Biz Tips Blog: Online Marketing, Visibility and Business Blogging Tips

Ask The Blog Squad: A New Year's Gift to You

Since we didn't get around to sending out a clever greeting card, we want to give you a New Year's gift instead:

Ask The Blog Squad...

A free, open forum teleconference for you to ask your burning questions about business blogging and social media marketing.

Here's your chance to learn more about how you can get massive online visibility with blogs,
Facebook, Twitter, and other social media tools.

So much has happened in 2008:

• Business blogs continue to be the #1 way to attract web traffic
• Facebook and Twitter have exploded as marketing tools
• Video is easier than ever to create and use on the Web
• New ways of marketing are being defined: Content, relationship, personality & conversational marketing tactics emerge

We'll look at these emerging trends and answer your questions about how you can stay ahead of the curve in 2009.

Please join us:

What: Free Ask The Blog Squad TeleConference

When: Tuesday, December 30, 2008 @ 4 p.m. ET (1 p.m. PT)

Where: The comfort of your home or office, on the phone or via webcast

Why: Our New Year's gift to you, answering your questions, providing information you need & want

No registration required. Just show up. Use this link to get the dial-in details and post your questions about business blogging and social networking.

Click here: http://www.asktheblogsquad.com/

Hope you'll join us.

Best wishes for the New Year!

Patsi & Denise
The Blog Squad

7 Tips for Social Networking Success

Use of social networking sites has exploded during 2008. Millions of business professionals are now connecting through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other sites that make it easy to post messages and attract like-minded people.

While no one really knows which sites will end up being staples in your business' marketing tool kit, and which ones will become extinct and ignored, one thing is for sure: Internet marketing is changing rapidly. Online networking is here to stay.

It's easier to get your messages out there and attract the kinds of people you want to do business with. At the same time, it's messier, more crowded, and noisier. We all need to tame the beasts, or we'll drown in information and connection overload.

Remember a few basics.

Here are 7 savvy mindsets for approaching social networking wisely:

Happy Holidays from Elf-ish Denise

I couldn't resist...wishing you all the best for the holidays and a sensational New Year!

 

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Tweetworks Gives Twitter Focus

One of the challenges of Twitter is managing the stream of seemingly unrelated content that flows by from the people I follow. How do you find the conversations you want to follow or the exact people with whom to have that conversation? Yesterday, I learned about Tweetworks from my pal Mari Smith who always seems to know the latest and greatest in social media.

This is a twitter tool that has huge potential.

Tweetworks is designed to make micro-blogging more useful for people and businesses. Tweetworks is based on the simple premise that people like to talk about stuff with other people. And it is the stuff (ideas, questions, politics, sports, arts and so on) that brings people together and around which they form community.

The big deal about Tweetworks is that you can create and participate in groups. And groups can be public or private. Plus the conversations you have in the groups are threaded so you can follow the discussion AND you can choose whether or not your conversations get pushed out to your twitter stream for all your followers to see.

I got pretty excited about the prospect of having private groups...

Your Blog is Your Homebase

You're reading this blog but are you blogging for your business yet?

Usually I post blog related content on Build a Better Blog, but blogs are also Internet marketing tools and I think it's worth a reminder that if you are not yet blogging as a way to boost your online visibility, build your credibility and attract more clients, then you're missing the marketing boat.

Yes, social networking on sites like Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn are all the rage. But think about it. Those sites are like going to a party or networking meeting. You go, you mingle, you network, you build relationships. What happens when you want to go deeper? When you want to get to know someone better?

You go to lunch or dinner or you have a one on one meeting.

That's the purpose of your blog. It's your home base on the Web or the hub of your online presence.