Shaklee Independent Distributor

September 21, 2010

Ten Ways To Increase Your Twitter Followers:

1. Explain to your followers what retweeting is and encourage them to retweet your links. Retweeting pushes your @username into foreign social graphs, resulting in clicks back to your profile. Track your retweets using retweetisthttp://retweetist.com/.

2. Fill out your bio. Your latest tweets and @replies don’t mean much to someone that doesn’t know you. Your bio is the only place you have to tell people who you are. Also, your bio is displayed on Twitter’s Suggested Users page. Leaving it blank or non-descriptive doesn’t encourage people to add you.

3. As @garyveehttp://twitter.com/garyvee says, “link it up.” Put links to your Twitter profile everywhere. Link it on your Digg, LinkedIn, Facebook, blog, email signature, and everywhere else you live online. Also, check out the great feedburner-like badges from TwitterCounter for your blog.

4. Tweet about your passions in life and #hash tag them. Quality content coupled with an easy way to find it never fails. If others enjoy your content, they’ll add you. Learn more about #hash tagging here

5. Bring your twitter account into the physical world. Every time I give a talk, speak on a panel, shoot a podcast, present slides, or hand out business cards, I figure out a way to broadcast or display my twitter account.

6. Take pictures. Pictures are heavily retweeted/spread around. This one from US Airways Flight 1549 has been viewed 350,000+ times. For mobile pics use iPhone apps such as Tweetie or Twitterific , both which support on the go uploading.

7. Start a contest. @jasoncalacanis offered a free macbook air if he reached the #1 most followed spot. That never happened, but Jason added thousands of followers…brilliant.

8. Follow the top twitter users and watch what they tweet. Pay attention to the type of content they sent out and how they address their audiences.

9. Reply to/get involved in #hash tag memes. search.twitter.com lists the hot ‘trending topics. Look for the #hash topics and jump in on the conversation (see #4 for links to #hash instructions).

10. Track your results. TwitterCounter will show you how many new users you’re adding per day and Qwitter will email you when someone unfollows you after a tweet.

I haven't forgotten you!

I'm working on several projects simultaneously, but you can pull updates from my PWS at leightest.myshaklee.com or my facebook account - I try to update it daily!

Just friend me - leigh bordelon!

How to incorporate social media into your marketing strategy - Andrew Katz, BlueWave Computing LLC

How to incorporate social media into your marketing strategy - Andrew Katz, BlueWave Computing LLC

Using the internet to market your business

I'm often asked about using the internet to build your business. Lots of folks say "Hey, that's a great idea! I'll never have to leave home!" and others say "There's nothing good on the internet. Bah!"

In reality, for the Shaklee Distributor, it's more of a middle ground kinda thing. Let's be honest - if you build so much traffic to your site that you get thousands of hits a day, you'll be ovewhelmed by people that you have to train, follow up with etc. You will be lucky to get business from and/or retain even 1%. If you NEVER use the internet, you'll miss out on customers and prospects who do use the internet. The best thing I can tell you is to try to find some balance. It's good to direct traffic to your site - that way you can engage with people you'd never meet with "in real life" - off of the internet. I suppose it's a good thing it takes time to learn how to use internet marketing, build links and your page rank and all that...it gives you time to prepare for volume, learn from your mistakes (without blowing anything up) and find all the places you can streamline your efforts.

So, if you're going to use the net, where do you start?

1. Create an online presence. Something that talks about you, your specialty, and why someone should want to work with you. Sell yourself!

2. Sign up for some share accounts. Social Media has a ton of sites that you can join to share information with the great, unwashed masses. :D

3. Set up your auto-responder emails - have those in place before you publish your site.

4. Create some page where you provide useful information...whether it's an article, observations and thoughts on an article posted elsewhere, something you thought up all by yourself...content is key. Creating a page is easier than you think and less expensive - find a free one! You can also do what I'm doing - using one of my PWS pages.

5. Ask EVERY SINGLE PERSON YOU KNOW to share your article page on facebook, twitter, and the myriad of other share sites there are. Ask them to email it to their contact lists so that you get visits to that site. If anyone who visits your site has their own site, visit it - comment, see if it's appropriate for a link exchange.

6. Make sure you always provide a means by which someone can contact you. Email (not associated publicly to your street address - let's be careful, kids) or phone (again, not publicly associated to your street address), if they can't reach you, you can't develop a rapport with them. Have your "interview" questions ready...you need to know what they want before you can help them!

7. Find sites that will do a link exchange or even just link to your site without you linking to theirs. Search engines like that. How do you do it? Search the internet for content that is related to your article/content but not in competition with it. You can read more about link building here.

Note: If there is term in this article you don't understand, google it.

Good luck!

What are those "share sites" anyway?

July 20, 2010

I always tell you to "share" your site using the icons on the PWS...but, how do you know what they are? Well, I've gone through them and here's a short cut for the sites that i could either access or read (some were in other languages). Take a look and join a few to start sharing, finding conversations to get involved with and promoting your business!

How to win friends and influence people with social media networking

How to win friends and influence people with social media networking
by Lyndon Antcliff, 31 July 2009

To get results on social media sites you need great content with great headlines that will grab readers’ attention, make them want more and pass on a link to others. You will also need a significant network of friends and contacts or to be very nice to someone who has. Lyndon Antcliff is one such connector and here he gives 17 top tips to help you build your own social media network.

There is no shortcut for building a quality and sizeable network. It takes time. Use the following tips to make sure you make the most of your efforts:

Start with your own blog and make it the focal point of all your social media accounts with links to and from it. Your blog is where you show who you are and that you are a real person. People want to know about the people they do business with, and in a digital world your blog is the best place to show them.

Open accounts with Facebook, Twitter, Stumbleupon, Digg and LinkedIn. On each of these sites, find users who share your interests. There are thousands of social media sites, but start with the biggest.

Make sure people know about your social media accounts. Link to them on your blog, in your email signature and on your newsletters.

Find and join social sites for the specific markets you work in, eg WAYN for travel, Kaboodle for shoppers, Peak Performance for athletes, Sphinn for online marketing, MPORA for extreme sports, etc.

Pick an avatar that stands out. This is the photo or graphic accompanying your accounts and it is how you will be recognized. It is best to have a photograph or a graphic which stands out. If in doubt about what to use, keep it simple.

Make sure you have only one active account per social site. Admins take a dim view of people trying to manipulate their sites and it may get you and your website a ban.

Be open and accessible. Make all your social media accounts known and open to contact, comments and chat.

Be authentic. Don't fake it. Be yourself - you are what is unique and interesting about you.

The easiest way to be popular is to be helpful. Everyone loves someone who will help them at no cost. It also displays your expertise, builds your brand and reputation.

Be polite.

Make friends. This is harder than it sounds when you start out as there is little reason for someone who does not know you to be your friend. The key is to make yourself useful and to avoid being irritating. Searching for people with the same interests as you usually gets good results.

Spend a small amount of time each day on your accounts. Regular contributions over time will work and help you get noticed. The more people see you around, the more you will build trust.

Only present high quality stories to sites like Digg and StumbleUpon. Do not submit your own content initially. Vote on stories that are in your niche. Be seen to be the expert that you are.

Following a power user will not get you noticed as they already have too many followers to care about you. Follow people who are in your niche and have a desire to communicate and network.

Do not pay for votes or use automated processes to inflate your votes artificially, this may get you and your site banned and at best will only bring short term success.

Find interesting stories within your niche before anyone else. Use RSS or Twitter to subscribe to news and specialists sites whose content users of your social sites love. This is how power users got to be who they are.

Be persistent.

Sharing updates and promos with your friends

July 13, 2010

Learned something new for social media.

Distributors; encourage your customers to put up facebook posts and tweet about you, your service and your products!!

Find a blog site that reviews products and ask them to review one of your products, then post that review!

All of these comments and posts will create indexed pages for search engines, buzz about you to your friends' friends and blogger followers!