Biz Tips Blog: Internet Marketing Tips

Ping.fm manages status updates

During last week's interview with MaryPat Kavanagh and Michele PW, the question arose about how to efficiently and effectively manage all your social networking sites. If you're participating on MySpace, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc., this can take a lot of time.

Each of the social sites mentioned above have an option for you to update your status, meaning what you are doing at that moment. Why would you do this?

Updating your status on a daily (or minute by minute) basis alerts those who follow you that you're active and participating in the conversation. But that's a lot of sites to update.

Enter ping.fm. You set up an account. Enter your log in info for each site you want to update. You enable your ping account and you're good to go. You can either update your status from your ping account or, like I do, enable the application on your Facebook account and update from inside Facebook. When I do that, my status update is immediately posted on the accounts I've set up: MySpace, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

Ping.fm is in beta and you need an invitation to get set up. If you want an invite code, post a comment here and I'll send it to you.

If you're using ping.fm, what do you think? Is it working for you?

Social Networking: What Is It and Why Should You Care?

On Wednesday we're hosting a teleseminar on how to use Web 2.0 tools and social networking sites to drive more traffic to your sites and as a result, build your business. If you're doing business online, this is essential knowledge to have now.

We asked one of our guests to share some info about social networking to give you a taste of the type of content we'll be covering on Wednesday. The following article is reprinted with permission from the author.

Social Networking - What Is It And Why Your Business Needs It
by Michele PW

Social networking. Social marketing. Web 2.0.

You may have heard these terms bandied about and wondered what exactly they are and (more importantly) what they mean for your business.

So let's dig right in and get some answers. First, some definitions.

Video for your business...FlushTV

Last July I posted about a plumbing company that's using video to attract new clients. I had forgotten about it until I saw a link to the post in my blog stats.  Since we're hot on video these days, I thought it a good idea to remind you about this forward-thinking use of video on the 'net so you can study what they're doing with FlushTV.

This past Sunday, Patsi and I attended Tom Antion's Buttcamp in Los Angeles.  Not only were we fortunate to get the stage for nearly an hour to talk about business blogging, but Tom spent at least an hour talking about using video to dominate search engine results and drive more traffic to your products websites.

Much of what Tom talked about was covered in the teleseminar I recommended in my previous post about how The Blog Squad is learning about video.

Hearing Tom again and seeing the results he's getting from the 250+ videos he's posted on the web, make me more determined than ever to keep up with this tactic. Tom records 10-15 short (1-2 minute) videos every morning with tips about public speaking and Internet marketing.

Facebook is getting even hotter

I've noticed a trend in my email the last couple of weeks.

Many of the big boy Internet marketing "gurus" are making a big push to get their networks on to Facebook.

For once we're ahead of the curve!

But I bring this to your attention for a reason. If the big boys are doing it, then you know Facebook works for business. I can assure you, they wouldn't waste their time on a social networking site if it didn't add to their bottom line.

What does that mean for you?

It means you better get on Facebook too, if you're not there already.

You know what this also means? 

If you could ask one question...

...what would it be? Let me be more specific: if you could ask an entrepreneur one question about business or marketing, what would you ask?

This week, Thursday through Saturday, we'll be attending Adam Urbanski's InfoProduct Intensive in Newport Beach, CA. Since both Patsi and I have Flip Videos, we're going to do 2 minute interviews with as many of the participants as possible.

We want to know what other entrepreneurs are doing to make their businesses successful.

That's where you come in. If you could ask an entrepreneur one question about business or marketing, what would you ask?

Click the comment link below and let us know your burning question. If we pick your question, we'll send you a gift. Not sure what yet, since I'm making this up as I'm writing, but we promise it will be good!

We have a couple of ideas about what we want to know, but the videos are for you, to give you insights into how others are doing business, on and offline. So, we won't muddy the waters by posting our ideas. We want to hear from you. But you've got to submit your question by Wednesday night because we're out of here early Thursday morning.

Blog vs. Ezine Debate continues

The blog vs. ezine debate rages on. Nearly every week Patsi and I get asked which is better, should a professional have a blog AND an ezine, etc., etc. In our monthly Blogging and Beyond mentor session this week, the questions came up several times.

Always one to take up a challenge, my partner Patsi Krakoff has started a series of posts on Writing on the Web, to address the blog vs. ezine debate and the evolving nature of ezines.

Blog or Newsletter? Which is best for building a list?
Ezine/Blog Combos: Here are two examples
Ezine Success: No, the ezine is not dead

Facebook Apps for Business

I'm totally obsessed with Facebook (so is Patsi!). Prepping for our teleseminar with Facebook expert Mari Smith on Monday, I've been scrutinizing the best ways and applications to use Facebook as a business building tool. I know I have a long way to go and am looking forward to what Mari has to say on this subject as well.

Here are 7 Facebook Apps I'm currently using:

• Ad Manager - I'm experimenting with placing ads to build awareness of teleseminars and our white paper.
• Blog RSS Feed Reader - pulls the feed from this blog and publishes new posts on my profile. (Note: it doesn't always work. I've noticed that lately, I have to manually update the feed which defeats the purpose.)
• Business Cards - I've set up a "business card" that I can append to messages and wall posts.
• Events - a must use app. For every class, free or fee, I'm posting an event page and inviting my friends to attend.

POLL: Social Networking Sites

Social networking. It's all the buzz right now. So, we want to know...what is the primary social networking site you use to market and promote your business?  Please take our poll!  If your preferred site is not on the list, please use the comments to let us know. We're very curious to know where you're spending your time online.

Opinion Polls & Market Research

It's amazing how many social networking sites there are. Wikipedia has a comprehensive list of sites. There's something for everyone.

Facebook Tools and Tips

If you're into Facebook or thinking about checking it out, I received a link this week to a list of 100 tools and tips to tap the Facebook Customer Base.

This is a list of links to articles on subjects ranging from money-making opportunities on Facebook to how-to guides for using Facebook to build your network.  There is a lot of information on this site and depending on your interest and commitment to using Facebook as a marketing tool, could be worth your time to study.

My particular interests are in leveraging what The Blog Squad is doing and reaching a bigger audience. Currently I'm using the Events section to post info about our teleseminars and interviews. I also have my blog feeds posting on my profile so my content gets a bigger reach as well.

I'm still learning and I'm working my way through the articles on small business strategies.

Related posts:
Facebook Finally Got Me
Facebook Can Drive More Readers to Your Blog

7 Social Media Tools: A Conversation

Next week is crazy for us.  First, on Monday Facebook expert Mari Smith is interviewing us about how we're using Facebook as a marketing tool. This is not a public event, but a link to the audio will be available at some point through Mari's Facebook Fortunes program.

On Wednesday, we join Leesa Barnes, conference organizer extraordinaire, for a conversation about 7 Social Media Tools.  This is a free event and precedes the Social Media Telesummit that opens on February 20. The 9 day extravaganza features two dozen experts (yes, that includes The Blog Squad!) helping you understand and use the myriad social media tools available to businesses.

Back to our conversation with Leesa.  We're going to spend 30 minutes talking about how these tools can be used in business:

1. Microblogging - Twitter, Pownce & Jaiku
2. Blogging - Blogger, Wordpress, Typepad
3. Podcasting - live using BlogTalkRadio or Talkshoe, recorded using Podango or Wordpress
4. Social networking - Ryze, LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook
5. Social bookmarking - StumpleUpon, Digg, del.icio.us
6. Photo sharing - Flickr, Bubbleshare
7. Video sharing - Blip.tv, YouTube, Revver

The call is free, but you do have to register.  The conversation is at 8:00 pm Eastern Time (5 p.m. Pacific) on Wednesday, January 30. Note: we are guests of Leesa Barnes. Please direct any questions about the preview call to Leesa. The call will be recorded, but you must be registered to get the audio.

I'll let you know what's coming up Thursday in a future post...