Facebook traffic continues to grow as the social networking platform consolidates its position as one of the most influential websites on the planet. With registered users in excess of 200 million and over 113 million unique visitors to the site from within the US alone in May (according to respected Web analytics firm Compete), Facebook is starting to rival the major search engines in terms of traffic.

Clearly, Facebook is breaking new ground and we are all coming to terms with its presence and with its implications. The site is, in many respects, rewriting the rules as it goes along and it is only understandable that a number of significant questions have arisen in recent times regarding the security of the data collected by the company and the overall privacy considerations.

In July of 2009, a landmark statement was issued by Canada’s Privacy Commissioner berating Facebook for its failure to protect the personal information it gets from subscribers. While they acknowledged that Facebook was concerned about privacy issues, the investigators “found serious privacy gaps in the way the site operates.”

This leads us to significant questions and one in particular that every Facebook user should consider. To help you ponder the meaning of the Facebook universe, we have composed some tips to help you protect your privacy.

1. Efficiency – Establish separate lists for friends, family and business contacts.

This is a very useful feature that allows you to really categorize and separate these potentially very diverse groups of people. For example, you may well want to keep your private persona separate from your professional one. You may or may not want people at work to know what you do in your spare time, after all while you may not be ashamed or embarrassed by your membership of a particular group or your participation in a particular type of recreation or sport, people at work do not need to know and should not necessarily be privy to everything that you do outside of the work environment.

If you categorize the people in your Facebook world in this way (Facebook refers to them all as “friends,” although this is a rather generic term) you can interact with them accordingly. You should also know that you can add a person to more than one list, so someone could be in your professional list while also being in your friends list, if you have that type of relationship with that person.

It is important to note that you can allocate different privacy policies to each of your groups, so that there is no danger that your professional contacts may see one of your personal photographs from a special family night out or a raucous beach party, for example.

You can even apply separate friend lists to categorize your contacts geographically or according to specific keywords. It is rather easy to accumulate a very large number of contacts on Facebook, and while the whole idea behind the platform is to keep in touch with people, especially if you had previously lost contact with them, if you do not adequately categorize them they could become “lost” within your own database. So, consider establishing friend lists for friends who live state by state, or for those you may have met at a convention, on your annual summer vacation or so on. Just go to the friends area of your Facebook page to start working on this feature. Click on, “Friends-Lists-Create New Lists.”

2. Selective Invisibility – Make yourself invisible within Facebook.

For one reason or another, people want to keep their information private or at the very least want to be aware of who is requesting or viewing this information. You could be in a position of responsibility or in a high profile occupation, and while valuing what Facebook has to offer, you do want to make sure that your profile is “low.” As such, you will not want your personal information to show up within search results on Facebook, and this is rather easy to accomplish.

To remove yourself from search results within Facebook, you should first go to your search privacy settings page. Open “settings” in the top right-hand part of the blue bar at the top of the screen, click on “manage privacy” and then open the “search” option. Under “search discovery” you can select either “everyone on Facebook,” “friends of friends” or “only friends.” You can also specify that the people who do find you through Facebook search may see your profile picture, your friend list or pages that you are a fan of. Remember to save your changes.

3. Global Invisibility – Make yourself invisible to the rest of the Internet world.

Facebook is highly ranked by Google and the other major search engines and information from within Facebook is regularly displayed by the engines within their search results. This means that user profiles can be displayed, although this information is quite restricted. You may consider that exposure is a good idea and that people from your long-lost past may be able to simply “Google” your name and immediately see that you have a Facebook page, enabling them to make contact with you. If this is the case, you can opt to check the box allowing your profile to be available as a public search listing. To do this, go to “settings – privacy – manage – search.” Once you are there, scroll down to the public search listing box and check it. Immediately above is the “search results content” option and you should check the appropriate boxes within to stipulate what information is available within the public search environment, as well. For example, select your profile picture, your friend list, pages that you are a fan of, or select an option allowing people to link to you as a friend, or an option allowing people to send you a message.

For those who want to ensure that their information is not made available when somebody does a search for their name, ensure that the public search listing is unchecked.

4. Accountability – Don’t tag me, bro!

This has emerged as one of the biggest issues for Facebook and its users. The visual image is a highly potent communications tool on the Internet. People tend to scan webpages quickly, but always fix on images and photographs. It is probably too easy for people to “tag” photographs of you and post them on Facebook. If you are particularly concerned that your private life does not mix with your professional life, you could be worried that an incriminating photograph could be posted for all to see without your permission or knowledge. Maybe you let your hair down just a little bit too far at the office party, or someone took a lot of pictures at a recent political fund-raising event. Whatever your concern, you should know that it is possible to stipulate that your name “keyword” is not tagged to a photograph of you. Don’t forget that this can apply to videos as well!

While you can immediately remove a tag when you spot it, the damage may have been done by then, especially if you have not visited your Facebook page for a day or so.

To make sure that your tagged photographs or videos do not show up in all of your friend newsfeeds, go to “settings – privacy – manage – profile” and look for the “photos tagged of you” drop-down box. You have four options– allowing everyone to see, “friends only” may see, “friends of friends” may see, “some friends” may see or “only me.” You can even specify that everyone may see your photographs except for certain friends or those who are on one of those friend lists. In this way, you could exclude that “professional” friend list that you established earlier on. Apply the same customization for videos while you are there.

5. Secrecy # 1 – Be careful what you tell your friends.

This is an area that people get confused about rather easily. Many people have been embarrassed when they alter their relationship status within their profile and find that it is posted as a news item and all their friends get to know about it. This can lead to concerned comments being attached to the actual post itself, drawing further attention to it. You may have just gone through a breakup and are particularly upset about it in the first place. The last thing that you need is a public discussion about it! A certain amount of basic information is required within your profile, but you can control what is broadcast automatically and the settings are as follows:

Go to “settings – privacy – newsfeed and wall.” Here you will see that the highlighted section of your friends home page will include what you do or say, if you comment on a note, a video, a link, a photo or an album or if you change your relationship status. You can check or uncheck any one of these five boxes as you wish. If you go back to the privacy page and select “profile” you can select who is able to see your basic information by interacting with the drop-down box there as well.

6. Secrecy # 2 – There is an app for that, too.

Applications abound within the Facebook platform, some of which are very handy, some of which are funny or entertaining and some of which could be rather embarrassing. They could be especially embarrassing for you if you choose to download them, as unless you are careful a newsfeed story will be added to your profile telling everyone of your interest in the application.

You should make a habit of checking your profile often, and if you see that a post has been made detailing your interaction with the embarrassing application concerned, you can simply remove it.

7. Privacy – Protect your contact information.

Once you start building your Facebook presence and reaching out to friends and contacts from the past, you will be surprised at how, suddenly, you will get a message out of the blue from someone who you may remember from “way back then,” but only vaguely. If you decide to approve friend requests from such people you should be sure to make your contact information only selectively available.

If you are not particularly careful about who can see your contact information, as your friends lists grow you may find that you get e-mails from people who you can barely remember. Don’t forget to edit your settings as follows:

On your profile page, look in the left-hand column, probably below your photograph and there you will see “edit my profile.” Click this and various categories will appear including basic, personal, contact, education and work. You can open up these categories and apply as much or as little information as you need, within. Then, look over to the right and you’ll see a small icon which looks like a padlock, for some reason. Open this and you will see that you can specify who has access to each item of information.

If you have categorized your friends according to family – friends – professional as we discussed earlier, you can make sure the right categories of people have access to the appropriate items of information and contact details.

8. Graffiti – Make your walls selectively visible.

Anyone can post to your wall, yet you do not always want your friends to see what is written. Again, we are coming back to friend categorization in many instances, although there are many different ways that you can be embarrassed and we don’t want to know! If you use Facebook for business and for pleasure purposes, you need to be particularly careful about what you allow to be written to your wall. You can customize these settings, so that your wall postings are only visible to certain people and you can also specify which friends are able to post to your wall in the first place.

Firstly, go to your profile and then click on “wall” if it is not already selected. Just underneath the “what’s on your mind?” box on the right-hand side is a magnifying glass next to the word “options.” Click on this first of all. This will open up three separate categories for you, your friends or “you and your friends.” On the right-hand side you will see the option to amend the settings for each of these categories. If you open up this page you will then be able to specify if friends may post to your wall and, if so, who will be able to see those posts. Once again, you have infinite customization options here. Spend a little time in here and think through all your options. You really can customize whatever appears on your wall if you check the appropriate boxes.

While on this subject, you should note that you might think that when you post to someone else’s wall, this is a private message between you, but this is not necessarily the case. If the friend to whom you are posting has not checked the appropriate box, it is possible that every one of his friends will see your message, so go to: “settings-privacy-newsfeed and wall” and look for “posting to someone’s wall may appear in your mutual friends’ News Feeds” – un-check that box.

Note that you can also go to your “settings – privacy” page and customize your wall post requirements there.

9. Company – Who do you associate with?

For security reasons, or once again because you may be selective when it comes to revealing your friends, you may want to modify who can see your friend list. You may well have a huge number of friends and feel that this is some kind of societal statement, but you may not want to make the details available to potential marketers or to those who just like to browse around and see who interacts with whom.

Once again this can be a little difficult to find, as it is not contained underneath the “friends” tab in your blue bar at the top of the page. Go to “settings – privacy – profile” and scroll down to “friends,” where you may specify who can see your list of friends by selecting the option from the drop-down box.

10. Photography – Make sure that you index and categorize.

It has been said that Facebook is really designed for the distribution and sharing of photos and videos. Before you know it, you may have hundreds of photographs, and you should – right from the get go, make sure that you categorize them within folders appropriately. If you don’t want your photo albums to be visible to everyone, specify within the relevant section, album by album.

Go to “profile – photos” and you can modify your settings by clicking on the album privacy.

Conclusion.

Some people find it rather difficult to navigate their way around Facebook in general, and especially when it comes to allocating their settings. Hopefully this post will help you to prevent those embarrassing items from appearing within your Facebook account and it should go a long way to assuage your fears about privacy and security. Facebook is part of a communications revolution within our society, and while the owners are still finding their feet and are modifying the platform as they go along, the medium is likely to remain an essential part of our lives for the foreseeable future.

Adam Toren

I was recently talking to a business associate of mine who had one word to use to sum up his opinion of Twitter: “ridiculous.” Clearly he was unable to see any way of using this social media phenomenon to help his business grow, in any way. He is not alone, as there are many business entrepreneurs and corporate marketing directors in the same boat. Just what can you do with this “Twitter” and how can you make any strides forward, business-wise?

For those who are far from being “twitternerds,” here are a bunch of ideas to get those creative juices going or to help at your next focus meeting:

1. Jump right in and start an account! It’s easy and you will have taken the first step.

2. Take some time to prepare your profile. Don’t use one of those stock backgrounds as it just screams “newbie” and doesn’t inspire.

3. Always, repeat always put a photograph in your profile. Hundreds of thousands of users don’t and ensure that they join the ranks of the also-rans. The visual image is very potent.

4. Try some tweets. Don’t get stuck watching, but dive in.

5. Do not talk business all the time. This is a big turnoff and you must learn that, within the world of social media, the hard sell is a big no-no.

6. Engage with people on a personal level and talk about all kinds of things that they may be interested in. This helps to establish you or your organization as “fun” to interact with.

7. Engage your staff or associates and “communitize” yourself. Add as much depth as you can as you strive to show that there are humans and human stories behind your Twitter account.

8. Whatever line of business you’re in, tweet people’s attention to things, places, people and organizations in your niche. Then establish why your business should garner their attention.

9. Make your business multidimensional by creating Twitter names for key personnel. Project your organization as having depth.

10. Always be positive and never negative, even if something in your industry is somewhat controversial. Make sure your Twitter glass is half-full.

11. Put character in your tweets. There may be only 140 characters and people tend to think that they cannot get any message across in such a constrained space, but you should add color and dimension always.

12. Don’t just be tempted to re-tweet other elements. Always add your own twist to it. Twisty-Tweets!

13. Most of your tweeting should be about non-business-related subjects. Go out of your way to re-tweet other people’s stuff.

14. When you tweet about your own products or services do so from the perspective of offering advice rather than hard selling.

15. Add photos and visual links as much as you can.

16. Establish a policy of tweeting as often as you see fit. Please don’t go overboard and always be focused, but there should be a daily activity to establish any kind of consistency.

17. Use search.twitter.com. This will help you to find lots of interesting people who are in your line of business.

18. When you have found interesting people who have a great following, make sure that you follow them.

19. Make a habit of following interesting people if you really want to build up a good base. Look at the people who are following those interesting people and follow them, too.

20. Take a look at some of the myriad Twitter applications for add-ons that are available. Some of these will help you to be far more productive as you interact.

21. As you are in the process of building your Twitter follower base, make sure that your personal message notification is not set to e-mail you each time somebody “follows you.”

22. Spend the first few weeks or months proactively building your Twitter following with people who you know are interested in your line of business or your product or service operations, in general.

23. As you are building your Twitter following, make sure that you get rid of those people who you are following but who are not, in turn, following you back. There is a great application at Twitter Karma to help you do this.

24. Log onto Twitter Counter to see how many people are following you and your general success rate as you build your Twitter follower empire.

25. Join Tweet Beep to be notified when something in relation to one of your keywords, or your Twitter name is discussed. Just like Google Alerts.

26. There is a great application at Tweet Deck that allows you to view all your tweets, your favorites and even your Facebook messages on one screen.

27. Do allocate some time each day, at the same time of day to maintain this. Don’t think that you have to retweet everything or to reply whenever you are mentioned, but do try and interact some.

28. If you use Tweet Deck (see above) you will see that you are able to instantly shorten any URLs that you are tweeting about. In any case, make sure that you use shortening tools as it will make your tweets look ever so much more neat.

29. Once you have completed your dedicated follower building process, you may enable direct messaging and will not get all those automatic messages bombarding you. You may use direct messages for one-on-one conversations.

30. As you are trying to build community, remember to try and participate in conversations as this may take a little getting used to.

31. Remember that this is still an emerging social media method and there is no hard and fast way to interact.

32. Don’t become a “twitterholic” and remember that this is just part of your overall strategy.

33. Compose your own strategy and establish why you are trying to get your message across through this medium. This may entail some thinking outside of the box.

34. Understand that Twitter is probably the fastest-growing social media phenomenon of all time and you really, really should be involved.

35. Think of ways that you could use Twitter to complement your existing customer relations or customer service pipelines.

36. Make sure that you understand the Twitter terminology, what RT means, what the @ means and so on. Go to Twitter itself and swot up on it.

37. Understand that while many still do not understand it, other organizations have been very, very successful by using Twitter in ingenious ways to spread virally.

38. Ask some quick easy questions and get loads of opinions from targeted people, rather easily.

39. Realize that there are a number of like-minded people and organizations represented on Twitter and the platform is becoming a melting pot for ideas and resources in a variety of different spheres.

40. Twitter is not going to replace any of your current initiatives.

41. Don’t be afraid! There’s a lot of anonymity behind Twitter, as is the case in other forums and online platforms. This community is, however, a great place to promote feedback.

42. Twitter can be very educational and if you open your mind up you will be surprised what business “nuggets” you can bring on board.

43. Realize that we are likely only seeing the tip of the iceberg when it comes to social media. How important will this be for businesses in the future?

44. Remember to seek out associates and add them to your list as well.

45. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that Twitter followers are anything like dedicated, opt in e-mail list members. They’re not!

46. If you want to convert your Twitter followers into potential clients you will need to engage in a process of soft marketing, by providing valuable insights and information and establishing yourself as someone to trust. Only then can you tempt followers into your sales funnel.

47. Be flexible and prepared to change, as we said before this is an evolving medium.

48. Be understanding of those who think that Twitter is just “ridiculous.” You may come across some criticism while engaging your business and you might have to carry out some internal public relations within your organization to assure people you’re not wasting your time.

49. As you progress, add another element of professionalism by having your own, tailor-made Twitter background design.

50. Focus on a long-term goal and, have fun with it!

Also, check out our post on Great Twitter Applications for Small Business here: Twitter Applications for Small Business

How often do you tweet?

Matthew Toren

Something strange is happening. Apparently nobody told the baby boomers that social networking sites were for the young ‘uns. It appears as if they are sneaking online in increasing numbers. Forrester Research found out that no fewer than 67% of those in the age group of 43 to 52 and 62% of the age group 53 to 63 were consumers of socially created content.

As if this aging invasion were not enough, it appears that they are not content to be passive observers but also want to contribute. The number of older baby boomers actually responding and interacting with content doubled from 2007 to 2008 and it seems that one in every three is likely to respond, to comment or to post in some way or form.

As we are really still witnessing the emergence of social media, it would appear that an application or platform of some kind may be necessary for this demographic. One in four of the younger boomer age range is an active member of a social network and this figure has almost doubled in the space of a year, as well. We are, however, yet to see an aggressive stance from the boomers, as only a minority are involved in actively creating original material, writing blog articles and so on.

It’ll probably be some time before the meteoric Twitter and the dominant Facebook settle themselves amidst all the dust, the creative forces unleashed during this scramble for market position. Indeed, both Twitter and Facebook appear slow to establish what kind of market they should target as neither powerhouse appears able to monetize their creation. By the time it all settles we may have witnessed several fragmentations and the emergence of networks and applications specifically for demographic groups.

Marketers face a tough job in analyzing an approach to social media in general. It seems clear that it should be possible to reach almost every type of demographic, boomers included, but while they are definitely in the process of getting engaged it may be too premature to assume that our middle-aged and senior populations are ready for an assault on their pocketbooks within their curious new world.

But there’s more, eMarketer.com tells us that women older than 45 years old signed on in greater numbers than any other demographic during the first quarter of 2009. Indeed it is estimated that they make up 22% of the entire Web population. Clearly the favored young adult male may not have that market-related bull’s-eye target on his forehead as often in the future.

Are you a tweeting Boomer? Fill us in, please!

Matthew Toren

We recently received a question posed to us by an accountant in a small town location. His business relied heavily on local directory advertising and he wanted to know how he might be more effective in using the Internet to draw in potential clients. He had some experience of using pay per click as a marketing method but little else and we gave him some suggestions to help him learn how to reach people in his local area using the Internet.

To start off with we reminded him that he sold a specific set of services targeting a given audience – in other words bookkeeping and accounting services designed to assist other local businesses, clubs, associations and the like. As such, he should use the power of the Internet tailored specifically to his local area.

We noticed that his website did not contain much “meat,” and reminded that content is still king. We suggested that he needed to create articles directly related to his services and the need for good accounting practices. The articles should be optimized and specific, rather than generalized. In this way he could target specific words that were being searched for by potential clients. We noted that would-be clients are always looking for a company that is experienced in handling their particular problem and evidence of this ability should be displayed prominently within the site.

When it comes to the “social proof” that everyone is searching for, we recommended that there should be plenty of prominent opportunities for people to comment on the site and leave testimonials. These have a significant effect when it comes to search engine rankings and can help to elevate a site in front of potential clients.

The structure of the site was not particularly well thought out and we recommended that he sit down with a clean sheet of paper and map out how a person would more logically follow the information trail within the site. Make sure that the visitor has an easy time surfing through the site and should not be put off by broken links, which are also counter-productive when it comes to an analysis of the site by the all important search engines.

We suggested to him that the process of building an article bank of information within the site would help to establish him and his operation as experts in the field. As visitors read his articles and find them useful and informative this will also elevate his status within their minds as the “go to guy” to help them in the future.

As by its very nature accounting must be detail oriented, we reminded this gentleman that his website should be really well presented, comprehensive and should not appear to have any stones left unturned. This includes the need to fix or purge incomplete references, bad links, missing bios or any dated material, such as comments, some of which were obviously out of date and gathering cyber dust.

To help him corner the local market we suggested that he include the name of his town and nearest metro area within the keywords and title tags of his pages. This will help the major search engines to enhance his site visibility when someone searches, on a geographical basis, for an accountant in his area. It is, astonishingly, quite easy to rank highly for a geo-targeted keyword – in his case incorporating his town and the word “accountant” – by just following some fundamentals. It should be perfectly possible for him to elevate his practice to a high position on the first page of Google results within a fairly short space of time.

Sit down and plan out your site and make sure that it projects you and your organization professionally and as niche experts. Optimize your site from a geographical point of view and ensure that your content is always fresh and interesting. You will soon have an open door to your local market.

Tell us about your local internet marketing success?

Matthew Toren

In our world of online marketing it seems as if we are always being bombarded by “gurus” who have the answer to all our problems. They say that they are on the cutting edge of every particular issue and come up with the latest neat trick to cure all our pains and provide us with a step-by-step guide to riches. This information is worth several hundred dollars, but because they are really nice people they will sell it to us for only $27! But be careful, as they only have 100 copies to sell, for “exclusivity”.
One of the great things about the Internet, of course, is that it is an amazing source of information. Everything, and I mean everything, that these gurus are touting can be found online and blogs are a primary source of this free information.

Here are some of those essential, informative blogs:

1.Seth’s Blog. Seth Godin is one of the most respected online marketing bloggers, with some avid followers.

2.Buzz Machine. Web 2.0, media news and social marketing explored by guru Jeff Jarvis.

3.Top Rank Blog. This blog explores the interaction of social media optimization and marketing.

4.Shoe String Branding. An essential element for the aspiring entrepreneur. Discuss and read about branding your business.

5.Techno//Marketer. See Matt Dickman discuss how technology and emerging media affects a conventional marketer.

6.Daily Blog Tips. Regular and effective tips to help you improve your blog.

7.Read Write Web. This popular blog promotes interaction in the world of web technology.

8.Search Engine Land. This is one of the premier blogs in the world of search engine marketing.

9.Mashable. Cutting edge social networking.

10.Andy Beard. Never afraid of controversy, this blog pushes the envelope in all matters related to affiliate marketing and social media.

11.Business Pundit. This was one of the original business blogs and still contains thought-provoking tickets provided by an established player.

12.Marketing Sherpa. This research firm is a specialist in the all-encompassing world of marketing. Follow their findings.

13.Beyond Madison Ave. Bringing together popular culture, marketing and the Internet.

14.Matt Cutts. We should really listen to him, one of the kingpins of Google.

15.Marketing Nirvana. Social networking focus.

There truly are thousands of top of the line, informative blogs out there. You probably have your own list. Let us know which of your favorite weblogs you think we should add?

Matthew Toren

The affiliate marketing industry has enjoyed unparalleled growth in recent times. Even during this dour recession the industry represents a growth area. Jupiter Research estimates that affiliate marketing will grow in size by 13% each year over the next five years, as measured by affiliate earnings.

What is it that attracts people to affiliate marketing and accounts for this growth, even in a downturn? For many people the affiliate marketing business represents a potential lifeline. In this recession, more than any other, the level of layoffs and job losses have been substantial and many people are facing grim realities. In certain geographical areas – those heavily reliant on the automobile industry for example – jobs are not likely to return and many people are being forced to reinvent themselves in order to survive. Affiliate marketing is an ideal, work from home business.

Before embarking headlong it is important to take stock. Endure some soul-searching to see if you are really cut out to make it in this highly competitive business. There are five questions that you should ask yourself before you decide if this is for you and, if you decide to proceed, there are a further five tips that you should bear in mind when setting up your shop.

Ask yourself whether you are really willing to sit down and learn. This will all be unfamiliar territory to you and it will take you quite a while to learn all the tricks of the trade.

Secondly, understand that you must be willing to put in a significant effort as things will not happen overnight. You must understand that several months may go by without any measurable results.

The third quality you must possess is determination, as without this you will often find it difficult to respond to that early morning alarm clock, knowing that you must put in the hours necessary to succeed.

Discipline! Don’t be tempted to shortcut and try and make sure that your time management skills are adequately honed.

Finally, are you an optimist – there will be plenty of naysayers. Try and surround yourself with other optimists and always look at the glass as being half full.

When you decide that a career as an affiliate marketer is for you, make sure that you follow this advice and “play smart.”

Always check up on the company that you will be doing business with. If you are investing a significant amount of time and effort to promote the products or services of another company, it goes without saying that you should be aware of who you are “getting into bed with.” Look for any warning signs online that might indicate bad reviews or payment issues.

Secondly, understand what is involved, including the terms and conditions, payment schedules, tracking methods “do’s and don’ts.” There is nothing worse than establishing sales only to find out that you may have inadvertently broken one of the rules, thereby forfeiting the payouts.

Be wary of dealing with a new company and try and stick with a reputable firm. Try and protect those future payments.

If you sense any problems, payments are late or you come across other rumors about the company, cut your potential losses and move on.

Finally, don’t be tempted to put your “fingers in too many pies” as many do. Stick with one product or promotion and do it well. Give yourself the best chance of success in this highly competitive arena.

Have you ever been tempted to try affiliate marketing? Let us know.

Matthew Toren

The Internet marketing arena is nothing if not fluid. There was a time when basic search engine optimization was perfectly adequate, but no more as a variety of new ways emerge to successfully market your business online.

Whilst social media integration is probably the hippest term du jour, and organizations seem to want to fall over themselves to establish their Twitter presence and their Facebook fan clubs, video marketing is probably the hottest form of Internet marketing today.

There were signs over the last few years that video marketing was establishing more and more credibility but in recent times its reach has become huge. The dominant online site YouTube now boasts an average of 100 million videos viewed per day. This astonishing figure is backed up by other gems – 91 million viewers were estimated to have watched more than 5 billion videos on YouTube during the month of July last year. A total of 75% of the total US Internet audience watches some video online and the average duration of each video was a tad under three minutes.

With these eye-opening figures little wonder that marketers are turning to video to get their message across. It is no secret that people prefer a more passive way of receiving their information and prefer to watch the moving image rather than scan through the written word. The video can excite the customer and is almost always more visually enticing.

Some online “gurus” maintain that a correctly composed and optimized video, giving valuable information about a relevant keyword but with subtle links back to your site, will be preferentially ranked by Google and the other engines. They say that the video will appear in a prominent position within search results in a very short period of time – days and sometimes even hours. Many Internet marketers are getting excited about this idea!

It does appear that, as a marketer, you need to be subtle yet persuasive in your approach. It is unlikely that an out and out commercial will help your video to go viral, but many are getting good results by once again providing valuable information, tips, advice, lessons or entertainment and adding a link for more details at the end.

Video seems to be a required marketing component for our new era. Do you agree?

Matthew Toren

It’s amazing to see that companies still don’t “get it” when it comes to customer retention. It’s tough enough to get people interested in your product or service and to get them to visit your site. More than 50% of commercial websites do not include a way for visitors to provide their simple contact details to enable them to keep in touch. In our Internet marketing age this should be job one.

Many people seem to think that a site visitor will return at some stage in the future should he or she not opt to buy your product or service at first glance. This is most often not the case and it is very important for you to capture their contact details right away. Through the use of a simple “opt in” box, you can get their permission to keep in touch via e-mail.

Once you have an e-mail address for a potential client this is where the fun begins. If you go about this the right way you can create a lasting bond between the customer and your contact. Many people refer to this as an “emotional” bond and it is one of the great things about e-mail marketing. Develop a relationship with your prospects and there’s a very good chance that they will turn into a client, and a repeat one.

When you are developing an e-mail campaign in this way make sure that you remember some fundamental requirements. Rule number one is to always make sure that the e-mail contains information, some tips, tricks, how-to’s, case studies, free stuff. You must come across as being the provider of valuable information and must not come across as somebody who is simply trying to sell.

Studies have shown that you stand a far better chance of “reaching” into the psyche of your potential client by being personal and not by being too corporate. If you try and share a little bit about yourself or your company and show the personal side, including pictures every now and again, then you will find that your prospect will be able to relate a little bit more. Don’t forget, that over a period of time you are developing a social relationship of kinds with your prospect.

Remember also that we live in the viral age. You can turn your prospect into a client and your client into an advocate for your products or services. Make sure that you use the power of social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter and over time you will find that your happy clients will be more than pleased to put in a good word for you and create valuable social proof for your business.

Are you keeping in touch with your customers by email?

Matthew Toren

People are being bombarded with marketing messages, from the time they get up in the morning and switch on the radio or TV, to the time that they venture out into the real world, to the time that they eat their TV dinner before crashing for the night. As an entrepreneur, you had better make sure that you have a message that people want to hear, with the ability to crash through all the other “noise”.

You might have a great product or service, one that you fully believe in, with all your heart. Your challenge is to create a marketing campaign around that product or service which causes everyone to sit up and take notice. You need to try and create social acceptance and viral buzz.

One of the first things that you have to bear in mind is that creativity does not have to be expensive. Some canny marketers make sure that they send out their direct mail message in an envelope containing an unusually-shaped gizmo. It doesn’t really matter what the object is, but the very shape of the package will cause the recipient to pay attention and open it.

One of the most important things to bear in mind is that you need to connect with your audience, in the right place and at the right time. Think about your product or service and the message that you want to portray and work out when and where you should communicate. Create an “ah-ha!” moment for them.

As you know, the Internet is your best friend. Get active. As a marketer, you can use the wonders of Facebook and Twitter to begin fan pages and create conversations. Always make sure that you provide great value and never hard-sell. Commence conversations with people of influence. Look for extroverts who use or would be interested in using your product or service and interact with them to tap their influence within the community.

Make sure that your product or service is socially acceptable and “cool”. Both your product and your message need to be realistic and beneficial. You stand the best chance of creating a viral buzz if you are seen as creative, giving, relevant, adventurous and trustworthy.

Make sure that your product or service can be transmitted or transferred to your prospect with little or no effort. You should also ensure that you can scale up your enterprise accordingly. There seems little point in trying to create a viral buzz if your infrastructure is not ready to handle the consequences!

Remember, that creating a marketing buzz takes some ingenuity and innovation. Above all else make sure that your message is authentic, as consumers will see right through this otherwise and you can create more damage than goodwill. Use the power of the Internet, wisely!

Leave a comment and tell us how you created a marketing campaign that everyone is talking about.

Matthew Toren

Word-of-mouth is certainly the best form of marketing available. In a recent study by the authority site emarketer.com, it was shown that fully 53% of online traffic comes from word-of-mouth – recommendations and referrals made by others.

The growth of the Internet has certainly enhanced the potential for positive results from word-of-mouth referrals. News used to take a lot longer to spread when the telephone was the most effective means of communication. News can now travel at lightning speeds through the many forms of e-mail, instant messaging, SMS text messaging and the Web 2.0 children – Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, etc.

Nowadays, in Internet marketing terms, it is relatively easy to prompt people for a recommendation. “Tell a friend” scripts are easy to promote and these messages stand a great chance of reaching their proposed recipients, due to the fact that they are coming from a trusted friend or acquaintance. Recognizable e-mail addresses normally sail past those pesky spam filters.

There are many ways to generate valuable online publicity through the use of press release services. You should have a clear strategy, defined and regular, and strive to incorporate different tactics. A series of written press releases should aim to show your product or service as relevant and “hot”. Create a buzz around your product. Inject some controversy and color and always aim to establish yourself as a credible expert in your niche.

One of the beauties of the Internet as we know it today is its ability to provide viral exposure. Whilst aiming to brand yourself as the credible expert, consider giving something of value away for free. Make sure that you research this well, however, so that your intended audience feels that you truly are giving away something of value and that this is not just your opinion!

Find out what value and what kind of information your target audience is looking for. Are they looking for inspiration, or simply a lighthearted message of some kind? Use the many Internet distribution channels to provide something of perceived value at little or no cost. Never employ the hard sell – but do make sure that you include subtle links so that interested people can find you.
In all your Internet Marketing Initiatives, aim for viral exposure and attract valuable word-of-mouth recommendations.

What do you think of Tell a Friend forms? Do you use this method of referrals?

Matthew Toren