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

Does Your Market Find You Or Do You Find Your Market When Social Networking?

Happy Wednesday ...

Just posted on facebook the value of asking questions in creating conversations and developing relationships. It got my mind wandering in several directions as I continued on with my AM rounds of social network check-ins.

So here goes! As you do your social networking are your "posts" geared more towards your market finding you ... OR .... you finding your market? Think about that carefully.

The truth is you are probably doing a little of both, at the same time even! But is one better than another? How do you differentiate?

What say you ...

• What do you think would differentiate your postings in order to achieve one or the other?
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• How much extra effort is involved in "posting" for you to seek out your ideal "connections?" And, along the same line ... do you think it takes extra effort?
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• Does the tone, structure, message of the posting really matter?
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• Which do you prefer and why?
  

Let me know your thoughts!

Also, as you visit your social networks today and tomorrow, pay attention to the posts that "you" best relate to. See if you can tell if they are waiting to be found or if they are reaching out to find?

See what you discover! Would love to know that also!

Keep your business garden growing ...
margie

Online Marketing Resources - Who's Using Who?

Hi ..

I'm seeing it and hearing it everywhere .. and so ok, you've created your goals, formulated a vision, developed a plan .... have a website, are doing a blog and a newsletter and your are out there creating relationships on the social networks. Whew .... it gets exhausting just typing it!! It's a lot of time and work.

But, are you beginning to scratch your head and wonder "why" all of the above? You just might have good reason to scratch your head "if" while doing all of these activities you have taken your eye off the ball ... meaning, in the midst of all, are you staying focused on finding the "need" you provide a solution to? I am not seeing enough guidance "out there" for keeping this one thought in mind as you take on all these activities. I believed it is assumed you will do that ... but one should never assume .. isn't that the rule??

It all comes back to the basics. If you are using online resources for business you must remember that business, in most cases, is about developing ... new, repeat and referral clients.

Relationship building plays a huge role today In fact relationships are more important than ever today because the strength of your relationships is your competitive edge. BUT when online ...

• After initial rapport building .. are you at a loss as to what to do with it? For example, you have 5,000 followers, now what?
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• Who are you building relationships with ... targeted connections or just anyone who happens to follow, befriend. or link to you.
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• Are you using the many resources that are available to you ... or are the resources using you?

Please share with me what some of your challenges might be. Are you having a "What's it all about?" moment? If so, what specifically is bothering you?

I am beginning to think that after setting up some great strategic online "platforms" people are at a loss for "what" to say or "how" to say it! Is that you? Let me know.

If this posting hits home and you are not on my weekly email list ( different from my blog) please sign up on the right side of my blog. or click here http://www.todaysway.net/contactus.htm#join

I am going to expand on this topic in this week's mailing as I feel many businesses are not getting a good ROI on time spent online. I hope to help you fix that!

Keep your business garden growing ...
margie

Making Sense Out Of Using Twitter

Hello ...

Just found a fantastic new Twitter tool that beats out all the other exisitng tools that I know about and helps you make total sense out of using Twitter.

Tweepsearch searches via profile information throughout all of Twitter. How cool is that? They advertise it as a way to search via profession. It does that and more. You can also search for name, interests, location and more! I am so excited especially about location. Anyone with a local business should jump on this! Immediately you can reach out to a local market and introduce yourself and build a relationship. Check it out .. let me know what "you" think!

I also like this tool because it allows us to go back to the original strength of Twitter... allowing people to have "interactive" communications and build relationships. Twitter has become so popular that it has turned into a "follower" machine with nobody knowing nobody! You might want to go this mass marketing way ... I can't tell you not to. I personally believe in quality over quantity and now with tweepsearch, targeted communications can take place.

Would really like "your" input... quality or ... gather as many followers as you can? Which is your choice and why? Tweepsearch will assist either case. Please share... the blog is open!!

Keep your business garden growing ...
margie

Marketing Via Video

Hello all ...

Once again I just finished my weekly mailing. I wrapped up a 3 part series on marketing via video. If you are not on my mailing list, please go to the side of this blog and subscribe to the "weekly" mailing list and anything else you like :-)

When you stop to think about it, I guess there really isn't much that wouldn't lend itself to a good video. Just a simple introduction of yourself saves you a lot of time and gives you a ton of potential exposure. Taking it a step further ... products are great subjects. Imaging having a short series on products within a cosmetic line! You can explain what the product is, include of demontration of how it is used, even provide a web address to buy!!

Tours or "showings" are also great. If you manufacture products, take a viewer through the process, interviewing staff as your go. Or if you are just into information, a basic breakdown of an insurance policy could be very helpful. You just have to use a little bit of your imagination to gather all the possibilities.

I would love to have any one out there who has had success with video marketing share what they did! Please post here. Or even if you haven't done any marketing yet what you think might be a good idea. Post away......

Keep your business garden growing ...
margie

Making Videos - Standalone Camera or Camera Phone?

Hi everyone ...

I am continuing on with my input on using video for marketing purposes. As explained at the outset of this journey, I am just learning myself and sharing as I go.

A couple of weeks ago I put marketing ideas in your minds, the comfortable part of this for me. Hopefully you've still got some ideas going around in your mind. I will pick up on those thoughts again next week, but for now .... this posting is about choosing a camera .. stand alone or on a phone? Again, my knowledge is strictly from research, not experience so I welcome input from any of you who have experience!

I guess the "trick" to making your decision is in the "options" that come with each videoing device and it all begins with knowing that just about any phone or camera with video will be "good enough" for the internet. The question you have to ask yourself is how "good" do you want your video to be? Is just "enough" .. good enough for what you want to do?

Knowing that fact I would love input from anyone on the four "options" for recording videos - tape, flash, hard drive and/or disc. What do you prefer? It seems that flash would be pretty easy, convenient and popular ... although my research says to go with tape for the best quality.

Again, how good is "good enough?" We might want to start paying more attention to the videos we see and ask the creators what did they use? Tape is old technology and time consuming, BUT has no compression so is a better quality. The other 3 options are really easy and quick to load onto one's computer. However all three use compression which can lower the quality of one's video. Hopefully just knowing the differences will allow all of us to ask the right questions and have a better discussion with an exisiting user, sales person or even in our understanding of a Google search result!

I am also told that an external microphone jack is a must because the better audio only comes from using an external microphone, NOT the mic that comes in a camera or phone. True?? Someone knows out there .. let us know for sure!

And lastly there is the question of editing. If you really want to be creative within your video this type of software seems to be a must. As I understand it you really want to ask which editing software is compatible with the camera you choose. There may be limitations with any of the cameras so , do play it safe.

One software I can't wait to get my hands on is some screen capture software. This software allows you to "capture" what is on your computer screen in a video. There are many videos I would love to make from using my computer screen. Software demos is a major one! But gosh, which one do I buy??

So tell me readers .. standalone camera or camera phone and which of which! Video is hot right now and I for one want to jump into the arena. I welcome your input.

Next week I'll get back to my forte and talk about using the videos for marketing and making money!! Meanwhile ...

Keep your business garden growing ....
margie