Let’s face it, as marketers our most valuable asset is our list, so we need to take every possible opportunity to capture opt in leads. No doubt you have an opt in advertising campaign on your blog, but many haven’t yet begun to incorporate this strategy into their Facebook profiles.

The video above (youtube is in maintenance mode…check back on Tuesday) provides a visual demonstration of the steps I took to add this useful yet subtle “pitch” to my facebook page. In order to help you follow along I’ve added the steps below, along with the code that I’m using on my Facebook page to produce opt in leads.

Your code may look very different from mine, but the basic principles should be the same.

1. Resize your opt in box graphic to a maximum of 180 pixels & upload it to your blog
   
2. Copy the opt in leads capture code from your blog into the HTML Profile Box in Facebook
3. If the code contains a video, delete it (start at the tr tag and delete through the /tr tag)
4. If your code is set within a table, change the table width to 180
5. Edit the code that places the image in your opt in, to a width of 180
6. Change width in form code section to 180 (2 edits should be made here)
7. Replace image url with the url of the newly uploaded (resized) image
   
8. To decrease the size of the boxes in your form, change name widths to 150 & input widths to 110
9. Edit padding values – change last number to 0 (I also changed value preceding this to 20
10. Change form margin to 0

Viola…..you should now be able to capture opt in leads straight from your Facebook page!  Please let me know if this has been helpful to you and thank you for retweeting (just click on the green Tweet button)

I recently met someone on Twitter that had just started tweeting, and didn’t really “get it”. She had heard that Twitter was a great marketing tool but didn’t know how to use social media for business success. After I helped her out she suggested I share the info with others – so here it is.

These theories can be applied not only to Twitter but to any of the social media sites, the most popular being Twitter and Facebook.

We all know that successful businesses are built on relationships.  Rather than forming relationships with people that they meet face to face, online marketers learn how to use social media for business purposes. They focus on meeting and interacting with others through befriending them online, opening the doors for future (and subtle) social media advertising.

This method has become incredibly popular and effective. Not only does it afford business owners a method to contact massive numbers of people, but it also offers the opportunity to reach out to a targeted market. And social media advertising is free!

The concept is based on forming relationships, which is where the majority of marketers go wrong. Rather than befriend others, they embark on annoying social media advertising campaigns before even attempting to get to know others  – basically spamming massive numbers of people in the hopes of attracting a small percentage (more on this in “What is Twitter Spam, and Why are So Many Tweeters Using It?) Anyways…this is NOT how to use social media for business success!

So, my new Twitter friend basically wanted to know how to meet people on Twitter and ultimately use social media advertising to draw them to her opportunity or products. She’s in Arbonne, which is a health and wellness company that offers a large line of botanically based products, including anti aging skin care. Based on her situation and the fact that team building was her top priority, these are the suggestions I gave her on how to use social media for business  (using Twitter as an example):

• Create a personalized Twitter page, using words such as work from home, network marketing and Arbonne in her bio and providing a link to her Arbonne website (a blog is a better choice, but she didn’t have one).
• Use software that will automatically follow new Tweeters who follow her, and include a personalized message.
• Identify her target market – for example women who would make good candidates as business partners.
• Begin to follow others who are in her target market group. One way of doing this is to identify a Tweeter that is likely to attract these people (one who already knows how to use social media for business, for example an internet marketing guru), and follow their followers. Another method is to use a website that enables her to follow others based on a list of 3 keywords. In the beginning the recommended number of people to add to a follow list is around 100 per day (increase as the following grows).
• Include a friendly, introductory message with her friend requests. Most people, those who haven’t learned how to use social media for business success, haven’t figured out this one crucial step that must be taken for effective social media advertising.
• Many will follow her back. Those who do not can be deleted once or twice a week.
• As her list of followers continues to grow, she’ll begin to receive a lot of spam, which should be disregarded. There will also be followers who will indicate common interests or a desire for something she can offer. These are the people who will be candidates for social media advertising – but not until there’s a relationship.
• Have I said never spam? Never spam.  Identify followers who may be open to developing an online friendship, and begin to get to know them. Check out the links they have on their home pages, and they will do the same for you.
• The best place to send others to is your blog. Here they can really get to know the real you and will realize that you’re a leader who has a great deal of value to offer. If you don’t have a blog the second best choice is your business website.

By using this friendly, non-intrusive approach to social media advertising, you’ll be practicing the proven methods of attraction marketing. You’ll be one of the few who really understands how to use social media for business success. Given time and commitment to the process, magic will happen!

As the social media site Twitter reaches unprecedented popularity, it’s become commonplace to see Twitter spam everywhere.

What is Twitter Spam? Simple….it’s uninvited and unwanted solicitation used by online marketers who don’t have a clue how to run their businesses.

I’m there almost every day, and I can vouch for the fact that spam on Twitter is widespread! To illustrate this point I just went over to my Twitter account and found this great example on the very first page:  “In this business you can make so much money it’s unbelievable all you have to do is try!” – followed by a website ink which I don’t care to repeat…..

Countless marketers are choosing to spam followers on Twitter. It may bring them some quick revenues but it makes for very bad business practice, and can result in being banned from the site.

If you’re new to internet marketing you should know that Twitter is one of the ultimate resources for developing a successful business. Not only is it a free method that can drive traffic to your website on autopilot, but it’s an incredible tool for connecting with potential customers and business partners.

And, it’s viral. Others can retweet your information to their own followers with the click of a mouse, giving you enormous exposure potential!

But there’s a right and a wrong way to use it and trust me, posting spam on Twitter is the latter of the two! So, how can you use this incredible resource to build your business?

You want to be a respected business person who attracts others through offering value and assistance. And yes, you can use Twitter to accomplish that goal. The secret? It’s all about building relationships and giving to others.

Once people get to know and like you, they’ll want to learn more about you.  It’s at that point that they’ll take the time to check out your profile page and very possibly the links that you’ve displayed on your page. Others may become beloved friends that you’ll develop a close relationship with over time.

Some of the ways to develop relationships with fellow tweeters include:

• Post inspirational or humorous quotes
• Send out links to videos that others may enjoy
• Retweet great content that others have provided
• Provide free, valuable information
• Compliment others, but only if you mean what you’re saying
• Give reviews on books, movies, etc.
• Use the 90/10 rule – provide 90% valuable content and 10% (discreet) promotion

If you’re thinking, “it sounds like every other kind of relationship”, then you get it. Congratulations, you’re on your way to dominating the Twitter scene!

OK, so now you clearly know to never post spam on Twitter, and you have some ideas about creating valuable content. Keeping these basics in mind you’re ready to learn some of the ins and outs of Twitter marketing!