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No matter what the size of your business, if you are using video to promote it ,  you will undoubtedly love your  video to “go viral”.  Going viral means that it comes infectious enough that people are sharing your content eagerly with one another and doing all the hard work of distribution for you.  It’s the fastest means of seeing a traffic surge for your site and can be one of the most to see a surge of traffic and interest and it can be one of the most effective marketing tools you can have.  If you want to harness the power of viral marketing, utilize these ten methods to create the buzz and interest that viral videos generate:

1. Be Original: Pick a unique and create approach that hasn’t be done before.  One way of doing this is to play off current news, trends or interest that will give your video a unique spin on whatever is going on in the news right now.

2. Give Them What They Don’t Expect.  Make sure your video should have at least one element that will shock or surprise people.  People love sharing this kind of content with others.

3. Stay Away from Industry Buzzwords: Your audience won’t care about corporate terminology or fancy dialogue.  Keep the tone friendly and accessible.

4. Don’t Attempt to be “Cool”:  Trying to be cool (and failing) is one of the fastest way to guarantee your viewers will turn away.  They’ll consider you insincere. Stick to what you know and be who you are.

5. Keep it Short. The best viral videos are almost always short and sweet.  They usually only last a minute or two, providing a quick laugh, insight or surprising experience that people can watch, share and the more on to something else.  Most people won’t wait around very long for the kicker if this video is too long.

6. Use Humor. Laughter is a compelling tool, that both attracts people and creates a feeling of trust at the same time.  If you make them laugh, they will want to share the humor with others.

7. Be Creatively Different. Take an everyday chore and make it outrageous.  Make something so ordinary appear so different that you jolt peoples attention as they watch the unexpected.

8. Be Homespun:  Being visibly “amateur” (as opposed to “amateurish”) can be a positive thing. You don’t need high quality production to make a great viral video.  Having a homemade feel can work to your advantage by making you look more real and accessible.

9. Remember Your Brand: What do you – or your company – do best? Find a way to highlight that or make people remember that through the course of your video. Don’t stray too far into the realm of “viral just for the sake of being viral”. You don’t want to be the Super Bowl commercial that everyone talks about as being sensational, while nobody remembers what it was for.

10. Keep It Snappy.  Make sure the content move quickly.  Extended explanations, boring dialogue and slow action will make your viewer switch off and move on. Don’t try to include too more content in your video at the expense of your audience’s attention span.  Let your website or linked content share the all the other details.

Caroline Wright, IVAA CVA
The Wright Solution
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Growing your targeted audience on Twitter calls for a little patience and a some planning strategy. Twitter is a tool growing in popularity for businesses because of the inexpensive, simple way that they can connect with their customers. Interestingly, Twitter’s business use spans all sizes of companies from small through to the big boys such as HP, Best Buy and American Airlines.  The reason for it popularity is that you companies can connect with their customers and clients, advertise new products and services, and monitor their online brands.
The route to growing your targeted Twitter audience has four basic steps: First, follow folks on Twitter who you believe to be your target audience. Second, post interesting information and business updates that is related to your brand. Third, don’t spam your followers with auto-tweets, or post the same tweet over and over again.  And, lastly, follow smart tweeps who are online marketers or who  thought leaders in your niche.  Here’s a quick overview on how to tackle each of these steps:

Finding the Right People to Follow on Twitter:

Firstly, Before you begin following others, make sure your Twitter feed has a sampling of interesting posts. If your Twitter feed is empty, most people won’t  follow you back.   Once you’ve started with some content in your micro-blog feed, start following your target audience. There are a number of ways to do this. Two good ways to start are: a.. Go to Search.Twitter.com and type in keywords relevant to your target audience. For example if you are an exercise instructor – Type in keywords like “fitness” “exercise,” “weight loss,” and other similar keywords. Follow these people. If you post relevant, interesting tweets, they will be quite likely to follow you back.  You can also locate your target Twitter audience by using the “Find People” tool on the Twitter site.  Again, try relevant  keywords and any relevant industries and geographic areas to discover good people to follow.

Give Your Target Audience Relevant Information:

Aim to post a mixed range of interesting industry news and product or services developments from your industry.  You can also include some self-promotional links to your blog or website, but don’t forget to keep it to small percentage of your overall post. Post interesting news and reviews about your products or services, but don’t forget to also post related industry news as well. For instance, if you are a hairdresser, post news about hair health, new hair treatments, products etc.

An essential way to gain a targeted following on Twitter is to retweet well and retweet often. If you see a interesting, relevant tweet by another Twitterer, share it by retweeting.  Often, these Twitterers will spot that you’ve just  retweeted them and will return the favor by following you. Once they’ve done so you will have access to their followers—just click on the “Followers” tab , and start following. Be generous with your retweets—it’s a very successful method of gaining a following.

Check the Search.Twitter.com site frequently.
Seek out your brand name. Are  customers satisfied? Follow them and show your appreciation. On the flip side, are you finding dissatisfied customers? Follow them too,  and find out what you can do to remedy the situation.  There have been many countless cases where people have reached customer service representatives on Twitter, and changing their tweets from negative to positive when the right kind of attention is paid.   This is also known as online reputation management and it is a growing area brand management that you will need to pay attention to.

Never Spam Your Twitter Followers:
If you spam your followers, they will rapidly disappear.  Spammy posts include: putting up identical URLs repeatedly; only posting product information  for your own goods;  having a Twitter handle that looks like this: SuperProduct2000 rather than: YourProductName; and asking fake questions. ie. if you sell motorbikes, it would be disingenuous to post a question like: What is the best bike on the road today? The Twitter community consists of smart and jaded consumers. They recognise when a brand is being insincere.

Follow Savvy People to Gain a Savvy Following
Many online marketers have used Twitter to assist their clients to make more money. Twitter marketing experts like Dave Peck, Chris Brogan and Guy Kawasaki are great names to add to your list of people to follow.  Think about adding corporations too.  Those involved early on in the Twitter boom are trailblazers and can offer clever ideas on how to get  a targeted following.

Don’t forget your competition. See what types of methods they’re practicing to step-up their own targeted Twitter following. Shrewd online marketers track  their competition on social networks to catch what they are doing well and if they are doing it better. It’s also easier to see where your competition has gone wrong and how that can be avoided. If they hardly post and don’t respond to  negative posts, its easy to see a quick opportunity to fill the gap for your audience.

Be Patient.  Making Money Through Twitter Takes a While:
Using Twitter is a long-term strategy. Building a targeted following won’t occur instantly,  however if you use the the right Twitter strategies, it will come about. Be very mindful with your Twitter following. Don’t flog stuff to them. Twitterers can spot a sales pitch from 100 paces and they’ll unfollow you pronto.
When you have acquired a targeted followers, market to them softly. Don’t send out tweets that say, “Buy my great product,” write more low key post such us : “Do you need a way to do ABC? Here’s a solution.” Instead of tweeting “Our latest product now available” announce it via your blog and then tweet it like this: : “New blog post: Why we’re so excited” and link to your post.

Always respond to tweets your followers send you. Don’t be unresponsive to your following. As your Twitter following grows, it may get to big for you to handle alone.  Consider outsourcing the work to a virtual assistant and have them handle new  tweets, retweets and appropriate responses.
Twitter is a two-way street. Being successful means means staying transparent, interacting with the Twitter community and keeping things fresh. The fastest means off losing your Twitter audience is to be dull.

Caroline Wright, IVAA CVA
The Wright Solution
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Many business owners are thinking about starting a blog, millions already have.  In fact, it feels like everyone is getting in on the act.  The world of blogging of the blogosphere has changed radically in the last few years. Governments and big business have joined the ranks. Blogs are now a focus of social media marketing and sales pitches. Microblogging via Twitter is the current big thing. For some the blog has lost its innocence and with it much of its charm. For others, blogging presents all sorts of opportunities, from democratizing journalism to flogging goods. Anyone contemplating starting a blog today would do well to get a grip on how different – and how involved – successful blogging has become.

Beginner Blogger Concerns

Newer bloggers might  begin on one of the many free blog-hosting platforms (such as Typepad or Blogger), fondly draw up their first post and sat by and waited – only to realise that no-one has read it. Some give up. Others inquire further, just to find out that for their blog to develop a readership they will have to take some time away from writing and redirect it into directory listings, search engine optimization,and  link-building, and other techniques of self-promotion.

Those with the motivation,  time, and energy will have the best chance of success. The unfortunate thing about the blogosphere is that those individuals are frequently those with something to sell. They will be accomplished in positioning their blogs ahead, while Jane or John Blogg stays invisible  at the bottom of the rankings, submerged by professional competition.

What’s a Newbie to Do?

Blogging can be still be worthwhile activity for newbies. Quality still climbs to the top amid in a sea of worthless content that the internet is sometimes viewed to contain.

There are some basic techniques for that can be adapted at the start.. The initial mistake newbie bloggers make is to through too many different types of content up there  A niched blog, focusing on targeted subject matter (real estate, politics, pets or whatever) has the greatest opportunity for success.

The blog isn’t a fad anymore.  Its become a key part ofinternet marketing.  Its worth spending the time to learn who to publicize your blog – or hire someone to do it for you.  Newer and easier blog syndication tools are appearing all the time. (That’ a subject for another blog post.)  Experienced bloggers are using them to great effect – so can you.

Caroline Wright, IVAA CVA
The Wright Solution
Professional Virtual Assistance

A blog is your opportunity to connect with your target audience and the first part of making it a success is to build a sense of trust with your readers.  This means you must take care to be straightforward, don’t exaggerate, or tell partial truths on your blog.  They’ll know if you are not being up front about how many readers you have or how much money you make.

At the same time you don’t want to make your lack of experience as a blog writer too obvious.  If  you’re not professional, or you are too upfront about your lack of readerships this will work against you.  Keep any concerns about low readership to yourself and treat ever blog post as the public marketing presentation that it is. (This doesn’t mean you should sound “sales-y” = that will drive any ready away immediately.  It means giving it your best shot.)   Never, ever mention low blog reader turnout on your blog.  No-one wants to hand out in a place that considers itself unpopular.  Alternatively, discover  why no one is visiting, and work on a fix.

Look at other blogs in your industry and find one that is professional and has lots of interaction. Compare this to your own site, looking at the way the blog is presented, the graphics they use and how they manage advertising.  Does it use a premium theme, or have they created something custom, or perhaps they using a free theme.  There are many great, professional-looking free themes out there, but you’ll need to hunt around and choose wisely.

Repeat this same exercise with a site you don’t like.  Don’t copy it, of course, but do take note of what’s wrong about it.  Is it unprofessionally designed? Does it have too many ads?  Too many flashing banners?  These observations are vital in learning what your blog should look like.  Visiting your competitors is important as it shows the content available to visitors there and the bar that has been set by the competition.

If you use a purchased (or free) theme, make sure you customize it.  Never use it just like it came.  Often you can change the header, color scheme and other features without too much effort.  It should look like thousand of others already out there.  this is particularly relevant if you use a free blogging platform as they have a very small selection of standard themes do go with a theme created by someone else, make it your own by customizing it.  Never use a free theme straight out of the box.  Most themes make it easy to incorporate a new header and logo at the least, but also you can often change the color scheme without too much effort.  You don’t want your site looking just like zillions already out there.  This is critical if you use a free blog platform like Blogger.com or Wordpress.com.  These sites have a very small selection of standard themes, and your blog is guaranteed to look like everyone else’s unless you customize it.

When you first start blogging, your visitor stats will be slow.  That’s to be expected.  Be quiet about it – don’t put a Feedburner stat widget up showing that you only have 3 subscribers.  People sometimes get over excited about all the different kinds of widgets available and will stick up one when it isn’t appropriate yet, without thinking about the message it will give visitors.

Comments are the something that you should also treat honestly.  You can’t and shouldn’t fake comments – people will be able to tell.  Its almost impossible to make fake comments look authentic, and readers will see your dishonesty.  Its ok to ask friends to comment on your blog, but only if they have a sincere interest in your blog content, otherwise, it won’t read right.  Its ok to have no comments, better to be sincere and wait for the comments to come later down the line.

To get people to comment you your blog the guaranteed best way is to leave comments on the blogs of other that are relevant to your subject area.  When you comment on someone else’s blog, you’ll be able to put a link back to your own site.  Often, the owner of the blog and its readers will follow your link to see who you are. This takes time and commitment, but it is very effective.  And, don’t forget….keep it professional. One you’ve made comments out in the blogosphere, they are out there and there’s no taking them back.   Once you have built an audience for your blog, you’ll be able to spend less time doing this kind of work, but remember to always focus some of your time on keeping it conversational.  Blogs are about building community interaction, its not a one-way conversation.

So here are the golden rules for better business blogging:

DON’T fake your stats.

ALWAYS share your positive experiences and your learning trials and tribulations

NEVER talk down about your blog, your business, your readers or yourself.  Its likely that you’ll have readers (even if they haven’t subscribed) and you don’t want to discourage them from coming back.

ALWAYS show readers that you appreciate their feedback, respond to their comments and make sure that your blog has the atmosphere of a positive conversation.

KEEP going!  It can take a good while to build up a following, but keep at it and they will grow. Even if no-one comment, the blog post will gather attention by the search engines and begin to send traffic to your site.

Blogging is a satisfying method of connecting with your customers and will drive more business to your website.  Its hard initially as you will feel like you’re talking to yourself, but if you stick with it, success will come.  Be patient, and interact with other bloggers from your industry and will see see a steady rise in your your visitor stats over time.

Caroline Wright, IVAA CVA
The Wright Solution
Professional Virtual Assistance