SmallBusinessOnlineCoach.com

I thought this video of Seth Godin is really insightful and offers some great advice when it comes to social media  marketing for small businesses.  As Seth said, it really is useless to have loads of friends on these social networks like Facebook & Twitter, etc.  Try to not to keep score, it’s easy to be seduced by doing a lot of fake networking online. The goal in social media marketing is really to build REAL relationships.  Try to create value and really connect with others who are interested in the areas of business you conduct.

Treat these social sites the way you would when attending Chamber mixers, participating in Associations. John Jantsch of DuctTape Marketing gives insight on how to measure the ROI of social media networking and says, “You don’t measure participation based on direct sales, you measure success based on identifying one potential strategic partner, acquiring one actionable bit of advice, or striking up a conversation or two that may eventually lead to developing a new customer.” This an excellent approach and mind set to have when networking on social media websites.

The bottom line is this: if you are not going to take the time required to create real relationships on these social online networking sites then it’s probably best to not participate at all.  (the only except is to use these sites for GEO SEO because they have such hugh authority that it’s easy to rank them in the SERP’s and this a quick dirty trick to push one of your competition’s site off the first page.) However, you still need some compelling content there for when searchers land on the page, otherwise it’s kinda useless.

I’ll leave you with Seth’s quote:

“Networking is always important when it’s REAL and it’s always a useless distraction when it’s fake.”

Someone asked me today how to make a Twitter background and so I thought I put together this quick resource.

• Tweetstyle
• TwitBacks Add your photo, your contact info it automatically does it all for you
• 26 Awesome backgrounds for Fanboys and Girls.
• BoinBlog gives you a PSD to customize
• Twitter Treats Free Twitter Backgrounds
• TwitterBacks
• Twitter Patterns

Now that Smart Phones like Android are tapping into Google Maps it is even more essential that you have all your business information up to date with Google’s local business center. If you do not, go now to this video that teaches you how to set-up your free Google local business profile. You can add tons of great info on your business listings: text, products, payment types, images, videos, and much more!

Google Wave – soooooo cool!

Can’t wait! It’s email, texting, twittering, facebooking, blogging, wiki, pools, forms, all tied together – totally hot social tool! I love that it can integrate with the other socials and it’s open source. The future is all about social communication and collaboration.

If you want to do well with marketing your small business online, it’s important that you keep up with what is new and what is on the horizon with like Google Wave. By doing this you give yourself a huge advantage over your local competition.

We are in the middle of a social revolution and it’s perfect timing to get a familiar with these types of tools to help you communicate with your local communities and collaborate with your niche peers who are savvy enough to also participating with these online social tools.

I honestly believe those small business owners that embrace changes and technologies like Google Wave will have huge successes and those who do not will be left behind wonder why no one is buying their products and/or services.

These internet tools help build relationships online that drive sales offline.

What do you think of the new Google Wave…? How do you see this tool enhancing your businesses…?

Wasn’t the playback features, new spell checker and the translation tool sooo cool?

Some awesome tips and advice from smpfilms who has over 75 MILLION views and 175,000 SUBSCRIBERS. They walk you through exactly how they do it!

Another great article I highly recommend reading is Tips for Ranking Higher on YouTube.

Fun! The History of the Internet.

Gary Vaynerchuk as usual is spot on with how new media is going to roll out in 2009. If you are a small business owner, I highly recommend you listen to Gary in the video below. He offers real life experiences with ‘what works‘ and ‘what doesn’t work‘ when it comes to advertising for small businesses. Social media and social networking is here to stay, and you’ll want to get real good at using these online mediums for you business fast!

You can now talk face to face right in Gmail with free high quality video and audio. Watch the video below. I think this can be a nice feature to offer your customers the ability to speak to someone in your company, particularly for those that are self-employed professionals. Accountants, lawyers, sales people, etc. This also would be a nice addition to your customer support. What do you think…?

You can read more about the new Gmail Voice & Video Chat at their blog.

Tim O’Reilly recently wrote a post titled, Why I Love Twitter and his company OreillyMedia has recently posted a hour long webinar that explains Twitter and how it works and why it is a very powerful web property that all companies should want to be plugged into. With Twitter now having sent over 1 Billion messages, this is no surprise that more and more companies seem to coming on board to this micro-blogging platform.

Sarah Milstein shows in the video (below) how to use Twitter and other micro-messaging services.  She covers the the benefits and challenges of this exciting new medium, along with best practices and potential pitfalls you can avoid.

This new micro-blogging platform can help companies:

• Personal Updates
• Sharing Links
• Spreading Ideas
• Customer Service
• Customer Conversations
• Monitoring Buzz

There is an hour’s worth of quality info in the video below, so grab a note pad & a pen to jot down your twitter notes. You can also follow the @TweetReport on Twitter.

You May Also Like These 2 Other Blog Posts on Twitter:

1. 5 Ways I Benefit from Twitter
2. How to Use Twitter as a Twool

Learn how to find niche related people who are already on Twitter through using Twellow. If you are going to follow people on twitter it only makes sense to follow those who are already interested in a similar businesses, right? Watch the Twitter video below and then tell us your favorite way to network with other people on Twitter…? Oh! And you can follow me on Twitter here: @smbusinesscoach

Another Post you Must Read if you want to become a Twitter Pro:

101 Ways to Rock and Be Rocked by Twitter by Shama Hyder. I printed this list off and have it now posted by my computer, to remind me of how to best use Twitter.