Social Networking sites, such as Twitter, Facebook and Myspace, are often hyped up as the best way to market your business. Whether this is the case or not will depend largely on the nature of your business and who your potential customers are.

Social networks could be a fantastic way to keep in touch with your customer base and build a solid relationship with them. They could also be a complete waste of time for your particular business and actually drive people away from you.

Just because joining these networks is free and they seem to be the next big thing doesn’t mean that you have to be involved. It may be worth diving in, it may be worth having a token presence, or it may be worth avoiding them altogether and focussing your resources elsewhere.

Anyway, if you think that they’re a good fit with your business here are a few tips to help you get the most from them.

1. Only join the sites which are the best fit. Different social networking sites attract different demographics. Don’t waste your time by joining those which don’t really suit your business. Instead focus on a few that do.

2. Take part in the community – get involved in conversations, offer advice, share in the humour. basically be a person instead of a business. In other words be ’social’ and don’t just spam the hell out your friends. Share stuff, report the news, join the discussion.

3. Be polite and professional – don’t get involved in mud-slinging and arguments. Always conduct yourself well and protect your reputation.

4. Participate regularly, daily if possible. make it part of your routine. You don’t have to be on these sites 24/7 but you should be active and post frequent updates, respond to friend requests, answer questions and persoanl messages etc.

5. Don’t be too hypey or salesy. People go on these sites mainly to relax and unwind, they don’t want to be hit with your sales message every time they hear from you. Some self-promotion is fine, but don’t overdo it. Play it cool, keep it indirect and friendly and fly under the radar. If you do that then people will find you when they want what you have to offer.

Social networks can be a fun and effective way of connecting with your customers and growing your business. If they are a good fit for your business then give them a go, but don’t neglect other methods of promotion.

Good question.

If you spend a couple of hours looking around you’ll no doubt be able to find a few ways to enable you to build your own website. Some of them may even be pretty good.

If you know what you’re doing online, know the basics of SEO, good web design and are comfortable writing clear and compelling copy then maybe you should just spend a few hours knocking up something half decent yourself. It’ll save you a few quid (depending on how much you value your time) and you should end up with something you like, or at least can live with.

On the other hand you may want to save yourself the hassle of going through that learning curve and all the associated niggles and get somebody to do it for you. This also means that you get to spend your time on your core business activities to bring in some more money.

It can be false economy to try and set up your website yourself. Just as you are no doubt a specialist in your chosen business area, a good web designer will be able to build you a far superior site than any you could create from scratch in a few hours. They have already gone through the learning process, learned how to do the important things well and how to avoid the pitfalls that the beginner will not be aware of.

A good website is more than just one that looks nice. It has to be lean and robust behind the scenes, whilst also doing the best it possibly can to boost your sales at the front. This means using tried and tested marketing techniques to grab your visitors’ attention and get them to act. A pretty site with your logo and some nondescript corporate nonsense on it just won’t cut it, regardless of what your branding consultant and super-slick web designer might tell you.

Unless you are on a really tight budget my advice would be to seek the advice from somebody who really understands both marketing and good web design. They should be able to tell you what type of site is best suited for your business and build it for you. On the web, one size does NOt fit all.

Depending on my schedule I may be able to help – to find out click on the ‘Contact’ tab at the top of the page and get in touch.

One of the keys to success in any area is focus.

If you’re being distracted by too many things you end up not doing well with any of them. Before you know it your efforts are diluted and you find yourself busy achieving nothing.

I recognize this as one of my biggest challenges and so periodically review what I spend my time on and then ruthlessly purge as much of the unnecessary as I can. It’s the only way I can get anything done.

The need to focus applies at all levels, no matter what you are trying to achieve.

It’s best to work on one project at a time and complete it before you move onto the next. You get much more done and need less time to do so.

If you are selling something it is best to focus on the needs and desires of one specific target market, rather than trying to promote it to whoever may be passing. This may mean you end up alienating some other group of people but this is a good thing.

When you’re setting up an adwords campaign it’s best to have tightly focussed keyword groups (more on this tomorrow).

What’s distracting you right now? What do you need to focus on?

When creating a new ad, whatever form it may take, the first thing to consider is what you want it to do.

If you don’t know this, how are you going to create it to bring in results? This may sound obvious, but I see too many bad adverts to assume that everybody understands this.

Who is that your advertising aimed at? What do you want them to do after seeing it?

Are you trying to get your prospects to call you for a chat? Are you offering them a free gift to sign up at your website? Do you want them to drop by your store in person to view your new range of products? Are you trying to sell them something directly from the advert?

You need to be very clear on this.

Now your whole advert is going to be created with this, and this alone, in mind. You don’t want your ad to be vague or confusing.

Always ask yourself, what is the ONE purpose of my ad?

If you want more information on how to create an effective ad, sign up to my email newsletter today and I’ll send you the free report I wrote to guide you through this.

All businesses want new customers. There’s a constant drive to find more people to sell your stuff to.

What happens once that lead becomes a customer by buying your stuff? Here’s where lots of businesses miss a trick – they neglect existing customers to focus on chasing new leads. Sure, if they want to buy something again they’ll take the order, but to some extent they’ll start taking them for granted.

This is a huge mistake.

It costs more to find and acquire a new customer than it does to follow up with and look after an existing one. As long as you’ve done a good job and delivered what you said you would, you should have a good relationship with them too.

How about talking to them about their requirements and sending them an offer tailored to their specific needs?

What about arranging a joint venture with another business in a related field and sending their offer to your customers in return for a healthy commission?

Don’t ignore the customers you have already got – find ways to help them and build a relationship with them and you’ll reap the rewards for sure.

I’ve done a few website critiques recently and one of the things that has struck me is the images being used.

They were mostly the standard kind of professional, corporate looking pictures that you find on thousands and thousands of sites across the web. Sure, they look all neat and polished but they bring virtually nothing to the site.

You know the kind I mean – people in suits smiling, people shaking hands, smart looking banners with pictures of computers on.

It’s all very bland.

Because they are so generic and meaningless they just don’t register. They have zero impact – they just wash over you.

They become invisible. Your site becomes invisible.

If you are relying on standard images like this then you are effectively saying that your site is just like all the others out there. It’s the same when you design a glossy ad or leaflet that looks just like everybody else’s.

You are saying that you are not unique, that you have nothing different to offer.

You fade into the background.

It’s for this reason that ugly looking sites and ads often out-perform slick, corporate looking ones. They grab attention because they stand out from everything else. They also seem more personal.

If you want to be invisible, just do the same as everybody else.

If you want to be noticed, do something different.