You may or may not know that one of the components to successfully growing your network is the quality of your connections – meaning if someone who is a “connector” is following you, chances are he or she is also talking about you or retweeting you or checking in at your location.  Those are your target connections when growing your network.  I found some great tips on social media marketing last Friday, written by the Union Tribune.  Here are the tips:

A step by step guide to grow your network with Twitter (great social media marketing advice):

STEP 1: Complete your Twitter bio. Be sure to include information that will prompt people to follow you, including keywords that appeal to their interests. Don’t forget to display a link to your business’s website, and make the most of your Twitter avatar. It’s a small square shape, so pick a simple, bold image to identify your Tweets.

STEP 2: Use Twitter’s search capabilities

(search.twitter.com) to find, follow and reach out to people already Tweeting on your subject. Twitter’s search function is “real time” so you can find people talking right this instant about where to eat, stay, party, or shop in San Diego and join the conversation.

STEP 3: On Fridays, watch for Tweets containing #FollowFriday (sometimes #FF) for follower recommendations. Check out these recommendations and acknowledge them. Then give some #FollowFriday love to your favorite followers, too.

STEP 4: Search through and list your Twitter handle in directories that organize people’s Twitter accounts by subject area such as beer, clean tech, or running. Examples include

Twellow.com, Twibes.com, TwitterCounter.com, and followfinder.googlelabs.com. Take care to avoid spammy tools that automate the following process as that’s exactly how not to acquire the right kind of followers.

STEP 5: Visit the Twitter profiles of your favorite Tweeps to see if they’ve created any ‘lists’ of their followers that you can poach. Begin building lists of your own.

STEP 6: ReTweet things that you think will be of interest to your followers. ReTweeting is ‘paying it forward’ and the more you give, the more you get in social networks.

STEP 7: Attend a TweetUp or similar event where you can mix with your followers in person to solidify relationships as well as find new connections.

STEP 8: Share your Twitter handle everywhere — in your e-mail signatures, business cards, Linkedin profiles, website, signage, and advertising.

STEP 9: Generate great content.

What exactly is foursquare and why would someone want to use it in social media marketing? 

Foursquare is a game . . .you check in to places you are visiting and it keeps track of you, notifies your social media that you just “checked in.” As a business, this can establish brand awareness for your business and name recognition.

Foursquare can be used for coupons and discounts . . .some businesses offer coupons when someone checks in at their location.  This type of coupon or discount can increase your visitors and increase your “checked in” business status

Foursquare can be use to establish status . . .if someone checks into a gym enough, they become a “gym rat,” in this way you are giving people their own status symbol for what they want to be and everyone wants to be known for something

Foursquare can tell you where people are (and where they aren’t) . . .interesting in terms of privacy.

So, the bottom line is that there are some great ways to use this social media marketing tool to increase your storefront business. If you need help establishing yourself in social media, contact us.

Alison Elliott is a Marketing Expert and founder of Corner Your Market Global Marketing.  To get these tips along with tips on SEO for Small Business, Social Media Marketing for Small Business, Unique, Interesting and Great Marketing Ideas for Small Business ,  Help Creating Online Marketing Plans for Small Businesses, and Businesses and Software to help Market your Small Business online , you can sign up to our small business marketing e-guide here.

If you are like most people, a picture says a thousand words.  In this case, infographics is the name of this game.  Everyone loves a good picture or a graphical representation of something you are educating about.  It could be a graph or something you drew on a napkin to drive home your point, the end result, if you scan it in and add it to your Facebook page, your blog and your web site (and of course tag it in your alt tags) is improved SEO, improved re-tweets, more page views and an increase in your Facebook fans.

Here is an example of an infographic:  

Infographic byWordStream Internet Marketing

Here is another example of an infographic on a web page:  http://www.cymglobal.com/newsroom/

So, think about trying some infographics in your social media marketing.  If you need some help creating your infographics, you can contact us for a quote.

Alison Elliott is a Marketing Expert and founder of Corner Your Market Global Marketing.  To get these tips along with tips on SEO for Small Business, Social Media Marketing for Small Business, Unique, Interesting and Great Marketing Ideas for Small Business ,  Help Creating Online Marketing Plans for Small Businesses, and Businesses and Software to help Market your Small Business online , you can sign up to our small business marketing e-guide here.

I love fun marketing.  I am female and I think most females don’t subscribe to the fear based or pushy sales techinques.  Case in point, I follow some very successful online marketing gurus but I don’t like their stuff and I read everything but I don’t click or subscribe.  Why?  Because it always seems like they are screaming at me with their all caps and bolding.  It seems like there is always another urgent thing I must do before time runs out and I lose . . .but lose what, because I am doing fine now.

Anyway, I refuse to subscribe to this type of marketing.  In fact, I challenge all of you to “Just Say No” to any business or expert who is acting in this manner!  So, when fun, great, interesting happy online marketing comes along . . .or some interesting, make you smile social media marketing happens, I take part.

This is a shout out to toothsoap.  I have never used toothsoap, but I am thinking about trying it out.  I started following them on twitter for no other reason than that I liked the name.  This morning, I got a “personal” message in my inbox that read:

Alison Elliott, direct message from toothsoap.
toothsoap: Welcome! We are so happy to be tweeting with you ! Now go WASH that mouth out! LET’S TWEET!

I couldn’t help but smile because the message is silly, true and exactly the type of business I want to follow.  Are you thinking about your social media marketing in a fun and happy way?  Are you really thinking about what a potential client might enjoy hearing from you?  Or, are you spamming the hell out of them?  It might be time to reexamine your social media marketing goals!  Please contact me, if I can help steer you in the right direction.  Until then, happy tweeting!

Alison Elliott is a Marketing Expert and founder of Corner Your Market Global Marketing.  To get these tips along with tips on SEO for Small Business, Social Media Marketing for Small Business, Unique, Interesting and Great Marketing Ideas for Small Business ,  Help Creating Online Marketing Plans for Small Businesses, and Businesses and Software to help Market your Small Business online , you can sign up to our small business marketing e-guide here.

I was travelling recently and had lunch at this great restaurant.  I should give a shout out to Cocina Mexicana y Tequila Fino in Danville, CA for the wonderful food, amazing atmosphere and great marketing!!!!  We ended up eating there twice during my stay there.  And a small disclaimer, this is not traditional Mexican food.  Think California Cuisine meets West Coast Mexican Food.

Near the hostess bar was a great marketing piece.  A printed custom postcard but very rectangular ( 5 1/2 X 2 in). 

HOW DID THE PIECE ENTICE ME (THE CUSTOMER)?

1.  The size:  a funky unique size with a perforated tear off bottom caught my eye

2.  The pitch:  stay up to date on their happy hours, their live events, parties, wine tastings and more. 

3.   The simplicity:  simply add your name and email, pick what you want to stay up to date on, tear off the bottom and hand it to your server 

HOW DID THE PIECE ENGAGE ME INTO AN ONLINE RELATIONSHIP?

1.  The opt-in:  When I sign up, I am now part of their e-mail list and online e-mail campaign

2.  The social media promotion: on the back,  you could win a dinner on us if you . . .

follow them on Twitter, tweet a specific hash code to them
OR
find them on Facebook and check in at their location through Foursquare.

One marketing suggestion from me to complete the expense and increase your ROI:   If I were the owners, I would have made sure this piece came with every menu.  What a great way to pass the time between ordering and food than by giving my patrons the opportunity to check out how they can be in the know about what is going on at the restaurants and possibly win a free dinner!

Sometimes it isn’t about thinking up the social media marketing idea, but about the time to execute it.  If you need some help with your social media marketing implementation, contact us!

Alison Elliott is a Marketing Expert and founder of Corner Your Market Global Marketing.  To get these tips along with tips on SEO for Small Business, Social Media Marketing for Small Business, Unique, Interesting and Great Marketing Ideas for Small Business ,  Help Creating Online Marketing Plans for Small Businesses, and Businesses and Software to help Market your Small Business online , you can sign up to our small business marketing e-guide here.

This is an interesting social media marketing question – should your small business follow back on Twitter?  In case you don’t know, when someone follows you on Twitter you have the option to follow that person back.  The pros are that you are responding to your follower, validating that person.  The bad part of it is that you are validating that person and what they say on Twitter to the world by saying you are following that person.

That could be bad if the person you are following is not the type of person with whom you would want to relate your business.

I feel the same way about Facebook Fan pages.  I don’t become a Fan unless I really like the business.  I feel that I am recommending that business by being a fan and it is part of my integrity and relationship building that I can recommend a business.  I take it very seriously.

Whatever you decide to do, you should decide one way or another and stick with it.  Good luck and have fun with your social media marketing.

Alison Elliott is a Marketing Expert and founder of Corner Your Market Global Marketing.  To get these tips along with tips on SEO for Small Business, Social Media Marketing for Small Business, Unique, Interesting and Great Marketing Ideas for Small Business ,  Help Creating Online Marketing Plans for Small Businesses, and Businesses and Software to help Market your Small Business online , you can sign up to our small business marketing e-guide here.

I read an interesting article from the social media examiner about how big businesses use social media. The interview is with a man who advises big brands like Coca Cola and Microsoft . . among others. What I think are the most important point in the article for small business social media marketing are:

1. Word of Mouth Marketing is the art of getting someone to fall in love with your brand so much that they want to talk about it online and in person (I love this)

2. Social Media is your online word of mouth marketing portion of your business

3. Word of Mouth Marketing is a planned strategy. It is not luck. If you really want it, it has to be a strategy, planning and execution.

4. The article talks about five T’s which I really like: find the Talkers, give them a Topic, use Tools to accelerate the conversation, Take Part in the conversation and Track.

If you need some help with your social media marketing strategy (your word of mouth marketing), read more about what we offer to help you execute this in your business.

To read the full article, click here.

Alison Elliott is a Marketing Expert and founder of Corner Your Market Global Marketing.  To get these tips along with tips on SEO for Small Business, Social Media Marketing for Small Business, Unique, Interesting and Great Marketing Ideas for Small Business ,  Help Creating Online Marketing Plans for Small Businesses, and Businesses and Software to help Market your Small Business online , you can sign up to our small business marketing e-guide here.