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This Thursday's seminar is quickly filling up!
Reserve your seat today!

EduCyber Presents Growing Your Business on the Internet Series:
Thursday, July 23^rd
"How Blogs Will Change Your Business"
Click Here to Register Online >>>

Where: 4251 Kipling St.
Wheat Ridge, CO 80033
(2nd Floor Conference Room)
Time: 8:00 am - 9:30 am
Cost: $19.95

How Blogs Will Change Your Business

Business blogging has come a long way from being a day-to-day log of someone's life to becoming part of corporate and small business philosophy. You know a fad has become a standard business practice when an old, stodgy company like General Motors has blogs to communicate with customers and media alike.

So, okay, you're not GM. Time is a precious resource and you don't particularly want to go back to school to learn a new technology, even if it would help your business. How long does it take to get up and blogging? Give us 90 minutes...

Join social marketing expert Brian DeLaet of EduCyber for the inside scoop on how a blog can help you:

• Get more traffic to your website.
• Generate more interest in your products and services.
• Turn your customers into raving fans.

Frustrated in trying to get media coverage for your business? Get more publicity by blogging. Time-strapped reporters are using the internet to research their stories.

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EduCyber Presents Our First
Lunch Box Webinar:
August 18^th
"Using Social Media to Create a Circle of Raving Fans for your Business"
Click Here to Register Online >>>

Where: On-line
Time: 11:30 am - 1:00 pm MDT
Cost: $39.95

Join EduCyber, a leading technology company in Wheat Ridge Colorado for a webinar on August 18th. Learn how to use social media marketing websites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to connect with, and build a relationship with, the people most likely to buy your goods
and services.

Click Here to Register Online >>>

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EduCyber Presents Growing Your Business on the Internet Series:
August 27^th
"Web 2.0 Tools and
Tricks for Your
Business’ Success"
Click Here to Register Online >>>

Where: 4251 Kipling St.
Wheat Ridge, CO 80033
(2nd Floor Conference Room)
Time: 11:30 am - 1:00 pm
Cost: $19.95

• An office suite of software that you can save to Microsoft Office format. Plus hundreds of other freeware that do just about anything you need.
• Online collaborative tools – work with the people in your office or with others around the globe using calendars, groups, file sharing sites, and free conference
  call sites.
• Free blogging and
  website software.
• Free publicity tools.

Click Here to Register Online >>>

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Setting Goals for Social Media Marketing

Question 1 from 10 Essential Questions to Answer for Your Social Media Marketing Campaign:

What are my goals (What do I expect to get out of this)?

Often when talking to people about Social Media Marketing, I'm asked "how much time does it take?" To which I reply "What do you want to do?" It's that simple really. That's like asking the swimming coach how much time it will take to practice. Michael Phelps might get the answer of "8 hours a day" but for my daughter's lessons, it might be "2 hours a week". Are you going for multiple gold medals or are you going to learn the basics?

But of course many business owners are just beginning to wrap their heads around this thing called Social Media Marketing and what it means for their business. So what would be good goals? Here are some goals from clients that we've worked with:

• I want to have more than 200 fans on my corporate Facebook page.
• We will have a 30% increase in traffic to our web site through social media.
• I will have 5 new customers a month through LinkedIn.
• My workshops will expand from 15 people per workshop to 30 through social
  media marketing.
• Online sales will increase 22% through our social media efforts.
• I will double the number of subscribers to my newsletter.

Hopefully these goals will help you determine what your goals should be and then you'll be able to consider strategies and tactics to go about meeting your goal.

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Finding the Best Social Media Sites

What media (or sites) are best suited to my goal?

Once you have determined what your goals are, it is time to determine which social networking sites will best help you meet those goals. There are literally hundreds of social networking sites available to you. Outside of three or four though, they all are designed to serve specific niches. The major sites that are available are:

Facebook: Until recently we recommended Facebook primarily as a Business to Consumer web site for Social Media Marketing purposes. No longer. You can create your own "Page" for your business and invite your connections to become "Fans". When they become a fan, it appears on their profile which can get others to join and so on. Once established, you have the ability to interact with your fans, through posts to the page, events, importing your blog feed, and starting discussions.

Facebook can also be very good if your business targets consumers. One colleague who runs a travel company simply posted on his account about an upcoming overseas trip and got several new customers. The power of searching and matching makes Facebook powerful indeed. The matching comes in when Facebook suggests people you might know or other things you might like. As a business, you can target that matching by the kinds of content you write about. You can also try the Facebook Ads to target consumers.

LinkedIn: This site is definitely a business to business web site. If your goal is hiring people, LinkedIn could be a very good resource. It can also be a great way to connect with people in your industry or market so if your goal is to stay abreast of trends and innovations in your market, LinkedIn could be a good fit. We have found LinkedIn to be a very good way to stay on top of trends but also to connect with potential clients and with power partners. If extending your network beyond your physical reach is a goal, then this would be a good way to attack it. Basically, LinkedIn is an ideal social media site if your target is other businesses. It might also be within your goal if you need ot interact with others in your market segment.

Twitter: Twitter is still just a baby but is growing quickly. As such it is difficult to have long term goals for what you want to accomplish via this site. Having said that, we recommend it for both B2B and B2C purposes. If your goal is to get more exposure and learn of the latest trends it can be very helpful. If even 1/10 of the folks who claim they're making millions on Twitter are close to the truth, it can fit into a goal of increasing sales to consumers as well as reaching out to businesses and consultants that need your goods or services.

What other sites should you consider? Do a search for social networking websites and you'll find plenty of places to start but some other large ones include Plaxo, MySpace, Meetup and Ning. Another class of social media is social bookmarking. Sites to consider for bookmarking are StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit, Delicious and Technorati.

You can just jump in to Social Media Marketing but if you first determine your goals and then determine which sites will help you reach those goals, you will be more successful.

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Social Media Marketing: How Much Time Does it Take?

The third question in our 10 Essential Questions to Answer for Your Social Media Marketing Campaign series is "How much time am I able or willing to spend on marketing?"

The best answer I can give to that question is to use the swim teacher / coach analogy. "Coach, how long is it going to take?" you might ask. If you are nine years old and taking swimming lessons, three hours a week will probably be more than sufficient for you to learn the basics of swimming and put them into practice. If you are Michael Phelps however, the answer might be closer to 10 hours a day.

Basically the answer to this question depends on your answer to question #1. If your goal is to make a lot of money online, you will spend considerably more time than if your goal is to sell five books a month through your web site. Having said that, there are FOUR rules to keep your time productive:

1. Plan to spend more time up front to set up your account, learn the ropes, and build out your network.
2. When setting up your profile in Facebook or LinkedIn, create a separate document (in something like MS Word) to keep track of the different parts of your profile. This will save time when entering into new networks.
3. Log in at least THREE times a week to update your status and add new connections.
4. Keep your goals in front of you as you engage. There are some very interesting but non-productive facets to these networks that can draw you in unless you stay focused on why you're doing it in the first place.

Use these rules and stick with it. Those who engage in Social Media Marketing usually end up spending more time on it (not less) as they go because of the benefits.

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© 2008 EduCyber, Inc. This newsletter is brought to you by EduCyber, Inc. EduNotes can be viewed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week online at www.educyber.com/edunotes . Visit us on the web at www.educyber.com or call us at (303) 268-2245. Permission is hereby granted to redistribute all or part of this newsletter as long as this entire copyright
message is included.