How To Create A Successful Twitter Contest

Twitter contests are a great way to find targeted followers who are interested in your content, products, and service.
Twitter contests are easy to set up and run, but you should carefully plan them, to make sure you attract the right people to your contest.
What Is a Twitter contest?
A Twitter contest is essentially a marketing campaign, that you use to get people to follow you and Tweet a predefined message.
When they Tweet your message, they are automatically entered into a drawing to win a prize. The prizes are usually awarded to people who follow you and/or people who Tweeted your predefined message.
Plan Properly
The results of Twitter contests are usually excellent if you plan them properly. The people who follow you during the contest usually stay engaged with you longer than other followers and they tend to take more action by Tweeting, ReTweeting and Replying to your Tweets.
They seem to get a sense that we are in this together and they go out of their way to support you and your company. They also tend to become frequent visitors of your website and other social media communities like your Facebook and LinkedIn pages.
Increase In Followers
The best thing about Twitter contests, is that you can expect to see a 20 to 25 percent increase in your followers and they will be very targeted followers. People will not participate in a Twitter contest if they aren't interested in your product or service.
Obviously the goal of most Twitter contests is to increase the number of targeted followers. Targeted followers are an extension of your marketing department and they help spread the word about your products and services for free. When a third party spreads positive comments about your products or services, it gives your company credibility and helps sell your products.
Collecting Information
You also want to collect contestants' contact information during your Twitter campaign, so you can nurture your new leads and eventually turn them into customers.
You collect their contact information, by enticing them to fill out a web form on your website or blog.
Targeted Followers
You want to attract targeted followers when you run a Twitter campaign. It won't help you if you attract thousands of new followers who are only interested in the prize you are giving away.
There are several ways to attract targeted followers during your Twitter campaign.

• Have a clear goal for your contest. What are you trying to achieve with your Twitter contest? Are you trying to generate new leads? Are you generating traffic for a new website or blog? Are you announcing a new product and you want to generate a buzz?

• You need to have a clear goal and outcome for your Twitter contest or you will be disappointed with your results. The clearer your goal is, the better your results will be.

• Choose prizes carefully. This is where people make some of their biggest mistakes when they conduct a Twitter contest. Your prize should match the goal for your contest. If you are trying to generate more targeted followers, offering a large cash prize isn't the right prize. Offering a $1,000 prize will attract a lot of new followers, but they may not be targeted. In fact many of your new followers will be participating in the contest just to win the $1,000, not to support your company.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9270192

Great LinkedIn Strategies That Really Work

Most likely, you understand the value of LinkedIn (at least, to some extent) and you are trying to use it as much as possible for your business. That may or may not be working very well for you. It really all depends on what you are doing and how those features apply to your particular business. However, there are some less-well-know features and tricks that may work extremely well for you. They are, in many cases, a well-kept secret.
LinkedIn and its amazing potential
You may use the free version of LinkedIn (don't worry, you are not alone; many, many people do the same thing) or you may feel that having access to additional features on LinkedIn are worth paying for so you have a subscription to the premium version of the tool. Well, you may be correct when it comes to some of the features that you are using for your business. Most likely, you are using a combination of features that are part of the premium version and some that everyone who is a part of LinkedIn is allowed to use without paying a penny.
Leveraging LinkedIn Groups
By now, it is probably safe to assume that you understand the importance of not only posting content on a frequent, consistent basis but also the importance of syndicating that content so that many other people are able to benefit from what you are writing, sharing, offering, etc.
You may or may not be aware of the fact that in LinkedIn (this is true of the free and the premium versions), you are allowed to join up with 100 groups. It certainly makes the most sense that those 100 groups (or, however, many you choose to join) should all be relevant and appropriate for you and your business and brand. When it comes to your groups on LinkedIn, the important elements that you will want to capture are how may people have viewed your LinkedIn profile, how many connections you have on LinkedIn, how many groups you have joined, and whether you use the direct messaging feature on a regular basis to communicate with your connections.
The advantages that LinkedIn offers you
If you take advantage of all that LinkedIn has to offer (we will be discussing those secrets in a little while), you will begin to embrace the fact that LinkedIn enables you to gather information on other businesses and people, communicate with people who you knew at some point on a professional level. You may have lost touch with those people but perhaps it is now the time to reconnect with them. LinkedIn also enables you to establish new relationships with people whom you hope to do business with at some point.
Aside from LinkedIn's wonderful features in general, there are several different things that you can do, which will produce a positive result for you, and which you may not have considered or even realized existed.

• Evaluating your competition: LinkedIn allows you to gather intelligence on your competitors by simply conducting a search with the names of those businesses. Once you have put in the name, the tool will generate a list of positions within the company. Once you have that information at your fingertips, you can get a handle on who works at that company and that will tell you where the strengths of that particular business lie. By looking at the number of people in any given competing business (including the positions that those people hold), you can get to know exactly what level of competitor that business is for you.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9302781

How To Choose Your LinkedIn Network Size

Should you build a professional network that is small, large, or somewhere in between? It depends on what you are selling, whom you sell to, and how much time you want to spend on LinkedIn managing your network.
Open Networking
Being an Open Networker gives you a lot of opportunities to connect with others, but you will have to dedicate at least an hour or two a day accepting connection requests and answering emails from your network.
Open Networkers tend to be aggressive networkers, so they are constantly reaching out to their network, beating the bush for new leads.
Recruiting
If you are a recruiter who fills jobs nationally or internationally, you need to build a huge network to keep your pipeline full. You have to be willing to dedicate up to half of your working hours working your LinkedIn network for leads to fill open positions and to find new jobs to post.
There is nothing wrong with spending 20 hours a week networking on LinkedIn, if it's your primary source to find job listings and quality candidates.
Selling
If you are selling niche products, it probably doesn't make sense for you to spend more than an hour or two a day on LinkedIn, if your target audience is small.
You probably have a few key contacts on LinkedIn who can connect you with the right people, and you know which Groups to participate in.
80/20 Rule
Most sales professionals choose the middle-of-the-road approach. They have their professional network of 500 to 1,000 members, which gives them tremendous access to millions of second- and third-degree connections.
They also have their core members of their network, with whom they communicate on a regular basis. It's the old 80/20 rule: 20 percent of their network is most active, providing the majority of their leads and sales, while they occasionally benefit from some leads and sales from the other 80 percent.
Pros & Cons
The optimal size of your LinkedIn network depends on a lot of factors that only you can determine. Every situation is different, so weigh the pros and cons of each networking style and determine which is best for the product or service you sell.
Small Niche Network
Pros
Cons
Targeted audience
Limited ability to reach
Less noise/emails from2 2n and 3rd-degree connections
You may miss some sales opportunities, because you don't have as many 1st- degree connections, referring you to new connections
Fewer connection requests from people you don't know
New connection requests are usually more targeted because you are a niche networker
Medium Sized Network
Pros
Cons
You benefit from having a targeted audience and an extended 2nd- and 3rd-degree audience
You may be limited when you try to reach out to 3rd- degree connections
More opportunities to connect with prospects when you need introductions
You may receive a lot of connection requests from strangers or people that don't fit your professional network profile
More opportunities to receive referrals from your network
You may receive a lot of connections
Open Networking
Pros
Cons
You have a very wide audience to sell to and to help refer you to prospects
Your network is very unfocused so you have to work hard to find targeted prospects
You have access to millions of 2nd- and 3rd-degree connections
You will receive a lot of unsolicited emails from your connections
You are never more than two hops from millions of prospects
You will have no personal relationship with over 90% of your network so you won't be able to refer them
You will receive a lot of requests to Recommend people in your network who you don't know very well

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9249350

Content Strategy for Social Network Marketing

Imagine that social networks are a lot like an in person social party put on by your local chamber of commerce. There's quite a few people there and you know that in order to successfully navigate this party you're going to have to engage in some face-to-face conversations with the potentially new customers that are there.
The easiest strategies that almost always has shown a good success rate at driving interactions is what is known as the 80/20 principle. 80% of your interactions such as Likes, Shares, Comments, replies, retweets, hearts (Instagram), etc should be focused on your followers and not on you.
I want to repeat that so it sticks. 80% focused on your followers and NOT on you.
Once you've built a rapport with them and have interacted with them in some way, they will feel connected to you and your business. Social etiquette dictates that they should reciprocate any attention given to them by you. At this point, you can then start mixing direct offers or promotions to get those followers to start clicking or purchasing from your website.
You should aim to have a style that's approachable and authentic. A good sense of humor is always a plus and do not be overly formal. Keep a unique style and tone that is fun and professional.
There's no wrong way to do this. However, here are some useful tips.
Try out different times of day to see when you get a higher engagement.
Try to issue updates on a regular basis so that your user base can get used to your schedule and will look forward to your entertaining and quality content.
Your followers and fans will appreciate you for it.
Content ideas
Create a theme for each day of the week:

• Markdown Monday - Highlight a sale or discount code valid for only this week
• Exclusive Tuesday - Show a photo or video giving a sneak peak behind the curtain.
• Useful Wednesday - Informative tips or trends in your industry
• Spotlight Thursday - Reply publicly to customer questions, or show off a positive review.
• Feature Friday - Showcase a broader industry news article or relevant content
• Giving Saturday - Focus on some kind of charity event or neighborhood non-profit that you support.
• People Sunday - Highlight your employees. Show them having fun at work.

Updates that are effective at driving engagement
Do this if you want your followers to share, reply, or like your content

• Get Visual - They are more likely to respond to funny newsworthy and inspiring visuals (photos) than just text updates.
• Ask for what you want - Believe it or not, just ask people to share your content and they will do it. Of course, the content has to be worth sharing.
• Seize the moment (trending topics) - Tap into the current conversational trends. Whether it's seasonal, cultural or even current events. (Google trends is a good place to pick up on whats currently happening. http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends )

Updates that are good at encouraging a direct response
If you want action NOW, then do this;

• Compelling offer - Drive clicks and generate leads by delivering a truly compelling offer. Ask your users for suggestions for these.
• Sense of Urgency - Limit your offer to a specific time period to create a sense of urgency.
• Clear call to action - If you are trying to drive traffic to a specific URL, then don't include anything else that might distract people into going somewhere else. Create the funnel.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9267159

How To Create A Successful Twitter Contest

Twitter contests are a great way to find targeted followers who are interested in your content, products, and service.
Twitter contests are easy to set up and run, but you should carefully plan them, to make sure you attract the right people to your contest.
What Is a Twitter contest?
A Twitter contest is essentially a marketing campaign, that you use to get people to follow you and Tweet a predefined message.
When they Tweet your message, they are automatically entered into a drawing to win a prize. The prizes are usually awarded to people who follow you and/or people who Tweeted your predefined message.
Plan Properly
The results of Twitter contests are usually excellent if you plan them properly. The people who follow you during the contest usually stay engaged with you longer than other followers and they tend to take more action by Tweeting, ReTweeting and Replying to your Tweets.
They seem to get a sense that we are in this together and they go out of their way to support you and your company. They also tend to become frequent visitors of your website and other social media communities like your Facebook and LinkedIn pages.
Increase In Followers
The best thing about Twitter contests, is that you can expect to see a 20 to 25 percent increase in your followers and they will be very targeted followers. People will not participate in a Twitter contest if they aren't interested in your product or service.
Obviously the goal of most Twitter contests is to increase the number of targeted followers. Targeted followers are an extension of your marketing department and they help spread the word about your products and services for free. When a third party spreads positive comments about your products or services, it gives your company credibility and helps sell your products.
Collecting Information
You also want to collect contestants' contact information during your Twitter campaign, so you can nurture your new leads and eventually turn them into customers.
You collect their contact information, by enticing them to fill out a web form on your website or blog.
Targeted Followers
You want to attract targeted followers when you run a Twitter campaign. It won't help you if you attract thousands of new followers who are only interested in the prize you are giving away.
There are several ways to attract targeted followers during your Twitter campaign.

• Have a clear goal for your contest. What are you trying to achieve with your Twitter contest? Are you trying to generate new leads? Are you generating traffic for a new website or blog? Are you announcing a new product and you want to generate a buzz?

• You need to have a clear goal and outcome for your Twitter contest or you will be disappointed with your results. The clearer your goal is, the better your results will be.

• Choose prizes carefully. This is where people make some of their biggest mistakes when they conduct a Twitter contest. Your prize should match the goal for your contest. If you are trying to generate more targeted followers, offering a large cash prize isn't the right prize. Offering a $1,000 prize will attract a lot of new followers, but they may not be targeted. In fact many of your new followers will be participating in the contest just to win the $1,000, not to support your company.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9270192

Implement the "5Cs" Strategy Into Your Digital Marketing Mix

Marketing in the digital space has evolved immensely over time. There has been an explosion of new processes, new communication technologies and new marketing channels to advertise and promote your business. It's a big change now! Everybody is utilizing digital marketing tactics to reach out to their customers, you have to re-invent your strategy to succeed in the ultimate battlefield of digital war. A well-planned set of digital marketing goals will help you measure the performance of your marketing activities and get real results. Implement the '5Cs' strategy into your digital marketing mix to get closer to your business marketing goals:
C - Connect: Connecting your brand with target audience is the first step toward marketing success. The customer is the CEO of your business. To create a brand your customers will love you need to connect with them. So how do you make a connection with customers? It's through social networks, email, website, blogs and search engines. Building a meaningful, emotional connection is vital for establishing successful customer relationship.
C - Converse: Just because you know well about the features and benefits of the range of products and services your company provides doesn't mean that your customers are also aware of them. Communicating directly with your niche community is necessary to inspire brand awareness. Customers want to be emotionally impacted during their entire journey of commercial existence. Keep in mind some of the right ways of customer communication - send personalized emails, create content based on customer needs and engage in conversations on social channels.
C - Characterize: A business is one that customers only know while a brand is one that they love. You have too many competitors selling the same services as you do. How are you different from them? What is so unique about your products? You need to characterize your business to build a brand that customers love to recommend. You need to convince customers about the benefits that they can gain from using your services. People choose a product based on the value they receive. So be unique, be distinctive to get more recommendations and repeat customers.
C - Captivate: If you don't understand the value of customer engagement and instead, focus on sales pitch, then you will definitely fail in the long run. Engaging with your target audience is necessary to retain existing customers and attract new ones. To captivate your customers you must provide useful information through all digital marketing channels, make all conversations two-way, serve your customer needs when they want, and become an honest, empathetic & assertive communicator.
C - Convert: The ultimate aim of your digital marketing campaign is to convert prospects into buying customers. Your customer conversion strategy requires a complex combination of value proposition, customer online experience management and customer feedback. Reach the customers at the right time and right content to move them through the conversion funnel.
If your business starts using the '5Cs' digital marketing strategy, you will be able to better connect, attract, engage, communicate and convert potential customers. With more repeat customers and more conversions, your business will become sustainable. The 5Cs will yield the greatest wins to help your business grow and get bigger!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9295368

Choosing a Profitable Niche That Is Right for Your blog marketing

Why is passion one of the main ingredients of a successful business? What is passion? It is more than a wish it's a burning desire, something that will keep you pursuing your dream despite all else. The dictionary definition: "Any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling".
If you choose a topic that for you is a red-hot hobby or interest it will make every hour you spend on your business a delight and as you learn more it will progress your hobby further. Work never feels like work if you are doing what you love.
My partner's passion is sport of all descriptions, his job until he retired was a squash coach and trainer, he couldn't have found a better job; everyday he was surrounded by like-minded people.
My passion is sales and being creative I love building web pages, writing articles and progressing my internet business. We are all different, just find something you love and live your dream running a simple internet hobby business. Begin part-time whilst you have employment and build your business and you will always have an interest or hobby in the future.
Hobbies make great internet businesses because people are prepared to spend money on their passion. Keeping fit and losing weight are other profitable areas. Also making and saving money can be a winner.
The same principles apply whatever your niche. Affiliate marketing with a mentor is the simplest way to begin online.
You could find your own route at the risk of information overload, source your own products, test them for quality and saleability, learn marketing techniques, build your website and finally start making money.
Or you could take the easy route and find a mentor or coach who provides quality products, training, support, sales pages, and works to a tried and tested formula that is proven to work. You then know what to do first. Not only will you get the above benefits but with a mentor you can start earning whilst you are learning the techniques required for success.
Which would you choose? I have tried both, working alone and with a mentor and sales have doubled with a mentor, I would definitely choose the later!
Books to help You:
"Ask for the Moon and Get It!" by Percy Ross
"Awaken the Giant Within" by Anthony Robbins.
"The Power of Your Subconscious Mind" by Joseph Murphy.
"Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway" by Susan Jeffers.
"Thank God it's Monday" by Charles Cameron and Suzanne Elusor, a book to offer strategies for making life more tolerable whilst you make changes.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9297369