At times we all hit that point where we do not know what to do with our marketing. We will sit there thinking for hours what we need to do for business growth. Then on the other hand sometimes growth in business just comes naturally for us. There have been times for me where I have struggled for months and couldn’t get nothing to happen. Then there has been times where I have literally just expanded with then 2-3 months above and beyond what I ever imagined.

Sometimes marketing online requires more brainstorming then actual work. There is times we need to actually sit around and just think for hours. The best time to do this is when your in your office or at home. Do this at a time when you can have your complete focus on your marketing problems. Think in your head what you need to do then take action.

What Can You Brainstorm About?

Brainstorming should be used in every area of your marketing efforts. At the same time, try to think of new channels you can advertise through. For now though lets cover a list you can use. This list should be thought thoroughly from top to bottom.

•Paid Search
•Search Engine Optimization
•Media Buying
•Blog Contribution
•Press Release Submission
•Social Media Optimization
•Content Creation
•Follows Ups
•Surveys

Now think through in all these areas, brainstorm. Are you using any of these, if you are what can you do to improve them. If you are not, then you should start focusing in on the areas you are not engaging in.

How Can You Make These Areas More Effective?

You should sit down and test all these areas. Even if they have not worked for you in the past. You should still test them, this could be where you’re going wrong at. I have come across clients in the past that do not test or make changes. Making changes is the most important thing you can do.

An excellent way you could start is be researching through all these articles. Upon reviewing all the articles below. Ask yourself, how can I apply this to my online brand. Believe it or not, the smallest changes will give you the best returns, keep that in mind.

Paid Search Articles

•Pay Per Click Advertising Explained
•Advanced PPC Strategies
•Pay Per Click Strategies, Bruce Clay
•Pay Per Click Strategies, PPC Summit
•4 Pay Per Click Strategies that Win

Search Engine Optimization Articles

•20 Essential Search Engine Optimization Tips for Small Business
•6 Ultimate On-Page Search Engine Optimization Articles
•Top 3 Tactics to Improve Your Search Engine Rankings
•Search Engine Optimization Start Guide
•Do’s and Don’ts for SEO Public Relations

Media Buying

•Media Buying Step by Step
•Behavorial Targeting 101: Media Buying Tips
•Media Buyers Guide
•Guide to Media Buying
•Summer Time Media Planning Strategies

Press Release Submission

•How To Write  Press Release PDF Version
•How To Write A Press Release
•How To Write A Press Release From Erelease.com
•How To Write A Press Release Business Wire
•How To Write A Press Release 365

Social Media Optimization

•Social Media Optimization Strategies, Pole Position Marketing
•Introduction To Social Media Optimization, Pronet Advertising
•5 Rules For Effective Social Media Optimization, Addme
•13 Rules of SMO, Search Engine Journal
•The Five News Rules of Social Media Optimization

8 Follow Up Strategies

•8 Follow Up Strategies To Keep Your Prospects Interested
•Quick Follow Up Strategies To Win Clients
•Business Follow Up Strategies
•Specific Follow Up Strategies
•5 Memorable Follow Up Strategies

I left a few categories out, but included the more important ones. You can now review all these articles.  Then you can try to discover ways of how you can become a better marketer online. This is something I do all the time. In fact, it has played a huge success in the profits I’ve generated online. You have to remember, business requires skill and patience as any marketing does. However, the long term effect can be well worth the tremendous amounts of effort you put into your marketing plan.

Conclusion

This is just to give you an idea on how we brain storm projects. We are consistently trying to improve our client marketing campaigns. We try to do whatever we can in our power. Believe it or not, we actually do a lot of work we don’t charge for that we should be charging for. However, I feel that by us going out of our way helps improve our client relationship from a long term point of view.

Twitter is powerful marketing tool speaking you’re able to build subscribers successfully. The problem is a lot of people go out and start following everyone and anybody. That is great and you should follow people of course. However, do not forget that it’s essential you build followers to your twitter account that are actually paying attention to what you tweet. You do not want a bunch of unknown followers that could care less about what you have been tweeting.

How To Build A Connected Base of Followers Through Twitter

The idea behind building a connected base of followers is to advertise with credibility. When using credibility in your marketing, you are able to build that strong impression. Your name will be remembered upon your followers vs just looking like another average tweet. People pay attention to things they find important or valuable. That’s just human nature, we all do that, we are seeking out valuable resources for us to learn from.

You can use channels such as Google AdWords, Media Buying, Yahoo, and etc to promote your credibility. Once you have found a channel to advertise through, use an effective landing page. Use a landing page that explains who you are, what you do, and etc. Your landing page should be effective as possible from a credibility stand point.

You could share personal experiences such as success stories on this landing page. Or you could follow up with your consumers / clients and have them provide you with a report. Either or will do, just depends on what you do and the market you are currently in. In addition to sharing reviews or personal experiences, you could include membership logos, previous education, experience, and etc. Anything that improves your image be sure to advertise it around your name and / or brand.

You can also use strategies outside of paid traffic. Why not try contributing to other blogs or participating in forums more often. I would then link into a landing page that includes your follow me button or link. This takes a bit more work on your end. However, if your able to build a connected base of followers it’s well worth the effort.

The idea behind this is to advertise in such way that will create a strong impression through credibility. You are able to build a more connected base by using this strategy. It’s just really a waste of time having a bunch of followers that do not pay attention to what you tweet. You want to make sure your followers remember you and your brand. This will allow you to drive more traffic because people will be aware of who you are. They will pay attention to what you have tweeted.

How Your Connected Followers Can Be Leveraged

Once you start getting established with your idea followers. That meaning, the followers that will pay attention to what you tweet. You may now start sending out marketing signals to these followers. You could try to generate some link bait and publicity through content and etc.

Conclusion

I wanted to write this post up to insinuate how important it is to build the right type of followers. Don’t be one of them people that go around following every single person expecting them to follow you back. You are not building the type of followers you need to be successful with Twitter. Twitter can be a powerful marketing tool, but you have to leverage it properly.

What is the first strategy you use when you’re trying to get a response from someone. Chances are you will communicate a certain signal; a signal that will attain a response from someone. For example, I am sure you probably know what you need to do to attain someone’s attention that is close to you. I mean we all do whether it being our kids, family, or spouse. We know how to tap into their mind; therefore attaining our desired response.

Link bait works in similar ways, you have to find that signal. That signal that will generate publicity for your blog. Sometimes this can happen on total accident as I have seen in the past. I have seen where a blogger will write his true meaning about a person, product, or service. Next thing you know it’s generating publicity all over the internet. At the same time, this blogger, is obtaining links from all sorts of websites.

Be Honest About Your Thoughts

When trying to create link bait, be honest. That meaning, don’t candy coat what you’re writing. You should be honest when writing about that product, person, or even service.

The great thing is about being honest through your blog, it’s your blog, and no one else owns it. For example, you ever worked somewhere and you just don’t agree with certain issues or problems around work. However, if you try to opinionate on them it backfires on you. In some cases you might even lose your job because they feel as you’re not a loyal employee.

Believe me, I have worked at places like this years ago. There have been places that I worked that had suck ass management. I truly believed I could have done better at managing the restaurant in many different ways. However, most of the managers were up each other rear end half the time. Therefore it was very difficult to say what I believed about the work place as it did me no good.

Blogs on the other hand are not like this. When you’re honest, you generate publicity and controversy. Some people might agree with what you say then others don’t agree. But hey, who cares right? As long as your generating links and reviews from it.

What About Negative Reviews

If by chance you do receive negative reviews from other bloggers. Don’t take it personal, not everyone will agree with what you have to say. Just make sure you have a mixture of negativity and positivity. This is what will ignite your link bait campaigns.

You know sometimes a negative review could even be a more of a positive for you. For example, if someone writes up a negative post on you. Why not create an argument with this blogger. Especially if their blog is very popular, let them go all out on you. If this blogger by chance has a lot of subscribers. You might be generating massive amounts of links.

Conclusion

Everyone has their own strategy. Some bloggers might insist on just straight positive publicity. However, you should stay a lot more open minded then that. In addition, do not be worried about what others say as I stated. I know of people that want to blog, but they sit around all the time worrying about what other people will say or do. In all honesty, that defeats the whole purpose of blogging.

E-mail marketing can result in explosive profits.  I am quite surprised of how many people fail to use e-mail marketing. Whether you own and operate a small business or large business. I actually have someone in my family as well that doesn’t engage in e-mail marketing. I have brought the topic up to them several times.

However, they seem to just not participate in e-mail marketing. So if you’re someone that is wobbling around and haven’t jumped into the e-mail space, do it right away. You could be missing out on a ton of opportunity.

E-Mail Marketing Can Be Used For:

•Follow Ups
•Content Marketing (blogs, articles, and etc)
•Special Promotions and / or sales
•Survey Reports
•Collect Testimonials
•Viral Marketing Campaigns

There are several strategies you can use in reference to e-mail. Once you have the data built, you can re-use it over and over. E-mail marketing can also build brand awareness. When you are continuously sending out e-mails to the same consumers. You’re able to expose your name over and over; therefore your consumer awareness increases.

Understanding the Inbox Ratio

E-mail inboxing is essential to how successful you are. At one time it use to be easy to get inboxed. You could send out e-mails freely and like crazy and hit the inbox. Today, it has become complex in terms of getting inboxed and not hitting the spam box. The problem with your e-mails are hitting the spam is that consumers don’t pay much attention to their spam (at times).

When you hit the inbox, you will get high open rates and click through rates. If you are using your own server for e-mailing you’ll have to build the trust with the free e-mail providers. In addition to that, you’ll need to get pre-approved through Yahoo Bulk E-Mail application. If you do not get approved, you will get deferred. That said, you’ll never have a chance to build your reputation score up.

Yahoo is very strict on their e-mailing. You can only e-mail to Yahoo users so many times before you start getting deferred. Eventually they will block you out permanently that is if you keep getting deferred.

When you fill this form out, make sure you are compliant as can be. Because if Yahoo disapproves your bulk sending. You will have to wait another six months before you can fill it out again. It’s a major pain in the ass to be honest. There is ways around this though where you do not have to fill this form out. Therefore you can get inboxed all day long and send out high volume.

In this case, you’ll have to use third party sender such as IContact, Aweber, Constant Contact, Vertical Response, and etc. All these e-mail providers do cost money, but are well worth it. They all have a strong sender reputation with free e-mail providers. You’re almost guaranteed to get inboxed with these providers.

So Don’t Want To Use Any of These Providers?

If you do not want to use any of the providers I just mentioned. Then I would suggest your best bet would to use the Yahoo Bulk Approval form. As I stated be sure you are accurate about everything and fill the form out completely. Chances are you will get approved as long as you are legit. If you are sending out 100,000′s of e-mails you’ll probably need a dedicated server. You will also need some type of e-mail marketing software for tracking and etc.

Two E-Mail Applications I Prefer and Recommend:

•Interspire
•Active Campaign

The two programs I mentioned above are the best ones if you ask me. I’ve done tons of research and tried numerous platforms. As of now I am using Interspire. Interspire is amazing, it has a nice analytic end to it. In addition, you can send out e-mails based on multiple variables (criteria wise). I would recommend Interspire any day.

Are You Using E-Mail for Blog Marketing?

There is one thing I want you to be aware of. If you are using e-mail for marketing your blog articles. I would recommend using Aweber or Feedburner. These are the only two solutions that increase your feed count. Its always nice to show your readers how many subscribers you got.

There is another option though through Active Campaign and Interspire. You can always pull the subscriber count from the data base. You could then add this into your Feedburner number which will require some customization. I just prefer to stick with Aweber and Feedburner due to the sender reputation these services have built with free e-mail providers.

Conclusion

E-mail list building and collecting is essential in marketing. If you ask me personally, I think e-mail marketing should be part of every businesses marketing strategies.  It’s your option whether you use e-mail marketing or not. However, you could be missing out on a lot of market (a lot).

Using psychological factors to influence consumers can make you fortunes. When you know how to influence people effectively. You can take your business to the next level. If you’re able to capture your consumers mindset you can take advantage of this. You will be able to take your online marketing strategies to the next level.

Strategies to Influence Your Market

Perception

Building a strong perception is the key to influencing your market. You can do this through testimonials, social strategies, client references, and etc. I’d say one of the strongest factors in this area would be social influence. If you’re able to get people to talk about you then closing the deal with future clients will not be a problem. Their perception about you is already integrated into their mind.

Social Media

You can use social media to influence your consumers. You have to stay persistent in this area as it will pay off. Having a strong subscriber base connected to your blog is invaluable. You are able to generate publicity a lot more effectively. In addition to that, you will be capturing massive amounts of links from time to time. The result of this will increase your search engine rankings for certain keywords.

Social Advertising (Myspace & Facebook)

Social advertising can be effective as well. What’s great about social advertising is that you can expose your brand image. I use to do a ton of advertising through Myspace for affiliate products.  I no longer do though because most of the products are not as profitable as what they were. However, you can still use social platforms for your business. Social advertising is  an excellent source for branding and leads.

Media Buying

You can use media buying as well. You could buy media banners off news sites. A great strategy to use in this area is press releases. For example, find a news site in your industry that is relevant to what you do. You could then advertise your press release through these media sites. This way, the consumer is already in a news state of mind. The consumer is looking for news worthy related material. I’d consider that a strong branding practice that could result in increased sales (dramatically).

Press Releases

Press release submission is an awesome strategy. I would recommend you to submit press releases in reference to anything valuable you’ve done. If you have a list of happy consumers on a new product submit a press release. You can generate major publicity from this. In addition to that, your press releases will be indexed in the search engines. Do you realize how many consumers research a brand online before buying or after talking to you.

E-Mail Follow Ups and Marketing

Consumers might not always buy right off the bat. Sometimes they are just in a state of mind where they are not too sure. The consumer just can’t seem to make up their mind. This is why you want to do follow ups for through e-mail and / or phone. In this process be sure to understand your consumers needs to the fullest. Therefore when you start e-mailing them, you’ll know exactly how you need to market to them. Maybe the trust is not established yet with your company. If that is the case, include references or testimonials in your e-mail, anything to influence their buying behavior.

Success Stories

If you’ve had certain success in business or with a product describe it. Better yet, why not collect success stories from clients or consumers. You could get a full report from a consumer or client detailing everything out. Make the success story more detailed and show proven results. This would most certainly create an influence factor in your consumer’s mind.

Leverage You Tube

I have personally seen some amazing videos being marketed through You Tube. You could create an array of different type of You Tube videos. Some of your videos could be humorous or controversial. On the other hand, you could have your consumer do reviews on your product.

Industry Related Blogs (Contribute and / or Reviews)

You can get your name out by contributing to other blogs. You might even be able to get away with a somewhat press release looking post. If you’re contributing to other blogs. Chances are you will be able to add a signature link.

You can also buy reviews from blog owners. Be careful though when you engage in this practice. I would highly suggest you use a no follow tag. If you’re buying reviews from high traffic blogs. Chances are the blogger will disclose it being a paid advertisement.

Conclusion

There are numerous strategies you can use to influence your consumer or client. You just have to make sense of the situation. You then will execute based on the given situation. Sometimes you can overlook certain strategies; therefore thinking that given area is not profitable. Don’t ever quit testing as you may pass a killer opportunity up.

I just relocated to Los Angeles, California. The culture out here is way different then any where I have been. There is a lot of people out here that think like entertainers and are entertainers. It’s very hard to explain the culture out here unless you live around here. You’d have to actually live here to really understand it. I don’t think you’d understand it by just visiting (you have to live it).

Blogging is about thinking like an entertainer. Your entertaining other people’s needs more then less. There are many of us out there that are excellent writers or just creative people. However, we just don’t really entertain people and their needs.

Strategies for Thinking Like an Entertainer

1) Be Creative

Think like a creative artist, do stuff that is out of this world. You can use videos, images, and / or sounds. Find ways to drive your audience’s attention. Video is a great strategy tool to engage in. I have seen people on You Tube create videos that drove millions of visitors. Over 99 percent of the videos were just straight out right simple to make. They just happen to upload something that was so stupid that people had to watch it.

2) Don’t Be Scared or Shy

Don’t ever be scared or shy to be so out there. Some people want to be famous or have a business. However, they always hide their true identity or who they are. If you are blogging, you should never do this. You want people to know who you are, what your about, and etc. You must be able to communicate effectively with your audience.

3) Be Inspirational

You could be inspirational towards your audience. Be someone that everyone wants to be like. You can do this through credibility, sharing your success. There again, don’t be scared to market yourself. I know some people that have major success in certain areas. However, they fail to market their success right away.

4) Focus on Your Audience

You should always keep your audience in mind. Never ever forgot how you got where you are today. Or better yet where you are trying to go. Remember the key is to entertain your audience. I think all of us (including myself) get a little to into our self at times. We fail to entertain the people around us, this is something that takes practice.

5) Don’t Ever Give Up

As any successful person will say. You should never give up. Success is about persistent and perseverance. I know many people that have went years without making money. I didn’t start making money for awhile. Then boom I did over a million dollars in one year. On the other hand, I’ve known people that gave up with then 2-6 months.

Conclusion

Blogging does have a lot to do with entertaining. I am quite glad I move to Los Angeles, California to be honest with you. It has opened me up to a whole new world. I’ve never experienced anything like it in my life. The more and more I think of it as I’m exploring LA, I realize business and blogging is about entertainment. You have to entertain people in ways they will find it attractive and likable.

Learning to market your business online is essential. Online websites need traffic and that’s what we are going to discuss. You can use Twitter, Facebook, social networks, and / or search engines. There is an array of traffic sources you can tap into.

I have decided to offer a little comprehensive guide. I have even included a marketing index guide that links to 40 valuable resources.

Using Twitter for Marketing

I remember when Twitter first came out I wasn’t too sure about it. However, Twitter got more popular then what I ever imagined it would. Honestly it took me awhile to get use to the Twitter platform. I just thought it was the oddest social gig ever released. I just didn’t find it very interesting as what everyone else did at first.

Today, I have a totally different perspective on it.  Twitter is a powerful marketing tool especially if you have a ton of interested followers. The idea is to make sure you’re attracting followers that are going to pay attention to what you tweet. You don’t want a bunch of followers that could care less about what you’re tweeting.

You can tweet anything you’d like from personal thoughts to what you’re currently doing. You can use it as leverage tool to promote your blog post, product, services, and etc. You can even have your blog automatically send your Twitter account a tweet linking to your blog post.

Twitter should be used more in a social way. You should share your thoughts, what you’re doing, and provide your followers with value. Don’t use it for just marketing your products and services directly. You will be certain to lose your followers interest.

Using Facebook for Marketing

I’d have to admit I’ve always had a Facebook account. However I have not been an avid user of it until here recently. I just started using Facebook like you wouldn’t believe. You can use this to connect in a more personal way with your clients. Your clients and you can develop a more personal relationship which is good. There is nothing wrong with developing a stronger relationship with your client as friends.

You never know you might even share a link one day that their interested in. For example, you might share some links from a bodybuilding or nutrition site because its a hobby of yours. Your client has the same interest and passion. Your client happens to see these links and then all suddenly it brings you two closer together. Your client will most certainly remember you now.

I remember this guy I use to work with years ago that could not find a job. He had dozens of interviews and just couldn’t seem to find a job. He ended up going to one interview that he said at first just didn’t seem to be going well. All sudden He said the hiring manager asked him what he did on his free time. He responded, “I love to play golf.”

To come and find out his hiring manager shared the same passion. Therefore this fired a conversation up between them. Then all suddenly his hiring manager encouraged his boss to approve his employment. He ended up getting hired that same day.

Using Social Networks for Marketing

Social networks can be a powerful tool for marketing. One example would be Digg, Digg can send you explosive traffic. If you are able to hit the home page of Digg you are going to get hammered with traffic. In addition to that, it’s a good possibility you will drive 100′s if not 1000′s of high quality links.

Digg has an RSS feed where other users subscribe to it. Therefore the users are updated with live content. In addition to that, you can follow other users to see what their digging. Some of these users have 1,000′s of followers. Some of these followers or subscribers are bloggers. They are just waiting to blog on something of interest at the same time linking to that site.

Using Search Engines for Marketing

Search engines are most certainly your highest converting areas. You can engage in pay per click and / or search engine optimization. I would highly advise you stay away from link buying. There are more creative and compliant strategies to use to get links. Such as engaging in social media optimization for link bait. Thus, improving your rankings in a more Google complaint way.

Marketing Index Guide – 40 Resources

Conclusion

You will find invaluable information throughout these articles. There is so much content online that you could never read it all. One thing you have to be wary about online is what you read. When your researching anything related to marketing online. Don’t believe that every single article you read is completely correct. There is content on the web that can be misleading. Just use your common sense.

Using blogs to promote products and services is absolutely an amazing strategy to use. I really like the whole concept of building a blog around products and services. Although we shouldn’t really promote our products and services in a direct way (might kill your readership). For example, we shouldn’t directly promote a product or service everyday in a blog post. Instead we should try to connect with our consumers in a more emotional way.

I like the fact where we are able to communicate in such a way with our subscribers that is more personal. This makes our consumers feel more connected to us. We are able to develop a more effective relationship this way. The idea is to educate them, offer post they will enjoy reading and will relate to. Then we advertise our products and services through our signatures, banners, and etc.

The emotional factor is what influences consumers to buy from us.  An influential brand can tap into the consumer’s mind. Haven’t you ever seen certain people throw a fit because they don’t have the money for something. Or yet there is some people that absolutely think they have to wear a certain brand of clothing. These brands have used certain strategies to make an impression in their consumer mind.

We are even able to do this through blogs. We are able to build a strong impression into their mind while associating our brand. An image that will attract people to products and services. We do this through tapping into their emotions. Giving them an experience they won’t forgot.

Example Emotions You Can Trigger:

• Humor
• Inspire
• Positive
• Joy
• Surprise

There are several emotions you can trigger. The idea is to associate these emotions with your brand. Make your products seem attractive in a way that people want them. You have to be creative and think like an artist. Triggering certain wants and needs can build an outstanding brand.

The Experience is Everything

Think of your blog almost like a TV commercial. You ever watched certain commercials that are just outright hilarious. In addition to that, there are other people that think the commercial was  funny as well. These people talk about the commercial at the same time mentioning the brand name. This type of advertisement created a strong impression; a memory that people remember and talk about.

This is what you have to do as a blogger. Somehow you have to make an impression. How are you going to make your content stand out.

Use Images and Videos

You can even use images and videos to make your content more attractive. Use videos that are creative, something that people will be attracted to. For example, don’t just promote  a boring video about your product or service. Promote that product or service in a more creative way. Make it appear as it’s not even an advertisement, instead your entertaining. You have to keep the your visitor’s attention, but at the same time marketing your products and services.

Social media marketing is a powerful tool to use. Building social trends requires a certain expertise and effort. If your brand is able to put forth the effort into creating a strong social trend, you’ll be set. Once you’ve established that social trend through the social world. You are able to leverage marketing messages a lot more effectively. You are able to influence consumers like no other marketing channel can provide.

How Do Consumers Think and Choose

Consumers think in unique ways, although we all have a similar mind. There is a lot of us that base our decisions based on what others are saying. We think and reason based on friends and family input. If our social groups talk positive about a certain brand or product.  This can have an influence on our decision making whether or not we buy the product or service.

How to Create That Powerful Social Influence

You can use blogs to build that strong social environment that will influence people. The idea is to build a large base of subscribers through your blog. All these subscribers subscribed to your blog for a reason. Chances are they feel connected to what you are writing about. You could be someone that they think highly of, they want to learn more about what your writing on. They could of also been influenced by an emotional factor. They might of subscribed because they find your blog post funny, it could be a mood lifter for them (your giving them a positive experience).

How to Use the Social World for Influence

One you have built that powerful subscriber base. You are able to utilize your marketing of products and services more effectively. In addition to that, you could improve your product credibility through showing testimonials. This in return can create a spark in your market; people will begin to talk about you or your brand. The spark will get social groups talking and communicating back and forth.

When people see this atmosphere being created. They get influenced by the positive trend of communications. Most of these subscribers you have built could be sharing your blog post anywhere. They could be sharing your content through Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Digg, and etc. In addition to that, a lot of these users might have close friends watching them. They might have a lot of followers as well.

How Powerful is Social Media Vs. Other Marketing

Social media marketing can be used for branding, link bait, product awareness, and etc. Social media marketing is a much more risk free investment compared to link buying. Link buying is dangerous now days, brands are getting penalized left and right. However, the power of social media marketing allows you to capture links that are Google compliant.

Social media marketing can out beat any paid advertising campaign any day. For example, with Google Adwords you will have to continuously spend money to drive traffic. Which I don’t see this being a problem what so ever, if your making money then continue advertising through Adwords. However there can be a few downfalls to this. One, Adwords is constantly changing their policies. Two, paid search is becoming more and more competitive. The click cost are increasing every year to a point where its no longer profitable as what it was.

With social media you are able to create that explosive market. The market where other bloggers will market your product and services for you. The idea is to build that user base up first. Then leverage this audience to talk about your brand and you. You have to remember, with blogs you have a different type of visitor vs. a paid search visitor. A paid search visitor is no where near as loyal as a blog subscriber.

You can use Facebook for marketing whether you have a small business or large business. I still run across businesses that do not engage in Facebook. In the Facebook world you are able to engage in a more personal way. This allows you to build a different type of relationship with your client or consumer. In addition to that, your able to understand your clients / consumers a bit more in depth. You are able to discover your clients / consumers in a whole new way.

Facebook Connectivity Features

1) Fan Pages

Fan pages allow you to market your services. Fan pages allow you to connect with your market in a unique way. You are able to share product updates, blog updates, twitter updates, and more. You can communicate with your consumers through your fan page. You can ask them questions pertaining to your product such as product recommendations.

Once you’ve built your fan page through the digital world. You are able to communicate with them. For example, say you made a posting on a new product your releasing. In return, you might get some interested consumers responding. Therefore you are able to answer their questions. Everyone else as well will be able to view the comments.

What I like doing with the fan pages is posting our twitter or blog updates directly to it. This allows your fans to see what you are tweeting or blogging about. Therefore they can comment on these postings as well. Some users might prefer to find out about your blog postings through your fan page vs an e-mail subscription or RSS feed.

2) Personal Connectivity through Profiles

By having a Facebook profile, you are able to connect in a more personal way. Your friends, consumers, associates, or whomever can learn more about your personal side (interest, thoughts, and etc). This allows people to feel more connected with you. This will allow you to grow a relationship with them in a whole new way.

As humans we like doing business with people we like. We like associating with people we like. You are putting a stronger impression in your audience heads. With them being connected with you through your profile. You are creating creating awareness.

Your Connectivity Can be Built Through:

• Sharing Photos
• Sharing Your Thoughts (status)
• Sharing Interesting Links
• Sharing Videos

When you receive comments be sure you are interacting with them. The idea is to build a stronger more connected relationship.

3) Creating Groups

When you create a group, you share your information only with specific friends. For example, say you create a group for Porsche Part Consumers. You could then share information to consumers that are only interested in Porsches the consumers can even interact with each others as well.

What I like about creating groups is that you can target advertising towards them. You do this through the Facebook advertising platform which we are going to cover next. 

4) Facebook Advertising

The Facebook advertising system is a valuable tool to use. What’s neat about is it’s targeting options. For example, let’s say you have a huge fan page subscriber list built. You can advertise directly to these subscribers only. In addition to that, you can target other pages (even if their not yours). The main targeting features consist of demographics, pages, likes (such as interest), education, and connections on Facebook (which I just covered).

You can build a user base out of interested people. Therefore your advertising would be targeted towards the right audience. You can use the advertising for branding as well from a logo perspective. You are able to include your logos through the Facebook advertising platform.

Learning The Psychology of Your Friends, Consumers, Clients, and Etc

When you’re using Facebook, you are able to identify certain trends. You are able to zoom into peoples’ conversation through your news section. This allows you to learn the psychology of their social groups and the individual. This might sound kind of weird to some people, but study these areas. Take advantage of it and make it become beneficial for your client and you. You might identify a specific need in your market with certain people.

You will also be able to communicate a lot more effectively with clients. For example, let’s say you added a client to your friends list or they added you. One day, they just happen to be talking about golf. Come to find out, you are an avid golf player, you love it as well. This is a quick way to fire up a conversation and build a relationship. People will remember you for that; therefore doing business with you.

Recommended Links

• Facebook Group Vs. Facebook Fan Page
• Designing a Facebook Fan Page
• 5 Elements of a Successful Facebook Fan Page