ESSENTIAL MARKETING & INCOME BUILDING BLOG POST 2

           

  CHAPTER 5

 Social Networking and Niche Marketing

Quite assuredly, this is the age of social networking. People are using the Internet as a tool to get in touch with others. Even people living within the same house add each other to their social networking groups. The reason is that there are so many assorted activities that you can do here that it becomes a fun-filled rollercoaster ride rather than just being a means of communication. People are on each other’s social networks much more than ever before, and the rich marketer has definitely not missed out on that fact.

The rich marketer, over the last 10 years, has gone out and created a very strong presence in the social networking world. Keeping up with what they want to do, the rich marketers have pulled the strings to build their strong niches here. They have built niches within niches, and they have increased their marketing practices many times over by just creating such a strong interactive base on these social networking websites.

If you want to make the transition to being the rich marketer as well, you need to understand this fact well. You need to jump up and reach the higher grapes if you want to be special, and in this case, that means the added effort that you might have to put in so that you can make a presence on the social networking websites. At the end of the day, you will find that this really helps you to find your niche, and not only that, you will be able to impress them with what you can do.

You can make people within a social networking group your fan base. You can make these people look up to you for information and reliable resources to do things they want to do. If you are able to work on the trust factor in this manner, you will be able to actually reach out and convert them to being your customers, which is one of the most important things for you to do if you want to become a rich marketer.

Social Networking and Niche Marketing

Creating niche traffic by advertising on social network sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn is a convenient and easy way to create a network of people who are interested in your services and products.

Advertising campaigns promoted through social networks target products and services to a customer base that is that is more likely to be receptive to them. Customers choose to join your network because they believe they will benefit from the contact with you and your services or products. You are now in a position to capitalize on that trust relationship and provide them with those “extra mile” services that will reward them for their loyalty to your business.

Providing those on your networks with ongoing information and resources will maintain their trust that you are a market leader and therefore a trusted provider of quality goods and services. This more personal contact with the business representatives and the business itself, helps to keep the business relevant to its customers.

Evidence for the success of social networking sites as an important business strategy, is its use by celebrities, companies and other corporations to stimulate interest in their activities and r products. Television channels for example, use social media sites to create interest in their regular television programs and this helps them to maintain top ratings for some shows and to improve ratings for others.

Politicians are increasingly using social networking as tools for their campaigns, highlighting their ability to communicate to a broad spectrum of supporters in a cost effective and efficient manner. .The advantage of social networking is the ability of informal and formal dialogue to take place between business and company in real time and supported by use of video and photo technology.

A strong social network also enables business to link with likeminded businesses and share resources and knowledge of current market trends. In the past, this knowledge has helped Robert make predictions that have guided and driven his business decisions. Creating these networking relationships has the added benefit of providing back links to your website from other websites, an important strategy for Search Engine Optimization.

There is clear evidence of the success of Social Networking as an important marketing strategies for a niche business, When it fails it is often because there have been no strategies developed to maximize the benefits of using this medium. The goal is to actively engage people with you and your products and services so they are regularly updated with not only descriptions, but also with practical ways of using them. This information when tagged with back links to your website will potentially draw a loyal customer base to your website regularly. This traffic will create more sales, than conventional advertising.

Because the content on our social networking site is focused on a niche market, it must focus only on the products and services you are providing and should not include other content, which is not directly related in some way to your business focus.

Social network is possibly the key strategic action you can take to create an environment to sell your products and services. With careful planning, social networking offers you a more consistent approach to advertising and building a niche customer base, than most other forms of advertising and network building.

The Big Three Social Networks

When it is about social networking sites, then the big three social networks of 2014 are Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. There are countless social networking sites, but there are few sites that have over shadowed all the other social networking sites.

These social networks have given the concept of global village a new dimension; people from all over the world are tied together in one place sharing their life's experiences, ideologies, cultures and even business now. These social networking sites have introduced a new pattern of business by converting a serious medium of business into a social, lighter, and fun filled medium but its objectives are still the same. They are also playing an important role as an online recruitment network.

These days, one of the most prominent social networking sites is Facebook. Currently, it is the most viewed and used social networking site with almost 135 million visitors every month. Initially it was made for young students to share their updates, pictures, videos and other content with their friends and family members but within a few years it has become a biggest craze in the world. People have become addicted to Facebook. Many new friendships and relationships have been built through Facebook. It is not only limited to social networking with friends and family but it also allows people to make their company pages and other social groups to exchange information about their business. Promotion of companies and organizations and advertisement on affordable price on Facebook is a latest

trend. It has opened up many opportunities for various new jobs as well, and has become the most popular and successful social networks today.

Twitter is no doubt the most beneficial micro blogging network where people connect with the followers of same interest instantly. It has an excellent quality where people can send instant messages to other people of their interest. It provides a better opportunity to socialize. Trend or popularity is increasing day by day with approximately 50 million visitors every month. Twitter is mostly used by famous celebrities and personalities who like to tweet about their upcoming projects, personal and controversial matters. Like Facebook, it is not necessary to add people in your friend list to socialize with them; it allows you to message any one without following them. Here, you can meet new people every day, interact with the people of your niche and can share or market your business as well.

Contrary to the above two social networks, LinkedIn is smallest but more professional site with better recruitment opportunities. Here, a person builds their profile, uploads their CV and qualifications, and then adds their friends and other professional companies related to their interest or field as connections. Here, people can find more opportunities to contact with more senior and experienced professionals. Most companies hire through this social network. Its popularity is increasing rapidly. According to the estimation, its monthly traffic is around 40 million.

Therefore, apart from all other social networking sites these are the three big social networks in 2011, working tremendously with increasing revenue per day and providing more opportunities for business and social networking around the globe.

In the further chapters, we are going to take a closer look at each of these three top 3 social networking websites that have revolutionized the world of niche marketing.

                CHAPTER 6

Mingling Business with Social Activities

Facebook is the most popular social networking website today. Strictly speaking, Facebook is not designed for business, but that does not deter the rich marketer from using it for business. The very fact that Facebook has such a lot of people on it at any given moment of the day and the fact that there are a large number of applications that it is associated with makes it an option that rich marketers just cannot ignore.

Rich marketers are using Facebook to create their social networking presence, and even domination. They are building their own little groups where they are popularizing themselves and then they are creating their monopoly. This is happening to such an extent that they are becoming go-to resources for people from all over the world who are trying to look for specific information.

You cannot ignore such a huge phenomenon that has swept the world in such an emphatic manner. This chapter tells you what this phenomenon is all about, and how marketers can use it to leverage their presence in the online world.

Mingling Business with Social Activities

Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/) is the most popular social networking site with a monthly traffic of 135 million. It is the best possible way for marketing today. Facebook was started as a social networking site for college going students to interact socially with each other and share their activities, photos and videos.

Facebook is not only limited to social networking; it has now become the most powerful marketing site as well. It has started mingling business with other social activities very smartly and strategically. Facebook is used for the marketing of various products and companies. Different pages and profiles have been made to promote different companies and personalities.

In order to promote through different pages on Facebook, people make a specific page of their company and put their necessary information there. They use different tactics to make their page more attractive and popular like using an attractive profile picture, continuous updates about the products of the company and by adding new friends and requesting them to like their page. Through this kind of marketing, a person or representation of the company, like a PR man, establishes his own identity, along with company's information in front of the people. They keep on connecting with more and more people so that the social network increases rapidly.

When most of the people visit or like the page, automatically the publicity of the product increases. Online description and display of new products make people aware about the new arrivals. Apart from that, option of invitation to the official or social event has played a significant role in mingling business with social activities. People make invitees of their events through Facebook and save their money as it is free of cost here. Facebook is the most economical, easiest, fastest and successful mode of promoting business.

It is getting new advertisements on affordable rates daily. Promotion of other websites, companies and individuals can be done through Facebook. It is also used for the promotion of other website's content by integrating Facebook plug-ins on different websites like sharing of clips from YouTube through these plug-ins. Apart from that, other online articles and videos from various websites are also being posted on Facebook. This has increased Facebook marketing.

Facebook has given a whole new meaning to the business promotion and marketing by converting a serious business medium into a social and interactive medium. Common people find it easy to promote their new business through Facebook than any other medium. Facebook has its own Marketplace page where masses can sell and purchase different things. This application page shows all the recent listings in your profile. This is more attractive than other pages and provides you complete range of products related to you and people in your network directly or indirectly.

Hence, Facebook is a medium where people mix up business with social networking through joining or liking the business page of friends and friends of friends as well. Through this, more and more people get associated with your business directly and indirectly. Therefore, Facebook is considered as a most successful medium of marketing by mingling business with all other social activities. 

                   CHAPTER 7

Using Tweeting for Business

Twitter is another very popular social networking resource that works on a totally different concept. This resource has become popular due to its use of micro-blogging. You can post small bits of content here, known as micro-blogs in general and tweets in particular, that tell people what you are doing. You can give people links to your business. You can create a base of people who follow you. Your followers can be followed by other followers. In a very short time, you might have a large number of people who are following what you say on Twitter.

That can work amazingly well. These people have decided to follow you. So, by implication, these people are interested in what you want to say. They have faith in your tweets.

Hence, the rich marketers will never want to lose out on this opportunity. Tweeting for business is what everyone is doing right now, and this is one area you should focus on as well.

Tweeting for Business

Business in today’s world is no more limited to offices, documentations and business meetings only. It is more global and social now; tweeting for business is an interesting concept. Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/) provides a platform to the people in business to make more contacts and do marketing of their company and products.

Twitter is a micro blogging site where people can do promotions but shameless and obsolete marketing is not allowed. It is not a way of starting or promoting a business. It is only a platform to promote your own self, your ideas and new products. It is used for forwarding your business rather than launching it.

All you need to do is log on to the Twitter and become a follower. By following someone, you have the capability to show your likes and dislikes. It is not limited to be a follower only; you have to give feedbacks and opinions on different subjects within limited 140 words; it should be crisp, short and unique. By posting your comments and feedbacks, you are showing your presence there. It is necessary that you develop a social interaction with different people on the site. If you do not interact with them and only post your ads then people might think that you are a scam. Make healthy relations with people so that they start following you. Only then you would be successful in convincing people about your business plans and products.

Tweeting for business is like establishing a brand image. For example, when a specific brand is being launched the manufacturer uses many different ways to promote it and make people well aware about the brand. Advertisements also use the same technique, like they don't sell brands but they sell ideas. People usually accept and adopt them as a part of their life styles. Only after building an emotional relationship with the product, the brand loyalty develops among the consumer. Similarly for promotion of business, you must build a relationship of trust with your followers and Twitter is the best available platform for this purpose. Writing a profile with your biography is the first and most important step, so that people know about your qualifications, experiences and business and will start following you.

After that, you must keep on tweeting on other tweets. Do not hesitate to express your opinions and point of views on different subjects. If you do not agree with something, feel free to disagree but don't be rude; selection of words should be careful. Build arguments and support your point of view with solid proofs and statements. It will show others that you have some knowledge and you have an ability to be determined to your beliefs. This will definitely

increase your followership. Keep contact with your followers, discuss things with them, share your ideas about promotion of your business and fields of your interest, state about what your business wants, don't fear to give statements and don't be afraid of oppositions. Ask questions to others; it is a platform for two way communication and their responses will appear as a review for clients and followers. Always share links and informative things on Twitter and ask people to follow.

Hence, tweeting for business is excellent way to compliment your company and show the internet presence. Do not confuse it with a social networking or just any other business site.

                      CHAPTER 8

Building a Strong Online Reputation

LinkedIn is a place to build a professional profile. You can write about yourself, build a resume for yourself, a profile for your business and go on to build your great online presence. When you have a substantial profile for your business, you will be able to reach out to the right people, and the right people will get interested in you as well.

Here we are going to see how we can use LinkedIn as a very rich resource to build content. We shall see how this can be a social network to get touch with other likeminded people, probably even your competitors, and let them know your expertise. If you want to monopolize, a good LinkedIn profile that speaks for itself is the need of the hour.

Building a Strong Online Reputation

Building a strong online reputation through LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/) is a powerful way used in the internet today for establishing professional relationships. If Facebook and Twitter are famous because of being the top social networking sites, then LinkedIn is considered as the best professional networking site. It has almost 55 million members from around 200 countries.

You can use your LinkedIn profile as a best tool to establish yourself on the internet. It is very helpful in building a strong reputation online professionally. After registering into LinkedIn, create your profile. You must upload your resume after that.

The most important step to make LinkedIn profile as your online resume is to state your summary strongly. The summary must be written in your own words. Mention why you think that you are best in your specified profession and why they should work with you. It is more like a cover letter of yourself to show how you are going to present yourself in front of the world to convince them to take your services. The summary should be compact and effective. Always use strong keywords to describe your professional qualification so that it will become easy for a recruiter to find you.

Use LinkedIn as a profile to explain about your past experiences in detail. Write about your qualifications in a well written or specified form so that it attracts the readers. Never exaggerate your good points. It should not seem that you are self-obsessed. Write an accomplished matter that will set you apart from your friends or mates. Try to get recommendations from those professional or experienced workers with whom you have even worked before or have some links. Recommendations will increase your chances of getting better opportunities.

Do come up with your customized vanity URL, as it is quite helpful in building your reputation online because whenever people want to search you, they will use Google easily. Join all the relevant groups in LinkedIn which are related to your qualifications and interests; it will help in building your resume with a better outlook and impact.

If you are on LinkedIn, then you have fair chances of starting your own blog as well. In LinkedIn, there is a web section that allows you to share your web accounts very easily.

Apart from the web sections and blogs, LinkedIn also provides access to the Twitter which helps you in sharing your tweets on LinkedIn. It is not at all like the other typical social networking sites to write your feelings and comments. This format of website is more professional and business oriented to attract more employers towards your profile.

Therefore, LinkedIn helps in building a strong reputation online which further helps you in getting more professional assistance and opportunities to prove your potentials. The employers who recommend you can be requested to write testimonials for you. This way, it will help you in building a strong and professional reputation on LinkedIn, which further aids in making your online resume stronger and more attractive to new recruiters.

                    CHAPTER 9

Drop Building a Powerful Business Presence

It is no secret—all is not well with the world in the current scenario. It hasn’t been so since the last few years. This is putting a spanner in the works. It is keeping enterprising people from reaching where they want to reach. If you want to become a rich marketer, the current economic climate may not be conducive to you.

But that is what being a rich marketer is all about. They have various secrets up their sleeve.

They know what they can do to turn the tide in their favor.

In this optimistic chapter, we are going to see how we can do that… turn the tide in our favor despite the complications that the present global financial situation has put in our path.

Building a Powerful Presence Despite the Current Economic Situation

Many people are reconsidering their dreams of having a successful business of their own. They look around, see evidence of bankruptcy, and wonder about the wisdom of moving from secure employment into the unknown of self-employment.

Statistics would certainly suggest that this is a good idea; most small businesses shut down after 10 years or are sold for much less than the business itself is worth. This however, does not need to be the case. Robert Kiyosaki describes the establishment of the business a journey or a process. It will have a beginning, an end, and a lot of work in the middle. He defines a good business as the one that creates income, without endless effort on the part of the business owner to make the money. The business itself creates the wealth. It may take time to establish, but once established it continuously makes money for the owner.

The process is the key to building a powerful business presence despite the current economic climate. Now while it is true that dreams do not make the business succeed it is equally true that without dreams business won’t succeed. Once you own your dream, you can then build your plans

Planning is essential because without planning there can be no progress. Plans provide the blue print for the business operation. However although most businesses have a business plan the reality is they do fail. Planning by itself is not enough to prevent failure. The difference between a successful business and one that fails is the reaction of the business owner when the inevitable problems occur and what the owner does when faced with failure.

It is inevitable that mistakes will be made. Many people hit a shaky place in their business dealings, and scared off by the economic climate will at this point choose to close their businesses. Robert Kiyosaki however encourages people to keep going and creating learning opportunities from these mistakes. He suggests that instead of despairing, let the mistakes drive you to learn why things are failing. Seek answers in many places.

Making the commitment not to give up is only the first stage in becoming a powerful business presence. Building networks and focusing on services rather than just producing an income source are essential.

Robert Kiyosaki has described this principle in his book “Rich Dad Poor Dad.” He reminds readers that there are three main ways money can be earned...

Personal Income

Portfolio Income

3. Passive Income

Most people focus on personal income, but Robert Kiyoski encourages people to focus instead on the other sources of personal income, because as he describes it, personal income is dependent on time and effort from the person earning it, whereas the other forms of income require little effort and money is being made, even when the person is sleeping.

How does the principle apply to business? Most people put their effort and money into making the business earn the money. The focus must be on creating the niche and creating the network to advertise the niche. These will make more money than focusing resources and effort on the business itself.

Do not create business plans that require you to work hard to create money, but focus your attention on creating business plans where investing and passive income sources do the work for you. 

                     CHAPTER 10

Ten Things Rich Marketers Hide

In this concluding chapter of the Rich Marketer Poor Marketer eBook, we see some of the things that the rich marketers try to keep away from the poor marketers.

As you read these things, you will find out that there is not much that people do not know… it is only that the rich marketers try to reach earlier and try to dominate.

If you want to make the transition from being a poor marketer to being a rich marketer, then these are the points that you should read quite closely.

Ten Things Rich Marketers Hide from Their Poor Counterparts

Many of those who today are well-known entrepreneurs, successful and mega rich have one thing in common with each other. Each of them was at one stage poor students or bankrupt businesspersons and women who refused to give up.

They started with a dream, an idea that began as a spark and that spark of an idea grew into the multimillion-dollar companies with which their names are synonymous. What created the success for them? What was the key to their success when so many others have failed?

They had a dream and they lived that dream and did not give up on that dream. That dream was a big dream and it drove them. They believed their dream even when failure faced them in the face.

They learned from mistakes and turned mistakes into success. They used failure as a learning tool to enable them to consider how to do things better next time.

They started small and gradually built up. Their focus was on building a niche and being the best in that niche. They did not allow their focus to become too big too quickly. This is the sure recipe for success.

Their focus was not on the income but on the product and building a loyal base of supporters through the product (or service) they were offering. Networking was the key, it produced the market, and it produced the opportunity for expansion. They did not need to do it alone. Others bought into their dream.

They explored and utilized every available marketing strategy to build their dreams, with the focus firmly on building social networks to develop strong customer focused and customer driven products and services. Therefore, the products sold themselves.

They invested time and energy into the development of businesses that eventually produced income with little or no effort on their part.

They explored and understood social and economic trends to ensure they understood where the market was going and historically what to expect, understanding that history often repeats itself.

They focused their time, energy, and resources on the outcomes of their research, and invested accordingly, rather than following the crowd.

Although at times they did hesitate, they kept the dream and did not allow setbacks to destroy the dream, but having learned from the setback, they allowed themselves to continue the dream and take risks.

As they took risks, they did not lose sight of their objective to create successful businesses and have an in

Those who have failed in business are those who have allowed the current economic climate drive their business decisions they have failed to do their research. They do not understand the rise and fall of the markets and the wealth cycles. This has prevented them taking full advantage of investments and portfolios that create income and lose what income they have earned. They have accumulated debt rather than focusing on escaping the debt cycle and failed to see the money market for what it is.

They have succumbed to their failures and been scared off by them and they have given into the market trend that suggests that you cannot make money in today’s economic climate as a businessperson.

Robert Kiyosaki has the last word:

“The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire, the size of your dream and how you handle disappointment along the way.”