Online Marketing, Lead Generation and CRM | YouBidFast

The Instant Business Guide to Linked In

2011-08-08T19:31:00.004+01:00

A 4-page guide to Linked In which has everything the typical small business needs to know about Linked In. It also includes a painless and quick plan 1-week plan for hitting the ground running.

http://www.bioteams.com/TheInstantBusinessGuidetoLinkedIn_August2011.pdf

The Instant Business Guide to Facebook

2011-07-29T15:21:00.006+01:00

By Nadia Thompson

A 3-page guide to facebook for business which has everything the typical small business needs to know about facebook (and no frills!). It also includes a painless and quick plan 1-week plan for hitting the ground running.

YouBidFast: Transform your online marketing, lead generation and CRM!

1. Online Marketing, Lead Generation and Customer Relationship Management (CRM)	2. So What is YouBidFast and how can it help with Online Marketing, Lead Generation and CRM?	3. YouBidFast: Your Own Unique Online Marketing, Lead Generation and CRM System

4. The Web Transmitter (Basic) for Online Marketing	5. The Walkie-Talkie (Basic) for CRM	6. The Web Alerts Radar (Basic) for Lead Generation

7. The Web Transmitter (Advanced) for Online Marketing	8. The Walkie-Talkie (Advanced) for CRM	9. The Web Alerts Radar (Advanced) for Lead Generation

10. Getting your Blog Transmitter Search Friendly for Online Marketing	11. A Social Media Optimization Simulator for testing your online marketing and lead generation plan	12. YouBidFast Technology Inventory (Alpha Order)

How to deploy Your Blog or Website to mobile phone

2010-07-27T22:38:00.013+01:00

"How do I mobilize my website?" is probably a question you have already started asking. In this MasterNewMedia guide we have identified and reviewed all of the best tools and services out there, that can help you build or convert your blog into a full mobile site.

You can see below what the YouBidFast blog (www.youbidfast.com) looks like in 2 of the free tools (bloggertouch and feedm8) reviewed in the MasterNewMedia guide:

Mobile Version (via bloggertouch)

Mobile Version (via feedm8)

And here is my bioteams blog (www.bioteams.com) after processing via mippin and instant mobilizer

bioteams (via mippin)
bioteams (via instant mobilizer)

Obviously these mobile links should be reviewed using a mobile phone browser on your iphone, android or blackberry to get an accurate view of their presentation.

3. YouBidFast: Your Own Unique Online Marketing, Lead Generation and CRM System

2010-07-19T22:40:00.038+01:00

This article is an overview and introduction to my YouBidFast series on how to quickly assemble Your Own Unique Business Development system using only Freely Available Software Technologies for online marketing, lead generation and customer relationship management (CRM) via the web and your mobile phone.

The diagram below shows the 3 components of YouBidFast and how they fit together:

1. The Walkie-Talkie (CRM(Customer Relationship Management))
The Walkie-Talkie is how you identify and engage your key customers and key channel partners so that your services are always in the forefronts of their minds when they come across new opportunities. I call it the "Walkie-Talkie" because the objective is intimacy not mass communications. Social media and CRM tools are an important aspect of this process however the main components of the walkie-talkie are the voice and the feet!

2. The Transmitter (Online Marketing)
The Transmitter is how you broadcast your knowledge using the appropriate social media tools, such as blogs, twitter, linkedIN and social media aggregation...) in a way which creates a useful "following" for you. Email marketing/Newsletters could be part of this process however I personally believe that it has now very limited value. (Checkout my Social Media Optimization Simulator Game to explore some of the challenges in this area).

3. The Radar (Lead Generation)
The Radar is how you automatically monitor the web to get early warning of those opportunities which match your specific interest criteria using web monitoring software such as google alerts and twitter alerts. The purpose of the Radar is to identify unknown opportunities early enough to have a good chance of winning them.

READ THE NEXT ARTICLE

2. So What is YouBidFast and how can it help with online marketing, lead generation and CRM?

2010-07-19T22:40:00.037+01:00

The purpose of YouBidFast is to provide a comprehensive and constantly up-to-date on-line guide showing you how to assemble Your Own Unique BIz Devel system using only Freely Available Software Technologies for online marketing, lead generation and customer relationship management (CRM) via the web and your mobile phone.

Image Source:prisgrowth.files.wordpress.com

Audience

These articles are for you if you are a small business (including single-person businesses) and you want to take advantage of the best free tools available online to enhance your online marketing and lead generation activities with a few hours a week online work. You may well be daunted by the volume and variety of the tools available and you certainly do not want to become an online/social marketing expert, thank you!

These articles are NOT for you if you are already an experienced online marketer/social media practitioner. However please don't stop reading - I would really appreciate any value you can add for others by suggesting any simple tricks I might have missed to help a small business get started and get benefits quickly.

READ THE NEXT ARTICLE

1. Online Marketing, Lead Generation and Customer Relationship Management(CRM)

2010-07-19T22:40:00.036+01:00

"The biggest problem most knowledge-based businesses or consultants or networks have is maintaining a healthy "pipeline" of opportunities. This article is an introduction to my YouBidFast series on how to quickly assemble Your Own Unique Business Development system using only Freely Available Software Technologies via the web and your mobile phone".

Image Source:www.guide2.co.nz

First the bad news....

There are 3 main problems for small companies or consultants in the area of online marketing and lead generation:

1. Feast or Famine
Often a business forgets about business development activities when the order books are full only to hit a brick wall with insufficient new opportunities when the current jobs end. How do you keep the pipeline growing even when you are fully maxed out on customer projects?

2. Lets get Physical?
Most businesses struggle to find the right balance of online promotion versus "old-fashioned" phone calls and meeting people in their offices or in Starbucks. Many also struggle with the role of email - when is it useful as a communications tool and when does it simply not produce results?

3. Finding opportunities too late
Many businesses have no reliable "early warning system" for spotting potential opportunities early and only find out about them after they read about the contract being awarded. Is there a way to ensure you find out about potential opportunities the minute they are published but without having to subscribe to expensive tender databases?

Now the good news.....

If you are a knowledge-based business or consultant and if your services or products are relevant to customers anywhere in the world (and this is an important qualifier)...

Then it is quite simple to create a powerful sustainable opportunity generation system using free web-based software with just 3 key processes

1. A Transmitter for "one-to-many" OUTBOUND communications for Online Marketing
2. A Walkie-Talkie for "one-to-one" TWO-WAY communications to provide Customer Relationship Management
3. A Radar for "many-to-one" INBOUND communications for Lead Generation

READ THE NEXT ARTICLE

7. The Web Transmitter (Advanced) for Online Marketing

2010-07-19T22:39:00.034+01:00

To fully exploit the transmitter concept described in the previous article you can set up an online transmitter community using a free tool which supports groups such as LinkedIn or Facebook or Ning or some other of the many free (and nearly free) tools. This form of Online Marketing is often referred to as "Engagement Marketing" to contrast it with "Interruption Marketing".

Image Source:sridharaa.sulekha.com

Before you start two warnings:

First Warning: What do you want this community to do?

Please Read these 3 apparently similar statements :

Statement 1:
"The purpose of our community is to keep customers, partners and prospective customers engaged around the latest developments in our products and services".

Statement 2:
"The purpose of our community is to initiate dialogue about our products and services with customers, partners and prospective customers".

Statement 3:
"The purpose of the community is for us, our customers, partners and prospective customers to share the kind of useful knowledge which indirectly underpins our products and services".

Now please read all 3 statements again to make sure you understand the difference between them . Heres the bottom line:

If you want to do Statement 1 this is what your company website is for - this might be a good time to ask yourself is it achieving it?
If you want to do Statement 2 then set up an online user support forum for your customers.
If you want to built a authentic following who return time and time again and have a positive view of the value of your company then Statement 3 is the right answer. Creating 2-way dialogue seeded by yourselves on the knowledge which underpins your products and services but not straying into promotion, product news or product specifics - this is what I am proposing here.

Second Warning: Most online communities are just ghost towns

Ben Worthen, writing for the Wall Street Journal (July 16, 2008), reported on a Deloitte survey of over 100 businesses who set up online communities and found that most of them (>75%) failed and were more like ghost towns than thriving communities. They found 3 main reasons these online communities failed: 1) focussing/spending too much on technology. 2) putting someone with no experience of online communities in charge and 3) selecting the wrong set of targets and metrics

You just have to scan through the groups in LinkedIN or Facebook and you will be amazed at the low volume of comments. You will also be amazed at the poorly disguised sales pitches thrown in under the guise of starting a discussion - which at least partly explains the low commenting level!

7 Golden Rules for online community Building

If you still want to proceed with your Transmitter Community then you should follow my 7 Golden Rules for online community Building:

There is no big bang way to create an instant community
Community Building takes time - don't start unless you are prepared to commit to it for at least 12 months
The community must have an engaging purpose - if its too narrow or boring then you are doomed before you start
Opportunism kills communities - you need authentic engagement
Protect your community - don't let spammers destroy your hard work
Don't neglect place, face and voice
Remember to build in some fun

Lets look at each of these in turn :

1. There is no "big bang" way to create an instant community

Real communities always start very small. "Big bang" communities are just crowds of the uncommitted - they might look like a group but they don't have what it takes. It is much better to have 5 or 6 really committed members than 50-60 members who are just there to as spectators. If you have a solid group of 5 or 6 "founder members" you can grow your community to 10-12 if each member brings on board just one more and takes responsibility for inducting them and so on carefully adding members one at a time in waves.

2. Community Building takes time - don't start unless you are prepared to commit to it for at least 12 months

Don't start a community and abandon it after a month - you will do your reputation no good whatsoever. Community building is like planting a garden - for a long time nothing seems to be happening then you get growth. Initially you must be prepared to plant the seeds (regular valuable posts) until you get engagement and find some other community leaders to share the burden with.

3. The community must have an engaging purpose - if its too narrow or boring then you are doomed before you start

Think long and hard about this. For example if you sell video conferencing services then the community focus might be everything to do with virtual engagement including good meeting practices. If you mention specific technology then you should include a range of products not just one.

4. Opportunism kills communities - you need authentic engagement

At some point you will have a valuable community going and the though will enter your head "What harm would a little product update or promotional message do?" This is the devil talking - banish all such thoughts from your head. It takes a long time to build your community reputation (for authentic valuable knowledge) and just seconds to lose it!

5. Protect your community - don't let spammers destroy your hard work

Once you get your community going the spammers will find you. There are two types to watch out for - external and internal. The external ones are easy to spot - typically they will post spam comments on public pages - you will filter a lot of these out simply by requiring login (as they are often spambots) but some will go to the trouble of logging in. When somebody does this once get rid of them and their contributions - they are not real members. The second kind are those who join your community, lurk for a bit then start trying to take it over. You need to talk to them to see if they can become a leader in your community by working with you or whether you need to kick them out too. Be very vigilant here as competitors may join your community in disguise. HINT: A very important spam protection step is to carefully control a) who you allow to post messages and b) contact other members on a on-one basis (private message)

6. Don't neglect place, face and voice

Research shows that the strongest communities are those which have some element of connection around place. In many cases with geographically dispersed communities it is simply not possible but if you can see if there are ways that parts of your community can meet in person (best) or if not in person then virtually using video conferencing and audio conferencing. Really not excuse for not doing at least the latter with tools like skype and gtalk now so well established.

It is also a point proven by research that until somebody meets you or sees you on video then they are not totally convinced you are a real person and are likely to let you down. This is known as free-riding in communities.

For more on this read Free riding in teams, communities and networks: 5 tips for fighting it

7. Remember to build in some fun

Try and do something which is fun with your community - a community which has not laughed together is liable to fragment when the going gets tough.

For more on this read Making virtual communities and social networks sustainable

Summary

hello.txt

imautomator

Videos:
youtube
vimeo
google docs
pamela (skype)

Online Surveys
surveymonkey

Video Conferencing
skype
gtalk

Blog Ping services
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
http://ping.myblog.jp
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://ping.bitacoras.com
http://services.newsgator.com/ngws/xmlrpcping.aspx
http://ping.feedburner.com/

To take your Business Development System to the Advanced level read The Radar (Advanced) or The Walkie-Talkie (Advanced).

6. The Web Alerts Radar (Basic) for Lead Generation

2010-07-19T22:39:00.033+01:00

In the introductory article in my YOUBIDFAST series I introduced the RADAR as the third essential component of an Online Business Development System. The purpose of the Radar is to automatically monitor the web to give you advance warning of opportunities (Lead Generation) early enough to have a chance of exploiting them. Here is how to build your Alerts Radar using just free software.

Image Source:www.optionshawk.com

The Purpose of The Radar

The purpose of the transmitter was to reach new contacts on a one-many basis and the purpose of the walkie-talkie was to engage with your most important contacts on a one-one basis.

The Radar is how you automatically monitor the web to get early warning of those opportunities (Lead Generation) which match your specific interest criteria using web monitoring software such as google alerts. The purpose of the Radar is to identify unknown opportunities early enough to have a good chance of winning them. The diagram below shows how the 3 components fit together.

Getting Started with the Radar

Before I explain how the Radar works you should do two very easy things:

1. Join all the free tender sites

Here are some of the ones I have tried - you will be able to find others. I am afraid they are a mixed bag so don't have big expectations about them and then you wont be disappointed:

tenderalerts
tendernews
tenderszeal
competefor (London 2012 Olympics)

2. Subscribe to specific customer sites you are interested in

Many major public and private sector organisations have a New Tenders section on their website where you can sign-up to be notified if anything they put out to tender. Work through your list of strategic customers and target enterprises to see what is available.

In both cases if you can get an RSS feed its easier to manage than email alerts!

Now lets set up your own unique automated web robot

You will soon discover the power of an amazing bit of free software from google called google alerts but first you must do a little bit of homework following 6 simple steps:

1. KEY SERVICES:
Define the key services which your business offers (using your customers language)
e.g. in my case Business Collaboration Consulting

2. SERVICE KEYWORDS:
For each Key Service define your Service Keywords
e.g. For Business Collaboration Consulting my keywords are:

("Collaborative Network"
OR "Business Network"
OR "Innovation Network"
OR "Virtual Enterprise"
OR "Business Cluster"
OR "Network Facilitator")

3. KEY PERSPECTIVES:
Now define your Key Perspectives - I find these 6 are a good start point for most enterprises:

Published Tenders and Requests
Funding Sources
Key Customer Activity
Key Competitor Activity
Own Company/Product Mentions
Key Topic News

4. PERSPECTIVE KEYWORDS:
For each perspective define your Perspective Keywords
e.g. For Published Tenders and Requests your keywords could be:
(Tender OR RFP OR PQQ)

5. CONSTRAINING KEYWORDS:
Define any obvious Constraining Keywords (optional )
e.g. UK, Consulting, Technology

6. CONSTRUCT THE PERSPECTIVES-SERVICES MATRIX:
Decide which Perspectives you wish to track and whether you want to track them by Key Service (COMBINED) or by themselves (SINGLE)

The figure below is an example of such a matrix which I use:

Now Construct a Radar Alert for each matrix cell you wish to track

For SINGLE Alerts the alert is just the Perspective Keywords (See step 4) and for COMBINED Alerts the alert is the Perspective Keywords "AND" Service Keywords

In this example above we have a COMBINED ALERT (ALERT 1) as follows:

=============================
(Tender OR RFP OR PQQ) <- Perspective Keywords AND (Consulting OR Technology) <- Constraining Keywords AND <- Service Keywords ("Collaborative Network" OR "Business Network" OR "Virtual Community" OR "Innovation Network" OR "Virtual Enterprise" OR "Business Cluster" OR "Network Facilitator") ============================= Now load each Radar Alert into Google Alerts

You should test each alert by simply clicking on the search terms within google alerts and seeing what it produces.

Dont rush this stage you need to make sure your alerts produce the results you expect before you start them running forever in the background.

Once you are happy don't have the alerts emailed - send them to RSS - as I mentioned earlier its much easier to manage

Here is a screenshot showing how the example we just discussed looks in google alerts

The google alerts syntax is very similar to google search syntax (with some annoying differences) - if you need to explore google alerts in more detail there is an excellent google alerts guide produced by Nancy Blachman.

Finally try and keep your search terms as simple as possible - there is a temptation to use exclusions to remove "false positives" - this is dangerous and could result in you missing real opportunities. Better to have some false positives than missing some great tenders!

Alternatives to Google Alerts

There are a number of alternatives to Google Alerts but in my opinion none are as powerful:
Trackle (from $2-$30 per month)
Yahoo Alerts (uses predefined areas - not user defined searches)
Microsoft Live Alerts

Add-ons to Google Alerts

There is one very interesting add-on to google alerts which I have used - Alertrank. Alertrank intercepts your google alerts and filters them onto a management dashboard with some extra information not provided by Google Alerts such as the credibility of the source. Alertrank also allows you to mark your sentiment regarding each alert (like or dislike) which I think it then uses to adjust how it filters your alerts in the future.

Alertrank is certainly worth a look at but I would suggest you start with standard google alerts first and look to Alertrank if you want or need more.
[STOP PRESS: On July 7, 2010 I received an email from Alertrank to say that they were shutting down their operation due to lack of funding]

Summary

Google Alerts is an amazing tool which you can use to build a professional Alerts Radar as a key component of your own unique Business Development System. There are a number of other alternatives and add-ons but google alerts is really all most enterprises will need. Twitter Alerts can also be very useful to see what is hot.

To take your Business Development System to the Advanced level read The Radar (Advanced) or The Transmitter (Advanced) or The Walkie-Talkie (Advanced).

5. The Walkie-Talkie (Basic) for CRM

2010-07-19T22:39:00.032+01:00

In the introductory article in my YOUBIDFAST series I introduced The WALKIE-TALKIE as the second of three essential components of your Online Business Development System. The purpose of the Walkie-Talkie is to nurture the key relationships for your business (aka Customer Relationship Management)in a systematic and personalised way. Here I describe how to build your CRM Walkie-Talkie using just free software.

Image Source:www.legacee.com

The Purpose of The Walkie-Talkie

The purpose of the transmitter was to reach new contacts on a one-many basis however the purpose of the walkie-talkie is to engage with your most important contacts on a one-one basis (see the diagram below). These contacts usually fall into 3-4 main categories - existing customers, channel partners, prospective customers and other important relationships for your enterprise. The objective of the walkie-talkie is to keep your services in these peoples minds when they come across new opportunities. I have called it the "Walkie-Talkie" to stress that it is about one-one relationships and not about mass communications (this is The Transmitter). The main technology component of the Walkie-Talkie is the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) System (also referred to as The Contact Management System). The CRM system will help you plan and organise how you nurture these relationships but it will not do it for you - this is down to you, your voice and your feet!

The 3 Functions of the Walkie-Talkie

So what must a Walkie-Talkie do - its very simple. In fact there are only really 3 requirements for a viable Walkie-Talkie which constitute only a very small subset of full CRM system functionality (which is why you can use generally get away with using the free entry-level version of sophisticated CRM software) 1. Contact Grouping The ability to assign a contact (company or individual) to one (or more) Groups eg existing customers. 2. Contact Activity Recording To be able to record notes of each interaction with them so that you (and any colleagues) have some kind of "organisational memory". Most systems will also let you store emails etc but this is not essential. 3. Contract call reminders The facility to set reminders against each contact (eg ring in a month, ring in 3 months ...). Some systems will allow you to code contacts up using an ABC system where, for example, A means monthly contact, B means quarterly contact and C means yearly contact which is useful but not essential.

How to operate your Walkie-Talkie

Just a quick refresher here on the bare essentials of CRM: STEP 1. Identify and classify your contacts into groups STEP 2. Determine how frequently you wish to keep in touch with each class of contact STEP 3. Systematically stay in contact and record notes/reminders of the conversations STEP 4. Set yourself reminders to follow-up and complete any actions

Your Big decision - web CRM or mobile phone CRM

In general terms if you are an individual then I recommend you simply use a CRM system which runs on your mobile phone. If you are an enterprise and you need to share contacts you should select a web or PC-based CRM tool which ideally can be synchronized with your colleagues mobile phones.

Mobile-Phone CRM

Described below is how you can do the Walkie-Talkie functionality on the iphone. I am sure that it can also be achieved in a similar way on a Blackberry or Andriod phones ( for example, Maximiser CRM claims to run on Blackberry, Andriod and iphone) The core tool on the iphone is the built-in Contacts App - however this lacks the ability to create groups for contacts. So I use the Contact Grouper App. It also lacks the record contact activity notes and to-do lists so this is where I use the Contacts Journal App. Here are some screenshots from Contacts Journal showing contact grouping, contact notes and contact reminders:

Web/PC CRM

In terms of Web/PC CRM I have restricted my search to products which offer a free version (as opposed to just a free trial) and have identified these 3 as a good short list for you to start from However this is assumes that you don't already have a CRM system - if you do then its pretty likely that you can use it for the simple CRM functionality needed to support your Walkie-Talkie. FreeCRM/SkypeCRM The first product goes under the name of FreeCRM and also SkypeCRM and offers a totally free product for up to 5 users. There is a nice video tour on the home page. Paid versions start at $15 per month and offer synchronization with various services including the blackberry ChannelCRM The second product is ChannelCRM from a Danish company which offers a free version of its solution for single-user use. Its not clear to me what (if any) level of integration/synchronisation is offered with the free version. Channel CRM Training Videos Zoho The third product goes under the name of Zoho and offers a totally free product for up to 3 users. Paid versions start at $12 per month. Zoho demo video

Summary

There are many excellent free online tools you can use to build a professional CRM Walkie-Talkie as a key component of your own unique Business Development System. Here are a list of all the tools I have mentioned in this article: Contact Grouper (iphone - £0.59) Contacts Journal (iphone - £1.79) Free CRM/Skype CRM Channel CRM Zoho pingchat (iphone) ebuddy (iphone) fuze messenger (iphone) social orbit phonebook (iphone) To take your Transmitter to the next level read the next article - The Walkie-Talkie (Advanced) or find out about the Radar (Basic).

4. The Web Transmitter (Basic) for Online Marketing

2010-07-19T22:39:00.031+01:00

In the previous article in my YouBidFast series I introduced The TRANSMITTER as the first of three essential components of your Online Business Development System. The Transmitter's purpose is to broadcast your valuable knowledge online to create a kind of "following". In this article I describe how to build your transmitter for online marketing using just free software.

Image Source:www.faqs.org

The Purpose of The Transmitter

The whole point of the transmitter is to help you reach new and unknown contacts - some of whom will want to engage with you in a more personal way using other aspects of your Business Development Toolkit such as The Walkie-Talkie (see the diagram below).

In my case my transmitter directly generates about half a dozen great international opportunities for consulting, speaking engagements or other partnerships per year (and indirectly probably a lot more).

The Transmitter is also a great best way to get free major press coverage for your articles (for example here is some recent coverage of my work in the UK Guardian newspaper based on articles I had written on the topic of "Organisational Meetings" )

The main component of The Transmitter is a blog and here is what I will cover in this article:

Setting up your blog
Writing great articles for your blog
Monitoring your blog traffic
Linking to Social Media
The role of Email
Video

Creating a Blog Transmitter for your business

Blogging is essentially the extended online CV for a business or a consultant and is the backbone of The Business Development System Transmitter.

Here is my 8-step quickstart plan for getting it going.

STEP 1. You need to select and set up your blog platform....

There are a great range of blogging platforms - Typepad, Word Press and Blogger are just 3 of the most popular ones which can be used totally for free.

(For Your Information this (YouBidFast) Blog is developed in Blogger enhanced with packaged widgets and without any new HTML programming. The only external costs incurred were for a URL and professionally designed logo banner by IT2Max.com.)

The problem with many blogs is the "boiler-plate" look of their main articles page which often looks like the author is just typing into a standard template they set up 2 minutes ago. Its not very appealing to readers - think of the difference between reading a well-finished paperback and the authors original typed manuscript!

So if you are going to launch a blog there are 3 "must dos" :

1. Get a proper URL (e.g. http://www.bioteams.com and point the URL the blog provider gives you to it (e.g. http://kenthompson.typepad.com/myblog) but don't use this blog URL as your public address - its a clear sign you are not a serious blogger.

2. Hire a graphic designer to customise the main blog article template page for you or create a professional blog logo/banner (you can do this for less than $100 if you go to an online resource bidding site like elance.com)

3. Do not go live till its ready. Do not promote your blog too soon until you have at least half a dozen good articles loaded into it. Most blogging platforms allow you to keep your blog "password protected" until a few friendly reviewers have looked at these articles and you have asked for and incorporated their feedback. Remember you only get one go at making a first impression!

STEP 2. You need to start writing some good articles....

There is one very important principle which should underpin anything you write for external consumption
- "that which takes little effort to write gives little pleasure to read"

Remember its not just about the words its also about adding value to the reader. There are also some excellent add-in tools such as Zemanta and Apture which act as your Blogging Assistant and open up in a mini window beside you as you write and edit your blog posts. These tools suggest content (images, links and other articles) you can add in to your posts as you write them with literally a single-click to make your articles more engaging and interactive.

So you need to understand the rules of successful blog writing - here are the 4 Rules I write by (with big credit to Robin Good of MasterNewMedia for helping me getting started with this 5 years ago)

RULE 1. No blatant self promotion (share your knowledge but do not promote your products or services)
RULE 2. Articles need good titles for search engines which use keywords not traditional paper media editorial bylines! It does not matter how good the article is if no-one can find it.
RULE 3. Once you start you must continue. Frequency of articles is key - regular frequent small articles are better than large but occasional articles.
RULE 4. Decide your editorial "line" - for example are you a:

1. Sign-poster. You link to articles (e.g. news) on your topic with some informed commentary (otherwise you add little value) so that your readers can be confident that you will keep them up to date on breaking news. If you just put in URLs and titles then this is "micro-blogging" (and Twitter does this must better than a blog if its really what you want to do).

2. Expert. You write your own serious articles on your chosen topics of expertise. This requires a lot more effort and is much more effective longer-term and can pay off big-time if some of your articles get picked up by some of the major online news sites.

3. Idiots Guide. You make the complicated simple and accessible. This also requires a surprising amount of effort and you must be careful of the two extremes - confusing or patronizing your readers

You can chose one of these 3 lines or indeed (as I do) use a blend of them all.

STEP 3. You need to notify search engines of your new blog articles

Many people don't realise that most of their blog readers (80%+) will not enter their blog via their home pages but will enter via a specific article located through a search engine.

So you need to use the many free Blog Ping services which if you tell them that your blog has been updated will notify the various search engines - there is a list of the ones I use at the end of this article. You can set Ping services up within you blog platform to be pinged each time you publish a new article. Alternatively you can use the very easy to use Ping-o-matic service to manually send out a ping to about 30 services at a time from your blog each time you publish a new article.

STEP 4. You need to monitor your blog traffic....

Most blog platforms have their own built-in analytics capabilities to let you know who is visiting your blog and these are very useful. However I have found the best way to check your traffic is by using the excellent free Google Analytics service which will tell you everything you could ever imagine about who is visiting your site including what pages they looking at, where they came from (Referrals and geography) and what browsers they are using.

The key thing to check for here initially is simply that on a month by month your traffic is increasing. It is also important to find out who is sending you traffic (known as "referrers") and to make sure you thank them. You can also offer them advance articles and other incentives (such as putting them on your "blogroll") for promoting your blog.

STEP 5. Don't forget to use your Social Media channels ....

Many books have been written about social media and it has a big role to play in any Online Business Development System. However all I am going to concentrate on in this article is how you can use Social Media to boost the range of your blog - we will deal with the whole social media aspect in its own right later.

Here is what I suggest to get you started:

First you just need 3 social media accounts - forget all the rest - LinkedIN, Facebook and Twitter

Secondly you need to create a good profile and business-like picture in each of these about your business or about yourself (depending on whether you are an enterprise or an individual).

Thirdly you need to make sure your social media branding is consistent with your blog branding.

Now here is the clever bit - get yourself an account with ping.fm (hellotxt and imautomator provide similar functionality) and link your 3 social media accounts into it. Then each time you publish a new blog you open up ping.fm and post the title and its URL.

Ping.fm will automatically send the details of your new blog article to all the social media accounts you have linked to and hey presto it appears on your home page in LinkedIN, Twitter, Facebook (and about 40 others if you want to be bothered).

STEP 6. Think about using email..but not for very long!

I have a controversial view on email - I believe that personalised email is fine but bulk email management and email newsletter systems have probably reached the end of their useful lives for most small businesses.

Here is my experience: For the last 4 years I have been emailing a newsletter quarterly to about 1200 people (all of whom know me and have given me their permission).

The bottom line is only 1 in 4 of them even open the email and only 1 in 20 read it with enough concentration to actually click on a link. Over this same period my blog has generated numerous business opportunities but my email newsletters have really generated almost nothing as far as I can see.

So I am not saying that email management definitely wont work for you - it might - but it did not do much for me and so I stopped doing it! If you really want to give it a go and are looking for a good free tool (not just a tool that allows a free trial) then consider mailchimp (free up to 500 contacts) or emailmarketingpro.

STEP 7. Incorporate the moving image - Online Video Sharing

Don't restrict yourself to the written word - exploit all forms of multimedia - particularly the video channel.

Once you have a video you can host it on Youtube (if its less than ten minutes long) or some of the other excellent video sharing sites such as Vimeo (which allows longer videos).

There are at least 3 ways you can create videos for your blog:

1. Create videos from your Powerpoints (or Apple Keynotes)

Anytime you do a presentation think "Can I adapt this and reuse it on my blog?" For example, you can put powerpoint presentations online with Google Docs or you can convert animated powerpoints into flash videos (e.g. with a great free flash tool ispring). Apple Keynote already has it own built in option for creating Flash videos. Here is an example of a flash video generated from powerpoint.

You can also narrate over a presentation within powerpoint quite easily. If you are doing a lot of voiceovers consider using a professional voiceover artist - they are not free but if you want to show up as really professional they are well worth it. Here is an example of an excellent UK voiceover artist I used to narrate a flash video )

2. Create your own original short videos

You can also make your own "proper" short videos over the web. For example, you can do a video interview with an international expert if you can get them on Skype using the Pamela add-on. If you absolutely must you can talk to your own web cam and record a short video however its much much better if you know somebody with video skills who can record and edit you. Its amazing what you can do with a little help from your friends.

3. Cheat - Use Other peoples videos
There are a wealth of good short videos out there on Youtube (amidst millions of rubbish videos too ) - you can use these to add value to your blog. Make sure you acknowledge the owner and respect any copyright. For example, my most visited pages are not my serious articles but the third-party 2-minute comedy videos each of which highlight some different aspect of collaboration. Here is one people love - For The Birds.

STEP 8. Finally ....don't forget online surveys

These can be embedded in blogs (or emails) and lead to two-way engagement with the added benefit of creating valuable material in the form of consolidated results which you can also offer to share the with your readers. Probably the best tool by a mile is SurveyMonkey which is free at entry level.

Summary

There are many excellent free online tools you can use to build a professional Transmitter as a key component of your own unique Business Development System. Here are a list of all the tools I have mentioned in this article:

Blog:
Typepad
Word Press
Blogger

Blogging Assistants
Zemanta
Apture

Graphics Designers:
elance

Analytics:
google analytics

Social Media:
twitter
linkedIN
facebook
ning

Email Management Systems
mailchimp
emarketingpro

Aggregator:
ping.fm
hello.txt
imautomator

Videos:
youtube
vimeo
google docs
pamela (skype)

Online Surveys
surveymonkey

Video Conferencing
skype
gtalk

Blog Ping services
http://pingomatic.com/ (sends multiple pings)
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
http://ping.myblog.jp
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://ping.bitacoras.com
http://services.newsgator.com/ngws/xmlrpcping.aspx
http://ping.feedburner.com/

To take your Transmitter to the next level read the The Transmitter (Advanced) or find out about the Walkie-Talkie (Basic).

9. The Web Alerts Radar (Advanced) for Lead Generation

2010-07-19T22:38:00.078+01:00

To fully exploit the walkie-talkie concept described in the previous article you should take advantage of the many free Twitter Alerts services for Lead Generation and other key time-critical business intelligence.

Image Source:farm1.static.flickr.com

The main Twitter Alerts services include:

Tweetalarm
Tweetbeep
Twilert
Listimonkey

However bear in mind that whilst Twitter is an excellent way to find out who is saying what about who (such as you or your competitors) it is not normally a channel organisations will use to post tenders or other business opportunities.

A word of caution about Twitter Alerts - recent reports have shown that in some cases twitter trends can be manipulated or even created by a relatively small group of people so verify from other sources if you are planning to take action based on a twitter trend.

Summary

Google Alerts is an amazing tool which you can use to build a professional Alerts Radar as a key component of your own unique Business Development System. There are a number of other alternatives and add-ons but google alerts is really all most enterprises will need. Twitter Alerts can also be very useful to see what is hot.

To take your Business Development System to the Advanced level read The Transmitter (Advanced) or The Walkie-Talkie (Advanced).

8. The Walkie-Talkie (Advanced) for CRM

2010-07-19T22:38:00.077+01:00

To fully exploit the walkie-talkie concept described in the previous article you can use social media commenting plus private and instant messages to initiate 1:1 dialogues with people which can turn into real conversations (in other words Customer Relationship Management).

Image Source:englishinguiabasico.files.wordpress.com

Just to be clear this way of using social media is complementary to and not a replacement for face-to-face meetings and audio/video conversations. Its really just a neat way of initiating new relationships.

Here are 3 examples of what you can do here with social media:

Twitter

You can find people, follow them and reply to them directly. Here is a short summary of how Twitter supports these functions from the Twitter FAQ pages which you should check out for more details.

How do I find my friends?
When you create a twitter account, you can search for people by name or user name, import friends from other networks, or invite friends via email. Once you've found your friends, follow them to start getting their updates.

What does it mean to "follow" someone on Twitter?
Following someone simply means receiving their Twitter updates. When you follow someone, every time they post a new message, it will appear on your Twitter home page. New messages are added to your home page as people post them, so you always get the updates in real time. When you log in, you can see what the latest updates are.

What are @Replies?
An @reply is a public message sent from one person to another, distinguished from normal updates by the @username prefix. If a message begins with @username, it is treated as a reply. Reply publicly to any update on Twitter by using the @username format. Following is not necessary to reply to someone, and all of your replies are visible in the @username tab in your home page sidebar.

What are Direct Messages?
Direct messages are private messages sent from one Twitter person to another. You can only send a direct message to a person who follows you. When you receive a direct message, we save it in your direct message inbox, accessible from the Direct Message tab in the sidebar in your home page.

What is the difference between an @reply and a direct message?
An @reply is a public message sent regardless of follow-ship that anyone can view. A direct message can only be sent by someone you follow, and is a private message that only the author and recipient can view.

Friendfeed is an alternative to Twitter which some people like and some use both.

1. You can join a linkedIN group and make interesting or provocative comments to create dialogue.
2. You can invite other LinkedIn users to join your contact list either directly or through a mutual contact
3. Once someone has accepted your LinkedIN invitation you can communicate with them by private message

For more on this see the LinkedIN FAQ section

iphone

You can use various iphone private messaging systems to get in touch with people who also use iphones - for example using pingchat, ebuddy or fuze messenger. These apps also work (or are planned to be released) for android and blackberry too.

You can also use the iphone versions of applications such as LinkedIN, Facebook and Twitter which have some excellent mobile features such as the ability to instantly connect with another using you are talking to without having to go to the trouble of sending out an invite.

Orbit Social Phonebook is one of a number of apps which tries to integrate all your different social networks in one place. What is unique about Orbit is that it also allows you to group your contacts into rings which is a neat facility which fits really well with the Walkie-Talkie concept.

Summary

There are many excellent free online tools you can use to build a professional CRM Walkie-Talkie as a key component of your own unique Business Development System.

Here are a list of all the tools I have mentioned in this article:

Contact Grouper (iphone - £0.59)
Contacts Journal (iphone - £1.79)
Free CRM/Skype CRM
Channel CRM
Zoho
pingchat (iphone)
ebuddy (iphone)
fuze messenger (iphone)
social orbit phonebook (iphone)

To take your Business Development System to the Advanced level read The Radar (Advanced) or The Transmitter (Advanced).

10. Getting your Blog Transmitter Search Friendly for Online Marketing

2010-07-19T22:38:00.076+01:00

Now that you have set up your Transmitter to support your Online Marketing activities as described in an earlier article you need to think about how to maximise its range. This takes us into the murky area of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)Strategies

Image Source:www.chelseamclean.com

Purpose of this article
This article is about how to ensure that your blog transmitter is set up in a way which a) can be properly accessed (crawled and indexed) by the major search engines such as Google and b) is configured to best reach your intended audience of users who are searching for your topics over a web browser.

FIRST A WORD OF WARNING.....
This area is known as SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and in my view is the "Wild west of the web" with a large number of tools, websites and "experts" who commonly make outlandish claims often based on dubious and unproven practices for what they can do for the unsuspecting business person.

There are almost as many opinions on how to do effective SEO as there are different practitioners so what I will cover here are the absolute minimum things you must do - in other words the basics on which (I hope) most people agreed really add value.

I will follow quite closely the Google approach embodied in Google Webmaster Tools (GWMT) and generally avoid the mountain of other third-party tools as there are simply too many for me to offer any useful and grounded opinions on.

Structure of this Article
Here are the 4 key areas I cover in this article:

Blog Submission: The Key Places to Register Your Blog
Blog Configuration: Sorting out your "Blog Hygiene Factors"
Blog Tuning: Constantly improving your blog
Blog Monitoring: how to check if your blog is achieving its goals

1. Blog Submission: The Key Places to Register Your Blog
Now that you have gone to the trouble of setting up a blog with nicely laid out strong content you need to take advantage of those other sites on the internet who already have a huge audience which can gain you exposure:

a) Technorati
Technorati is the number one established place where blogs get aggregated. You need to open and account, register your blog and confirm that you are in fact its owner. Other top blog directories you should submit too include Google Blogsearch, Blogarama and Blogpulse. Google also suggest you register with other similar sites such as Daypop, Blogdex and Popdex although I have not tried these myself.

b) Blog Directories and Search Engines
Here are 3 good lists of Blog Directories and Search Engines you should also consider submitting your blog to:
http://www.wordsinarow.com/blog-registration.html
http://www.aripaparo.com/archive/000632.html
http://middleofchina.blogspot.com/2010/01/top-10-blog-directories-to-submit-your.html

Don't waste your time submitting to all of them - pick a selection which make sense based on your blog topic and intended audience.

As at August 2010 a good number of these are no longer operational or have stopped accepting submissions or are no longer free. Here is my list of 21 sites which were definitely working and free as at August 2010:

Blogarama, Blogdigger, Icerocket( formerly Blog search engine), RDFTicker, Blogged, Blogrankings, Blogtopsites, Blogcatalog, Blogexplosion, Wikio, Dmegs, Blogsitelist, Blogwebdirectory, Blogdire, A Blogin Blog Directory, ABC Blog Directory, Britblog, Bloghints, Blogdigger, Weblogalot and Topblogarea

c) Mobile Blogging Sites
It is also worth submitting your blog to one of the free "mobilizing" sites such as:

These sites create a mobile-friendly view of your blog hosted at a different URL -
for more on mobilizing a blog see How to deploy Your Blog or Website to mobile phone.

You can then either automatically redirect mobile browsers to these sites or have a button on your main blog where the user can decide if they wish to be redirected. (I prefer the button option to automatic redirection as using the new generation of smart phones (embodied by the iphone) the normal full web browsing experience can sometimes be better than the mobile-specific version - its really a matter of user taste.

Each time you submit your blog you will be asked to enter the same information over and over again. To make this easier for you I recommend you create a Blog Summary Sheet for your blog which captures all the information shown in the figure below in a single place which you can use to copy and paste into all your submissions:

2. Blog Configuration: Sorting out "Blog Hygiene Factors"
a) Google Analytics
To enable you to track visit activity on your blog you should set-up an account for Google Analytics and create an entry for each blog site you wish to track. You do this by embedding the appropriate HTML code (for more on Google Analytics see earlier in my article The Blog Transmitter).

b) Google WebMaster Tools (GWMT)
According to wikipedia Google Webmaster Tools (GWMT) is a no-charge web service by Google for webmasters which allows them to check indexing status and optimize visibility of their websites. GWMT includes tools that let webmasters:

Submit and check a sitemap
Check and set the crawl rate, and view statistics about how Googlebot accesses a particular site
List internal and external pages that link to the site
See what keyword searches on Google led to the site being listed in the Search engine results page and the click through rates of such listings
View statistics about how Google indexes the site, and if it found any errors while doing it

Once you have submitted your blog site to GWMT then you must verify it to prove ownership by entering some HTML code into your site as directed.

c) Sitemaps
GWMT also allows you to submit a "Sitemap" to Google (note that Blogger blogs are supposed to do this automatically although there is some debate about whether this always works correctly). Sitemaps are just a list of the pages on your website and to help make sure that Google and other search engines know about all the pages on the site, including URLs that may not be discoverable by the normal crawling process.

To set-up a sitemap you can use any number of free Sitemap Generators and then submit it to Google using GWMT.

d) Decide and set-up your initial description and keywords
You need to set-up your blog description and a list of keywords - this involves inserting some simple HTML into your blog. These should reflect your content and the phrases you believe visitors will be keying into search engines to try and find you. These keywords will change (see later in this article) but it is worth setting up your initial versions by entering the appropriate HTML code in the header section of your blog between the "head" and "close head" statements.

e) Twiddle your thumbs and wait for GWMT to find you!
The good news is that GWMT provides an excellent summary of the shape your blog is in with respect to SEO. The bad news is that this can sometimes take a few weeks to become active depending on the backlog. So you need to keep coming back to the page to check which can be frustrating when you are trying to get things moving fast!

3. Blog Tuning: Constantly improving your blog

Here is an example of the GWMT dashboard for my blog at www.bioteams.com which has been running for a number of years:

Google WebMaster Tools - Screenshot for www.bioteams.com

You will see that this GWMT Dashboard covers 4 key areas for your blog:

Search Queries
Links
Crawler Errors
Keywords

a) Crawler Errors
You should look at these first as they indicate that search engines are finding problems and encountering missing links inside your blog which will cause you problems during searches.

b) Search Queries and Keywords
These are used together to optimize your blog using an iterative process along the following lines:

1. What keywords do I think people will search on for my site and content
2. How popular are these keywords (using "Keyword Research" Tools like Google Adwords)
3. Are there more popular keywords that suit my blog
4. Do I need to change the keywords in my blog.
5. What about my article titles and tags?

This is an area where you need to apply common sense. For example if you pick your keywords based purely on their popularity and they are not consistent with the actual context of your site then you will be penalised heavily by the search engines. Google Adsense is an excellent free tool you can use here for Keyword Research (along with many others both free and paid).

c) Links
Link building is a key aspect of promoting your blog - in simple terms you need to try and make sure your blog is referenced by high-traffic blogs (see section 4 under Google Page Rank) in the same broad topic areas. There is little value in developing links with sites which are low in popularity or sites which are high in popularity but in totally different areas from your blog.

4. Blog Monitoring: how to check if your blog is achieving its goals
Now that you have developed your blog transmitter you need to monitor that it is growing and reach your intended audience

You should track its performance on Google Analytics - initially on a weekly basis but once the visitor activity grows you will probably check it more frequently. Bear in mind that Google Analytics is not real-time (you will need a paid analytics tool if you want this) - it operates a day late so you can't post a great blog article in the morning and then check how its doing in the afternoon.

And on a monthly/quarterly basis should also be checking other key indicators such as:

a) Google Page Rank
Google describes PageRank as "reflecting our view of the importance of web pages by considering more than 500 million variables and 2 billion terms. Pages that we believe are important pages receive a higher PageRank and are more likely to appear at the top of the search results. PageRank also considers the importance of each page that casts a vote, as votes from some pages are considered to have greater value, thus giving the linked page greater value. We have always taken a pragmatic approach to help improve search quality and create useful products, and our technology uses the collective intelligence of the web to determine a page's importance.

Google PageRank Runs from 0 (very low) to 10 (very high) and a great target for a business blog is 4 or 5.

b) Alexa Rankings
Alexa Internet, Inc. is a California-based subsidiary company of Amazon.com that is known for its toolbar and website. Once installed, the toolbar collects data on browsing behaviour which is transmitted to the website where it is stored and analyzed and is the basis for the company's web traffic reporting.

The Alexa Traffic Rank is an indication of how popular your site is in the form or an international and a national league table. It also provides a host of other useful statistics as highlighted in the image below of an Alexa page for www.bioteams.com showing site info, visitor demographics and search queries:

Alexa Screenshot for www.bioteams.com

TIP: You can also get a very useful add-on for Firefox which shows the Google PR and Alexa Ranking of every website you visit on your browser.

Technologies mentioned in this article:

SEO Tools
Google WebMaster Tools
Google Adsense

Blog Directories
Technorati etc

Mobile Blogging
bloggertouch

feedm8
mippin
instant mobilizer

READ THE NEXT ARTICLE

12. YouBidFast Technology Inventory (Alpha Order)

2010-07-19T22:37:00.028+01:00

In this section I have included an alphabetically ordered set of links for ALL the technologies mentioned in YouBidFast. These technologies cover all aspects of Online Marketing, Lead Generation and Customer Relationship Management (CRM).)

Apture

Blogger
bloggertouch

Channel CRM

Contact Grouper (iphone)

Contacts Journal (iphone)

fuze messenger (iphone)

Google Adsense
google alerts

google analytics

google docs

google reader
Google WebMaster Tools

gtalk

hellotxt

imautomator
instant mobilizer

Pamela (Skype)
ping.fm

pingchat (iphone)
ping-o-matic

skype

social orbit (iphone)

surveymonkey
Technorati

11. A Social Media Optimization Simulator for testing your online marketing and lead generation plan

2010-07-19T22:37:00.027+01:00

One of the biggest challenges for any Enterprise today is Social Media Optimisation, defined as "a set of methods for generating publicity through social media, online communities and community websites." The Social Media Optimization Simulator Game lets you instantly 'what-if' the effects of different social media activities (blogging, tweeting etc) on your enterprise.

This Simulator allows you to run Social Media/New Media Marketing for an enterprise quarterly for a period of 12 months.

Each quarter you decide what percentage of your social media marketing budget you will invest in each of 6 key social media activies and the tactics/strategy you will use to implement each of them.

Each social activity is effective in different ways in its ability and speed to a) attract, b) engage, c) develop and d) retain "Active Contacts" (defined in a user configurable table):

1. Online Marketing via Email
2. Blogging
3. Twitter (Tweeting)
4. Online Communities
5. Multimedia Marketing (video and audio)
6. Tracking and Connecting with important Trends (Alert Radars and Lead Generation)

Each "active contact" has an associated quarterly revenue and profit (definable by the user) and the goal of the simulation is to maximise your number of Active Contacts PLUS their Cumulative Profit to your enterprise.

NOTE: each of the 6 activities has a minimum threshold level (set here to 10%) which if you go below in any quarter will start to cause you problems!

To run the Social Media Optimization Simulation

Social Media Aggregation

2010-07-09T16:57:00.004+01:00

Social Media Aggregation 101

View more presentations from Keith Gerr.

Introduction to Customer Segmentation for CRM

2010-07-08T08:03:00.004+01:00

Arthur Middleton Hughes in an article Have you defined your customer segments? explains the core Customer Relationship Management concept of Customer Segmentation and how you use it to define the different groups of customers (segments) you are targeting and how best to reach them.

Example of a customer segment

As an example of a customer segment using the airline industry Arthur suggests:

Segment: Retired couples who visit their children and grandchildren.
Strategy: Get them to register their children's and grandchildren's cities and birthdays. Suggest air packages to the proper destinations a month in advance of each date.
Communication: "We can fly you both from Atlanta to Portland, Maine next month to visit David and Tracy for Tracy's birthday. The price is only $189 each roundtrip. If you are interested in learning more, click here."

6 characteristics of a customer segment

Arthur proposes that an ideal segment is one which has 6 characteristics

1. Has definable characteristics in terms of behavior and demographics: for example, Retired Couples, Business Travelers 30-60, College Students, Families with young children, etc. Business customers should be segmented by SIC code, annual sales and number of employees
2. Is large enough in terms of potential sales to justify a custom marketing strategy with appropriate rewards and budget
3. Has members who can be motivated by cost-effective rewards to modify their behavior in ways that are profitable for your company
4. Makes efficient use of available data to support segment definition and marketing efforts
5. Can be measured in performance, with control groups
6. Justifies an organization devoted to it. The managing organization can be a single person, or part of a person's time, but there should be someone definite in your company who "owns" each segment.

For more on CRM using the latest free software tools read The Walkie-Talkie (Basic)

01. Online Marketing, Lead Generation and Customer Relationship Management (CRM)	2. So What is YouBidFast and how can it help with Online Marketing, Lead Generation and CRM?	03. YouBidFast: Your Own Unique Online Marketing, Lead Generation and CRM System
04. The Web Transmitter (Basic) for Online Marketing	05. The Walkie-Talkie (Basic) for CRM	06. The Web Alerts Radar (Basic) for Lead Generation
07. The Web Transmitter (Advanced) for Online Marketing	08. The Walkie-Talkie (Advanced) for CRM	09. The Web Alerts Radar (Advanced) for Lead Generation
10. Getting your Blog Transmitter Search Friendly for Online Marketing	11. A Social Media Optimization Simulator for testing your online marketing and lead generation plan	12. YouBidFast Technology Inventory (Alpha Order)

01. Online Marketing, Lead Generation and Customer Relationship Management (CRM)	2. So What is YouBidFast and how can it help with Online Marketing, Lead Generation and CRM?	03. YouBidFast: Your Own Unique Online Marketing, Lead Generation and CRM System
04. The Web Transmitter (Basic) for Online Marketing	05. The Walkie-Talkie (Basic) for CRM	06. The Web Alerts Radar (Basic) for Lead Generation
07. The Web Transmitter (Advanced) for Online Marketing	08. The Walkie-Talkie (Advanced) for CRM	09. The Web Alerts Radar (Advanced) for Lead Generation
10. Getting your Blog Transmitter Search Friendly for Online Marketing	11. A Social Media Optimization Simulator for testing your online marketing and lead generation plan	12. YouBidFast Technology Inventory (Alpha Order)

01. Online Marketing, Lead Generation and Customer Relationship Management (CRM)	2. So What is YouBidFast and how can it help with Online Marketing, Lead Generation and CRM?	03. YouBidFast: Your Own Unique Online Marketing, Lead Generation and CRM System
04. The Web Transmitter (Basic) for Online Marketing	05. The Walkie-Talkie (Basic) for CRM	06. The Web Alerts Radar (Basic) for Lead Generation
07. The Web Transmitter (Advanced) for Online Marketing	08. The Walkie-Talkie (Advanced) for CRM	09. The Web Alerts Radar (Advanced) for Lead Generation
10. Getting your Blog Transmitter Search Friendly for Online Marketing	11. A Social Media Optimization Simulator for testing your online marketing and lead generation plan	12. YouBidFast Technology Inventory (Alpha Order)

01. Online Marketing, Lead Generation and Customer Relationship Management (CRM)	2. So What is YouBidFast and how can it help with Online Marketing, Lead Generation and CRM?	03. YouBidFast: Your Own Unique Online Marketing, Lead Generation and CRM System
04. The Web Transmitter (Basic) for Online Marketing	05. The Walkie-Talkie (Basic) for CRM	06. The Web Alerts Radar (Basic) for Lead Generation
07. The Web Transmitter (Advanced) for Online Marketing	08. The Walkie-Talkie (Advanced) for CRM	09. The Web Alerts Radar (Advanced) for Lead Generation
10. Getting your Blog Transmitter Search Friendly for Online Marketing	11. A Social Media Optimization Simulator for testing your online marketing and lead generation plan	12. YouBidFast Technology Inventory (Alpha Order)

01. Online Marketing, Lead Generation and Customer Relationship Management (CRM)	2. So What is YouBidFast and how can it help with Online Marketing, Lead Generation and CRM?	03. YouBidFast: Your Own Unique Online Marketing, Lead Generation and CRM System
04. The Web Transmitter (Basic) for Online Marketing	05. The Walkie-Talkie (Basic) for CRM	06. The Web Alerts Radar (Basic) for Lead Generation
07. The Web Transmitter (Advanced) for Online Marketing	08. The Walkie-Talkie (Advanced) for CRM	09. The Web Alerts Radar (Advanced) for Lead Generation
10. Getting your Blog Transmitter Search Friendly for Online Marketing	11. A Social Media Optimization Simulator for testing your online marketing and lead generation plan	12. YouBidFast Technology Inventory (Alpha Order)

Online Marketing, Lead Generation and CRM | YouBidFast

The Instant Business Guide to Linked In

The Instant Business Guide to Facebook

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YouBidFast: Transform your online marketing, lead generation and CRM!

How to deploy Your Blog or Website to mobile phone

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3. YouBidFast: Your Own Unique Online Marketing, Lead Generation and CRM System

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2. So What is YouBidFast and how can it help with online marketing, lead generation and CRM?

Audience

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1. Online Marketing, Lead Generation and Customer Relationship Management(CRM)

First the bad news....

Now the good news.....

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7. The Web Transmitter (Advanced) for Online Marketing

Before you start two warnings:

7 Golden Rules for online community Building

Summary

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6. The Web Alerts Radar (Basic) for Lead Generation

The Purpose of The Radar

Getting Started with the Radar

Now lets set up your own unique automated web robot

Now Construct a Radar Alert for each matrix cell you wish to track

Alternatives to Google Alerts

Add-ons to Google Alerts

Summary

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5. The Walkie-Talkie (Basic) for CRM

The Purpose of The Walkie-Talkie

The 3 Functions of the Walkie-Talkie

How to operate your Walkie-Talkie

Your Big decision - web CRM or mobile phone CRM

Mobile-Phone CRM

Web/PC CRM

Summary

Other Articles in the YOUBIDFAST series

4. The Web Transmitter (Basic) for Online Marketing

The Purpose of The Transmitter

Creating a Blog Transmitter for your business

Summary

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9. The Web Alerts Radar (Advanced) for Lead Generation

Summary

Other Articles in the YOUBIDFAST series

8. The Walkie-Talkie (Advanced) for CRM

Twitter

LinkedIN

iphone

Summary

Other Articles in the YOUBIDFAST series

10. Getting your Blog Transmitter Search Friendly for Online Marketing

3. Blog Tuning: Constantly improving your blog

Here is an example of the GWMT dashboard for my blog at www.bioteams.com which has been running for a number of years:

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12. YouBidFast Technology Inventory (Alpha Order)

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11. A Social Media Optimization Simulator for testing your online marketing and lead generation plan

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Social Media Aggregation

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Introduction to Customer Segmentation for CRM

Example of a customer segment

6 characteristics of a customer segment

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