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How to Use Social Networking Sites to Drive Business

Advice for small businesses on using social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, and how to integrate these tools into the marketing and recruiting efforts of your company.

By J.J. McCorvey | Inc. Magazine

Consider this: It wasn’t until 1997 that the Internet reached 50 million users in the United States. Facebook gained over 100 million users in the U.S. from January 2009 to January 2010, marking a 145 percent growth rate within one year, according to research by digital marketing agency iStrategy Labs. If you’re a business owner that hasn’t embraced social media networking as a major component of your success strategy, it’s due time to hop onboard.

“When you’ve got 300 million people on Facebook, that’s a huge business watering hole,” says Lon Safko, social media expert and co-author of The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success, of the site’s global reach. “The profile is like an index to your company.”

While Facebook has become the most popular social media site, there are plenty of others for your company to explore. LinkedIn, for example, houses 55 million professionals seeking jobs, employees, or basic business or networking opportunities. MySpace, which allows users to tinker with music, themes, and HTML code, is targeted toward youth and teens. All of these sites have one primary thing in common: the profile.

The user profile is generally what distinguishes social networking sites from other social media platforms. It helps set the stage for building relationships with people who share the same interests, activities, or personal contacts, as opposed to primarily disseminating or digesting information feeds. This also means social networks enable companies to invite audiences to get to know its brand in a way that traditional forms of marketing or advertising can’t.

But what, exactly, are the methods that businesses should use to effectively leverage the burgeoning userbase of these sites as a tool to grow their companies? The following pages will detail what to do – and what not to do – in order to maintain a viable presence in the realm of social networking.

How to Use Social Networking Sites to Drive Business: Developing a Social Networking
Strategy

Before opening an account and becoming active, it’s important to consider what each site offers and how you can benefit from their resources. “Take some time and really analyze what your existing social media strategy is,” says Safko. “Figure out which tools are best for your demographic.” Without a fully developed plan for your social networking activity, you could end up meandering throughout the sites and wasting a lot of time.

Here are a few basic questions to ask yourself when forming your social networking strategy:
1. What are the needs of my business? Hopefully, you’re not putting your company name on a social networking account just to send messages back and forth to former high school classmates, so there has to be an impetus. Figure out what your needs are. Are you short-staffed? Is your advertising budget running thin?

2. What am I using the site for? After you’ve established your needs, consider the primary goal of your social networking strategy. Do you want to recruit employees for a certain department? Do you want to market a new line of products? Do you want to connect to more people in your industry?

3. Whose attention am I trying to get? Okay, so you want to market that new line of products, for example. You still need to know your target audience for that product, and with more than 300 million users on Facebook, you’ll need to narrow your focus.

Got those answered? Good. Now, consider these questions:
1. Which sites do I want to take on? If you have enough staffing power to handle multiple social networking sites, that’s great. If not, it’s important to focus on one or two, or you could spread yourself too thin and fall victim to the “gaping void” perception, where you end up going days without activity. Your followers will notice.

2. Who’s going to manage my page? Would your social networking activity fall under a current employee’s responsibilities, or do you need to bring on new talent? If you ever find yourself without the staffing resources to manage your page, don’t stick your head in the sand, says Safko. “Find some interns,” he advises. “In most cases, they’ll do it for free.”

3. Who has access to my page? What type of trust level do you have established at your company? Will all of your employees have access to the social network account, or a select few? Take the time to assess the skills and character of those who can log into your page, or you may run into unsavory situations down the road – especially when dealing with former workers.

4. Who’s going to be the personality of my page? Does your company already have a public representative that usually handles speeches, press, etc.? It may be beneficial to rein in that person as the voice of your social networking site. “People buy from other people, not from other companies,” says Safko. “In order to solidify trust, pick someone to represent your brand.”

How to Use Social Networking Sites to Drive Business: Choosing Your Site

After you’ve answered those questions, you can choose which social networking site, or sites, would best fulfill the requirements of your strategy. Though many of the sites are similar in nature, they can all be categorized by the different purposes they serve. These are the basic types of social networking sites:

“Free for all” social sites: Some sites that fall under this category are Facebook, MySpace, Ning, and Friendster. Each of these sites primarily serve as a nexus of friends and associates who want to socialize. Ning, for example, has become popular for connecting classmates and helping to set up reunions. The profiles are usually personable, inviting, and can be customized with add-ons and apps.

Professional sites: Examples of these include LinkedIn, FastPitch, and Plaxo. The professional site can be utilized as an online professional contact database, or “rolodex,” but it’s also where people go to update employment information about themselves.

3. Industry-specific sites: These sites allow you to connect to people who are in your industry. I-Meet, for example, is specifically geared toward event planners, while ResearchGATE is a community for researchers in the science or technology field. Industry sites help you to narrow your search when looking for services, or people with skills in certain fields. You may even want a particular department of your company, such as IT or advertising, to open an account on one of these sites.

Dig Deeper: Embracing Social Networking in IT

How to Use Social Networking Sites to Drive Business: Setting Up Your Profile

Your profile is the online representation of your brand and company, so it’s important to know what to add and what to avoid. Here are a few tips to be mindful of as you create your profile:
1. Don’t be afraid to get a little personal. Facebook profiles, for example, allow you to include things like hobbies, favorite music, etc. Including tidbits like these can make your page warmer and more personable. “Some personal information is valuable, because it may create a bond with a customer,” says Safko.

2. But not too personal. Don’t be the “TMI” poster boy or girl, (i.e. “The wife and I are on our way to have dinner – kids are with the grandparents”). Create another page that’s just yours, sans company activity.

3. Share photos and videos. Adding multimedia to your page gives flair, and offers customers an exclusive look inside your company. LinkedIn even has an add-on that allows you to post presentations and slideshows.

4. But no office party snapshots. Though the atmosphere of Facebook is still relatively laid back, you want to maintain the perception that you’re serious about your product and customers. Pictures involving Santa hats and alcohol probably shouldn’t be in your albums.

5. Set privacy settings. On most of these sites, you can control what people see on your profile, such as pictures and blog posts, and you can even limit what other people post. Depending on the nature of your company, you should consider these restrictions. Are there any embarrassing pictures of you floating around that you might not want linked to your page?

6. But don’t be a blank slate. Imagine coming across the profile of one your favorite brands, and all that’s there is a picture and headquarters location. A little disheartening, right? If and when you do enact some privacy settings, try to keep the page lively.

How to Use Social Networking Sites to Drive Business: Social Network Marketing

Marketing through social networks isn’t as much about selling your product, as it is about engaging your followers. “A lot of people have started Facebook fan pages with no clue to how it can benefit them,” says Jim Tobin, president of Ignite Social Media, a social media marketing agency based in Cary, North Carolina. “You have to think above your product.” The goal of the community-based environment of social networking sites is to provide a platform for an open, honest conversation.

The companies that are most successful at converting followers into dollars are those who interact most with the users and frequently post content related to their brand. Facebook’s Fan Page is probably the best example of how you should be marketing you company through social networking sites. The page acts as an upgraded user profile for brands, companies, and organizations to be as involved as the users, and has plenty of tools to help you do so. As users become “fans” of your page, all of your activity appears in their News Feed each time they log on. There’s also a useful feature called the Insights tool, which allows you to analyze page views, the demographics of your fans, and the number of people who view (or stop viewing) your News Feed posts.

Outdoor Technology, a Los Angeles-based manufacturer of clothing and gear for skiers and snowboarders, initially sold merchandise directly to retailers. But after the company began actively using their Fan Page last September, revenue from e-commerce went from zero to $25,000 in three months, says CEO Caro Krissman. The page has now amassed over 11,000 fans. “We saw Facebook as sort of a sweet spot for where our target market is,” says Krissman. “With the ability to target users in such a focused way, we felt like there really wasn’t a better forum to go about [marketing online].”

‘Fan’ features your company should be using:

1. Comment on other users’ content or profile posts. By responding to what your followers post to your profile, you show them that you appreciate their interaction. If they know they have your attention, they’ll keep coming back.

2. Ask questions on your wall. Facebook users love to be heard. It can be surprising how many responses one question can elicit. “It starts to snowball,” says Safko. “What you’ll find is that the conversation will branch off and start another one.”

3. Posting links or threads. “One thing fan pages lets you do that Web pages don’t is encourage viral spread,” says Tobin. If you have any content that you want to circulate quickly, the fan page is the perfect tool.

4. Posting relevant events. By posting upcoming events your company may be part of or hosting, you can help drive more attendees to the function. And for those who can’t come, they get a glimpse at how active your business is within the community or industry.

Social Network Promotions
Remember, it’s called a social network, not a “business network.” Coming off as a pushy or shrewd salesperson peddling a product could scare away your Facebook friends and LinkedIn connections. Remember to be genuine and personal.

Here are the things you should do when promoting your company or product through social networking sites:

1. Make it benefit-based. Make the customer feel that they need to participate in the promotion. Is the product or feature available for a limited time? Are you offering exclusively to your followers on a particular network?

2. Talk about new or uncommon features. Even if you have a relatively popular product, there may be some things consumers don’t know about it. What are some new or different ways it can be used?

3. Include some discounts and savings. Offering discounts on products is usually a shoe-in to grab customers’ attention. Krissman, of Outdoor Technology, says he posts promotional codes that users can fill out on the company’s website and get up to 30 percent off a product. Not only does it drive more buyers to your product, but it also brings more followers to your page.

Here are the things you shouldn’t do when promoting your company or product through social networking sites:
1. Don’t continually have sales-related messages. There are other ways to promote besides selling your product. Comment or ask questions about news or topics in your industry. “They will easily ignore you or unsubscribe you if you continue to push a sale,” says Tobin.

2. Don’t set up an expectation, then cheat on it. If you announce to your followers that your purpose is to give advice, don’t turn around and start selling. “If you violate that expectation, people are going to get upset and they’re going to leave,” says Tobin. Again, make the sale subtle – how can your product help them achieve the advice you’re giving?

How to Use Social Networking Sites to Drive Business: Social Network Recruiting

Social recruiting is an effective way to utilize social networks to find the best candidate for any open positions at your company. While the past few years saw the rise of job boards like Careerbuilder.com and Monster.com, the growing prominence of social networks have transformed the way businesses build their best team. Instead of relying on the “come one, come all” approach, the detailed personal information contained in profiles, such as interests and job history, allows businesses to employ social networking sites to target the specific audience or skill set they want to pull from.

According to an annual social recruitment survey published by Jobvite, an online service that helps businesses consolidate the resources of social media sites, 80 percent of companies used or planned to use social networking to find and attract candidates in 2009, with LinkedIn being used by 95 percent of the respondents and Facebook usage growing from 36 percent in 2008 to 59 percent in 2009.

“It’s like what’s happened to the ad industry,” says Dan Finnigan, CEO of Jobvite and former general manager of Yahoo! HotJobs. “It used to be that you would buy a big ad to get the consumer’s attention, but more and more companies are relying on online advertising software that puts that ad right in front of them based on data, like the other ads they click on. Social recruiting is analogous to that.”

The Benefits of Social Network Recruiting
Here are some of the primary advantages that social recruiting affords small businesses:

1. Empowers your employees to distribute job information. These days, most, if not all of your employees probably have a profile on a social networking site. By enabling them to post information about open positions, you multiply your searching reach by the thousands.

2. Helps you put the passive job candidate in your crosshairs. Job boards are mostly used by people who are proactively looking for positions. But what about the perfect potential employee who may not be scouring Careerbuilder.com every day?

3. A low-cost method of finding high-quality candidates. When looking for job candidates, it takes time to sift through resumes of unqualified applicants, and many job boards charge fees to post openings. Social recruiting helps you zone in on the best candidates, for free.

Tools to Help You Socially Recruit

1. Custom searches. Searching only by name and location doesn’t cut it when looking for the perfect employee. LinkedIn has one of the most thorough searches of all the sites, allowing you to sift through profiles by company, industry, college, and even how many “degrees” you are from the person.

3. Updating your status message. When you or your employees update your statuses, it pops up on your friends’ home page, and sits atop the profile until it’s changed. “My company is looking for … ,” is sure to snag replies.

4. Linking to stories and external content. Both Facebook and LinkedIn enable users to post external content to their profiles. By linking to articles and blogs that contain positive news about your business, you show potential candidates that it’s not just your social network connections that adore your company.

How to Use Social Networking Sites to Drive Business: Privacy and Legal Issues

Though social networking can certainly be a fun way to help you expand your company, there are plenty of issues surrounding privacy and legalities that you should always be aware of when searching for employees, and even after you’ve hired them. “The laws [regarding online privacy and or hiring online] generally apply the same [as existing state laws],” says Megan Erickson, an associate at Des Moines, Iowa-based Dickinson, Mackaman, Tyler & Hagan law firm and author of Erickson’s Blog on Social Networking and the Law. “But now that there are all these different kinds of social media, they combine to make it a very unique environment.”

Here are some of the most important things to keep in mind to help you steer clear of legal trouble when dealing with potential or current employees and social networking sites:
1. Don’t use fake profiles. Using a fake profile when adding employees to monitor their activity can constitute as an invasion of privacy, Erickson says. “That’s just asking for lots of trouble,” she says.

2. Add a social media section to your handbook. Including language about social media in your personnel policy is paramount, especially if you plan on integrating it heavily in your company’s operations.

3. Beware of existing federal and state laws. It may help to prep yourself on the many federal and state laws regarding anti-discrimination and privacy, Erickson says, so that if you do come across an employee’s wayward photo or disparaging status message, you’ll be knowlegeable about how to proceed with disciplinary action.

Resources

To learn more about using social networking sites:

• The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success, by Lon Safko and David Brake, is a great guide for business owners and executives who want to use the power of social media to grow their companies. Visit the website, TheSocialMediaBible.com, to connect with other professionals looking to do the same.

• Megan Erickson’s blog, Erickson’s Blog on Social Networking and the Law, posts up-to-date news on legal issues surrounding social media sites.

• Mashable is a great resource for news, advice, and jobs concerning all things social media.

• John Jantsch, author of Duct Tape Marketing – The World’s Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide, also runs a marketing blog for small businesses called Duct Tape Marketing. Check out what he says about the 7 Truths of Social Media Marketing.

Some sites to consider joining for social networking:

• Facebook: The most popular social networking site, it allows you keep up with friends, colleagues, and classmates and features a stream-lined, easy-to-use interface.

• MySpace: Geared toward the younger crowd, this interactive site lets you connect with friends and tweak your profile with extras like themes and music playlists.

• LinkedIn: This site is strictly professional, and for good reason. You can keep up with colleagues, find employees, and network with others in your field.

• Bebo: Another primarily social site for friends that allows users to express themselves through media and interactive environments.

• FastPitch: This professional site serves as a great platform for growing companies to market themselves, allowing you to post events, press, and submit keywords to increase your profile’s SEO strength.

• Friendster: A social networking site for friends that promotes connections between international users and also boasts “Fan Profiles” similar to Facebook’s.

• I-Meet : A professional site where you can establish valuable contacts and potentially save money on event planning.

How to Use Multimedia for Business Marketing

Your guide to using photo sharing, video, podcasts, mobile marketing, and other types of multimedia to broaden your company’s reach and introduce new marketing techniques.

By Lauren Folino, Michelle V. Rafter and Ryan McCarthy | Jan 25, 2010

Multimedia, such as mobile marketing, livecasting and podcasting, photo, video and file sharing, can spread the word about your company and help build brand awareness in a very unique and powerful way. These particular types of social media marketing services also has the ability to go viral quickly. Hottrix, the Las Vegas, Nevada-based iPhone app creator, became one example of a breakthrough success story when their iBeer app, which simulates chugging a mug of beer on the iPhone, became one of the most-downloaded apps in 2008, and again in 2009.

However, your company’s chances of going viral are left more to fate than skill, but that’s no reason to discount the importance of multimedia for your business. The ability of these technologies to facilitate communication between your small business and employees, your customers and potential customers, is tremendous, says Keith Nissen, principle analyst at the Scottsdale, Arizona-based market intelligence firm, In-Stat.

“When you think about [multimedia platforms] and what that’s all about, it’s about being able to communicate mass marketing messages to the device of choice on demand,” says Nissen. “I think what’s more interesting is how these tools can be used in conjunction with other multimedia tools to support the business–the marketing, the sales and promotion of their products and services. To me, that, for a small business, is probably more important than internal communication.”

Here’s a look at some of the most effective ways to leverage media, such as photos, podcasts, videos, and other types of mobile marketing.

How to Use Multimedia For Business Marketing: Sharing Photos With Your Online Community.

Several online communities exist for the purpose of uploading and sharing photos over the Web, and many small businesses have learned to take advantage of these services to market their products. Here are the most common photo sharing marketing strategies.

1. Offer real-time incentives. Twitter’s TweetPhoto will automatically enable you to publish photos to your Twitter and Facebook accounts for free via mobile and Web platforms. Who needs 140 characters to describe your business when a picture is worth 1,000 words? Tweet pictures of discounted and new items or offer exclusive incentives.

2. Join like-minded communities. At no cost, Yahoo!-operated Flickr provides a useful platform for photo management and sharing. “The first thing that I tell people is that Flickr is not just a photo storage place,” says Matt McGee, independent online marketing consultant of the Tri-Cities, Washington-based, Small Business Search Marketing. “It’s a very active community centered around Flickr groups.” For example, a pet-lovers group may get a kick out of the clothing and toys created by a boutique pet store.

3. Drive traffic to your website. Pink Cake Box, a gourmet cake shop located in Denville, New Jersey, began using Flickr in 2006 to build brand identity. Co-owner Jesse Heap says that Pink Cake Box’s website receives about 300,000 unique users each month, and roughly 10 percent of those visitors are from Flickr, where the company posts photos of interesting or extreme cakes.

How to Use Multimedia For Business Marketing: Hosting Videos and Webcasting.

Sharing videos over the Web is another great resource for small businesses in establishing a social media presence, particularly because of how many people are tuning in. According to a November 2009 survey released by comScore, a digital marketing research firm headquartered in Reston, Virginia, Google’s many video sites accounted for 12.2 billion videos viewed that month, including YouTube, which accounted for nearly 99 percent of the total.

Webcasting is essentially broadcasting a video or media file over the Internet using streaming media technology, which can be distributed to many simultaneous viewers at once. Done the right way, webcasts, also called video podcasts, vblogs, videocasting or Web shows, can be effective promotional tools. “It’s a cool opportunity to take people behind the scenes of a business,” says Dina Kaplan, co-founder and COO of blip.tv, a four-year-old Internet TV network. Her network airs video podcasts from hundreds of companies as diverse as the New York City Ballet to the crafter website Etsy, which broadcasts online classes. “It’s been interesting to watch, especially in the last year, how many businesses have created Web shows to promote their product or gain exposure for principals,” Kaplan says.

Shooting a video for YouTube or starting a more elaborate webcast essentially takes four basic ingredients: equipment, a theme, an online home and marketing.

1. The equipment. Very small businesses can buy a webcam or camcorder, wireless microphone and simple video editing equipment such as Sony’s Vegas Movie Studio or Final Cut Pro 7. However, a webcam limits you to filming yourself sitting in front of a computer, and that’s not very exciting, says Peter Brusso, an Anaheim, California, podcasting producer and technology marketing consultant. Instead, invest in a camcorder, preferably a “three-chip” camera that uses three computer chips to separate colors, which results in a higher quality picture, Brusso says.

2. Hire someone. If you have a bigger budget, hire a professional. Prices run from $1,000 to $15,000, according to podcast industry sources. Employment attorney Helene Wasserman created a video podcast called Employer Helpcast two years ago to market her work as a partner with Ford & Harrison LLP, a Los Angeles law firm. Wasserman uses Brusso’s company to produce video podcasts and pays $2,500 for segments that run anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes. It’s worth the money, she says. “If you’re trying to market yourself as having a very professional business, you want to put your best foot forward,” she says.

3. The show. You could have the best-looking video around, but it wouldn’t matter if you didn’t do something that was interesting and consistent, says blip.tv’s Kaplan. For webcasts, stick to a regular broadcast schedule, whether that’s once a day, week or month. And keep shows short. “Your aptitude for sitting in your uncomfortable office chair atrophies after about six minutes,” she says. Be personable, says Kaplan, who advises podcasters to stick to the old news adage to show, not tell. If you run a retail business, walk around the store, and talk about new merchandise. “Talk to a customer. If you have a hardware store, show them the new hammer on sale,” she says.

4. Hosting and marketing. Once you’ve got a video in the can, upload it for free on YouTube where it can be viewed by anyone. Webcasts can also be uploaded to free or paid hosting sites such as blip.tv, iTunes or Libsyn. Where a podcast is hosted isn’t as important as spreading the word that it’s there. Wasserman’s podcasts appear on blip.tv and iTunes and cover workplace issues such as job sharing, corporate culture and managing a multi-generational workforce. Wasserman points prospective viewers to the podcast from her website and blog and by including a tagline promoting the show in her email signature. Wasserman also uses a free service that puts word-for-word transcripts of her video podcasts on the Web, where they can be searched by Google and other search engines. More people find her podcast through search engines than by visiting blip.tv or her website, and the traffic had led to speaking engagements and new work, she says. “It’s the wave of the future. For anyone who wants to use 21st century technologies, this is the way to go.”

How to Use Multimedia For Business Marketing: 4 Good Reasons to Go Through the Trouble of Creating a Video.

1. Show how to use your product. With a slogan as simple as “Broadcast Yourself,” many YouTube users are doing just that, especially when it comes to showing how their products or services can be used. “There are countless small business owners posting how-to videos on YouTube,” says McGee. “[For instance,] here’s how to use the product; here’s how to interact with people in our service industry.”

2. Extend your client base. In December 2007, John Tuggle, a slide and blues guitar instructor based in Decatur, Georgia, began posting videos on YouTube teaching people how to play guitar because he wasn’t generating enough interest in his hometown. By February 2008, interest in his lessens grew so much that he created LearningGuitarNow.com where visitors contacted him regularly for private lessons via Skype at the rate of $25 for 30 minutes. “I just kept [talking to people] and kept putting more out, and figuring out what people wanted. Last year I pulled in almost $100,000 from the website,” said Tuggle.

3. Entertain your customers. It is quite easy to post a video simply for visitors’ enjoyment. For instance, Vimeo, a video hosting site that aims to be a “community of creative people who are passionate about sharing the videos they make,” features a ‘Videos we like’ tab. For a small business owner, posting a video for entertainment purposes stands to generate many views, which in turn may spark interest in the company and possibly lead to the purchase of products or services.

4. Provide a unique service. LiveCast, with headquarters in Vancouver, Canada, enables live video streaming directly from a cell phone, mobile Internet device, or Mac or PC, to anyone connected to the Web. For Gordon Cooper, photographer and founder of Perfect Wedding magazine, live broadcasting gives his business a unique capability. “I can have all the guests at the wedding even if they’re not at the wedding,” says Cooper. “Guest can still experience the live ceremony [from wherever they are].” Cooper is able to charge an additional $250 for this service.

Dig Deeper: Marketing Your Business on YouTube

How to Use Multimedia For Business Marketing: Podcasting

Podcasts have become such a popular marketing tool for sole proprietors and small businesses that a small army of professional producers is out there waiting to help. Here are 9 essential steps a company needs to get started:

1. Do some homework. The best way to learn about podcasting is to listen to podcasts, says Peter Brusso, an Anaheim, California, podcasting producer and technology marketing consultant. Visit directories such as RSS Player or Libsyn and look for podcasts with a similar style or subject to you want to create, Brusso says.

2. Decide on a topic. Podcasts could focus on a company’s products or services, an industry or on management or professional issues. Whatever the topic, make sure it’s related to a company’s business in some way, says Sallie Goetsch, proprietor of The Podcast Asylum, a northern California podcast producer and consultant.

3. Gather your tools. Producing a podcast requires:
• A microphone, digital audio recorder or USB headset to record podcast episodes
• Computer with sound card and high-speed Internet connection
• Audio recording and editing software, either licensed software or free open-source programs such as Audacity.

4. Be natural. When it’s time to record a podcast, organize talking points, but don’t use a script. “People don’t like being sold. The more from the heart the better,” Brusso says.

5. Build a backlog. Before going live, build up a catalog of a dozen or more episodes. Coming up with ideas is easy, Brusso says. They can spring from talking to customers, going to conventions, reading trade magazines, or following current events.

6. Be consistent. Length, professional quality, and subject matter of a company’s podcast are important but not as much as on-air consistency. Whether it’s once a day, once a week or once a month, pick a schedule and stick to it. Podcasts are like radio or TV shows: audiences expect a schedule. Disappoint them and they might not come around again, Brusso says.

7. Not a D-I-Y type? Hire a pro. Professional producers can handle the technical aspects of starting or creating a podcast. Goetsch and partners Priscilla Rice and Michele Molitor, for example, offer a small-business podcast starter package for $1,100 that covers scripting and recording three to four podcasts plus lots of extras, including finding a hosting service, setting up a podcast blog and submitting broadcasts to podcast directories. Brusso, who works with lawyers and other sole proprietors, charges $1,000 for an hour-long podcast with similar extras. But it doesn’t have to be expensive. According to Goetsch, a small businessperson could do everything themselves with an existing computer, $20 headset, free software for audio editing and creating a podcast, and host it on their existing website.

8. Find your podcast a home. Companies can physically host a podcast anywhere, including with the service they use for their website. What really matters is getting the word out that it’s there. For maximum exposure, list podcasts on directories such as PodcastAlley.com, Podcast411, Podanza or TalkShoe.

9. Forget about making money, at least not directly. Some podcasts collect revenue from advertising that podcast directories put on their sites. But that shouldn’t be why a company does it. Podcasts should be part of a company’s overall marketing strategy, Brusso says. “To get yourself known, you have to blog, optimize your Website for search engines and podcast,” he says. “If you do all three the results are phenomenal.”

How to Use Multimedia For Business Marketing: Mobile Marketing

There are 4.1 billion cellular connections worldwide, and with the prevalence of smart phones, the concept of browsing the Web from a mobile phone has gone mainstream. Consider this: Mobile phone carriers are sitting atop a trove of data – not just your name, address, and, of course, phone number but also credit card information, who your friends are, and where you’re located at this very moment. Even with privacy regulations, more of this information will become available to marketers as phones are used more like little PCs, creating opportunities for highly targeted ads and other marketing breakthroughs.

Here’s what you need to know to get started.

• How exactly do I advertise on a mobile phone? The most common type of mobile ad is a display ad served on a Web page called up on a cell phone’s screen. The ads are created for the site’s mobile format and may not be the same as the ads you would see if you were browsing the site on a PC. Ads are priced on a Cost Per Mille, or CPM, basis – the price you pay for the ad to be seen 1,000 times.

• How do I buy mobile ads? Most advertisers work with mobile-ad networks, which bring together advertisers and websites that are frequently viewed by phone. Some of the larger players, which are owned by the likes of Google (AdMob), AOL (Third Screen Media) and Apple (Quattro Wireless), will act as full-service marketing shops. They handle the entire process, including technology, the creative content of mobile ads, and the ads’ placement.

• What do mobile ads cost? The cost of mobile ads varies due to the different types of ads, and different cell phone platforms. For instance, AdMob, one of the main mobile-ad networks, currently charges CPMs of $12 to $14 for iPhone banner ads.

• What about text messaging? One option is to buy or rent a short code, a five- or six-digit phone number from which you can send and receive text messages. One common way to use a short code is to publish it on a billboard or in a print ad (“Text 51234 for more information”) that encourages customers to enter a contest or participate in a poll.

• What does a short code cost? Cellit Mobile Marketing, in Chicago, and Movo, in Florida, sell short codes for $500 to $1,000 per month, plus a one-time setup fee of a few thousand dollars and a charge of 4 cents to 7 cents for each text message. You can also rent a code for as little as $225 per month. Keep in mind that technological standards vary. Nearly every phone on the market is equipped to send and receive texts, but some systems won’t let you embed complex graphics or photographs.

• How do I go after my best customers on a mobile phone? Google has expanded into the mobile world in several ways. Now, it allows companies to buy display ads – ads related to content – on the mobile Web. AdMob claims click-through rates on this type of ad of up to 3 percent, which is quite high. The company charges a cost-per-click (CPC) fee of 25 cents to 30 cents.

How to Use Multimedia For Business Marketing: 3 Tips for Making Your Mobile Campaign Successful

1. Determine your goals. Who is your target audience? How will they benefit from your message? Do you hope to generate revenue, generate interest, generate traffic to your website, or all three? Define your goals and set benchmarks for what a successful campaign would look like.

2. Choose your message. Your message should have a clear call to action. According to mobile marketing firm Punchkick Interactive, “over 90 percent of texts from SMS messaging campaigns are read by recipients, generating average response rates of 15 to 30 percent or more.” With the potential for that kind of penetration, it would help to make sure your campaign is simple, memorable, and factual. One thing every local business should be doing, says James Citron, CEO of mobile video marketing firm Mogreet, is attach keywords to their mobile campaigns that will resonate with customers in order to create brand awareness.

3. Pair your mobile marketing campaign with other social media marketing services. When Casa Del Mar, a luxury beach hotel located in Santa Monica, California, wanted to get the word out about drink specials, they doubled up on social media marketing services. The hotel posted messages on Twitter and Facebook saying, “Text CASA to 21534 and enjoy unlimited champagne or Bloodys. FREE.” Customers who texted received videos of the weekend brunch spread on their phone and received the beverage of their choice at the hotel. The end result was highly viral, with 250 redemptions.

Using the Power of Networking for Your Small Business

Networking is one of the most crucial skills any start-up entrepreneur must have. It is an effective and inexpensive way to grow your business by meeting the key people who could become your clients, suppliers and support systems.

In fact, networking is the best marketing device of even the most cash-strapped home-based entrepreneur. It is based on an inexpensive endeavor using a simple skill: talking. As a result, networking is also referred to as “word-of-mouth marketing” because it is based on talking to people about what you do and listening to find out how to serve them. The best networkers do not even know that they are networking – they are simply being good conversationalists; adept at becoming visible; talking and responding, and getting to know people.

However, many people are put-off with the idea of networking. Some view the practice akin to “politicking” requiring an extremely outgoing personality willing to approach anyone who would care to listen. Many start-up entrepreneurs also have a hard time approaching other people – particularly strangers – about their business. It may be the fear of speaking out to a total stranger, or the fear of coming on too strong or aggressive. Others let their insecurities take the better or them, while some people fail to network simply because of laziness. As a result, many formal gatherings and social situations become lost opportunities to spread the word about their business.

Everyone you meet is a potential customer or a valuable contact. Well, maybe not the old lady you met in the library if you are selling shaving cream. But then again, that old lady may have a husband, son or nephew who could use your product. Marketing is simply spreading the word around, and it is a big loss if you continuously pass up opportunities for networking.

Schmoozing pays. In fact, the growth of any business is directly correlated to the number of people who knows about it. Doing more of networking allows you to develop more contacts in your field and to exchange information with your prospects. It can help you find out the concerns of your prospects and who is fulfilling them; what’s happening in your industry; and who needs what and who offers what. It is basically an entrepreneur’s tool for relationship building.

Successful networking entails harnessing your people skills. But it doesn’t happen overnight, particularly for those who are not natural social butterflies. It requires careful orchestration and good manners, too. Here are several steps to help you become an effective networker:

1. Prepare a plan. Networking goes beyond greeting people. You need to prepare a step-by-step plan for how you’ll build relationships and how you can effectively tell your story. It entails getting to know people who will either do business with you or can introduce you to people who will. When people ask you what you do, make sure you have a clever opening line to introduce yourself and your business.

2. Use social networking sites. LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com , Facebook http://www.facebook.com and even the microblogging site Twitter http://www.twitter.com are excellent venues for virtual networking. Whether you are looking for potential partners, web site or blog contributors, or strategic partnership opportunities, these social networking sites allow you to expand and nurture your network in the comfort of your computer screen. LinkedIn, in particular, is most suited for professional networking as you can easily see the work and business background of the person.

3. Learn to communicate more easily. To be a good networker, you need to work on your ability to make small talk. You need to be able to articulate what you do in clear, easily understandable, and memorable way. Imagine yourself in a cocktail party or industry luncheon full of potential prospects. Set a goal of meeting at least two people in one event, slowly increasing the number as you become more comfortable with the art of schmoozing. Once you are at an event, do not stand around with appetizers in hand waiting for other people to approach you. Go out, head straight to people you do not know, and start a conversation. This will help you gain the interpersonal communication skills that you need. You will defeat the purpose of networking if you continuously stick with familiar faces. Get interested in what others are offering or saying without being abrasive. Good networkers are good listeners, too.

4. Identify your prospects. Know your most likely market, and learn where you will find them. Research as much as you can from the ideal prospects for your business. How do they get their information? Do they live nearby? What activities do they participate in? What organizations do they belong to? The more you know about your customers, the easier you can reach them.

5. Start with people you know. Look at your roster of friends, colleagues, acquaintances, and people you have come across in your lifetime. From among your friends, identify whom you think might be able to help you the most.

6. Get involved. A key to successful networking is to get involved and grow your people skills. Participate in organizations, events, professional groups and social clubs that offer opportunities for you to meet and greet. Participate in numerous networking groups, join your chamber of commerce, and attend conferences and training seminars. With the advent of the Internet, you can also network in online newsgroups and discussion boards. The key is to list every opportunity to network and develop win-win relationships with your contacts.

7. Make networking a part of you. Make it a point to meet new people wherever you go – whether you are on the plane, waiting in line at the bank, or fetching your child from school. Be generous in giving away your business cards, it’s an effective selling technique.

An established business has the luxury of satisfied customers spreading the word about the business. Until your business is self-sustaining, you need to start opening your mouth, spreading the word about your venture to all your friends, relatives, acquaintances, then later on, even strangers.

by Isabel M. Isidro Brought to you by DLDESIGNSONLINE.COM

5 Steps to Creating a Profitable Niche for Your Small Business

Focusing on untapped niche opportunities is often the best approach for a small business. Success is easier to attain if the small business focuses on a more specific and smaller area of its target market, especially during the start-up period, instead of covering the entire spectrum of a particular market. Today’s business environment is so competitive that a cash-strapped small business best bet is to focus on developing niche products where competition from large firms are not nearly as large.

Take the online auction market. With the market dominated by the giant company eBay, smaller start-ups are specializing and concentrating in a specific segment that the big players may not be serving well. There’s Playle.com focusing on the online trading of vintage postcards, stamps and other collectibles. Bid4parts.com is an auction site for automobile, parts and accessories. Bidz.com specializes in jewelry and accessories. PotteryAuction.com deals exclusively with potteries. WineBid.com is an auction site for rare and fine wines.

Why does niche marketing make sense for a small business? You are able to more clearly define what you – and it is easier for your prospects to understand exactly what you know. By having a specialty, you are able to demonstrate a clearer and precise image. The narrower your niche, the easier your chances of establishing yourself as the authority in that niche and for people to perceive you as the expert. Also, the easier it is for clients, prospects and referral sources to remember exactly what you do.

The more narrow your niche — and the more effective your marketing program — the more your business will soar. It’s no exaggeration to say that when you focus on one narrow niche, the sky’s the limit.

Here’s how you can create and profit from your own unique niche:

Step 1. Determine the approach you want to pursue. You can decide on your business approach in three ways: by the services you offer, by the types of customers you want, or by a combination of both providing certain types of services to certain types of clients. It is important to get a clear idea of exactly whom you want to serve and what you want to do for them.

Using the online auction business example above, you may decide to provide person-to-person auctions where you mostly deal with individuals (although some companies are also joining in the auction game). Or you may engage in commercial auctions, which feature companies selling their products in an auction format. Another type you can focus on is real-time Webcasts, which are live auctions that are broadcast to the Internet and participants can bid either from the auction premises or from the Web.

You can also choose to focus on the types of customers you want to serve. Do you want to work with coin enthusiasts? Or do you want to provide auction services for car lovers and users? Do you want to focus on customers engaged in the buying or selling of jewelry? Or do you want to focus on people who want to trade in high-brow art?

Another possible approach is to combine your choices. You can approach your online auction service by providing a particular type of service to a particular types of clients. For example, you can choose to focus on an online auction website for antique traders in the United States, or an exclusive auction website for the high-end wine dealers.

Step 2: Create a new playing field. It is important to define your unique selling proposition that will define your competitive advantage. You need to identify what makes you different from your competitors and emphasize these advantages in your marketing. Avoid the generic trap, where potential customers see you business as just one of these online dating websites.

Differentiate your business. What sets you apart from your competitors? What makes your business special that customers should come to you instead of other sites offering dating services?

Step 3: Describe your niche or area of specialization. After careful thought deciding on your niche, it is time to give it a name. The term you describe your niche should strike a balance between the need to set you apart from your competitors and to accurately describe your marketing process in terms your customers can relate and understand. Use fact-oriented descriptive words, instead of using fluff, hyperbole or combinations of nonsensical words.

The name you choose should describe your niche as accurately as possible, while making sure that the name is broad enough to encompass all the services that you offer.

Step 4. Actively market your new niche. What good is going through the difficult process of creating your own niche if nobody knows that such a niche exists? Get out there and let your prospects know that there is such a thing as your niche. Let them know that this new niche offered by your business is exactly what they need and what they have been looking for. Create the want for your niche.

Be prepared, though, to spend time educating your target market. Given the newness of your niche, your potential customers may not know what your niche is all about. They may not understand that your niche offers everything they need. Be willing to spend time and resources educating your target market.

Step 5. Integrate your new niche in your marketing messages. The last step is to instill validity in your new niche. Your prospects (and even your competitors) should be led to understand that this new niche is for real; that it exists and genuine. They need to take your newly created niche seriously, and not think that the niche is just some made-up fragment of an entrepreneur’s wild imagination.

To achieve credibility, you need to reflect your new niche in all your marketing materials. It should be clearly mentioned, even highlighted, in your brochures, websites, advertising campaigns, and press releases, even in your business cards. Constantly reinforce the message about your new niche, and how it can benefit your target market. Think of your new niche as your sound bite that you need to repeat over and over again, if only to make sure that your audience actually “gets it.”

Your new niche can offer you the strongest competitive position in your market, and paves your road to entrepreneurial success. By creating your own niche, you are able to portray the role of a pioneer and an authority in your area.

So how do you know your new niche is right? Of course, your prospects flock to buy your products or hire your services because you are different from the rest of the pack and you are offering potential customers exactly what they want.

by George Rodriguez. Brought to you by DLDesignsOnline.com

How to ‘Couch Surf’ and Sleep Around for Free

Fox News|By Paul Eisenberg -Thursday, October 01, 2009

“I would never in a million years pay what you pay in New York City rent,” my houseguest said.

This statement was uttered a few years ago by a friend of a friend of a friend who had just regained consciousness on my living room couch. My response, according to witnesses, was “Well, then I guess you’re lucky you get to stay here for free.”

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My guest’s comment was probably made in a more good-naturedly fashion than I recall, and neither of us had had our coffee yet. But let’s face it, while there are no official rules of conduct for houseguests, one of the basic ones ought to be refraining from remarks that make your host feel like an idiot for living where he does.

If you’ve ever hosted an overnight traveler or been one, you’ve likely walked this sometimes tricky terrain. With no money changing hands, what further obligation do you have as the host? What should you say and do as the guest?

Whether you’re planning to crash with friends or family, or are heading to an exotic destination where they don’t have the courtesy to live, there are a growing number of ways to sleep for free on vacation that are easy and fun. And the rules aren’t all that complicated.

Catch the couch surfing wave.

In case you’re late to the party that is the worldwide phenomenon of couch surfing, it’s generically defined as the act of crashing on someone’s couch, or letting someone do the same, with no money changing hands. Recently, this practice has been somewhat formalized at couchsurfing.org, a website enabling surfers and hosts to find each other and share experiences.

On a whim this summer, travel guidebook writer Erica Rounsefell headed to Great Britain. Couch surfing figured into her visit to York, England, where she stayed with a “dentist originally from Poland. He and some friends of his took me on a road trip through Yorkshire, visiting the seaside at Whitby, an historic abbey, North York Moors National Park, and culminating in a musical performance in the village of Harrogate.” Not incidentally, she saved “at least $1,500 on what I would have had to spend on hotels, but more importantly I met local residents that I never would have gotten to know otherwise.”

Hosts don’t particularly expect anything in return, Rounsefell says, though couch surfers find that the best way to reciprocate is to act as hosts themselves. However, some surfer guests make exceptions for particularly good “service.” One of Rounsefell’s hosts “was very interested in Pakistan and we had a good discussion about it, so I got the book ‘Three Cups of Tea’ for him. Some travelers cook a meal from their home country to share with their hosts, but there’s no expectation on the side of the host.”

Indeed, a surfer visting health coach Melissa Wood’s house cooked her dinner by way of payback. But when Wood offered to buy breakfast for some hosts she crashed with “they said they always buy for the guest, because to them it seems like the thing to do.”

For six of the years he lived in Amsterdam and Dubai, corporate executive Michael Flink hosted more than two dozen travelers, some of them couples. “For me it was a way to meet different people, from all walks of life and all cultures. It may sound strange to open your house to strangers, but only once did I have a bad experience, and that was mild – someone who just wanted to stay longer and wouldn’t take no for an answer until I walked them out.”

Flink concurred with other surfers and hosts that the best payback from the experiences was enduring friendships, though he adds “in terms of little thank yous, a couple from Estonia brought me a bottle of their homeland’s well known booze…and a guy from Poland shared his ‘how to pick up women’ secrets, which eventually led me to meet my wife.”

Stay at (a) home.

By traditional definition, a homestay typically entails renting a room in a family home. But with several homestay services, such as Servas, no money is paid to the host, though the traveler is required to pay Servas a membership fee that varies from country to country. Unlike couch surfing, whose community of hosts and guests is self-policing, Servas reps need to interview and approve potential hosts and guests, all of which must be 18 or older.

“I rarely stay in hotels. Mostly, I visit people in their homes, make new friends, have more fun, and enjoy a much higher quality trip,” says Shel Horowitz, author of “The Penny-Pinching Hedonist: How to Live Like Royalty With a Peasant’s Pocketbook” who has done homestays with Servas for more than 25 years.

His typical stay, whether in the United States or abroad, is two nights and he confirms that “no money changes hands, though there is an annual membership fee and we usually bring a small gift.”

Tour leader and Trip Chicks co-owner Ann Lombardi, who has overnighted in more than 70 countries, says her US Servas membership letter of introduction has been a lifesaver. “I’ve used it for last minute homestays when my flight or train is delayed or cancelled, or there’s a problem with a hotel booking.” As with the other lodging scenarios, good advice for and from travelers is often a happy fringe benefit.

“I can call a member if I am in the area and ask if he or she can recommend a good value restaurant,” Lombardi says. It’s like Twitter, but the old-fashioned way.”

Barter a bed.

In the spirit of the expression that “the most expensive suit in your closet is the one you never wear,” many travelers in our sour economy are looking to trade their unwanted and unused stuff for big-ticket travel items, including housing.

The site swapthing.com permits you to barter your unused stuff for just about anything, including timeshares and apartment rentals. Similarly, milehighswap.comlets you trade your unwanted things for airline miles as well as mileage for stuff that might include housing.

Motivational coach Bert Martinez says he has also successfully placed ads on Craigslist.com and Kijiji.com to barter for travel. “As a speaker and trainer company we have had a lot of success trading and bartering for items including airline tickets, hotels, time-shares and condos,” Martinez says. “I estimated we routinely saved thousands of dollars by not using a traditional hotel experience.”