Internet Marketing Tips from Denise Wakeman

Get Visible...Now

I've been writing about this and teaching this on teleseminars for quite some time: you have to be visible online if you want to have a viable business AND be findable by your ideal clients.

My colleague, Dave Lakhani, just published a fantastic book called How to Sell When Nobody's Buying (And How to Sell Even More When They Are). I've been going through the book and I had to laugh when I got to Chapter Two: Get Visible -You Have to Be Seen to Sell. I've heard Dave say that many times and for some reason I always thought he meant you have to be seen in person. I guess because when I hear him say it, it's usually at an offline conference.

And while that's true - you need offline face time with people - Dave Lakhani is also referring to being seen online. I think I could have written the chapter for him!

Briefly, here are the steps Dave outlines for building your personal brand online, so you can be seen AND sell.

Facebook Vanity URLs are Available Now. Get Yours.

All the buzz for the last week has been the news that Facebook will now allow you to get a Vanity URL for your profile and fan pages (if you had 1000+ fans BEFORE May 31). So instead of your profile link looking like this:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=528355718
... it now looks like this: http://facebook.com/denisewakeman

Much better, right? Plus supposedly it's going to help with search results (see my post on how to dominate the search results for your name).

On June 12 at 9:01 pm PT, the custom (vanity) Facebook URL were released and there was a "land grab".  According to Mashable, 200,000 new usernames were registered in 3 minutes and 500,000 had been registered within 15 minutes. 

Why should you care? It's IMPORTANT because it will make it much easier to share a memorable link to your profile and for your clients and customers to find you on Facebook.

If you haven't grabbed your vanity URL yet, get the details here:
http://www.facebook.com/username/

How to Dominate the Search Results for Your Name

Lately I've been talking a lot about making sure your Google Profile is complete and up to date. After hearing me talk about it on a recent teleseminar, I got an email from a colleague asking how to dominate the "name" search results (vs. keywords for your niche).

As you know, it's becoming more and more common to do searches on people to check them out ... before you do business with them... after meeting them at networking events ... if you're considering hiring them... the list goes on.

So what do people find when they search on your name? If you've got a common name, they may not find YOU. 

Back to my colleague. His name is common enough that several people around the world come up on the search results for his name. He wanted to know why his blog wasn't showing up on a search for his name since he's an active blogger.

This is where a little bit of search engine optimization (SEO) comes in. 

Sharing Photos on Twitter Just Got a Whole Lot More Powerful

It's been on my list for some time to write about how to share photos via Twitter. It's yet another way to build visibility and creates another way for people to relate and connect to you. And, when you share photos from events and conferences, you are reinforcing your credibility by association.

Mari Smith does this brilliantly. Everywhere she goes she makes sure to get photos with the presenters, organizers, her clients, and other influencers who are in attendance. Then she posts these photos on twitter, Facebook, flickr, her blog and anywhere else people will see them. As an observer, I see her connected to the movers and shakers not only in online marketing but in the media, etc. and know that she's got powerful connections and those associations give her more credibility. And that credibility gives her more opportunities and the cycle continues. You can do this too.

First, you need to take a lot of pictures and videos.

Contest - Win FREE Tickets to Social Media Success Summit 2009

I just wanted to share a great opportunity with you to win FREE tickets to Social Media Success Summit 2009 -the premier online event dedicated to helping businesses succeed with social media marketing.

Just go here to enter to win your free tickets to this awesome event.

Check this out: The grand prize is worth more than $1690 and includes two tickets to the summit (one for you and one for a friend), a social media consultation, a blog review and two best selling books!

The presenters at this online event are literally the biggest names in the industry.  They include bestselling authors and social media marketing experts such as Gary Vaynerchuk (Wine Library TV), Darren Rowse (Problogger), Mari Smith (Facebook guru), Jason Alba (wrote the book on LinkedIn), Ann Handley (MarketingProfs), Brian Clark (Copyblogger), Chris Garrett (Authority Blogger) and me (The Blog Squad).

Remember: The contest ends next week, so check it out soon. Go here to win your tickets.