I’ve been thinking about how much time a person or company should spend on Marketing / Promoting their Blog. Is everything you do on your Blog considered Marketing and or Promoting? I mean everyday you do things like branding, PR, adding content and making sure your name (company name / brand) is everywhere. Is there ever a time when marketing what you sell or do is too much marketing? I can’t imagine an executive ever saying we are advertising to much, we have our name out there too much we have saturated the marketplace with our Brand. If you do have someone like that, he or she probably won’t be there very long. I would rather have the problem of too much business and too much awareness than not enough.

Some of the tasks involved in marketing & PR today are changing subtly, because the rules are changing, now that Social Media has become mainstream you can’t just set it and leave it. You have to listen more than you do anything in todays new marketing environment. So, how much time should you spend listening? More than you are probably willing to spend time doing I’ll bet. If you aren’t willing to listen, how will you know what to do? How will you know when to do it?

So I keep asking myself, how much time should I spend doing PR & Marketing my blog? I think you should invest more time listening and then figuring out how you can solve what you just heard that day. So, do you market your blog everyday? How much time do you alot for that task?

Do you promote your blog everyday? I would love your input so please leave a comment below.

I was working on a project today and found myself being distracted, sometimes you have these epiphany’s that give you a perspective you never had before right smack in the middle of working hard. You know what I’m talking about, the subconscious never stops, we day dream, we scheme, we plan and sometimes we get deep. So here it is, I stopped working to write this because it wouldn’t leave me alone!

The 3 P’s of Social Media

1. Presence
2. Placement
3. Participation

Presence

It’s not that complicated, we do these three without giving them a second thought or give them the credit they deserve. We all have presence at some level or another here on the Internet, some are very influential through their presence and become high profile, maybe you. Each organization, group or person has a different strategy to ensure that presence. Some may even be misleading, but I like to believe most are honest and true to their mission and vision. Doing the right thing right, being honest, having integrity, the very things required to be of value and trust worthy. Without those qualities your presence could be damaged without you knowing about it.

I wrote about the three parts of a social media marketer back in June:

• Marketing Knowledge
• They are Entertainer’s
• A dynamic personality.

Those three components add up to people that are, savvy, have trust and brand. Don’t take my word for it, follow them, watch, listen and learn.

The 3 P’s are really a platform those three parts leverage, we could go deep six on characteristics and personality profiling but that’s not what this is about.

The dictionary’s definition of Presence:

- the state or fact of being present, as with others or in a place.

In order to be successful in anything you must have presence, you must be present, you have to show up! Showing up is 90% of success in my humble opinion. What you do with that presence sets you apart from everyone, why? There is only one you!

Placement

In order to have presence you have be present somewhere, to be seen or heard, that’s where placement play’s it’s role. It’s part of your strategy in building a presence, in your marketing efforts, and is the playing field to which your brand can have success in the top of mind awareness game.

The definition of Placement:

- the act of placing

- the state of being placed

Where do place your presence? The Internet is the platform that allows all players a level playing field, but not all understand the power of how to leverage the Internet. The Internet is home to a new thing called Social Media, to be frank, Social Media is old news really, it’s always been around under different names and activities. There are literally hundreds of Social Media Networks, you probably know many of them, Twitter, FaceBook, YouTube, Tumblr, FriendFeed and so on. The principles of these networks are primarily the same, how you participate is the critical thing. Give considerable thought to how you present yourself, because it impacts your Social currency and only you can ensure that currency brings value.

Participation

The strategy is done and the presence component has been determined, also where that presence will be maximized, and now you have to heed the call to action…you have to participate. Without this action of participating you have a strategy going no where, it looks good on paper and that’s just where it will stay. Once you have determined placement, you will participate with consistency, persistence and deliver a message that is compelling and powerful.

The definition of Participation:

- the fact of taking part, as in some action or attempt: participation in a celebration

- an act or instance of participating.

Now I know you’re thinking these things are common sense and you are right. We do these things without thinking really, like breathing. The problem isn’t doing them, the problem is not giving these things the respect they deserve, they need their 15 minutes of fame. That’s what I’m doing here, oh sure you could probably explain this better than I but, this is my epiphany

Take inventory of your strategy and make sure you have given the 3 P’s it’s due attention.

I was sharing on Twitter today about a Newsletter I used to write & produce back in 1995 and Rob Cairn’s said he would like to see it. I thought I would reproduce the content and post it here for you to chuckle over.

Back in 1995 I produced a Newsletter called, ” MARKETING TODAY “, it was an informational piece that was distributed electronically, and the local book store was gracious enough to put it on the magazine rack back in the day. So for a walk down memory lane here is a list of things you couldn’t find on the Internet in October 1995. I even had advertisers in this little beauty!

1.) Material on any subject more than a few years old.

2.) Information about small privately held companies.

3.) Information about most companies not USA Headquartered.

4.) Information about Subsidiaries of major companies.

5.) Specialized Dictionaries or handbooks on business subjects.

6.) Directories of companies by industry and location.

7.) Information on business and trade associations.

8.) Information from small commercial databases.

9.) Franchising companies information

10.) Court reports from state and local jurisdictions.

11.) Telephone, fax and TELEX Directories.

12. Business information in languages other than English.

My closing comments on that article were:

I started this section by saying that the information which isn’t on the net now, soon will be. The Internet allows all of the originators of the information to present themselves, the traditional “middle man”  data gathering groups are no longer needed.

Just for fun, I also recommended Seth Godin’s book called, ” E-Marketing”.

Also, the topic of the day was whether or not you should upgrade to Windows 95, OS2 was still very popular back then too.

Of course much of the above if not all is now available and has been for many years, I hope you enjoyed the walk down memory lane.

I can’t help myself, I have to promote this book! Gary’s new book hit the shelves today, if you don’t know him, you’re missing on something. This book screams of passion and the message is simple to understand,

” Why NOW is the time to CRUSH IT! Cash in on your Passion “!

Here is a video that sums up why Gary wrote the book, Live Long & Prosper are words that come to mind : )

There are 30,600,000 (million) references on Google for ” How To Find Your Passion”. Hard to believe there are that many experts on the topic, are you one of them…I’m not. I was thinking about this while taking a shower this morning, I know…I won’t go there. Gary Vaynerchuck said in his address at the BIG Omaha Conference, that he hated the question of, ” How do I find my passion?” the most because he didn’t have a simple answer. Maybe what I’m about to share will help you Gary, it appears to have helped me figure out my passion I’m just getting out of the starting gate. If you think this article is on track please send it to Gary Vaynerchuck and let him know I have found the motherload.

I had to stop and think for a moment, if we are creatures of habit and we tend to gravitate to things we love like events, books, movies and people, why is it so hard to figure out? I’ll take me for example to help you look at your own desire to find your passion. If you were to look in my home you would get an idea of who I am and what my family likes to do. Since we are talking about me I’ll leave the rest of my family out of it. Let’s start in my office, lets look around a bit, hmmm….lots of tech books, Business Plan Books, IT Strategic Planning, tons of sports (stats) books, Home Business, training books from my Radio & Television days and boxes of all the software I have purchased over the years.

Let’s go down to my rec room, there you will find a set of drums, two guitars…yep I’m a musician (drummer, singer) and so are my two boy’s including there Mom. In our Family room we have very little, it’s the hall of shame, all our wedding pictures and random family pics line the walls, also, the TV, WII, PS2 and the like are in there plus a small book shelf of Christian reading material.

Now you’re probably getting the picture of what I (we) are about, if I was to just use that inventory as a snap shot of what I gravitate to when I’m downtown shopping I would suggest to you I have a passion for Family, Music, Christianity, Technology and Business. As you can see there are a few things I could consider my passion, but the one that gets me more than anything is Technology & Business, it’s the first thing I look for when I’m at a magazine rack or just thinking about business &  marketing, how should I position my business (passion). If you were to spend any amount of time with me you would learn that I love people, I love to help others be better than they are. If you could just see how you could be, what you were designed and meant to be, know your role in this EPIC you were born in to, your passion would become obvious.

It’s a simple process I think, but if you look closely at where you spend your time & money, what you like shows up early. Take inventory of what you tend to buy most often, what you spend your time on when relaxing because it interests you, you will most likely find that is the very thing passionate about! Try it on for size and see if you could write about it, talk about it for hours on end on video or just tell it’s story…desire can not be planted in you, you have to find it within yourself and that is the thing Gary says you can monetize. Your passion is in front of you, your just not paying attention.

Please pass this along if you feel it’s of value and leave your comments. Send it to Gary Vaynerchuck to, (I don’t know his e-mail address) I would love help him with his dilemma of answering this question. I’m either on to something here or I’m just plain wrong, you decide.

Many Blessings, Owen

I had the good fortune of chatting with Sharon and getting to know her a bit this week and I have to say I just love her perspective and fun she likes to have on Twitter. Every Friday Sharon posts a list of people she considers RockStar’s on her site, people she considers contributors and you should get to know. Sharon has far more followers than she can chat with in a day so don’t be hurt if she doesn’t answer on your call for attention, but do follow her and get to know her at:

Musings of Sharon Hayes-Tucci, an Internet Entrepreneur

As Sharon put’s it on her site;

Each week I try and share with everyone some people on Twitter I think are worth following & getting to know better. I am doing it this way because I think that a simple 140 character recommendation isn’t enough. Like many others that use Twitter, I believe in quality over quantity. I hope that some quality contacts come from this. That you personally can find one or more people from this list that you can also become friends with, network with & maybe get to know a little bit better.

I just had to post and thank Sharon for putting me on one of her Rock Star lists, it is an honor to be consider as such, enjoy getting to know Sharon and all that she can do for your Twitter experience!

Until next time.

I’ve been watching the traffic for my Blog increase at an astounding rate over the past few months, and it happened in a very subtle way. I want to share what I did with you because I want you to succeed in driving traffic, which I hope, will allow you to make money through your Blog too. I make no promises as your results will most likely be different than mine, why, because you are not me.You will use the following eight ways in the way that only you can use them, because, you think differently than I do. I don’t use all Eight Ways so that should give you hope. Let’s get started and see if I can get you to think like me.

Internet. Business. Profit. To fully integrate these words into a successful merging you will need another word. Traffic. Every article you will find about making your site or company successful would always include the importance of generating traffic. My site is no different. So, we all know that in the core of it all next to the LIST (but that’s another report), traffic is the most essential thing to a successful internet based business company. Aside from ensuring that you have a great product to sell, and you have your company’s internal organization well taken care of, it’s time to generate traffic.

If you already have a site and you think you’re not getting enough traffic that you’re supposed to be getting, then its time to consider your options. If you are contending in these very competitive businesses, you should always be a step ahead of your competition, increasing your traffic flow should have been done starting yesterday.

Timing is essential, that’s an old adage known to everyone. But with generating traffic, you should always be on your toes and be a day ahead of everyone. Never think of today and tomorrow as a starting point for making your site traffic laden, it should always have been before you opened the doors to your site.

Some of these hot tips require an investment so be sure to read the fine print before committing to any pay for services. So, to help you out in generating more traffic for your site, here are eight ways to increase your traffic.

8 Ways To Increase Your Traffic

1.) Invest in good advertising with search engines

Google’s Adwords and Yahoo’s Overture provide great advertising schemes that are very truly popular and assures great traffic. Although with this surefire way to increase your traffic would cost some money. While some would shy away from spending money to increase traffic, it is imperative in this case to do so because Adwords and Overture is the top surefire way to increase your traffic. You could see for yourself the success this search engine advertising methods have reaped rewards for so many companies. Lots of site’s feature these advertising system and many have signed on to reap the benefits.

2.) Exchange or Trade Links with other sites

With exchanging links with other sites, both of you will benefit from the efforts both of you do to enhance your sites traffic. When one site features another sites link, they could provide one another with the traffic one site generates. The efforts are doubly beneficial because it would seem like both of you are working to generate more traffic. The more links traded with more sites the more traffic could be expected.

3.) Use Viral Marketing

Viral marketing allows you to spread the word about your company and product without any costs, if there is, low costs only. This is a marketing method that can be quite productive; you can attach your company’s name, product or link to a certain media such as a funny video, entertaining game, an interesting article or a gossip or buzz. With this method, people get infected with the creativity and entertainment of the medium that they will pass it on to many people. Youtube is the mainstream delivery of video content these days. There are others but YouTube is #1 as of this writing. Online Web Radio & Television has come into mainstream as well.

4.) Search and use proper keywords or keyword phrases for your sites content

Search engines look for certain keywords that they would show in their results page. In doing so, having the right keyword and keyword phrase is a high requirement in ranking in high in search engine results. You could write your own content or you could hire someone to do it for you.

5.) Write Articles that can lead traffic to your site

Submit articles to sites that would contain the same subject that your site deals in. If you sell car parts write press releases and articles about cars and car parts. Attach your sites description and services at the end of the article as well as the link. You can also outsource your article writing if you don’t have time or feel your not creative enough.I recommend you use article services but the best is building relationships with other high traffic sites that will link back to your articles on your site.

6.) Join forums and form online communities

Capture a market and show your expertise and credibility. When you’ve found a good foundation for your site, people will trust you and your site and will pass on to many people their trust. Traffic will certainly increase because they know that you can provide what they need.

7.) Offer Newsletters.

If many people know what you are about and your existence is shared with many others, you will find a loyal traffic that can provide you with more traffic by recommendation. If you arouse the curiosity of your customers they would be pushed to help you with your traffic.

8.) Social Media Networks

Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed, you can also create your own Social Media Network but that’s another article. I’ve been writing about some of  these networks on my Blog so be sure to visit. http://blog.owengreaves.com

I’m personally sold on Social Media Networks and I use Twitter as my primary network and be sure to follow me @owengreaves . Also read my article on how to get 1,000 followers in 10 days. Ten Days To A Thousand, I actually got 1,400 followers in 14 days but your results may vary depending on how much time you have to invest in developing your network. There are others who who got more in shorter spans of time but that’s not the point. Oh and these Networks I mentioned are FREE!

What is considered successful marketing using Social Media Networks, is it how much money you made, how popular you are, how many hits your site(s) get? Many think Social Media is just being a good Internet Marketer, not so. There is this thought process of “looking out there” rather than looking in your own backyard in the Social Media World. Why is that? Is it merely thinking big or is it Ego, I think the later has a lot to do with it, we all want our 15 minutes of fame and this is the easiest way to get it.

The old saying, ” Think Globally, Act Locally” is the right approach regardless of the grandeur or weblebrity that might come from all the marketing efforts you expedite in these Social Media Networks.  The Internet is the vehicle and Social Media is the platform of choice to deliver your opinion, to be heard, and too be seen! Video is now the rage within the Social Media Networks, be seen and heard is socially acceptable!

So how do you apply these Social Media Networks to a local way of doing business? If print is dead, what options do traditional businesses have in a tangible way to market their business. To quote Guy Kawasaki – ”Advertising is when you tell people how great you are. PR is when someone else says how great you are.”

Print ads have a life span of a day and a half, Radio & Television is a frequency problem and direct mail is a low ROI challenge, what should you do? You have to mass mail or run HIGH rotations of ads, you can spend more money producing no or low results the traditional way. The bigger problem isn’t the vehicle as much as the way business owners think! Old thought processes and methods are written in stone in the walls of their brains, making it very difficult to see the value in Social Media Networks.

Mike Wesely of Twittalk.tv during one of his shows suggested that building the relationship first is paramount, this will build trust which will allow you to influence those who follow you. This trust, like face-to-face relationships, takes time to develop so be patient and care about people. I had the privilege of speaking with Mike on the phone and I can tell you Mike loves people and truly wants to help people with Twitter. You can follow Mike on Twitter @mike_wesely and attend his Twittalk.tv Show for free.

Branding is the BUZZ word these days and frankly should be in traditional forms of making your business or product be top of mind. So, nothings really changed just the method has, the glue, the difference, is and always has been in the relationship. We have become markets of Social Circles that depend on knowing that its safe to buy or deal with a person or business. But most of us just want to belong and be in a safe fun place. Hang on, is that new? We as a people have always been like that, we are creatures of habits.

Now I’m really confused, if nothings changed then why has everything changed? The principles remain the same and have to be applied to every social market, only the methods have changed, not the principles of how and why people buy. So Think Globally and Act Locally helps me communicate to my target market or niche in a more accurate way. By the way, the original phrase “Think Global, Act Local” first appears in the book “The Evolution of Cities” (1915) by Scots Planner and social activist Patrick Geddes.

The world of business has not changed all that much, much of what you do to sell goods and products will continue, you will however add new ways of marketing. The principles of marketing will remain the same but your methods will change, this is going to be determined by where the largest flow of traffic is going not too mention where the greatest pool (demographic) of dollars resides.

You should and will have interaction with people at some level, so you will influence (sell) someone to get them to do what you want. Social Media Networks are best used in your PR efforts, not in advertising programs. No matter what you do, improve and be the best you you can be, because today’s markets are becoming very personal. I hope the shift to a more Social environment will make it possible for everyone to realize their dreams. Don’t forget your community for the sake of reaching the world, localize your Social Media Networks to serve your business and above all, care for your customers no matter where they reside.

Social Media Networks are popping up everywhere and no one can stop them! Today it’s clear Twitter is taking the world by storm and is one of the most effective ways to generate traffic to a website, not to mention it’s FREE! Twitter is projected to surpass Facebook and many others as the Social Network of choice. I’ve been using Twitter everyday since December 26th,2008 and I can tell you some of the sharpest minds on the Internet are there and they will follow you if you offer value to the community. Value is measured in many ways on Twitter, like Blogs content is king, find good information, helpful information, develop a reputation as a sound resource, plus, be a great person and you’ll create a large following.

Like many of these Social Media Networks, information is what most are looking for, how to articles and where to find that nugget that can help you be a better you or improve your companies branding. Twitter is the most instant messaging platform with mass appeal, the branding tool of choice and considered a secret weapon by many who use it.

The most common Social Networks to date look like Facebook, Digg, My Space and LinkedIn just to name a few, but none respond faster than Twitter! I’ve helped a number of entrepreneurs and small businesses get started with Twitter and have shown them the value of leveraging the other networks with Twitter. Why not make them all work for you? The phenomenon of Social Media Networks is just starting to realize it’s power by adding value to the market place, whether it in B2B or simple membership environments. It’s getting harder and harder to hide and easier to brand your product(s) and yourself with the power of Twitter.To learn how Social Media Networks can increase awareness, brand a product, increase traffic and develop a revenue stream, send a message to socialmedia@owengreaves.com with your request.

Come join the Social Media Marketing Gone Wild phenomenon. Join Twitter and follow me.

How are you using Twitter, leave a comment and share your experiences.

Between 8-8:30AM and 3-3:30PM I don’t dare try to leave or come home, why? There are 4 schools within a block and 1/2 where I live and the cars are lined up everywhere, it’s even worse when a school has an event. It’s impossible to get anywhere quickly, and some drivers are so clueless, they don’t care that they are blocking traffic because they are going to turn whether you like it or not! Those big SUV’s are no match for my Malibu so I have to wait.

I was watching the flag person this morning and they have to be on there toe’s, drivers are not watching them, they are looking ahead and strategizing how to maneuver the next exit or parking spot. The flag person’s are volunteers and they are risking themselves to ensure our children get to school safely while crossing the street. They should get medals for doing it if you ask me because the volume of traffic is unmanageable for one person. they just keep coming and coming trying to get ahead or turn into the parking lot before the next car closes the opportunity to turn. I would love to have this traffic problem on my website, I wouldn’t care what they did as long as they came and bought what I was selling.

So there’s the question, why would traffic turn to come into your parking lot called a Blog or website? How would you get them there and how would you get them to stay long enough to read your work or buy your products?

I have been researching (or playing whichever you like to call it) this challenge of traffic the past few weeks and I am coming to some very simple conclusions. I don’t know if it’s important but I have come to believe that everything comes down to one thing, It’s The Traffic Man! There are many ways to build or direct traffic to your website and many would have you believe that you have to spend a considerable amount of money to make it happen. I’m not here to say that you shouldn’t spend money on traffic, I’m merely pointing out that you have three options:

1.) Buy your traffic.

2.) Build Organic traffic (don’t buy traffic)

3.) Do both (1 & 2)

I am currently working on number two, it just seems more long term to me, they came because they liked what you were doing and sharing. Paid traffic has a purpose which primarily means your selling something or you must have a high rate of response in a short period of time. In a way, the slower organic approach to traffic appears to build community better, it lays a stronger foundation. I’m sure those buying or paying for traffic say the same thing but I haven’t gone down that road so I can’t speak intelligently on payed traffic.

I started building my traffic with Twitter over Christmas and found the community an amazing source of information not to mention it’s responsiveness. I was able to test topics, interests in traffic, all kinds of things that lead to traffic to my Blog, it is and was a fun experience and I truly value all those who follow me. That’s a key thing for me, Value those who follow you and those who visit your site regularly. The traffic that comes from Twitter is considerable on a day-to-day basis so twitter is probably the best place to start of you are building organic traffic to your sites. To find out how I build traffic using Twitter read my post called, ” 10 Days to a 1,000 Followers“.

No matter what you want to accomplish with your Blog or website, you need one thing, and thats Traffic. It’s The Traffic Man!