Understanding your Social Marketing

Understanding your Social Marketing
Social Marketing refers to the means of gaining traffic or attention through social media sites. Social Marketing typically involves taking part in conversations with a key audience.

Social Marketing - http://www.personalvisual.co.uk/social_marketing.php allows organizations to focus on marketing activities directly at specific distinguishable customers by creating and utilizing content users that can interact with Status updates on Facebook pages are then transmitted towards the news feed pages of all people who've liked the page within the actual same method Twitter tweets' is going to be immediately visible to all or any following a user. Together with the number of Likes' being visible, it allows the marketer to make targeted campaigns by having a completely particular reach.

<a rel="nofollow" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackPageview', '/outgoing/article_exit_link/5282542']);" href=" http://www.personalvisual.co.uk/social_marketing.php" title="Social Marketing">Facebook and Twitter Advertising</a> also includes creating and promoting content which is intended to be shared by users. The personal and particular nature of Social Marketing makes it a highly effective channel for product advertising, reputation management or corporate branding
Facts You Need to know about Social Media:

Internet users spend an average of 6 hours each month on social networks and view more than 800 web pages
44% of Internet users are between the age of 35 and 54
The biggest age growth sector on Facebook is 35+
Women are a growth area online
51% of social network users are female and they consume about 200 pages more than men and spend an extra 2 hours online
The average length of an online video is 3.4 minutes
89% of all Internet users have watched a video in the past month
57% of all videos are watched on YouTube
Blogging is growing at almost twice the rate of the Internet
90% of Internet users know at least one social network.
52. The average social user has 195 friends.

Getting started in your Social Marketing campaign

Select the right Social Marketing platform to your business. Obviously let's say you sell insurance, a social network centered on online gaming is not the best place for you to market your business. You will need a suitable site for your Social Marketing business, so that you can properly manage in the field of your expertise.
Register and make a certified profile. Lurk throughout the site and monitor how people are communicating. Ask a matter and find out how people will respond.
Publish content that will help establish you being an expert in your field. Link your social media presence to your blog or website and add promotional buttons on your pages to really make it simple for readers to share your content.
Although Social Marketing is becoming a trend, it's not necessary to do it because it is popular - do it because it works.



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Getting your Social Marketing Off the Ground

Social marketing is an often misunderstood form of marketing that is reaping huge rewards for website owners who use it. Most webmasters who understand it, even while being very new to social marketing, are seeing results like:

1. Higher search engine rankings for their top keywords

2. More rankings of additional keywords or "long tail" keyword phrases

3. More link popularity from sites linking on their own accord

4. More link popularity from social media sites

5. More activity on their blogs, such as more commenting and interaction

6. Direct traffic from incoming links on social media sites (One good StumbleUpon.com submission can net thousands of visitors alone.)

7. Fast traffic increases and steady growth in unique visitors month after month

8. An increase in subscribers and sales. Social traffic, properly acquired, is very warm to your message and products.

The problem for most people when thinking about social marketing, after getting a taste of all the hundreds of sites there are to interact with, is becoming overwhelmed and paralyzed into inaction.

They assume established social marketers gained their "social authority" in a short period of time. This is simply not true. Although the opportunities for driving serious traffic and rankings from hundreds of social sites exists, it is an embarrassment of riches.

And it cannot be conquered over night. It is a gradual process you manage with all your other responsibilities and grow as time allows.

What I encourage my clients to do is set aside enough time each day to get one more link, participate in one more conversation, or sign up for one more account on a social site.

A little goes a long way and social marketing is not an "all or nothing" situation. After some time you will become established on the social sites you need to have a presence on. And you will have a schedule that allows you to keep up with your other work while adding this extremely powerful marketing method to the mix.

10 Steps For Starting a Social Marketing Campaign

1. Schedule a bit of time each day to do some new things. Don't just say you are going to do them. Write the time into your day and follow through.
2. Sign up for the major social news sites: Digg.com, Propeller.com, Mixx.com. Don't submit anything to these sites until you have filled out your profile completely and submitted news from elsewhere on the web to generate a real presence and avoid being labeled as a spammer.

In fact, BE a real presence and don't try to push your own content onto the networks you belong to. It should feel and be natural and you will know what "natural is on each network by participating, commenting, voting and getting a general sense of what members think is good and bad content. Watch their comments and votes and you will know how to proceed with your own site's content from there.

3. If you don't have a blog, you must install one immediately. This is not an option. It is an absolute necessity on today's web. Our company uses Wordpress and recommends it over any other blogging platform, and it can be installed easily by you or your webmaster. Wordpress download: http://wordpress.org/download/

Option #2: Check with your web host to see if they have Fantastico available to you and, if so, that it installs the latest version of Wordpress. If so you are very lucky because the software can be installed by you very easily in just a few steps with Fantastico.

4. Once you have your blog set up, join the following networks. (These are blog communities that will help you generate visitors, authority, and links and most bloggers belong to them.) MyBlogLog.com (install the widget on your Wordpress blog), and BlogCatalog.com. (they also have a widget to install)

5. Join groups, interact with other publishers, and make friends with the easy networking tools these sites provide. Especially the people who would be most likely to link to your blog and send you traffic who write about similar things or have an audience similar to yours who'd benefit by knowing you. You can even start your own group, promote it in the network, and send "shouts" to the group when you have announcements or need attention to a new post.

6. As soon as you establish yourself on the sites mentioned above, move on to other sites like them that might be more targeted directly to your niche and the market you work in. There are a lot of new "vertical" social sites popping up that focus on much more narrow markets and their membership is far warmer to your kind of information than on the bigger, more general networks above.

Add a new site to the mix as often as you can and repeat the steps for becoming established there as mentioned in Step 2 above.

7. Join a group dedicated to social marketing to pick up tips from other social marketers and find new places you can sign up with to continue building your social authority. New sites pop up every single day. Follow places like Go2Web20.net to find new opportunities to connect with your market.

8. Remote blog. Join blogger.com and put content there that is good, just not good enough to go on your main blog. This serves two purposes: 1) you get to use more of the great content you find as you travel through all the social news sites and 2) it gives you another place to link back to your main site and pass on traffic and link popularity over time.

9. Track your progress diligently. If something you are trying on a social network isn't working, you need to know that in order to save time and move on to something more fruitful. MyBlogLog.com (above) has a tracking system which will show you where your traffic is coming from so you can avoid time wasting efforts and focus more on the sites that are really pulling in good traffic for you.

10. Don't freak out! This is only overwhelming if you act like someone at an all-you-can-eat buffet with no self control. You have other things to do and this needs to fit into, not dominate, your current business and marketing.

Social marketing can partially or completely replace other methods you are using to promote your site including paid advertising. Many people completely drop their paid advertising or PPC campaigns once they see the organic, natural traffic and search engine rankings pile up from social marketing.

Until then, just take it one step at a time and do some social marketing. A little goes a long way and before you know it, you will reach a point where a lot of traffic and lots of search engine rankings are piling up because you simply started doing something each day.

There's a lot you can learn about social marketing. And not all of it can be found on free blogs.

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Social Marketing Basics

What is Social Media Marketing?

Social Marketing is made up of many different aspects. The important thing to remember is that anyone wanting to earn money online should be prepared to invest the time and effort required to build a genuine business. Using social media should be just one part of your overall traffic-building strategy, not the entire nor the only strategy you incorporate.

I share 4 key components of social marketing below. Learning the basic principles of social marketing and how it works will go a long way in helping you with not only your marketing efforts, but your notoriety and reader retention.

Blogging is Crucial in Social Marketing

Your blog is naturally a social marketing tool. By using good posting strategies, linkbait, clip marks, utility posts, commenting, growing your audience, setting up social widgets, content exchanges or blog carnivals, and social media optimization you will have set a powerful base for your website. The building blocks of social marketing success are one of the critical components to making your online business not only visited more, but critical to your monetary success.
Using Social Sites Properly

Learning the common social site features will enable you to grasp how to use these communities to their highest potential. Creating a powerful profile is very important. Making friends on social sites is just one power networking strategy, along with having others submit respond to, and vote on your content. You also want to understand the rules for each social site so that you don't get your account banned. Tagging is another critical aspect to your social marketing, and being able to measure your marketing results.

It's a Conversation, Not a Sales Pitch

Starting conversations is a power strategy. Knowing the Golden Rules of Social Networking will enable you to get maximum views for your social networking, forum activity, and on how to find social networks in your niche. Learning Social Power Linking Strategies will enable you to drive organic traffic to your site, and will provide you with continuous streams of repeat visitors. People who are searching for information in your niche will find you because of the social marketing strategies. Social marketing does many things, it not only puts you in front of those who are in those specific social sites, but because you are creating links, regular followers will come simply because the search engines will notice all your efforts and all the organic traffic that you are creating. This in turn will help you with your search engine rankings.

A System Is Critical To Being Efficient

In order to incorporate these strategies you need a system, a guide, on how to do this effectively and a place where you can share your findings and questions with others. There are several communities where bloggers band together and where social marketing tactics of all kinds are shared and discussed in great detail.

Great free communities to get involved are MyBlogLog.com, BlogCatalog.com, and SocialAuthority.Ning.com. People interested in social marketing and better blogging tactics are working out new social marketing tactics and helping each other progress in busy communities such as these.

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How Social Marketing Gets You To Do What They Want You To Do

"Social" Says Who?

The term "Social Marketing" was probably coined by someone who wanted it to seem different from what it really is.

It's really just plain old marketing. But instead of getting you to buy a bar of soap, or a certain brand of beer, or a particular service, social marketing tries to get you to do what the marketer thinks is "good for society."

So they tell you.

Social marketing seeks to sell ideas, attitudes, and behaviors. Issues which have been targeted by social marketing campaigns include:

Pollution Drunk Driving AIDS Awareness Substance Abuse Early Cancer Detection Fire Prevention Disaster Readiness Energy Conservation Blood Drives Medical Research Fundraising Water Quality and Conservation

And it would be hard to find someone who would argue that these issues are not important.

Social marketing provides a mechanism for tackling such problems by encouraging people to voluntarily adopt a specific behavior.

Don't smoke Don't over-water your lawn Don't pollute Recycle glass and plastic bottles Get out and vote

When planning social marketing campaigns, marketers know it is essential that an emphasis is placed on the audience's perceived needs. That's because the ultimate objective of social marketing is to influence action. Achieving that goal is a much more ambitious -- and more blurred -- bottom line.

After all, how are "they" to know if you are really turning off the water when you brush?

I'm Your Friend, and I Have Your Best Interest at Heart. Really, I Do. Pay No Attention to That Man Behind the Curtain.

Social marketers feel "I'm my brother's keeper."

"Do what I want you to do; it's good for you." And they are often very sincere about it. And they may even be right.

Social marketing differs from other areas of marketing only with respect to the objectives of the marketer's organization.

The objective? Changing your behavior and saving you-- and society -- from yourself.

The planning process takes a "consumer-approach" into account by addressing the elements of the marketing mix.

Like commercial marketing, social marketing uses "The Four Ps" to define the total marketing picture:

Product

The specific change in awareness, attitude, and behavior.

Price

The psychological barriers that often prevent behavior change. Inertia is a very powerful competitor.

Place

The distribution plan and media channels used to get the word out.

Promotion

Tactics and strategies used to persuade the audience.

However, marketers must often add the following that are unique to social marketing:

Publics

The many different audiences internal and external involved with the approval or implementation of the program. Who's got their hand in it?

Partnership

Like-minded organizations solicited for involvement in order for the program to be truly effective. Who benefits if you do what they want?

Policy

The political environment needed to support change for the long term. Who's in power? Who wants what?

Purse Strings

The resources from foundations, government budgets, or donations needed to fund the program. Who's got the money?

Changing public behavior is a long-term process. Like all social marketing, it requires increased education and the repetition of messages.

Successful Campaign Examples

Social marketing has targeted a number of issues:

In Seattle, the "Get-in-the-Loop" campaign used retail partnerships, on-shelf signage, paid advertising and media relations to increase the purchase of recycled content products by 27 percent. More than 52 percent of the U.S. population recognizes the Energy Star label due to public service advertising, media relations and retail, manufacturer and utility partnerships. The average seat-belt usage rate in North Carolina jumped from 65 percent to over 80 percent in the first six months of the "Click It or Ticket" campaign. In addition, the campaign is credited with producing a 14% reduction in traffic fatalities The percent of Florida middle schoolers who smoked cigarettes fell from 18.5 to 8.6 percent while the percentage for high schoolers went from 27.4 to 20.9 as a result of the Florida "Truth" anti-smoking campaign. PeachCare for Kids, created by the Georgia legislature in spring 1998, is designed to provide children's health insurance for working-class families. This program has helped 57,000 children and accepts applications at the rate of 500-1,000 per day. Results for Switzerland's "Stop AIDS" campaign indicated that between 1986 and 1990, condom sales had increased by 80 percent (from 7.6 million to 15 million units). Condom use among 17-30 year-olds increased from 8% to almost 50%. Condom use among 31-45 year-olds also increased during that time (from 22% to 35%). The "Florida's Water: It's Worth Saving" campaign (which I helped create) achieved all objectives for the St. Johns River Water Management District, and post-campaign research revealed 89% resident compliance with local water restrictions.

Human nature never changes. But human thinking does. There was a time that most people thought it was cool to smoke. Now, smoking issomething you try to "quit."

Social marketing helped make that happen . . . for better or worse.

Conclusion

Successful social marketing uses carefully crafted -- and often crafty -- messages that make an emotional connection. It can fundamentally change behavior to save lives, sustain the environment, and make communities more livable.

It can also trick you into following a social agenda.

The average consumer is exposed to 3,000 messages per day. To effectively compete with this message overload, social marketing must reach its target several times through different mediums before an impact can be expected.

A good messaging platform is simple and provides both knowledge and motivation needed for the audience to act.

And the best tell the truth . . . and tell it well.

Following these steps will start a path to a social marketing campaign that delivers measurable results.

The question is . . . do you want to do what "they" want you to do? Do you have all the information you need to make an informed decision?

Regardless of what "they" want . . . it's still up to you.

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Social Marketing Strategies For Internet Marketers

Social Networking is becoming quite the trend on the Internet. Social media sites MySpace, Twitter, and Facebook have become the giants of the industry. These sites have captured hungry Internet Marketer's from around the world who are actively marketing and promoting their businesses. There are some very important keys that these marketers are currently missing while marketing on these sites. It's very important that these Internet marketer's learn how to use the right social marketing strategies on these sites if they want to have long-term success. There are some very simple strategies to follow when using social marketing on the Internet.

No matter where you are marketing on the Internet, it's very important to send your prospects to an informative and non-salesy website before you send them to your sales capture page. The best way to do this is to set-up your own fully hosted WordPress blog. Your WordPress blog will be at the center of all your marketing s trategies. This will be the first place that prospects will be taken to before you send them to any site that will capture their information. Your blog will focus on branding yourself as a leader and making your business credible to your prospect. Make sure when you post to your blog, that all information is valuable to your prospect and isn't cheesy. If you post content that is worthwhile, then major search engines like Google will show your posts for free on their search results. This means that you will have free traffic to your website for years to come. On the home page of you blog and on your posts, you will have your link to your capture page. Pospects will come to your blog, read about you and your posts first, then you will redirect them to your capture page. This is the best way to build a relationship and trust with your prospects before you try and sell them something.

The most important key of all is that your blog will rank high within the search en gines, because you are providing them with organic content. Google loves organic content. They don't like capture pages. Recently, Google has been putting some heavy restrictions on Internet marketers who are using capture pages to market a business. Make sure that you don't get the "Google Slap." The last thing you want is to be put out of business. Remember that Google is King. The key to preventing the "Google Slap" from happening is to own your own self-fully hosted blog, provide good content, then redirect your prospect to your sales page.

After you have set up your WordPress blog, you will want to focus on driving traffic to your site. Social media sites are a tremendous way to create free traffic if you implement the right social marketing strategies. When creating your profiles on these sites, focus on who you are as a person. Make sure to use a good profile picture of yourself, since this will be your first impression. Also, go into detail on your likes, dislikes, and interests. People want to know who you are first, before they will be in business with you. The key to social media marketing is to be genuine, post good content, and never use spamming techniques. Over time you will build a good reputation and people will begin to trust you if you do things right.

If you follow these social marketing techniques, you will be well on your way to becoming a master marketer. Remember it's very important to always send your prospect to your blog first before you send them to any capture pages. When using social marketing strategies, put yourself in your prospects shoes. Think about the content that they would want to read, and then deliver it to them. Don't be sales, or pushy. Make sure to always deliver solid content on your blog and social media posts. If you follow these marketing and strategies and techniques, you will be well on your way to becoming a master marketer. Once you've become an Internet marketing master, you will have floods of traffic to your website that you won't know what to do with. Remember that traffic equals prospects, and prospects equal money in your pockets.

Social Networking has taken the Internet by storm. If you want to become a Social Media expert visit Social Media Secrets.

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Effective Social Marketing for Small Business in South Africa

Social marketing has been found to one of the most effective tools in the net today which can help small businesses here in South Africa expand. Social marketing has also been used by most successful marketers here in South Africa. If you want to expand your small business here then this article will surely help you get started.

As I mentioned above, social marketing is one of the most powerful tools around the net today. This tool can actually help you flourish in your small business here in South Africa. So to help you out I gathered some of the most important things you need to know about social marketing that would surely help you gain all the positive results from your business here in South Africa.

Here are some of the social marketing methods you should apply in your small business here in South Africa.

Facebook

This is one of the most effective social marketing methods around the net today. Through this social network you will not only get to meet new people who share the same interests like yours but you will also get to talk and market your products and services. Since Facebook has now over 300 million users all over the world, there is a bigger chance for you to expand your small business here in South Africa. Most marketers here use this kind of social marketing to reach more potential buyers and customers.

Twitter

This is another social marketing method which you can freely join. For over the past few years, this social network has actually grow and gathered over a million users. Through this social network, you get to post your thoughts and ideas juts like on blog and then people who find your post interesting will follow you. Through this you can also market your products and services with the use of well written articles. This social marketing has been used as well by most South African marketers.

Company Blog

Though there are lots of social networks around the net today, having a company blog is still one of the best social marketing methods you need to apply in your small business here in South Africa. Just make sure that you post high quality and information packed content in your blog. It is also important that you keep your posts updated. This way you will surely gather more interested clients to check out your services and products. Most South African small business owners use this social marketing method in their ventures.

LinkedIn

Now this particular social network is one of the most powerful networks around the net today. This is the kind of social marketing method designed and made for professional business people. This social marketing method is actually huge, with nearly 50 million users from over 200 countries. In this social network you can actually encourage your customers and clients to post their recommendations on your profile account.

These social marketing methods I discussed above will surely help anyone here in South Africa expand his or her small business in no time at all.

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What is Social Marketing - Tiyo

Social marketing uses the benefits and of doing social good to secure and maintain customer engagement. In social marketing the distinguishing feature is therefore its "primary focus on social good, and it is not a secondary outcome. Not all public sector and not-for-profit marketing is social marketing.
Public sector bodies can use standard marketing approaches to improve the promotion of their relevant services and organisational aims. This can be very important, but should not be confused with social marketing where the focus is on achieving specific behavioral goals with specific audiences in relation to different topics relevant to social good (e.g.: health, sustainability, recycling, etc.). For example, a 3-month marketing campaign to encourage people to get a specific vaccine is more tactical in nature and should not be considered social marketing. Whereas a campaign that promotes and reminds people to get regular check-ups and all of their vaccinations when they' re supposed to encourages a long-term behavior change that benefits society. It can therefore be considered social marketing. As the dividing lines are rarely clear it is important not to confuse social marketing with commercial marketing.
A commercial marketer selling a product may only seek to influence a buyer to make a product purchase.
Social marketers, dealing with goals such as reducing cigarette smoking or encouraging healthier lifestyles, have more difficult goals: to make potentially difficult and long-term behavioral change in target populations.
It is sometimes felt that social marketing is restricted to a particular spectrum of client-the non-profit organization, the health services group, the government agency.
These often are the clients of social marketing agencies, but the goal of inducing social change is not restricted to governmental or non-profit charitable organizations; it may be argued that corporate public relations efforts such as funding for the arts are an example of social marketing.
Social marketing applies a "customer oriented" approach and use s the concepts and tools used by commercial marketers in pursuit of social goals like Anti-Smoking-Campaigns or fund raising for NGOs.
Tiyo (This is You Online) is a service that enables users and companies to manage, receive advice on, and grow their online presence in a way that is rewarding. The company was formed in 2011 and has the strong backing and involvement of experienced social media experts who want to give the companies involved, control over their own marketing. Tiyo is focused on providing analytics and a wide diversity of potential leads for their customers, and aims to provide industry based high income individuals as well as lower income individuals.
Tiyo's concept has been described as "A Social Media Management system in a box". The system is being released Mid 2011 but in the meantime visit us on Facebook to learn more, when viewing us on Facebook hit the 'Like' button to keep informed!

Please see the link below.


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How Social Marketing Can Help Your Cause

Not all marketing activities are performed with the purpose of generating sales. There is another type of marketing which is about communicating a social message. The social messages are messages which bring the public's attention to a cause or to a plight. Social marketing and social advertising go hand in hand.

Marketers Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman came up with the concept of social marketing in the 1970s. They reasoned that the principle of marketing products could also be used to bring attention to social causes. They defined social marketing as "differing from other areas of marketing only with respect to the objectives of the marketer and his or her organization. Social marketing seeks to influence social behaviours not to benefit the marketer, but to benefit the target audience and the general society".

As you can see the approach is slightly different yet in many ways the same as commercial marketing. Social marketing promotes messages whi ch are good for the society while commercial marketing promotes products to generate profit for the company. When it comes to social marketing it is often the marketing of certain practices or habits, but it can also be the marketing of tangible products such as condoms or ARVs.
It is mostly the health sector which uses social marketing, however many other sectors have followed suit. The traffic sector uses social marketing to promote road safety and responsible driving behaviours for instance.

Commercial sector and social marketing

However it is not just government and Non-profit organisations which use the discipline of social marketing. The commercial sector too, use social marketing, especially campaigns which speak about eradicating crime. The effects of crime leaves a mark on everyone, and that includes businesses. It is in the best interest of the commercial market as well to encourage people and governments to take a stand against crime. Brand strengthening is one of the other benefits which companies experience as a result of social marketing. It also bares mentioning that not all non-profit and public sector marketing campaigns are social marketing.

Essence of a social marketing campaign.

Step one

The first thing you need to do when creating a social marketing campaign is to decide, what the problem is. Once you have a clear understanding of the problem the solution will present itself.

Step two

You have to set your goals for this campaign. You need to be sure as to what you want, when you want it and how you intend getting it.

Step three and four

Define and Know your audience. You have to have an in depth understanding of your target market. If you do not understand your target market then you will not know how to direct a message which will have the biggest impact. This is one of the most important steps, because not understanding your target market can lead to an ineffective campaign. You have to define your target market and then know them.

I hope you found this article on social marketing informative. There are many aspects of social marketing to be considered but in the end it boils down to helping people, help themselves.


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Reviewing Aweber: The Autoresponder of Choice Among Business Owners

Of all the tools a home based business owner should have, Aweber sits on top the list. For those of you that have no idea what it is, don't worry. Aweber is the leader of the email marketing industry. This type of marketing strategy is very necessary in order to build any business. As a proud Aweber customer myself, it's good knowing that my home based business is in good hands.

Aweber's email marketing servicegrants the business owner plenty of freedom. In any industry, it is vital to be able to have a steady supply of customers. More importantly, the owner has to be able to build, and maintain a great rapport with those customers. These two prerequisites are the basis of email marketing techniques. With an Aweber account, the business owner can rest assured that all of their customers will be communicated with...automatically!

Aweber really does automate your business. Industry research shows that it will take an average of 7-8 attempts of customer contact before they decide to purchase anything. This is especially true for online business transactions. With Aweber you will have the ability to use effective email marketing strategies. You can pre-write as many sales copies, or emails, as you want while the relationship with your customer base develops.

But Aweber is not just some run of the mill email marketing service. What I like the most is that Aweber respects your customers privacy. I have used other email marketing services, but none is as spam free as Aweber. I am sure you have checked your email inbox before, and with frustration wondered how you ended up on so many marketing lists.

Before one of your customers decides to "opt-in" Aweber makes sure of their decision by sending a confirmation email. That way, your company's reputation is protected and your customers aren't harassed. Even if you manually add a prospect's contact information they will still receive the confirmation. So there is no unwanted solicitation.

Email marketing is the way to go, and Aweber more than steps up to the plate. Their service knocks it out of the park! You want a high level of email deliverability? I have yet to find a better email marketing provider. Their monthly subscription is a steal, and Aweber's customer service team is knowledgeable and courteous. If you are just starting out in the network marketing industry, you will soon learn that having an autoresponder is inevitable. Aweber really puts a business on auto-pilot. Obtaining leverage in your business begins with them.

The company is so confident in their ability to provide top notch service and products, that they are willing to let you try it for a month. You will be blown away by what you get with your email marketing trial. Visit Aweber today to get more information on how the phenomenon works.

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AWeber Review - Premier Email Marketing Services

AWeber is one of the premier email marketing and auto-responder companies on the Internet. They provide sophisticated email and auto-responder services at affordable prices. They also offer advanced tools such as geo-targeting, broadcast split-testing, activity based segmentation, and detailed email web analytics. Wheter you're a Internet newbie or a marketing pro, AWeber has the right tools for you.

AWeber's auto-responder services help you to build relationships with your prospects. When a new prospect or subscriber enters your website you can send them a welcome message through email. You can then send them a series of emails redirecting them back to your website. Members are able to track clicks on their links from prospects and are also able to see who's opened their messages. They are also able to send messages automatically at all different times of day when prospects are more likely to read their emails. All this is done automatically using AWeber's premier auto-responder system.

AWeber allows customers to manage all of their leads, customers, and websites with one-stop email marketing solutions. Customers can run as many email campaigns as they want. Members can set up specific email lists for their customers, and subscribers. Once your prospects become a customer, you can start tailoring your emails accordingly and have them sent automatically on auto-pilot.

AWeber specializes in delivering your emails to your subscribers. They enforce a zero tolerance anti-spam policy. They provide prospects the option of opting out of your emails to ensure you are receiving serious prospects, and to also prevent unhappy customers from receiving unwanted emails. If there are any potential email delivery issues, they will proactively seek them out to get them resolved.

Members are able to analyze and track their prospects activity. They are able to see who's opened their messages and who hasn't. Split testing is also available for in depth tracking. Members are able to follow their list growth and sales revenue generated through these detailed reports.

In depth subscriber management tools are available with AWeber. You can import and export subscribers using spreadsheets. AWeber will automatically remove any unsubscribers for you. Shopping carts like Paypal are also able to be integrated into the system.

AWeber has afforda ble pricing plans available. You will only pay more as your list grows. There is currently a trial available. They also currently offer a risk free guarantee where customers can get their money back within 30 days if they're not completely satisfied.

AWeber offers an affiliate program where they will pay members an affiliate commission for everyone they refer to their program. Once you become an affiliate you will receive an affiliate ID. Your ID will be attached to a link that you can refer to other people. If someone clicks on your link and purchases any products, you'll receive a commission. They will also pay you a recurring commission for anyone that stays with their program. So, they will pay you a commission up front and a monthly residual for anyone that stays with them as a customer. As an AWeber affiliate you'll be provided with ads, and other resources to help you promote your affiliate account. You can track your vistors and commissions on a daily basis.
AWeber is truly the premier auto-responder and email marketing company. They provide their customers with elite products that help them to run their businesses more efficiently and effectively. With their added affiliate programs to help generate additional income, members cannot lose. If you are looking for the right company to help you manage your business the right way, then AWeber is the right choice for you.

For more information about AWeber and to purchase their products and services visit AWeber Products.

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iContact vs. AWeber, which Email Program & Auto Responder is Better?

I have been asked over and over again by those in the industry for almost a decade what the best email & newsletter programs are. I have used a few since 2000, but since 2005, I have been exclusively with iContact. Originally this was because for quite a while they provided the service for free for my publication ADOTAS.com, but currently stay and pay for the service. That being said, I have looked on occasion to move to AWeber, because it is highly recommended by many in the performance marketing industry. I thought it might be time to take a real look at the features, pricing and functions of these two companies. Read my indepth analysis!

In comparing the two companies, it is important to look at what they traditionally have marketed themselves as. iContact has traditionally marketed itself as a brand-centric company where brands and major websites can send out newsletter to their followers. On the other hand, AWEBER has become the favorite amongst "marketers" specifically because of its auto-responder function, which many marketers believe to be top notch. In truth, iContact does have a large amount of brand companies that use its services and about 8 times as many customers as AWEBER. However, that doesn't mean its better.

PRICING:
Aweber is $19 a month for up to 500 subscribers and $29 a month for a more realistic size of 501-2,500 subscribers.
iContact is $14.00 a month for up to $500 subscribers, but has a cheaper $9.95 plan of $9.95 a month. Up to 2,500 subscribers is identical pricing of $29 a amonth.
The pricing for all their programs actually stays somewhat the same, plus or minus 5% between the two up to the highest levels.

CUSTOMER SERVICE
As mentioned, I have used iContact for years, but have had accounts with both companies. iContact customer service is seriously the best in the industry from the sales team to the technical support team, they are great at what they do. One thing that I personally find important is that with all the projects that I have, I sometimes need a little "guidance" about things that are out of the box. iContact has always answered my questions on the phone and email. On the other hand, to be perfectly honest, aWeber tends to use canned, copy and paste response or send you to a webpage to "learn" the information. Even trying to get a PR and Marketing Contact over there as close to impossible, and in some cases their customer service person stopped responding to my requests for feature information. When I asked to speak to their PR & Marketing person about pricing discounts and importing, I got a form letter.

DELIVERABILITY
This is a very, very hard metric to talk about because there are no "proven" results out there. AWeber has a very strict double-optin system that they require all customers to use, and prevent almost anyone from importing emails from other lists, so that their system can "Stay clean." However, with the huge amount of "get rich quick" and "MLM" offers that go through AWeber, there seems to be some issues. The built in Junk Mail Filter on Outlook, despite AWeber having SPAM Assassin integrated, seems to like catching AWeber emails more than iContact. iContact has a very similar system installed, but is not as easy to use. However, they review most emails themselves to "help", just incase there is something they believe is spammy or will get you blocked, an added service I am not sure is in any other email service provider.

iContact is monitored by Pivotal Veracity which gives it a 99% deliverability rate, plus iContact has significant relations with the ISPs and knows exactly what is going on with any possible spammy emails. AWeber claims to have deliverability about the same, but at the same time, no third party verification nor do they have the same relationships from what I have been told with the ISPs because of the perception that they are used by many marketers. Still when I asked around, a lot of my friends said they had little issues with deliverabiltiy from AWeber.

FEATURES
When it comes to features, both of the companies are very similar. Both of them have a great deal of newsletter templates, great signup forms, unlimited email lists, open and click tracking, WYSIWYG editors and a great contact management system. That being said, there iContact's tracking system is superior as it allows you to really "dig" into who is clicking on t he newsletters and what they are specifically clicking on, plus examine it against other newsletters they have clicked on. On top of that, iContact allows you to host images on its server, which for some people might be a must. Additionally, iContact has a built in survey system, but aWeber recommends using Google Docs or SurveyMonkey for surveys.

Yet, AWeber has a built in optimization and tracking system, which allows you to track who is buying products from your newsletter. This is something that is essential for marketers, and I'm sincerely amazed that iContact has not added this into their system. I'm sincerely amazed that they haven't since this is a blaring difference between the two that seems to be easily fixed.

On top of that, I'll be honest the add-ons and packages that have been built in the performance marketing industry for aWeber are significant. There are numerous great WordPress ad-ons that are attached mainly to aWeber and more than one affiliate expert has built specific programs that work with aWeber. Still, aWeber does NOT have a developer API while iContact has a whole developer portal that should allow anyone to build those features and add-ons easily. Some of the "outside" products that people have made for aWeber are actually built into iContact already, such as viral tell-a-friend and forwarding mechanisms.

CONCLUSION
Honestly, despite me promoting both the products, I know that the readers want me to look at one product and recommend it. Both products are on the top of their game. iContact has built a stellar reputation and has some serious clients behind it. AWeber has the hearts of the marketing community and has been able to grow significantly because of the (paid) promotions by several marketing experts. I would easily come out with a very clear recommendation for iContact, except for the lack of a built in commerce optimization. For many affiliates, this could be essential in knowing what list creations are doing the best and resulting in sales and purchases.

Something really bugs me about AWeber. One of the reasons is their requirement for all new subscribers to re-opt in their lists if they come from another provider. This really bugs me because many, many stores and merchants have lists they have built from customers who have bought products and asking them to decrease their list by as much as 90% is ridiculous. If you do import all your subscribers and they don't confirm the first time, you can't ever contact them again. Seriously guys?

The good news is that you can try both of them for close to free. Icontact has a free trial, and AWeber has a $1.00 trial. Note that, not unlike that subscription to MilfHunter, if you do not cancel AWeber they will charge your card (and in my case, even with the cancelation, they charged it, but eventually refunded the charge.).

You can learn more abuot the companies at:
www.icontact.com and www.aweber.com

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Automotive Advertising Agencies Monetize Social Networking by Integrating it Into Real World Process

The world wide web has replaced car row as the place to shop for a vehicle. The consolidation of brick and mortar facilities might have been accelerated by a shrinking economy and government dictates; nonetheless, the writing has been on the virtual wall for some time. Technology has always served as the catalyst for change and the Web has proven to be the platform to introduce the next evolution of the auto industry.

The world wide web has matured as an efficient data resource to replace the real world auto dealership as the place of selection for car shoppers to gather the details they want to choose a vehicle and a dealership -- in that order! Internet based social networking is the virtual version of a Chamber of Commerce, the Rotary Club, Community Event, Fraternity, etc., linked together by a technology that serves as a central communication and distribution tool.

The significance of relationship based selling in the real world is supported in e ach and every sales training manual based on the observation that people like to do company with folks that they like. The logic to Sell yourself, sell the dealership, sell the vehicle and then justify the price is an accepted wisdom that is based on the 1 constant that has survived in both the real world and the world wide web -- Human Nature! Net based social networks represent an on the net community of like-minded consumers who have a strong influence on their on-line friends. Auto dealers should invest and involve in these on the net communities as men and women not as an auto dealer.

They must prioritize the interests of their new on the web friends before, during and after their purchasing cycle to earn their trust and consideration when they have a want for a new vehicle or to service their present 1. After all, what are friends for!

Once a require has surfaced it is critical that the transition from casual conversations to focused selling proce sses is transparent and comprehensive to move the consumer seamlessly through their online shopping experience. Technology can communicate the information needed by both the consumer and the dealer to move forward into a transaction. Even so, the processes should create on the personality and relationship built on the social networking website that surfaced the chance. The special differentiator between the dealers down the street selling the same product is not the price, but the people that started the dialogue built on an earned relationship and trust.

Viral advertising is a natural extension of social networking that distributes a message in such a way that it will be forwarded by the recipient in a geometric progression enhanced by its valued content, distinctive creative, entertaining production or some quality that will motivate the initial consumer to share it with their spheres of influence. The exponential growth of this kind of on-line distribution chan nel affords an extremely price efficient media to distribute the initial message to a diverse audience that might or may not be interested in the content, but even a little percentage of conversions represent a superior short term and quantifiable R.O.I. to conventional marketing media. The buzz created by the extended on-line community also develops lengthy term branding recognition that enhances the reach and frequency of the message with less measurable outcomes but similar value in developing top of the mind awareness for future consumers.

By extension, social media as it is applied for the purpose of advertising for the retail auto industry is a channel for distribution of both viral and targeted advertising messages through controlled blogging forums as well as expanded spheres of influence by means of on the net communities such as Twitter, Face book, LinkedIn, Naymz, YouTube, etc.

These on the web social networking communities have unique profil es that attract different varieties of users. Twitter and Face book, for example, are much more universal and personal in nature although Naymz and LinkedIn are additional professional and focused on business to enterprise networking with YouTube utilizing video to express the message. These on the internet communities will be component of your extended social media channel, on the other hand, much more specialized networks targeted to the auto business must be the core channels based on their applicable content, audience and related links.

It must also be noted that recent market studies confirm that the efficiency defined by Twitter - in that they limit their postings to 140 words - has served to differentiate them from other sites with a superior growth curve to prove it. Conversion rates from Twitter users who access on the net banner ads or comparable commercial messages are twice those of social networkers who do not have Twitter in their on the internet pro files. The revelation is that numerous on the web networkers are overwhelmed by the fragmented on the net communities that they participate in and limited time demands them to seek out a lot more effective methods to manage their on the web and real world lives.

New platforms that link these diverse on the web communities into one central access point now exist that offer efficiencies beyond those provided by any single website. Power.Com -- for example -- functions as a layer or residence page that represents this one stop social networking site philosophy. Newly developed marketing platforms serving the auto industry, like ronsmap.com, integrate social media with their vehicle listings with localized search engine functions -- think Google Local! ronsmap is a game changing on-line vehicle buying/selling internet site for both customers and dealers that makes automobile buying quick, comprehensive, transparent and live. Their proprietary technology gives clients unparalleled buying and negotiating power over the automobile purchasing/selling processes including the opportunity to accommodate For Sale By Owner listings. It offers auto dealers with unprecedented levels of sales intelligence on consumer leads and it enables automotive advertising agencies to promote and engage customers via social networks.

The capability to supply both B2B and B2C advertising messages supported by relevant social networking forums is an efficient combination of company and pleasure that will attract today's time challenged consumers. Of course, company opportunities must be subordinate to providing relevancy and fascinating content to the end users -- the car shoppers -- nonetheless, the convenience of providing a locally targeted inner circle of connected real world friends by means of an on the web communication tool is an example of the leveraged and efficient resources that are emerging on the Internet. Marketing to customers in social networking communities demands resources, tools and skill sets to compliment and supplement auto dealers existing on the internet selling efforts and ronsmap supplies all of these elements in a cost efficient scalable manner whilst delivering market intelligence that enables the auto dealer to maximize their conversion rates and preserve gross profit in their on the internet negotiations.

Finally, quite a few dealers have learned the value of integrating customer generated content onto their web sites via blogging forums and other strategies to present past and present customer experiences to possible future clients. These dealer sponsored social networking platforms are generally suspect and dealers tend to filter negative comments on their own internet site which limits participation by customers and adversely impacts the confidence of visitors in the value of the content. A far more proven platform has been for auto dealers to support third party micro-web site s that distance the dealer from the on the internet community. The web site can then expand on the messages it presents to consist of problems of interest to potential clients. Links to community organizations and related data resources supported by the dealer do not require a sales message, which would likely alienate the on-line community. The value of developing relationships with the website visitors on the frequent ground of your shared support for the activities coordinated on the web site will plant the seed that will grow when they are looking for a friend in the vehicle enterprise.
The agenda of participants in social media and social networking does not include commercial messages as it is primarily an on-line platform to construct relationships and share facts. On the contrary, any commercial abuse of a social media web site will alienate users and produce negative backlash. That said, as previously stated, human nature has survived from the real world to the virtual world and people still prefer to do enterprise with friends -- real or virtual. As lengthy as the sales message is secondary to supplying valued content or is placed in the context of a relationship focused community with shared interests then the capacity to develop sales is both measurable and assured.

Viral advertising and social media have price advantages over conventional media -- such as radio, TV, print, direct mail, etc. -- as well as on the internet investments in search engine advertising, (SEM) -- such as pay per click and banner advertisements -- since there is no direct costs.

They are similar in their R.O.I. and value to World wide web based search engine optimization, (SEO), with comparable indirect costs in that they are labor intensive. However, correctly leveraged reciprocal links and automated content provided by RSS feeds from related on the web sources can be integrated to reduce the labor for both content and distribution enhancing the R.O.I. even after the price of labor is considered.

An extra special value of social media is the growing significance of relevancy and consumer generated content in consumer preference in their selection of sites as a resource for details. Improvement in conversion and bounce rates, time on page and a number of other internet site analytics can be directly attributed to improved relevancy and consumer content -- as is provided by social media when properly integrated with a web site.

A lot more substantially, is the resulting impact it is having on searc h engines such as Google in adjusting the algorithms that establish both page rankings and even costs associated with their pay per click programs. Also, the constantly changing messages provided by user generated content on the posting website improves its SEO. The significance of relevancy has been firmly established by both customers and the search engines insuring that its impact on Internet use will increase as must your focus on it.

A less obvious but equally valued aspect of the use of social media to extend your advertising plans is the evolution of the use of the Web by consumers to be much more of a pull/push media vs. the old world advertising logic of push/pull. The World wide web has allowed customers the freedom to gather details from a selection of on the web resources to prevent the sales hype and self serving messages employed by advertisers in other media.

The recognized preference for consumers to rely on referrals and shared personal experiences from third party sources and "friends" has been enhanced by the World wide web and, additional specifically, social media which has been shown to present a stronger influence on customers than both conventional and other strategies of World wide web based marketing efforts. Leveraged resources in the auto business social networking arena offer consumers, auto dealers and vendors with the inside story on the auto business. These web site offer shared content by direct and indirect links with other established social media networks as well as specialized auto business networking communities in consumer/dealer/consultant/vendor facing forums.

It is critical to note that the messages and even the portals themselves are established as open forums with minimum self serving or obviously commercial elements. Of course, the underlying purpose of quite a few of these websites is to improve the SEO and relevancy of the auto dealer participants and all of the con tributing members. Even so, social media rely on relationship based communications. If a web site is perceived by customers as being self serving or commercial it will be shunned by consumers.

The demand by consumers for transparency on an auto dealer's site is coupled with the auto dealer's need to convert these virtual clients to real world selling opportunities for vehicle sales and service. The following online processes are designed to replicate and integrate with established real world selling systems with out offending the online shoppers by delivering the details that they want, when they want it -- which is immediately!

1) Meeting and Greeting: Meeting and greeting is step 1 in both the real and the virtual world. If a customer walks into a showroom he expects to either locate the information he wants or to be directed to where he can discover it. Conversion tools, such as Argistics AutoTransaXion and Auto Site Plus, permit a pro-active engagem ent with an invitation to answer a customer's questions.

AutoTransaXion links with the dealer's DMS and CRM to integrate with established real world selling systems. A lot more uniquely, their two way video customer interaction platform replicates the human experience" for relationship based communications. Yet another chat application with a exclusive added value is AutoWebsitePlus.Com. It replaces the video function found in AutoTransaXion with a 15 language translation application that permits an English speaking sales staff to directly communicate with Spanish, German, Italian, etc. speaking consumers. Specialized R.O.I. analytics contain S.E.M. and S.E.O. quantified and qualified reports to monitor and manage all of your on the internet advertising and marketing investments that are driven to your site.

Both AutoTransaXion and Auto Website Plus also offer a staffed answer to supplement -- or even replace -- an auto dealer's sales or world wide web staff in processing world wide web leads sourced from the website. Justified cuts in expenses by auto dealers struggling to adjust fixed and semi-variable expenses to be in synch with reduced profit margins and sales volume has forced many dealers to reduce the efficiency of their selling processes on both their real and virtual showrooms. The ability to add a remote staff to immediately respond and procedure on the internet sales and service opportunities in a consistent manner can either supplement existing staff or extend the on the web showroom hours to a 24/7 schedule.

2) Initial T.O. + qualifying + feature/benefit presentations: AutoTransaXion and Auto Web page Plus both supply a real time interaction which can be used to accommodate an initial T.O. and to initiate an interview to qualify the customer's needs. Once their needs are determined, the application continues in a push/pull manner to present facts on a variety of vehicles.

3) Inventory wa lk and test drive: The use of videos in conjunction with embedded links to relevant data, such as Automobile Fax reports, combined with a list of comparable vehicles based on the customer's needs, can replicate the consumer experience in the real world. SiSTeR Technologies Video CarLot is an automated video production service that can convert an auto dealer's on the net pictures into a professional video with human voice as well as the capability to integrate existing video content into the stitched pictures provided on the dealer's website. In addition, multiple schema layers linked to a dedicated micro-website -- vShock -- offers an extended marketing platform for similar inventory on the dealer's web page. This procedure will narrow down the inventory to a short list of possible vehicles to permit the on the internet selling process to continue into relevant negotiations and in some instances even to an actual online transaction. This application also integrates a lead co nversion form that is directly sourced back to the video posted on the dealer's internet site, third party advertising internet sites and even on the search engines as a distinctive URL linked to the video posted on You Tube through a dedicated API that delivers the vehicle with integrated meta tags and search words tied to the vehicle as well as links back to the posting dealer's website in synch with their established S.E.O. programs. (vSEO)

4) Trade-in evaluation and negotiations: AutoTransaXion and Auto Web page Plus push/pull capabilities consist of the capability to request pictures and details on a trade-in that will supply sufficient info for a dealer to establish an actual appraised value subject to confirmation at the time of delivery. Similarly, since the applications are linked with the auto dealer's DMS, the 1st pencil can be delivered at the point of 1st contact with actual negotiations in a comparable fashion to established real world selling proces ses.

5) On the net transactions and delivery: AutoTransaXion and Auto Web page Plus can complete a negotiation and process all customer and vehicle details directly into an auto dealer's DMS and CRM with the capability to push all forms required to consummate a sale. The dealership can then deliver the vehicle along with the appropriate paperwork. The delivery can be scheduled at the dealership to stay away from proper of rescission rules that exist in many states. It really should be noted that even if an appointment is made at the dealership the method will be greatly enhanced by the online communications that preceded it.

6) Follow up for sold and un-sold units: Database advertising for sold and unsold clients has existed for a lot of years, even so, matrix based automated solutions have been very limited. Bulldog Advertising Technologies and their integrated Consumer Cleanse offer a custom follow up to any customer that has been entered into a deale r's database. The messages can be delivered via email or direct mail with a personalized message drawn from the initial contact.

The distinctive feature of Bulldog is their capability to select comparable vehicles for the ongoing consideration of unsold clients. The contact can consist of present price details such as factory incentives, interest rates and payments to address problems that may have prevented the initial sale.

In addition, Consumer Cleanse uses third party resources to figure out if a customer has already purchased a vehicle -- even if from a diverse dealership -- so the message can be converted to a service provide rather than a sales message that will be ignored by the customer. Sold consumers are also included in the method with service offers and customer satisfaction messages to supplement the dealer's existing CRM functions.

7) Inventory management and ongoing on the web advertising: It is an accepted wisdom that dealers make their money on Utilized Cars when they acquire them, not when they sell them. Inventory management systems like AAX, vAuto, eCarList and FirstLook offer applications that use historical sales data as well as present on-line postings in varying ratios of relevancy to assist in the appraisal process. Extended and integrated advertising platforms also seamlessly place the newly acquired inventory onto the dealer's web site and third party advertising web sites. Since time is cash the faster the vehicles are placed on the virtual inventory and on the net marketing plan the sooner they are sold and the profit is turned into an additional vehicle.

FirstLook has the special capacity to apply their proprietary algorithm to design the copy of the on the internet ads for the vehicles utilizing their Consumer Optimization procedure to prioritize the features and benefits for each vehicle to precisely match proven customer preferences. This automated production process increases conversion and profits from the posted ads and extra features and functionality are planned to further improve the ads. (Can you say VIDEO!)

All of the issues discussed in this article can be referenced to the key differentiator between conventional advertising/advertising and the newly maturing position being reserved for social networking. For example, customer reviews exist in most retail verticals on the World Wide Web and the auto industry is no exception. Although the significance of this component of many social networking site can't be over emphasized, it is only 1 bullet in the gun of auto dealer's that are constantly expanding their investment in reputation management and branding via the use of their social networking/marketing plans.

Web 2. has turn out to be an established buzz for today's automotive advertising agencies but User Generated Content, (UGC), has earned a position in their vocabulary in a selection of forms. Social Me dia -- for example -- references communication technology provided in a public forum that makes it possible for users to interact and contribute shared content by way of a variety of tools such as forums, blogs, Weblogs, networking communities, wikis and radio podcasts -- like my own blog talk radio shows on AdAgencyOnline.Net.

Social Advertising describes a grouping of social media tools that supply direct personal relationships with a targeted group of clients. Social Networking Web sites consist of well recognized on the net communities like Face Book, Twitter, Bebo, MySpace and newly maturing centralized aggregator internet sites like ronsmap.com that allow men and women to connect with old and new on-line friends by means of personal profiles that define their shared interests in both the real and the virtual world on an individual basis as well as with groups that they have in widespread.

The growing acceptance and recognition of these numerous an d related facets of the new phenomenon of Social Networking is built on established enterprise and advertising advertising principals enhanced by the new language of today's Web and technology driven auto business. They all recognize the significance of relationship selling and branding to supplement and compliment -- not replace -- conventional calls to action and direct selling messages.

The search engines are also playing a growing role in the acceptance of UGC and the importance of reputation management with the development of new tools -- like Google's Sidewiki -- that provides web site visitors with a text box to post their opinion of an auto dealer's website to future visitors. They have an added self serving agenda to eventually sell this information and data to potential on-line advertisers since the application also tracks the user's history on the Web but it raises the significance and urgency of protecting auto dealer's on-line reputation to a new leve l!

Automotive advertising agencies are learning and applying the rules established by the search engines but dictated by the on the net consumer who ultimately is the only driver on the Web Super Highway that matters. In summation, monetizing social networking and applying it into selling processes that blur the line between the real and the virtual world is the objective and role of today's automotive advertising agencies.
For much more details about "social networking", you really should check out: social networking
Automotive Advertising Agencies Monetize Social Networking by Integrating it Into Real World Process

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Blogging Tactics - Merge Blogging with Social Networking To Get Greater Traffic

Not using social book-marking with blogging is a bit like putting together a jigsaw with pieces missing.

One of the fastest and easiest ways to get free targeted traffic to your website is with blogging. However, writing a blog and keeping it up to date is only a fraction of the story. One of the best blog strategies involves taking advantage of social networking sites to promote your blog posts.

If you have a presence on the Internet but you're not blogging to the world, then you are missing out on one of the great options to get free targeted traffic to your website. However, creating a blog and maintaining it is only a fraction of the work of the story. One of the productive blog strategies requires taking advantage of web 2.0 social networking sites to advertise your blog posts.

The primary reason why social bookmarking sites should be a part of your day-to-day Internet business activities is that numerous individuals use these places as their main source of gossip and news. A favorite social news site such as Digg draws agood deal of traffic. Digg attracted over 200 million visitors a few years ago. Peoplevisit Digg and look-alike websites todetermine what's current and to communicate content from the web, including their own blog posts. If users love what they see, they are able to select the article, and if an website article is favourite, it will make the top pages of Digg and be found by millions of visitors. Other social sites have a similar balloting system.

If the blog posts you submit to Digg, StumbleUpon and other social networking sites do not get any votes, you're still getting the help of building unidirectional backlinks to your blog, so it's meriting of the effort in making the effort to present your blog posts to social marketing sites. Besides, it's simple to do and quite often takes just a mouse-click.

Yet another profit from blogging often and adding your posts to social networking sites is branding yourself and building your credibility. Make sure that you use keywords that individuals are using to research for your kind of business. Social networking can also supply your blog a cracking hike in search engine rankings, and you could notice that you are able to get your website into the top ten of Google for a sweeping range of keyword terms if you take a controlled approach to marketing on social networks.

Do not take on too much when it comes to social networking. A lot of individuals endeavor to submit their post to every social networking site that they can find only to feel overwhelmed by the vast number of social networking sites.

It's much simpler to buy a dozen of the finest social networking sites for your website and to centralize the majority of your social networking and marketing endeavors on generating frequent entries to those social networking sites. The other portion of your assigned time should be utilised to create casual entries to additional social marketing sites wherever you hope to maintain a presence.

Keep yourself centred, disciplined and work to a schedule to blogging and social networking, then you can pull in so much more publicity for your blog and online business than you will if you take a scattered approach to social marketing. Blending your blog posts with social networking is one of the topmost blog strategies that you can employ.

Follow the advice of this article and always post to your favourite social networking sites every time you post a new blog entry and you will be amazed at how effective it is for creating high quality traffic to your blog.

Not using social book-marking with blogging is a bit like putting together a jigsaw with pieces missing. One of the fastest and easiest ways to get free targeted traffic to your website is with blogging. However, writing a blog and keeping it up to date is only a fraction of the story. One of the best blog strategies involves taking advantage of social networking sites to promote your blog posts. If you have a presence on the Internet but you're not blogging to the world, then you are missing out on one of the great options to get free targeted traffic to your website. However, creating a blog and maintaining it is only a fraction of the work of the story. One of the productive blog strategies requires taking advantage of web 2.0 social networking sites to advertise your blog posts. The primary reason why social bookmarking sites should be a part of your day-to-day Internet business activities is that numerous individuals use these places as their main source of gossip and news. A favorite social news site such as Digg draws agood deal of traffic. Digg attracted over 200 million visitors a few years ago. Peoplevisit Digg and look-alike websites todetermine what's current and to communicate content from the web, including their own blog posts. If users love what they see, they are able to select the article, and if an website article is favourite, it will make the top pages of Digg and be found by millions of visitors. Other social sites have a similar balloting system. If the blog posts you submit to Digg, StumbleUpon and other social networking sites do not get any votes, you're still getting the help of building unidirectional backlinks to your blog, so it's meriting of the effort in making the effort to present your blog posts to social marketing sites. Besides, it's simple to do and quite often takes just a mouse-click. Yet another profit from blogging often and adding your posts to social networking sites is branding yourself and building your credibility. Make sure that you use keywords that individuals are using to research for your kind of business. Social networking can also supply your blog a cracking hike in search engine rankings, and you could notice that you are able to get your website into the top ten of Google for a sweeping range of keyword terms if you take a controlled approach to marketing on social networks. Do not take on too much when it comes to social networking. A lot of individuals endeavor to submit their post to every social networking site that they can find only to feel overwhelmed by the vast number of social networking sites. It's much simpler to buy a dozen of the finest social networking sites for your website and to centralize the majority of your social networking and marketing endeavors on generating frequent entries to those social networking sites. The other portion of your assigned time should be utilised to create casual entries to additional social marketing sites wherever you hope to maintain a presence. Keep yourself centred, disciplined and work to a schedule to blogging and social networking, then you can pull in so much more publicity for your blog and online business than you will if you take a scattered approach to social marketing. Blending your blog posts with social networking is one of the topmost blog strategies that you can employ. Follow the advice of this article and always post to your favourite social networking sites every time you post a new blog entry and you will be amazed at how effective it is for creating high quality traffic to your blog.

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The New Gen marketing with social networks

The New Gen marketing with social networks

Social Networks and Marketing provides a primer on social networks targeted toward marketing practitioners and scholars. It explores main concepts, theoretical ideas, and empirical findings, with a focus on questions of relevance to managers: How and when do network patterns matter? How does network structure affect consumer behavior? What kinds of social networks are important for particular marketing decisions?

Social Networks are attractive because consumers are connecting with other consumers and the trust tends to be higher. Secondly, there's a tremendous amount of buzz from the media for this newest form of marketing. Lastly, there's lots of folks using social networks (about 2/3rds of all North American youth use it daily, and about 1/3rd of NA adults use it as least once a month data From Forrester Research, Q4, 2007)

Marketing Campaigns on Social Networks share the following attributes:

Meets a business objective: First and foremost, any marketing campaign or activity should match with a business objective, regardless of the tools being used.

Supports Community Goals: Every community is different, and each has unique goals (from supporting products, to each other, or to just be entertained) the campaign focus should therefore meet the needs of the community, before the needs of the marketer. Effective campaigns will first understand the core drivers, interests, and rituals of the community and learn how to meet those desires. (Expanded by Laurel Papworth)

Encourage Member Interaction: The most successful social networking campaigns and efforts involve the audience.

Quickly scale: Social networks are designed for information to quickly move from member to member, so campaigns that lean on these capabilities perform the best. These attributes known as Velocity, Viralness, and Spread are key.

Utilize Media: In some campaigns, the best way to get members to return is to offer them media. Depending on demographics and community needs, this could be audio, videos, or demos

Foster self-expression or communication: Members in social networks like to communicate with each other, or self-express. As a result, campaigns should satisfy these needs with the appropriate tools

Offer a satisfying User Experience: This encompasses the overall experience of the campaign, the content and navigation items should be where expected, the language familiar to the audience, and overall look and feel of the site appeasing.

Provide longer term utility: Successful campaigns have a longer term value, rather than a short term disposble campaign". These campaigns add value by being a useful application to the members, rather than just quick dose of entertainment.

Enhance Value as Community participants: As more people contribute or interact with the campaign, the value is increased. This can be in the form of content that is created by the community, contests, voting, or games.

Integration with other marketing activities: Successful marketing campaigns aren't single channel, in fact they utilizie multiple channels and mediums to enhance the overall activity. The same thing applies to marketing campaigns on social networks, those that are promoted from other locations such as (corporate websites, email newsletter, blogs, podcasts) outside fo the social network have a great chance for success.

Maintain agility during the campaign: Social networks are living, breathing organisms made up of real people connecting with each other. Marketing campaigns also should share these attributes and show be flexible to change in-flight, yield to legitimate requests or complaints of the community. Those campaigns that reflect the same dynamic behavior as human interaction have a higher chance to be interacted and accepted by the community.

Company Participation: In some cases, companies that participate in the discussions or conversations will yield to a more successful marketing campaign. Activities can range from recognition, company interaction, or attention to members perhaps from a community manager

How can social networks make me more money?

The problem with that approach is that you tend to focus on immediate means of monetizing the value of social networks such as MySpace, Orkut, Friendster, LinkedIn,Mixx, Stumbleupon, Reddit,Twiter and Flikr, while ignoring the real reason these networks were setup and how you can use those ideas to help your business.

Top Social Networking Websites

MySpace, Orkut and Friendster grew as means to stay in touch with friends, meet new people online and to share ideas. LinkedIn has a similar slant it is great for entrepreneurs and professionals who want to mine their contacts for hiring / outsourcing. And Flickr is just a blindingly simple tool for sharing photos.

The success of social networks marks a dynamic shift in how people are using the Internet. We've evolved from just searching for information to creating and participating in social spaces with other individuals through the Internet. This model is based upon the hive mentality where people identify themselves as part of a group with similar likes and interests that draw them together. This is easy to do online because the traditional communication barriers of physical locations no longer exist.

Social Networking Still the #1 Growth Area in Online Marketing

Some optimistic news today in a study dug up by eMarketer: lots of small businesses plan to increase their spending on social network marketing in 2009. In fact, 25% of the small businesses surveyed by Ad-ology Research indicated that they would increase spending on the medium this year, a higher percentage than any other marketing format.

Meanwhile, 33% of small businesses indicated that they would keep spending on social networking about the same, while only 5% reported that they plan to spend less than in the previous year. Surprisingly, while 37% of small businesses in the survey don't use social networking at all, that's a smaller percentage than any other medium, including email marketing, search engine marketing, and even just maintaining a company website.

What to make of the data? While certainly hopeful news for those that work in social media, overall, the numbers would seemingly point to what might be a better-than-expected year overall for businesses that depend on online marketing dollars. In all but a few areas (online video, podcasting, and mobile), small businesses indicate they are growing (or keeping the same) and not shrinking their marketing budgets.

Costs are certainly being cut elsewhere the unemployment rate in the US is at a 16-year high but maybe, just maybe, online marketing is a bit better off than other areas of the economy.

Social networking sites (SNSes) like MySpace.com and Facebook attract large numbers of mostly young users who are eager to engage with their favorite brands. But most marketers use traditional marketing tactics like run-of-site advertising and static microsites to push messages into these networks. Instead, to realize the full value of marketing on SNSes, marketers should be prepared to engage in a personal relationship with users by providing something of value. Promotions are good in this context, but even better are information or brand elements that users can pass on to their friends.

Internet Network Marketing Bringing Value to Social Networks

One of the hottest ways promoted to build your internet network marketing business is through social networks. Unfortunately people heard about it and totally took it out of control. Especially in the network marketing world. The fastest way to be seen as a loser in a social network is to join one and immediately start posting about your awesome business opportunity. People really read your post, I do and the people that are just spamming biz ops I tend to label nubs. Which is to bad, because I actually do spend money online and join businesses

How To Attract Prospects Using Social Networking

It is a fact, you will only bring people into your business that is at your skill level or lower. It is highly unlikely that you will find some big heavy hitter type jumping on your business opportunity in a social network. The first thing you can do is investigate the social network and see who are the people that are the most active in that network. More than likely they probably have valuable information they are dying to share with you. Participate in forum discussions, add friends and visit their profile page leave a nice comment.

It is okay to promote your business on your personal space in a social network, if a person is interested they will find you. To tell you the truth a person looking for you is better than you looking for them. The more blog post/articles you write the more people will come visit your page. Don't write articles about your business, write articles about your niche subject in general.

The Secret To Success

People do not join followers, people join leaders. Make sure that when you write your articles that you add value by either educating or inspiring the people reading.

Strive to be one of the few and you will find success in the network marketing industry. Leaders don't peddle their business like some cheap car salesman, a leader attracts people to them because they are seen as the person who knows what direction to go. Always position yourself as this expert.

Social Network Marketing Meets Small Business

In mid-June, when computer maker Dell announced it had earned $3 million in revenue from using Twitter, a popular micro-blogging site, the Internet and blogosphere were all atwitter about the news. Finally, proof that social media had the potential to not only increase traffic but also sales. Though as Dell was quick to mention, it took 18 months to make that first million via Twitter, albeit only six to earn the last.

The Business Face of Social Networking

You've got a Web site, a blog, and maybe even an RSS feed. Think you're done with Web 2.0? Think again. Social networking sitescommunity-driven Web sites that aim to connect friends and colleagues into an interwoven fabric of a networkshould be next up on your business agenda. The sites can help you find referrals, vet ideas, get advice and moreusually for free.

When it comes to social networking for business, we're not referring to MySpace, FaceBook and other online popularity contests where teens and 20-somethings (plus 30-somethings who wish they were still 20-somethings) post embellished or embarrassing tidbits about themselves in the name of "connecting" with friends and strangers. (Though it doesn't hurt to have a presence there, if that demographic is your target market).

Instead, there's a universe of sites built by business people for business people, with the goal of establishing a community where business owners can connect with one another, get questions answered, get referrals for employees and foster new business relationships.

If you already have a presence on the Internet, why do you need branch out even more? "Having a Web site for your company is definitely helpful, but truth be told, no one thing alone will bring you and your company enough business," said Krista Canfield, PR Manager for LinkedIn, the 800-pound gorilla of business social networking sites. "It's best to take a multi-pronged approach in order to ensure that your business is getting as much exposure as possible."

How to correctly use social networks for marketing?

There are several guidelines that you can use, and here are some of them:

1. Use your real photo in your profile picture: do not use dollar signs, the logo of your sites, or lavish stuffs like sports cars. There is no better turnoff than someone who boasts about him or herself. Use a modest, professional picture of yourself. People want to know you as who you are, and as a human being.

2. Tell about yourself wholeheartedly in your info page: tell people about who you are, what you do, what your hobby is, and even your favorite sports team. People are open to others that share the same interests, let people relate to you by opening up yourself, only then you can begin to establish a more serious connection for your social network friends.

3. Once connected, don't promote right away: I have confirmed many friend requests in my FaceBook page coming from internet marketers and network marketers. What mostly happen is that once I confirm their requests, they start inviting me to their business groups or opportunities, some even tagging me on product pictures that I have never even used in my life. Don't do this please. Doing this is such a turn off honestly.

4. Share interesting stuff, not just your business: I often see that most new marketers post about their products often in their status updates. This is also a mistake. You are not letting anyone to get to know you by doing this. Shares things that are more personal in your updates more often, then people will relate to you. Then, once and a while, you can promote your business in your status updates, but this time people will actually read it because they have seen you as an honest guy who likes to share stuffs that are interesting and news-worthy.

In conclusion, use social networks in its main function, don't use it as a blatant spam machine that will ruin not only your business, but reputation as well.

Conclusion

A critical part of social media marketing is thinking creatively. Apply creativity to every campaign and program, and don't rely on a single strategy for success. Plan your campaign carefully. Be authentic. Be original. And if you're lucky, you might hit a homerun.

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Aweber Can Launch Your Internet Business to a Higher Level: AWeber Email Software

This review is for all ofyou out there in theInternet Hemisphere who have not heard of a place calledAweber.AWeberisa really great place that is currently helping several thousand to maximize their business, website, or presencevia the World Wide Web.It is anemail marketingbusiness thathas been onthe internetsince1998, and can also help you launch your internet business to a higher level as well.

Their mission online as well as offline issimply to partner with businesses, web owners, marketers,or anyone elseto helpmaximize their internet presence by assistingthemtowardbuilding long lasting customer relations through automated email followups, newsletter auto-responders, and RSS via email as well as through a host of other incredible marketing tools. In simple terminology,they are sort of like your customer service department in that they connect you toand help you manage your existing customers as well as help yougrowand expand witha new customer base, and here is how.

1.Email Newsletters to help you keep your customers up to date.

2.Auto Responders to help you build relationships by keeping in touch with current and prospective customers.

3. Website form signups allow you to give visitors a chance to opt in to receive your material and services. It is permission based, and not a matter of SPAM.

4. Top notch email deliverability allows you to send out information on your set anddesired schedule.

5. Email Analysis allows you to keep track of those who may click or open your links even in a time of indecision, and this function will allow you the opportunity to followup.

6. You can also connect with customers via Webinars and Video tutorials.

These are only justa few of the tools that areused by Aweber to helpskyrocket your internet business, and to assist you inyour efforts tokeep up oreven surpassyourcompetition, because as technology increases it reach, so must we.

So as knowledge continues to increase, why not allow AWeber to help propel you to a higher level of marketing and internet business?If you are ready and set to launch off, then climb aboard this highly sophisticated Internet Space Shuttle .AWeber!

They want your business to become theirs and vice versa a give and take relationship that you cannot afford to miss out on. One that will prove to benefit you both as it has the over 75,000 clients now and growing!

AWeber has helped a multitude of small, as well as large, businesses tobuild, expand, and growexisting customer based relationships as well asenableddoors to be opened tonew ones.

You canallow Aweber to also assist you in takingyour business, blog, or website, rather small or large,to the next level, by giving it a tryfor yourself.Currently, they are allowing you totake it for a test drive at anincredibly LOW PRICE!To find out more, simply head over to AWEBER. It could prove to be the BEST ride of your Internet life!

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