New beginnings are what this time of year is all about for many people; new commitments to losing weight, exercising more and a variety of other items. As a business owner, every day is a new beginning with commitments to excellence and more success than yesterday.

Yet, success requires planning now and in the future. Therefore, your marketing strategy at the beginning of 2012 should be about maintaining the positive effect and presence of your business. With this being the start of year, it is an excellent time to clean up any “dirt” from the past year so you can build your positive influence through the year.

Yes, your business may be online, but that does not mean you are “dirt” free. Your social media, your blog and other aspects represent your presence online. But they may not have the influence you want. You also have consumers who have their blogs and social media forces which influence your business as well. These are the things you want to check and possibly cleanup for more success in 2012.

Even the best of businesses will receive unflattering information from time to time. Yet, that unflattering information about your business on the web can be damaging to your business. Ignoring it and hoping it will go away won’t help either. With some pro-active steps you can control and even clean up your presence so your business shines, which is why today’s post will help you.

Lee Collins
Managing Director
StomperNet, LLC

“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.”
~ Abraham Lincoln ~

A Clean Start to 2012: Sweep Your Digital Dirt Away

By Jorgen Sundberg of jorgensundberg.net

As we all know, the Internet has made information instantly accessible. You can find a customer, business partner, investor or employer quicker than ever before. The flipside is that they are only a few clicks away from finding your entire social life online, for better or for worse.  That’s why you want to start each New Year with a clean start digitally.

A recent survey conducted by the good folks at CareerBuilder UK has revealed that more than half (53%) of employers use social networking sites to research job candidates. Another 12% plan to start using social networking sites for screening. Their preferred methods for looking up candidates are search engines, Facebook, Linkedin, blogs and Twitter.

OK, perhaps not much of a shock there. This is more interesting: 43% of employers reported they have found content on social networking sites that caused them not to hire the candidate. The top reasons were that candidates lied about qualifications, showed poor communication skills, made discriminatory comments and posted content about them drinking and using drugs.

So there you have it; in addition to working on your actual application you now have to sweep the Internet for digital dust bunnies as well. If employers are doing it, we can assume that current and potential customers will be at it as well. You can see why they do this as a quick and easy way to find out who you really are. After all, they will only want to be associated with people that have ‘clean’ online lives as anything else might damage their business.

Here are 10 steps you can take today to check up and clean up your digital dirt:

1. Check your stats

What does a simple Google search reveal about you? And more importantly, are you happy with a prospective customer seeing the result? There are a few ways of checking your online personal brand, or reputation if you will. Google is the obvious one, at the very minimum you should check Bing and Yahoo as well. Use variations of your name, search pictures, videos, and news to really turn over every stone. You can also use Personas, an application that MIT developed, that scours the Internet to get the gist of your online reputation.

2. General clean up

Cleaning before any tender process may seem obvious but can actually require quite a bit of effort. Delete any embarrassing photos, comments, links from your online profiles and blog. You can even disable your wall/comments so that no new information can be added by others during your critical job search period. Sever all ties (remove/unfollow/block) to questionable or unreliable people as well as groups and associations that are not congruent with your professional reputation. All the security settings in the world won’t help you if one person decides to share your content with the rest of the world!

3. Facebook

The bad news is that Facebook is one of the first ports of call when someone is checking you out. The good news is that you simply change your security settings and they will only be able to see your mug shot or nothing at all. First off, you can specify who can find you in a Search, then change who can see what on the Privacy settings page. This should make things secure and you can carry on tagging yourself in pictures and videos with little risk of being seen by an employer.

4. Twitter

The bad news is that everyone can follow and see what you do on Twitter. The good news is that you can set up more accounts, and there is nothing stopping you from adding as many as you like. So if you do under your own name, make sure your content is clean. If you still want to retweet those risqué links, you had better make use of a nom de plume account.

5. LinkedIn

I will assume that your LinkedIn profile is business friendly, as it is a professional network after all. What you could consider is the Groups and Associations you are a member of, whether you want them to be visible on your profile or not. Furthermore, your personal interest field is the only one where you can actually show off some personality so make sure it’s consistent with your personal brand and other communications.

6. Cyber Twins

An evil twin on the Internet is not what you need in any situation. What if there is someone out there with your name that is preaching hatred on their blog? If that person is the first to come up when searching Google for your name, you had better be prepared to explain what the score is. So make sure you know this before you get the question, however unlikely it may seem.

7. Blogging activities

What have you posted on your own blog and other blogs out there? Think back to when you first started blogging, perhaps you tried out a few topics that aren’t perhaps conducive to your new job? Or maybe you left a comment or two in haste that you really shouldn’t have. Use Google Blog Search to find your blogging footprint, as it scours the entire blogosphere on a daily basis.

8. Create positive content

The best way to let the good outweigh the bad is to create lots of new content that will eclipse whatever dirt is still left out there. The Internet handles so much new information every day that the old stuff tends to be pushed down the search results and slowly forgotten. This will take a great deal of time and effort, but will be worth it.

9. Send in the marines

If all else fails and you still have your own digital landfill out there, you might want to call up the professionals. There are a few online services that will seek out your dirt and can annihilate it on the spot. Sites like Reputation Defender and DefendMyName all offer to stay on top of your online reputation for a fee. They will typically identify non-flattering information about you, alert you about it and you can then decide whether to keep or destroy. I believe this option is useful when running for a public office or when you have a few too many skeletons in the closet; however most readers will not have this need.

10. Keep it going

Google Alerts is a very handy tool for real time alerts about anything, in this case yourself. Punch in your name in inverted commas, set it to send you updates as soon as you are mentioned online. This way you will be able to monitor yours whenever your name is mentioned anywhere on an ongoing basis.

Video

Start the New Year With a Clean Slate
By Vin Montello (FOH)

FLV / MOV

SEO Pro Returns to Dallas!

Finally: Discover How to Get and KEEP Your Website (or a Client’s Website) Ranked at the Top of the Search Engines by Attending the ONLY Workshop Backed by the 5-Year Reputation and Proven Track Record of the World’s Largest SEO and Online Business Training Company!

Click here for details!

Secret Sauce Checklist

Cleaning your Digital Dirt

• Check your online reputation
• Do General Clean Up
• Check your Facebook privacy settings
• Create multiple Twitter accounts if necessary
• Remember LinkedIn is a site for professionals
• Who else has your name?  What do they represent?
• Check your blog footprint
• Outweigh the bad with good
• Hire professional cleaners as necessary
• And lather, rinse, repeat throughout the year as necessary

Stomper Buzz

Next Week’s Focus: Conversion

Stompernet Blog

This week has been full of social media and marketing. You know Facebook, Twitter and other social media formats seem to be growing ever more popular. The Facebook Like button is now on billboards and as you know, Google + is getting into the mix.

Many businesses around the world are learning to use social media as an effective tool to draw in loyal customers. Social marketing is what allows people of similar interests gather together online and share information. I know all the members of the StomperNet staff; myself included, are involved in various ways with social media and special interests. This sharing of information is what brings you here to this blog as well, and why you have been reading the articles and hopefully enjoyed the webinars this week.

Since the theme this week is social marketing, we can’t forget Twitter. Twitter Lists today will help you find more groups and people interested in the same things as you! Imagine segmenting a full list of people who have similar interests! Or imagine all your dog lover friends on Twitter together. Read today and you will know how!

Lee Collins
Managing Director
StomperNet, LLC

“Twitter’s success is wonderful and it shows you that there are many, many ways to communicate.”
~ Eric Schmidt

Twitter Lists: Research, Share and Spy

By Joan Stewart

If you aren’t using Twitter lists to position yourself as a subject matter expert, share valuable content with the world, and even spy on your competitors, you’re missing a very powerful tool!

Lists are all the rage for so many reasons. They save you time in two major ways. First, they help you categorize, group and isolate the tweets of people within a specific industry, niche or topic. Lists are also one of the most powerful research tools on the planet if you’re looking for experts within a niche.

They help you spy on your competitors because by searching through their lists, you can see which experts they’re following and uncover all kinds of other information on topics they think are important.

Here’s a quick how-to guide on how to create and use Twitter Lists!

Where to Find Lists

You’ll find references to lists in two places in your own Twitter account.  If you haven’t created lists yet, you can create one by first logging into Twitter.

On the right side, you’ll see a “Lists” section. Click on “New list.” A window will open and ask you to name the list, give a brief description and decide if you want the list to be public or private. If you decide to make a list private, it will show up under your list of lists with a small lock to the right of the title. Visitors will be able to see the title, but they won’t be able to access the list.

I recommend you make as many lists public as possible. An example of a list that you might want to keep private would be a list of your competitors. I’ve created a list of media I write for, and I want that private because I don’t want my competitors to have easy access to it.

To see your own lists, go to your Home or Profile Page, and look for “Lists” in the right column, just under the Search box. Click on “View All” to see all the lists you have created.

To see who has added you to lists they have created, look on the right side, under your gravatar, and click on “Listed.” You’ll see all the lists, and their names, on which you appear. This is a fabulous way to help you build your brand. It’s also very helpful when you’re searching for joint venture partners and other experts just like you because you can check to see who else shares the same list where you’re mentioned.

The name of each list will be in bold, and as you look down the column, if you see the same keywords showing up again and again in several lists, you can see immediately how others view you.

How to Add People to a List

There are three ways to add people to a list:

1. When you create a list, type into the window the name of someone you want to add. Twitter will take you to their page. Click on the “Lists” button that’s at the top of their feed. It will open a window with names of all of YOUR lists. Put a checkmark next to the name of the list, or lists, you want to add that person to.
2. When you create a list, add people from your “Following” page (not recommended if you’re following many people).
3. When you’re on someone else’s Twitter page, click on the Lists button in the same column as their feed. The names of your lists will appear. Put a checkmark next to the lists you want to add that person to. If you decide you want to start a list and add them to it, do the same as above, but go down to the bottom of your list titles and click on “New List” and add them to it.

How to Subscribe to Someone Else’s List

To find someone else’s list, go to their Twitter page and look in the far right column under the “Lists” category. Click on “View all.”
When you see a list that looks interesting, click on it. It you want to follow it, click on “Follow this list.” That person’s list will then show up on your list, and it will be accompanied by their gravatar, not yours.

How to Get onto Other People’s Lists

You want to be on as many lists as possible, particularly those in your area of expertise. Here are five ways to do that:

1. Write relevant, content-rich tweets tied to your topics, and write them frequently.
2. Ask! Don’t be shy about sending someone a direct message and suggesting that they add you to a list they’ve created.
3. If you publish an ezine, tell your subscribers that you’d love to be added to their lists that match your area of expertise.
4. Write a blog post and list the topics in which you’re an expert. Suggest that your readers add you to their lists, or start their own lists and put you on them.
5. Make sure you’re listed in Twitter directories, where many people search for people to add to their lists. A few of the best ones are Listorious.com, Twellow.com, JustTweetIt.com and Twibs.com.

Experiment with lists. Have fun with them. And if you think I should create a list and put you on it, let me know!

~~~~

Publicity expert Joan Stewart, aka The Publicity Hound, shares tips on publicity, PR and social media on Twitter at PublicityHound and answers publicity questions at Facebook.com/publicitytips. Send your publicity success stories, and good, clean dog jokes, quotes and links to videos to JStewart@PublicityHound.com for her publicity tips ezine at PublicityArticles.net.

STOMPER Speed Boost

Secret Sauce Checklist

Tips for Twitter lists:

• Find Lists
• Add people to your lists
• Make most of your lists public
• Subscribe to other people’s lists
• Write relevant tweets to get on other’s lists

Stomper Buzz

Next Week’s Focus: Keyword Research

Stompernet Blog

By John Limbocker

You may have heard that the search engines love social media. What you probably haven’t heard is why and what it can mean to your business. Most people think it is because the search engines like all of that fresh new content social media sites provide, but that is only a fraction of it.

The real reason that social media sites score well in search engines is because of the authority of the social media site itself. Hundreds of thousands of sites all linking to the social media sites are what makes them extremely popular in the eyes of the search engines. In search engine geek talk, all those links translate to authority.

What I am about to reveal to you is unknown to most people, and yet one of the more powerful techniques used to dominate search results. We all know that optimizing our sites can take a long time, and building up authority to be able to compete for highly prized terms can take even longer. But if you use the authority of an existing social media site, you can get to the top almost overnight!

If you take your content and place it on your social media pages, and then optimize your social media pages for your desired keywords, you will be shocked at how quickly you can see results. Imagine the following…

How would it look if your ideal prospect went online to Google and typed in a search phrase describing your product or service, and got back a results page that had only you on it? That would literally leave them nowhere else to turn. You have probably never heard of such a thing, and are now wondering if it’s even possible. Well let me tell you: it is possible and I am about to share with you how I do it.

Optimizing a social media page is fairly easy.

There are 2 key factors that will rocket you to the top. First is the title of the page. This is by far the biggest on page optimization factor today. The trick is simple: just get your main keyword phrase into the title of your social media pages. You do this by naming your pages using your keywords or at least having them in the page names. This automatically puts them into the title.

Most social media sites allow this and most people don’t take advantage of it. Many people use their name, which is great if you are a household name and people know to look for you, but in most cases your target audience knows to search for you by what you offer.

Once you have your primary keyword phrase in your title, it’s time to start telling the search engines what the page is about and why it should rank first. This is done by going out and getting other sites to link back to your social media page with the same clickable text that matches your target keyword phrase. This is known as an anchor text link and simply means it is the clickable text to link to another page.

When the search engine sees other sites using a particular phrase as an anchor text link to you they take notice of that, and in turn counts that as a vote of popularity towards your social media page. The more popular it looks, the higher and faster it will climb. These two factors stacked on top of the fact that the social media site itself has so much credibility will literally rocket your page to the top.

Now obviously all these links, which are considered votes, do not count equally, but this is the basic premise. The page at the end of the day with the most points wins. The links on higher priority pages will count for more points and have more value.

So these are the basic principles of getting a social media page to the top of the search results. Now let’s talk strategy, and how we will use this knowledge to dominate the search results.

You need high authority social media sites.

There are a ton of these high authority social media sites out there, but all you need is 10 to take over the first page of the search engines. These are, in no particular order, sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Squidoo, MySpace, EzineArticles, and the list goes on and on. It typically doesn’t matter which ones you use, just pick 10 of them.

Now sign up for all those free accounts and name your pages appropriately as you learned earlier. Next let’s put some good content on those pages with a strong call to action. This is where most people blow it. They drive traffic to pages that lead nowhere and don’t have a clear purpose for the viewer. You really need to tell them what to do. My preference is to have them opt in to receive some piece of valuable information I am offering to get them into my sales funnel.

Don’t forget video!

Video works best for this, and is right in line with all this social media stuff. So use video to tell them what to do and offer it as your teaser. You will get a lot more opt ins to see the continuation of a great content delivery video than anything else. Start off with the video explaining something of extreme value to your market, and then offer them more on the second half if they put in their email address. Think of it as a cliffhanger!

Okay, now that you have your ten social media pages up, it’s time to start linking to them. There are many ways to do this, and it can be a lot of work. Don’t worry, this is a perfect job for you to outsource. Believe me: you will not enjoy this mind numbing work. You are going to want to get this job outsourced.

These are just a few of the places you can go to get these links, and they are all free with the exception of the time it takes to do it. You can find blogs all over the Internet on any topic imaginable that will allow you to post comments with links. There are free forums and message boards you can post to that allow linking.

There are many video sites that allow comments with links as well. You can also put your links into articles and press releases and distribute those throughout the article and press release directories across the Internet. There are literally millions of places you can go to put your links.

It is these anchor text links pointing to your social media pages that will tell the search engines that these pages are popular for your keyword phrases and drive them to the top.

Imagine all of your social media pages coming up and pushing your competitors right off the page, and all pointing your ideal clients right to your website. How would that change your business?

It almost seems like an unfair advantage, doesn’t it?

John Limbocker is CEO of Limbo Vision, Inc., Founder of SEO Dominator’s Club, and Master Internet Strategist at CBS News Radio. To find out more about complete training on SEO Domination as well as the commercial services and outsourcing services, visit him at SEODominators.com or contact John directly at John@limboland.net.

Content Packed Facebook Marketing (So Easy My Mom Can Do It!)

by Robert Grant

FLV /MOV

Stompernet Blog

Not long ago Social Media was called Web 2.0. It was the change from websites that only provided information…to becoming user-oriented and information- sharing websites. This switch in how information is shared has changed the face of the Internet.

Most consumers have readily embraced this exchange of information. Many businesses have realized how vastly important it is to “upgrade” their business to bring in and allow social media. The businesses who avoid this medium are likely to suffer, and if your business is avoiding it, it’s time to start learning about social marketing. If your business is already embracing it, remember the social marketing field is always changing and your business needs to stay on top of these adjustments.

Fortunately, the topic for the week is Social Marketing. In Wednesday and Friday’s emails, you will learn how social marketing can help your website and how you can learn more about your competition and also who your best clients are. Tammy Fennel’s webinar on Thursday will teach you how to automate and make social marketing faster and easier

Talk soon and enjoy the resources below!

Ryan Taylor
Director of Operations
StomperNet, LLC

IMPORTANT:  Some of the resources shown are only available to members. With our all-new tiered benefit levels you can join us today for as little as $49.00and get instant access to the world’s largest SEO and Online Business community plus all the tools and resources you need (including upcoming free webinar replays) to enhance your existing business or start, build and grow a thriving Internet-based business!

Curriculum Resources

• How To REALLY Use Publicity As An Online Marketing Channel & ZIG When Everyone Else is ZAGGING: Joan Stewart
• Free Killer Tools To Build Your Social Media Presence: Don Crowther

New Media

• How You Can Boost Your Business With eBooks: MJ Schrader & Renee Corbett
• So You Want To Write An eBook: Suzanne Roese-McGee

This Week’s HOT Forum Topic

* Free Live Webinars This Week
THURSDAY September 22, 2011 ~ 12:30 pm Eastern

“How to Crush Your Competition Online Using Market Me Suite In Only 30 Minutes A Day!” with Tammy Fennel

Earlier this week MarketMeSuite gave away 5000 licenses and the first question we received was “Great. Now how do I use it”. Tammy Fennell, the CEO or MarketMe Suite has agreed to do a webinar to help you use this new tool to the utmost extreme. She will get you set up managing your social media so you can learn to crush your competition with as little as 30 minutes a day.

You still have until Tuesday to download your free MarketMe Suite license. There are still a couple 100 left. But they are going FAST. Register Now

THURSDAY September 22, 2011 ~ 8:00 pm Eastern

“Creating $250k Unsecured, Zero-Interest, Tax Free Cash!” with Georgia Gotthardt & Ari Page

Would you like to have unsecured business credit, available as cash to help fund your business quick,fast and easy? Join Georgia and Ari as they show you how getting funding can be fun, fast and easy and how It’s YOUR Tax dollar money givento the banks – so that they must lend it to you! Register Now

Special Announcements

SEO Pro Comes to San Francisco!

Finally: Discover How to Get and KEEP Your Website (or a Client’s Website) Ranked at the Top of the Search Engines by Attending the ONLY Workshop Backed by the 5-Year Reputation and Proven Track Record of the World’s Largest SEO and Online Business Training Company!

Register NOW!

*NEW* “StomperNet Open Forum” Fridays at 11EDT

We know everyone has questions about their business or different stumbling blocks. Well we invite you to bring them to the table during our Open Forum. With the combined training and experience of our Coaches you will get the direction you need to get you back on your road to success!

The next StomperNet Open Forum Call with our Professional Coaches happens next Friday at 11am EDT and we hope to see you there! These calls are intended to be live Q&A sessions and playback will not be available.

Stompernet Blog

Have you ever heard the quote: “Friendship is like money, more easily made than kept”? Samuel Butler said it, and that quote pretty well sums up how things work on Facebook. Making lots of friends is easy, but what can they do for your business, and once you have them how do you keep them engaged and spending?

Last week we talked about how important social marketing has become in terms of search marketing. And this week we’d like to take that advice in a new direction and focus on how you can improve the status of your business on Facebook.

Facebook definitely has advantages, such as their 500 million active users, any one of which has the potential to become your business’s raving fan.

This week, we’re going to show you ways to crank up your presence on Facebook to get traffic and even though Facebook is intended to be a social network — to translate those friendships into sales.

Let’s get started!

Lee Collins
Managing Director
StomperNet, LLC

“The thing that we are trying to do at Facebook, is just help
people connect and communicate more efficiently.”
- Mark Zuckerberg, Co-Founder of Facebook

Friendship on Facebook is Like Money…

In 2004, when Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook, he intended it to be just a way for college students at Harvard to connect. It was kind of like being in the student union with your friends, but you didn’t have to leave the dorm.

And then it blossomed and grew far larger than Zuckerberg or the rest of the world imagined. Today, Facebook is not only a name known in most households in the U. S., but in homes around the world.

This creates an incredible opportunity for any marketer, whether you are a brick and mortar business owner or have a marketing presence online. For local business owners, Facebook is a great way to connect with people in their region. For Internet marketers or e-commerce site owners, it’s an opportunity to connect with the world. At no other time in history has this type of bonding opportunity been available!

So, how can you increase your presence on Facebook? What are some of the cutting-edge ways that you can use to bond with your ideal customers so they’ll follow you right to your sales page or your front door and buy your products?

Here are 20 different ways to make Facebook a very important tool in your promotional and SEO toolbox:

1. Get a Vanity URL.
   You’ll need 25 likes for your fan page first, which is easy to do. Then, be sure to get a Facebook vanity URL. Make it easy to remember by keeping it clean (no hyphens or underscores, for example) and as short as possible. You want it to be easy to type and to stick in people’s minds. Just be sure that your vanity URL is close to your brand name. If you can’t do that, make sure that the URL you pick makes sense to your business’s purpose. For example, if you have a shoe store called “Miller’s Shoes,” you want a domain like http://Facebook.com/millers or http://facebook.com/awesomeshoes.
2. Use a keyword rich description for your page settings.
   Just as you would with any other page, be sure to give your primary keyword prominence in your page title and in your page’s description.
3. Choose the anchor text links in your page carefully.We established in last weeks’ newsletter that even “nofollow” links do pass some link juice. So… be sure to choose the anchor text for your page links wisely. As we always teach, go for that “low-hanging fruit,” and focus on getting some juice for the keywords you know you can rank for easily.
4. Know your stats.
   Check Facebook “Insight” stats regularly. Know how many visitors you’re getting, what days and times they arrive, and what they’re reading. It will help you to tailor your posts to their preferences.
5. Stay logged in. This will make it easy for you to share interesting tidbits with your visitors. Just check the “Keep me logged in” box when signing into the site.
6. Add content regularly. Facebook is no different from any other pages on the Internet. If you want it to rank in search, you should add unique, quality content to it regularly. And mix it up. Use photos, videos, and audios along with your text entries. This may be the most important key to success.
7. Be unique.
   Think hard about how to make your Facebook page different. Because there’s so much going on at Facebook, you want to make a great first impression. First, have a great photo or logo. It used to be that a designer could be way more creative with a page. Now, since the newer page design took over a while back, that photo or logo is critical. Here are 5 pages that have great designs today:

Threadless
LiveScribe
Victoria’s Secret
Slightly Stoopid
Burt’s Bees

8. Use a sandwich page.
   Facebook is a little picky about advertising. If you have an ecommerce store, it won’t be as tricky as if you’re advertising information products, especially if they’re geared toward making money. But even if you can get your page approved easily, it’s better to have an optin page when someone clicks on your Facebook link. Give something of value away on that page in exchange for the potential customers name and email address (or just email address). This way, even if you don’t make the sale, you’ll still have permission to email them with content and other offers whenever you like, and the opportunity to build a relationship with people on the fence, who may just turn out to be your best customers.
9. Take advantage of photo ops.
   Use pictures to connect with people on Facebook. Always use store openings, special events or any live conferences or meetings to take photos. Then, put the photos up in your Facebook account and tag the people in them. You’ll be amazed at how much traffic you’ll get just from people sending their friends to your page to see their photos.
10. Create contests.
    People love contests, especially when they’re free to enter. So, create contests regularly and use them to get people to your Facebook page.
11. Get the AWeber app and add an optin box to your page.
    AWeber has now made it simple for you. If you use another autoresponder, you can still add an optin box using FBML code pages. Just go to your page and click on Apps. Add FBML app and place your autoresponder code in one of those pages. (You can create up to 10 extra tabs for your page that will hold code with this app.) Or, check to see if your autoresponder company has an app of its own. Build your list!
12. Integrate Twitter.
    There are multiple ways to send your tweets to Facebook, but an easy way is just to add the app “Twitter” to your Facebook account. It will automatically grab any tweet you make and send it to your Facebook profile.
13. Thank your fans.
    If you’re not a huge conglomerate, it’s probably not going to be too much of a time sink to thank the people who “like” your page. They will remember and come back to see what you’re up to again and again.
14. Create a new GMail account for your current customers.
    Load up the contact information that you have for them in GMail and use that account as your Facebook email address . Facebook will automatically contact your customers and invite them to your page.
15. Join groups in your niche.
    Networking with others of like mind can uncover some potential customers. Never market to them on Facebook! Just have conversations with folks, make friends, and inevitably, they’ll drop by your profile to check out your stuff.
16. Jumpstart the action.
    When you build a new page, ask your coworkers, family, and friends to “Like” your page. It’s kind of like bartenders salting the tip jar on the bar to make people think it’s impolite not to leave folded money. Social proof is often incentive enough to get others to participate.
17. Use polls and surveys.
    Not only is this a great way to get folks to participate, but it can be great market research for your business, as well.
18. Look at what your competitors are doing.
    See how you can do it better. Be the 007 of marketing in your niche.
19. Add Like buttons wherever you can.
    Having the ability for people to like and share blog posts, for example, is critical. But even if you’re an e-commerce site, be sure to add a Like button to you homepage and to your product pages.
20. Want more?
    Here is an amazing post by the Inside CRM Editors at Focus.com: “The Facebook Marketing Toolbox: 100 Tools and Tips to Tap the Facebook Customer Base,” which you’re bound to find amazingly helpful.

So, if you’ve been overlooking Facebook, I hope this article has opened your eyes. Social marketing has arrived, and using Facebook is one important way that you can ramp up your marketing power. If you don’t have an account (but then, who doesn’t?) get over there and open one today.

Set up a personal account for your friends and family, and a separate account for your business. Be sure to use both angles to promote what you’re doing and you will most definitely come out a winner — from all angles.

STOMPER Speed Boost

If you’ve been wishing you had a group of business minded friends that you could ask for help at any time, then I have exciting news!

That is exactly why we created the Stomper community where you Are Never Alone!

Everything you’ve been looking for is right here. Get the full story by clicking here.

SEO Secret Sauce

Want to know why Facebook is so important? Check out these stats:

• Facebook has more than 500 million active users.
• Half of them log into Facebook every single day.
• People spend 1.2 billion hours on Facebook every month.
• Facebook pages can be translated into 70 different languages on the site and 70% of users are outside the U. S.
• Every month, more than 250 million people engage with Facebook on external websites
• More than 2.5 million websites have integrated with Facebook
• Over 250 million active members use Facebook on a mobile device and access Facebook twice as much

(Facebook Stats from: http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics)

The STOMPER Buzz

“Vin Montello makes learning extremely fun and enjoyable. I listen to him no matter what because his information is fantastic and his delivery is awesome. I enjoy listening to him. He has the gift. … Vin is my favorite StomperNet faculty because of his entertaining style.” David Yuen

Free Live Webinars Next Week:

THURSDAY, May 26th, 2011 at 3:00pm Eastern

Public Webinar:  ”Hands on Business Building Follow-up” Follow up with Lee Vance. Topics will be on hands on business building techniques, including structuring a funnel using Groupon and similar tactics, as well as hands on on mobile marketing cases studies, and general Q&A. Register Now

THURSDAY, May 26th, 2011 at 8:00pm Eastern

Public Webinar:  ”"Become a Local Business Superhero” with Ross Denny. How to take local business to the next level (without the pain of outsourcing). Register Now

Public Webinar:  ”Hands on Business Building Follow-up” Follow up with Lee Vance. Topics will be on hands on business building techniques, including structuring a funnel using Groupon and similar tactics, as well as hands on on mobile marketing cases studies, and general Q&A. Register Now

Download Available:

Recording of  the “Hands-on Business Building” with Lee Vance from last week.  The number of requests for access to the replay was so HUGE we decided to forego our normal “replays are only for members” policy and make this replay available to the public – free of charge..

FLV / MOV / MP4

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Stompernet Blog

By Joan Stewart

If you have a brick-and-mortar business, or you have a client who does, generate foot traffic by using Yelp, the popular social media site that helps people share the best (and worst) of businesses like dentists, hair stylists and car mechanics.

Yelp allows users to contribute different kinds of content, including reviews, photos, events, private messages and more. It’s a powerful way to pull local customers and tourists into your store, build a loyal following, promote your events, and recruit volunteers for a local worthy cause. Here’s why:

•    As of November 2010, more than 39 million people per month visited Yelp.

•    Yelpers have written over 14 million local reviews, 83 percent of them rating a business 3 stars or higher.

•    In addition to reviews, people use Yelp to find events, special offers, lists and to talk with other Yelpers.

•    Every business owner (or manager) can set up a free account to post offers, photos and message customers.

Here are my Top 11 tips on how to use Yelp and respond to good or bad reviews.

1. Create your profile

This shows Yelp users who you are and where you’re located, etc.  Don’t include your birthday, however. Why make it easy for thieves to steal your identity?

2. Unlock your Business Page

This video shows how business owners can use the business tools.

For example, you should add photos to your listing. If you’re a coffee shop and you use an antique coffee grinder, say so, and include a photo.

Is your cafe a popular meeting spot for Meetup groups? That’s worth mentioning. And include photos, with their permission.

3. Add an Event

If you’re a local restaurant and you’re sponsoring a Meet the Chef night, let people know.  Don’t forget to take photos of as many in-store events as possible for sharing on Yelp and other sites.

4. Add Your Bio

Keep it fun. What’s your dream for your business? What’s the one thing that persuaded you to do what you’re doing? What’s the most rewarding part of the job?

5. Choose a Personal URL for Your Yelp Profile

People can easily get to your Yelp profile without remembering a long, complicated URL.

6. Offer Specials & Discounts

Encourage people to check out your listing by offering special discounts, special events or limited time offers on your page. Consider a special discount if a customer says “I saw you on Yelp.”
Yelp recently rolled out check-in offers, similar to Foursquare.

7. Recommend Other Businesses

Don’t just wait for the reviews to start rolling in for your own business. Review other businesses.

Don’t even think of wheeling and dealing and saying, “You write a good review for me and I’ll write a good one for you.” See the next item.

8. Don’t Solicit Good Reviews

Yelp has a filter that weeds out suspicious reviews. Besides, consumers are very wary of reviews that don’t sound authentic.

There’s nothing wrong with a sign in your shop that says “See us on Yelp for special discounts and other events.” But don’t suggest customers write positive reviews. If they have something good or bad to say, they will.

9. Respond to Reviews Publicly

A public response, particularly one that acknowledges problems and promises to make things better, shows that you appreciate the feedback and are committed to improving things for customers. It also gives you a chance to set the record straight if the negative review included errors.
By the way, Yelp won’t yank a bad review if you’re an advertiser. So don’t waste time asking.

10.  Also Respond to Reviews Privately

Responding privately to the person who posted a negative review can reap big dividends. Yelp says its users often change a negative review to a positive one after they receive a private response, especially an apology, from a business owner.
Don’t view negative reviews as always bad. These reviews flag problems that you might not otherwise know about, and they give you a chance to correct them before you lose business.

11. Publish Your Reviews to Facebook and Twitter

Log into your Yelp account, click on the “My Account” button, and then follow the instructions in the “External Services” tab.

How about hosting a fun event in your community for Yelpers? You’ll find lots of inspiration at the Yelp blog.

Joan Stewart, who has the #1 and #2 rankings on Google for “publicity expert,” shows you how to dovetail traditional and social media to promote any product, service, cause or issue.Her articles, interviews and commentary have been featured in more than 60 books on marketing, PR, publicity, small business and social media. She answers questions on Twitter at Twitter.com/PublicityHound and on Facebook at Facebook.com/publicitytips and publishes the popular weekly ezine, “The Publicity Hounds Tips of the Week.” Subscribe at PublicityHound.com and receive free the handy cheat sheet, “89 Reasons to Send a Press Release.” Contact her at jstewart@publicityhound.com.

===>  Download “Understanding Google Places” here! <===

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You will get great tips like this…and more…every month – and you can start right now for just $1.00!

Stompernet Blog

Sorry for the bit of French in the title there. Tout-suite means RIGHT NOW! And that’s when you should be using Twitter in your business: RIGHT NOW!

Today’s “Cheat Sheet” will give you StomperNet’s Twitter Tool Tips. (Say that 3 times fast!)

Stompernet Blog

This is IMPORTANT and you need to know about it RIGHT AWAY.

Tonight Facebook is staging one of the biggest virtual land grabs ever – the rush to claim your own name on Facebook.com.

You’ve heard of Internet Marketers claiming that the surge of traffic crashed their servers?

Well tonight there will be a server rush that has rarely, if ever, been duplicated on the Net. And you NEED to be part of it.

Right now if you want to send someone to your profile, you have to figure out a URL that looks something like this:

www.facebook.com/people/Your-Name/585946540
(That’s an inactive URL, BTW, so don’t click it.)

But wouldn’t you rather own www.facebook.com/yourname?

And this becomes even MORE important for Facebook Fan Pages (not your regular friend profiles, the pages you can set up to promote your business.) Can you imagine how devastating it would be to have someone else own your company name in Facebook?

In the past, it was easy to own your own name on Facebook, all you had to do was to spend a large amount with Facebook (think $50,000+ per month) or be a huge celebrity, and it was yours.

But starting tonight at midnight Eastern US time (that would be 9:00pm Pacific time) you can claim your name as a facebook URL. Plus, you can claim names for your business pages too.

But here’s the catch – it’s first come, first serve. Imagine a couple of hundred MILLION people all try to grab their name at the same time, and there will be some interesting server shenanigans occuring.

Here’s what to do.

Tonight at midnight US Eastern time, login to Facebook then go to http://www.facebook.com/username

You will see a form that will give you several suggested usernames, and the ability to choose your own. Either choose one of the names suggested or type in your own.

Repeat this process for any Facebook Fan Pages you administer, though there are three catches: first, your page must have over 1000 fans prior to May 31st 2009, you can’t claim something generic like travel or insurance, and you can’t claim someone else’s trademark.

In fact, if you have a registered trademark, I suggest you go to
http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=username_rights
right now to prevent others from grabbing your name.

If someone else has already has your name, get creative - add a period, or a dash, shorten it, lengthen it, or slap a number in there somewhere.

That’s the drill. I’ll be there at midnight, and I suggest you be there too.

And bring a book, the page refresh times may be really sllllloooooowwww.

Don Crowther
SMARTS Founder
StomperNet Faculty Member

Stompernet Blog

Before we get into Part 3, I wanted to let you know we’re going to be talking about Traffic Kahuna, which Jason Potash and
company are releasing today.

In the previous parts of this series, we focused on the idea that as internet marketers, we need to:

Stop building links, and start building connections.

We talked about how through creating connections between ideas, and developing relationships with site owners and bloggers, we can essentially take on a shepherd role in our niche markets. We can steer the tribes we target by helping them develop their niche interest.

If we use this strategy wisely and ethically, we can practically use OTHER people’s web properties as part of our own lead generating funnel.

We are no longer perceived as an outside force – like a door-to-door salesman imposing on their community.

We instead become a valued member of that community, associated not with marketing messages, but rather with being a valuable resource of information – as well as a provider of products and services.

See, by making our own connections in our marketplaces, we can capitalize on other people’s resources to do all kinds of things:

We can better educate consumers on our chosen topic, slowly turning them from someone with a mild interest into a hot prospect.

We can create an impression of expertise by portraying a consistent personality across multiple “tribal” sites in our niche markets.

And of course, let’s not forget that even though we’ve changed our thinking – we are actually STILL building links.

Now, if you’ve been following along, we recommended a f’ree tool called “Comment Kahuna” that when used correctly, can help you efficiently engage your chosen audience and save you a LOT of research time.

Well, the same folks that made “Comment Kahuna” are releasing a service today at noon called “Traffic Kahuna” and I think that it will prove to be an incredibly valuable resource for helping us create quality CONNECTIONS with our consumers AS WELL AS building quality links for the Search Engine spiders.

Remember how I spoke to you about how we can consider internet communities as “tribes” – small groups that cluster around common interests.

Well, what Jason and company have done is shepherded their own “tribe” around a common interest, just as I’ve been trying to teach you to do.

Their tribe consists of webmasters that collectively operate over 1000 websites and actively post to over 500 blogs.

And here’s where this tribe becomes valuable to you:

The common interest of all these site owners is a hunger for QUALITY CONTENT.

In exchange for this quality content, they’re willing to trade QUALITY real estate on their sites (pages that have a high PR) and they’re willing to give QUALITY one way links (with no “nofollow” tags).

Now, I’m sure you’ve seen this kind of “link building” network before, but the flaws in those systems were numerous.

The primary problem is that most of the blogs and sites in those networks were primarily owned by the network operators, and they existed ONLY as content billboards for their members.

The sites in those networks really had no traffic of their own, no communities of value that visited regularly.

Add to that the fact that the network operators were typically unwilling or unable to police the submissions from their customers.

So, what you ended up with were spammy sites, filled with unrelated, untargeted, duplicated posts, and worse – just crummy content.

Sure, you may have been able to get some limited benefit from those links as you’re essentially “tricking” the search spiders into thinking you’re popular with all those links.

Heck, it’s probably still working pretty well. But that’s a short term strategy. Over time, any PR value those network sites may have had is quickly leached away, and any REAL value you may have tried to provide is leached away and wasted as lazy, unethical marketers bury your stuff in worthless crap.

See, that old way was focused on getting LINKS, but had no thought at all towards building the kinds of valuable CONNECTIONS that web users actually want to see.

And that’s why Traffic Kahuna is different. Jason and crew KNOW the problems of using that old Web 1.0 “link-getting” model. After all, they’ve been using content syndication for the SEO benefit for years. They are recognized experts in that area.

Traffic Kahuna OVERCOMES all of those problems and it does it by providing a HUMAN-GUIDED focus on QUALITY.

See, the sites in the Traffic Kahuna network are all REAL sites with REAL audiences. They aren’t just billboards for plastering up whatever anyone feels like. All these sites have a real interest in maintaining their audiences by providing fresh, and VALUABLE content.

Because of that, an article, review, and link from THESE sites are for the long term. They won’t be buried by spam, because they will be part of a targeted resource aimed at SPECIFIC niche communities. These are sites built not just for spiders, but for TRIBES.

Webmasters have joined this network because they want to better serve their VISITORS. They are NOT just added by the network owners to provide a place for their customers to put more links.

Now, the Kahuna folks know that these webmasters are already busy, or else they wouldn’t have a need for an automated, QUALITY content solution.

And that’s why on the Kahuna side of this community there are actual GUIDELINES for quality content, ENFORCED by human editors.

Jason and the gang are FULLY COMMITTED to shepherding this tribe, and their aim is to BUILD QUALITY CONNECTIONS between marketers like you and me, and webmasters who already cater to the tribes we want to target.

In the same way that the f’ree Comment Kahuna tool allows you to find related blogs and post to them, Traffic Kahuna is going to allow you to bypass a lot of what I talked about in Part 2, and give you a DIRECT outlet to these valuable community sites.

You’ll have a centralized place to manage your content, and YOU decide where to place it and what links you want. Of course, you need to meet their guidelines for quality, but I’m assuming if you’ve kept up with this series, you know that quality is of the utmost importance anyway. I don’t think any of our readers are out to junk up the internet.

But here is the BIGGEST reason I think Traffic Kahuna will succeed – both in the short AND long term:

It’s because they NEED you.

And I don’t just mean that Jason and crew need your money to line their pockets.

You are HALF the equation - without marketers and vendors that have messages they want to spread, the network has NO VALUE for the “tribe” of content-hungry webmasters.

They are creating a real, mutually beneficial, symbiotic relationship – one built on an expectation of quality and trust. The very foundation of what they aim to do is JUST what I’ve been telling you.

They don’t sell links – they foster CONNECTIONS.

And if it was from anyone else but Jason Potash, I wouldn’t be so trusting that it could be pulled off.

Jason has the same attitude as I do – as ALL of StomperNet does – when it comes to content. Good marketing is about finding a group of people that want the same thing, and then giving it to them. And though SEO is one method of doing that by manipulating search results – the REAL focus should always include going to where the people ARE and interacting with them directly.

Traffic Kahuna aims to do that and MORE, and they open to the public today.

Now, don’t think that the f’ree Comment Kahuna tool was some sort of take-back. You can keep right on using that tool as long as you want. But if you are finding it valuable – do your business a favor and give Traffic Kahuna a shot.

This network has the same kinds of values that we used when building our exclusive StomperSCORE system, so if you’re not a StomperNet member, this is probably as close as you can get to having the same kind of benefit.

If you ARE a member of StomperNet – this service is going to augment whatever link and connection building you’re ALREADY doing, and hopefully it will save you valuable time and resources along the way!

Thanks for reading along with this series. If you missed Parts 1 and 2, please check them out here on the StomperBlog – and while you’re at it, leave us a comment. We’d love to hear what you think!

Until next time, Keep Stomping
~Andy Jenkins

P.S. Traffic Kahuna opened for a limited release already last January, and they sold out in 14 minutes. I’m not trying to make a scarcity play here, but with such a high focus on quality, Jason and co. may limit the amount of people they let in, so don’t wait too long. They open at NOON today.

Stompernet Blog

Note: This is Part 2 of a series – click here to see Part 1.

So, last time we talked about how you need to rethink your linking strategy to focus on building real connections rather than just plastering links all over creation.

Here’s a summary of how I think we can ethically and profitably build connections in our niches:

1. Identify “tribes” of people with common interests
that we want to target with our messaging.

2. Find the bloggers in those tribes who have
readership and influence, and who regularly write about
your niche topics.

3. Of those tribal blogs, identify the ones that will
also give you SEO benefit through linking (primarily,
blogs that don’t add rel=nofollow to links in their
comments).

4. Comment on these bloggers’ posts and REALLY
contribute and add value. Link not only to your own
resources on the subject, but help strengthen the tribe
itself by cross-linking these bloggers to each other.

That’s it. By practicing this kind of linking, you not only get the SEO benefit of keyword-rich links in your comments, but you visibly serve a community of active web users.

You strengthen tribal communities in your niche by connecting people to information they really want, whether you’re the source of that information or not.

On top of that, you will trigger really strong reciprocity and goodwill in the bloggers whose sites you contribute to regularly. You add value to THEIR sites with your comments, and you send THEM traffic by recommending their sites to other readers.

Pretty soon, the most visible and influential members of your target tribes are going to jump at the chance to work with you.

Here’s where we’ll take your new CONNECTION-building strategy to the next level.

We’re going to talk about Article Marketing. Now, I know most of you are already familiar with article marketing to some degree. But this (just like last time) will put a new and different spin on what you may have tried.

The most common article marketing practice involves placing articles up on major article directories like EzineArticles, GoArticles, and ArticleCity. And that’s great. If you’re already placing your niche articles there, keep doing it. If you’re not, you should start.

The main reason you want articles in those directories is because the search engines love them, and it’s quite likely your articles will rank for your keywords if you wrote them well. If those pages rank high, and they link back to you, it’s an instant SEO boost. It’s because of that SEO benefit that posting articles to directories is still a worthwhile and vital part of an SEO link-building strategy.

Now, some folks proclaim that by putting your stuff in these article directories, webmasters who need content will pick your stuff and publish it on their site or in an email newsletter, with your link intact. You get instant traffic! Hooray!

Well, the sad fact is that most of the time, your content WILL get picked up from article directories, but it’ll be unscrupulous webmasters who scrape out all your links and use their own. You may get an occasional ethical webmaster who really does use those directories according to the terms and conditions, but in my experience – it’s becoming rarer and rarer.

So, that being the case – YES – put articles on the directories – all the articles you have EXCEPT your very best ones.

Put the lower-end keyword-targeting stuff up on the directories, but reserve the long, feature-style human interest ones for your new allies.

That’s right – we’re going to take your best articles and approach your tribal bloggers (especially the ones with blogs that have some authority). If they’re active members of their tribes, and they’re active posters, they know it can get tough to come up with
good content to keep their readers happy.

If you’re already a solid contributor to their sites, now is the time to offer them a UNIQUE and UNPUBLISHED article for their site. They get free, high-quality material that their readers will value, and you get a byline with links back to your own site.

This is one of the most powerful traffic generation methods I know. Of course you get the machine-benefits of SEO in this case, because you’re getting your links on niche authority sites.

But the real benefit is that you are putting your best content in front of your most qualified audience, and while you’re at it, you’re building powerful alliances with influential members of your niche.

Do you think this sounds hard?

“How will I get all these guys to want to post my articles?”

You know what? You only need ONE to post for you. Then, you contact the other possible targets and either send an email to say,

“Hey – I wrote an article about blue widgets that your readers might like and John Doe over at the Widgets Blog was kind enough to publish it for me. I just thought I’d let you know so you can hook your readers up. If you’re interested in publishing any of my future articles about blue widgets, I’d love to speak to you about a unique, unpublished article I’m working on right now. Thanks!”

After you get the first one, the rest should be happy to line up to share in the f’ree quality content you want to provide to their readers.

So where can you go from here?

If you’re already regularly having your content published on different niche blogs, why not try to leverage for more prominent placement? Maybe work out a deal for a permanent homepage link? Why not seal a deal for a regular recurring spot so you can start to REALLY engage that blog’s audience?

Are you more worried about your bottom line rather than exposure?

If you have an affiliate program, do you think it would be hard to sign these publishers up? You’re already giving them great content – do you think they’d be opposed to getting paid to publish it? Some might, sure. But most of the time, you’ll have a much more friendship-based relationship with these guys rather than a business one.

And if they see they get paid for something they were already doing, I can almost guarantee that they’ll be more willing to mail for you or post for you every single time you ask.

Remember, you’ve been a long-time contributor by this point. You started with commenting, continued with unique content, and proceeded to full on linking and affiliate relationships.

If our last newsletter was about building connections instead of links, this newsletter is about cultivating and strengthening those connections.

You want to find all the sites that cater to your niche and weave your own stuff through them. And if you use a little brainpower, it’s not even that hard. You’re simply creating mutually beneficial situations, and everyone really does win!

We’re really going for the long-term strategies here – by really spending time in your niches, you get to know the players, and more importantly, they get to know YOU. You become the preferred provider of your product or service because you’re one of THEM. You’re a trusted and active member of their tribe – not some out-of-towner with a snake-oil pitch.

Never forget – markets are people.

What “Web 2.0″ is doing now more than ever is allowing those people to talk to each other, so find where they gather, and join the conversation.

Contribute regularly and wisely, and you’ll even begin to STEER some of those conversations your way.

If you cultivate the relationships you build through contributing, then your business will be the first and last name on the lips of your tribe when they decide to buy…

… or better yet, when they make a recommendation.

Until next time,
Keep Stomping,
~Andy Jenkins

P.S. Don’t forget to try out Comment Kahuna while you can. They’ve already released an updated version, and we’ve gotten a lot of great feedback on the StomperBlog from your fellow readers who have put this free tool to good use.

P.P.S. And of course, don’t forget to leave a comment – we’d love to hear what you think.

Stompernet Blog