Never before has there been as much opportunity for businesses to reach their target market quickly and affordably.

We wanted to use this sponsor for the last of the ten social media marketing lessons, I do not know of anyone that doesn’t need four free round trip airline tickets!

Social Media Last Lesson And Thank You!

While each of the social media sites we reviewed has unique benefits and opportunities, there are several commonalities to all social media marketing efforts which are key to your success. In summary,

1) Build a thorough and strong profile. Each social media site provides an opportunity for you to describe who you are, what you do and where to find more information about your product and/or services. Your profile is often the thing that will cause a reader to take a second look at you and/or your business. Be professional while showing personality. Provide a link to your website. Correct any spelling, capitalization or grammatical errors.

2) Engage. Social media is just that – social. Don’t be a wallflower. Engage, praise, compliment, promote fellow members, thank and be social. If you want to get noticed, you need to participate.

3) Avoid being a sleazy car salesman (or saleswoman). Social media provides multiple opportunities to promote your products/services. Social media participants expect to learn about you and your business but they will be turned off by repeated sales pitches. Add valuable content (tips, articles, how to’s), promote interesting content by your friends/followers, show your human side (your interests, hobbies etc) AND mix in your own products/services. When done in moderation, your followers will be eager to find out more and to make a purchase.

Social Media Is A Learning Process

There are many social media sites and many different ways to promote your business through them. Fortunately, you don’t have to do it all alone. Yes you need to be the person who engages your target audience but there are many social media marketing functions which you can outsource. In fact, there is even an ever growing group of “Social Media Specialists” who you can contract with to help you with these tasks as well as graphic designers who can incorporate your brand into your social media sites and wonderful writers who you can get quality PLR from to add to your sites!

Social Media Perfect For Affiliate Program

If you do not have a product or business yet to marketing on the internet, we have several digital products that you can start out with to learn on. Once you get the hang of it, then develop your own to sell so you can keep 100% of the profit.

Best of luck with all of your social media efforts. I hope that you will follow me http://twitter.com/#!/bobratcliff and be sure to bookmark our blog in order to learn more about social media.

It’s time. Time for what you ask? Time to start using video to market your business. Creating videos around your business and using social media platforms to promote those videos is one of the largest growth areas in social media marketing today.

Best Buys is the sponsor for today where you can check out their $250 gift card…maybe use it on the new Ipad II.

YouTube Is The Best

Everyone from wedding accessory shops to internet marketers are using the power of video to promote their business.

Why is video marketing so powerful? Primarily two reasons: 1) People like to know who they are purchasing from. A video provides the opportunity for the viewer (and hopefully customer) to see your face, hear your voice and build trust; 2) search engines, especially Google, loves video content and indexes them rapidly.

YouTube receives more than 100 million views a day. Here are some ways to put YouTube to work for you and your business.

1) Utilize your keywords when uploading a video. When you upload a video, use keywords in your title, make sure to place your URL first in the description and include keywords in your description as well. Tags are also important so be sure to complete that section as well. A video that does not include these items will not drive the type of traffic you want.

2) Spread your videos across the internet. Use other social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to make your video go viral. Embed your video into blog posts, Squidoo lens and website.

3) Remember to include branding in your video. Add your logo, website address and distinct colors to your video.

4) Create a series of videos. A powerful way to engage viewers is to create a series of videos on a specific topic or topics. Create a series of videos answering the top questions you receive about your product or service. Another idea would be to create a series of videos showcasing your products and the benefits viewers receive by using them.

YouTube Content Loved By Google

Google search engines love YouTube video content and will push it up to page one within hours. There are tricks of course to utilizing video marketing, but we can spend a whole course on it. We just want to make it urgent on how important it is to use YouTube. Just by itself, you will benefit from it greatly.

Video marketing is here to stay and the sooner you put it to use for you, the faster you and your business will benefit from it. Start simple, use a script and keep it short and soon you’ll be reaping the benefits on video marketing yourself.

YouTube Today And Tomorrow We Put It All Together

Tomorrow….we’ll tie it all together and help you start developing your social media strategy. This is the 9th day of social media marketing lessons with the last one tomorrow, we hope it has been a major benefit to you. If you ignore using what we said, whatever you do…please remember this one lesson and that is to routinely use YouTube.

Ning platforms are much like online forums with the added benefit of users being able to create their own page.

Sponsor for today is an eye opener before you start the day, enjoy!

Ning Use To Be Popular

Ning sites are particularly popular for niche based conversations and networking.  One of the largest Ning sites is TwitterMoms which now has more than 21,000 members.

There are many ways you can use Ning to benefit your business and community, including:

1) Open a dialogue. Ning networks are a wonderful place to ask members for feedback about your products and services.

2) Make connections.  Ning networks connect people worldwide with a mutual interest. Individuals, organizations and businesses can create a Ning network to connect people with similar interests or concerns. You can create your own network or get involved in one of the thousands already in existence.

3) Organize an event. Ning networks are a wonderful way to coordinate an event and keep participants involved. You can create pages for speakers or presenters that are private as well as areas for all participants to view.

4) Inspire Fans and Customers.  Many businesses are using Ning networks to create a hub for fans and customers. For instance, if you create cookbooks you could build a Ning network around customers who have purchased your cookbook and made your recipes. It’s a great way to showcase what your products can do and what other people are doing with them.

Why Is Ning Not So Popular Anymore

I had to include the picture above, it is a pair of girls just having fun and supporting their team. The team uses the letter “N”, but it is not Ning for the following reasons below!

Ning use to be excellent to place a member interactive website with announcements, blogs and forums! But then they changed the format of the site from Free to 30-day free trial. Unless you have a business making a healthy profit, then you want to stay away from this one!

Never forget that you never know where you might meet someone with an interest in your business. Ning networks are a wonderful way to get involved in niche specific groups for both your business and your personal interests.

Ning Today And My Favorite Tomorrow – YouTube

Tomorrow…learn how you can use YouTube to effectively promote your business instead of Ning.

A Squidoo lens is similar to a blog post except, rather thing being hosted on an individual’s blog, it is posted on a community site for the world to view. Imagine having your blog posts listed on a site with more than a million users who are looking for a quick way to find answers to their questions. Squidoo offers that to and more.

Thanks to the following sponsor of this incredibly valuable posting. If you enjoy gaming online it will be right up your alley.

Squidoo Set Backs

When putting together a lenses, be sure that you are not using duplicate content that can be found on the internet in other places or they will penalize you. Plus, if you over marked the lenses on one product and spend little time cover the benefits, they will pull your lense.

Your Squidoo lense should be more like conversation to your best friend on something you know about or a great product you found and how you used it in your life to make it better with a link back to it.

Squidoo Strategies That Work

Here are a few strategies to make the most out your Squidoo lenses and get the visibility you desire for your business.

1) Include a compelling description and table of contents in your lens. Your description will draw people in and they will want to read more.

2) Take advantage of Squidcasting. Squidcasting is a way to let your readers know that you have published a new lens, update readers about an upcoming event or announce the results of a contest or special promotion. Anyone who has favorited your lens, joined your fan club or signed up for your Squidoo RSS will receive your Squidcast.

3) Cross promote. Promote your Squidoo lens through Facebook and Twitter as well as on your blog and website so that you maximize your efforts.

4) Add a Guest book to your lens.  A guest book will help you increase communication between you and your readers.

In addition to generating traffic and helping establish yourself as a subject matter expert, Squidoo shares profits with its lens creators. A great way to generate some extra cash while building your business.

Squidoo Today And Ning Tomorrow

Tomorrow…learn about how creating your own social group on Ning can positively impact your business.

IF you want to get a quick start for your business growth & success, then you want to add a lenses as soon as possible for SEO reasons on Squidoo.

In order to get the most out of StumbleUpon, make sure that the content that you are sharing is valuable, that your site is worthy of a thumbs up and that you spend time providing feedback and thumbs up to sites you value as well.

Sponsor today is a favorite and you just might want to be a favorite among your friends by placing the link for this posting today on your StumbleUpon profile.

StumbleUpon The Best Social Media Site?

As we cover several ways to market yourself or your business on social media sites, your question might be which one is the best. My advice to you is to begin with a few sites we recommend, fill out the profiles and begin posting your content for your specific niche.

Some of your social media sites like StumbleUpon will take off and being building followers, stay with those if you are manually performing this task for your business. If you are an Internet Marketer new to the business you will want to automate the process and use as many as possible with a service like OnlyWire!

StumbleUpon Marketing

Here are a few tactics that you can use to maximize your StumbleUpon efforts for your business.

1) Take the time to complete your profile thoroughly. Your profile helps the StumbleUpon database identify which niches are of most interest to you and what you will likely have to offer visitors. Furthermore, when someone clicks on your profile, you want them to have a sense of who you are and what you are interested in.

2) Install the StumbleUpon tool bar and review sites that are of interest to you. This toolbar is how sites get added to the database and it also alerts your StumbleUpon friends when you have added new content.

3) Be active. Stumble around, add links, review sites and give thumbs up.  Remember to reciprocate and thank the people who stumble you.

4) Diversify. Add content regularly and add photos, video and audio as well. The more diversified and interesting your content is the more traffic you will receive.

StumbleUpon is a proven method of increasing website traffic and increasing the visibility of your business. Just remember to include everyday events in your life and pictures that just might cause a stir about your profile. In time, and with a good strategy, you too will reap the rewards of being an active member in StumbleUpon.

StumbleUpon Today And Squidoo Tomorrow

Tomorrow…learn about creating Squidoo lenses and how they can positively impact your business. Squidoo lenses are built with a different strategy, so be sure to check it out after you make sure you have a profile completed on StumbleUpon.