The Ultimate Social Media Marketing Article to Build Your List

Getting customers to visit your site is the most important part of your online business building plan. You can have the best product on the planet, the most affordable offer in the universe or the galaxy's finest website but if nobody finds your site you'll be floating in cyberspace like a lost soul.
But how do you do this without spending a fortune?
The truth is there are several ways to drive traffic to your site by using both online and offline tactics but most if not all will cost money and for the inexperienced online entrepreneur the vast majority of your cash will fall through a great black hole and never be seen again.
So, here's a safe, no risk, high return, no cost way to dominate search engines and drive thousands if not millions of visitors to your site for free. It's called article submission and it works. So listen up, learn how to write good articles and then know where to submit them and how. Do this right and you can forget PPC for ever!
The best approach is to provide fun, entertaining and informative ezine articles.
Sounds easy? Well it is and it isn't.
Well written articles full of good content and useful information will also help to build your list if you're using a data capture system, as more subscribers will be attracted or intrigued by your well scripted copy. But the truth is articles (good articles) can generate traffic for any site and as any successful shop owner will tell you 'Traffic = Profit'.
Here's a few ideas to keep you on track when planning or producing articles for online submission;
If you're promoting a product or business opportunity, let the reader have a glimpse of what you have to offer next and give them just enough of a taste to wet their lips. But don't give it all away right there and then. Keep a little back and your customers will come looking for more.
It's important to remain relevant. Your readers will be left with a certain impression from reading the article and will expect your website to reflect the article and if it doesn't they'll leave as soon as they came.
Many maverick marketers and successful internet entrepreneurs have captured the importance of articles and built their entire online strategy through ongoing and regular article submission. Search engines value articles as they recognize that more and more people are heading towards the internet for their information needs.
It's that simple!
The importance of well written, information enriched and keyword packed articles cannot be overstated. Over 80% of website traffic comes from the left hand side of the page following a Google search and the vast majority of results found there by the search engines comes in the form of an article. Articles provide the information millions of people are looking for from the internet each and every day and if you learn how to produce high-quality, informative writing you can take your share of the pie.
In short, articles provide a superb, no cost opportunity for anyone to send thousands of visitors to their website each and every minute of the day and for the aspiring online entrepreneur they are an essential part of your maverick marketing toolbag.

Neil Ashworth is a successful internet marketer and business coach specialising in applying social media marketing techniques and tools to generate Social Media Leads for your online business.
Don't have an online business yet or want to discover the secret to making a six figure income online within your first year? Take a look HERE and get ready to move into a Top Tier online marketing business.

This article is taken from- http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Ultimate-Social-Media-Marketing-Article-to-Build-Your-List&id=1940952

5 Holiday Social Media Marketing Tips

While the holiday shopping frenzy begins the day after Thanksgiving, you should be ready to implement your holiday sales plan. Social media should have a prominent place in your marketing campaign this holiday season. How will you use social media to promote your holiday and end-of-year sales?

Here are five tips for you to consider when using your small business social media accounts:

1. Ask followers what they are shopping for
   You can utilize social media as a market research tool. Casually inquire to your followers and fans what is on their wish list, or what they are considering to buy for others. This can give you some keen insight to immediate sales trends, and it can help you make small adjustments as necessary to meet those demands.
   
2. Offer “12 Days of Christmas” sales
   Nothing gets shoppers in the buying mode than the feeling of participation in holiday traditions. Consider having a “12 Days of Christmas” sale where you list a certain featured item each day for 12 days as a special discount.
   
3. Post your sales
   Absolutely make sure that any general holiday sales are posted on your Facebook, Twitter, and any other social media accounts. These are your past, present, and potential future customers who already have a mind to buy from you. Be sure they know about your sales.
   
4. Give special offers to your followers
   While general holiday sales are nice, it is also nice to treat your loyal followers and fans. Consider offering a very special “fans only” or “Twitter followers” discount. Post these notices liberally each day and watch your loyal customers take advantage of your generosity.
   
5. Make a video
   In your social media marketing strategy, don’t forget about YouTube. You can utilize YouTube to upload creative short video clips that you can share on all your other social media platforms. Consider a short video on how to make a great holiday recipe, how to hang a strand of lights on a tree, or simply safety tips during the holidays. By spreading the holiday cheer, you are also spreading your reach amongst potential customers!
   This information is taken from- http://blog.morebusiness.com/2010/12/5-holiday-social-media-marketing-tips/
   
   

7 Ways Twitter Can Help Your Business

More and more people are using Twitter for business. There are plenty of ways that companies can make use of Twitter and other social media platforms. Not only can companies market to prospective customers, but they can build their brand, manage their employees online, communicate with current customers, and more. This is particularly true with the various Twitter tools available today. Here are seven ways to you can use Twitter for business.
1. Build your company brand. Image is important, whether your company is brick and mortar or solely online. It is important to promote your brand while connecting with real people who could eventually buy your products and services. With a Twitter tool like MarketMeSuite, this can be accomplished easily. MarketMeSuite includes a paid service that allows you to manage multiple accounts and profiles, RSS feeds, scheduled tweets and more. Rather than the bottom of your tweet stating "TweetDeck" or another application, it will provide a link to your website.
2. Drive traffic to your company website. Aside from using an application like MarketMeSuite to link your website under every post, you can tweet links to the latest news, blog posts, and articles on your website. There is nothing wrong with a little shameless self-promotion, as long as you don't overdo it (and don't spam anyone).
3. Connect with employees and manage business. Twitter is an easy way to post updates about meetings, policies, business trips, and connect with the ever-important public pool of potential clients. With a Twitter tool like Hashwork, you can privately connect with other members in the company. The tweets that you set for internal members only will not be seen by the public. You can also post live tweets through Hashwork and attach various types of files.
4. Find freelancers or new employees. If you are looking to hire someone for a project or have an open position in your company, you may be able to find the person you are looking for by doing a search. You can tweet your job ad to get responses as well as research profiles and direct message people that you are interested in interviewing.
5. Keep customers in the loop. Post about sales, new products, new services, and anything related to your industry. Linking to news about your field can boost your credibility and earn followers. You can also set up your company's blog RSS on TwitterFeed so that followers have instant access to your latest posts.
6. Find new customers or clients. Use Twitter search to find people posting about topics that are relevant to your products and/or services. You can send @replies and recommend things to people who are interested or start a private conversation with them with a direct message. Avoid sending unsolicited suggestions, and try to build relationships rather than push advertisements. Sometimes just tweeting about what your company offers can gain you followers who then become paying customers.
7. Network and build credibility. People want to know that there are real human beings operating your company. Post interesting things, read and respond to what other people have to say, and make connections with no strings attached. Present yourself as knowledgeable in your field and build relationships just for the sake of connecting with people. It brings more than monetary rewards your way, and it is well worth the time.
By using appropriate Twitter tools and making an effort to engage with this inescapably popular online community, you can build your business, increase clientele, and best of all find friends.

By the way, if you'd like to see the coolest Twitter applications on the web, visit My Twitter Toolbox at http://MyTwitterToolbox.com. With more than 250 Twitter tools for productivity and fun, you'll discover everything you need in one spot to be incredibly effective with Twitter.
If you really want to know how to use Twitter and other social marketing tools, check out this 60-minute audio with four of the top online marketers in the business as they reveal their top strategies for social marketing.
This article is taken from- http://ezinearticles.com/?7-Ways-Twitter-Can-Help-Your-Business&id=5393331

Social media marketing

Social media marketing is a recent addition to organizations’ integrated marketing communications plans. Integrated marketing communications is a principle organizations follow to connect with their targeted markets. Integrated marketing communications coordinates the elements of the promotional mix;advertising, personal selling, public relations, publicity, direct marketing, and sales promotion.^[1] In the traditional marketing communications model, the content, frequency, timing, and medium of communications by the organization is in collaboration with an external agent, i.e. advertising agencies, marketing research firms, and public relations firms.^[2] However, the growth of social media has impacted the way organizations communicate. With the emergence of Web 2.0, the internet provides a set of tools that allow people to build social and business connections, share information and collaborate on projects online.^[3]
Social media marketing programs usually center on efforts to create content that attracts attention and encourages readers to share it with their social networks. A corporate message spreads from user to user and presumably resonates because it is coming from a trusted source, as opposed to the brand or company itself.
Social media has become a platform that is easily accessible to anyone with internet access, opening doors for organizations to increase their brand awareness and facilitate conversations with the customer. Additionally, social media serves as a relatively inexpensive platform for organizations to implement marketing campaigns. Organizations can receive direct feedback from their customers and targeted markets.

[edit] Platforms

Social media marketing which is known as SMO Social Media Optimization benefits organizations and individuals by providing an additional channel for customer support, a means to gain customer and competitive insight, and a method of managing their reputation online. Key factors that ensure its success are its relevance to the customer, the value it provides them with and the strength of the foundation on which it is built. A strong foundation serves as a stand or platform in which the organization can centralize its information and direct customers on its recent developments via other social media channels, such as article and press release publications.^[4]
The most popular platforms include:

• Facebook
• YouTube
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• MySpace
• Reddit
• Delicious
• More...

This article is taken from- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media_marketing