ScottFox.com - Internet Riches - e-Riches 2.0

Ask Scott Fox? Win my new book!

Do you have a question for me?  Can I help you with your online marketing dilemmas or e-commerce strategy questions?  Send me a question!

One of my New Year's resolutions was to shoot and share more videos. I'm off to a good start with some video testing I've been doing for a new "Scott Fox Show".

This is good news for you because an important part of this new show I'm testing is the opportunity to answer more reader questions LIVE.  This new "TV show" format will let me give you longer, more detailed answers than I can in my blog, so I hope you'll tune in.

To email me a question, please visit this page:  http://www.scottfox.com/ask-scott-fox.html

Win e-Riches 2.0: Next Generation Online Marketing Strategies
Plus, everyone who asks a question is automatically entered into a drawing to win a copy of my latest online marketing book, e-Riches 2.0! 

Send me a question here now- and then please join me LIVE on camera at www.ScottFoxShow.com on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 2pm ET (11am PT / 7PM GMT) for your answers!

Video: 2 Best Free Social Media Marketing Tools

Here's a short video explaining the 2 tools I find most valuable for successfully organizing social media marketing today.

A reporter from a major national magazine recently asked me about how to organize your social media marketing efforts.  Our conversation got me thinking, so I recorded this video for you as part of my new Scott Fox Online Marketing Show.

The video includes details of how I use RSS feeds and Tweetdeck to distribute my product presence across social media, including automatic distribution of updates to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and more.

  What do you think of these tips? Are you using RSS feeds like this?  How about Tweetdeck - is it working for you?   Please let me know in the Comments below.

[If you liked this video, subscribe to my channel at YouTube here.]

Disclosure Reminder

The FTC would like us to remind you that Scott Fox, The Liminal Institute, Click Millionaires, and associated persons or businesses may have content, promotional, advertising, customer, consulting, or equity relationships with the entities discussed or recommended on this web site. Many of the links on our web sites and in associated materials contain affiliate advertising codes, for example.

While efforts have been made to identify the best suppliers/vendors in each of these areas, we assume no liability for your use of them. You should use your own independent judgment to evaluate their services and fit for your needs.

Please see the Legal & Disclosures section for more details.

Marks, graphics, and names are property of their respective owners, as appropriate.

Small Business Radio Advocates for our Tweetathon

I was up early this morning to promote the 12 Days of Christmas Tweetathon on the radio.

I was pleased to be a guest again on my friend Jim Blasingame's nationally-syndicated "Small Business Advocate" radio program.  You can listen below to either of the 2 segments we broadcast together.

The first segment is about this week's Tweetathon promotions using Twitter.com, and the second is about best practices for putting social media to work for your business online.

SEGMENT ONE

SEGMENT TWO

Thanks to Jim and his team for booking me again, and for Jim's generous donation of prizes for the Tweetathon:  copies of his books Small Business is Like a Bunch of Bananas and Three Minutes to Success.

If YOU would like to win a copy of one of Jim's books, join us during the final days of the Tweetathon this week daily at 3pm ET at www.ScottFoxShow.com. 

Twitter: My Quick Video guide to Twitter Marketing Success

Twitter is a great online marketing tool.  But it gets a bad rap in the media because a lot of people don't understand how to use Twitter properly.

Twitter is not about sharing what you had for breakfast.  Or is it? 

Learn how to use Twitter Better for Marketing
Watch this short fre-e video for my best strategy advice on how to use Twitter to market your business online today.

 

Tips in this Twitter video can help you improve your online marketing by paying attention to the expectations of your readers. This will help you attract more Twitter followers and turn Twitter into a strong marketing channel for your online business.

Follow me at http://www.twitter.com/scott_fox today!  I'll follow you back so we can get acquainted. 

And you can find more advice from me about how to best use Twitter here.

What do you think?  Does my advice for Twitter best practices match your experience?

For more of my free advice on Twitter Success Strategies, check out these other popular Twitter blog posts:

* Why Twitter Auto-Follows Are Stupid

* 4 Easy Ways to Find Valuable Twitterers to Follow for Your Business

* 20 People I Follow on Twitter and Why

* 4 Annoying Myths About How to Use Twitter for Business (my most popular post EVER!)

* Twitter "Gurus" Please Stop Whining!

Or, just subscribe to my blog updates by email free!  Thanks for visiting!

[If you liked this video, subscribe to my channel at YouTube here.]

Podcast: How to Market Your Off-line Business Online with Social Media

How can an old school "bricks and mortar" business like a hotel take advantage of new social media marketing tools to attract more customers?

Adam Wallace of New York's Roger Smith Hotel joins Scott Fox's E-Commerce Success Radio Show to discuss how their New York City hotel is profiting from online marketing strategies.   These are great lessons for YOU if your business is looking to expand its real world customer base to make more money online.

Click to listen free for highlights including:

• Facebook, Twitter, blogging, and email marketing strategies to leverage your real world customer community into increased sales 
• The importance of integrating social media marketing with traditional marketing
• Tactics for attracting more Twitter followers and more real world customers
• Cross-over strategies for leveraging your existing customer base into a successful social network "Reputation Cloud" that encourages positive word of mouth marketing
• My analysis of these online marketing strategies for YOU.

You can also download the MP3 of this broadcast here.

Check out the FR-EE Archive of E-Commerce Success Radio Show podcasts here.There are great MP3 downloads about Facebook Marketing, Public Relations Strategies, Google Adwords, Article Marketing, Web Copywriting, Online Video viral promotions, and more! 

Sponsored by ClickMillionaires.com, these podcasts are informative and fr-e-e interviews that can help YOU build your business online!

Video: Ask Scott Fox Live Office Hours Q&A

Thank you for your great questions during my live "Video Office Hours" show.

Watch this fre-e 1/2 hour video where I answer questions about Twitter, how to get started with Google Adwords, measuring e-commerce sales conversion, SEO, niche online marketing strategies, how to hire the "right" web designer for your e-business, and much more.

 

  [Update:  The first 3 minutes of video has no audio - just skip to 3:30 to hear the rest!]     You can join the fun next time, too.  Just watch my blog and follow me on Twitter to hear about the time for next week's session, too.
Or, join Click Millionaires today to participate in the private Video Office Hours for members only.  (Free trial offer here.)  

13 New Twitter Bits

Here is my latest collection of interesting, helpful, and entertaining Twitter "tweets".  Click on any of these links to keep up with the latest in e-commerce and online marketing news and gossip:

* 10 Practical Small Business SEO and SEM Marketing Tips http://bit.ly/gZsUT

* VentureNet 2009: Your 1 day pass to the future of SoCal technology. Please join us 10/7 at South Coast Plaza www.venturenet.org

* BUSTED: Burglar Arrested After Checking Facebook During Robbery http://bit.ly/10wsMO

* New Click Millionaires members! CA, UK, Sydney, NY, Turkey, Costa Rica, FL, S. Carolina, and more! http://is.gd/3nUoA for free trial!

* finally the PC industry starts to simplify its consumer marketing. from @NYTimes: http://is.gd/3c1kH it's about time guys!

* Facebook Activities Haunting Job Seekers - Careers http://bit.ly/1IQTDG

* 3 Easy PR and Press Coverage Tips for Your Blog: Dear Scott: I am writing a food blog that I am v.. http://bit.ly/3HOizp

* Seth Godin says "Pay for Stuff" (Sometimes). And he's right! http://is.gd/307dw

* Honoring the fallen SFC John C. Beale - a video that may make you cry http://bit.ly/DyQPT

* U R doing PR wrong - "How to Anger Bloggers and Hose Your Client" from @jonathanfields http://is.gd/2QtXw

* What is "black hat" SEO? Getting lots of visitors today to this helpful blog post. http://is.gd/2O470

* New book out from @chrisbrogan ! Check out http://bit.ly/buy-ta for info on where you can find Trust Agents.

* Encouraging statistics here for online entrepreneurs: Starting an Online Business in a Down Economy from @entmagazine http://is.gd/2qzRr

If you're active on Twitter, please follow me at www.twitter.com/scott_fox.  Or, just check back here regularly for more of my favorite "Twitter Bits"!

[Twitter bird courtesy of Luc LaTulippe]

Click Millionaires Intro - Free Podcast

Why is everyone talking about Scott Fox’s Click Millionaires? Are you wondering what all the fuss is about?

Listen to this fre-e podcast to hear me explain the philosophy behind my new Click Millionaires online success coaching community. 

Click Millionaires membership can help you redefine success for yourself in the 21st century. Tune in to learn more about how this new social network dedicated to your personal e-commerce and online marketing success can help you upgrade your life!

Click on the player to listen now online or right-click on this download link and select “Save Target as…” to save an MP3 copy to your own hard drive.

Get your free trial of Click Millionaires today!

P.S. I’d like to help you succeed online, so you can try Click Millionaires for FREE here.

Please let me know what you think of this Click Millionaire Kick-off podcast?  It's my most personal one yet and I'd love to hear your feedback in the Comments below!

The Easy Way to Manage Your Reputation Cloud Online

Managing a web-wide “Reputation Cloud” is a challenge for any small business owner or marketer today. Fre-e alerts services can help you protect your business reputation online automatically.

My new book introduced this concept of a “Reputation Cloud” as a useful phrase that includes the reputation of a business across the entire Web, including social media sites. 

To succeed in modern marketing and PR/publicity, you need to look beyond your own web sites to monitor the effects of your marketing efforts on blogs and social media sites, plus what customers (and competitors) are saying about your business on social networks, on reviews sites, in blog comments elsewhere, etc. (More details on this are in the diagram shown and explained in more detail in Chapter 1 of e-Riches 2.0.)

Tips for Managing your Reputation Cloud Successfully 
Once you recognize the wide spread nature of public relations image and reputation management in social media online today, it’s easy to see that you need tools to help you keep up.

Here are some of the best tools – and they are all fre.e, too!

1. Google Alerts – Sign up for a free account with the Google Alerts service. You can enter keywords that Google will search web-wide for you 24/7. Whenever it finds new postings that include your targeted searches (such as your business name, product name, executives' names, even competitors), it will email you for free with links to those articles or comments. http://www.google.com/alerts

2. Tweet Beep – Set up a similar keyword-based search of the Twitterverse. Tweet Beep will scan Twitter for you constantly and email copies of any of the 140 character “tweets” that contain your search terms. http://www.TweetBeep.com

3. RSS Feeds – You can use an RSS feed to create new “tweets” and Facebook status posts automatically. So, each of your new blog posts can be fed to Twitter or Facebook to create the appearance of activity there without you having to actually visit those sites, too. This can help you automatically ensure a consistent "product presence" across the web. There are several ways to implement this strategy but http://www.TwitterFeed.com is a good place to start.

4. Tweetdeck – A great free desktop application that can making using Twitter a lot easier and more effective. It includes automatic searches for any tweets to you or about you, plus you can update your Facebook status easily, too. http://www.tweetdeck.com

These are all examples of free social media tools that you can and should use to help stay on top of the publicity "buzz" about your company and products.

Then, when you receive an alert, you can jump into action to answer a customer query, counter a criticism, or update product info - often within just minutes of the original posting!

Learn a whole lot more about how to succeed in modern PR and social media by reading e-Riches 2.0: Next Generation Online Marketing Strategies and subscribing to this blog's posts by email for fre-e.

What tools did I miss?  I know there a lot of them out there these days.  Which do YOU find most useful?

12 Helpful Links Roundup

It may be summer time, but social media and online marketing have not been slowing down!

To help you keep up, here are the most informative articles, research statistics, and blog posts that I have recently shared with my Twitter followers.  

This compilation of links is a quick, helpful summary of the latest news, trends, and gossip in the social media business-sphere just for you!

• The best explanation I've ever seen for how Google Adwords works: http://is.gd/1KE16  Outstanding work from Wired's Joanna Pearlstein

• More than 2x people watching video online this year than last year: http://is.gd/2aLfq Thank you, Hulu.com...

• Big domain name sale: $4.9MM for Clothes.com as Amazon acquires @zappos. Nice one, Bill Gross! http://is.gd/28ePA

• Finally watched this amazing wedding video. THIS will make you happy to be alive: http://is.gd/212un

• New 20 min podcast on hear2.0 Radio blog by @mramsey1 Topic? Yours truly on how radio can use social media better! http://bit.ly/KD9oQ

• Conference Board reports that social media gains usage among the elderly! http://is.gd/24uKM

• Did @scobleizer and @mashable help us finally kill the EVIL of auto-follow on Twitter? http://is.gd/25nGU

• Hilarious "100 (Geeky) Things Your Kids May Never Know About" from Wired magazine's Nathan Barry http://is.gd/1KDbw

• RT @latimesnystrom: Facebook had 100x UVs than Friendfeed June '09 but FF's UV's grew 75%+ in last year [@Compete] http://bit.ly/8dDir

• Surprisingly moving video tributes to Michael Jackson from all over the world! http://www.eternalmoonwalk.com  

• NYT profile confirms: the Internetz is taking over r lives... http://is.gd/2aLRZ

• RT @joygan88: No need to worry; things will work out just fine. All is well.You will Overcome; just be yourself, love yourself and b Happy!

If you're not yet on Twitter, you're missing a lot of great free real-time updates that can help grow your business. 

Follow me on Twitter at

http://www.twitter.com/scott_fox to get my latest "tweets" like these in real-time.

Tweet you later!

Twitter Auto-Follows are Stupid. No Kidding!

The “Twitterati” have finally recognized something I said months ago: “auto-following people who follow you on Twitter is stupid.”

Today leading social media blog, Mashable, breathlessly posted a piece called: “TWITTER PURGE: Top Twitter User Unfollows 106,000 People.”

It details the "shocking" discovery that when top social media user Robert Scoble (@scobleizer on Twitter) UN-followed 100,000+ people, he suddenly received a lot fewer spam tweets.

Scoble is quoted as saying “When I unfollowed everyone all my spam just stopped. Dead. No more spam. Not since Monday. Twitter is actually quite enjoyable.”

No Kidding!
Is this really news?  Back in March I posted a piece called “4 Annoying Twitter Myths about How to Use Twitter.” That post was a long time coming. 

I had been struggling for months to reconcile what many gurus were saying I was “supposed” to do on Twitter with what made sense to me personally as a marketer and businessman.  #3 of my four points in that post was “Myth: You must follow back everyone who follows you.”

My “4 Twitter Myths” post turned out to be my most popular post EVER. People worldwide visited ScottFox.com to read and agree and comment.

Now, 5 months later, Mashable’s Pete Cashmore (@mashable on Twitter) concludes: “…it seems, users are learning that having 100,000 “friends” you’ve never met is much less valuable than connecting with a select number of people you know well.”

Oh, really??!

Can’t say I’m surprised…

The lesson here?  Be sure to balance what the "gurus" say against your own common sense.  New social media doesn't change the fact that no one knows your business better than you do. 

Read the rest of my most popular post ever “4 Annoying Twitter Myths” here and follow me on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/scott_fox. 

What "Twitter Best Practices" are working (or not) for you?  Please let me know in the Comments.

[Twitter bird courtesy of Latulippe.]

[UPDATE - November 25, 2009:  Almost 4 months later, another online marketing "guru", Joel Comm, today announced he is unfollowing everyone, too.  His reason?  Because "...my (Twitter) stream had become unmanageable. There was no way in the world to keep up with the natural flow of the people I was following."

No kidding!  I would have thought that was obvious to guy smart enough to write a whole book about Twitter!  As I detailed here almost 9 months ago, Twitter is about following quality people, not quantity. Read my "4 Annoying Twitter Myths" blog post here for more helpful Twitter guidance.]