well as updates, for your site yourself.

Since Twitter is a form of social media it is all about having fun and getting involved.

To increase your brand’s visibility via Twitter and from there increase engagement from the social media community in your products you need to be interesting and stimulate traffic through re-Tweets and ongoing conversations about your products. Use multiple tweets to build a story and use the hash tag to increase the buzz around your topics and Twitter profile.  This will build your reputation and by continuously reviewing and refining your approach using the analytical tools available you can craft a campaign which reacts swiftly to the Tweets that generate traffic and to the topics which ultimately convert Tweets into sales.

The brands which have shown to use Twitter effectively are those which have harnessed the energy and innovation of this relatively new promotional format.  VW used twitter at a Brazilian music festival to promote their Fox car.  The campaign was effective because it required the Twitter community to get involved in a treasure hunt for tickets.  This built VW’s campaign hash tag to become the top trending topic in Brazil for the length of the campaign.  Likewise Twitter has been used effectively for social campaigns such as Ben and Jerry’s Fair Tweets.  These campaigns have been carefully crafted to be fun, engaging or to tap into topics that people care about.  The most effective campaigns also combine with other social media to maximise impact in the internet community, for example VW used google maps alongside Twitter for the Brazilian Fox campaign.

What do you want to achieve through your e-marketing strategy?  It is likely to be more visits to your website, a greater conversion from web page hits to sales, increased brand awareness,  an amplification of traffic relating to your brand on social media and ultimately more sales leading to a greater market share.  To achieve these things you will need to define a set of  SMART objectives from which to build your strategy and against which you can measure your progress.  It is most important to have something measurable in your objectives in order to monitor the effectiveness of the strategy.  It is also essential to build in regular review periods and opportunities to adopt and fine-tune the strategy.

With objectives in place you can then move on to defining your tactics and fitting them within your budget.  To determine your tactics you need to consider what formats you wish to include in your marketing mix, how you plan to target different customer segments and what you will measure in order to assess the effectiveness of the different campaign elements.  To get a true picture of how you will budget to deliver the strategy, you need to break down the budget to determine how much is allocated for each of your chosen marketing techniques and for all the tactics you are employing.  You can then re-evaluate if the budget is appropriate for the likely return and it may be necessary to shift focus between different tactics to get the most out of the budget.

Once you have considered all of these elements you are likely to have a good grasp of what it is you want to achieve and how exactly you can deliver it.  The chances of needing to make a major change to your approach or abandon a campaign are greatly reduced by thinking ahead and planning your strategy.  You can always adapt the strategy as the results come in but without one you are flying blind.

Networking

One of the best ways to start building a professional network on Facebook is by joining different groups.  To find the right groups simply search within Facebook or use an internet search engine to find groups trending on topics you have a  professional interest in.  If your particular industry or area of work has relevant groups to join you may find colleagues will be talking about them or can recommend some to you.  After you have joined a few groups take some time to assess if the conversations, comments and engagement are at the right level and covers topics you are interested in.  Once you have found a group with participants and topics you find stimulating then you can start to spend time contributing to discussions and comment threads and build up a profile and reputation that will attract links with other professionals.

Respect

As with all methods of professional networking it is important to remember to follow the etiquette for groups and for all posting on Facebook.  Posts should be respectful towards others, any images or written work should only be used with the permission of those involved and do not irritate your fellow group members or professional friends with repetitive or irrelevant posts.   Facebook status updates should always be something that may interest people, inane posts do not improve your professional image.  Comments should steer clear of controversial areas such as religion or politics unless you know you are engaging with someone who wishes to have a debate about these issues in a respectful manner.

To find your unique selling proposition you need to consider the culture, ethos and character of your product and business.  By taking time to think about these elements you may be able to find your niche.  If there is not an obvious answer from the basic elements of your business maybe you could combine two elements to create a new niche?  For example a surfboard shop in California is not unusual but if you combine the sale of surfboards with a gallery for a local artist who creates surfboard designs you could have a unique combination.  Another good option for small businesses is specialization.  If you have a specific target customer set and offer a product that is tailored to their requirements in a way no other business has managed or with a degree of specialization no one else offers you have found your USP.

For the USP to be most effective there has to be a strategy behind it to support it and ensure the product is great, the marketing is effective and the delivery is slick. You have to have the right product for the market you are trying to reach with your USP.  If you want to target a quality customer your product and services will need to be of high quality and the branding, promotion and buying environment must reflect that quality.  It is therefore important to have a branding and marketing strategy to most effectively exploit the USP.  Sometimes there is enough space in the market that you don’t have to be “unique” just a little different.  The best approach to finding your USP is not to get too hung up on it but to try out things then review them and as you refine the combination of product, place, promotion and price you may well find the USP naturally emerges.

No newspaper, radio station or television channel comes even close to the dedication Facebook members have to their personal portals. This means that it is possible for a piece of information to travel within the Facebook fraternity faster than the speed of public media stations. This goes for both good and bad information. So, what does this tell many entities that wish to continue doing business with the Facebook public?

The answer is very simple. It tells them to watch out and to be on very high alert. To feel the public sentiments as far as their products and services are concerned. It tells them to spread good press far and wide each and every time they receive it because of the potential windfall it may deliver. It also tells them never to ignore bad press because if it reaches Facebook proportions, they are basically sunk.

We all know politicians and their love for propaganda. Facebook must have been a dream come true for some of them. Here, they can begin and extinguish imaginary fires all over the place. They can fan their political aspirations to blazing proportions. They can also be sunk to the dregs of political oblivion. Here, they respect the Facebook crowd because it can make or break them. The beauty for them is that, their campaigning days are made much easier on cyber space.

Social media networks are all the rage and most people are on at least 2. One of them is more often than not twitter. This is because; the technology revolution has made people very adaptable to change and also less fearful of venturing into unchartered territories. Technology has made humans bolder and more confident. This is has made sites like twitter and other social media sites very popular.

The initial fear that people were conditioned to before the social media days has been replaced by social abandon. This is meant in the most appropriate of ways. This means that, people have become friendlier when they use social media sites like twitter as opposed to face to face meetings. They have also become more daring in venturing far from the nest. In this, some have discovered that they can reach their goal possibilities in record time.

Twitter provides many professional people with the interface to do the scariest of sales techniques, the cold call. The telephone has been replaced by the social media interface that is less personal and more approachable. It is easier for people to speak their true minds when given the chance to do so. When using twitter for business, this becomes another possibility.

There is no clear way to answer this question because Facebook is a two sided coin. On one side for those who want to express themselves both on or offline, this tool does a lot for their networking needs. They can locate long lost buddies or loved ones and also get a lot of new friends, or as Facebook calls them, fans. The more the Facebook fans, the bigger the ego trip. Some people go out of their way to gather as many fans as they possibly can. Whether they keep them satisfied all the time, is another story all together,

For the offline shy types, Facebook has become the answer to their hidden dreams. Using this gateway, they can walk out of their virtual closet and interact with just about anybody they want. They can offer funky jokes and savvy opinions on just about any topic under the sun. They can get their voice heard. They can get noticed. All they need to do is open this portal and begin cyber walking. What a fun way to socialize! Or is it?

The rat race of life does not give people quality time to spend with the people that matter to them. Many things are left unsaid. With the advent of social sites like Facebook, words that would never have been said have been spoken. The only problem is, “are they the right words?”

Tweets can be particularly appropriate as dire warnings or passing important messages. People can use tweets to make significant announcements. For example if there are lurking dangers to be aware of within certain neighborhoods, changes in certain public social forums, environmental, commercial or household disasters, or any other message that is on a time sensitive deadline, tweeting it is the way to go. Chirping like a bird brings out the message short, loud and clear.

The beauty of such warning tweets is that they can be spread from person to person via retweeting. This makes them reach far and wide. Their message can be heard by as many people as possible hence ensuring that corrective and preventive measures can be taken on time. This is very possible because, people are more dedicated to their social media sites than they are to their favorite TV news station.

Social media sites like twitter have often been used to pass important and crucial messages and the feedback regarding the actions taken on such messages is very encouraging. This makes the retweeting benefit of twitter very time saving and economical.

Important messages like warning tweets place the obligation on the receiver to pass them on because they do not know whom they can possible save by their retweet. As far as retweeting warnings is concerned, “are you your brother’s keeper?” Yes, Yes and Yes again.

Although you may feel that putting crazy photos on your Facebook page is your way of being artistic, the feeling may not be mutual. This is especially true for people who have no idea who you are and wonder whether you need to be locked away in a hospital for the mentally challenged. Remember first impressions last forever. Photos of you in compromising positions, in semi clothing, in contorted positions (unless you are in the circus), laughing like someone on laughing gas, snoring or any others that may cast you in a doubtful light are a total No-No.

When you refer people to your Facebook page what do you want them to see first? You looking suave and trendy or looking like an accident about to unfold? The choice, as always, remains yours. What about your future prospects for employment or even marriage? What will they think if they see you looking like you have taken leave of your senses? Is that really the picture you want them to have every time they talk to you? Again, it all depends on you.

So the next time you are about to post pictures in Facebook think about the future that is 10 years away. With that dubious photo you could be shooting yourself in the foot.

For those who choose to stay with twitter, the growth has been increasing steadily over the years. From a slow beginning, twitter has rapidly gained momentum and with it, a respectful following. This is because; twitter is seen more like a social media site for business minded people with limited time for socializing. Senior citizens have also seen twitter as their answer to the social media trend.

When someone chooses to carefully study twitter, they will notice some interesting differences with other social media sites. This is because; twitter attracts a largely professional crowd that is in it for the money. They are also in it to meet like-minded kindred spirits whom they can share their long held personal inspirations. Some of these can be works of pure genius.

For those who want to experience the unique professional talents of their peers, twitter is the place to be. This is because, in just 140 characters a lot can be said that can inspire, delight and enlighten many other kindred spirits in cyber space. Because the brief is quite limited, good use of the imagination can do wonders for the tweeting followers and also getting a new set of avid enthusiastic followers. A savvy 140 word tweet can say more than 1000 words.

Basically, it is on the Fan Pages that you need to walk the talk and talk the walk.
The secret here is bringing the Fan Pages to life by making them fun and involving for the visitors. Keep your visitors engaged with snappy games, insightful videos or even photos. The main idea is to keep that Fan Page fresh and new always and you are sure to keep ‘em coming back for more.

Another secret is to do some thorough research and find out why people visit you and exactly what they hope to get out of it. Find out what your niche markets are and what makes them literally tick. What they like and what they do not like and why this is so. Once you have discovered this, them design your Fan Page around that concept and make it as interactive as possible. Ensure this is not overdone.

Above all make the Fan Page simple to navigate and use. People have no time to navigate complicated programs and they will quickly tire and move away. The bad memories will keep them away forever. Is that what you designed your Fan Page for? I should hope not.
Facebook Fan Pages can be extraordinarily useful for start ups and small businesses that are on a shoe string marketing budget. This is because they can tailor their Fan Pages to target their desired prospects at a ridiculously low cost.

For any company that checks its incoming tweets several times a day, they get to see and sort out the issues that their clients may have as they are unfolding. The space provided for the client to explain their concern is usually limited (less than 150 characters) so clients quickly get to the heart of the issue thus making it easier to understand their concerns and deal with them ASAP.

Reputation is everything when it comes to the social media channels like Twitter. A company’s reputation can get really trashed by one unhappy customer. Since we all know that bad news tends to travel much faster than good news, it is in the best interest of any business to ensure that they get a public reputation that is well above average.

Unlike the customer feedback sheets which were provided to customers in days gone by, those same customers provide their feedback on Twitter. This allows staffs who are in charge of monitoring feedback able to see their ratings in the market in general. This information is very important in helping them take the necessary preventive and corrective actions.

The savings in terms of money for any company operating in these recessionary times is welcomed. Furthermore the saving in time is the real bonus because reaction time is cut down by more than half.

For the young kids and teenagers, Facebook becomes the new nanny of choice. A kid or teen busy interacting on Facebook will sit quietly in their room for hours on end and even make their parents become concerned for their lack of exposure to the sun. Well, nobody said you can have it all.

For the parents who are busy rearing young children and have no social life, Facebook becomes the exciting companion of choice. Here they can get to meet all their buddies and chat for hours on end as they keep an eye on the rowdy young ones. They have an outlet for all their boiling steam.

For the business minded, Facebook for Business gives the tools and opportunities which might have taken them much longer to put in place. The limitless Facebook customer base can be their launching pad without being overly pushy. Besides, a lot of online marketing campaigns can be much more effective than their offline counterparts. Any serious business organization can make significant inroads with new customers consistently if they work the huge social media channels constantly and consistently. The main idea here is focus and technique because the customers are only a click away, literally.

If you are imaginative and want followers to want to follow you, creating a competition on Twitter is a good way to begin. The winners need to be announced quickly and the prizes should be attractive enough to encourage people to participate. Getting a reputation for creating good and fair matches can garner a person a large interested following.

Include the Twitter signature tag line in all outgoing emails. This draws readers and keeps those interested in your products or services following you for updates. This is a little used feature that can prove very useful in adding to the crucial numbers. Also, bring Twitter into other social media sites like Facebook where tweets can be posted using varied widgets provided.

Despite it being the cyber age, the art of the conversation will never loose style. This means that Twitter allows people to chat with their followers. This goes over and above posting tweets and shows your followers that you are there and you are listening to them. It should be pretty obvious by now that you should be posting tweets into your blog. This is a free Twitter benefit so why not use it? Add leverage by exporting all you email contacts onto Twitter.

A recent research shows that numerous policy changes are being brought about largely due to the immense response made by people on social media sites, primarily Facebook, where a good amount of space for opinion and points is provided for the members. This phenomena is made even more evident because posts featuring graphic images and videos of local disasters and emergencies stand as immutable evidence for the points being made.

The policy makers who choose to ignore these posts and clamor find out soon enough that social media sites are not as easy to silence as actual protestors on the street. Add to this the fact that searing criticisms done on Facebook can catch on fire easier than most flammable material, fanning the flames of popular opinion, and practically ensuring the end of leader’s career.

More and more policy makers, corporate heads, and decision-makers are now taking posts and suggestions made on Facebook to heart, scrutinizing for actual points that are valid and needing real action. The beauty of Facebook is that any promise of action made on a post is something that the poster needs to really make good on, or risk drawing even more flak and criticism for not only their inaction, but their inability to follow through on what they promise to do.

Not many may have seen it as evolving into such, but Facebook is one social media site that is arguably the best catalyst for action in society today.

Matt Cutts, one of the lead guys on the Google team, shares his ideas about SEO and spam. As you will see in the video below, Matt Cutts, Google, and FMMG are all on the same page…

Here’s a little more information on Matt Cutts if you’re interested: He received his Ph.D in computer graphics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has an M.S. from UNC-Chapel Hill, and B.S. degrees in both mathematics and computer science from the University of Kentucky. He wrote his first version of Safe Search which is Google’s “family filter”. He has worked on search quality and web spam at Google for the last several years.

Twitter is known as the savvy professional social media net work of choice for most upcoming and trendy professionals from all walks of life within their various occupations. The reasons for using such a large database to gain business momentum may seem quite obvious but then again they may not. Some of the most obvious reasons that make twitter the professional’s choice include the following;

Firstly, twitter contains some of the most respected business people on the net from well known industries like media, business, finance etc. Following them can add valuable insights into your personal repertoire of ideas and also tips on how you too can achieve success. Why reinvent the wheel? Why not follow proven methods with a few of your own personal touches on the way?

Secondly, twitter just like Facebook contains some hot business networks that you can either choose to create or join. Networks have always been opportunities to meet and engage people on pressing issues of the day. This is the perfect way to pick someone’s brain without them feeling it.

Thirdly, many news networks have very active twitter accounts which they keep updating regularly. It can be faster and easier to get breaking news from your twitter account as opposed to logging onto the massive news sites that contain information overload.

Well, it’s actually easier than you might think. You just have to know a little bit about picking the right partner and valuing what you have to offer. If done correctly, a joint venture can be a huge success for both parties.

Who to Choose?

Obviously, you won’t be able to do a joint venture with a large corporation. Instead, you need to pick a company that is close in size to your own. If you choose one that is too big, they will probably demand more than you want to offer for the deal. If you choose one that is too small, the benefits received from the arrangement might favor your partner and not you.

Also, look for businesses that are not franchises and are not part of national chains. You really want to do a joint venture with a locally owned and operated company. The main reason is the decision maker is likely to be accessible. Plus, they have power over their business so they can make the final decision without having to contact the home office for approval.

Avoiding your competitors is a good idea, too. Competitors aren’t just those companies selling the same product either. You also don’t want to do a joint venture with anyone offering an alternative to your product. For example, if you sell vacuums don’t partner with a maid service.

Finally, consider the reputation of your prospective joint venture partners. When you make a deal like this, you are essentially going to be sharing customers. If they have a bad reputation, you could be hurting your relationship with your current customers through the association. You never want to do any kind of deal that might damage your reputation so choose wisely.

What to Offer?

Think about what you could offer to a potential partner that would be valuable to them. For example, if you have a lengthy mailing list of customers that could be of interest to a potential partner. You might also be able to offer something to the clients or customers of your partner, such as coupons, discounts, or offers that have a high perceived value. In fact, you could simply offer to work together to host a contest.

Here’s one example. Let’s say you operate a movie rental business. You could partner with a large employer in your area to provide free rental coupons that could be used as paycheck stuffers for their employees. You would generate more business, but they could increase the morale of their workers without having to spend any money.

Another example might be that you provide copywriting services. You could partner with a graphic designer in your area so you could both offer additional services to your clients, such as complete website creation.

You simply need to decide what you have to offer and which companies would be most likely to find value in that. And don’t be discouraged if you get rejected a few times. Just go back to the drawing board, tweak your presentation, and find a new potential partner.

This is mainly because Facebook allows people to actually know of social trends even before they proliferate, as well as those already participating in the trend. This gives them an idea if the trend is something they would want to participate in. Depending on how many friends a person has on their account, there is a good chance that a person may actually participate in the trend, or at the very least signify their support of it by “liking” the activities of the participants.

Facebook also affords a level of participation not found elsewhere: that of privately participating in the trend. This is because members can actually post pictures or videos of themselves engaging in the trend without having to do it in public. This is particularly true for those who are significantly introverted, but would like to be included in social activities. This gives people the opportunity to participate in some trends which would normally be embarrassing to do in public.

Social media, therefore, gives the entire phenomenon of pop culture an entirely new and engaging spin, by allowing people to know of the trend form the moment it becomes viral, allowing them to engage in it both overtly and discreetly, as well as giving them the opportunity to gauge if indeed the trend is something they would like to be part of, or maybe better off not joining at all.

Customer loyalty is important; just ask companies like Apple whose devoted buyers line up for nearly any new gadget they sell and every new version of ones they already have. That loyalty made Apple wealthier than the Unite States government!

If you’re wondering how to generate that level of loyalty with your customers, you might want to turn to the Internet, particularly social media, for assistance. Here are a couple of examples that might inspire you.

CoffeeGroundz

In addition to its cute name, this coffee shop based in Houston, Texas proved they know the secret to great customer service: listen to your customers! The locally owned business already had a Twitter account and used it to keep in touch with the regulars – a nice, personal touch but nothing extraordinary.

However, one morning a customer sent an unusual tweet: he wanted to order breakfast over Twitter so it would be ready when he arrived in the drive-thru. That one request led to a new policy of accepting orders via the social media website. Now customers on-the-go can send a tweet before they leave the house or while stuck in traffic so their coffee will be waiting for them and not the other way around.

FreshBooks

Sometimes customer service means doing something unexpected for customers. FreshBooks is a great example of this. They run a web-based application aimed at small businesses to assist them in managing invoices. Like CoffeeGroundz, they already used Twitter to stay in touch with customers. Then they got the opportunity to really set themselves apart.

A client of theirs sent a tweet about being stood up for a blind date. A company employee saw the tweet and responded by sending her flowers along with a clever note about the company’s dependability. Of course, she was touched and shared the story with everyone she knew, including all of her social media outlets.

The story helped generate loyalty for FreshBooks and increased the popularity of their Twitter community thus saving them money on their customer support line.

Although these two small companies may not have the marketing budget of a behemoth like Apple, they stood apart from their competition by going beyond the expectations their customers had for them. CoffeeGroundz listened to what a single customer wanted and made a major change to enable all of their customers to have a more convenient morning experience via Twitter. FreshBooks stood out by showing customers that they don’t just see them as dollar signs but as real people they care about.

Think about your own customers. What could you do to show them how much you value them? What changes would you be willing to make to increase their loyalty? And if you’re not willing or able to exceed their customer service expectations, remember your competition might be.

Take the story of a simple concerned message Tweeted by a concerned citizen in Norfolk County, reminding people about the simple concern of fire safety and prevention. The people who saw it proved to be smart enough to pick up on the importance of the Tweet and re-tweeted it themselves, and their friends and followers who saw it followed suit. The surprising effect was that an entire community became acutely aware of the importance of fire safety and prevention, resulting in the community having significantly less fire-related incidents the following weeks, possibly saving numerous lives and homes in the process.

This is just a manifestation on a relatively larger scale. The effects of actually tuning into Twitter can sometimes spell the difference between safety and potential disaster for individuals.

Another concerned student from a university that prefers not to be named Tweeted that she say a suspicious-looking individual lurking the sides of campus for a couple of days. The tweet was met with relative indifference by many. One individual, however, took to heart what she read as she was checking her Twitter account and had the gumption to consider safety and move along with other groups of students as they made their way across campus. One individual, however, who either did not take the tweet seriously or was completely unaware of it altogether, was not so fortunate. This individual was fortunate enough to be able to relate her story to the authorities as she was being treated in the local hospital for assault.

Far from simply just being a mode of socialization and posting of random thoughts, some Tweets are actually worth reading and taking to heart, as it can sometimes be the only thing that stands between a person and certain harm.

Upselling & Cross Selling

Whether you run a retail chain selling products or a business making money from services, teaching your staff these two marketing methods can be invaluable. Remember your goals with marketing aren’t just to bring in new customers but also to get current customers to spend more money. These strategies help with that goal.

Upselling basically means your staff suggests upgraded or more expensive products or services than the one being purchased. If you went to fast food restaurants, they loved upselling. If you buy a medium fry, they might say “You can go large for 49 cents more” or something like that. That’s upselling. Of course, you don’t have to be as direct as the fast food industry. Instead, your staff could say, “If you purchase the larger version of X then you actually save Y cents” or “When you choose the upgraded service, you get a lot of additional features, including . . . “

Cross selling is closely related to upselling except that it focuses on promoting products or services that are complimentary to what your customer is already buying. For example, “Would you like fries with that?” or “Could I interest you in a hot apple pie to go with that?” Again, your staff doesn’t have to be quite so obvious. They can present the additional products as benefits. For example, “If you purchase the extended warranty on your vehicle, you won’t have to worry about paying for most of your car repairs until after you’ve already paid off the car. That means you’ll have a lot less to worry about.”

You need to train your staff in how to use these techniques but also make sure they are extremely knowledgeable about what you sell so they can make the appropriate recommendations and can really sell the benefits of those recommendations to customers.

Business Cards & Other Promotions

Outside of work, your staff could be marketing your business, too. You just need to make sure they have the right tools. First, you should provide business cards for every member of your staff. People love to pass these around, and they have your company’s address and marketing message on them so it’s an easy way to reach a lot of people.

You can benefit by giving your staff branded gifts, such as polo shirts, pens, cup holders, key chains, etc. When your staff uses or wears these items outside of work, they are marketing your business. They are getting your name out there where the public can see it. If you also give your staff these goodies for their friends or family members, you’ll increase the impact even more. Plus, free things are always a good way to boost staff morale.

With these approaches, you can have your staff increasing your revenue and attracting more attention to your business. That way you can be making the most of one of your most valuable business assets.

Identity Farming

Facebook has not been, sadly, spared as a source of identities used by scammers in their unscrupulous activities.  This is done through some very crafty methods, all hidden as posts that are designed to encourage people to click on it, or to allow some application access to the photos and information of the member.

How not to fall victim

It is possible not to fall victim to these scams, if only people become more aware of what they are doing and seeing in the social media site:

1. Read the posts carefully.  If it asks for access to your information, be wary and scrutinize where the post came from and how it generally looks.  A lot of these posts asking for access to your information are controversial and highly appealing in nature, hence, this is one instance where the adage “not all that glitters is gold” might apply.
2. Do not readily share your personal information.  Your friends are one thing, but sharing information with a complete stranger, or even you have known for a few weeks is not really a good idea.  Protect your personal information to the best of your ability.
3. Make sure your security settings are optimal.  There are cases wherein you will receive a notice stating that your Facebook account has been accessed from another area, maybe even halfway across the world.  Once this happens, immediately change your password, and try to see any unusual or new activity your account has been known to do that you do not recall doing yourself.
4. Change your password anyway.  Do it periodically, and if you must write it down, be sure that it is kept in a secure place where no one but you can access it.

Personal security is everybody’s business, and it really pays to ensure that although you do mingle socially, you know what goes on around you.

There are a number of strategies you can use to increase your perceived credibility. Let’s look at a couple of successful examples.

Hubspot

This online service that helps other companies develop an effective web presence with an emphasis on inbound marketing is a good example of credibility marketing. When they entered the market, it was pretty full of services vying for business dollars and making grandiose promises. Instead, Hubspot chose to educate potential customers. They wrote blogs about inbound marketing’s benefits. They started an inbound marketing training program. They even created tools to help potential customers evalute their own websites and social media presence.

While all of these efforts were trying to convince customers that they needed Hubpages help, the efforts also illustrated how much the company knew about inbound marketing. They took on the role of experts and demonstrated their knowledge in many different ways so customers believed them and wanted to work with them.

Did their efforts pay off? Well, between 2009 and 2010, their customer base nearly doubled and between 2010 and 2011 the company increased their staff by 60%. Without that trust, customers probably would not have been sold on the service and the company would not have been able to grow so quickly.

K9Cuisine

Based in a small Midwestern town, this online-only company wanted to make it easier for dog owners to find and purchase high quality, premium foods for their pets. Some customers already shared the desire to find these foods and were frustrated because they weren’t carried by any of their local stores, but they still needed to trust K9Cuisine to provide the best products and service possible.

To make this happen, the company took a number of steps to increase its credibility with customers. First, it set up a ratings system for the different brands of dog food they offered. In this way, customers could listen to each other’s recommendations not just the recommendations of K9Cuisine.

They also started a blog about dogs that covers pretty much anything a dog owner might want to know about their pet. This adds credibility because it frames the company as knowledgeable about dogs. People who know about dogs probably also know which foods those dogs should be eating.

Lastly, they created an Ask the Experts section in their blog. This part allowed customers to ask questions and seek advice from people who are dog experts. By associating the website with these experts, they increased their credibility further.

After only a year in business, the company was seeing amazing results thanks, in part, to their effective credibility marketing. They made $2.5 million sales in that first year alone.

As you can see, credibility marketing can have a major impact on the success of your business. Whether you want to teach your customers or you want to align yourself with experts, you need to find some way of convincing your potential customers that you know your stuff so they will take the next step.

The need for things instant is also largely responsible for the proliferation of hand-held and portable devices linking the people who have them to the internet, wherever they may be. Far from simply being a fad or a cultural trend, however, the need for portable devices allowing near-instant access to the internet has become something of a necessity, since never before has information been so valued as it is today.

In practically all aspects of life, be it personal, social, or even business, the need to have instant access to information is immensely important, as demonstrated by the natural calamities that struck various parts of the world in recent times. Had it not been for the early warning passed on through the internet, may would not have had the time to prepare for the emergencies. Twitter also played a large and crucial part, as not only were the major news bureaus around th world able to relay information through them, but reports of areas needing rescue were also posted and transmitted through the social media site. This was particularly essential since many people were relying on the battery power of their hand-helds to keep in touch, since many areas affected by calamities were already without power, and posting to Twitter required far less battery power than making a call.

Twitter is probably the best example of the importance of instant in the world we live in today, as it allows the transmission of important information immensely fast, in a very convenient manner, and through a very convenient medium. Depending on the situation, this could very well mean the difference between success and failure in business and other endeavors, and in some cases, between life and death.

Know the Competition

First, you’re going to have to know what the competition is charging for the same product or service. You need to find out where the price you charge lands in relationship to theirs. Now keep in mind it doesn’t mind where your price falls along the spectrum. The important thing is you know.

Know Your Market

Second, you’ve got to understand something about your current customers. What motivates them to purchase a product? Why did they choose your company over the competition? This type of information will help you figure out how others perceive your business. You also need to know whether affordability is more important than quality when making a decision or whether your customers pay a premium for your service. You can use information about your current customers to make assumptions about your potential customers.

Make Your Pitch

The marketing approach you take here depends on where your price falls in relation to the competition. For example, if you are one of the most affordable companies then you might create a tagline like “Where affordable prices meet quality service.” You can use that in all of your ads, on your business cards and letter head, etc. The idea is you are promoting that low price as one of the main selling points of your business.

But what if you are one of the most expensive? Well, you can’t pretend to be cheap when you’re not. Instead your marketing approach brags about being expensive but being worth it. For example, you might create an advertisement as part of your marketing. The ad could show a junky car next to a brand new one. Under the pictures, have the prices of the two vehicles. Add a line such as “Cheaper isn’t always better. Get what you pay for with Company X.” Now you’ve just given customers a reason not to automatically choose the lower priced competitors.

Of course, you might fall in the middle of the spectrum with your price being about average in your area. You obviously don’t want to market your company based on the benefits of either pricing extreme or else you’ll drive customers to your competition. Instead, you can actively market against both extremes. Here are two examples:

1. Send out a flier or postcard including the cheapest price among your competitors. You don’t have to include the competitor’s name. Add a version of the following message: “We may not be as dirt cheap as Company Y but that’s because we never cut corners when it comes to quality. We know you want a product that is worth what you pay for it.”
2.  Send out the same kind of flier, postcard, or brochure. This time target one of your most expensive competitors. List what you get with their service then list all of those same things as what you offer (if the lists aren’t exactly the same then don’t add any to their list that you don’t offer). Show the price they charge for the service. Then add: “Why pay $500 with Company X? You can get the same service for less with Company Z.”

As you can see there are a number of ways to use your pricing in your marketing efforts. You just need to think about where you fit in and what your potential customers are most likely to respond to.

Internet: The great separator

The internet has afforded man one of the greatest benefits it has ever known: access to everything without ever having to leave the comfort of their personal computer. Connected to practically everything anywhere, the internet allows anyone to almost instantly access any information they want (provided they know how to get to it) , purchase anything on sale commercially, send and receive communications at the click of a mouse, and much, much more. Never before can so many things be done with a few pounds of plastic, silicon, copper, and a few other conductive materials all strewn together to make a personal computing device.

Another contrivance of the internet, however, is the great separation from the general populace of an increasing number of people. Since almost anything can be done online, such as meeting and greeting people, conducting business, even purchasing the basic needs of living, like food and clothing, people have found fewer reasons to actually venture forth into the outside world to do what they need to do, preferring to do in the safety of their home in front of their personal computer. The basic truth is: the internet has fostered isolation and separation amongst people.

So where does Facebook fit into all of this?

Facebook: The great toucher

Facebook is one of the most popular reasons to be on the internet today, and the irony of all of this is that although the internet does its best to keep people at home or isolated in front of their computers, Facebook allows them to seemingly reach out to others and establish contact, albeit in the virtual sense of the word. Adding to the irony is the fact that Facebook operates nowhere else but on the internet, where as a social media site, it does its best to keep people together and in touch while the internet as a whole strives to keep people isolated and alone.

Moonfruit

This web hosting company based in Britain took Twitter by storm back in 2009 with a simple marketing campaign: they used tweets as contest entries. Basically, the company started promoting that they were doing a big 10-day giveaway. Each day one lucky Twitter user would receive a MacBook Pro. All he or she had to do was send a tweet containing #moonfruit.

Who wouldn’t want the chance to win that? Well, as one might expect, the Twitter campaign generated an enormous response. It was the top trend on Twitter for three days (for some reason, Twitter removed it from the list after three days). More importantly, the campaign had a real impact on their business: traffic to their website soared with an increase of 200% in Britain and 1000% in the United States. Plus, the number of sign-ups for trials of their web hosting services skyrocketed by 350%.

Radio Shack

Even companies that have been around a long time and are more well-known can make good use of Twitter’s services as Radio Shack discovered with their own promotion. The company ran a sponsored tweet asking people to share photos of themselves holding out their hand towards the camera. At first the motivation came from the chance to win an unspecified prize. Then people saw what Radio Shack was doing with their submitted photos: adding a cape and mask to turn each submitter into their version of a superhero. The revised photos were tweeted back to the original submitter much to their delight.

The campaign was extremely successful as was their previous foray into Twitter usage. During a previous promotion using the social media service, their tweet got 65 million views in one day.

So what lesson can your company learn from Moonfruit and Radio Shack? Well, one lesson is that Twitter can definitely generate buzz for a business and its products. With the right promotion, you can boost your brand’s awareness, generate more business, and expand your market with relatively minor marketing costs.

Of course, one important thing to remember is that subtle is always better with Twitter. Hard sells just don’t work anymore. People want to be entertained and if you can provide that entertainment while also getting attention for your product, service or business then that’s even better. The challenge is finding a way to be creative with your marketing strategy via Twitter. Do something unique and interactive and you’ve got yourself a successful marketing effort.

A lot of people don’t prepare their site for a lot of visitors. However, with today’s social media, you can get a lot of traffic in a short period of time. It is essential that you always assume that your blog will be a huge success and make sure it won’t crash.

The easiest way to speed up your WordPress blog is through the use of the WP Super Cache plugin.

Everything in WordPress is dynamic, so every time a page is loaded, queries must be executed thus making the site load slow or even crash when you have lots of traffic.  This plugin, as its name implies, caches posts and stores them as files on the server and serve those to your users instead of processing the heavy dynamic queries repeatedly. WP Super Cache basically generates static html files for your WordPress blog. The plugin will automatically update as comments are added so the dynamic nature of the blog isn’t lost. Once installed, you will notice a significant difference in the time your site loads.

Installing this plugin will help a lot in boosting your site’s speed but it is not the only thing you can do. It is also important that you make sure your version of WordPress is up to date because the most recent version always has the security fixes and new features. It is also important that you check your plugin list and remove any inactive ones. Also, be sure to remove the active ones which you don’t really need. This is necessary because they use up server resources. In WordPress, each time you load a page, all plugins are loaded as well so if you keep the unnecessary ones, you’ll definitely slow down your site.

Since everyone is doing it, it must be something that is at the very least mildly beneficial, and probably not have any adverse effect on people. Or at least that is what the common opinion would be. Another look at the primary elements of social media would probably paint a different picture altogether.

Some analysts and experts have actually taken time to scrutinize the social media sites that people frequent today, pinpointing a few potential dangers that people may incur not because of the site itself, but my chronic participation to the site.

Indifference – a widely publicized study some time back pointed out that one of the general effects of being immersed in social too much is a growing tendency to be numbed and indifferent to the human condition, since they are bombarded with it every single minute while on the social media sites. This is especially true for those who subscribe to Tweets from the major international news groups.

Withdrawal from reality – there are those who spend so much time withdrawn from the outside world and simply connect to it via the internet that they live almost like hermits. Humans are basically social creatures, and as such, need the presence and exposure to other humans. Going against this will definitely result in numerous psychological issues, not the least of which is the difficulty to discern what is real from what is not.

Uncharted expenses – For those who still pretty much mingle with the outside world AND continue to dabble in social media sites through their portable devices, there is a good chance the danger they will be experiencing is that of escalating charges from their mobile service provider. It is not uncommon that those so into social media fail to realize and keep track of the expenses that come with it, especially when using a mobile service provider.

These dangers, as stated before, are not really from using social media sites like Twitter, but rather, from the uncontrolled usage of it. Much like an addiction, those who are so into it fail to see when enough is enough, and when their addiction is seriously affecting their behavior, their expenses, and their lives in general.

Here are a couple of strategies that work. Just remember most of these require that you have a mailing list or customer database.

What Did We Do Wrong?

One approach to regaining the business of lost customers is to send out a postcard simply asking the question: What did we do wrong? You can follow that up with additional explanation, such as, “As a loyal customer, we value your business. And it saddens us because we haven’t been able to serve you in over a year. Did we do something wrong? Is there something we could do better?” Then sign it with your name and add your contact number.

Don’t be surprised if you get a few calls from recipients. Some might simply reassure you that you didn’t do anything wrong; they may just have stopped using whatever service you provide. Others might tell you that you DID do something wrong and that will give you a chance to ask them to give you another shot.

Some may just come in because the note reminded them of your company, and they made them want to rekindle the relationship.

Coupons & Discounts

Whether you have their email or home address, sending out an offer to lost customers is a great way to win them back. You might want to mention that you miss them or that this offer is just for loyal customers because it makes them feel special and that boosts the effectiveness of the offer.

Make sure whatever you offer is enticing. If you can give them something for free, that’s the best chance you have of getting them back into your store or having them come in to meet with your staff.

You might even want to have multiple offers ready then keep track of which ones you’ve sent out to which lost customers. Different things will work with different people so if the first offer didn’t do the trick try a different one in a month.

Bad Competition News

If you are fairly certain you’ve lost customers to a certain competitor, you can always let your customers know why your business is better. Let’s say your competition is a large national chain. Write a 1-page “Special Report” about the epidemic of poor customer service at national chains in whatever your particular industry happens to be. You don’t even have to mention the store’s name. Just make sure the piece is written like a news story and does not include any mention of your store’s name either.

Mail a copy of the report to your lost customers. Be sure to include a handwritten note from you saying something like “I saw this report and wanted to let all of our loyal customers know this is definitely not how we would treat our customers.”

You can tweak these ideas to better fit your business and to start winning back those customers you thought were gone for good.

Facebook, being more than simply a social media site where acquaintances get to tell each other what they’re up to, provides a host of marketing applications that is not readily found elsewhere. In fact, most of the business benefits found on Facebook are services offered by advertising companies offering marketing solutions to businesses, including:

Customer engagement – Unlike the pestering customer service representatives, which customers mostly avoid like a disease, Facebook posts are in no way annoying or intrusive. At best, they are controversial, which elicits a voluntary response or comment from the target audience.

Branding – Since almost everyone is on Facebook, it is a very vital spcial avenue to have a presence in. The best place to be seen by the most people is definitely where the most people are, hence Facebook.

Reputation Management – It’s on everyone’s watchlist right now, or at least those with brands that seem to draw flak from the competition. Managing a brand almost necessarily means you always have to keep a sterling reputation at all times. Although this is not always the case, as there are brands that seem to enjoy infamy and controversy, it is mostly good business practice to make sure there is nothing bad to be said publicly about your brand, product, or services.