He makes some very valid points: Yes, you should probably be utilizing social media; but before you start jumping on all those bandwagons, it might be a good idea to make sure those are the places where your ideal customer spends some time on a regular basis.

Otherwise, you could be wasting a lot of time, speaking to an “empty room.”

Here is an excerpt-

The key to zooming in on purpose and usefulness within social channels starts with the realization that there is no one audience. Nor is there a sustainable market for branded messages, marketing campaigns, or “Tweet/Like to Win” contests. Indeed, every channel created to represent the brand must carry a purpose, mission and corresponding value. One of the most common questions I’m asked by businesses of all shapes and sizes is, “What is the right number of accounts we should have in each social network?” Or, “How many profiles is too many or too few?”

The answer is as simple as it is revealing. Create the number of channels that meaningfully extend the focus of your business. Only create channels that enhance the brand message without diluting it. And make sure you have the capacity to keep all the channels relevant.

So what are the best practices for creating an engaging social stream? Let’s take a look at the traits of some of the more successful and regarded brands in the business.

Want that list?

Get it here.

A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can’t wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans.

Getty Images via @daylife

Will it really work?

I think it could, if you position yourself correctly. If you develop a following on the popular social media platforms.

And especially if you learn what to give away, what to sell, and how much you should charge.

Read 1,000 True Fans and draw your own conclusions. Then, please come back here and share your own views in the comment section below.

One more thing: Thom Chambers has figured out how to make this idea work for his own business  by giving away free subscriptions to his magazine. And now he is making the “how-to” information available in his Free Fans Kit.

Check it out.

Anyone can sign up, and demand will determine where Google’s Photogs go next.

Click Here to Get Google to Your Business

We’re not in the 1980′s anymore. Then, you could just wildly spend money on advertising, and because business was booming everywhere, it was BOUND to increase your business.

Not so these days. The economy demands that you promote in ways that do the best job for your needs and circumstances.

Image via Wikipedia

Years ago, I had a yellow page ad that brought exactly 3 calls in a year (sorry, YP…). From salespeople, not customers. That ad was a budget-buster for my young business, but I had bought it because that’s what a successful biz was supposed to do. Turned out to be a bad call on my part.

You may cringe when you get your advertising bill from the local newspaper. But what if 3/4 of your business is coming from that one ad? Maybe you need to be paying them more for a bigger ad, instead of cutting your budget there.

But how do you know the difference between an effective investment and wasteful spending…. unless you TRACK?

Luckily, technology is on your side.

A local business absolutely needs to be online, but they certainly should market heavily offline, as well. The trick is to integrate the two effectively.

The ad space for print, billboards, even TV and radio comes at a premium. Your space online is pretty much infinite. So the obvious and easy way to “expand” your offline advertising is to insert your web address into your offline ads.

If you’re not doing that yet, please start NOW. Put your website url everywhere.

OK, that was relatively painless, so where to next?

Google, Ruler of the Online Universe

Google has made it terrifically easy to keep track of where website traffic is coming from with their free Google Analytics service. You can do this using different domain names or custom URLs.

For instance, you could head to GoDaddy.com and load up on domain name variations of your company’s products or services, then forward them to your main site. At around $10 each per year, this gives you a very reasonably-priced tracking method.

For instance, unbreakablebowls.com, indestructiblecups.com, and longlastingdishes.com could all be “aimed” at your company site www.EverlastDinnerware.com, with each of the new domain names used in a different advert. The Analytics can tell you not just how many vistors arrived from which ad, but also what ads evoked the most action (perhaps ordering something on your site, or downloading a white paper).

You can also “redirect” custom urls to track incoming traffic. You know those TV commercials telling you to go to www.changemylife.com/frog27 (or whatever…)? That is a tracking mechanism. If you pay attention, you’ll notice the same commercial with a different web address depending on the time of day. They will know exactly what show you were watching, and maybe even if you took action at the beginning or end of the program.

I use WordPress for practically all the sites I build, and redirects are very easy to create and track with a simple, free plugin.

Please note: you can use the above methods to track both offline and online traffic coming to your site.

Sometimes People Just Need to Speak with You

Maybe sending potential customers to a website isn’t the best-case scenario for your type of business. No problem.

There are numerous services available like those at Callfire.com that allow you to lease and track phone numbers by the month. And if you have a bit of Big Brother in you, you can also record those incoming calls to make sure they’re being handled the way you want them to be.

A business could easily use all these methods, and others, too. Maybe start with just one, get comfortable with it, then add another, always keeping in mind the ways they can interact with each other.

Making sure you accurately track your advertising, and then tweaking it for the best return-on-investment is one of the wisest moves you can make for a bigger bottom line.

The most important elements behind the buying psychology?
Emotions and logic.

Buy on Emotions, Justify It with Logic

Does anyone buy a Mercedes because it logically makes sense? No – they buy a Mercedes because of the way they believe they’ll feel when they are driving the car. The luxurious feel. The envy from others. The sense of pride, of power.

Image via Wikipedia

Then they tell themselves, “I’m buying it because I need to impress clients.” Or “I’m buying it because if it helps me land just one deal, it’s almost paid for itself.”

The reality is, however, buying decisions are almost always made on desire. That’s from the gut, not the brain. Only after a strong desire has led to the decision, is logic then used to justify it.

How can you as a businessperson use this to your advantage?

First of all, one of the most important skills you can master as a marketer is the ability to create desire. If you can instill a sense of excitement, of urgency, of tangible desire to own your product in your potential customers, your ability to sell will go up dramatically.

The other thing to take away from this principle is how important it is to help lay out the logic your client needs to justify the purchase. If you can explain why they’ll make their money back from their investment, you make it much easier for them to give in to their desire to own the product.

But first, the desire.

The Importance of Believability

Marketers and salespeople often try to make huge claims. It can seem as though they’re in a competition to see who can create the most outlandish story.

The most important thing in getting people to buy isn’t making big claims… it’s getting believability.

If I could convince you that I could show you how to make an extra $1,000 a month for a small additional effort, all it would cost you is $50 and you believed me 100%, how likely are you to say yes?

On the other hand, if I tried to convince you I could make you a million dollars and you didn’t believe me, how much would you pay me for that?

The most important thing really isn’t how big a claim you can make, but what your customers believe.

Desire is built on claims people believe. If someone really believes their lives can be better, they’ll get excited. Logic is also built on claims they believe. If someone really believes that buying that new Mercedes is worth the investment, they’re much more likely to spend the money.

The psychology behind buying is in some ways simple. It’s also a skill that can take a lifetime to master. All you have to do is get people to want your product, and then remove the logical reasons why they shouldn’t.

Taking advantage of the hip crowds that converge on Austin this time of year, American Express has teamed up with Foursquare, a location-based social network for mobile devices. Sixty local merchants — including Whole Foods, Starwood Hotels and Stubb’s BBQ — are offering Foursquare users “spend $5, save $5″ rewards when they load the special and swipe their AmEx cards.

It all starts with a QR code:

By scanning this code (assuming you have the app on your device, and most smartphones have it by default these days), your internet browser takes you to a secure online form. You simply enter your name and AmEx card number, and then choose whether you want to “spend $5 and get $5″ at participating merchants, or have American Express donate $1 to the nonprofit Grounded in Music the first time you spend $5.

Here is a live demo:

This was all done while standing in line to order at a local cafe.

And here is part 2:

Maybe it’s time to put our “thinkin-outside-the-box caps” on, and glean some ideas from this concept to promote YOUR business!

Call or email me at www.RoosterMoon.com/contact.

Source: www.mashable.com

PREselling

The goal of good writing is to communicate… to build relationships with your audience.

All day long, in your “offline life,” you do exactly that. You PREsell yourself. You build your personal “offline brand of one.” This is the image that people have of you. Building a “brand of one” is just as easy to do online through your writing.

Relax. There is no mystery to good writing. No secret society. No smoke and mirrors…

Image via Wikipedia

You can write to PREsell! No genetic talent required! It’s just a matter of unlocking what’s already inside you.

On the Net, effective PREselling creates a warm, “open-to-buy” mindset in your target group and gets that important click-through to your monetization source (i.e., your order page, your merchant-partner’s sales site, your store, etc.). And PREsold visitors are much easier to convert into customers.

Successful PREselling content “works” at several levels…

Read the rest of the article here

But it is as it is, and if we want our message to reach current and potential customers, delivering that message in a way it will be consumed by our target audience is a very good idea.

Please keep in mind that the example video below is professionally made and very well done. That’s why it’s being used as an example.

But even an amateurish video will be valuable to your marketing campaign, as long as it provides useful information to your audience.

Many of the ideas in the article below are fairly easily controlled in self-made videos: the way you’re dressed, your background, your script and its delivery. Some of the more high tech stuff can come later.

Or not.

Get yourself a Flip camera and a tripod, and you can get started, even if you don’t have an assistant.

Killer Web Video Techniques II: Audience Engagement

By Jerry Bader (c) 2011

We are inundated with advertising messages from the time we wake to the time we go to bed. Some of these messages are welcomed and some are a source of irritation. The difference between noise and communication boils down to relevance, and relevance is a function of how advertisers deliver three basic ingredients: substance, style, and technique.

Our brains have a built-in spam filter that can filter out much of the irrelevant and absorb the significant. In a room full of people all talking and laughing at once like at a party, your brain is able to recognize your name being spoken while everything else is a cacophonous blur. The goal of advertising is to make your message significant like the sound of your name, significant enough to demand your attention. So, is your marketing communication significant, or is it merely noise?

Most Advertising Is Just Noise

The advertising industry has for the most part failed in making their clients’ messages significant. Instead they turn up the volume and boost the visual pollution in an effort to standout and be heard, but it doesn’t work. It all becomes background noise and confusing clutter easily filtered out by a brain designed to know the difference between significance and irrelevance. Any subliminal effect achieved is offset by the irritation that accompanies junk information.

If you want your audience to listen to you, you first must have something relevant to say, and second you have to know how to say it so that it makes an impression. Substance, style, and technique make a Web video communication significant and therefore worth remembering.

The Substance Every Business Can Deliver

There is a clothing store chain called Syms whose motto is, “An educated consumer is our best customer.” It’s a brilliant tagline and an even better marketing strategy. Educating your audience creates trust and that is one thing lower prices and more features can’t compéte with.

It’s one thing to provide information, it’s quite another to provide understanding. How-to-do-stuff is a major industry because people suffer from what Richard Saul Wurman calls, “information anxiety.” So much to know, so little time to learn it. Your audience craves information, but what they really need is understanding.

If you really want to connect to your audience, gain their trust, and build a relationship. You should start by educating them about how to get the most out of what you sell – the real reason why they will continue to do business with you. In a world of copycat products and services, the difference maker is trust and trust begins with clients who understand exactly what you do and how it will improve their lives or businesses.

Everyone in our organization is constantly learning new things. Each of us receive dozens of newsletters on all kinds of subjects, some of which are directly related to what we do, and some help us better understand the world we live in and the needs of our clients. And some of it is just intended to make us think.

Substance Without The Pitch

I recently got an email with a video from the Editor of AE Tuts Plus, Adam Everett Miller. AE Tuts Plus produces a website that specializes in After Effects motion graphics. After Effects is a high-end software program used to create all those fancy motions graphics we all love. Most of the information is pretty sophisticated and aimed at a specialized design community but in this case they sent out a video that wasn’t about how to do something but rather why something was the way it was.

Would the video make anyone a better designer – no. Would the video provide its viewers with a technique they could sell their clients – no. The video merely explains to people why Hex Color Values are what they are. There is no sales pitch other than a subliminal message that AE Tuts knows what it’s talking about, is in business to help its audience, and can be trusted to deliver on its promise without always feeling the need to sell something.

Style Enhances Identity

From a branding and marketing point-of-view this video establishes an approachable, friendly style that helps define the AE Tuts brand, and indirectly makes their audience wiser and more informed. It’s interesting, memorable, and entertaining; and it makes viewers a more knowledgeable audience.

The style portrayed is not a random accident. The video uses a number of techniques intended to deliver a carefully thought-out image designed to gain audience acceptance as the industry knowledge leader.

A Casual Non-Pedantic Approach

The Web has changed many things not the least of which is how people expect to be taught. Your standard old fashion no nonsense schoolteacher approach is just so pre-Web and quite frankly turns people off. If you really want to educate an audience you better be approachable and entertaining in your delivery, and that is exactly what Adam has managed to do.

Everything from the casual monochromatic attire to the geek-chic glasses and beard are designed to deliver the impression that Adam is just like his audience: just one of the guys with some cool stuff to tell you. The presentation focuses attention on Adam and the accompanying mnemonics by placing everything within a plain white environment, slightly enhanced by a gradient spot to frame Adam, who is placed slightly off center nicely qualifying as a good example of the Rule of Thirds that provides space for the onscreen text and graphics.

The language Adam uses is down-to-earth, delivered in a cadence and rhythm that is just fast enough so the audience doesn’t get bored but slow enough so the information can be absorbed.

Each point is highlighted and emphasized with some onscreen graphic, text, or sound effect. Some of the points are accompanied by a humorous visual and verbal aside that maintains the presentations rhythm while at the same time allowing a small mental respite so the brain can absorb one idea and get ready for the next. And it’s all packaged with a Sesame Street style music score that goes unnoticed but is critical to the overall impression of learning can be enjoyable and doesn’t have to be tedious work.

The Last Word

It takes a lot of knowledge and know-how to make something look easy and this video does a damn good job doing it. Every detail from concept to content was carefully thought-out and the execution was spot-on.

Educational and how-to videos are very popular – there is no great revelation in that, but much of what is on the Web is quite frankly terrible, and that applies to both amateur and professional efforts. In order to benefit from your audience’s desire to learn, enhance your brand, and build confidence and trust in the marketplace with educational Web videos, you first must understand how people process information, and how to present material so that it is both enjoyed and retained.

About The Author
Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design and marketing firm that specializes in Web-video Marketing Campaigns and Video Websites. Visit www.mrpwebmedia.com, www.136words.com, and wwww.sonicpersonality.com. Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com or telephone (905) 764-1246.

In case you haven’t noticed, some sites look fairly horrific on mobile devices. Everything is all jumbled up and that link you really want to click is almost impossible to get to. If you’re the link builder who begged and begged (and maybe even paid) to get that link, you’ve now lost a potential mobile conversion.

Maybe the user will try again on a non-mobile device; maybe not though.

Image via Wikipedia

You can optimize your current site for mobile or you can build a separate mobile site, as I imagine you all know. That’s not news. The argument over which of these is the better choice is not anything that concerns me with this post, as I’m simply interested in making sure links work on mobile devices. I’m also not concerned about your local SEO efforts, as I’m assuming that you’re easily found in local search. Ahem.

This is basic stuff in my opinion, but it is something that isn’t always focused on, and that tends to be the case with a lot of basic bits, right?

All you have to do is make sure the site you’re getting a link from (as well as your own internal links) are optimized, even to just the bare minimum, for mobile use. Just a quick look is all it takes, but we don’t always think to do it.

This is going to be a more important way to gain traffic and conversions in the near future, so you might as well get used to this, in much the same way as you used to view your website in Firefox and IE before rolling out changes. Remember, over a million iPads were sold in a 28 day period. That is just one popular mobile device (excluding phones). That’s a lot of conversions left on the table.

If you keep check on your new organic inbound links (and of course you do) then view the new sources of traffic on a mobile device and, if your link doesn’t look so hot, contact the webmaster and mention this. Most people are happy to have problems identified. I say that in a very naive and hopeful way of course, and only after first making my poor staff view our site on every mobile device possible.
Mobile & Local Meet Links

Mobile optimization is particularly important for local search marketing. Let’s say that you’re driving through a halfway point en route to Orlando from North Carolina. You have 2 fussy children trying to kill each other and you’re frantically searching for a good kid-friendly restaurant near the highway.

You find a listing, click on it, try to get to the menu, and it’s all jumbled up so that the internal link is unclickable. Do you take the chance and go anyway? I’m a vegetarian so without knowing what the restaurant had to offer me, I would opt out of trying it. No one (who is sane) wants to eat just hush puppies and slaw for lunch.

Here’s another example: my husband and I have a house that we rent out to a nice group of scruffy punk rock boys. Recently, the furnace died and Jay had to quickly locate a local shop that sold the part he needed, as it was seriously getting cold. While he did try local search to locate the part, he was unsuccessful and had to call around to several shops in order to find what he needed. This process took ages.

What if some of the local shops had nice sites online with clickable links for parts searches? What if they had an online area for clicking to ask a question that could be answered by someone in a live chat almost immediately? Time saved and customer gained, because we like to use those pricey mobiles.

This isn’t earth-shattering news but from my experience, we tend to overlook some very basic things when we’re frantically building links. I’ll personally admit to not checking our links on a mobile device until recently and luckily, I haven’t found too many issues yet. Actually, so far my main problem has been with shopping sites so here’s hoping that changes in the future.

Julie Joyce owns the link development firm Link Fish Media and is one of the founding members of the SEO Chicks blog.

There’s a lot of fuss surrounding social media these days. If you still haven’t jumped on the bandwagon and aren’t sure why so many people are making such a big deal about it, here are 14 benefits of social media for your business and you from Success magazine.

For Business:

Establish a Brand and Raise Awareness

Image via Wikipedia

Since the majority of the population is already visiting social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, getting your brand name all over those networks can help let people know that you’re around. If you have yet to create a company image online, social networks are the place to do it.

Create a fun YouTube video that entertains and informs. Funny videos tend to make their way around the Internet a lot faster than any other kind, so when making a video, keep in mind that you want it to be interesting enough for your target audience to want to share.

Using Facebook and Twitter to create a fun online community that your customers will want to visit will boost brand loyalty and drive traffic to your Website, allowing you the chance to make more online sales.

Spy on the Competition

Follow your competitors on Twitter and Facebook and you’ll be able to see what they have up their sleeve. Just make sure to provide a better deal than whatever they have going on.

Pitch Products in a More Human, Interactive Way

Since people visit social media sites to get personal rather than be bombarded with ads, discuss your business in a fun way and engage your customers with questions. Ask their opinions and entice them to respond back. This way you’re making a valuable connection that will help grow your number of return customers.

Bring Attention to Your Products

Featuring a product on a social media site is one of the fastest ways to bring attention to it. Give a promotion along with it for your online community members and watch your sales skyrocket.

Increase Customer Loyalty And Trust

Speaking to your customers in a personal way will make them feel like they are talking to a friend, not a company. This will help build their trust in you, which will make them do business with you rather than your competition. It will also improve the chances of customer recommendations.

Listen to Your Customer’s Opinion

Social media sites are an awesome way to see what your target audience is saying about your company or your products. Take their constructive criticism and use it to enhance your product to better meet their needs.

Conduct Market Research

Listen to what your customers say about your products and track what links they click on and you’ll begin to see what your customers like and respond to. People love to express their opinions on social media sites, which will allow you to hear the truth. Then you can use your new-found information to tweak your product or service to please them as well as continue to post more information and links that they will enjoy.

Strengthen Customer Service

Social media networks allow your company to answer your customers’ questions and concerns directly in a timely manner. This will improve customer satisfaction and also save you money on long distance customer service phone calls.

For You:

Build Your Personal Reputation

Social networks allow you to get your name out to the world and talk about things that matter to you. This will help you build a good online reputation, which is critical nowadays if you’re looking for a job or even a new business contact.

Display Your Resume

LinkedIn allows you to display your full resume online for any future employers or recruiters to see. This will help bring you new opportunities that would ever have existed otherwise.

Find a Job

Jobs are posted every minute on social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter along with the links or information you need to apply for them.

Showcase Your Talents And Establish Yourself as an Expert

If you’re passionate about a certain subject, whether it’s work-related or a hobby, the Internet is a great place to show off your knowledge. Soon people will be coming to you for the breaking information on that topic, and talking about you to friends.

Enhance Your Business Contacts and Enhance Personal Relationships

Through professional sites like LinkedIn, you can build your number of business contacts and enhance your reputation as an expert in your industry. You can also connect with those long-lost high school and college classmates, old colleagues, and out-of-town family members.

Share Information with Like-Minded People

Connect with other professionals in your field to share information. Where else would you be able to connect with industry professionals across the globe to swap stories and advice?

By Wendy Suto (c) 2011

About The Author
Wendy Suto, President and CEO of Search Circus, specializes in search engine optimization and search engine marketing including social media marketing for over 10 years. Certified in SEO, Wendy Suto only follows natural and organic search engine optimization guidelines with proven results.