Facebook should be a part of any social media marketing campaign.  It’s a marketer’s wet dream.  Seriously.  It’s a rapidly growing, globally accepted, highly targetable, infinitely searchable, ridiculously viral, widely customizable platform that just keeps getting better and better (okay, this last part is debatable, but it still rocks).

Do I sound like I am a Facebook fan?

Here are the quick facts (as of June 2010)…

• Over 400 million users (massive reach)
• Half of all users log in every day (consistent exposure)
• Average user has 130 friends (word of mouth, viral)
• Over 500 billion minutes a month logged (loyalty to platform)

As with every great invention, some people choose to use it properly and professionally while others misuse it entirely.  But you know what they say about money…it just makes you more of what you already are.  This is true about Facebook marketing as well.

If you were a spamming, inauthentic, disgusting marketing jackass before…well, Facebook can help you propel yourself to become a intergalactic marketing jackass.   Everyone learns essential ingredients for authentic living like integrity, character and value in their own time.

When a platform like Facebook is developed…both leaders and scavengers will emerge.  Fortunately, if you know what to look for, scavengers are easy to find.  Our new world of social media is wonderfully transparent and all you have to do is sniff around for value first marketing.  You’ll rarely find scavengers lurking in those circles.

Okay, let’s get onto the list of ways to leverage the power of Facebook.

1. Be Real – I know this sounds simple, but if everyone was authentic 100% of the time, the world would be a very difference place.   Most people, whether they know it or not, long for substance – in people, businesses and experiences.  Don’t ever try to be something you are not. This doesn’t fool anyone and will weaken your brand over time rather than strengthen it.

If you are brand new to online marketing, don’t say you are an internet marketing coach or expert.  It would be better to say that you are an Expert Resource…because you will simply be providing people with other people’s knowledge.  Always put your best foot forward, but just make sure it’s your own foot.

2. Lead With Value – I am putting this one here up front because this strategy, along with #1, is the basis to everything you will ever do in social media.  Over-deliver value…this should be your mantra.  My core intent with this article is to provide you with real value.  If providing you will value ever turns into business for me, then that’s great…but my goal is to provide pure value for you.   I believe strongly in Universal Laws like the Law of Reciprocity…so I will consistently provide free content to add value to people’s lives.

Think about what you can give that other people want.  Think about how you can make other people’s lives better.  Think how you can help solve their challenges.  If you become THAT person for people…you’ll have more business than you can imagine.

3. Pimp Your Profile – If you are going to use Facebook for marketing…then think like a marketer.  Develop a message for your profile that is interesting, relevant and powerful.  If you are in a business like network marketing, then YOU are your brand.  Think about the talent and skills you bring to the world, think about your experience and results, think about the resources you provide and craft a compelling message that pulls all of that together.  Keep it simple, but make it powerful.

Facebook gives people a 360 glance into your world.  They can learn about you, your interests, your business, your family and your social circle.  For me, this is an important part of who I am…therefore I showcase it all.

#1 and #2 here in this list should be your guiding force behind developing #3 on this list.  Yes, stories sell…just make sure the stories you are telling are true.

4. Network – Think of Facebook as a massive global networking event.  There are people everywhere, hanging out in groups, discussing various topics and going to different events.  If you were at a live event like that and wanted to network, what would you do?

You would get off your butt and go meet people.  Well, it’s no different on Facebook.

Use the Facebook search feature to find things you are interested in.  Search for groups related to your niche and join them.  Make friends with people in those groups.  Get out there and mingle, connect and start building relationships.

5. Build Key Relationships – If Facebook is a massive global networking event then it makes sense that there are likely people in the room that you’d want to make sure you meet.  In Facebook’s case, there are thousands of those people throughout various niches.

Invest a little time doing some research and find out who some of the movers and shakers are in your niche or niches.  This may be a little tricky at first, but you’ll get the hang of it.  Don’t be fooled simply by large friends lists.

Social networking is all about creating dialogue.  Someone may have 3,000 friends, but check out their posts.  If their posts are landing on deaf ears (meaning no one is “liking” them and no one is commenting on them)…this person isn’t influential.  Essentially…they are on stage talking to a room of 3,000 people who are all sleeping in the audience.

Additionally, many savvy marketers focus far more on their groups and pages than their personal profile.  With a little effort, you can find some key people in your niche.  Invest your time to build relationships with these people first. (Hint: #1 and #2 are the keys to these people friend’ing you.)

6. Start Groups – Facebook has millions of groups covering millions of topics and areas of interest.  From a marketing perspective, why would you want to start a group?

The obvious reason is that you are targeting people with specific areas of interest to talk with on a consistent basis.  But the not so obvious reason is to preserve your social currency with your contacts and friends.  Just because someone becomes your Facebook friend doesn’t mean they want to hear all about your business all the time.  Inviting people to opt-in to a group will solve that issue.

• Group Rules: See tips 1-5.  Use each of these strategies when crafting your group.  Be real, provide tons of value before asking people to buy anything, craft your group page, photo and name to be enticing and relevant, try and partner with key influencers and communicate frequently.
• Most importantly though…make your group interesting to be a part of.  Share some real value.  Again…if you become THAT person…new business won’t be an issue.

7. Slow Down To Go Fast – In our world that is changing so rapidly, everyone wants things instantly.  I want it all and I want it now…this is true for so many people.  I can relate.   In my opinion, you would be best served to switch that philosophy to “I want it all and I want it to last forever.”

Thinking about your long-term strategy, brand and goals will greatly influence how you choose to participate in the world.  This is true in life as well as social media.

If you wanted to create a long-term relationship with a significant other, you likely wouldn’t be trying to meet people with the goal to see how fast you could get them to sleep with you.  You would take time to genuinely get to know them, find out what they are all about and look for ways you can support them.

How does this relate to growing your Facebook presence?

Simple.

When you request someone’s friendship, take a minute to go on their profile and learn something about them.  Do the same thing when someone requests your friendship.

Write EVERYONE a short, interesting note.  Remember, social networking is about creating dialogue.  Get the dialogue started right away.

Trust me, if you do this, you are differentiating yourself from 99% of the people on Facebook.  You are standing out from the crowd.

Build relationships and add value and the money will follow.

Other Advanced Strategies

8. Integrate With Other Platforms – If you have a website, a blog, a Twitter account, a YouTube account and/or any other social networking or web platform…make sure all of your accounts are talking to each other.  You want to make sure if someone finds your blog, they can easily link to your Facebook profile.

Put your social networking links everywhere you can and if you have a blog, put your blog url everywhere you can.  There are hundreds of social bookmarking sites and although you don’t need to focus on all of them, every time you create a profile on one and list your website, you are creating a backlink to your site.  The search engines love this.

Create some consistency within your brand.  If at all possible, make sure your make social media platforms all have the same account information.  Try to avoid being MaryJo on Facebook, SocialDiva on Twitter and PowerMarketing on YouTube.  Be you everywhere.  (Remember tip #1)

9. Add An Opt-In Box – You can do this to your profile and to a fan page (see #10).  This provides yet another opportunity for your Facebook friends to join your main mailing list.  If you aren’t building a list yet, you may think this doesn’t apply to you.  But honestly, if you aren’t building a list yet…what the heck are you wait for?  Get over to Aweber right now and get an account.

Moving social media connections to your main list should be one of your primary goals.  Once on your list, you can provide massive value in a very targeted way which will allow you the opportunity to really grow and anchor your relationships with the people who are attracted to you and your brand.

Just do a quick search on FB for Profile FBML on how to add an opt-in box to your profile page if you want me to walk you through the basics.  It’s really very easy and I have virtually zero web development experience and am not technical at all.

10. Start A Fan Page – As you get closer and closer to the 5,000 friend limit Facebook has, you will need another place to put people.  Honestly, if you know you are in this for the long haul, you should consider starting your fan page much, much sooner.

A fan page provides significantly more flexibility and essentially allows you to create your own website inside of Facebook.

If found this article online or on my blog, head over to my Fan Page to check it out.   If you haven’t yet, click “like” on my page (that’s Facebook’s new term for being a fan).

If you want a groovy custom design like mine, check out Brian Hanson at http://customtwit.com.  He absolutely rocks.

These are 10 really core principles and tips for enhancing your online brand and starting to do business through Facebook.  There really isn’t anything on this list that you shouldn’t be doing.  These are all fundamental…they aren’t options, they are necessities.

Let’s get working.  Game on!

For more strategies like these, join my mailing list.  Take action now.

Video marketing is one of the most powerful marketing strategies in internet marketing and if you aren’t capitalizing on it in some way, you are leaving money on the table…period.

Why has video marketing become so popular over the last few years?   You can chalk it up to a couple of main reasons.

Reason #1 – It’s simple to do & can be really effective (especially when done right).

Anyone can shoot and edit a basic video.  High quality cameras are really inexpensive these days and incredibly easy to operate.  Not everyone makes a great video…but everyone can at least bang out something they can put online.

YouTube is the 3^rd (some say 2^nd) largest search engine on the planet.  If you think about that for a second, that means more people go on YouTube to find something than on Yahoo.

Google (who owns YouTube) loves videos when it comes to search engine ranking.  A video ranks quickly and can hold a top position for a long time.  This means a video don’t right can yield you traffic month after month after month with only minimal work.  It’s a great example of pull marketing.

I have some videos that took me literally 15 minutes to shoot and edit that have had thousands of views and produced a ton of leads and sales.   This is why video marketing can be so powerful.

Think about that for a minute.  Let’s say you have a video that gets 400 views a month and it produces 10-15 leads from those views.  That may not seem significant but what if you put out ten videos like that or 20 or 30 videos like that?  It’s unlimited.

You can see that over a short amount of time, your little video soldiers will be out there all over the internet consistently creating opt-in leads for your business.

Reason #2 – It’s personal and people would much rather watch a video than read.

Think about it.  We are the TV and Internet generation.  We want our information fast and without having to work to get it.  Video provides all of this for people.

Video let’s people see the real person and their personality…or lack thereof.  It’s real.  It’s immediate.  It’s drive-thru information.

Additionally, videos add a level of entertainment value that is not found in print.  Whether it’s music, lighting, special effects or just the person in the video being creative…it’s easy to add attention-grabbing content to videos.

Here are a couple core fundamental principles for video marketing that you really must follow to create solid results.

1. Create a clear, simple and powerful message – think out what you will say and how you want to say it.  If it’s a live video, it shouldn’t be scripted, but it should be planned.  If someone can’t follow your message, you’ll lose them in 60 seconds.

If you are camera shy, pick up a program called Camtasia or Screenflow (for Mac) and create a screenshot video that you can simply narrate.  These videos can be incredibly powerful and are really simple to do.  This way, you can really just read a script if you choose.

2. Be attractive – no, I am not saying you have to be physically good looking…attraction is far deeper than that.  Attraction is about energy, confidence, poise, posture and clarity.  Be YOU all the time…be authentic and real.

And for the love of God…please smile.  Seriously, you are asking people to listen to you and follow you.  People want to make more money for the lifestyle it provides.  You should at least look like you are enjoying yours.

3. Just Get It Done & Get It Out – People who are new to video marketing often sit and agonize over what to say, how to say it, what shirt they should wear and where they should shoot the video.  They get stuck in all of the little details and never get the actual product out.

Plan it well, but then just get after it and crank the video out.  A decent video is better than no video.  Some of the videos I have done that I didn’t think were very good at all have produced great results.  Here is one of them.  I mean, it’s not bad, but it’s no Avatar!

4. Research Your Keywords – if your video isn’t seen by anyone, it doesn’t matter how great it was or how clever your message is.  You have to get it in front of people.  Since videos rank so well in organic search results, you want to specifically target the keyword phrases you want to compete for.

There are a ton of different keyword search tools available online.  Google offers a free a Free Keyword Tool as does NicheBot Classic.

If you want to take things up a notch, Market Samurai is an amazing tool for a really nominal one-time cost.  You can hone in on some golden nugget keywords and dominate search results.

When you are just starting out, here is a really, really basic way to look at what keywords you might be able to rank for on the first page.  Do a search.  If page one of Google doesn’t have any videos, blogs or article sites, you can probably get a video to rank on page one.  That is a very simplistic approach…but it will work.

5. Promote Your Video Everywhere – YouTube is the largest video sharing site on the internet…but there are hundreds more.  Sites like AOL Video and Metacafe and nearly a hundred others offer some great additional sources of traffic for your video.

There are two main ways to get your video out to these video sites.

The first is to do it manually.  You would go and set up accounts with each of these video sharing sites, then manually upload your video to your account and manually put in the title, description, keywords and such.

The second way is to do it automatically.  If you are like me, I am all for automating whatever I can, especially when it comes to routine, mundane tasks.

Probably the best F*REE software is by TubeMogul (www.tubemogul.com).  They offer a solid platform that is easy to use, but they are limited to only about 20 sites submissions.

By far the best software on the market is Traffic Geyser. Traffic Geyser lets you pump your video out to all of the video sharing sites with the touch of a few buttons.  I am a non-tech guy and I find it very easy to use.  There are a ton of other features you can add, but you can explore those when you go check out the Traffic Geyser product.

Now you have the Why’s and the How’s of video marketing. Now all you have to do is figure out what you want to say, get the tools to support your efforts and get to work.

Let’s get after it.

Facebook is now one of the most powerful social networking platforms on the planet.  So powerful that they registered more searches in March 2010 than Google.

Yes, you read that correctly.

If you want to do business through this incredibly viral, wonderfully targetable, highly searchable social platform…you need to at least learn some of the basics to get started.  In this video, which I originally posted through Facebook as a welcome gift to new friends, I cover 3 simple yet powerful strategies that make a world of difference.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Don’t be that guy!

Everyone has seen him/her many times on Facebook.  He’s the one breaking all of the unwritten, unspoken rules of Facebook etiquette.

Perhaps he just didn’t pay attention in class.

In the first article in this series, we covered why Facebook can be a goldmine for you for building relationships, attracting new customers and new business partners.

We went into a few simple Facebook Do’s.

Now it’s time for the Facebook Don’ts.

Don’t spam people’s walls – I wrote an article a few months ago that I called Social Media Date Rape…because that’s what these people are like.  They become your friend and before establishing any value or building any sort of relationship they plaster their link to their business on your wall.

Get off my F’ing wall, man.  I have lots of friends on Facebook and I do a lot of business through my site, so my profile is like one of my stores, essentially.  Would you walk into someone’s place of business and hang a banner for your business on their wall.

Of course not, it’s absurd. Don’t be that guy!

But social media miscreants do it all the time.  Like I said, get off my F’ing wall.

This goes for groups too.  If you haven’t communicated with the group administrator and built a relationship or found out what the group rules are, then you shouldn’t post anything promotional.  Just use your head and be in integrity.

Don’t insta pitch people in chat/email – It’s really the same as above, but somehow people think that if they are sending you an email or a chat window, it’s somehow okay.  Again people, build relationships.  Stop being so short sighted.

Don’t use crazy pictures as your profile photo – I covered this a bit in Part I, but wanted to expand on it here.  Here’s a short list of how to have no business friends.

Now, these are all friends of mine, but they need some help optimizing their Facebook profile.  If you have any of these as your profile photo, well, I am just sayin…

Logo Man

I know this guy is promoting his business, but people do business with people.  Build a relationship and trust in YOU as the voice of the business.

Mr. or Mrs. No Face

I know we are all busy, but if you can’t take the time to even upload a picture, why would I want to take the time to accept your friend request?  Red is a good look though, right?

The Cartoon Guy

I went to high school with Che and I doubt he is using Facebook for business, but he isn’t the only one that does this.  People everywhere do it and wonder why they aren’t building their friends list.  I mean, everyone likes snoopy, right?

The Under-ager

Hey, I love my son with every fiber in my body, but you know where pictures of Brennan go…in an album, not as my profile picture.  Maybe I am wrong.  Maybe this is this girl’s profile.  Kids are techno-wizzes these days!

The Pet Guy

Scott is a new friend of mine and I told him I was going to use this image of his dog, Jack. But seriously Scott, give Jack a nice bone and put him in a nice album that he can call home and get your personal photo back up.

There you have it, a few nuggets for you.  Stay away from this Facebook don’ts and you’ll be just fine.

If you haven’t read Part I of this article, go check out the Facebook Do’s.

Can you really use Facebook to grow your MLM business?  To do it, do you have to be one of those annoying “in your face” marketing tactics?  Can you effective use the power of Facebook and still keep your dignity and integrity?

The answer is yes, you can.  You can build a massive business with Facebook while growing friends and not alienating people.  You can do all of those things if you use Facebook properly.

Let’s start by talking about why you would want to use Facebook to attract people to your business.  I remember just 2 years ago when I was telling a friend how I was using Facebook to build relationships and grow my business he said, “Facebook, what are you 12?”

The climate has changed a bit since then, hasn’t it?

Here is the breakdown of why Facebook is one of the most phenomenal marketing arenas in the world.

1. Market - there are over 400 million users (growing by 300,000+ per day)
2. Extremely targeted – people tell you what they are interested in
3. Clusters – like-minded people gather in groups and through fan pages
4. Organically Viral – everything anyone does shows to all of their friends in their news feed
5. Exposure – the average user spends 55 minutes a day online and has 130 friends
6. Connection based – what I mean by that is Facebook is set up for people to reach out to each other.  People WANT to connect and share information.  This is the basis of all social media.

As a marketer, those bullets above should make you drool.  They represent a marketers dream come true.  It’s one place that you could literally drive all of your business from.

Now that you know WHY you should be using Facebook, let’s talk about HOW you should be…and while we are here, let’s also talk about how NOT to use Facebook.

Facebook being the 800-pound gorilla of social media platforms, it follows the same intelligent guidelines as others, but as we know, people aren’t always intelligent.  The sheer potential for marketers outlined above is enough to make the less tactful and principled marketers come out of the woodwork.

Don’t be one of those people.  It will cost you in the long run.

THE FACEBOOK DO’S

1. Relationships – Set your intention and goals when starting your Facebook campaign that you are there to build long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with people.  You are there to connect, to provide value in the marketplace and actually get to know people.

Facebook is completely transparent.  If your goals are not congruent, marred with self-serving actions or inconsistent…people will know.  Just be smart and be real.  In today’s world of social media, good news and bad news travels very fast.

2. Optimize your profile – if you truly want to use your profile for business, then you need to make it reflect your brand.  This doesn’t mean that you need to remove all of the personal information, quite the contrary, but you do need to be conscious of it.

If there are photos of you from Mardi Gras “getting your beads on,” you may want to think twice about that.  If you are constantly sending pillow fights, horoscope info, pixie dust and fairy godmother apps to people, you may want to shift the use of your time.

Sit down and spend some time crafting your message.  What do you want people to know about you and your business.  You need to connect people to you as a person and you as a business leader.

3. Profile Photo – I see this so much it needs it’s own bullet point.  If you really want to build relationships based on trust and mutual respect, you need a good picture where people can clearly see your face.

This is the number one reason people accept friend requests.   Get a good, professional photo.  At the very least, get a really clear, well lit one.

I know you love your kids, but don’t use them as your profile pic unless you are in it.  (more on this later)

4. Share relevant and purposeful content – yes, occasionally we will care if you just dropped the kids off at school or that you just got out of the shower, but we don’t need a play by play of stuff that is meaningless

5. Strategically grow your friends list – there are two ways to go about growing the number of friends you have on Facebook…randomly or strategically.  Since we are talking about business, let’s choose strategically.  Random is generally not a good strategy for business.

Decide what your interests are and what niche your business is in then seek out Influencers in those markets.  Find groups that are of interest, join the group and reach out to the administrators and officers of that group to build relationship with them.

6. Join the Conversation – Social media is, after all, about being social.  Go engage with other people and comment on their stuff.  “Like” their post if you like it.  Forward their dialogue.  Help them, genuinely.  Be of service.

Recommend friends & invite people to groups.  Be that connector and facilitator of relationships and you will be rewarded time and again.

7. Broker Your Time – You may have heard Facebook referred to before as “Crackbook,” because of its addictive nature.  If the ‘average’ user spends 55 minutes a day on it, imagine what some people are doing.  You need to be very strategic (there’s that word again) with your time or you will find yourself sucked into an endless world of comments, pokes, applications and notifications.

By all means, if you also use Facebook to forward personal relationships, knock yourself out.  Just be clear about what you are doing so your business goals don’t get lost in a pillow fight.

I said I was going to get into Facebook Don’ts in this article, but it’s already long enough, so I broke it into another article.

For all of the (or at least some good ones) Facebook Don’ts, check out Part II.

It can’t just be all fun and games.

Or can it?

Poker Training Network will be the first network marketing company to launch a fully integrated social networking gaming site through Facebook.

We have all seen the invites through Facebook. Our friends hit us with offers to play with them in Farmville, Mafia Wars and Zynga Poker. Some people hit delete, but millions accept and are engrossed in these play environments.

Yes, I said millions. Farmville currently has 80 million weekly users and Zynga Poker just went over 27 million weekly users and they are growing by astronomical numbers. People love this stuff. Playing with animals, raising their friends all-in, accumulating chips…they can’t get enough of it.

A number of MLM companies have tried to force their way into the social media world but most have been rather unsuccessful. Pre-Paid Legal launched Blastoff with very limited success and although PeopleString has gotten some legs, it will never be a Facebook.

The reason these campaigns have failed to gain market share is that they are self-serving. They were created and are developed to benefit the company who made them. There is very little, if any, real benefit to the average consumer unless they are a distributor for the company.

Poker Training Network (PTN) will break through all of that by creating a true online gaming experience to rival Zynga Poker. Their game room is cleaner, full screen, easier to use, has more features and since PTN is a poker training company, their free game will even include a training component for people to get better at playing the game they enjoy so much.

Poker Training Network has a real shot at picking up millions of poker enthusiasts who are looking for a better platform than Zynga. And they have a shot to do this very quickly.

Keep in mind, Zynga Poker just launched in July 2007. That’s almost a million users acquired a month. What will happen when people learn there is a better option?

What does that mean for Poker Training Network affiliates?

It means a lot.

It means a PTN affiliate can simply invite their Facebook friends to play poker for free in a fun, interactive, completely non-confrontational way. Every network marketer knows the inviting people (marketing) to take a look at your product or business is the most challenging part for the majority of people in the industry.

PTN has created the softest, “try it before you buy it” approach in the industry. For the average MLM rep who may be a little hesitant to approach people they know with their business, this is a slam dunk for them.

For market leaders, think about this for a moment. As you build your business and grow your team to 500, 1000 and 5000, 20,000 people…think how many people will be playing poker in the free game room that are attached to people in your group.

What if the average Facebook user only has 100 of their friends registered to play? With a group of 5,000 affiliates, that would be 500,000 people being exposed to your business every week.

It’s like having a farm team for new affiliates.

Users of PTN’s Facebook gaming site will learn about PTN, their products and will be exposed to ads promoting the business. The user will be coded and linked to the referring affiliate. If they click on a banner and decide to join, they go right into the referring affiliates business.

The potential is mind blowing.

There is no other network marketing company that could do something like this. Seriously, what Facebook application would they create? A game that sends people on a quest to find the best Acai berry in all the land? The journey of the magical fruit juice?

Sounds fun doesn’t it? Not!

Poker is the 3rd most watched sport on TV in the US and the fastest growing sport. It’s here to stay. People play for free online, in pubs, at home and pay to play online and at casino’s all over the world.

What do all of these people have in common?

They have a desire to get better at the game.

Can you really play your way to wealth?

With Poker Training Network, it sure looks that way.

If you want to learn what my team is doing to create success in the Poker Training Network, get in touch with me today.  I am looking for leaders who want to grow a massive business with the global trend.

Lot’s of people pump out great content and if you do that long enough in our wonderfully connected small online world, you will build up a tribe of followers.  In the fast response world of social media, if you are doing something good…someone is going to tell other people about you.

Well, what if you want to speed up that process?

What if you want to aggressive build followers so you can grow your business?

Here are some fantastic tools that can support your efforts, save you time, give you a much broader audience to speak to and ultimately…build your subscriber list faster than Joey Chestnut scarf’s done hotdogs.

1. Social Oomph – Social Oomph (originally TweetLater) is a web-based program that offers a ton of great syndication and timesaving features.  The feature I enjoy the most is being able to schedule Tweets in advance.  Although I love everything about social media, I find that if I am not strategic, it can be a huge time suck, pulling me in for endless hours.

I look at what new posts I am going to write over the course of a week and anything else I may be talking about and I schedule a series of tweets to keep the conversation going.  This doesn’t replace all my tweets as I need to get engaged with people and actually have dialogue, but it provides a nice consistency without having to be tied to Twitter all day long.

The paid version of Social Oomph will also allow you to post across multiple platforms, such as Facebook, your blgo, statusnet and ping if you use those.)  Pre-scheduling FB updates is easily worth the $29/mo they charge.  It’s a lot cheaper than an assistant…even if your assistant lives in India.

There are a ton of other cool features like auto-follows/unfollows, vetting members to see who has more Twitter power, auto welcome messages, etc.

Social Oomph simplifies my life and allows me to be much more strategic and have a plan for content syndication.

2. Onlywire – This is a great little tool to help put your blog on steroids, but you won’t get banned from any awards by using it.  In fact, virtually all bloggers, especially those in the home business niche use it religiously.

One of the biggest keys to getting content syndicated by other people is that you need to make it easy for them to do so.  Wordpress plugins like Tweetmeme (another great one) have made it so simple for people to Re-Tweet your message.

Onlywire has taken that concept 26 steps forward.

Onlywire is an automatic submission tool that currently works with 26 social networking and bookmarking platforms.  Once you set your accounts up, you can syndicate your blog to all 26 platforms with a single click.

For your readers that have Onlywire accounts, they can do the same thing for you.

In one click, your new blog post goes up on Twitter & Facebook and is bookmarked on Digg, Mixx, Delicious, StumbleUpon, Tumblr and a ton more.

That’s a lot of back links, baby!

3. Automatic Article Submitter – This is a genius little program.  There are many article submitters available and unfortunately, most of them are crap.  Google ranks based primarily on three things…

Relevancy, Popularity & Originality!

In other words, is your content relevant to people who are searching, are people talking about it (social media and back links) and is it unique?

This tool let’s you create variations of the same article (to create unique content) and then automatically submit it to 200+ article directories online.  This article submitter is good…very good.  If you write 3 articles a week that gets submitted to over 200 directories…just think about how much content that is online after a year!

4. Your Tribe – okay, so this isn’t exactly a tool, it’s more of a strategy, but it’s likely the most powerful one, so I absolutely must include it.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the concept of a Tribe, it’s a term that developed from Seth Godin’s book, Tribes, and simply means a group of loyalists who like your work and have a desire to talk about it.

Strategically online, it may be a small group of like-minded entrepreneurs who create an alliance to promote each other’s posts, make comments, rate videos, Re-Tweet and syndicate for each other.

These people do not have to be in your business, you just have to build a relationship that is based on trust, mutual respect and everyone involved has to come from a place of abundance…there is enough for everyone.

What if you had 5 core people in your Tribe and each person had 2,000 Facebook friends, 5,000 Twitter followers, a blog with great content and a YouTube channel with entertaining and educational videos.

First of all, since these people are putting out great content…you WANT to share it with your followers because it is of value to them.  Secondly, when you put out a new blog post, it’s going to be syndicated to over 12,000 Facebookers, 30,000 Tweeters and bookmarked in over 150 places!

That’s some serious awesomeness!

There are many, many more great tools available to you to start building your business online.  There are far too many to count actually.

My suggestion is to find a handful that you really like that you can incorporate into a daily or weekly strategy that works for you and STAY FOCUSED.  Unless something else amazing pops up…just keep driving forward and work your plan.

One of my new personal strategies is that I get up, get a workout in and write content everyday.  I do this before I get caught up in all of the activity that the day will bring.  This way, at the end of the day, I know I put out a new piece of content to add value to people’s life and support my business growth.

What are your favorite tools?  What timesaving and traffic building tools do you use regularly with great success?

Please post a comment and help share the love anyway you can.

Remember high school? For some people it was at absolute blast and for others it was four years of torturous hell. For most people it was some of both.

What I remember most about high school was the feeling of not quite fitting in. I was popular and all and had many external successes, but as you know, our mind often creates an entirely different reality.

I spent a lot of energy trying to be like other people that I thought were cooler, better looking, smarter, funnier, had a better body…you fill in the blank.

It wasn’t until years later as I dove into personal development work that I found out many, many people experienced very similar things. Like me, tons of people lived (and are still living) through comparing themselves to others.

What’s the deal with that?

It’s fricken exhausting, isn’t it?

Why do we run from our own self-expression?

Many people have been doing it their entire lives.

At some level, many people would rather imitate others than just be who they are, as if somehow, the knock-off version of someone else is better than the original version of themselves.

From a business and marketing perspective, this is a slow death. It would be easy to say that this happens because we teach people to model successful people. We say to find someone that has what you want and model them.

Doing what successful people do is certainly a way to success, but unless you model successful habits while developing your authentic self-expression, it’s easy to lose yourself in the process.

Is success worth it if you are just a carbon copy of a bunch of other people?

I think this is one of the big reasons people fail in this world. They don’t trust themselves.

I can speak from personal experience that I have had many incredible ideas that I stuffed away for fear of whether they were good enough, only to act on them years later when I got the balls.

Waiting doesn’t work.

Filtering your ideas against what the rest of the world is doing only dilutes your value.

Vanilla is a pretty boring flavor.

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
- Howard Thurman

Yes, come alive.  That is it.

When it comes to marketing, blogging, copyrighting and presenting your business…sure there are some fundamentals that you want to learn and put in place, but nothing and I mean nothing, can replace your spirit.

If all of your articles, posts and blogs read just like a hundred other people in your niche…why would anyone follow you?

Be fricken original.

We see this all the time online. People model others but forget to make their work their own. The result is bland, boring copy.

Don’t be that guy.

Find your sweet spot. Identify what really lights you up.

Then, focus on letting your own light shine instead of trying to borrow a tiny bit of someone else’s.

“There is a vitality, a life-force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost.”
- Martha Graham

So, my dear friends, it’s time to get jiggy with it. Go get your freak on! Your authentic, true to yourself, completely original, flava boiling over…self-expression.

Choose today, right now, to do ONE THING that celebrates your self-expression. Let the tiger (or tigress) out of the cage. We want to hear you roar.

It’s time the world sees what you (the one and only you) are really made of.

Please comment if you connected with this post and tweet/re-post to your heart’s desires.

Did you know that it is estimated that we are now exposed to more information in a single day than our parents were in an entire month at the same age?

Take that same comparison back a generation to your grandparents and the reference point is an entire year.

That’s insane, right.

Consider the following: Facebook with all the newsfeeds, Twitter, YouTube, Good old fashioned TV, magazines, RSS feeds, Google alerts, emails, the internet in general, Iphones, smart phones, Ipods…it’s daunting.

But it’s true.  So much, so very fast.

There is no place that this is more evident than in the world of online marketing and social media.  I just came on the scene over the last year or so and I have been studying feverishly.   I tell my clients and subscribers… “I know more than most and less than many.”

When you are trying to build a business online…it’s tough to know where to start.

Who do you listen to?  There are so many ‘experts.’  Who is right?  Which direction do you go?

So many people come online and try to find a quick fix.  That’s not the right mindset.  Business online, in many ways, is the same as offline.  You need to commit to learning a core set of skills and you need to provide lasting value for your customers.   Most importantly, you need to continuously learn how to become better at doing both.

Some people think they can hide behind an online veil.  That may be true for a while, but if you want to build a long term, successful business, you need to be authentic in all of your communications and business dealings.

It’s easy to see who is putting out content that they really believe is valuable and who is putting out content that is simply to generate traffic.   The people I am going to share with you do both consistently by focusing on the first.  Their content rocks and people love them for it.

HERE ARE MY 5 TOP INTERNET MARKETERS OF 2009.

(These are in no particular order)

1. Pete Cashmore

Most people are going…who?  You are more likely to know Pete’s blog…Mashable.  (http://mashable.com) If you had to pick just one site to visit to learn about everything web 2.0, Mashable is it.  In less than 5 years, Pete and his team have grown Mashable into the goto site of millions of online readers.  Their content is fun, intelligent, creative and always packed full of relevant material.

What’s great about learning about social media and web 2.0 marketing from a source like mashable is that you can pick and choose what calls you and dive deeper into any subject without the personality of a guru breathing down your neck with pressure to buy this or that.  You can certainly buy lots of things on the site, but every post isn’t riddled with them.

There is so much fricken value on their site it’s amazing.  With Alexa.com ranking Mashable with a top 500 most trafficked site in the world, lots of people agree.  It’s one of the top 10 most profitable blogs on the planet.  How would you like to have 42,000 back links?  Wow!

2. Chris Brogan

www.chrisbrogan.com

Brogan is a social media and business development specialist who flat out just delivers.  His content is clean, focused and immediately applicable.  I actually only found Chris a few months back but was immediately drawn to his message and way of being.

For example, lot’s of people (including myself) provide content in the form of lists.  Top 10 ways to drive more traffic to your site, 5 ways to become a Twitter rockstar, etc, etc.  Well, Brogan frequently does too…but his lists are a touch bigger.  For example, here are a few:

50 Ways To Take Your Blog To The Next Level

40 Ways To Deliver Killer Blog Content

50 Ways On Using Twitter For Business

Like I said…Chris delivers.  Someone could be brand new online, join Chris’s site and with focus and determination, learn how to build a massive following and make money.  Brogan rocks.  His photo in the about me section is a little scary, but he still rocks!

3. Brian Clark

Again, just like Pete Cashmore, most people are going, “who?” That’s because like Pete, Brian Clark is branded by his website Copyblogger.  www.copyblogger.com As you can imagine from the name, it’s all about copywriting.  But that’s not the whole truth.  Copyblogger is about so much more.

At the core, it’s copywriting to create traffic to your site.  For me though, it’s about cultivating your entire online presence in a way that is both reflective of who you are and drives traffic.  Both of those are important.

Their cast of writers is witty, personable and extremely relevant.  I subscribe to both the newsletter and blog feeds and save every article.  They are that good.

4. Gary Vaynerchuk

www.winelibrarytv.com

I’ve included Gary on this list because Gary doesn’t teach internet marketing or social media marketing…he lives it.  Gary took his father’s wine store in Springfield, NJ from $4 million a year to over $50 million a year with more than 50% of that coming from internet sales.

Gary’s the perfect example of how to use video marketing, social networking and your authentic personality to explode a brand…or as Gary would say, “Bring The Thunder!”

If you love wine, Gary is your guy.  But also, savvy marketers will watch everything Gary does and how he does it.  He is a brilliant showman and has turned a traditionally stuffy topic of wine tasting/knowledge into a world where every man is welcomed.  If you want to learn how to build community, go check out Gary’s site…you will be one of over 90,000 people a day to do so.

5. Jeremy Shoemaker

www.shoemoney.com

Shoemaker is a bit unconventional, even by Gary Vaynerchuk’s standards, but you can’t argue with his results or his authenticity.   He’s the real deal, growing his passion over the years into a massive business.  He’s transformed himself from a 400 lb techno-nerd to a lean, mean internet marketing machine.

Jeremy has created some wildly popular programs, tools and sites and his blog is a constant in the Technorati’s 100 most visited blogs.  At the end of the day, Jeremy’s post are fun, creative and full of usable info.

He calls it like it is.  He doesn’t hold back.  He doesn’t care if he gets his hands dirty in order to create a message that is powerful.  Jeremy may not be for everyone, but with an alexa.com rating around 5,500 and 35,000 daily blog readers, he’s for many people.

These are my top 5 but there are many more

This is by no means an exhaustive list and I am the first to say that there are so many talented people online.  I have found these guys to pump out consistent content that I enjoy reading and find incredibly valuable.

Just as importantly, I like their “flavor.”  Their authenticity shines through and I am engaged.  You may or may not feel the same way, but if you want to do well online, you should find some mentors that you connect with.

Go check them out if you haven’t already and let me know what you think.

Who makes your Fab 5 list?  Leave your comments with the 5 people who most influence you online.

As an emerging blogger online, like all of us, you want traffic.  You want people to rush to your blog with every new post.  You want people to hang on your every word.  Don’t you?

So here you are…you have identified your niche.  You are clear about your brand.   You are committed to writing a successful blog.  You sit down at your keyboard to crank out a new post and your start to write.

You publish it and wait.

And wait.

You check your dashboard for your stats.

8 visitors in 3 days.  Ouch.

You swear you can hear crickets chirping in the background somewhere.

“What gives?” you say to yourself.  You think, “This is phenomenal content.”

It may very well be, but it’s a bit like the old adage about a tree falling in the woods, does it actually make a sound if no one is there to hear it?

Of course your blog post still exists if no one is there to read it…but does it even matter?

Blogging has emerged as the center of most online marketers world and it’s incredibly valuable to understand how to cultivate traffic.  If your message is good, which I am sure it is, then the world deserves to hear about it.

Here is a simple introduction to 4.7 powerful strategies to get people running to read your blog faster than a bunch of drunken Scotsman run towards sheep.

1. Keyword Target Your Post – Sometimes great posts create themselves, but other times you create the post after identifying a keyword(s) you want to target.  Take some time and use a free keyword tool like WordTracker or Nichebot Classic to research some of the ideas you have.  You are looking for the wonderful combination of two factors…high search traffic and low competition.  This is the Holy Grail for internet marketing and great organic SEO rankings.

For example, if you were researching “Doggy Day Care” and found that it had 250 searches a day and 320 competitors, but      “Doggy Day Care Services” had 110 searches but only 35 competitors, you may want to go after the keyword with lower competition and dominate the page rankings.

2. Keyword Integration – Once you have identified the keyword phrase you want to go after, you need to integrate it into your post.  For best results, put it in the title of the post such as, “How To Find The Best Doggy Day Care Services In Your Neighborhood.”

It’s not enough to just put your keyword in the title, in order to really write a successful blog post, you must integrate it into your post as well.  Don’t be a keyword whore, but use it as much as possible to maximize your keyword density and improve your rankings.

If you look back over this post, I’ve pimped out my keyword phrase three times already and have a number of supportive phrases.  Unlike the unfortunate streetwalkers, these pimped out keyword phrases will keep working for you day in and day out without ever complaining.

3. Send Your Post To Your Inner Circle Network – my back itches, please scratch it.  Just let me know when you need a little help yourself.  This is a great rule to follow for bloggers.  Establish a group of partners that you appreciate their content and they appreciate yours.  Send your post through to them and ask them to comment on it, share it, Tweet it, Digg it and any other social networking or bookmarking site that lights them up.

Google is a bit like high school.  It’s a huge popularity contest.  If your content is relevant and people start talking, Google will love you.

4. Ask People To Take Action In Your Post – in addition to your inner circle, let all readers know that you would appreciate them sharing your post with others.  Ask them to share it with their networks.  If it’s good content, they should want to.  Content sharing is a great way for people to building up their lists…they may as well use yours.

Once you ask, make sure you provide them the means to do it.  Install a Wordpress plug-in like Sociable or Share This to make is simple for people to tell the world about your amazing and successful blog post. <– Pimped out again!

4.7 Write Within Your Brand – Everyone may not agree with this, as there are lots of ways to put content out on the web.  But I think your brand is extremely important and I believe you want it to shine through as much as possible in everything you do.

When you first start writing your blog, it’s easy to get caught up in just writing to write.  You need to give it a bit more consideration than that.  This is a piece of your work…give it your personality.  If you would never ever talk about sheep boffing Scotsman, whores and pimps…then you shouldn’t.

Be you…all the time.  Authenticity is key.  Over time, your tribe will attach themselves to your brand & your style.  That’s what keeps you at the top of their mind and keeps them coming back like Courtney Love to the Betty Ford Clinic.

So, people go get your blog on!  Be creative & have some fun.

Please leave your comments below.  If you feel your network would benefit from this article, please share it with them.  Blow up Twitter.  Plaster it on your wall in Facebook.  Help me get some Google love…I often felt left out in high school…don’t scar me again!

Until next time…

Keith O’Brien

http://authentic-networker.com