Social Media Marketing and your Business

Posted on 13. Sep, 2011 by Douglas Richardson.

As a business owner, and you’re not aware of “Social Media Marketing” (SMM). You are either so busy with the customers that are coming into your business, or you live under a rock out in the desert somewhere with no internet connection! All kidding aside SMM is the fasted growing segment of advertizing out there and in many cases it is FREE for the taking!

SMM sites such as FaceBook; Twitter; Linkedin and YouTube are visited literally by hundreds of millions of people a day! Now I know that the first thought that comes to you is, Hey, I am not a national or international business! My customer base is fifty or less miles from Bend or even smaller! Well read on this applies to you also in more ways than you may realize.

Nearly all consumers (97%) now use online media when researching products and services, according to BIA/Kelsey’s ongoing tracking study. The misconception that only young people use (SMM) for shopping, but in fact nearly all of the buying public now use them. Marketing has shifted from a one-way broadcast to a multi-point conversation. In the past, communications were broadcast exclusively through mass marketing channels like radio, TV, newspapers door to door distribution of directories like the Yellow Pages.

Businesses are wise to think beyond their websites and reach out to prospects and customers where they spend their time online, whether it is on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, YouTube, other social networks, or through blogs or podcasts. This strategy involves establishing a presence in multiple locations of SMM, where prospects can engage with your company in conversations that will eventually lead to business relationships.
This also helps your business become the “go to” when someone needs an expert in that area of interest.

Between the four sites listed above there are hundreds of millions of users going to these sites daily. The fasted growing demographic among Facebook users is the 35 to 65 year old women. Another statistic: 300 million people visit You Tube every month and watch more than 12 billion videos, according to ComScore’s January 2010 figures. Did you know that You Tube is the second largest search engine on the internet at this time. People go there to learn how to bake a cake or how to create a Fanpage on Facebook.

Proactive businesses are making plans to get the prospect to follow them, friend them, subscribe to their channels, etc. Once connected, your business can start offering information, expert prospective on topics your businesses specializes in, recommendations, news, coupons, membership privileges, etc. in an effort to get prospects to give permission to follow up with them through email, text messages to their mobile phones, regular mail, or what ever form of communication they prefer. You and your business are building relationships with prospects, earning their trust and ultimately, earning their business.

Once you have established relationships with your prospects online, you need to continue to provide valuable information and continue to make offers because it is proven that it is much easier to get an existing customer to buy from you again than it is to get a new customer to buy from you the first time. It sounds simple, but this is where most businesses fail on an epic level. Most businesses miss the opportunities for incrementally increasing income because they don’t follow up with their customers.

Most business owners find it difficult to allocate their time to develop a marketing program. Approximately 26% of small businesses have a SMM program in place. A SMM consultant can develop an online marketing plan and organize the resources to execute it so it generates results cost effectively without impacting your primary focus, of managing your business.

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Lauren Richardson & Shady Lady Pole Bending

Posted on 29. Apr, 2011 by Douglas Richardson.

Here is a video of my daughter Lauren and her horse Shady Lady competing at the final OHSET meet for the Central Division.  Of course that is me in the background.

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Lauren and Shady doing “Keyhole”

Posted on 07. Mar, 2011 by Douglas Richardson.

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Lauren’s new horse Shady Lady

Posted on 13. Dec, 2010 by Douglas Richardson.

Here is a video of my daughter Lauren and her new horse “Shady Lady” we just picked here up the day before!  She is a beautiful Red Dunn,  This is at her OHSET practice in Bend Oregon.

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Implementation

Posted on 07. Dec, 2010 by Douglas Richardson.

The dictionary defines: carry out, accomplish; especially : to give practical effect to and ensure of actual fulfillment by concrete measure.   Boy now is that an interesting choice of words!

I have been thinking about this word for several days now?  Man the whole world could use a little Implementation right now!  I know that is very true for the United States.  “Carry out & Accomplish” now there is something that the politicians could try for a change?

Implementation, carry out, accomplish!  Now this is something we as Internet Marketers need very much to do.  I know for myself I have a tendency to spend my time preparing to implement and then preparing to implement and then preparing to implement, and never actually taking action on the implementation.  Sound familiar?  In the world of the internet there so many places to spend our time and not implement anything!

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FTC Endorsement Guides!

Posted on 19. Nov, 2010 by Douglas Richardson.

Please leave a comment on this video, this is very important stuff!

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Time Management!

Posted on 11. Nov, 2010 by Douglas Richardson.

What Exactly Is Time Management?

Time management is a set of principles, practices, skills, tools, and systems working together to help you get more value out of your time with the aim of improving the quality of your life.

The important point is that time management is not necessarily about getting lots of stuff done, because much more important than that is making sure that you are working on the right things, the things that truly need to be done.

Time Management can be a very tricky thing when working from home.  Create a place somewhere, where there are the least amount of outside distractions for you, i.e.; TV; kids; wife, girlfriend etc.  You need to be focused on your work.  And that is yet another topic, you need to be in the mindset that this is work; this is a business that you are trying to grow (more on this in a later post).  Once you have found your location, make sure that you have all the tools that you need to run your business near by, so that you are not spending your time looking for things. [...]

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Creating a Summery Post

Posted on 02. Nov, 2010 by Douglas Richardson.

I have created a short video to show you how to create a summery of your post on the main page of your blog, to increase your SEO and get more people clicking on your articles.   Special thanks to my friend Clifton Hatfield, for this little tip!  They don’t call him the “Blog Rockstar” for nothing, please checkout his site, you will be glad you did!

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Ethics and the Internet!

Posted on 27. Oct, 2010 by Douglas Richardson.

This is something that has been on my heart for sometime now, and I just need to let my feeling be known.  Now I am not here to step on anyone’s toes, nor do I feel that I can.  I have been involved in social media and blog monetization for about ten months now, it has been a huge learning curve, I am fifty nine yours old and have been using the internet for many years, but not for making money.  The first computer course that I took at the local community college was Word 1.0.   So I feel like I have been around awhile?  I have started several of my own businesses and have succeeded and also failed, but one thing I have always tried to do is be as honest and ethical as I can be.  A quote from my dear diseased father that I always remember is:  “You meet the same people going up as you do coming down”.  With that said I am becoming more and more aware of a lack of ethics on the internet. [...]

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Business 101 (IMPLEMANTION) Part III

Posted on 11. Oct, 2010 by Douglas Richardson.

Implementation:

OK, so now you have a business plan written, but without an action plan or implementation you really just have a well planned idea.  Implementation of your business plan is what makes all the preparation worthwhile!  Reaching the goals established in your business plan is a testament to your well thought out efforts.

Steps to Implementation: [...]

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