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

8 Hot Social Media Tips From Eight Industry Experts

This guest post by Amy Porterfield is reprinted with permission from Social Media Examiner and features tips from experts who will be speaking at Social Media Success Summit 2011.

Are you looking for some creative ideas to enhance your social media activities? If so, look no further.

To help you lay down tracks for social media success, here’s a solid list of strategies from eight top social media experts. Take a look, ask yourself what tips you can use and start reaping the rewards of real success.

#1: Offer live events on Facebook

“To provide additional value and fresh ways for your fans to interact with you, periodically conduct live chat sessions or live webinars or teleseminars. My co-author of Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day, Chris Treadaway, and I recently conducted what we called a ‘flash chat’ in order to crowdsource content for version two of our book,” explained Mari Smith.

“We used the awesome webinar platform Linqto and within a few minutes we had a large group of people interacting with us. Linqto allows presenters to be on webcam and mic and take turns ‘on the floor’ while participants interact via chat,” said Mari.

Mari also said you can keep it real by simply conducting a live Q&A right on your Facebook fan page wall. You’ll get extra visibility in the news feeds of your fans!

3 Virtual Events to Help You Build Your Business

As is often the case, there are quite a few professional and business development events that I'm either involved with or support because of the high caliber and quality of the hosts and presenters. Rather than posting a multitude to event-related posts, here's a list of my top picks for virtual training from which you can learn and grow your business right now.

New Horizons Telesummit - Kathleen Gage's outstanding event took place live last week, however you can now get the audio replays and transcripts from all 12 sessions at a $100 discount. The deal is only good through Thursday, March 3 at noon Pacific time (3 pm ET). This was a great event for coaches and consultants who are committed to growing their business. Check out the line up and grab your copy of the event audios and transcripts.

 

The 3rd Annual Social Media Success Summit is now open for registration. This even has quickly become the premier virtual event for in depth, no pitch, pure content about the ever evolving social media marketing landscape. This year's presenters are among the very top tier working in and for the biggest brands and are on the cutting edge of trends and developments in social media. As he does every year, Michael Stelzner, publisher of Social Media Examiner and producer of Social Media Success Summit, is offering a 50% early bird discount if you register now. Having spoken at the last two SMSS events and attended all the sessions, I can safely say this is one of the best social media training events that you can attend. It's well worth your investment, especially if you get the 50% discount! Click here to check out the list of presenters and topics.

 

For the do-it-yourselfers and non-techie professionals who want to have the skills and understanding of how to create a powerful website using Wordpress, I'm interviewing Christina Hills about how to use Wordpress to build your website. Christina is known as one of the best Wordpress teachers around and she's going to share tips on how to create webpages, how to sell your products and services on your site, how to optimize it as well as discuss the many types of sites that can be created with Wordpress. This is a free call on Thursday, March 10 at 3 p.m. Pacific time (6 pm ET). Click here to register and get access to the call. You can also get a free guide on how to plan out your website design.

A frequent topic of conversation among my colleagues is how important it is to invest in the training and eduction necessary to take the next step in our business. We all do it - we work with mentors and coaches, we attend events and teleseminars so we can keep our skills sharp and learn what we need to keep advancing. I sincerely hope you do as well. Find the program that's right for where you are in your business right now that will help guide you to the next level. 

To your success!

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Coaches and Consultants - Are you building the business of your dreams?

 Starting your own consulting business can be exciting, rewarding and a little daunting. I know because I've done it a few times and 98% of my clients are coaches or consultants. Nothing beats being your own boss, creating and controlling your own destiny.

And it can be confusing and overwhelming, especially when you're starting out.

You may wonder how you label yourself (coach or consultant)?

How do you position your business and expertise?

How much do you charge for your services?

Should you have products and how do you create them?

And how the heck do you market your business (a biggie!)

In the last 15 years that I've had my own online marketing consulting business, I've worked with a lot of new coaches/consultants as well as many who are established and it seems they all struggle with building their online platform. They're great with clients, their expertise is undisputed but no one can find them on the Web or their online presence is weak and confusing. What I've discovered is that many don't have a solid foundation on which to build their online presence.

My friend and colleague Kathleen Gage is committed to changing that. She's just released a free report (no optin) about how to start and build a coaching and consulting business. I've read the report and can honestly say I wish I had had a document like hers when I was starting out.  It's like a roadmap for building a coaching business. Kathleen has also produced three free training videos to complement the report. She's an amazing teacher and delivers value over and above what you usually get for free.

The report and the training videos augment a free telesummit coming up February 23 and 24...New Horizons Telesummit for coaches and consultants. You can get a free pass to attend and, yes, there are options to upgrade based on how much access you want.

Each of these opportunities - the report, the videos, the telesummit - are designed to guide you through the maze of the steps you must take to build a thriving business. I'll be teaching a session on How to Build Your Business and Dominate Your Niche with Social Media.

Looking at the list of presentations, there are quite a few that are focused on online marketing and social media. There's a reason for that...it's critical you know how to use the Web to position yourself so you can get found by your ideal client. Period.

Read the report, watch the videos and register for the telesummit. You'll be glad you did.

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What Are You Planning for Your Professional Development in 2011?

I've been reviewing events and programs I am considering for my own professional development in 2011 (mostly working more with my coach and attending mastermind weekends). I realized there were a couple of events that I'm part of that you may want to add to your own professional development calendar. Check out the details in my audio invitation (5:43 min) to you...

[NOTE: I originally recorded a video invitation but the audio quality was terrible and out of sync. Not sure what happened but in the interest of time, decide to do redo it as audio.]

Here are links to the events mentioned in my invitation:

Niche Affiliate Marketing System Workshop (NAMS5 and NAMS6 two for one special deal good until December 31.)

Publish Your Ebook Today with Amazon's Kindle (free webinar replay - if you join Daniel Hall's Real Fast Book program - $7 for a 14 day trial - you'll get a private invitation to join my bonus webinar on how to use a blog to promote and sell more books.)

Stay tuned for info about the outstanding business blogging education event coming up in February. I'll be sending an email with details on December 27. You won't want to miss this if you're ready to take your business blog to new heights.

In the meantime, I invite you to get 7 free tips on how to boost your visibility on the web. The more visible you are to your target market, the more opportunities you'll have to serve them.

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Win a Free Ticket to Facebook Success Summit 2010!

You've probably seen and heard the buzz about the Facebook Success Summit, the first ever online summit dedicated to teaching businesses how to use Facebook to attract and engage customers and build their business.

While today (September 16) is the last day to save 50% on the registration fee, I've got an opportunity for you...

I'm attending the Summit and I was just given a free ticket ($595 value). Since I don't need two tickets, I'm giving one away.

Here's what you need to do to be eligible for the random drawing:

1. Go to The Blog Squad Facebook Page. If you haven't already done so, click the Like button.

2. Post on the Wall. Tell me the biggest challenge your business faces in implementing a Facebook marketing strategy.

• You can write a blog post and include the link on your wall post.
• You can create a video and post it on the wall
• You can create an audio and post it on the wall.
• Or you can simply write your entry.

3. Your entry must be posted by 5 pm Pacific Time on Saturday, September 18.

4. I will choose the winner in a random drawing on Sunday, September 19 and notify the winner.

If you're not sure what the Summit is all about, read the details here (and grab a free lesson from Mari Smith while you're at it). Then follow the instructions above if you want a chance to win a ticket valued at $595.

Good luck!

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