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Social Media for Small Business

A New Book on Twitter

By Christian

One of the cool things about blogging is FREE STUFF. I just got an advanced copy of Twitterville from Maureen Cole at Penguin Group, and it’s really been a pleasure being able to get a copy of this book and read it. I want to thank Maureen and Penguin Group for their generosity.

As you know, I am a big advocate of reading books. It’s massively important to keep your education ongoing, especially when it comes to your business.

Here’s the deal: if you’re in business, you best be getting your social networking in gear. And that means you need to read up on Twitter. Anyone who’s ever thought they couldn’t understand the value behind Twitter and how it could possibly be valuable for their business (an all to common comment I hear) needs to read this book.

Twitterville not only puts Twitter into easy to understand terms for any business owner or marketer, it also puts it into a global perspective, so you can truly see the massive power you’re ignoring by not getting in on the conversation.

I do use affiliate links on Next Level Blogger on occasion; this is not one of them.

TWITTERVILLE officially goes on sale September 3.  But you can read a free excerpt or preorder the book today at www.Twitterville.com

Talking to People is More Important Than Anything Else You Do

By Christian

There is so much concern about getting traffic to your blog. This is how you get people to your blog: Talk to people!

When you talk to people and become a valuable part of the conversation in your space…wherever that is, you will get traffic to your site. Now, KEEPING that traffic, getting subscriptions and actually selling, monetizing and so on and so forth are all essential elements as well, but the point I want to make here as succinctly as possible is this: Talking to people is the number one most important thing you are going to do to build the success of your blog.

So Where Can I Find These People You Speak Of?

People are everywhere, aren’t they? They’re not hard to find! There are a lot of tips I’ve read about where to go, and the TRUTH is that they ALL work…if you’re talking to people, you’re doing it right. The better the quality of the conversation, the more valuable it is for all concerned, the better it is for your business. You are branding when you talk to people.

You Are a Salesperson

It might seem scary, but you are a salesperson. Yes, YOU. You are in sales, and you may never have wanted to be in sales, but the world has changed, and to make it in business, you have to be able to make it online, and to make it online, you have become a good salesperson.

Lucky for you, I’ve been a sales trainer for years, and I have a very important fact I’ve learned that I hope will help you with this:

Sales comes naturally to very few people, but ANYONE can learn it. And with practice, EVERYONE can benefit massively from learning sales skills.

This the essence of why I started Next Level Blogger. To teach sales skills. I’m not about big media, and I’m truly not a techy guy. I’m a salesman, and I’ve learned how to apply sales principles to internet marketing. And one of the first things you learn in sales is that if you’re not face to face with a prospect, you’re unemployed. If you want to make it, you have to engage people.

Talking with people is key. It is absolutely mandatory. It doesn’t matter if you’re on Yahoo Answers, some Facebook group or a forum you just joined…it’s all essentially the same. Ideally, do them all! There is not one place that’s better than any other. The point is that you’re getting out there, networking and engaging people on a personal level as much as you can.

What Are You Doing Right Now to Grow Your Business?

Do you spend more time tweaking your site than you do networking? Do you spend more time creating content than you do networking? Do you spend more time reading about how to blog than you do networking? If so, you are doing it backwards!

The fact is that tweaking your site is important. So is creating content and reading content. I recommend all of them, but if you want people coming to your site, the number one most important thing you can do is to simply talk with people. A lot of them. Every day.

How to Use Twitter Professionally

By Christian

It’s fairly clear how Twitter can be cool for personal use, correct? Friends follow each other and communicate via 140 characters or less. It’s a slightly more social version of texting. When it comes to business, it gets more complicated, because we have sales goals. We want to sell things. We want to make money. So how can you use Twitter to make money?

Here’s the thing, if making money directly on Twitter is your goal, you will be best served to simply stay away. Twitter can absolutely be a big part of your internet presence, but direct money-making goals aren’t gonna fly in this arena. Sorry.

The Novice Approach

I understand there’s a lot of novices (some of them are just fools, but most simply don’t know what they’re doing) out there, and they’re setting up multiple Twitter profiles, blasting out direct sales messages all day long. Most of these sales messages contain affiliate links or links to sales pages they’ve created. Perhaps they’ve invested in some course that guaranteed them that by doing this they’d make $10,000 a month on Twitter. I don’t know. The point is that this is not the purpose of Twitter, and by doing this they’re only making themselves a nuisance. It’s like going to a huge party and instead of going inside to hang, these people flier everyone’s windshield and leave. It’s rude. It creates no value, only litter. And it does not create a professional impression for them or their company. Also, it’s not effective. All those fliers end up in the trash.

How the Pros Do it

So how do you conduct yourself professionally on Twitter when you’re trying to run a business? The key is to embrace the social aspect of this huge network of people. The fact is that most people on Twitter are good people. It’s a party, and you’re invited. This analogy of course has been used before, but it’s true. Don’t flier the cars, just go inside and have fun.

How can this possibly bring in more business? Since when is networking not a good way of drumming up business? It’s age old…it’s a legacy way of getting new business. It’s proven; it’s effective. It works! But you don’t walk into a networking function or a gathering of any kind and just start pinning your business card to everyone’s lapel. You talk to people. Your business is what you do all day. Trust me, it’s gonna come up! How many new people have you ever met in real life who didn’t eventually ask what you do for a living? It usually comes up in your first conversation. Twitter is the same. Don’t forget that social rules have not changed just because our modes of communication have evolved a bit.

The way you conduct yourself professionally on Twitter is the same way you’d conduct yourself at any other social event in real life. Very simple, I know. But simple is good, right? Social networking is a huge way to leverage and expand your internet presence, drive traffic to your site and get new business. Conduct yourself professionally, and you will do well.

How to Use Twitter to Build Business

By Christian

I want to write this quick post about how to use twitter to build business, because almost every time I mention Twitter to my friends, I’m met with confusion. So many people don’t get it. Or so they say. I think you all actually DO get it and just don’t want to admit it!

After all, what is there to explain?

  • Being able to keep constant tabs on everything people say about you and your brand. Do you not see the value in that?
  • Being able to contact everyone in your network once, twice or even several times a day and keep in personal contact with thousands of people easily, quickly and for free. Do you not see that value in that?
  • Having millions of people all in one place in an easily searchable and digestible configuration. Do you not see the value in that?
  • Being able to not only keep in touch with your base easily and cheaply but being able to massively GROW your contact base, meeting and conversing with as many people as you like…all interested in the same things as you or prime prospects for what your business offers. Do you not see the value in that?

If you do not see the value in these things…which is what Twitter is all about…you do not need to worry about Twitter. You need to get in touch with why you’re in business to begin with!

Is Twitter a funny little tool that will require you to learn some new things and think in new ways? Heck yes. But you’re an entrepreneur, right? Since when does a challenge scare you?

If you want to know how to use twitter to build your business, all you need to do is use it. It’s kind of automatic. Unless of course you just don’t see the value in interacting with people.

How do you feel about this? I know there is some discontent amongst the business community regarding using twitter to build your businesses, because I’ve come face to face with it many times. Does this touch any nerves, answer any questions or tick you off a little bit? Let me know what you think 🙂

Quick Start to Internet Marketing

By Christian

Many people out there are looking for a quick start to internet marketing. I understand. Most people in my network are business people, and we are the kind of people who want to get things rolling quickly. You know being online and marketing yourself with blogging, internet marketing and social networking is essential, but you don’t know the best way to go about it, and you have a million questions.

This massive access to information causes what’s called “paralysis by analysis”. In other words, we’re so fixated on learning what we need to do, we fail to act. This is death for business. You need to act, but you don’t want to screw things up. So here is a quick start to internet marketing checklist that will give you what you need to get started. It contains a little philosophy and a few specific actions that will get you off and running.  There is a lot of value in knowing you’re starting off on the right foot, so I hope this helps. If you have any questions, let me know by commenting or contact me!

Quick Start to Internet Marketing

  1. Make the decision that your focus is going to be building a real business…or extending your existing business. Do not allow your sole focus to be making money. If your focus is on building a real business, creating a good reputation and brand and creating value for others, it’s hard to screw things up. It’s when we decide to focus solely on making money that we start doing crappy, spammy things that we will regret later…and that will not do us any good. This is the first step, and it’s easy. Just decide that your focus is going to be on creating value for your customers, not just selling stuff. With that, you have already cleared half the hurdles. Believe it or not, it really is that simple!
  2. Start a blog. Don’t over think it. Don’t dwell on it for more than five minutes. Pick a platform, and fire it up. If you want my specific advise, I recommend using WordPress, and I recommend having a professional set it up for you. I can do it for you, or you can have any number of other professionals do it for you. WordPress can easily be search engine optimized, and it is highly extensible. Some of the most successful blogs on the internet use WordPress, and for good reason. That said, it’s more important to have a blog than it is to make absolutely certain that every detail is perfect. Your blog will serve as the hub of everything you do to market yourself online. It is your home. You need a place to hang your hat. You need a blog.
  3. Post to your blog regularly. The more you blog, the more you will learn. The most important thing is to get started. I could write for 10,000 words easily right now about how to do this. And if you want to solve any specific marketing issues sooner rather than later, I recommend using my consulting services to jump start your efforts. That said, this is not rocket science, and if you put in the effort you will learn everything you need to know simply by doing it. You get out what you put in. Again, if you’re focusing on creating value for your customers, your blog will be on target.
  4. Get on Facebook and Twitter. Are there other social networks? Heck yes there are. Is there value in checking them out and learning about them? Heck yes. But this is a quick start to internet marketing guide, right? So let’s keep it simple. The fact is that Facebook is huge, and Twitter is massively important and an indispensable tool. You can do a lot of damage with just these two. Just as with blogging, use them regularly. An inactive profile is worthless to you. Just like if you leave your house unattended…it will deteriorate over time, this is true for your internet property as well. You have to maintain it for it to grow and remain valuable. Use your social networking profiles for being social and meeting people. Sure, link out to your blog posts and such, but keep the content you produce 99% social. Believe it or not, people know you sell widgets even if you don’t tell em. It’s linked up on your page, see? So they know already. You don’t have to tell them every five minutes. Meet people and concentrate on getting to know and learning from others with similar interests. After doing this for a while, you will start to get these mysterious messages in your inbox. They will be coming from people who have visited your site and are interested in what you’re selling, and you’ll wonder where all this magical activity is coming from. Some of it’s coming from Twitter, believe it or not. And it will have all happened without you having to hard sell anyone. This stuff works really well, if you work it. Let it take time. It’s fun anyway, so why turn it into hard work?
  5. Let it take some time. Like I mentioned in the previous step, this stuff doesn’t happen instantly. One thing about internet marketing is that people often expect immediate results. I’m not sure why that is. It must come from a misconception about what’s happening. When you give someone a business card at a social event, do you expect them to buy something from you right there on the spot? No. You meet 28 people that night, and 9 of them call you back over the next few weeks. You build it from there. This is how it works. Social networking has become confused with being this new phenomenon, and we think it’s complicated. It’s not. Social networking is people with common interests hanging out, talking. This has been going on for ages. It’s how business is done. And building a business takes time.
  6. Read and learn. Study what you’re doing. Read other blogs. Look at other websites, especially within the same field as you’re working. Apply the CASE principle of success I’ve described in a previous post. Never stop this. Learning and stealing ideas from your competitors is another age old business principle that is not ever going to go away. Use it to your advantage.
  7. Don’t quit. Be consistent. As I say so many times, things take time. As the saying goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Of course I don’t consider this quick start to internet marketing checklist an ultra-comprehensive tool. After all, it’s a quick start checklist! However, I would love your input. Do you have anything you’d add?

In upcoming posts, I will be posting some of my top resources. Articles and tools I’ve used to learn this business. It’s only fair for me to share all my secrets with you, seeing as how everything I’ve learned about internet marketing is online…imagine that 🙂