Blogging for business is an easy way to generate social media links!

If you have a knack for writing and would want to have more traffic and sales, you might want to try your luck with blogging for business. These days, blogging is no longer strictly confined to those who can create journals online and state things that happen in their day to day lives. Even Fortune 500 companies have gone into corporate blogging as a means of leveraging more visibility. Blogging has become a form of social media that allows you to connect to a targeted public.

This connection is mainly established by way of RSS feeds. When people become interested in what you write, they can subscribe to your updates easily by utilizing the RSS feed capacity that blogs inherently have. As a result, your new blog posts would automatically be sent to their email address.

Social media comes into play as well with links from your blog to Facebook, YouTube, Twitter & LinkedIn. Your new posts are then visible to your followers on Twitter, your business connections on LinkedIn, and all your contacts in FaceBook. You can send out videos from your YouTube channel to your blog & to the other links you have established such as Facebook.

Small wonder lots of Internet businesses have also started to establish their own blog sites for marketing purposes, this is a great way to stay connected to your clients & potential clients.

Creating blog content is easy if you enjoy writing and have the dedication to produce two to four blog posts a week. To be able to keep your loyal readers, you need to make sure that you keep on updating your blog.. depending on your schedule and how often you can commit to it, you can opt to post daily or thrice a week. It would do well to create a plan beforehand so you will never run out of things to talk about and it would also be easier for you to insert topics, especially current events, which you feel apply to your business. As you proceed with your blog, make sure you also create your own tone when writing to help you become more distinguished from the “rest of the pack.”

If all this blogging seems like hard work (it is), give me a call today to find out how we can take your blogging for business off of your hands and into ours! 727.505.5384

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Fersons, Floggers and Sybils are new threats to your online reputation. What are they, you ask?

Fersons and floggers – short for fake persons and fake bloggers- are populating the Internet like never before. Spammers, competitors and online identity management firms are in opposing corners, trying to leap frog over each other to the top of Google searches. The target is your online reputation.

Fersons and Floggers are really people (but usually companies) that create dozens or hundreds of fake identities in the form of e-mail addresses, bogs and Web sites. Their sole purpose is to manipulate Google searches for a particular company.

How? They will buy many domain names and begin blogging against an established business. They will invent scores of email addresses and leave great or nasty comments on public forums and blogs.

Also known as the Sybil attack, (named after a woman with multiple personality disorder), an online attacker creates a large number of pseudonymous entities, and uses them to gain a disproportionately large influence on a business’s reputation.

Always, they are anonymous and hard to trace. One Washington lobbyist, the victim of scathing and untrue personal attacks, told the Washington Post, “There’s no policing, no rules, no standards.” Bloggers are “cowboys,” she said. “It’s the wild, wild West.” (read the full story)

Of course, fersons have existed as long as the Internet has been around. One poll conducted in 2007 said an astonishing 55% of respondents say they regularly or always use fake Web identities. But the newest incarnation is systematic, organized and professional. It is intended to hurt legitimate businesses.

Why does this matter? If a company website has a negative search result directly below it then up to 70% of surfers will click on the negative result first rather than the company website. It is important for a company to ensure that its website gets close to the top of search results for terms relevant to its business.

How to counter negative attacks? You guessed it: With MORE fersons! Search Engine Reputation Management firms, or SERMS, use these same tactics to minimize and counter damage inflicted by inflammatory web sites and blogs.

The downside is that SERM services start at about $10,000. For the small business, this is just not feasible.

The best course of defense is to employ the old customer directive: ”If you are happy with our service, tell everyone. If you are unhappy, tell us!” Tout your accomplishments and testimonials on Facebook and Twitter. You can get professional advice and excellent, POSITIVE small business marketing promotion through the social media marketing experts at Personalized Marketing. Contact us today to chat about positioning your small business on the Internet!

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 Small business? Think BIG – brand yourself through blog marketing!

Think about it: No one else does business quite the way you do. You may sell the same product as someone else, but your way of doing things is uniquely yours. Why not let the world know? And it’s FREE!

You maybe saying “But I do not have a big advertising budget!’  Here is a secret: YOU DON’T NEED ONE! You can get low or no cost branding through social media. Blog marketing-that is, marketing yourself through blog posts on your Web site, is how you do it.

Small business branding is not a good logo, a rhyming name, or special font. Small business branding is the owner. It’s what the owner does, says and how the owner’s traits come through in every aspect of the business. It’s the way relationships are built and maintained, the way a person does business and treats other people.

Here are some ways to brand yourself through blogging.

Blogging Advantages

The business world has long had a reputation for being sterile and faceless:  Press 1, Press 2, Please hold.  What sets truly successful businesses apart is a human touch. And that naturally promotes your brand. Thanks to blogging, there is no more powerful brand message to project than yourself. Even one new blog post a week conveys the message that you are interested in your customers, that your business is thriving, active and responsive. THAT is the brand you want to project!

Complement Blogging Through Other Social Media

Drive people to your blog through Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. Facebook, for example, puts you, a real person, out there with other real people. It uses a real time element. It is nimble and responsive. Establish a Fan Page now! Get your customers’ e-mail addresses, look them upon Facebook and invite them to friend you or follow your Fan Page. Post what you are doing or a recent testimonial or a recent accomplishment. Or just tell your customers how much you appreciate them.

Next, tell your Facebook friends or fans to follow you on Twitter. Got a special deal or offer? Hear some industry related news that you want to share? Tweet it! Or you can Tweet and link to your blog, Facebook page or Web page. 

Your Brand is YOU

Remember you have one competitive advantage that can not be replicated – YOU! No on can ever duplicate your personality, the way you do business and your attitude towards other people. Projecting your personality is a powerful competitive advantage, branding message and business tool that you should be using every day.

For expert advice on social media for small business, turn to the team at Personalized Marketing. They can help you project your brand on any social media platform.

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Constructing a new client’s social media city is a lot of work, and our new clients are amazed at the full blown construction process.  Think of building your online social media presence just like you would building a new house.  So with that in mind, let’s dive into the world of blog marketing, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and how that equates to the online construction process.

Constructing Your Social Media City

First, you must select the perfect lot for your house.  In the social media world, this is selecting the keyword rich url that you will utilize to build your blog site on.  Oddly enough, what you ‘think’ your url should be for your business may not be what Google says your url should be to attain the best search engine optimization ‘SEO’ possible.

Second, what style of house do you want to build?  How many square feet? What color do you want to paint your house?  Depending on your budget, will your online presence consist of a one bedroom, two bath or is it a four bedroom, four bath, four car garage, or something in between? Selecting the look and feel for your blog site is critical!  Here’s where the branding starts.   We start with the creative for your blog, and that creative is what we will use to brand you across the social media platforms.

Just as your new home has an address, we go through a process to ensure that you are getting the best keyword rich (address) url as possible.  Afterall, we need to please Google, and Google loves words and SEO (search engine optimization).  Each new client is presented with at least  four different choices for their ‘home’ address, if you will.

So now we have the home ‘address’ and the plans for the ‘house’ have been selected and the unique, one of a kind branding is going to start.  Concurrently, the construction process will begin for the client’s Facebook business page, Twitter and YouTube channel.  All the elves have their tool box at their side and start hammering away.

Constructing and branding your social media presence is just the beginning.  Once constructed, the real niche marketing begins.  At  Personalized Marketing, we are cognizant that each client possesses their own unique online niche.   As an example, there is a rhyme and a reason to the ‘type’ of  friends that you invite to your Facebook profile.  Just like inviting ‘friends’ to your new home, you just don’t invite every Tom, Dick and Harry into your Facebook world. You aren’t convinced that you need a Facebook presence?

• More than 500 million active users
• 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day

With those kind of numbers, it’s not whether you like or dislike Facebook…this is a ‘must-have’ portal for your online social media city.

GETTING SOCIAL WITH TWITTER

Let’s move on to Twitter.   Many new clients say, ‘but I don’t like Twitter!’  Of course, our response, ‘you may not like Twitter but a LOT of people do.’  It’s all about prospects, ladies and gentlemen!  Just like a house warming, you may not want to serve champagne because it’s not your thing, but guess what?  Most of your guests are coming to your house warming because you ARE serving champagne!

According to Blog.Twitter:

Today, on every measure of growth and engagement, Twitter is growing at a record pace. Here are some numbers:

#tweets

• 3 years, 2 months and 1 day. The time it took from the first Tweet to the billionth Tweet.
• 1 week. The time it now takes for users to send a billion Tweets.
• 50 million. The average number of Tweets people sent per day, one year ago.
• 140 million. The average number of Tweets people sent per day, in the last month.
• 177 million. Tweets sent on March 11, 2011.
• 456. Tweets per second (TPS) when Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009 (a record at that time).
• 6,939. Current TPS record, set 4 seconds after midnight in Japan on New Year’s Day.

#accounts

• 572,000. Number of new accounts created on March 12, 2011.
• 460,000. Average number of new accounts per day over the last month.
• 182%. Increase in number of mobile users over the past year.

#employees

• 8. 29. 130. 350. 400. Number of Twitter employees in Jan 2008, Jan 2009, Jan 2010, Jan 2011 and today.

GETTING SOCIAL WITH YOUTUBE

According to YouTube:

• Over 4 million people are connected and auto-sharing to at least one social network
• An AutoShared Tweet results in ~6 new youtube.com sessions
• Over 5 million people have found and subscribed to at least one friend on YouTube using friend-finding tools
• Millions of subscriptions happen each day. Subscriptions allow you to connect with someone you’re interested in—whether it’s a friend, or the NBA—and keep up on their activity on the site.
• Users like Machinima, MysteryGuitarMan, Fred, collegehumor, and UniversalMusicGroup have millions of subscribers
• More than 50% of videos on YouTube have been rated or include comments from the community
• Millions of videos are favorited every day

Views

• YouTube mobile gets over 100 million views a day
• The YouTube player is embedded across tens of millions of websites

Hmmmm…need we say more?  The numbers speak VOLUMES!

With those statistics, and even though you may not like or give credence to YouTube, just look at the numbers!  You cannot discount the value that YouTube brings to the table.  Again, using your new home, as an example…when planning your snacks and appetizers for your next cookout, aren’t you planning to serve what your guests are going to like?  Even though you might not like chips and dip, some of your guests do!  To keep them coming back for more, serve them what they like!!!

So as I preach to new prospects and new clients alike, YOU may not like the thought of building that online city, but the world, it is a changin’ and without a social media presence these days, you’re missing the opportunity to showcase your business to millions of…not just people…BUT prospects!!!

One last comment.  Many clients who look to us to build their online presence shake and shiver when we hand over the ‘keys’ and their instruction manual.  With that in mind, one of the best product lines we offer is to quell the fear and alleviate the shakes and shivers of running your online social media city.  Just like your house, if you don’t like doing the daily and weekly maintenance on your home and outsource that task to experts, that’s exactly what we can do for you with your online city!  We are marketing experts, and our challenge is to provide you with daily interaction that keeps your online city fresh, crisp and up to date providing interesting content for your brand!

We’re here to help!  Contact us today for your personalized quote to build your social media and online marketing presence!

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Recently, Nielsen reported, “ The popularity of social media is undeniable – three of the world’s most popular brands online are social-media related (Facebook, YouTube and Wikipedia) and the world now spends over 110 billion minutes on social networks and blog sites. This equates to 22 percent of all time online or one in every four and half minutes.

For the first time ever, social network or blog sites are visited by three quarters of global consumers who go online, after the numbers of people visiting these sites increased by 24% over last year. The average visitor spends 66% more time on these sites than a year ago, almost 6 hours in April 2010 versus 3 hours, 31 minutes last year.”

Pretty powerful stats!

After shooting five hours of client marketing videos for YouTube upload yesterday, I thought it might be time to chat about vlogging/video blogging! Video Blogging has been one of the most effective online marketing tools that I’ve found for my client base.  The YouTube distribution platform provides an avenue for my clients to reach out and gain new prospects, while at the same time, feeding new information to their loyal followers.

What I’ve found to work well for my clients is to complement video content with blog content.  As I always say, ‘there’s a flavor for everyone,’ as some folks love the audio/visual, while others prefer written content.  So we’ve given ‘two flavors’ of information sharing for our prospects and customers to utilize!

If you’ve not signed up for an account, YouTube, has produced a “YouTube 101” series to learn the basic features.  YouTube’s Help Center is also chock full of useful tips and tricks!

The TestTube is one of my favorites.  This is YouTube’s ‘ideas incubator’ where engineers and developers “test out recipes and concoctions that aren’t quite fully baked and invite you to tell us how they’re coming along.”   As YouTube explains, “Your comments will help us improve and perfect the mixtures we’re working on. So jump in, play around, and send your feedback directly to the brains behind the scenes.’

If you’re a small to medium business owner and would like to learn more about Personalized Marketing’s video marketing services for your company, we invite you to contact us for more information!

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You’re a business owner literally stumbling into your office at who knows what time in the morning, afternoon, evening and see your ‘inbox’ overflowing, employees lined up in droves to ‘get to you’ before your phone rings, and you’re trying to beat the clock to answer a message from Facebook relating to a time sensitive invitation that could conceivably put high $$$ in your pocket.

“Which dance do I step to first?

Online Dancing

“I just don’t have the time” to do the Facebook Flamenco….oh my, I forgot to do the Two Step Twitter this morning; let’s don’t forget about the Breakdance Blog that’s half written and should have been posted yesterday.  What time am I on stage for the Waltzing Webinar?  Do I dare consider learning the LinkedIn Linedance?” Sheeesh….:(

Feel like you have two left feet, when it comes to blog design, online marketing strategies, execution and maintenance of all your social networking?

Personalized Marketing is your outsource solution!

Here’s a snippet of our services:

• Analyze your company’s website from a consumer perspective
• Examine how your business appears to the outside world
• Tailor current social media to your needs
• Provide online business marketing consultation services
• Develop your branding
• Blog building services
• Maintenance of all social media sites
• Maintenance of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts
• SEO (Search Engine Optimization) writing services
• Marketing strategies

I always preach: “As a business owner, do what you do best, and that’s run your company.”

We understand the importance when it comes to your company’s online business marketing.  Stay “in step” with consumer demand. The Internet is the only way the majority of your potential clients search for products and services. Contact us today for your FREE consultation.

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Finding balance in our lives is tough these days.

Do you ever feel like a juggler in a circus? Do the words ‘hurry up’ resonate off the walls at home before you even begin your work day? Feel like you’re out of breath before your day actually begins?

I Don't Have Time!

It’s one thing to get the family out the door in the morning, yet another to face the undaunted sticky note on your computer screen that stares at you every morning…smack in the face…‘reminder – get the marketing mojo going; develop blog, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and everything there is to do to be online savvy and keep up with the Joneses.

I can hear it now, “I don’t have time!  And not only, ‘I don’t have time, but I don’t want to make time’!!!

Take a breath. A deeeeeeep breath. There is hope! And actually, it’s quite simple. Contact Personalized Marketing. What we do best is take care of you and your business. You can rip the sticky note off your computer screen, your mind can relax….you are now on your way to creating your online presence, while at the same time, doing what you do best; run your business and allow Personalized Marketing to handle your online marketing requirements.

And, by the way…thank you, loyal customers..you asked for MORE help and we’ve answered! Not only do we provide all online marketing and social media assistance, we now offer comprehensive packages to fit all your marketing needs; both online and offline.

Remember, we don’t just come in the front door, develop your custom blog design and blog content, online marketing and social media presence and then leave you with an instructional manual.

“I don’t have time,” will be a phrase of the past. From blog design and blogging, to Facebook to Twitter to YouTube, and beyond…we’ve got you covered every day, 24 x 7.

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Grab a front row seat, kick back, watch, listen and learn why, as I preach every day, Social Media DOES matter!

“Socialnomics is by Socialnomics author Erik Qualman. Erik Qualman  is the author of Socialnomics: How social media transforms the way we live and do business. Socialnomics made Amazon’s #1 Best Selling List only after three weeks of publication & has been in the Top 100 Best Selling Business Books List consistently since its launch in August.”

“This video showcases several Social Media ROI examples along with other effective Social Media Strategies. Music is by Bob Sinclair (“Tennessee”).

The need for a strong Internet presence is imperative, from creating a true search engine optimized custom blog design (which, by the way, is our specialty), to creating a Facebook friends’ page, building a Facebook business page, establishing a Twitter account and tweeting away,  but after you’ve set up your social media sites, then what?  The hard part is keeping those sites current and harnessing the true power of all the social networking tools.  It is the maintenance of all the social media sites that become a road block for many small to medium size businesses.  Who’s going to keep the sites engaging?  Who is going to place meaningful content on the sites and interact with YOUR potential new customers and loyal followers?

At Personalized Marketing, we  recognize the successful entrepreneur needs an everyday resource to maintain their online presence! This is why we offer one stop shopping services for the creation of a custom blog design, provision and maintenance of all the social media online sites for your business. We will keep your sites fresh and engaging on a daily basis. We will handle those things you don’t have time to do!

Contact us about how Personalized Marketing can boost your company’s bottom line!

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Are you someone that is looking at the concept of social media and blogging as something that is…evil? Well, maybe the word evil is a little harsh. A closer reality would be that most people who run their own businesses might be slightly or somewhat intimidated by venturing into such media ventures. Running a business comes with a host of complexities that most would prefer not to deal with. As a result, business owners might look towards avoiding expanding their responsibilities into new media ventures. Avoiding the inevitable….the blogoshere and social media train will not boost your business’ long term potential for success. In fact, it may utterly sink your business’ ability to be profitable.

Here’s why….

More and more people are using the internet to find products and services. They are not looking towards the classic Yellow Pages book nor are they even paying much attention to print advertising. They are looking at online sources for their ability to determine who to buy from. That is why you need to invest the time and energy in social networking and blogging. This will create an online presence that will prove helpful and impressive.

BUT I DON’T HAVE THE TIME!

This is probably the most valid criticism one could have towards not being able to perform such work. However, it is not really a valid excuse for not having an online presence devised. The reason is that there are marketing professionals that understand what is needed to develop a proper online presence. To hire a professional that possesses the understanding of how social media, blogging, and online marketing works can greatly boost the potential to be successful in a new and dynamic world of online promotions.

In other words, such a pro can make sure your business is successful in an era where marketing is changing radically. And the need to have a presence on interactive mediums such as social networks and blogging platforms is among the most vital ways to do this.

Why is that so?

First, the audience that can be reached on these mediums is vast. Better yet, the audience could aid in allowing your promotional venture to go viral. That is, they could employ a form of online ‘word of mouth’ that further drives traffic to your hub. This can greatly aid as a form of free promotional advertising that would be tough to procure in other formats.

And blogging and social media sites aid in informing people about your product or service in such a way that you can create credibility in your product or service. This will allow people to be more confident in their ability to buy. The obvious result of this would be a potentially significant increase in sales. Who would not want that?

Having an online presence is a must these days. Hiring Personalized Marketing will get the proverbial ball rolling for you!  Contact us for a FREE quote!

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I must give credit where credit is do, and the following plethora of Twitter info comes from The Pew Internet & American Life Project . 

“The Pew Internet & American Life Project is one of seven projects that make up the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan, nonprofit “fact tank” that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. The Project produces reports exploring the impact of the internet on families, communities, work and home, daily life, education, health care, and civic and political life.”

There has been much media attention given to Twitter and other microblogging services over the past year and initially the supposition was that, as with other types of social network services, teenagers would be leading the adoption charge on a social, connective technology.  However, data from September 2009 suggest that teens do not use Twitter in large numbers. While a September 2009 survey of adults suggests that 19% of adult internet users ages 18 and older use Twitter or update their status online, teen data collected at a similar time show that only 8% of online American teens ages 12-17 use Twitter.

Eight Percent of Online Teens use Twitter

 It should be noted that the question wording for teens is quite different from how the question was posed to adults so the results are not strictly comparable. Older teens ages 14-17 are more likely to use Twitter than middle school teens ages 12-13. Among internet users, one in ten (10%) high school aged teens uses Twitter while less than half that number of younger teens – just 5% – do so. High school aged girls are driving the age differences; 13% of online girls in that age group use Twitter, compared to 7% of boys that age. Teens from households wired with broadband are slightly more likely to report using Twitter—with 9% of broadband users on Twitter compared to just 3% of teens with dial up access at home. There are no differences in Twitter use among teens by race, ethnicity or socioeconomic status.

Percent of Online Adults who use Twitter or another Status Updating Site

Among adults, young adults are the most active users of status update services such as Twitter; one-third (33%) of internet users under the age of thirty post or read status updates online. These services are especially popular among the youngest adults—fully 37% of online 18-24 year olds post status updates about themselves online or view the updates of others, up from 18% of the youngest adults in December 2008. These higher rates of Twitter use and status updating among young adults relative to teens may be partially due to our question wording capturing status updates on social networking sites. Many social networking sites offer the ability to post short status updates, and usage of social networking sites is highly correlated with status update behavior—fully 35% of social networking site users also post status updates online, compared with just 6% of internet users who do not use social networking websites. There is little variation in the use of status update services based on race, ethnicity or socio-economic status; however, online women (21% of whom use Twitter or other status update services) are more likely to use these services than men (17% of whom do so).

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