Here are seven tips to be connected to your customers online 24/7.

1. Automate blog posts. Blogging is a great way to connect with your audience on a very personal level. Unlike articles, blog posts can be written in first person and create a connection no other medium allows. The great thing about blog technology is that you can write your blog posts in advance and schedule them to be posted each day, thus enhancing your customer contact.

2. Incorporate RSS. RSS technology enables customers and website visitors to subscribe to your online content. You can utilize RSS for your website and blog to notify your audience each time new content is added. It’s a great way to connect to your customers on a regular basis.

3. Automate Twitter posts (but don’t forget to interact too). Twitter is a handy social marketing tool because it can also be set up to post on Facebook. And with one of any number of tools, like Seesmic, you can write your posts in advance and schedule them just like a blog. This give you double the opportunity to market your new content, promotions and business-related news, and also provides you with an ongoing opportunity to connect with your customers around the clock.

4. Consider outsourcing 24/7 customer service if you sell products. Customer service is a valuable tool if you sell products. It enables your customers to ask questions right away and enhances the possibility that they’ll actually make a purchase. You can outsource this type of customer service or utilize a software solution. Services like Live Chat have improved conversion rates for some businesses by as much as 20%.

5. Autoresponders for inquiries. There’s nothing more frustrating for a customer than to send a question or comment and not know whether your comment has been received. Autoresponders can be set up quite easily to confirm receipt and to let your customer know how soon they’ll be hearing from you. It’s just good business to respond to customers immediately and autoresponders enable you to do this even when you’re away.

6. Autoresponders for purchases and opt-ins. Another great use for autoresponders is to set up thank you messages for purchases and opt-ins. Let your customers know you appreciate them automatically. You can also use this opportunity to up-sell or to provide more value by offering them something like a coupon on their next order. You can set up a series of autoresponders to be emailed weekly to stay in touch with customers too.

7. A consistent flow of valuable information. While e-newsletters have diminished over the past few years as blogs and social networking has taken off, newsletters, report clubs, and a consistent flow of valuable information is still appreciated by your online customers. Consider using regular emails to stay in contact with your customers on a regular basis and provide them with content and promotions they’ll appreciate.

As the Internet becomes more and more competitive and customers become more and more demanding, it pays to be available to them 24/7. Use technology to help you get the job done. A bigger, better bottom line will be the reward.

To say that Facebook dominated the pre dinner conversation at our table of ten would not be quite true, however by my calculations Facebook was mentioned in no less than five separate conversations. The word Facebook was used in the normal course of conversation much the same as you'd hear telephone, letter, post card, and more recently eMail.

Facebook is a communication tool being used by over 350 million people ( December 09) every day, and if your business is ignoring this marketing phenomenon, you're going to be toast faster than you think. Please understand there is a proper way to use this amazing platform, it's not rocket science, and you can do it yourself if you take the time to learn the ropes. If you don't have the time to learn, you'd better get some help, because the 'do nothing' option is one way to be sure you'll successfully drive your business into the ground.

1. Offer insight about your industry. When you’re online at your social networking site of choice it’s absolutely important to participate, but how you participate can make all the difference. If you’re merely commenting about what you had for dinner and your new car, then you’re not optimizing the site or your time. Instead, make sure to offer insight about your industry. This doesn’t mean every post has to link to an article or post of yours.

You can link to relevant content on other sites, offer quotes and data. So while it’s great to share your personality on these sites, it’s also important to establish your credibility and authority. Provide relevant and useful information, and people will automatically go to your site to learn more about you and what you have to offer.

2. Use attention-grabbing headlines. Embrace copywriting techniques and post curiosity-driven headlines. Use questions – for example, “Do you want to know how to make $100 in 5 minutes?” You can also use comments, controversy, how-to statements and other attention-grabbing headlines. Don’t forget scarcity and urgency too. “Only one day left to grab your copy of________”

3. Offer giveaways. People still like getting something for free and you can promote your freebies and giveaways on social networking sites. Reports, online courses or tutorials, blueprints, ebooks and video and audio content are all great ways to motivate traffic to your site.

4. Use special promotions for your unique social media audience. If you have Facebook fans, consider offering them special promotions for signing up and for being a fan. You can do the same thing if you have a twitter account and so on. Consider giving each new friend/follower a coupon via a direct message to them. That coupon will motivate them to at least visit your website and may turn them into a customer or subscriber.

Be willing to test and track to see what works. You can create a special webpage to drive social networking traffic to. You can even duplicate that page and use a unique URL for each site you participate on. This way you can track your traffic from each post and from each social networking site to see what works. It’s a great way to gain insight to your audience and to ensure you’re optimizing your time and efforts.

Video Triggers Purchases

Liking – It’s pretty simple; we buy from people we like. Video enables you to share your personality, which is subconsciously applied to your business. In the minds of your prospects, your personality is your company personality. This is particularly true of smaller businesses and is a tremendous asset. In fact, many experts agree that a small business owner’s biggest asset to branding their business is their personality. Use video to brand your business by placing your wonderful self in front of the camera and speaking to your audience.

Usability – Product demonstrations are a great way to showcase the usability of a product. You can use the video content to demonstrate both features and benefits, much like a well-written sales letter only in a more accessible format.

Authority – People buy from people or companies they consider to be an authority in their industry. You can use video to demonstrate authority by voicing or demonstrating your knowledge, by providing ‘how to’ content, and by sharing your company’s success through video updates.

Social Proof – Interview an expert or post video testimonials and reviews on your website and you’re tapping into the “social proof” trigger. We often make purchasing decisions based on the opinions of others, particularly if those “others” are celebrities or experts.

Video Encourages Sharing and Interactivity

People love to share videos they find both entertaining and informative. They forward videos from their cell phone, via social networking tools like Twitter and Facebook, via email and even forward links verbally.

Social networking sites like Facebook also offer thousands of user created widgets, all designed to enhance sharing of videos and posts.

Video Helps Your Search Engine Optimization

Proper tagging, descriptions and incoming links all help enhance your page ranking, which in turn helps boost traffic. Additionally, all the incoming links from social networking will also help boost your SEO.

Video is one of the most powerful marketing tools an ecommerce business owner has access to. Once you understand how to use this powerful tactic, you will be able to provide valuable content to your audience, drive traffic to your website and increase your bottom line. To an internet marketer, it just doesn’t get better than that.

Check out this video, read the book, then get active before your competition does. If you need help, be sure to get in touch, I'll be happy to help in any way I can.

What is Viral Marketing?

Viral marketing is essentially something that gets passed from person to person. For example, have you ever sent a YouTube video to a friend? That’s viral marketing. If that YouTube video just happened to be for a product or had been monetized then each time that video is forwarded or shared with someone, it’s making money. Viral marketing, in a nutshell, is designed to be passed around, to create excitement.

How do You create a buzz with viral marketing?

We just mentioned videos and they’re a great way to generate a buzz. Funny or shocking videos in particular are popular because people want to be entertained.

However, video isn’t the only tool you have to create a viral marketing buzz. Viral marketing can be created with:

* A free book,
* A free report,
* a free service
* a free workshop, seminar or online course

Now you may be scratching your head and thinking, “I’m already giving away those things.” Here’s how to make them viral.

Make sure you include links in your free content back to your website and to your opt-in page. Let folks who download the content know that they can send it to anyone and everyone as long as they leave your links in the material.

The key to giving your viral content the power to create a buzz?

It has to be interesting and provide value. Now you can go over the top with it and produce something no one’s ever heard of before, something that piques curiosity and water cooler talk like “The Rich Jerk.” However you don’t have to. A good product will always generate a buzz.

Making it viral.

In order for your product to become viral, you have to start the buzz. Start by linking to it in your email messages. Post links to it in social marketing sites and forums. You may even want to consider a short PPC campaign just to get it started.

Once the material is out there and spreading like wildfire, you can sit back and begin planning your next marketing strategy. Oh, a few tips before we wrap up.

#1 Make sure your viral content is easy to share. If people can easily link to your video, download your reports and forward your content, then they’re not going to. Quick video upload times are essential as are quick download times for your written content.

#2 Test and track your results. If you’re using social media, PPC and other strategies to get the word out, test and track to find out which tools generate the best results. You may find that you get very little traffic from Facebook but your Twitter traffic is through the roof. It’s important to know what works.

#3 Give yourself permission to get creative with this project. People are always looking for solid and valuable content but they enjoy seeing it presented in a new and different way. Brainstorm the possibilities!

Viral marketing is a great way to draw traffic and customers to your website. Follow these simple guidelines and start creating a buzz today.

On the Internet you don’t have face-to-face interaction with people. You also have a larger amount of people to deal with at any one time. Most of the people you’ll meet are anonymous and this anonymity can often create a feeling of freedom in people. Meaning they may not moderate the things they say and often times may behave completely different to how they would behave offline. This can lead to a lot of negativity and often harshness.

Here are a few tips to help you avoid the negative situations that sometimes creep up in the online world.

#1 – Find the right networking group. If you love to visit a specific forum but find that you always leave there feeling worse than when you first logged in, it may be time to cut your losses and find a new group.

Some forums can be very exciting and fast moving but that also tends to draw a large variety of members. At the worst of times, people may get insulting or downright mean. This isn’t really a situation you want to be in, specifically when you need to stay positive in building your business.

The bottom line here is that if you don’t feel good, you should move on. Listen to your gut instincts about what you’re feeling and don’t worry if the specific forum seems to be “the place” to be – if the negativity is too much for you, you’ll be better off building your network elsewhere.

#2 – Read between the lines. Often times, when people write online what they say can be misinterpreted as “harsh” or “negative” when it may not be the case. Remember, online we can’t see people’s gestures or facial expressions so it may be worth not reading too much into what someone is saying.

If you’re in doubt you can always ask them to explain what they mean. You may find they didn’t mean to sound negative in the first place.

#3 – Find a mastermind group. Mastermind groups can be a comforting place to find support and build a strong network, as long as you choose a group of like-minded individuals. Researching and taking the time to find the right mastermind group is worth the time, as the right group may help your business grow in leaps and bounds.

A good mastermind group is worth its weight in gold. You’ll be able to connect with people who are positive and there to help each other. The negativity and playground games get left behind and you can get down to the business of building your business.

#4 – Ignore the situation. There is always someone who ruins it for others. Take the strength away from negative types by simply ignoring them. Enjoy your networking group and look over the few bad apples. With any luck, they’ll get tired and go find a different playground to spend time in.

#5 – Build yourself up. Negativity can be found everywhere we look for it. So perhaps it’s time to look the other way – to positivity. Work on yourself first by visualizing and living the life you want to live. Stay positive about your business and you’ll attract more like-minded people your way, making the negative ones seem insignificant.

Local Internet Marketing Boston

What is an interactive website?

Simply put, it’s a website which lets its visitors interact within the community, rather than just a static website which doesn’t offer the opportunity for feedback or interaction from the visitor. There are no specific rules or interactive models to include in your website, and you’ll need to test different approaches to see which work best for your business. To get you started, here are a few tried and tested interactive methods that may be right for you.

#1 – A community forum. A forum isn’t difficult to add to your website. There are many webmasters and virtual assistants that can help you with this task. Once you have your forum in place, it’s the place where people can connect and add comments to your website.

A forum not only builds a community feeling but may also help your website rankings within the search engines. Search engines love fresh, updated, original content and a forum helps you achieve this.

However, it’s worth noting that forums can be difficult to get off the ground, and maintaining them does take time and effort. Many forums get plagued by spammers so it’s good to have a set plan in place for dealing with this before starting. You’ll need to put time into deleting “spammy” messages, dealing with member issues, and generally monitoring the happenings of the forum.

But don’t let that put you off; an active forum is a fantastic addition to your website. Just go into it knowing the pros and cons of having one.

#2 – Add a blog. A blog is another fantastic addition to your website. Search engines love blogs because they can be a source of fresh, updated content. A blog is also a great place for your visitors to leave comments and interact with you on a personal level.

To really make a blog interactive, add a dash of personalization to it. You don’t want the blog to read simply like a web page or article. This is the place where you can let your personality shine through and show a little more of your “personal” side.

#3 – Twitter and Facebook. These two seem to go hand in hand and both are great tools for building a loyal following of friends and fans on the internet. Similar to a blog, Twitter and Facebook entries can be a little more personal.

But don’t forget to add business posts to your personal side as well if your end goal is to increase your business. An important point to note is that your personal information will be on display for all to see. Before posting, always ensure that you're happy for any current or potential customer to view your posts.

Add your Twitter and Facebook information to your web pages to make it easy for your visitors to find you.

#4 – Start a newsletter. If you haven’t done so, this is one of the best interactive tools for your business. Not only does a newsletter allow you to freely communicate with your visitors and potential customers over and over again, but it’s also a great way to receive feedback for your business.

If you monitor your emails on a regular basis and put a system for replying to them in place, then your visitors will feel that there is a “real” person behind the website and this will help them feel more integrated with your business.

#5 – Add a poll. Adding a poll to your web pages or newsletter is a great way for customers and visitors to voice their opinion. It’s also a fantastic way for you to do market research. Regular polls will not only help your visitors feel their voice is heard and that they are part of your website, but will also help you gather important information to potentially help you improve your website and marketing.