Don’t Get Seduced by the Dark Side… Keep it Simple.

I’m referring to the dark side force of social media that keeps you up at night worrying about growing your business and leveraging the superpower of social media sites, like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

Are you listening, responding and engaging your target market?

What are people saying about your brand, your products and services?   Are you paying attention? Have you claimed your business listings on Yelp.com?  What about the other opinion and ratings websites?  Do you have filters set up using www.Hootsuite.com to monitor keyword topics from Twitter?  You can use social media websites to listen to the buzz in the market place as it relates to your industry, the competition, your prospects wants, needs & desires, and your products and services.

Social Media offers so many benefits, but it can be a huge waste of time without the right plan and actions steps.

One of the top questions I get asked is, “How do we get higher rankings in the search engines?”

There are many factors involved, but having a large amount of relevant website content about your products, services and solutions is one key.  The more fresh content you have related to the main search terms and stages of the buying processes you’ve identified, the more likely the search engines are to raise your rankings.

You should also consider your keyword placement and keyword density on the body of your web pages.  Think specific keyword phrases– not “keywords.”  Why?  Due to the extreme amount of competition for general terms in the search engines, you stand a far better chance to rank well for specific phrases where there is less competition.

Are you overwhelmed with all the steps there are to growing  your business successfully? Or, maybe you’re struggling for the motivation to implement the marketing tips and strategies you already know.  Bottom line, many people could benefit from a boost.

That’s why I put together some time-tested and proven tips and strategies designed to give you a big boost in growing your business.  I think you’ll find a lot of value from the quick-read ideas presented in “Profit-Rich Marketing: Proven Strategies to Help You Grow Your Business,” which are designed for easy implementation.

Simple Social Media Strategies for Everyone Who Wants to Connect, Engage & Grow Their Business!

For those of you who may have missed the Social Media Influence webinar, you can now watch the live VIDEO replay of the event, download the presentation slides (.PDF), and even get an Audio MP3 version of the recording at:
www.ProfitRichResults.com/social-influence/replay

Many people submitted questions and with almost 1000 people registered it was virtually impossible to get to all of them. Look for those questions to be answered here on the blog. Subscribe to the RSS Feed to be notified of new posts.

This was a free and action-packed webinar on Social Media Influence and you’re encouraged to send the replay link to your other team members, associates and friends that are interested in growing their businesses and leveraging social media.

Didn’t ask your question yet?  Add a comment to this post and it will be answered shortly.

Grow Your Business – You’re Invited…

Each day you’re faced with new opportunities and the challenges of how you are going to spend your time and money. Whether you’re the CEO, entrepreneur, or the person responsible for increasing results from marketing and sales efforts, you already know that it is becoming increasingly more difficult to find, attract and keep your customers.

The good news is—there is no need to panic! The sky is not falling… these economic times have actually created many new opportunities—if you know how to capitalize on them.

I wanted you to be one of the first to know about this event so you can mark your calendar and get registered for the Las Vegas Event in September 2011.

Watch the video above or visit the Business Growth Summit Event Website for more details.

“Facebook e-mail” puts the private back in public

Earlier this year, I read a column about how several colleges and universities were no longer distributing email accounts to new students.  The rationale behind this was that the majority of millennials are plugged into social media sites like Facebook, and these “instant gratification” users think email is too slow.

Email is too slow?  Makes you wonder if this new generation of users even knows what “snail mail” is!

Using LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Blogs to Find the Perfect Addition to Your Team

Social media is a game changer. We’ve seen it affect how we interact and share with friends and family, make decisions, hear and spread news, market, and much more. It even affects the way people hunt for jobs and the way companies look for potential employees.

Social Proof is a Critical Factor of Influencing Buying Decisions

You see examples of social proof everyday… beyond client testimonials, case studies and customer reviews; it’s in the star ratings on Amazon, the number of likes of Facebook, the video views on YouTube and followers on Twitter.

Be recognizing how social proof affects buying behavior, you can look for ways to leverage it to establish trust and credibility for your products and services.

I recently posted a question on LinkedIn about social media hype… I asked, “There’s a great debate on social media being a lot of hype.  What do you think and why?”

Here’s the conversation… add your opinion too.

Syndicate your content using a social media dashboard like Hootsuite

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard “I know I need to be using social media, but I just don’t have the time.” Or “I have Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts but I can’t manage them all.” I have a simple answer for them: Aggregate and Syndicate.