Success 2LZ
Managing Your Twitter Account
As wildly popular as Twitter is today, it was not an overnight sensation after launching in July 2006. But the following year, Twitter stole the spotlight at the South by Southwest festival by streaming tweets on huge plasma screens. That was a pivotal day for Twitter. Not only did it win an award in the blog category, it also gained a lot of new users!
At its inception, Twitter was perceived as social networking for personal use only. People were able to stay connected with their friends in real-time and exchange updates through frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?
It didn’t take savvy internet marketers long to see beyond the entertaining, personal networking aspect of Twitter. Online marketers quickly discovered that Twitter could be valuable in driving traffic and increasing product sales. By finding followers with specific interests, business owners could connect with like-minded people, start conversations, and promote brand recognition.
Getting Followers on Twitter
If you have business contacts or an email list, invite those people to follow you on Twitter. Put your Twitter URL in your emails, on your websites and blogs asking people to follow you. You could even put your Twitter URL on your business card so that you can gather followers from offline as well.
Don’t be shy; tell everyone you meet about your Twitter page. Make it sound exciting, and let them know that you will be sharing important updates, great tips and information with them if they follow you. You may be surprised to find out that almost everyone will click the follow button just to see what you’re up to!
Follow people who are interested in a specific niche.
You can use the search tool on Twitter to find people who share your interests. Searching by keywords and topics will pull up the top tweets related to your search terms. You will be able to laser target people who are interested in your niche by reading those tweets and looking at the authors’ profiles. Follow a few of these people every day; they may very likely follow you back.
It is so important to have a strategy for managing your Twitter account on a daily basis. Unless you use software tools to automate many of the tasks, such as following and un-following users and posting tweets, you will spend way too much of your valuable time on Twitter. As a result, if Twitter simply becomes a burden, you won’t want to stick with it for very long.
I have five Twitter accounts with over 30,000 followers. Many people have multiple Twitter accounts with large numbers of followers. There is no way anyone could manage that without help; it would just be impossible!
I use TweetAdder – automated Twitter marketing software. It handles the daily tasks: follow and un-follow, post tweets and re-tweets, send direct messages, and tweet out RSS feeds. Another feature lets me do research on what’s trending now, what everyone’s tweeting about, and what topics are hot on Twitter. TweetAdder frees up more of my time for engaging with followers in 140 characters or less.
I highly recommend TweetAdder and encourage you to try it out. Experience the full Twitter professional software for free, and see how all of the features work with your Twitter account. You can download the TweetAdder demo here.
PowerPoint Templates
Presentation software helps you tell a powerful story. Using Microsoft PowerPoint, you can create presentations that entertain and motivate your business colleagues.
A good PowerPoint presentation starts with organizing your material. Adding clip art or photos to your slides will hold your listeners’ attention better than showing text only.
Connect with your audience and encourage them to participate in the discussion. You should not simply read the text on the slides. Your slideshow will be boring and your audience will be snoring.
Finally, whether you are presenting in a conference room or a classroom, keep in mind that listeners can only absorb a small amount of information in one sitting.
I found a great collection of templates and music loops for PowerPoint presentations. Template themes include: abstract, business, finance, general, nature, real estate, and travel. All themes are free to download and include two or more slides ready-to-use. Music loop soundtracks offer a variety: ambient, easy listening, high-energy motivational, jazz, new age, and more. Both the templates and music loops are free and available for download.
Visual aids provide big advantages. A well-crafted PowerPoint presentation will hold your viewers’ interest, and your key points will stick in their minds!
Proximity Marketing Will Drive Demand
for Mobile Payment Services
Proximity marketing has opened new channels for vendors to reach consumers when they are on the go, shopping and running errands. Smartphone users are able to purchase products, redeem coupons, and earn rewards points from select retail partners. These mobile transactions are giving rise to another emerging technology: the adoption of mobile payments.
According to the results of a new survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, many experts believe that mobile payments could eliminate the need for consumers to carry cash and credit cards by the year 2020. One of the primary mobile wallet services being considered is the Near Field Communications-based Google Wallet tap-and-pay application.
But are we, the ordinary, everyday consumers, ready to set aside our plastic and cash in favor of embracing mobile payments? This emerging, high-tech mode of payment sounds very futuristic. Indeed, concerns about banking security combined with privacy fears may make us reluctant to hop on the mobile bandwagon. On the other hand, mobile wallet services offer potential benefits that go beyond convenience.
More than just looking hip and cool, making a purchase on your smartphone via a mobile payment app can encourage financial responsibility. For instance, MasterCard’s app offers money management options that allow you to curb spending by setting limits, approve or block transactions by type (such as clothing or dining), and enable spending alerts.
A recent study from Juniper Research forecasts that consumers will use mobile payments to pay for $670 billion worth of goods and services by 2015.
Demand for mobile payment services will be driven by proximity marketing. Merchants can use proximity marketing to deliver location-specific personal shopper services, targeted discounts, loyalty program rewards, and other rich media content to consumers. The real beauty of it is that proximity marketing provides a valuable service enjoyed by both merchants and consumers alike. The benefits derived from this powerful advertising will ensure the ultimate staying power for mobile wallets.
The future of commerce has already forged a symbiotic relationship between two tech innovations: proximity marketing and mobile payments.
5 Time Saving Business Tools
How often do you wish that there were more hours in the day? Or maybe, that you could sleep less so you could work longer?
These online business tools can help you to do more in less time, be more productive, and do what you do more effortlessly.
1. Copy and Paste – Clean and Simple When you copy text from a document or a web page and paste it into another application, your Facebook wall, for instance – what happens? The formatting is pasted in along with the text, usually creating a result that you didn’t want. Here is a free and very easy way to resolve that problem once and for all. PureText 2.0
PureText is a great time saver. Basically, it’s the same as opening Notepad, doing a PASTE, followed by a SELECT-ALL, then a COPY, and a final PASTE. PureText lets you do all that with just one Hot-Key.
2. Virtual Meetings – without paying for expensive GoToMeeting subscriptions. You can start web conferencing with one click when you keep this free tool in your belt.
Share your screen. See the participants. Conference with Adobe ConnectNow for up to three people per meeting. Get it here.
3. Forgot Your Password? – Do you have trouble remembering and managing your passwords? Keep those secret words private and secure with Password Agent, an easy-to-navigate password management program.
The lite version of Password Agent allows you to store up to 25 entries in your password database for free. If you need to store more entries, you can purchase the unlimited version for only $24.95. Go to Password Agent.
Here is a tip for creating a strong password:
Think of a statement you can remember easily such as when you got married or when your child was born. For instance, I married Steve in December 1986. Taking the first letter of each word in the sentence and adding the last two digits of the year, my password is as follows: !ImSiD86! You can add other characters at the beginning and end if you want to, as I did with the exclamation marks, and make your password even stronger.
4. Mind Mapping and Brainstorming – Let your creativity flow and enhance your problem solving techniques with mind mapping.
One extremely simple and intuitive online mind mapping application is Lovely Charts. You can create professional looking bubble charts and diagrams of all kinds, such as flowcharts, sitemaps, organization charts, and more… for free! Follow this link to the Lovely Charts website.
5. Say Goodbye to Misplaced Notes on Post-Its Here is an extremely powerful way to keep track of everything and remember those great ideas, items to add to your to-do list, or client contact information.
Evernote is an exciting way to stay organized using your computer, phone, and the web. A few suggestions to get you started:
* Keep notes from your meetings all in one place. Take a picture of a whiteboard and you’ll be able to find it later. Leave a voice memo.
* Plan your next trip. Clip web pages, maps, and itineraries. Capture sights, sounds, tastes, and anything else.
* Snap a photo of a business card with your phone, and have an easy way to store and access contacts.
Create your free Evernote account here and remember the things you were supposed to remember.
How about you? Which one of these great business tools will you grab first? I hope you will take a moment and share your thoughts.
If you have enjoyed today’s post, please share it on Facebook or Tweet it!
“Lost time is never found again.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
Smartphones Are Saving Trees
In every real estate office, inbox trays overflowed with colorful flyers announcing hot properties. It was standard operating procedure: create an attractive flyer about a home for sale, choose the paper color, get a couple hundred copies printed, and give them to the office assistant to deliver to all of the other real estate offices in the surrounding area. That was one way of creating a buzz about your listing.
An effective flyer sells the dream of home ownership. It sells the benefits of owning the home, not just a long list of features. If the property has a mountain and water view, describe how buyers can enjoy watching magnificent sunsets from their deck. Include photos to show potential buyers what they’re getting. Pictures truly convey more than a thousand words ever could.
Good sales copy is still as effective as ever, but thanks to advances in technology, marketing methods have changed.
Mobile marketing is the newest, fastest growing form of advertising. When you consider the statistics concerning global smartphone sales, it’s not surprising. According to Gartner, Inc., an information technology research and advisory company, worldwide smartphone sales soared in the fourth quarter of 2011 with 47 percent growth. Total smartphone sales in 2011 reached 472 million units and accounted for 31 percent of all mobile device sales, up 58 percent from 2010.
Mobile marketing offers so many advantages. The same beautiful flyer can be distributed to smartphones via wireless technology, saving hundreds of pounds of paper each year. Information on new listings and reminders about open house dates can be sent instantly to the mobile devices of potential buyers. Realtors are quickly adapting to this new technology that will help them generate leads and sales.
Smartphone marketing is both cost-effective and environmentally friendly. As more and more people are looking towards a greener future, companies are taking more responsibility for their impact on the environment. Businesses are recognizing that mobile advertising presents great opportunities to communicate with customers, improve their bottom line, reduce paper consumption, and enhance their image – all at the same time!
Building Relationships
It’s all about building relationships. Unless you’re living in a hermit’s cabin on a mountain, without the Internet or a phone, you’re building relationships. Those connections, whether in your business or in your personal life, have to be nurtured over time to develop familiarity and allow trust to grow.
Relationship building is the foundation for all of our success. I have learned so much from reading a number of insightful blogs on this very important topic. They discuss essential qualities: building credibility and trust, earning confidence, making contact consistently, being persistent and patient – just to mention a few.
In thinking about these fundamentals, I realized that I have a teacher in my life every day, someone who has been instinctively modeling those very qualities for years, my sweet dog!
Now Shaz, that’s her name, hasn’t always been my dog. She adopted me. About nine years ago, Shaz wandered into my yard and sat down where I was working – right in the middle of the garden bed. I bent down to pat her and she lay down, stretching out even further amidst the flowers, forcing me to come down to her level. At that moment, I wished that I could have a dog just like her. I was hooked and she knew it. How she persistently and charmingly cultivated that relationship from our first meeting is a story for another day.
Over the years, she has developed an impressive sphere of influence! A self-appointed welcome wagon and good will ambassador, Shaz greets everyone we meet on our walks. That’s another significant element – visibility! We’re all about relationship-building; for some, it just comes naturally.
Better Than Business Cards
What is faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and less expensive than business cards? Why, it’s… over-the-air, smartphone proximity marketing!
Imagine what it would be like to speak to everyone who passed by your store in the mall or your restaurant on Main Street. You could cordially invite them to come in to save up to 60% on designer apparel or tell them about the specials on the dinner menu. Compelling marketing like this is not fiction. It is location-based marketing for the 21st century: proximity marketing.
Utilizing wireless technology, your business can advertise to smartphone users within a radius of about 1,000 feet. Creative content is delivered in real time to an audience of shoppers near you who can react spontaneously to your message. You can attract new customers and bring back regular patrons with special promotions and time-sensitive coupons. Speak directly to the consumer in rich media via wireless technology. That’s memorable, powerful direct marketing!
Now you might think that an innovative advertising method of this sort comes with a hefty price tag, but you would be wrong. Over-the-air, smartphone marketing is affordable and well-suited to businesses of every size and type.
Marketing certainly has progressed a long way beyond business cards and flyers to all that today’s cutting edge technology makes possible. Proximity Marketing – the next evolution in advertising has arrived.
Proximity Marketing – Advertising Evolved
Smartphones have made text only SMS messages obsolete. Rich media, encompassing a broad range of digital interactive media, have taken the place of text ads. Businesses can deliver images, websites, mp3 music, phone apps and more rich media content to consumers via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. In fact, business owners can broadcast rich media advertising messages to a large audience by making use of proximity marketing.
What is proximity marketing and why should businesses care about this innovative marketing strategy?
Proximity marketing is a service provided by advertising companies that utilize the power of Bluetooth and Wireless (Wi-Fi) technology to communicate to mobile devices. By taking advantage of this means of advertising, businesses can engage nearly all smartphone users within approximately 1,000 feet of their store or event.
Imagine the possibilities for creative advertising:
- Send special offers or merchandise discounts exclusively for shoppers in the store.
- Send coupons or special deals good for the day only.
- Offer promotions for purchases made online to drive website sales.
The technology used to send these advertisements to the smartphone users creates free internet hotspots. If a person chooses to receive and view the ad content, they may browse the Web without accessing their data plans, using the hotspot created by the proximity marketing service.
Small businesses can afford to embrace proximity marketing; it’s not just for the big box stores and Fortune 500 companies with deep pockets. Proximity marketing is an exciting step forward in the world of mobile advertising!
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on Facebook or perhaps Tweet it. Thanks for visiting!
Tired of Paying More for Movies?
I’d like to invite you to take a look at FlixsNow. It’s like NetFlix or Redbox (but movie rentals cost much less). Matter of fact, you can get an annual subscription for only $25! That’s just $2.08 a month.
FlixsNow is also an amazing, home-based business opportunity! It will be the very first, flat-rate movie rental service that will allow you to get paid to watch movies!
When you get a FlixsNow subscription, you will have the latest movies delivered to your mailbox for only $25 per year. Keep each movie for as long as you want before returning it in the pre-paid envelope. After you return the movie, FlixsNow will automatically ship you your next selection.
Tell others about FlixsNow and get your movies for free. When you refer six friends, your $25 annual fee will be returned to you!
If you are interested in affiliate marketing, I encourage you to start with a simple program that has a product that is always in high demand. The product should be easy to sell both on and off the internet. You should be a current user of the product. It stands to reason that being knowledgeable and genuinely enthusiastic about your product is one of the best selling tools.
It also helps if the product has a low, reasonable cost so that objection to price is not an issue. Your first qualifying sales should reward you with (at least) your cost to purchase the product. This allows you to get the product for FREE! You should also be able to position yourself as one of the first to market with the product. This ensures that you are able to capture a vast market share with little competition.
FlixsNow offers an affiliate marketing program that fits all of these requirements. If you currently rent movies and are seeking additional or full time income, then FlixsNow is the right program for you. As an affiliate, you will collect annual residual commissions on each referred subscriber. The compensation offers profit sharing as well as exceptional performance bonuses.
Tip for business owners – FlixsNow movie rentals would be an innovative promotional product! Imagine giving away a year’s subscription to unlimited movies. How many clients would come in to your business and purchase your product or service just to get a FREE year’s worth of movie rentals? Businesses can use the FlixsNow movie rental service as a marketing tool… an enticing promotional giveaway.
At the moment, FlixsNow is only available in the USA and Canada but there are plans to have streaming movies and games later this year as a global opportunity. FlixsNow is scheduled to pre-launch on February 15th.
View the webinar presented by FlixsNow CEO Jack Johnson to learn all the details.
Valentine’s Day Trio
Capture your lover’s heart all over again!
Chocolate and cards just won’t cut it this year. No matter if this is your first Valentine’s Day together or your 20th, you want your loved one to feel special, to see that you put in a real effort this year. These romantic and creative ideas are sure to demonstrate your love and commitment to your partner.
No special someone to love? Find a sweetheart by Valentine’s Day in five simple steps with this guide to online dating bliss.
And speaking of bliss… rich chocolate confections are delightful on any occasion. Whip some up and surprise your sweetie!
This trio of books will give you all the ideas you need to make this the most special Valentine’s Day ever for your sweetheart. Get all 3 books for just $5!
FREE Report!
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