Work Yourself Up!

Social Networking Takes Your Reader Relationship to a New Level

Whoever said that social networking was no good for business, never tried it before. Giving your readers another arena in which to see you active is one way to build a relationship with them.

Before you begin using social networking, beware. It is highly addictive. There are many advantages for you and your readers.

Social Networks

Have you heard of Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter? So have your readers. They probably use them for social interaction with friends and family, but you can show them how to use it for business.

Begin by setting up a business and personal space on these sites. You probably already have a personal space on many, but business will be something new.

Facebook

Facebook is a versatile tool for keeping your readers informed about you and your activities. Use a business page to list new conferences you will be attending, podcasts you are hosting, and the names of blogs where you will be guest posting. Readers, that find you here, can sign up to listen to live podcasts, follow you to the guest blogs and also invite you to their events.

If there is a question they want to ask, let's say about how to start a business or how to troubleshoot a problem, they can talk with you wall-to-wall in private to get advice. Through Facebook, you can offer free classes, e-courses and other tools to those who opt-in for different services on your website. Also, let your readers be part of virtual focus groups to help you test new ideas.

YouTube

If you have a new product that needs feedback, post a video on YouTube. Readers and others can post their comments on your work. Use it as a forum to demonstrate products or services and also to tout the advantages of buying from you.

Twitter

Do you send tweets? If you do, use them to communicate with readers about new things you are doing. They can get up-to-date information about not only the business but also personal info you want to share.

Create a separate business and personal account so that you can manage both. If you find readers or customers who have potential as business associates and the like, you can choose to give them access to your personal space as well.

Social networking sites are just another way for readers to see you in action away from the office. You can build a rapport with readers too by unveiling new products and services to them there.

Visit Reader Blogs and Get to Know Them

Readers visit your website each day. They are there for information to start. They may keep coming back because of your charm and wit or to get to know you before they try your product or service offerings. Let them know that you are real person by returning the favor and visiting them too.

Everyone is a REAL person but not everyone comes off like they are. Business owners who intentionally stay aloof from their readership set themselves up for all sorts of scathing comments. They are like royalty in ivory towers - high and unreachable.

You are one part of the business equation. Your readers (potential customers) are the other part. Without traffic, you can't hope to make a sale. Unless you build relationships with the readers, they won't see any reason to stay loyal to you.

Blogging

Chances are, at least one third of your readers have some sort of presence in cyberspace. More than likely it will be a blog. They may be professional bloggers, recreational bloggers or online entrepreneurs like you.

One way to get to know them is to visit their sites. If you have your own blog for your business, have a category devoted to reader news. Offer free products or discount coupons when they volunteer to give their blog or website address to you.

Next, visit their blogs. Read what they have to say and the kind of topics they talk about. Leave helpful comments that show you actually read the posts and not just wishy-washy "I came to visit you to say hello." Really get involved.

If you have an RSS reader, you can include all of their sites in it so that you will be notified when there are new updates. Participate just like any other follower of the site. They will recognize your name.

Sites, that you like, will benefit when you link back to them on your site. Organic links rank higher in search engine eyes than simply doing each other a favor and exchanging links. On your blog, you can post reviews of their blogs or just write posts that highlight each one. This is essentially a review without calling it that.

Interacting with your readers and getting to know them in this way is mutually beneficial. Those organic links work both ways. Besides, you never know who will hear about your business through these comments and other relationship building techniques.

List Building with Freebies

Everyone loves to get something for free - as long as there are no strings attached. You can build your list with freebies to garner interest for the products that you are selling or promoting. You might be asking, "How does giving away free stuff make me any money?" Keep reading and you'll see the benefits now and in the long run.

Return on Your Investment

The term "return on investment" or ROI is often used with real estate, but it plays a huge part in business too. When you buy something, you want to make sure that when you decide to sell it, you get more out of it than you put into it. Something similar happens to your business when you give away free products.

Free products are a way to get your foot in the door with potential customers. You want something from them - their information. This is not trickery, but an attempt to gain an opportunity to tell them about the product or service that you offer that can change their lives. If no one will listen, they will never know how wonderful your business is after all. It's also one way to find out WHO is interested in what you have to offer. Be aware however, that just because they sign up to receive your freebie doesn't mean they will automatically become a paying customer. As much as we all wish only those with open wallets would buy from us, there are those who will only stick around long enough to take your free offer then run. It's ok - those who are genuinely interested in what you have to say, will stick around. Those are the ones you want anyway.

Types of Freebies

Free items can take many forms. Before choosing an item to offer for free, consider what you will gain (or lose) if someone does or doesn't come back later to patronize your business. When you are working to define your niche market, think about offering smaller items like special reports.

If you are a writer as well as a businessperson, creating a special report on your chosen topic may take you a day or two. Since you have taken the time to research your niche, you know that you want to offer your product (let's say lingerie) to older women. Your research showed that lingerie that is sexy and cute is only marketed to twenty-something or thirty-something women, leaving older women out of the demographics. Offer a free report on choosing age-appropriate lingerie to help build a targeted list of potential customers.

Think Long Term When Designing Your Offer

The object here is not quick cash but long term sales. If you get 100 names from this one freebie, at least half may come back for another look. It's important to note, that whatever you say in your reports you bear out in your product or on your website. Case in point, if you suggest black teddies for women over fifty, they had better be in your store if that age group is your target audience.

Freebies can be downloadable or tangible products. The main goal is to meet the needs of the visitors with something that will entice them to give you their information for your list. From there, you can follow up with more information to build a relationship that converts that visitor to a customer.

Customer Service Makes Readers Feel Appreciated

It is incredible how a person's opinion can turn on the smallest thing. In online business, that would be customer service. It can set you apart from other businesses of a similar nature. It builds a trust-based relationship with your readers and potential customers.

What is Customer Service?

A reader signs up for newsletters or your affiliate program. Days go by before they receive a confirmation of your receipt of their request or they receive any information. That reader decides to withdraw their request because you have become "persona non grata."

It is important to follow through on the offers you make to readers and customers alike. That is why they came to you in the first place. Doing your part helps them make the decision to stay.

Just like in a store, no one wants to wander around aimlessly without support. If you have to ask for the helps to help you then the point has been missed. It is the job of the business owner to be available in case they are needed.

How to Provide Good Customer Service

Now, it would be unrealistic to think that you will sit at your computer 24/7 waiting for a reader to ask a question. What you can do is put processes in place so that someone or something is there 24/7 to be available for any eventuality.

Examples of these processes:

- Auto-responder messages
- Scheduled newsletter deliver
- FAQ page that is always updated
- User-friendly tabs, site map and links to get around the website with ease
- Answering service
- Virtual assistant

Even when you can't be available personally, you know that your readers and customers are taken care of. Example: If you have an affiliate program, include enough links and information for readers to understand what you are all about and how they can sign up. Sign up forms need only include pertinent information so they are as simple as possible to complete.

When you have time, go through your email messages for those whose question didn't fit one of the recorded categories on your "Contact Us" page. The auto-responder message for them gives you an additional 24 to get back to the reader with the information requested.

Prompt service tells people that you are concerned about their business. You value their input and want to keep them happy. Customer serviced is a big part of building a healthy long-lasting relationship with your readers.

What Site Stats Can Tell You

Why do some websites do well and others just crest for a while and then sink under the surf? It could be the big picture view. Website statistics can teach you a lot about how your online business is doing. Take a minute and look at those stats.

Getting Set Up

When you roll out your website, it is going to be important to monitor your progress. You can't visit the site every day. You may want to but there are other tasks to tend to. Besides, if you automate most everything, your site will be able to run itself with very little interference from you except for site upkeep and adding new content and products.

This will require a well thought out plan on your part. Basic to that plan is a way to measure what goes on during the course of a day on your site. People visit, read articles, click on ads, view products and use the shopping cart. Each of these activities will help you to determine how your business will proceed in the months and years ahead.

You can add files to your web page yourself to capture certain stats. An easier step would be to get involved with a website stats program to do the work for you. Choose something like Google Analytics. If you already use other Google services to help promote your business then you are already familiar with the variety of tools they can offer you.

Google Analytics lets you analyze several things:

- Traffic
- Marketing strategies (ads)
- Keywords
- Conversion rates

This is only a sampling. You sign up and the program will walk you through the rest of what you need to get be ready for business.

Making Changes

Now that you have a way to track changes on your website, it's time to see how they can help you over not using anything at all.

- Improve Keyword Optimization - The keywords that you decided to use may all not perform well. Using stats on page views and visitors, you can tell which of your keywords is bringing in the most traffic. For the ones that are not, consider exchanging keywords on that web page and see how that might improve sales.

- Improve your Content Offerings - The low number of page views for a specific page could signify that people aren't finding your content on the first page of search engine results. Take another look at your content. Is your keyword density within the right range? Are you using too many? Search engines don't look kindly to keyword stuffing and will not rank your work favorably. With content, provide useful information using only as many words as you need to get your point across.

What are your site stats telling you? Remember to change one parameter at a time to find the right mix that will help your website succeed.