August
26
2010
Like List calls itself a word of mouth service to share and discover trusted local businesses. It is sort of a cross between Yelp and Foursquare, because users have the opportunity to find companies in the area and also the users can like their favorite spots just “like” on Facebook. It is a great way to find deals for local businesses in your area and also advertise your business. Here are three ways you can use Like List for your business.
First, attract more customers by getting noticed on Like List by staying active. Like any other social networking service the more you participate in a social network the more you can grow your business. Start taking an active role on Like List by completing your profile and then connecting with other local businesses and patrons. Become their friend through the site, and develop the relationships and service online that they will come to know and expect from you at your establishment.
Second, establish your reputation on Like List by being listed there. Numbers do not matter and at the same time they do. People check to see that they are not alone and are not your guinea pigs testing out your business. They want to see social proof that you business is one that they should use. Whether it is the quality of food at a restaurant or an amazing Social Networking Schmoozer that helps businesses use Twitter and Facebook to grow their online revenue, you can find social proof of your company’s success.
Third, keep your customers coming back with specials every week. The great thing about Like List is that you have the potential to put a new special or as they call it MinuteAds. These quick and free ads are great for the entrepreneur looking to get the most out of their marketing.
Like List can be a great tool for businesses looking to find local customers. Like List’s ability to help local businesses connect with local consumers is the reason why it is a growing location based social network.
Like List
August
25
2010
Brightkite is the next location based social network that I want to talk about this week. It is similar to Foursquare as a location based social network, and has a lot of the same features.
It is one of the bigger names in location based social networking, however, since I use other services, such as Foursquare, Yelp, and Like List (check tomorrow’s post) I have not really used Brightkite all that often, except for posting blog entries.
I sort of find their service redundant when using similar social networks that are larger than them. The challenge is that Foursquare and Brightkite are two sides of the same coin. However, they still have hundreds of thousands of visitors coming to their site every month. They might find a niche to fit into among the rash of new sites like this, so do not discount them.
Here is what they do offer. They allow you to post what you are doing, so your friends can stay in contact with you and join when you are out and about in the area. This works through a system Brightkite calls placestreaming, which is people telling their Brightkite network where they are all the time, so it looks like a stream of places that they have been to recently.
The only feature that I found that separates them from Foursquare and Yelp is that they do allow photo uploads to share with your friends when you around town. This is cool, because you can show them what you are doing, and not just give them a text description.
In the end, I believe that Brightkite might find a niche that will probably help them survive. Since I do not know what that niche is I have not been as active on Brightkite, because I see other sites that are equally as strong and more relevant to me right now in location based social networking.
August
24
2010
Yelp is one of the older location based social networks. They have been around since 2004 and are more a social review service than a location based social network, still because they connect local businesses with customers I believe they should fall into this category.
The concept behind this social reviews site is simple: connect people with great businesses. You go to a sushi restaurant that you like and then afterwords give it a good review. The more positive reviews the higher the restaurant will place in Yelp searches for sushi restaurants.
Then when people find the restaurant they can read customers unbiased reviews, such as yours toward the place. Because Yelp has locations across the United States, Canada, Britain, Ireland, and France you can find reviews from your peers here. Additionally, owners have a special feature that allows them to respond to customers and positive (and sometimes not so positive) comments on their restaurants.
A small business can use this as a marketing resource, because they will benefit from the quality customer service that will in turn attract lots of positive attention. The more people who positively review your company can lead to more business.
Additionally, Yelp also has a tremendous back end solution available to location based small business owners that allows them to participate with their customers feedback as stated before as well as create offers for their business. 10% off this week on all cinnamon sticks(now I am hungry)? Display on it Yelp for additional exposure.
You can then track your hits to your offer and your business on Yelp through their tracking software, which lets you see the number of monthly visitors see your business online along with new reviews and comments of your business. There is also a business profile tracker to show businesses what else they can add to their Yelp profiles to give a complete picture of their company.
The final item is a Yelp badge, which you can display on your website. Much like I have a Facebook badge to my fan page and also a badge to my Twitter account you can use one for Yelp to connect the two sites.
The one downside to Yelp is that they are not as mobile friendly as other location based social networks, such as Foursquare. While they do have an app on my Blackberry that allows me to search for restaurants in the area, they do not have the ability as far as I could tell from fooling around with the app to allow me to create a review directly from the mobile application.
All in all , this social review site is very useful, because 30 million plus people visit it every month providing it with a lot of heft for any business. This location based social network provides customers with an accurate description of your business.
August
23
2010
Location Based Social Networking Week
Foursquare is the new kid on the block for location based social networking. They are looking to become the big 
name in location based social networking for your Smartphone, as long as the users allow this (more on that later in the week). They currently have a very youthful image, and appeal to a geekier, younger group of users, but with their fun system of badges and points they could take off with a younger audience.
This social network is active when you are. When you go to Starbucks, you check in. Need to make a pit stop at Jiffy Lube. Check in! The idea behind the entire network is that you let your friends know where you will be.
Companies like this, because it makes word of mouth advertising look like a natural way to build your business. As they say on the site, “If you own a bar or restaurant, foursquare can help you find new ways to connect with your customers.” They are looking to help businesses find new referral sources from local residents.
That is why this social network more than Facebook or Twitter is location based. You want to know where your local friends are going to eat, play, and work, not your friend up in Timbuktu. This will encourages users even more to see what their friends are up to, because it is fun activities that they can partake in.
Location Based Social Networking also removes some of the concerns that many people have had in the past about social networking. Why would I want to network with some random person in Mumbai or who are all these random people that I am connecting with online. Instead, with a site like Foursquare you are more likely to connect with friends in your area that you share common traits with, and therefore making a site like Foursquare all the more popular as this type of social networking takes off.
In the end this new location based social network longevity will depend on the enjoy ability of the system of points and badges that they offer users. For example, I am the mayor of three different locations. Go me! Additionally, I get points for each time I check and it is fun to see how quickly they add up. The only challenge is the points at this time do not count for anything, which kind of stinks, since I have checked into over 125 places and accumulated a lot of points doing so.
In the future, I believe that Foursquare will create a system to keep users engaged and rewarded for their loyalty to their location based social network.
August
22
2010
Podcast
Social Networking On Your Terms Podcast is out! As a special gift to those who sign up for this blog you will not only receive the chance to win a free ticket to Social Networking On Your Terms you will also receive right now this amazing podcast discussing why Social Networking is so important!
Social Networking On Your Terms Podcast
Additionally, for those who are interested in learning more about social networking check out Social Networking On Your Terms Webinar.
August
20
2010
Want to spend a few diving into Twitter communication and how you use it to build better professional relationships that lead to additional revenue for your business. Have a great Friday and enjoy!
Start connecting with your fellow Twitter users today.
August
19
2010
Do you have a twitter goal? This is a goal that you want to achieve using twitter. I recommend you brainstorming what your goal is on Twitter. You need to establish what you want to do on Twitter, because this is a social network where if you do not have a well thought out goal and strategy you will not be able to successfully use it to earn money.
Here are some steps to create a successful Twitter Goal:
First, envision what you want to achieve using Twitter. Where do you see your business using because of Twitter in six months? What about one year? Picture how your sales process will look like with an integrated communication platform like Twitter’s. Think about how many prospects will be coming through your door in one year. Is Twitter the start, or is it the destination for your sales process? Discover what would really make your customers appreciate your business on Twitter.
Second, create an action plan. Create a way to add new followers. Think of what content you need to put on twitter to attract prospects and network partners. Write it down in terms of days, weeks, and monthly action steps that you need to take to reach your bigger twitter goal. Think about logical actions that would make your presence on Twitter build your business.
Third, once you know where you want to go start acting on your vision and plan. It is not hard to type in 140 characters online. What is challenging is actually using those 140 characters to their utmost potential. Start crafting amazing Tweets and Retweets that will encourage participation and community. Remember that one Tweet does not create a successful business. Craft messages and participate every day to get the most out of your Twitter experience and in order to achieve your Twitter goal.
Most people go on Twitter and think they will get instant results as the money flows in. The truth is that Twitter does not work like that. You have to work at it day after day until you are successful. It Might not be one day, maybe it will take 100 days, or even a one year. However, with hard work and a positive attitude you can achieve your twitter goal.
August
18
2010
Free twitter traffic! What is that all about? Free twitter traffic is about getting qualified visitors coming through your door from Twitter and then go to the next step in your sales process. The ability to effectively use twitter as a marketing source can be amazing for your business lead generator. Actually, since you are reading this blog right now I can tll you that there is a one in three chance that you first found this post through my twitter account. That is how powerful twitter is my business.
Now that you know the good stuff, lets talk about how you actually get free twitter traffic. The question I sent it.
First, you need to develop a following on twitter. There a few ways to do it, however, the easiest is to use a system like Tweet Adder (note: I am a tweet adder affiliate). Tweet Adder is nice because it automatically follows current Twitter users based on pre-determined criteria set by you.
That means you do not have to sit there mindlessly following your entire target list, instead I have it done for me at the press of a button. The one challenge to using TweetAdder is that you are no longer allowed to use automatic unfollows. That is why I use ManageFlitter for my unfollows. It is more time consuming, however, keeps me legal with Twitter.
Another approach is to use Twellow. I love this Yellow Pages meets Twitter mashup, because I can follow people based on profession, interests, and geography. You have to manually do this, so it is a little more time intensive. However, the time invested is well worth your money. Otherwise, you could hire someone such as myself (hint, hint be Smart At The Start) to do it for you manually.
Second, once you have a decent following of at least 500 people you need to start providing engaging content to your followers on a regular basis. It should not all be promotional. Instead, you need to focus on what your followers are interested based on reading their tweets, talking to them, and once you have done that just sit back listen to their ideas. That will give you an idea of what you should discuss on twitter.
Provide your followers with articles, statistics, quotes, your own thoughts and views of what’s happening in your industry along with other insights that will make them savvier about your services. Additionally, do not spend more than 20 to 30% of your time promoting your business. Even this blog post and the blog itself contains only spends 5 to 10% of the time talking about services that I offer, and that is rare for me to promote on this post that much. The majority of the time I stick to content over promotion, because I know when someone is ready to talk to me they will use my services.
Third, I recommend having a content destination, because you will drive more free Twitter traffic to a content or resource site then you will towards an ecommerce site at first. I might be a little biased, since I have a few, but I find it valuable to have a platform that solely contains information about your business and resources to help your network. I like to use my blog to aggregate a lot of social networking on other sites.
For example, I use video marketing from YouTube and embed them into my blog to give my readers additional exposure to my video content. Additionally, I write numerous articles and sometimes share some of the articles that I write for ezine on my blog. Finally, I have pictures on Flickr and Photobucket that get embedded in my posts
Creating Free Traffic on Twitter is about being a resource to your network. It is not about the hey what about me? What about me attitude! Driving free Twitter traffic is about making the most out of free resources and providing them to your network, so they will come to you for more business in the long run.
August
17
2010
It has been a little while since we’ve covered this subject so I thought I would readdress the top Twitter tracker tools. Some of the tools are still the same; however there have been some changes since the last address this topic. It is best to do a review every few months of the tools, since you can benefit from the changing technology.
The first Twitter tracker tool is Social Oomph(Note: user and affiliated with company). This site is great for automatically following and sending out messages on a scheduled basis. I really love the ease and convenience of using it. Additionally, I can have numerous accounts listed here, as well as my Facebook and blogs can be scheduled through the site as well. Additionally, they just came up with a partial solution to recurring updates. You can schedule a few different Tweets in one update and it will randomly select your tweets. Finally, there are some good statistical tracking that can help you understand your following batter.
The second twitter tracker following tool is Tweetdeck. This tool helps you separate tweets by category, keyword, and hashtag. I can review as many different keywords and hash tags as I want and they are all available live. It is a great method for discovering what your prospects and networking partners find to be relevant topics to your business.
The third twitter tracker following tool is Hootsuite. Now I will be upfront and tell you do not use this tool as much as the previous two. Regardess, I have a number of friends who rave about the site so I wanted to include it for those of you who might be interested in learning about it features and benefits. Hootsuite combines some of the aspects of Social Oomph and Tweetdeck. Plus you can include RSS feeds as well. The site allows you to schedule tweets plus Facebook updates. Also, similar to Tweetdeck you can search for different categories and keywords of what your prospects and networking partners are discussing right now.
In the end it does not matter what twitter follower tracker tool you use. The main thing is that you use one, because I can tell you from experience that the first few months when I was on Twitter and did not have these tools it made my Twitter experience more challenging. When I finally started to use various Twitter tracker tools it enabled me to effectively grow my social network on twitter.
August
16
2010
Creating a twitter strategy is one of the most challenging things to do when you start using social networking in your business. You have to balance creating amazing content within the confines of 140 characters maximum. That is why a twitter strategy can be quite daunting to some new twitter users. Additionally, that is the exact reason I want to show you how to create an effective Twitter strategy
First, in order to create an effective Twitter strategy you need to understand the basics of how Twitter works. Spend a little time understanding how Twitter operates. Send some tweets back and forth between other friends and yourself. Then start looking for new people to follow. Once you understand how the system works and have a base of followers you can do just about anything.
Second, start thinking about what you’re twitter audience wants. Do they want to have more money? Maybe they want to lose weight? What about find their true love? Whatever they want, you must provide quality information to help them get from point A to point B. Twitter in most cases is not about selling people online, instead it is a gateway towards your blog, website, phone consultation, or whatever sales process you use. Twitter just provides the information and ideas that positions you as an authority in your industry.
That is actually the key to Twitter. Do not treat Twitter as a sales tool. Instead, treat it as a lead generator. Because you can build a huge list of prospects through this social network, as long as you respect your follower’s intelligence. No one went on Twitter to hear about your products and be sold by you. They will listen, however, to someone who provides them with a solution to their challenges and generally cares about the people they meet online.
Third, as we stated earlier, you are using the content that you provide to your prospects to establish yourself as an expert in your field. Most consumers want to deal with a seasoned professional. They want to know that you have a certain skill level in regards to your industry. That is why in the past many success people in various fields worked on perfecting their craft for 5, 10, 15, and even 20 years before they started to have a huge level of success. However, with tools like twitter you can demonstrate your knowledge to a vast audience and convey the knowledge and authority in your field in months or even a few years versus traditional methods that might take longer.
From the strategies above you should be able to surmise that being on this social network has less to do with selling then with educating. That is why your Twitter strategy must rely on creating solid content to help your prospects succeed, because when they succeed so you will.
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