I spent a fun and insightful day last week at Nick Tadd’s Social Media Workshop. Altogether a very useful and thought-and-action-provoking day!

One of the questions I raised with Nick was the desirability of using corporate versus personal branding and accounts when using the social media.

Nick has since posted a very interesting blog post examining the issue of Social Media Schizophrenia on the Ecademy Social Media Club (SMUDGE) Forum.

Nick concludes that “…The answer is to simply be YOU…you should focus on one core business, the one that you feel most passionate about. Build your on-line brand, personality, and profile around that one business. Once people LIKE and TRUST you, you can then expose them to your other business activities, even if they are totally un-related.”

As I noted in my response to Nick’s post, I believe the choices are not necessarily straightforward, and will depend on the individual, the business, target market and the industry.

And, as the social media and the way they are driving business strategy are here to stay, it’s well worth thinking through the issues as they affect YOU and YOUR BUSINESS…

As Nick (and Penny and Thomas Power, the founders of Ecademy) point out, the mediums available for promotion of one’s business are rapidly changing as we go into the 21st Century - largely due to the changes social media have brought, as well as the ‘information overload’ that we now have thanks to the internet as a whole.

As a result, we’re well into the ‘age of recommendation’ and the tendency to follow people, rather than brands (viz Penny’s KnowMe-LikeMe-FollowMe analysis).

There are many big corporates who use the social media - especially Facebook and Twitter - very successfully to promote the brand (Dell, etc) , rather than individuals - and this is an appropriate approach where the brand already has global or growing recognition.

Many senior executives do, of course, also have a personal Facebook and/or Twitter account, as this allows the corporate to put a more human face on the brand and plays to the above factors.

Many senior executives do, of course, also have a personal SM account, as this allows the corporate to put a more human face on the brand and plays to the above factors.

There’s an interesting TechCrunch blog post on how Charities are using Twitter very successfully to raise funds - this of course is using a corporate branding…

Celebrities are the prime example of using the social media to great effect on a personal branding basis, as people follow them (or their stage name personas) as ‘fans’.

There are also those who use the social media both with a ’sober business persona’ and also with a zanier ‘ the real me’ persona - eg Simon Leung (of Adwords List Building) - @SimonLeung has 39,900 followers, while @CoolSi has 43,600.

Using a personal brand on the social media may also be less easy for smaller businesses, eg the local hairdresser/cake shop or online graphic designer, unless the proprietors have ‘big personalities’ and/or are already well known in their business/area.

For the smaller start-up business/entrepreneur, social media are inevitably going to be a necessary part of core strategy for the future – it’s more and more a question of making the product fit the media, rather than vice-versa.

However, as they may not already be known by their persona, whether to use a corporate or personal branding will depend on a range of factors, including the business, the industry, the target market, personality, etc…

So thanks Nick for a timely post - all good ‘grist to the mill’…

…and I’ll include some questions on these aspects in my Free Tele-Interview with Thomas Power on Wednesday 8th July on “How To Use Social Media For Business Promotion”.

Details at: www.ThePowerNetworker.com

I look forward to you joining us on Wednesday!

Cheers!

John Thornely

Here’s your invitation to a Tele-Interview I’m doing on July 8th with Thomas Power, Chairman of Ecademy, on how to find buyers and network using Facebook and Twitter…

“Can you afford to not to be in a market with 300 million Prospective Buyers?”

That’s the question that THOMAS POWER, Chairman of ECADEMY, asked us at the first #Twalk Twitter workshop recently hosted by Ecademy.

And that’s the question he’s going to answer in a Tele-Interview on Wednesday 8^th July…

Twitter and Facebook are the two KEY markets that are HOT right now and dwarf all the other Social Media sites as the place to win new prospects and build sales.

As Thomas says: “Twitter is growing beyond exponentially, with 1000% growth in the past year and 100% in the past couple of months alone! Projected use should reach 100 million by Christmas and it’s set to explode in the next year, once the school-age generation really catches on.”

And, with 200 million users, Thomas says “Facebook is a huge and active marketplace. So any serious entrepreneur is missing out badly if you’re not using it!

“You need to get into Twitter and Facebook NOW.”

As on-the-pulse entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki says: “Twitter and Facebook are the best way to market your product today - and both are free”.

Only 200 lines are available and are likely to be snapped up fast, so REGISTER NOW at www.ThePowerNetworker.com if you don’t want to be left behind…! It’s FREE!

Talk with you then!

How does Google rank bidders on its Adwords program?

That’s a perennial question that Google never answers directly - and as a result, leads the web advertising industry a merry game ‘catch-if-catch-can’!

It also leads to much misunderstanding by those who can’t afford to spend their days (and money) researching the actual performance of Google Ads… and find their ads being ranked in strange ways - or not shown at all!

So when a senior figure in Google comes out and clarifies the Google Ad Auction process, and how the ‘Quality Score’ of your ad (and other factors) affect both the ranking and cost of your ad (and whether it’s shown at all)… it’s got to be helpful!

And the video below, presented by Hal Varian, Google CHief Economist, is one of the clearest explanations I’ve seen of the importance of managing Adwords Quality Score and the effect on the Ad auction and your Ad placement.

Consulting Google’s Help pages is a bit like consulting the classical Oracle at Delphi - you never get a direct answer! But this is certainly the most easily understood explanation I’ve seen from Google on the auction process and ranking of your Ad.

If you’re not familiar with the basics of  Google Adwords, you can get a description of Quality Score here. But the video is clearer… So maybe Google does actually realise it needs to clarifyhow it’s rnking system works!

Happy Adword-ing
John Thornely

So, you have your business up and running… You’re ready for business. But, wait.

Where are all the people? You are all ready for them, but they have no idea who you are, let alone what you are offering. What do you do now?

You have to market your business. However, you need to be careful on how you do this. Advertising could be what helps your business soar, or it could be what brings it down. Take the time to research to find the most effective way to advertise your business.

Google Maps is growing more and more popular for businesses of any size. Whether you have a company that only delivers locally or one that delivers around the world, Google Maps can reach anyone on the internet.

People use Google Maps for many reasons. Sometimes they are looking for a place, while many times they are searching for a specific type of place in a specific area.

For example, someone might be moving to a new home, and needs information on daycare centers. If they go into Google Maps, they can type in daycare centers, and all of the daycare centers in that general area will pop up.

Or, if you are a business owner ready to take the advertising step, you can utilize Google Maps to target potential customers in a specific area. Listed below are tips on why and how you can use Google Maps to target potential customers and increase sales.

Tip # 1 - Reach new customers using Google Maps and Google AdWords

Google Maps offers Google AdWords. This service allows your ads to appear next to related map search results. You pick keywords that describe your business. When a person enters in one of your keywords, your ad will appear directly on the map. People will then click on your ad, and will be connected to your business.

This is a great service to those advertisers who want to market their products or services to a very specific location. You may have a service or product that you are only offering delivery to locally because you do not have the resources to deliver all around the world. Therefore, you will only want to target specific areas for advertisement.

Google Maps has made it very easy to customize a target audience. With just a few clicks of the mouse, you can now define your location. All you have to do is click-and-drag the map, and zoom into find your location or target area. Then, enter in a distance of at least 20 miles around your location target. A circle will appear next to the areas you chose. Check to be sure the circle is near the neighborhoods you wish to reach for potential customers.

Advertising your products or services through Google Maps will reach those potential customers at the exact moment they are searching. Millions of people use the internet to find information at their fingertips. Many will be looking for products or services in their general area. Listing your business in Google Maps will generate traffic to your websites, and potentially increase sales significantly.

Tip #2 - Google Maps works for businesses of any size.

Google AdWords is an effective tool and offers excellent marketing opportunities for a business of any size. Through Google AdWords, you are able to control your budget, because you pay only when someone clicks on your advertisement. You do not have a minimum spending requirement, and you can set a daily budget of a few dollars or pounds. This works well for small businesses that only have a certain amount to spend on advertising or larger businesses that are able to spend a little more.

Regardless of whether a business has a lot or a little to spend, the benefits remain the same. You are able to target your advertising campaign to specific locations, demographics and a select market. Google AdWords offers real-time control. You are able to pause, resume, increase, decrease or change any of your advertising specifics, instantly. Your company will begin generating traffic immediately.

Tip #3 - How to Effectively Use Google Maps to increase your sales

The goal you have should be to reach as many people as possible that are searching for your ‘specific’ product or service. It should not be to reach as many visits as possible to your site, but to reach quality targeted clicks.

It is important to advertise cost-effectively. Many companies waste hundreds or thousands of dollars on “unwanted clicks” that do not generate business. You’ll want to target people that are truly looking for your product or service, and not pay for clicks that don’t generate sales.

In order to find these people searching for your specific product or service, you need to create a keyword list that is unique to what you are offering. Using specific keywords, rather than broad or generic keywords, will ensure those people are finding exactly what they are searching for.

This in turn, leads to ‘true’ potential customers, which leads to ‘potential’ sales. And, in the end, leaves your paying for less unwanted clicks.

Determine if your product or service will be local, national or global. Google AdWords allow you to specify the exact areas you would like to target. Analyze your product or service. Determine keywords that are unique to what you offer, and try to be as specific as you can about the description of your product or service.

Tip #4 - Update your listings at any time

Google allows you to update your listings at any time. It is imperative to carefully manage your account in order to reduce expenses for ineffective advertising and gain the maximum benefits Google Maps has to offer. Along with carefully considering your keywords, you should monitor them, too. And, you should continuously manage your cost per click.

Increasingly, Google is presenting maps on its everyday searches, so this can help your business!

So - Check out what Google Maps can do for you!

John Thornely
© John Thornely www.johnthornely.com 2008

To learn more about how YOU can
Profit From The Internet – Fast, visit
www.Internet-Tycoons.com

The ability to target your Adwords adverts to particular websites — ‘Placement Targeting’ was introduced by Google in mid-2007. It’s a revolution in online advertising but no-one talks about it — it’s still too new for most people to have tested thoroughly.

However, experts like Armand Morin and Pay-Per-Click expert Gauher Chaudry — who have so many websites out there that they can test every aspect thoroughly — are finding that they can cut their Adwords advertising costs significantly, while improving conversion rates, with placement targeting.

And it’s all about piggy-backing on other peoples’ success! Why do it the hard way?

This — very simply — is how it works:

1. Do a Google search for your keywords — for example ‘Diet’. The search returns will give you the sites that rank highest on that keyword.

2. Check which sites have Adsense adverts on them (there is even software which will do this for you now, such as Adwords Digger and PPC Web Spy – both free).

3. If a high-ranked site suits your strategies, click on the link in the Adsense area ‘Advertise on this site’ and sign up.

4. If you use a TEXT AD, you’ll have to compete with 3 to 4 other advertisers. But you can use other (more expensive) ad types and dominate the advertising on a site. Few people are using image Ads (‘Widgets’) and video Ads to good advantage yet, so now’s your opportunity!

5. You pay on a cost-per-click or a cost-per-impression basis (CPM = cost per thousand), which is far less expensive.

6. Your advertising is focused on highly targeted sites where visitors are already well ‘qualified’ by selecting to visit that site.

7. So your costs are lower and your ‘conversions’ (ie click-through) are higher.

You can learn more about Placement-Targeted Adwords at:

· www.google.com/ads/sitetargeted.html

· https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=342

Have Fun!

John Thornely
© John Thornely www.johnthornely.com 2008

To learn more about how YOU can
Profit From The Internet – Fast, visit
www.Internet-Tycoons.com

Analysis – Ugh! Analyzing your web traffic statistics can be an invaluable tool for a number of different reasons. But before you can make full use of this tool, you need to understand how to interpret the data.

Most web hosting companies will provide you with basic web traffic information that you then have to interpret and make pertinent use of. However, the data you receive from your host company can be overwhelming if you don’t understand how to apply it to your particular business and website.

Visitor Behaviour. Let’s start by examining the most basic data – the average visitors to your site on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.

These figures are the most accurate measure of your website’s activity. It would appear on the surface that the more traffic you see recorded, the better you can assume your website is doing, but this is an inaccurate perception. You must also look at the behavior of your visitors once they come to your website to accurately gauge the effectiveness of your site.

I’m A Hit! There is often a great misconception about what is commonly known as “hits” and what is really effective, quality traffic to your site. Hits simply means the number of information requests received by the server. If you think about the fact that a hit can simply equate to the number of graphics per page, you will get an idea of how overblown the concept of hits can be.

For example, if your homepage has 15 graphics on it, the server records this as 15 hits, when in reality we are talking about a single visitor checking out a single page on your site. As you can see, hits are not useful in analyzing your website traffic.

The More The Better! The more visitors that come to your website, the more accurate your interpretation will become. The greater the traffic is to your website, the more precise your analysis will be of overall trends in visitor behavior. The smaller the number of visitors, the more a few anomalous visitors can distort the analysis.

The aim is to use the web traffic statistics to figure out how well or how poorly your site is working for your visitors. One way to determine this is to find out how long on average your visitors spend on your site. If the time spent is relatively brief, it usually indicates an underlying problem. Then the challenge is to figure out what that problem is.

The Wrong Visitors? It could be that your keywords are directing the wrong type of visitors to your website, or that your layout or graphics are confusing or intimidating, causing the visitor to exit rapidly. Use the knowledge of how much time visitors are spending on your site to pinpoint specific problems, and after you fix those problems, continue to use time spent as a gauge of how effective your fix has been.

Poor Performers. Additionally, web traffic stats can help you determine effective and ineffective areas of your website. If you have a page that you believe is important, but visitors are exiting it rapidly, that page needs attention. You could, for example, consider improving the link to this page by making the link more noticeable and enticing, or you could improve the look of the page or the ease that your visitors can access the necessary information on that page.

If, on the other hand, you notice that visitors are spending a lot of time on pages that you think are less important, you might consider moving some of your sales copy and marketing focus to that particular page.

As you can see, these statistics will reveal vital information about the effectiveness of individual pages, and visitor habits and motivation. This is essential information to any successful Internet marketing campaign.

Exit This Way! Your website undoubtedly has exit pages, such as a final order or contact form. This is a page you can expect your visitor to exit rapidly. However, not every visitor to your site is going to find exactly what he or she is looking for, so statistics may show you a number of different exit pages. This is normal unless you notice a exit trend on a particular page that is not intended as an exit page.

In the case that a significant percentage of visitors are exiting your website on a page not designed for that purpose, you must closely examine that particular page to discern what the problem is. Once you pinpoint potential weaknesses on that page, minor modifications in content or graphic may have a significant impact on the keeping visitors moving through your site instead of exiting at the wrong page.

Keywords And Phrases. After you have analyzed your visitor statistics, it’s time to turn to your keywords and phrases. Notice if particular keywords are directing a specific type of visitor to your

site. The more targeted the visitor – meaning that they find what they are looking for on your site, and even better, fill out your contact form or make a purchase – the more valuable that keyword is.

However, if you find a large number of the wrong type of visitors are being misdirected to your site by a particular keyword or phrase, that keyword demands adjustment.

Keywords are vital to bringing quality visitors to your site who are ready to do business with you. Close analysis of the keywords your visitors are using to find your site will give you a vital understanding of your visitor’s needs and motivations.

Time To Celebrate! Finally, if you notice that users are finding your website by typing in your business’ name, break open the champagne! It means you have achieved a significant level of brand recognition, and this is a sure sign of burgeoning success.

In addition to the information your Hosting company can provide, one of the most powerful – and free – tools for analysing the behaviour of visitors to your website is Google Analytics – see www.google.com/analytics.

John Thornely
© John Thornely www.johnthornely.com 2008

To learn more about how YOU can
Profit From The Internet – Fast, visit
www.Internet-Tycoons.com

Ever spent a lot of money developing products and ideas that nobody wanted to buy? What a horrendous waste - there are so many ideas that people will spend money on!

With Google AdWords, you should never need to invest more than a few hundred dollars - or in the worst case a few thousand dollars - pursuing an idea that won’t work.

Let’s say you’ve got a product idea. The product itself costs $5,000 to develop, and you’re sure it’s a good idea because it solves a really thorny problem.

So here’s what to do: You write a report, ebook or white paper about how to solve that problem. You create an opt-in page where people can get your report in exchange for their contact information.

Then you ‘buy’ keywords, send people to that page and see how many people you can get to opt in. That’ll give you a gauge of interest.

If you absolutely cannot get anybody to opt-in to your report - or if you can’t find keywords that anyone is searching for - then that’s a good sign you should abandon the project before you throw any more money at it.

When people do opt in, you can send them an email (or even call them on the phone) and ask them what they’re really looking for. If your report is any good, they’ll be happy to talk to you, and you’ll get LOTS of input about the kinds of problems they’re trying to solve.

John Thornely
© John Thornely www.johnthornely.com 2008

To learn more about how YOU can
Profit From The Internet – Fast, visit
www.Internet-Tycoons.com

Before you spend a lot of money setting up in your chosen niche, you’ll want to research it thoroughly and test it out, to see what traffic you get and the quality of this traffic – are they ‘hot buyers’ or just browsers?

Hot Tip: One of the ways that you test a niche, before you get started, is to send some traffic to an affiliate site (you sign up as an Affiliate to sell someone else’s product – they’ll generally set up a website for you). If you are getting sales as an affiliate, then you could make sales with your own product.

Hot Tip: Another way to test your niche is to sign up as an affiliate to Amazon and send people to your Amazon affiliate site, using Google Adwords.

John Thornely
© John Thornely www.johnthornely.com 2008

To learn more about how YOU can
Profit From The Internet – Fast, visit
www.Internet-Tycoons.com