I know it’s been a long time since I’ve written. We have just passed the two year anniversary of losing everything in the house fire. It has been a long haul of hard work, sorrows and exhaustion with, and I’m being brutally honest here, very little joy. Under-insured we found ourselves in some tight predicaments and it didn’t help that once my family was emotionally settled, I slipped into many days of dark depression.

Some days, I’m still there.

Today, however, I’m on fire and excited about online marketing again. Web 2.0 properties still get me excited over their power in every aspect of promoting a business online.

You see you can only walk away from your online business for so long until:

1. your search engine rankings slip,
2. your strength of presence on Web 2.0 sites slip,
3. and with that, your income slips.

That’s when you’ve got to pull up your socks and get busy.

Marketing on eHow

If you’ve been with me for any length of time you’ll remember the day I introduced you to Squidoo.

You’ll remember when I taught how to publish and market on HubPages.

If you took decisive action back then I have no doubt that you gained a consistent stream of traffic, an increase in your search engine rank and – as it stands to reason – subscribers and sales.

eHow is a similar story, although much quicker in time to task.

When I came out of ‘the dark place’ I started at square one with my keyword research. Every string of phrases that I love to rank for showed top results from eHow.

eHow is a powerhouse. Tens of thousands of pages on just as many topics and it’s growing in leaps and bounds daily. User generated content wins every time. I talked about this in my 2005 newsletter from the Stampede Secret remember?

eHow Particulars

You can share in the ad revenue (if you’re USA based). I never bother with this anyway. It’s usually pennies on Adsense dollars that aren’t worth all the hard work. I usually leave it all to the Web 2.0 property for operating costs or in the case of Squidoo, for charities.

You won’t get ‘link love’ from them.

The main reason you want to publish an eHow article is for the Resources box. Write a great little keyword-rich article (400 words suffices), that references your site as the authority. Sure, google may not give you any rank for the link but the spiders will take note and humans will click it.

The best part? I’m in the #1 position in google for my three word key phrase. Not the eHow article. The page referenced in my resource box.

Giving Your eHow Pages An Adreneline Shot

Once I wrote the article it sat in my queue for 3 days until admins made it live. Once live, I pinged the page and RSS Feed at Pingoat (under 1 minute). For a little extra juice I submitted the RSS feed to 3 other feed directories. 2 minutes.

This strategy is what I call “promoting the promoters” and it has worked everytime I’ve done it. Whether you are linking to your money sites from a Facebook Fan page, a social bookmarking account, an article directory or any other Web 2.0 property – submit the promotion and the search engines will follow the links and do the rest.

Feel free to ask questions or comment below.

Get busy. Gain rank. Love your business.

For the first 8 years that we marketed online it was pretty simple really. Create a product, invite affiliates to promote our product and sell a bunch of copies using an auto-delivery method. This often equated to tens of thousands of dollars overnight even for the small time marketer. (I’m not kidding. On a little project of my own with a big name as a co-author we rolled over $10,000 by morning. Back in that day John Reese sold a million worth of product in the first 24 hours.)

What many of the big names then did was (a) take a long vacation, (b) take a sabbatical, and/or (c) pursue other interests – until more money was required.

Today life isn’t that easy. The web is massive. People don’t trust marketing ads. Everyone knows now to look for an affiliate link and by-pass it. The recession slowed down the buying frenzy. I could go on and on reporting on the changes – large and small – the first of which you should understand right now: Google isn’t driving the web anymore when people want to purchase information, shippable products, or online services.

Nope.

Today’s business has to be everywhere the people are – Facebook, Twitter, and so on – as well as Google. A lot more work for the marketer right?

Well, yes. But also, no.

I’m going to suggest that once you’ve created your social marketing strategy, that you learn how to romance the Web 2.0 properties a little first and as a direct result you’ll win over Google and the other search engines in the process. (Hint: Today, Google would rather ‘discover’ your content than be told. Rather like a child that way.)

Don’t believe me? Take 15 minutes looking through some of the top results for competitive keywords in Google…

Who ‘owns’ the results today? The Web 2.0 properties that’s who!

Does that mean you can’t compete in those niches? Au contraire!

Your involvement on those same sites can get you the top results and as the people come, they will also find a direct link to your business site, proposal or product, newsletter or whatever else you want to call attention to.

Well that’s a bit of work isn’t it? Not only are you now expected to build your business website but you’re also expected to be active in social networking and have content on Web 2.0 properties! Not to mention you have a business to run! Who’s got the time for all of this?

Here’s the ‘easy’ answer…

The Do Nots: Stop promoting your home page. Slow your efforts at tweaking keyword metas for search engine optimization. Give up the back-linking game. Don’t ping your pages. In fact, throw out nearly all your old ways of working and promoting in the past.

The Dos: Post excellent, keyword-rich content. Delete your massive ping list (you know you were only doing that for Google’s sake anyway). Take a (keyword-rich of course) snippet of your content and post it to your social network pages and/or Web 2.0 properties. Bookmark your new content with (keyword-rich) tags. Let Google do the rest. Repeat again starting with posting new excellent, keyword-rich content.

Who This is For: This strategy works best for those who are running one to three websites only. Marketers who are managing (should I say juggling) multiple websites in as many markets need to automate or delegate (see below). Of course I’ll always take automation from a good service over delegation because outsourcing bills add up pretty quickly but you likely have your own ideas on how you want to run your business. The automation service I’ve been using since the original beta is here – and I’ve enjoyed top ranks for very competitive keywords as a result.

Be The First, Every Time

As discussed on the top tips for YahooAnswers, it is beneficial to be the first to answer a question. Here’s an easy way to do so without spending your day on the site. This technique helps you answer more questions before others by subscribing to the RSS feed for your chosen keywords or phrases. You then receive a listing of recently asked questions that are still open and available to be answered that are related to your chosen niche markets, as they’re posted.

Here’s how to set this up:

Go to the “Advanced Search” page as discussed earlier. Search for your specific keywords (primary ones that best describe your niche) and view the results page from your search.

At the very bottom of the page in the left hand corner, you will see the option to add that search query in your RSS reader, as shown below:

Once you have added this feed to your RSS reader, you will receive updates of new questions relating to your niche market (based on the keywords you just entered).

This makes it easy to be the first to answer new questions!

Repeat this process selecting keywords for each niche market that you are involved in and wish to receive notifications of.

Use The Answers To Build Your Website

As a Yahoo Answers contributor you will begin to see a pattern emerge where the same types of questions are being asked over and over again. This is a great way to learn about the current topics that people are interested in and if you are clever enough to see the value in this, you can utilize these topics to create interesting blog posts that will capture attention and receive comments.

You can use this knowledge in other areas of your marketing and promotion. For instance, if article marketing is part of your promotion strategy write articles based on the questions that you review. Submit these articles to EzineArticles.com and other directories to generate even more traffic. It’s an easy way to research various niche markets and see just what people are interested in and/or need help with!

To make things easier, you can choose to keep track of specific questions that you plan to address by clicking on the “SAVE” option under each question. You can save it to your RSS feeder or to your private watch-list.

Making the Most of YahooAnswers Involvement

Once you get into a routine with YahooAnswers you ‘ll find that every day you log into your account, view the open questions from the RSS Feed you’ve set up (above) and type out well-crafted, helpful answers with perhaps a link back to your site as a resource or continued learning on the topic.

Dependent on your market, you might find that you are answering the same question – posted by different people – repeatedly. This is why I keep a swipe file on my desktop with the most common questions I answers.

Create A Yahoo Swipe File and Targeted Landing Pages

By creating a swipe file of previously answered questions you will be able to cut and paste your answers and cover more ground. Be sure to modify your answers whenever required so that the person posting the question believes you have answered it exclusively for them.

While this is a time-saver and a method used by a lot of Yahoo Answers marketers, be careful not to simply paste the same answer repeatedly. Every question is different and you need to ensure that you modify to your answer or change it up a bit from time to time, depending on the nature of the question.

My swipe file is a Microsoft Word document of 20 answers which I cut and paste into a question’s answer box, rewrite to keep it personal and address any particularities of the question. A question then, that you’ve grown bored with answering becomes a 30 second marketing task that moves you up in the ranks at YahooAnswers.

Consider as well the strategy of your source link for repetitive questions. You could create one page for each specific question that you answer. That page will be loaded with more (keyword-rich) information, with a link to an affiliate product or subscription form, that Yahoo will index and your readers will feel was written with their needs in mind.

Across the top of your Home page on the left half, you can see this:

The search feature is self-expanatory as it is a simple site search engine for your FriendFeed. If I want to find Seth Godin or maybe subscribe to people who are talking about him, I would type his name into the search engine and see what I can find. If I find someone worth subscribing to, I simply hover my mouse over it and click the subscribe plus sign that pops up.

Apart from using the search field let’s talk about the posting and advanced marketing options.

Post: Message

If you click on Post: Message you can do a quick, on-the-spot entry like you might in Twitter.

As an example, say you just read a bit of news or marketing related gossip that got picked up in Google Reader that was worth mentioning. Drop a line in the “Post: Message” box and send out in your FriendFeed feed.

At the bottom of this box it offers a place to insert a link, photo or comment. At the top, where you see a drop down menu, it allows you to post to your group rooms if you have made them.

Post: Link

The “Post: Link” option looks a little different as it has a link field.

Just like posting a message, here you can simply leave a text link ‘message’ about a site you want to point your friends to. What’s cool is that you can go to your browser bar, grab the bookmarklet icon and drag it into the http:// box.

Just keep in mind that all the text inside the message area becomes a hyperlink, so here is where you may want to exercise your SEO skills a bit and type in a text link.

For example, if you want to point out a particular launch of a product to call attention to, simply put in the name of the product in the blank and then paste the hyperlink into the URL box.

Then to clarify what you just hyperlinked, you can add a comment by clicking the comment button on the bottom. You can even add a photo of the product if you want to.

Can you see how powerful this could be? If you have 100s of friends that you follow and who follow you, you have quite a captive audience.

Blast out an interesting URL and start a conversation. This is just one of the many features of FriendFeed that make you more reachable as a marketer.

Finally, the “Post: Import Site” Option

This is a very powerful, often overlooked option in FriendFeed. Here you can add a feed from one of the many social sites featured in FriendFeed. Suppose you just signed up with Mister Wong. It is through this feature that you can enter your username or feed URL (depending on the site), and FF adds your Mister Wong bits to your FriendFeed stream.

Getting Personal on FriendFeed

Comments and Rooms on FriendFeed are where you can interact and position yourself as an expert in your field.

Me (Meaning You) on FriendFeed

Below the lists is “Me”. This is where you see all of your own feeds from wherever you streamed them in. In “Me”, you can see Tweets from your Twitter account, your latest YouTube features, any blog entries with comments, any photos you put up at Flickr and so on.

This is nice because you can see if you’re getting any comments or kudos for your marketing efforts. This is a way to have interaction with your peers and other loyal followers.

As marketers, we can use this to effectively monitor the pulse of anyone following us or any of our products. I can’t stress enough about how important it is to be “real” and reachable and here is just one of the many aspects of FriendFeed that does just that.

On your Me page, you can also post to your FriendFeed account, but we’ll cover that shortly because it’s also on your Home page.

Rooms on FriendFeed

Next you will see Rooms, a super cool feature of FriendFeed. Now, this feature alone makes FriendFeed stand out in the crowd. A Room is a place where you can create a smaller, tighter FriendFeed feed that is on one topic or group.

It’s not part of your main FriendFeed list (although it can be if you choose it to be).

A Room can be Public, Private or Semi-private (public can read or comment, but only admin posts). Here you can have a Room devoted to just one idea like discussing your:

• Favorite sport or sports team
• Politics
• Favorite college or frat/sorority house
• Hobby
• Antique car buffs
• Inner circle of a business
• Religious groups
• Clubs

Let your imagination run wild.

Let’s talk about how to make a room…

Click on “Rooms”. Then at the bottom of the page click on “Create a Room”.

1. You’ll fill out the standard information almost like you were creating a new FriendFeed account.
2. You’ll give the Room a name and a nickname (which becomes its FriendFeed URL, so you have to make sure it’s not already taken).
3. You’ll set the permission levels for access – choosing between public, semi public, and private.
4. Then you’ll invite people to the room. You can invite FriendFeed users or people whose email address you know.
5. You can customize the invite with some special words.

So as an example, I’m going to create a room for women Internet marketers (sorry guys). Once it’s created I can customize it by changing the picture of the group:

To the right of your Room page, you’ll see that you can manage your Room by un-joining it, inviting others, seeing who is currently a member, and going into manage mode, which lets you alter the Room settings, manage members (remove them or make them an administrator), add or edit services just like you did for your own feeds, and change the picture if you want to.

One Master marketer, Ed Dale, is wild about this feature. Imagine your Room as a “gathering” of a team or mastermind group for your business. If you have a bright idea, just pop it onto a message to the feed in that Room. All other members of the Room will get a chance to comment. You can keep up a somewhat “instant” message conversation with your whole group.

On the other hand, say you need a pep talk, drop a line in your Room in FriendFeed and before you know it, and there is help.

The idea is beginning to spread that FriendFeed Rooms could just possibly replace mailing lists. Something to think about. Maybe you will be one of the ones that give this idea a real try?

Why not use your Twitter influence to get your followers onto FriendFeed, and then begin a mastermind Room on, say “how to use social marketing most effectively” or whatever topic your followers tune into you for.

Rooms have the potential to actually be the feature which sets FriendFeed apart from all the rest of the social networking sites.

There are still more ways to use FriendFeed to your advantage – for targeted traffic, for branding, for networking with others in your industry and much more – but we’ll have to save it for another day. Spend some time adding all of your content feeds (including bookmark, blog, and social networking accounts) to FriendFeed – that time will serve you well.

This is a great tool for marketers involved in multiple niches with multiple Twitter accounts, but even if you just have one online business, you can use TwitterFeed to keep your Twitter followers updated on new posts without any extra effort on your part.

Twitterfeed needs to know your twitter username and password so it can post your blog updates to your twitter account. You can use your OpenID if you have one.

You simply need to login, add your blog’s RSS feed, and select a frequency (i.e. how often the service should check for new posts on your site).

Both RSS and Atom feeds are supported.

1. Spend some time exploring the Digg site before committing to a user account. Be sure you understand how Digg works.
2. Pay attention to user comments, and be prepared to respond as well as become an active part of the conversation.
3. Get a feel for how and why certain stories become popular. This will give you a better understanding of Digg, and also give you insight into how to make your stories and postings more popular.
4. Once you sign up for an account, plan to participate daily. A sometimes-on, sometimes-off attitude will make you appear uncommitted to fellow Diggers.
5. Try to accumulate as many friends as you can. Much like Twitter, you want as large of a network as possible. This way, you affect more people with your message and gain more feedback into what the Digg world wants.
6. Start a buddy list. This list is designed to give you a one on one ability within Digg. It allows IM use, but try to not use this feature too much or you’ll turn people off.
7. Create a thorough and complete profile of the ‘professional’ you – don’t get personal or too casual. Just like any other social marketing you use for business, this is the home base where people will be looking to find out who you are and what you’re about.
8. Hunt out the power users of the site and be friends with them. This is a huge help to you by association and for exposure.
9. Only submit content that is worth something. Don’t bombard the site or your page with worthless links and silly stories. Make sure they are interesting and relevant.
10. Send out shouts. On Digg, people can send out shouts to each other. This is the single best way to get noticed and to get some feedback, so send shouts often.
11. Keywords are very important. Just like any articles or information on your website, keywords are what get peoples’ attention, so think some through and then use them in your posting title and in your content.
12. Aim to become a top user. The top users on this website get the most notice.
13. Do your homework, find out what people are talking about, and expand on that with your own postings.
14. Learn the Digg lingo. Every website has its own unique lingo that users pick up on, so be sure you are in the know to fit in with this crowd.
15. Only keep friends who provide feedback, who link to you, and whom you can link to as well. Get rid of any friends who are just idle or who are not contributing.
16. Try to dedicate yourself to taking time each and every day to focus on content expansion and editing. Dedicating this time will really reflect on your profile.
17. Keep up on what the Digg users like and hate. For example, most Digg users love Apple, but hate Microsoft. Get a feeling for the pulse of what is popular.
18. There are more male than female users on Digg. ‘Work’ that to your advantage – you know you act differently in a room full of men vs. women socially – Digg is no different.
19. Relevant content on current topics (the environment, science, breaking news, politics, technology, and comedy) get noticed most. Brainstorm how you can relate those topics to your business.
20. Do not vote thumbs up on your own articles. This can raise a red flag and could potentially get your account removed.
21. Invoke curiosity with your story titles. This is your first line to people and the best way to get noticed and get some Diggs.
22. Descriptions are also important, so be sure to write these well and include important keywords.
23. Use real numbers instead of written numbers. This really does get more attention than a lot of people realize.
24. Try not to just comment on stories. Remember the purpose of Digg, and if you like something, Digg it!
25. Be a natural at keyword dropping without overuse. Too much of one keyword can drive people away. Digg users are savvy and will call your stories and titles spam – which it is.
26. Do not use any non-English websites or content. The temptation to post some Chinese language website links to reach out to global users might be really strong, but it’s not allowed on the website since it is an English speaking only site.
27. Subscribe to the RSS feed offered by Digg so you can keep up with the latest updates and see what is the most popular post.
28. Check the upcoming stories, link to other users’ posts, and push your way up to the top by making as many friends as you can.
29. Write about Digg. Although this may sound a little redundant, fans of Digg actually want to hear more about how to get the most out of the website.
30. Discuss the latest technology, since many people who use the site are big fans of the latest applications, websites, and electronics. Firefox noticed a large influx of users after people discussed them on Digg, and this can happen for your business as well.
31. Participate in the Digg Town Halls. The site now has occasional town hall style discussions, where you can share information, ask questions, and meet new users.
32. Be sure your content is a must see. Try to post things that have not been put up before, and make them intriguing and tantalizing. Again, this is where effective title writing comes into play.
33. Unlike some other sites, users on Digg do not like for you to ask for Diggs. Instead, let your content speak for itself.
34. Do not Digg every single thing you see. By Digging every little posting, you look less legitimate, and you’re giving certain people more credit than they actually deserve. The goal is to Digg content that is relevant and well put together, not just everyone’s postings.
35. Remind people to Digg your stuff from other sites, like your blogs and even your home page.
36. Submit a good amount of posts, but don’t overdo it. Some people will submit so much content every day that they overload the website and their profile. It’s not a attractive habit, and it can make people leery. Instead, only post a few, select things per day.
37. Think about the numbers involved with Digg, such as the number of hits per hour, number of buries, and the number of popular articles that have hit within the last day or so. All of these statistics and more are important and help you gain a better grasp of your progress.
38. Don’t try to do it all on your own. If you’re a very busy business owner or website host, recruit coworkers and friends to help post some things on Digg. As long as they follow your own personal guidelines for posting, it can be a huge help.
39. Be sure to include a picture for a thumbnail. Choose something that will get peoples’ attention and make a statement, as well as something that defines who you are.
40. Widgets are an awesome new way to get more people reading. These can be personalized so you can make them all your own, and they really add personality to your page.
41. Add the Digg button, image and all, to your company or personal website.
42. Numbered lists make for easy reading, and keep peoples’ interest. Write some content as a top 10 list, or other forms of numbered lists, which create small tidbits of information.
43. Keep in mind that the top 100 users on Digg control over half of the website’s content ranking. Pay close attention to what they are looking at and commenting on.
44. Be as unique and individual as you can. Try to stay with the feel of the site, but go against the flow with your content.
45. Be open. The users of Digg are pretty open, honest, and out there when it comes to how they feel about things. If you do not like something, don’t feel like you cannot express it. Just do so with a bit of discretion so you are not bashing people or businesses to the point of no return.
46. Focus on your audience, and decide what topics are of the most interest to them.
47. Do not make baseless claims. If you post some topics or information, do not make promises you cannot keep. It’s never a good idea to sound like a salesman or make pitches for things people may not want. Instead, entice them to your site to make a purchase with relevant content.
48. Utilize the newest buzz on Digg to your advantage. While you never want to copy others’ content, you can use the popular topics to give you fresh ideas that will draw people into your content.
49. Have fun. While the purpose of using Digg in this context is to expand your business and gain new contacts, remember to have fun!

Desktop and Mobile Applications

• Twhirl – Manage your Twitter account from this desktop application. Simplicity and time saving. Works on both MACs and PCs.
• Twitterrific – The IPhone/Mac application for Twitter.
• TwitterCounter – Check your counts and growth. See how other leaders in your markets fare.
• TwitThis – Bookmark and save your favorite tweets.

Integration and Automation

• Facebook – Adds the Twitter application within your Facebook account and every tweet also gets posted to your Facebook account.

• TweetLater – Pre-schedule tweets, get alerts on your keywords or business name, send welcome messages, easy integration to other social marketing accounts. Can handle multiple Twitter accounts from one login.
• TwitterFeed – One way to integrate your blog posts into tweets.
• TwitPic – Share interesting photos with your followers via this application. Integrate into your social business strategy with engaging captions (tweets) and increase brand awareness.

Finding Your Market

• Search.Twitter – Search for tweets on your topic. This is an amazingly fast and simple way to find your target market, your rabid crowd, the people who need or are searching for what you offer.
• Twellow – Twitter users organized by topic, business, or area of interests.
• Twitterholic – Find the users with the most followers, check how you rank. You might want to think about your strategy here and learn (through other posts and tools reviewed on SocialMarketingStrategy.com) how to get your industry’s top ranked followers to follow you as well.

1. Come up with a catchy, easy to remember username so people remember you on future questions and answers.
2. Feel free to ask some questions of your own.
3. Get as much knowledge as possible of the topics you’ve chosen to specialize in or questions you’ve chosen to answer.
4. Be sure your answers are honest and reliable. Do not give false answers just to promote yourself.
5. Do not limit to just one topic or subject. No one is one-dimensional.
6. Skim the site daily for keywords that you can jump in and answer in relation to your business.
7. Link to your website, Digg site, or blog when you answer questions.
8. Be sure to read the Terms of Service for the site and make sure you’re in compliance.
9. Do not just answer questions with a link. Be sure to answer it thoroughly first, and then suggest a link at the end in the source box.
10. Do your best to be the first to answer a question. Sign up for your keywords and phrases feed alerts. (See
11. Think about regional questions and answers. This is an excellent way to get new local customers and contacts.
12. Use keywords in the answers as long as you can do it casually and not appear spammy.
13. Check your spelling and grammar before posting the answer. Mistakes in spelling can be embarrassing and people will question your answers when you appear illiterate.
14. Always be polite. Always.
15. If you don’t know the answer, do not pretend to. People can smell a liar a mile away, so answer honestly and only the things you know about.
16. Be careful of copyright infringement. Do NOT copy and paste answers from Wikipedia unless you quote and source it in the box.
17. Be professional. Avoid slang and emoticons.
18. Try not to sound as if you’re chatting. Instead, use concise, informative language that gives a straight answer without all of the filler.
19. Be objective. Do not interject your personal opinions, no matter what the question is.
20. Do not spam. Do not spam. Do not spam.
21. You can incorporate videos into your answers as long as they are yours.
22. Vote on other peoples’ answers and questions, and make your presence known.
23. Aim to get your Top Contributor Badge. Readers will take your answers a lot seriously if you earn this honor.
24. Never discuss politics.
25. Although some answers require a link to other retailers or online stores, as a business it’s not a good idea to lead people to anywhere other than your website, or sites that relate to your business niche.
26. Read the community guidelines carefully on the site before posting any answers on it.
27. Worried about linking too often to your own website? You can cross promote sites that link to your site (i.e., your Twitter, a bookmarking profile, etc.)
28. Utilize tools that can help you to scour Yahoo Answers, and help you use the website effectively.
29. Beware of spamming and over posting. Other users will complain and Yahoo will ban or suspend your account.
30. Keyword phrases should be three to five words, and the rest of the content should just be the answer.
31. Try not to answer too many questions under one account each day. You can create more than one account at a time so try to switch between them.
32. Never answer your other account’s questions.
33. You must use HTTP protocol links on the site; anchor links do not work.
34. New answers to questions can be posted through RSS sign up, so use that for your questions and see what other people are saying. It’s a good way to see what the competition or other users are saying.
35. YahooAnswers relies on users pointing out spammers and trolls so do your part to report these infractions. You can remain anonymous to the person who is getting reported.
36. As things change, make sure your questions change as well. In other words, current events related or technology related questions might need some updating later on as new information emerges.
37. If you feel as though your answers have been flagged or there are issues, contact the staff at Yahoo Answers and let them know immediately.
38. Try to find questions that ask a solution to a problem, particularly ones that your business or service can fix.
39. Link to other sites besides your own, as long as they lead back to yours in some way, it will be beneficial. Too many links to your own site is spam.
40. Take a break from time to time, so people do not notice you’re posting all day, all over the place.
41. Do not try to sell something with your answers. Instead, provide helpful information, and then suggest the links without pushing it.
42. Figure out what works and what does not and constantly try to develop new strategies with your questions and answers.
    ]]> http://www.socialmarketingstrategy.com/fast-track-yahooanswer-marketing/feed/ 0 http://www.socialmarketingstrategy.com/twitter-business-use/ http://www.socialmarketingstrategy.com/twitter-business-use/#comments Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:44:45 +0000 Laura Childs http://www.socialmarketingstrategy.com/?p=739 If you’re using Twitter for business outreach and promotion, consider the top X Twitter tips for business when setting up your profile and designing your social marketing.
    1. Add your Twitter profile to your business cards, your website, and in email signatures. In face to face and casual meetings and introductions, when exchanging contact information don’t stop at phone numbers and emails, ask for Twitter profile names and share yours.

    2. Tweet from conferences and trade shows to update your customers and peers on what you’re seeing and doing. This shows them that you’re being proactive and it’s a lot of fun as well. You can tell them some funny things you might be seeing at the trade show,
       or maybe inform them of an interesting vendor you’ve hooked up with. By sharing your experiences as you go along, you’re garnering more interest in what is happening with your business.

    3. Choose your networking buddies carefully. You don’t have to simply befriend every person you can that requests you or vice versa on Twitter. Network instead with noteworthy business associates, competitors, and peers. Look for fellow executives or business owners who work within your market. Then, follow their progress, look for advice, and of course, offer some of your own. By befriending people who are in the same line of work as you, you’ll get an insider’s look at how their successes compare to yours.
    4. If your company is large or your employees diverse, allow a few employees to Tweet on company time about company business. This way customers get to know others in the business and it adds depth and diversity for the business, and gives clients and prospects a cast of characters to follow instead of a faceless, nameless company.
    5. Share publicly acceptable facts about your business on Twitter – i.e. your business growth, charts, statistics, awards, and other factual data.
    6. Stay on top of what other people are tweeting about your company. If you find tweets about you, join the conversation. Thank them for compliments, or attempt to make good if they have a legitimate complaint. Remember that you’re never 100% safe from someone who might try to talk negatively about you, your website, or anything else on Twitter. Be sure to use this to your advantage in a diplomatic way. Set up an account at Tweet Later to be notified by email whenever anyone tweets on your topic, business name, or keyword.
    ]]> http://www.socialmarketingstrategy.com/twitter-business-use/feed/ 0 http://www.socialmarketingstrategy.com/top-six-to-automate-tweets/ http://www.socialmarketingstrategy.com/top-six-to-automate-tweets/#comments Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:11:13 +0000 Laura Childs http://www.socialmarketingstrategy.com/?p=732 There are a lot of ways to use or customize Twitter that the average user doesn’t even know exists. This quick article is for business owners who don’t have time to discover all the techniques and social marketing strategies possible with Twitter but are fully aware that they ‘need’ to start using it. These are all are easy to implement without getting lost in a sea of geek terms and instructions.

    The tips below are for automating your tweets so you don’t have to be a slave to the machine, whether you’re tweeting from a browser or your mobile phone. You’ll find more fast tips for Twitter in other posts – what to Tweet about, tones of your Tweets, special business promotions, and advanced Twitter features are all to follow.

    For complete Newbies to Twitter I’d suggest reading all the tips in this series until you land on one that is relevant to your target market and then put it into practice. Once you’re comfortable with the Twitter interface and application, move onto a new tip to integrate into your business marketing.

    To get right to my top tool for Twitter automation (there are others and other methods, but that one is my favorite. Below are ways to put the tool to best use and the reasons why.

    1. Once you’re tweeting and have followers, do not stop abruptly or you’ll lose your market share and the attention of your peers, your customers and network. Remember that a vital facet of marketing – online or off – is getting yourself in the way of the customer once they’re ready to commit. If you aren’t already a household name or on the tip of everyone’s tongue, you’d better keep tweeting on a regular basis. If your lifestyle is changing and you can’t tweet three times a day anymore, wean your contacts over two weeks to only hearing from you once every few days. If regular tweets are too much to manage right now, sign up for an automation service and load up your tweet sequence to manage your marketing until you can get back to a regularly scheduled program.

    2. Automated Tweet services help you prioritize your own marketing tasks as well as keep up to date on messages from your competitors. You can sign up for alerts on topics, search terms, or keywords for notification, so that the topics important to you will be delivered daily.
    3. Automating your Twitter posts is not evil and it reaps sweet benefits. These tools are no different than a marketing auto-responder that allow you to type tweets in advance. Plan ahead, select the dates and times, and they will post to your account on schedule. A fantastic time saver!
    4. Use automated tweets to supplement your own hands-on messages. Fill up your future tweets with a different message each day that filters user traffic to existing articles on your website, incredible free offers, or anything else you find appropriate to promote. Automation is a great way to increase awareness of your brand, your beliefs, your knowledge and offerings – that they might not know about previously.
    5. If they weren’t interested in what you had to say, they wouldn’t have added you, so don’t be shy. You should be updating your followers on a regular basis – be a good leader, but don’t posture or flaunt. This is all about the ‘connection’ between you and your target market.
    6. Help people stay updated through a Twitter ‘feed’ that runs on your website or WordPress blog via a widget. This style of automation is ‘hands off’, a set it and forget it, allowing new Twitter posts each time you publish an article and/or your Twitter posts to show up in your blog’s sidebar.
    ]]> http://www.socialmarketingstrategy.com/top-six-to-automate-tweets/feed/ 0 http://www.socialmarketingstrategy.com/top-ten-to-yahoo/ http://www.socialmarketingstrategy.com/top-ten-to-yahoo/#comments Mon, 05 Oct 2009 02:49:50 +0000 Laura Childs http://www.socialmarketingstrategy.com/?p=708 This post is a continuation of the social marketing strategy outlined for YahooAnswers. If you haven’t set up your account on Yahoo nor understand the theory behind the Question-Answer strategy, please review the first post before proceeding.
    1. Focus on answering recent questions, posted within the first three hours.
    2. Always post a relevant website link in the Source box using a URL that sounds similar to the topic. (e.g. If I was answering a question regarding weight loss, I would create a landing page specific to that niche and include it in the source box: yourdomain.com/weight_loss_tips.html)
    3. Answer questions as thoroughly as you can. The more specific you are with your answers, the better chance you have of being selected as the top choice.
    4. After your limits are raised and you are able to answer more questions each day, start answering questions regardless of when they were posted (older ones are fine at this point). Every answer you submit will be included in Yahoo’s search engine results page regardless of how old the original question was.
    5. Be sure to include your keyword (that you are optimizing for) in your answer as best as you can. You can also add your URL (using a href tag) but if you do this incorrectly and your answer reeks of spam, you will not be chosen as the top answer and in some cases your answer may be removed completely.
    6. It isn’t just Yahoo’s search engine that will pick up your answers (and links). Google may also spider your answers and give you credit for a back-link to be sure to answer as many questions as you can each day, until you reach your limit.
    7. Stick with it. Building an impressive portfolio and developing your back-links takes time but if you create a strategy where you are answering questions on a daily basis, incorporating your keywords into your answers and linking to your websites within the source boxes you will see results relatively quickly.
    8. The more effort you put into answering questions thoroughly and being chosen as the top answer the more traffic your website will receive. Always keep this mind when you are answering questions. While quantity is important, so is quality!
    9. Since you are answering questions across a variety of categories and niche markets, be sure that you know enough about the subject to provide a helpful response. If you answer a question incorrectly, your credibility will wear down. It is important that you focus on answering questions relating to topics that you are familiar with. If you are unsure about a question take a few minutes to research the correct answer before posting. It is not possible to edit your answers once they are published!
    10. Don’t underestimate the power of custom landing pages. Instead of directing people to the main page of your website, creating specific pages where you can lead people to find out more information, while sticking to the topic or subject that you are answering. This way you will avoid confusing your visitors who are simply looking for additional information about specific topics.
    11. Points & More Points. You will receive points for answering questions (2 points per answer), 10 points for being selected as the best answer and an additional point for every answer you vote on. When you are building your levels it is important to collect as many points as you can so by voting on answers submitted by other people you are able to generate more points quickly, however you must be a LEVEL 2 to be able to vote on answers, so do your best to get to that level as soon as possible. As you begin to earn points and answer more questions, you will become a top contributor and a badge will appear near your avatar picture. Once you are a top contributor you will be selected more often as the “best answer” and more people will view your answers, profile and your websites. (Social Proof!)

    Okay, I realize there are actually eleven tips in the list. Just a little bonus to keep you excited about the power of this easy to implement social marketing strategy.

    ]]> http://www.socialmarketingstrategy.com/top-ten-to-yahoo/feed/ 0 http://www.socialmarketingstrategy.com/yahoo-answers-strategy/ http://www.socialmarketingstrategy.com/yahoo-answers-strategy/#comments Mon, 05 Oct 2009 02:16:52 +0000 Laura Childs http://www.socialmarketingstrategy.com/?p=694 Targeted traffic. Every website owner wants it, will jump hoops, pay through the nose per click, tweak source code, submit feeds – on and on – to get more of it. Yet when you’re actively involved in your market you can get all kinds of free traffic to your offers, subscription forms, and web pages just by doing what you do best – answering questions.

    This is especially true if you own a retail shop or are marketing books that you’ve authored, but it is also true for service oriented companies on a local level. Think about it – you’re the expert, people walk into your shop, stop you on the street or call in to ask questions all the time. They’re considered a ‘warm’ prospect at that point.

    Now imagine an online location where all of these potential prospects can be found, asking questions that you could be answering – all the while positioning yourself as the expert on a global scale. Utopia, yes? In fact there are more than 21 million unique users in the U.S. and 90 million worldwide using Yahoo Answers right now, just waiting for your help. In return you’ll be rewarded with rank, traffic, sales and subscribers – whichever you’re after – or all four.

    This social marketing strategy will be presented in a step-by-step format that you’ll easily be able to incorporate into your existing marketing hours. In fact if you put all the other stuff on automation – Twitter updates and campaigns, and bookmarking-syndication-commenting-voting – you’ll have time to manage an hour of day of this very hands-on approach. You should also see results quickly – seeing just how powerful this strategy is when analyzing your traffic and seeing just how much Yahoo Answers sends. YahooAnswers is, after all, the largest knowledge-sharing community on the Web.

    Step One: Open a Yahoo Answers Account

    You will need a Yahoo Answers account to be able to answer open questions. You will be able to create your account using your current Yahoo messenger account if you already have an ID.

    

    Step Two: Complete Your Profile

    Once you have created a Yahoo Answers account and are logged in, you will be able to create or edit your profile. You should take a few minutes to fill out as much as information as you would like to share and then save your information.

    You can choose to allow Yahoo Answer members to contact you via messenger, or keep this information private. You can also enable “email contact” if you would like to receive comments via email, or you can choose to disable all contact other than through the questions that you answer.

    When you edit your profile it is recommended that you add a photo or customize an avatar. It’s important to brand yourself and this is an easy way to make your profile more memorable as your photo will appear within your answers.

    Step Three: Get to Know Yahoo Answers

    From the main Yahoo Answers page you will see categories listed on the left hand side. This is where questions are posted and grouped according to their subject matter. This is also where you will go when choosing the different types of questions that you would like to answer, and depending on the niche markets that you are involved in, you might find yourself answering a variety of questions from different categories and groups.

    You’ll find the question and answer screens wonderfully organized into topics such as:

    • Arts and Humanities

    • Beauty and Style
    • Business and Finance
    • Cars and Transportation
    • Computers and Internet
    • …and so on, with many sub-level topics.

    It should go without saying that before you begin answering questions you should have an idea of what you plan to promote – this isn’t always clear to marketers who have their hands in many markets. It would be wise to create a profile for each market you delve into to avoid confusion and maintain focus in your efforts as well as your prospects view. Each time you answer a question, you can include a “SOURCE” in a secondary box that accompanies your response. This is an easy way to promote your websites and direct people to find out more information about the topic of their question.

    
    

    You should also browse previously answered questions so that you can get a feel for the way other people have answered and addressed different questions, paying attention to those answers that were selected as being the “TOP” response.

    As you begin answering questions, you may run into a series of questions that are no longer open. Here is a breakdown of the life cycle of a question from the time it is first posted:
    

    Questions that are “Resolved” are typically closed from receiving future follow ups while questions that are marked “Undecided” have not yet received a “TOP” vote.

    Questions are open for only four days but the original poster can extend the period for a few extra days or if a question has been resolved, they can close it before that time period has ended.

    It’s important to answer questions as thoroughly as you can and avoid spamming your websites within your answers. In fact, there are few times where including your website URL within the answer is acceptable at all. If those viewing your response feel that it is spam you will not receive votes and your answer may be removed entirely. Therefore, you should try to keep your websites within the “Source” box only. Those who liked your answer are likely to follow your link to find out more especially if you are careful to answer questions that pertain to your niche market.

    Start Promoting!

    Due to the large number of people answering questions every minute of the day, it is important that you are quick when responding to open questions. As mentioned above, you must also do your best to answer the question as thoroughly as possible and be sure to address the person who posted the question by name (whenever possible). This has been known to increase your chances of being voted as “best answer” since the original poster feels that you are taking your time to address them personally.

    Quick Tip: There is a built in spell checker available. Use it whenever possible to minimize spelling errors.

    Remember that the ultimate goal is to be selected as the best answer (Top Answer) because the more often you are selected the more exposure your answer, profile and website will receive.

    The Points System

    As a member of Yahoo Answers you will earn points for each question that you answer. You will also discover that there are limits on the number of questions that you can answer each day until you build up your levels.

    Here is a breakdown of the different levels that you can reach depending on the amount of points you receive every day. (For the first week you will be focusing on building up your levels so that you can answer more questions by increasing your daily limit. Those who reach Level 4 can answer an unlimited number of questions every day.

    

    When you start out you begin at Level 1. You are able to answer 20 questions every day at this level. In the first day it is possible for you to earn 140+ points by answering 20 questions and you will earn more for every answer that is selected as the ‘top choice’.

    You will be able to view your Points and Level on the main page of Yahoo Answers (on the right hand side) under your name. Here is an overview of how the points are accumulated.

    

    When you begin answering questions you should focus on targeting your main niche until your levels increase and you are able to answer as many questions as you like. That way, you can start driving traffic to your site right away, despite being limited to only 20 questions a day.

    Locating Specific Niche Related Questions

    To find niche-specific questions that are still open for answering, click on the “Advanced Search” link to get started. You will find this at the top of the Yahoo Answers website once you are logged in.

    

    Once you have loaded up the Advanced Search page you will be able to enter in keywords that are relevant to your niche market. You can also minimize any time wasted by being certain to only search for questions that are still open for answering.

    

    Enter in your specific keyword that best describes your niche and set the “Keyword Match” to “Questions” as you are searching for questions to answer right away.

    Next, choose “ALL” when selecting your categories as sometimes questions may appear throughout different groups.

    Be sure to filter out the questions so that you are searching only for questions in your primary language unless you are able to understand and respond in alternative languages.

    And finally be sure to set the status of your search so that it generates a list of “Open Questions” only. There is no sense in searching for questions that have been resolved (or are closed) from receiving additional responses.

    

    Once you have completed this step you will generate a search results page that includes multiple un-answered questions found using your keyword(s). To begin answering questions, simply click on the links to load up the “Question and Answer” page.

    The social marketing strategy behind YahooAnswers is to answer questions that target your niche market and include a website link that provides additional information – if the resource is your own website then you’ve generated direct traffic within a few minutes time and if the question is a popular one, hundreds (even thousands more) clicks could follow, even if your answer does not end up being chosen as the “top” answer.

    Remember as well that Yahoo is the most popular search engine, outranking even Google, so by answering recent questions rather than digging through older ones you are ensuring that your website receives traffic not only from the Yahoo Answer center (and those who view your answer from within that section) but also from the Yahoo search engine spiders as well!

    I hope you enjoyed this introduction to creating a social marketing strategy using YahooAnswers. More advanced tips and strategies of this busy directory are available after registration to www.SocialMarketingStrategy.com.

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