Author: Patrick Dougher

Tips for getting social media marketing right

As more businesses invest more time and money into social media marketing (SMM), it’s important to understand not only the benefits but also the processes for planning and implementing a successful SMM campaign to maximise return on investment.

Businesses are embracing social media and social media marketing as part of their broader marketing strategies far more readily these days. This is encouraging to see, especially among corporates who are typically resistant to change and frequently have trouble adapting rather time-consuming and cumbersome bureaucratic processes to the relatively fast pace of the online environment.

Of course, there are challenges other than administration to overcome when it comes to social media. For a start, social media is about conversations and personalities. You are vying for your users’ attention – so if you don’t engage them with a really great personality or brand that they personally want to endorse – you’re going to get lost in the din and are losing out on potential “ambassadors”.

Social media has made the marketing maxim of telling believable stories even more important. One-way, push marketing communication is on its way out. This is now an attention economy, and in a world where time-starved customers are bombarded with marketing messages it’s hard to get through. Now that consumers can choose what they look at, do they want to look at and engage with you?

This buy-in is key to engaging with customers. Many would say that getting this kind of subscription comes down to authenticity and networking. This is true. However, to really get the most bang for your buck, the loop also needs to be closed when it comes to social media marketing and strategies need to be cleverly integrated across channels to create a ‘through-the-line’ approach that works.

This is the reason that many social media marketing campaigns are unsuccessful or not as effective as they could be. There needs to be not only follow-through, but also a cleverly integrated approach.

The easiest way to achieve this is by having a clear idea of where you want to go with your campaign – as well as define what your measurables are going to be before you start. It’s sometimes hard in some social media to predict exactly what will happen, as conversations tend to follow an organic flow. You can’t really force this. However, a clever social media marketer will be able to steer and lead conversations in such a way that they remain natural and unobtrusive.

Many web development and marketing companies now offer social media marketing as one of their services. While there are plenty of agencies and consultancies that do legitimately specialise in and have experience within the field, there are many who don’t. There are a number of common pit-falls – and where most fall short is in there execution and maintenance of these campaigns. It’s not just a case of creating a Facebook group and forgetting about it. The social media elements that one chooses to use need to be managed and maintained and relationships with customers need to be cultivated and grown.

What are the core factors in executing a successful social media marketing campaign?

First of all, decide what your story is. This is still at the core of effective marketing. Make sure it’s credible and one that your target market subscribe to. Make sure that you remain authentic.

Second, ensure that your goals and metrics are well defined. You need to have an idea of where you want to go with this campaign and how you intend to measure your success.

These two decisions will affect your third consideration – which is where you are going to find this audience. If you know who you’re trying to reach through social media – you’ll better be able to identify where they are online.

Finally, you need to be honest about whether your business is ready to be involved and invested. The process of social media marketing takes time and effort. You can’t just put up a Facebook fan page and create a Twitter account and call that a social media strategy. You need to ensure that you are invested. If you are not “socialising” though interaction and involvement with your community, you are not really present.

In this way, you will be able to listen to, respond to and influence your audience. When deciding to embark on a social media marketing strategy, it’s worth ensuring that whoever you choose to implement the campaign has the experience and foresight necessary to execute it fully and effectively.

AlterSage is an online marketing company based in Cape Town, South Africa. AlterSage specialises in creating and implementing bespoke online strategies for a range of clients from around the world. Services include social media marketing, pay per click campaign management and search engine optimisation.


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An Introduction to International Trade

The primary reason most companies trade internationally is to reduce risk, if you think of the old adage of not putting all your eggs in one basket, the same applies to the business world and international trade, if you’ve got a stable market here in the UK it might prove prudent to look at how you can grow your business internationally.

The first step you would take when looking into international trading would be examining your business here in the UK, this would make it easier to start looking for a market internationally that might compliment your own. It’s simply a case of thorough research

One of the main factors to take into consideration when trading internationally is finance; this is again going to involve thorough research. Whichever country or countries you choose to trade with you will need a very comprehensive knowledge of their currency both in relation to your own currency and the value of your product or service. One of the more secure ways to trade internationally is with letters of credit, these are a banking instruments you use to insure that you’re paid, if you have a letter of credit against any transaction you are guaranteed to get the money as long as you adhere to a set of criteria that you agree with your customer at the outset.

When it comes to international trade, you should always make sure the export price has been carefully researched and you understand the different elements of that price, this means your product or service is very unlikely to be marketed at the same price you might charge in the UK. There are several factors you’ll need to take into consideration before concluding a price you wish to market your product or service at. The first is how much it might cost you to collect and convert any foreign currency. Secondly you’ll need to make sure all your logistics are covered and thirdly, you will have to do some form of market research too and this cost will also need to be covered in some shape or form. These are just three very generic points and you may come across many more especially when you start to deal with the specifics of individual countries.

Preferential trade agreements are agreements set up by trading blocks, an example of a trading block would be the European union as it’s a block of countries that work and trade together and have agreements. Basically, it means it’s easier to do business with some countries than it is with others.

European Union regulations have dramatically changed the very nature of international trade. In terms of distribution, you are no longer allowed to sell exclusively in any specific market, you can’t be restricted, but your marketing activities can be. As far as agents are concerned, they actually have employment rights and you have to be very careful about how you appoint them. When it comes to international trade it would advisable to research very thoroughly before you signed anything.

It’s not just the business world which you’ll need to research when trading internationally, you must also understand local customs, cultures and etiquette too. One of the nicest things you can do is actually be observant of the business etiquette you’re looking at. For example if you were to spend a period of time working with the Japanese, you would learn they are not very keen on hard sell, you’d also learn they have a tendency to nod their head and say yes a lot as you’re talking, this doesn’t necessary mean they’re agreeing with you but that they understand what you.

Punctuality can also be a major area of importance with international trade, culturally we tend to vary in the way we treat our meetings, in the UK we like to be punctual and we try very hard to keep our meetings down to about an hour, if you went over to Italy, they’re not so punctual and it’s not an offence not to be punctual. In Germany it’s a huge offence to be late for a meeting, some Germans will not see you if you’re more than ten minutes late. These things need to be looked at and planned into any visit you make.

International trade can be a very complex but very rewarding business venture. As with all business ventures, thorough research and due diligence is essential. There are plenty of organisations out there which are designed to help you, whether it’s step-by-step assistance you need or just a general nudge in the right direction.

Business Link is there to offer free business advice and support on almost any topic; GuruOnline has over 50 exclusive online videos from Business Link offering free international trade advice on a whole host of topics from incoterms to international marketing to managing risk to operational requirements.


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Social Media For Small Business Local DFW

With 2010 finally here and staring us in the face, every small business needs to acknowledge the 100 pound elephant in the room, and his name is social media.  Many Small Businesses have the same questions circling in their heads…”how do we deal with social media, what are our social media strategies and is it right for my business? Should we ignore it and hope it goes away like another passing fad like Cherry Coke or Members Only jackets?”  It’s time for small business to start utilizing social media’s benefits and incorporate it into their daily lives as a small business public relations strategy. Social media is exactly what the small business needs. The small businesses who embrace social media first will be the ones who have an advantage over their competition 5 years down the road.

How is Social Media going to benefit my business?

Small businesses would love to have the public relations team that most Fortune 500 companies have. What small businesses don’t realize is that social media has a lot of the same benefits as a high retainer Advertising agency/PR firm. Social media provides an outlet for small businesses to transmit and share news, events, press releases, success stories, and other business-related information in real-time.

Some of the core benefits are:

Real-time communication to your customers Instant feedback on a product/service Raising brand awareness Lead Generation Drive website traffic Virtual focus groups Search engine optimization links

Outline your objectives

Social media websites are a dime a dozen. There seems to be a new social media website popping up every day. Some websites are more niche specific while others are broader.  Choosing the right social media platform to spend your valuable time can be frustrating. Before small businesses start subscribing to the thousands of social media websites out there, they first need to outline what their goals are for a social media strategy. Most objectives align with social media’s core benefits but some small businesses look for different goals.

Some common small business social media goals include:

Brand perception Competitive analysis Customer Service / Support Networking Everyone else is doing it

Once a small business outlines its objectives, it can then decide which social media platform is right for their business.

Which social media websites are the best for my business?

Some of the more popular social media websites are Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Flickr, Digg, and many others. LinkedIn is great for networking while Digg is great for bookmarking websites you find interesting on the Internet. Twitter is great for announcing what your company is working on and Flickr is great at sharing recent corporate outing photographs. Anything that you would want to share with your customers, there is a social media website that will meet your needs.

One of the more commonly known social media websites is Facebook. And it recently made news that small businesses need to pay attention to. ComScore just released its November 2009 Media Metrix data, which shows an important milestone recently reached by Facebook, which is 100 million monthly U.S. visitors. Those numbers put Facebook in the same group as Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft websites when talking about website traffic volume.  That is a staggering metric that illustrates that social media is not a passing fad but rather a strategic public relations tool for the small business.

Time commitment

One school of thought in deciding which social media platform to spend your time promoting your company is to determine where your target demographic spends their social media time.  By default, most people/companies are either on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube or are starting to develop a strategy for creating their own web page. Time is valuable so choosing wisely is a critical element in launching an effective social media strategy. The more active you are within a social media community, the more you will get out of it. If a small business gets into the rhythm of posting and communicating within their social media websites on a daily basis then it becomes routine. The more your communicate and become a valuable member within a community, the greater the return on investment.

New Years Resolution

Start your 2010 Marketing Strategy on the right foot!  Small businesses need to incorporate social media into their marketing plan and measure their results.  I bet you find your original skepticism and preconceived notions on social media not to be true, and you will quickly see that sharing information in real-time is only going to benefit your business and its bottom line

You can see how you can use this information in the local DFW area.

Michael Delpierre is President and Chief Marketing Officer of Conversion Pipeline, a Washington D.C. area based Strategic Marketing Communications firm. For more information please visit: http://www.conversionpipeline.com


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How To Connect With Your Customers Via Social Media

The development of new online destinations for information sharing and interactive communication by and between family and friends as well as professional associates is consistently cited as the driving force behind Web 2.0.  Termed “Social Media”, the trend has created abundant opportunities to distribute high quality health and disease education content, while creating community and entirely new opportunities for collaboration between your business and it’s customers. The Social Media Moguls website is dedicated to sharing those ideas with you.

One of the web’s most recognized information sources, Wikipedia, defines “Social media marketing” as a term that describes the act of using social networks, online communities, blogs, wikis or any other collaborative Internet form of media for marketing, sales, public relations and customer service. Common social media marketing tools include, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr and YouTube as well as many independent subject matter blogs.  In the context of Internet marketing, social media refers to a collective group of web properties whose content is primarily published by users, not direct employees of the property (e.g. the vast majority of video on YouTube is published by non-YouTube employees).

MOST ACTIVE SOCIAL NETWORKS

FACEBOOK – As the largest and most successful social networking media site in operation today. Facebook has 300 Million users worldwide  and continues to grow and add new members at an impressive rate. Members interact with one another by providing updates to their personalized pages which may include photos, videos, links to other sites, or “microblog” type status updates that let’s friends and colleagues know what you are up to.

TWITTER – Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s profile page and delivered to the author’s subscribers who are known as followers. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access.

YOU-TUBE – YouTube is a video sharing website on which users can upload and share videos. Most of the content on YouTube has been uploaded by individuals, although media corporations including CBS, the BBC, UMG and other organizations offer some of their material via the site, as part of the YouTube partnership program. Alexa ranks You-Tube as the fourth most visited site on the web.

However, to capitalize on this emerging trend, your business needs to develop a comprehensive Social Media Marketing strategy. By developing and implementing a carefully planned social media strategy, you can take advantage of current media trends, to accomplish multiple objectives including broadening the reach of your brand and providing an interactive platform for communication with and between your business and your customers. My friend David Hindie has created a super easy to use,  step by step video course for using Facebook to market your business. I refer to it often and would highly recommend it.

As with all things web, things change rapidly and having and maintaining active Social Media Marketing strategy takes work and cooperative effort from multiple areas of the your organization including management, operations, and communications.  Through minimal effort you can yield extraordinary results and form an effective plan for increasing site traffic and brand awareness for your business

Development of the your business’s Social Media strategy is suggested as the first step in defining an online media plan to boost your online marketing efforts.  While social networking sites offer access to millions of targeted individuals, it should be viewed as a tool for driving traffic to corporate owned sites such as .ORG and .COM where similar features could be incorporated and where you can guide the visitor experience in a way that creates a deeper more meaningful engagement between your business and the customers.

Sign Up |HERE| to receive three Social media Marketing Reports, every small business owner should have.   Be sure to also Check us out online at: http://www.socialmediamogul.net

Hector V. Herrera, founder of Social Media Moguls, is a graduate of Georgia State University, and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications. Hector is recognized as a visionary brand strategist.

Social Media Marketing Success Stories

Businesses everywhere are slowly but surely learning how to harness the power of social media for their branding efforts. Marketing with social media is a powerful strategy, but it is a process that requires time and patience. How are some of the big corporations doing? After a lot of experimentation, speculation and consternation – progress is being made. We put together a list of some well-known companies and their recent social media campaigns. Here are several Fortune 500 corporations that are successfully leveraging social media to their advantage:

Coca Cola

Coca-Cola made their social media debut a few years ago. They created a new office of “Digital Communications and Social Media” because they felt social media was the way to go. They still feel this way.

Clyde Tuggle, Coke’s Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs and Productivity said: “Mass media is declining in importance. Our future success depends on our continued ability to connect people to our brands and our company all around the world, one person at a time. Our new office of digital communications and social media will help us become even more comfortable and effective in these new spaces.”

Coca Cola began their social media efforts with CokeTag – a “personal, customizable widget for individuals, bands, bloggers, artists, and companies to share links to content they want to promote and drive traffic to anywhere on the Web.” A widget as a marketing tool is pretty original thinking by itself.

This January Coca-Cola launched “Expedition 206” on social media sites like YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. Three “happiness” ambassadors began an international journey to all 206 countries where Coca-Cola is sold. Their mission is to seek out “what makes people happy” around the world. Throughout the journey, these “happiness” ambassadors will share their blog posts, tweets, videos, interviews and pictures so people can follow their adventures along the way. 


Ford Motor Company

Ford has been on the forefront of social media marketing ever since it hired Scott Monty back in 2008. Monty spearheaded Ford’s social media strategy with a promise to “create content, set it free, and allow anyone who is interested to be able to share it on any of the major platforms, on a global basis.” It has been working well.

Their recent Ford Fiesta Movement social media campaign was impressive. It was a grassroots campaign that promoted the new Fiesta model by placing it in the hands of 100 social “agents” and having them promote it through Twitter, blogs, video, and events. They generated 4.3 million YouTube views, 500,000 + Flickr views, 3 million + Twitter impressions and 50,000 potential customers – and 97% of them don’t own a Ford. They did this all without spending a dollar on traditional media.
Not only has Ford faired the recession better than the other American automakers, but they are also winning the buzz war on social media sites as well.

Nabisco Triscuit Crackers

This year Triscuit Crackers is teaming up with a nonprofit organization called Urban Farming to create 50 community-based home farms throughout the country. Nabisco – a subsidiary of Kraft Foods – has rarely ventured into social media – and never in an altruistic way like this.

The “home farming” campaign has a website that includes tools to advise visitors which vegetables and herbs are best to plant based on where they live. The campaign is being supported by PR, print ads, banner ads on gardening, women’s general interest sites, labeling on the boxes that sends customers to the website, blogs, Twitter and community forums. Another tool they developed enables users to find nearby community farms, and add their own home farms to a map. Forums and sharing tools are prominently displayed.
They also include free basil and dill herb seed cards on four million boxes of Triscuit original and reduced-fat varieties.

Pepsi

Pepsi launched their Pepsi Refresh Project in January and it has been a refreshing change from traditional soft drink advertising. Users submitted thousands of ideas to Pepsi on ways to “refresh” their communities and thereby making them a better place. There were 32 Pepsi Refresh Grant recipients selected in the month of January and up to $1.3 million will be awarded. There are 2 grants at the $250,000 level, 10 grants at the $50,000 level, 10 grants at the $25,000 level and 10 grants at the $5,000 level every month for 10 months. The winners for January will be announced this week.

The Pepsi Refresh Project also held a celebrity challenge on their Facebook fan page. In this contest Demi Moore beat Kevin Bacon and Pepsi awarded $250,000 to support Girls Educational & Mentoring Services (GEMS) and $100,000 to SixDegrees.org, an organization that distributes thousands of $20 SixDegree.org Good Cards to recipients so they can support a charity of their choice.

Vesta Digital

Writer: Dan Chambers

http://www.vestadigital.com


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Affiliate Classroom 2.0

Product Name: Affiliate Classroom 2.0
Launch Date: August 11th 2009 @ 12 PM EST
Product Author(s): Anik Singal
Product Price: Coming Soon..
Product Guarantee: 30 days

Anik Singal will be releasing his latest product Affiliate Classroom 2.0 on Tuesday, August 11th 2009 at 12 PM EST.

On this page, you will find:

* My Affiliate Classroom 2 Review
* My Affiliate Classroom 2 Conclusion: Is It Worth Your Time & Money?
* Information about My Affiliate Classroom 2 Bonus

* Affiliate Classroom 2.0 Review

Affiliate Classroom 2 is the next generation of online training from Lurn, Inc. The original Affiliate Classroom debuted several years ago and approximately 70% of the graduates of that program say they had all the marketing resources they needed to make money online.

Affiliate Classroom 2 is an improvement and calls itself an online university for affiliate marketers. Created by Anik Singal over a two year period, the Affiliate Classroom 2.0 training course provides step by step blueprints on how to make money online using the tools, techniques and templates that Anik uses to earn millions as an affiliate marketer.

Affiliate Classroom 2 is a comprehensive e-learning suite that includes not only coursework – but the tools, community, support and added edge that entrepreneurs need to make it from “I want to start my own online business” to “I own my own, profitable online business.”

What Does Affiliate Classroom 2 Look Like?

Here’s what Affiliate Classroom 2 members area will look like to students:

Affiliate Classroom 2This is the main page that students will see when logged in to Afffiliate Classroom 2 members area. We’ll touch on each of the main tabs as I cover other areas of the application.

What Makes Affiliate Classroom 2.0 Different from Everything Else Out There?

1. The Affiliate Resume / Affiliate Certification

Since Affiliate Classroom started certifying Affiliate Managers in 2007, Affiliate Managers, Networks and everyone else in the industry has been asking us: Can you certify Affiliates?

Well now we can say: Yes!

Affiliate Classroom students receive a “Class” ranking. This tells them, us, YOU and everyone else they are in touch with what level affiliate they are using a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the cream of the crop Super Affiliates.)

Affiliate Classroom use a combination of testing and real-world action to certify affiliates and give them a class ranking. Here’s what the “formula” looks like:

Affiliate Classroom FormulaAs students complete coursework and meet milestones, they move their way up the rankings. A Status Bar at the top of every page within Affiliate Classroom 2 reminds the students of their Class ranking and encourages them to increase it.

2. An Insane Number of Training Courses

Affiliate Classroom 2.0 is loaded with great training materials that show students exactly how to setup their website, generate traffic and drive buying customers to merchants/advertisers in return for top commissions.

Affiliate Classroom 2 is promising over 250 training courses available by the end of the first year. However, they are no slackers even now because there are 62 Courses being offered at launch covering the following topics

1. Affiliate Marketing – this section includes everything from the basics to advanced business models such as:

* Is Affiliate Marketing Right for You? If it isn’t, don’t you want to know immediately before you waste your time and money on something you don’t really want to do?

* What Affiliate Marketing Is and How It Works

* Affiliate Business Models

* Paid Search (PPC) Affiliate Business Model

* Natural Search (SEO) Affiliate Business Model

* Email (Opt-In) Affiliate Business Model

* Content Affiliate Business Model

* Comparison/Direct Sales Affiliate Business Model

* Community/Membership Affiliate Business Model

2. Legal and Ethical Considerations – this section provides you with “must know” information so you do not get into legal or ethical trouble as a result of just plain ignorance of the law covering:

* Legal & Ethical Issues in the Affiliate Industry

* Email Ethics and Spam Legislation

* Business Entities & Tax Considerations

3. Monetization – obviously the goal of setting up an affiliate site is to generate income. This section shows you exactly how to do that by discussing:

* Earning Commissions, CPA, and Other revenue sources

* Finding Products

* Finding Products that Fit Your Niche

* Niche Research & Selection

* Niche Research Tools: Free & Paid

* Merchants & Networks

* Finding & Evaluating Merchants

* Working with CPA Networks

* Working with ClickBank & Similar Networks

* Monetization: Choosing Affiliate Offers

* Monetization: Negotiating Commissions

4. Affiliate Websites – this section provides step by step training on how to setup your affiliate website the right way.

* Getting Started: Infrastructure, Tools, and Budgeting

* Building a Basic Website in HTML

* Choosing a Domain Name

* FTP, CPanel, and File Management

* Website Content & Copywriting Basics

* Copywriting – Articles & Blog Posts

5. Traffic Generation – without traffic to your affiliate website, it is impossible to make any money so traffic generation is one of the most important topics in the training. The following topics are covered:

* Traffic Basics: Types of Traffic

* Traffic Basics: Keywords & How They Affect Traffic

* Traffic Basics Metrics & Stats

* Free Traffic: Basic Models and Overview of Methods

* Free Traffic: Natural Search

* Free Traffic: Blogs and RSS

* Free Traffic: Opt-in and Email

* Paid Traffic: Paid Search (PPC)

* Paid Traffic: Ezine Advertising

* Paid Search: Principles and Best Practices

* Paid Search: Keywords, Bidding, and URLs

* Paid Search: Campaigns and Quality Score Issues

* Paid Search: Landing Pages and Websites

* Paid Search: Testing and Optimizing

* Paid Search: Intro to AdWords

* Paid Search: AdWords Campaign Setup

6. SEO Basics – search engine optimization is one way of getting free traffic from the search engines. But, to do so, you need to know the rules and how to use them effectively.

* SEO: Overview of Best Practices

* SEO: Keyword Research – Basic Methods

* SEO: On Page Factors

* SEO: Off Page Factors

* SEO: Link Building

7. General Marketing – No matter how great your website is, you still need to market the products you are promoting.

* Blog Business Models

* Content Marketing: Article Marketing

* Blog Marketing: Overview of Best Practices

* Blog Directories

* Web 2.0 Marketing: Overview of Best Practices

* Social Bookmarking: Why and How

* Viral Marketing: Video

* Email: Autoresponders

* Email: Incentivized Lists and “Squeeze” Pages

These first 62 courses appear to be a very good basic curriculum that will get you up and running and hopefully making some money online in a fairly short period of time.

3. More Supportive Content Than You Can Shake a Stick at

Not only is Affiliate Classroom 2 Training loaded with courses, we’ve also added a ton of great supportive materials.

Just take a look at the menu on the right – taken directly from the Training tab from Affiliate Classroom 2.0

Students can find everything from articles and case studies on a wide variety of affiliate marketing tools and techniques – to printable tip sheets and audio and video presentations that help reinforce the lessons in each of the courses.

Students can search the entire database of content by keyword – and – they can view lists of related content with each piece with the convenient list of “See Also” materials.

4. Fully Integrated Tools

Affiliate Classroom 2 ToolsAs if coursework, training and a ton of supportive content weren’t enough – we’re also filling Affiliate Classroom 2 with a great suite of tools.

Students can put their training to work using our keyword tools, URL tracking tools, a traffic-tracking tool that is easy to implement and understand, and a Datalocker where they can keep track of passwords, links and other files.

PLUS – Paid students have access to a fullyfunctional, hosting-included website builder. So there are no excuses – students can become affiliates right away!

5. A Community Built for Serious Networking

Affiliate Classroom 2 CommunityThe Affiliate Classroom 2 Community is more than just a forum… of course we have a forum…

But, we also have a way for students to build their professional, affiliate profiles. Along with their Class rankings, we track their:

* Websites
* Niches per site
* Promotional methods per site

We’re working to help them build their resume – to use when applying for program and negotiating higher commission rates – AND when finding other affiliates to partner with.

Students can find one another and create profitable “friendships” with other affiliates in the same niche or using similar promotional methods.
They can communicate with each other in the forum – and one-on-one through the internal messaging system.

* Affiliate Classroom 2.0 Conclusion: Is It Worth It?

Affiliate Classroom 2 is an excellent training course for those who want to start a profitable online business or bring their existing business to the next level. If you are pressed for time or are more comfortable using self-paced individualized training, then this is the program for you. Affiliate Classroom 2 is designed to be flexible enough to fit and schedule and learning pace. I highly recommend Affiliate Classroom 2.0 course.

* Affiliate Classroom 2.0 Bonus

I have prepare the biggest Affiliate Classroom 2.0 Bonus packages for you. My Affiliate Classroom Bonus package is absolutely RELEVANT to what you’ll learn from Anik Singal and they COMPLIMENT all the sneaky tactics of Affiliate Classroom 2.0

In other words you won’t be getting a bunch of outdated PLR junk to clutter up your hard drive and you won’t be getting a bunch of crap that distracts you with information overload. My Affiliate Classroom 2 Bonus will help you to make MORE money in the long run!

To see more detail information about My Affiliate Classroom 2.0 Bonuses package, please visit the link below:

http://affiliateclassroom2blog.blogspot.com/2009/08/affiliate-classroom-2-bonus.html

Inside A Social Media Newsroom

Social media strategies continue to prove their relevance in today’s Internet age, and as a result, the traditional online newsroom – a set of static Web pages that support one-way delivery of information that is protected by passwords and made available only to the likes of “official” journalists and industry analysts – is quickly becoming a thing of the past.

Taking the place of these old-school information portals is the new social media newsroom, a more dynamic, open, and flexible Web-based newsroom that encourages broad, bi-directional communication and information sharing among a more diverse audience.

With the new social media newsroom, a company’s official content is easily accessible to not just members of the media, but to all those the company wishes to communicate and share information with, including prospects, customers, business partners, and investors.

These potential targets can subscribe to, review, and utilize timely and relevant news and other announcements from the organization’s public relations department, as well as related image, audio, video, and other multimedia files.

But what makes the approach of the new social media newsroom so innovative and unique?

The answer lies in is its ability to facilitate collaboration and direct conversation with the end information consumer.

While traditional online newsrooms allow for only one-way information flow, social media newsroom readers are encouraged to participate in open discussions and freely share their thoughts, feedback, and opinions about individual news releases and other available content.

These comments are posted directly to the newsroom, for all visitors to see and reply to. Additionally, any content within a social media newsroom can be easily tagged, emailed, or added to any social media book marking site such as Technorati, digg, or del.icio.us.

”Corporations are eager to participate in the Social Media era but are still evolving from a broadcast-oriented, one-to-many paradigm, towards a model in which they adapt to a new reality – their voice is just one-of-many,” states Todd.S. Defren, principal at Shift Communications, a fast-growing, high-tech public relations agency with offices in Boston and San Francisco.

Delivery of online content that is more targeted is yet another major benefit of the new social media newsroom. Instead of browsing through pages and pages of outdated or useless content to get to what they want – as is often the case with traditional online newsrooms – visitors of a social media newsroom can easily access, receive, or share only the information elements that are most important and relevant to their specific interests and needs.

The new social media newsroom also allows marketers to more effectively interact with those who directly influence consumer perceptions and preferences. For example, quotes and comments from various company spokespeople that are published in blogs and other social media vehicles can be publicly tracked and monitored, then posted to the social media newsroom. This allows journalists and other site visitors to understand the company’s position on important and frequently-discussed industry issues, and to see what type of impact the company has on content across the Web.

Those companies that develop their own social media newsroom should also consider creating a secure, password-protected micro-blog that can be easily added to an RSS reader. This would enable media representatives to preview on-going story ideas created by the company’s public relations department.

SHIFT Communications is a PR agency specializing in high-tech public relations, consumer public relations and social media. SHIFT has San Francisco and Boston public relations offices.

Social Media Ethics: not That Hard, Really

Most of us in the PR industry are familiar with stories of well known companies using online media to deceive consumers and investors. Last year, Wal-Mart and Edelman received lots of attention for the “Wal-Marting Across America” flog (fake blog) which featured a couple traveling around the country in an RV, visiting Wal-Mart parking lots and rubbing elbows with the hoi polloi. Unfortunately, the couple were a professional journalist and photojournalist hired by Wal-Mart and Edelman.

And later in the year, John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods, attracted the attention of the SEC and the FTC when it was discovered that he was anonymously posting negative comments in Yahoo Finance forums in an alleged attempt to drive down the valuation of a company Whole Foods was in negotiations to acquire.

Unfortunately, many companies have been slow to learn from these examples, and we’ve already heard several stories of corporate social media deception in 2008.

So why do large, ostensibly responsible corporations persist in trying to “game the system?”

The film The Corporation, analyzes the publicly held company as if it were a psychiatric patient, and renders the diagnosis:


“the institutional embodiment of laissez-faire capitalism fully meets the diagnostic criteria of a ‘psychopath.’”

In other words, our capitalist system encourages deception because the pressures to achieve revenue and growth are institutionalized, while moral behavior is not. So don’t hate the player, hate the game. OK, hate some of the players.

Some in our profession claim to be confused about the rules for using blogs and other social media in marketing and public relations. “This is unfamiliar territory. We’re on the frontier of communications. The rules are being written as we speak.” Nice Try. New media does not require new morality. Most of us know right from wrong, and just because we’re using a blog or an online forum doesn’t release us from our responsibility for ethical behavior.

Nearly everyone can agree that stealing is wrong. (I say nearly, because I will allow that there are those who don’t recognize the right to own property). The Koran, the Bible and the Torah, for example, all have specific injunctions against stealing that are thousands of years old.

Is it reasonable then to conclude that it’s OK to take someone else’s iPhone, as these ancient laws could not possibly have foreseen the introduction of this product?

Of course that’s ludicrous. And it is no less ludicrous to say that social media is so new and mysterious that of course there will be missteps. When you deceive consumers, when you lie to inflate the worth of your company or its products, that’s wrong.

And it’s not like this area is unregulated either. OK, so there are some people who will do immoral things as long as they aren’t illegal. (Think stock option backdating here.) But the Federal Trade Commission regulates unfair business and competitive practices. And the European Union’s Unfair Commercial Practices Directive bars companies from “falsely claiming or creating the impression that the trader is not acting for purposes relating to his trade, business, craft or profession, or falsely representing oneself as a consumer.”

Why wouldn’t these rules apply to social media? Were John Mackey and the Wal-Mart bloggers falsely claiming that they were not acting for purposes of their trade? Yes.

The risks of pursuing these deceptive strategies are great. In Mackey’s case, he invoked the ire of the SEC, not a good thing to do as the CEO of a publicly held company. In the Wal-Mart case, the retailer’s reputation, not very good to begin with, suffered an additional hit. And while so far most penalties have been non-financial, the shroud of mystery surrounding social media is starting to lift, so you can expect 2008 to be the year legislators start going after companies who try to play the “wild wild west” card.

So how do you avoid the ethical pitfalls presented by emerging communications channels? Behave ethically. Hire ethical people. Make ethical decisions. And the next time you’re in a meeting and someone proposes some bonehead marketing or public relations initiative that is deceptive, protect the interests of your client and your company and take an ethical stand.


Joel Postman is the principal of Socialized, a consultancy that helps companies make effective use of social media in corporate communications, marketing, and public relations. His background includes a decade of Fortune 500 corporate communications leadership, four years as the speechwriter to the CEO of Sun Microsystems, and experience in print and broadcast news. He is currently working on a book, titled SocialCorp: Social Media Goes Corporate, to be published in November.


You may also find articles by Joel at the TalentZoo.com website under Very Public Relations.

Fighting Recession With Social Media – Part 2

Are more companies turning to social media in this economy? They should if they want to improve their marketing efficiencies, enhance their customer service experience, or develop their research techniques. Social media allows companies to engage with the customers instead of shouting about their own wonderfulness.

Ramp up your marketing

Companies ranging small and large are increasingly turning to outside blogs, viral videos and websites such as Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed and Digg — and their tens of millions of users — to reach consumers. Instead of cringing at the idea of relinquishing control to social media outlets, smart executives realize that there is more benefit in joining the conversation than fighting it. Instead of controlling information about your brand, your social media strategy should be about engagement.

Advertising as we know it is expensive; social media is cheap. For this reason, the recession is bad news for traditional marketers, while the same environment is full of opportunities for social media marketers. Setting up a company blog or a Facebook page is significantly less expensive than traditional marketing. Even creating your own community web site can be significantly cheaper than traditional advertising campaigns.

Social media marketing is not without risk. While every company wants to generate buzz, online backlash can be vicious. Recently a Motrin commercial aimed at moms created quite a stir. You can view the ad on YouTube as did another 210,000 people. The ad makes the apparently condescending claim that carrying babies in a sling is a painful experience for moms. According to moms, the ad was wrong and they made it loud and clear through social media applications such as Twitter. Some moms found the Motrin ad outright offensive, and they were quite vocal about it. You can catch them on YouTube. Of course, the disaster doesn’t end there. It continues on a myriad of blogs, and carries on in a Facebook page dedicated to boycotting Motrin. The backlash ad on YouTube can be viewed.

What to do when your target rejects your ad? Turn to social media. Instead of rejecting the market reaction Johnson & Johnson could have used social media applications to learn about their market prior to creating and publishing the controversial ad. There could have been a Facebook page created to learn about young moms and pain. There could have been a blog inviting moms to provide video testimonials on YouTube. The lesson learned in this case is to use social media to learn about your market, or be prepared to be taught very quickly and painfully.

Reduce your expenses

Save time and money on travel and use LinkedIn to network. Instead of driving to the other end of town fighting your way through traffic use the largest business social network to build new connections and to nurture existing ones. Only attend your most valuable networking events, and transfer as much of your networking as you can to the web. LinkedIn, Plaxo, and Facebook are some of the best social networking applications.

Reduce your legal fees through a fairly new social media site called Docstoc. It is a place to find and share professional documents such as contracts, confidentiality agreements, intellectual property documents and more. Docstoc is a social community resource that enables anyone to find and share professional documents. The site provides an opportunity for individuals and organizations to share their professional documents. Documents available on Docstoc can be easily searched, previewed and downloaded for free.

Decrease your recruiting costs as you hire your employees though Craigslist, which has quietly become one of the most visited websites in cyberspace. It offers a much cheaper way to recruit online, and your company can expect excellent response rates for your job posts.

Putting it all together

Are more companies turning to social media in this economy? They should if they want to improve their marketing efficiencies, enhance their customer service experience, or develop their research techniques. Social media allows companies to engage with the customers instead of shouting about their own wonderfulness. It offers ways to business to partner with the community in an effort to develop a better product. In the end everybody wins because both the company and the consumer end up with a better product.

Virtually all companies can benefit from using social media not just to create awareness, but also to become part of the conversation. Managing your corporate reputation is impossible without social media, and ignoring it can be outright devastating. Instead if fighting against it, embrace it as it rockets your business forward as it deepens your relationship with the only reason you are in business for, your customer.