by Alison Kenney

I’ve heard Foursquare referred to as the hottest new marketing tool.  But personally, I’m not a huge fan.  In fact, according to this Fast Company article, I’m in the apathy stage.  I just don’t feel the need to compete for badges and mayorships — and not enough contacts in my personal network use it to make it a useful communication tool.  However, I am intrigued by its marketing and PR potential.

Here’s why Foursquare matters to marketers:

Your audience is game. This CNN story on Foursquare creator Dennis Crowley illustrates the appeal of Foursquare to a certain type of consumer — someone such as Crowley — who enjoys playing virtual contests, or someone who loves the challenge of new e-games.  Foursquare can be a new way to connect with your target audience or even a way to reach a new audience.

Foursquare can reinforce your brand loyalty. Retailers like Starbucks and Dominos (in the UK) are testing Foursquare as a way to identify enthusiastic customers by rewarding them with coupons and discounts based on the number of times they “check in” using Foursquare.

Mobile and geo-location technologies are the future. According to Yankee Group president and author of the book, “Anywhere: How Global Connectivity Is Revolutionizing the Way We Do Business.’’ Emily Nagle Green says that Google’s decision to put mobile first in their business is a telling indicator.  Yahoo! also seems to be throwing its hat into the geo-location ring with its recent purchase of Kropol.  A recent report from Juniperstates that all mobile location-based services may contribute a total revenue of $12.7 billion by 2014.

Location-based services are a natural fit for tourism and travel related brands. More than ever people are turning to the Web to plan their travel itineraries, find recommendations and map their trips.  Foursquare can be a fun way to engage travelers and tourists during the process.  The city of Chicago’s tourism office is encouraging people to recreate a scene from the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off using Foursquare.   The state of Pennsylvania is leveraging social media to promote tourism too and has created special Foursquare badges just for Pennsylvania sites and uses Foursquare to provide tips for visiting Pennsylvania destinations.

Content generators now have another medium to reach their audience. The NY Times has aggregated its content for a new free iPhone app for visitors to Manhattan and Brooklyn and also offers integration with Foursquare for convenient check ins, i.e. convenient links to NY Times content.

Event marketers use Foursquare to drive participation. In addition to allowing users to know who is nearby or attending the same event, Foursquare can help event marketers increase participation.  Last week fashion designer Cynthia Rowley launched the Cynthia Rowley Bridesmaids collection with the help of Foursquare and gave attendees at its launch unveiling a special gift if they checked in on Foursquare.  (Visitors who check in at the store Lovely Bride during the week after the launch also receive 15% off their bridesmaid dress order.)

Whether Foursquare is here to stay, or not, smart marketers and PR pros are considering location-based social media as part of their integrated marketing plan.  Are you?

Alison Kenney an independent PR practitioner with more than 15 years of PR consulting experience. She is based on Boston’s North Shore and has worked with organizations in the technology, professional services and consumer industries. She writes a bi-monthly PR column on LindsayOlson.com.

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by Tamar Weinberg

Why do businesses need social media? It’s a good question, and one that everyone should ask before they get started. After all, spending time, money, and other precious resources on social media marketing before you have an understanding of what it can do for you is kind of like putting the cart before the horse (not advisable).

What are your goals? Just because you’ve heard that other companies are doing it doesn’t mean that social media will magically work for you. Like any marketing strategy, it takes maintenance and a clear vision of the bigger picture. Your tweets, posts and comments should all be coordinated to meet the ultimate goal, which is to establish trust, build your brand, and increase sales.

Which is why, of course, your business needs a killer social media strategy. In order to tap the potential of this fabulous marketing tool, you’ll want to first determine if social media can meet your goals and objectives. If you’re still figuring out your marketing plan for 2010, consider the following 10 reasons why a social media strategy may be well worth the effort.

It finds your customers

Companies using traditional marketing methods (e.g. surveys, focus groups, test marketing) often spend millions to locate their target markets. Where are the people most likely to buy your products and services? Establishing a social media strategy will help you see where potential customers are hanging out. You can search for related groups and Fan Pages through Facebook, start accounts on social bookmarking sites such as Digg or StumbleUpon, and check on who is linking to your site to find out who’s interested.

It tells you what they like

…and what they don’t like. Social media gives businesses on small budgets the ability to find out what people are saying about them (and others) in their industry, without paying large sums on market research. With your ear to the ground on social media, you’ll be the first to know if your product is working or if changes need to be made. Does your brand need a makeover? You’ll find out here first.

It reveals their interests

Regardless of what people are saying about you, it’s important to know what they’re talking about in general. What motivates them? What are their issues? In every industry, there are existing conversations going on. A social media strategy will allow you to get in on these conversations so that you can offer solutions, push buttons, and get people talking.

It introduces your brand

Is your company new? Or has it been around awhile but hasn’t been using social media? Starting a fan page on Facebook and a business account with Twitter is sort of like moving into a new neighborhood. You can introduce yourself, hold get-togethers and talk about topics of interest. Friends and followers will soon start inviting their friends over to see what’s going on. This is an effective way to make the connections that lead to sales.

It expands your reach

Even an established brand may be missing out on potential customers. Through social media, you can find out what online communities your existing customers belong to. These places can become portals to a larger audience for your products and services. And don’t forget that your customers can spread the word for you to these communities. Interest them with compelling and useful content, contests and giveaways, etc. They’ll soon be telling their friends and colleagues to check you out.

It gives you feedback

A big advantage to using social media is the “give and take” built into it. While large corporations are paying people to give them feedback, you can invite comments and opinions through your blog posts and fan pages for free. Then, channel them into improving your products, your brand image, etc. When you listen and respond to your customers’ opinions, suggestions and even criticisms, they start to feel invested in you.

It provides a test audience

No company wants to throw a new product or concept out there without first testing it out. You can tap into your pool of social media groupies to find those willing to test out your ideas and give you valuable feedback before you launch. Your social media pages offer places where people interested in your ideas are already gathered, so you don’t have to take a “hit or miss” approach to beta testing.

It showcases your company’s personality

Engaging through social media lends itself to more personal contact with customers. You can avoid being a faceless, impersonal storefront by letting people know who you are. Commenting, posting blogs and inviting conversation allow customers to connect with you and your brand. This builds stronger relationships over time.

It makes you accessible

Fans, friends, and followers have direct access to you. Unlike the pre-social media days, when consumers often had to deal with companies that they perceived as unreachable, you can quickly respond to your customers’ problems and frustrations before they balloon into a big mess. Likewise, being able to personally respond to positive feedback strengthens bonds by making people feel that their opinions matter.

It lets you share

Through social media, you can create all kinds of content and post it in one place. Make videos, write articles, and post blogs and podcasts to your pages, where everyone can access them. You can communicate in fun and inventive ways because there are no rules for how to best reach your audience, so you can mix it up and appeal to everyone. Sharing also gets people to share back, and gives you access to resources and links that could become invaluable to you.

There are many things that social media can do for your business. Developing a strategy for using it means that you need to think about what you want to accomplish this year and determine how social media fits into the plan. One of the benefits of a social media strategy is the fact that you can customize the available tools for your particular needs. You can choose to concentrate your efforts on the sites that seem to offer the best return on investment, while taking a “wait and see” stand on the others.

The bottom line is this: your customers are out there having conversations on social media with or without you. You can choose to join in or not. But when you think about the potential that social media marketing offers, it may be well worth your time to at least start exploring the possibilities it offers.

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by Brent Csutoras

When putting together a social media campaign, you should consider many different things before you actually submit your content. You need to think about creating good social media accounts, quality content, and which social media site to submit to.

Finally you get to the point where you can submit your content and take a breather… but not for long. The days of “submit and forget” are over. After you submit your content is when the social media campaign really begins and you have, on average, only about 24 hours to help get your content to the popular page of the site you have submitted to.

Here are a few things you should do to help your submission through this very important part of your social media campaign.

Participate in the conversation There is always more to your story. It may be an opinion or comment that opens a line of debate or conversation, a comparison to another similar story, or more information about the same story you are telling.

Research and find additional information or articles related to your topic and use the comment system to add more value to the campaign you are pushing. Remember that the only thing you should focus on during the 24 hour push is getting more votes.

If someone else leads with a comment or discussion, then embrace it. Reach out to your network and ask friends to comment as well. If someone comments positively on your submission, then vote on that comment to help it stand out. If someone comments negatively on your submission, then vote that comment down and have your network do the same. Some systems can sort comments based on their rating and also remove them if they get enough negative votes.

Ask your network for help Reach out to people in your network and ask them to vote on your submissions. Be wary not to overuse or abuse your friends, and be considerate in how you ask your friends for their support. Try to rotate and only send requests to a few people each time so you don’t become an annoyance.

Use the communities’ networking features Many sites have features that allow you to share your submission with friends and users of that community. Use these systems responsibly and you can find some great support from the community.

Remember, your job is not finished just because you have submitted your content to a social community. You need to remain involved and support your campaign. Every vote matters and you need to do everything you can to get your submission the popular page.

Social Media campaigns can be long and tiring, but if you want the links, branding, and traffic that social media can bring, then you have to work for it.

Brent Csutoras is an internet marketing consultant, who specializes in social media, viral and search engine marketing. The Let’s Get Social column appears Tuesdays at Search Engine Land.

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Whether you’re just beginning your journey into social media or you have already had your share of success and failure (more of the former I would hope) it’s worth revisiting basic characteristics of social media from time to time. For it’s in the basics that the obvious can get overlooked and erroneous assumptions are made.

Social Media is Deceptively Easy
The trick social media plays on the casual observer is in simplicity. Even though the actual objectives within a particular social media community or strategy may not be obvious, getting started is relatively easy. It’s a click of the mouse and a few fields in a submission form. It’s a free account or a 5 minute install. If you’re not interested in writing long winded blog posts, social media can be as simple as 140 character “micro-blogging”.

But simplicity and ease of use also mean a low barrier to entry and voluminous noise to sift through. Any Tom, Dick or Harry can start a blog, join a community and start writing or submitting. What’s going to make your blog posts stand out or your submissions worth voting for in any given community? What value will someone find in following your updates and insights?

Social Media is Generally a Public Conversation
Almost everything you do, write and offer in the social media space is available to anyone, everywhere online. Your connections, votes, submissions and opinions become part of your online history so consider how you choose to represent yourself.

While privacy settings and anonymity may shield some of your ambition (or your mishaps), it doesn’t take away the time investment in your own social media education to getting to where you want to be. And remember that depending on the community or strategy, a lack of transparency may say more than you think.

Social Media is Not Any One Application
Digg by itself is not social media. Nor is Twitter, Facebook or Techcrunch. Social media is really about a set of tools and applications which allow people to connect and share information online in an entirely new way.

Don’t get misled into believing your social media strategy is only about one application or one website. More than likely, you will need to engage in conversations across a variety of platforms and services, primarily because your research will lead you into new opportunities that provide value for communication.

Each Social Media Community is Unique
While experience helps, remember that each community has it’s own benefits, personalities and reasons for being unique. Make certain to take note of the social media characteristics that make up each community before making inappropriate assumptions when joining.

In addition, while there have been best practices written for almost every social media community out there, you’re really not going to understand the time and commitment required in being a quality contributor until you role up your sleeves and start contributing.

Much of Social Media is About Common Sense
In the end, there’s not much difference between the way we interact online and offline, with the exception of how the communication is delivered. It’s a classic discussion of etiquette previously discussed with the emergence of email, IM or wherever else interaction online has played a part. When in doubt, ask yourself this question:

What would I do if faced with the same situation in person?

Your communication strategy will probably be the same online as it is offline, you’ll just need to fine tune your delivery. The fact that conversations are handled through some online intermediary does not mean that the online intermediary is also on the receiving end of your message. Just as you need to be aware that conversations may be public, they’re also being interpreted by a human being(s).

Social Media is a Hot Topic
It’s not to say that social media is a passing fad but that you should have a better reason to invest social media other than the fact that Jeremiah Owyang told you so (although you may want to read his blog posts from time to time). When I wrote on the failed expectation of an SEO blogging strategy the undertone intended was in understanding what the right goals truly are. The same must be understood with social media, including your blogging strategy.

In addition, my personal opinion is that the metrics for social media need to be different than how you would measure a pay per click strategy or organic keyword strategies. While we’re all concerned with sales and revenue we’re also concerned with customer and community relationships. It’s true that companies have established “lifetime customer values” and “cost of customer acquisition” but aren’t these values part of the reason that social media became so relevant?

Final Thoughts
I’m as much of an advocate of social media as the next person but the lure of financial opportunity and traffic acquisition can cloud the judgment of even the most sensible business owner.

The bottom line is that social media is easy to get involved in, built on common sense and there are enough tools and applications available to create a unique social media strategy that makes sense for you and your business. But don’t overlook the challenge of what matters most in social media: your quality contributions and community relationships.

For Those New To Social Media
While there are several quality resources for social media (many linked to herein this post), I recommend taking a look at Muhammad Saleem‘s 10 part series on Freelance Switch – Social Media and Simplicity – a guide on “how you can use the web’s newest communities to promote and grow your freelancing business” (and small business).

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by suneko.

Many search engine optimizers are still stuck in the past. They practice SEO 1.0 or less. These SEOs fail to adapt to the new Web 2.0 media environment and attempt to apply rules of the older Web to the new situation.

To encourage some self reflection of the people in the search engine optimization business I compiled a ruthlessly honest set of 10 reasons why SEOs fail on social media. Of course not all of them do, but still far too many. We can do better than that. So if you recognize yourself in some of these traits take a step forward and change your approach to social media.


1. SEOs love to automate
SEOs love to automate. Social media is about conversation, conversation between people. Now how you would automate that? Ever tried automating conversation with your wife or kids? You can’t automate conversation without annoying and ostracizing people.


2. SEOs are treating social bookmarking like web directories
Do you remember web directories? When was the last time you used DMOZ or the Yahoo Directory for research? People use del.icio.us nowadays. Although some people try to revive the web directory selling it as Web 3.0 “human powered search” directories are dead. Google thinks so, the users think so anyways. Many SEOs do not think so. Also they assume that social bookmarking sites are the directories of Web 2.0. So instead of submitting to 2000 directories they now submit to 200 social bookmarking sites. Social bookmarking is not about the number of sites you submit to but about the number of users that vote for you on one site and the authority of one user who submits your site, especially if it’s social news or social browsing. You might sleep with 200 women but I guess none of them will love you just for the act. Your wife probably will love once you make a commitment to her. Also your friends will like it when you tell them stories but not strangers on the streets.


3. SEOs start yelling at people instead of listening
Hey you, want to buy SEO services? Imagine yourself shouting this sentence on the street. Shouting at people you have never seen before. People who are not interested in you at all. This is exactly what SEOs often do on social media. Again, imagine yourself and your wife or friends. Instead of listening you start shouting at them. Do you expect them to listen and fulfill your wishes?


4. SEOs do not share
When I went full time SEO in Germany in 2004 I was amazed by clandestine atmosphere of SEO. It was as if it was more like CIA not SEO. Information and links were scarce and everybody was stingy with them. Sharing information could give your competitors an advantage. So it was important to keep as much of your know how for you as possible. While the most successful SEO experts at SEOmoz or SEO Book are famous for the knowledge they share the German SEO forums are still full of people who won’t tell you anything. They will “reply” trying to scare you off or ridicule you instead of sharing what they know. Imagine yourself on a party and someone asks what you do for a living. You reply “I can’t tell you” because you’re afraid the person could get in your way as a competitor. Also hoarding PageRank was very important while linking out to somebody who does not link back a sign of idiocy. Why giving away your Google juice? If you do not give away anything, even things that do not cost money nobody will like you.


5. SEOs are sneaky
I am still amazed by some people in SEO. Their first thought on encountering a new service or medium seems to be: How can I sneak in and take away the riches? Imagine this in real life: Yes, it’s called crime.


6. SEOs concentrate on bling bling and fetishes not actual results
Enlarge your PageRank? Do you think the size of your pagerank, car or IQ makes you better than others? It’s very strange to see people in SEO forums talking about PageRank. They still behave like years ago when it was really important but even more so. They fetishize PageRank. It’s not only PR though. It might be the ranking in the SERPS or it might be the silly traffic numbers. They are all just signs of success, but signs that often are misleading. You can have a PageRank 8, be #1 in Google and have 100.000 visitors one day without gaining any real authority or making real sales. Now just think of a braggart like that boasting. Would you like and respect this person?


7. SEOs obsess about numbers instead of value/s
Even the SEOs who care about conversions and ROI tend to have only one value: Dollars. I assume that in western countries you at least share some core values like democracy, freedom of speech and movement, peace etc. Now how many SEO firms display any engagement on this issues? Also I assume that most people love art, music, literature and cherish nature. How many SEO companies speak out on behalf on the environment, support artists, sponsor concerts or invite poets to perform on their behalf? People on social media are real people. They are not interested in what you want to sell them most of the time, but they love the green grass, they love to listen to music, read great stories and look at beautiful or intriguing artworks.


8. SEOs treat “content” like filling or stuffing
When you read why some SEOs recommend blogging you have the impression that it’s about content that is only filling in the pages with keyword rich nonsense. Do they care if anybody reads it all? It’s like having stuffed animals in the park or ZOO. Would you like a park where the birds that twitter are recorded or a ZOO where the animals are displayed on large TV screens? If there is no life in the “content” nobody will want to look at it let alone read it.


9. SEOs don’t get design
Many SEOs still think that web design does not matter or means placing the keywords prominently in the content so that Google can find them. People just take a look at a website and leave instantly if the design is not appealing to them. Social media users behave even more like this. No great visual on the page means bouncing off it.


10. SEOs are selfish
Many SEOs do not give away anything that matters to others. They want to take without giving. If they take, they take for themselves. Social media is all about giving. Many people assume that giving and sharing is the only acceptable way to act on social media. I do not agree with that, because this way you would only work for free for companies who own this social media. You need to give to be able to take though. If the people know you, have gotten attention from you or something else that has value on the Internet like links, recommendations or feedback they are willing to listen to you and also to give.



Now who the hell am I to tell you these things? Well, I’m in SEO for more than 4 years now and I still don’t believe that SEO is all that I described above. These 10 reasons why SEOs fail on social media are aberrations. These are the mistakes people are making on the Web. Not only SEOs do them, I see plenty of people outside of SEO doing that. So just take a look at what you do online and then do not these mistakes again.

I’ve made some of these mistakes myself like obsessing with PageRank, traffic but mostly I was able to omit these as I was on the Web since 1997, meaning 7 years before starting with SEO so I knew how to act online without alienating people. Try to be a human being first and then a SEO on top of that. Do not approach people as a marketer on social media. This is the most important thing.

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By Liana Evans

As much as social media is about starting conversations, its equally as much about building relationships. Once you start getting involved with social media, it becomes very apparent that it takes time and resources to build those relationships within your community that creates the brand loyalists and promoters, not to mention converting the skeptics.

It certainly doesn’t happen over night, or with one Social News site submission. Rather, it takes dedicated resources, as in real human beings, that represent your company or your brand to communicate one on one with individuals who are active in the social circles within your industry space. Shortcuts are few and far between, and in the end, only manage to “cheapen” or even destroy the trust you’ve built up in a relationship.

Take for example, outsourcing a blogger outreach program. A lot of companies out there will spout out how many emails they can send out to bloggers pitching your product, service or brand. If they do that, you should stop, pack up your things and walk out the door. That’s not how you are going to build relationships with bloggers, that’s only going to get them pissed off at you.

So what’s a company to do? Well here’s some simple tips to get your started on building relationships in the social media space.

• Dedicate Resources
  Building relationships in social media requires resources, both time and bodies. You need to have a dedicated person or team that fields the responsibility of communicating on a one on one level with your audience. That means that this team of people needs to read blogs, manage friend lists, write comments, join groups, upload photos, participate in forums, be active on sites like Twitter or Plurk, write blogs posts for your blog and so on. Depending on your industry, you might need to even dedicate an expert to your team that can field questions with the right answers.
• Be Real
  Building relationships in social media requires trust. That means, be real – be who you are. Let your employees be who they are, representatives of your brand. Building fake profiles, writing fake reviews, concocting fake blogs, lying about who you really are will all eventually bite you in the ass, so don’t even bother. Don’t ever underestimate the audience’s intelligence, they can smell a fake a mile away and will crucify you when you are found out.
• Communicate Early & Often
  Whether its through newsletters, blogs or even forum posts, get out there and communicate! By communicating “early” you have the opportunity to head off those “storms” that can arise, but not only that, you can also get a jump start on topics that are hot in your industry and respond to them a lot earlier than your competition. Communicating often helps to build that relationship with your audience that they can trust you will be there, informing them of the valuable information they are looking for or need.
• Get Involved
  Don’t just post links to your blog posts, or press releases in Twitter or Plurk, or posts on forums. That’s just going to make people ignore you, because it’s not a two way conversation. Actually get involved with your community. If people are looking for assistance, point them in the right direction, even if its not to your site, that’ll gain you much more respect rather than slapping a link to your product that isn’t related to what they asked.One of the best examples of this “getting involved” point I’m making is Tim Jackson the Brand Manager of Masi Bicycles. This man is deeply involved in the Plurk community and it’s benefiting Masi by leaps and bounds. Why? Because Tim’s done the first 3 bullet points here and has also gotten involved.
• Reward Your Audience
  One thing to always keep in mind, as much as you are involved in building relationships in social media, so is everyone in your community. It’s not just you spending the time and effort, but your audience is as well. They take the time to post reviews, type up comments, write blog posts, do research to answer questions, test out new products or services. Make sure you remember to reward your community for the efforts, time and resources they are putting in. Last but not least, always remember to personally thank those community members who put forth the extra effort.
• Remember to Listen
  Building a relationship requires that you listen more and talk less. That means, as much as your PR department wants you to be promoting, promoting and promoting, that’s the last thing you should be doing in social media. Social media offers a unique opportunity for you to get real reactions, learn about real issues or problems as well as successes straight from your customers’ perspectives. All of this is not hindered by the stigma of a focus group, where people might think then need to “give the right answers”. It’s amazing the things you can learn just by listening to what your customers or your audience is saying, take the time to read their posts in forums, comments to your blog posts, their tweets or plurks and even what they say in reviews. It can be well worth its weight in gold.

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by David Wallace

I was recently asked the question, “How do you market your company on social news / bookmarking sites without appearing like a spammer?” This is a great question — one that has a pretty straightforward answer but which also requires a lot of work. Why? Because it is easy to sign up for a social bookmarking site and simply submit your own “stuff.” Submitting your own stuff does however not guarantee that your efforts will be successful. There is actually a lot more to it.

If I could sum up in two words how to be promote yourself on sites such as Digg, Mixx, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Twitter and the others without actually promoting yourself, I would say, “Get involved!” And how does one actually get involved in a social news / bookmarking site? By being an active member of the community.

It is really no different than web forums which are still around but are quickly being replaced with social media. Typical profile of a web forum spammer – they join an active forum and do nothing else but toot their own horn. This typically consists on dropping links to their own site(s), promoting their own products or services or even in feeble attempt to help or provide advice, invite other forum members to their own sites for “more information” rather than keeping the conversation going on the forum itself.

I see the same scenario happen over and over again with social news and bookmarking sites. Here are a few indicators that someone is there merely for self promotion and/or gain:

• ONLY submits sites they own or have an interest in

• DOES NOT vote on anything from other sites

• Attempts to FRIEND EVERYBODY even though they may not know them or have any common interests

• Doesn’t know how to FOLLOW THE RULES of the community

• Creates MULTIPLE PROFILES so they can vote their stuff up

While there may be rare occurrences where this type of behavior has some measure of success, most often it fails. That is due to the fact that success with social sites is largely dependent on the community itself.

So how does one promote themselves on these site properly? The essential ingredient is to become involved in the community. Instead of just submitting your own content all the time, submit and vote on other people’s content. Also get involved in the conversation (commenting on submissions), friend those you know or who have similar interests as you and even help combat spam (where applicable).

When these things become your regular practice, it then becomes easy and even perfectly acceptable to “slip” your own content in from time to time. Your content will also have more merit because you yourself are viewed as a respectable member of the community.

I would also advise one to pick and choose which social news / bookmarking sites you want to spend your time on. Sure there are tools a plenty that will allow you to submit content to multiple social sites, all with the click of a button. However, rather than quantity you should concern yourself over quality. In other words focus your efforts on the social sites you are going to be involved in and sites that going to be related to the content you are submitting (i.e. don’t submit an article on power tools to social site geared towards women).

Bottom line to to actually use social sites for what they were intended for. Add value to the community and the community will pay you back.

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If you want to be more effective with driving traffic to your website or blog with social media, here are five steps that are sure to improve your results.

1. Targeting the Right Sites

There are hundreds or maybe even thousands of social media sites that you could be using. Obviously no one has the time to use them all effectively, and some of them aren’t worth your time anyway.

One of the first things you will need to do is find a few sites that will work well for you. Of course the larger sites like Digg and StumbleUpon are popular choices because of the large traffic volumes that they send. But if you are looking for sites that can send high quality traffic, first look for niche-specific social media sites.

Also targeting a general news website like Digg or Reddit can be helpful because once you have developed a strong profile you can promote all types of content, not just stuff that fits into one specific niche.

2. Consistent Use

If you hope to ever become a true authority on social media, you’ll have to implement consistent use. As you use the sites that you have targeted every day you’ll become familiar with what works and what doesn’t, and you’ll get to know some of the other consistent users.

3. Development of Content that Appeals to the Audience

Driving traffic to your website through social media will require content development that meets the expectations of social media users. Creating blog content that targets social media users doesn’t mean that you have to alienate your subscribers, contrary to the opinion of some people. What it does mean is that you will have to dedicate the time and effort to find a topic that is of particular interest to your readers and present it in a way that also appeals to social media users. For example, social media users like lists, breaking news, photos, controversy, and informative topics.

4. Networking and Helping Others

Content creation and networking are the two most important aspects of social media marketing. Great content without a network will have a harder time becoming popular and a strong network is an asset, but its value will not be realized without great content.

Networking on social media sites involves voting for the submissions of others, leaving comments, adding friends, and generally getting to know other users. With a strong network your submissions and votes will get more attention and you’ll have some friends to call on when you need help getting those extra votes needed to get over the hump.

5. Conversion

In most cases just getting traffic to a website will not be your ultimate goal. Social media traffic is pretty much useless if you are not able to convert some of it into what you want. Maybe you want to convert the traffic into links, or maybe subscribers. The conversion rate of social media traffic will usually be lower than the rates of other types of traffic, but the huge volumes sent by social media can offset a lower conversion rate and make it very valuable traffic.

While these steps will all help you to reach your goals of promoting your site with social media, they all require one very important step – taking action. So go get started today and build some momentum with social media.

Please share your suggestions and tips in the comments below.

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by Martin Lieberman

If you had the option of reading an article or watching a video, which would you choose? As a writer/editor, I’d love for you to say an article, but I know you’d likely choose the latter. People love watching videos. That’s probably why, according to comScore, the average U.S. Internet user watches 186 videos every month.

For a business or organization, that statistic makes it almost a no-brainer why you’d want to use videos in your marketing efforts. Videos are often a more engaging way to communicate information. They allow you to tell your story in a different way. They allow you to put a more human face on your business or organization. They allow your voice to really come through. And they allow you to build a greater connection with your email subscribers.

Speaking of which, putting a video in an email can make your communications even more effective. In a survey by the World Wide Marketing Council, 73% of marketers said that integrating video with their email marketing efforts increased their click-through rates. In addition, a study by MarketingSherpa reported that video in an email can lift conversion rates by 50%.

It’s true. Want proof? Here’s just one small example.

Last week, we sent out the latest issue of our #CTCTSocial newsletter. In every issue, we include a link for people to give us feedback, but for Thursday’s issue, we decided to use a video to ask people for their thoughts. (You can watch by clicking that link.) As you can see, the video we used wasn’t some glossy Hollywood production. It wasn’t written by Aaron Sorkin or directed by Michael Bay. It was just me talking to the subscribers for 30 seconds. And guess what? It worked like a charm. We received an additional 10 responses over our average number.

I know that may not sound like much, but I think it speaks to the stronger connection I was able to make with readers. I’m no Brad Pitt, but I’m convinced that the more personal touch I added to the email was the reason why we had a better response rate.

If you’ve been holding back on adding video into your email marketing efforts, then now is the time to add your voice to the mix. We’ll even make it easy for you: This week, we introduced a feature that allows customers to insert a video screen shot into their emails. Readers will see your screen shot and click through to the video on YouTube, Vimeo, or Blip.TV (wherever it’s hosted). It couldn’t be any simpler to do this, and you’ll be able to see in your reporting data how effective this content is.

Why not try adding a video from one of those sites to your next email and see how it works? (Of course, you can also use the video on Facebook and Twitter.) Then, please share the results with me here or on our Facebook Page. And look out for future blog posts and Hints & Tips articles, where we’ll share great tips on what types of videos work best and how to produce them easily.

Have you inserted a video into your emails? Please share your suggestions and tips in the comments below.

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by Kevin Harris, a freelance writer for Adobe

Do you have information that other people need? How to plan a wedding, how to do home repairs and renovations yourself, or how to sell your house yourself from beginning to end? An ebook is a great way to cash in on your expert status and start earning money. With a little bit of marketing, your ebook can put money in your pocket on an ongoing basis.

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But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First you need to write the ebook! Here are a few tips to get you started.

Research First, Write Second

If you are writing your ebook based on work experience or education you already have, you may not need to do much research. Whatever research you need to do, however, you should do first. Not only is it disorienting to stop writing in order to look up some fact or fill in a hole in your research, it can also make your writing disjointed and difficult to organize. And as we will see in a moment, organization is important.

If you are writing an ebook on a subject you know fairly well but don’t consider yourself an expert in, always make sure you back up everything you have to say with research. Take thorough notes as you do your research, carefully noting your sources. You may need to provide a list of your sources or a list of books for further reading at the end of your ebook. Remember, quality ebooks provide quality information, so don’t skimp in this area!

Outline and Organize

Whether or not you need to do any research, before you start writing you should always outline the ebook. People who read ebooks are typically looking for information and want to get it right away, which is why they buy a digital book: It can usually be downloaded immediately. Your ebook therefore has to be logically organized, with chapters and subheadings, in order to make the information easier to find. Slapping together a collection of disorganized ramblings is not only unprofessional, it’s frustrating for your readers.

The best way to ensure that your ebook is well organized is to outline it beforehand, making sure your research and all of the information you want to include fits in in a logical manner. The ebook should flow from topic to topic naturally. As you write, you should also consider using shorter paragraphs and bulleted lists, as you would on a Web page. People who buy ebooks typically read them a lot like they read your website: primarily by scanning.

Revise, Revise, Revise

This cannot be stressed enough. A lot of ebook authors are so impatient to publish their ebook and start raking in the dough that they fail to pay enough attention to the importance of revising the work first. Don’t rush this step in order to get your ebook out there! A poorly written and edited ebook is unlikely to garner many word-of-mouth recommendations, and your sales may actually take a hit as a result.

Between the writing and revising stages, it is best to set aside your ebook for a little while, so that you can look at it with a fresh eye when you come back. Put some distance between yourself and the book: Work on another project, or take a break for a couple of weeks. The goal is for the work to stop looking so familiar to you, so that you can spot errors or sentences that don’t sound quite right.

As a final step in the revision process, it is always best to have someone else who is good at spelling and grammar, and who knows the subject if possible, read through your ebook. Have your reader mark errors that they find, and once you have made the appropriate corrections, read through the manuscript one more time yourself. Only once you have revised the ebook, and had someone else look it over for problems, is it ready to be published and sold.

Publishing Options

Once you have finished writing and revising your ebook, it is time to go about publishing it. You have many more publishing options available to you for an ebook than for a regular book. Barnes & Noble and many other electronic publishers will list your ebook for you on their sites in exchange for a cut of each sale. Each publisher may have different formatting requirements, so be sure your ebook is formatted correctly before submitting it.

Another option, of course, is to “self-publish” your ebook, which is actually very easy to do electronically. Many sellers simply set up a website with a PayPal button; once their customers finish paying, they can download the ebook, usually a PDF file.

Don’t Cut Corners

As you can see, creating an ebook and getting it ready to sell isn’t easy, but don’t let yourself be tempted to cut corners. Well-written, professional content will sell better and longer, performing better in the long run than if you cut corners in order to get it out on the market a few days sooner.

Your eBook Tips

Have you written and published an eBook? Please share your suggestions and tips in the comments below.

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