Just call them “Dream Killers™”

Seth Godin’s blog last week talked about how we allow not just situations, but business associates and significant others to stop us from doing something remarkable. I have a name for these situations and people: Dream Killers™.  Dream Killers can be well meaning friends, colleagues, family and, more importantly, oftentimes ourselves. Dream Killers, whether a real barrier or a fabricated one, have the power to kill off our dreams before we can make them a reality.  Even your significant others could have self-interests that run counter to you going for it and creating a remarkable new business, book or project this year.

But it is time.

Time to reinvent yourself.
Time to figure out what you are here to do.
Time to push past the fear and pain and just go for it.
Time to take your passion and purpose and build a platform in the social Web around them.
Time to stop listening to the Dream Killers, including yourself. 
It’s time for me. It’s time for you.

Internet Marketing For Small Business: Don’t Be Left Behind With Your Traditional Marketing Strategy

Attention Small Businesses: The old way of doing marketing doesn’t work anymore. Still relying on ‘advertising’? You’re sunk – unless you learn the new way of reaching your market.

Imagine a 28 year old starts a business competing in your market. You spent years building a brand and reputation in your community. One day, you realize it is all taken away by this person who became an “authority” overnight. This is going to play out with businesses all across the country over the next few years. So what can you do to stay relevant?

Some business marketing tips just aren’t all that successful anymore. What worked for Internet Marketing for small business a few years ago is not necessarily what is going to pull in the customers and the profits in today’s social media-dominated environment. In order to stay in tune with your niche and prospective customers, it is important remain current with your efforts—from marketing communications to brand strategies. Rather than allowing your competition to pass you by, you can update your marketing strategy and keep your business relevant.

The new, effective marketing for small business is a shift in focus from “advertising” to “engaging.” What this means is that you are getting in the middle of discussions that are happening on the social web, building relationships and attracting customers—not because you have the best ad, but because you are offering valuable information to these conversations.

You may hear reference to the “distributed web.” This is related to the fact that people are going to search engines like Google and Yahoo and even YouTube to find solutions to their problems. As customers become savvier, they are beginning to see banner ads and other forms of advertising as gimmicky and even scammy.

In fact, consumer studies show that 78 percent of customers value peer recommendations versus a small 14 percent who trust advertisements. A move away from this type of marketing to a more social method is your ticket to staying relevant and competing with the big dogs in your niche.

Because of this change in the online environment, you will see greater results for your small business if you focus on meeting these customers where they are. Utilizing content distribution and affiliate marketing are two simple and relatively easy ways to connect with your ideal customers and convert them into buyers.

How content distribution works

Content distribution is creating keyword-rich articles, audios and/or videos to provide quality content for customers and then distributing around the web in key places where your customers will be seeking information. The reason for the key-rich content is because search engine spiders are crawling around the web trying to find content that contains certain keywords.

You can find the best keywords for your business by utilizing free web tools, such as Google’s Keyword Tool, finding out what keywords your competitors are targeting and what your customers are plugging into the search engines. Once you have a keyword and phrase list, you place them into your titles, headings, tags and content and distribute them to a number of free article directories online. This is how you become a search engine spider magnet.

The search engines will find your content, place it into the search engine results, and the customers will eat-up the quality info you provide. Once you have established yourself as someone who knows your topic, the customers will then come to your business when they need a solution to a problem.

How to utilize affiliate marketing

What if you had dozens of people who knew your business and wanted to share it with others? This is basically every small business owners dream. Affiliate marketing can make it happen. Marketing 101 tells us that word of mouth is the number one best marketing method, and affiliate marketing is where it’s at.

Because people are more likely to trust recommendations over advertising, affiliate marketing is becoming one of the most effective methods for pulling in customers. The typical affiliate marketing program is based on the business owner paying affiliates who refer a paying customer to the business. Rather than having to pay people up-front for marketing on your behalf, you only pay when the customer makes a purchase. This is ideal for small business owners who typically do not have a lot of money to invest in marketing.

To ensure you have quality affiliates who will spread your message as effectively as possible, you can offer trainings and reports to keep them connected with your business. Furthermore, by doing this, you are creating loyalty and trust with your affiliates who will in turn do a better job marketing for you.

Is it possible to have free internet marketing? With content distribution and affiliate marketing it is. Thanks to a plethora of no-cost article directories at your fingertips and affiliates you only pay once you’ve made a sale, you can create a free internet marketing strategy that works.

Chris Marentis is a serial entrepreneur and recognized Internet Marketing expert having served as SVP at AOL and CEO of Clearspring Technologies. For more information on Online Marketing and Advertising, go to GenNext Media LLC. today.

Social Media: Can a Twitter Post send you to the Big House?

The answer is: YES.

As you read this post, there are probably a handful of twitter users, facebook updaters and linkedIn networkers who are causing an online crisis with their updates.  Here is a small tip: keep the defamation and slanderous comments out of the social media environment. Social media is a wide-open field, meaning that there are more people to catch you when you make a mistake…and believe me…they will.

Many of us have the feeling that the Government can be a little behind the times. Well, that is definitely the case with the interactive Internet. As more laws are emerging, more confusion and chaos is being caused amongst social media sites. To tweet or not to tweet? That is the question. But isn’t it our right as Americans to speak freely regardless of the communication medium?

Let’s look at the recent story of Amanda Bonnen, a questionable defamation comment was Tweeted regarding the mold in her apartment and the fact that her building management company, Horizon Group Management LLC., felt that it was “okay.” Rocker Courtney Love, who is no newbie to the courtroom, was recently sued for libel for Tweeting negative comments about a famous fashion designer.

In a recent CNN article, the differences of the legality of public and private information comes into question. Where do we draw the line? What is considered slanderous content tarnishing someone’s reputation or a Constitutional right to speak freely about whatever you wish.  What do you think?

When updating your Tweets or commenting in forums, keep this in mind to prevent any damages to yourself or your business:

• Don’t Tweet When Your Angry: It may sound cliche, but it is very true. When you are in a state of intense anger, you are less likely to make responsible, rational decisions. Don’t do something you are going to regret. If you are mad, take a breather and walk away from your computer. The longer you wait and let yourself cool off, the less damage control you will have to do.

• If it has your name on it, they are your words: Many people have staffers or outsourcers handle and organize their social media updates. Be sure to set down guidelines for your updates and be sure that nothing is being released, under your name, that can be incriminating or slanderous.

• Know The Laws and Abide By Them: Being ignorant to the law is never an excuse. Cornell University has posted Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act in 1996 which pertains to Interactive Internet Communications. Make sure you, your employees and your clients know the rules and closely abide by them. The Internet is an enormous community, so don’t think that you won’t get caught.

• Be Generous and Graceful: Social media marketing should be fun and rewarding in many ways including the opportunity to get to know your customers, partners and market much better. If others overreact, give them a break. You can demonstrate leadership by treating others well and being helpful when things get out of hand.

Marketing in this new world is becoming more complicated because the rules are changing all the time. The other managment issue is in the “old days” you created and ad and then ran it forever…no changes or issues. Now you, and your staff, are creating new “content” every day. This is worth a training session with everyone who touches social media in your business.

Check out this post “10 Rules for Social Media Participation (for Employees)”. This is a great guide to review with your staff.

What say you about this issue?

Social Marketing Campaigns: 3 Secrets To Success With The Social Web

Social marketing campaigns are all the rage these days. Why? Generating cost effective, qualified business leads is tough in this economy and with media changing so rapidly.

Whether your business is service-oriented (such as accounting, legal, architecture, business coaching, executive recruiter) or a retail store (specialty coffee, health food store, wine store), you have a huge new opportunity to compete with any size business in any market. Social media marketing is effective, and for the most part, free.

Business marketing strategies have never been more affordable and cost-effective than with today’s technology and new web 2.0 applications, like social media.

Many small businesses are experimenting with social media marketing, but do not implement a strategic approach to a campaign. Many are flailing from one new tactic to the other based on the “flavor of the day”.

3 SECRETS to success that we know work are:

Secret #1. Become an expert in your niche.

Participate in communities that have your target prospects and add value to the discussion with your unique insights and knowledge. Use content that you create and give it away, free, to people who are looking for solutions your company provides.

Secret #2. Create a solid keyword strategy and USP.

Also, make sure you thread that through the various levels of your distributed content and the social web. You need to be aimed at “owning” the right market. You also need to leverage your strategy across all your social media efforts to nets your linking strategy across pages, articles, PR and your website.

Secret #3. Social media marketing needs to be implemented as a comprehensive strategy.

All the pieces work together to combine into a powerful marketing program that is part SEO on steroids and part huge reach lead generation.

The key is having a systematic approach to providing valuable information and ideas to the right communities across the web. So, rather than interrupting customers in their tracks and trying to get attention, your targeted social web content will be considered helpful and put you and your business in an authoritative position with customers.

This is the primary “secret” to successful social media marketing—providing valuable free info to position article writers as authorities. You’re also in total control of creating your own authentic content. On the obverse side, giving people a “freebie” actually enhances cultivating trust, to enable easier and faster sales conversions down the line.

Take the time to develop a social media marketing strategy for your business today. Winners and losers in the “new normal” will be dependant on a company’s ability to adapt to these new marketing opportunities.

Chris Marentis is a serial entrepreneur and recognized Internet Marketing expert having served as SVP at AOL and CEO of Clearspring Technologies. For more information on Online Marketing and Advertising, go to: http://www.gennextmedia.com today.

Business Marketing Services for the Social Web: Tools That Save You Time and Make Your Competitors’ Heads Spin

Are you looking for ways to increase your presence online? Try out the business marketing tools listed below in order to guarantee more website traffic.

There are certain tools that you can use for marketing your products and services. These tools are great time savers and will push you ahead of your competitors on the Internet front. Your business marketing plan should be to expand your target audience through the use of these tools. Listed below are ten different useful sites.

Twitter: One of the top five business marketing tools, Twitter is used by companies across the world to promote their business, share information, and give free products and services to encourage trust in their followers. Don’t know what to tweet about? Find significant URL’s from the other sites below that give value to your dialogues and posts.

Tweetadder: You will need a Twitter account, but once you have one, this is a great way to get a quick following online. You can market your business through tweetadder by targeting people by geography or keyword in order to identify interested parties. Then invite them to follow you. Typically, you’ll get a 20-40% response rate of those you ask to follow you.

Facebook/Linkedin: Start a local group for your niche. This will allow users to get to know you and your company online, while allowing offline networking. If you start the group as the administrator, then you will be perceived as the leader. Invite your competitors and other industry people to join. Remember, you are the leader and now have a group of names you are collecting and the promotional vehicle you now have for free. This is a great way to get exposure for your business.

Social Poster: A fast way to get instant exposure over a wide variety of sites is Social Poster. This web bases application allows you to post anything from articles to media on over 160 different social and bookmarking sites. By simply submitting your website regularly, you will get more traffic and a better page rank.

Ping.FM: This social network and micro-blogging service allows you to simultaneously post to multiple social networks. With just one update on Ping.FM, it sends the update to several different social sites at once, making your job a whole lot easier. Rather than spending time updating each social site individually, Ping.FM does the footwork for you.

Friend Feed: With this tool, you can consolidate the updates from social media and networking sites, blogs, micro-blogs, bookmarking sites and any other type of RSS feed—all in real-time. By using this information stream, you can customize feeds to share with prospective customers as well as create new discussions and micro-blogs to share.

If you are looking for a way to better market your business, all of the sites referenced above are relevant sources for helping you to connect with prospective customers with ease and in a format that is appealing to them. One aspect of your product marketing plan should be to follow the customers where they are, and these sites can keep you relevant and in-touch on a daily basis.

Chris Marentis is a serial entrepreneur and recognized Internet Marketing expert having served as SVP at AOL and CEO of Clearspring Technologies. For more information on Lead Generation Marketing, go to http://www.surefiresocial.com today.