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.

*** Between April 2009 and May 2010, social networking use among internet users ages 50-64 grew by 88%–from 25% to 47%.

*** Among adults ages 65 and older, 13% log on to social networking sites on a typical day, compared with just 4% who did so in 2009.

It is becoming common knowledge that older customers are becoming more comfortable with the Internet.  But they are also becoming more familiar, and in my experience enjoying, social media.

A survey by PewResearchCenter, notes many interesting facts for your social media marketing if your prospects and clients are 40 years or older.  Among the information, “Social networking use among internet users ages 50 and older nearly doubled—from 22% in April 2009 to 42% in May 2010.”

Read More Information about the findings here.

If you haven’t been using social media for your target market, because you thought social media marketing wouldn’t work for your customer demographic, think again!  For help with your social media marketing plan, you can always 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.

These are some great tips for social media that I found online to help with your social media marketing. 

Leverage other social media:  if you have a strong presence on another social networking site like Twitter or YouTube, then I recommend that you use that to promote your Facebook Fan Page. Let folks know where to find you and never, ever forget to add “Follow Me” buttons to your website pages and your blog.

Tagging: you can drive more interest to your page by tagging an author or a popular Facebook page to a status update, photo, or video. It’s easy to do this in Facebook, you can also tag an article that a high profile member ran on their page. 

 Step outside of your social circle: try getting away from your inner circle and migrate out to other people who might be good networking opportunities. While it’s fun to stay connected to all your college buddies, that’s not the main focus of your Facebook page. 

Selling on Facebook: Facebook now has an application that can add a store page to your Facebook Fan Page. What this means is that you can start selling your books and products from your Fan Page. 

Slow and steady wins the social media race: the best Facebook pages (and this is true for any social networking site) are built over time. Slow growth is best when it comes to social networking sites, so don’t force a sudden surge of growth. This will also keep you from getting booted off if you add friends too quickly. Facebook watches for people who are adding hundreds of friends at a time and will lock your page if they think you’re over-promoting yourself. 

Don’t be shy: the purpose of Facebook is to connect and interact with other members, so don’t be shy! Interact with people on your friend list by commenting on their news, and pictures, and/or wishing them a happy birthday. Doing all these things will help others to get to know who you actually are instead of just knowing your name. 

Content, content, content: remember that it’s important to add content. You can do this by uploading a video, adding the RSS feed from your blog, and a variety of other things. 

Keep updating your Page or Profile: don’t let your profile get stale. Update your status, add photos, and answer wall messages and emails. 

Add your Facebook page to your blog: make sure and add your Facebook page to your blog. You can have your web person take care of this for you; it’s a simple widget that gets added to let people know you have a Facebook profile. 

Social media is a great way to market yourself and your book. When Facebook is integrated with other social networking platforms like Twitter, YouTube, and Squidoo, it can be an enormous boon to your inbound marketing campaign. Just remember, your website needs to convert the folks you’re sending there Read the entire article here

Sometimes when something is new, businesses will simply act so they are not left behind.  This typically yields a poor return on your investment and leaves a bad taste in your mouth.  As a business owner, especially a small business owner, it is important to try and minimize the poor marketing decisions that we all make.  One of the ways is to seek an expert who already knows the dos and don’ts.  Another way is to gather the most information possible from trusted sources about what to do and not do. 

Here is a social media marketing tip for business owners:  think of Facebook and Twitter as a friend who is going to tell people about your business . . .better yet, think of them as your hair dresser.  The information you give out will be seen and heard over and over.  What information do you want to give out?  What part of your business would you want to promote through word of mouth?  What can you offer to make your business very attractive to all those eyes and ears?

If you harassed your hair dresser and her clients, would your business (and you) be shared in a positive or negative light?  Be wary of this when planning your social media marketing.  Don’t Harass!  Offer something people actually want and let them take the lead.  Word of mouth will do its thing if your offer or business is amazing.  Spend some time thinking about what would make your clients spend time on your fan page or your twitter.

Alison Elliott is a Marketing Expert and founder of CYM 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 ,  and Help Creating Online Marketing Plans for Small Businesses, Businesses and Software to help Market your Small Business online ,

Welcome to a blog by Alison Elliott, online marketing expert, all about social media marketing for small business. As a marketing expert committed to helping small businesses succeed online, I have many blogs that provide great, free information to help you succeed in marketing your business online and ultimately bring more money into your business.

This blog is all about social media marketing or how to successfully market your business in social media without annoying people. I found a great shirt the other day that I should have bought. It said “don’t make me unfriend you” and I think that should be in the forefront of your mind every time you create your social media plan, write on your business page, send out an event promotion, tweet or re-tweet.

Other blogs you may enjoy include small business marketing ideas which is a great information source for online marketing ideas for small businesses, marketing your business blog looks at marketing both on and offline for small businesses, online marketing business plans looks at what goes into putting a comprehensive and successful online marketing plan together for your small business with our online marketing experts and online marketing consulting group and internet marketing consulting looks at search engine optimization for small businesses.

If you are looking for an online marketing consultant to help you put together a successful online marketing plan and help in the execution of your online marketing you can read more about our MarketMe Platinum program or visit our main website to read more.