If your small business is not active in social networking, consider it before you get left in the dust. This oldie-but-goodie video shares why.

I’ve been sharing my mobile phone journey online as I move into technology that will help me better understand and use mobile marketing. Catch up by reading Moving into Mobile & Mobile Exploration.

So far you’ve learned about my experiences and challenges living in a rural, mountain town and how I want to find something that I can use, will be affordable, and work on the local networks.

In my areas there are two options–the Verizon network (which I want to avoid based on my past experiences with them) and the Sprint network. This makes choosing a bit easier right off the bat. But, since I don’t want to invest a lot of money into a mobile phone and think that a two-year contract is an undesirable ball and chain–that limits my options further.

But change is in the air in 2011 since in May both Sprint and Verizon Wireless scored 72 for customer satisfaction. Sprint scored 56 just three years ago but Verizon’s score has been steady.

Sprint’s score includes Boost Mobile (brand of wireless prepay service owned by Sprint Nextel), Virgin Mobile USA, and Assurance Wireless.

Cellco Partnership (dba Verizon Wireless) is currently the largest mobile network and wireless phone provider in the United States but a couple of months ago AT&T Inc. began acquistion of T-Mobile USA which, after approval (expected to be finalized in March of 2012) will make it the largest.

Lock Out?!
Since I want to buy a phone outside of a contract, I had to research if that would work or not. Basically, any cell phone purchase from a network provider (Sprint, Verizon, etc) is locked onto their network which makes it unusable on another provider’s network.

However, by unlocking it that restriction no longer exists. It is a good idea to check with the provider to make sure the phone is compatable and supported on their system befor you buy it.

In general, an unlocked GSM phone will work on the AT&T Wireless or T-Mobile networks in the United States, while others require that you just plug in the appropriate SIM card. (A world phone supports all four GSM frequencies and can be used virtually anywhere.)

After visiting two physical locations to explore phones and service options, I started chatting with some of my cohorts–other online business people who use the net for business on a daily basis.

The first thing I learned what that a lot of people have been jailbreaking or rooting their phones to avoid the additional data plan fees usually required as an add-on above and beyond the monthly fees covered in a phone plan.

I was a bit naiive when I first began looking at the plans offered since I assumed that was included, but found that it isn’t always.

Also, I learned that using a phone for wi-fi or as a hot spot, and for different online tasks varies greatly between phones.

So, it required some addtional research. But since I always snoop at the local wi-fi gathering place in my area and already knew enough about it to know it was an important consideration in my quest for a phone and service

Jailbreaking and rooting were the terms I did not know at first. Both refer to hacking a phone to allow it to operate in ways not normally allowed by all service providers.

This can be in relation to having it work with other applications (aka apps) that act like additional software for useful activities or for access to the world-wide web. Tethering applications allow users to use phones like a wireless modem but are being thwarted by some services now.

There are pros and cons to rooting or jailbreaking a phone and I suspect those activities are probably going to be forcing some of the service providers to change what they offer customers.

For instance, Verizon recently accounced that it was considering offering data plans that will be shared between different devices by members sharing a plan.

Now a lot of people share family calling plans that that allow people on the same contract to share a pool of minutes. It works like a bulk rate, so that a member who rarely uses the phone doesn’t pay the required minimum allotment if he or she doesn’t need it but since I am solo–forget about it.

I also learned about cell service shrinkage. Offered by select carriers, if you make on-time, regular payments, your monthly rate shrinks gradually goes down after different milestones. This can reduce our monthly service fees.

Next, useful mobile forums and websites…

Photo Credit: Xraijs

So, what is your business buzz?

Today the buzz goes beyond those who walk into your store or encounter you online. it is about the interactions both on and off line.

I’ve recently noticed a trend of people trying to create their own buzz and it has been done poorly–and probably with reverse results from those desired.

At least it has caused me to block or remove them from some of my streams over on Facebook and Twitter.

Let’s talk about online networking for a bit.

When you are engaged in social media, it means that you are conversing back and forth with those who are connected to your accounts.

For me, this means Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn but there are others.

Here’s the thing–it is SOCIAL.

Not too long ago a bunch of people decided to network from LinkedIn over to Facebook.

Good idea but not such great results and here is why…

Facebook Braggarts

People were so busy promoting their own links that they didn’t even bother to say hello and introduce themselves.

This would be like walking into another business and saying to those gathered in it, “Hi, come on over and visit my business instead.”

First off, it is rude.

I mean, would you do that out in the real world?

Second off, why the hell would the people there care?

Obviously you are just into self-promotion and don’t give a damn about them or the person whose business you just tried to pull them from.

And, as you can tell by the actions, a lot of people don’t get that.

If you are going to participate, drop in, say hello and get to know what is going on.

I’m not always diligent about this myself but I do drop by and leave comments for those people who are other businesses that are following mine when I can.

Also, I think in most cases we can help one another so it is a good idea to do so.

I personally like discovering all these businesses and meeting people from all over the globe.

Not too long ago I had a promotion I wanted to post over in a few other business pages but I ASKED first.

This meant that I sent each business owner a private message for permission. Some said yes and some ignored the request. No biggie.

At one location, someone “reported” me to the owner who explained her policy on the wall and made everyone aware that I had received permission.

Another guy sent me an email and thanked me for being so professional while sending me his invitation to do so–he gave me permission with his blessings.

Huh? Thanks for being professional?

Wow, I just thought it was common courtesy and know that I would appreciate the same in return.

You can bet that he remembers me and I bet we will be doing some work together because of it.

Now, during my own query process, many people shared that others would shamelessly promote on their walls and a lot of the wall owners to me that they would simply remove those comments.

I usually don’t (unless they are spammy comments) but I really find that I am not interested in cultivating more of a relationship with those that take those actions.

But, it isn’t a big concern because usually, after their post, most do not show back up ever again.

Too bad because if they really were into networking there would be a benefit to everyone.

Speaking of Facebook, I copied another gal who had this idea to create a “My Website” discussion (Discussions tab) so that people can drop their links there and encourage them to spend serious time networking on the wall.

They get the link juice and promotion without being obnoxious. I look it as a win-win.

But really, I use the wall space to post things I find that would benefit those that “like” the page and then also offer specials now and again.

Makes me happy to engage people and to get to know them and I know it makes them more interested and more likely to participate.

Twitter Bugs

Then there are the Twitter clutter bugs.

How much tweeting is too much?

It depends on how you are using the Twitter stream.

For me, I usually will post special announcements a few times in a day.

However, when I ran a contest as part of a blog tour supporting another author, I put out a tweet every 3-4 hours over a week’s time to hit the different time zones of my followers (which include other countries).

However that is not my norm. Usually I will tweet something a maximum of a couple of times in a day.

I like to re-tweet interesting articles that others share and to chat now and again with other tweeps when I have a moment to comment on something they say.

My gauge for over promotion is this:

If a stream is being dominated by someone incessantly reposting a blog URL or promoting themselves, it is too much.

In that case, you become more like a spammer than someone conversing or sharing information.

Not too long ago I found a couple of people I thought were interesting and so I followed them.

They were okay for a bit, but then they got some big idea about self promotion that ended up being a lot of noise and nothing new–plus they drowned out some of the other people I was following.

Now you can use a service like Muuter but I tend to just unfollow tweeps that are clutter bugs.

If the clutter bugs have something useful, I might just put them into a list I peruse, but they don’t make it back in my main stream.

Now there are a couple of new trends I hate.

These will get you blocked or put on the spammer list I opened to identify badly behaved tweeps.

The first is to @messageme with your self-promotional bulls**t.

That is just plain bad manners.

Someone I know does that all the time.

First off, she is super self promotional. It is all about her all the time. *yawn*

Then she tweets something using the @ to send to a bunch of different people individually so she can promote her stuff to their tweeps.

Eesh.

She did a couple of bad mannered things in my stream and got booted out.

If she does it again she will be blocked.

Another annoying strategy is used by a few people who send an @messageme and say that I am not following them.

They sometimes message me from the blog to get me to follow them–but they are only trying to build followers and not develop a relationship.

They don’t contribute, don’t answer and appear for a short time before moving onto their next target.

My personal tweep practice is to follow interesting people, or those who engage with their tweeps–so chances are you won’t get me to follow you doing that.

After all, you can get me a tweet just by @messageme.

LinkedIn not Clued In

Now I have to admit that I am not the most sophisticated LinkedIn user but I do know enough that I did not sync my Twitter stream to my status updates.

I recently removed a connection because of all the clutter in the stream. The thing is, none of it was useful and it drowned out everyone else.

She wasn’t someone I really knew but was part of a group I was in. I’ve usually been conservative when it comes to adding people–and this was a reminder about why.

It doesn’t matter what social media venue you prefer, the rules are the same, add value, participate, support, and then and only then, promote.

The social media manners trend is that if it is useful, go ahead and post, share and pass it on, but be of value, be of service and quit making a lot of useless noise so you can create good buzz instead of being buggy.

Photo Courtesy: FotoGezi

Is your small business social media savvy?

In my area, most small businesses don’t even know what the phrase means.

Sadly, most do not even have websites that can be found (if they have one) let alone accounts with the three “must have” online presences at Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Social Media encompasses a lot of things but is basically any media or communication that is shared and disseminated through social interaction.

Not too long ago, I attended a virtual seminar that explored the different platforms and sites that facilitated social interactions.

It explained the distribution of information and types of media used (audio, video, text, images…) and clumped them into categories.

One of the things about Web 2.0, and the social media landscape, is that it is about relationships first–but a lot of small businesses don’t realize that.

For instance, about two weeks ago, a colleague of mine began using Twitter with fury.

The thing is, it was all about her all the time.

When she did bother to Tweet @someone it was to disseminate her information in their stream.

Along with some private communication that was out of line, she managed to irritate me (and probably a lot of others) who are online networking, promoting good information and sharing things along with promoting services or products.

She is not alone since her mistake is the same one a lot of people make when they begin to use social media.

I also know someone else who decided to do her own thing on Twitter because she foolishly listened to a pal who knew nothing about the platform or its use.

Soon, she was following about 10,000 Tweeps (people on Twitter).

But the thing is, she isn’t involved with them at all.

She mistakenly thought she would promote her business but instead she filled her Twitter stream with garbage.

In it are people she knows nothing about nor does she really care about them.

Few followed her back because it is clear that she is not interested–and now she has a big mess on her hands.

The thing about social media is that it isn’t about ROI (return on investment) it is instead about RO_E_ (return on engagement).

Today it is important to engage your customers or prospects and, when done right, the return will be greater.

Locally and online, we will be doing some social media savvy workshops to help you get those business profiles set up and moving in a good direction.

Take a moment to comment and share your experience in social media and let us know if you are interested in the workshops.

Is your pet business online?

Chances are if you are reading this, it is. But believe it or not a large number of pet businesses are failing to make sure their customers and prospects can find them online.

Recently, two of the trade journals for the pet industry had articles concerning getting pet businesses online.

An astounding 70% were planning to increase their use of social media alone and 33% were going to pump up that volume in a big way.

The thing is, you have to make sure you have a great website and an understanding of how to use social media to make that happen.

One of pet business owner spent over $10,000 on a site that could have been done more reasonably.

Making sure a website is designed to interface with social media is important too.

Today only about 16% of shoppers use social media to find out what to buy and where to buy it.

And an astounding 60% turn to Google to find that information.

So, this is why it is important to have a good online presence AND also be social media savvy because those numbers are likely to remain the same or increase.

In a private forum we were discussing how most customers now use the Internet and access information via their mobile phones or via a browser search.

This means that if your pet business is not online, you are missing out on a lot of potential sales AND the opportunity to create a base of loyal customers and their referrals.

I have a couple of partnerships with businesses that are designed to get your pet, vet, or other animal service going with a good online presence, quality content newsletters, and social media connections.

If you are exploring this avenue, leave a comment with your questions or join me over on Facebook.

Whatever your status, make sure you are gearing up to kick it up a notch out in cyberspace so you won’t miss out on the growth opportunities and the ability to drive customers into your business.

Market Samurai Review

Market Samurai takes your effort and infuses it with jet fuel so that it launches you into out of this world results while reducing your time to get there. I am happy I made the investment in the Noble Samurai software because it not only helps me but it helps me to get my clients on the right track in record time.

My views on Market Samurai have not changed since I wrote that statement back in 2008.

In fact, it has always been great but is so much better now.

Noble Samurai (the people behind the software) also provide some great video tutorials. These tutorials make using this software a breeze and make it less daunting to those who are novices.

Anyway, I thought it was time to give you an intimate look at this software tool guaranteed to make any keyword research a whole lot easy and reduce the time it takes to research those terms.

This software has save me hours and hours of time when it comes to search engine optimization…and I know Market Samurai can rock your world too.

Someone new to the web recently asked, “How do I get my website to the first page of Google?”

This was a very naiive question because there isn’t a simple answer.

Today getting to the first page of any search engine depends on your domain, how long it has been around plus on page and off page influences.

Off page factors include things such as incoming links, which are like votes for your site, plus the type of domains that those links come from.

On page factors include things such as the content on the page, headers, titles, and other items such as images.

It used to be that Internet marketing research for the right keywords (or phrases) took ages but with Market Samurai, this task is greatly reduced—plus it helps with a variety of other tasks all from the desktop panel.

I’ve been using Market Samurai since before it was publicly released (Beta). Even now it is constantly upgraded and improved.

Noble Samurai created this software to work on Adobe AIR which has an auto update feature that is convenient and easy.

Also, unlike many other types of software, Market Samurai works on all computer types–so it doesn’t matter what you own.

But it is the features that I want to take you through to familiarize you with the product.

When you open the software you can chose to begin a new project or to revisit an existing one.

Once inside you can select the particular task from this menu:

• Project Settings
• New Keyword
• Rank Checker
• Keyword Research
• SEO Competition
• Domains
• Monetization
• Find Content
• Publish Content
• Promotion
• Adwords

Project Setting & Rank Tracker
This section allows you to enter in your domain URL and to track its ranking in three different search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing) and also see how many pages are indexed by those engines.

It shows both broad match and phrase match keywords, checks page rank and backlinks, and allows for various search depths from 10 to 1,000.

Recently MS added the ability to track the site over time and easily view the historical data and trends. This was such a great addition and I can use it to track my small business SEO projects over time.

Keyword Research
Keyword Research is the function I used the most. You can enter you main keyword or phrase and search. This brings back results, not only for the main keyword, but also for other related phrases, and it lets you compare the data on one screen.

There are filters for Google Synonyms, Google Search Words, and filtering for SEO traffic, Adwords Traffic, and Phrase Length.

In addition, it is possible to indicate both positive and negative keywords plus you can also import or export data in one click.

Once you select the keyword or phrase it is possible to further analyze it by choosing Organic (Total Searches, SEO Traffic, Phrase-to-Broad, Trends), Adwords (Traffic Click Through Ratio, Cost Per Click), Competition (SEO Competition, Title Competition, Title Competition, AdwordsCompetition), and/or Commerciality.

Another nice nice feature is that you can click on a specific term to begin exploring it further to drill down your phrases.

SEO Competition
SEO Competition is a super perk for today’s market because you can view both Off Page and On Page data to see what ranking sites are doing right (or wrong) and identify windows of opportunity.

It is so comprehensive that it is of great value. For instance, when exploring you get to see first page ranking results in Google for the selected keyword but you also get to see competitive data such as domain age, page rank, a variety of backlinks, directory listings, metrics and when the site was last cached.

The visual overview includes color coding with green indicating that it would be easier to compete, yellow in the mid-range, and red indicating that it would be the hardest for each value displayed with the particular color indicator.

By using the arrows for each of the domains it is possible to do further analysis of the page rank including looking at the anchor text of each backlink AND where those backlinks are from.

Domains
Recently added was the feature to help find domain names (expiring, dropped, etc.,) and although I tried it with DomainFace, I did not have good luck for the niches I was exploring. To use this function you need to have an active account with Domain Face (which I do but I don’t currently use it).

Monetization
Monetization allows you to quickly find products, generate dynamic ads, and allows you to manage accounts and determine your business metrics.

This interfaces easily with Amazon, Clickbank, Commission Junction and PayDotCom affiliate networks with or without an account with those networks.

It is also possible to filter offers by keyword, commission, categories and language. But the real perk is that you can create an ad template with the copy and images from the affiliate products you find and create sidebar widget, blog or banner ads in a few simple clicks.

Find Content
Content creation can be a challenge and so this interface is a great perk—and one that is useful to a lot of people but not one that I use much.

It empowers you to be able to search many of the biggest article directories, various blogs, YouTube, Flickr, and news or answer sites.

Once you view the data, you can also determine how many content copies have previously been published while perusing both the page rank and backlinks to the page, while also being able to determine the keyword density of the article and the date published.

It is also possible to obtain an article from one of the directories and to publish it right from the Market Samurai software.

Find Content
This section is actually a publishing tool that I don’t take advantage of. It allows integration with WordPress blogs or WordPress Direct accounts.

You can both manage and publish the content found from this section of the software.

Promotion
If you are seeking to help your ranking, and want to find quality backlinks from blogs, forums or other Web 2.0 sites—this section will make your job easier.

A search will reveal keywords, page rank, backlinks, and identifies follow or nofollow along with pingbacks.

Adwords
This section is “Coming Soon” and so has not been activated yet. (I’ll have to come back to update when it is.)

Overall I find Market Samurai to be one of the best software values on the market. It is superior when it comes to the SEO research features and value.

The updates are useful and valuable and I am very happy to have purchased it.

One of the only shortcomings I have found is that sometimes it is very slow. This difficulty arises when I get into a trail of keywords in-depth.

Also, the long list of keyword tabs that are displayed are not easily accessed.

I thought it was my computer originally but found that the software slows down and gets cumbersome the more keywords you track. Often I close one project and open a second so I don’t have to deal with this issue.

Another thing that is a bit cumbersome is that it is necessary to close and reopen the software in between projects. It would be nice if I was able to navigate through each project from the panel without having to shutdown and start up again.

Even with those two minor inconveniences, I believe that overall this is one of the best investments I have made in software and one of my most valued tools to date.

I recommend this product highly to anyone who is doing any research or serious web work for SEO or Internet Marketing and believe it is a necessity instead of optional.

If you want to test drive this software you can do so–but with the 30 Day Money Back Guarantee I highly suggest you to purchase Market Samurai now before the price goes up again!

Since I am currently participating in The Challenge (formerly known as the 30 Day Challenge), I thought it would be a good time to talk about it.

The Challenge is a free program designed to teach people how to make their first dollar on the Internet.

One of the talented people behind the program is Ed Dale.

He is an Australian  known in many circles as, the “Tubby Nerd” and who is often seen with the likes of the Englishman Dan Raine (another Internet marketer) and a host of other talented people.

This year marks my third or fourth year (Sorry—I am really not sure!) doing this program.

One of the reasons I participate is that I like to learn new things and because The Challenge team is usually on top of the latest trends and tools.

In addition, there are some special offers and buys through the program and I’ve scored big time with a few of these and benefited from some great discounts.

During The Challenge, all the recommended software is free of charge to use, and if you elect to continue beyond the program, any purchase benefits those involved.

In the past it was 30 days of intense training and tasks. I’ve finished every time but not everyone was like me.

So, to tackle that problem, the new model is to work seven days, have seven off, and then resume. Hence, the program will continue for an estimated 90 days total.

Each training video is only a few minutes and the daily task commitment is supposed to only require 30 minutes a day.

It will be interesting to see how this works in comparison to past years.

Another nice thing about The Challenge is that it encourages teamwork, provides a moderated forum, and uses UstreamTV and YouTube for interactive sessions and training.

This year I joined a group (actually a few, but only one seems to be really active) and am curious to see what difference this makes in my progress and experience.

I am self-motivated but am enjoying a recent flurry of Internet connections with others who have the same goals of creating a residual income online.

At the moment I am at a solid 10-15% of my monthly goal and am wondering how this year’s challenge will effect that.

Some of the first topics include how the conduct market research, how to generate traffic and how to convert that traffic so it translates into dollars.

The video talks about how to identify a market, find a niche, and then target a microniche.

This year’s short video introduction to the process by far excels beyond anything I’ve seen previously. If this is any indication of how the program has tightened up–it will be more amazing than ever.

Anthony of Market Samurai fame does a brilliant outline of the process with clear examples and a sucinnct summary for Module One.

There is still time to join the process, and I recommend you do, just click here now to participate in the 2010 Challenge.