Commuter Builds Network One Phone Call At A Time

Yesterday I had an interesting conversation with Daniel Johnson as he made his commute home from Dayton. Daniel is a new friend, whom I've never met, but I feel like I've known him for some time.

How is that possible? Never met him but feel like I've known him? I follow Daniel on Twitter. If you're not familiar with Twitter, I'll cover that in a future post. But let me just briefly say here Twitter is a part of the social media new wave, it's like online texting. Don't know what texting is? I don't think I can help you.

How'd I meet Daniel? Like I said, I've been following his tweets, or posts, whatever you want to call them. Every day, he commutes to work from Cincinnati to Dayton. For his drive home, he has started the Call Dan Game. He invites you to call him on his way home from work, just to chat. He's posted his cell phone number on his website.

Now the obvious is it makes Dan's commute home a little less boring. The not-so-obvious is he's building relationships with like minded people, one phone call at a time. And mostly, with people he's "met" through Twitter.

If you visit Daniel's website, you'll see a quote from Keith Ferrazi -

"If 80 percent of success is, as Woody Allen once said, just showing up, then 80 percent of building and maintaining relationships is just staying in touch." — Keith Ferrazzi, Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time, p. 181

Daniel is building and maintaining relationships as he commutes. I think that's pretty ingenious.

ABC's of Using Twitter More Effectively

Twitter is taking the social media network by storm. Although some are simply using Twitter as another instant message forum, internet marketers are finding that Twitter is a powerful marketing tool.

However, if you're going to use Twitter in your arsenal of marketing tools, you need to be careful how you use it.

From my experience, new internet marketers are in too big of a hurry. I recently made a post exclaiming, "Social media marketing is like dating, guys. Just hold hands on the first date".

Here's what I mean. Twitter is still a social media platform, first and foremost. Even though it can be a powerful marketing tool, you still have to make friends first. Getting in too big of a rush will turn fellow tweeters off. And they have a tendency to turn you off- by removing you from their follow list.

Take your time, use the Twitter platform to build relationships. Go slow, just like you're supposed to when you're dating. Here is a golden tip: If you choose to send a new follower a Direct Message (DM), please don't include a link to an affiliate product! By including affiliate links in your welcome DM, that tells your new follower is "all I wanna do is make a buck off you".

I my opinion, you should use links sparingly and with caution. In my welcome message, I include a link to my website. I don't offer a free gift or anything related to marketing. I just want my new follower to know I appreciate them choosing to follow my tweets. My website link is included if they want to learn more about me. And, according to my weblog, more than 50% do choose to visit and take a look at who I am.

Go slow, build relationships and have fun. That's what social media marketing is all about.

500 Twitter Followers in 36 Hours

Social media marketing is hot right now and it's here to stay. You've probably heard of Twitter, its been around for nearly 2 years and is gaining much popularity among marketers and business people from around the world.

I've written an article how I got 500 followers in 36 hours on Twitter. In order to save space and time, its located on my website here:

500 Twitter Followers in 36 Hours

You can visit my Twitter page here: @david_tinney

Marketing Will Save Your Business's Butt

There is no doubt we are in the midst of tough economic times. Unfortunately, thousands of businesses, both large and small, will fail during this time. But you're business doesn't have to be one of them.

Many business owners will have a knee-jerk reaction to the economic climate. They will start cutting expenses in order to keep the cash flow moving. In general, that's a good idea, provided the cuts don't effect what keeps bringing the customers in: marketing.

It's too easy to slash the marketing budget in order to save during difficult times. For many companies, marketing is a large expense so it's an easy item to slash. But this is a recipe for disaster.

If you've been in business for any length of time, you should know where your customers are coming from. Tell me, by what marketing methods are your customers coming to you? You better know.

During tough times, the pool of customers shrinks, so why would you choose to stop attracting customers? Your best bet would be to increase your marketing to make sure you continue to get your share of the available customers.

This is why you need to measure your marketing. That means you know how your customers are coming to you and which marketing methods are working to bring them to you.

In one of my businesses, billboards have been very successful attracting new customers. Another fruitful marketing tool has been referrals from existing customers. These are two areas of marketing that I will not slash, in fact, I'll take steps to increase them.

Yes, you need to cut the fat out of your expense budget, but don't cut marketing budget that feeds you.

Sliced bread & other marketing delights

Legendary marketer Seth Godin talks about sliced bread and other ways to successfully market your business. BTW, did you know that sliced bread was totally unsuccessful for the first 15 years of its marketing life? You're gonna love this short video!