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SOCIAL MEDIA
    -4-
 BUSINESS                ©®




   SELF PROMOTION
    IS THE NEW PR!




      ISSUE ONE: 08/09
CONTENTS
THE INTERNET STORY                                     4-5


YOUR WEBSITE                                           6-8


BUILDING YOUR STORY                                    8-9


SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES                              10-14


SOCIAL BOOKMARKING                                   14-16


THE JOURNEY                                          17-18


TEST CASES                                           18-19


APPENDIX A – BUILD YOUR PROFILE ON FACEBOOK          20-22


APPENDIX B – BUILD YOUR PROFILE ON TWITTER           23-27


APPENDIX C – BUILD YOUR PERSONAL BRAND ON LINKEDIN   28-32


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS                                       32


WHO ARE THE AUTHORS?                                   32


CONTACT DETAILS                                        33


ADDITIONAL PRODUCTS                                    33




ISSUE ONE: 08/09          www.warrenknight.co.uk            2
DO YOU HAVE A MARKETING BUDGET?

              HAVE YOU A PR AGENCY?

        HOW BIG IS YOUR ADVERTISING
                 BUDGET?

    DO YOU HAVE A BRAND MANAGER?



    WHAT IF I SAID NONE OF THE ABOVE
                  MATTER?

       WHAT IF YOU COULD DO ALL THE
                 ABOVE?

          HOW WOULD THIS SUIT YOU?

        SO, WHAT DO YOU DO NOW?


      LET’S PREPARE TO FIND OUT


ISSUE ONE: 08/09     www.warrenknight.co.uk   3
THE INTERNET STORY

What is social media all about and how did it start?

It all started when Tim Berners-Lee invented the World-Wide Web in 1989,
while at CERN, in Switzerland. The WWW is NOT the same thing as the
Internet; it RIDES on the Internet (the Internet was started after the 2nd World
War, the first project was called ARPANET). This was known as Web 1.0 The
Dot.com where investors got involved and experiments were put into action.

Mosaic web browser launched on April 1993 which was the first browser to
run on the Windows Operating system. Microsoft Hotmail launched on July
1996 and Googleʼs first office opened in September 1998 in a garage.

       Weʼve really gone archaic here, and I think itʼs important to
       share this with you as youʼll be able to put into context, this
       amazing technology that is here for YOU to take advantage
          of – mostly for FREE! Keep reading and digesting..

"Web 2.0" refers to the second generation of web development and web
design. It is characterised as facilitating communication, information sharing,
user-centred design and collaboration on the World Wide Web. It has led to
the development and evolution of web-based communities, hosted services,
and web applications. Examples include social-networking and video-sharing
sites like Facebook and Youtube.

The term is now closely associated with Tim O'Reilly because of the O'Reilly
Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004. Although the term suggests a new
version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to any technical
specifications, but rather to cumulative changes in the ways software
developers and end-users utilise the Web. Thank you Wikipedia

One of the most influential socialisation projects to date, Web 2.0 brings local
and global together in a relationship of information. People will have more
interactions but with less control.

So now we are at web 2.5 and we have arrived on the final frontier. Services
like twitter.com now take the experience of blogging to the next step. It tries to
join up the messaging capability of mobile phones with the web, and Instant
Messages such as AIM. Add to this, services like twittermap.com, and what
you arrive at is a 24 hours daily kaleidoscope of events as they happen.

Admittedly, most mobile phones are still limited in their messaging
capabilities, so Twitter is a text oriented service for the time being. However
people do understand the power of linking to events, and live bookmarking
with services like tinyurl.com is a great way forward.


ISSUE ONE: 08/09                  www.warrenknight.co.uk                           4
Add to that the capability of RSS, or maybe a follow-up protocol that will
enable pushing syndicated live content to browsers (which would be a logical
next step, I am sure is in the making somewhere), we will arrive at Web 3.0 -
Everything, everywhere, live and real time.

So as you can see, social media is not really new anymore, but many people
still struggle with the subtle things that might help or hurt success within the
top social communities.

To put things into perspective, it took 89 years for 150 million homes to have
TV, it took Steve Jobs from Apple 7 years to sell 150 Million Ipods and itʼs only
taken Facebook 5 years to have 150 million subscribers.

The first question business owners often ask: Why should you use social
networking?

Because the best online marketing techniques are the ones that help you
reach your target market.

Even though social networking has been around for years, itʼs only over the
past few years that itʼs become a buzz phrase with over 250 million people
now on Facebook! Ashton Kutcher has nearly 3 million followers on Twitter –
so the power of connection is undeniable! With over 350 social networking
sites available for you to join and connect, the potential target market is
forever widening, whilst you search for the next best platform via which to
communicate.

What this means is your target market is jumping in and starting to use
Facebook and Twitter etc and since the current global economy is not at its
strongest, people are more mindful of what they spend their money on.

In this ebook you will learn how to build your profile, achieve brand
awareness, connect with your target market, build your database and
ultimately make sales that are measurable in terms of your ROI (return on
investment) for both for your time and money.

•   First of all the customer must learn about YOU. If they donʼt know your
    business exists how can they buy?

•   Next your task is to convince them - by providing enough information - to
    subscribe to your newsletter or by offering them a free report in return for
    leaving their details with you.

•   And then you aim to keep them interested and provide an opportunity for
    them to invest in your product or service.

Simple huh? Read on and see just how logical this all is.


ISSUE ONE: 08/09                  www.warrenknight.co.uk                           5
YOUR WEBSITE

So, are you ready?

Letʼs just briefly talk about your website and how you can get your marketing
right - from the beginning - by creating a website that has the potential to
maximise your time and efforts, and build your database of target customers.

The whole purpose of a business website, if you want to make money, is to
convert visitors into sales.
It's advisable to have a Squeeze Page or an Opt-in lightbox to capture the
visitorʼs name and email address - this is called permission marketing - in
exchange for a free report or ebook. They are then added to an Auto-
Responder, before directing them to your Sales Page. The better the sales
page, the higher the conversion rate.

If you are selling an affiliate product, then you will often be given a website or
sales page link you can point people to, saving you lots of time. Sometimes a
simple, targeted one page site is often more effective at making you money
than a huge, confusing site.

A great backend website is www.Totalshoppingcart.com and this allows you
sell products from your website. Using Paypal, it also offers an affiliate
program linked to your products so other companies can promote you and
your products and get paid for it. That also works both ways. It allows you to
send Newsletters, Broadcasts, auto-responders to anybody who signs up to
your newsletters and opts in to your free ebook.

Why are e-books the perfect information product to sell on the Internet?

   •   100% profit margin.
   •   No printing costs.
   •   No inventory to store.
   •   Quick and easy to update.
   •   No shipping costs or delays.
   •   Higher perceived value than regular books.
   •   Quick, simple, and inexpensive to produce.

If you have not set it up already, Google offer a great analytical service
www.google.com/analytics Google Analytics is the enterprise-class web
analytics solution that gives you rich insights into your website traffic and
marketing effectiveness.




ISSUE ONE: 08/09                  www.warrenknight.co.uk                             6
Here are my top 10 tips to marketing online:

   1. Build a website that positions you as an expert or guru in your field (see
      steps 2 and 3 below). This is the “base of operations” for your online
      marketing campaign.

   2. This website should include a home page, an “About the Company”
      page, your bio, and a page with brief descriptions of your products and
      services (each product or service description can link to a longer
      document on the individual item).

   3. You should also have an “Articles Page” where you post articles you
      have written on your area of specialty, and where visitors can read and
      download these articles for free.

   4. Write a short special report or white paper on your area of expertise,
      and make this available to people who visit your site. They can
      download it for free as a PDF, but in exchange, they have to register
      and give you their email address (and any other information you want
      to capture).

   5. Consider also offering a monthly online newsletter, or “Ezine.” People
      who visit your site can subscribe free if they register and give you their
      email address. You may want to give the visitor the option of checking
      a box that reads: “I give you and other companies you select,
      permission to send me email about products, services, news, and
      offers that may be of interest to me.”

   6. The more “content” (useful information) on your site, the better. More
      people will be attracted to your site, and they will spend more time on it.
      They will also tell others about your site. You can even add a feature
      that allows your visitors to email your articles to their friends – a good
      idea since it spreads the word about you and your site.

   7. The model is to drive traffic to your site where you get them to sign up
      for either your free report or free ezine. Once they register, you have
      their email address and can now market to them via email as often as
      you like at no extra cost.

   8. The bulk of your online leads, sales, and profits will come from repeat
      email marketing to this “house” elist of prospects. Therefore your goal
      is to build a large elist of qualified prospects as quickly and
      inexpensively as you can.

   9. There are a number of online marketing options, which can drive traffic
      to your site. These include: free publicity; email marketing; banner
      advertising; co-registrations; affiliate marketing; search engine
      optimization; direct mail; and ezine advertising.

ISSUE ONE: 08/09                 www.warrenknight.co.uk                            7
10. The key to success is to try a lot of different tactics in small and
       inexpensive tests, throw out the ones that donʼt work, and do more of
       the ones that are effective.




BUILDING YOUR STORY

Have a clear message that you want to get across – Be a personality lead
brand like Richard Branson is for Virgin or Anita Roddick for the Body shop.
You can do this by keeping your business and personal identities separate
and positioning yourself as an expert in your niche area.

So where do you start?

When you establish a brand that is emotionally stimulating in a positive way,
you have a very powerful advantage. Small business branding is not a good
logo, special font or catchy tag line itʼs the owner.

So create a profile for your business by being true to yourself.


Here are 7 steps to create your desired profile:

   1.   Choose a name, image and have strong profile visibility: Developing
        Brand Recognition
   2.   Active Participation: Maintaining a Continuous Presence
   3.   Share information by practising reciprocity: Seek Win-Win Outcomes
   4.   Effective Communication: Conversations are Important but becareful
        who you link to
   5.   Support the Community: Putting the Collective Before yourself and
        donʼt be too friendly
   6.   Provide Value Above All: Gaining Trust and Attention and be a good
        user statistically
   7.   Be natural and always demonstrate Integrity

AND......To help you with the 1st step.........a little guidance;

So what makes a good name? Here are 6 main characteristics:

   1.   It's easy to remember.
   2.   It's easy to spell.
   3.   It requires no explanation.
   4.   It describes your business category.
   5.   It describes your benefit.
   6.   It describes your difference.

ISSUE ONE: 08/09                 www.warrenknight.co.uk                         8
Once you have built your profile and you are ready take your first steps,
having a strategy before you start your campaign is very important.


Social Media Strategy

•       Set it to build the social media foundation for all other social media efforts,
        so what tools are going to be used and how are you going to use them?
•       Set a short and medium term goals for your campaign, so you grow and
        learn and then analyse and target.
•       Include specific objectives, strategies, tactics, and metrics
            i.e. social media for pr/marketing/sales/product development
•       Integrate into existing marketing efforts for your company
•       Clear analysis of your target audience
•       Seeking to solve client/customer pain
•       Map and plan out your allocation for resources through research
•       Provide and creating content as instead of looking for immediate results
        from a community
•       Focused more on longer term ROI/impact, not just a financial metric but
        building and strengthening a brand

Once you have the Strategy in place you can now start your campaign


Social Media Campaign

    •    Shorter term:
         • run your campaign before your product or service is launched
         • promote products/events/services which usually takes around 1-3
             months (can be longer)
•       Build upon audience research with data collected from the strategy
•       Build upon the tools being used for the strategy
•       Promote the campaign through channels identified in the strategy
•       Looking to drive a specific targeted response?
         • Increase page views
         • Increase sales for a new product
•       Look at shorter term ROI (Return on Investment) and impact
           • Looking at the financial return and the short term impact
           • Not looking at the brand as a whole




ISSUE ONE: 08/09                      www.warrenknight.co.uk                          9
SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES

So letʼs take a look at just a few of the 100ʼs of networking sites, go through
some simple set-up procedures and how they these sites can both work for
and against you.

www.LinkedIn.com has over 43 million members in over 200 countries and
territories around the world and executives from all Fortune 500 companies
are LinkedIn members.

LinkedIn is an interconnected network of experienced professionals from
around the world, representing 170 industries and 200 countries. You can
find, be introduced to, and collaborate with qualified professionals that you
need to work with to accomplish your goals.

www.Ecademy.com is a Business Social Network founded in 1998 now with
millions of users of the site each year worldwide.

Ecademy enables business people to connect through online networking
using social media tools, at business networking events and 1-2-1 meetings -
a community that advocates, connects and helps one another.

Using the tools and resources that Ecademy has developed, a small business
can quickly and effectively find the right kind of people it needs to grow.
Ecademy allows you to search and attract the exact people you would like to
meet 24 hours a day from your office or home.

www.Facebook.com
Build your profile based on the true person or persona you want for your
business, for example, if you are displaying photos of you that indicate
drunkenness or a wild character, this may not build confidence in the potential
customer. It depends on your service!

You can also get yourself a Facebook user name, which will give you a
special Vanity url (web address) for people find it easier connect with you.
www.facebook.com/username

Start a Group and invite your network to join. Groups help to further promote
brand presence, share news/events with their community and stimulate
relevant discussion all in one spot. A prime example of an organisation
leveraging Facebook Groups is Contiki - through their group they share
brochures, the trip/video of the week, contests, and polls to their 37,000+
members. Note that a group is only visible to Facebook subscribers and
allows you to send bulk messages.

Set up a Fan Page and get all your friends and friends of friends to join.
Pages are generally better for long-term relationships with your fans, readers
or customers and can grow quicker. Coca Cola now has over 3,500,000 fans

ISSUE ONE: 08/09                 www.warrenknight.co.uk                           10
and believe it or not this was not set up by Coca cola but by a fan. Wow the
power of Social media just gave Coca Cola their cheapest ever marketing
campaign …FREE

Facebook new ads platform teaches you how to advertise on Facebook. So
what is the advantage of advertising on Facebook?

Your ads are more targeted. For example you can target 30-50 year olds in a
particular city who are engaged. This makes your ads to be more targeted and
you will probably get a better ROI.

I have included an in depth how-to guide at Appendix A for your convenience.

Here are a few more:

www.MySpace.com comes in a close second. Mostly because they're so big
that they have a lot to offer. The MySpace music and MySpace video sections
are my favourite MySpace options.

Like Facebook, MySpace has a new MyAds service, anyone can launch an ad
campaign on News Corp's social network for as little as $25.

MySpace Music lets you add music to your MySpace profile of artists from all
around the world. Add your own music to this large collection of music and let
other people add your music to their MySpace profiles.

www.Hi5.com offers a lot of options for a social networking site that doesn't
get a lot of mention.

Like MySpace, Hi5 also has a large database of videos you can add to your
profile. Add your own videos to the database and show them off on your Hi5
profile. If you have your own music you can add that too and share it with
others.

www.43things.com If you have things you need to get done, but need social
help getting it done, then 43 Things just may be what you need. Need to lose
weight? Find a date? Learn a language? Create a budget? Anything you need
to do, other people need to do too.

At 43 Things you'll get support from other people just like you who also need
to do the same things you need to do. Just sign up to join a group, or create
your own group.

www.Twitter.com (Microblogging)
Create an account, it only takes minutes and itʼs free to join. Simply complete
a profile, including uploading a picture. Link the newly created account to your
web page, or instant messenger program, which allows the user to receive


ISSUE ONE: 08/09                 www.warrenknight.co.uk                         11
and send messages to and from others. An update that is sent to friends is
called a “tweet."

The concept of Twitter relies on messaging services, it allows the user to send
messages to a potential target market quickly and easily. Twitter only asks
one question, “What are you doing?” As long as an answer is 140 characters
or less, it is possible for thousands of people to see the answer immediately.

To give your profile and brand a better presence, here are a few websites that
will help your profile look and feel more professional, build targeted followers
and allow you to connect with your target market.

Dell have achieved great financial success making $3 Millions but on the flip
side Habitat got it so wrong and instead of talking about furniture, they used
the Iranian Election as a way to grow followers using #Hastags and were
forced to publicly apologise.

Here are some Twitter- focused websites:

www.Mytweetspace.com allows you to add a picture, have a cool
background, add a more extensive profile including your web address.

www.Tweetlater.com allows you to send a direct personal message to any
individual wanting to follow you .

www.Twollo.com allows you to follow your target audience by what they are
talking about and then automatically follows them.

www.Tweetdeck.com is a great application as it allows you to see your
twitter account and your Facebook account and who is saying what at the
same time can update both accounts at once instead of you having to write it
twice.

www.Vidtwitter.com allows you to upload and play videos in your account

There are over 100 Twitter related companies that offer you anylatics,
applications, widgets, plug-ins, multi-manage accounts, fun, mobile phone
updates. Please contact me if wish to receive them www.warrenknight.co.uk

Here are a few more Microblogging websites:

www.Pownce.com recently launched a micro-blogging platform with added
functionality. On top of messaging, users can quickly and easily share links,
files, or events with any or all of his/her contacts.

www.Tumblr.com is a very clean, slick micro-blogging platform. Its focus is
on simplicity and elegance. Similar to Pownce, users can share a variety of
things, including text, photos, quotes, links, chats, or even videos.

ISSUE ONE: 08/09                 www.warrenknight.co.uk                          12
www.Jaiku.com is considered by many to be Twitter's closest competitor.
Most features and functions are similar. It will be interesting to see how the
company plans to emerge from the shadow of its main rival.

Do you know what blogging is? For the best platform, try WordPress:

www.wordpress.org is a free, open-source publishing platform, which is
used by hundreds of thousands of people around the world to create blogs.

Traditionally, and most often, WordPress is used as the foundation on which
to build, and publish a blog to display to the world. Some of the most infamous
blogs on the planet use WordPress to convey their message, such as The
New York Times and CNN.

It allows you to easily create a complex blog, or web-log, on your site and
offers administrative tools along with sophisticated design features that make
it easy to develop and integrate a personal or professional blog on your site.
Members can customize their page with the use of free themes and latest
features, making it modern and individual.

Having a blog can prove beneficial to your business, as you are consistently
providing fresh content for potential customers to find in search engines. It
also demonstrates that your company is passionate about what it does and
reassures visitors that real people are backing the business. Publishing
thoughts in a blog will not only help to earn a business customers but give it a
competitive edge in your industry of expertise.

Have a good reason to blog, is it to build traffic to your website, become an
expert and let the world know, earn money or talk about your niche market

www.articlemarketingautomation.com is a tool created by Daniel Turner
and Marc Lindsay. Based on the age old concept of article marketing but with
a new twist, what Article Marketing Automation does is simple: You write an
article and it submits the articles to blogs. The blogs are in general focused on
a topic or niche: say travel or security systems. So your travel article becomes
a blog post a on a blog which is all about: travel.

A major player in aiding you to publish videos and promote them on other
sites like Facebook and Twitter, is YouTube:

www.YouTube.com
YouTube has had over 5 Billion views and is a video sharing website on which
you can upload and share videos. Three former PayPal employees created
YouTube in February 2005. In November 2006, YouTube, LLC was bought by
Google Inc. for $1.65 billion, and is now operated as a subsidiary of Google.




ISSUE ONE: 08/09                 www.warrenknight.co.uk                          13
Will It Blend? is a viral marketing campaign consisting of a series of
infomercials demonstrating the Blendtec line of blenders, especially the Total
Blender. In the show, Tom Dickson, the Blendtec founder, attempts to blend
various items in order to show off the power of his blender. Dickson started
this marketing campaign after attempting a blending exercise with a box of
matches. One of the most famous is an iphone. As of June 21, 2009, the
Blendtec series of videos had collected a total of 83,238,033 views (an
average of 967,884 views per video), so you can image what it has done for
his business.

Here are a few statistics and other video sharing websites:

www.YouTube.com          * 62 million monthly unique visits
www.Dailymotion.com      * 48 million monthly unique visits
www.Metacafe.com         * 27 million monthly unique visits
www.Imeem.com            * 21 million monthly unique visits

www.Tubemogul.com is an online video analytics and distribution company
serving publishers large and small who need independent information about
video performance on the Internet and automated upload to the Web's top
video sharing sites.

This just about covers the top 3 strategies that are working for small
businesses, that are in the public domain, and being discussed thousands of
times everyday.
   1. Social Media,
   2. Video Marketing
   3. Blogging

NOW however, there is a new medium that has exploded on the internet over
the last few years; Social Bookmarking.

Social bookmarking is a way for Internet users to rank and store websites,
blogs, articles, videos and other types of website content. It is also a way for
people who make money from websites, blogs, and affiliate marketing
programs to increase their visibility and earnings.

Social bookmarking sites are particularly popular among people with affiliate
marketing programs because such sites are a free and effective way to get
backlinks and drive traffic to websites and blogs.

If you have been thinking about promoting your websites, blogs or affiliate
marketing programs through social bookmarking sites, this guide will help you
get started.




ISSUE ONE: 08/09                 www.warrenknight.co.uk                            14
How to Use Social Bookmarking Sites

First off, you need to find a social bookmarking site and register as a user. If
you participate in affiliate marketing programs, your best bet is to choose one
of the more popular sites, such as Digg, Del.icio.us, Reddit or
StumbleUpon. These social bookmarking sites have the most traffic and
allow you to submit and bookmark websites and blogs.

The next step is to get used to the site. To make the most of social
bookmarking, you need to make sure that there are other users besides
yourself who will be interested in your website content. Different social
bookmarking sites have different types of users. Finding a site that works with
your niche rather than against it is a must.

Finally, pay special attention to the blogs, websites, and articles that are
bookmarked the most and ranked the highest. This will give you an idea of
what people like to see. Knowing your audience is essential, particularly if you
are promoting affiliate marketing programs or niche-specific blogs.

Here are a few of the top Social Bookmarking sites to use:

www.Digg.com
Digg is the most popular and notable of the social bookmarking sites.
Quantcast estimates that that Digg has about 25 million unique visitors a
month. The audience is predominantly male (65%), between 25-34 years of
age, with a household income between 30k and 100k. Diggʼs demographics
have changed as it has become more popular (mainstream). Not too long ago
the Digg profile was male, under 25 who made less than 30k a year. Social
media topics that do well on Digg include interesting photos, anything anti-
Microsoft and lists (top 10, etc).

www.Propeller.com
Propeller (formerly Netscape) is comfortably the second biggest social
bookmarking site behind Digg with over 5.8 million monthly uniques, of which
3.6 million (62%) are in the U.S. Netscape also attracts a male biased
audience (54) , that is slightly older (45-54 is biggest age group), and 55% of
Propeller.com visitors have an household income over $60k.

www.StumbleUpon
Stumbleupon.com reports over 4.5 million members and Quantcast classifies
it as a top 5,000 site that has about 1.5 million unique visitors a month from
the U.S. The audience is male biased (56%) and between the ages of 45-54
(22% of visitors). The older demographic also skews the household income
with 51% of visitors having a household income of over $60k.

www.Reddit.com
Reddit is becoming a very popular social bookmarking site with about 1.2
million unique visitors in the U.S., making it slightly larger than Del.icio.us.

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Reddit attracts a predominantly male (57%) audience that is between the
ages of 35-44 (25%). With 65% of the audience having a household income of
between $30 and $100k, Reddit is a mainstream social networking site. As a
result, political, environmental, business and entertainment news does well
with this audience.

www.Del.icio.us
Del.icio.us is the oldest social bookmarking site and Quantcast classifies it as
a top 5,000 site that gets about 1.1 million unique visitors a month from the
U.S. The audience is male (53%) and about 47% of them are over 45. Similar
to StumbleUpon, 51% of visitors having a household income of over $60k.

I hope now you have a better understanding about Social Media websites and
how they can be used to enhance your business.


Now letʼs put all this information into practise but before we do this, you
must ask yourself; “How ready am I to convert all of this information
into qualified paying customers?”


While Iʼm on the subject of adding value and giving information, one of the
techniques that I will be discussing shortly is to conduct Webinars. Web
conferencing is used to conduct live meetings or presentations via the
Internet. In a web conference, each participant sits at his or her own computer
and is connected to other participants via the internet. This can be either a
downloaded application on each of the attendees' computers or a web-based
application where the attendees may enter a URL (website address) to enter
the conference.

www.gotomeeting.com and www.gotowebinar.com are 2 companies,
which offer a quick set-up and are very cost effective.


       RSS Feed - (most commonly translated as "Really Simple Syndication"
but sometimes "Rich Site Summary") is a family of web feed formats used to
publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines,
audio, and video—in a standardised format.

This is a great way to gather information for you to share with your target
audience by finding companies and individualsʼ information that you feel will
add value to your target audience. By clicking on this image on their website,
you can decide how you then want to view this information on a daily basis.




ISSUE ONE: 08/09                 www.warrenknight.co.uk                       16
THE JOURNEY

So you now have clarity around your profile, youʼve decided upon your
strategy and campaign. Youʼve signed up to all of the relevant social media
websites, after doing your research for your target market (based on your
niche) and so itʼs time to begin.


Connecting with the audience.

Deliver great content and always be creative by understanding your audience
and by being consistent. Consistency is the key to people wanting to know
more, so make a decision around when and for how long you are going to
give time to each social media website and how many times you send out a
newsletter, broadcasts etc even if its once a month …be consistent.
Feedback can be a great source of information for you, on both a positive and
negative level. I often test my audience by making mistakes to get interaction
and to let them know Iʼm only human. It also helps me to know that what Iʼm
doing is right and to find out how much they are enjoying my content.

Webinars are a great source of information for you to learn, and for you to
educate, deliver great content and offer your services or product, and by JV
“Joint Venturing” and setting up “Affiliates” with other experts and products in
your field. You can add greater value and gain an excellent source of new
followers that you can turn into subscribers by obtaining their contact details
and once these details have been captured, they are then in your sales
funnel.

Recording a quick 4 to 5 minute video, and embedding it into your blog, then
talking about it through your chosen social media websites is an excellent
method of informing people about your webinar and allows your community to
share the link with their community. Donʼt try to be an expert on everything, be
a reporter and at the end of the short video, drive them to the place where
they can see the expert. The “Webinar” can be promoted via an affiliate link.
By naming the video the same as your blog, 9 times out of 10 your blog post
will get indexed by Google on the same day.

Support your community by sharing their information within your own
community and put them before yourself. This way they reciprocate and
become your voice. This is a great way of gaining trust and loyalty and by
gaining their attention, you build their interest, which gets their desire to know
more, and then you can take action.

The aim is to convert your followers to people on your database via opting in
to free reports or ebooks or signing up to your newsletters.



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Make sure you track and measure all of your various methods of
communicating and that way if something is not working, you can change it. If
it is working, simply keep going and celebrate!

A big mistake many individuals make is by offering information in large
quantities. We are all very busy and the more quality you can add in a short
period of time, the more chance you have of people wanting to listen.




TEST CASES

I would like to share with you 2 test cases, so you get a better understanding
of how 2 products using the same techniques to very different audiences, both
achieved great success.

      www.cheekybeach.com Luxury swimwear for D-J cup.
      Target audience? Well I will leave that up to your
      imagination.

      Setting up a profile, fan page and group on Facebook is a
      great idea, as you can offer special loyalty discount codes
      for them to purchase from your website. Twitter is OK but
      a better use of time has been spent connecting with the
      high end social media sites, like ʻA Small Worldʼ,
      ʻDecayenneʼ, ʻQubeʼ (by Quintessentially), along with
      ʻNikki Beachʼ who have their own online community where
      you can start discussion. ʻKnickers Weeklyʼ also offer this.
      So as you can see by doing your homework,
      understanding your target audience you can connect with
      the right person at the right time to buy.

      www.TheFulvicAcidCompany.com The Fulvic Acid
      Company provides human, plant and animal health
      products based around organic ingredients called Fulvic
      Acid.

      Setting up a profile, fan page and group on Facebook is a
      great idea, as you can offer special loyalty discount codes
      for them to purchase from your website. YouTube has
      been a great method for Video testimonials and TV
      appearances for people talking about how taking this
      product has made a difference to them, their pets, garden
      what ever it may be. Twitter has been an excellent source
      of information sharing, community building and ultimately
      sales globally. Peter Gouge an expert nutritionist and co-
      founder, blogs and gets into conversations on forums in

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various communities by adding value and sharing his
      knowledge. He can also be seen doing talks up and down
      the country sharing his passion for a chemical free
      environment. Having a profile on LinkedIn,
      changents.com, BT Tradespace has also been a real
      benefit.

Thank you for purchasing this ebook and I would like to give you 5 last tips to
help you on your Social Media for Business journey


Top 5 Social Media tips

   1. When writing/compiling your tips, ask yourself this question: “Why
      should I care?” When you ask this question you will find that it will help
      you come up with tips that are different, of interest and valuable.

   2. The best top tips are based on an angle or advice that none of your
      competitors can come close to matching or knowing, what do you know
      about your industry or market that they donʼt?

   3. Avoid general tips and general titles- ex: Top Five Steps to Create a
      Business Plan (boring) OR Top Five Ways to Create a Business Plan
      in 1 Hour or Less!

   4. Keep the subject line or the title short and catchy. Ask yourself this
      question - “Would I read or open this?”

   5. Keep your tips down to one page, no more than 2 sentences per tip,
      the shorter, the better, you can always elaborate for the media and turn
      it into an article.

   6. BONUS TIP- Publish these tips on your blog and link back from your
      postings on social networking sites to your blog. You never know who
      will read them! It never fails, every time that I post top five tips, I get a
      media outlet or blog that wants to pick it up, share or publish.


The appendices that now follow are additional tips to promote your profile or
business on each of the 3 top social media platforms, on a step by step basis.

Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn



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APPENDIX A

Build your Profile on Facebook

1. Know your audience

Too many people are sharing information with the wrong audiences. Your
manager doesnʼt want to know if you just went to the bathroom and, although
your parents would love to eavesdrop on your relationship with your girlfriend
or boyfriend, you might not want to share those details. Since our lives are
starting to converge more and more every day, you need to decide what
audiences you want to connect with on Facebook.

Do you want to use Facebook as a communication stream to your family and
friends? Are you looking to network with professionals that could help you get
a job? These are questions you need to start asking yourself before you add
“friends” to your Facebook profile. If you decide to open it up to the masses,
then you need to be mindful of what you share and how that could impact
peopleʼs perception of you. Remember, you can limit what select users can
see on your profile, just by changing your settings, which weʼll discuss more
below.

2. Decide on your branding strategy

Everyone should have a Facebook branding strategy and it should be based
not only on the audience youʼre targeting, but your overall life goals.
Depending on who you are, where you are in your career, what youʼre
passionate about and an expert in, youʼll want to brand yourself differently.

If you havenʼt signed up for Facebook, then you have a great opportunity to
start fresh and to build your Facebook profile to best represent you. If youʼre a
current Facebook user, then start analysing how your brand is being portrayed
and take steps to customise it to reflect your branding strategy.

If you donʼt want to build a branding empire, a strategy should still be
extremely important to you; youʼre already branded and that brand can help
shape perceptions online to portray you in a positive light and help you secure
a good reputation. This means choosing what links and media you share in
your news stream to add value to your brand and those youʼre friends with.

3. Set your privacy settings

Depending on your Facebook goals, you may set your entire account to
private or grant certain individuals permission to view sections of your profile.
You can also make your entire profile public for the world to see, which could
be beneficial to you if youʼre looking to become more visible in your industry
and will result in your profile ranking high for your name in search.


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I recommend turning tagging settings off for both photos and pictures so that
you can take control of your Facebook wall. You wouldnʼt want your friends
tagging you in a picture of you doing something stupid, would you?

4. Fill out your profile completely

Facebook is a great platform where you can paint a picture of who you are.
When filling out the information fields, be sure to focus on the education and
work section, where you can reconnect with fellow alumni from college, or
past colleagues that might be able to help you get a job.

Also, in the contact information field, be sure to list your blog, any websites
you might own and links to your profiles on other social networks. Since hiring
managerʼs use Facebookʼs search engine to find candidates, it pays to load
up your profile with keywords that they can search against. Depending on
your Facebook brand strategy, youʼll want to promote more information in
certain fields like your contact information and less in other fields.

5. Import contacts and grow your network

Each month, you should go through the process of importing your contacts
from your email accounts and your instant messenger screen name accounts.
This will help you continue to grow your Facebook network as youʼre meeting
new people through your other channels. If you have a blog, itʼs also a smart
idea to use Facebook Connect. By having Facebook Connect on your blog,
you can bring your friends with you and promote your content through social
interactions that start on your blog and end up on Facebook.

6. Update your status

Updating your status on Facebook allows you to project a single message to a
large audience. Your status is a reflection of who you are and what you do.
You can update your status with press mentions, your latest blog entry, a new
project youʼre working on or your interest in a particular job. Based on your
branding strategy, youʼll want to update your status to either keep people
informed about what youʼre up to, push them to your content or both.

7. Start a group or a page

Facebook groups have fewer features than Facebook pages, but they are still
important. Use a Facebook group to bring people together in your industry,
become a valuable contributor to that community and market your blog, your
product, or yourself! Facebook groups let you share links, videos, photos, and
start discussions.
Facebook pages are for brands, ranging from Coca Cola to Barack Obama
and even you. These pages resemble your Facebook profiles, so only use
one if you have a large number of Facebook friends. By having a Facebook
page, your brand can go viral, holding a spot on other peopleʼs profiles. The

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other main advantage is that your page will rank high for your name in Google
(Google) and you can use it for your professional career, while keeping your
personal profile private.

8. Join or start an event in your area

One of the best aspects of Facebook is that you can get involved in your
community by joining or starting an event in your industry. By opening up your
event to everyone, you can meet new people and discover other people who
have shared interest and can support your career. Events can also be
catalogued on your Facebook page.

If youʼre looking to start a weekly or monthly event and want to keep a
calendar, logging it on a page is a good strategy. By starting an event, youʼre
positioning yourself as a leader and an expert, which is great for your personal
brand.

9. Link out to your Facebook profile

You might already have a blog and accounts on other social networks,
including Twitter (Twitter), LinkedIn (LinkedIn), FriendFeed (FriendFeed),
Technorati, etc. If you do and your Facebook strategy is to promote yourself
and remain public, then placing a link (and possibly a Facebook icon) on
these other sites to your Facebook profile is a great idea.

As the chief marketing officer for your personal brand, you want to build your
friend list, so that you have more people to market to now and in the future.
Think of your Facebook profile as a digital asset and grow the equity in that
asset over the rest of your life.

10. Feed your social networks

Simply RSS your image by using Ping.fm (Ping.Fm), you can update your
status on Facebook, as well as many other social networks in an instant,
without duplicating your efforts. Also, you can import your blog titles in
Facebook using notes or by using an application called Simple RSS.

Not only does this make you more productive, but it appears as though youʼre
contributing to your community, without you having to think about it. Since
Facebook is all about sharing, those that share more will be remembered
more, which is great for personal branding.




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APPENDIX B

Build your Profile on Twitter

1. Claim your Twitter handle

Prime domain names, especially those ending in “.com,” have long been
desirable, hard to find and extremely expensive. By not reserving your domain
name, your business or personal brand is at risk and you may never be able
to reclaim it once youʼve lost it. With Twitter continuing its meteoric rise in
popularity, itʼs no surprise that Twitter account names are starting to be
treated like domain names.

What happens when you donʼt claim your Twitter handle?

    •   Jack Canfield, founder and CEO of Chicken Soup for the Soul
        Enterprises, had to take a different user name because he didnʼt act
        quickly enough to secure his full name (he has @J_Canfield, not
        @JackCanfield).

Stop what youʼre doing right now and claim the Twitter handle for your full
name, as well as any products and/or companies that you currently own or
you have plans to create in the future. You canʼt truly own your personal brand
if you donʼt even own your Twitter handle.

2. Decide how you want to brand yourself

Before you start actively using Twitter, you need a strategy, and the first step
in developing that strategy is to completely fill out your user profile. One of the
goals of having a Twitter account is to gain followers and few people want to
follow an account that doesnʼt look legitimate (i.e. the profile hasnʼt been filled
out and thereʼs no avatar).

Take a good look at your other websites and profiles and draft a Twitter bio to
match the rest of your online branding. This is how people will find you and
recognise you now and in the future, so be honest. Donʼt brand yourself as an
expert unless you already are one. Do brand yourself based on your passions
and skill set.

Twitter image

Once you have everything filled out, you should spend some time focusing on
your Twitter background, which gives you an opportunity to extend your brand
image onto Twitter and create a more cohesive experience for your followers.
There are many sites that you can use to help you develop a custom
background, such as Twitpaper (Twitpaper) and Twitterimage.



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I recommend creating a Twitter background that resemble the colours, format
and logo from your personal or corporate website. When you create your
background, add in additional information that isnʼt covered in your Twitter
profile, such as pointers to more websites, contact information, or information
about products or services you sell.

Three techniques for branding yourself on Twitter:

  1. Lead with your company: Pete Cashmore puts his company (Mashable
(Mashable)) ahead of himself on Twitter by using @Mashable as the account
name, but uses his personal avatar and bio. This is a smart approach for Pete
because he wants to build his companyʼs brand, while associating his own
name with this successful property. This also gives Mashable a face and a
personality to go with it.

   2. Mutual branding: More and more companies are realising that their
employees are on Twitter and that they can be tapped to help promote their
initiatives. Some of these Twitter accounts are mutually branded, so that the
avatar has the personʼs picture and the corporate logo. Two examples are
Kodakʼs Jennifer Cisney (@kodakCB) and Allison and Mike from
CareerBuilderʼs PR team (@CareerBuilderPR).

   3. 100% personal branding: If youʼre trying to build a strong personal brand,
then focus your Twitter handle, avatar and bio information 100% on you,
instead of your company.


3. Become known as an expert or resource

Essentially, Twitter is a shorter and more viral form of blogging, so the same
rules actually still apply, and by constantly writing or tweeting about your
expertise on a specific topic, youʼll become known for it and people will
gravitate to you and follow you. If you already have a blog, and then I
recommend using Twitterfeed, so you can syndicate your posts on Twitter
automatically.

Google alert image

For many people, Twitter has become a filter. Trusted experts are relied upon
to send their followers interesting and relevant links. You can subscribe to
blogs and keywords using Google.com/alerts, and then act as an arbiter for
your topic, constantly pushing out the best content. Do you want to become
known as a personal finance enthusiast? What about a search engine
marketing consultant? The best thing you can do for your brand on Twitter is
to take your current interests and activities and establish a feed on Twitter to
deliver that content to your audience again and again.



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If you are an expert in your field, then have Q & sessions, where you answer
questions from your followers. The more you tweet about the topic you want to
be known for, the more people will remember you and when they need your
expertise, they will contact you. Itʼs that simple!


4. Establish a Twitter marketing plan

Just like with any other website or blog, just because you build it, doesnʼt
necessarily mean people will come. You should have a marketing plan in
place to acquire new followers.

Elements of Twitter marketing plan:

   • Email signature: You probably already place your blog or website URL
and contact information in your email signature so why not add your Twitter
handle? Itʼs free promotion and every email you send can turn into a new
follower.

  • Personal/corporate website: If you already have a website for you and/or
your company, then you have a platform on which you can promote your
Twitter address to people who will probably be interested in following you.

  • Blog homepage + posts: Your blog is a great place to promote your
Twitter account because most people who read blogs know what Twitter is.
You should take a two pronged approach. First, put your Twitter addresses in
one of your sidebars and second, promote it discretely in posts every once in
a while.

  • Email newsletter: If you have an email newsletter, you can write about
Twitter and link to your profile or put it at the bottom of your template, so that
each email has a link to your account.

  • Presentations: Do you do any public speaking? Why not include your
Twitter account on the last slide of your presentation and tell people that they
can follow you on Twitter?

  • Business Card: Try including your Twitter handle on your business card.
Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, did this with his card.

  • Article writing / guest blog posting: Whenever you write an article for a
magazine, news website or guest post on a blog, try to include your Twitter
handle in your byline.

  • Networking on Twitter: By using the “@” symbol and either retweeting or
communicating with other people, youʼll have some of them responding to
you, thus promoting your Twitter account to many of their followers.


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• Promotional products: Some people take Twitter promotion to the next
level: Ted Murphy, for example, created custom Twitter shirts that have your
Twitter handle.

Just like with any social network or blog, the more people who follow you, the
easier it is to grow your already existing community. Retweets and following
other people are two essential ways to get new followers. However, content is
king on Twitter, so it is vital to make sure you produce consistent, quality
tweets.

5. Utilise third-party applications

There are literally thousands of Twitter applications out there, but only a few
that can really help you build your personal brand. The apps below will help
you stay in touch with your industry; find people you can network with, save
you precious time, and push out your content.

Note: If you have additional Twitter applications that aid in personal brand
building to recommend, please tell us about them in the comment section.

Twellow image

  • Twellow (Twellow): Find people in your industry to follow and connect with
using this Twitter yellow pages guide. You can find more Twitter directories
here.

  • Tweetbeep: Keep track of your brand reputation by getting alerts through
email when your brand is mentioned on Twitter.

  • Tweetmeme: Put a button on your blog that allows your readers to more
easily retweet your posts.

  • Hashdictionary: Keep track of conversations that include hashtags on
Twitter.

  • Ping.fm (Ping.Fm): Save time by sending messages to all of your social
networks at once.

  • Twitter Grader: A site that ranks your influence in the Twitter world based
on an algorithm. You can see where you stand in your town, city, state or
country, as well.

   • Tweetlater: Schedule tweets so that they are published automatically in
the future. Itʼs a real time saver.




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6. Form a Twitter “Mastermind Group”

As you may suspect, certain groups of people on Twitter constantly promote
and retweet each other. Some of them are in what are called “mastermind
groups” — groups of individuals who are committed to helping each other and
sharing knowledge amongst themselves. They are communities of supportive
colleagues who seek to mutually help each other become more successful.
On Twitter, by finding people who share your interests, youʼre able to help
each other out and cross-promote. There are a few Twitter applications that
help you form these special interest groups.


Group applications:

Grouptweet image

   • Grouptweet: This app lets users create groups and broadcast messages
to each other via direct messages sent to the groupʼs Twitter account.

   • Twitter Groups: This site allows you to tag your followers and place them
into different groups. You can then send messages to those groups without
needing to send them to each person individually.




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APPENDIX C

Build Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn

Whether youʼre a job seeker, consultant, entrepreneur or happily employed,
LinkedIn can be an incredible asset for your career. You can connect to over
43 million professionals in over 200 countries around the world. LinkedIn is
not just a virtual resume that should be tucked away for a rainy day. Instead it
acts as a resume, cover letter, references document, database of your
contacts throughout your life and a place where you can learn, share and
interact in a professional manner. The following four steps, will help you build
a powerful brand on LinkedIn so that you attract jobs youʼre passionate about,
while fostering a network that can support your career moving forward.

1. Brand your profile

Your LinkedIn profile needs to be absolutely flawless, since youʼll be judged
harshly by recruiters who are analysing you to see if you fit their corporate
needs. That means no spelling or grammatical errors and it should be
completely filled out, leaving no experience or details out. Think of your profile
as an asset and as a portrait of you as a professional who someone would
want to possibly hire for a newly available job.

How to brand your profile

Custom URL: Your LinkedIn URL should appear as
“http://linkedin.com/in/yourfullname.” If it doesnʼt, youʼre missing a vital
opportunity to have your profile rank higher in Google (Google) and to make it
easier for people to find you. To do this, go to your profile and click “edit” and
then next to where it says “public profile,” click “edit” again. At the top, youʼll
want to click “edit” one more time next to “your public profile URL,” and then
type in your full name, without spacing, and click “set address.” If the unique
URL is taken, then try using a period between your first and last name or use
your middle initial.

Headline: Your headline will automatically be displayed as the last job youʼve
had, unless you change it manually. I recommend that you brand yourself for
the job you want, not the one you have! This means that you should revise
your headline so instead of “Marketing Specialist for Toyota,” it could be
“Internet Marketing Expert for Fortune 500 Companies.” This way, youʼre
positioning yourself for a future potential job, while leaving your current job
within your LinkedIn profile.

Summary: Your summary should include a brief paragraph summarising your
work experience, especially work experience that is relevant for the job you
want. Feel free to spice this section up with your unique abilities and
differentiates, such as industry awards and honours. In the second
paragraph, you should define your career aspirations.

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Experience: Donʼt just list the past few jobs youʼve had. I recommend that you
put every single job youʼve had that is still related to either your current
position or the job you are searching for. The easiest way to complete this
section is to copy and paste the bullets from your traditional resume.

Keywords: You should flood your entire LinkedIn profile with keywords
because recruiters and other individuals will be using LinkedIn as a talent
search engine. By selecting a few keywords that are also found in your
headline, and sprinkling them throughout your profile, you will rank higher for
those terms when someone conducts a LinkedIn “people search.” If you show
up first or second, then you may get the opportunity over everyone else.

Wordpress LinkedIn app

Applications: If you have a blog, then you should definitely use either the
“WordPress (WordPress)” or “Blog Link” (Typepad (TypePad).com)
applications. With this integration, youʼre able to show people your thoughts,
feelings and emotions on top of a more traditional resume format. List only
your past two or three blog posts so you donʼt overwhelm the reader. Another
application that you may want to try is the “Slideshare Presentations”
application to showcase how you compile information, your formatting and
creative skills to employers who may glance at it. Finally, the “Box.net Files”
application can be leveraged to allow employers to download your portfolio of
work.

Websites: LinkedIn gives you the ability to list up to three website links. I
would recommend that you select your blog, any web pages you own, your
company and possibly your Twitter profile link. Instead of leaving each title
(for each link) as “My Website,” you should change them to the actual title of
each of your links, so that the link can be associated with the URL. This will
help optimise your profile and drive Google PageRank to your other web
properties.

Recommendations: Many people argue if LinkedIn recommendations are
legitimate, especially because they typically come from your trusted network
of friends and colleagues. The truth is that they are very significant because
when a recruiter searches for talent, they will view and identify profiles that
have the “thumbs up” graphic next to them. If you donʼt have a “thumbs up”
graphic, that means that you havenʼt been recommended and if you do and
youʼve been recommended several times, there will be a number next to it. If
two candidates for the same job had the same background and skills, yet one
had twenty recommendations, whom would you choose? Exactly!
Recommendations can come from colleagues, teachers, managers and even
celebrities.




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2. Develop your network

Now that you have a compelling and immaculate profile, itʼs time to start
developing your network. A LinkedIn network is all about your professional
network graph. That means that your first, second and third degree contacts
are visible and can help you with career opportunities. The more first degree
contacts you have, the more second and third you will gain, which is why I
recommend that you accept everyone as a contact. You never know when
someone can help you!

How to develop your network

LinkedIn import contacts

Import your contacts: If youʼre brand new to LinkedIn or you want to start
building your network, without having to search for people, you should use the
import function. LinkedIn allows you to important contacts from Windows
Live, Hotmail, Gmail (Gmail), Yahoo! and AOL. You can also search through
your college or workplace and add people youʼve worked with or have gone to
school with.

Be open and available: A huge part of LinkedIn is itʼs messaging system and
by being available and open to accepting contact requests and continuing
conversations, it will help you build relationships.

Leave your email address: People cannot add you to their network without
your email address, so you should either leave your email address at the end
of the summary area or put it in the contact field and label it public.

Promote your URL: Take your distinct URL and put it in your email signature,
on your traditional resume, on your blog (with an optional icon graphic), your
website, your presentations, and possibly on your business card.

Update your status: Donʼt worry, you donʼt have to update “yet another” status
bar with a message. Try using Ping.fm (Ping.Fm) or hellotxt.com to push your
status to all of your social networks at once. Make sure that your LinkedIn
status message is extremely professional because the audience is more
career minded people and hiring managers.

3. Position yourself as a leader

Now that you have a remarkable profile and youʼve developed a sizeable
network, itʼs time for you to become a leader on LinkedIn. This professional
network allows you to do a few key things that will help you gain followers,
attention and, possibly, a new job.




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How to position yourself as a leader

LinkedIn groups image

Start a group: Groups are extremely powerful assets for your brand. Instead
of starting a group based around your company, if you have one, do it around
the topic you want to “own.” Decide whether you want to localise it (Group
Name, Boston) or make it international, allowing anyone to join. By starting a
group on LinkedIn, youʼre automatically portraying yourself as a leader. You
should invite your current contacts to your group, especially after analysing
their profiles to see if they would be interested. You should also promote the
group on Facebook, Twitter and your blog to gain an initial base of members.
After a few months of delivering news content, helpful articles and seeding it
with discussions, you will see (just like any other community) that it will grow
based on member activity. Another important strategy is to syndicate your
blog through LinkedIn; youʼd be surprised how much traffic you can get from
it. I still am!

Start an event: LinkedIn events are strictly for professional interests or for
conferences. By starting your own networking event, you can easily promote
it to your current LinkedIn audience, as well as your second and third degree
contacts. Itʼs a great way to become a known connector and leader in your
niche.

LinkedIn questions image

Ask and answer questions: If someone in your network asks a question
pertaining to an area that you have knowledge in, you should answer it. By
participating in these types of discussions, whether youʼre asking or
answering them, you are perceived as a valuable contributor to your network
and someone to go to if people need help.

4. Leverage LinkedIn as part of your unified brand strategy

When it comes to your personal brand, LinkedIn is only one piece of the
puzzle. Youʼll want to supplement LinkedIn with profiles on Facebook and
Twitter, in addition to your own blog or website and profiles on industry
specific social networks. Your LinkedIn profile should be consistent with your
online presence, which means you, should be using the same avatar, your full
name and your personal branding statement. As you grow your brand over
time, make sure that your LinkedIn profile is updated with your latest job
information and experience. If youʼre looking for a job right now, toss away
your traditional resume, click on “PDF” on your LinkedIn profile and print it out
for your interview. This, in effect, displays more of who you are in a different
format than recruiters are used to, so you stand out.

Decide how much time you want to invest in LinkedIn, as opposed to your
other online assets. LinkedIn requires less upkeep, but to leverage it to the

ISSUE ONE: 08/09                 www.warrenknight.co.uk                         31
best of your ability, you will have to put your time in. By building your personal
brand on LinkedIn, youʼll be where people are searching and youʼll have
access to those who can help build your brand now and in the future.




ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
To all the Internet guruʼs that have been so kind, to share their expert opinion
and to Mashable for being a real time source of information.

The content of this e-book has been constructed by using the tools and
techniques of 2 individuals who have learned their formula for success
through study and experience. We learned our trade through many other
teachers and individuals and we have included some of their work for you to
appreciate. They have been duly recognised at each point.

Thank you for choosing this document, which we hope, will bring you much
success.




WHO ARE THE AUTHORS?

Warren Knight, with nearly 2 decades of selling in to over 40 countries and
having consulted for the likes of Disney and Nickelodeon products selling
globally, achieving sales of $1 Million in 1 month.
I designed this ebook with you in mind to offer you the best opportunity to
being a success when navigating your way through your business growth with
Social Media. For more information about me, please visit
www.WarrenKnight.com

Andrea N Smart, has injected some interesting research into this project,
and has brought forth over 10 years of specialist knowledge and experience
in Marketing the companies she has worked for, as well as now, her own.
In addition to Marketing, Andrea is an accomplished Writer, Copywriter,
Newsletter Editor and Proofreader. The flow has been created by Andrea who
has a particular warmth and style that we hope you have found enjoyable and
easy to read and digest. The typeset and content of this e-book aims to create
a worthy and exciting strategy for everyone.




ISSUE ONE: 08/09                 www.warrenknight.co.uk                        32
CONTACT DETAILS

Reach Warren Knight at: warren@warrenknight.co.uk
Reach Andrea Smart at: andrea@howtogrowglobally.com


Further information on additional business guides is available from:
www.warrenknight.co.uk




ADDITIONAL PRODUCTS

Further information on additional business guides is available from:
www.warrenknight.co.uk

Available to Purchase:

• Business Start Up (ebook Guide)
• Open to Close - Proven sales strategy (ebook Guide)
• Sales - Strategies, Training and Seminars
• Mentoring Program (Telephone or Face to Face options available)
• Consultancy - A process tailored to your needs




ISSUE ONE: 08/09                www.warrenknight.co.uk                 33

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Social Media For business e-book

  • 1. SOCIAL MEDIA -4- BUSINESS ©® SELF PROMOTION IS THE NEW PR! ISSUE ONE: 08/09
  • 2. CONTENTS THE INTERNET STORY 4-5 YOUR WEBSITE 6-8 BUILDING YOUR STORY 8-9 SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES 10-14 SOCIAL BOOKMARKING 14-16 THE JOURNEY 17-18 TEST CASES 18-19 APPENDIX A – BUILD YOUR PROFILE ON FACEBOOK 20-22 APPENDIX B – BUILD YOUR PROFILE ON TWITTER 23-27 APPENDIX C – BUILD YOUR PERSONAL BRAND ON LINKEDIN 28-32 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 32 WHO ARE THE AUTHORS? 32 CONTACT DETAILS 33 ADDITIONAL PRODUCTS 33 ISSUE ONE: 08/09 www.warrenknight.co.uk 2
  • 3. DO YOU HAVE A MARKETING BUDGET? HAVE YOU A PR AGENCY? HOW BIG IS YOUR ADVERTISING BUDGET? DO YOU HAVE A BRAND MANAGER? WHAT IF I SAID NONE OF THE ABOVE MATTER? WHAT IF YOU COULD DO ALL THE ABOVE? HOW WOULD THIS SUIT YOU? SO, WHAT DO YOU DO NOW? LET’S PREPARE TO FIND OUT ISSUE ONE: 08/09 www.warrenknight.co.uk 3
  • 4. THE INTERNET STORY What is social media all about and how did it start? It all started when Tim Berners-Lee invented the World-Wide Web in 1989, while at CERN, in Switzerland. The WWW is NOT the same thing as the Internet; it RIDES on the Internet (the Internet was started after the 2nd World War, the first project was called ARPANET). This was known as Web 1.0 The Dot.com where investors got involved and experiments were put into action. Mosaic web browser launched on April 1993 which was the first browser to run on the Windows Operating system. Microsoft Hotmail launched on July 1996 and Googleʼs first office opened in September 1998 in a garage. Weʼve really gone archaic here, and I think itʼs important to share this with you as youʼll be able to put into context, this amazing technology that is here for YOU to take advantage of – mostly for FREE! Keep reading and digesting.. "Web 2.0" refers to the second generation of web development and web design. It is characterised as facilitating communication, information sharing, user-centred design and collaboration on the World Wide Web. It has led to the development and evolution of web-based communities, hosted services, and web applications. Examples include social-networking and video-sharing sites like Facebook and Youtube. The term is now closely associated with Tim O'Reilly because of the O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004. Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to any technical specifications, but rather to cumulative changes in the ways software developers and end-users utilise the Web. Thank you Wikipedia One of the most influential socialisation projects to date, Web 2.0 brings local and global together in a relationship of information. People will have more interactions but with less control. So now we are at web 2.5 and we have arrived on the final frontier. Services like twitter.com now take the experience of blogging to the next step. It tries to join up the messaging capability of mobile phones with the web, and Instant Messages such as AIM. Add to this, services like twittermap.com, and what you arrive at is a 24 hours daily kaleidoscope of events as they happen. Admittedly, most mobile phones are still limited in their messaging capabilities, so Twitter is a text oriented service for the time being. However people do understand the power of linking to events, and live bookmarking with services like tinyurl.com is a great way forward. ISSUE ONE: 08/09 www.warrenknight.co.uk 4
  • 5. Add to that the capability of RSS, or maybe a follow-up protocol that will enable pushing syndicated live content to browsers (which would be a logical next step, I am sure is in the making somewhere), we will arrive at Web 3.0 - Everything, everywhere, live and real time. So as you can see, social media is not really new anymore, but many people still struggle with the subtle things that might help or hurt success within the top social communities. To put things into perspective, it took 89 years for 150 million homes to have TV, it took Steve Jobs from Apple 7 years to sell 150 Million Ipods and itʼs only taken Facebook 5 years to have 150 million subscribers. The first question business owners often ask: Why should you use social networking? Because the best online marketing techniques are the ones that help you reach your target market. Even though social networking has been around for years, itʼs only over the past few years that itʼs become a buzz phrase with over 250 million people now on Facebook! Ashton Kutcher has nearly 3 million followers on Twitter – so the power of connection is undeniable! With over 350 social networking sites available for you to join and connect, the potential target market is forever widening, whilst you search for the next best platform via which to communicate. What this means is your target market is jumping in and starting to use Facebook and Twitter etc and since the current global economy is not at its strongest, people are more mindful of what they spend their money on. In this ebook you will learn how to build your profile, achieve brand awareness, connect with your target market, build your database and ultimately make sales that are measurable in terms of your ROI (return on investment) for both for your time and money. • First of all the customer must learn about YOU. If they donʼt know your business exists how can they buy? • Next your task is to convince them - by providing enough information - to subscribe to your newsletter or by offering them a free report in return for leaving their details with you. • And then you aim to keep them interested and provide an opportunity for them to invest in your product or service. Simple huh? Read on and see just how logical this all is. ISSUE ONE: 08/09 www.warrenknight.co.uk 5
  • 6. YOUR WEBSITE So, are you ready? Letʼs just briefly talk about your website and how you can get your marketing right - from the beginning - by creating a website that has the potential to maximise your time and efforts, and build your database of target customers. The whole purpose of a business website, if you want to make money, is to convert visitors into sales. It's advisable to have a Squeeze Page or an Opt-in lightbox to capture the visitorʼs name and email address - this is called permission marketing - in exchange for a free report or ebook. They are then added to an Auto- Responder, before directing them to your Sales Page. The better the sales page, the higher the conversion rate. If you are selling an affiliate product, then you will often be given a website or sales page link you can point people to, saving you lots of time. Sometimes a simple, targeted one page site is often more effective at making you money than a huge, confusing site. A great backend website is www.Totalshoppingcart.com and this allows you sell products from your website. Using Paypal, it also offers an affiliate program linked to your products so other companies can promote you and your products and get paid for it. That also works both ways. It allows you to send Newsletters, Broadcasts, auto-responders to anybody who signs up to your newsletters and opts in to your free ebook. Why are e-books the perfect information product to sell on the Internet? • 100% profit margin. • No printing costs. • No inventory to store. • Quick and easy to update. • No shipping costs or delays. • Higher perceived value than regular books. • Quick, simple, and inexpensive to produce. If you have not set it up already, Google offer a great analytical service www.google.com/analytics Google Analytics is the enterprise-class web analytics solution that gives you rich insights into your website traffic and marketing effectiveness. ISSUE ONE: 08/09 www.warrenknight.co.uk 6
  • 7. Here are my top 10 tips to marketing online: 1. Build a website that positions you as an expert or guru in your field (see steps 2 and 3 below). This is the “base of operations” for your online marketing campaign. 2. This website should include a home page, an “About the Company” page, your bio, and a page with brief descriptions of your products and services (each product or service description can link to a longer document on the individual item). 3. You should also have an “Articles Page” where you post articles you have written on your area of specialty, and where visitors can read and download these articles for free. 4. Write a short special report or white paper on your area of expertise, and make this available to people who visit your site. They can download it for free as a PDF, but in exchange, they have to register and give you their email address (and any other information you want to capture). 5. Consider also offering a monthly online newsletter, or “Ezine.” People who visit your site can subscribe free if they register and give you their email address. You may want to give the visitor the option of checking a box that reads: “I give you and other companies you select, permission to send me email about products, services, news, and offers that may be of interest to me.” 6. The more “content” (useful information) on your site, the better. More people will be attracted to your site, and they will spend more time on it. They will also tell others about your site. You can even add a feature that allows your visitors to email your articles to their friends – a good idea since it spreads the word about you and your site. 7. The model is to drive traffic to your site where you get them to sign up for either your free report or free ezine. Once they register, you have their email address and can now market to them via email as often as you like at no extra cost. 8. The bulk of your online leads, sales, and profits will come from repeat email marketing to this “house” elist of prospects. Therefore your goal is to build a large elist of qualified prospects as quickly and inexpensively as you can. 9. There are a number of online marketing options, which can drive traffic to your site. These include: free publicity; email marketing; banner advertising; co-registrations; affiliate marketing; search engine optimization; direct mail; and ezine advertising. ISSUE ONE: 08/09 www.warrenknight.co.uk 7
  • 8. 10. The key to success is to try a lot of different tactics in small and inexpensive tests, throw out the ones that donʼt work, and do more of the ones that are effective. BUILDING YOUR STORY Have a clear message that you want to get across – Be a personality lead brand like Richard Branson is for Virgin or Anita Roddick for the Body shop. You can do this by keeping your business and personal identities separate and positioning yourself as an expert in your niche area. So where do you start? When you establish a brand that is emotionally stimulating in a positive way, you have a very powerful advantage. Small business branding is not a good logo, special font or catchy tag line itʼs the owner. So create a profile for your business by being true to yourself. Here are 7 steps to create your desired profile: 1. Choose a name, image and have strong profile visibility: Developing Brand Recognition 2. Active Participation: Maintaining a Continuous Presence 3. Share information by practising reciprocity: Seek Win-Win Outcomes 4. Effective Communication: Conversations are Important but becareful who you link to 5. Support the Community: Putting the Collective Before yourself and donʼt be too friendly 6. Provide Value Above All: Gaining Trust and Attention and be a good user statistically 7. Be natural and always demonstrate Integrity AND......To help you with the 1st step.........a little guidance; So what makes a good name? Here are 6 main characteristics: 1. It's easy to remember. 2. It's easy to spell. 3. It requires no explanation. 4. It describes your business category. 5. It describes your benefit. 6. It describes your difference. ISSUE ONE: 08/09 www.warrenknight.co.uk 8
  • 9. Once you have built your profile and you are ready take your first steps, having a strategy before you start your campaign is very important. Social Media Strategy • Set it to build the social media foundation for all other social media efforts, so what tools are going to be used and how are you going to use them? • Set a short and medium term goals for your campaign, so you grow and learn and then analyse and target. • Include specific objectives, strategies, tactics, and metrics i.e. social media for pr/marketing/sales/product development • Integrate into existing marketing efforts for your company • Clear analysis of your target audience • Seeking to solve client/customer pain • Map and plan out your allocation for resources through research • Provide and creating content as instead of looking for immediate results from a community • Focused more on longer term ROI/impact, not just a financial metric but building and strengthening a brand Once you have the Strategy in place you can now start your campaign Social Media Campaign • Shorter term: • run your campaign before your product or service is launched • promote products/events/services which usually takes around 1-3 months (can be longer) • Build upon audience research with data collected from the strategy • Build upon the tools being used for the strategy • Promote the campaign through channels identified in the strategy • Looking to drive a specific targeted response? • Increase page views • Increase sales for a new product • Look at shorter term ROI (Return on Investment) and impact • Looking at the financial return and the short term impact • Not looking at the brand as a whole ISSUE ONE: 08/09 www.warrenknight.co.uk 9
  • 10. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES So letʼs take a look at just a few of the 100ʼs of networking sites, go through some simple set-up procedures and how they these sites can both work for and against you. www.LinkedIn.com has over 43 million members in over 200 countries and territories around the world and executives from all Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn members. LinkedIn is an interconnected network of experienced professionals from around the world, representing 170 industries and 200 countries. You can find, be introduced to, and collaborate with qualified professionals that you need to work with to accomplish your goals. www.Ecademy.com is a Business Social Network founded in 1998 now with millions of users of the site each year worldwide. Ecademy enables business people to connect through online networking using social media tools, at business networking events and 1-2-1 meetings - a community that advocates, connects and helps one another. Using the tools and resources that Ecademy has developed, a small business can quickly and effectively find the right kind of people it needs to grow. Ecademy allows you to search and attract the exact people you would like to meet 24 hours a day from your office or home. www.Facebook.com Build your profile based on the true person or persona you want for your business, for example, if you are displaying photos of you that indicate drunkenness or a wild character, this may not build confidence in the potential customer. It depends on your service! You can also get yourself a Facebook user name, which will give you a special Vanity url (web address) for people find it easier connect with you. www.facebook.com/username Start a Group and invite your network to join. Groups help to further promote brand presence, share news/events with their community and stimulate relevant discussion all in one spot. A prime example of an organisation leveraging Facebook Groups is Contiki - through their group they share brochures, the trip/video of the week, contests, and polls to their 37,000+ members. Note that a group is only visible to Facebook subscribers and allows you to send bulk messages. Set up a Fan Page and get all your friends and friends of friends to join. Pages are generally better for long-term relationships with your fans, readers or customers and can grow quicker. Coca Cola now has over 3,500,000 fans ISSUE ONE: 08/09 www.warrenknight.co.uk 10
  • 11. and believe it or not this was not set up by Coca cola but by a fan. Wow the power of Social media just gave Coca Cola their cheapest ever marketing campaign …FREE Facebook new ads platform teaches you how to advertise on Facebook. So what is the advantage of advertising on Facebook? Your ads are more targeted. For example you can target 30-50 year olds in a particular city who are engaged. This makes your ads to be more targeted and you will probably get a better ROI. I have included an in depth how-to guide at Appendix A for your convenience. Here are a few more: www.MySpace.com comes in a close second. Mostly because they're so big that they have a lot to offer. The MySpace music and MySpace video sections are my favourite MySpace options. Like Facebook, MySpace has a new MyAds service, anyone can launch an ad campaign on News Corp's social network for as little as $25. MySpace Music lets you add music to your MySpace profile of artists from all around the world. Add your own music to this large collection of music and let other people add your music to their MySpace profiles. www.Hi5.com offers a lot of options for a social networking site that doesn't get a lot of mention. Like MySpace, Hi5 also has a large database of videos you can add to your profile. Add your own videos to the database and show them off on your Hi5 profile. If you have your own music you can add that too and share it with others. www.43things.com If you have things you need to get done, but need social help getting it done, then 43 Things just may be what you need. Need to lose weight? Find a date? Learn a language? Create a budget? Anything you need to do, other people need to do too. At 43 Things you'll get support from other people just like you who also need to do the same things you need to do. Just sign up to join a group, or create your own group. www.Twitter.com (Microblogging) Create an account, it only takes minutes and itʼs free to join. Simply complete a profile, including uploading a picture. Link the newly created account to your web page, or instant messenger program, which allows the user to receive ISSUE ONE: 08/09 www.warrenknight.co.uk 11
  • 12. and send messages to and from others. An update that is sent to friends is called a “tweet." The concept of Twitter relies on messaging services, it allows the user to send messages to a potential target market quickly and easily. Twitter only asks one question, “What are you doing?” As long as an answer is 140 characters or less, it is possible for thousands of people to see the answer immediately. To give your profile and brand a better presence, here are a few websites that will help your profile look and feel more professional, build targeted followers and allow you to connect with your target market. Dell have achieved great financial success making $3 Millions but on the flip side Habitat got it so wrong and instead of talking about furniture, they used the Iranian Election as a way to grow followers using #Hastags and were forced to publicly apologise. Here are some Twitter- focused websites: www.Mytweetspace.com allows you to add a picture, have a cool background, add a more extensive profile including your web address. www.Tweetlater.com allows you to send a direct personal message to any individual wanting to follow you . www.Twollo.com allows you to follow your target audience by what they are talking about and then automatically follows them. www.Tweetdeck.com is a great application as it allows you to see your twitter account and your Facebook account and who is saying what at the same time can update both accounts at once instead of you having to write it twice. www.Vidtwitter.com allows you to upload and play videos in your account There are over 100 Twitter related companies that offer you anylatics, applications, widgets, plug-ins, multi-manage accounts, fun, mobile phone updates. Please contact me if wish to receive them www.warrenknight.co.uk Here are a few more Microblogging websites: www.Pownce.com recently launched a micro-blogging platform with added functionality. On top of messaging, users can quickly and easily share links, files, or events with any or all of his/her contacts. www.Tumblr.com is a very clean, slick micro-blogging platform. Its focus is on simplicity and elegance. Similar to Pownce, users can share a variety of things, including text, photos, quotes, links, chats, or even videos. ISSUE ONE: 08/09 www.warrenknight.co.uk 12
  • 13. www.Jaiku.com is considered by many to be Twitter's closest competitor. Most features and functions are similar. It will be interesting to see how the company plans to emerge from the shadow of its main rival. Do you know what blogging is? For the best platform, try WordPress: www.wordpress.org is a free, open-source publishing platform, which is used by hundreds of thousands of people around the world to create blogs. Traditionally, and most often, WordPress is used as the foundation on which to build, and publish a blog to display to the world. Some of the most infamous blogs on the planet use WordPress to convey their message, such as The New York Times and CNN. It allows you to easily create a complex blog, or web-log, on your site and offers administrative tools along with sophisticated design features that make it easy to develop and integrate a personal or professional blog on your site. Members can customize their page with the use of free themes and latest features, making it modern and individual. Having a blog can prove beneficial to your business, as you are consistently providing fresh content for potential customers to find in search engines. It also demonstrates that your company is passionate about what it does and reassures visitors that real people are backing the business. Publishing thoughts in a blog will not only help to earn a business customers but give it a competitive edge in your industry of expertise. Have a good reason to blog, is it to build traffic to your website, become an expert and let the world know, earn money or talk about your niche market www.articlemarketingautomation.com is a tool created by Daniel Turner and Marc Lindsay. Based on the age old concept of article marketing but with a new twist, what Article Marketing Automation does is simple: You write an article and it submits the articles to blogs. The blogs are in general focused on a topic or niche: say travel or security systems. So your travel article becomes a blog post a on a blog which is all about: travel. A major player in aiding you to publish videos and promote them on other sites like Facebook and Twitter, is YouTube: www.YouTube.com YouTube has had over 5 Billion views and is a video sharing website on which you can upload and share videos. Three former PayPal employees created YouTube in February 2005. In November 2006, YouTube, LLC was bought by Google Inc. for $1.65 billion, and is now operated as a subsidiary of Google. ISSUE ONE: 08/09 www.warrenknight.co.uk 13
  • 14. Will It Blend? is a viral marketing campaign consisting of a series of infomercials demonstrating the Blendtec line of blenders, especially the Total Blender. In the show, Tom Dickson, the Blendtec founder, attempts to blend various items in order to show off the power of his blender. Dickson started this marketing campaign after attempting a blending exercise with a box of matches. One of the most famous is an iphone. As of June 21, 2009, the Blendtec series of videos had collected a total of 83,238,033 views (an average of 967,884 views per video), so you can image what it has done for his business. Here are a few statistics and other video sharing websites: www.YouTube.com * 62 million monthly unique visits www.Dailymotion.com * 48 million monthly unique visits www.Metacafe.com * 27 million monthly unique visits www.Imeem.com * 21 million monthly unique visits www.Tubemogul.com is an online video analytics and distribution company serving publishers large and small who need independent information about video performance on the Internet and automated upload to the Web's top video sharing sites. This just about covers the top 3 strategies that are working for small businesses, that are in the public domain, and being discussed thousands of times everyday. 1. Social Media, 2. Video Marketing 3. Blogging NOW however, there is a new medium that has exploded on the internet over the last few years; Social Bookmarking. Social bookmarking is a way for Internet users to rank and store websites, blogs, articles, videos and other types of website content. It is also a way for people who make money from websites, blogs, and affiliate marketing programs to increase their visibility and earnings. Social bookmarking sites are particularly popular among people with affiliate marketing programs because such sites are a free and effective way to get backlinks and drive traffic to websites and blogs. If you have been thinking about promoting your websites, blogs or affiliate marketing programs through social bookmarking sites, this guide will help you get started. ISSUE ONE: 08/09 www.warrenknight.co.uk 14
  • 15. How to Use Social Bookmarking Sites First off, you need to find a social bookmarking site and register as a user. If you participate in affiliate marketing programs, your best bet is to choose one of the more popular sites, such as Digg, Del.icio.us, Reddit or StumbleUpon. These social bookmarking sites have the most traffic and allow you to submit and bookmark websites and blogs. The next step is to get used to the site. To make the most of social bookmarking, you need to make sure that there are other users besides yourself who will be interested in your website content. Different social bookmarking sites have different types of users. Finding a site that works with your niche rather than against it is a must. Finally, pay special attention to the blogs, websites, and articles that are bookmarked the most and ranked the highest. This will give you an idea of what people like to see. Knowing your audience is essential, particularly if you are promoting affiliate marketing programs or niche-specific blogs. Here are a few of the top Social Bookmarking sites to use: www.Digg.com Digg is the most popular and notable of the social bookmarking sites. Quantcast estimates that that Digg has about 25 million unique visitors a month. The audience is predominantly male (65%), between 25-34 years of age, with a household income between 30k and 100k. Diggʼs demographics have changed as it has become more popular (mainstream). Not too long ago the Digg profile was male, under 25 who made less than 30k a year. Social media topics that do well on Digg include interesting photos, anything anti- Microsoft and lists (top 10, etc). www.Propeller.com Propeller (formerly Netscape) is comfortably the second biggest social bookmarking site behind Digg with over 5.8 million monthly uniques, of which 3.6 million (62%) are in the U.S. Netscape also attracts a male biased audience (54) , that is slightly older (45-54 is biggest age group), and 55% of Propeller.com visitors have an household income over $60k. www.StumbleUpon Stumbleupon.com reports over 4.5 million members and Quantcast classifies it as a top 5,000 site that has about 1.5 million unique visitors a month from the U.S. The audience is male biased (56%) and between the ages of 45-54 (22% of visitors). The older demographic also skews the household income with 51% of visitors having a household income of over $60k. www.Reddit.com Reddit is becoming a very popular social bookmarking site with about 1.2 million unique visitors in the U.S., making it slightly larger than Del.icio.us. ISSUE ONE: 08/09 www.warrenknight.co.uk 15
  • 16. Reddit attracts a predominantly male (57%) audience that is between the ages of 35-44 (25%). With 65% of the audience having a household income of between $30 and $100k, Reddit is a mainstream social networking site. As a result, political, environmental, business and entertainment news does well with this audience. www.Del.icio.us Del.icio.us is the oldest social bookmarking site and Quantcast classifies it as a top 5,000 site that gets about 1.1 million unique visitors a month from the U.S. The audience is male (53%) and about 47% of them are over 45. Similar to StumbleUpon, 51% of visitors having a household income of over $60k. I hope now you have a better understanding about Social Media websites and how they can be used to enhance your business. Now letʼs put all this information into practise but before we do this, you must ask yourself; “How ready am I to convert all of this information into qualified paying customers?” While Iʼm on the subject of adding value and giving information, one of the techniques that I will be discussing shortly is to conduct Webinars. Web conferencing is used to conduct live meetings or presentations via the Internet. In a web conference, each participant sits at his or her own computer and is connected to other participants via the internet. This can be either a downloaded application on each of the attendees' computers or a web-based application where the attendees may enter a URL (website address) to enter the conference. www.gotomeeting.com and www.gotowebinar.com are 2 companies, which offer a quick set-up and are very cost effective. RSS Feed - (most commonly translated as "Really Simple Syndication" but sometimes "Rich Site Summary") is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardised format. This is a great way to gather information for you to share with your target audience by finding companies and individualsʼ information that you feel will add value to your target audience. By clicking on this image on their website, you can decide how you then want to view this information on a daily basis. ISSUE ONE: 08/09 www.warrenknight.co.uk 16
  • 17. THE JOURNEY So you now have clarity around your profile, youʼve decided upon your strategy and campaign. Youʼve signed up to all of the relevant social media websites, after doing your research for your target market (based on your niche) and so itʼs time to begin. Connecting with the audience. Deliver great content and always be creative by understanding your audience and by being consistent. Consistency is the key to people wanting to know more, so make a decision around when and for how long you are going to give time to each social media website and how many times you send out a newsletter, broadcasts etc even if its once a month …be consistent. Feedback can be a great source of information for you, on both a positive and negative level. I often test my audience by making mistakes to get interaction and to let them know Iʼm only human. It also helps me to know that what Iʼm doing is right and to find out how much they are enjoying my content. Webinars are a great source of information for you to learn, and for you to educate, deliver great content and offer your services or product, and by JV “Joint Venturing” and setting up “Affiliates” with other experts and products in your field. You can add greater value and gain an excellent source of new followers that you can turn into subscribers by obtaining their contact details and once these details have been captured, they are then in your sales funnel. Recording a quick 4 to 5 minute video, and embedding it into your blog, then talking about it through your chosen social media websites is an excellent method of informing people about your webinar and allows your community to share the link with their community. Donʼt try to be an expert on everything, be a reporter and at the end of the short video, drive them to the place where they can see the expert. The “Webinar” can be promoted via an affiliate link. By naming the video the same as your blog, 9 times out of 10 your blog post will get indexed by Google on the same day. Support your community by sharing their information within your own community and put them before yourself. This way they reciprocate and become your voice. This is a great way of gaining trust and loyalty and by gaining their attention, you build their interest, which gets their desire to know more, and then you can take action. The aim is to convert your followers to people on your database via opting in to free reports or ebooks or signing up to your newsletters. ISSUE ONE: 08/09 www.warrenknight.co.uk 17
  • 18. Make sure you track and measure all of your various methods of communicating and that way if something is not working, you can change it. If it is working, simply keep going and celebrate! A big mistake many individuals make is by offering information in large quantities. We are all very busy and the more quality you can add in a short period of time, the more chance you have of people wanting to listen. TEST CASES I would like to share with you 2 test cases, so you get a better understanding of how 2 products using the same techniques to very different audiences, both achieved great success. www.cheekybeach.com Luxury swimwear for D-J cup. Target audience? Well I will leave that up to your imagination. Setting up a profile, fan page and group on Facebook is a great idea, as you can offer special loyalty discount codes for them to purchase from your website. Twitter is OK but a better use of time has been spent connecting with the high end social media sites, like ʻA Small Worldʼ, ʻDecayenneʼ, ʻQubeʼ (by Quintessentially), along with ʻNikki Beachʼ who have their own online community where you can start discussion. ʻKnickers Weeklyʼ also offer this. So as you can see by doing your homework, understanding your target audience you can connect with the right person at the right time to buy. www.TheFulvicAcidCompany.com The Fulvic Acid Company provides human, plant and animal health products based around organic ingredients called Fulvic Acid. Setting up a profile, fan page and group on Facebook is a great idea, as you can offer special loyalty discount codes for them to purchase from your website. YouTube has been a great method for Video testimonials and TV appearances for people talking about how taking this product has made a difference to them, their pets, garden what ever it may be. Twitter has been an excellent source of information sharing, community building and ultimately sales globally. Peter Gouge an expert nutritionist and co- founder, blogs and gets into conversations on forums in ISSUE ONE: 08/09 www.warrenknight.co.uk 18
  • 19. various communities by adding value and sharing his knowledge. He can also be seen doing talks up and down the country sharing his passion for a chemical free environment. Having a profile on LinkedIn, changents.com, BT Tradespace has also been a real benefit. Thank you for purchasing this ebook and I would like to give you 5 last tips to help you on your Social Media for Business journey Top 5 Social Media tips 1. When writing/compiling your tips, ask yourself this question: “Why should I care?” When you ask this question you will find that it will help you come up with tips that are different, of interest and valuable. 2. The best top tips are based on an angle or advice that none of your competitors can come close to matching or knowing, what do you know about your industry or market that they donʼt? 3. Avoid general tips and general titles- ex: Top Five Steps to Create a Business Plan (boring) OR Top Five Ways to Create a Business Plan in 1 Hour or Less! 4. Keep the subject line or the title short and catchy. Ask yourself this question - “Would I read or open this?” 5. Keep your tips down to one page, no more than 2 sentences per tip, the shorter, the better, you can always elaborate for the media and turn it into an article. 6. BONUS TIP- Publish these tips on your blog and link back from your postings on social networking sites to your blog. You never know who will read them! It never fails, every time that I post top five tips, I get a media outlet or blog that wants to pick it up, share or publish. The appendices that now follow are additional tips to promote your profile or business on each of the 3 top social media platforms, on a step by step basis. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn ISSUE ONE: 08/09 www.warrenknight.co.uk 19
  • 20. APPENDIX A Build your Profile on Facebook 1. Know your audience Too many people are sharing information with the wrong audiences. Your manager doesnʼt want to know if you just went to the bathroom and, although your parents would love to eavesdrop on your relationship with your girlfriend or boyfriend, you might not want to share those details. Since our lives are starting to converge more and more every day, you need to decide what audiences you want to connect with on Facebook. Do you want to use Facebook as a communication stream to your family and friends? Are you looking to network with professionals that could help you get a job? These are questions you need to start asking yourself before you add “friends” to your Facebook profile. If you decide to open it up to the masses, then you need to be mindful of what you share and how that could impact peopleʼs perception of you. Remember, you can limit what select users can see on your profile, just by changing your settings, which weʼll discuss more below. 2. Decide on your branding strategy Everyone should have a Facebook branding strategy and it should be based not only on the audience youʼre targeting, but your overall life goals. Depending on who you are, where you are in your career, what youʼre passionate about and an expert in, youʼll want to brand yourself differently. If you havenʼt signed up for Facebook, then you have a great opportunity to start fresh and to build your Facebook profile to best represent you. If youʼre a current Facebook user, then start analysing how your brand is being portrayed and take steps to customise it to reflect your branding strategy. If you donʼt want to build a branding empire, a strategy should still be extremely important to you; youʼre already branded and that brand can help shape perceptions online to portray you in a positive light and help you secure a good reputation. This means choosing what links and media you share in your news stream to add value to your brand and those youʼre friends with. 3. Set your privacy settings Depending on your Facebook goals, you may set your entire account to private or grant certain individuals permission to view sections of your profile. You can also make your entire profile public for the world to see, which could be beneficial to you if youʼre looking to become more visible in your industry and will result in your profile ranking high for your name in search. ISSUE ONE: 08/09 www.warrenknight.co.uk 20
  • 21. I recommend turning tagging settings off for both photos and pictures so that you can take control of your Facebook wall. You wouldnʼt want your friends tagging you in a picture of you doing something stupid, would you? 4. Fill out your profile completely Facebook is a great platform where you can paint a picture of who you are. When filling out the information fields, be sure to focus on the education and work section, where you can reconnect with fellow alumni from college, or past colleagues that might be able to help you get a job. Also, in the contact information field, be sure to list your blog, any websites you might own and links to your profiles on other social networks. Since hiring managerʼs use Facebookʼs search engine to find candidates, it pays to load up your profile with keywords that they can search against. Depending on your Facebook brand strategy, youʼll want to promote more information in certain fields like your contact information and less in other fields. 5. Import contacts and grow your network Each month, you should go through the process of importing your contacts from your email accounts and your instant messenger screen name accounts. This will help you continue to grow your Facebook network as youʼre meeting new people through your other channels. If you have a blog, itʼs also a smart idea to use Facebook Connect. By having Facebook Connect on your blog, you can bring your friends with you and promote your content through social interactions that start on your blog and end up on Facebook. 6. Update your status Updating your status on Facebook allows you to project a single message to a large audience. Your status is a reflection of who you are and what you do. You can update your status with press mentions, your latest blog entry, a new project youʼre working on or your interest in a particular job. Based on your branding strategy, youʼll want to update your status to either keep people informed about what youʼre up to, push them to your content or both. 7. Start a group or a page Facebook groups have fewer features than Facebook pages, but they are still important. Use a Facebook group to bring people together in your industry, become a valuable contributor to that community and market your blog, your product, or yourself! Facebook groups let you share links, videos, photos, and start discussions. Facebook pages are for brands, ranging from Coca Cola to Barack Obama and even you. These pages resemble your Facebook profiles, so only use one if you have a large number of Facebook friends. By having a Facebook page, your brand can go viral, holding a spot on other peopleʼs profiles. The ISSUE ONE: 08/09 www.warrenknight.co.uk 21
  • 22. other main advantage is that your page will rank high for your name in Google (Google) and you can use it for your professional career, while keeping your personal profile private. 8. Join or start an event in your area One of the best aspects of Facebook is that you can get involved in your community by joining or starting an event in your industry. By opening up your event to everyone, you can meet new people and discover other people who have shared interest and can support your career. Events can also be catalogued on your Facebook page. If youʼre looking to start a weekly or monthly event and want to keep a calendar, logging it on a page is a good strategy. By starting an event, youʼre positioning yourself as a leader and an expert, which is great for your personal brand. 9. Link out to your Facebook profile You might already have a blog and accounts on other social networks, including Twitter (Twitter), LinkedIn (LinkedIn), FriendFeed (FriendFeed), Technorati, etc. If you do and your Facebook strategy is to promote yourself and remain public, then placing a link (and possibly a Facebook icon) on these other sites to your Facebook profile is a great idea. As the chief marketing officer for your personal brand, you want to build your friend list, so that you have more people to market to now and in the future. Think of your Facebook profile as a digital asset and grow the equity in that asset over the rest of your life. 10. Feed your social networks Simply RSS your image by using Ping.fm (Ping.Fm), you can update your status on Facebook, as well as many other social networks in an instant, without duplicating your efforts. Also, you can import your blog titles in Facebook using notes or by using an application called Simple RSS. Not only does this make you more productive, but it appears as though youʼre contributing to your community, without you having to think about it. Since Facebook is all about sharing, those that share more will be remembered more, which is great for personal branding. ISSUE ONE: 08/09 www.warrenknight.co.uk 22
  • 23. APPENDIX B Build your Profile on Twitter 1. Claim your Twitter handle Prime domain names, especially those ending in “.com,” have long been desirable, hard to find and extremely expensive. By not reserving your domain name, your business or personal brand is at risk and you may never be able to reclaim it once youʼve lost it. With Twitter continuing its meteoric rise in popularity, itʼs no surprise that Twitter account names are starting to be treated like domain names. What happens when you donʼt claim your Twitter handle? • Jack Canfield, founder and CEO of Chicken Soup for the Soul Enterprises, had to take a different user name because he didnʼt act quickly enough to secure his full name (he has @J_Canfield, not @JackCanfield). Stop what youʼre doing right now and claim the Twitter handle for your full name, as well as any products and/or companies that you currently own or you have plans to create in the future. You canʼt truly own your personal brand if you donʼt even own your Twitter handle. 2. Decide how you want to brand yourself Before you start actively using Twitter, you need a strategy, and the first step in developing that strategy is to completely fill out your user profile. One of the goals of having a Twitter account is to gain followers and few people want to follow an account that doesnʼt look legitimate (i.e. the profile hasnʼt been filled out and thereʼs no avatar). Take a good look at your other websites and profiles and draft a Twitter bio to match the rest of your online branding. This is how people will find you and recognise you now and in the future, so be honest. Donʼt brand yourself as an expert unless you already are one. Do brand yourself based on your passions and skill set. Twitter image Once you have everything filled out, you should spend some time focusing on your Twitter background, which gives you an opportunity to extend your brand image onto Twitter and create a more cohesive experience for your followers. There are many sites that you can use to help you develop a custom background, such as Twitpaper (Twitpaper) and Twitterimage. ISSUE ONE: 08/09 www.warrenknight.co.uk 23
  • 24. I recommend creating a Twitter background that resemble the colours, format and logo from your personal or corporate website. When you create your background, add in additional information that isnʼt covered in your Twitter profile, such as pointers to more websites, contact information, or information about products or services you sell. Three techniques for branding yourself on Twitter: 1. Lead with your company: Pete Cashmore puts his company (Mashable (Mashable)) ahead of himself on Twitter by using @Mashable as the account name, but uses his personal avatar and bio. This is a smart approach for Pete because he wants to build his companyʼs brand, while associating his own name with this successful property. This also gives Mashable a face and a personality to go with it. 2. Mutual branding: More and more companies are realising that their employees are on Twitter and that they can be tapped to help promote their initiatives. Some of these Twitter accounts are mutually branded, so that the avatar has the personʼs picture and the corporate logo. Two examples are Kodakʼs Jennifer Cisney (@kodakCB) and Allison and Mike from CareerBuilderʼs PR team (@CareerBuilderPR). 3. 100% personal branding: If youʼre trying to build a strong personal brand, then focus your Twitter handle, avatar and bio information 100% on you, instead of your company. 3. Become known as an expert or resource Essentially, Twitter is a shorter and more viral form of blogging, so the same rules actually still apply, and by constantly writing or tweeting about your expertise on a specific topic, youʼll become known for it and people will gravitate to you and follow you. If you already have a blog, and then I recommend using Twitterfeed, so you can syndicate your posts on Twitter automatically. Google alert image For many people, Twitter has become a filter. Trusted experts are relied upon to send their followers interesting and relevant links. You can subscribe to blogs and keywords using Google.com/alerts, and then act as an arbiter for your topic, constantly pushing out the best content. Do you want to become known as a personal finance enthusiast? What about a search engine marketing consultant? The best thing you can do for your brand on Twitter is to take your current interests and activities and establish a feed on Twitter to deliver that content to your audience again and again. ISSUE ONE: 08/09 www.warrenknight.co.uk 24
  • 25. If you are an expert in your field, then have Q & sessions, where you answer questions from your followers. The more you tweet about the topic you want to be known for, the more people will remember you and when they need your expertise, they will contact you. Itʼs that simple! 4. Establish a Twitter marketing plan Just like with any other website or blog, just because you build it, doesnʼt necessarily mean people will come. You should have a marketing plan in place to acquire new followers. Elements of Twitter marketing plan: • Email signature: You probably already place your blog or website URL and contact information in your email signature so why not add your Twitter handle? Itʼs free promotion and every email you send can turn into a new follower. • Personal/corporate website: If you already have a website for you and/or your company, then you have a platform on which you can promote your Twitter address to people who will probably be interested in following you. • Blog homepage + posts: Your blog is a great place to promote your Twitter account because most people who read blogs know what Twitter is. You should take a two pronged approach. First, put your Twitter addresses in one of your sidebars and second, promote it discretely in posts every once in a while. • Email newsletter: If you have an email newsletter, you can write about Twitter and link to your profile or put it at the bottom of your template, so that each email has a link to your account. • Presentations: Do you do any public speaking? Why not include your Twitter account on the last slide of your presentation and tell people that they can follow you on Twitter? • Business Card: Try including your Twitter handle on your business card. Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, did this with his card. • Article writing / guest blog posting: Whenever you write an article for a magazine, news website or guest post on a blog, try to include your Twitter handle in your byline. • Networking on Twitter: By using the “@” symbol and either retweeting or communicating with other people, youʼll have some of them responding to you, thus promoting your Twitter account to many of their followers. ISSUE ONE: 08/09 www.warrenknight.co.uk 25
  • 26. • Promotional products: Some people take Twitter promotion to the next level: Ted Murphy, for example, created custom Twitter shirts that have your Twitter handle. Just like with any social network or blog, the more people who follow you, the easier it is to grow your already existing community. Retweets and following other people are two essential ways to get new followers. However, content is king on Twitter, so it is vital to make sure you produce consistent, quality tweets. 5. Utilise third-party applications There are literally thousands of Twitter applications out there, but only a few that can really help you build your personal brand. The apps below will help you stay in touch with your industry; find people you can network with, save you precious time, and push out your content. Note: If you have additional Twitter applications that aid in personal brand building to recommend, please tell us about them in the comment section. Twellow image • Twellow (Twellow): Find people in your industry to follow and connect with using this Twitter yellow pages guide. You can find more Twitter directories here. • Tweetbeep: Keep track of your brand reputation by getting alerts through email when your brand is mentioned on Twitter. • Tweetmeme: Put a button on your blog that allows your readers to more easily retweet your posts. • Hashdictionary: Keep track of conversations that include hashtags on Twitter. • Ping.fm (Ping.Fm): Save time by sending messages to all of your social networks at once. • Twitter Grader: A site that ranks your influence in the Twitter world based on an algorithm. You can see where you stand in your town, city, state or country, as well. • Tweetlater: Schedule tweets so that they are published automatically in the future. Itʼs a real time saver. ISSUE ONE: 08/09 www.warrenknight.co.uk 26
  • 27. 6. Form a Twitter “Mastermind Group” As you may suspect, certain groups of people on Twitter constantly promote and retweet each other. Some of them are in what are called “mastermind groups” — groups of individuals who are committed to helping each other and sharing knowledge amongst themselves. They are communities of supportive colleagues who seek to mutually help each other become more successful. On Twitter, by finding people who share your interests, youʼre able to help each other out and cross-promote. There are a few Twitter applications that help you form these special interest groups. Group applications: Grouptweet image • Grouptweet: This app lets users create groups and broadcast messages to each other via direct messages sent to the groupʼs Twitter account. • Twitter Groups: This site allows you to tag your followers and place them into different groups. You can then send messages to those groups without needing to send them to each person individually. ISSUE ONE: 08/09 www.warrenknight.co.uk 27
  • 28. APPENDIX C Build Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn Whether youʼre a job seeker, consultant, entrepreneur or happily employed, LinkedIn can be an incredible asset for your career. You can connect to over 43 million professionals in over 200 countries around the world. LinkedIn is not just a virtual resume that should be tucked away for a rainy day. Instead it acts as a resume, cover letter, references document, database of your contacts throughout your life and a place where you can learn, share and interact in a professional manner. The following four steps, will help you build a powerful brand on LinkedIn so that you attract jobs youʼre passionate about, while fostering a network that can support your career moving forward. 1. Brand your profile Your LinkedIn profile needs to be absolutely flawless, since youʼll be judged harshly by recruiters who are analysing you to see if you fit their corporate needs. That means no spelling or grammatical errors and it should be completely filled out, leaving no experience or details out. Think of your profile as an asset and as a portrait of you as a professional who someone would want to possibly hire for a newly available job. How to brand your profile Custom URL: Your LinkedIn URL should appear as “http://linkedin.com/in/yourfullname.” If it doesnʼt, youʼre missing a vital opportunity to have your profile rank higher in Google (Google) and to make it easier for people to find you. To do this, go to your profile and click “edit” and then next to where it says “public profile,” click “edit” again. At the top, youʼll want to click “edit” one more time next to “your public profile URL,” and then type in your full name, without spacing, and click “set address.” If the unique URL is taken, then try using a period between your first and last name or use your middle initial. Headline: Your headline will automatically be displayed as the last job youʼve had, unless you change it manually. I recommend that you brand yourself for the job you want, not the one you have! This means that you should revise your headline so instead of “Marketing Specialist for Toyota,” it could be “Internet Marketing Expert for Fortune 500 Companies.” This way, youʼre positioning yourself for a future potential job, while leaving your current job within your LinkedIn profile. Summary: Your summary should include a brief paragraph summarising your work experience, especially work experience that is relevant for the job you want. Feel free to spice this section up with your unique abilities and differentiates, such as industry awards and honours. In the second paragraph, you should define your career aspirations. ISSUE ONE: 08/09 www.warrenknight.co.uk 28
  • 29. Experience: Donʼt just list the past few jobs youʼve had. I recommend that you put every single job youʼve had that is still related to either your current position or the job you are searching for. The easiest way to complete this section is to copy and paste the bullets from your traditional resume. Keywords: You should flood your entire LinkedIn profile with keywords because recruiters and other individuals will be using LinkedIn as a talent search engine. By selecting a few keywords that are also found in your headline, and sprinkling them throughout your profile, you will rank higher for those terms when someone conducts a LinkedIn “people search.” If you show up first or second, then you may get the opportunity over everyone else. Wordpress LinkedIn app Applications: If you have a blog, then you should definitely use either the “WordPress (WordPress)” or “Blog Link” (Typepad (TypePad).com) applications. With this integration, youʼre able to show people your thoughts, feelings and emotions on top of a more traditional resume format. List only your past two or three blog posts so you donʼt overwhelm the reader. Another application that you may want to try is the “Slideshare Presentations” application to showcase how you compile information, your formatting and creative skills to employers who may glance at it. Finally, the “Box.net Files” application can be leveraged to allow employers to download your portfolio of work. Websites: LinkedIn gives you the ability to list up to three website links. I would recommend that you select your blog, any web pages you own, your company and possibly your Twitter profile link. Instead of leaving each title (for each link) as “My Website,” you should change them to the actual title of each of your links, so that the link can be associated with the URL. This will help optimise your profile and drive Google PageRank to your other web properties. Recommendations: Many people argue if LinkedIn recommendations are legitimate, especially because they typically come from your trusted network of friends and colleagues. The truth is that they are very significant because when a recruiter searches for talent, they will view and identify profiles that have the “thumbs up” graphic next to them. If you donʼt have a “thumbs up” graphic, that means that you havenʼt been recommended and if you do and youʼve been recommended several times, there will be a number next to it. If two candidates for the same job had the same background and skills, yet one had twenty recommendations, whom would you choose? Exactly! Recommendations can come from colleagues, teachers, managers and even celebrities. ISSUE ONE: 08/09 www.warrenknight.co.uk 29
  • 30. 2. Develop your network Now that you have a compelling and immaculate profile, itʼs time to start developing your network. A LinkedIn network is all about your professional network graph. That means that your first, second and third degree contacts are visible and can help you with career opportunities. The more first degree contacts you have, the more second and third you will gain, which is why I recommend that you accept everyone as a contact. You never know when someone can help you! How to develop your network LinkedIn import contacts Import your contacts: If youʼre brand new to LinkedIn or you want to start building your network, without having to search for people, you should use the import function. LinkedIn allows you to important contacts from Windows Live, Hotmail, Gmail (Gmail), Yahoo! and AOL. You can also search through your college or workplace and add people youʼve worked with or have gone to school with. Be open and available: A huge part of LinkedIn is itʼs messaging system and by being available and open to accepting contact requests and continuing conversations, it will help you build relationships. Leave your email address: People cannot add you to their network without your email address, so you should either leave your email address at the end of the summary area or put it in the contact field and label it public. Promote your URL: Take your distinct URL and put it in your email signature, on your traditional resume, on your blog (with an optional icon graphic), your website, your presentations, and possibly on your business card. Update your status: Donʼt worry, you donʼt have to update “yet another” status bar with a message. Try using Ping.fm (Ping.Fm) or hellotxt.com to push your status to all of your social networks at once. Make sure that your LinkedIn status message is extremely professional because the audience is more career minded people and hiring managers. 3. Position yourself as a leader Now that you have a remarkable profile and youʼve developed a sizeable network, itʼs time for you to become a leader on LinkedIn. This professional network allows you to do a few key things that will help you gain followers, attention and, possibly, a new job. ISSUE ONE: 08/09 www.warrenknight.co.uk 30
  • 31. How to position yourself as a leader LinkedIn groups image Start a group: Groups are extremely powerful assets for your brand. Instead of starting a group based around your company, if you have one, do it around the topic you want to “own.” Decide whether you want to localise it (Group Name, Boston) or make it international, allowing anyone to join. By starting a group on LinkedIn, youʼre automatically portraying yourself as a leader. You should invite your current contacts to your group, especially after analysing their profiles to see if they would be interested. You should also promote the group on Facebook, Twitter and your blog to gain an initial base of members. After a few months of delivering news content, helpful articles and seeding it with discussions, you will see (just like any other community) that it will grow based on member activity. Another important strategy is to syndicate your blog through LinkedIn; youʼd be surprised how much traffic you can get from it. I still am! Start an event: LinkedIn events are strictly for professional interests or for conferences. By starting your own networking event, you can easily promote it to your current LinkedIn audience, as well as your second and third degree contacts. Itʼs a great way to become a known connector and leader in your niche. LinkedIn questions image Ask and answer questions: If someone in your network asks a question pertaining to an area that you have knowledge in, you should answer it. By participating in these types of discussions, whether youʼre asking or answering them, you are perceived as a valuable contributor to your network and someone to go to if people need help. 4. Leverage LinkedIn as part of your unified brand strategy When it comes to your personal brand, LinkedIn is only one piece of the puzzle. Youʼll want to supplement LinkedIn with profiles on Facebook and Twitter, in addition to your own blog or website and profiles on industry specific social networks. Your LinkedIn profile should be consistent with your online presence, which means you, should be using the same avatar, your full name and your personal branding statement. As you grow your brand over time, make sure that your LinkedIn profile is updated with your latest job information and experience. If youʼre looking for a job right now, toss away your traditional resume, click on “PDF” on your LinkedIn profile and print it out for your interview. This, in effect, displays more of who you are in a different format than recruiters are used to, so you stand out. Decide how much time you want to invest in LinkedIn, as opposed to your other online assets. LinkedIn requires less upkeep, but to leverage it to the ISSUE ONE: 08/09 www.warrenknight.co.uk 31
  • 32. best of your ability, you will have to put your time in. By building your personal brand on LinkedIn, youʼll be where people are searching and youʼll have access to those who can help build your brand now and in the future. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To all the Internet guruʼs that have been so kind, to share their expert opinion and to Mashable for being a real time source of information. The content of this e-book has been constructed by using the tools and techniques of 2 individuals who have learned their formula for success through study and experience. We learned our trade through many other teachers and individuals and we have included some of their work for you to appreciate. They have been duly recognised at each point. Thank you for choosing this document, which we hope, will bring you much success. WHO ARE THE AUTHORS? Warren Knight, with nearly 2 decades of selling in to over 40 countries and having consulted for the likes of Disney and Nickelodeon products selling globally, achieving sales of $1 Million in 1 month. I designed this ebook with you in mind to offer you the best opportunity to being a success when navigating your way through your business growth with Social Media. For more information about me, please visit www.WarrenKnight.com Andrea N Smart, has injected some interesting research into this project, and has brought forth over 10 years of specialist knowledge and experience in Marketing the companies she has worked for, as well as now, her own. In addition to Marketing, Andrea is an accomplished Writer, Copywriter, Newsletter Editor and Proofreader. The flow has been created by Andrea who has a particular warmth and style that we hope you have found enjoyable and easy to read and digest. The typeset and content of this e-book aims to create a worthy and exciting strategy for everyone. ISSUE ONE: 08/09 www.warrenknight.co.uk 32
  • 33. CONTACT DETAILS Reach Warren Knight at: warren@warrenknight.co.uk Reach Andrea Smart at: andrea@howtogrowglobally.com Further information on additional business guides is available from: www.warrenknight.co.uk ADDITIONAL PRODUCTS Further information on additional business guides is available from: www.warrenknight.co.uk Available to Purchase: • Business Start Up (ebook Guide) • Open to Close - Proven sales strategy (ebook Guide) • Sales - Strategies, Training and Seminars • Mentoring Program (Telephone or Face to Face options available) • Consultancy - A process tailored to your needs ISSUE ONE: 08/09 www.warrenknight.co.uk 33