Online Assistant

In less than five years, social media has revolutionized not only our communication culture but how we conduct business. The dizzying effect of endless and sometimes unfettered-24-hour access to people and information has transformed the various tools into a game changer.

There is a broad and increasing list of sites, including BlinkList, YouTube, Delicious, Flickr, Tumblr, BlogMarks.net, and the triumvirate of major sites: Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. These social destinations have become to business professionals and entrepreneurs what golf is to C-suite powerbrokers - a juncture to strategically network and close deals based on shared interests and personal engagement. But these sites do more by offering users valuable real estate to advertise products or services, create and expand brand recognition, solicit feedback, build relationships, and create community forums. Users also have unprecedented access to consumers, hiring managers, prospective clients, industry experts, and opportunities.

Moreover, social media levels the playing field by allowing anyone access without restrictions on time, location, or social status.

The most diligent and creative players are reaping huge benefits. According to a report from Forrester Research, 55.6 millíon U.S. adults - just shy of one-third of the population - visited social networks at least monthly in 2009, a jump from 18% in 2008. Recent Nielsen research says Americans spend nearly 25% of their time online on social networks and blogs, up from nearly 16% a year ago.

The initial foray into social media can be daunting and bewildering. Newcomers to the space might wonder: Who's reading? Will I be heard or noticed? Isn't it all just fun and games? Isn't it invasive? Making the effort worthwhile requires time, patience, and a work-smart-not-hard strategy. Whether you're an entrepreneur or a corporate professional, the success of marketing your products, businesses, or your personal brand will be determined by how well you engage interest on the varying platforms. In part one of a series on social media strategies, Black Enterprise offers some tips to get you connected.

Finding out who your customers are and how they like to be served is essential for the success of any business. Questions and surveys offered on social media platforms can help business owners quickly access that information. Jason Burton, social media strategist and marketing director of Lab 5702, a boutique marketing firm in Kansas City, Missouri, says such data can help you position your product to broader groups outside your initial base of contacts. "Put your product in front of the trendsetters or the next level of users," he suggests. "Targeted searches let you drill down beneath the surface to find followers and potential influencers that can use or promote your product or service."

Location-based social mapping services such as Foursquare, Google Latitude, Loopt, Facebook Places, and MyTown allow consumers to benefit from their influence. For example, if you visit your favorite flower shop in Tucson and tweet it to your followers, you get $2 off your purchase. The greater the network and influence, the bigger the discount. These services also enable users to find friends and events; share locations, updates, tips, photos, and comments; and share across online social networks and blogs. Loopt has more than 4 million registered users and partnerships with every major U.S. mobile phone carrier and is available on more than 100 smartphones, including the iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android. Google Latitude and Foursquare boast more than 3 million users each. Greater social media interactivity has been facilitated by mobile apps such as ÜberTwitter, MobileLinked IM, and Nimbuzz. According to a Juniper Research report, the number of downloads from mobile application stores is expected to rise from fewer than 2.6 billion per year in 2009 to more than 25 billion in 2015.

Carmen Hudson, CEO of Tweetajob in Seattle, oversaw employer branding campaigns when she was senior manager of talent acquisition for Yahoo and has witnessed the shift in recruitment practices. "Companies are cultivating and marketing a brand that attracts and is attractive to certain types of candidates," she explains. For companies such as Yahoo, Starbucks, Apple, and Microsoft, social media is increasingly at the forefront of that strategy. Recruiters will, for instance, use LinkedIn to create a search stream of attributes to find precisely the type of candidates hiring managers are looking for with minimal time and fuss. Moreover, Hudson adds, "They're also looking at how many followers you have. Do you have a strong network? If you're an expert, friends and/or follower numbers are strong indicators of that."

A Jump Start Social Media survey of hiring managers indicates that 66% go to LinkedIn to find candidates for openings, 23% go to Facebook, and 16% to Twitter. "Job seekers who frequently post and update profiles are nimble and often get to job opportunities first," Hudson says. "Recruitment officers can execute a well-rounded and more diverse search, through a search stream of attributes because they now can meet candidates where they play," says Hudson. At the same time, companies can promote the brand and the company message, which gives the job seeker a more informed perspective on the companies as potential employers.

• A blogging platform such as WordPress or Blogspot is essential, advises Warren Laidler, webmaster and creative director of DeLite Multimedia in New York City. Blogs have greater potential for organic leads because their content-rich nature makes them more search engine friendly. Search engines love content-driven platforms and rank them higher than static websites. "Think of your blog as a launch pad or hub for your enterprise. Your social media efforts should lead back to your blog or website, which should be dynamic and informative, providing content and information that encourages visitors not only to return, but to distribute your content to their network."

• Blogs or websites should contain SEO, or search engine optimized, keywords and phrases that help visitors find the business when they search via Google, Yahoo, Bing, and others. Laidler also suggests pulling in RSS feeds and useful links into your blog. "RSS feeds allow you to import content from outside sources and are a great way to share information that visitors find interesting."

• Work on engagement and consistency. For example, your Twitter timeline should be a combination of original updates, retweets, or shares from other sources, replies from connections, inspirational quotes, and trending topics. A standard formula is two to four tweets per day. Positive activity can also blossom quickly and create buzz that reaches well beyond a businesses' core audience. In the virtual world, consumers and job seekers can become influencers and trendsetters by persuading their network to take action or purchase a product or service. Laidler suggests using tools like Klout or Twittergrader.com to measure your social media influence and find out the reach of your Twitter posts.

Most entrepreneurs wanting to start a business make the mistake of using their savings, maxing out their credit cards or borrowing from family, friends or banks to get started. The reason they fall into this trap is because mistakenly they believe this is the only way they can become business owners.

It is important to understand that starting a business in this new Information Age and Knowledge Era, does not require the large funding previously needed in the old, traditional Industrial Age business model. This means the entrepreneur has the ability to start a profitable and reputable business with little to no money out of pocket.

If you are currently planning to start a business, consider the following 7 tips to start a virtual business instead of an offline one. Even if you already started a brick-and-mortar business, you can still apply these tips to your back-office operations:

Don't delay starting your business because of lack of funds. Hundreds, if not thousands of highly successful virtual businesses get started everyday. In the next 5 to 10 years, all if not most businesses will be run this way. By the simple act of implementing new business model strategies from the start, you have puts yourself miles ahead of the competition.

In cases where the business owner fails to adapt to this new information age business model, the speed to business failure greatly accelerates. If you talked in today's terms, it would be like using telex machines and telegraphs to conduct day-to-day operations.

A virtual business allows a company to be geographically dispersed. It allows it to meet and support its customers wherever they are located. Employees can work from anywhere, at any time, at any pace; all accessible, networked and coordinated via internet applications.

There are many different methods of marketing your business website, on-line shop or e-commerce website, but for many business owners there seems to be a bit of confusion between what is considered generic back link building and what is a true social marketing campaign, and more to the point what is the aim of each marketing strategy?

Different SEO and web marketing companies will of course employ different methodologies to promote a site and more often than not you get what you pay for so to speak. Equally there is bound to be a crossover in campaign strategies the debate of which could go on for months, but the purpose of this article is to highlight the key differences and aims of each type of campaign not what any single campaign should contain.

Typically the aim of a generic search engine marketing campaign (SEM) is to develop relevant and targeted anchor text back links to specific pages on your website to improve your site's link profile and authority in the eyes of the search engines.

This of course is all aimed at improving your website ranking and to ensure your website becomes "known" in the search engines for the particular key phrases you are most interested in ranking for.

Low level or cheap link building services often include article marketing, content distribution and directory submissions, although most professional SEO practioners will probably dismiss directory submissions as the quality of these links is generally very poor at best and sometimes dubious also.

Low level or cheap link building services can also take advantage of what have become known as social websites; typically these are in the form of blogs and other Web 2.0 properties and even low level social bookmarking sites. Forum posting just for the sake of links would also fall under this category.

The quality of budget link building services can vary wildly but they are not to be sneezed at though, as in many cases especially in less competitive or tight niches, they can prove to be very effective indeed and are often all that is needed to rank a site well.

Social marketing campaigns are quite different to generic search engine marketing campaigns although there can be a degree of crossover in many cases. A true social marketing campaign is much more focussed to generating leads and brand awareness as well as meeting the targeted marketplace in its own backyard.

A social marketing campaign however is also generally considered to be much further up the evolutionary tree of link building so to speak and while it will still develop and reward you with good quality back links to your site, social marketing campaigns are generally of much higher quality in both their make up and also can require a significant amount of planning and preparation.

Typically social marketing campaigns will take advantage of prime and highly focussed Web 2.0 properties and business networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, Ecademy and so on, as well as other complementary web sites and social bookmarking sites such as StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit and Del.icio.us to name but a few.

The aim of a good social marketing campaign is not to specifically develop back links per se (although this is bound to happen) but to develop either brand or business awareness in a defined market place where the products or services you or your company supply will or could be in demand.

It is also to establish you or your company as an industry authority, go to person or trusted advisor, or even a business that can help other people solve their own problems or critical business issues by the provision of quality goods and services.

While the advantages of a social marketing campaign are undeniable, there are a number of downsides which it pays to be acutely aware of.

The main downside of social marketing campaigns is the sheer amount of time and work that needs to be maintained to develop a business's authority or profile across many sites.

These types of campaigns are very hands-on and involve ongoing social networking and subtle promotion of a business or brand as well as the generation of useful/helpful relevant content either for general publication or for posting on your site as quality information pages or blog posts, or as donated content for other complementary sites that are not in direct competition to yours.

It may be for example that you want to develop a profile on forums relevant to the markets you are trying to penetrate by posting quality useful help and advice (not just a link post), but if not kept up-to-date or live these profiles can quickly lose ground and your on-line identity will fade.

Most businesses pursuing social marketing campaigns as an ongoing strategy will be spending at least 10-20 hours plus a week in one form or another and although this can be outsourced (often at considerable cost), typically this is done in-house by either the business owner or the marketing person, primarily because the business has the internal product or service expertise to maintain a long term focus and generate quality content.

The correct or most successful strategy required for each business will vary tremendously which is why most SEO professionals will not even conduct a web marketing campaign without some form of initial consultancy or competitive market assessment.

If time is not one of your assets or your budget is tight, then a generic link building campaign may be all that is affordable to you, but if you are in a competitive market and serious about your on-line business then it simply does not make good business sense to second guess your requirements.

Bite the bullet and employ the services of an SEO consultant even if only for initial consultancy as the advice you receive more often than not will be highly beneficial to the success of your on-line venture.

When you are using Twitter as part of your Internet marketing plan, you need to give it time to work. Twitter results take a while to appear, because it is one of the more long-term strategies. You will have to build up your networks and following, and if you use the correct strategies, it will happen in a timely manner. However, do not start a Twitter campaign if you are not going to see it through to completion, because an unattended Twitter account is worse than no account at all.

Once you have built a good Twitter following, then you want to market with a gentle touch. Instead of using 'in your face' marketing tactics, pose a question where your product or service is the answer. Tweet that there are updates on your company's blog instead of trying to cram the information into your tweet, and people that want to know more will click through to your blog.

Always respond when your followers tweet you. If you do not keep up with your following, it will begin to crumble. If you have too large of a following to maintain, then outsource your retweets or assign an employee to monitor and reply to your followers.

Twitter is an interactive marketing tool, and because of this it is valuable in two ways. While it is instrumental in getting your message out, it is also hugely helpful in taking the pulse of your customers. So make sure that your Twitter marketing efforts start strong and more importantly stay strong.

Marketing on the internet offers the potential for many to become 'independent' from the bonds of a job however it is not for everybody. The single biggest contributing factor for business success on the internet is having the ambition to do what it takes to get the job done. Not 'the ambition' that comes with a 'spurt' of enthusiasm but the more deeply ingrained drive to persevere through the inevitable challenges you WILL encounter along the way.

Here are 5 of the most common reasons many people 'choose' to quit prematurely in their pursuit for online success in business.

Pursuing any type of business venture requires a map or strategy as to how you are going to achieve what it is you are trying to accomplish. A business plan strategy needs to be put together to help you pull together your own efforts in a coordinated fashion and without one you are literally chasing your tail. Without a strategy this leads to frustration quickly which then leads to giving up.

As enthused as many may be about 'forging' their own futures on the internet they quickly find out that it will require an investment of at least effort on their part.

Being your own boss comes with its own pitfalls and in this case it is there will be no one telling you what to do. Hey, that is good isn't it? Not necessarily since far too many are in need being given directions and lack the necessary work motivation to get the job done.

Being able to motivate yourself to do something (work) that is not too appealing to begin with and all without seeing 'instant' results requires a strong inner drive and focus. Sadly many lack these characteristics which will be needed to accomplish the success they are looking for online.

Goal planning is also a key component for any successful business. How are you going to succeed when you do not know what it is you are striving for? Goal planning involves setting realistic and achievable objectives that are essentially stepping stones that will move you closer to the desired results you seek.

If you do not take the time to do this you will be without direction and once again get frustrated and quit.

We all gain more confidence as our experience in a particular field grows. Starting out online however it is safe to assume that most everybody lacks the experience since the internet is a relatively new frontier. Our confidence level as a result is non-existent and for many this is more discomfort then they can handle.

Working online you must have the ability to accept that you will have a lot to learn and the resolve to stick with it but again not everybody possesses that ability. The result is that with the first challenge or perhaps minor set back, many will be convinced they can not succeed at online marketing and quit.

This is a strange phenomenon of the human mind but many are so afraid of failing at something that they are more comfortable with not even trying. Fear of failure can hold back even the most talented and intelligent amongst us and it is certainly no different for people working online.

This is closely related to a lack of confidence except that lacking confidence at least involves making an attempt whereas fearing failure demonstrates 'quitting' before they even attempt anything.

Marketing on the internet can be very challenging but the financial rewards are worth the effort. The opportunity for anyone to achieve success in business online is a realistic one however many fail to do so. Often times this 'failure' is due to the simple fact they do not possess the ambition needed to succeed. In a way striving for business success on the internet can be a 'gut check' for many as they realize the level of their own self motivation. As these 5 common reasons we sited above for people quitting' before' they succeed online illustrates it often can be the obstacles inside of us that keep us from our dreams!

What is it about us KKR fans that makes us so passionate about our team, our cricket? Why do we have the biggest fan club in the IPL, convincingly doubling the number of fans any of the past champions have? Consider these numbers and facts before we move ahead in this blog.

Four teams have won 2 games out of the 5 that they’ve played. The teams that have these stats are CSK, DD, KKR, and RR. The Royals won the first IPL, the Super Kings and the Daredevils were semi finalists in both IPL years, and the KXIP were semi finalists in the first edition. The Kolkata Knight Riders remain the only team in this group of teams with similar statistics who have not performed satisfactorily in either of the two years.

Yet, you’d be hard pressed to find as many fans that are as distraught as we are. The team stands on the 6th position in the league standings, so all is not yet lost. There are still loads of games to come and what we do now is what matters.

We were beaten convincingly by the Mumbai Indians on the 22nd of March. We should’ve used the start provided by Ganguly and Gayle. We should’ve launched an attack after 10 overs, knowing that even a wicket an over from here meant that we would complete our stipulated 20. But we didn’t. Call it team strategy or lack of hitting ability, or a bad batting track. We should’ve bowled better, Bond and Ishant should’ve maintained a better line and length and Karthik should’ve taken Tendulkar’s catch. All these ‘should haves’ make an interesting conversation, but what we need to do now is change from ‘what we should have’ and talk about ‘what we can’.

Take a look at what happened in the past two years in IPL. Last year DC won 7 matches and lost 7 matches! RCB won 8 and lost 6. And they made it to the finals. In IPL 2008, CSK lost 6 matches and they made it to the finals too. The tournament is demanding, but its main advantage is that teams can make a comeback even after being on the brink of extinction.

We have our next match on the 27th against the Kings XI Punjab. A lot of days to consider and reconsider our strategy, team composition, our strengths, and our weaknesses. Let’s not discard our team as repeaters of history. Our support is what makes the team.

Korbo, Lorbo, Jeetbo re! We are on the back foot, but we haven’t lost out. There are many more miles to go and many more promises to keep.

Every day, my inbox is filled with emails promoting yet another new marketing strategy or promising results that will cure all of my marketing ills. Most of the strategies are flash-in-the-pan. Here today and gone tomorrow because the next new strategy has been discovered. A few newer strategies have proven to have staying power over time, like social networking, which took a long time to grow on me. I've learned the hard way not to be an early adopter of new marketing strategies -- I tend to sit back and watch the fallout to see if something is worth my time and energy.

As I reflect back on my early years in business, I often felt like a dog chasing my tail. I used to run and run quickly in one direction chasing one marketing idea, and then reverse course, chasing my tail in another direction when hearing about the next "greatest thing." What resulted from my helter-skelter marketing? Not much. I was going in too many directions at once and trying to keep too many balls in the air to create a truly successful marketing plan that really helped promote my business.

Here's the marketing secret I wished I'd learned early on: Adopt the marketing strategy that best fits with your gifts, talents, and interests, or in other words: Do what you're good at. Yep, it's that simple. I knew that this was good advice for pursuing a career or starting a business, but I never realized how well it applied to marketing my company.

Roughly 4 years into my business it suddenly dawned on me that I had always been a good writer. Supervisors, teachers, friends, and colleagues had often complimented me on my writing, but I dismissed the praise because I found writing to be a taxing chore that gave me a massive headache. It wasn't until I learned how to write for myself in my own voice, rather than structuring my writing to meet the criteria of others, that I truly began to enjoy putting hands on the keyboard.

This love for writing made me a natural for my now-favorite marketing strategy, article marketing. Why do I love it? Because it's easy for me. Sometimes scarily easy. However, I discovered that having a skill for a strategy isn't enough to be successful. Even at this point my marketing continued to be hit or miss. There was still something missing from the mix.

After hearing a great talk by a coaching colleague about how he structured his time, I finally realized what was the key component missing from my marketing strategy and the missing component was the same for the bulk of the other entrepreneurs sitting in the room with me. The #1 marketing mistake made by the majority of online business owners is: Lack of consistency. Once you determine where your talent lies and how you can integrate that into a workable marketing plan, then you need to commit to implementing that plan consistently over time.

Could it possibly be that simple? In a nutshell, yes. I committed to making 1-2 new posts on my blog each week. This is only the tip of the iceberg describing what I do for marketing, but consistency was the catalyst that propelled me to a successful online marketing strategy that I've been implementing now for 5 years.

My results? I no longer chase after clients. They find me online. 100% of my business comes from my web site, internet marketing, or word-of-mouth referrals. I do no in-person networking at all any longer. My web site screens out those clients who aren't a good fit and invites those who are. I enjoy running a thriving business from my home office with only a 5-second commute. I create a work schedule that works best for me and my colleagues, which gives me the flexibility to leave my college early if I want and catch a matinee without having to submit a vacation request form to anyone. I am happy and healthy. I make more money now than I ever made by working for someone else.

To Budding entrepeneurs, I would like to recommend these packages which would help you build your Business up to the next level - Affiliate Cloner which help you sell Affiliate products with your own salesletters and Norabots Unlimited Smart Autoresponders which helps you keep your customers in touch with the Smart Follow Up Autoresponder System.

Take inventory of your skills and abilities, and see how you can easily integrate those into a marketing strategy that will be easy for you to implement. Once you decide on your strategy, commit to implementing it consistently over time, and enjoy your results!