Six Steps For Going Fishing On Social Networks

Hello all ...

Is social networking a bit confusing for you?
Are you wondering how you make it work?
Are you just not "getting it?"

Well, here's an approach that I hope will be fun, helpful and believe it or not, productive for you! It's my six steps for "Going Fishing" on social networks.

Put a "GONE FISHING" sign on your door and let's catch and cook some fish!!!!

1. First we must decide what kind of fish we want to catch?
   When social networking:
   Who are the people that buy what you offer?
   f
2. Identify the waters the fish you want swim in ... fresh, ocean, stream, lake, etc?
   When social networking:
   Which social networks do the people who buy from you use the most?
   Strictly Business - LinkedIn
   Fun & Business - Facebook - Twitter - Plaxo
   Maybe they are found on blogs?
   Maybe on YouTube? Maybe MySpace?
   xd
3. What kind of hooks/flies will the fish you want bite?
   When social networking:
   What are your buyers looking for?
   What do they crave?
   What are your hooks?
   What connects you to a buyer?
   Break your services/products down into individual "luring bites."
   Create a hook per bite.
   Create lots of these "bites" .. the more you have, the more prospects you will connect with!
   x
4. What casting methods will place your hooks where the fish you want will bite?
   When social networking:
   Pay attention to how your "hooks" are presented!
   Communicate "with" your readers as if they are right in front of you!
   Have a conversation. Engage - Relate - Be With - Share
   Speak with .. not at!
   x
5. Reel your fish in!
   When social networking:
   Sometimes your prospect comes in with one try!
   Sometimes you need to "play" with the line a bit.
   Whatever you do, don't let it get off the hook!
   x
6. Catch and Cook!
   When social networking:
   Yes .. . now your prospect can be cooked into a sale. Sometimes it's a one-step cooking procedure. Sometimes you need to cook in stages...
   You might "hook" your prospect in Twitter but have to bring them over to Facebook for them to really get to know you. Facebook can sometimes create a more bonding community of fans and friends depending on how one has built out their fan and/or friend base.
   
   
   So grab your gear.. keep it simple and have some fun!
   Put a "Gone Fishing" sign on your desk for at least 30 minutes a day.
   Let me know what you catch! Keep me updated by posting comments here!
   
   Keep your business growing ..
   margie
   
   
   

Is It Time To Add A "Live" Feed To Your Communications Platform?

Hello all,

Have you ever wanted to add a live feed to your website and/or blog?

You often see them with fianancial news, sports updates, and headline news! BUT, the time is coming where people want to be kept up to the moment on all sorts of subjects!

Make sure you visit http://www.feedzilla.com and in 3 simple steps you can have what you see here at http://www.todaysway.net/livefeed.htm I just put it up quickly on a page, but you can embed it within a page on multiple resources. Check out their site!

Lots of different topics are available. I chose to have a feed on social networking! There are many, many topics. You can even search by keyword. Sizing can also be adjusted.

This is where we are headed everyone! Live feeds are making their statements. What do you think? Will you use one ...if so why and where? Let me know!

Keep your business garden growing ...
margie

Target Search Capabilities On Facebook & Twitter!

Hello all ....

All of a sudden there seem to be more and more ways to do targeted searches on Facebook and Twitter!! Do you think they finally realized that people had begun to go in circles???

Have you found them yet? They really are useful and allow you to be quite creative and targeted!!!

On Facebook you can now search for any keyword of your choice and see where it is used in your friend's news feed, everyone's postings ( yup, all of facebook), fan pages, events, and groups! Did you know Facebook has over 500 groups about healthcare? Don't worry, you can apply filters to your searches so you can narrow down your results.

Twitter has 3 great resources for searching. My favorite is tweepsearch where you can enter any keyword of your choice that is found in a person's Twitter bio. It also targets cities, etc. A very targeted and cool tool. Came up with over 3,000 target contacts who like to fly fish for my client who sells fly fishing equipment. He was a very happy man that day!

Two other resources for Twitter are the twitter search ( found right on the home page). Here you can enter any keyword of your choice and see where it has been used in recent tweets. A similar searching resource on Twitter is the ability to search via hash tags. This is found on the right side of your Twitter page.

All of these will bring you targeted contacts! Contacts you can "connect" with based upon specific interests, needs, location, etc. There's room for lots of creativity here and that's what I want to hear about!

Share your ideas on how these great resources for targeting your conversations can work for you. Have you used them already? What have you discovered? Are you making more solid connections? Maybe we can come back to this topic in a couple of weeks and talk about your creative ideas. Let me know all!

Keep your business garden growing ...
margie

Get Your Google Profile Filled Out!

The latest tip I have received for getting online visibility is to fill out your Google account profile! I heard about it in a seminar on using blogs and having your blog be found. The Google account profile consolidates all that you do online and offers you a nice way to introduce yourself professionally and personally.

I have to admit I have a problem filling out profiles mostly because I just don't know how to answer some of the personal questions. Guess I have no life!! What "are" my interests .. what "do" I like to do? Do you experience that? Or ... are you a profile nut! My business also seems to be changing all the time in terms of all that I offer so how do I fill that section out and keep it in sync with what might already be out there? Do I even worry about this?

Profiles are vital right now. Your social network profiles are very, very important for your success and they also get listed in the search engines. Is this fact alone worth filling them all out? What do you think? Do we need to do this? I say yes but please.... prove me wrong as it is one of least favorite things to do.

Keep your business garden growing ...
margie

Note: I have to admit .. I did enjoy filling out the Google profile. Check me out .... http://www.google.com/profiles/todaysway Get yours done today!

Facebook Ads

Hi all,

Welcome to my weekly mailing readers who are joining us here.

Facebooks ads are quite interesting, aren't they! Has anyone given them a try? You will not find a more targeted way to market. You can define your outgoing and snail mail by targeted demographics but these are usually people you have already identified. If you are using email you "must" only communicate with those you already know.

Facebook allows you to target the exisitng Facebook demographics within the "entire" Facebook membership, not just your networks. You may target geography, age, sex, keywords, education, workplace, relationship status, even language! It really does hold true possibilities.

A client of mine, new to facebook, is a photographer. He had experienced seeing ads for some of the major players in his field appear "only" when he was on his photo gallery pages and when he would be thinking about such services! Choice of keywords made that happen. I really don't know in the world of the small business person where else you would have that happen. Does anyone have input on that?

Please share your experiences with us ... not just with Facebook Ads but pay per click on Search Engines as well! I welcome your comments.

Local Online Advertising

Ok .. welcome to all my weekly "Keep Your Garden Growing" mailing readers! I hope you have come with lots of comments, opinions and input from our mailing this week.

We're talking about local online advertising. Does it work? Should you do it?

I say "yes!" One thing I know is that people do not go to the yellow pages like they used to for finding a plumber, a hair cutter, a dry cleaner, etc. They go online. They also go online for local professional services such as an attorneys, insurance agents, etc.

I believe that every local business should have at a minimum some kind of online listing. Most of the local online advertisers in my mailing were free. At least get yourself listed with those.

Also, if you have some type of local listing you can get by without a website ( not as well as if you had a website, but you can get by). So, expense should not be a factor.

Times are changing. Local businesses need to be on the internet! What say you???

Pay Per Click Advertising

Today's Way has discovered and is thrilled to share with you, what we consider to be the very most "effective" way for a small and medium size business to "safely" invest dollars into pay per click advertising. NOW, it is extremely easy for local business people to feel secure about placing ads on all the major search engines ... "ALL" for a very low budget ... a minimum of $100 per month!

Let's start at the beginning. Advertising is putting information or a message "out there," in most cases strategically placed where your market will find you in an accidental way or with intent. Pay per Click advertising is when you place an "ad" on the search engines and/or on-line yellow pages ... for which you are required to purchase a keyword (or keywords) to go with your ad. A keyword is what people type in as "what" they are looking for!

When a searcher uses your keyword, your ad appears in the order of how much you paid for the keyword., i.e. if you paid more than anyone else, your ad is the first ad on the search engine page. So, what is the secret to making Pay Per Click such a great deal now? A company called ReachLocal. They are the link to your success with Pay per Click.

Here's How It Works! Choose Local, Regional or National Advertising. The first step is choosing where you think the people are that are looking for your product or service. ReachLocal will only show your ad when people from your chosen locations do searches.

Local: Choose 10 cities or up to a 50 mile radius If you are a retailer of local service and have a certain income requirement (for example), you might be more apt to search for specific cities or communities vs a mile radius. Your budget would be more efficiently used. Minimum of $100 per month.

Regional: Choose up to 20 Metropolitan cities. These would be cities throughout the United States, as New York, Miami, Boston, etc. Minimum of $200 per month.

National: Includes the entire United States! Minimum of $500 per month

Create Your Ad!
The ad is an easy to fill in form that will be seen on Google, AOL, ASK, Yahoo!, MSN, and the internet yellow-page sites such as, SuperPages. Includes Dynamic Ad - meaning that the first line of your ad will automatically become the keyword entered by the searcher. Can be changed as your campaign progresses.

Optional - Submit Your Keywords
After you create your ad you may send keywords that you think might work for you campaign. Keep in mind that ReachLocal will still manage the use of those keywords based upon your budget and your campaign results. They might see similar keywords that will work just as well that cost a lot less. ReachLocal's expertise is in choosing your keywords. You can leave the entire process up to them. They will change weekly, daily and/or as the need presents itself. You may call and speak with them about the selected keywords, you may also ask them to use only a selected few keywords. However, keep in mind that they "do" know what they are doing!

Choose Your "Click-Through" Page.
This is the page of your website you would like the ad to click to. It should be an expansion of the message of the ad. Landing pages are created to allow a more exact follow up to your ad and allow you to "summarize" your business on one page. The landing page can then click to your website.

Choose Your Reporting Schedule!
This is where you receive your return on the investment! You can receive updates via e-mail on your campaign as frequently as daily. You receive the following information:

Dollars Spent: Daily consumption of your budget
No. Of Visits: How many times your ad was clicked.
Total Calls: How many people telephoned you.The number they called from Optional - A recording of the call.
Total E-mails: How many people e-mailed you. The e-mail address they used to e-mail you.
Other Events: Other website pages they visited in addition to the click-through page.

Enjoy your new clients! That's it! Sit back and receive your telephone calls and e-mails and new orders.