Right now we’ve got two courses and will be adding more (we’re also looking for instructors so if you want to teach something marketing related contact me):

How to Set Up a Facebook Page for Your Business

How to Build Media Relationships

I hope you’ll sign up and start your marketing education today. The classes start at $10 each. You can’t beat that!

Want a different topic? Feel free to suggest it!

So you know what SEO is…at least that it’s important. I write about it from time to time, but here’s a quick definition according to me:

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, includes the techniques used to help a website have better placement in search engines. This might include blogs, article writing, metatags and keywords and web copy.

Now, there are many an internet marketing company that can help you (or purport to help you) show up higher in search engine results. Some are good and some are bad. I’ve been asked to review Keyword Performance LLC, which offers a variety of white hat (think good guys) services to improve your search engine placement.

First let me tell you about the bad guys of SEO: there are companies who will promise to get you to the #1 position in the search engines. It’s crap. No one can guarantee where you’ll be in search engine results. Often this means you’ll be #1 for your company name or other search term that no one’s looking for. That’s not what you want. You want a company that uses ethical search engine  optimization efforts to organically move you toward the top.

Keyword Performance tells you flat out that they don’t use spam techniques and website optimization doesn’t happen overnight. It’s true. A successful campaign will take a few months. They work with their clients to customize SEO reports to show the client how they’re moving up the ladder.

From what I can tell, Keyword Performance is on the up-and-up. They’ve got tons of great tools and resources, so if you want to learn more about SEO, it’s a great site to start with. My only complaint is that their website is very wordy and maybe not easily understood by the average non-techy person. Some shorter paragraphs and bullet points would be nice. But hey, that’s what ya get over here on my blog, so it’s all good!

Sometimes I spend a lot of effort in getting visits to my site. Other times? Not so much. But with a little effort you can start a snowball effect and get more traffic to your site without doing much. First, though, roll up your sleeves. It’s time to work.

Step 1: Look at your site. The first step to getting traffic is making sure your site is a friendly place to be. Is it easy to navigate? Understandable? Do people have to scroll down to read all of your copy (that’s a bad thing). Make your web copy concise and to the point. Not a writer? Call Egg and we’ll write it for you.

Step 2: Do you have SEO? If you don’t know what SEO is, find out. Your site needs to be rich in keywords that people are searching for. This article, for example, would have good SEO ranking for the term “generating traffic to your website” or “how to get traffic on my website.” Use these keywords in the copy and behind the scenes in the metatags and descriptions (Again, if you don’t have a clue what I’m talking about, contact me so I can help).

Step 3: Start promoting. The sky’s the limit when it comes to places you can promote your website. Remember to do it in a non-pushy way. As in don’t force people to go to your website. Find a natural reason a contact on Facebook or Twitter would want to go. Try this.

@lostinmarketing i heard your confusion about email marketing. check my blog. it’s got good articles on how to do email marketing successfully. http://www.sparkplugging.com/marketing

You want to provide value. Here are some places you can promote your website:

• Facebook: Post an occasional link on your wall. Include RSS to your blog.
• Twitter: Have your website in your profile and find a way to suggest it usefully as in the above example.
• Blog: Blogs and websites are great cross-promoters. On your blog, include your website in the Blogroll. On your website include link to blog.
• Article marketing: On article directories like AssociatedContent.com, you can submit articles in your field. Include a link in the About the Author section.
• Other blogs: Post relevant comments on other people’s blogs. Your link will be included.
• Press releases: Any time you put out a press release, it should include multiple links to your site.
• Email: Your web address should be in your signature so that every person who gets an email from you gets your website.

And remember, the more contacts you have, the more people will visit your site. Work to increase your Twitter and Facebook contacts and maintain the relationships so that people have a reason to click the link to your site!

For instance, here’s the list of activities they generated for my marketing & PR firm:

Whenever I have time, I just log in and complete a few of the tasks. They’re things I wouldn’t normally know about, so I like LotusJump’s ability to scour the internet on my behalf. Not all the tasks are appropriate, but they’re easy to delete.

They have a reporting system but it just shows how many tasks you’ve completed in each category. I believe they’re working to add Google Analytics to the accounts, which would help show which tasks actually generated traffic to my site.

This service is great for your website, blog, or both. Prices start at $24 a month, which sure beats those awful companies that guarantee top search engine placement (something no one can guarantee!)!

What will my ROI be with this plan?

It’s frustrating, because some things are difficult to measure. Like my being on Twitter all day. I can’t give you an ROI because the goal is to establish myself in social media as someone who knows what she’s talking about. I get numerous interviews out of it, but ROI? Well, that’s tricky.

Marketers and clients or bosses look at things differently.

Marketers want to build your brand. Let people know it’s out there. Create a buzz. They do marketing.

Clients want sales. Today. Right now if possible. They want promotions.

Promotions do not equal marketing. Let me repeat: they’re different.

And understandably, they want to justify shelling out money on marketing. I get that. But I have to beg and plead for even three months to let Egg build the brand enough to let something happen. Social media and marketing in general is not an overnight success.

David Meerman Scott, in his newest book (I’m working on finishing it to do a bigger review) World Wide Rave, does a pretty darn good job of explaining why leads are not what you should be looking for in creating a world wide rave:

To create a World Wide Rave, forget about sales leads and ignore mainstream media. Instead, focus on spreading your ideas. Make your information totally free, with no registration required.

Here are some questions to ask that can help you measure a World Wide Rave:

1. How many people are exposed to your ideas?

2. How many people are downloading your stuff?

3. How often are bloggers writing about you and your ideas?

4. (And what are those bloggers saying?)

5. Where are you appearing in search results for important phrases?

6. How many people are engaging with you and are making the choice to speak to you about your offerings?

What do you think? Is it possible to get clients and bosses to shift their understanding of ROI in favor of social media and new marketing efforts?

Let me say, I’ve been meaning to get this review out a lot sooner, but it honestly took me about a month to get through this book. It’s thin and the chapters are only about 4 pages, but it is so chock full of goodness that I could only read a chapter or two before I had to put it down and mull on what I’d learned.

What did I learn?

• As I suspected, those companies that promise to get you to the #1 spot on Google are scammers.
• It takes hard work to move up the search engine results, and even then you can’t guarantee placement.
• The more links you have within your website or blog, the better you rank.
• The more websites or blogs that link to you, the better you rank.
• Metatags and keywords aren’t as important as they once were, but they help (and hey, any little thing you can do is worth doing)
• A good title is important for improving SEO

I learned a lot more, but this is a post, not a book about a book, right? Author Rebecca Lieb knows her stuff. As the cover says, she’s an “Internationally known Search Engine Optimization expert.” Great title.

I highly recommend this book if you don’t have a dedicated web and SEO expert on staff. It’s important for small business owners to have a full understanding of what goes on behind the scenes of their websites. Just having a site does not guarantee anyone will find you online.

A solid understanding of SEO is key for building traffic and as a result, new business. Buy the book. Do it. Do it.

PS I just found a cool video that explains SEO nicely:

Here’s a great post from Small Business Trends called Five Tips for Avoiding Deceptive SEO Companies. Check it out.

Dennis Dunlap, CEO of the American Marketing Association, said there are two things to keep in mind while marketing during a recession:

1. We must market in the moment

2. We must have the discipline to adapt to whatever’s coming

What that says to me is that we have to be flexible (one of the 5 characteristics of Marketing 2.0). Not only do we not know what the economy holds, we also don’t know what technology holds. Right now, social media is hot. Tomorrow, it might be another marketing tool. But we can’t stop adapting to what comes our way.

Anne Mulcahy of Xerox gave this advice: “Pay attention to what your customers are telling you or someone else will.”

Despite these being hard times, if we don’t listen to our customers’ needs, we will lose serious market share.

John Hayes, CMO of American Express, told the audience that today’s “consumer is going through a massive sobriety.” He said that as marketers (just like Obama), we need to create hope and confidence in the marketplace. He encouraged us to establish listening posts to understand what our customers want. And he warned us that the world would pass us by if we’re not constantly innovating.

All good advice. I hope the audience, who seemed distant to social media techniques, took all this advice to heart. Because on the other side of this recession, I see only the people who are open to things like Facebook and Twitter as the ones who will survive.

]]> http://www.sparkplugging.com/marketing/marketing-in-a-recession/feed/ 1 http://www.sparkplugging.com/marketing/bring-on-the-debate-does-internet-marketing-solve-all/ http://www.sparkplugging.com/marketing/bring-on-the-debate-does-internet-marketing-solve-all/#comments Mon, 12 Jan 2009 14:41:48 +0000 Susan Payton http://www.sparkplugging.com/marketing/?p=642 A client of mine, Bert Shlensky of Right and Left Brain Solutions, recently wrote a noteworthy blog post called Don’t Let New Internet Marketing Tools Overtake the Basics. And while internet marketing is my world, I have to admit, he has a point.

Many businesses see internet marketing as their key to skyrocketed success. But with a poorly made product, difficult customer service policies or even a badly designed website, no blog or Facebook profile will save your business.

Read the post and tell me what you think. What’s the one thing that makes a business succeed?

I’m not big on statistics, so here are the things I looked for when compiling this list:

• is recognized as a brand (even if they also represent a different brand or company)
• is well followed on blog, Facebook and/or Twitter
• is easily accessible and open to starting and participating in conversations
• has been successful in promoting themselves with social media
• uses public speaking as a platform for promotion

These are listed in no particular order, so don’t start shoving to get to the head of the line, people. I aim to interview all these Eggsperts so you can learn more about them in the near future.

Chris Brogan Chris is the expert on social media and communities. His blog is well-read, he’s all over social media sites, and he’s a damn good public speaker. In fact, here’s a great post he just wrote about how to get into public speaking (something I’m seriously considering).

Gary Vaynerchuk Gary started out as a guy trying to promote his Wine Library. He ended up becoming his own brand. He puts out hilariously amusing videos about wine (which he knows well) and also speaks at blogging and social media conferences.

Darren Rowse If you blog, you know Darren Rowse, or more specifically, you know Problogger. Darren, who started out with a photography blog, then created the Problogger blog about how to blog, which propelled him to fame, and now has added the Twitip blog on Twitter to the mix. He lives in Australia, but speaks all over the world. Great guy too.

Wendy Piersall You know I had to put Wendy in. She’s the founder of one of the most recognized blog networks, Sparkplugging (ahem. You’re on the site now). I laugh because people never know who I am but they definitely know who she is, which is a good thing. She blogs, she works on partnerships with businesses, and she speaks at conferences.

Jim Kukral Blogger, author, speaker, ukelele player. Jim does it all. And now he has a web coaching platform he is promoting. People listen to Jim because he knows his stuff, from making videos to podcasts to how to use social media effectively.

Mari Smith Mari Smith and Facebook are synonymous. I heard her speak briefly at BlogWorld and since then have seen her everywhere online, offering free and paid seminars on how to get the most out of Facebook.

Warren Whitlock Warren is THE go-to guy when it comes to Twitter. He and Coach Deb (see below) are the co-authors of an amazing book about Twitter, The Twitter Handbook. He consults, he speaks, he blogs. He has the right mix of different activities needed to promote himself.

Coach Deb Deborah Micek is another great social media guru. She’s written books, blogs and ebooks on the subject, and speaks frequently. And her lifestyle is her model for success: she lives in Hawaii!

Brian Solis He’s got a PR firm, a blog, does public speaking and is passionate about how PR is changing with technology and social media. People know him because he is an expert in his field.

Justin Levy Justin is a newcomer to the branding and social media platform, but he’s made quite a few waves this year. He also happens to be one of my clients, so I knew him back when. He got started branding his Caminito Argentinean Steakhouse, and ended up making a name for himself in social media with his blog. He is starting to speak at conferences.

This list is by no means exhaustive. It’s my personal picks. Who would you add to this list?

This post got me thinking about how fads come and go. And while certain social networking sites have peaked in popularity and now settled to a lower place on the totem pole, you have to admit, social networking is here to stay. The very way we do marketing has changed. And it is, in fact, all about change. Here are my rules for this new place we’re in:

1. New marketers have to accept that change is part of the new landscape. Twitter and Facebook are hot right now. Get the most out of them, but be prepared to shift gears when that new marketing tool comes out.

2. Change is good. I know, you’re too busy to learn yet another social media app. I feel the same way. But think about this. While right now, the percent of businesses who use social networking is somewhat low, that will change quickly. Even the plumber down the street will have a Facebook profile, so you can’t bury your head in the sand.

3. It’s okay to use old school methods. As long as you mix them up with Marketing 2.0 (email, social networking, blogs). Don’t rely on a single tool to get you through. Create a portfolio of marketing tools.

4. Be aware of your time. My first objection to social media was that it was too time consuming. And it can be. But first of all, don’t let these tools be an excuse to procrastinate from things you really need to be doing. That’s your issue. And second, narrow it down. You don’t have to be on every site out there. See what’s working and what others are using and use no more than 3 tools (I use Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn).

Do you have any rules to add to this list? Let’s hear them!

Check out this great post on SIM Spin called 5 Tips to Measure Success in Social Media Marketing. Then read on.

A lot of the people I talk to about social media  want to know how to track it. How can they measure the results? What can we project as far as sales? These are difficult questions to answer. Certainly there are ways to see how much traffic to your site comes from, for example, Twitter, but sometimes it’s hard to pinpoint exactly how well social media is helping you.

I think we need to shift our thinking about marketing results in terms of having absolute control and ability to micromanage the results and just sit back and let it happen. You won’t see results overnight, but if you use social networking sites correctly and participate in the right conversations, you will see a positive change. You will see traffic to your site increase. You will see sales climb. Just relax and let it happen.

Let’s all take a deep breath and let out all those years of being control freaks, of needing to know exactly how everything will pan out. Marketing 2.0 is happening as we speak. There is no precedence set. We are making history with internet marketing and social media. Do you want to go along for the ride or sit this one out and regret it later?

Companies have been threatening promising to start sending consumers marketing messages via text for years. I attended CTIA 2 years ago and met a lot of text message services. But until this year, I hadn’t seen any in action. Here’s what I feared text message marketing would be:

• Invasive. There were plans for stores in a mall to know when you walked in and immediately bombard you with coupons for their stores. Not something I want.
• Difficult. I met companies at CTIA that offered barcodes that could (hopefully) be scanned off of a phone to be redeemed as coupons. If you had the right kind of phone.
• Expensive. The cost of texting has gone down significantly, but I know I had concern that I would be charged for the message when I didn’t necessarily want it.

Fast forward to 2008. As some of you know, I own(ed) a Marble Slab Creamery (more on the past tense of that in an upcoming post). The latest promotion we had was a text message coupon promotion. Visitors to our store could text a specific code to a specific number, and they would begin receiving coupons. I signed up, of course. About once a week or two I get a text with an offer for buy one get one, get $1 off, etc. All I have to do is show my phone to the Marble Slab employee and they would apply the discount at the register.

Non-invasive.

Simple.

Cheap.

I thought it was a great concept. So tell me then, why did no one sign up for the promotion? Why did we get no takers on the text coupons? I have no idea. Maybe the world isn’t quite ready for text message marketing. What do you think? Have you seen or used text messages as marketing promotions?

So what is cobranding? It’s when two (or more) brands team up to offer a new product or a hybrid of an existing one. Your Cheer detergent may feature Downy fabric softener. Your Ford Explorer may be designed by Eddie Bauer. Your Pillsbury brownies may have Nestle chocolate chips in them.

Why cobranding? Cobranding does a few things:

1. It expands a brand’s market reach. If you love Godiva chocolate but have never tried Orville Redenbacher’s popcorn (I’m making this up), you might want to try Orville/Godiva popcorn chocolate treats. (mmm. that would be good).
2. It boosts a brand’s reputation (well, it can. Or it can go the other way). Say you have a line of yogurt products no one has heard of. But through some kind of act of God, Kashi wants to partner with you. Now you can label your products (and ads): “Now with Kashi goodness.”  People identify with Kashi, even if they don’t identify with you. By being tied to such a well-known brand, you are boosting your reputation (and sales).
3. Cobranding enables you to take on a feature or quality you couldn’t otherwise possess. If what you do is make really good yogurt (can you tell I’m eating breakfast?), you probably don’t want to take the R&D time to develop really good granola. But Kashi already does that, so it’s win-win.

That’s why I’m about to give you some email marketing tips that will probably get me kicked out of the club. Oh well, I’m not really much of a joiner anyway. I think there are just certain things any business owner should know about email marketing, so here goes.

1. Email marketing is not hard. I know it seems complicated, but with email marketing software like Constant Contact, creating professional emails is really easy.

2. You don’t need to know HTML. Again, programs like Constant Contact make it easy for dummies to create gorgeous templates (I mean, I make them, so come on, they can’t be that hard). I actually don’t like it when a client wants to complicate it and makes me use HTML. Me ‘n HTML don’t get along so well.

3. The best days to send emails are Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Why? Because on Mondays people are bombarded with email and are likely to delete yours. On Fridays everyone wants to play hooky, so they don’t want to read your stinkin’ email.

4. Emails don’t have to be blatant sales pitches. I actually like the people I email, so I like to send useful articles about marketing to them. Things that they will find helpful, but also things that will remind them how super smart I am when it comes to marketing.

5. There is a way to target your list. I HATE untargeted email lists. I don’t buy lists. But if you start slow, you can ensure you send your emails to people who actually kind of care. And might buy from you.

6. Not every email is spam. You can get good results from email marketing (as long as you’re not slimy about it). Email is a great way to inform people about your product if done correctly.

7. You can track your results. Email programs like (ahem) Constant Contact (I’m sorry. I just really like them and haven’t found anything better) let you see how many people opened an email, how many clicked on a link and how many unsubscribed. You can try different days, times and subject lines to see which get the best results.

8. Email marketing isn’t dead. I brought this debate up before but still stick to my guns. Email is a great way to reach a wider audience.

9. Email marketing can save you thousands of dollars. Compared to other forms of internet advertising, email is cheap. So save your money on the ad in the Wall Street Journal and consider emailing a targeted list of future customers.

What are your email marketing tips? Share them and I’ll repost all of them onto this post!

Attending BlogHer 08 reinforced what I already knew. Bloggers are the up-and-coming channels for media messages. At my marketing company, Egg Marketing & Public Relations, pitching press releases and product reviews is part of our process. A lot of my clients are still stuck on the idea that their news will make the Wall Street Journal or the Oprah Show. While anything is possible, I tell them they will get the bigger bang for their buck with bloggers.

And it’s not just about sending messages to bloggers. Now corporations are joining the blog world. Here’s a great example. Editor-in-Chief of Redbook Magazine, Stacey Morrison, has taken Hearst Publications by storm with her preposterous idea to develop Redbook’s website and, gasp, can you believe it? Add blogs to the mix. Now Redbook has an arsenal of blogs about sex, family, decorating, fashion and life. And people are treating them like any other blog, and not ostracizing them just because they’re corporate. Which means Redbook is finding a new way to reach people with its message and products.

In case you haven’t gotten the message on this blog: OLD SCHOOL MARKETING IS DEAD. You simply won’t reach your future clients with advertising and a fancy Flash website. There are frontiers yet to be reached in blogs, podcasting, videocasting, i-don’t-know-yet-casting. The biggest mistake you can make is to wait until everyone’s on the bandwagon. Embrace your inner marketing demons and forge a few of your own frontiers before someone else does.

• Look at what your competition is doing in marketing. Figure out what you can do to one-up them (not copy them)
• Read blogs online. Go to YouTube. See what’s out there.
• Talk to your audience. How are they receiving their messages?

What exactly is interactive marketing? Wikipedia defines interactive marketing as the evolving trend in marketing whereby marketing has moved from a transaction-based effort to a conversation.

With interactive marketing, marketers should have the capability to:

• Address the customer
• Recall what the customer says
• Address the customer again in a way that portrays what we have remembered what the customer has already told us.

An example of this is Amazon.com or Borders.com. When customers document their preferences online, they are shown additional book selections that match the consumers’ preferences and also their recent purchases. This is why it is a conversation-based effort. Instead of just collecting the customer’s money through a transaction-based effort, marketers “interact” and interrelate with the customer.

Interactive marketing can determine the best solution to help marketers launch their brands by collecting information and empower the customer through internet technology. It is amazing what technology can do these days and how far marketing techniques have gone.

Susan:

Here are other real world examples of internet marketing.

• Blogs. Like this one. Or the one Egg designed for client Davis Goss. They’re written to an audience, and the reader has the opportunity to respond via comments.
• Retail websites. Natalie gives the examples of Amazon.com and Borders.com above, but how many websites have you visited remember what you’ve looked at? I know I’m always surprised when Half.com recommends something I’d really like on the home page.
• Social media/bookmarking. We have the opportunity today to decide what is newsworthy. Through sites like Digg and Stumbleupon, we have the opportunity to elevate news stories or bury them.

Welcome to what David Meerman Scott calls “The New Rules of Marketing & PR.” In this new world, bloggers may be your best (and most overlooked) ally. Think about it. They need to write. A lot. And they run out of topics to blog about. Enter your pitch or press release. If targeted correctly, you could end up with several bloggers writing about you. Each one gets roughly between 10 and 10,000 readers to his or her blog, which increases your exposure that much more.

So how do you pitch to a blogger?

1. Research. Do a search for blogs in your industry, be it “pet blogs,” “home improvement blogs,” or “headboard blogs.”
2. Make a list of websites, contacts and email addresses. Keep a spreadsheet of this information. Throw out any blogs that haven’t been updated in a year or more.
3. Become a fan. No one likes being contacted with a pitch without the sense that you’ve read (thoroughly) their blog. Spend a week or more reading through posts to get a feel for what the blogger covers and whether they’d be open to receiving a pitch.
4. Write a well-crafted email. Most bloggers deliberately don’t leave phone numbers on their site. So make your email count. Introduce yourself, give a compliment about the blog, and tell them why you think they’d be interested in your story. Provide contact information, your press release and the invitation to contact you for additional information.
5. Don’t expect a response. Even if a blogger decides to blog about you, they don’t have to let you know. Create a Google Alert to see when your company’s name pops up online to see what the results of your blogging pitches are.

Many business owners contemplate over which type of marketing technique they should utilize to market their product or services. In my opinion, both online and offline marketing will produce results. The answer is completely up to you.

Offline marketing includes leaving brochures, business cards, and catalogs at high traffic places. Newspaper ads are another great example that some people decide to use. Online marketing consists of pay-per-click ads, press releases, social networking sites, and purchasing leads. Of course there are plenty of more examples one can use, but these are just a few important ones.

Your business belongs to you, so deciding which method fits your company is your choice. You may encounter some trial and error, but trial and error is good because it gives you insight on which technique works and which does not. Many people find that online marketing works for them and have no desire of changing. However, it could be the opposite for people who use offline marketing.

Both online and offline marketing techniques produce results. Although, keep in mind that the key point is that the more you expose your business, the faster things will go and the cash will start rolling in.

Susan:

Here are some questions to ask yourself to see if online or offline marketing is better for you (likely you’ll have a hybrid of the two).

• Are my customers mostly local?
  • If yes, there are more offline techniques that will work, such as networking, local ads in publications and phone book ads. You can also include online pay-per-click ads targeted at a geography
• Do I have a product I can sell anywhere?
  • Online is the answer for you. You should have an online store and advertise on search engines and sites related to what you do.
• Do I have a small budget?
  • If so, more online techniques will fit your budget and get you more results.

Here’s what it does. If you’re like me, you’ve tried to write an email, text message or note to yourself while driving (and this is why it took me until very recently to buy a SmartPhone. I know it’s dumb yet I still do it.) Jott allows you to call a number and record a note, reminder or message to yourself or someone else. The best part? It’s F-R-E-E.

So I’m driving down the road, thinking about the Marble Slab Creamery my husband and I just bought (no we will NOT be blogging about my eminent weight gain), and I had some questions I wanted to ask the previous owner. Knowing I won’t remember them, I just hit Jott, programmed into my phone and record my questions. It sends them to my email.

I can send my husband text messages to buy bananas by recording my voice.

And I just found out you can record events to link into your Google Calendar. And have searches for items on Amazon sent to your email. HOW COOL IS THIS???

And in the true fashion of Marketing 2.0 (yes, I’m bringing it back to marketing) the site is very interactive. It encourages users to suggest new uses for the service. They’ve been featured in several major publications and blogged about across the board.

Way to go, Jott. I want to be on your team.

-Susan
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It’s great to have so many tools available to connect to others and promote your own business. But when is enough enough?

.

I see an epidemic here in the marketing world. People are using not one, not two, but dozens of social media tools to promote their companies…and for what?? They have no time to work on their business. And they may not even be getting anything out of their efforts.

Don’t get me wrong. I am the Marketing Eggspert, so I’m all about social media and using the internet to promote your brand. But I have to say, today’s social media market is just too much for me. It was fine when we had a few basics, but now I’m getting invites from sites I’ve never heard of that are clones of the originals. It’s not possible to be everywhere.

Recently my new mastermind group from Sparkplugging.com and beyond encouraged me to join Twitter. I did. If you’re not familiar with it, Twitter is like instant messaging on steroids. You decide who you want to “follow,” meaning keep up with. People tweet messages on what their doing or interesting websites, blogs, etc. I’m following people I know at least a little. But it’s hard to follow the conversation, and it’s a time suck. You could spend all day reading other people’s tweets. It’s addicting, yes, but effective? Maybe for some, but I simply don’t have the time!

So how can you keep from being bombarded with too many social media sites to choose from?
1. Survey each site and see who its target audience is. You may not want to push your insurance product to teens on MySpace.
2. Ask friends and colleagues which sites they’ve got the most out of.
3. Do research online before you sign up. See what professional social media experts have to say.

Deborah Brown over at Small Business Trends has a great article that refers to other blog posts that give you advice on what social media tools are worth it and which ones are overkill called “Social Media: Valuable Marketing Tools or Time Waster?” Check it out.

-Susan

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