A recent study found that  78% of consumers trust peer reviews and only 14% trust advertisements. Can you see KA_CHING  in those numbers?  It is crucial to be involved in your community and have a good reputation. What are people saying about your brand? About 25% of search results for a brand name links  to user generated content –  that means other peoples judgment gets to the top of the pile of information about YOU. Nourish these relationships. Best offense is a good defense - over deliver and under promise.  Then talk about it and have happy clients talk about it too!  This includes  Twitter, Face book, blogs, forums, industry publications and media. Monitor the conversation, join in on the conversation, be sincere and show that you care. Here are a few ways that I found to work for myself. Facebook can be a little tricky on how to get more fans. You will see an increase in fans if you do these following steps: 1) Creating a "List" of your friends and name it business. Find this when you login to Facebook and it is on the left hand side, click friends, edit friends, create list, then click on all your friends that you want to "Like" your page. (Note: every time you add a new friend put them in this business list) 2) When you create your page use the widget code that Facebook gives you to add a "Like" box on your website. 3) Add your Facebook Page link on your email signature. 4) Send an email out through your email system like GENESIS, Constant Contact, Aweber, iContact, ETC telling them you are on Social Media and inviting them to "Like" your page. You can give some type of incentive for those who like your page if you want. Example: "Like" our business page and receive 10% off your next order. 5) Make a compelling video to put on your welcome page on Facebook, show people who you are, what your personality is like, and what you do. (You can add a Welcome tab on your page through www.Tabsite.com) 6) Have customers tag photos of you and your products, leaving a testimonial with it. 7) Using Facebook Ads to get more fans. 8) Run a contest for just your Facebook fans, this creates interaction on the page. 9) You can use Mobile marketing to have people check out your Facebook page and "Like" it when they like it they get entered into a drawing, free prize, discount something along those lines. 10) Have your Facebook Page link on all of your marketing materials. 11) Funnel your Twitter followers to your Facebook page. 12) Use the Suggest to friends on page and suggest to the list you have been creating, from step 1. By implementing these few things you will see an increase in fans. Encourage your customers/clients to leave comments, feedback and questions to your page. Facebook ads are a great way to get fans quickly and easily, BUT you want to make sure you are doing the ads correctly. Make the message in the ad compelling so people want to come to your page and "Like" it. Facebook is a great way to make connections with people all over the world and a great place to get closer to your customers/clients. Remember it is all about building relationships! I hope this  was helpful. Have questions?  Have requests for other details? What have you done to increase your fans that you want to share? Post your comments and questions below.

  Marketing when you are on the go can sometimes be challenging. If you have wondered how you can still stay in touch even when you are not at your desk top, this presentation on using your smart phone solves all those problems. Nathan Womack shows you the screens shots you need so you can use Facebook on your smart phone to stay top of mind. He describes the importance of using Face book fan pages or personal pages to make your posts and more importantly answer questions or make comments right when they occur instea of going back in time and ineffectively trying to get back in touch. He gives incredible detail about the different smart phone platforms, describes what you can do on the android but not on the apple i- phone and how to save a ton of monthly fees by connecting using a wifi connection with your cell phone instead of just using minutes of talk time to make the same connections . When you have a solid marketing plan for your online marketing you know exactly what you need to get done and having an alternate way to get it all done for each months marketing campaigns by using your smart phone is a very handy way to manage it all.  There are a variety of tools that will allow your posts on one social network to be sent out to the other social networks as well. Getting these setup on your desktop is a great way to enhance your smartphone experience. Make a single post and have it appear instantly on other social networks. It is a excellent time saver. During the Put Your year In Gear event , Nathan will be describing how to use his proprietary 5 step process to get your tech in check for 2011. You will walk away, knowing exactly what your top priorities are for technology that you will need in 2011 and what to spend money on and what NOT to spend money on. To find out more about this strategy and get the screen shot , step by-step details go to www.putyouryearingear.com and request your free access now. These will be going away soon ( in November) . 6 & 7 coming soon.

  During this presentation Gary Barnes showed us how to use 3 magic words to create your online offer. He begins with the concept that people buy the sizzle but want the steak. Your prospects need to see great pictures, hear words that appeal to their old brain that are simple to understand . By creating your personal 3 magic words you are able to “interrupt” their thinking, avoid being put into the pigeon hole and labeled “like everyone else”. Using Gary’s unique method gives you the advantage of 3 words to describe what you do , how you do it, and the end result . It also creates an  image in the mind of your ideal prospect. Here are some examples we came up with for a balloon artist . Hot Air Guy, Super elastic man. As you can see there is a crisp image that you get in your minds eye. You definitely don’t label such a person as just another balloon artist. The words pique your interest to want to find out more and this is the key part of successfully creating your irresistible offer. Once you have your 3 words these can be used to attract clients in your social media efforts and right on your website as part of your high value free offer. They also begin to form your “brand”  because these are uniquely yours. To find out more about this strategy and get the screen shot , step by-step details go to www.putyouryearingear.com and request your free access now. These will be going away soon.

  Kim Dushinski , named one of THE Mobile Women to watch for 2010 by Mobile Marketer, shared screen shot explanations about how to use a  free tool  - Google Places- to get 1^st page ranking even if you don’t have a web site. Kim began by describing what mobile marketing is and what it is not. If you haven’t heard the term yet, you certainly are seeing this in action everyday on your TV and in other media. During the super bowl you are encourage to text in to win prizes and this is a form of Mobile Marketing. It gets you to use your mobile device to show you are interested in the topic. Places like your local Red Box video rental offer free videos when you signup to get a text message with the coupon number and you can go to the video rental and get your free video using the code from your mobile phone that they text to you. Mobile marketing is the next step of where the internet is going and it includes the use of your mobile device – cell phone or smart phone. At present this is a much more direct connection to your clients as 98% of text messages are opened whereas only 25% of emails are opened. If you have a business that has a store front with frequent repeat clients like chiropractors, restaurants, bowling alleys, this will become one of the most cost effective ways for you to attract clients back in for their repeat business. If you offer services in which you meet face to face with your clients on a repeat basis , using Google places, to list your business will be key to your future success. At present this type of listing is free and Google has disclosed plans for this to replace yellow page ads both online and offline. They have also hinted that this may not remain as a free service. Those who begin using this free real estate online will certainly reap the rewards from being a pioneer. To find out more about this strategy and get the screen shot , step by-step details go to www.putyouryearingear.com and request your free access now. These will be going away soon.

Our team member Ann Albergotti delivered a powerful update on how public relations and press releases have seriously  change in the last few years. She explained how today’s online submissions can be done by you. There are some key points that you have to understand for your article to be picked up and accepted by the press, but at a minimum your articles can get published into online article submission sites and have back links to  your website. Here is how the strategy works. First use those great “keywords” that you discovered in strategy 1 and then incorporate them into the article you are writing. Don’t go overboard, be natural in your writing, putting in great content first. Keep your articles to abut 200 words. Then read back thru the article to see where you might exchange some words for the keywords. When you have the article created in the correct article writing format which is NOT a sales pitch but rather a news piece, go online to the site recommended and enter the information requested. The basic information you will need includes the title and summary description which is the best place to house the keyword rich summary of your article. Articles are searched by the media – news reporters to find experts , like you and then they select your article, may re-write it, may contact you for more details or may publish the article as is. During this presentation Ann also explained how to reuse the article information to further attract media and  prospects by putting the shortened versions out into the social  network sites as well. During the upcoming Put Your Year I Gear Ann will go into more detail about how to find out how to check on where your articles get published out to. The team will also help you build your press release kit so that once you are found by the media,  you can quickly respond in the way the press requires so that you will be awarded interviews on the radio, TV and for publications. When Oprah calls you have 24 hours to respond. To find out more about this strategy and get the screen shot , step by-step details go to www.putyouryearingear.com and request your free access now. These will be going away soon.

This past week,  each of our 6 team members who are internet marketing experts , have spent  20-30 minutes to create 7 strategies in  incredible  high content videos to show you exactly what we do with our clients to attract  more leads online. These strategies include how to use the right words to build your huge contact list and how to use the media to get free publicity ONLINE. Here is a series of articles to describe each of the strategies and the link to go get the details for each one so you can use these right now in your business. Strategy 1 – Using the right words to build your Huge contact list When you understand what your ideal prospect is typing in to search online for you and your products, you have gotten to the golden keys. Our team member Rebecca Blackwell explains how to start  the discovery process by reviewing your target market . Some simple questions to answer – though they tend to take a while to get to the real answers- include: What benefits are your customers buying? What results are you offering that they want? What makes this challenging to answer is that we often answer with what they need. This is not relevant to your prospect, they only type in what they want. So be sure to do your research and talk to your favorite current and past clients to find out what they wanted when they  chose you. To find out more about this strategy and get the screen shot , step by-step details go to www.putyouryearingear.com and request your free access now. These will be going away soon ( in November) . Using a list of your products and services is a good starting point since these are more obvious and then back your way into why people want your products or services. Additional key points include looking at how you want your company to be perceived by others. Some questions that help you clarify this focuses on the end results like What do you want your customers to think about or say about your products and services a few months after they purchase? Consider the age range that will be most interested and then use the “so that” statement to connect the benefits to the features. An example would be ~ Hire entertainment for your event “so that” the kids are occupied and entertained for hours, with no work on your part. Once you have the words and phrases that describe your benefits , then go online to find out the traffic for those words or short phrases. In the training,  Rebecca shows the exact screen shots of what to look for in  traffic and the competition for these words so you know what words you should use in your website pages, and other internet based promotional areas like within your social networking. Often the words you initially choose will be high competition and by doing the research and using the tools which include Googles Free Keyword Tracker you will see exactly what similar words have lower competition and sometimes even higher traffic. To build your huge contact list you start by incorporating these newly found gold nuggets of keywords and include them in your website to attract your ideal clients. Once they arrive at your site provide them with high value content that they are anxious  to get in exchange for their email . As you gather the emails your list will grow. In the subsequent strategies we show you how to use the valuable keyword information to attract clients in other ways and ultimately to build an online money magnet. At the Put Your year in Gear event Rebecca will be  covering a lot more detail about how to get to your ideal keywords and how to attract clients online with a variety of key copywriting techniques. To find out more about this strategy and get the screen shot , step by-step details go to www.putyouryearingear.com and request your free access now. These will be going away soon.

It's truly incredible what a master mind group can do for  you! After brainstorming  about this years Put Your Year In Gear Event , my mastermind had the brilliant idea to invite our veterans who are transitioning from active duty to entrepreneurship. The event is designed to show business owners and new business ventures exactly how to put their marketing strategies to work for them to create leads, how to create a sales funnel that converts happy prospects into happier clients and how to use an integrated approach to pull that together. Who better to share that with , than the brothers, mothers, fathers, sons and daughters  who have valiantly preserved our freedom and ability to be entrepreneurs and now are returning home.