May
1
Social Media Sites List
Filed Under Favorite Posts, Search Engines, Social Media and Social Networking Sites | 1 Comment
Seth Godin’s Web 2.0 Traffic Watch List
My interest in social media has evolved substantially over the past year.
My love for online social networking and social networking sites is not something new, but my love for blogging and appreciation for social bookmarking, content sharing and article submission sites certainly are.
Through my conference calls I now provide social media marketing training in addition to seminars on search engine marketing and using social networking sites.
As I mentioned in my recent post, Social Networking Site Catalog, “I launched this blog to share my passion for online social networking and my experiences at social networking sites. I never intended to assemble a catalog. There are already too many good ones out there.”
One of the world’s top marketers and author of marketing books, Seth Godin, provides a catalog of 952 top social media sites, Seth Godin’s Web 2.0 Traffic Watch List. It will help you know what’s hot and what’s not.
Here are the top ten as I write this post.
- youtube.com
- myspace.com
- orkut.com
- en.wikipedia.org
- ebay.com
- facebook.com
- fotolog.com
- flickr.com
- friendster.com
- photobucket.com
Put content in the right places, and you will attract other users and search engines like a magnet. If you’re into marketing, that’s exactly what you want.
For more about social media marketing come to my tele-seminars and consider joining Diane Hochman and me at My Private Classroom for Marketers. We’ll help you, but rather than spoon feed you, we’ll “teach you how to fish”.
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May
1
Zion 5 Alert
Filed Under Alerts, News, Social Media and Social Networking Sites | 3 Comments
One of the social networking sites I’ve used recently is Zion 5.
I’m writing this post to let you know that the site’s founder Darren Merrett did not pay me my Pro commission for March despite several attempts to contact him late April.
I think it’s fine to use the site as a free member or even as a Pro Member as long as you don’t care about your commissions.
If there are new developments, I will let you know.
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Apr
28
Social Networking Site Catalog
Filed Under Favorite Posts, Social Media and Social Networking Sites | 3 Comments
Mashable Catalog of Social Networking Sites
I launched this blog to share my passion for online social networking and my experiences at social networking sites. I never intended to assemble a catalog. There are already too many good ones out there.
Consider the Mashable list of 350+ social networking sites arranged by category with a brief description of each site. It’s very well done.
Or consider the Go2Web20 complete Web 2.0 social media directory. What an undertaking!
I will from time to time point you to such lists and meta-sites to stimulate your interest and facilitate your research.
You can also find helpful information and resources on the sidebar of this blog.
I will continue to focus on writing thought-provoking articles and sharing my ideas about social media marketing, social networking sites and personal development.
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Apr
24
Don’t Follow the Flock
Filed Under Favorite Posts, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Personal Development and Success, Social Media and Social Networking Sites | 2 Comments
Tonight Diane Hochman speaking on a free My Private Classroom webinar revealed the top seven Internet screw-ups of the average marketer.
My favorite was following the flock.
Facebook is hot. Very hot. There are scores of top networkers on the Facebook scene.
Is that where you want to be? Do you want to follow the flock to Facebook in the hope of successfully competing with some of the world’s greatest networkers?
You might be successful. But instead, why not carve out a niche for yourself somewhere else? There are hundreds of social networking sites. Why not lead the flock instead of following?
Whenever everybody zigs, be a leader and zag. If they zag, you zig.
Diane made a number of other excellent points. Then she summed up her insightful and inspiring talk with the following advice. Above all, you should use common sense and be yourself.
For an invitation to the next free My Private Classroom webinar, complete the subscription form on my Social Networking Project site devoted to online social networking and social media marketing training.
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Apr
23
What is Wowzza?
From my perspective Wowzza is thousands of networkers running around like chickens with their heads cut off — quite a messy sight — or should I say site?
The situation became so messy that site founder Jim Vigilante felt compelled to axe the site’s top feature, sending direct messages to all contacts in one fell swoop. Members were bombarded by spam in their in-boxes and the latest greatest pre-launches. Something had to be done. Now members are limited to 50 bulk mail messages per day.
Incidentally Wowzza is extremely slow, but I’m sure that this problem will eventually be addressed and corrected.
Let me remind you of my earlier post, Online Social Networking Entering New Phase, in which I said, “Use social networking sites to network, to make new friends, to make new business contacts, and to make deals. Do not use them only to get paid by them. If you want to make money, doing business through these sites has much more potential than creating income streams from the sites themselves.”
I also said, “Join, use and refer people to sites that you enjoy, that offer the services you want, and that attract the types of people you wish to network with.
“Do not join sites because you are impressed by their hyped-up revenue sharing plan. Avoid paid membership sites unless they are the only ones that provide the services you require and attract the clientele you seek.”
Since I believe that there’s nothing particularly unique about Wowzza, I’m not going to pay $32.95 for the privilege of getting other people to do the same, just to make a buck.
In case you’re not already receiving enough spam or you’re desperate to get information on the pre-launch du jour, Wowzza may be just the social networking site for you.
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Apr
15
Online Social Networking: Quantity vs. Quality
Filed Under Favorite Posts, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Social Media and Social Networking Sites | 3 Comments
On April 4 in Building a List with Online Social Networking I discussed the role of online social networking in permission-based marketing.
When you add a friend at one of the social networking sites, you are adding that person to your list, and at the same time you’re adding yourself to his or her list. It’s reciprocal list building.
You’ll readily agree that a tiny list is not likely to get you far. Right?
You must build a large list. But how large? And do you focus on quantity or quality?
Whether you have 100 or 500 or 5,000 people on your friends list, you aren’t going to be able to have a regular intimate dialog with all of them. So why opt for smaller rather than larger?
In Stan Relihan’s interview with Ron Bates, the most connected networker on LinkedIn with around 40,000 direct connections, Ron answers the question quite succinctly. He says that “there is quality in quantity”.
In other words, the larger your list, the more people there will be who are just the ones you’re looking to meet. Some relationships will remain superficial while others will become strong friendships.
Ron also discusses the importance in business today of what he refers to as an “additive online presence”. Before somebody does business with you they’re likely to Google you to see what comes up. That’s your online presence. Each place you network, post an article or bookmark a site adds to that presence. This you may recall is a subject we touched on last month in Social Networking Sites: Your Web Presence and is frequently discussed at My Private Classroom for Marketers.
I encourage you to listen to Stan’s interview with Ron Bates and Stan’s other online social networking podcasts. You’ll find loads of gems.
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Apr
12
Online Social Networking at Wowzza
Filed Under News, Social Media and Social Networking Sites | 4 Comments
My tongue in cheek April Fools post Alphabet Wars was right on. Owners of social networking sites are increasingly facing tough naming choices that strain the 26-letter alphabet.
One of the newest players on the online social networking scene is Wowzza. The name tells us little more than that perhaps somebody’s keyboard tends to stick on the letter z. Why another social networking site? What’s different about this site?
Wowzza is an exclusive members-only site, not a free social networking site like MySpace, Facebook or Yuwie. All members are premium members.
Founder Jim Vigilante’s aim is to attract serious marketers and entrepreneurs. Jim is also playing up the referral income potential of Wowzza’s 3×9 forced matrix payout.
In an upcoming post I’ll explain why I am not networking at Wowzza.
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Apr
6
Social Media Marketing Training
Filed Under Favorite Posts, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Search Engines, Social Media and Social Networking Sites | 2 Comments
My Private Classroom for Marketers
For the past two years I have been showing people how to use social networking sites to make new friends and build their permission based marketing lists. Some of my conference calls are recorded and archived on my social media marketing training site.
I have helped many marketers to get started in online social networking and have received positive feedback from them.
In November I started blogging.
As I was optimizing my blog for the search engines, not only did I become interested in seo, I developed equal interest in social bookmarking and social media marketing. There are many hundreds of social media sites. Some of my favorites that include Digg, Qassia, StumbleUpon and Twitter are listed on my blog’s sidebar.
I mentioned one morning to my friend Tom Long that I was looking to learn more about social media sites. He suggested that I look into My Private Classroom for Marketers. I followed his advice and became part of My Private Classroom that very day.
My Private Classroom has scores of webinars every month on many different aspects of social media marketing. While most training is for members only, they also offer free social media training.
What attracted me most to MPC however was their expertise and classes in video marketing. They teach members how to create and edit videos, as well as how to distribute and promote them through YouTube and other video sites.
I made my first video a couple of weeks ago which you can find in my post, Social Networking vs. Advertising. It’s a “quickie” video. There’s no actual video in the video.
In order to become a member of My Private Classroom, I needed to join Leaders Club. Leaders Club sells leads, but I don’t use leads. Purchased leads don’t work very well. I only wanted access to the classes that are free to My Private Classroom’s Leaders Club Team. I joined Leaders Club as a training only member, and that was my entrée into MPC.
I attended about ten webinars since joining and enjoyed them all. The best ones for me were the ones about video. Another favorite was a live demonstration of MySpace networking.
I look forward to conducting webinars for My Private Classroom, perhaps as soon as May. I would like to teach about keywords and keyword research. Perhaps I will also teach about blogging and how to network online with other bloggers.
Several people have joined My Private Classroom through me, and I am personally mentoring them to help accelerate their learning.
New technology is changing the way we market every day, and I believe that leaders at My Private Classroom are acutely aware of this. They are doing an excellent job keeping abreast of the latest developments in the Web 2.0 social media platform and in mobile technology.
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Apr
4
Building a List with Online Social Networking
Filed Under Favorite Posts, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Social Media and Social Networking Sites, communication | Leave a Comment
List building today isn’t the exclusive domain of autoresponders.
Sure, a reliable autoresponder is still a vital tool if you’re marketing on the Internet. However, online social networking and friend lists ought to weigh more heavily in your permission based marketing strategy.
I started realizing this in 2006 when I first joined MySpace. I noticed how much richer and more effective the two-way communication of social networking sites was than the ongoing monologue associated with e-mail marketing.
I always encourage my e-mail contacts to write me back, but few actually do. And I never learn enough about them, unless of course they choose to join me on MySpace, Facebook, Yuwie or one of the other online networking venues I frequent.
There is another big reason to incorporate online social networking in your online marketing repertoire.
Consider the ease with which you can add thousands of friends on MySpace compared to the cost and difficulty of building your autoresponder list. Whether you use one of the “friend adders” and risk suspension of your profile by the networking site owner, or whether you add friends manually, it’s still much more straightforward to build a permission based marketing list through social networking than it is using more conventional opt-in list building techniques.
I myself do both. I add new subscribers to my autoresponders on a regular basis and simultaneously add new contacts to my friend lists on LinkedIn, MySpace and Yuwie. I have a good reason for doing so.
Not withstanding my previous remarks, it’s easier for me to broadcast a message on demand to my opt-in list than it is to my social networking friends.
Most people check their e-mail at least once a day. If they want to hear from me, they will.
If I post a bulletin on MySpace they can easily miss it. I have to post it several times each day to keep it “on top”. And if they don’t log in, or even worse, if they’ve abandoned their profile, they won’t see the message at all.
So why should you put all your eggs in one basket? Diversify. E-mail people and contact them through multiple sites and through multiple channels on each site to maximize your message delivery and response rate.
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Apr
1
Narrowing Blog Focus
Filed Under Announcements, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Personal Development and Success, Search Engines, Social Media and Social Networking Sites, communication | 2 Comments
After much consideration and discussion with my friend Janice Weinberg, I have decided to limit the scope of this blog to online social networking, social media, and personal development.
There are other places to promote her site and her book. Keeping a narrow focus will better serve my readers and help the search engines.
I appreciate your readership and support. I encourage your participation. Sincere comments will be rewarded with a follow-link back to your website.
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Mar
24
Social Networking vs. Advertising
Filed Under Favorite Posts, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Social Media and Social Networking Sites | 8 Comments
I just made my first video, a replay of my August 8, 2007 conference call.
It’s too long to upload to YouTube, so I uploaded it to Google. I learned how to make the video in My Private Classroom for Marketers.
It’s all about offline and online social networking, and about how networking differs from advertising. Hope you like it!
I recommend looking and listening, especially if you’ve ever used Direct Matches or any of the other social networking sites. Without further ado, here’s my video.
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Mar
18
Social Networking Sites: Your Web Presence
Filed Under Networking and Marketing Strategy, Social Media and Social Networking Sites, blogging | 3 Comments
Google™ Larry Brauner and you’ll find several pages of entries that pertain to me. A dozen entries or so link to profile pages in various social networking sites. Several of them link to pages in this blog.
In a recent post I listed ”web presence” as one of the Top Reasons Why I Blog. Blogging is a marvelous way to build a web presence.
What about online social networking?
We think of social networking sites as places to meet, network and communicate with people. This is true.
But consider this: Online social networking sites are hosts to personal profiles. These profiles showcase you to fellow networkers, and at the same time they build your Internet presence, Web 2.0 social media style.
You are able to join a practically unlimited number of social networking sites and post your profile. Many of them will let you link to your blog or other favorite website. Post a profile that “brands” you. Do not post blatant advertisements.
I close with a note of caution: Don’t try networking actively on more than one or two social networking sites. You’ll spread yourself too thin and fail to develop the credibility and key relationships you’re looking for.
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