Nick Thacker.com

My New Ebook: The 3 R’s of Social Media

Nick Thacker — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 21:28:19 +0000

Relevance, Recency, and Reputation.

‘Nuff said, but if you’re still unsure, check out the new book. It’s a quick read, like the others, and I think it answers a few questions some of you may have, including the infamous, “So what does Google really look for when it ranks websites?”

Please read it for free, and please pass it along to your network. Then please tell me what you think of it–did I answer your questions? Was it worth the price?

Thanks!Other Popular Posts:

Turn Your Blog Into A REAL Business

Nick Thacker — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 18:18:55 +0000

This post isn’t about viewing your blog as a business—it’s about actually setting up a legal business structure for your blog. Why would anyone want to do this? After all, in some ways isn’t making money online sort of the “anti-business?” Well here are a few reasons you may consider setting up your blogging structure as an actual business:

Tax purposes. Where I’m from (Texas—USA), I can either report my income from my businesses as miscellaneous income on a Schedule C tax form, or I can keep everything separate and report my different streams of income how I choose (quarterly, yearly, etc.). I like this option because it helps with my personal accounting to keep everything as separate as possible.
Business purposes. If you have ever tried to get offline businesses to promote on your blog, they sometimes look at you like you’re insane. Some business owners in my area view blogging or any other online-based business as somehow less legitimate than offline business. If your blog is set up as a legal business structure, it may be easier to convince them that your blogging efforts are not just fun and games…
Personal reasons. I found that creating a business name (DBA) and getting a separate bank account just for my blogging business helped keep me on track with my goals.

So how do you go about setting up your blog as a business structure? For me, it was dirt cheap and dead simple. I knew I wanted a sole-proprietorship since they’re the cheapest business structure available to me and easiest to get started. Taxation would be attached to my personal income, but I could have my own bank account and separate accounting for my business.

First, I needed to set up a DBA (Doing Business As) through my county clerk office. This cost me $16, and was required for the state to reserve my “business name” and get a bank account in that name. Next, I took the stamped DBA certificate to my bank and opened an account for my business with a $200 initial deposit. A week later, I had my very own business credit card linked to that account!
Another way of structuring your business is via an LLC or S-Corporation. These structures are generally more involved to set up and cost a bit more ($2-300), but they’re great for a more streamlined taxation route and almost a necessity for businesses with more than one owner (if you were to start a blogging business with a friend, I would recommend an LLC rather than a General Partnership). LegalZoom can help with the legal aspects of getting these structures off the ground for a pretty good fee.
Once you’ve legally registered the name of your business, you may think about getting a business account for your newly formed business. Wells Fargo has a good account at the time of this writing, but check out what the credit unions and local banks in your area are offering. You want an account that offers no required minimums and no monthly fees. Sometimes, you’ll need to set up an auto-transfer from a business checking to a savings account to qualify for no fees (a hassle, but you can often manually transfer the money back the next day!).
Finally, you’ll want to tell Google about your new business. If you don’t know what to put for your physical address, check into a P.O. box or just add Ste. 123 or something to your home address (I did this for the first company I started, and it worked like a charm!).

Once you’ve set up your business, you’ll be completely legal (at least in America!) to do business on or offline, and you’ll be much more set to approach offline advertisers who want to see some evidence before they invest in your blog. I hope this post got you thinking a bit about your ideas for business blogging, and if you have any questions, let me know!Other Popular Posts:

Stop Advertising Your Failures

Nick Thacker — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 04:54:49 +0000

Driving down the road, I see a gas station sign that reads, “Clean Restroom.” Without a doubt, this is most certainly not the place I’m going to stop to relieve myself. I understand that it used to be (and maybe still is) a huge draw for travelers to have a “clean restroom” at service stations probably spread lightyears apart, but in my mind there seems to be a mental block preventing me from believing that particular sign. Business owners love to flaunt their benefits and features at us in order to get us to spend money with them. Gas station owners post “clean restroom” signs all the time, but what strikes me as odd is that I would rather stop in at a gas station restroom that didn’t advertise clean restrooms.

Don’t think that I have a fetish for nasty potties–I prefer pristine ivory just like the next bloke–it’s just that when you tell me, “hey, come here, our restrooms are clean,” I automatically tend to think, “restrooms are supposed to be clean–why wouldn’t yours be?” Maybe the restroom in question had some problems with tidiness recently, and they need to juice up their ego by reminded themselves–and you–that their bathroom is now clean. Either way, I’d prefer to visit the guy who’s always kept his bathroom the way it’s supposed to be: not dirty.

The correlation I’m trying to make can be summed up like this: Would you buy a Ford Pinto (that doomed little car from the ’60s and ’70s that tended to explode in rear-end collisions) if they started advertising that “Now they don’t explode!” I didn’t think so.

Would you buy the apple juice that says “Won’t get you constipated” or the quiet one that simply says “Apple juice?”

Or would you visit the country that advertises “You won’t get shot, mugged, or kidnapped here,” or the country that promotes its beautiful landmarks.

I see advertisements and marketing ploys like this all the time. We need to stop advertising our BAD QUALITIES in a GOOD LIGHT, and start advertising our GOOD QUALITIES in a GOOD LIGHT. Advertising things that are or used to be bad may work on a few skeptics, but the rest of us naive souls who didn’t know Pintos exploded or that gas station restrooms sucked are only going to wonder, “Hmm, are they telling the truth? What was it like before?”

If your product or business has an evil history, don’t flaunt it. Be honest and upfront about your past failures when asked and when compiling your company’s memoirs, but don’t try to entice your customers (who probably didn’t even know there was a problem at one point) by advertising a “fixed”solution.

Stop telling me you have a clean restroom if I already expect a clean restroom. That’s built in to my paradigm of restrooms–just don’t prove me wrong.

Stop selling me on the expectations I already have of your product. If you’re the best accountant in town, tell me why, don’t tell me why you’re not the worst anymore.

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How to Hack Your Motivation: Part 1

Nick Thacker — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 17:07:32 +0000

Yes, that’s me. I know–I look like a gross fish. I’m sitting in my bed at 11:30 am on Monday morning, NOT wanting to write this post. Not because I don’t have anything to write about (it’s been a month since I’ve written anything, so I’ve got PLENTY to say…). Not because I’m lazy–I’ve been working on Spanish correspondence classes all morning. I’m not writing anything on the blog simply because I haven’t written anything on the blog. Huh? What does that even mean? Basically, I’m suffering from “3M” syndrome: Motivation and Momentum Monotony (clever, right?). I’m used to not writing, so I don’t write. I need to write, but my body and mind are screaming, “No, you need to work out, eat, take a shower, call a client, do more Spanish, send an email to the youth group, etc.”

So the problem that a lot of us face is similar to this–breaking up our habits with other, less regular habits hurts our motivation and causes side effects like sleeping in, dreariness, grogginess, low self-esteem, and more. Our daily–almost involuntary–habits (sleeping, eating, showering, emailing) prevent us from the equally (or more) important tasks that don’t happen to be as regular, like blogging once a month.

When I decided to write a post a month, I didn’t expect these results. I expected that my daily posting frequency would continue, and I would simply have more than enough articles to automate the blog for the next seven years. That didn’t happen.

Instead, I temporarily forgot about blogging, my weekly newsletter became very pointless, lame, and eventually nonexistent, and I haven’t even thought about writing a blog post since last month.

What to do about this? A couple things:

I could struggle through the monthly post again next month. I don’t like this option.
I could start posting every day or every other day again. This would help make it an “involuntary” habit. (“I have to get back to my place so I can write tomorrow’s post”). The problem with creating involuntary habits is that often another less frequent habit becomes a “3m” habit.
I could post when able. But I won’t post when I need to, and in blogging, consistency is KEY.
I could post 2-3 times a week. This is the best option for me because it’s consistent (for readers and me) and it’s frequent enough that it becomes more easily ingrained than other “3m” habits.

What does this mean for you/your business/your life? Start looking at what you d0 day-to-day as individual habits. Do you like to read some fiction or scripture before bed? Make it a habit. Do you have a client who needs you to call at least once a week? Schedule that as a weekly habit.

Look at the most common “3m” habits (habits that we wish were REAL habits but really are ones that we don’t make regular enough to become ingrained. Instead, they just make us want to puke when we think about them)–working out, mowing the lawn, finishing large projects, investing, learning how to cook, jiu jitsu, etc. These are things we wish we did regularly (practice makes perfect…) but instead we think about regularly. So here’s the million-dollar question:

What “3m” habit(s) can you turn into an “involuntary” habit? Often times this just means doing a smaller chunk of the overall goal more frequently, more consistently, or more in-depth. Sometimes it may take a capital expense to convince your unconscious to commit (learning the stock market, getting in shape with a personal trainer).

Start looking at your habits very closely–humans are creatures of habit, and you already have the benefit of being one.Other Popular Posts:

5 Ways to “Systemize” Your Blogging

SEO for Business: A Quick Tip

Nick Thacker — Sat, 15 May 2010 02:21:49 +0000

I’m currently in the process of doing some SEO (search engine optimization) for my company’s website. In order to appear in more geographically-targeted SERPs (search engine results pages), I’m hoping generate similar–yet not duplicate–content for each of the cities and areas we currently serve. Though we’re a web-based business (we can and do operate anywhere), we hope to become a regionally recognized business in the near future. SEO practitioners preach that it’s important to not place too much emphasis on “duplicate content” throughout your site, so we’ll see what the SEO benefits really turn out to be. Here’s what I’ve done so far:

I used Scribe SEO to optimize a simple “what we do” type post so that it ranks highly for the keywords “printing” and “san marcos” (where we’re officially located).
I let Scribe SEO tell me what keywords were good for my metadata SEO keywords, and plugged them in to my article. Note: I’m using Magento Shopping Cart for my business’ store and website, so while there was a way to add metadata, there weren’t any built-in SEO benefits already.
I did the same for the meta description (Scribe SEO helps me keep my meta descriptions short–between 75-100 words). Additionally, I put my main keywords into the beginning of the meta description to help the SERP SEO.
Finally, I created multiple articles with the same title (San Marcos Printing) and changed the city for each geotargeted location (example: Kyle Printing, New Braunfels Printing). Every time I used “San Marcos” in my article, I changed the city’s name.
I did the same thing for the terms “Web Design,” “Social Media,” and “SEO” in San Marcos (and then in each different city).

All in all, only time will tell how well my nifty trick pays off. A quick yet obvious tip: DON’T make articles for cities you don’t (or couldn’t) actually and feasibly do business in! Whether or not Google finds you is irrelevant: your customers quickly will!

Other Popular Posts:

The Rooster & The Hen

Nick Thacker — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 20:04:59 +0000

A Depression Era Poem

The Rooster and The Hen

Said the Little Red Rooster, “Believe me things are tough!”

Seems the worms are getting scarcer and I cannot find enough,

What’s become of all those fat ones? It’s a mystery to me.

There were thousands through that rainy spell,

But now, where can they be?”

But the Old Black Hen who heard him didn’t grumble or complain,

She had lived through lots of dry spells;

She had lived through floods of rain.

She picked a new and undug spot, The ground was hard and firm,

“I must go to the worms,” she said. “The worms won’t come to me.”

The Rooster vainly spent his day,

Through habit, by the ways

Where fat round worms had passed in squads back in the rainy days.

When nightfall found him supperless, he growled in accents rough,

“I’m hungry as a fowl can be, conditions sure are tough.”

But the Old Black Hen hopped to her perch

And dropped her eyes to sleep

And murmured in a drowsy tone, “Young man, hear this and weep.

I’m full of worms and happy

For I’ve eaten like a pig.

The worms were there as always

But, boy I had to dig!”

Other Popular Posts:

SEO: What Gets Measured Gets Managed

Nick Thacker — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 13:00:40 +0000

…And what gets managed gets improved.

In Gordon Bethune’s (CEO and champion of Continental Airlines) book From Worst to First: Behind the Scenes of Continental’s Remarkable Comeback, he writes numerous times about measuring those things that need to be managed. His reasoning states that if you don’t know where you’re struggling, you won’t know where to begin to fix it. Even though he is in charge of a multi-billion dollar company, the same approach can and should be taken in small business. For starters, most small businesses have websites. In order for your customers to find you, they need to be able to find your website. The basic concept of web tracking, analytics, and statistics is to figure out where your trouble spots are on your site and improve them. This forms the basics of SEO: search-engine optimization.

Google Analytics makes tracking and measuring who’s visiting your site very simple. With pretty graphs and easy-to-read information at hand, you can dissect who’s browsing, what they’re interested in, and where they’re coming from. While this information is great to see, it’s what you do with it that makes it invaluable for your SEO efforts.

Using data from analytics software allows you to provide more of what works and less of what doesn’t. If you have a page that is getting 80% of your traffic (80% of your visitors are reading what’s on it), and it’s not the homepage, you need to quickly find out:

How they’re finding the page.
What they’re doing on the page (are they signing up for a newsletter/RSS subscription/etc.?
What you want them to do on the page (do you want them to sign up for a newsletter subscription/etc.?)
Where they’re going after they do whatever they do on that page.
Are they coming back to that page (called repeat visitors).

SEO involves analyzing the results of tracking information and applying the data discoveries to your marketing goals. In other words, by using data from past site visitors, you can manage future visitors. Tweaking and modifying your landing pages, sub-pages, and homepage to fit your marketing goals is crucial for any successful website.

If you’re struggling with interpreting the data from someplace like Google Anayltics, it may be time to hire an SEO firm or specialist. They’ll be able to help you examine the findings and show you where and how to increase the rankings for your site on search engines, but also should be able to help you get your internal pages optimized for the best conversion rates possible.

Be careful, though–there are many “SEO firms” or “SEO specialists” out there who really don’t know what they’re doing, and will essentially take your money after running you around and telling you nonsense about who’s coming to your site and what they’re doing. A good way to find out if they know what they’re talking about is to Google their information, name, or brand and see if they’re the first result to show up. A good SEO will properly optimize their own page and get great search-engine results, don’t you think?

Remember–measure, manage, and improve. The best managers don’t leave things to chance once they look alright–they improve on what’s working and get rid of what’s not. Sure, you shouldn’t fix what’s not broken, but a solid understanding of SEO will help guide you fix what can certainly be better!Other Popular Posts:

31 Great SEO Articles for March 2010

Nick Thacker — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:00:36 +0000

For my readers who are interested in improving their SEO (search engine optimization) for their blog or website, I wanted to take an extra day and write up a post about the best information I’ve found during the month of February. Note that these aren’t necessarily posts that were written in February, just posts that I came across and really liked. I asked my Twitter network to help me out with their favorite SEO posts, and hopefully you’ll help spread these great posts by linking to it and promoting it through your networks!

Introductory SEO Articles

What Is SEO?
How to Get Started With SEO – A great introductory article about SEO for general purposes; good for learning about what SEO is and how it works.
Cheap SEO is Cheap SEO – The name explains all. Solid article though.
SEO vs. PPC
SEO Tips – 4 Quick SEO Wins
How to Conduct Keyword Research – An SEOMoz article detailing some basics for conducting proper keyword research for SEO purposes.
How Search Engines Operate
The Web Developer’s SEO Cheat Sheet
The Beginner’s Checklist for Small Business SEO – If you read nothing else about SEO, click this link and read through everything SEOMoz says. This article is a must.
The Beginner’s Checklist for Learning SEO
SEO for Startups – Top 7 Lessons

SEO Concepts

How Our Brains “Google” – Interesting take on searches; includes nifty pictures with heat maps and walks through the “brain processes.”
The Shape of Marketing – 2010 and Beyond
Companies Get the SEO They Deserve
2010 SEO Checklist - From Bruce Clay’s SEO blog.
3 Tips for “Company Blogging”
Managing and Improving Your Business’ Relationship Online – From GetListed.org; good read.

External (Offsite) SEO

Should A Small Business Have A Wikipedia Article? – Promoting a website can be difficult; this post helps answer the question of how to go about doing it.
YouTube and SEO
Why Local Search Is So Important
Marketing-Driven SEO Strategy – A good post on marketing and SEO.
30 SEO Bookmarklets to Save You Time
Google Analytics and Tracking Code Basics and Time-Saving Plugins
Getting Started Publishing on Google News
Geo-Targeting for Your Website or Blog – Yeah, this one’s from my website, but I think it really is a great article (if I do say so myself). I’ve been working to geo-target my San Marcos-based printing and web design company using some of the methods I outline here.

Internal (Onsite SEO)

Website Conversion Tactics
Keyword Research Factors to Consider
Theming Through Siloing – Bruce Clay writes about siloing, a concept that allows “you to achieve high search engine placement both for general and targeted keyword phrases through themed vertical page linking and/or construction.”
Google Video Sitemaps – Ever wondered about using video on your site for SEO purposes? This article from Bruce Clay’s blog talks about using video sitemaps for Google.
A Step by Step 15 Minute SEO Audit (A Sample from SEO Secrets) – A nice, well-thought out article detailing how to find and correct problems with your SEO. A post by Danny Dover from his SEO book. Very interesting advice and extremely helpful content on this post.
Running Giveaway Competitions for Links and SEO – Have you thought about running a competition on your blog or website? For many small businesses, this plan could be a great way to generate more business or just popularity.

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SEO Basics: Geo-Targeting for Your Website or Blog

Nick Thacker — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 22:14:44 +0000

I’ve been working on SEO (search engine optimization) to increase my organic search results for both my personal blog and website and my company’s website, mainly by focusing on tried-and-true SEO tactics and some newer ideas. My main goal for my blog is to improve in the SERPs (search engine results pages) for certain keywords (online marketing and social media related ones), but for my company, I want to completely own the SERPs on Google for one specific goal: I want anyone in my city (San Marcos, Texas) searching for “printing,” “web design,” or “social marketing” to pick up the phone and call me. In order to do this, I’ve been looking into some simple “geo-targeting” SEO tactics that you can use to do the same for yourself.There are countless ways to improve your rankings for organic-driven location-based search results, and I’m not sure of all of them. Chances are though, you haven’t really put much time into focusing on geo-targeting as an SEO strategy, or your SEO person or firm hasn’t made it a priority. For a start, try out these things and give it a month or two:

On-site optimization:

First and foremost, content is still king. SEO is based on one thing: proving to Google, Bing, and Yahoo that your site is important to the searchers. With this concept in mind, start building a database on your company’s website of articles, blog posts, links, and industry-related content that will “fill out” your site. SEO begins with content because without content, there’s nothing to optimize. Maybe there’s a way to tie-in your personal blog to your company’s site, or you can actually begin blogging for your company.
Pick out a few main keywords (not locations) that you’d like to target. You can choose a few that may seem more competitive, because you’re still going to be targeting a location or a region in addition to these keywords. For Higher Calling Media, I’ve chosen “printing,” “business cards,” “postcards,” “brochures,” “web design,” and “social marketing,” to name a few.
Categorize these keywords by order of importance. SEO is always easiest starting small, and doing this will help you determine which ones get header tags (
,
, etc.). Here’s my list:
1. Printing
2. Business Cards
3. Web Design
Find some way to work both your geo-targeted keywords and your relevance keywords into your company’s site tags. For me, my title should read “San Marcos Printing and Web Design” or something like that. In WordPress, this is as easy as installing the <a target="_blank" href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/" target="_blank">All-In-One SEO Pack</a> and changing the settings around a bit. I don’t want to get too far into the details of WordPress SEO, but <a target="_blank" href="http://www.viperchill.com/wordpress-seo/" target="_blank">ViperChill has a <em>GREAT</em> overview of it</a>. Read it and follow exactly what it says!</li> <li>Work your other keywords into <h1> and <h2> tags (and sometimes <h3> tags), depending on keyword importance.</li> <li>Use <a target="_blank" href="http://scribeseo.com/" target="_blank">Scribe</a> to help create extremely SEO friendly posts and content. It does cost money (they’re running a sale on it right now though), but it really is worth it. In addition to helping structure your content to target certain keywords, it also generates very intuitive tags and keywords for your META keyword box. Here’s a price breakdown:</li> </ol> <blockquote><p>“Scribe will come in 3 plan levels at 3 different monthly price points:</p> <ul> <li>Advanced: 300 evaluations a month (around 100 pages or posts) for $97 <strong>(they’re offering this package for $27/month until Friday, February 26th!)</strong></li> <li>Publisher: 120 evaluations a month (around 40 pages or posts) for $47</li> <li>Starter: 30 evaluations a month (around 10 pages or posts) for $27″</li> </ul> </blockquote> <p>Off-site optimization:</p> <ol> <li>Use <a target="_blank" href="http://www.google.com/local/add/analyticsSplashPage?message=qbwelcome&hl=en-US&gl=US" target="_blank">Google’s Local Business Center</a> to add your company information for free to their directory. This alone will allow you to show up in Google Maps results listings for your geo-location.</li> <li>When you create your listing, you can add coupons, locations, hours, and other great information, as well as videos and photos. Use these to get an edge over your competition. Google actually tells you how “complete” your profile is–get it to 100% and you’ll be in a much better position than your competitors.</li> <li>Start building backlinks that include your location keywords <em>as well as</em> your relevance keywords. This will help Google know that you’re actually in a certain location, and it won’t hurt your organic non-location-based results, either.</li> <li>As always, keep using SEO, social media, and other online tools to create buzz around your products, services, and general “happenings.” Every little bit counts, and with most things SEO, it may take a little while, but it will start to pay off for your business!</li> </ol> <p>If you have anything to add or want some questions answered, just leave a comment below! I’d love to hear from you!<strong>Other Popular Posts:</strong> <ul class="popular-posts"> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/the-definitive-guide-to-making-money-blogging/" rel="bookmark" title="June 15, 2009">The Definitive Guide to Making Money Blogging</a> (7593)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/10-online-marketing-tips-for-offline-businesses/" rel="bookmark" title="June 14, 2009">10 Online Marketing Tips for Offline Businesses</a> (3996)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/5-internet-y-things-your-business-must-have/" rel="bookmark" title="June 7, 2009">5 Internet-y Things Your Business Must Have</a> (3946)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/05/new-book/" rel="bookmark" title="May 9, 2009">New Book!</a> (3615)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/how-to-generate-more-business-in-a-struggling-economy/" rel="bookmark" title="June 23, 2009">How to Generate More Business In A Struggling Economy</a> (3063)</li> </ul> <p></p>  <div class="sexy-bookmarks sexy-bookmarks-expand sexy-bookmarks-center sexy-bookmarks-bg-enjoy"> <ul class="socials"> <li class="sexy-delicious"> <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/seo-basics-geo-targeting-for-your-website-or-blog/&title=SEO+Basics%3A+Geo-Targeting+for+Your+Website+or+Blog" rel="" class="external" title="Share this on del.icio.us">Share this on del.icio.us</a> </li> <li class="sexy-digg"> <a href="http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/seo-basics-geo-targeting-for-your-website-or-blog/&title=SEO+Basics%3A+Geo-Targeting+for+Your+Website+or+Blog" rel="" class="external" title="Digg this!">Digg this!</a> </li> <li class="sexy-reddit"> <a href="http://reddit.com/submit?url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/seo-basics-geo-targeting-for-your-website-or-blog/&title=SEO+Basics%3A+Geo-Targeting+for+Your+Website+or+Blog" rel="" class="external" title="Share this on Reddit">Share this on Reddit</a> </li> <li class="sexy-stumbleupon"> <a href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/seo-basics-geo-targeting-for-your-website-or-blog/&title=SEO+Basics%3A+Geo-Targeting+for+Your+Website+or+Blog" rel="" class="external" title="Stumble upon something good? 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Maybe you’ve dabbled in marketing completely on your own, using things like business cards, postcards, and brochures, direct mail campaigns, and maybe even cold-calling to reach your customers. Maybe you even hired a marketing/advertising firm or had an intern designer working for you. Either way, if you’re like most small business owners and entrepreneurs, you’ve struggled with bridging the gap from offline marketing messages to online channels.<span id="more-580"></span>Sure, you know that there are online counterparts to offline, <em>traditional, </em>marketing methods: electronic newsletters as opposed to monthly mail-outs, email campaigns instead of cold-calling campaigns, etc. The list goes on and on, but the one thing that most of my clients don’t understand is the <em>difference </em>between the two marketing methods: <em>trust</em>.</p> <h3>It’s Pull, not Push!</h3> <p>We’re in a world governed by what we want to know. In the good ol’ days, marketing folks sent out direct mail brochures, constructed billboards, and created radio and television advertisements, all with the same goal: <em>get the message out to as many people as possible.</em> This concept, referred to by Seth Godin and other marketing gurus as “Interruption Marketing,” needs to be thrown out the window when we’re looking at marketing options in online channels. The old “push” method of marketing and advertising is replaced online by the “pull” method of “permission marketing.” We are completely capable of finding what we want to know on our own. When we <em>do</em> find what we want and are ready to purchase, then–and only then–is the right time for a company to pitch the sale. Sure, we can try to be everywhere and anywhere and <strong>hope</strong><em> </em>that someone in need of our products and services will come along, or we can <em>be where our customers are</em> and <em>connect</em> with them from the beginning.</p> <p>For a small business with a limited offline or online marketing budget, this is the <strong>only</strong> way to go. We need to understand that our customers are engaging with each other on social sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and online forums, and <em>we are welcome to the conversation</em>. The key, however, is to not break this initial level of trust by “selling” right away (traditional marketing approach). Instead, we need to engage and help our audience find what they need, answer questions, and guide them into a relationship with our company. It’s called trust, and I have no doubt you understand the concept.</p> <h3>The rule of trust</h3> <p>When someone trusts us–even a little bit–they are much more open to hearing what we have to say, and may even begin to ask questions about our line of work, or our products. The online way of doing this is by seeking out the channels your customers want to connect with you, and entering the conversation, <strong>as a human, not a company</strong>.</p> <p>Only after we’ve made a name for ourselves in that particular channel are we allowed to further the conversation into a relationship. Only after we’ve entered into a relationship are we allowed to engage in overt online marketing–or ask for the sale.</p> <h3>“It sounds like it takes time…”</h3> <p>And it does. Sometimes months, sometimes years. The beautiful part about it is that it really works. Companies like <a target="_blank" href="http://www.dell.com" target="_blank">Dell</a>, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.comcast.com" target="_blank">Comcast</a>, and <a target="_blank" href="http://www.tunecore.com" target="_blank">TuneCore</a> have paved the way for two-way B2C and B2B interactions online, and they’ve used marketing online to take it all the way to the bank. Hard work, dedication, true understanding and caring for your customers <em>will pay off</em>.</p> <p>If you are in the process or have thought about jumping into the conversation online, let me know. I love to talk business, social media, and marketing (online and offline), and I’m pretty good at finding the conversations for my clients.</p> <p>I’m not selling anything, or asking you to pay me for consulting or building online marketing materials. <a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/newsletter">Sign up for my free weekly newsletter</a> first, and work through some of the troubles you’re having in your online marketing campaigns by following some of the things I write. I promise I won’t ever spam you, sell/give away your information, or take you for granted.</p> <p>You just want to start a conversation, and I am too!</p> <p><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/newsletter">Subscribe to my newsletter here</a>.<strong>Other Popular Posts:</strong> <ul class="popular-posts"> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/the-definitive-guide-to-making-money-blogging/" rel="bookmark" title="June 15, 2009">The Definitive Guide to Making Money Blogging</a> (7593)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/10-online-marketing-tips-for-offline-businesses/" rel="bookmark" title="June 14, 2009">10 Online Marketing Tips for Offline Businesses</a> (3996)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/5-internet-y-things-your-business-must-have/" rel="bookmark" title="June 7, 2009">5 Internet-y Things Your Business Must Have</a> (3946)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/05/new-book/" rel="bookmark" title="May 9, 2009">New Book!</a> (3615)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/how-to-generate-more-business-in-a-struggling-economy/" rel="bookmark" title="June 23, 2009">How to Generate More Business In A Struggling Economy</a> (3063)</li> </ul> <p></p>  <div class="sexy-bookmarks sexy-bookmarks-expand sexy-bookmarks-center sexy-bookmarks-bg-enjoy"> <ul class="socials"> <li class="sexy-delicious"> <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/bridging-the-gap-offline-to-online-marketing/&title=Online+Marketing+for+Your+Small+Business%3A%3Cbr+%2F%3EBridging+the+Gap+from+Offline+Marketing" rel="" class="external" title="Share this on del.icio.us">Share this on del.icio.us</a> </li> <li class="sexy-digg"> <a href="http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/bridging-the-gap-offline-to-online-marketing/&title=Online+Marketing+for+Your+Small+Business%3A%3Cbr+%2F%3EBridging+the+Gap+from+Offline+Marketing" rel="" class="external" title="Digg this!">Digg this!</a> </li> <li class="sexy-reddit"> <a href="http://reddit.com/submit?url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/bridging-the-gap-offline-to-online-marketing/&title=Online+Marketing+for+Your+Small+Business%3A%3Cbr+%2F%3EBridging+the+Gap+from+Offline+Marketing" rel="" class="external" title="Share this on Reddit">Share this on Reddit</a> </li> <li class="sexy-stumbleupon"> <a href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/bridging-the-gap-offline-to-online-marketing/&title=Online+Marketing+for+Your+Small+Business%3A%3Cbr+%2F%3EBridging+the+Gap+from+Offline+Marketing" rel="" class="external" title="Stumble upon something good? 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Austin is filled with great people, and passionate business owners, and <em>lots of entrepreneurs who don’t know the next step</em>. They’re considered (by me) to be very successful, and they know their industry inside and out. Still, though, they don’t understand the power of the Thing They’re Missing about <a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/bridging-the-gap-offline-to-online-marketing/" target="_blank">online marketing</a>. The Thing They’re Missing is what drives me to <a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/about">do what I do</a>. The Thing They’re Missing is the Thing that could matter the most for their online marketing; the next era of small business, or the Thing that makes or breaks their business completely. <span id="more-577"></span>For most, the Thing That’s Missing is not a website, or a Facebook page, or even an online newsletter–it’s the <em>culmination of ALL of those channels</em>, working together in tandem to create a seamless presence online for whomever may one day stumble upon it. Sound familiar? The Thing They’re Missing is part online marketing, part social media–a topic I <em>love</em> to soapbox about, because it’s what I grew up with.</p> <p>If you met me yesterday at the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.chocolatebluesandbusiness.com/" target="_blank">Chocolate, Blues, and Business networking event</a>, you’ll immediately remember one thing about me: I was younger than you. Sometimes by a lot, sometimes not so much. The key to what I do that sets me apart from the other guys who claim to be “social media” or “online marketing” experts is that<em> </em>fact. While I wasn’t around for the latest developments in your industries (health care, insurance, mortgage, etc.) I <em>grew up with mine.</em> I was there when Facebook was only open to college kids (I remember bugging Mark Zuckerman to let my high school have Facebook accounts). I was there when MySpace sucked (wait–it still does?). I was there when Twitter was just a twinkle in an addicted Facebook-status-er’s eye. I was there when that Thing They’re Missing was that Thing We’re All Missing.</p> <p>In a not-so-small way, I <em>built</em> my online marketing/social media industry. Rather than having years of experience or multiple accredited degrees in traditional marketing that I’m trying to transfer into the digital space, I have years of experience growing up with newer and faster ways of creating, regurgitating, reaching, discovering, and sharing information. Throughout all of this, I’ve been listening to my friends, peers, and mentors about what <em>works</em> in the world of online marketing.</p> <p>So–entrepreneurs–what do you do now? Do you try to find the Thing They’re Missing and apply it to your business by blogging, Twittering, Facebook-ing, and newsletter-ing? Maybe. For some, it’s easier to understand that privacy (at least superficially) is <em>dead</em>. The idea of “push-based” online marketing (or offline!) is <em>dead</em>. The concept of “interruption advertising” is <em>dead.</em> Stop Missing The Point with your online marketing and start listening to what your kids are telling you!</p> <p>Right now:</p> <ul> <li>Set up an account at <a target="_blank" href="http://www.twitter.com">Twitter</a> (in your own name, if you can; privacy is <em>dead</em>), and send out a Tweet about what you do.</li> <li>Then, <a target="_blank" href="http://search.twitter.com/" target="_blank">search on Twitter</a> for a keyword that applies to your industry with the “#” sign in front of it (#socialmedia, #marketing, #online marketing #insurance, etc.).</li> <li><strong>Find</strong> and <strong>read</strong> some of the articles linked in the search results, and re-Tweet some of them that you like.</li> <li>Rinse and repeat at least 5 times today.</li> <li>And tomorrow.</li> <li>And the next day.</li> </ul> <p>You’ll soon have a <a target="_blank" href="http://www.twitter.com/nickthacker" target="_blank">feed of Tweets</a> that you’ve sent with keyword-rich hashtags (#) for others in your niche to see. After you’ve got a page or two of Tweets sent out, seek out some other people in your industry (start by finding the ones who originally sent the Tweets you re-Tweeted…). Follow as many as you can. <strong>This is the birth of your online marketing campaign</strong>–that’s it! Nothing else to do until you complete this easy task!</p> <p>What you’re doing is building a network of like-minded individuals who are one step closer to <em>trusting</em> you (which is many steps closer to actually doing <em>business</em> with you).</p> <p>Sound familiar? It’s called networking, and it’s not your father’s networking. We did it yesterday together in 3D, but this way is faster, bigger, and just as useful for your online marketing if you do it right.</p> <p>Want more information on social media, online marketing, and networking? <a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/newsletter">That’s why you should be reading my newsletter</a>…<strong>Other Popular Posts:</strong> <ul class="popular-posts"> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/the-definitive-guide-to-making-money-blogging/" rel="bookmark" title="June 15, 2009">The Definitive Guide to Making Money Blogging</a> (7593)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/10-online-marketing-tips-for-offline-businesses/" rel="bookmark" title="June 14, 2009">10 Online Marketing Tips for Offline Businesses</a> (3996)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/5-internet-y-things-your-business-must-have/" rel="bookmark" title="June 7, 2009">5 Internet-y Things Your Business Must Have</a> (3946)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/05/new-book/" rel="bookmark" title="May 9, 2009">New Book!</a> (3615)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/how-to-generate-more-business-in-a-struggling-economy/" rel="bookmark" title="June 23, 2009">How to Generate More Business In A Struggling Economy</a> (3063)</li> </ul> <p></p>  <div class="sexy-bookmarks sexy-bookmarks-expand sexy-bookmarks-center sexy-bookmarks-bg-enjoy"> <ul class="socials"> <li class="sexy-delicious"> <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/the-thing-theyre-missing/&title=Online+Marketing+for+Your+Small+Business%3A+Networking+and+Social+Media" rel="" class="external" title="Share this on del.icio.us">Share this on del.icio.us</a> </li> <li class="sexy-digg"> <a href="http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/the-thing-theyre-missing/&title=Online+Marketing+for+Your+Small+Business%3A+Networking+and+Social+Media" rel="" class="external" title="Digg this!">Digg this!</a> </li> <li class="sexy-reddit"> <a href="http://reddit.com/submit?url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/the-thing-theyre-missing/&title=Online+Marketing+for+Your+Small+Business%3A+Networking+and+Social+Media" rel="" class="external" title="Share this on Reddit">Share this on Reddit</a> </li> <li class="sexy-stumbleupon"> <a href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/the-thing-theyre-missing/&title=Online+Marketing+for+Your+Small+Business%3A+Networking+and+Social+Media" rel="" class="external" title="Stumble upon something good? 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To me, things like <a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/bridging-the-gap-offline-to-online-marketing/" target="_self">online marketing</a> and blogging to make money aren’t as simple as people make them sound, but they <em>are </em>intriguing.</p> <p>“Just <a target="_blank" href="http://www.copyblogger.com" target="_blank">write great content</a> that gets targeted visitors, and sit back and relax!”</p> <p>The first part of that statement can be true, but I don’t plan on ever “sitting back and relaxing.” I’m a business builder; an innovator. My dream is to build something from nothing, whether it be a brick-and-mortar business that’s around long after I’m gone, or just a website that people actually <em>visit</em> for help and advice. The goal behind blogging for me was always to provide a simple, unobtrusive outlet for my ideas, thoughts, and imagination, but if I ever want people to sit up and take notice, I need to invest in learning some online marketing.</p> <p>The problems started when I began to make some money with it.<span id="more-569"></span>If you know me, you’ll know that I’m whimsical, capricious (yes, that word is in my daily vocabulary…), and spontaneous. My approach to all things blogging was for a long time, “I’ll do it when I feel like it… Maybe.” As I’m approaching an interesting intersection in my life, I’ve come to realize that maybe it’s time to crack down and take it to the next level. I’ve been pretty serious about it for quite some time, but I’ve only recently begun to treat <a target="_blank" href="http://www.nickhacker.com/newsletter" target="_self">my blog as a business</a> in and of itself, and so I’ve only recently begun to think (and act on) small business online marketing principles. Here are some of the things I’ve done using social media and online marketing to make the “blogging thing I do” the “money making thing I do:”</p> <ul> <li><strong>Systems</strong>. I bark a lot about systemizing every process possible, and blogging and online marketing are no different. If I didn’t set up a schedule for my posts every day, I wouldn’t ever release new content. Having systems in place helps me concentrate on building my business one “brick” at a time–opening me up to new opportunities and possibilities for my online marketing efforts.</li> <li><strong>Plans</strong>. No longer will I run blindly into the night–I have specific goals for myself, my online marketing strategies, and my blog(s), as well as deadlines. Having (and following) these schedules and plans proves to yourself and those around you (readers, family, friends, etc.) that even though you may not be creating passive income now, you’re taking your <em>job</em> seriously.</li> <li><strong>Measuring sticks</strong>. I call these “dipsticks” mainly ’cause it’s a funny word. Makes sense, though–if my blog is a car, I want it running smoothly, and I need to be able to <em>measure</em> what I’m putting into and taking out of it. I measure things like visitors, traffic, ad revenue, etc. Check your dipsticks, but not every time you fill up–put a system in place that tells you when you need to measure. Being a stats addict only takes you away from building your online marketing campaigns.</li> </ul> <p>More than anything else, I needed to change my mindset. While this blog certainly isn’t the place to talk about personal development/personal growth issues, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.stevepavlina.com">there are a great many out there that are</a>. Take the time to read <a target="_blank" href="http://www.stevepavlina.com" target="_blank">a few pillar articles on personal development</a> if you struggle with procrastination, desire, drive, confidence, etc. I was able to see the light at the end of the tunnel for my baby-step goals, and each time I reached a goal, I’d increase the distance to the light–celebrating these little victories paid off: I was able to continue to drive forward to the bigger goal of using blogging and online marketing to sustain myself in a more passive way.</p> <p>How does this apply to your online marketing efforts? Other than borrowing from my experiences, I hope you can boil everything down to this:</p> <p><strong>Steps to make your blog your business:</strong></p> <ol> <li><em>Picture</em> your blog as your business. You go to work everyday, right? Well then, <a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/01/every-time-you-sit-down-make-something-happen/">every time you site down, make something happen</a>. Strive to complete one online marketing task every time you get behind your desk, or write one post, or whatever you consider “getting something done.”</li> <li>Write out your goals. Enough said–do it. It’s an amazing, liberating experience to <em>really</em> find out what your goals are.</li> <li>Plan your income streams. So many newbies I’ve talked to expect someone to start handing them checks one day–even with AdSense, you’ll need to plan how you’ll make money. Google may not be around forever (heaven forbid!), so do you have experience as a consultant? Can you write/sell eBooks? Can you sell affiliate products? A good combination of all of these methods is a good way to envision your site’s monetization. There are <a target="_blank" href="http://realwaystomakemoneyfromhome.com/">real ways to make money from home</a>, but you’ll have to do the legwork and learn the ropes!</li> <li>Detail your online marketing campaign. Once you know how you’ll make money, you need to get your product (your blog, website, whatever) in front of people’s faces. Online marketing isn’t necessarily difficult, but it can be overwhelming and a good place to start learning and applying principles is <a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/newsletter">my weekly newsletter</a>.</li> <li>Plan your exit strategy. I’m in the weird position of having some great content that people have paid me to write, but I can’t sell my real estate. There’s only <a target="_blank" href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&oi=video_result&ct=res&cd=5&ved=0CBsQtwIwBA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DdTI5048kL1E&ei=SkR6S9y_K82PtgeJv5ioCg&usg=AFQjCNEJLaEcyYmjcY1pW8TYpLaI34LBzw&sig2=FqRbbqGCTO187sLjXPtv9A">one other guy with my name</a> who’s Google-able, and he sucks at singing anyway. The point: if you plan on selling your blog/website, <em>pick a domain that you could sell…</em></li> <li>Stick to the plan. Whatever your goals are for your blog, <em>know them from day one</em> and stick with it. Use social media methods and online marketing to get where you want your small business to be. Shoot for the moon, but be ready to settle for halfway there. As I like to say, it’s halfway to somewhere you’d never have gone anyway…</li> </ol> <p>I hope my rant hasn’t been too much banter about nothing. If you’d like to drop me a line, you can do so in the comments or by contacting me directly!<strong>Other Popular Posts:</strong> <ul class="popular-posts"> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/the-definitive-guide-to-making-money-blogging/" rel="bookmark" title="June 15, 2009">The Definitive Guide to Making Money Blogging</a> (7593)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/10-online-marketing-tips-for-offline-businesses/" rel="bookmark" title="June 14, 2009">10 Online Marketing Tips for Offline Businesses</a> (3996)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/5-internet-y-things-your-business-must-have/" rel="bookmark" title="June 7, 2009">5 Internet-y Things Your Business Must Have</a> (3946)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/05/new-book/" rel="bookmark" title="May 9, 2009">New Book!</a> (3615)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/how-to-generate-more-business-in-a-struggling-economy/" rel="bookmark" title="June 23, 2009">How to Generate More Business In A Struggling Economy</a> (3063)</li> </ul> <p></p>  <div class="sexy-bookmarks sexy-bookmarks-expand sexy-bookmarks-center sexy-bookmarks-bg-enjoy"> <ul class="socials"> <li class="sexy-delicious"> <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/how-to-make-your-blog-your-business/&title=How+to+Use+Online+Marketing+to+Make+Your+Blog+Your+Business" rel="" class="external" title="Share this on del.icio.us">Share this on del.icio.us</a> </li> <li class="sexy-digg"> <a href="http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/how-to-make-your-blog-your-business/&title=How+to+Use+Online+Marketing+to+Make+Your+Blog+Your+Business" rel="" class="external" title="Digg this!">Digg this!</a> </li> <li class="sexy-reddit"> <a href="http://reddit.com/submit?url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/how-to-make-your-blog-your-business/&title=How+to+Use+Online+Marketing+to+Make+Your+Blog+Your+Business" rel="" class="external" title="Share this on Reddit">Share this on Reddit</a> </li> <li class="sexy-stumbleupon"> <a href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/how-to-make-your-blog-your-business/&title=How+to+Use+Online+Marketing+to+Make+Your+Blog+Your+Business" rel="" class="external" title="Stumble upon something good? 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First, by social media, I’m referring to your efforts to connect, share, mediate, and be relational online, whether for personal or online marketing reasons. I am including the use of social networking sites to socialize, social bookmarking sites to share your favorite information and resources, and microblogging, blogging, and forum-type platforms. Second, by productivity, I’m talking about how <em>efficient</em> and <em>effective</em> these efforts are. For example, I believe that it’s pretty easy to expand your social media reach online piece by piece by sending out Tweets each and every day, unsolicited, but you may not be as <em>efficient </em>as you could be. In the same vein, you may be able to convert a few visitors a day to your site/blog by sending these Tweets, but you may not be as <em>effective</em> as you want to be.<span id="more-550"></span>What’s our goal here? Why look into the productivity of our Tweets? I’m only using Twitter as an example–this approach should apply to every “social media” or online marketing activity we partake in. Simply put, we need to analyze what’s working and do more of it, and find what’s <em>not </em>working, and cut it out completely or change it so it is. In traditional marketing campaigns, this process can be done through split (A/B) testing, focus groups, and old-school data-analysis. In the world of online marketing, the concepts are basically the same, but the social media methods are a bit more elegant and the results come (a bit) quicker. Let’s get started.</p> <p><strong>Step 1 – Break down what you’ve got. </strong></p> <p>Pick a social media channel–I’ll start with my blog. My blog only has about 30 regular readers on average. It sucks, but to me that’s 30 people a day who “seem” to care about what I’m writing here. As I started from nothing, building to a 30-subscriber count to me is a taste–albeit small–of success. Anyway, let’s break down what we’ve got.</p> <ul> <li>Who’s <em>reading</em>? FeedBurner makes it a bit tricky to analyze <em>who’s </em>reading, but judging by the comments I’ve received on the blog, I can assume most people who are stopping by at this point are bloggers, social media folks, and internet marketers. This is important data to me because I can either continue trying to reach this group of people by writing more about these topics, or I can focus on another sector by switching gears to something else. <strong> However, just by understanding who’s reading shouldn’t be enough information to make that decision. </strong>We need to keep going to figure that out.</li> <li>Who’s <em>responding</em>? Who’s re-Tweeting? Who’s commenting? Who’s replying to your forum posts? Are they happy/sad/mad/whatever about your posts, or are they just trying to stir up conversation so you’ll go visit their site (by the way, <em>visit their site</em>–let them know you stopped by, and they’ll probably come back to yours!)? It’s not hard to tell who’s actively interested in what you have to say, and who just wants some cheap attention. Both reasons for responding are completely fine–but one isn’t going to be a lasting relationship.</li> <li>Who’s <em>reacting?</em> Is anyone on your blog or Twitter feed responding in a way that is fueling your conversation with the world? Look for re-Tweets of your messages from the same people, and reach out to them in the social media world more. Find those who ask questions on your comments pages and answer them publicly by writing a post in response to them. Reacting is basically responding with initiative–more than a “thank you,” and implying that they’re looking to you for advice, help, guidance, camaraderie, etc.</li> </ul> <p>Once you’ve broken down your audience (your <em>current</em> audience, not your <em>target</em> audience), see if it aligns with what you envisioned for your social media and/or online marketing efforts. Are you reaching the people you need/want to reach? Are you getting the results (even if only on a minuscule scale) you intended? If so, move on to Step 2. If not, tweak your message and work extra hard to reach out to those who <em>are </em>your target audience.</p> <p><strong>Step 2 -Place measurement tools and checkpoints. </strong></p> <p>Once you’ve got a good idea of who falls into your readership/audience demographic, place the measuring tools within your reach. Using online social media tools every day can help you expand your network and keep up with your industry–giving you invaluable insight into what’s going on with your customers, competitors, suppliers, etc. Here are some examples of “tools” I use daily/weekly/monthly:</p> <ul> <li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.google.com/analytics">Google Analytics</a> – For my blog, I check in with my Analytics account daily. I want to see who’s visiting, where they’re coming from, and what they’re looking at when they get there. Also important to me are from where they’re exiting (exit pages), and how long they stick around.</li> <li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.hootsuite.com">Hootsuite</a> – For Twitter, I use Hootsuite almost exclusively now to send and read posts from all of my accounts–including those from LinkedIn and Facebook. Since I manage multiple Twitter accounts for clients, I like having the stats and dashboard for everything all in one place–and with only one login. Hootsuite also has a great built-in search function. I have live searches set up for things like #social media, #socialmarketing, #interpersonalskills, etc. Use the search function in whatever program you prefer to keep a tab on who’s saying what. Bonus: follow those who are coming up regularly in your searches, and re-Tweet their information liberally. Hootsuite can very quickly become your social media hub for checking in with your network(s).</li> <li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.google.com/reader">Google Reader</a> – While I use <a target="_blank" href="http://www.newsgator.com/INDIVIDUALS/NETNEWSWIRE/">NetNewsWire</a> for my RSS subscriptions (because I can read them offline), Google Reader is a fantastic way to have everything under one roof. If you have an Analytics, Gmail, AdSense, or other Google account, Google Reader is a piece of cake to hook up. A great way to use an RSS reader is to do a Technorati search for the keywords that relate to your niche and subscribe (via RSS) to the results. They’ll show up right in your RSS reader every time it’s updated.</li> </ul> <p>There are a million other social media resources out there for tracking and data analysis, but these are the most frequently used for me. Remember–burying your head in stats all day may enlighten you, but it won’t create your content or build your business for you. Keep it simple and you’ll be set.</p> <p><strong>Step 3 – Set up your systems.</strong></p> <p>If you’re like me, your motto is “I’ll procrastinate tomorrow…” Don’t let your good intentions go to waste by not acting on them. Set up systems for yourself that are easy to follow and reasonable early in the game, and try as hard as you can to stick with them. Here are some examples of my systems:</p> <ul> <li>Plan your posts/Tweets. For blog posts, I use the <a target="_blank" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ProductiveFlourishing/~3/m7y9bWf2Dxs/">Blog Post Planners</a> made available by <a target="_blank" href="http://www.productiveflourishing.com/">ProductiveFlourishing</a>. They give me a great tool to guide my blogging throughout the entire month for multiple blogs. For Twitter accounts, you can use Hootsuite or TweetLater (now <a target="_blank" href="http://www.socialoomph.com">SocialOomph</a>) to schedule Tweets in advance. An excel spreadsheet is also a simple yet effective way to plan out your Twitter and online marketing/social media strategies. Most of what I plan in Twitter is on-the-fly, as I like to follow up quickly with RTs of great content from people in my network.</li> <li>Schedule your time. My daily schedule was so drastically different each day last year that I didn’t get nearly as much done as I could have. Just by having a single block of time daily for writing posts, I was able to completely turn around my business–and I’m still adding “blocks” to my schedule. By adding “blocks” one at a time, I’m able to still feel free and unhindered by an otherwise rigid schedule. Remember–as a blogger, you can work from wherever you want, whenever you want!</li> <li>Break the rules. After you’ve created and followed a schedule for yourself and your writing, stop following it for one day a week. Like dieting, your mind needs a day or two to completely indulge itself and recharge for the next week. Use that day to read something <em>other than</em> blogs, forums, and web stuff. I like a bit of fiction–maybe <em><a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/Count-Monte-Cristo-Alexandre-Dumas/dp/1427007993%3FSubscriptionId%3DAKIAIR5ZYRAML7PK4ATQ%26tag%3Dtexasstatecol-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D1427007993">The Count of Monte Cristo</a></em>?</li> </ul> <p>Systems are a big favorite of mine. With systems, we can build an online business that is virtually run without our input–for some great examples of that, read Tim Ferriss’ <em><a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Expanded-Updated-Cutting-Edge/dp/0307465357%3FSubscriptionId%3DAKIAIR5ZYRAML7PK4ATQ%26tag%3Dtexasstatecol-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0307465357">The Four-Hour Workweek</a>.</em> Blogs can also provide a great example of an automated income stream based on systems.</p> <p>In conclusion, it’s important to see your business from all sides: choosing keywords and targeting them through killer content can net you some profit, but it won’t go too far to build a network for you. Ideally you want to follow the set of rules the SEOs have set forth to optimizing your blog and website for keywords, but use the social media tools to help people trust you. A killer online marketing, branding and social media strategy involves both SEO and social media working together simultaneously. Don’t leave out one or the other!</p> <p>As always, I want to provide this information free of charge in exchange for your readership–I’d love for you to leave a comment down there, and I’d love it if you signed on for more cool stuff like this. My RSS feed is <a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/feed/">here</a>, and my free weekly newsletter is <a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/newsletter/">here</a>.<strong>Other Popular Posts:</strong> <ul class="popular-posts"> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/the-definitive-guide-to-making-money-blogging/" rel="bookmark" title="June 15, 2009">The Definitive Guide to Making Money Blogging</a> (7593)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/10-online-marketing-tips-for-offline-businesses/" rel="bookmark" title="June 14, 2009">10 Online Marketing Tips for Offline Businesses</a> (3996)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/5-internet-y-things-your-business-must-have/" rel="bookmark" title="June 7, 2009">5 Internet-y Things Your Business Must Have</a> (3946)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/05/new-book/" rel="bookmark" title="May 9, 2009">New Book!</a> (3615)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/how-to-generate-more-business-in-a-struggling-economy/" rel="bookmark" title="June 23, 2009">How to Generate More Business In A Struggling Economy</a> (3063)</li> </ul> <p></p>  <div class="sexy-bookmarks sexy-bookmarks-expand sexy-bookmarks-center sexy-bookmarks-bg-enjoy"> <ul class="socials"> <li class="sexy-delicious"> <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/10-tips-to-boost-your-social-media-productivity/&title=Social+Media+Influence%3A+3+Steps+to+Boost+Your+Social+Media+Productivity" rel="" class="external" title="Share this on del.icio.us">Share this on del.icio.us</a> </li> <li class="sexy-digg"> <a href="http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/10-tips-to-boost-your-social-media-productivity/&title=Social+Media+Influence%3A+3+Steps+to+Boost+Your+Social+Media+Productivity" rel="" class="external" title="Digg this!">Digg this!</a> </li> <li class="sexy-reddit"> <a href="http://reddit.com/submit?url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/10-tips-to-boost-your-social-media-productivity/&title=Social+Media+Influence%3A+3+Steps+to+Boost+Your+Social+Media+Productivity" rel="" class="external" title="Share this on Reddit">Share this on Reddit</a> </li> <li class="sexy-stumbleupon"> <a href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/10-tips-to-boost-your-social-media-productivity/&title=Social+Media+Influence%3A+3+Steps+to+Boost+Your+Social+Media+Productivity" rel="" class="external" title="Stumble upon something good? 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Why? For one, the ease-of-use and out-of-the-box functionality is second to none in the blogging platform world. Also, WordPress has some pretty stellar plugins that handle your on-site Search Engine Optimization without too much tweaking and coding. On top of that, there are tons of WordPress themes built to get your blog ranking well on the SERPs for your chosen long-tail keywords. To get started, here are some themes I’ve come across (and used) for SEO:<span id="more-531"></span></p> <ol> <li><a target="_blank" href="http://diythemes.com/">Thesis</a> theme. The Thesis theme is probably one of the best for SEO you can buy (yeah, it’s not free). In addition, the theme allows virtually unlimited customization right from the backend, so you don’t need to worry about breaking something when editing template files.</li> <li><a target="_blank" href="http://courtneytuttle.com/seo-wordpress-themes/classic-beauty/">Classic Beauty</a>. Court has a great resource for SEO-ready WordPress themes on <a target="_blank" href="http://courtneytuttle.com/seo-wordpress-themes/">her own site</a>. Each theme is tweaked and optimized for keywords and relevance, and Court runs an SEO blog that has some awesome advice and guidance for your own SEO adventures.</li> <li><a target="_blank" href="http://courtneytuttle.com/seo-wordpress-themes/civilized/">Civilized</a>. Another of Court’s themes from CourtneyTuttle.com, Civilized is a brown, simple, and well-constructed template that will fit with personal blogs well.</li> <li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.seowordpressthemes.com/mosaic/">Mosaic</a>. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.seowordpressthemes.com">SEOWordpressThemes.com</a> has some great themes that don’t “look” like SEO themes (they’re decorated well and are much easier on the eye than a standard bare theme). Mosaic does a nice job of being both at the same time, with a widgetized sidebar and a 2-column layout.</li> <li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.seowordpressthemes.com/level-20/">Level 2.0</a>. Another <a target="_blank" href="http://www.seowordpressthemes.com/">SEOWordpressThemes.com</a> template, Level 2.0 makes a great business blog template with a 2-column, left sidebar layout and a red and white color theme.</li> <li><a target="_blank" href="http://seowordpressthemes.com/themes/leafy.zip">Leafy</a>. Pretty much the same as the above two in terms of SEO quality, but this one’s a 3-column theme that looks great for a busier business or professional blog.</li> <li><a target="_blank" href="http://themes.wordpress.net/download.php?theme=4410">Sodelicious</a>. This theme is bit dorky to me, but it has a nice feel to it. Once again, it doesn’t seem like a blank, bare, boring SEO theme like so many others. A bluish-gray theme with rounded corners and a 2-column sidebar (3-column template).</li> <li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.dailyblogtips.com/wp-content/downloads/PassionDuo_Green.zip">PassionDuo</a>. I like this one a lot. It comes in red, blue, and green, and sports a great 125 x 125 ads area above the 2-column sidebar.</li> <li><a target="_blank" href="http://themes.wordpress.net/download.php?theme=4165">Redie 3.0</a>. From WPHacks.com, Redie 3.0 is a red 3-column theme that has some awesome SEO functionality built in. Couple it with some SEO plugins and a bit of grunt work getting the title tags right, and you’ll be in a good position for keyword relevance.</li> <li><a target="_blank" href="http://themes.wordpress.net/download.php?theme=3403">Ambient Glo</a>. Not as well-structured as some of the others, but Ambient Glo can be customized easily and looks great right away. A bluish-green template.</li> <li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.doshdosh.com/prosense-adsense-ready-seo-theme/">Prosense</a>. Prosense is one of those templates that everyone should at least try once. Created by the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.doshdosh.com">DoshDosh</a> guy, Prosense comes in a few different flavors and can immediately drive your AdSense earnings through the roof. While it’s not pretty, it turns out it’s great for SEO as well…</li> <li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.wpthemereview.com/tranquility-101/">Tranquility</a>. Tranquility is a high-rated SEO theme that looks amazing and would work well for a personal or gamer-type blog. It isn’t the easiest to mess around with under the hood, but it does provide some great SEO customizations.</li> </ol> <p>Check these out to start, but also check out the sites they were on for other great SEO-ready WordPress themes. Understand that your search engine optimization doesn’t begin and end with a good theme, but if you take pains to detail your site’s keywords and relevance to searchers, a great theme can make the difference between a first and fourth-page Google listing.</p> <p>If you’ve made or found another great theme I should check out (believe me there are MANY more out there), just add it to the comments section below and I’ll get on it!<strong>Other Popular Posts:</strong> <ul class="popular-posts"> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/the-definitive-guide-to-making-money-blogging/" rel="bookmark" title="June 15, 2009">The Definitive Guide to Making Money Blogging</a> (7593)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/10-online-marketing-tips-for-offline-businesses/" rel="bookmark" title="June 14, 2009">10 Online Marketing Tips for Offline Businesses</a> (3996)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/5-internet-y-things-your-business-must-have/" rel="bookmark" title="June 7, 2009">5 Internet-y Things Your Business Must Have</a> (3946)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/05/new-book/" rel="bookmark" title="May 9, 2009">New Book!</a> (3615)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/how-to-generate-more-business-in-a-struggling-economy/" rel="bookmark" title="June 23, 2009">How to Generate More Business In A Struggling Economy</a> (3063)</li> </ul> <p></p>  <div class="sexy-bookmarks sexy-bookmarks-expand sexy-bookmarks-center sexy-bookmarks-bg-enjoy"> <ul class="socials"> <li class="sexy-delicious"> <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/12-great-seo-ready-wordpress-themes/&title=12+Great+SEO-Ready+WordPress+Themes" rel="" class="external" title="Share this on del.icio.us">Share this on del.icio.us</a> </li> <li class="sexy-digg"> <a href="http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/12-great-seo-ready-wordpress-themes/&title=12+Great+SEO-Ready+WordPress+Themes" rel="" class="external" title="Digg this!">Digg this!</a> </li> <li class="sexy-reddit"> <a href="http://reddit.com/submit?url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/12-great-seo-ready-wordpress-themes/&title=12+Great+SEO-Ready+WordPress+Themes" rel="" class="external" title="Share this on Reddit">Share this on Reddit</a> </li> <li class="sexy-stumbleupon"> <a href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/12-great-seo-ready-wordpress-themes/&title=12+Great+SEO-Ready+WordPress+Themes" rel="" class="external" title="Stumble upon something good? 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Don’t have a blog? Get one–but if you refuse, use these tips for your business’ website or your team’s online marketing strategy then. Here goes nothing:</p> <ol> <li>Write great content. If this tip ever leaves these kind of lists, I’d be appalled. Content is the first priority for online marketing success–if you don’t have a way to write–or get–great content, leave now. Everything else you read here is null. This subject is huge in itself, so I’ll defer the rest of it over to <a target="_blank" href="http://www.copyblogger.com">Brian at Copyblogger</a>.</li> <li>Comment on other blogs. Leave helpful advice and tidbits of wisdom–and thank them for their work–on other blogs. Commenting is like backwards online marketing–you’re making yourself and your business available for people to see your trail online. Head over to <a target="_blank" href="http://www.intensedebate.com" target="_blank">IntenseDebate</a> for a great (free) service and <a target="_blank" href="http://intensedebate.com/extras" target="_blank">WordPress plugin</a> to use for commenting on your blog. Aim for blogs in your niche, but understand that with inner-connectivity the way it is in online marketing, ANY blog or website will do. Google will find you!</li> <li>Respond to every comment you receive. This tip is harder to do if you’ve already got some serious traffic, but for my site, it’s a MUST. I only get one or two comments a week (sad face), but when I do, I respond and email them personally for stopping by. For my ulterior motive of possibly eventually selling to these people, online marketing principles tell me that trust is key–build it now or forever hold your peace!<span id="more-521"></span></li> <li>Guest post. Guest posts can drive a significant amount of traffic your way in a very short amount of time–are you ready for it? Be sure that your blog is ready to “receive” guests–have landing pages ready, and make sure there’s something for them available when they arrive, or that your online marketing campaigns are set up and ready to convert.</li> <li>Use <a target="_blank" href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/ads/">StumbleUpon campaigns</a>. For a very low conversion rate (compared to AdWords), you can pay for an exact number of “stumblers” to arrive on your site. Same rules apply–be ready for them! I’ve used StumbleUpon for online marketing before, and it’s a great way to guarantee some traffic, but beware–this type of traffic doesn’t tend to stick around or purchase anything!</li> <li>Be involved on Twitter. Use Twitter to promote content you read and subscribe to, and every now and then (read: 1/5 of the amount you promote others’ work) promote your own blog posts and articles. You can even use <a target="_blank" href="http://hubpages.com/_makemoneyhubs/hub/marketing-automation-software">Twitter marketing software</a> to gather and create leads, if that suits your business’ online marketing style a bit more.</li> <li>Ask for traffic. Use social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter to post questions, stories, interviews, whatever, and actually ASK your network to let you know what they think about it all. You’d be surprised at how many people are okay with an unsolicited yet gentle push.</li> <li>Geo-target your Google listing. If you are a business (or use your blog to bring in leads), use <a target="_blank" href="http://maps.google.com/local/add/analyticsSplashPage?gl=US&hl=en-US">Google’s Business Listings</a> to show off your location and a little about what you do. This works well for service-oriented blogs like consultants and speakers, and is a key element for <a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/bridging-the-gap-offline-to-online-marketing/" target="_self">bridging the gap between online marketing and offline marketing campaigns</a>.</li> <li>Pay for traffic. For many online marketing campaigns you could, of course, use Google AdWords to drive traffic to a <a target="_blank" href="http://www.nickthacker.com/newsletter/">landing page like this one</a>. But be aware that there are many other search networks out there, and most are cheaper than Google! Hint: the <a href="http://advertising.aol.com/" target="_blank">AOL search network</a> runs on Google and can be up to half the price…</li> <li>Be present. There is something about the online marketing world that seems to know if you’re <em>really there</em> or not. Sure, you can plan a blog post and 3 Tweets to go out for each day of the month, but people seem to <em>know</em> that you’re on autopilot. Do the above and automate all you want, but only to free up time to spend responding to comments and commenting elsewhere and building your network of <em>real </em>people. As <a target="_blank" href="http://www.professorbell.com" target="_blank">my favorite professor</a> says, “Are you <em>in </em>it or <em>into </em>it?” Be <em>into</em> your blog, and people will start noticing.</li> </ol> <p>Got some more ideas about online marketing or generating traffic? I’m pretty sure I didn’t cover everything–drop me a line in the comments section, and we’ll keep this post going! For now, though, <a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/newsletter/">subscribe to my newsletter</a>!<strong>Other Popular Posts:</strong> <ul class="popular-posts"> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/the-definitive-guide-to-making-money-blogging/" rel="bookmark" title="June 15, 2009">The Definitive Guide to Making Money Blogging</a> (7593)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/10-online-marketing-tips-for-offline-businesses/" rel="bookmark" title="June 14, 2009">10 Online Marketing Tips for Offline Businesses</a> (3996)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/5-internet-y-things-your-business-must-have/" rel="bookmark" title="June 7, 2009">5 Internet-y Things Your Business Must Have</a> (3946)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/05/new-book/" rel="bookmark" title="May 9, 2009">New Book!</a> (3615)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/how-to-generate-more-business-in-a-struggling-economy/" rel="bookmark" title="June 23, 2009">How to Generate More Business In A Struggling Economy</a> (3063)</li> </ul> <p></p>  <div class="sexy-bookmarks sexy-bookmarks-expand sexy-bookmarks-center sexy-bookmarks-bg-enjoy"> <ul class="socials"> <li class="sexy-delicious"> <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/10-ways-to-drive-more-traffic-to-your-blog/&title=Online+Marketing+Basics%3A+10+Ways+to+Drive+More+Traffic+to+Your+Blog" rel="" class="external" title="Share this on del.icio.us">Share this on del.icio.us</a> </li> <li class="sexy-digg"> <a href="http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/10-ways-to-drive-more-traffic-to-your-blog/&title=Online+Marketing+Basics%3A+10+Ways+to+Drive+More+Traffic+to+Your+Blog" rel="" class="external" title="Digg this!">Digg this!</a> </li> <li class="sexy-reddit"> <a href="http://reddit.com/submit?url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/10-ways-to-drive-more-traffic-to-your-blog/&title=Online+Marketing+Basics%3A+10+Ways+to+Drive+More+Traffic+to+Your+Blog" rel="" class="external" title="Share this on Reddit">Share this on Reddit</a> </li> <li class="sexy-stumbleupon"> <a href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/10-ways-to-drive-more-traffic-to-your-blog/&title=Online+Marketing+Basics%3A+10+Ways+to+Drive+More+Traffic+to+Your+Blog" rel="" class="external" title="Stumble upon something good? 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The process usually involves cold-calling, referral followups, requests for proposals, face-to-face meetings and/or some combination of the above. Online, while it’s significantly harder to have a face-to-face meeting (or easier if you’re using a VOIP telephone service like <a href="http://skype.com">Skype</a>), it’s still possible–and sometimes more effective and efficient to pitch and win clients. Here’s an overview of how I use social media to guide and land my biggest projects:<span id="more-512"></span></p> <ol> <li>Listen. If you haven’t heard me slam it down your throats about listening, go check out <a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/using-social-marketing-for-your-business/">this </a>and <a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/01/the-social-media-paradigm/">this</a>. Either way, understand that to get any traction at all from your social media campaigns, <em>you need to be listening</em>. I set up Google Alerts, Twitter search feeds, and run relative searches regularly. This way, I know what my audience (you) is saying, doing, feeling, and thinking.</li> <li>Join the conversation. Once I have an idea of the type of content my crowd wants to consume, I <em>create </em>it. This creation can take place on a blog by writing and posting my own content, Tweeting useful tips and advice, and joining in Facebook or LinkedIn discussions. But, it could also mean Re-Tweeting others’ useful advice or posting guest articles on my blog.</li> <li>Be helpful, not forceful. I don’t ever want to come across as overbearing or a know-it-all, but I do need my target customer to see me as an expert–how else can he justify paying me? Expertise doesn’t always mean a smart-ass attitude, but <a target="_blank" href="http://ittybiz.com">it could work for some</a>.</li> <li>Ask questions regularly. Questions can be “give me advice” type or “do you need advice” type. Both ways will help me see what my audience of future clients knows and/or want to know. Once I’ve answered and asked enough questions, people will start to see me as a “real” person, out to help others. Then and only then will I start “marketing” to them in the traditional sense.</li> <li>Begin marketing. Once you’ve achieved “expert” status (at least self-declared), try to slowly talk others into why they should pay you to do what you do best. Use a gentle push, yet guide them to your landing pages and optimized website. Don’t have one? <a target="_blank" href="mailto:nick@nickthacker.com">Let me know and I’ll help you get one</a>. See how easy that was?</li> <li>Hold their hand. Even though you may be marketing to web-savvy, computer-oriented folks, don’t think for a second that they know your business as well as you do. I <em>never</em> assume that a client already understands why they should have a Twitter account (even if they say, “I totally understand why I need a Twitter account). I explain it to them anyway.</li> <li>Give them more than they asked for. If a client is paying me to design and maintain a newsletter, I’ll set them up with a Twitter account, Facebook page, and a blog to ensure that their newsletter has a “backup.” If referrals are one of the strongest and easiest forms of landing new clients, than over-delivering is the best way to guarantee those referrals will keep rolling in.</li> </ol> <p>Landing clients really comes down to developing a product or service and then putting yourself out there enough to ask people to pay for it. Using social media in doing so can speed up the process significantly, but it should never take a backseat to the quality and sincerity of your message. Don’t use social media as a faster way to tell people nothing; it’s still nothing. Find something worthwhile to say or provide, and use social media to exploit the value of communication.<strong>Other Popular Posts:</strong> <ul class="popular-posts"> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/the-definitive-guide-to-making-money-blogging/" rel="bookmark" title="June 15, 2009">The Definitive Guide to Making Money Blogging</a> (7593)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/10-online-marketing-tips-for-offline-businesses/" rel="bookmark" title="June 14, 2009">10 Online Marketing Tips for Offline Businesses</a> (3996)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/5-internet-y-things-your-business-must-have/" rel="bookmark" title="June 7, 2009">5 Internet-y Things Your Business Must Have</a> (3946)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/05/new-book/" rel="bookmark" title="May 9, 2009">New Book!</a> (3615)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/how-to-generate-more-business-in-a-struggling-economy/" rel="bookmark" title="June 23, 2009">How to Generate More Business In A Struggling Economy</a> (3063)</li> </ul> <p></p>  <div class="sexy-bookmarks sexy-bookmarks-expand sexy-bookmarks-center sexy-bookmarks-bg-enjoy"> <ul class="socials"> <li class="sexy-delicious"> <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/7-ways-to-land-clients-with-social-networking/&title=7+Ways+to+Land+Clients+With+Social+Networking" rel="" class="external" title="Share this on del.icio.us">Share this on del.icio.us</a> </li> <li class="sexy-digg"> <a href="http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/7-ways-to-land-clients-with-social-networking/&title=7+Ways+to+Land+Clients+With+Social+Networking" rel="" class="external" title="Digg this!">Digg this!</a> </li> <li class="sexy-reddit"> <a href="http://reddit.com/submit?url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/7-ways-to-land-clients-with-social-networking/&title=7+Ways+to+Land+Clients+With+Social+Networking" rel="" class="external" title="Share this on Reddit">Share this on Reddit</a> </li> <li class="sexy-stumbleupon"> <a href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/7-ways-to-land-clients-with-social-networking/&title=7+Ways+to+Land+Clients+With+Social+Networking" rel="" class="external" title="Stumble upon something good? 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These songs are all on my iTunes “Work” playlist, but I’ve included (affiliate) links here for your ease (and my benefit…). I hope this post will be something that keeps growing, and you’re welcome and encouraged to include your own “working tunes” in the comments section.</p> <p><a target="_blank" href="http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=*yZbmtVJn1k&offerid=146261.284201755&type=2&subid=0"></a>1. <a target="_blank" href="http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=*yZbmtVJn1k&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=http%253A%252F%252Fitunes.apple.com%252Fus%252Falbum%252Fare-we-all-forgotten%252Fid284201755%253Fi%253D284201767%2526uo%253D6%2526partnerId%253D30">Paper Route – Are We All Forgotten</a>. This album has been on repeat for a few days now; it has a Postal Service flair to it mixed with a vocalist that sounds a bit like the singer for Kings of Leon. Check out the songs You Kill Me, Carousel, and the title track Are We All Forgotten. <a target="_blank" href="http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=*yZbmtVJn1k&offerid=146261.294640755&type=2&subid=0"></a></p> <p>2. <a target="_blank" href="http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=*yZbmtVJn1k&offerid=146261.294640755&type=2&subid=0">Shiny Toy Soldiers – Season of Poison</a>. If you don’t check out anything else on this list, <em>download this one</em>. These guys (and girl, it sounds like), have been around for awhile, and they have a really cool ambient/hard rock/chemical sound with some rap and nice textures thrown in.</p> <p><a target="_blank" href="http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=*yZbmtVJn1k&offerid=146261.282976693&type=2&subid=0"></a></p> <p>3. <a target="_blank" href="http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=*yZbmtVJn1k&offerid=146261.282976693&type=2&subid=0">Styrofoam – The Point Misser</a>. This group is a bit weird, but they have a trance-like synth background during most of their songs, and an electronica/club beat going on in the ones I’ve downloaded. Try out Word Spoken, Future Debt Collector, and It What the Earth He Was Standing On That Was Moving.<a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0008ENJB0?ie=UTF8&tag=texasstatecol-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0008ENJB0"></a></p> <p>4. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0008ENJB0?ie=UTF8&tag=texasstatecol-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0008ENJB0">Athlete – Tourist</a>. Great guitars, great melodies, and overall great sound. A little like Oasis without the thick obnoxiousness, this is a group from the UK that has definitely been around the block a few times. Check out Chances, Wires, and If I Found Out.</p> <p>5. <a target="_blank" href="http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=*yZbmtVJn1k&offerid=146261.322447609&type=2&subid=0"></a><a target="_blank" href="http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=*yZbmtVJn1k&offerid=146261.322447609&type=2&subid=0">Owl City – Ocean Eyes</a>. Okay, okay. I know you’ve all heard Fireflies a million times already, but for a dude alone in his basement, the quality and musicianship doesn’t get any better than this! If you’re too tired of the main songs by now, try out Vanilla Twilight and Tidal Wave.</p> <p>Are there others you’d like to add to this list? If so, leave a comment below and I’ll check it out! Now, back to work!<strong>Other Popular Posts:</strong> <ul class="popular-posts"> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/the-definitive-guide-to-making-money-blogging/" rel="bookmark" title="June 15, 2009">The Definitive Guide to Making Money Blogging</a> (7593)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/10-online-marketing-tips-for-offline-businesses/" rel="bookmark" title="June 14, 2009">10 Online Marketing Tips for Offline Businesses</a> (3996)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/5-internet-y-things-your-business-must-have/" rel="bookmark" title="June 7, 2009">5 Internet-y Things Your Business Must Have</a> (3946)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/05/new-book/" rel="bookmark" title="May 9, 2009">New Book!</a> (3615)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/how-to-generate-more-business-in-a-struggling-economy/" rel="bookmark" title="June 23, 2009">How to Generate More Business In A Struggling Economy</a> (3063)</li> </ul> <p></p>  <div class="sexy-bookmarks sexy-bookmarks-expand sexy-bookmarks-center sexy-bookmarks-bg-enjoy"> <ul class="socials"> <li class="sexy-delicious"> <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/the-ultimate-productivity-playlist/&title=The+Ultimate+Productivity+Playlist" rel="" class="external" title="Share this on del.icio.us">Share this on del.icio.us</a> </li> <li class="sexy-digg"> <a href="http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/the-ultimate-productivity-playlist/&title=The+Ultimate+Productivity+Playlist" rel="" class="external" title="Digg this!">Digg this!</a> </li> <li class="sexy-reddit"> <a href="http://reddit.com/submit?url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/the-ultimate-productivity-playlist/&title=The+Ultimate+Productivity+Playlist" rel="" class="external" title="Share this on Reddit">Share this on Reddit</a> </li> <li class="sexy-stumbleupon"> <a href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/the-ultimate-productivity-playlist/&title=The+Ultimate+Productivity+Playlist" rel="" class="external" title="Stumble upon something good? 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What’s the deal? Is social networking, marketing, and online communication a trend or the wave of the future?</p> <p>I say neither. Social media and all that comes with it is a tool for connecting–getting people the information they want, and listening to what they have to say. For business owners like you (I’m looking at you, blogger-who-lives-in-your-mother’s-basement, YOU are also a business owner!), social networking can be the difference between a successful business that has a cute online presence and a VERY successful business that creates, nurtures, and develops personal, intimate connections with its audience of consumers. Sound enticing? It’s not as easy as you may think, but it’s also not difficult. <span id="more-504"></span>Social media, at its core, is driven by two things: communication and connections. Communication online should begin and end with listening–through channels that are set up specifically to monitor what you tell them to monitor. On Twitter, for example, you can search hashtags (words that are prefaced by a “#”) relating to your business or industry, or even your company and brand name itself. I use<a target="_blank" href="http://www.hootsuite.com"> HootSuite</a> to help me with this by setting up searches that pull streaming (live) Tweets and messages from the “Twitterverse” into an easy-to-use column. For my business, I search #socialmedia, #social, #marketing, and combinations of all three words to fetch interesting and useful Tweets that are related to what I might want to talk about.</p> <p>More importantly, I can use these search results to understand the problems, questions, and trends that are spreading around the web, and begin to start conversations with people who may care about what I have to say. Remember–listening comes first! By combining these searches on Twitter, LinkedIn, Google (sign up for a Daily Alert with your keywords and you’ll get an email every time Google finds relative data), and other hotspots online, you’ll be ready to begin your conversations with the movers and shakers of your niche. If you really want to <a target="_blank" href="http://dayjobnuker.com/" target="_blank">make money at home</a>, you need to be able to follow your habits and systems you put in place.</p> <p>Once you’ve been listening for awhile, start reaching out to these people by <strong>connecting. </strong>Connect via Twitter by following those who you find are Tweeting useful information, who have asked questions you’ve answered, and who seem to be in your industry as well. Send @replies asking questions about relative topics they might be able to answer, and Tweet some of the helpful responses back into the stream. Do the same things on LinkedIn networks and Facebook as well. Most important, always strive to be helpful and useful to your connections. As I mentioned before, nurture them and take care of them. These connections are your online rolodex, and pretty soon you’ll begin to see the payoff as people make their way to your corner of the web and begin asking you direct questions.</p> <p>Finally, see social media not as separate entities and “cliques,” but as a whole. The people you’re connecting with on Twitter are the same people you should seek out on LinkedIn and Facebook, and they probably also have blogs as well. Leave them comments on their blogs, drop them a line on Facebook, and retweet their Twitter updates, and you’ll be viewed by others as being “everywhere” in your niche, whether it’s a niche focused on <a target="_blank" href="http://LearnGoldCoins.com">gold coins</a>, lawn care, or making money online. As a side note, for example, if you are blogging and connecting with people in order to try and find people to <a target="_blank" href="LearnGoldCoins.com">buy gold coins</a>, by connecting first and frequently through social media, you’ll establish the rapport and trust with them needed to make you into a friend, not a salesman. This approach applies equally to any particular niche in which you enter trying to make money. Once you achieve the status of being “everywhere,” it won’t take long to be able to leverage this expertise and ubiquity and start to make real business happen!</p> <p>This post is intended to be a brief introduction to the crazy world of social media, and I almost certainly forgot some basic concepts. Do a search for <a target="_blank" href="http://hubpages.com/_networking/hub/Social-Networking-Sites-by-Category ">social networking sites</a> to get started, and see which one work best for your business. Please feel free to take part in the conversation by leaving a comment below!<strong>Other Popular Posts:</strong> <ul class="popular-posts"> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/the-definitive-guide-to-making-money-blogging/" rel="bookmark" title="June 15, 2009">The Definitive Guide to Making Money Blogging</a> (7593)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/10-online-marketing-tips-for-offline-businesses/" rel="bookmark" title="June 14, 2009">10 Online Marketing Tips for Offline Businesses</a> (3996)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/5-internet-y-things-your-business-must-have/" rel="bookmark" title="June 7, 2009">5 Internet-y Things Your Business Must Have</a> (3946)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/05/new-book/" rel="bookmark" title="May 9, 2009">New Book!</a> (3615)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/how-to-generate-more-business-in-a-struggling-economy/" rel="bookmark" title="June 23, 2009">How to Generate More Business In A Struggling Economy</a> (3063)</li> </ul> <p></p>  <div class="sexy-bookmarks sexy-bookmarks-expand sexy-bookmarks-center sexy-bookmarks-bg-enjoy"> <ul class="socials"> <li class="sexy-delicious"> <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/using-social-marketing-for-your-business/&title=How+to+Use+Social+Marketing+for+Your+Business" rel="" class="external" title="Share this on del.icio.us">Share this on del.icio.us</a> </li> <li class="sexy-digg"> <a href="http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/using-social-marketing-for-your-business/&title=How+to+Use+Social+Marketing+for+Your+Business" rel="" class="external" title="Digg this!">Digg this!</a> </li> <li class="sexy-reddit"> <a href="http://reddit.com/submit?url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/using-social-marketing-for-your-business/&title=How+to+Use+Social+Marketing+for+Your+Business" rel="" class="external" title="Share this on Reddit">Share this on Reddit</a> </li> <li class="sexy-stumbleupon"> <a href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/using-social-marketing-for-your-business/&title=How+to+Use+Social+Marketing+for+Your+Business" rel="" class="external" title="Stumble upon something good? 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margin-left: 10px;"><a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nickthacker.com%2F2010%2F02%2Ftwitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-02-01%2F"></a></div><ul class="aktt_tweet_digest"> <li>Latest post: Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-01-25 – Reading Rule #<a target="_blank" href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%231" class="aktt_hashtag">1</a> Investing by Phil Town againhands down the BES… <a target="_blank" href="http://ow.ly/16q20e" rel="nofollow">http://ow.ly/16q20e</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/NickThacker/statuses/8207519347" class="aktt_tweet_time">#</a></li> <li>RT @<a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/nickthacker" class="aktt_username">nickthacker</a> Newsletter | Nick Thacker.com <a target="_blank" href="http://ow.ly/1nAKT2" rel="nofollow">http://ow.ly/1nAKT2</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/NickThacker/statuses/8215744854" class="aktt_tweet_time">#</a></li> <li>RT @<a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/nickthacker" class="aktt_username">nickthacker</a> Small Business SEO <a target="_blank" href="http://ow.ly/1nBMwD" rel="nofollow">http://ow.ly/1nBMwD</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/NickThacker/statuses/8227272379" class="aktt_tweet_time">#</a></li> <li>Latest post: Small Business SEO – You have a small business. You have a website. You don't have as many sales as yo… <a target="_blank" href="http://ow.ly/16qi0c" rel="nofollow">http://ow.ly/16qi0c</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/NickThacker/statuses/8229233172" class="aktt_tweet_time">#</a></li> <li>Headed north to the South Austin Business Meetup… I'm very much not a morning person… #<a target="_blank" href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23dietmtndew" class="aktt_hashtag">dietmtndew</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/NickThacker/statuses/8235001108" class="aktt_tweet_time">#</a></li> <li>Been going through @John_Truscott's and @Mike_Wolfsohn's company blog, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.highwidehandsome.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.highwidehandsome.com</a>. Wonderful stuff! #<a target="_blank" href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23socialmedia" class="aktt_hashtag">socialmedia</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/NickThacker/statuses/8238835687" class="aktt_tweet_time">#</a></li> <li>@<a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/tweetwell" class="aktt_username">tweetwell</a> Thanks for the RT! <a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/tweetwell/statuses/8237366499" class="aktt_tweet_reply">in reply to tweetwell</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/NickThacker/statuses/8243879115" class="aktt_tweet_time">#</a></li> <li>@<a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/larakulpa" class="aktt_username">larakulpa</a> Much thanks for the RT! <a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/larakulpa/statuses/8237076833" class="aktt_tweet_reply">in reply to larakulpa</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/NickThacker/statuses/8243886569" class="aktt_tweet_time">#</a></li> <li>RT @<a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/problogger" class="aktt_username">problogger</a> Top Three Tweet Title Tips <a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/58ohv9" rel="nofollow">http://bit.ly/58ohv9</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/NickThacker/statuses/8243946894" class="aktt_tweet_time">#</a></li> <li>@<a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/larakulpa" class="aktt_username">larakulpa</a> haha, fair enough! So, I see you're a community manager for ProBlogger… what exactly does that mean? <a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/larakulpa/statuses/8245269116" class="aktt_tweet_reply">in reply to larakulpa</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/NickThacker/statuses/8246225390" class="aktt_tweet_time">#</a></li> <li>@<a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/DanSchawbel" class="aktt_username">DanSchawbel</a> thanks for the RT! <a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/DanSchawbel/statuses/8245831934" class="aktt_tweet_reply">in reply to DanSchawbel</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/NickThacker/statuses/8246259431" class="aktt_tweet_time">#</a></li> <li>RT @John_Truscott: Social media: listen before you leap | HIGH WIDE & HANDSOME | Articles <a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/7s5PrF" rel="nofollow">http://bit.ly/7s5PrF</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/NickThacker/statuses/8246492162" class="aktt_tweet_time">#</a></li> <li>Meeting w/ @<a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/bamarker" class="aktt_username">bamarker</a> for CEO. Fun stuff <a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/NickThacker/statuses/8255040507" class="aktt_tweet_time">#</a></li> <li>RT @jeffromansfield: Social Media Today | Is Twitter Noise or a Valid Business Tool? <a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/8jxwC7" rel="nofollow">http://bit.ly/8jxwC7</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/NickThacker/statuses/8259893525" class="aktt_tweet_time">#</a></li> <li>@<a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/ThreeGirlsMedia" class="aktt_username">ThreeGirlsMedia</a> Thanks for the RT! <a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/ThreeGirlsMedia/statuses/8250940798" class="aktt_tweet_reply">in reply to ThreeGirlsMedia</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/NickThacker/statuses/8259909120" class="aktt_tweet_time">#</a></li> <li>@<a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/ej_butler" class="aktt_username">ej_butler</a> Thanks for the RT friend! <a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/ej_butler/statuses/8273082474" class="aktt_tweet_reply">in reply to ej_butler</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/NickThacker/statuses/8285071093" class="aktt_tweet_time">#</a></li> <li>WordPress Success: Video #<a target="_blank" href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%231" class="aktt_hashtag">1</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://ow.ly/113Eo" rel="nofollow">http://ow.ly/113Eo</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/NickThacker/statuses/8288730659" class="aktt_tweet_time">#</a></li> <li>Latest post: Top Three Tweet Title Tips – A post I just wrote for Twitip.com: Top Three Tweet Title Tips.Other Popu… <a target="_blank" href="http://ow.ly/16r3rC" rel="nofollow">http://ow.ly/16r3rC</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/NickThacker/statuses/8288763544" class="aktt_tweet_time">#</a></li> <li>@<a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/BookBuzzr" class="aktt_username">BookBuzzr</a> Thanks very much for the RT! <a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/BookBuzzr/statuses/8319361501" class="aktt_tweet_reply">in reply to BookBuzzr</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/NickThacker/statuses/8325064342" class="aktt_tweet_time">#</a></li> <li>Just made a video about using blogging as a social tool! Check it out: <a target="_blank" href="http://ow.ly/113FZ" rel="nofollow">http://ow.ly/113FZ</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/NickThacker/statuses/8333366382" class="aktt_tweet_time">#</a></li> <li><a target="_blank" href="http://ow.ly/10FKR" rel="nofollow">http://ow.ly/10FKR</a> Top Three Tweet Title Tips. I wrote that for Twitip.com; what's funny is I broke my OWN rules… haha <a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/NickThacker/statuses/8334403926" class="aktt_tweet_time">#</a></li> <li>RT @<a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/socialmedia2day" class="aktt_username">socialmedia2day</a> Social Media Today | Should a Blog or Twitter be Your Social Media Hub? <a target="_blank" href="http://ow.ly/10vTH" rel="nofollow">http://ow.ly/10vTH</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/NickThacker/statuses/8342682908" class="aktt_tweet_time">#</a></li> <li>Social Media Today | Is Advertising on Facebook Really Effective? <a target="_blank" href="http://ow.ly/11zmB" rel="nofollow">http://ow.ly/11zmB</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/NickThacker/statuses/8376176317" class="aktt_tweet_time">#</a></li> <li>Building Your Online Empire – <a target="_blank" href="http://eepurl.com/hcqo" rel="nofollow">http://eepurl.com/hcqo</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/NickThacker/statuses/8378212029" class="aktt_tweet_time">#</a></li> <li>Shout out to @<a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/will_flora" class="aktt_username">will_flora</a> who's ENGAGED!!! <a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/NickThacker/statuses/8423133456" class="aktt_tweet_time">#</a></li> <li>@<a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/Kpstanfill" class="aktt_username">Kpstanfill</a> ? <a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/NickThacker/statuses/8423723962" class="aktt_tweet_time">#</a></li> <li>Social Media Today | 3 Reasons why Twitter is better than Facebook <a target="_blank" href="http://ow.ly/11zn5" rel="nofollow">http://ow.ly/11zn5</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/NickThacker/statuses/8425113699" class="aktt_tweet_time">#</a></li> <li>Latest post: How to Scale Your Social Media Efforts in Only 30 Days <a target="_blank" href="http://ow.ly/16sBKz" rel="nofollow">http://ow.ly/16sBKz</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/NickThacker/statuses/8425350745" class="aktt_tweet_time">#</a></li> </ul> <p><strong>Other Popular Posts:</strong> <ul class="popular-posts"> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/the-definitive-guide-to-making-money-blogging/" rel="bookmark" title="June 15, 2009">The Definitive Guide to Making Money Blogging</a> (7593)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/10-online-marketing-tips-for-offline-businesses/" rel="bookmark" title="June 14, 2009">10 Online Marketing Tips for Offline Businesses</a> (3996)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/5-internet-y-things-your-business-must-have/" rel="bookmark" title="June 7, 2009">5 Internet-y Things Your Business Must Have</a> (3946)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/05/new-book/" rel="bookmark" title="May 9, 2009">New Book!</a> (3615)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/how-to-generate-more-business-in-a-struggling-economy/" rel="bookmark" title="June 23, 2009">How to Generate More Business In A Struggling Economy</a> (3063)</li> </ul> <p></p>  <div class="sexy-bookmarks sexy-bookmarks-expand sexy-bookmarks-center sexy-bookmarks-bg-enjoy"> <ul class="socials"> <li class="sexy-delicious"> <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-02-01/&title=Twitter+Weekly+Updates+for+2010-02-01" rel="" class="external" title="Share this on del.icio.us">Share this on del.icio.us</a> </li> <li class="sexy-digg"> <a href="http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-02-01/&title=Twitter+Weekly+Updates+for+2010-02-01" rel="" class="external" title="Digg this!">Digg this!</a> </li> <li class="sexy-reddit"> <a href="http://reddit.com/submit?url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-02-01/&title=Twitter+Weekly+Updates+for+2010-02-01" rel="" class="external" title="Share this on Reddit">Share this on Reddit</a> </li> <li class="sexy-stumbleupon"> <a href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/02/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-02-01/&title=Twitter+Weekly+Updates+for+2010-02-01" rel="" class="external" title="Stumble upon something good? 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Luckie and Company is a social media marketing company that I came across on StumbleUpon recently, and I’ve been reading through their posts on expanding your social media reach.<span id="more-498"></span>I talk a lot about social media, online marketing, and building a web presence, and these posts do a great job of summing up the basics for a great network. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/01/small-business-seo/">As I mentioned before</a>, cultivating your online presence through social media channels isn’t difficult (usually), but it does take a conscious effort. Creating relationships with other bloggers/media folk can help achieve huge things online–whether it’s about <a href="http://www.itmightbelove.com/2010/02/09/free-relationship-advice-ebook/ ">free advice for relationships</a>, <a target="_blank" href="http://thirdtribemarketing.com/">networks of like-minded bloggers</a>, etc. Take baby steps each day to prune your networks, streamline your data, and keep in touch with your audience and customer base. Nothing I’ve found online can do all this for you, automatically, so series of posts like Luckie’s are great for a step-by-step way to keep up with it all.</p> <p>That and subscribing to my <a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/feed/">RSS feed</a> and <a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/newsletter/">newsletter</a>…<strong>Other Popular Posts:</strong> <ul class="popular-posts"> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/the-definitive-guide-to-making-money-blogging/" rel="bookmark" title="June 15, 2009">The Definitive Guide to Making Money Blogging</a> (7593)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/10-online-marketing-tips-for-offline-businesses/" rel="bookmark" title="June 14, 2009">10 Online Marketing Tips for Offline Businesses</a> (3996)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/5-internet-y-things-your-business-must-have/" rel="bookmark" title="June 7, 2009">5 Internet-y Things Your Business Must Have</a> (3946)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/05/new-book/" rel="bookmark" title="May 9, 2009">New Book!</a> (3615)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nickthacker.com/2009/06/how-to-generate-more-business-in-a-struggling-economy/" rel="bookmark" title="June 23, 2009">How to Generate More Business In A Struggling Economy</a> (3063)</li> </ul> <p></p>  <div class="sexy-bookmarks sexy-bookmarks-expand sexy-bookmarks-center sexy-bookmarks-bg-enjoy"> <ul class="socials"> <li class="sexy-delicious"> <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/01/how-to-scale-your-social-media-efforts-in-only-30-days/&title=How+to+Scale+Your+Social+Media+Efforts+in+Only+30+Days" rel="" class="external" title="Share this on del.icio.us">Share this on del.icio.us</a> </li> <li class="sexy-digg"> <a href="http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/01/how-to-scale-your-social-media-efforts-in-only-30-days/&title=How+to+Scale+Your+Social+Media+Efforts+in+Only+30+Days" rel="" class="external" title="Digg this!">Digg this!</a> </li> <li class="sexy-reddit"> <a href="http://reddit.com/submit?url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/01/how-to-scale-your-social-media-efforts-in-only-30-days/&title=How+to+Scale+Your+Social+Media+Efforts+in+Only+30+Days" rel="" class="external" title="Share this on Reddit">Share this on Reddit</a> </li> <li class="sexy-stumbleupon"> <a href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http://www.nickthacker.com/2010/01/how-to-scale-your-social-media-efforts-in-only-30-days/&title=How+to+Scale+Your+Social+Media+Efforts+in+Only+30+Days" rel="" class="external" title="Stumble upon something good? 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