Social networking is a catch all term meaning any collection of people who create an online space for themselves and communicate.  Many people believe the concept itself sprang up from the invention of a University student in America who designed a network whereby he and his peers could better communicate with one another at university, which is now Facebook. 

Anything from the mundane to the bizarre it seems can become part of this growing internet social networking list.  New groups spring up and sink daily giving it a transient nature.

However the most interesting thing about this phenomenon is not what is being communicated as such, but once again how the internet has developed a new way of doing things.  Its how people are communicating and finding each other through this phenomenon that makes it interesting, not what they say when they get there. 

From the early days of discussion boards, chat rooms, forums and then developing into blogs and now social networking, the internet has always been about pushing the boundaries of how we communicate with one another.  As we know the internet is always about the next big thing so if you are not part of a group that is on this growing social networking list you are not at the forefront of the internet’s expanding parameters.

Paul Palmer

How do you manage your social network? I use social oomph

I didn’t really socialise much with people when I wasn’t actually with them face to face before I started twittering, but now I wouldn’t be without the online community I’m in. I used to use forums to post questions then check back each day to see if anyone had been interested enough to reply. Unfortunately it was rather time consuming and often I didn’t get what I was looking for or maybe it didn’t work.

Now I post a question in twitter using the keyword target followers I attracted using Tweet Later a free twitter tool which helps you manage multiple accounts for business purposes. Often I get a reply back within minutes and a link to a help page someone found and though I might be interested in. Not only on twitter itself I also get comments and help in Facebook and Myspace too.

Anyway back to the twitter wiki what is Twitter all about then, lets start with a little background;

Twitter was founded in March 2006 by Evan Williams, Jack Dorsey, and Biz Stone, he concept I believe primarily emanating from Dorsey’s idea of quick update on what you are doing to all your friends at once. In 2006 Williams and Biz Stone co-founded Obvious Corp along with other former Odeo employees. Twitter was created as a separate company in April 2007 by Obvious Corp. Jack Dorsey was chief executive officer of Twitter until October 2008 when Williams became CEO and Dorsey shifted to the position of chairman of the board.

Today twitter provides the same basic service as every social networking site and virtual community on line today, to connect users, and to provide a hub or common meeting place for its members to communicate on a regular basis. So why not just continue to use the same social sites and forums you have always frequented, there is no reason not to, you don’t have to switch to twitter just use it in any way that suits your particular needs.

Twitter is there to give you and your friends a means to share information and  keep up with what you’re doing in real time now. There are thousands of people online all the time so won’t your messages get lost in all the marketing hype and sales messages, not really since your friends and colleagues can subscribe to receive your updates and you theirs so you can each keep up to date with what’s going on in your daily minute by minute life.

Over the last few years, Twitter has become popular globally, it is the fastest growing free micro-blogging software that facilitates keeping in touch with your social network through quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing now, what are you thinking about what do you need to know in 140 characters or less? 

To "Tweet" is the term used to describe the status updates you post on twitter within the 140 maximum character limit. For individuals tweeting is simple just text or log in and type your updates whenever you fancy saying something out loud to the world, but to be effective in the business situation, it has to be done systematically, at a time when your customers are most likely to read what you have written even if that might be at 2am your time when they are just waking up.

For the most business professionals unfortunately, this level of commitment can be very impractical because of the time required. Fortunately, there are tools which can be used to automate the process allowing you to post your updates 24 hours a day even when you are asleep.

Personally I find a service called Tweet Later to be the best one which suits me, they recently rebranded as Social Oomph but I still prefer the original name. Its really easy to use, the interface is quite intuitive in its functionality and there is an excellent manual in the help area too. You can try it for free with a seven day trial of the full functionality of the paid version, then it reverts to the simple version more suited in my opinion to the individual user rather than corporate marketing executive or business owner. Click on the Twitter logo and have a look for your self, try it for free today and get yourself new business contacts every day who are interested in working with you.

Thats it for now for the twitter wiki, if you have any comments questions or more to add please leave me a comment I’d love to hear your opinions on the Twitter Revolution. I’ll explain more about the social oomph in another post soon.

Paul Palmer

If you are in business on line and you are not on twitter you should put micro blogging twitter on your list of thngs to do in the high priority category. Its really easy, just 140 characters per post so you don’t have to spend hours thinking about what to say, although if you repeat the same thing again and again you won’t make any close friends.

Twitter is growing, the release of the API key meant companies jumped in a developed applications to get in on the micro blogging twitter bandwagon. Twitter can be accessed easily on home computers,  mobile phones, ipods, laptops and a whole host of mobile devices which is expanding evbery day. Twitter has its own search function and has become a huge platform for sharing and researching live information.

Many large businesses and celebrities have hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter and use it to their advantage by micro blogging on twitter. They even run competitions and test the level of interest in new products with their micro blogging twitter strategy. Examples include IBM, Starbucks, Brittany Spears Oprah and many more besides.

Twitter is already a place where companies build brands, carry out market research, contact new prospective customers, attract e-commerce customers and market communities for their users. Even traditional retail businesses are being transformed by Twitter keeping their local customers informed.

Twitter users can make contact with other local users by adding approapriate keywords to their profiles and of course in their posts. Meetings are even arranged by twitter users turning virtual aquaintences into real friends.

Care must of course be taken in setting up a business campaign on Twitter direct communication with customers can be a good thing if they like what you are saying. However the community is a close one and saying the wrong thing is just as likely to turn them all against you, its very easy to unfollow someone. There are also numerous twitter tools available to manage your account and recommend to your colleagues to unfollwo someone you feel is "spamming" for example by only posting commercial links all the time.

Paul Palmer

Twitter addict

, social marketer, dancer and all round fun guy

When the student is ready the teacher will appear, have you ever thought about something so much every day that one day it just happened? A strong focus will lead you subconciously to your goal, but you have to create a subconcious drive, by reminding yourself about your goal every single day.

Anyone who has used an affirmation process will know the strength of using a positive belief system, how does it work> The mind is a wonderful thing, when the student is ready the teacher will appear, not literally, the teacher won’t land in front of you in a flash of smoke, but opportunities will be noticed, not pointed out not something that wasn’t there before but something real you could have seen before.

A good example is increasing your income, everyone wants to have the money they need to pay for their house, put food on the table and care for their family. However is that a focussed goal which one can easily aim for? It certainly is not and nor woudl it put the student, you in a position, sub-conciously, ready to find a teadcher to help you reach your goal. Only when a student is ready the teacher will appear and not until the student really believes he or she is ready.

Many of us dream of a lifestyle only achieved by the rich and famous, but how do they get there in the first place, drive and determination, good luck or just choosing the right lottery numbers. I’m sure you will agree that the rich and famous all have to work hard to get there, it’s not something which happens overnight.

You can achieve your goals, but only if you know what they are in the first place, after all if you are unaware of the direction you are going in how on earth will you manage to get there? Attempting to succeed without a goal is like getting into your car to drive to the shops and hoping you get there without actually touching the steering wheel. How many times will you crash and burn before you arrive?

Success is a journey, one which has a beginning and a goal, a destination, but not necessarily the final destination but rather steps en route

Paul Palmer

Why is it getting traffic to a site can be so difficult at times? How do people find a site online, what do you do if you want to find something new, a product you have never looked for before?

Google it maybe, or do you use another of the top search engines such as Yahoo, MSN or AOL, these are some of the routes to getting traffic to your web site too. However with the advent of Web 2.0 there are now many alternative paths real people like you and me can use to find your site.

There are numerous banner and traffic exchanges such as www.hitjb.com which for a little time and effort will help you in getting traffic to your site. They use categories to ensure that the traffic provided will be relevant to ensure that it is good quality traffic.

What is good quality traffic? If you are getting hundreds of hits but no result then you are probably getting traffic to your site which is of a poor quality. It is much better to get targeted high quality traffic to your site, but how?

It is actually much easier now than ever to get high quality targeted pre-qualified traffic to a web site. Social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook have made it easier than ever to build a tribe and bring focused, individuals who are your potential customers.

You will find a lot of advice here on my blog, and I will be publishing more so subscribe if you’d like to know how web 2.0 will help in getting traffic to your site.

Paul Palmer

Bringing you traffic in the social marketing environment

World of social marketing?

It was life Jim but not as we know it, Captain. I hope you follow Star Trek and childrens films or you will be totally lost by now.

If you talk to people and occasionally someone makes you an offer they got cheap recently and that’s why they can sell it on to you at a “steal”, then you are dabbling in the world of social marketing. That is life in the real living world where social marketing is about selling to your friends, Avon for example, you make friends, have parties and sell the products from Avon.

Times change, the dinosaurs nolonger roam the earth and man can do much more than grunt these days, we are living in a world of social marketing where people we trust make us offers we just can’t refuse. Everyone hates spam so it’s no use trying to sell by bulk email campaigns using a list gather by who knows who using whatever means, it’s just not good business sense.

life of Social marketing?

It’s much better to build yourself a portfolio of friends through any or many of the social networking sites now online. Enter the world of social marketing and you will find you can sell to people you have never even met simply because you have used your social networking skills to gain their trust. Ok so you may not use the internet for chatting or sending messages, this is where I can help you gain the essential skills you need.

Sign up to the lighthouse marketing system link on the right and you can get a free course on how to enter the world of social marketing. If you don’t fancy that, try the free twitter guide its an immediate download, no pressure.

Paul Palmer

Social Marketer, strategist, always looking for new ways to fit more fun into my life, try it social networking is a great way to get to know people.

SEO based social marketing

it’s easy when you know what you are doing and so flexible you can do it any time night or day. There are numerous sites you can use and a range of courses both free and paid which you can enrol on such as the lighthouse marketing system or stompernet.

Not only are these fun sites useful to keep in touch with family and friends all over the world, when you activley build up a likeminded network of online friends, you can use your contacts for home based social marketing.

Twitter

For example twitter is a micro blogging paltform which can be used for activity based social marketing. Here you can connect with literally thousands of people every day, the idea is quite simply what are you doing now in 140 characters.

However for home based social marketing it really is an essential part of your portfolio. You can post links talk about what you are doing and ask questions. People on Twitter want to get to know you and the only way they can is through regular communication, the best part though in my opnion is its fun. Since I joined twiter I haven’t stopped twittering I like it so much, I even log on using my iPhone.

There are of course many other social sites which you can utilise for your home based social marketing escapades such as Myspace, Facebook and YouTube.

Subscibe to my blog and I will provide futher updates about many other social networking sites which you can use for your home based social marketing business.

Paul Palmer

My Wee Me

product. Fortunatley when a group of individuals work together with a common goal these two aspects work very well together.

Long gone are the times when the giant conglomerate can dominate with their huge investment in advertising now individuals can co-operate in social marketing groups to promote eachothers products through a range of online sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Myspace. There are of course very many more than just these 3 so you need a system which you can use to organise your social marketing plan and make sure you integrate all aspects to keep them co-ordinated and targetted.

To do tis I recommend the FREE  Spider Web Marketing System, if you like the idea of getting some free help with your social marketing go there now.

Free Social Marketing System

I am looking forward to the new launch of this excellent social marketing system which you can also use for free to promote your business. If you don’t think you have time to make money because you are too busy working there is a funded proposal but I would recommend giving it a go yourself for free even 5 minutes a day as its so much fun I am enjoying making money and making new friends online.

Paul Palmer

If you need help getting it set up just message me on facebook, myspace or twitter

King of Blog Platforms

which helps you promote your blog with a range of tools such as word press add ins and social marketing techniques. I have found the program really useful, it is part of the Lighthouse Marketing System led by Dave Sherwin.

When I first started I threw everything into it staying up late and social marketing all the time, adding blog posts and promoting them with Twitter and Facebook, unfortunatley I didn’t see any leads coming in and my posts were all over the place. The scope of my blog was so wide I could write about just about anything and it would still be relevant to my blog but not to the people I wanted to get to know.

This stopped me building relationships with individuals and social marketing is all about building relationships with people you make contact with in your social network. I found this was a problem and couldn’t work out what I was doing wrong. I was writing a new post virtually every day but the lack of leads when others were reportedly getting numerous leads demotivated me.

Join Today Get Paid Tomorrow

Part of the 4th Pillar program is however supported by personal coaching sessions every week, so I asked for a review of my site and social marketing techniques. I’m glad to say with the advice given I then had leads in the system within 24 hours. The problem was my topics were too divers and unrelated to the offer on my site. Targetting a specific area and focussing is certainly doing the trick for me.

I would recommend the Lighthouse Marketing Program and in particular the associated 4th Pillar Program to anyone.

Paul Palmer

When you have an optimised targetted plan social media marketing is a free way to promote your company and, or your products to thousands of people. The trust built up thoughout the network is then utilised as they help you to further spread your promotion to thousands more individuals.

When any member of your team operates a social media marketing network they also benefit from promoting your product so these are the type of people you want to recruit. The targetted approach focusses on recruiting these individuals by empathising with them.

Working together through social media marketing is like having your own marketing team all working together throughout the whole world. There are no restrictions, no barriers just people collaborating together as individuals to achieve a common goal, getting to know and helping eachother.

When building your own social media marketing netwrok it is omportant that you don’t focus purely on the marketing aspacts of your plan. It is very important to consider which sites are suitable for what you intend to promote and whether they will attract suitable clients.

For example there is no point starting a social media marketing campaign on a site where the topic is classic cars if you are looking to sell ladies lingerie, but you could utilise an adult dating site instead.

Its all about horses for courses as the old adage goes, you have to choose the right location and topic which you can form a relationship in. Then make sure you work on making friends not just selling and your social media network will grow and make you money.

Paul Palmer