Syndicating Your Content Online
Show Notes: October 31, 2011

This is the third episode of an ongoing series on using Twitter for Business. In this episode you’ll hear how some famous businesses are using Twitter and you’ll get a few tips on how to set up your account for maximum exposure.

In the first episode, Is Twitter For You, you learned why you might want to consider using Twitter as part of your marketing arsenal.

In the second episode you heard how “The Wic” uses Twitter to market her business and how she won a trip to Hawaii on Twitter.

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Syndicating Your Content Online
Show Notes: October 24, 2011

This is episode two in an ongoing series on using Twitter for Business. In episode one, Is Twitter for Me?, you learned how small business owners are using Twitter to create relationships with their customers.

In this episode I interviewed TheWic, a Life, Health, Long Term Care, Disability Insurance Expert and fellow North San Diego Business buddy. She shared how she uses Twitter and about the trip she won to Hawaii from a business using Twitter.

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First of an ongoing series on list building.

Do you capture the name and email address of your website visitor? No?

Do you bring business cards back to the office and add the name and email address into your Outlook, Thunderbird, or other email service address book? Yes?

That’s usually how a small business owner starts building an email database. However, at some point in time it will no longer be feasible to manage your email addresses through your email program. Now it’s time to graduate to an email service. You’ll want to send out emails on a regular schedule, sharing information with your subscribers and you’ll need a service to manage it as your list grows.

I belonged to a business organization several years ago which had an email list of 800 local business owners. When it came to emailing the list about the upcoming meeting, the executive director had to email them out in batches of 50 before her internet service provider (ISP) shut her email down. She’d call the ISP, get her email back up and running and continue her batches of 50. Obviously, that’s not an efficient use of time.

Additionally, your domain email address will have to fight the spam filters and many not be recognized as an authentic email provider the way professional email services are. So your chance of getting through the spam filters is less likely than Constant Contact’s (FREE 60 day account) or GetResponse’s (FREE account) chances.

Next post: Types of Email Services, A Rundown of Constant Contact versus GetResponse

If you have a tip or story about email services, feel free to share by commenting.

Facebook Tips

As someone who has created several pages on Facebook for clients, I noticed that when I create the page, I’m the one admin that can’t be removed. That can be a problem if the relationship between you and your client ends.

This article by Social Media Today discusses the dilemma and offers one solution, although not the ideal solution.

My suggestion is that you secure your client’s Facebook log in info and log in as your client, creating the page from their account. Make sure you’re one of their friends, or “likes” and you can add yourself as an Admin. That way, if down the road you part ways, they maintain ownership of the page as the creator.

Guest Post by Kathleen Gage

A dream for untold numbers of entrepreneurs is to build a viable, sustainable and profitable business, and to do so without leaving the comfort of their home. In years past the definition (and reality) of a home-based business was very different from what it is today.

Because of the Internet, multiple six- and seven-figure businesses are being built every single day. Small empires have grown out of nothing more than a dream and a desire for the dream to become a reality. This doesn’t mean it happens in a day, but the seed is planted and, with time, it grows.

We’ve all heard the rags-to-riches stories of someone building an extremely successful online business starting with a solitary computer, Internet hookup and an unconventional idea. Many of us have not only heard about it, we are living it.

Yet for each success story, there are dozens more fatalities in the field of dreams of home-based online businesses. Therein lies the problem; it’s not a field-of-dreams mentality that creates the success of an online business. The best thing anyone who is serious about building an online business can do is to get rid of the thought, “Build it and they will come.”

Sure they may come, but they have to know about it first. The field-of-dreams mentality is one of the greatest obstacles to one’s success in business.

This thought process isn’t new to cyber-business. I recall facing more than 20 years ago the resistance of small business owners who didn’t see the need to market. Their belief was people would somehow miraculously find them and flock through the doors. Often this belief was born out of a secondary belief that they could not afford to market or word of mouth would provide them all the business they needed.

Sadly, it was often when they were holding the going-out-of-business closeout sale that they finally marketed to let consumers know there was a huge sale going on.

The fact is had they been marketing from the beginning, they likely would never have had a closeout sale. Granted, there are other aspects to a successful business such as quality of products and services, customer care and follow through, but marketing is at the core of a solid business model.

Fast forward to today. With all that is available for marketing online there is no reason anyone should not be doing so. Budget is no longer a limitation with the onslaught of social-media marketing, social networks, joint-venture partnerships, viral marketing, affiliate programs and the power of an honest-to-goodness high quality, ethical bribe. Simply put, an ethical bribe is something you give a current or potential customer in exchange for their contact information.

Before you can market though, you have to know to whom you are marketing. This is an often overlooked step; a step that when done right can save you lots of time, money and frustration. You see, you have to make sure you are not marketing to those who have no need, interest or desire for what you offer.

A mistaken belief by some is that everyone wants and needs their products and services. If you hold this belief, I recommend you change it as quickly as possible. Regardless of what industry you’re in and what products and services you offer, there is a niche market that you need to be targeting rather than trying to reach a wide, unidentified market.

The nature of marketing has drastically shifted since the massive influx of social networks. You’ll go a lot further if you go deep into a niche market and become visible within that market as an authentic and transparent entrepreneur.

Sure, there will always be the exception to the rule, but in an overwhelming majority of cases, to be known, liked and trusted by a small- to moderate-sized tribe of consumers is far more productive and profitable than to spread yourself too thin.

About the author

Kathleen Gage is an Internet-marketing advisor who works with spiritually aware speakers, authors, coaches and consultants who are ready to turn their knowledge into money-making products and services. Find out how you can learn from Kathleen on how to build a sustainable and profitable business using the Internet faster and for less through her Street Smarts Marketing VIP Club.