Twitter is the new buzzword.  It seems one cannot turn on the news without it being mentioned.  Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service which allows its users to communicate with each other through short messages known as “tweets”.  Though Twitter is not as popular as Facebook, it continues to grow very rapidly.

Twitter is quite a bit different than a place like Facebook or Myspace, as it is completely focused on the tweets that are sent out.  It also features a very devoted fan-base.

Most people on Twitter are there to network, and it can be a very powerful way to share information about your business.  Here are a few reasons why you should be using Twitter:

1)      Everyone Else is doing it: There are so many businesses using Twitter successfully.  Don’t get left behind!

2)      Twitter is “Social Media”: Your business needs to be participating in social media, and this is a fantastic way to do it.

3)      Twitter Users are Very Devoted: When you send a tweet out to your list, you better believe people are going to see it.

4)      You can Communicate with your “Followers” for Free: Whenever you want to get information out to your customers, typically you would need to spend money on sending a mailing through the post office.  It doesn’t cost anything to send tweets out, and people receive them instantly!

5)      Twitter Allows You to Communicate Individually with your Customers:  Twitter allows you to message all of your followers, but also gives you the ability to communicate directly with individual customers.  This can give you valuable feedback as well as allows you to build relationships with them.

6)      Others Have Already Paved this Road: Chances are many other businesses like yours are already using Twitter successfully.  You don’t need to stumble in the dark as you will have proven business models to follow.

There is no doubt about it, Twitter can help your business today!

There has been a lot of talk about Facebook in the media recently. Facebook is a global social networking website and is one of the most popular places on the net, with over 300 million users. Many people use Facebook as a way to connect with old friends but it has also become a major part of many businesses as they use it to promote and share information.

The way Facebook works (if you don’t already know) is that a person joins, and then creates his or her own page which often includes basic information as well as a picture or two. The person then becomes friends with others that he or she knows, and can then communicate by leaving comments on each others pages (that everyone that is a friend can see).

Businesses have been using Facebook with much success. People spend a ton of time on this social network, and it can be a great way to get the word out about your business.
Let’s look at an example:

Sally loves getting her hair done at the local salon. Let’s say that the salon has their own Facebook page, and Sally is a member of it. The salon posts a comment on Sally’s page, and all of Sally’s friends can see it. The salon just exposed itself to ALL of Sally’s friends! Jessica, one of Sally’s friends sees the information on the salon, and gives the salon a call because she likes Sally’s hair.

Facebook can also help to add “social proof” to your business. Once you begin building a list of friends for your business, you can share this directly on your business website. This will help potential customers see that your business is thriving, and established.

Facebook works particularly well in niches such as restaurants and salons, but can be applied to just about any business.

Create teaser videos that create curiosity
The secret is revealing just enough product information that whets the viewers’ appetite and leaves them hungry to know more. Your video content should suit your product type. If it’s a tool, equipment or physical product you may choose to offer a product demonstration, if it’s a book or infoproduct you can choose to read a few excerpts, if you are releasing a film you may show footage clips. Whatever the product type you may also use third parties who may have had advanced access to the product and can talk about it. Such people would include well-known critics, business associates, testimonials from people who have used the product on a trial-basis and so on

Keep the content short and sweet
The whole purpose of the video launch is to give people a sneak peek so you don’t reveal too much about the product. Also keep the videos short like about 1-2minutes so that they take a short time to load and to view. You can release a series of videos like Part 1, 2 and 3 with different content to keep interest alive and to let you know how many people are viewing the videos. The content should extol the benefits and virtues of the product and also let them know the release date too.

Get your timing right
A product launch should not take more than 2 weeks at most. If a campaign is too short, it will not have built up enough momentum and you will not have attracted enough viewers leading to poor sales. On the other hand, a drawn out campaign will quickly fizzle out any excitement as people will have gotten tired of waiting for the release.

Marketing your Video
How can you direct traffic to your video launch? First of all post the video on YouTube and don’t forget to include your business url in it. Then spread the word with working links to your email list, your Twitter followers, your Facebook friends, your joint venture partners and affiliates. You may also issue press releases. You can also include an option for people to subscribe for a discounted rate for say the first 100 people. This will give you an idea of how much interest your product is generating and guarantees your first sales. It is also an email list building technique.

Properly and creatively implemented video product launches are a simple and cost-efficient way to market your company’s new products to a wide audience.

If your business doesn’t have a YouTube Channel, you need to read this article and head on over to YouTube and create one.

YouTube channels are like personal TV stations where you can broadcast to the world anything about your business that would interest them. It’s a great medium for product launches, demos, public relation communications, interviews, advertisements, tutorials and so much more. They also provide one place to store all your video files and provide backlinks from your website, blog and social media sites. This improves your business’s SEO ranking as you can also tag each of your videos with keywords. Finally you can get viewers to subscribe to your video channel increasing your base of your local fans.

Here is a step-by-step process how to create a YouTube channel.

1. Go to youtube.com
2. At the top right corner of the homepage, click on “Create Account”
3. You will arrive at a sign-up pages where you need to input the following details:
• Email address
• Username
• Location
• Date of Birth
• Gender
• The option to allow those who have your email address to find your YouTube channel
• The option to receive product-related emails from YouTube
• Your acceptance of YouTube’s term of service
4. Now check your email address for a confirmation email
5. Click on the link provide in the email to activate your registration
6. Go back to YouTube homepage at youtube.com
7. Click on the “sign in” link using your username
8. Note the url of your business YouTube channel as you will use this in your links
9. Upload your videos

After creating your channel and uploading videos, you can embed relevant videos on your website, blogs, Facebook pages and so on.

Here is a list of business information you may need to collect and keep handy to make the process of submission easy and fast.

1. Business Contact information
• Business Owners First and Last Name
• Business Owners Gender
• Registered business name
• Mailing address
• City
• State
• Country
• Zip Code
• Business telephone number
• Business Toll Free Number
• Business fax number
• Business website URL address
• Email Address
• Blog URL
• Twitter handle
• Facebook Page
• VOIP Contact
• IM Contact
• Business operating hours and days

2. Business Description
• Primary Business Category
• Secondary Business Classification
• Business operating hours and days
• Business Description
• Product and Services Description
• Payment Methods available in your business
• Languages spoken by your employees
• Year Business was founded
• Number of business locations
• Number of employees
• Certification/affiliations
• Media files- photos, videos, audio files
• Additional Information that you can customize

3. Account information
• User name
• password
• email address

While not every place you intend to list your local business may require all this information, it helps you to create a detailed profile for other uses such as in business plans, loan applications, business proposals, newsletters, brochures, catalogs and other business communications to your customers, suppliers and industry associates. In addition, having this checklist on hand will help you avoid wasting time collecting your business information over and over again.

If you consider the fact that the value of each email address in your customer list is worth $1 per month, you will quickly realize that your business must treat its list very carefully to exploit its full potential. The common mistake is to focus on building a list and forget about maintaining it. It’s always easier to keep a customer than to gain one. Here are a few best practices as you market to your email list.

1. Treat them with respect
Remember that your list is human. It consists of moms, dads, policemen, lawyers, plumbers, office workers, typists, students and business people to name just a few. As you keep that in mind, always address them as if you were standing at their front door or seated in their office. Proper social manners and plain decency will reap your business loyalty and mutual respect from them.

2. Communicate on a Regular basis
Just because you gave your list a free gift and made killer sales after that doesn’t mean you should just dump them and only resurface when you have another product to sell. People don’t like to feel used and cheated. If your list only feels that they are a money-making machine for your business, they will drop you like a hot potato and unsubscribe faster than you can sign more up. Communicate regularly like once or twice a month but definitely not daily and when you do, just talk to them. Don’t use each and every email to try and sell something. Instead focus on becoming friends with them.

3. Let your list talk too
It’s really irritating and boring to be in a conversation with someone who does all the talking and doesn’t let you get in a word edgewise! Let your list also get a chance to talk back to you. Ask them questions, open discussion on a topic, have a contest- anything that will give them a sense of ownership and importance in the relationship.
Giving your list a voice provides feedback information that benefits your business because they will tell you exactly what they are thinking and what they want- that’s free market research information right there.

4. Position your business as an expert
The advantage you have as a local business owner is that more often than not, you are also a specialist in your business field and being in the online world, people respect and listen more to experts because of the large amount of junk information available in cyberspace. Leverage your specialist knowledge by becoming the person people go to for advice and help because you know what you’re talking about. Selling will become much easier for you because people will trust whatever you honestly recommend to them.

Before we dive into how to get quality backlinks for your website, let me take a minute to explain what backlinks are. First of all links is the term used to describe how all the web pages on the internet are connected to each other. Backlinks are those links from other web pages into your website.

Backlinks are important because search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing, search for them to find new content and to also determine how to grade or rank your website. That brings us to the quality of your backlinks. Search engines look not only to the quantity of backlinks to your website from other websites (which they use to determine if you seem to be an authority on a topic), but they also look at the quality of those backlinks to judge the worthiness of your website. This second point is why it is important to build back links to sites which search engines deem reputable and high-standing. As I have often mentioned before, the basic principles that work in everyday life also work online. Poor quality backlinks shows the search engines that your website hangs out with the wrong crowd!

I would recommend the following sites to boost the quality of backlinks for your local business:

1. Directories relevant to your business niche and locality.
2. Social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Technorati, YouTube etc.
3. Professional Associations relevant to your business/industry and location.
4. Government Directories especially if you work as a supplier or contractor for federal contracts (ending with .gov).
5. Educational websites for alumni, fraternities, sororities etc (ending with .edu).
6. Non-profit sites if your business is involved in community projects (ending with .org).
7. Local community websites.
8. Influential Blogging sites related to your niche.
9. Business websites that complement yours. For example if you are a golf coach, you would link to businesses that sell golf clothing and equipment or to golf course sites.
10. Your clients websites, blogs and social media accounts.
11. Online newspapers, magazines, trade publications, professional journals related to your business and to your location.
12. Article Directories. Make sure you include an author resource box with your business website link.

There are two ways to network on Facebook
1. Create a Group Page or
2. Create a Fan Page

Creating a fan page for your local business has several advantages compared to a group page:

• You can have unlimited fans. Groups are limited to 5000 people only. If you think you might never reach 5000 people, think again. Even a small obscure business can have over 20,000 fans in under a year due to viral marketing. Word spreads so fast on the social networks especially when your business gets featured on a TV show or a celebrity endorses your product.

• You can add applications to your fan page making it more customized and improve your fan experience. These include RSS Feeds from your blog, website or Twitter accounts; Flashplayer for video and game content; Posted Items Pro that allows you to embed YouTube videos, music and other files which can be posted in your press section etc. Groups are not allowed to have extra applications.

• Fan pages are visible to everyone and are indexed on search engines like Google meaning anyone can find out about them and join. Groups however are only visible to registered members and one can only join by being invited by a member.

• Fan pages offer you the power to analyze your fan statistics via the Page insights section

• When someone becomes a fan of your business on Facebook, this information is posted on their wall and also in their profile, which their friends can view. When their friends see this, they get curious and follow their friends lead to your business fan page creating more fans for you. This is the power of Facebook-the social proof that ignites a following.

• While both fan pages and groups can be marketed through Facebook ads, fan pages have the additional benefit of being marketed through social ads. Social ads publicize the connection between a specific fan and a fan page such that a business can use a fans picture and profile as part of their sales pitch.

Facebook Fan pages therefore work better for businesses seeking to connect with their customers on a wider scale and in a more interactive manner than Facebook groups.

1. Create a Facebook fanpage -Invite friends, upload content, photos, videos etc
2. Have a Facebook icon link on your webpage
3. Create a YouTube account and upload videos. Have your business url included in description box and embedded in the video
4. Have a YouTube icon link on your webpage
5. Join Twitter-get social and keep your followers informed on special offers and events
6. Have a Twitter icon link on your webpage
7. Join your professional association in your local state and attend networking events. Give out your business card
8. Join online business directories that are relevant to your niche
9. Participate in online forums related to your niche
10. Write a 400word article every day and submit it to an article directory
11. Write a compelling author resource box with your business url link and use it in all your articles and forum postings
12. Write a report or e-book and offer it as a free gift to subscribers
13. Install RSS feeds to inform people on your new articles, blogs, tweets and web content
14. Engage in email marketing sending regular newsletters to your list
15. Use your email list to finance your purchases through “pre-order” sales
16. Engage in joint ventures with businesses offering complimentary services
17. Perform email list swaps with business associates
18. Advertise your website in your brick and mortar shop to your customers
19. Link your business website to similar businesses of quality reputation
20. Create a Google places business listing and optimize it
21. Insert Geotags or Google Map in your website
22. Invest in yourself by reading widely and improving your expert status in your niche
23. Sign up for free newsletters, webinars and other informative resources that will give you ideas and provide a platform for you to participate in discussions and forums.
24. Have excellent customer service responding quickly and politely to customers.
25. Post free ads on free ad websites like Craigslist.
26. Send free text messages from your email account to your customers’ cell phones promoting your business products and services.

Your business website is your online store front and its image and functionality determines whether users stay on it or click away. Here are some tips to make sure your website is friendly and attractive to users.

1. Adopt a minimalist approach – It’s tempting to “fill out” your web pages with unnecessary content just make it look weighty but that only gives your readers viewing fatigue. Keep it simple so that users can quickly scan your content and find exactly what they want.

2. Text Layout – Make sure your text is divided into short sections complete with titles and subtitles. Also give information in point form or bullet form, and space it out into brief paragraphs so it’s easier for your users to read

3. Links that open in new windowsIf your website has multimedia content like videos, audio files or PDF documents, make sure that their links open in new windows so that as the large files are downloading your user can multitask and remain on your webpage. That saves him time.

4. Be consistent – If your website has multiple pages, maintain a consistent design theme. Make sure navigation tools, colors, layout, text font and other features are the same on each and every page. You don’t want your user to feel that they have clicked the wrong link and wonder whether they are still on your website or not.

5. Look professional – If you want to be taken seriously, it helps to have a professional looking website instead of one that looks outdated or created with childish- looking freebie templates. It pays to have a website designer help you get your look together instead of trying to do it yourself.

6. Graphics and Media – There’s nothing more annoying to a website user than drumming his fingers impatiently as he waits for your website to load heavy graphics and multimedia. The world is getting busier and people’s attention span is getting severely shorter, so keep those graphics simple, your videos about a minute in length and resize your images for fast loading. Your website should not take more than 15 seconds to load.

7. Spelling and Grammar – It’s often the basic things we get wrong. The spelling and grammar of your content should be perfect. Wrong spellings and confusing content shows you don’t pay attention to details and turns off users. They will probably wonder why they would want to buy anything from you, if you can’t even get your spelling right.