Remember when the Internet was new and referred to as “The World Wide Web?” You saw the “AOL Keyword” hovering in the corner of most TV ads, and brochure sites were popping up left and right.

As marketers quickly recognized the limitless marketing power of this amazing new channel, specialty marketing disciplines grew and buzz words emerged en mass.

As the magnitude of the Internet grew, the number of online marketing specialties grew as well. Functions began to pair up into logical sub categories of related or coordinated specialties.  It became more difficult to be a “general online marketer,” and many marketers gravitated toward more specific online marketing specialities.

So now we have Inbound Marketing. While not a new concept, its growing appeal among businesses is impressive.

Side note: the term is believed to have been coined by Brian Halligan, CEO of  HubSpot and author of the book Inbound Marketing.

What is Inbound Marketing?

Wiki defines inbound marketing as getting found by customers, as opposed to interruptive advertising.

Whereas an outbound marketer pushes messages out (via advertising, purchased email lists, trade shows, cold calling, etc.) hoping it will attract the attention of the desired customer.

Why is Inbound marketing important?

It creates quality leads – prospective customers who want to to find you. A deliciously self-targeted, highly qualified prospect!

It’s also cost effective – the smart use of tools and time is much less than the price tag of most traditional outbound advertising. While not intended to replace outbound marketing, it’s strategic role in the mix is growing.

Who is it best for?

While it can have a role for companies of all sizes, it is particularly attractive to small to medium-sized businesses who cannot compete head-on with larger authority sites with the scale to well-target their outbound marketing efforts.

But if you’re not an Amazon or eBay, it’s time to get creative and use more inbound marketing as part of your mix.

How does it work?

This is the best part. It’s simple! There are three key components:

1. Build an optimized website with a blog
2. Create quality content that your prospective customers want
3. Take that content to where they are through social channels

With any strategy, there is a mix of art and perseverance to success.  But if you build a smart site, create quality stuff your customers wants to read, and take it to where they are hanging out, you will find you have built both relationships AND referrals.

Too good not to share! Have you had this conversation lately?

Thanks to Scott Stratten from UNmarketing for making this!

In 2006, not many marketers realized the impact that this silly thing called “twitter” would have on our e-strategies. Here’s a great video clip of how Biz Stone got the word out in the early days.  Did you know it was originally spelled Twttr?

A sense of humor is critical in marketing, isn’t it!

(Credit for finding this video goes to Mashable and Say OMG)

As a hands-on business owner, there are many tasks clamoring for your attention daily. A smart business owner knows their strengths and will outsource the other areas as appropriate.

But what about Social Media?  Do you know enough about it to decide if is right for your business?  Should you pay someone else to become the voice of your business, or are you willing to find out what it takes to tackle it yourself?

You and/or your industry are being talked about already.  Think you should join the conversation and be heard?

I came across this article via a twitter friend, and just had to share it!  It colorfully points out the ways you can offend others using Facebook.  The point of the story is all things in moderation.  It’s ok to do some of the things pointed out some times, but mix it up a bit.  And most importantly, be genuine!

So check out this article from CNN and let me know what you think! Enjoy…

Whether you have an existing business you’d like to promote online, or are starting an online-only venture, it is very easy to get caught up in the minutia of technical tools, “expert” opinions and general online jargon that can pull you away from the simple big picture of online marketing.

Technology is a channel.  Period.

Before you get caught up in having the latest Twitter application, WordPress blog theme, creating a Squidoo lense, joining friendfeed, figuring out how to Digg, and so forth…step back…take a deep breath…and do one thing at a time.

Building an online presence doesn’t happen overnight.  There is a natural evolution of building an online reputation with staying power.  With a strong foundation and persistent momentum, you’ll get where you need to go, one step at a time.

Facebook has rocked the social media world upside down over the past couple months by offering vanity URLs.  Facebook URLs are notoriously long and ugly and not suitable for use as a destination URL.

At first glance, it was exciting news for fan page owners, until they realized that they had to have at least 1,000 members already to qualify.  Then something exciting happened, Facebook opened it up a month later to smaller fan pages as well.  Well, that’s not exactly true.  Only pages with 100 or more fans.

For many businesses with Facebook fan pages, they felt betrayed a second time.

But what’s the big deal?  Facebook’s hype blurred the line between technology and strategy. There is nothing magical about a vanity URL that you can’t accomplish with a domain name. If your strategy includes using a Facebook page as a destination link, you can do this with a subdomain and a redirect.

For example, I set up http://facebook.homedigz.com for the HOMEdigz.com fan page.  Ironically, because there were over 100 fans, I also was able to secure http://facebook.com/HOMEdigz from Facebook.  Both work equally fine – tomato vs tomahto.

Here’s a secret – it’s easier than you think to do this yourself.  To walk you through it, I’ll show you how I set up a subdomain with a redirect to make it easier to link to Facebook’s Networked Blog application for Rooms That Work LLC’s “Your home, only better.” blog.

First, I went to the Contol Panel for the Rooms That Work website.  Under “Domains” I clicked on “subdomains“ and set up a subdomain for facebook.  For example:

Next I entered “facebook” in the subdomain box, and clicked “create”.

Voila!

Next I set up the redirect by copy and pasting the looooong Facebook URL, then clicked “save.”

There you have it.

Care to try it out?  Go to http://facebook.roomsthatwork.com and see where you end up.

As I mentioned before, be careful not to confuse the technology with the strategy.  This is not limited to Facebook applications.  If you have various applications at different places online, you can use subdomains to simplify your links.

So don’t get caught up in the pretty URL hype.  You have everything you need to help your customers navigate with ease with your domain name.  It’s all about how you use what you already have.  Remember, technology is a facilitator, not the objective.

There are lots of “tweeple” with very large followings.  Chances are they were early adopters of this communication channel, social media is their primary business, or they have set up auto-pilot features to automatically follow anyone who follows them.

Whether or not you automate certain aspects of your twitter brand is dependent on what your business objective is.  The larger your following, the less targeted your demographic is and the more difficult it is to engage meaningfully with your followers.

As for me, I like to check out bio’s and twitter pages before I follow back.  As the channel gets more popular, I’m starting to see some rather shady looking tweeps out there.  Plus I won’t follow back if their bio talks about making a fast buck, politics, or exercising. 

Don’t get me wrong here…lots of followers can be great.  But make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons. So go forth and engage with your followers consistently.  The more engaging you are, the more your following base will start to represent your target market. 

Just keep it real!

~Susan

P.s., here are a few tips for finding quality followers:

• To find good followers, use the weekly #followfriday event.  And remember, it’s a two way street!
• Use keywords in your tweets to attract your target market
• Turn off your notification setting when new folks follow you.  It’s easier to review and follow followers directly from the “followers’ link from your Twitter page.

A Facebook Fan Page is an easy and effective way to extend your brand online. Here are 3 very compelling reasons why:

• It is visible outside the Facebook Network, which means you can reach more people AND the search engines index it
• You’re not limited to 5,000 “friends” (go ahead, think big!)
• There are a couple ways you can communicate with your fans. Your “status updates” show up in your fans news feeds AND You can target message updates by location, gender and age. But note that it shows up as a “Notice” and not in their coveted “Inbox”

Bottom line, it’s a great way to build relationships between your brand and your target market. But like anything else, it’s one spoke in the marketing wheel. It works best in concert with blogging and other social networks (think Twitter).

How are you using Facebook? What questions do you have about using it for business?

Social Media is powerful.  Not only in the results you can achieve, but in it’s innate ability to suck you in and steal precious time from your already time-limited day.  I know some business owners who sense this and are wary to start something they can’t keep up with. 

So, to help out, here are a few tips to help you get your social media groove on while maintaining your daily schedule.  Feel free to print these out and tape them next to your computer in case you feel the social media pull too great to resist.

Twitter

• Twitter is like a river. You can’t monitor the water running by, but you can dip your toe in it 3 times a day and tweet, retweet and reply appropriately. 
• Turn off the notices (under settings) so you don’t get an email every time someone follows you or send a DM (which is mostly auto-crap). 
• Take those moments to find new followers and follow back those who follow you on a daily basis.  Just click on “followers” and follow those you aren’t already.
• Friday’s are a great day to find new folks to follow because of the weekly #followfriday event. 
• Tweetdeck is a great way to organize your tweet data, but don’t keep it open all day, unless you don’t have anything else you need to get done.

Facebook

• Facebook has the benefit of threading the conversations, so you can tune in once per day and still be relevant in the conversations.
• No time?  You can set up your tweets to go directly to Facebook. The benefit is that those who reply to your tweets in Facebook end up as a thread you can follow.

LinkedIn

• LinkedIn has a nice weekly email they can send you with updates.  Very easy to respond to. 
• If you’re involved in groups (and you should be – that’s where you meet new people), don’t opt for daily digest updates, they’ll drive you nuts.  Just periodically check in with the groups you follow and chime in with your two cents.

Now I must provide a disclaimer here…do as I suggest, not as I do.  Remember, I follow this stuff for a living, so I’m not a “normal” user.  But rest assured I will keep up with what’s new and report back here so you don’t have to.