For those of you that regularly follow my blog, you will certainly know that I am passionate about Social Media and the huge marketing potential it has for any Internet business today. I have written tons of posts on the topic and have been the feature author on Social Media topics in some major publications such as SiteProNews.

Over the last year, we have seen a shift in thinking among Internet Businesses pertaining to Social Media. In 2007, business were asking the question (with skepticism): "Can Social Media Marketing really be profitable for my business? Is there really any value in hanging out in Facebook Groups, commenting on blogs, networking in Linkedin and sharing videos through YouTube?"

I think these questions have been effectively answered by many of the industry experts who have openly endorsed Social Media Marketing as a powerful business building channel.The real question Internet Businesses are asking in 2008 is: "Okay, we see that Social Media Marketing is a good thing, but how do we actually find the hours in the day to carry out these time-intensive Social Media Marketing activities?

The answer is: You won’t, but a Virtual Assistant can!

Presently, there are endless opportunities for Virtual Assistants to carve out an "in-demand niche in the Social Media realm.  With the right Social Media "know-how", Virtual Assistants can win more clients and grow their income opportunities as a Social Media Marketing VA!

Our sister site, VAClassroom is offering a FREE 1 hour Live tele-seminar on Monday May 19th, to discuss how Virtual Assistants can truly profit from the Social Media Movement in 2008. For more details and to sign-up, go to: 

http://www.vaclassroom.com/special/teleseminar.aspx

Apparently, the spots are filling up quickly, so be sure to sign-up to claim one of the 250 spots for the call -  it should be a good one! 

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

In my post on the "The SImple Truth of SEO", I had mentioned that producing highly targeted content on your site and through other powerful content sharing and distribution channels was the cornerstone for SEO Success. I had also said that I would run a short series on the best channels on the Internet for sharing and syndicating your content. Well, here it is! Over the next few days, I will feature 4-5 of the best websites that you NEED to be sharing and syndicating your content through. Although, content creation and syndication can be a time consuming task, it will have a profound impact on your link-building efforts and Search Engine Listings and rankings..

The first one on my list is Scribd.com

Scribd.com  is a collaborative document (and file) sharing  and syndication site that has huge potential to drive serious targeted traffic while significantly improving your Search listings and rankings. Scribd currently sees about 10 million unique users per month visting, posting and sharing documents. Scribd is a social community with some key distinguishing features from that of popular article directories like ezinearticles.com:

• Allows you to upload pretty much any type of document or file including PDFs, Excel Spreadsheets, Word Documents, Power Point Presentations and even image files like JPG and GIF files. This flexibility allows users to syndicate their content in ALL shapes, sizes and formats!
• Enables you to embed your uploaded documents in a blog, Facebook Profile and another external website.
• Unlimited storage space - can upload as many documents as you want.
• Quickly indexed by Google and the major SEs thus further increasing your search traffic and rankings
• Able to share documents with a private group of friends or make it completely public
• Collaborate and share feedback on each other’s documents

Scribd is a great channel for connecting with targeted groups that are relevant to your products and services. By providing awesome targeted content to your groups and across applicable categories in Scribd, this will build your reputation and ultimately increase the traffic to your respective site. Like other social media sites, Scribd allows you to tag your documents with your keywords in order to be found by the right audience.

Scribd definitely makes my top 5 list for the best content sharing and syndication channels on the net at this point. As mentioned, over the next few days,  I will feature my other top 4 content-sharing sites that you must include to your link-building strategies!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Well, I am happy to report that my main homepage for our Online Marketplace, ESalesGuru.com jumped from a Google PR of 3 to 5 this week! Yes, I know, Page Rank is not everything, but a  2 point jump in a week is a positive step towards Search Engine Supremacy in my market segment!

With the Page Rank jump, I spent some time this week reflecting on the SEO tasks and activites we had performed over the past few months that might have helped the cause here. Now, before I share my "Simple Truth" (and I mean simple), I must make the disclaimer that I am not a Search Engine Optimization Guru in any way, shape or form. Yes, I read a lot of Search Marketing blogs, ebooks, ezines etc…, but am really just trying to keep up with this rapidly evolving industry like every other business.

Now, as I reviewed our many activities, it all came down to this one simple truth: A steady steam of relevant and keyword-targeted content was the cornerstone to our Search Engine Optimization success! You are probably saying to yourself, "Craig, you are a rocket-scientist, this is revolutionary - NOT! Everybody knows that "Content is King". Yes, content is king no doubt, but what separates the successful SEO campaigns from the medeocre ones is the ability to produce the RIGHT content with the RIGHT keywords via the RIGHT distribution channels. This is where certain web companies leave others in the dust! Not to say that we have arrived with our own SEO efforts, but we are certainly starting to reap the benefits of our content creation and distribution strategies.

I would say right now that 70%+ of our content distribution has occurred via a multitude of Social Media channels, such as Scribd, Digg, Squidoo and Delicious. The other 30% has been focussed on Article Syndication using such tools at ArticleMarketer as well as manual submission to industry-specific article directories.  In looking at our recent results, we have big plans in 2008 to escalate our content writing and syndication via powerful new social media outlets such as Hubpages. There is definitely a Big Web 2.0 Wave that each of us can ride for a time that will be instrumental in improving our SE results.

 For those of you that are still trying to ascertain what keywords you need to be optimizing your content for, I would suggest a couple quick strategies:

1. We started regularly using Word Tracker to find those long-tail keywords that saw the best volume but had the fewest competitors. It does take some some time to separate the wheat from the chaff, but well worth it! You can also use other tools like Keyword Discovery and SEOdigger to help the cause as well. Also, I had featured Hittail a couple weeks back - another great tool that idenfies those long-tail keywords (3-4+ keyword phrases) you might consider using in your blog posts, articles and website content.

2.  I would run a PPC campaign via Google (and possibly Yahoo and MSN) and identify those particular keywords that are converting at the highest level over a period of time and start to optimize those in your website content and syndicate articles and such based around those keywords. This can take 2-3+ months to determine, but again, well worth it in order to target the most relevant keywords for your site and user audience.

In my next post, I am going to outline the most effective traditional and Social Media channels for distributing your relevant content. Have a great weekend everyone!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

A few weeks ago, I sent you a list of some niche Social Media Sites for you to check out and get connected with. As predicted, the emergence of new and targeted Social Media channels continue to grow at a meteoric pace with no end in sight! I came across a couple more blog posts recently that had even BIGGER lists of Social News and Networks site then I first provided. Man, it’s hard to keep up! Here are a couple big lists to review:

Big List of  83 Niche Social News Sites

Top 100 Social Networking Sites

Now, with niche social networks popping up in every market segment, there is no good excuse for not being able to connect and dialogue with your targeted audience!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

The development of niche social new sites in the Internet Marketing Space continues to grow with another new one called Swypefile.com joining the ranks with other social sites including PlugIm, Marktd and Sphinn. These collaborative social news portals are quickly becoming the ideal information resource for gathering and sharing current Internet marketing news, trends and strategies.  The emergence of targeted social networks and news sites has certainly been a major break out trend for 2007 and will certainly continue into 2008 and beyond!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Yes, I am not finished with Twitter yet!! As you know from my recent post, I was initially a little skeptical about the value of "Twittering", but then kind of convinced myself to activate my dormant account and see what Twitter has to offer. Well, I was probably still not understanding the full potential of Twitter, until I came across this great Twitter guide by Caroline Middlebrook, titled, "The Big Juicy Twitter Guide". Caroline provides a user-friendly 7 part series on how to understand twitter and it’s potential for conversational marketing.

One thing she emphasizes in her guide is that Twitter, like other Social Media vehicles, requires, dialogue, relationship-building and collaboration. If you simply use to just plug your product initially, then the twitter community will "smell a rat" and not be impressed.  I particularly liked Part 3 in the Twitter Guide, where she featured a short YouTube video by Internet Marketer, Ed Dale. He provides a good foundation for the marketing potential of Twitter.

So, definitely take a read of Caroline’s informative guide and start "Twittering"!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Over the past few months, I have become a student of Social Media Marketing and reading everything I can get my hands on regarding the growing role Social Media is playing in many companies’ marketing efforts.

I compiled my thoughts into an article I wrote that was published at SiteProNews.com yesterday. Check out this article titled: "Is Social Media Marketing Really Worth Your Time and Effort?"

Enjoy!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Prior to my to career in the Online Industry, I worked with the Federal Government and was always amazed at the copious amount of acronyms that government people would use for virtually anything. Now, after working in the Online space for a few years, I would have to say Internet Marketers would certainly be able to  easily compete for the greatest amount of acronyms used on a daily basis:)

Just, if you are wondering, what the heck SMO and SMM stands for, let me enlighten you….

(SMO) Social Media Optimization and (SMM) Social Media Marketing and are two Web 2.0 marketing tactics I have been studying and implementing over the last few months in my own businesses.

While, there are some different definitions on these two tactics, this is the easiest way I can think of to explain them…

SMO is all ON-SITE activities employed to make your site more social search friendly. Whereas, SMM are all OFF-SITE activities used to leverage your business reach and exposure through social media channels. Rather then jumping to theoretical mumbo jumbo, let me give you some practical examples of the activities that could be employed for both SMO and SMM:

Social Media Optimization:

• Social Bookmark Tools - I would recommend utilizing a social bookmark tool like Addthis.com so that you can make your pages easily bookmarked and saved in such sites as Delicious, Digg and Stumbleupon.
• RSS Feeds - Implementing RSS Feed capabilities in order to quickly syndicate your dynamic content (Articles, Newsletter etc…)
• Blogs - Building a Business Blog with fresh "keyword targeted" content.
• Wikis and Social Networks - Creating targeted Wikis and Social Networks for your user audience to interact and contribute to your site content.

Social Media Marketing:

Imp note: I can’t emphasize enough that incorporating a "Hard Sell" approach with your SMM strategies could potentially back fire and cause negative brand exposure for your business. SMM is  simply about engaging your targeted audience in a natural (non-salesy) way, dialoguing with your community at large and providing a relevant and appropriate contribution. Through those activities, you will find natural ways to talk about your business or service in a way that doesn’t bring a "hard sell" tactic.

• Interacting with targeted blogs and forums - One of the best way to see targeted traffic to your site is to regularly dialogue and provide comments on blogs and forums in your specific industry. It is important to build relationship, provide relevant insights and look for natural ways to talk about your own business. While this approach is not a "quick fix", it can definitely provide a nice targeted stream of traffic over the long term and ultimately improve your link popularity. Quite often, I will provide a comment for a blog I regularly read and just insert my URL under my name. Other times, I will actually reference my business if I feel it is appropriate and fits with the conversation. You might check out Google/Blog Search and Board Reader to help you identify the types of blogs and forums you would like to dialogue with.

• Wiki Contributor - You might consider perusing some relevant topics in Wikipedia (and other industry specific wikis) and contribute some content and look for ways to submit a link for your business.
• Blog Syndication - Recently, I have been using a great new tool, Web2submitter, to quickly syndicate my blog posts to top Social News sites (ie. Digg, Reddit), which has resulted in a nice new stream of traffic.
• Other Social Media - There are cool user generated sites like Squidoo, where you can build a "Lens" on a particular topic you are well versed in. This topic will likely relate to your business, providing yet another targeted stream of traffic.
• Podcast and Viral Video Syndication - This will require a bit more work, but to creating a relevant and interesting podcast and syndicating it through itunes or such networks as podfeed can be a great SMM tactic. Viral VIdeos certainly take some thought and discretion in order to make sure that your video gets passed around for the right reasons:) That is the slippery slope of SMM - the potential for bad publicity.

So, Just a few ideas on how you might use SMO or SMM in your own business endeavors… Until next time!!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

I don’t know about you, but I am always in hot pursuit of innovative web tools that will improve my time-efficiency and allow me to focus more time and resources on my priority tasks.

I want to share a cool little Social Media tool I recently purchased that is seriously expediting the tagging and syndication process for my blog posts. Web2Submitter is a Social News Submission software that automates the process of tagging your recent blog posts in the top social bookmarking and news sites on the Web. Essentially, you input all your logins from the various social news sites into the Web2submitter application and then you can simply do one review of your post and with one click, "mass syndicate" to popular social news sites such as Spurl, Digg, Delicious and Stumbleupon.

While I know we all like to get "Free Web Marketing Stuff", this tool is a one-time purchase of $47 and it is already paying for itself with the time I saving on syndicating and tagging my Blog posts. The Web2submitter site provides a nice overview of the software features and benefits. One nice bonus that I like is when you sign-up for this tool, you are automatically invited to a yahoo forum where members will tag each other blog posts in order to futher their site exposure - a win-win for everybody!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

I want to "enlighten" you for a moment to a new wave of Outsourcing I see happening presently and moving into the future. A week or so ago, I listened to a great webinar on "Harnessing Social Media" by Marketing Experiments and it confirmed a few things that had been percolating in my mind!

It is evident that in this new Web 2.0 (and 3.0) frontier, many web companies have yet to fully tap the potential of Social Media for maximizing their exposure and enhancing brand recognition and awareness. I would highly recommend taking some time out of your busy schedule to listen to the "Harnessing Social Media" as it speaks to an experiment that was done using standard Pay Per Click Methods and some new social media strategies. In a nutshell, the folks at MarketingExperiment.com hired a "Community Development Coordinator" to tap into a variety of social media channels over a month period to see how much traffic and repeat traffic would be generated for their particular test site. In tandem, they ran a Pay Per Click campaign to compare cost and volume of visitors.

What they discovered at the end of the test was that the cost and site volume was basically about the same to run a PPC campaign and hire a "Community Dev Coordinator" to leverage social media channels. But, the interesting thing they found was that with the Social Media Campaign, they saw a greater degree of "Repeat Traffic" of users returning to the site then for the PPC campaign. In addition, it was evident that the Social Media Campaign further ignited their SEO potency which would inevitably lead to a more longer term and steady-stream of traffic, even after the experiment was completed.

Now, I don’t do justice to communicating the whole experiment, so do listen the webinar, but here are a couple points I would like to glean as it pertains to Outsourcing:

Web Companies that do not actively join the "Online Conversation" and leverage social media will be seriously missing out on a great stream of consistent targeted traffic that will develop through natural means. Now, depending on the size of your company, you may not have anyone in house with either the expertise or time to invest in running a Social Media experiment of your own, so I might suggest you consider Outsourcing a "Social Media Coordinator" for a set period of time to perform some of these types of social media tasks:

1. Monitor and Review a targeted list of RSS Feeds from particular blogs based on particular topics or custom keyword searches.  You can create custom feed searches through such sites as Technorati, Feedster, and Google.com/blogsearch.  You might also sign up for alerts using desired keywords through Alerts.yahoo.com and Google.com/alerts. The bottom line is you want to look for opportunities to share comments and join the conversation.
2. Review other discussion boards, Forums and social networks where your target audience might be talking. Use such tools at Boardreader.com and forumfind.com to help in your efforts
3. Provide regular contributions to targeted Wikis

Essentialy the Social Media Coordinator would get engaged with the target audience you are trying to reach to learn more about them, dialogue with them and ultimately look for natural opportunities to promote your company. Now, as much as I try to keep up with reading all my favorites blogs and participate in social networking sites, other priority items keep getting in the way. So, I have plans shortly to look at hiring a Social Media Coordinator on a pilot project basis to evaluate the potential of leveraging various social media channels.  There is certainly no shortage of cool and innovative ways to bolster your web exposure through social media channels. The reality is that few companies are maximizing the potential - I am one of them, which is why I am going to be doing a pilot project shortly to compare the performance of this channel versus other mainstream avenues (PPC, Affiliate, Email etcc…)

In our Internet Marketing Services Portal, we have a category for Social Media Services. I anticipate this category to be a very popular outsourcing channel as more and more companies begin to really understand the great potential Social Media has for their businesses moving forward!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!