4 Mistakes You MUST Avoid When Video Marketing on Facebook

admin    Facebook     Avoid, Facebook, Marketing, Mistakes, Must, video

Video marketing was once only used by very large companies; however thanks to the growth of various social network sites such as Facebook, and new advances in online technology such as being able to upload videos to the Internet, it is now possible for anyone, from companies to individual entrepreneurs to use video marketing on Facebook to maximize their earnings.

Facebook video marketing is now becoming extremely popular; however it seems that a lot of people really don’t know how to get the most out of their marketing campaigns. So, in order to help you convert as many of your viewers into paying customers as possible I have compiled a list of the most common problems and the 4 major mistakes that you need to avoid when using video marketing on Facebook.

1) One of the biggest mistakes that I constantly see are videos that do not clearly communicate what they are about within the first 5 – 10 seconds. You would guess that this is a mistake made only be people who are new to video marketing, but I see many marketing veterans producing Facebook videos that take an extremely long time to actually let the viewer know what they are about.

This is a major mistake because people today are incredibly busy, so they don’t want to have to watch 5 minutes of video before they find out what the video is about. When producing your video, you need to make sure that you tell your viewer exactly what the video is about, and why they should take the time to watch it. Remember, there is only one thing worse than having no one watch your Facebook video, and that is having someone who starts to watch it, but then stops after the first few minutes because they don’t know what you are telling about!

2) Another classic problem that I see in a lot on Facebook is when the video focuses on the person who made the video, instead of the viewer. For instance, if I was trying to promote my affiliate marketing program I may use sentences such as “My business is growing all the time!” or “I took advantage of this opportunity and now I am earning more money per month than ever before!”

These sentences focus on me; on how well my business is going and how I am a lot wealthier because of my business. This is incredibly boring for my viewers because it focuses on ME instead of THEM! In order to increase the success of your videos on Facebook it is important to appeal to your viewers.

For instance, a much better sentence to include in my video would be “You may be looking for an easy way to generate extra income, and my affiliate program can give you the chance to achieve this goal.” In this sentence the focus of the video is clearly on the viewer. Therefore it will grab their attention immediately and they will be much more susceptible to my message.

3) Another thing I see a lot on Facebook are videos just simply too long! Remember that people are busy, and therefore your video marketing needs to reflect this. Viewers want a short, sharp message that is straight to the point. It is no good making 20 minutes long video about your promotion because the chances are no one will watch it. Think more in terms of TV commercials – your video marketing on Facebook needs to get your message across quickly. Of course if you have a lot of information to cover then you may decide to make a series of videos which is a much better approach than producing one long video.

4) One of the final mistakes that always shocks me is that people always seem to wait until the very end of their video before they give out their website or email address. The aim of video marketing on Facebook is to get people interested in your promotion and get them to visit your website so that you can convert those interested viewers into paying consumers. It is always best to have your website address displayed somewhere for the entire video, perhaps across the bottom of the screen or in the top corner. Just make sure that your website address is always right there on the screen – this will really help to maximize the amount of traffic you can pull from your Facebook video marketing campaign.

So there we have it, the top 4 mistakes that I see time after time after time. By avoiding these mistakes, you will hopefully be able to produce a video marketing campaign on Facebook which is much more successful.

Do You Make These Traffic Mistakes in Social Media Marketing?

admin    Facebook     Marketing, Media, Mistakes, Social, These, Traffic

‘They’ told you that social media marketing is an awesome way to drive a boatload of free targeted traffic to your websites in record speed…

You have now spent weeks adding a huge list of potential buyers to your friends on Myspace, Facebook and Twitter. You’re telling all your friends about your wonderful products. But why haven’t YOU gotten the massive boost in website traffic that ‘they’ are getting. And why haven’t your friends become your buyers?

Why?

You need to realize this simple critical fact – Social networking sites are for SOCIALIZING! (Really?)

The millions of users who sign up to participate in these social networking sites DO NOT join with the intention to buy anything. They don’t expect to be sold to, and they don’t like people trying to sell them products. They’re just there to meet new, interesting people, make some friends and have some fun.

So how in the world are you ever going to sell to them then?

Get this; people don’t buy from businesses and corporations (Shock Horror)!

People buy from PEOPLE!

(This concept is especially important when marketing on social media sites.)

Yes! You want to add as many friends as you can. But make sure they’re not just a number to you, and you’re not just a number to them.

You need to first make friends and build relationships before you can throw some of your links and websites at them. You need to take a more SUBTLE and HUMAN approach when marketing on these sites. You need to be yourself. So tell people who you are, build that connection, and build trust. Get people to like you, and THEN they will buy from you.

So here’s the simple secret.

Are you ready?

Secret – You have to be a PERSON and not a BUSINESS!

Trouble with Twitter: Are You Making These Twitter Mistakes?

admin    Twitter     Making, Mistakes, These, Trouble, Twitter

Twitter might be Godsend to some, but it does not hold all the answers. Yes, micro blogging can be very addicting and fun, but that is precisely the trouble with Twitter. I’m sure a lot of teachers, parents, employers and maybe even spouses around the world agree with me on this one.

Twitter is known as the SMS of the Internet due to the limited amount of characters you can send to an exclusive group of followers. Still, that does not diminish the appeal of this social media one bit.

Here are some issues about Twitter to watch out for.

Trouble # 1 with Twitter: It’s virtually irresistible.

Many Twitter users admit that checking their Twitter account is one of the first things they’ll check when they turn their computer on.

While this does not exactly pose a problem when you’re at home, it is a different matter when you’re at work. Some companies have actually restricted Twitter sites on their employees’ computers because it hinders workflow.

Instead of composing filing documents into their respective folders, employees are twittering on their computers – maybe even twittering that they’re filing documents and then forgetting about actually doing it all together.

There’s nothing wrong with using Twitter. Just keep it in moderation, and not when you have a list of other more important tasks to attend to.

Trouble # 2 with Twitter: It’s a poor replacement.

Twitter also has a nasty habit of taking over meaningful conversations and reducing them to 140 characters.

Sure, it’s instant messaging in an attractive package, but Twittering thank you messages to the friends who attended your wedding is not the same as sending them thank you cards. In fact, it’s almost an insult to use Twitter to deal with such personal expressions of gratitude.

Sending Twitter messages to dear friends can be fun, but don’t use it to take care of personalized special messages.

Trouble # 3 with Twitter: It cannot promote your business single-handedly.

More and more people are using Twitter these days, but that doesn’t mean you can rely on it to single-handedly market and advertise your business for you. While Twitter marketing can be effective for your business, it cannot stand alone.  

It needs the support of other means of marketing and advertising. According to CEO of Zappos.com Tony Hsieh (via Copy Blogger), they do find Twitter an advantage to their business but they don’t necessarily use it for “driving immediate sales.”

Twitter helps spread the word around through followers – and can be extremely profitable as a marketing tool – but it should not be the sole backbone of your business.

The trouble with Twitter is that it is sometimes being used in unproductive ways. But as long as you know its limitations and proper usage, you can achieve amazingly profitable and productive results with Twitter.

Social Media Mistakes

admin    Social Media     Media, Mistakes, Social

With so much talk about social media these days, so many are jumping on board and trying it out. We are seeing some common mistakes out there and I thought it was important to address these mistakes to help eradicate them in the future.

Don’t get me wrong, there will be a learning curve – we all went through it (and I met some great people that helped me, and that I helped along the way) but the key is to learn up front to minimize errors!

So, here we go…

Mistake One: Completely Ignoring Social Media
Believe it or not there are still some people out there that are ignoring social media. They may be unsure of how to participate or maybe they just don’t have time to get involved. No matter what the reason, this is a big mistake. Social media continues to grow in popularity and in importance to internet users – the exact users you are trying to reach.

Mistake Two: Bare Profiles
If you don’t bother completing your profile people won’t be able to get to know you. It is also a sign to other users that you aren’t serious about participating on that site. Many spammers don’t bother to complete their profile and a blank profile has become a red flag.

Your profile should include a custom background when possible, a photo, contact information, and a list of interests to help people get to know you better.

Don’t be afraid to show some personality and let people really get to know you and your company and what you stand for.

Mistake Three: Faking It
We’ve all seen companies being ripped apart for trying to fake it in the social media world. They either hire someone to pretend to be them (it’s OK if staff, colleagues or team members participate, but to hire an unknown to play you, not cool!), or they make up personas or even fake customers posting positive feedback.

The truth is if you can’t invest the time to create an authentic social media profile, you shouldn’t bother creating one at all.

Mistake Four: Trying to Sell Users Instead of Listening
Social media isn’t about you selling, selling, selling. You are here to network, build trust, listen to what customers and prospects have to say. You want to hear customer concerns, to learn about them, to find out what gets them excited, what they like about your product, what they still want, etc.

Remember to be a good social media participant, which means listen before you speak. If you don’t, you risk being written off as yet another company that doesn’t know how to use social media and who is only interested in promoting themselves. Remember, you always have to add value to the communities you’re participating in – just remember its value for your customers, not yourself.

Mistake Five: Recycling
Don’t recycle old content and marketing materials on social media sites. Start new conversations, create new information to share. Granted, you’ll have some content that falls in the “oldie but goodie” category and that’s OK to share. Just try to keep things fresh.

Mistake Six: Launching, then Ignoring
Social media is similar to search engine optimization in that you can’t just set it and forget it. You need to participate and remain active, otherwise you have wasted your time initially setting things up.

If you want your customers to stay engaged, you have to keep producing great content yourself. Keep writing Blog posts, creating widgets and being active in the community. Social media is real work but when done properly it’s worth the effort.

So review your social media practices and make sure you aren’t making any of these mistakes. If you are, change course quickly and get yourself back on track.

The Worst SEO Mistakes You Can Make

admin    SEO     Mistakes, Worst

Everyone wants their websites to be search engine optimized, or SEO-friendly. However, there are some common errors that people make when they’re doing SEO work on their site, and these errors can actually cost them that highly coveted top ten ranking that everyone wants. Here are some things to avoid when doing SEO work on your website.

Remember the ALT tags! Almost every image on your website (not including the background and any images that serve as buttons and the like) needs to have ALT text. This is the text that shows up if the image doesn’t load. More importantly, however, it’s the text that tells search engines what the image is since the programs can’t actually see the picture. A good ALT tag will include two or three of your keywords, and it’s a great place to stick in extra keywords that the viewer will (hopefully, unless your image is missing) never see.

Don’t use the same title tag on every page of your site. While it may be easy to simply write one title for your homepage and then leave it on every page, this is another place where you’re losing out on a place to stick keywords. Vary the title for each page so that search engines will notice the difference, and try to include different keywords for different pages.

Avoid scripts! While Flash and the like are becoming more compatible with search engines, it’s still difficult for more search engines to see inside Flash objects. This means you’re losing places to put meta tags, ALT tags, and more.

Don’t just write for robots. While writing articles with a high keyword density might get your page ranked higher by the search engine, it’s going to send actual human readers away. They don’t want to read anything redundant or clumsy. “Our furniture store in London provides great furniture for London residents looking for furniture designed specifically for London” is going to either annoy readers or make them laugh at the horrible writing. Be sure your SEO phrases and such can be integrated into the text seamlessly so they don’t stand out and don’t over-use them.

Also, actually write your website text yourself (or hire someone to write it). Don’t plagiarize – don’t copy and paste text off of one website and put it on yours without making it clear where the text came from. Too much duplicate text on your page will be flagged by search engines.

Likewise, avoid any bad SEO practices like hidden text or keyword stuffing. Hidden text refers to adding a ton of keywords at the bottom of a website and then making them the same color as the background, effectively hiding them from viewers. Search engines still see them, however. In the past, this was a technique that did actually make search engines rank sites higher, but today’s robots are smart enough to recognize this technique and ignore it. Likewise, keyword stuffing, or making a webpage that’s almost nothing but keywords, raises a number of flags in search engine robots and may actually get your pages ranked lower.

Finally, make certain all of your links describe where they’re going. No one likes to click links that aren’t clearly described by the surrounding text or give a good idea of their target. Plus, links are another factor a search engine uses to determine site relevancy, so not clearly marking them is detrimental in several ways.

The Top 10 Online Marketing Mistakes Which Dooms Your Business

admin    Google     business, Dooms, Marketing, Mistakes, Online

Internet marketing is considered to be the most effective and vastly-exposed way to promote your business to the biggest majority of potential customers. The problem is that one small mistake in the way you advertise your venture online can jeopardize the whole process in a way that will make it difficult to gain creditability and exposure among customers again. Thanks to online marketing gurus and specialized marketing companies, you won’t have to experience severe mistakes; as most of the common mistakes are known and can be easily avoided by the help of those experts.

In the past decade, online marketing has been a field of testing by many marketing and advertising professionals. Due to the rapid changes in the conditions of the world, online marketing is changing faster. Everyday, new methods, techniques, and programs are made to enable business owners to make the most use of the online marketing phenomenon. But with each new thing comes new mistakes. Online marketing experts show the marketing mistakes that they have been victims to, so that we would be safe and know how to avoid them. There are hundreds of those mistakes, and we are going to list the ten most devastating mistakes which have been done in the past and caused a lot of losses and damages.

1. NOT LISTING YOUR BUSINESS WITH THE MAJOR SEARCH ENGINES

It is known among all the online marketing experts that more than 80% of traffic comes to a website from the search results of the major search engines like Google and Yahoo. Not taking advantage of these search engines will make you lose a lot of potential customers. There are dozens of ways to make the search engines recognize your business like Pay-Per-Click advertising and Search Engine Optimization, but the easiest way is just to submit your website address (URL) to them.

2. NOT USING VIRAL MARKETING

Viral marketing or word of mouth is the most cost-effective method to marketing your business online. It involves you giving away an e-book, newsletter or similar items to your visitors as a gift which will contain your website address and other ways to reach your business. This give-away can travel to unlimited number of people. This way you will make your customers advertise for you. Not fully utilizing this method in the right way will not spread the word about your business fast enough.

3. NOT COLLECTING EMAIL ADDRESS

Another great way for advertising is email marketing. You get the email address of who ever visits your website, and then email them a series of emails about you and/or your business on a timely basis. This way you will ensure that this visitor will respond to your offer one day if they don’t respond to it the first time.

4. BEING A SPAMMER OR A SCAMMER

The most hated people online are spammers. You can be one unintentionally. This happens when you chose to advertise through unauthorized ways and without permission. This occurs mostly in email marketing. Scammers are people who don’t deliver what they promised to.

5. USING THE WRONG CONTENT

Content is the most important factor determining the quality of your website. Using third grade content will damage the chances of your customers having interactions with what you are selling or offering them. High quality content with a little ”persuasion” through words inside your website will do the trick.

6. NOT RIDING THE WAVE

Online marketing approaches change almost daily. And not accepting the changes and not trying to develop your business strategy accordingly will make your business old fashioned and you will attract fewer customers.

7. TARGETING THE WRONG CUSTOMERS

You have to take into consideration the value of your business and what type of customers and which segment of the market you wish to reach. Doing this process in the wrong way online will leave you broke and crying.

8. USING THE WRONG ADVERTISING METHODS

Some people try to buy traffic, others use free advertising like classified ads to cut down advertising costs, many others uses Pay-Per-Click to achieve the highest exposure. Whatever method you choose, consider your advertising budget and the quality of the visitors the different types of advertising methods will produce. Using the wrong advertising methods will not help you achieve your required return on investment and eventually your business will be scoring losses instead of profits.

9. NOT TESTING AND TRACKING THE RESULTS OF YOUR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN

You have to be aware of how good or bad your marketing and advertising promotions are performing. You have to test the efficiency and the effectiveness of your advertising efforts. Tracking the results is essential to make the required modifications to your marketing campaigns.

10. TECHNICAL DEFECTS

Online users have to be aware of how the internet works. Using the wrong website templates, slow servers, slowly-uploading graphics, highly-advanced software and web applications, the wrong domain name, and non-secured web zones will cause you to lose most of your potential customers.

Well, there you have it, the top ten online marketing mistakes that could doom your business. Avoid these mistakes and watch your revenues soar.

5 Mistakes With Do-it-yourself SEO

admin    SEO     Doityourself, Mistakes

I look at a lot of sites on a daily basis. There is a lot of common problems I see on the sites. Some people may have tags establishment or misuse of tags that have no real purpose. I have compiled a list of the top 5 do-it-yourself SEO mistakes. It is safe to say that many do-it-yourselfers can have at least one of these errors on their sites. These should help you avoid these costly mistakes and often pull you in the ranks.

1) Keyword tag – Seo Services

A keyword is the beacon of keywords, but not for keywords. You can not just stuff this tag with keywords that your entire site is related. The tags must reflect the keywords only on that particular page, not the entire site and not all of the keywords you think your site could be searched. Also, you should not have more than 20 words in the tag. You should not repeat any word more than 3 times. If you sell tickets, for example, do not write: Broadway tickets, the circus tickets, hockey tickets, boxing tickets, and so forth. Do use Broadway, the circus, hockey, boxing, tickets and so forth.

2) Description tag – It is sometimes used as a replacement for or combined with a description tag. However, more and more people are using these keywords to stuff. Search engines like Google are interested in what is on the page. More specifically, what visitors can see. In my opinion, the abstract tag has no place on a site.

3) Description Tag – The idea behind this tag is to describe what the “page” is about. Keywords related to the page should be implemented as well. The limit on words should be 20 to 25. I see a lot of site owners stuffing this tag with keywords, or having a description that is just as long. Stay within these guidelines and you will be fine.

4) Title tag – This, I believe, is the most important tag. This is the first tag the search engine bed. He tells what the search engine of the “page” is about. Do not put your web address here. Do not add your company name at the beginning of this tag either. It should not exceed 60 characters.

5) Content-If you notice, I received comments on the relevance of the “page”, not your entire site. Each page has its own keywords. Tag the title tag, description and keywords. All these keywords should be the same. Add it to your content as well. Now your page should be fairly well optimized.

Why is it that the sites fall short? Simple, the content is not optimized. Search engines are, for the most part, pretty basic. You enter a search term and it retrieves sites containing those terms while also taking a number of other factors into account. So if your site does not have these terms, how will you find it? You will not. More to do with keywords and you will experience the same result, but for different reasons. Sometimes, while reading about SEO can be bad. Try too many tricks, tips or methods is like too many cooks spoil the soup. At the end, they may do more harm than good. These rules are very easy to be followed by all. And the doubt? Always consult or hire a professional SEO Expert.

Article Marketing Methods – Proper Keyword Research Is Soul of Successful Article Marketing Promotion – Top 2 Keyword Choice Mistakes

admin    Google     Article, Choice, Keyword, Marketing, Methods, Mistakes, Promotion, Proper, Research, Soul, Successful

Article marketing methods may vary from article to article marketer. But remember proper keyword research is the soul of every successful article marketing promotion. If you want to find out top 2 keyword mistakes made by some article marketers, then read on this article carefully. 

All article marketing methods should include professional keyword research. 

So Here Are Top 2 Keyword Mistakes Made By Some Article Marketers: 

1.    Using High-Competitive Keywords. 

I always wonder when I see affiliate marketing articles with high-competitive keywords. It is fool to believe that you will quickly rank on the 1st page of Google with such short-term, high-competitive keywords. Of course, you may refuse that these keywords generate highest traffic. I agree, but at best you can get only a minor part of that traffic, because big competitors have already been on the first page of Google for months or years. 

2.    Researching For Keywords Only on One Tool – Google Adwords Keyword Research.  

To find out the best low-competitive or even non-competitive keywords for your article marketing promotion should research on several tools instead of only one.  So here are my tips for proper keyword research: 

Google Adwords Tool 

First I use this tool to find out most profitable keywords for my affiliate campaigns. 

Yahoo Answers

Then I go to yahoo answers and search for related questions. The most asked questions are usually keyword rich. So I include these keywords in my list too. 

Amazon Products Description. 

My third little secret is looking through descriptions of Amazon’s bestseller products related to certain niche. 

Just try to avoid the above-mentioned 2 mistakes while implementing article marketing methods and you will see how successful you are with your article marketing promotion campaigns.

Social Media Marketing- the Top 10 Mistakes People Will Make in Social Media in 2009

admin    Social Media     2009, Marketing, Media, Mistakes, People, Social

Here we go again!

Another year and another great possibility! With the election of Obama to the presidency, there is Hope and all are looking for a great future.

But I am sitting here thinking of all the folks in social Media that are going to be frustrated again in their social Media marketing efforts. wondering why they are not getting the traction or friends that they thought they should. And the main reason is that they continue to make the same mistakes in Social Media as last year.

Are YOU going to do that- I sure hope not. You may not have the power of a Robert Scoble, or the personality of a Gary Vanyerchuck, or the mind of a Chris Brogan, or the networking focus of a Mari Smith or Coach Deb micek. Or even the amazing writing talent of a Scott Monty.

At least not yet.

But you CAN accelerate your Social Media Success this year by avoiding these top 10 mistakes made by people in Social media in 2009.

Ok…what are they?

1) Lack of Consistent Visibility.

You cannot make a path and create a presence in Social Media, without CONSISTENTLY being SEEN and HEARD with your message. Ask Carrie Wilkerson. Or Timothy Carter. NOT going to happen. That is why that you MSUT create a Presence on the web DAILY- and be seen and heard as part of the community. A tree does not grow part time. It must be consistent in it’s efforts. It is the saem with your Social Media marketing.

2) Focusing too much on being heard.

LISTEN first- THEN talk. Social Media is about Listening to what is being said- by your prospects and customers- and social media in general. You would never enter a party or social event and immediately start yelling out what you wanted to talk about.

Neither should you in Social Media. LISTEN and then LEARN- and then Let your voice be heard- ONLY as a part of the existing conversation. Your time to start the conversation will come.

3) Taking, instead of GIVING to the Social Media Community.

Ahhhhh- lots of takers out in the Web 2,0 world. But NOT YOU. GIVE first. Give Value. Give Suggestions. Give Advice. Give ideas. Give Encouragement. Give News. Give New Possibilities. Give Words of Gratitude. But do NOT take relentlessly. You will be shunned and labeled as such.

If you REALLY want to create powerful influence- GIVE. How does that work?

GIVE = Gain Influence Very Easily. Give FIRST – and you will never come in Second.

4) Not Joining groups.

Groups are where you can have some of the greatest growth and learning. I belong to a ton of groups. Why? Because of 2 reasons: 1) I learn a lot from other people. 2) I CONNECT with the folks in the group.

Groups are a “secret weapon” that you should use on as many social sites as you can. They will not only Enlarge you- but also the possibilities that the group can bring to your life.

5) Not attending Events.

Events ROCK. And you should be attending at leat 1 event a week to do 2 things: 1) Become more Visible. 2) To learn from people that know things you do not.

Events are what i call the “Hidden University” of social Media. You can learn a LOT and grow a lot from events.

Look at the events that interest you. And pick on event that mildly interests you. And see if you can learn something even from that event. I have an event journal. and every event that i attend- i keep a log of what was said so i can review it later. You may want to do the same.

6) Not enough VALUE in what they are doing.

Value RULES in Social Media. And we train on what we call “Surprising Value.” This is the type of Value that is so great and unexpected that it surprises the person that discovers it. Put More Value in your POSTS. Put more Value in your PODCASTS. Put more Value in your Conversations. Put more Value in your Articles. Put More Value in your Recommendations. Put More Value in YOU and what you bring to the Social Media table.

Value RULES. And the one with the MOST value at the end of the day- reigns.

7) Joining Too Many Social Media sites.

There are about 3,600 Social Media sites. You need maybe 5-7. You read that right. You need 5-7 PRIMARY Social Sites. Then you need maybe 25-30, or even 50 Secondary sites for Link Building and traffic purposes. The main sites that you should be a part of- is up to you. My ‘Big 7″ are facebook, twitter, youtube, LinkedIn, Stumbleupon, Plaxo, and Wordpress- along with mashable. These are the CORE of my Social Media Marketing.

Do I belong to more? Heavens yes- a LOT more’ but have automated those through ping.fm and other social software.

Do NOT try and be seen on a hundred sites. Facebook alone can keep you busy with over 200 million people. The same with myspace, or friendster. Master ONE site while mastering social media and then another, and then another, until you have YOUR “Big 7.” And then automate the rest.

Focusing too much on Monetizing Social Media.

Nothing wrong with monetization on the internet. We do it a LOT- and daily. But focusing too much on that in social media- is , well…not cool. People do not mind knowing about an offer, or new info product. But how about giving some VALUE first with it- then invite them to an event- and then at the end of the conference call or webinar-give them a chance to purchase your produst.

What do I see daily? Urls and messages SELLING SELLING SELLING! Whew- wish that would not happen so blatantly. It has gotten better, but if you have a great content rich info product- here is a novel idea: GIVE part of the info away FIRST’and let the person ASK you for the product if they like it.

Hmmm….that just might be an idea worth considering.

9) Thinking that You are Nobody and Social Media Success is for other people.

Ask Chris Brogan. Ask Scott Monty. Ask Alejandro Reyes. Ask Brian Solis. Ask Dave Taylor. Ask Shama Hyder. EVRYONE has a great possibility to becoming SOMEBODY in Social Media. THAT is the beauty of the culture. Everyone who contributes Value and Connection- is more than welcome to achieve whatever they want. Chris Brogan once had 10 readers of his blog. Now he has almost 40,000 people following him on twitter alone. Brian Clark of copyblogger fame once had 10 readers. So did Scoble. So did Monty. So did Shama. And the list is endless.

There is GREATNESS inside of you-and there is NO BETTER place than Social Media to unleash it upon the world. You ARE Somebody- and always have been. YOU are a Social Media Rockstar- in training!

10) Not Branding Yourself Strong Enough.

Branding is a tool that we all use in Social Media. It is WHO YOU ARE- and what people remember about you. It could be a phrase-”Just Do It (TM)”- or a slogan- “”We’ve Got You Covered.” Or even a questions- “Can You Hear me Now?” or just a Name-”Trump.”

You need to get a slogan or phrase that you can start wrapping in your messages. You need to get an image that speaks what you want the public to see and know. And you need to decide -what is the ONE THING I want people to think of FIRST- when they think of me and my company? THAT is the start of a good brand build. Do not be just another face in the web 2.0 world. Set yourself apart and above the fray with a brand that rocks. We teach what is called “Connection Branding” and we have saying:

“Do NOT just be known or remembered- become UNFORGETTABLE.” ™

THAT is what you need to do!

These are the top 10 mistakes people will make in Social Media in 2009. Yes, i Know there are others- but these are the ones that i see as the most prevalent in Social Media marketing.

blessings..doug firebaugh