Social Networking Stuff

Social Networking For Women - Braveheart Women Review
By Lori R. Somekh

Many social networking sites have popped up recently. One in particular that caught my attention is Braveheart Women.

Braveheart Women is the creation of Dr. Ellie Drake. Her vision is to bring together women to support each other in creating purpose, passion and prosperity. The purpose of this site is to provide social networking for woman with a purpose. Ellie’s goal is to empower you to be empowered and to inspire you to be inspired. What distinguishes this site from all the others I participate in is that it regularly features interviews with a host of celebrity women.

Braveheart TV

Ellie and her panel regularly interview women who are making a difference in their fields. Her guests include celebrities, businesswomen, entrepreneurs and other women who have valuable insights and experiences to share with other women. I’ve seen interviews with Dr. Maya Angelu, Mary Ellen Tribby, Mariel Hemingway, Morgan Fairchild, Lindsay Wagner, Dr. Judith Orloff, Forbes Riley, Gloria Loring, Lisa Nichols and Estelle Harris, to name a few. The cool thing is that these interviews are not fluff. They’re really good. I come away from each one feeling inspired. Ellie digs right down into the heart and soul of what makes these women tick.

Forum Discussions

When I first joined as a free member a little over a year ago, I introduced myself on the discussion forum and began reading some of the other introductions. I saw a post by a marketing mentor and picked up the phone and called her, figuring I would get her machine and leave a message. She picked up the phone, and we made a great connection. I started working with her as a client, and within the last year, I wrote three ebooks and developed a brand new website to connect with other women in midlife looking to improve their health. You never know. Since then, I have watched Ellie’s interviews often and continue to be inspired each and every time.

RISE - The Braveheart Women Annual Event

Braveheart Women hosts an annual live networking event. This year’s event is in October in Beverly Hills. I did not go last year. I may be able to attend this year. It looks like they have a great lineup of empowered, inspired women. I was surprised to see to how inexpensive it is. I hope my schedule supports my attending. I’d love to bring my daughter.

Conclusion

This social networking forum gets a big thumbs up from me. You can read more about it on my blog.

Lori Somekh is an attorney and a business owner. She resides in New York and helps women transition into online business ownership. You can find out more on http://www.somekh1.wordpress.com

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Designing Your Company Social Networking Policy
By Dr. Mark Clayson

Social media is the dish of the day at the moment. It has the pizazz and verve required to engage huge numbers of people in an effortless way. Commencing a social media plan is something which just about all enterprises ought to look at. Generally there is ample proof that businesses that have succeeded in doing so (and applied it with proper guidance have greater customer satisfaction and bigger gains. But the judgement should not be regarded casually as generally there are a variety of potential stumbling blocks and troubles.

Consider the following guidelines when beginning the process of implementing social media marketing for your business.

Choose where exactly you stand. A strategy is merely as good as the organization that brings it about. Effectively, choices have to be formed and you need to assume a position. Are you able to ascertain what your organization desires as a direct result of advertising and marketing? Will you elect to simply connect in reply to what someone else states? Do you want to be proactive in engaging the community? Do remember the network will be made up of many people that buy your goods and expertise along with people that assess them. Without an overall attitude concerning social media, it could be very difficult to produce a policy.

It truly is most beneficial to be resolute in the arguments for applying social websites activity. Make certain almost everyone (make that, everyone) is up to speed and agree wherever feasible. If effective, you’ll be able to reap the rewards in a somewhat limited time period.

Mark Clayson is a professional, home business entrepreneur, mentor and speaker. Visit his Social Media Blog to find out more.

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Are the Smaller Social Networking Sites Worth Signing Up For?
By Jeanne Grunert

Many people eschew the smaller social networking sites in favor of the big networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Linked In. Yet before you hop onto the Facebook bandwagon, let’s explore some of the positive aspects of smaller networking sites.

Go Where Your Customers Are Online

The key to effective social networking online for business is to go to the networks where your customers socialize, conduct business, and network. If your customers are all on a smaller networking site, talking to one another on a specific forum or message board, or hanging out on a popular website, then go there.

Think about it in comparison to traditional media. If you’re selling a mass-appeal product such as cookware, then direct television spots make sense. Everyone cooks or at least prepares food. That’s why you see so many infomercials for products like microwave cooking products, George Foreman grills, pots, pans and similar items.

Yet a niche business such as model train hobbyists wouldn’t fare as well through direct television spots unless they were chosen very carefully, say placed within a special on the History channel on the development of the railroads. Why? Because although collecting model trains is a wonderful and popular hobby, it’s not a hobby shared by everyone. For every person interested in model trains, there are nine others who don’t care about them.

Your job as a marketer is to find the 1 in 10 person who wants - no, needs - the latest, greatest and best model trains out there.

If we’re talking about social networking instead of direct television spots, the analogy still holds true. Large sites such as Facebook do enable you to connect with millions of people worldwide. You may do so to network or out of curiosity. That’s all fine. But if you’re trying to maximize your time and efforts using social networking for marketing, it pays to find out first where the 1 person in 10 who wants and needs your product is hanging out. Then go there, get to know people, and share messages related to your product.

Marketing Through Social Networking Sites

What do you do to promote your product or service once you’re on a social network? First and foremost, don’t jump right into your sales pitch. Nothing turns off potential customers more than hard-hitting sales pitches before they’ve even gotten to know you.

Social networking sites are first and foremost about networking. Like in person networking events, you want to meet, greet, exchange pleasantries and get to know people. Then and only then can you introduce things you sell or want to promote. Don’t jump right into the sales pitch before you’ve gotten to know someone. That’s about as obnoxious as a sexual come-on at a party when you’ve just met a person. Don’t you want to know about them first?

Determine Which One Perform Best

One final way in which you can tell whether or not small social networking sites are better than large social networking sites: test them.

Choose three of your favorite social networking sites. Choose one of the smaller social networking sites as one of the three. Now begin to cultivate your messages and relationships. Develop an attractive profile and keep on message. Which one works better for you? Where are your leads coming from? One way to set up such a test as a direct marketing test of sorts is to create a unique URL for each social networking site profile and direct each URL into a special landing page on your website. This way, your site metrics will give you the response rate for your social networking efforts.

The only way to really know which sites work best for your promotional efforts is to test them. Get started today! There’s no time like the present.

Jeanne Grunert’s latest book, “The Art of Effective Online Social Networking” (http://sevenoaksconsulting.com/socialnetworking.aspx), teaches you the basics of how to use this fast-growing online platform to acquire, retain and create loyal customers. An award-winning author and online marketing expert with over 20 years of experience, Jeanne is available to help YOU grow your business. Call her at 434-574-6253 for a free consultation today.

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Social Networking Strategies - How to Use Social Contacts to Grow Your Online Profits
By David Hale

Today, it seems everyone is using social networking strategies as a method to grow their online profits. One good tactic to employ is contacting old connections.

Use your past relationships to attract new referrals and connections: One of the top ways to build referrals and influential relationships is by reconnecting with old friends and family members or those influentials within your target market. Log onto Digg and search for your target market and see who the top people are who are receiving the most Diggs. They will be the ones on the first page.

If it is old classmates and friends you wish to reconnect with the best site uses Facebook or classmates.com. This is one of the best marketing methods because these people already know, like and trust you will choose your major hurdle to negotiate in the marketing waters.

Most of the top social network sites allow you to connect with people through the e-mail addresses. You never know which old classmate of yours is actually a market influencer who you may be able to plug into to dramatically and exponentially grow your business.

Like with any marketing venture, it is a numbers game. For every one hundred contacts you have, there may be only five who will buy your products right away. Another ten may buy after seven to ten email contacts, and another 10 may buy after a few months or even a year. The rest will never buy.

By using strategic social networking strategies and your social contacts to generate additional more online profits will help you in turning your online business into a the turbo-charged machine.

If you are out to attract prospective customers and develop your online presence and exposure, you owe it to yourself and the financial future of your business to learn everything you can about Internet marketing and social networks.

Want to discover more social networking strategies?

Do you want to learn more Internet marketing techniques on how to use social networks successfully?

For more information on Internet marketing and free training, go to http://www.drdavehaleonline.com.

Dr. Dave Hale, The Internet Marketing Professor, is one of the country’s leading developers of Internet marketing and social media curriculum for businesses and universities and specializes in online marketing communications.

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Expanding Your Business Through Social Networking For Business
By Michael D Saunders

Networking with other businesses in the same industry can increase your sales, improve your product lines and ensure your company is one of the top competitors. It used to be that businesses had to meet face to face or through local business associations. While that method is still great, it is no longer required! Many business owners can experience the great benefits of social networking for business online.

Business owners can meet other business owners online. Those who know each other in the real world can also add each other online to strengthen relationships. There are certain services and tools that are needed by every single business owner. Credit card processing, basic supplies and services can be appreciated at a lower cost by every single business owner. Certain types of businesses may not be common in a particular region. For example, ice cream is not nearly as common in Alaska as it is in Florida. Business owners can gain insights from experienced owners in other states and countries. While the conditions may not be the exact same they will provide more information and details.

Franchised businesses can also take advantage of social networking for businesses. They can have owners sign up for their own private networks or have them join groups on major social networks. This allows everyone to connect and learn about potential problems and solutions for their businesses as well as have professional relationships. Facebook has groups that are for many different things. Everything from a group about the sport of rugby to groups for McDonald’s employees are available to join. There is no fee and no limit on the number of members that can join a group.

Business owners who take advantage of social networking for their businesses can also increase sales. Social networks are a great method of reaching existing and new customers at a fraction of the cost of other marketing methods. Most individuals who are asked to join a group or view a page on a social network will. They do not have to be amazed, interested or even paid. Most simply will look at the account and decide whether they are interested in the page or not. However, this can lead to many small businesses wanting to spend all of their marketing time or budgets on social media. While spending some time and money on social media is a great idea, you want to diversify. Having a combined strategy of social media integration and other marketing methods will lead to the most success.

Businesses that do not take full advantage of what social media has to offer are losing out. Sales, customer satisfaction and employee happiness can increase dramatically through a series of social media accounts. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts should be standard for every business, regardless of what industry they work in or products they deliver. Connect with customers on the social media services that they use in order to find a free method of marketing to millions of people.

Are you trying to add tools for social networking for business? Get the 1st two chapters FREE of my book The Prism Salvation that is all about implementing smart social media for businesses! Go to http://www.ThePrismSalvation.com now to get the 1st two chapters!

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