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.

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

Here’s how to use LinkedIn to your Advantage.

Register with LinkedIn and connect with past and present colleagues. As a professional and a business owner, you likely have a rolodex full of people you know or have known. Perhaps they were customers, perhaps they were colleagues or associates or perhaps they were providers, LinkedIn enables you to connect with all of them.

Why is this helpful? Having an online resource directory helps you build awareness of your business. Once you link up with say Joe the Plumber, Joe the Plumber now shows you as a professional on his list. Now your business is exposed to all of the people who have or will work with Joe and who are on his list. So right off, LinkedIn helps you boost exposure.

LinkedIn also helps you build powerful, and profitable, business opportunities. Linking up with people broadens your awareness of what other people in and out of your industry are doing. Those same people are on the lookout for opportunities and now you become part of their network, which means you’re exposed to new possibilities. Using Joe the plumber, maybe he has a brother who works in a complimentary industry. Joe’s brother sees your business on his brother’s links and realizes the two of you could boost each other’s business with a partnership. LinkedIn broadens the possibilities.

LinkedIn also makes it possible for you to provide value. They offer a question and answer section where you can pose a question or offer an answer to an existing question. This feature enables you to learn and to demonstrate your skills and knowledge in your industry. And you know that demonstrating your knowledge gives you and your business more credibility and authority, making you someone people will turn to when they need your product or service.

Finally, LinkedIn enables you to refer other professionals and to have them refer you. This boosts credibility and authority in your industry. People are much more inclined to do business with someone they know and someone who has been referred than a total stranger.

According to the people at LinkedIn, they have:
* Over 43 million members in over 200 countries and territories around the world.
* A new member join them approximately every second, and about half of their members are outside the U.S.
* Executives from all Fortune 500 companies

That’s no small potatoes! When building your professional network, LinkedIn is the premier social media site available. Use it to grow your business and your connections around the world.

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.