Don’t act like a spammer on Twitter. Don’t be a tool. There I said it. Lately I’ve noticed many spammer accounts (or what I consider spam) appearing on Twitter and frankly, I’m sick of it.  So, consider this my rant. I’ll try not to throw too many curse words out, but I think that beginners to Twitter need to be given a heads up on what not to do so they can work social media to their advantage.

For those of you who don’t know, Twitter is a social media community where you engage with people in 140 characters per “tweet”. It’s a great way to make friends, promote yourself, and build a brand. Yes, I use Twitter to promote myself. There is nothing wrong with that. I’m not one to say there is. But here are some things to avoid so you can take full advantage of the power of Twitter without seeming like a tool.

1.  No avatar picture or a clip art avatar, especially one unrelated to what you do

Having a bikini babe to catch attention is cool if you’re selling bikinis or if you are a model and it’s a picture of you. It’s not that cool just to catch attention for your latest MLM scheme. I don’t care if Donald Trump told you to do it, you’re fired! And, don’t you be flashing your newly bright and white teeth at me in defiance either. Real people are sick of this crap. Real people are the ones with credit cards, ok?

Even worse is the default avatar. Take the time to upload a picture because I will assume that the time you spend on your profile is the level of attention you’ll give me as a customer. Same goes for your full profile detail, including a legit website URL. Slacker = fail.

2.  All pitch and no personality

If you follow me, I go to see if I want to follow you back–I check out your tweet stream to see what you’re about. Call me old fashioned but that’s what I do. If all you ever do is promote your MLM, CPA offers, Forex, Twitter tools to get me more followers ( PLEASE have more followers than I do if you send me that in a auto DM, ok?) or XXX rated adult sites, then I will block you. I already trade index option spreads, have an account myself with Hydra Network, have plenty of great followers, and I feel secret jealousy about your porn site because I’m too old and overweight to be a webcam girl. You’d know that if you’d bothered to check my profile out first. Haven’t you seen my tweets making fun of you?

If you mention GDI, teeth whitening, making money fast with no effort, or all you ever do is retweet what you find on Mashable, you aren’t going to be fun to listen to. I love to see lots of @ replies, conversations with your followers, courteous and relatively low % sprinkling of self-promotion, and lots of great resource links and comments – quotes are ok, but I’d rather know what you say, not so much what Gandhi says. We’ve all heard that – I want to know the unique you.  Cool adds are telling me about another person on Twitter who gives great info. You gain my respect and affection (and I’ll be more likely to recommend you to someone else too) if you share the power and glory. It shows me a character trait I like.

For the record – @ replies or retweets where you list my ID and tack on your affiliate link, making it look like I either asked you for that info or am endorsing it, is a total loser technique. It’s an abuse of my influence and abuse of my friends, so cut it out. BLOCK, BLOCK, BLOCK (and on this one, I report you as a spammer too). Yeah, I admit – I have some strong feelings here…

3.  Being impersonal (if you ghost, be good at it)

If you have a snazzy spam name like MakeMoneyNow (made up – I don’t know if this is real) at least put a real person’s name in the name field. Yes, you can have a different name in your profile than you do your Twitter ID name. I do – I am @SmartWoman and my name is Vicki Flaugher. Especially if you took a class showing you how to monetize your Twitter stream, please be creative in your automation. Mix it up so at least you’re different than other people.

If you ghost, be good at it. If you are making up a persona (something I find intriguing if you do it right – look at the dogs who tweet, or the TV characters from Mad Men as an example), then be great! Act like a real person would in conversation – make jokes, share information, talk to your friends, tell us about what you’re up to, and quit using social media like a two-bit escort. Just because something makes money doesn’t mean it’s a good thing to do. Okay, what I really mean to say is do what you want, but don’t expect me to like it. And, I’m not alone in this and I actually buy lots of things online. I am your customer – please do not treat me like a moron that can’t hear the 50th time this hour of you telling me how great your product is. Where is the seduction, intrigue, respect? No where when you act that way!

Making money online is super fun and I follow fake people if they entertain me. Constantly pitching your amazing product isn’t entertaining. Don’t you see how the logic goes? If your product is really so great, would you have to pitch it incessantly? Of course not – you’d be building a list, working your backend sales funnel, providing strong value, and creating lifetime customers instead.

I am a marketer. I market online. I love it, too and am not ashamed of the way I conduct my business. I use online tools for my own revenue. I consult with my clients about social media, blogging, article marketing, affiliate programs, CPA offers, info product development, PPC traffic generation, and email auto-responders.

If you don’t know what any of those things that I just listed are and actually want to integrate them with authenticity and integrity into your business, give me a call. When you call, I promise I won’t offer you teeth whitening from a single Mom in Hollywood (my favorite pet peeve), a one time limited offer with lots of CAPS and !!! points in the sales copy, nor any emails that use RE: in the subject line when you’ve never sent me an email that I could possibly be responding back to. Using the internet as a tool doesn’t make you a tool. The behaviors you exhibit are what do that. And, believe me, there are plenty of tools out there already – you don’t need to be one.  Don’t act like a spammer on Twitter. There I said it!

Some of the most inspiring women in this world have what I call a “hidden light” syndrome. They have so much to give, so much creativity to share, and they don’t let others know about it. They shy away from the spotlight and are hesitant to be out front. They keep their brilliance a secret.

For those of you who are actually introverted, I am not pushing you to change your basic personality. I am classified, per all the psychological personality tests I’ve taken, a gregarious introvert. I know it sounds like a oxymoron, but it’s how I feel. I am able to interact fairly easily with someone once I get to know them, but I get energized being in small groups or by myself. Large crowds don’t work as well for me. I enjoy solitude and quiet time. I am a recovering recluse, too, but that’s a different story. What I mean to emphasize is that being an introvert is not a disease or a mistake. If it’s how you are, fine. Feeling shy or introverted is ok.

But, if you are actually not shy but are playing shy and hiding because of a lack of perspective and self-confidence, I am begging you to stop it today, because, contrary to some social programming, hiding isn’t noble. False humility is not honorable, hiding your gifts does not make you more pure, and pretending that people should simply read your mind and know how fabulous you are is a losing business proposition.

Harsh words, I know. I’m sorry if they pinch. But, let’s come to terms with the difference between arrogance and confidence. You don’t have to go out into the market place and hype yourself all up, making inflated promises, hawking your wares like circus goods. You do have to state, with an aware sense of service, what benefits you provide and how your unique expertise can help your clients.

Yes, there is a fine line between being enthusiastic about what you do and how you do it and pushing too hard with empty promises. That’s the key – the word empty.  If you can actually do what you claim to do, it’s not empty. It’s not dishonest so you don’t have to approach it like it’s dirty. The thing to remember is that the more people who know about you, the more your message gets proliferated, the more people you can help. It’s not a popularity contest but rather an opportunity to serve more, to do more good. Good PR is not about satisfying your ego – it’s about reaching people who need you.

How can you help create better PR if you are not yet comfortable with being in the spotlight? Here are some tips:

1.  Ask for testimonials from your clients and other professionals.

Let others speak the words that you feel are too egotistical to say yourself. It’s a great way to be in touch with your previous clients, maybe get some referrals, but also to let someone else toot the horn for you. Ask for feedback on your service, your expertise, your creative problem solving, your pricing, your unique offerings. It might surprise you just how powerful reading that feedback will be for you. It’s touching to know that you affect people’s lives and it’s a very effective marketing technique to use on your website, in your newsletter, in your promotional materials.

2.  Hire a copywriter.

The best marketing includes keywords, benefits, to the point copy, plus graphical emphasis like bullet points and short, direct sentences. Instead of being hindered by a lack of confidence, a hired gun will have a 3rd person, more objective viewpoint to start with. Most copywriters will work to pull out of you everything they can use to featue you in the best light. Let them. Find someone who understands your vision and where you want to go in your business and let them work their magic with words.

3.  Practice.

Sending out press releases or developing a strong introduction ditty (your “elevator speech”) can be a challenge, but it does get easier with practice. Devote some time to learn about promotional strategies, ask your social media network for advice, read some books. For PR opportunities, visit HARO to start offering yourself up as an expert to media. The media is hungry for new points of view and have a 24/7 news cycle to fulfill. Develop a decent PR release using this Press Release Builder template, and just do it. The funny itchy feeling will go away and you will get more business.

Please know that I have every confidence that you deserve to be recogized for your greatness. Hiding just isn’t the answer, so reach out, speak out, and let your light shine! Today, ok?

Together, we are stronger!
Vicki Flaugher, the original SmartWoman

follow me on Twitter: SmartWoman

Yesterday’s Part 1 SEO post got us started, so let’s pick up where we left off and finish out. Here are a few more cornerstone search engine optimization (SEO) concepts for you to understand about helping people find your website via organic search, such as through a search engine like Google.

• Link Building Works

Creating live links that direct back to your site is a great way to promote your site and get more traffic. If you leave comments on other blogs, especially high traffic, relevant ones, you will likely get traffic, and those comments will likely get indexed.  The thing to remember is to engage in the conversation, contribute to the point being discussed, and reveal your personality and purpose in your post comments. Don’t just pitch yourself – Use subtle, keyword rich comments that intrigue people enough to visit you at your site. (I use the free software package  CommentKahuna to find these high ranking relevant blogs. ) You can also trade links, provide articles, guest blog, and do many more things to get links. Get creative and reach out to the meeting places where your target audience hangs out.

• Spiders Don’t Have Credit Cards or Opinions
  

As much as it’s important to implement the suggestions in both Part 1 & 2, it’s even more important to remember that search engine spiders can’t buy anything – nada, nothing, zilch. Regardless of how many keywords you stuff into your copy,  how many links you have coming in, and how many meta-tags you have, it ultimately comes down to reaching people. You have to use full sentences, you have to appeal to human emotion, and you have to be likeable, or at least very compelling. You have to have something to sell, if you’re selling, or have a story to share if you’re working to educate or simply communicate. Don’t forget that the whole purpose of getting more traffic is to affect human beings.

• Traffic Doesn’t Equal Conversion

Another aspect of spiders not having credit cards or opinions is this -Just because you get visitors coming to your site doesn’t mean anything further will happen. You can perfectly design your site to rank #1 in Google for every pertinent word that someone might be using to search for you, but once a person gets to your site, what’s next? Do they sign up? Do they buy? Do they even stay long enough to read anything? Or, do you bore them, make it hard to navigate and click through, or maybe worse still, don’t provide targeted, relevant information that they were expecting to get when they searched in the first place? Become conscious of the limitations of the traffic trap – don’t fool yourself into thinking it’s a “numbers game”. It’s not – it’s an emotions game. Compelling and specific calls to action, moving stories that engage and encourage response, and reasons to return and stay loyal are going to make more of the traffic you do get more likely to benefit you.

• Nobody’s Perfect – Keep Trying!

SEO leads to authority in your marketplace, a great platform, and a solid foundation for your continuing success. It will take time and effort. This two part series is just the beginning. I am an internet marketing fanatic, so we will discuss this again, but there’s so much more to learn. You will find mistakes everywhere, you will find even big players and big companies not doing SEO right, and that’s ok.  Learn what you can and start chipping away at it. You will be in the top percentage if you do and that will set you and your business apart from the people who aren’t doing anything at all. Be patient, keep curious, and get help if you need it. These are some of our articles of faith as smart women and good entrepreneurs, so that’s what we’re going to do. I’ll be with you every step of the way, ok?

As a side note, just wanted to let you know that I am about to launch a SmartWomanRadio talk show, starting December 8th at 2 pm CT.  I’d love to have you join in. Come on over and call into the show!

Together, we are stronger!
Vicki Flaugher, the original SmartWoman

Search engine optimization (SEO) is webspeak for designing your website to be easy to find by search engines like Google. It includes some core foundational ideas that are relatively practical to grasp yet can quickly get very complicated. Gurus galore abound in this arena and it is a changing and esoteric business.

Today, we are going to stick to the basics. Once you get those down, you can keep growing into more intense areas of study if you’d like, but my goal is to start you at the beginning.

To keep it straightforward, here are the top ideas to wrap your head around:

• Content Is Queen

Having sufficient amounts of content – words on your website – is crucial. Flashy graphics can look cool, but they don’t attract attention from search engines. Strive for 250-400 words of direct, meaty content at the top of your website (called “above the fold”). Keep the sentences focused and sensible, not just a string of words that people use to search (called “keywords”).

• Pictures Don’t Talk

Pictures add interest and attractiveness to your site; however, they are like blank cubes to search engines. When you add pictures, be sure to add keyword rich description tags that describe the pictures and add additional content for the search engine spiders to find and index. Depending upon how your website is designed, you either do this through your photo insertion tool or via photo tags upon saving the file. Ask your webmaster or contact me if you have questions. I’ll help you.

• Tags are Helpful

Meta-tags are helpful to your site, but the most important thing to add is a strong description. You usually add this through your CSS style sheets, your template files, or, if you have a WordPress site, you can use a plug in designed to help you add page titles and site tags. Don’t get caught up in learning all this stuff yourself – once you do it, you’ll know it and there are lots of people (like the high school kid down the street) that can help. Get help.

• Relevance Rules

When your site is relevant, it has a concise topic focus and directly related content. If your site is about dogs, you might talk about pets, animal training, various types of dogs, and maybe flea prevention, but not skyscrapers. Not even the Cocker Spaniel Building in NoPlace, USA. Don’t get too cute with words or slap on some other business you have all into one site. It will only water down your relevance and confuse the search engine spiders. Make it easy for them to understand what you mean.

This is just our first scratch at the surface of this deep subject. However, if you implement these few basics concepts, your website is much more likely to get better ranking. Better ranking will lead to more eyeballs on your site, which can then lead to more sales and exposure. And, well, it’s like tying your shoes. You aren’t necessarily going to win a marathon if you tie your shoes, but you’re surely more likely not to finish if you don’t.

Come back tomorrow for Part 2, where we will cover the following ideas:

• Link Building Works
• Spiders Don’t Have Credit Cards
• Traffic Doesn’t Equal Conversion
• Nobody’s Perfect – Keep Trying!

Together, we are stronger!
Vicki Flaugher, the original SmartWoman

Follow me on Twitter: SmartWoman

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Sometimes being an entrepreneur seems expensive and seriously daunting, but I have words of encouragement today. There are many affordable (and yes, free) ways to promote yourself beyond expensive ad campaigns and here are some ideas to get you going.

1. Barter your services for promotional sponsorship ads for area events.
2. Write topically relevant articles and submit to free article directory sites such as EzineArticles.com
3. Submit your site (with a great description) to online directories that reach your target audience.
4. Make comments on related audience, high ranking blogs, with active links back to your site. I use CommentKahuna to find the top ranked blogs that are relevant to what I do. It’s free and easy.
5. Speak about your area of expertise for local groups or via teleseminar and internet radio.
6. Answer calls from media for experts at HARO.
7. Completely fill out all of your social media profiles, with picture and website link. Yes, ALL of them.
8. Start a YouTube account and begin giving chats using your webcam. Upload for free.
9. Start a BlogTalkRadio show and start reaching your target audience there. Again, it’s free.
10. Use Craigslist to promote yourself. You have to relist your ads periodically but it’s free exposure.
11. Use the online classified ads for all the major papers – most are free.
12. Participate in book launch promotions where you give a free gift through a squeeze page to build your list of potential customers.
13. Give a gift to a charity raffle which lists its contributors in their advertising.
14. Contribute articles to magazines looking for experts. Many online magazines are hungry for new content.
15. Get a blog – if you don’t already have one, get one today. You can sign up for free on the WordPress site and be up within the hour.
16. Set up an eBay account and sell a teaser product there. The account is free, it allows you to take credit cards without a merchant account, and you can sell low cost items designed to drive people to your site.
17. Interview someone interesting and post the interview on your blog. The person you interviewed will almost always list your website with a link to the interview on their site as well. I use BYOAudio ($20/month) and it handles all of my needs. I use Audacity to edit the material, and it’s free.
18. Create a free directory listing on your website and offer a web badge that participants can post on their sites as proud members of your listing. I use a wordpress plugin that makes it easy.
19. Create promotional items such as t-shirts, coffee mugs, bumper stickers, and sell them on CafePress. It’s free to set up an account and it’s free advertisement when people use the products.
20. Joint venture with others – share in the costs, barter your services instead of paying cash, and piggy back what you do with someone else who offers a complimentary service or product.

Put away your wallet and commit a bit of time and you will have some great avenues of promotion. Don’t complain or lament about the “state of the economy”. Make your own magic by jumping in with both feet into the opportunities that are out there, today, available now. Do every single one of these things with the question “What would an entrepreneur do?” and you will be amazed at the results. Best of success to you!

Together, we are stronger.
Vicki Flaugher, the original SmartWoman

follow me on Twitter: SmartWoman

Everyone knows that it’s important for people to know who you are, to see your website, to understand what you do. But, how do you get more eyes on your business? How do you attract interest in what you do? And, how do you make sure that the eyes you’re attracting are the ones that will likely be interested in what you offer and likely to want to continue with a longer term relationship with you and your business?

One way is offering bonuses for book launches.

Let’s start the explanation from the publishing author’s point of view. Basically, in the newer approaches to book publishing, authors are creating launch websites and generating “buzz” around their book releases with bonus packages. They solicit free bonuses and offers from other like-minded people, individuals who provide products and services that would be of interest to their target audience. The idea is that when you purchase the book, you also get all this free bounty as a thank you gift, as a bonus to your purchase. It’s an inducement to buy, as you often get hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of stuff if you lay down $15 for a book. Sweet deal, right?

Here’s an example of Joe Vitale’s The Attractor Factor launch, active now:
Joe Vitale’s Attractor Factor Book Launch Bonus Page

If you were a spiritual topic author, like Joe Vitale in the above example, you would want to include bonuses from people who offer spiritual focused products – meditation, life purpose, coaching, etc. You’ll notice when you look at the listing of people he has and the description of what’s offered, that they are in alignment, congruent with his message. This is important to consider. You will have more success, both as a publishing author, and as a bonus provider, if the bonuses are attractive to the book’s target audience.

Here’s another example, this time of Eldon Taylor’s Choices and Illusions release, active now:
Eldon Taylor’s Choices and Illusions Book Launch Bonus and Charity Event

Same idea on congruence with Eldon’s choices. You wouldn’t necessarily add something about, say, automobile repair for this crowd, right? Well, maybe the Zen of Motorcycle Repair, but you get the point.

To find people who do book launches, look to publishing houses, publicists, agents, authors, and the promotional houses that run the book launch campaigns you see. It’s easy to google to get a list once you start looking. Asking and offering is the key. (I’ll make a to-do note to myself to list the ones I know of here at SmartWoman Guides, ok?)

Now you might be asking at this point, “How do I make money giving my products and services away?”. You do this by developing a list of people, via email, who are interested in what you do and what you have to offer. Like going to Sam’s Club and sample tasting some of their treats, these potential clients get an opportunity to experience you, to get to know you, to decide if they’d like to go forward in learning more about you. Once you have this list, you can promote yourself to them on what’s termed the “back end”, presenting compelling offers that you believe are of interest to your audience.

Some words of caution here: Don’t hold back on your free offering. This is your first impression chance to seduce your customer. Don’t give away something that’s worthless, or not a good reflection on you. Free doesn’t mean low quality. You want to give high quality as a good faith offering to a future relationship. Give with an open spirit, a generous mindset and make it something juicy, something you’re proud of selling, let alone giving.

Also, don’t innundate your new prospect with pitchy, pushy sales follow up after they’ve signed on. Treat this new relationship just like you would a new friendship, because that’s what it is. Everybody knows what happens to psycho stalkers – people call the police on them, not buy stuff from them. Be gentle, be consistent, and continue to build value and trust. Soon, you’ll have a solid base of loyal fans who love what you do and recommend you to their friends. That’s when the money starts rolling in!

Together, we are stronger.
Vicki Flaugher, the original SmartWoman

follow me on Twitter: @Smartwoman

Social networking is the latest, greatest tool to help you build traffic to your website and to build your brand. At this point there are too many to mention, but a few you will recognized include twitter, facebook, and myspace. They are a great way to stay connected with literally millions of people. I get it, I love them, and I completely see their value.

I know I should be using this type of marketing fully. You probably should too. But, I am finding that it’s very time consuming. For a business owner, with a thousand other things to keep straight, who has time to go chat? And, once I am there and getting into it, who can break away and not get sucked in? It’s worse than Law and Order reruns!

As hard as it might seem, you and I both have to break through and persevere. Keep in mind that you want to be sure your point of view shines through, but if you are simply adding interesting links and a small blurb to come visit, you can hire (bribe, coerce, otherwise “encourage”–hint, hint, your kids, an intern) people that will help you write. The important thing is that you need to stay visible, and that takes consistency and regularity. Having a dependable presence seems to really impact your success.

I admit that I have not done this.I can also say that when I do, I get visitors to my website from it. So, I am turning over a new leaf. This next week, I am going to make sure my profiles are in good shape and I am going to be active again. I will report back how it works out. Want to play along?

You’re invited to come follow me on Twitter: Follow SmartWoman on Twitter 
Twitter is fun and it helps me meet new people. I have liked it.

My other profiles are definitely not in order, so I will notify you as I fix them. Feel free to shout back with your hook up information. I will be your friend! And, share your stories. Have you ever made a big deal because of social networking? Tell us how it happened.

Together, we are stronger.
Vicki Flaugher, the original SmartWoman