Social Shaman - googling social is future of the internet

Just about everyone understands the importance of marketing themselves online these days, for those of you that don’t it may be time to step into the current century. It’s becoming a much more regular occurrence for people to begin their research online for products & services they want to purchase. Which means if you or your business doesn’t have an online presence you are missing out on being exposed to these potential customers.

After you’ve started to understand the importance of an internet presence it’s time to learn how to create or build upon one. One thing everyone should understand about creating a presence for themselves or their business online is that it does not necessarily mean you need to spend a bunch of money. There are a lot of ways you can go about creating an online presence for free.

One of the most effective ways to build an online presence for you or your business is using sites like Facebook. You can create a fan page for your business or products and services that you provide and interact with potential customers on it. It is also something that’s completely free of charge and allows you to expose yourself to millions of people that are possibly interested in what you have to provide.

Another method that’s often neglected is using the many free blogging websites out there such as wordpress.com. Just because you don’t want to write about what you do everyday doesn’t mean you can’t utilize a free blog for marketing purposes. Most of the free blogging resources available to virtually anyone are even customizable so you can do just about anything with it that you would be able to with your very own website.

There is hundreds maybe even thousands of ways to market yourself online for free and create a presence on the internet for yourself. Although it can be temping using only the free online services it’s generally a good idea to have your very own website as well. It can help to create credibility for you or your business which is huge when it comes to marketing online.

The primary reason for having a website is not just to tell people about your products and services but also to be able to sell them directly from your website. Many people have the “I want it now attitude”, myself included. If they have the opportunity to purchase something directly from your website it means you can avoid them wandering somewhere else where they can immediately purchase what they want.

There’s a lot of ways to create or build up a great online presence for you or your business. There’s a lot of free ways such as the ones we discussed and many others as well as having your own website or websites. The important part is finding a way that works best for you and building upon it, before long you’ll understand which methods that are going to work the best for you and gain the rewards from them as well.

Find out more about creating your online presence from here Matt Schollmeyer and Billings, MT web design.

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Has anyone besides me noticed that the trend of social networking sites has been to gather as many contacts as possible and then inundate them with with posts that don’t really pertain to anything they want to hear (or read) about? It is as if we are meant to believe that our networking contacts want to hear about the party we are planning for this weekend, or that our friends want to hear about our next corporate meeting.

Let’s take a look at this theory. I have an account with a popular social networking site. Let’s call it “Pace Brook”. In my contacts, I have several personal friends, my fiance, my mom, and several “networking contacts”. I go to my “wall” and in the morning and there are an average of 160 posts there waiting for me to peruse. Another of the sites to which I belong (we will call it “pwitter”), has even more “pweets”. Unless I am going to spend the better part of my day going through them all, how do I sort out what I want to read and what I don’t before starting my work day?

It’s not like I have a ton of contacts, mind you. Compared to some people that have thousands of contacts on their list, mine is quite small. I have found some contacts that I would like to add to my list, but I often decide not to. The last thing I want to do is add to the overwhelming noise that my grandfather used to call “raucous cacophony”.

The other problem is that my friends don’t really care about my latest blog post on the advantages of micro-niche marketing, and my coworkers don’t really want to hear about how Jason ended the evening with a lampshade on his head. As a matter of fact, every single post that I send out will wind up on the wall of people that care about the topic and people that don’t. The more “noise” I introduce to a segment of my contacts, the fewer of my posts to those people will get read.

I am not alone here. The more contacts you have, the smaller percentage of posts you actually read. The percentage of your contacts that actually read your posts goes down as well. Seems a bit counter productive, doesn’t it?

How about your “bio” page? Have you found yourself wanting to put something there that your friends will see, but decided not to because you don’t want EVERYBODY to see it? I would love to have different bios for different segments of my contacts. I refuse, however, to open multiple accounts for different contact groups. That just seems like too much work, but I know many who have done just that.

So what do I propose? What if I had all of my contacts categorized for me, with a separate “wall” for each category? I could choose my “friends” wall and just see the posts by my friends. I can post to my “friends” wall and only those people will see it. I could even do a search for keywords and have a list of friends pop up that match that keyword and quickly post to all or some of them. Each category would have its own bio associated with it, so only my friends could see my “friends” bio, and only my coworkers could see my “coworkers” bio. All my friends could see the pictures of me being drunk and silly, without worrying about what my coworkers might think.

The best part is that since I am only sending posts to people that I think will want to read them, more of my posts will actually get read! I can send out party invitations to my friends in San Jose, or quickly update my coworkers about a change in plans for the next meeting.

In essence, what I want is a “buzz conduit” that will direct the buzz to where I want it to go and give me just the buzz I want to hear at any given time. I want that, and I want some privacy back.

While it seems that the web 2.0 giants are not likely to do anything like this any time soon, there is a site launching that will. It will enable you, me, and everybody else that wants to to have their very own buzz conduit. It will be called buzzduit.com, and it’s being built as we speak.

Go to buzzduit.com if you want to know the second it is ready to launch. You can even send suggestions or ask question by replying to your confirmation email.

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With only 140 characters at a time, you can make millions…

Twitter. Why is it that Twitter is only 140 characters by the way? Well, because many cell phones can only text 140 characters, that’s why! Why is it that cell phones are limited to only 140 characters for texts? Because the message piggybacks on signals already being sent by the phone and it costs the cell phone company NOTHING AT ALL to send the text message! So guess what, they are charging us ten dollars per month each (or more, or less) for something that is completely free for them. Smart… infuriating, but smart.

Ok, let’s get back to business. How do I capitalize on the vast popularity of Twitter and get the millions of daily Twitter users to give me their cold hard cash? How can I monetize Twitter??

You don’t!

Monetizing means to make money directly from something with affiliate links, or adwords ads etc. Take a look around on the Twitter.com site; even Twitter doesn’t monetize Twitter!

If you are a new Twitter user, you will need to learn some of the Twitter basics regarding how things work and what it is you are seeing in your messages.

First off go to www.twitter.com and sign up for an account. I highly suggest using your business or website name, or even your real name for your Twitter user name. Don’t make it something that may be offensive, hard to remember or unprofessional if you are doing this for your business.

- You are allowed to have multiple Twitter accounts but it can be difficult enough to manage one properly so there’s no need for more?
- Upload a small image, preferably a small photo of you or your company logo. Now you are prepared to start using Twitter!

Next you will need to know more about how it works and what it is you will be seeing in the tweets of those you follow. Most of what you will see will be garbage of two distinct types: 1) Spam 2) Random worthless updates by strangers and “goodnight” messages. (Don’t waste people’s time by posting “Goodnight Twitter”… please!!)

The information you are honestly interested in seeing will not appear in your tweet stream! The messages you will see are every post made by every person that you are following. Imagine that you follow 2000 people like I do, or what about 15,000 or 25,000… how can you possibly follow all those people?

YOU CAN’T.

You’re on Twitter to get your message across, to speak to your audience, and to respond to only those messages that are actually sent to you and are not spam, but a human that is interested in speaking to you. And, in a nutshell, twitter.com is completely USELESS for doing this!

Now if you follow me, don’t get me wrong; I’m not discounting you as a person or uninterested in what you may have to say, but I can’t possibly be that involved with the thousands of people I would like to reach on a daily basis regarding camera repair. Twitter is so powerful that if I could afford to have one person do Twitter full time I would probably do it.

I use Twitter every day, and I see almost every person that tweets about a broken digital camera or digital camera repair. I wish I could message everyone, but when I try I think it looks like spamming. I would advise you to not do more than what you can comfortably handle. You are here to build relationships, not to sell.

Ok now, in your tweet stream you will see messages with different symbols, abbreviations and crazy looking links.

- The most common symbols you will see are @… (a message sent to the person after the symbol so that it shows up in their tweet stream) and the # (a subject like #photography that is searchable)
- Some of the most common abbreviations are TT (Trending Topic: something that is mentioned in many different tweets right now), DM (Direct Message: sent only to you, nobody else can see it), RT (ReTweet: somebody else posted this first and I can ReTweet it letting others know I think it’s good) and FML… I’ll leave it to you to find out what FML stands for.
- The crazy looking links have been shortened so that they take up less space. They look odd, and yes they can take you to any site without your knowledge so you must trust the person that posts it. You only have 140 characters remember, so shortened URL’s are a must.

If you want to seriously use Twitter then you will need software like Tweetdeck from www.tweetdeck.com; it’s awesome. Twitter is completely useless for any sort of business purpose if you try and use it through Twitter.com. Myself, I never actually go to Twitter.com as there’s no need to!

Download and install Tweetdeck, configure it and get it running. You will see a column for anytime you are mentioned (@ symbol before your name) and Direct Messaged (DM). Beyond these two, you can add new columns for custom searches that are automatically updated and lets you see exactly what people are saying all over the world on Twitter at all times!!

Maybe you have a dog training business online; create a search column for ‘dog training’ and you will see every single message every person tweets with the words ‘dog’ and ‘training’ in any order of the tweet. They won’t always be about ‘dog training’, (I’ve been in training for scuba diving testing… oh the dog has to go out) but most will. Now figure out other combinations of keywords or search phrases… ‘dog training’ won’t show any search results when the person says ‘training dogs’, but the search term ‘dogs training’ will becuase they don’t have to be in order. Hopefully I am able to clarify the difference!

Any time you see a relevant message about something in your area of expertise, you can follow the person that posted the tweet (you aren’t really interested in following them, but they like it and normally will follow you back) and then send them an @ message. You SHOULD NOT try and sell anything to the person you are tweeting with your first message to them. Start a conversation and let them know you are an authority in your subject area and see if there is something that you can do to help… FOR FREE. You may post a link to your site, but highly motivated customers will look for a link in your profile, so make sure one is there to be found. Don’t try and push for a sale!

If you want to be a spammer and annoy people, then by all means please try to monetize Twitter! This is how!

1- Harass people with your first tweet when they follow you, by sending them an automatic DM that spams them with something to buy.

2- Spam the same tweets over and over all day and night, every day. Even better, post the same tweets over and over all day long from multiple accounts.

3- Post tweets that are obviously stuffed with TT’s!

4- Never talk with people who are interested in your area of expertise, use software to create every tweet for you.

5- Never give free advice, or post tweets to sites that will help people and have nothing to do with something you sell.

6- Post obscene or controversial messages about relition, politics or bodily functions. Also swear whenever possible.

7- Tweet @ every user you see with your offer and website

and so on and so forth…

I know there is information here that you can use starting today to get started on Twitter. Don’t worry about not understanding everything that’s going on or what you should do or say. Start off by following people in your market and see what it is they do on Twitter. Don’t follow celebrities unless that is your area of business; follow them once you know what you are doing and have the time to do your work plus see what Shaq is eating for lunch.

Tweet you later.

Facebook is a great modality for marketing. Make your business explode using this free social media website. You can find many social media websites, but Facebook is one of the most popular. The website has a lot of members. If you are hesitating to subscribe just think for a minute at how many of those members could become your clients. Facebook is full of opportunities for you and your business. Start by creating a Facebook page for business, after you create your personal profile.

Go to Facebook and create your profile. Start by signing up and create a name. The name should be your own, but add a fan page that is the same with your business name or your major keyword. Facebook gives you the chance to have an online business for free.

To attract more clients you should write in your Facebook page everything about your business. Give details about the products and services you’re selling. You should sound very convincing but remember to be honest. If you are not being completely honest about the quality of your products your clients will complain online. When this happens your sells will drop and your business might end.

Another thing you can do to advertise your business on Facebook is to upload pictures with your products. Buy a digital camera and take some clear pictures of your products. If people can see how the product looks like they are more likely to buy it.

Keep in mind that people love reductions and free stuff. Once every few weeks you can write on your facebook page that you are giving free things to people who will purchase one of your products.

Also, don’t overlook the advanges of integrating all of your social media applications.  For example, be sure to include a button for Twitter subscribers on you Facebook page, as well.

All the news you have regarding your business should be posted on the Facebook page. If you always have something new to share about your business people will become interested. This is a free publicity and you must take advantage of it.

You can also organize a competition on the Facebook page. For example you can ask a question and the first person to give a correct answer can win one of your products. This is a great way to advertise on Facebook. The name of the winner should be announced on Facebook also.

Be sure you check your Facebook page daily. Try to answer to all the comments you receive. This will make people trust you and your business. It’s important to keep checking your Facebook page. Long time ago people where only using social media websites like Facebook for making new friends. Now business entrepreneurs realized what a good opportunity this can be. You should give it a try!

Story Voter is a new cool social media news site that enables you to search for, vote on and even make comments about the current news stories of the day.

Have you heard about the latest big internet trend towards real-time search? Story Voter has a well-thought selection of sites in its search results, and just about all of the big social media sites are included.., to discover real-time news stories of interest. Then it gives you the option of being able to vote on each story by giving it one to three stars, depending on how interesting you find that news story.

Don’t just stop there. You can also leave HTML-formatted comments on your favorite stories. Story Voter supports a wide range of different login APIs from other social media sites. You probably don’t need to create a separate login to use the site.

Once you’ve commented, that’s not all - it’s time to share your story! Just click on the bookmark to share the story among “the usual suspects”, and by that I mean of course the big names in social bookmarking sites.

It still has some rough edges but shows a lot of promise. If you’re like me, you probably visit about at least three different news sites on the internet each day. News is something I can never get enough of. But news sites are usually so boring.

Story Voter changes all that by combining the best of real-time search with a simple community and commentating function. It’s an idea so simple, it’ll leave you scratching your head and asking why someone else didn’t think of building such a site several years ago.

In Summary: StoryVoter.com is a combination of news site and social media site and is further proof that the time has come for real-time search!

Story Voter should be a welcome addition to the internet for all news junkies and fans of social media websites.