Unlock the TRUE POWER And Enjoy REAL RETURNS on The Social

Engines – Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, LinkedIn and More”

You are probably like most other business and website owners - frustrated that your web marketing efforts seem to be going nowhere.  You are not getting the results you expected from all your online promotional and marketing work.  It’s not just the operational costs either, it’s all the time invested too.  And as the web evolves, it seems more and more time is being taken up trying to sift and sort and filter and connect up with the right leads.

Unless you have been living in the center of the Sahara desert, you would have heard all the buzz about ‘Social Media’ and how it has revolutionalised the way we communicate and how we do now do business online.  Maybe, like many of us, you have tried to get your head around it and maybe you have already (unsuccesfully) invested heavily in it.  And what you have out of it  right now, as a return, is very little more than feeling completely overwhelmed and probably even, already over it.

I know how you feel and I’m SO glad you have connected with this post  today!

The Single Biggest Revolution Since the Invention of the Internet Is Happening Right Now!

Yes, this is the single biggest revolution that forever changes how we communicate, how we do business and how we spend our professional and private time.  Let me get straight to the heart of  it-  the single biggest revolution is the phenomenon of open, bias conversations on Social Engines and it’s here to stay!  Why?  Because it includes websites that people are ‘crazy‘ about going to.  So ‘crazy‘ that it’s like an addiction and it’s definitely a social habit.  And there’s no signs of it stopping any time soon.

SO, MY QUESTION FOR YOU – WHAT ARE YOU DOING ABOUT ADDING YOU, YOUR BRAND AND YOUR PRODUCTS TO THE SOCIAL CONVERSATION? 

AND, DO YOU HAVE A STRATEGIC PLAN OR ARE YOU JUST MODELLING WHAT OTHERS ARE DOING?

People Make Buying Decisions Because Of What They ‘Hear’

From Others Just Like Them On Social Engines

Are The YES Decisions Including OR Excluding You?

Would You Like These Decisions To Positively Impact Your Bank Too?

Here’s what you can do right away to align your social engine efforts with a plan for a real return:

1)   Facebook – get a Page set up asap and ensure you complete ALL the information tabs, including a person who ‘owns/operates it’.  Search for Groups and other Pages you can make a positive, helpful contribution to.  Read the history in these groups and on these pages, paying particular attention to the potential for positive references to influence buying behaviour.  Network in a friendly, helpful manner.  People embrace good behavior quickly and banish bad behavior equally quickly.

2)  Twitter – search for other users via topic (hashtag) and connect with them.  Don’t look at Twitter like a digital advertising billboard. Take a genuine interest in striking up meaningful conversations and exchanging ideas and/or ooffering help – even to a perceived competitor.  In the early stages, make time to understand leaders on topics and in  niches. Make some notes on hot and trending topics that are relevant to you.  Write a blog about it/them.

3)  LinkedIn - complete your Profile to 100%.  Connect with suppliers/vendors, customers, colleagues that already know you.  Ask those that know you well to make a recommendation for you.  Add your blog feed and list any events you have coming up.  Search and join two groups on a topic directly related towhat you do.

4)  You Tube – create your own channel (url should be consistent with your business brand).  Use keywords to search for videos relevant to what you do.  View and select the top 5 and leave a video message comment on them.  Also, make a notation (file) of keywords that your top 5 use for their channel and individual videos.  Subscribe to your favorite channels and send a message to introduce yourself.

These tips are basic strategic moves to help position you for maximum success with minimal effort.  Consider this a new beginning.  It is time to stop wasting your precious money and resources on the Social Engines and instead – invest the next 30 days developing a strategic plan that is leveraged, built to last and delivers bucks directly in to your bank!  It is time, to make THAT promise to yourself!

Do you have some other strategic tips you would like to share too?

We would LOVE to promote you.  Please share them via the comments box below.

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Jennie Armato (affectionately known as The Godmother of the Internet) is Head Coach and Success Mentor at Web Business Academy.   She provides education programs, marketing strategies and systems plus the most powerful tools to manage and accelerate your web success.   Jen’s “Social Engine Success Blueprint” offers you an extended report plus a one hour complimentary webinar where she reveals the keys to moving forward faster to your best year on the web yet!   Grab your FREE ACCESS to the report and webinar PLUS learn more about the entire Social Engine Success Blueprint and Education Program.

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 Today Facebook and Skype officially announced a new partnership which includes the complete integration of the Facebook newsfeed into Skype as well as the phonebook which lists all of a Skype user’s Facebook friends. This is another major partnership for Facebook who has announced numerous partnerships in recent weeks, including yesterday’s announcement with Bing.

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UPDATE:  This feature is now Live and ready for you to use.  Click the image to head over to Facebook and try it out now or read on for more info.

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According to the release, “the Facebook Phonebook in Skype allows users to call and SMS their Facebook friends directly on their mobile phones and landlines”.

While the major partnership between the two companies was first leaked a couple weeks ago, the official announcement just came this morning.

 Unfortunately, Mac users will be disappointed as this release is limited to P.C. users, although we’d expect it to be integrated into the next version of the Skype for Mac application.

This is a partnership of massive proportions as Skype also has a user base of 560 million, a number which Facebook should surpass in the near future (if they haven’t already).  Are you a Skype user? Do you think this integration with Facebook will make it more likely for you to use the product?  And can you see any benefits for business with it?  The following two videos might help you (a) get started and (b) get value from it.

How to Activate Skype in Your Facebook Account

Click here to view the embedded video.

How to Build Your List in Your Facebook Account

(please note the intro goes over first 30 seconds before editorial begins)

Click here to view the embedded video.

“Search More Social”

SEARCH ENGINE BING AND SOCIAL ENGINE FACEBOOK

NOW FULLY INTEGRATED!

Microsoft, the owner of Search Engine “Bing” and Facebook have strengthened their connection (and corporate friendship) with the announcement this week of the integration of Facebook user preferences into search results.

When you now search using Bing, data from your Facebook friends user profiles and pages as well as things they “Like” will be included in the results provided to you.  It’s considered an enhancement and a form of endorsement to the usual static results provided (that are arbitarially selected by the Search Engine).  This is a giant leap forward in making our Search Engine experience more relevant and believable.  The same feature will also appear on searches made from within Facebook.

This very short video introduces the concept …

Click here to view the embedded video.

Although becoming ‘social’ online means as individuals we forego the privacy of our personal interests, desires, preferences and pursuits, for business owners, the intelligence now available and this kind of integration simplifies and ‘straightens the line’ we must take to make direct, relevant connections and offers with our target marketplace.

Expect to see more and more of this information integration between all the engines – Search, Social and Spender, it’s the next phase of the Information and Communication Online Revolution.

Here’s to Your Greater Web Success

Jennie Armato

Head Coach and Success Mentor (Godmother of Web Success)

PS:  Want to know HOW to Create YOUR Greater Web Success?  Check out Jen’s “Web Success Club”  Watch the FREE Online Webinar NOW!  >>

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Last week, Head Coach of Web Business Academy Jennie Armato presented the Academy’s Web Success Financial and Marketing Blueprint at our one day “Web Success Workshop” – Perth, also being held in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne soon too.

During the free one day web success workshop, Jennie revealed the blueprint for maximum web coverage for your online marketing as well as how to develop and diversify your income streams using the most popular web sites, with millions of people visiting them every week, to provide your traffic for you.  She revealed the future of business and the successful business people of the future – “The New Economy Business and Entrepreneur“.

Here’s the underlying framework of what Jennie teaches at the Web Success Workshop – don’t be alarmed if you do not understand, that is what this free web business workshop is all about – enlightening and inspiring you to greater heights of web success.

This amazing free gift of one entire day of FREE internet marketing coaching and web business success mentoring was met with gratitude and excitement by the people of Perth.  Here’s a moment during the day when Jen captured on film their entrepreneurial spirit and excitement about what was just revealed:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The remaining capital cities of Australia, already scheduled in are Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.   A limited number of seats remain at each of these events.  To claim your own FREE Internet Marketing Coaching and Web Business Success Mentoring from Australia’s leading internet marketing specialist, who runs the best coaching program available today for anyone wanted to get started on the internet but has no business or website and for any existing business owners who want to increase your results 3 or 4 times over your current success on the web.

Claim Your AMAZING FREE GIFT from the Academy right now!   Here’s how:

 Click on the location best suited to you:

Brisbane 5 February | Sydney 6 February | Melbourne 7 February

PLEASE NOTE: THESE ARE ONE TIME ONLY EVENTS, SECURE YOUR TICKET TODAY!

We apologise in advance if FREE tickets are not available when you attempt to book.  The full ticket price of $247 will be charged instead.  Click the Ticket to claim you free gift right now.

CLAIM THIS AMAZING FREE GIFT, RIGHT NOW!

I thought our world, at Web Business Academy Headquarters ‘spun fast’, but check out the combined power of the people across social media outlets and services and how much data (information, images etc) is being transmitted second by second.

Gary Hayes of http://www.personalizemedia.com/ has produced these incredibly informative aggregated metrics on ‘information transaction and movement across the internet.’

The speed of this information (data) is represented in real time, meaning what you’re watching is ‘in the moment’ transmissions and transactions – fascinating and edifying for web business owners who choose to be the providers of the products and services purchased through these various communication media and mediums.

(Note you can switch counters by clicking on the tab in the top right hand corner “Social Media”, “Mobiles”, “Games” (in green, red and yellow respectively).

Here is some of the supporting data that Gary has used to create this counter.

I quickly built and coded the app based on data culled from a range of social media sources & sites at the end of Sept 2009. The design will be finessed and I will be adding extra functionality (such as week, month & year lookahead/backs plus dynamic data input).

The social web has exploded in the last year and below are some of the key data points that the ‘Gary’s Social Media Count’ is based on (many will be updated!).

20 hours of video uploaded every minute onto YouTube (source YouTube blog Aug 09)
Facebook 600k new members per day, and photos, videos per month, 700mill & 4 mill respectively (source Inside Facebook Feb 09)
Twitter 18 million new users per year & 4 million tweets sent daily (source TechCrunch Apr 09)
iPolicy UK – SMS messaging has a bright future (Aug 09)
900 000 blogs posts put up every day (source Technorati State of the Blogosphere 2008)
YouTube daily, 96 million videos watched, $1mill bandwidth costs (source Comscore Jul 06 !)
UPDATE: YouTube 1Billion watched per day SMH (2009)- counter updated!
Second Life 250k virtual goods made daily, text messages 1250 per second (source Linden Lab release Sep 09)
Money – $5.5 billion on virtual goods (casual & game worlds) even Facebooks gifts make $70 million annually (source Viximo Aug 09)
Flickr has 73 million visitors a month who upload 700 million photos (source Yahoo Mar 09)
Mobile social network subscribers – 92.5 million at the end of 2008, by end of 2013 rising to between 641.6-873.1 million or 132 mill annually (source Informa PDF)
SMS – Over 2.3 trillion messages will be sent across major markets worldwide in 2008 (source Everysingleoneofus sms statistics)

The counter also has mobile and games added – soon to be included will be ‘heritage or traditional’ media (films shown in cinemas, TV shows being shown globally etc:). The statistical sources for the mobile & games counters are added below (even though they are in other posts).

Some of the sources for the mobile counter

TechCrunchies – Mobile Video Viewers Statistics
AdMob June 2009 Mobile Metrics Report
PortioDirect Mobile Factbook 2009
Mashable – CITA report – 4.1 Billion SMS Messages Are Sent Daily USA
iPolicy UK – SMS messaging has a bright future
Research and Markets Global Mobile Broadband – Statistics and Trends
Smartbrief Sharp Increase in Mobile Internet Adspend…
ABI Research In 2014 Monthly Mobile Data Traffic Will Exceed 2008 Total
HotHardware Huge Growth in Daily Mobile Web Access
Ecoustics
Cio GPS Enabled Mobile Phone Shipments to More than Double Over Next Five Years
Nielsen Americans Watching More TV Than Ever: Web and Mobile Video Up too

Some of the sources for the games counter:  50 million daily users of Zynga social games$2.8 bill generated yearly by China MMOG players16 million quests per day completed by WoW players$22 Billion US games revenue in 200950 000 person to person auctions per day on Gaia1 million currency transactions per day in Eve Online9 games sold every second 2007$5.5 bill spent on virtual goods globally4.1 million new MMORPG subscribers 2009$125 mill advertising revenues in Social Virtual Worlds575000 log into Fantasy Westward Journey per day250 thousand virtual goods created on Second Life per day$594 million invested in Virtual World companies in 20081.5 million new 3-11 US children subscribing to Virtual Worlds annually1 million message board posts per day in Gaia online7.5 million per month use Habbo$2.45 billion per year revenue made from World of Warcraft13.4 million portable game units sold in 2007936 mill Chinese user hours per week in online games (78 mill @ 12 hrs pw)1250 text messages sent per second in Second Life465 million user hours in second life over the last year50 million daily users of Zynga social games (Inside Social Games 2009)
$2.8 bill generated yearly by China MMOG players (Raph Koster 2009)
16 million quests per day completed by WoW players (Maximum PC 2009)
$22 Billion US games revenue in 2009 (IDE Agency 2009)
50 000 person to person auctions per day on Gaia
1 million currency transactions per day in Eve Online (MMORPG.com 2009)
9 games sold every second 2007 (GrabStats 2007)
$5.5 bill spent on virtual goods globally
4.1 million new MMORPG subscribers 2009 (MMORPGChart.com 2008)
$125 mill advertising revenues in Social Virtual Worlds (GamineExpedition 2008)
575000 log into Fantasy Westward Journey per day (Seeking Alpha 2009)
250 thousand virtual goods created on Second Life per day (MarketWire 2009)
$594 million invested in Virtual World companies in 2008 (Engage Digital Media 2009)
1.5 million new 3-11 US children subscribing to Virtual Worlds annually (GamineExpedition 2009)
1 million message board posts per day in Gaia online
7.5 million per month use Habbo
$2.45 billion per year revenue made from World of Warcraft (Edge Online 2008)
13.4 million portable game units sold in 2007 (Grab Stats 2007)
936 mill Chinese user hours per week in online games (78 mill @ 12 hrs pw) (Futures of Learning 2008)
1250 text messages sent per second in Second Life (Linden Lab 2009)
465 million user hours in second life over the last year (Linden Lab 2009)

I encourage you to connect with Gary and his innovative approaches to understanding the true power of social media and the internet.  His website is http://www.personalizemedia.com/

Have A Great Day – from Jen and the Team at Web Business Academy.

Jennie Armato can be found on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and more. She is a best-selling Author, Public Speaker, Director of Auto Web Business .com and Head Coach of Web Business Academy .com – a coaching consultancy service for small business owners wanting to do more for less, far easier than ever before. Special Give-away to all Web Business Academy followers – Claim Your FREE One Day Workshop (limited to 50 Free tickets). Claim Your Free Ticket at www.WebBusinessWorkshops.com

WANT TO LEARN MORE FROM JEN and The TEAM at WEB BUSINESS ACADEMY?

CLAIM THIS AMAZING FREE GIFT, RIGHT NOW!

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Visit Jen’s “Business In Your Bathrobe” blog and check out her 2010 and beyond Web Success Tips

Business In Your Bathrobe – by Jennie Armato, Godmother of Web Success

WAIT!! Before you go … please rate this post and leave your comments and feedback below.

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FREE REPORT + AMAZING FREE GIFT FOR YOUR WEB SUCCESS

“Where is The Future of Online Business -
Could Celebrities be showing mainstream business the way?”

AND Have Your Competitors Already ‘Caught On” and already Talking to Your Customers in this latest marketing evolution for Web Success? (And are they doing it Auto-matically and VERY Cheaply!)  SO MANY Crucial Questions (and Great Gifts too).  Read on …

FREE REPORT and AMAZING FREE GIFT by Jennie Armato, Head Coach, Web Business Academy .com

GRAB YOUR AMAZING FREE GIFT – A TICKET TO A WEB BUSINESS WORKSHOP NEAR YOU!

 FREE REPORT (WARNING: THIS REPORT MAY FRIGHTEN YOU … IT WILL DEFINITELY ENLIGHTEN YOU!)

There is a buzz around on the television news, radio, in the print media, at business networking groups and meetings and especially on the internet right now. There seems to be a shift of focus for how people look for products and services and then decide how they spend their money.

In terms of influence and power, the new way people search for products and services and make their buying decisions online could even rival the search engines. And it’s been said that this buzz could be the single biggest thing to happen in business since the industrial revolution!

Sounds over the top, but is there enough evidence (for you) to be a part of it too? And is this buzz a fad or could it be here to stay?

If you’ve watched TV news or listened to radio or brought a newspaper in the past 2-3 years, you will have noticed references to websites in both stories and advertising, where you can find out more – including how to get more information about a product or service and/or how to buy instructions. In more recent times nearly every news presenter, TV show host, journalist and celebrity are also promoting how you can ‘follow’ their lives, interests and activities online too – and it all seems to be centred around websites such as Facebook.com, Twitter.com, YouTube.com, MySpace.com, Digg.com and more, collectively known as Social Engines.

Celebrities are using these sites to raise their profile, build their brand and most importantly, solidify their popularity and [hopefully] longevity in their profession and industry. AND, these sites enable their audience (loyal army of fans) to talk directly back to them. And this is at the heart of the buzz and current shift – and why it’s so very important you read on and learn more.

On the Social Engine Twitter.com, Ashton Kutcher and Ellen Degeneres have more followers (fans) than the entire populations of Ireland, Norway and Panama. Their brand awareness and popularity building is personal, although as that increases, so too does their value to corporations looking for product endorsements to drive their market penetration and increase their market share.

Sporting stars like celebrities have broadened their talent base too, becoming more entrepreneurial and business savvy, seeing their name, brand and product value increase, in many cases, to a higher income level than the actual core sporting talent. In other words, acting, playing a sport, being a comedienne or whatever is their core talent is no longer their only talent. They have embraced the concept of brand building (and protection), marketplace communications and conversations – opting for direct contact via sources like online Social Engines. Here they can touch far more people quicker and easier than say a traditional autograph signing exercise.

A true business woman, leader and entrepreneur, celebrity Oprah Winfrey instantly connects and updates a loyal army of over 2 million+ people that follow her on Twitter. Her power and influence is no surprise or revolution in itself, but her army of followers are able to directly provide instant feedback and ideas to her too -and marketplace feedback is a life blood to your business growth and long term sustainability. (Try ignoring it and see where your business goes.) Everyone wants to be heard and Social Engines give you, your business and your customers a voice.

A loyal army of followers can also provide a viral effect to disseminate information quickly too, meaning they can ‘spread the word for you’ if you ask them to – this can be particularly useful if you want to spread good news and conversely if your brand comes under attack via other mainstream media mechanisms or on the Social Engines themself.

Although it might be hard to fathom, could celebrity entrepreneurs like these be showing more traditional businesses how to connect, behave, build our brand, increase our marketplace value and build our business too using these Social Engines?

Is this a valid idea and model for mainstream business or not?

Firstly, the power of Social Engines extends far beyond Twitter.com alone. Some of the other leading Social Engine sites sprout some pretty impressive visitor and member statistics, as well as services.

Facebook.com - If it was a country rather than a website, it would be the world’s 4th largest between the United States and Indonesia.

On Facebook there are more than 250 million active users and more than 120 million of them log on to Facebook at least once each day and more than 5 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day (worldwide). The fastest growing demographic is 35 years old and older and within that, the fastest growing segment is 55-65 year-old females. Do people 35+ and women influence the buying decision for your products and services? This is worthy of your attention.

And there’s more … more than 1 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared each week on Facebook alone and more than 2.5 million events are created and advertised each month. More than 45 million active user groups exist on the site and more than 50 language translations of that content are available on the site. The people supplying all this content include business owners and professionals, some of whom are surely in your industry and probably your competitors. And if you think because you’re a localised business that this doesn’t count, you’ll find this statistic most enlightening- 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States.

All of those statistics are just for Facebook alone (source Facebook.com/press/statistics).

You can also purchase Pay Per Click and Pay Per Impression advertising on Facebook (and other Social Engines). They take your spend to a whole new level of value and ROI with their member data allowing you to display your adverts for keywords AND additional, specific demographics of the member base. For example you can display your advertising message to women, 55+ in Melbourne who are single. You can even target people specifically on their birthday with a relevant offer.

This video tells you more about how YOU should be using Facebook:

Click here to view the embedded video.

YouTube.com – take a look at YouTube (which is owned by Google for good reason) – People are watching hundreds of millions of videos a day on YouTube and uploading hundreds of thousands of videos daily. In fact, every minute, ten hours of video is uploaded to YouTube –including promotional videos, education, product consumption/direction videos and client testimonials for business. Plus every video you add to YouTube includes a spot on the webpage where you can put a link back to your website. PLUS you can add these videos to your blog posts, making them more interesting to your blog readers on other Social Engines too (more about blogs in a moment).

YouTube’s user base is broad in age range, 18-55, evenly divided between males and females, and spanning all geographies. Fifty-one percent of users go to YouTube weekly or more often, and 52 percent of 18-34 year-olds share videos often with friends and colleagues.

And could this be the good reason Google brought YouTube? It’s the 2nd largest search engine in the world today, 2^nd only to Google.com. If you want to connect with your marketplace on volume, this is worthy of your attention.

Twitter.com – let’s take a statistical look at that quickly too. Twitter’s footprint has expanded impressively in the first half of 2009, reaching 10.7 percent of all active Internet users in June with 83.1% of users over the age of 25. In July 2009, the Twitter website recorded 23,284,395 unique visitors – who else wants to be ‘front-of-mind’ to an audience of that size? Does your target market include people 25+? This is worthy of your attention.

Twitter has been described as the “Pulse of the Planet” given its instant, viral spread-the-word-to-the-world-instantly nature. It has boosted box office numbers and it’s killed them too, just ask the makers of the movie “Bruno” – overnight ticket sales dropped by more than half thanks to the frank and instant feedback from those that had just seen it. It was so quick too because 80% of Twitter usage is on mobile devices. People update anywhere, anytime – imagine what that means for bad customer experiences and you!

Do you let your customers walk away with a bad experience, only to stand out the front of your store or hang up the phone and blast their frustration and disappointment to hundreds, thousands maybe millions of people –in the ‘heat of the moment’?

The true power of Social Engines is not to be feared, it is to be embraced and when done well, you can influence large numbers of people in the ways you want them to know and represent you. This is worthy of your attention.

Understanding the nature of Social Engine participation is important and the question to answer is – What are people doing on these Social Engines? They are looking for ideas, insights, invites, offers, information, inspiration and conversation.

Savvy business owners, entrepreneurs and professionals are providing it all to them and at the same time, in a more passive or softer way than conventional advertising, promoting their business, building their reputation and ultimately getting more leads and customers to their web sites. These business owners, entrepreneurs and professionals are using resources within services like Facebook that include a Personal Profile Page, Business and Product Pages, Fan Clubs, Groups, Time-sensitive Events/Promotions, Classified Advertising (PPC) and more … and the really smart ones are sharing content direct from their website blog feed too (more about that in a moment).

Then there are sites like LinkedIn, a professional social network and directory of business owners and professionals who can communicate quickly and easily with one another. In a 2009 survey, 80% of businesses and companies who are members were using LinkedIn as a primary recruitment tool to find new employees. This is worthy of your attention.

On these Social Engines, people can say what they want about you and it’s uncensored. What do you do about it? Ignore it and hope the customers and prospects that really matter to you don’t see it? Should you take a proactive approach and start by monitoring what’s been said about you and then start providing your brand of information, insights, ideas and inspiration to your marketplace and control the information flow you want through them?

We are living in an era now where what happens in Vegas goes ON and STAYS ON YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook and more.

“Because of the speed in which social media enables communication, WORD of mouth has become WORLD of mouth.”

Love them or hate them, social engines are here to stay simply because ‘the people’ love them and trust others on them. Facebook and MySpace are among the most popular destinations on the web. And even though they can be extremely annoying, there is one inescapable fact: the most irritating thing about Facebook is the 200m-strong army of people who use it.

And here’s the final enlightening point- Social Engine participation has overtaken pornography as the #1 activity on the Web.

SO Do you get involved or not? And if so, how do you do it easily and cheaply but still ‘play the game’ like a Celebrity with a 2m+ loyal army of followers?

The reality is that even if you’re not involved, your customers and prospects AND competitors probably are – and they’re talking to one another, perhaps about you and without you so the sooner you start, the better chance you have to becoming both a part of the conversation and then lead it.

The answer for businesses, entrepreneurs and professionals is automation – this is the single biggest break-through strategy and tactic that very few people have worked out, including many larger corporations who are successfully using Social Engines but they are not leveraged with automation, also known as things happening ‘auto-magically’.

In many cases, businesses are employing specialist online staff on top of web masters and advertising/SEO experts. With automation, you can do a whole lot for very little extra time and virtually no money.

HOW DOES IT ALL WORK?

At its essence or core are six words that will transform the way you generate leads and make repeat sales online – those words are YOUR WEBLOG FEED PLUS SOCIAL ENGINES.  

A Weblog or blog as it’s more commonly known is a type of website or part of an existing website that allows you to add content as blog posts or articles and display them on your website – content like information, ideas, insights, offers, news, invites, images and more and you can create blog posts quickly and easily without ever needing to get a webmaster to do it for you.

There are over 200,000,000 Blogs online today and that number grows every day. Again, not all blogs and blog owners are equal, many are neglecting to include automation and leverage and integration with Social Engines so there are many nay-sayers about blogging, but that attitude is changing as more people are enlightened.

A Feed or RSS Feed as it’s more commonly known will distribute your blog posts well beyond just displaying them on your website. Feeds permit subscription to regular updates of your blog posts, delivered ‘auto-magically’ via a web portal, news reader, or in some cases good old email. Feeds also make it possible for your content (information) to be packaged into “widgets,” “gadgets,” mobile devices, and other technologies as shortened or full length messages, which Social Engines happen to LOVE. Your Feed makes it possible to display blog posts just about anywhere on the web or web connected device and most importantly directly to the millions of people online every day.

That means a Blog with an RSS Feed can ‘auto-magically’ distribute information you create about you, your business, your products and your services quickly and easily across thousands of sites on the web. And you only have to create your pieces of content once!

A blog is a powerful code (invisible to the human, non-techie eye) and every time you add content to an existing or new blog post, like you would add content to a word document, it is distributed around the web in seconds and is fed directly into the biggest marketplaces and communities of people online every day.

What makes a blog with a feed even more powerful is that it reaches the biggest sources of people (leads) online – who by the way are not just using Search Engines anymore to find out about products and services, they are also using the “Social Engines”. PLUS your Blog Feed can also ‘auto-magically’ update Google and Yahoo about your site too, so you still stay connected with the Search Engines for no more extra work, or money.

Now if you’re anything like me, when I first heard about these Social Engines, I dismissed them as not being a viable business and marketing channel because they appeared to be for personal networking and friendship (and they are indeed used for those reasons). Whilst many businesses, entrepreneurs and professionals are using these engines and winning new business – only a handful are doing it easily and quickly, because most of them do not know about the power of connecting your Weblog RSS Feed and how it fits in with using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Digg and hundreds more Social Engines.

In my own experience, I was wrong to not get involved with Blogs and Social Engines sooner (like many business owners and professional managers still are) as my competitors began to build an edge I did not have with my marketplace, simply because I did not understand and connect these two key points about connecting your blog directly to Social Engines. If you want to find new customers quickly and easily and build better sales from existing customers:

1. Your website must be a Blog with a Feed and/or include one as part of your website
2. Your online marketing mix and strategy must include sharing your blog post information with people on Social Engines like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Digg etc.

And here’s why…

Your competitors have possibly already figured out that social engines are where they can connect with people who include your customers and potential customers because the Social Engines are where your customers and potential customers are going online – and they’re going to these Engines regularly and for long periods of time. And people are making buying decisions based on the conversation they are having and the feedback they are hearing.

Even if you [believe you] have no competition, you’re not connecting with your marketplace as directly and as easily as you can, if you are not using the true power of Social Engines. These online sources or marketplaces attract people 24/7/365, who stay for a while each time. How could you NOT promote you, your business and your products and services there?

Every time you add content to your blog, it is circulated out to many Social Engines, once you set up a FREE account with them … people at these Engines who have an interest in what your business offers then come to your website to find out more.

Here’s an example of how your website Blog, its Feed and these Social Engines work together. (Note this diagram also includes the two largest Search engines -let’s not forget them. Using your Blog and RSS Feed, you can ‘auto-magically’ update them too.)

How Your Blog Works Automatically with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google, Yahoo + more

At the centre of this relationship are your website blog and its RSS Feed. Every time you add content to your blog, the Feed distributes it out to the Social and Search Engines with a link back to your website. People on the Social Engines instantly see a summary of your blog post and a link back to your blog/website. If they are interested in you, they click on the link and follow it back to your website to find out more about you and move forward with you.

“Although we like to feed information to the Search Engines for free listings, the Social Engines outperform them in providing INSTANT, FREE traffic (people) to your website … meaning Social Engines host millions of people live online at any given time who are exposed to your blog post instantly … and not only will they follow your link back to your blog/website if they are interested, they also have the power to make your Feed ‘viral’ – voluntarily passing it on to their friends who in turn pass it on … and so on.

The Social Engines and the people on them help you grow your prospect and customer base quickly, easily and cheaply – you can’t get any cheaper than free!”

The Social Engines are places where people go to and stay at; whereas Search Engines are places people only pass through ‘in search of’ a final site destination. This is the major difference and the significant extra power you’re missing out on if you are not involving your business in the Social Engines. Remember though, the Blog Feed is vital to ensuring your participation is mostly ‘auto-magic’ otherwise participating in them could over run your day, your week and your life!

The Blog Feed allows you to ‘auto-magically’ update the Social Engines, minimizing the ‘air time’ you personally allocate to this.

So, who’s already taking this seriously and using Social Engines as a powerful, quick, cheap and easy tool and media to generate free leads quickly too?

Firstly, no matter your business, products and services, you’ll find prospects and possibly existing clients already participating in these sites on a regular basis. You are bound to find your competitors there too, it makes good business sense to be present on an Engine where millions of people congregate, converse and seek out people with the products and services they require – someone in your industry is probably joining them and being ‘front-of-mind’ and it should be you.

Everyone that gets it commits to it. These world-wide companies, brands and industry leaders have dedicated resources to connect and cultivate relationships with prospects and clients on the Social Engines with reportable, measurable results:

Motor Vehicle Industry: Chevrolet, Ford, General Motors, Honda

Travel and Tourism Industry: JetBlue, Southwest Airlines, Luxor Las Vegas, Marriott International Hotels and Resorts, Carnival Cruise Lines, Hertz Car Hire

Sporting Teams: Chicago Bulls, Detroit Pistons, Portland Trail Blazers, San Diego Chargers

Entertainment: 92Y, The Travel Channel, ComCast, Marvel Entertainment, Direct TV, Pop Caps, TV Guide

Finance: Wachovia, H&R Block, Intuit

Retail: Best Buy, The Home Depot, American Apparel, Rubbermaid, Whole Foods, Zappos.com

Food and Beverage: Starbucks, Burger King, Dunkin Donuts, Popeye’s Chicken, Tastidlite, Kraft Foods (see Vegemite Case Study below)

Other Global brands: Dell Computers, EMC and Kodak – all benefitting by directly connecting with their target marketplace – whether that’s existing customers and/or potential customers.

Case Study:

Kraft Foods have taken an interesting Corporation-Consumer collaborative approach to product promotion and development using Social Engines. Here’s what they say about their social engine strategy:

For many of our strong brands such as Vegemite – we acknowledged that we are simply (proud) brand custodians and that the brand is owned by ‘the people’. We focused our first two years of social engine participation on simply listening and asking questions.

Two of these questions were:

1. How do you individually like your Vegemite?
2. If there ever was to be a Vegemite variation what would this be?

Recently Kraft launched their latest product “Name me” a vegemite plus cream cheese experience. Here’s how they are using Social Engines to develop it.

“This is a work in progress; we spent two years listening and now with the product on shelves the Kraft Communications team is engaging with Vegemite loyalists and cynics alike on the 12 top social engines. They are engaging and getting samples out on and off line– and encouraging debate on the new products. There are a number of Facebook groups sitting in the following camps: pro original, pro new flavour and anti new flavour.”

This is just one way Social Engines are helping businesses already to grow brand, product and corporate awareness. There are many other ways to use it too that can and do lead to direct and immediate sales. No matter the size of your business and marketplace, Social Engines, like the internet at large give you a level playing field with industry leaders like Kraft Foods and the others mentioned here.

Your website with a blog and feed will provide regular content to the Social Engines ‘auto-magically’. You need to support that by also visiting the main Social Engines and engaging people on a weekly basis, as it forms part of your marketing, CRM and all the other pay-offs mentioned previously.

Adding content regularly to your Blog Feed, ‘auto-magically’ keeps you in touch and front of mind to millions of people around the world, on the Social Engines (and Search Engines) so they can access your business, products and services quickly and easily.

The buzz appears to be more than a fad so for your business it becomes not a question of ‘if’ these Social Engines are going to be a valuable marketing tool for business. Rather, the question now is:

“How quickly will you get your business on the Social Engines

… to Capture Your Competitors Clients too?”

HOW TO GET STARTED

Here’s a checklist to help you get started with your new, exciting and FREE Social Engine Strategy:

1) Get a Blog website with a domain name of your choice OR if you already have a website, get a new sub domain or folder added called blog

2) Open an account with at Google, Feedburner, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Digg, and LinkedIn.

3) Install an RSS Blog Feed and set up a Pinging list on it then add your Blog feed to the Search and Social Engine accounts you created in the step above.

4) Create content-rich education videos that can be added to your YouTube account and your Blog – that is then ‘auto-magically’ added to your Search and Social Engine accounts.

5) Actively participate in or create new Facebook Groups, Events and Pages.

6) Make promotional videos about you, your business, your products, how you help and support people and upload them to your YouTube Channel then add them to your blog posts.

To really make this all work well for you, you need to know there is a big secret in succeeding with growing your business using Social Engines. You’ve read this far, so here it is: Social Engine success rest largely with you getting to grips with:

1. Being a ‘face’ of your business and allowing people to connect with your ‘authenticity’ as a person ahead of a product, and
2. the need to ‘listen’ to your marketplace, innovate with change to meet their ever-changing needs and then share information that will help them, rather than push product.

Millions of dollars are spent monthly with pay per click advertising on these sites and more millions are paid to ‘search engine specialists’ who supposedly help you reach number 1 ranking on keywords relevant to your business. It’s a fierce fight between serious players for top spots on search engines, both free and paid listings. An entire industry is built on it and around it. But you now know how to become a leader in your industry on the most powerful Social (and Search) Engines online today and how to do it Quickly, Cheaply, Easily and Auto-Magically.

In some cases, target market demographics may not be using Social Engines; therefore it would not be worthwhile. Consider these statistics when making your evaluation:

78% of consumers trust peer recommendations. Do you rely on 3rd party endorsements to build buyer confidence? If this is not a necessary part of your marketing and sale process, you may be able to ignore Social Engine Marketing.

Successful companies in social media act more like Dale Carnegie and less like David Ogilvy – Listening first, selling second. Would your competitors be prepared to connect and listen to your prospects and customers directly to discover what they want, and then give it to them? If not, then you may be able to ignore Social Engine Marketing … and least for a little while.

The worst part is the first part. When you start, your ‘following’ could be small but that is far better than not monitoring what’s been said about you at all! The only way to change that is to get in the game!

Get started right now, before your competitors do –it’s the future of marketing your business online, because that is where the people you want as your customers are going online. It’s only a matter of time before someone in your industry emerges as the leader on the Social Engines – get you and your business front-of-mind first. Enjoy the experience and I’ll ‘meet and tweet you’ on the Social Engines of the World!

Jennie Armato can be found on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and more. She is a best-selling Author, Public Speaker, Director of Auto Web Business .com and Head Coach of Web Business Academy .com – a coaching consultancy service for small business owners wanting to do more for less, far easier than ever before. This Report is a prelude to a FREE One Day Workshop (limited to 50 Free tickets). Claim Your Free Ticket at www.WebBusinessWorkshops.com Ticket Number 918

WANT TO LEARN MORE FROM JEN and The TEAM at WEB BUSINESS ACADEMY?

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