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Social Media Myths - It's Free Social media itself is free. It is free to sign up for an account as a private citizen. If you consider what it takes to build an effective campaign, the marketing side is not free, and never has been. Consider the elements: * Developing a strategy that raises awareness and boosts sales * Aligning strategy with existing marketing platform * Distributing content * Media/advertising buy on platforms * Active engagement with fan base * Building a targeted fan base * Providing your fan base with an opportunity to engage with each other, with you, and show off * Turning your fan base into tangible profits * Creating any and all content for distribution The sooner you stop thinking of it as a free "bonus" service, and make a real investment of resources, the sooner you'll have effective and profitable strategies in place. If you have any questions or comments please contact me. Regards Gerald Webs

Grow Your Online Business with Social Media When it comes to operating a successful online business these days the key is traffic to your website. In order to generate traffic there are a number of sources one can tackle. The first and most obvious is an increase in your search rankings over at Google. But what about all those social media websites floating around out there - are they worth your attention? According to a release at Nielsen Online (PDF), social media is eating up more and more user time online and is truly becoming one of, if not the biggest online activity. According to Nielson, "In the U.S. alone, total minutes spent on social networking sites has increased 83 percent year-over-year". In the past 12 months Facebook has seen the total time spent in minutes on its social networking platform grow by nearly 700% compared to April 2008, pushing it far above second place's MySpace. In April of 2008 MySpace saw usage around the 7.2

Questions You Must Ask Before You Hire Your Next Social Media Consultant 1. When engaging in social media marketing will you keep my targeted audience in mind? Most social media companies will focus on making the connection. They do not care whatsoever who that connection is. What good is having thousands of connections if they do not become prospects, new clients, referral sources or possible JV partners. When I help my LinkedIn clients, I focus on their target audience. I research each individual potential connection to see if they could be a future prospect, referral source or joint venture opportunity. I focus on the quality of the connection, not the quantity because my clients do not care how many people I connect with them. They care more about how much money they are making from LinkedIn and their social media efforts. 2. Do you create a system to take the online conversation offline? Many consultants do not take the most crucial step of any onli

Social Media Myths - Create a Profile Page and Forget It Do you know what happens if you create a profile page on a social network and don't promote it? Nothing. Absolutely nothing will happen. Unfortunately, far too many marketers think all they have to do is create a profile page on the various social networks and somehow people will magically appear at their doorstep - credit cards in hand. Sorry, it just doesn't work that way. Creating a profile is only the first step. You have to constantly promote your profile page and actively participate in the social networks you belong to. If you have any questions or comments please contact me. Regards Gerald Website: http://www.webcraft.ws E-mail: gerald@webcraft.ws Twitter: WebcraftGuru Facebook: Webcraft Guru I'm protected by SpamBrave http://www.spambrave.com/

Social Media Myths - Social Media is Time Consuming Well, that depends on the individual and how disciplined he or she is. I use social media very effectively, and I spend less than 15 minutes a day combined on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube - but I'm disciplined. I do what I need to do on those sites and then I'm outta there! Yes, I realize it's fun to hang out with your friends all day and socialize. But it's not the best use of your time. True professionals realize, there's a time and place for everything. It's all about being disciplined. If you have any questions or comments please contact me. Regards Gerald Website: http://www.webcraft.ws E-mail: gerald@webcraft.ws Twitter: WebcraftGuru Facebook: Webcraft Guru I'm protected by SpamBrave http://www.spambrave.com/

Social Media Myths - You Have to Be on Every Social Network What a bunch of malarkey! You can be on all the social networks in the world, but if you don't use any of them effectively and maximize their potential, you're better of being on none of them. No, it's not the number of social networks you're on that matters, it's how effectively you use them that's important. My advice: Unless you're an experienced and skilled marketer, focus on one social network at a time. Maximize the potential of each network, before moving onto the next one. If you have any questions or comments please contact me. Regards Gerald Website: http://www.webcraft.ws E-mail: gerald@webcraft.ws Twitter: WebcraftGuru Facebook: Webcraft Guru I'm protected by SpamBrave http://www.spambrave.com/

Social Media Myths - Anyone Can Succeed at Social Media One of my favorite TV shows is Forensic Files. I am absolutely fascinated at how scientists are able to solve crimes with DNA evidence.blood, saliva - even fingernail clippings! It's nothing short of amazing. But I could never be a forensic scientist. I simply don't have the mental aptitude for it. Forensic scientists have to excel at math and chemistry and science, and quite frankly, those are the subjects I'm weakest at. The same can be said about social media. Despite how easy the experts make it sound, not everyone has the mental aptitude for social media. And while that may be a bitterly hard pill to swallow for many of you reading this, it's also a fact. Not everyone has what it takes mentally, physically or psychologically to succeed with social media. That's just the way it is. If you have any questions or comments please contact me. Regards Gerald Website: http://www.we

Social Media Myths - Social Media Will Replace Face-to-Face Networking Nonsense! People always have and always will prefer face-to-face communication over all other forms of communication. It's in our DNA. That's why organizations like the Chamber of Commerce and BNI (Business Network International) continue to prosper. Networking online has its advantages - convenience being the most obvious. But it will never replace the need for human interaction and good ol' face-to-face networking. If you have any questions or comments please contact me. Regards Gerald Website: http://www.webcraft.ws E-mail: gerald@webcraft.ws Twitter: WebcraftGuru Facebook: Webcraft Guru I'm protected by SpamBrave http://www.spambrave.com/

Social Media Myths - Social Media Can Replace Your Website Sorry to burst your bubble, but websites aren't a luxury, they're a necessity. And I am absolutely amazed at how many people there are on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the other social networks who don't have a website - not even a blog. I think this is a mistake for a number of reasons. First of all, search engines are content driven vehicles. And while you may have a nice profile on the various social networks, it's not the same as having unique content on your website. In addition, you have complete control over the content on your website, as opposed to social network profiles which are limited and have user guidelines. Also, it's much easier to build your brand if you have a website. Think about it. If you have any questions or comments please contact me. Regards Gerald Website: http://www.webcraft.ws E-mail: gerald@webcraft.ws Twitter: WebcraftGuru Facebook: W

Social Media Myths - Blogging Doesn't Work Blogging works, but just like any marketing tool, it has to be properly executed. Unfortunately, many marketers don't have a game plan when it comes to blogging and no matter what you attempt in life or in business, if you don't have a game plan, you will fail. When it comes to blogging, the first thing you need to figure out is, are you doing it for fun or for profit? There's a huge difference. If you're doing it for fun, you don't need to take blogging seriously. You can fool around with it and post at your leisure without any pressure to generate any income. On the other hand, if you're blogging for profit, you have to approach blogging much more seriously. You have to treat it like a business because that's exactly what it is - a business. That means you have to post often and refresh your content regularly to keep visitors coming back. It also means you have to figure out an e

Social Media Myths - You Can't Measure Your Return on Investment With Social Media That's only true if you are inexperienced and don't know what you're doing. However, professional marketers easily track and measure their social media ROI by using analytic software like Google Analytics. For example, GA will allow you to track visitors coming from social networks and the actions they took. You can do this by setting up "Goals" in Google Analytics to see which links you are tracking generate the most activity. You'd be surprised at the number of sophisticated actions GA can perform. All you have to do is take some time to study the tutorials to see what's possible with GA. After all, that's what being a professional is all about. If you have any questions or comments please contact me. Regards Gerald Website: http://www.webcraft.ws E-mail: gerald@webcraft.ws Twitter: WebcraftGuru Facebook: Webcraft Guru I

Social Media Myths - Social Media Isn't Right for Your Type of Business Well, let's examine that statement shall we? Does your business need to generate new leads? Traffic? Build your brand? Strengthen your SEO efforts? Offer customer support? Give your customers a platform to offer feedback and suggestions in real-time? If you answered yes to one or more of those questions, social media is right for your business. If you have any questions or comments please contact me. Regards Gerald Website: http://www.webcraft.ws E-mail: gerald@webcraft.ws Twitter: WebcraftGuru Facebook: Webcraft Guru I'm protected by SpamBrave http://www.spambrave.com/

Social Media Myths - Social Media is Nothing But a Bunch of Carnival Barkers On the surface, it may seem like social media is a bunch of people with bullhorns shouting back and forth at each other. But if you know what you're doing, social media can be a very effective and profitable bullhorn. For example, contests, sweepstakes and giveaways are a great hook and can be very effective when used in conjunction with social media. Want to know what else is very effective? Great content. If you have a great article or video on your website that has educational and/or entertainment value and you share it with others on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, it has the potential of becoming viral and can give you the kind of valuable exposure money just can't buy. If you have any questions or comments please contact me. Regards Gerald Website: http://www.webcraft.ws E-mail: gerald@webcraft.ws Twitter: WebcraftGuru Facebook: Webcraft Guru I'm prote

Use The Right Tools For The Job If you are willing to learn CSS and have just a basic understanding of PHP (at least understanding what the WordPress-specific PHP tags do even if you don't write PHP from scratch), then you can make modifications to almost any WordPress theme. Once you get really good at these things you may want to start with a very basic looking theme like Bones or Genesis and customize it 100% with your own styling. If that sounds intimidating, then you should select a theme that gives you maximum design flexibility and get really good at using it. Themes such as Headway and Catalyst are examples of themes that are great for people who know the end look they are trying to achieve, but don't want to get into any code. Keep in mind that these themes will also have their own learning curve. If you have any questions or comments please contact me. Regards Gerald Website: http://www.webcraft.ws E-mail: gerald@webcraft.ws Twitte

Beginner's Mind Is Crucial Forget almost everything you know. I know, it sounds terrible, but here's what I mean - if you approach WordPress with the same mentality as you would approach building an HTML site, you will get frustrated very quickly. So act as if you know nothing and start from scratch. Once you gain an understanding of WordPress you can then apply the HTML knowledge you know. But doing it the other way round is like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Building a database driven website is a totally different conceptual approach than building a static HTML site, so don't let your current habits and knowledge get in the way. If you have any questions or comments please contact me. Regards Gerald Website: http://www.webcraft.ws E-mail: gerald@webcraft.ws Twitter: WebcraftGuru Facebook: Webcraft Guru I'm protected by SpamBrave http://www.spambrave.com/

Learn First, Design Later The main mistake HTML designers make is that they look at their default WordPress installation and its default theme, or perhaps a theme they've picked out and before doing anything else, they immediately want to start moving things around - just like they are used to doing in HTML. But WordPress themes don't typically work quite that way and so this approach leads to a lot of brain-bleeding frustration. Remember that WordPress is inherently a content management tool, not a design tool. Don't expect it to act like Dreamweaver. If you have any questions or comments please contact me. Regards Gerald Website: http://www.webcraft.ws E-mail: gerald@webcraft.ws Twitter: WebcraftGuru Facebook: Webcraft Guru I'm protected by SpamBrave http://www.spambrave.com/

Link Building Methods Now some of you may still be scratching your heads wondering what else you can do to create a diversified backlink profile that Google will be happy with. So here are some more strategies you can still use: Reviews: Requesting local journalists, bloggers, reviewers or consumers with an engaged social network following in your industry to review your product by sending them free samples. Blogrolls/Sidebars: Reaching out to a handful of related bloggers to include your website in their blogrolls/sidebars. I have enough faith that you'll be able to determine if a blogger is worth gaining a link from. Commenting: Only leave valuable comments and comment on NoFollow and DoFollow blogs. Do not use this excessively. You can go one step further by becoming a top commenter on a major industry website. For example, "SocialMediaExaminer," a well known social media site, would be appropriate. Google values this kind of link a lot

WordPress SEO by Yoast This useful tool allows you to edit your targeted keywords, tags, posts, and titles to attract more traffic. It also assists you in evaluating how your content is perceived by the search engines. This plugin incorporates everything from XML sitemaps and RSS enhancements to page analysis functionality and breadcrumbs. Askimet Askimet is one of the most popular plugins on the Internet. This program aims to eliminate spam from as many sites as possible. It saves you time by automatically detecting trackback and comment spam. The best part is that it comes preinstalled with WordPress. W3 Total Cache Plugin This powerful software improves your server performance and reduces the download times. Bloggers who use this program reported at least 10x improvement in overall site performance and up to 80 percent bandwidth savings. W3 Total Cache Plugin helps improve the user experience for your readers and allows them to view more pages in

WordPress Best Practices Straight out of the box, here are a few "must do's": * Put keywords in your permalinks or enable "pretty permalinks" in Settings > Permalinks - select Custom Structure and type: /%postname% * Choose a quality theme. Or rather don't choose an old, crap theme. The default Twenty Ten or Twenty Eleven are just fine. I use Genesis. Generally speaking premium themes are slightly better but they are by no means essential. * Create Categories to group your blog posts and write meaningful descriptions of them in Posts > Categories * Choose whether your site's address will have a www or non-www. Why can't Google work this one out themselves? Matt Cutts still says this is necessary. It's 99% not likely to matter, but if both www and non-www work in the address bar of the browser, you'll need to force one onto the other with.htaccess. * Use an SEO plugin or your theme's SEO controls

Postie The Postie plugin allows you to blog via e-mail, including many advanced features not found in wordpress's default post by e-mail feature. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/postie/installation/ If you have any questions or comments please contact me. Regards Gerald Website: http://www.webcraft.ws E-mail: gerald@webcraft.ws Twitter: WebcraftGuru Facebook: Webcraft Guru I'm protected by SpamBrave http://www.spambrave.com/

WP-EMail Allows people to recommend/send your WordPress blog's post/page to a friend. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-email/installation/ If you have any questions or comments please contact me. Regards Gerald Website: http://www.webcraft.ws E-mail: gerald@webcraft.ws Twitter: WebcraftGuru Facebook: Webcraft Guru I'm protected by SpamBrave http://www.spambrave.com/

Twitter in 2012 I'm protected by SpamBrave http://www.spambrave.com/

Social Media Gone Bad An interesting thing happened to me the other day. In the course of performing routine search engine marketing tasks, I received a message from someone who had just "liked" one of my Facebook fan pages, Marketing Ideas 101. The message read: "Hey, I just liked your Facebook fan page! Please like mine back!" ~ Random Now, I don't know about you, but every time this happens to me, I feel awkward. What if I look at this person's page and determine it's junk? What if it's spammy? What if it holds little value in the world at all? The burden! The obligation! All from a single note from someone I've never met! Gasp. What if I don't like their page? I try to bring value to my websites. I try to inject interesting content, helpful tips and a wealth of wisdom in my contributions to the Internet community. In addition, it takes a lot to "wow" me. I've never just "liked," or

Social Media Mistakes Incomplete profile I cannot understand why many people leave their profiles incomplete. If you want to jump start a good business, you want your future clients to know you. It will not take you years to complete filling up your profile, so if you are serious with your business, completing your profile is one of the first things you should do. Doing this includes uploading pictures and writing other relevant data. Your profile is your first selling point. Customers want to deal with real people and not with robots. A complete profile builds up your identity to your customers. Bad Content Bad content drives away potential customers. If you're a businessman, you should stuff your social media account with fresh and good content only. Yes, you shouldn't leave your account idle, but you shouldn't fill it with a lot of nonsense or a lot of negative content either. Spamming You should be careful not to post repetiti

Social Media Integration Social media is now a very important part of everyday life. Individuals use it as a way to connect with like-minded people. More and more businesses are seeing the potential that social media, and in particular, Twitter has for expanding their businesses, and for helping small businesses gain the recognition they need to grow and prosper. Making a Plan A Marketing Action Plan is designed to give businesses, and in particular, small businesses, a sense of direction with regard to their Twitter use. This type of plan is essentially a list of things to tweet about. This may include links to blog posts, company news, relevant industry news, important announcements or special offers. Retailers and other businesses that rely on customers making purchases for conversion need to create a plan that will allow them to reach those people, and to develop a social networking relationship with them so that they want to do business with the com

How to Use Social Media for SEO There are numerous benefits to engaging in social media marketing. Some are tangible (number of Likes, Fans and followers) and some are not (enhanced customer service, brand recognition and developing lasting relationships). You may not fully "get" social media, but you can't deny that it is important and should be included in your overall marketing campaign. Social media is here to stay, and it is up to you to make sure your company uses it to their best advantage. SEO is another field of online marketing that has earned itself a permanent spot in the marketing campaigns of many companies. With millions of searches being conducted every day, a company that can't be found in the search engines is practically invisible. SEO isn't just about ranking well; it's about building your online brand. There are many factors that affect how a site ranks in the search engines and SEO is about optimizing your site

Social Media: It's All About Relationships First and foremost, use social media to form genuine connections with your customers and potential customers. Engage your followers by responding to their posts, tweets and comments. Show a genuine interest and they'll return the sentiment - and will probably tell others about your business. As detailed in Google's ZMOT macro study, 19 percent of shoppers engage in sharing and social behavior when deciding what to buy and where to buy it. 14 percent of users engage in mobile behaviors, like using their smartphone to find directions or search for a product, during that same stage. If you have any questions or comments please contact me. Regards Gerald Website: http://www.webcraft.ws E-mail: gerald@webcraft.ws Twitter: WebcraftGuru Facebook: Webcraft Guru I'm protected by SpamBrave http://www.spambrave.com/

Social Media: Create a Buzz Social media is an excellent way to keep your followers, customers and fans engaged with all the latest about your business. Are you launching a new product, doing a media event or opening a new location? Make sure to spread the word about upcoming events through social media. Is anything about your business related to a current newsworthy event or trend? You can make, strengthen and enhance that connection by talking about it on social media. Have an idea for a clever YouTube video related to your business? If it's within your budget, create it and post to your YouTube channel. Be sure to link to it via all your other social media outlets. If it strikes a chord with the public, it could even go viral. If you have any questions or comments please contact me. Regards Gerald Website: http://www.webcraft.ws E-mail: gerald@webcraft.ws Twitter: WebcraftGuru Facebook: Webcraft Guru I'm protected by SpamBrave http:

Hello Bar The Hello Bar is a plugin that I'm sure many of you will have seen on other influential sites, but didn't necessarily know the name of. This is definitely a plugin that all blog owners should know about. With this plugin, you can add a coloured line (of your choice) at the top or bottom of your page where you can add a link. The point of this is that it draws the attention of your readers, as it scrolls down the page with you. You could use this to promote your new eBook, an event that you are running or simply a new blog post. Like I say, many other influential sites use this plugin, such as ProBlogger and FourHourWorkWeek, so it definitely works. An added benefit is the analytics data that you can view, showing you exactly how many people are clicking on your featured link! http://www.hellobar.com/ If you have any questions or comments please contact me. Regards Gerald Website: http://www.webcraft.ws E-mail: gerald@webcraft.

What Topics Should I Cover In My Articles? As you're writing articles for article marketing, you may wonder what sorts of topics are appropriate for you to write about. Can you write an article about one topic but then have a link in the resource box going to a website on a completely unrelated topic? This is an excellent question on a topic that can dramatically impact the success of your article marketing campaign: What topics should you cover in your articles? You should always write articles on the general topic of your website. For example, if your website is about dog training, then all of your articles should be on topics related to dog training. Why in the world does it matter what your article topic is so long as you have a link going back to your website in the resource box? Put yourself in your reader's shoes for a minute: If a reader is getting value from your educational article on dog training, he will likely be interested in

Ten Rules for a Winning Online Marketing Strategy To make progress with your internet business you have a choice of whether you adhere to a plan for your online marketing strategy or hope that success appears from the various ad hoc efforts which you undertake. By following some important rules, it will be much easier creating, building and profiting from a home internet business. The first two rules are closely linked in so much that your efforts require a disciplined approach coupled with a focused mindset. Set aside time every day to work on some part of your online business and by focusing on what needs to be done, and having planned the week's work, you can avoid wasting time thinking about what requires to be undertaken. Just one hour of disciplined focused work per day and you will be amazed about just how much you can get done. Next rule is the essential action of planning and setting goals. By undertaking this task you will be focusing your a

Kick-Start Your Article Marketing Strategy Have you realized the importance of article marketing and know you need to create articles to begin your article marketing efforts? I have surveyed hundreds of people and for those of them that feel there is a barrier to their article marketing efforts, it usually comes down to not knowing what to write about, not knowing how to write an article, not having the time and not liking the whole article writing process to begin with. If you know article marketing is going to be very powerful for you and you know that you may have some trouble starting it for yourself because it is too overwhelming to even go there, you can begin by buying unique articles. I'm not talking about buying the same private label articles that hundreds of people have already purchased before. If you are going to use private label articles, using them to drive traffic to your website, will be a waste of money because chances are, that same ar

Great Strategy To Promote Your Business Promotion is an important part of any business; you need to let potential customers know about you and your product. Article marketing is a strategy that will increase your exposure to the people who will want to buy your product or service. Articles written about your industry will help to establish you, the author, as an expert in your field, and can be published in print media and online. Customers have a preference for doing business with someone they are familiar with, and article marketing is an ideal way of getting your name out there. The content of your articles needs to be useful and relevant to your target market. Articles that are informative, interesting and provide solutions to your readers are tremendously helpful. If writing is your thing, then do your own articles. If not, there are several sites online where you can connect with writers, eager for work. Choose someone who uses good grammar and spel