Eleven ways to get started with Social Networking




by Joe Dager, President of Business901



I was recently flipping through the pages of the January 9, 2009 issue of The Greater Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce Emphasis insert in The Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly and what did I find? An article by Joe with whom I'd had lunch at the Fort Wayne Sumit Club to talk about Social Networking. Here is Joe's article:



1) Read 10 blogs - sign-up on Google Reader account and search for and subscribe to 10 blogs about social networking - you can return daily to your page to find and read all the new content on your 10. Of course you can add blogs about your industry and interests here too.


2) Comment on 10 blogs - posting relevant comments to blogs you read is a very simple form of social networking. It's also a good way to get some extra visitors to your site or blog.

3) Join Facebook - Join and create a profile. Find and friend some of your existing contacts using tools on Facebook. You'll be surprised how many people you already know have Facebook accounts. Facebook has some real value for you because of the rich set of tools and large amount of active users. This is a great place to experiment with how people interact in social networks. Once you get your feet wet you may also find that Facebook is a great way to connect with business contacts you may never bump into otherwise.

4) Create a mySpace page - this service is really embraced primarily by musicians and the younger set. It also happens to have a large underbelly contingent so be warned, but it is a great tool for learning how to build a presence outside of your web site.

5) Join LinkedIn - this is a service that's been called Facebook for professionals. It is really about meeting and connecting with like-minded business folks. It is a great service for people looking for a job or to make connections with people who may be out of reach without an introduction.

6) Visit Ning - this is the largest custom social networking service that allows you to create your own community using a variety of tools that can be branded to match your current site. Several local sites worth reviewing are Smaller Indiana and RainFortWayne.

7) Create a Workbench profile - This one's a little self-serving as this is the Duct Tape Marketing social business networking site but it's a good example of the personalized business community that's the next wave for small business.

8) Create a Twitter account - this tool is pretty silly on the surface, it allows you to type in 140 characters or less what you are doing right now. It feels like a giant waste of time but a very large and active community has grown around this kind of micro-blogging and you should understand how people are using it.

9) Create a StumbleUpon profile - This is a social network built around discovering and recommending sites that you like. Active stumblers can send a lot of traffic your way.

10) Create a Digg account - this site allows you to keep up to the minute with what's happening in the world of business. Users submit and vote on what is believed to be the most important content.

11) Create a FriendFeed account - this site automatically imports shared stuff from sites across the web, so if your friend favorites a video on YouTube, you get a link and a thumbnail of the video in your feed. You can also view your FriendFeed in your iGoogle homepage or read it in a feed reader. If you make your FriendFeed publicly visible (kind of like a blog that writes itself), you can embed your feed in your home page or blog.

You might also consider Mixx, Squidoo, Slideshare, Delicious, and Flickr as places to find and develop niche related communities when you're ready to really get out there. Think of mySpace, LinkedIn and Facebook as your labs - get in there and experiment for the future. Social Media can be very productive but it is like any networking venue. It takes time and learning the nuances of the structure. Now, you can start blogging!

Joe Dager is President of Business901, a company providing direction in areas such as social media, target marketing and organized referral marketing. A certified coach of the Duct Tape Marketing Consulting organization, they specialize in small and medium sized businesses. Parts of this article copyrighted Duct Tape Marketing, used with permission.

Business901 installs marketing systems!

www.business901.com 260-438-0411 jtdager@business901.com

"6 Ways to Boost Your ROI in 2009"

Submitted by Alight Interactive

Here's another great post from my friend, Scott Howard, at www.SoLoHonet.blogspot.com.

Entrepreneurs are known for accomplishing great things with limited resources. If you want to do the same thing, here are six easy tips you can implement right now to maximize every dollar of your marketing budget.

1. Visualize and plan

Poor planning can skyrocket your campaign expenses and slash your return on investment (ROI). Visualize what you want to accomplish and identify your budget and timeline. Read more.

2. Segment your target market

An average campaign generates a 1-3% response rate, so to increase the total number of leads generated, you can either increase your list size or improve your response rate through better segmentation. Read more.

3. Clean up your list

The average bounce rate from a direct mail campaign is 5-20%, depending on the industry you target. Read more.

4. Seek a direct response to your Website

A critical but often overlooked component of every marketing campaign is a call-to-action. What exactly do you want the prospect to do? Read more.

5. Follow up with prospects

Have a follow-up plan in place for when a prospect responds. It is vital to act quickly while the interaction is still fresh in the prospect's mind. Read more.

6. Leverage Web Analytics to measure your results

Through web analytics, you can learn a lot from past campaigns. Web analytics allows you to get beyond open rates and response rates to real ROI based on an action. Read more.

How to Effectively Start Calling a Lead
By Michael Oliver

I recieved this article as a subscriber to Networking Univeristy (http://www.networkingtimes.com/). To read the full article you will have to follow the link at the bottom of this post and register (at not cost). The benefit of registering is the free webinar available at the end of the article.

Here is an interesting question from TD who asks, How do I establish an open discussion with new potential partners over the telephone?

My Answer: In order to answer you correctly I would need to know whether you are referring to calling leads, calling friends or associates, cold calling, referrals, etc.

For this week, I will address how to start the approach of calling leads.

First though, if you want to establish an open discussion or dialogue, it is important to start correctly. The Connecting Stage, which is the first stage of five of the Natural Selling Dialogue Framework, is designed to do this.

It sets you up to be successful for the important second stage, The Discovering Stage which will determine what you present in your solution.

Unlike other sales approaches that concentrate on...

To read the rest of the article CLICK HERE

Ending Procrastination

by Jim Rohn

Perseverance is about as important to achievement as gasoline is to driving a car. Sure, there will be times when you feel like you're spinning your wheels, but you'll always get out of the rut with genuine perseverance. Without it, you won't even be able to start your engine.

The opposite of perseverance is procrastination. Perseverencemeans you never quit. Procrastination usually means you never get started, although the inability to finish something is also a form of procrastination.

Ask people why they procrastinate and you'll often hear something like this: "I'm a perfectionist. Everything has to be just right before I can get down to work. No distractions, not too much noise, no telephone calls interrupting me, and of course I have to be feeling well physically, too. I can't work when I have a headache." The other end of procrastination - being unable to finish - also has a perfectionist explanation: "I'm just never satisfied. I'm my own harshest critic. If all the i's aren't dotted and all the t's aren't crossed, I just can't consider that I'm done. That's just the way I am, and I'll probably never change."

Do you see what's going on here? A fault is being turned into a virtue. The perfectionist is saying that his standards are just too high for this world. This fault-into-virtue syndrome is a common defense when people are called upon to discuss their weaknesses, but in the end it's just a very pious kind of excuse making. It certainly doesn't have anything to do with what's really behind procrastination.

Remember, the basis of procrastination could be fear of failure. That's what perfectionism really is, once you take a hard look at it. What's the difference whether you're afraid of being less than perfect or afraid of anything else? You're still paralyzed by fear. What's the difference whether you never start or never finish? You're still stuck. You're still going nowhere. You're still overwhelmed by whatever task is before you. You're still allowing yourself to be dominated by a negative vision of the future in which you see yourself being criticized, laughed at, punished, or ridden out of town on a rail. Of course, this negative vision of the future is really a mechanism that allows you to do nothing. It's a very convenient mental tool.

For the rest of Jim Rohn's message

click here

ENLIGHTENED PERSPECTIVE

I received these in an email from a dear freind, Joan Rorick. Thanks Joan.

by Andy Rooney, a man who has the gift of saying so much with so few words. Enjoy.......

I've learned.... That the best classroom in the world is at the feet of an elderly person.

I've learned..... That when you're in love, it shows.

I've learned..... That just one person saying to me, 'You've made my day!' makes my day.

I've learned.... That having a child fall asleep in your arms is one of the most peaceful feelings in the world.

I've learned.... That being kind is more important than being right.

I've learned.... That you should never say no to a gift from a child.

I've learned.... That I can always pray for someone when I don't have the strength to help him in some other way.

I've learned.... That no matter how serious your life requires you to be, everyone needs a friend to act goofy with.

I've learned.... That sometimes all a person needs is a hand to hold and a heart to understand.

I've learned.... That simple walks with my father around the block on summer nights when I was a child did wonders for me as an adult.

I've learned.... That life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.

I've learned.... That we should be glad God doesn't give us everything we ask for.

I've learned.... That money doesn't buy class.

I've learned.... That it's those small daily happenings that make life so spectacular.

I've learned... That under everyone's hard shell is someone who wants to be appreciated and loved.

I've learned.... That to ignore the facts does not change the facts.

I 've learned.... That when you plan to get even with someone, you are only letting that person continue to hurt you.

I've learned.... That love, not time, heals all wounds.

I've learned.... That the easiest way for me to grow as a person is to surround myself with people smarter than I am.

I've learned... That everyone you meet deserves to be greeted with a smile.

I've learned.... That no one is perfect until you fall in love with them.

I've learned... That life is tough, but I'm tougher.

I've learned.... That opportunities are never lost, someone will take the ones you miss.

I've learned.... That when you harbor bitterness, happiness will dock elsewhere.

I've learned.... That I wish I could have told my Mom that I love her one more time before she passed away.

I've learned.... That one should keep his words both soft and tender, because tomorrow he may have to eat them.

I've learned.... That a smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks.

I've learned.... That when your newly born grandchild holds your little finger in his little fist, that you're hooked for life.

I've learned.... That everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it.

I've learned.... That the less time I have to work with, the more things I get done.

I hope you enjoy the wisdome contained in these words.

Special Report - Direct-Mail Basics

Although I found this extensive article in FundRaising Success, www.fundraisingsuccessmag.com, there are many basic principles that apply to both non-profit and for-profit organizations. There are multiple topics included in this one installment which in my opinion are excellent. Enjoy.

The first installment in our year-long Fundraising 101 series focuses on direct mail, with features including "7 Rookie Copywriting Mistakes to Avoid," "10 Things You MUST Know About Direct-Mail Fundraising in a Tough Economy," "3 Things You Absolutely Must Know About Paper This Year," and "An Alternative to the Traditional Envelope."

You are not the things you do, but the way you are being.

Here is another thought sent to me by Neal Donald Walsch, author of Conversations with God. Neal goes on to explain:

Your State of Being is the way you express your very definition of self. This has nothing to do with what you are doing, what you have done, or what you imagine you will do in the future. It has to do with the quality and the essence of the energy that emanates from you right now. Is it love, or is it fear?

Everything you express emerges from one of these two starting points. Yet you can return to love, as Marianne Williamson famously wrote, at any time you wish. For each day, each moment, offers a new beginning.