If you're not doing it yet, you'd better learn quick(ly)...
Twittering is cheap and easy.
But, you'relimited to 140 characters and like all published works - you need to select your words carefully before clicking "send"...
Today, it seems that every business must have a Facebook Presence! And if you're not Linkdin - you're burned toast...or chopped liver, or whatever...
But remember, don't put anything up on Facebook that you don't want the whole virtual world to see.
Or, if you want to share some semi-private information, make certain you have all of your blocks in place.
Better yet, set up separate pages - one for you - and one for your business or organization.
Tweeting holds less communication dangers - it's just 140 characters -and is easier to tweet.
If you begin to take tweeting really seriously, you can set up a business site...
The Wall Street Journal is providing directions on how to start and grow your Tweet and Twitter presence and is providing details on how to set- up and maintain a wide range of social networking sites... It's virtually and literally - everywhere! Check out wsj.com or Google 'social networking' on the internet - opportunities to learn are pretty limitless. Time to learn is still finite.
And it can all become pretty confusing... and as potentially time consuming as all get-out. Especially if we challenge ourselves to learn how to use use the social media opportunities - correctly and effectively - and what's considered correct and effective today - could be history tomorrow.
It's hard enough to remember all the identification stuff we need for everyday life - emails, homepages, banking, paypal, online this and that, podcasts, webinars, the list is endess.
So, what should we do?
For sanity's sake, we can hire a trustworthy online marketing firm to set up and maintain our online social marketing presence - a firm that makes a good living - and has great testimonials about their capabilities and ability to stay ahead of the technology curves. That'll save us time - and likely a lot of frustration and probably some money in the long run.
I've been a marketer for years and have developed promotions targeting millions and millions of potential consumers - but never - in my professional life have I been confronted with so many FREE options... So many opportunities and FREE advice that take time and money to develop and develop a level of trust.
So many FREE choices about how to reach targeted customers and make boatloads of money.
The Challenge is to be as smart as possible about all these free choices. We need to conduct our own preliminary research as always. Make and take a little time to explore and learn before making decisions - informed decisions.
We need to select our advisors with care - there are loads of people who "say" that have an in-depth understanding of the evolving Internet Marketing arena - but there are only few who can really deliver. It takes ongoing research and training and time to stay on top of the online communication opportunities... because it's literally changing every day.
We need to ask friends and colleagues for referrals to business' who deliver. And screen them to make certain our goals are compatible.
As always, trust in all arenas - even those claiming to be FREE - needs to be earned. Have fun.
