eMarketing

Over the past month or two I’ve become a student of social networking on the Internet with the goal of more effectively eMarketing my business. Last Friday I attended an excellent all-day conference sponsored by the Key Entrepreneurial Development Center. For the past two days I’ve been attending a virtual conference on eMarketing for publishers. I’ve read books, blogs, tweets, web sites, and more.

With all of this studying and research I would have expected to be an expert by now! That is hardly the case. I have researched so very many social networking sites, methods of eMarketing, and read so many opinions about what works and what doesn’t, that my head is about to split! The fact is that anyone serious about marketing products or services needs to use the Internet. The key is to use it effectively for reaching a specific target market. Having a good web site is a necessary start, but somehow people have to get excited enough to find the site. With so many techniques available, and with limited time and money, here are a few things that I have employed:

1. Constantly updating the content and improving my web sites for search engine optimization (SEO).

2. Twittering – I honestly don’t yet know if Twittering is worth the effort but time will tell.

3. Exploring and using Google tools. For those of you not familiar to the vast array of tools available, set up a Google account (it’s free) and explore.

4. Using LinkedIn. I’m finding this to be a valuable site – especially since it implemented groups a number of months ago. Each group has a forum and there are often great discussions.

5. I have a FaceBook account but have done nothing more than to create a profile.

6. Blogging.

7. Posted press releases to public relations sites. Within days of posting a free press release on www.pr.com I received orders for two lamps.

One of the keynote speakers at the eMarketing conference last Friday said that to be effective one needs to spend between two to four hours a day on-line! I’m beginning to believe he is correct.

Will Limkemann
www.siqualtd.com

Internet marketing

During the past month I have devoted most of my waking hours to finding ways of promoting, selling, and distributing my new book, The Successful Home Business Guide. I must say it has been an educational experience.

What I have learned is that, using the Internet, there is an unlimited supply of resources (and time drains). In addition to networking sites, there are sites for posting and distributing news releases (some free, some at a significant cost), there are too many sites to count with free and dubious advice, there are sites filled with valuable resource material, there are on-line and brick-and-mortar bookstore sites, and sites all too willing to participate in selling my product (or at least participate in extracting money from my checkbook).

A little over two weeks ago I created my Twitter account and to date have sent out 46 updates. Through a trusted friend’s site I yesterday discovered a site called www.twello.com, which is a complementary site to Twitter and other social networking sites. Twello allows you to set up an account linked to your Twitter account and create Twittering categories. Now I really don’t have a clue as to the relationship between Twello and Twitter. What I do know is that as of yesterday morning I had amassed 79 followers. I created a Twello account yesterday and today I have 140 followers.

Will twittering and having people follow me result in book sales or consulting service? I don’t have a clue, but twittering is but one of many on-line marketing techniques I’m trying out. I’ll let you know what works.

By the way, you probably won’t be hearing from me next week as I have been called up for jury duty.

Will Limkemann
www.doublewarepub.com

So perhaps I’m a bit slow catching on to the nuances of social networking on the web. I’ve had a Linked In account for quite some time, I’ve registered on facebook, and began twittering about two weeks ago (already have 75 followers). But I’ve just barely begun to understand the potential of these tools.

Take Linked In. I have 188 connections and (as of yesterday) belong to 4 groups. I had not really understood the potential until a friend recommended registering with additional groups. I was astounded when I realized that there are thousands and thousands of groups. For example, a search using the key words “home business” lists 400 groups. There are 3,610 groups for sales, 806 for manufacturing, and 1452 for insurance. Any given group can have dozens, hundreds, or thousands of members

I guess it’s time to get a bit more aggressive in the social networking world.

Will Limkemann
www.siqualtd.com