Linkedin is becoming more popular every day… it’s the business persons social media site and I know many of you have profiles over there… but do you really know how to use Linkedin for business…properly and with good etiquette?

In this post we are going to list in a very simple and structured way, the top 7 Do’s and the top 7 Don’ts of how to use Linkedin the right way, to benefit your exposure and your business.

LinkedIn Marketing & Etiquette : 7 Things You Must Do…

1. Personalize your connection requests – Default messages are impersonal and can be a tad annoying to some people. Get personal with your requests for better results. LinkedIn marketing only works if you do it right.

2. Have a profile picture – this is common sense right? I personally won’t connect with anyone who doesn’t have a profile picture. I want to connect with other professionals. A slew of images come to my mind in regards to those who don’t bother to show themselves … I won’t mention them.

3. Personalize your recommendation requests – for the same reasons. If you want recommendations back then get up close and personal. Show others you mean business and that you are not playing.

4. Keep it professional at all time – there are other social media sites more tolerant of games and romance…keep it professional on Linkedin if you want to benefit from it.

5. Turn off notifications when updating your profile – this applies more to multiple updates in a day. Let’s not make it annoying for people. If you find yourself making a lot of changes then turn off the notifications you don’t want to blast people.

6. Send a welcome message – one that provides value. You will get their attention and you will brand yourself as a serious person that is professional and courteous.

7. Nurture relationships – regularly. Creating and maintaining relationships is the name of the game. That’s what it’s all about. Continual communication is what sticks in people’s minds. Brand yourself through repitition…but always keep it business, professional, and valuable!

7 Things You Must NOT Do…

1. Don’t send spammy messages to your contacts – It’s the worst thing you can do in any Social Media platform. No “here’s my link buy my stuff” or any variation of… that’s cause for instant removal…and you will get removed. Your LinkedIN marketing should not be abusive or intrusive. Leave that for the amateurs.

2. Don’t over-post – multiple posts daily may not be the best way. Any more than one you better make sure it’s some darn good content.

3. Don’t ask people you don’t know for recommendations – it’s just lame and looks desperate. Instead concentrate on posting high value content and you’ll get the recommendations.

4. Don’t comment negatively in groups – or anywhere for that matter… it’s whiny and pathetic and no one likes whiny.

5. Do not post self-serving content in groups – groups are not for spamming your business…groups are for conversation, ideas, thoughts, input, asking questions, and providing answers. The goal of the content is to provide value and help. Are you seeing a pattern yet… value, value, value.

6. Don’t ask people to like your facebook page – again… lame! You shouldn’t even do that on Facebook… post your content and if it’s good content with value people will like the page simply because they like the page.

7. Don’t ask new connections or people you don’t know to endorse you – they don’t know you why would they endorse you. Introduce yourself instead and provide some good content… you’ll get your endorsements. Endorse others and they will endorse you back.

So …there you have it. LinkedIn marketing can be hugely beneficial if you treat it and your connections as you would want to be treated. With respect. Use common sense, be polite, provide good content and solutions to problems that people in your target niche may have, and you’ll be just fine. You’ll learn and fine tune as you go. These are general tips and techniques but if you follow them you’ll be looked at as a responsible and a professional marketer.

by Brett Gurney

Striving for Excellence

P.S. Stay tuned for more Internet Marketing Tips & Techniques and guides to building the brand of YOU.

P.P.S. If you find this information valuable please subscribe to get future posts delivered to your email, and please leave us a comment…thanks!

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In this blog post we are going to go over some techniques for branding yourself on the internet and for expanding your digital footprint.

I always make it a point, or a part of my regular routine, to scan  the internet in search of good content that I can learn from and that I can teach. The information i’m sharing with you today is a result of that searching around, and it’s loading with great pointers for expanding or growing your digital footprint…good stuff.

I don’t do all of these YET.. a good percentage I do, but not all of them yet. Something to mention, you do not have to be an expert at anything to be successful with internet marketing. You can simply learn and teach as you go….teach what you learn and you will become known as a trusted advisor…something a lot of people are looking for. It’s also ok to teach what you are not doing yet, but that you are researching with all intent to get started with….simply pass on good information that others are publishing…become a curator of knowledge and information.

They suggest we start with the easy one, so here they go:

• Comment on Relevent Blogs – This is easy and it leads to exposure and backlinks

• Get an About.Me Account – A fill in the blank exercise that creates a pile of links pointing back to you

• Microblog Often and consistently – Use Social Media for Microblogging and do it often…there are many but have a least Twittter, Linkedin, Goolgle+, and Facebook

• Be A Picture Publisher – You take pictures so publish them…at least the ones that are relevent to your business or a resulting lifestyle from your business… This creates more exposure for you. There are many but do these Pinterest, Instragram, Tumblr, Flickr

The following are more advanced:

• Make Video’s – Don’t like making video’s? …. get a Youtube channel and get over it.

• Do Picture Shows – I’ve heard of slideShare and it’s on my list of ToDo’s. It sounds like a great digital footprint expander

• Squidoo – Create a Squidoo “lens” for greater exposure.

• List.ly – A home for lists and your posts become interactive and optimized

• Curate Professionally – I do a lot of this and I love it… I use Scoop.It, but there’s also RebelMouse, Twylah, and Paper.li

• Get Graphic – Infographics are hot… I’ve learned there are some DIY’ers that we can use Piktochart, Easel.ly, Infogra.m, and Visual.ly

• Do eNews – Permission based email marketing via Newsletter

Here’s for high achievers:

• Guest Blog – Start with your own and work towards guest publishing. Here’s the steps… blog brilliantly, go where there are no gates, apply yourself, beat down doors, publish and pray (don’t worry we will expand on this in future articles)

• Webcast – Webinars, Podcasts, Video Programs… working up to these myself.

• Get Interviewed – Scary, but massively separating yourself from all the amateurs… hopefully on my way

• Make Books – I haven’t done this yet, but it’s in my brain and it’s something I know I can do. There’s free ebooks and purchasable books. Let’s start with free and work up shall we.

Advertising:

• Adwords – expand your search success, get everywhere, and learn and improve

• Retarget – have to investigate this and see what it’s all about.

Positioning yourself to get lucky: How? … by doing a lot of this:

• Bookmark Sites – don’t know a lot about them but from what i understand they are not dead. Think Stumble Upon, Reddit, Digg, Delicious, and more

• Feeds – RSS Feeds… tools that push your content to readers that want it or sprinkle it automatically across social networks

• Groups – good old fashioned networking….something I’ve never done. Meetups, SVForum, Foreigners .. maybe someday

Yes…pretty vague I know but not to worry…this is going to be fun…so much content here to expand upon. So watch for coming articles breaking all this down as we learn more about how to expand our digital footprint.

by Brett Gurney

Striving for Excellence

P.S. Stay tuned for more Internet Marketing Tips & Techniques and guides to building the brand of YOU.

P.P.S. If you find this information valuable please subscribe to get future posts delivered to your email, and please leave us a comment…thanks!

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Are you spreading your message far and wide on Social Media?

Are you aware of the many ways to do this?

Social Media Diversification can help you grow your business and in this post we are going to share with you how you can benefit.

This will be a series. Today we will touch on Instagram and LinkedIn.

As you know Facebook has been the Social Media King for years… the almighty… but is their dominance starting to crack? They remain popular because everyone’s friends and family hang out there, but the marketers are getting frustrated over all the changes of the rules of engagement and content layout.

And so although according to a recent study they continue to be the favorite, trends towards multiple platforms are taking hold. 42% of online adults now use two or more social networks. Some are beginning  to feel diversification is the answer, and other sites are quickly developing a unique user base (teenagers on Snapchat, women on Pinterest, business executives on LinkedIn, etc.).

Social media diversification cannot hurt, and some say it’s the answer to a better more thorough use of time and resources. Getting the message out to a wider audience is the name of the game.

Instagram – Big Time Loyalty

Instragram is becoming a player. Stats show an incredibly high user engagement rate, especially when compared to facebook. More than half use it on a daily basis, while close to 35% do so multiple times daily. That’s huge for a smaller site and the usage is growing. So because of this high user engagement rate, they are being noticed by brand marketers. Marketers need images that wow consumers, and they need to create a strong relationship with a loyal following. Here’s some Instagram tips for seeing that happens.

• Choose photos that bring out the “feel and lifestyle” of your brand.

• Choose hashtags that are unique, simple and relevant to your brand. Avoid blending too many words into one hashtag (Instagram users love simplicity).

• Add captions that lend humor, wit and context to your photos.

• Link photos to your product pages to encourage consumers to go directly to your store or site.

• Reward your followers for viewing and sharing your pictures with a discount or a promotional code.

LinkedIn – Still Dominates The Higher Income Crowd

LinkedIn usage continues to be dominated by the higher income earners and college graduates, and has a high percentage of 50-64 year-olds. But smaller time marketers are now finding their way to the site. It’s well known as a place for business people to network, show off their expertise, and secure new business.

LinkedIn is a place to be taken seriously… here are some good tips:

• Start using LinkedIn’s sponsored updates. They are useful because they appear directly in a user’s news feed rather than on the sidebar, making for better interaction.

• Sponsored updates also have the same options as regular updates, such as like, share and comment. This will also create more engagement.

• Consider a company page and targeted updates. Targeted updates go out to a targeted LinkedIn audience, not to all of your followers like a regular update will do. You can tailor to the audience that is relevent to the message.

Women Spend More Time on Social Media—but not on Facebook

Women’s participation on social media is becoming more popular but surprisingly not on Facebook. They trend more towards blogs, Pinterest, and Instagram. It seems that although women are big on friends and family, they may be even bigger on coupons, promotions, and shopping deals. So it seems they mix those things together into one feed. The best way to intereact might be to humanize your brand along with a social presence.

Social channels feed off of each other and  Social Media diversification can expand your message reach with big potential to get more clients and sales. With some playing around and some practice you can leverage your activities into a well received brand across the board.

So get that message out there…get active, diversify, mix it up, and take advantage of all that the internet and social media have to offer.

by Brett Gurney

Striving for Excellence

P.S. Stay tuned for more Internet Marketing Tips & Techniques and guides to building the brand of YOU.

P.P.S. If you find this information valuable please subscribe to get future posts delivered to your email, and please leave us a comment…thanks!

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The post Social Media Diversification Can Widen Your Target Audience appeared first on Internet Marketing For Beginners.

Are you spreading your message far and wide on multiple Social Media channels?

Are you aware of the many ways to do this?

Social Media Diversification can help you grow your business and in this post we are going to share with you how you can benefit.

This will be a series. Today we will touch on Instagram and LinkedIn

As you know Facebook has been the Social Media king for years… the almighty… but is their dominance starting to crack? They remain popular because everyone’s friends and family hang out there, but the marketers are getting frustrated over all the changes of the rules of engagement and content layout.

And so although according to a recent study they continue to be the favorite, trends towards multiple platforms are taking hold. 42% of online adults now use two or more social networks. Some are beginning  to feel diversification is the answer, and other sites are quickly developing a unique user base (teenagers on Snapchat, women on Pinterest, business executives on LinkedIn, etc.).

Social media diversification cannot hurt, and some say it’s the answer to a better more thorough use of time and resources. Getting the message out to a wider audience is the name of the game.

Instagram – Big Time Loyalty

Instragram is becoming a player. Stats show an incredibly high user engagement rate, especially when compared to facebook. More than half use it on a daily basis, while close to 35% do so multiple times daily. That’s huge for a smaller site and the usage is growing. So because of this high user engagement rate, they are being noticed by brand marketers. Marketers need images that wow consumers, and they need to create a strong relationship with a loyal following. Here’s some Instagram tips for seeing that happens.

• Choose photos that bring out the “feel and lifestyle” of your brand.

• Choose hashtags that are unique, simple and relevant to your brand. Avoid blending too many words into one hashtag (Instagram users love simplicity).

• Add captions that lend humor, wit and context to your photos.

• Link photos to your product pages to encourage consumers to go directly to your store or site.

• Reward your followers for viewing and sharing your pictures with a discount or a promotional code.

LinkedIn – Still Dominates The Higher Income Crowd

LinkedIn usage continues to be dominated by the higher income earners and college graduates, and has a high percentage of 50-64 year-olds. But smaller time marketers are now finding their way to the site. It’s well known as a place for business people to network, show off their expertise, and secure new business.

LinkedIn is a place to be taken seriously… here are some good tips:

• Start using LinkedIn’s sponsored updates. They are useful because they appear directly in a user’s news feed rather than on the sidebar, making for better interaction.

• Sponsored updates also have the same options as regular updates, such as like, share and comment. This will also create more engagement.

• Consider a company page and targeted updates. Targeted updates go out to a targeted LinkedIn audience, not to all of your followers like a regular update will do. You can tailor to the audience that is relevent to the message.

Women Spend More Time on Social Media—but not on Facebook

Women’s participation on social media is becoming more popular but surprisingly not on Facebook. They trend more towards blogs, Pinterest, and Instagram. It seems that although women are big on friends and family, they may be even bigger on coupons, promotions, and shopping deals. They tend to mix those things together into one feed. The best way to interact might be to humanize your brand along with a social presence.

Social channels feed off of each other and  social media diversification can expand your message reach with big potential to get more clients and sales. With some playing around and some practice you can leverage your activities into a well received brand across the board.

by Brett Gurney

Striving for Excellence

P.S. Stay tuned for more Internet Marketing Tips & Techniques and guides to building the brand of YOU.

P.P.S. If you find this information valuable please subscribe to get future posts delivered to your email, and please leave us a comment…thanks!

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The post Social Media Diversification Will Expand Your Message Reach appeared first on Internet Marketing For Beginners.

Have you ever wondered if social networking sites were important to your business building efforts?

Do you think they are a waste of your time?

In this post we are going to give you the real facts…

Times are changing fast in the online and internet marketing world. What worked last year or last month may not work so well today. This puts everyone on a level playing field, and those who learn the new techniques will fare the best. So if you are thinking that because you once knew how to get ranked then there is nothing more to learn, or if you believe social media sites are a waste of time, think again because Google’s new indexing system says different.

Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Linkedin, Pinterest, and all the others now have a place in the “what matters” category. If you have been saying “it’s a waste of time”, or “who wants to sit around and chat all day”, or i just don’t get it” ….then it’s time to get it. No business owner or marketer wants to sit around and chat all day, but if you want to be where the action is…where there are more prospects for any biz than you know what to do with…then you need to “get it”

Social media content – videos, images, stories, ads and as well blogs, are now all being indexed by google. Those who are not utilizing these platforms are missing out on tons of free promotion for their businesses by being ranked higher at search engines. The more good quality content you have the better indexed you will be and it should not be overlooked or downplayed. The better indexed you are the easier it will be for your potential customers and prospects to find you. The more links TO your site (called backlinks), the more popular your site is viewed by search engines, especially if those links come from what are deemed as high-profile (authority ) sites. So you see we simply tie it all together.

So here is what you need to do immediately if you have not yet.

– Get a Google account and get it set up. Don’t skip things on your profile make sure all your important links are there.

– Start making as many connections as possible on the most popular social networking sites. You don’t have to become an expert at all of them right away, that can all come later…just get started.

– Participate – Don’t just scan and read … like and comment instead. Join in on conversations and engage with others. Become a participant and get yourself out there. Create a page for your business and start inviting your connections.

– If you have customers encourage them to follow you via your social networks. They will appreciate the quality content you’re putting out.

– Get business cards and include your main social networking information on your cards. Give as many away as your can…. get the word out you are expanding your network.

– Include your social networking information and links on as many promotions as you can, online or off. Make it a habit so it becomes part of your routine to always leave your social footprints everywhere you go.

– Everywhere you network include a link BACK to your website – this is CRITICAL.

When doing searches, social results will always be clearly marked as such on Google’s SERPs (Search Engine Results Page). The returns will be accompanied by a heading “results from your social circle”. For traditional Search Engine Optimization (SEO), it is just one more thing to compete with as far as website property. That’s why social networking is a much more of an important part of search than ever. Get on board now, Google will be announcing more changes to their new indexing system, so make the most of this information now.

The post Social Networking Sites for Business – If You Think it’s a Waste of Time Think Again appeared first on Internet Marketing For Beginners.

Do you know the difference between Affiliate Marketing and Network Marketing, sometimes referred to as Multi-level Marketing?

Are you unsure which is best for you?

We love the Network Marketing industry..and we are fans of Affiliate Marketing as well. There are differences to point out for those that don’t know, so they can make a more informed decision.

In this article we are going to give you the benefits, and some pointers, about Affiliate Marketing.

The goal of all your marketing efforts is to get your prospects to give you their contact information. Affiliate program owners are great at this… they know all the programming, coding, and system development necessary to put duplication in place for their affiliates. Everything is done online and it can get extremely intricate and detailed so they have to be pro’s to make it work.

The number one benefit of Affiliate Marketing – most of the work is done for you….all you have to do is drive traffic to the affiliate offer. There’s a product, marketing pieces, customer support, and a follow up system. All the heavy lifting is done…you just come in and generate traffic. If you don’t know how to generate traffic, well it’s only one thing to learn…perfect especially for the beginner. You don’t have to worry about a website, a squeeze page, the sales funnel, writing letters, or any of that stuff. You just learn traffic generation.

Choose one traffic method, be it Facebook, Pinterest, Youtube, Twitter, Linkedin, Craigs List, Solo Ads, Mailers, Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per Click, etc. and study the heck out of it. Get good at it. Become an expert at that one thing before adding another. This way you are not overwhelmed, or bouncing all over the place. I’ve talked about this before… it leads to business frustration, which leads to quitting.

Network Marketing Companies are not Affiliate Marketers. They don’t set up good online systems, with sophisticated tracking and coding like Affiliate Marketers do. Most of network marketing is designed to be sold face to face. This is why much of their marketing training (if there is any at all) is focused on what some might consider antiquated methods such as approaching all your warm market, making lists of one hundred people you knew throughout your life, and the three foot rule, the elevator speech, and scripts of what to say to people. But if you are someone that wants to learn internet marketing… using the internet to generate leads and drive traffic to your offers, and eventually creating your own products to sell, then Affiliate Marketing might be best for you.

The Renegade Network Marketer System and Daily Marketing Coach are perfect examples…they have an intricate system developed by Affiliate Marketing programming that does all the work for you. You just share the product. So you see we monetize on the front end and sell products on the back end. There are plenty of other good examples… just as there are plenty of good Network Marketing companies. In the near future we will review some of these as well.

Thanks,

Brett Gurney

Striving for Excellence

P.S. Stay tuned for more Internet Marketing Tips & Techniques and guides to building the brand of YOU.

P.P.S. If you find this information valuable please subscribe to get future posts delivered to your email, and please leave us a comment…thanks!

The post Affiliate Marketing – Is It Right For You? appeared first on Internet Marketing For Beginners.