I just published a brief, basic, social networking tutorial on infobarrel.

Info Barrel - A well moderated content submission site.

InfoBarrel is a content publishing site that allows helpful “do-follow” backlinks. They also offer profit sharing on their advertisements. What does that mean to you? Well if you publish on the site, you’ll be able to build your site’s search engine clout by linking back to your site with relevant keywords. You’ll also make residual income off any ads that are clicked while people are reading your article. InfoBarrel pays a hefty 75% share of each click so get writing!

Just make sure to have an adsense account set up and ready to. And be sure to have a handy list of keywords ready to use to link back to your page.

Infobarrel uses 100% genuine human eyes to review your first 10 articles. They don’t allow duplicate articles so don’t just copy and paste a recent blog post of yours. Write something original and informative for the site every now and then and you’ll be on your way to improving traffic to your site and building residual income!

In our last several articles we’ve gone over the different, free social networking tools there are out there. We’ve explained how and why you’d want to use them as well as techniques and tips for the best results.

Today I just wanted to write a brief overview to sum up everything we’ve gone through over the last several weeks.

Step 1 – Have something to promote and a target demographic in mind.

Step 2 – Prepare a website (a free blog, forum, html or flash based site).

Step 3 – Sign up for Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Zannel, linkedin, youtube, and any other social networking site you happen stumble upon that looks promising.

Step 4 – Build your network using the sites listed in step 3 by seeking and adding contacts.

Step 5 – Consistently publish good, valuable content on your website and share links to your info throughout your social network.

Step 6 – Consistently interact with the people following you within your social network.

Step 7 – Repeat steps 4 and 5 indefinitely.

It’s really that simple. For more in depth information, have a look through our archives and read up.

So you’ve been writing in your blog every day for a week since you read our last article. The writing is top notch, the topics are interesting and as far as you know, not a single person has seen any of it. What are you to do? First ask yourself these questions…

How Social Bookmarking Works

-Have I been promoting my articles on my social network? (facebook, twitter, zannel, myspace, etc…)
-Have I published my articles and not just “saved” them? Remember, you have to “publish” your article for it to go live for readers to view.
-Have I used social bookmarking to spread the word?
-Have you used proper SEO techniques?

WHAT??? You don’t know about social bookmarking and SEO? Well, read on young stink beetle…

Social bookmarking is just like regular bookmarking (if you don’t know what bookmarking is, you should start here before you get any deeper into social networking.) the only difference is that when you social bookmark, your bookmarks are viewable to everyone who uses the social bookmarking site. Some social bookmarking sites include stumbleupon, digg, yahoobuzz, mixx, and del.icio.us. Simply click on the links to sign up, and start bookmarking your blog articles! Each bookmarking site has a different method for accepting your bookmark submission to be viewed by the general public. Download our FREE traffic boosting guide for a detailed look at social bookmarking.

Traffic Boosting Guide

Now for the complicated stuff…
You could take a 4 year course on search engine optimization (SEO) and not learn everything there is to know. Not only are there a lot techniques, but proper SEO methodology is constantly changing. Since most of us don’t have the time or the interest in being a full time web developer, I’ll share with you a few SEO mainstays. They are all listed in our FREE downloadable guide to boosting your internet traffic. It’s only 6 pages long and it could change the life of your website. So just download the thing and leave it in the bathroom for some interesting reading during your next visit.

Until next week!
-Sensei Brian

PS, does all this seem like more work than you have time for? email me directly to learn about our Social Networking packages. We can do all the work for you at very affordable prices.

The 2 great things about blogging are that you can create one for free and you don’t have to know anything about html, css, javascript or website creation at all to start one. That isn’t to say that your free, generic wordpress blog will do exactly

How to Have a Blog

as well as one that’s been set up with a customized look and SEOd to perfection (in fact it won’t, at least not right away), but at least it gives you a place to start getting the hang of blogging with no monetary investment.

Here is how you do it:
1) Go to Wordpress.com go through the sign up process and make sure that “gimme a blog!” is selected at the bottom of the sign up form. Click “next ->”.

2) On the next page you’ll choose a blog domain. For SEO purposes, try to choose a domain name that is related to what you will write about. I won’t go deep into this but, you know that term you’re always hearing: “Search Engine Optimization” or “SEO” for short? Yeah, well, one of the easiest ways to SEO your page is by choosing a title that is also a good “keyword”. A keyword is a word that people use in search engines like Bing and Yahoo. Go to wordtracker.com to see what I’m talking about. Just enter a keyword in the field there and see the list of “keywords” related to your term that people search for. I’ll get a little more mileage out of the blend-o-matic 5000 for now and see what keywords related to “blenders” come up. I get results ranging from “blender magazine” to “frog in a blender”. And you know what, I think “frog in a blender” could be a fun way to represent a blog about blenders so I’m going to see if I can use that for my Blog Domain and Blog Title. Next, choose your language (English most likely, unless there is a different one you prefer to write in…) and then be sure the check mark in the “privacy box” is checked (this way your blog will appear in search engines.). Then click continue and you’ll be on your way!

3) Login to your blog (by clicking the log in button) and then get started by clicking on “appearance” toward the bottom of the left side of the page. Here you can select a pre-made, professional looking theme for your blog. I won’t go into detail about creating your theme here. You’ll need to poke around or read an online guide for more info. Suffice it say that it’s very self explanatory. Just pick one that you think looks good.

4) Lastly, and most importantly, you’ll need to begin blogging! That is, you need to post an article. Think of a topic related to the theme of your blog that you want to write about and get to it. We recommend writing your article in a text document such as notepad on a PC or textedit on a Mac. This way, you can easily save your work in a file on your computer as you go along. Many a blog post have been lost to cyberspace by writing an article directly in the text field of a blog. Don’t ask why, just trust me .  Once you’ve completed your blog post, sign into your blog and click on “new post” (this button is located along the top left of the page). Copy and paste your work into the field for the body of your text and enter a creative title that has something to do with what you’ve written about. Then click the “publish” button (you’ll find this button on the right side of the screen, it should be blue)

You now have a voice in the crowd. The most important part of blogging is to do it often. If you can post daily, do it. Just try to establish a routine. Post every Monday or every other day. Whatever you do be consistent so that the people who find and are interested in reading your blog will know when they can expect to find new posts. If your writing is good, helpful, fun, valuable, etc… you will slowly start to become a part of people’s daily routine. When you’re a part of someone’s routine, you have gained their trust. When you have gained someone’s trust, they are now a potential customer. Blog long enough and you’ll have a following of hundreds, thousands or hundreds of thousands to market yourself to!

Next week’s article will go over some tips to spread the word about your every blog uttering via your social network and handy system called “social bookmarking”.

Until then!
-Sensei Brian

The goal of creating your SN (social network) is to compose a free list of people to send information to. The reason having a SN is so important is that the media (writing, picture, or video) you send out to the people in your network can

Your Social Network is like a giant pimple...?

become “viral”.  The term means exactly what it sounds like, ie, that the information can be spread all over the internet in the same way that a virus can spread. One person sees it and sends it to his friends, who send it to their friends and to their friends and so on. When your media is viewed by many people consistently over a period of time, search engines like bing and yahoo will begin to index it better (more on indexing in a future post). This makes what you’ve created snowball, gaining more and more internet clout until it’s so massively popular that it can be considered “viral” and will be viewed by millions upon millions of people. And when millions are interested in something, there is money to be made! Whether it’s with simple yahoo or adsense ads or the sale of your product, once you’re viral you have a captive audience with which to market your wares.

There is no magic button to push, no special thing you can write and no miraculous coding you can use to make something go viral. All you can do is offer it to the massive contingent of users that is the internet via your social network (using the methods described on this blog and elsewhere) and keep your fingers crossed.

One thing to know, your social network is like a massive pimple. Yes, you read correctly. Social Networking isn’t a pyramid scheme, it’s a pimple formula. And at the top, of the pimple, is your white head of a headquarters. Your network contacts branch out from there, and their contacts branch out from them. Your social network needs a HQ, plain and simple. You need a place where you can store and offer media that you’ll promote with your social network. This hub of your social networking empire will be your website which will either be a blog, a forum, an simple html site or whatever you want it to be.

The easiest, free way to create a HUB for your social network is to start a blog. The term “Blog” is short for “Web Log” and that’s essentially what a blog is. It’s your own spot on the web where you can write info that other people will read. This gives you the opportunity to communicate with them through the use of comments that they will post on your blog.

Look for our guide next week to help you start your blog. Until then, read this article on Search Engine Optimization from internetpoop.com.

Thanks to Parts I & II in this series, you should already understand the basics of setting up your network and finding contacts.

As with crepes, consistency is key.

Now that your network is ready to go you’ll need to make yourself a prominent entity to your contacts/friends/followers. Becoming a staple stop in anyone’s daily web surfing ritual is easier and less intimidating than you might imagine. The key is simple. Post fun, helpful, interesting or otherwise readable content regularly. That’s it.

You want people to know and even look forward to your routine (or routinely sporadic) posts and status updates. If you drop off the face of the earth for a few days, weeks or months every now and then, you can be pretty sure that people will lose interest in what you have to say. One program in particular that makes being consistent very easy is called Zannel. With Zannel you can update your myspace, flickr, facebook, twitter, youtube and even wordpress all at once. Simply sign up at Zannel.com. After you’re all signed up, look to the right of the page for a module called “connections”. Click “edit all” and begin linking your zannel to all your various social networking profiles. I’d post a step by step guide here, but it’s pretty self explanatory. When you’re finished, update your status on Zannel and watch as it sends your update through all your other networking tools.

So keep on posting! And while you’re at it, follow us on twitter and see what we’re up to.

Next week’s article – You Need A Blog

The very lifeblood of the social network (SN) are the contacts you acquire. Today’s post will go over how to decide on a demographic (demo) and how to use your demo to find quality contacts to make up your network.

Social Networks Need Contacts

Whether you’re selling a service like tarot card readings or a product like the blend-o-matic 5000 one thing will remain the same: your offerings will appeal to a specific group of people called a “demo”. A demo has 6 main categories

geographic location
Age
Sex
income
marital status
education

The above 6 are listed in descending order of importance. However, the order may change depending on the service or product your offering.
Geographic location is important if you are marketing a service or product only to your immediate area. A blend-o-matic 5000 can be shipped to anywhere in the world, but tarot are typically read in person. So you need to align the importance of the categories in your demo with your own business model.

Determining your demo will require a bit of logic and some investigating. Luckily there are people out there who are willing to help. Simply putting a call in to a sales rep at a local television provider (comcast, optimum, qwest, CBS, FOX, etc…) can be your first step in getting your numbers down. When we refer to a “sales rep” we mean the person who handles selling media, ie broadcast time. Putting in a simple google search for comcast advertising returns the contact for their media sales dept as the first listing. Just call them and let them know that you are trying to come up with a demo for your product/service. Describe to them what you do/sell and they should be able to come up with a snapshot of a typical buyer for that product/service.
When you have your demo, log into the accounts you’ve set up and start searching. On twitter you’ll find contacts by clicking on “Find People”. When using “Find People” you’ll enter something about your target audience that they would be likely to put in their profile. You see twitter, gives you results based on user name and keywords entered in a profile. When people build their profile, they include their interests and so forth.  So if you’re building your SN to market your blend-o-matic 5000, you might search for people with “running” or “biking” or “health nut” in their names and profiles. Searching for “health nut” returned 10 results for me. So be creative and know your consumer! That’s how you’ll find the perfect audience.

Myspace has different search interface than twitter. On MySpace, you’ll click “browse people” (located in the top navigation bar) and then click “advanced”. Then you simply enter the criteria you’re looking for (this is where knowing your demo will be handy!), click update and look at all the profiles your search returns. Then you scroll your mouse over each name and click “add to friends” (you’ll have to hold your mouse over a name for just a moment for the “add to friends” option to appear). Sometimes you’ll have to enter a “captcha” (a spam and bot filter) and sometimes you won’t.  But maybe one of the EASIEST ways to find THOUSANDS of good contacts on myspace is to do a search for a big company’s page and start to hijack their friends! So the guy selling the blend-o-matic 5000 might look for some uber popular health guru’s page. For example at the time of this writing, Richard Simmons has 1,312 friends (you can generally see a user’s friends by scrolling down their profile just a bit. It will generally be toward the right of the page). And you can bet your buns that many of those friends are people trying to slim down or generally healthy folks already. These people probably own a blender and either are, or will be in the market for a new one. Next you’d click, “view all friends” and begin to harvest them one at a time. The best method for doing this is as follows – when you’re on the page to “view all friends” you’ll notice the alphabet is written across the top of the box containing a user’s friends. You’d start by clicking on the pound sign (#). This will separate the user’s friends, displaying only friends who have numbers or symbols in their username first. After requesting to add all friends under the # filter, click on “A” and you can request friendship from everyone who’s name starts with an “A”. Then “B”, “C”, etc… until you’ve requested friendship from everyone in that users friend list. (you are free to omit friend requests from celebrities if you want to. I generally don’t omit them. Any contact is a good contact.)

The strategies are similar on facebook, however, there is no “advanced search” function as on myspace. So what you’ll do (again) is look for a popular profile and begin harvesting contacts. On facebook, Richard Simmons has over 7,000 fans and friends. So begin by searching for him via the search field in the navigation bar. When his pages come up click on the number of fans he has. The first listing for Richard Simmons says “4,407 fans”. Click that and a window will appear listing all friends of Richard Simmons. Next, you’ll simply click “Add as Friend” on the top contact. A new box will open asking “Add this contact as a friend?” you’ll click “Send Request” and then a Security Check box will appear. This next step will separate the SNing winners from the losers. Instead of entering the captcha phrase, click “Verify your Account”. Yet another box will open. You’ll need a cell phone handy to verify your account. Simply enter your CELL phone number and click confirm. A text message will be sent to your phone (standard texting rates apply). Enter the code that was sent to your phone in the field marked “Code:” and click confirm. WHALA! You’re now ready to add friends without wasting time filling out captchas. Now get to work adding contacts.

With Myspace and Facebook, not everyone will not accept your requests friendship. Don’t let that get you down. Simply keep going! Request to add people everyday to continue growing your SN.

Make sure to make sporadic status updates via the “what’s on your mind” field on facebook, the “what are you doing” field on twitter, and the “what are you doing now?” field on myspace. Need help coming up with good content? Read our last article of this 3 part series “Social Networks Need Content”

Read our next article: “Social Networks Need Consistency” Monday Sept 28th @ 9:00AM

If you’ve read our first two posts then you know what you need in place to build your social network (SN).
You need an identity for your business (which will explain in further detail in this post) and you need to sign up for the vital SNing sites (All for free mind you.) Not signed up? Check out our last article “How to start your networking empire“.

So you’ve got your act together do ya?

Good Content

You know you’re the irreverent blender dealer from So Cal and you’re intent on making millions with your blend-o-matic 5000 by marketing it to your SN.

It’s time to move on to our 3 part series “Building Network Success”

Part 1 Social Networks Need Content
The thing that will make your network grow is the content you provide through it. Remember, no one on the web wants to sign up to be solicited. This means that you will have to make yourself a friend, a confidante, or even a father figure to the masses. You do this by offering business tips, marketing advice, recipes, video game guides etc… otherwise known as free valuable information (FVI). You post this information via the status/mood box on myspace, the box labeled “what’s on your mind” on facebook, the box under “what are you doing” on twitter or the “post an update” box on zannel. When you enter something here and click the “share”, “post”, or “update” button (button names vary by site), your content will go live to everyone in your network.

Don’t have anyone in your network? Well get cracking mister! If you aren’t sure how to, look for our future post “Social Networks Need Contacts”.

As you accumulate “friends” and contacts in your network, your focus will be on what you will provide to them to keep them interested, keep them coming back and to get them to recommend your page to their friends. The guy selling the blend-o-matic 5000 will post a new recipe every day. He might designate months for different ingredients and/or promote recipe contests through is network. Thus 3 months of posts could look something like this. (each dash (-) donates a new post, a new date denotes the next day)

1/1/10 – It’s a new year everybody! This month lets all resolve to get more anti-oxidants in our diet. Stay tuned this month for great, inexpensive recipes that you can use in your blend-o-matic 5000 to keep your diet rich in antioxidants.

- “Blueberry Bounty” Yield 4 servings. Ingredients: 3 cups fresh orange juice, 1/4  cup honey, 1 pint blueberries, 1 cucumber. Preparation: Combine all ingredients in a blender; process until smooth. Cover and chill 8 hours or overnight. Strain the mixture through a cheesecloth-lined sieve into a medium bowl, pressing solids with a wooden spoon or a rubber spatula to squeeze out juice; discard solids.

- Have a recipe you want the world to know about? Send us your best one! We test all the recipes we receive. If yours is the best of the best we’ll post it!

1/2/10 – Did you try out the Blueberry Bounty this morning? If so, let us know what you thought! (include link to a contact page here)

- It’s antioxidant month, be sure to eat plenty of foods rich in antioxidants! The antioxidant food of the day is the Strawberry! Read about the amazing power of the strawberry here: http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=32

- “Strawberry Catastrophe” Yield 6 servings. Ingredients: 1/2 pint strawberries stems removed, 2 cups pineapple, 2 ripe bananas, 3-4 tablespoons honey, 3/4 cup coconut water, 2 cups ice cubes. Process in blender until smooth. Serve immediately.

- Share your favorite recipes with us! Message us here, make a comment or email us directly (email link)

1/3/10 – Another day, another antioxidant shake to brighten your morning! Did you like the Strawberry Catastrophe? Stay tuned for today’s recipe!

- Make the most of your morning fruit smoothie! Try one of our blend-o-matic 5000s in your home, risk free for 30 days! (include link to purchase page on website)

- The fruit of the day is the Acai berry! This small berry has the ability to completely change your life. Read more about it here:http://www.extension.org/pages/Research_Shows_Brazilian_Acai_Berry_
Antioxidants_Absorbed_by_Human_Body

- “Acai Elixir” Yield 2 servings. Ingredients: 1 cup acai juice, 1 cup milk, 1 banana, 1/2 cup vanilla frozen yogurt. Blend thoroughly. Serve immediately.

- The Acai berry is an amazing antioxidant and part of a well balanced diet, but don’t go over board! The jury is still out as to whether or not this tiny fruit is a miracle disease curer.

(IMPORTANT: Different SNing sites have different limits to the number of characters that can be used in an update. So plan your updates accordingly.)

Notice that sales pitches are sprinkled on only a few of the posts. While we want people to be aware of our product we do not want them to be aware that we are selling them something. We provide free information, links to useful articles and act like a friend, reminding them to eat healthy. This way, as people read our posts they will grow to trust us like a friend, rather than place us in the door to door salesman category. Then, when our reader’s blender breaks down, or they just feel the need for a new one, we’ll have the top spot on their mind and a sale will surely follow.

Know that SNing shouldn’t be regarded as your one stop to business success. Though it can eventually grow to become your biggest money maker, growing your SN will take time, patience and thoughtful effort and is only a part of your overall marketing campaign.

Read our next article: Social Networks Need Contacts

As with all things, building a good social network (SN) takes time. You have to be patient, diligent and take pride in small victories, because as they say, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Don’t have time, patience or fondness of small victories? We’ll get the job done for you.

Moving on!

Start Social Networking

There are a handful of sites that any respectable web guru would consider indispensable to creating an effective SN. A List of Social Networking Sites:

Facebook.com
MySpace.com
Youtube.com
Flickr.com
Twitter.com
Zannel.com
LinkedIn.com

All these sites can be used to grow the amount of people who are a part of your social network.

I’ll dig deep into the nitty gritty of each one in future posts. For now you should know how to sign up for each of these and also have an idea as to what each one can do for you. But before I get into that, I’m going to back up just a little bit to share with you the single most important aspect to social networking. Think of this as the overall key to your eventual success (or failure) in the world of SN.

Generally speaking, people (your potential clientele) sign up on social networking websites for fun. Everywhere they go they are constantly bombarded with advertisements and sales pitches. The last thing anyone wants, is to add you to their list of friends so that you can remind them everyday about the sharpness of the blades on your new blend-o-matic 5000 and try to get them to come to your store/website to buy one. When people join your network, you want them to think of you as a friend or at the very least, someone who can benefit them in some way. After all, would you even be reading this blog right now if every other sentence had a link to our social networking services? (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)
You’re not interacting with us to be solicited to. You’re here because you want something, and so will the contacts in your network. Bank on offering tips and advice in your area of expertise. Want to sell blenders? Offer good recipes once a day to those in your network and health nuts (or alcoholics) will be banging down your door to be in your network to be in the loop for your latest concoction. Offer something of value for free and when it’s time to make a purchasing decision, you’ll be the first on their list.

Now, back to the list of SN websites…

What is facebook

Facebook allows you to add friends (ie, family, customers, clients, colleagues, etc…) to your very own “friends list” ie, your “network”. You can make status updates that will be viewable by everyone in your network. The content of status updates include but are not limited to:
-Thoughts about the weather.
-Projects you’re currently working on.
-Upcoming sales or special offers.
-Questions about anything.
Anything is potential subject matter on facebook. Aside from posting simple updates you can write on a contact’s “wall”, post images, videos, “poke” people, link to your website and search for new contacts based on various criteria.
To sign up, simply go to Facebook.com and fill in the required fields. *IMPORTANT* when signing up for Facebook, do not use a generic email address such as info@yourdomain.com or facebook@yourdomain.com. Use an email address with a name such as Joe@yourdomain.com. Also, be sure to jot down the user name/email address and password associated with the account somewhere so you don’t forget it. Facebook will take you through a setup process. When you’re done, go to the email account you used to set up your account, find the email from Facebook, open the email and click on the link to confirm your account. To learn more, check back soon for our article on the ins and outs of facebook.

What is myspace

Myspace allows you to add friends (ie, family, customers, clients, colleagues, etc…) to your very own “friends space” ie, your “network”. You can make status updates that can be viewed by everyone in your network. The content of status updates include but are not limited to:
-Thoughts about the weather.
-Projects you’re currently working on.
-Upcoming sales or special offers.
-Questions of any kind
Myspace is best known for it’s commenting aspect. When you are someone’s “friend” you can comment on their page. Your comment can be seen by anyone viewing that person’s page. Most times, a comment can include a link to your website or to anything else of interest that you may wish to link to. Your myspace page will also include a free blog that you may choose to utilize if you wish to.
To sign up, simply go to the myspace.com sign up page and fill in the required fields. *IMPORTANT* when signing up for Myspace, do not use a generic email address such as info@yourdomain.com or myspace@yourdomain.com. Use an email address with a name such as Joe@yourdomain.com. Also, be sure to jot down the user name/email address and password associated with the account somewhere so you don’t forget it. Myspace will guide you through setting up your profile. Just go with the flow and you’ll be done in no time. Lastly, log into the email account that you used to sign up, find the email from “Welcome to Myspace” and click on the confirmation link. Yer done.

How to Youtube

Youtube is a video sharing website. The creation of youtube marked the first time when any average Joe could upload his own video to the internet and share it with the world… FOR FREE! People who aren’t daunted by the task of producing entertaining or otherwise valuable videos will find that Youtube.com can connect them to millions of people all over the world.
To sign up for youtube you’ll need a gmail account. If you don’t have one you can create one during the sign up process. To sign up for Youtube you’ll start by entering a user name and some other info. After that is done, the next page will ask for your google/gmail address. If you don’t have one you have to sign up. To sign up you can simply enter your current non-google address (yahoo, msn, your own domain, etc…) in the appropriate field under “No. I need a new Youtube | Google account”. After you’ve filled everything out, just log in to the email account you’ve used, open the confirmation email sent by accounts-noreply@google.com and click on the link to confirm your address.

Flickr website

With Flickr.com you can upload and share images with the entire world. People search Flickr all the time.

You’ll need a yahoo.com email account to sign up for this one. If you don’t have one, sign up for one here . Then you’ll simple go to Flickr.com and click on the “Create Your Account” button located at the top of the page. Sign in using your yahoo ID and password. The next page will prompt you to create Flickr screen name. Enter any name you like, then click “Create A New Account”. You are done.

What is twitter

Twitter is like a giant news ticker. Only difference is, the news can be whatever anyone wants it to be. And of course, it doesn’t have to be real news. With a twitter account you can “tweet” (twitter’s word for post or shout) whatever you like. Make good tweets and soon you’ll have a following. That’s right, just like on facebook and myspace, people can choose to follow you on twitter. The real difference between twitter and site like myspace or facebook is that twitter is simply about communicating. When people follow you in twitter they’ll see every tweet you make. You can use this as an opportunity to update your loyal fans with sales pitches for your blend-o-matic 5000 or you can post things they want to see
We’ll do a full write up on twitter in a later post.

What is Zannel

On it’s own, Zannel may be the least important of all of these networking tools. However, link Zannel to your facebook, myspace, twitter, flickr and youtube accounts and it instantly becomes your network’s main hub. Want to make a post, but dread the thought of copying and pasting it over and over? Just type what you want into zannel and it will update your entire network. We’ll give you step by step instructions as to how you can set this up in a future post. For now check out zannel.com, sign up and start tinkering around.

What is LinkedIn

The last SNing tool of note that I will mention today is LinkedIn.com. LinkedIn is quite different from the other sites listed here because LinkedIn is at it’s heart a networking site for business professionals. Have a question about business law? Sign in and ask away. Need to find a job? Search through their job listings. Or if you’re hiring, post a job listing of your own (postings don’t come cheap however…). One of the greatest things about linkedIn is the ability to become listed as a recommended service provider. That means, when someone comes to linkedIn looking for a service of some sort (which is what people do on linkedin), you’ll be on the list… FOR FREE! Are you beginning to see the “free” trend with these sites?
Sign up for LinkedIn now and have a look around.

After you’ve finished signing up for these pages, keep the user names and passwords you’ve used for each one handy. You’ve now taken your first big step to growing your business on the web with a social network.

Is it all still looking intimidating? Let us manage your network for you starting today!

I’m going to forego the introduction for now in lieu of getting right into the good stuff. So get a good grip on your mouse, make sure your wireless keyboard has batteries to spare and lets get into it!

A Good Foundation

Firstly, let us answer the question “what is social networking?” Social networking on the internet is exactly what it sounds like. It’s simply interacting with other people to exchange information and develop contacts for fun, to expand a business or further a career. If you’re reading this blog, your goal will be one of the two latter goals.

The amazing thing about the internet is it has connected the entire world in a way that allows a business relationship to exist between John Smith in the USA and Hiro Nakamura way over in Japan without either of them ever having to meet in person. Welcome to the wonderful world of the internet, social bookmarking and social networking brought to you by the Social Networking Ninjas!

You may be wondering what all this means to you, the business owner. Well, we are living in an age of free internet applications that allow a user (you) to connect with his/her entire market (your customers). Today, you can find potential customers based on their interests, their age, geographic location… you can essentially search for, find and market your business to THOUSANDS of contacts based on any demographic, FOR FREE. Ever hear of Twitter or Facebook? Zannel? How about Flickr, YouTube, Myspace… are any of these names ringing a bell? Odds are you already have a profile set up on one or more of these amazing websites. The question is, how do you figure out how to use these free internet tools to make yourself filthy stinking rich? The good news is, you’ve already found the website that can help you do it. The bad news is, there is a lot of reading to do (or you could stop reading now and hire us to get your network off the ground today).

The first thing you need to do is create an identity for your business. A “brand” so to speak. Who are you? What do you do? What do you specialize in? What is your public persona? Are you fun? Serious? Insane? Brilliant? Having an answer to all of these questions is not only necessary to launch your social network but is important for any marketing campaign. Already have a brand? Read our next article “How to start your networking empire”.

Building your brand is the single most important thing you can (and must) do to set yourself apart from your competitors. So before you even set up your business’s twitter page, be sure that you can answer the following questions:

-What does my business do?
-What separates my business from the competition?
-What is my persona? ie, if my business was a person who would it be? Brad Pitt, Patrick Stewart… Hillary Clinton? (you have more control over this than anything else!)
-Who do I appeal to? ie, what is my demographic?
-Why buy me?

One client we’ve branded very well is a small Lincoln Mercury dealer in Denver, CO. Small in size yes, but after a few years of building their brand, they have risen above the rest and are #1 in the region for new vehicle sales and customer satisfaction. The dealer I’m referring to is Landmark Lincoln Mercury.

Here is how we would answer the above questions for them:

-What does Landmark Lincoln Mercury do?
Landmark Lincoln Mercury sells new and used vehicles, services vehicles and performs auto body work. Landmark is certified to perform warranty work on Fords, Lincolns and Mercurys.

-What separates Landmark Lincoln Mercury from the competition?
Landmark Lincoln Mercury provides an honest, no hassle, pressure free bid for your business. Landmark doesn’t do “hot deals”. Landmark doesn’t advertise with a “call to action.” Landmark has a legacy in Denver that is 100 years strong. Landmark maintains a strong emphasis on loyalty to their employees. The current President Tom Daniels has been known to sell his own personal property to pay the bills before even thinking the words “job cuts.”

-What is Landmark’s persona?
Landmark Lincoln Mercury is a combination of Jim Carey and Abe Lincoln. Not afraid to poke fun at themselves and show off their zany side.  Tom acts in and voices his own commercials and fancies his signature commercial ending where he is run down by one of his own vehicles. Yet, when it comes down to business the focus is on honesty, integrity and a promise to bend over backwards to be sure that you are satisfied with your purchase.

-Who does Landmark appeal to?
This question can be answered more simply for an auto dealership than it can be for other types of businesses. For Lincoln Mercury the demo can skew from 45-60+ years of age, with female buyers taking a slight edge. Lincoln Mercury buyers are often married with a high school diploma and an income of $75K+. Not sure how to figure this out your demographic? We can help!

-Why buy Landmark?
With all the choices consumers have on the block, down the street, in the next town over and even on the web, the answer to this question is the most vital. Why buy Landmark? Because your friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, church congregation, and nearly everyone else you know who bought a Lincoln or Mercury vehicle, bought it from Landmark or else, they wish they did. And they’ll tell you that! There is no better marketing campaign than the word of mouth of your loyal customers. You’ll buy from Landmark because, while all auto dealers talk about how great they are, only Landmark consistently delivers on their promise of honesty, integrity and professionalism. And that claim can be verified by anyone you know who owns a Landmark car.

Knowing the answers to these questions will help you create your social network because you’re going to need things, a lot of things to talk about out. Knowing who you are will help you formulate appropriate, interesting topics to keep your network tantalized. Having this simple profile in line is a huge step in the direction toward SN stardom.

Bookmark the page or subscribe to our feed and read our next article tomorrow “The basics of Social Networking”