How To Use Social Media To Boost Business, Build Leads And Establish Your Reputation
Audiences on popular social media sites are hungry for web content — YouTube reached 1 triillion views last year, while Facebook has more than 800 million global users.
And I’d be willing to bet that a lot of those viewers and users shared content writing — blogs, articles, videos, newspaper stories, white papers, e-newsletters, podcasts.
If you’re on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+, you can repurpose the content you’ve already written to share it with your virtual audience.
Social neworking sites act more like content repositories — places where folks disseminate, share and consume info.
The potential benefits are vast: Prospective clients, peers and colleagues will see you as an expert. And, it will help you build new business and generate sales leads because soon clients will see you as the expert, too — the expert they need to hire!
Social Media = Sharing
Social media is all about sharing; the more, the better. You don’t have a Facebook page just to post pictures of your Jamaican getaway. Your Facebook page can share the information you want others to have — you are your own publisher.
Even if it’s a status update on Facebook, a tweet on Twitter or a Google Plus link, it still involves the same thing — content, or words on a page. Much more interesting when it’s put like that, no?
Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ are all about content sharing. Sure, you may go on Facebook to check out your friends’ status updates. But what do you end up doing an hour later?
Reading articles, watching videos and looking at other forms of content that your friends have posted.
Put Your Content In The Mix
Creating content hopefully means that your web content will be apart of the content sharing mix. That’s why content writing like blogs, videos, articles, case studies, white papers, webinars and e-newsletters, for example, are such critical components to the social media sharing platform.
When I think about the times I go on Facebook, usually it’s to read what others share. What would Facebook or Twitter be like if it only involved reading status updates all day? Pretty boring!
Sharing Your Content Online
How can you make the most of your web content — and create it so that it’s easily shared by others?
First, identify your audience. This is a basic first step, but you’d be surprised by how many people don’t do it. Who are you talking to? What do they like to read? How do they like their information to be shared?
Answering these questions up front will help you avoid plenty of headaches down the road: It’s no fun to discover that the blogs you’ve spent hours creating aren’t being read, because your audience prefers YouTube videos, now is it?
Not all social media platforms are appropriate for every audience. Learn what your audience would be receptive to, and keep the information flowing!
Three Techniques to Share Website Content
Once you’ve studied your audience, make sharing content easy for them.
*Include content sharing widgets on blogs and other forms of content. When readers see content they like, they’re more likely to share it. So, give them the tools they need to do it.
*Keep it short. Sure, you can write a 10-page dissertation but everyone is pressed for time. Make your content short, sweet and to the point. It should have enough “meat” to stand on its own, but it doesn’t have to be a textbook to be effective.
*Help the reader. Content that solves problems will engage audiences. Write your content using short, action steps that help your audience solve common problems. Your goal at first must be to help, not get paid. Helping someone initially may very well lead to paid business later on.
How-to articles are highly recommend. Many times, subjects are universal: Finding capital, saving money and negotiating deals are just some examples of article topics that apply to just about any industry.
Is All of this “Sharing” Free?
Initially, yes, social media is all about sharing.If you are trying to build your content marketing repertoire, it’s a good idea to give basic information away free initially.
Why? You are trying to build a reputation as an expert. What better way to do that by sharing information? Plus, when you get something for free, people are much more likely to buy something from you down the road.
Follow these content marketing and social media marketing tips to boost your reputation as an expert, gain sales, attract new leads and get new clients.
Tenisha Mercer is a content marketing expert who lives in Atlanta. She specializes in content strategy, development and management for content writing clients such as Sears, GMAC, General Motors Corp., 1-800-Flowers, The Home Depot, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs and the U.S. Postal Service.
7 Factors That Make A Great Conference
We’ve all had to attend a conference or two in the space of our careers. Generally, conferences or conventions are an opportunity for learning and an opportunity to widen our networks by mingling and getting to know people in our industry with similar interests. But what makes a good conference in the first place? A successful conference generally means one that is well attended and one that people will want a repeat of in the years to come. So here are a few factors that make a conference one that people will remember.
1. A great program. – Conferences are generally set up with speakers from key industries and areas of expertise relevant to the topic or theme of the event. It’s important that an event organizer plan out the program for each day with care.
2. Variety when it comes to activities. – Most conferences have some sort of activities planned other than sitting in a room and listening to a bunch of people talk. Make sure that you plan out interesting activities in between to help your guests decompress from presentations.
3. A good guest list. – One of the main reasons people attend conferences is to make new contacts and expand their respective networks. Invite people who you think other guests will want to meet and will contribute to the overall ambience of your event.
4. A great venue. – Location is all-important when it comes to an event. Make sure that your corporate events venue Melbourne is well situated so it’s convenient for your guests to get there. Also make sure that you have the right space for the right amount of people.
5. Networking activities. – Generally, guests are only able to talk to other people if they are sitting at the same table or during meals or coffee breaks. It’s a good idea to devote maybe an evening or an afternoon to a social activity that gives your guests ample time to meet and talk to a good number of people, including your guest speakers.
6. Organization down to the last detail. – The best conferences go smoothly from start to finish and it’s not just pure luck. It requires ruthless organization to make sure that nothing goes wrong. Plan everything out to the last detail. Your guests and your guest speakers will notice that you’ve taken the time to make sure that everything is perfect.
7. A conference kit. – It’s normal for organizers to give away goodie bags or kits to their guests and attendees. Make sure that everything inside the kit is useful, like a blank contact sheet where they can take down names and numbers of the people they meet, etc.
Johnathan F Black is an expert on a wide range of topics.
Please click on the links to find out more about conference venues Melbourne or visit www.redscooter.com.au.
Corplook: 7 Features of the New Networking Tool
One of the biggest concerns of any business is being able to reach potential customers and partners. Corplook, an innovative new website that will be released in early October, will help businesses do this. This site will be like an online yellow pages for the business world. Its built-in search engine will let interested parties search for personalized profiles of its users. Additionally, businesses, professionals, and consumers may connect with one another over Corplook due to its social networking capabilities.
When someone signs up for Corplook, they will be able to create a custom profile that provides their name, contact information, and a description of what they offer. Users will be able to upload a video, photo, or logo that will greet those who
view their profile. A map of a person’s business location will also be shown alongside their information. When someone finds a user through the website’s search engine, he or she will see this profile.
If somebody clicks on a profile after finding it, they will be directed to that person’s page. Here a user may post to their “Updates Stream,” which is a log of posts describing what he or she is doing. This is very useful for announcing new company features or career milestones. It also lets businesses easily
communicate with clients and associates, because people may comment on others’ streams. However, if someone would like to have a more private conversation, there is a message feature on every user’s page that allows for direct communication.
One of the highlights of Corplook is that users can receive reviews from other users. Someone may like or dislike a professional or business, rate them, and write a review under their profile. This allows a business owner to see how their
business is doing, while also helping potential customers make informed business decisions.
Corplook also lets users invite and add new connections. This allows someone to build a strong network of trusted associates, friends, or businesses. A novel feature found on Corplook lets a company invite all its employees to become its “connections,” helping the company to develop “facebase.” In large organizations, this is also a great way to get to know coworkers better. Employees can find other connected employees through the company’s “My Connections” list, allowing them to discover their coworkers’ expertise and background.
As mentioned earlier, Corplook is an innovative site that provides features that cannot be found on other websites. One of them is the ability to upload documents, photos, and videos to their own page. This lets users showcase their accomplishments. Another new feature on this site is the Discussion Forum. Here, people may ask questions, trade ideas, gather feedback, and take part in serious debate about different topics. This is incredibly useful for easy business advice and solutions.
When Corplook is released, it will be an invaluable business tool. Its built-in search engine will make companies easy to find, while providing interested parties with trustworthy reviews. Also, because the site can be used for social and business networking, companies, professionals, and customers may all connect and communicate with each other. Corplook will allow anyone to join for free, and is sure to be a great advantage to all who use it.
Tomasz Nowicki is an MBA certified business leader with an engineering background. He is the developer of a new business tool called Corplook, which organizes the endless content available on the internet using a unique approach to search engines that allows people to connect with businesses while remaining in control of their privacy. Visit http://www.corplook.com today.
What To Do At Networking Events
There are many ways to build your business and small talk is one of them. Like a postcard that is small and simple, small talk is small yet powerful when seeking out new business opportunies. Start with the following:
Phase 1: The Ice Breaker
You attend a networking event, you make eye contact with someone you want to meet, you approach them and introduce yourself Now what?
Well having a few powerful, open-ended ice breaker questions should certainly do the trick. For example:
A tried and true ice breaker is the proverbial, So Jeff, what do you do? In other words Jeff, what business are you in? Now people love talking about themselves and their business so the idea here is to get them started talking. Most people also love to hear the sound of their own voice so the ice breaker question is critical and essentially sets the tone and potential for the conversation.
Another good ice breaker could be, So Jeff, what brings you here today?
Now notice on these sample ice breaker questions We have repeated the persons name. First off by doing this it will help burn that persons name into my head so I do not forget it. Secondly, people love the sound of their own name, so do not be afraid to use it throughout your conversation.
Phase 2: Get To Know You Better
Depending on the results of the ice breaker questions you should by now be able to determine whether or not it makes sense to get to know this person better. If not, simply skip this phase and go into your graceful exit. But if you do see a synergy here, by all means try some of these again open-ended, getting to know you better questions.
So Jeff, how did you get into that business?
What types of challenges keep you up at night?
Jeff, help me out here, draw me a mental picture, what does success look like for you and your business?
What is new in your industry these days? Any events or trends that are shaping it?
Now you can use one, two, all of these questions, or more if the situation permits. However, be careful here not to dominate and monopolize their time. If you are at a networking event, there is a good chance that they are there to network and meet other people as well, so it may make sense to go to the graceful exit phase and encourage that you two get together in the near future.
Phase 3: Graceful Exit
It is vastly important how you leave a conversation as this is the last impression you make on that person. We are not looking to create any animosity here by rudely blowing someone off.
The key to making connections in small talk or establishing any relationship is as this phase title states, is to exit gracefully.
A key difference between the types of questions or statements you make in this phase as opposed to the previous two phases is that now you shift to using close-ended ones.
So now you are aware of of one of the ways to build relationships. So Always Stay In Touch is another great way to connect.
Online Network Marketing And The Current Day Marketer
Searching the web based cyber world for money creation options in 2011 is like panning for gold in the 1800s. There is always something shiney in your pan that seeks out your curiosity and gets you to believing that riches are just a skip away.
Most of those shimmery little flashes you perceive are similar to the business programs that you get bombarded with day after day. Meaning it looks wonderful to start with but when you get to examine it up close, it’s not worth a hill of beans.
Every internet marketer today has a huge list. I’m not referring to who they get to mail to, I am talking about the list of marketers that mail to you daily that floods your email inbox.
Marketing by electronic mail is rapidly losing its validity when the inbox is just an extension of the spam folder. People you once had a fair amount of admiration for are appearing to be false phonies who will say anything to get you to depart with your investment dollars.
So you are taking a good look at Infinity Downline or some other web based venture as a profitable means to get ahead financially, so how do you market it with out being an online whore yourself then? Well I got some good hard cold honest advice for you.
Now this is just my take on things, if a person is curious about your business, they will look at your venture 1rst and you 2nd. This is certainly true with a lot of branded MLMs like Infinity Downline.
My advise to you if you want some good prospects is to be trustworthy with your prospects in your marketing efforts and your communication as to how you really feel about the business and not dishing them up a bunch of hype. You don’t just want them to sign up, you are looking for retention and people working.
I think the hyped up misconceptions that some people promote about MLM is that it is suppose to be this effortless thing to bring in new associates and to make money. If you advertise in this way then when a new recruit finds out that you have just been deceiving them, most likely they’ll just quit and you’ll never hear from them again.
If you have a good multilevel marketing company with very good compensation then just be truthful with your potential new members about what they really need to do to succeed. You many be curious as to what I mean by that.
This is just my personal point of view and you can come to your own conclusions but a lot of the established multi-level marketing companies are designed to be profitable by only recruiting a few people. Now with my own multilevel marketing company Infinity Downline this could be said to be a very accurate view point.
I believe that the prevalent attitude that will bring about success to people is commitment. With a non-determined amount of time and effort I believe that any member can personally sponsor the required amount of members that will bring about success for all.
This is what I communicate to people from the very beginning. I do not sugar coat it. I fully believe people can accept this and appreciate the truth no matter how much they would rather believe the hype.
For a real business go now to Infinity Downline With rediculously low start up and high residual income potential. And check out Infinity Downline review.