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Visit Sta.rtUp.Biz - The Small Business Social Network

People will make up a group and when it comes to social networking, this begins with YOU because you have to sign up first to become a member and then add friends into your network.

This process is standard in most social networking sites. You usually have to give your first and last name, gender, age, religion, occupation and a few other things to create your profile. Once this is completed, you are now a member.

For you to have your own social network, within your social network, You now have to invite your friends to join the site. In order to expand that, you can look at the featured members or see who else has similar interests.

Other members will also want to expand their network and if you want them to add you, one thing You should do is make your profile very interesting. Let people know what your hobbies are, what sports do you enjoy, what is your take on politics.

Within a social networking site, You can create your own small group. Aside from discussing in online forums, you can take it to the next level by organizing events where members get to meet and do all sorts of activities.

Another way to start social networking is to create your own social networking site. You download open source programs. There are a lot of them around that have similar features to that of MySpace and Facebook so you don’t have to spend a thing.

The challenging part will be to let people know that you have a social network. You should start by telling your friends and hopefully, they will spread the word around. You don’t stop there of course. Another way will be to put links to your site or advertise a bit by putting a few ads in other sites.

For your social networking site to survive you have to do what MySpace and YouTube does which is to generate revenue through advertising. You can post an ad so that members who want to promote their product or service will be able to get their business or offer to your members.

Advertising in a social networking site could earn you millions of dollars. You won’t make that money overnight but the longer You are operational, this will happen in the months and years to come.

Social networking sites grow because those who use it are not restricted by distance. This means that someone from Europe or Asia may become a member. The only problem will be if they cannot understand English which is why You should also make this understandable in other languages.

In summary, social networking begins with You and creating your own account or your own site. The key to getting noticed by the millions of surfers on the web is by promoting yourself through your profile, links, comments, pictures - let your network reflect You. While some individuals are happy using a popular site, others have bigger dreams by using this as a stepping stone.

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Yes you can rightly use web 2.0 tools for the marketing and promotion of your business. The basics steps are the same.
Write Excellent Content: Stuff your readers want to read - don't write sales ads, letters or pitches - you want to provide high quality, informative content.
Set up a plan with goals for this marketing campaign: treat it like any other advertising venture - reminder social media does take time to build up your presence so be realistic in your goals.
Where is your target market? Just like any other advertising go where your customers are and make yourself social there. Participate in the discussions and make comments, follow along and see what they are interested in, what they might be lacking or needing.
Allow your target to participate with you, your website/blog and profiles and make it easy for them to do so. Then go back and actually absorb what your target market had to say and let them know you were there. Answer questions, make comments - participate!
Make your social media profiles accessible to your visitors(don't make them private), posts links or updates on your blog - make your information/updates public. Don’t just promote business here, sometimes be personable - share a little bit about yourself and daily life - it makes you a person and not just a business.
When/if you can, take advantage of video and audio to tell people about your products or offers. These should also be used in the video social media outlets.
Keep yourself and your website/blog current in your niche. Post regularly and have fun. It really should feel like socializing at times, if not it might be time to find someone to socialize for your business.
Make your information easily accessible for bookmarking, subscribing and make sure to set up RSS Feeds.
And 1 final word of caution: Do Not Spam - don’t add someone to your list just because they commented, or asked a questions. Don’t go around making comments of no value, if you don’t have anything related /informative to say - just keep going. Hi and I was here or nice site don’t work anymore.
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Many people look around for good marketing tools to help spread the word about what they do. Twitter is gaining a lot of ground as one of the most popular ways to market your online business.

Twitter is a combination of a chat, instant messaging service and a mini-blog, Twitter is a great way to gain a broader audience. Simply by being yourself and showing others what it is that you do via tweets (messages) and by word of mouth from current customers tweets, with that you stand the chance of gaining more clients. Because of this short and to the point way of communicating you have the ability to pique your potential client’s interest so that they will click your link to learn more. Where they can learn more about you, the service you provide or the product you sell.

If you find yourself in a position that you need to understand your target customer as well as keep up with various ways of marketing to those potential customers, Twitter is one of the most powerful and popular tools out there right now! This new type of network communication has been taken up by companies and individuals alike in recent months and for good reason.

Anytime something interesting is going on in your business, whether it’s a site change, a product launch or even a special post to your blog, use Twitter to let your followers know. As with any marketing tool, don’t just bombard Twitter with your links. Be personable and establish your expertise in your niche. Be friendly and observant to others as well and you’ll go far with Twitter.

When you are looking for a way to build your list and make your audience really sit up and notice you, you will find that Twitter can go a long way towards getting the attention your business needs and deserves.

As a Social Media Virtual Assistant, I can help you with all your twittering needs. http://ping.fm/y9sj3

Along with social networking sites, there are now a number of social bookmarking sites on the Internet. While social networking sites build upon the relationships of its members social bookmarking sites create connections through the types of content generated (or bookmarked) by members. It is these connections that make social bookmarking such an effective business tool for Internet entrepreneurs.

Maybe you have read a blog post or article on someone’s website. At the end of the article or blog post, you’ll see a host of different little pictures or characters. Run your cursor over them and names like Technorati, Digg, Furl, and Delicious pop up. What are these characters and what do the names mean?

These are links to social bookmarking sites. Social bookmarking is much like what you would do with an actual bookmark. Physical bookmarks are used to mark a page or a passage that you want to find again at some point. This goes for social bookmarking icons as well. If someone wants to find that particular article again or let others know about it, they can bookmark the address on a site and mark it with keywords for future reference.

Not all social bookmarking sites are the same. The principle is the same across the board, but some social bookmarking sites specialize in different media. Squidoo specializes in creating lenses that showcase an area of expertise of the lens owner. Flickr concentrates on photos. Some bookmarking sites deal with movie or music reviews in contrast.

Before choosing a bookmarking site, find one that caters to the content or type of business that you conduct. That will draw the most traffic to your business. If there is more than one, then join all that apply. One thing to remember is to create content that people will be interested in and use to track back to your business website. Remember that your site readers will mark your pages and posts on these sites because they find them informative and useful and think others will too.

Through quality content, a business owner can easily create a nice following of readers and possibly higher search engine rankings with the use of social bookmarking sites. For the purpose of content, look around the more popular bookmarking sites and see what others are viewing and find interesting and useful. That is the type of content you want to focus on with your websites. Investigating the more popular social bookmarking sites will make it easy to track down competitors and find out what your target market deems as useful information. Using these bookmarking sites will increase the visibility of your content and make it easier to market to your specific target customer or reader.

Social bookmarking is a simple, but effective way to bring traffic to a business website. Add bookmarking icons to your blog or website to help increase the chances of someone adding it to their favorite list of content.

Just to make it even better, there are some social bookmarking sites that follow. Refer to http://ping.fm/KaDuM for more information.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9AgAnayRyk

To all the moms

I started out as a SAHM who became a WAHM in order to help with the family budget. I enjoy the time spent with my children. However, there are now times due to business that I need to arrange for childcare. The following are some creative solutions to mine and your childcare dilemmas.

WAHMs in direct sales are very often faced with childcare predicaments. A main portion of their business is conducting sales presentations, usually held at someone else’s home. If you are a party plan WAHM, the most obvious choice would be to schedule these presentations when your partner can watch the children, but what if your partner has an odd work schedule or you are a single parent? You can hire a local high school student to come to the party and be the “party nanny”. Check with the hostess first, but she will probably love the idea (and so will the other guests – since they won’t have to worry about getting a sitter for their children, they will be more likely to come to the party and the more guests you have, the bigger your profits!). This is something you could actually use to promote attendance at your shows. I always end up having to bring my boys to parties and I always feel bad about it.

If you just need an occasional sitter, try setting up a “child care group” with your friends and neighbors. Each woman can designate a time frame on a certain day of the week or month to be “the sitter”. Any of the Moms in your “child care group” who need a sitter that day can drop their kids of at the “designated sitter’s” house. The children will get to play and interact with one another and each Mom can get free childcare on an “as needed basis”.

Check with your place of worship as they may offer a “Mom’s Day Out” type of program where you can drop your children off for a few hours per day, a couple times per week. This may be a free or low-cost service. Also, check with local library as they may have “story hours” where you can drop your children off and the librarians will read the children a book and after the book is read, the children can participate in a craft, game or activity.

If you just need some “quiet time” to do some work, you can hire a neighborhood teenager to come over and play with the kids while you are tucked away in your office. You will have some uninterrupted “work time”, but will still be there in case ‘something comes up’. This should cost less because you can use someone younger with less experience. If you have regular meetings that take you away from the house, check with friends and family to see if they can help out by watching the kids. Offer your product or service in exchange for their time. They may jump on the offer!

The one big thing I use is Grandma, she generally give me 1 Saturday per month where so comes and plays with the boys all day and I do whatever it is that I need to do that day.

And don’t feel guilty if you need to put your children in daycare part-time. Yes, you may have had every intention of working at home in order to spend time with your children, but, there may be times when your business will need your total focus. By taking that time and completing your business tasks, you will be able to focus 100% on your children during family time.

So my husband and I decided that our eldest son (31/2) was ready for a Big Boy Bed. His toddler bed (once crib) converts to a regular bed. So we had been pumping up our little man about this for quite some time. Now that he doesn't wet the bed at night, he's ready.
First we find out we have to order the side rails to convert, those finally come in the mail - we're ready.
Saturday night we decide we should start the search for the mattress and box spring - in the pouring rain. Went to two stores and then home.
Sunday we start out trying to get sheets and stuff. Meijer's only has twin bed size in characters, but we get a nice set for our younger son (2) for his toddler bed, just so he doesn't feel left out.
We tried JCPenney no luck, we then went to Target - they had what we wanted and he went with Speed Racer.
Now, its really lunch time but we tried to go to one of our favorite sandwich shops, but sign on the door said closed due to economy. Sad.
On to the mattress store. Pick out the mattress, pay and decide it's going to take two trips to bring home.
Get home I start getting ready to wash all the new stuff, my younger guys set from Meijer's is missing the sheets. So now my husband has to stop and get something from another store for him - he ends up with Cars.
Get everything washed and bed put together (which was another challange, you have to take the end pieces off the side and switch them out with the end pieces of the "foot board" - not in the directions.
Start putting the clean sheets on bed and one of the pillow cases is ripped, luckily he only has one pillow.
But we are all together now and loving our new bed.
My question is - Is the quality of workmanship really getting that bad. I realize that I didn't go shopping at Macy's, but Target should have better quality.
And my son's set, I believe someone kept the sheets and returned the package with just the comforter, that is so dishonest. We did get our money back, no problems - BUT REALLY!