How To Start An Effective Blog

Ever since the internet was created, the ability to spread ideas to the world became easier than ever before. Anyone with an internet connection can now write and publish their thoughts on the internet in a matter of minutes. Blogging is the most common and effective way to do this. While blogging May not be for everyone, starting a blog can become one of the most important assets for any business. Some of the leading business men of the world have impacted myriads of people through blogs. There is a certain mindset one must have when considering starting a blog. How you go about starting your own blog is important to think about.

First of all, before even considering starting your own blog, you need to know that reading blogs other than your own is a very important step in learning about how to blog. By familiarizing yourself with blogs that are important to you, you will be able to learn about what's trending in the online world and how people are responding to already established bloggers. Whatever the topic of the blog you are reading may be, take notice on how other people have successfully spread their ideas to a specific audience. By actively reading other blogs you will be able to learn what works an what doesn't work. When it comes time to launching you own blog, you will know a lot about how to begin effectively.

The second and perhaps most important part about having a blog is staying consistent with updating your content and interacting with readers. This includes writing new articles as well as interacting with people on other blogs similar to yours. Often times when you comment on another blog post with a quality response, readers of that post will want to learn more about who you are and what you have to say about similar issues. This poses a very good opportunity for driving traffic to your own website and creating an audience for your own blog posts.

The general principle behind a successful blog can be summarized in one word: consistency. Stay active on your own blog by writing new posts as well as interacting with users on other similar posts throughout the web. By doing this you will be able to grow a solid audience all over the web. The process may be slow at first, but consistency will push you through into success. Get out there and pursue a platform of influence!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8124462

How to Create An Effective Blog Post

How to Use Facebook to Build Your Acting Business Without Offending Anyone

Recently, a casting director expressed her frustration on her Facebook wall about actors approaching her through Facebook to request auditions. This post sparked a lively dialogue among some actors and casting directors who all agreed that using Facebook as a marketing tool was rude, amateur, or even desperate.

I have to disagree. Approaching casting directors, producers, agents, filmmakers, directors, and artistic directors is not rude. It's not amateur. And it's not desperate. It's business.

Facebook exists so that people can connect with each other. That's the whole point. Virtually every business and businessperson today has a Facebook page and uses Facebook for promotional purposes. So, there is nothing wrong - at all- with you doing the same as an actor.

Now, different people have different boundaries on Facebook. If a casting director wishes to keep her Facebook page and her business separate, that is absolutely her prerogative and I support that 100%. But that doesn't make an actor wrong when he wants to use Facebook for self-promotion. Approaching your industry target list through social media is not the problem here. HOW you approach them is. Trust me, there is a right way and a wrong way to use Facebook for your acting career. Apparently, the actors who approached this particular casting director did so in the wrong way.

Last year, an actress named Eva used Facebook in a powerful way to build a relationship with a casting director that's still paying off today. Eva saw a role she was perfect for and after exhaustive and unsuccessful research to find the casting director's phone number or email address, the only contact information Eva could find was the casting director's Facebook profile.

So, Eva sent him a direct message through Facebook. Rather than requesting an audition, Eva messaged the casting director to find out how comfortable he was with her using Facebook as a marketing tool. She wanted to respect the casting director's social media boundaries and the best way to do that was by getting a buy in.
"What's a buy in," you ask?

A buy-in occurs when you get the consent of whomever you're targeting before taking action. This may sound silly, but it's a very simple step that will make a huge difference in the results you produce and in the relationships you build.

Eva's buy-in to the casting director probably looked something like this:

"Hi Casting Director. I want to respect your privacy, so I'm writing to find out how open you are to receiving audition requests from actors through Facebook. If you're not open to it, I understand. Just let me know either way."

Not only was this casting director open to Eva's request, but he also called her in for the audition she wanted. Since then, Eva auditions at his office regularly and the two of them have forged a healthy working relationship.

The moral of this story - don't shy away from Facebook in your marketing just because you might offend someone. Instead, your job is to simply get a buy-in from the casting directors, producers, and agents you want to work with before you pitch yourself on Facebook.

Get the buy-in before you need it. That way, you won't panic when an opportunity arises because you'll already know how to reach out.

Your buy-in might look something like this:

"Hi Tom. It's Jessica. I saw you speak at the SAG Foundation last week. I'm writing to find out if Facebook is the right venue to connect about projects or roles I might be right for. I know everyone uses Facebook for different reasons so I wanted to check in with you first to respect your social media boundaries.

If you'd rather not connect about the business on FB, I totally get it and will be sure not to talk shop with you here. Just let me know either way."

The truth is that you'll never know who is open to receiving requests from actors through social media. While some people only use Facebook socially, others rely on it heavily for their business.

The trick is to find out which side of the Facebook fence your target people live on before you pitch yourself online. Doing so will give you the confidence you need to use Facebook in a powerful way without offending anyone.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE?

You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:

Respected as one of the entertainment industry's leading experts, Dallas Travers teaches actors the career and life skills often left out of traditional training programs. Her groundbreaking book, The Tao of Show Business, has won over five awards including first prizes at The Hollywood Book Festival and the London Festival along with the National Indie Excellence Award. She has helped thousands of actors to increase their auditions, produce their own projects, secure representation and book roles in film and television.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6671942

How You Use Facebook Reveals Your Personality, Says Research

Public networking has come a long way from being just a means to keep in touch. Individuals use it to show their joy, sadness and also release out their disappointment or rage. What you publish on Facebook or MySpace can expose a person you are. A new research by scientists of the School of Mo developed a new range that helps assess a individual's character from the way they use Facebook or MySpace. The research statements that all those individuals who like high-risk action are inclined to upgrade their statuses often, and also publish images and communicate with buddies regularly. On the other hand, those who are set aside, hardly ever search through Facebook's "news feed", and don't practice posting images or definitely interesting with their buddies.

This range is said to have been created after assessing people about the way they use Facebook or MySpace. It also had them take a character test. According to the research, those who like involving in high-risk actions were marked under 'appetitive' and the ones who are more set aside were called 'aversive.' It was noticed that both character kinds use Facebook or MySpace regularly but the factor was discovered in how each uses the site, as per Linda Shoenberger, who is the head of the research team.

"If you are highly 'appetitive' or trim toward high-risk actions, you are more likely to want to interact with with press that are more interesting, whereas those who are higher in the aversive feature are inclined to enjoy more secure and more foreseen press encounters," Shoenberger was estimated as saying by LiveScience. She further said, "I believe this could really help marketers and certain kinds of press categories focus on customers with particular ads on social press websites." she said. She said that individuals could be determined through the inspiration initial evaluate, thus providing marketers an advantage over their opponents and providing order to internet promotion. She said organizations that want to focus on customers for a high-risk action should determine active Facebook or MySpace users who regularly publish images and upgrade their position.

Earlier reviews had exposed that Facebook or MySpace is releasing a new type of mobile promotion that objectives customers, according to what applications they use, providing organizations better options to track exactly who do on their mobile phones. Lately, there were several studies performed declaring the effects of Facebook or MySpace. Lately, a research had exposed the adverse effect of internet websites on area. Experts outlined that Facebook or MySpace and Tweets are changing the way ladies speak, making them more competitive. These internet websites are said to market terser phrases, which can make young people appear impolite and disrespectful. The Salford Business School, School of Salford had performed a study recently for the charitable organisation Stress UK, which exposed that internet websites like Facebook or MySpace and Tweets elevate anxiety. It discovered that more than half of the members questioned sensed that the individuals had modified their behavior. Out of the members who sensed so, about 50 percent said that their lives had been modified for the worse. The ones who revealed that social press has had a bad effect on them, considered that their confidence decreased after evaluating their success with that of their buddies on the internet.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7179271

How To Use Facebook Applications As Effective Business Marketing and Advertisement Tool

You can consider developing customized Facebook applications to market your business activities on the popular social networking platform.

With millions of people accessing Facebook on a daily basis, most of the companies and online business owners are launching dedicated apps on a regular basis.

Once you launch a customized app on Facebook, the same can be used as an efficient medium of communication, marketing and advertisement.

You can use the app to attract new clients as well as stay connected with existing and old clients.

A business also has options to use the app as a medium to collect feedback, comments and suggestions from different segments of Facebook users.

Creating Brand and Product Awareness:

A Facebook applications launched by your business will be very effective in creating a brand and product awareness.

As the social networking website is daily accessed by over 750 million users, the app can communicate with the right clients based on specific demographics like their location, occupation and age group.

The online goodwill and brand awareness will also be helpful in increasing your existing sales figures.

Building Online Reputation for Your Business:

The online reputation and goodwill is essential for a modern business to attract new clients.

As popular search engine results also include Facebook business pages and profiles, your Facebook applications can be viewed by most internet users.

You can include specific features in the app to collect opinion of these people regarding your business activities and brands.

Based on feedback and comments of your clients, you can implement the required changes to improve the popularity of the products or services offered by your business.

Engaging Existing and Prospective Clients:

Most modern businesses love to engage and entertain their existing and prospective clients by providing them with exciting contests, events and other promotional offers.

These marketing activities will also be effective in boosting sale of advertised products or services.

Therefore, you can use Facebook applications to keep your customers engaged and interested by arranging online events and contests.

Driving Facebook Traffic To Your Business Website:

With millions of users accessing Facebook on a daily basis, the social networking website has become a great platform to advertise your business activities.

Similar to a Facebook business page, a dedicated app launched by your business can be used as a marketing tool to attract new customers.

Based on the information and details conveyed through the app, more and more users will be interested in visiting your business website to gather more information.

Generating Business Leads:

Unlike search engine results page, consumer information collected through Facebook applications will provide you detailed information about their likes, dislikes and tastes of your prospective customers.

Based on the information and details posted by your prospects as part of their Facebook profiles, you can easily include people in your business leads.

You can try to communicate and develop a healthy relationship with prospective clients on the social networking platform, or contact them through some other mediums of marketing like newsletters and telephonic sales.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6691495

How To Use Facebook To Explode Your Business

When Business Meets Facebook

When Facebook was initially introduced, old friends were excited to reunite. Years later even more friends are reuniting and they're reuniting in networks. The concept of social media networking continues to evolve every minute of every hour of every day. Facebook is no longer just a way to say hello to old friends, it has become a crucial tool for businesses.

There are various ways to use Facebook to help every business. Facebook can be used as a marketing engine to draw hundreds upon thousands of people to your business. Understanding how to implement Facebook into your business model and marketing campaign can have a substantial effect on the future of your business. That is why it is important that businesses analyze ways to use Facebook to generate more networking opportunities and thus, more clients.

Using Facebook to promote your business can be done without spending a dime! However, there are some hungry entrepreneurs who would like to maximize their results and are willing to pay a price for 100,000 people viewing their ad. You know the small advertisements that pop up on your Facebook screen? Those are paid for by businesses or individuals who are using Facebook for business or marketing purposes. There are various companies that can personally work with you or your business to specialize a way to use Facebook as a business tool. This also comes with a price tag, but is well worth it for a solid campaign.

For those of you that can't afford to shell out the big bucks, that's okay. There's a free way to use Facebook for your business too. You can sign up for an account with Facebook under the business' name. You can then use this page to promote your product. Employees can also use Facebook to help any given business by signing into their personal account and promoting the business site on their personal Facebook page. This is especially helpful for people who have a lot of "friends" because they're essentially pitching a commercial for free and sending to thousands of others.

Another way to create attention to your business by through Facebook is by creating a fan page. Every time somebody becomes a fan of the page it appears on their profile. Imagine how many times that profile is viewed. It can be only a few times a week but it can only be seen a thousand times per day! Either way it's worth the two minutes that it takes to set up the fan page to try to hit thousands of potential clients.

There are a number of ways to use Facebook as a marketing tool for business. Facebook can be helpful for businesses ranging in size. Some businesses invest in advertisements on Facebook directly while others use consultants. Using a consultant offers companies numerous benefits, but it also comes with a price tag. However, many businesses are willing to pay for service to enhance their product and outcome. There are also ways to use Facebook for free. Either way Facebook has grown beyond the peer to peer approach. It has become an essential tool for businesses around the globe.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6736599

How to Use Facebook to Effectively Promote Your Business

"So how do I use Facebook to promote my business?"

This must be one of the most common questions in business today.

Most people know the potential of Facebook and Social Media... but few truly know how to tap into it! In this article we hope to be able to give you some sound advice to steer you in the right direction.

So why should you care?

Well look at these statistics...

- Facebook has over 500 million active users (that's 200 million more than the population of the USA!).*
- 70% of people on Facebook are outside of the USA*
- 50 % of those log in every day.*
- 25% of all internet pages viewed each day - are Facebook pages!*
- Each user has on average 130 friends*... so if you have 130 friends, who in turn have 130 friends each and so on... that's 16,900 potential contacts two steps away from you - and over 2 million people just three steps away from you!

*Source: Facebook Media Page

Everyone in business should care about that kind of 'word of mouth' potential business.

"I don't really understand this social media stuff."

Well nobody does until they look into it! In truth, if something is important enough to people, they make an effort to find out about it - certainly if the potential and the rewards are great enough.

It might be better to think about Social Media sites as being similar to a business reception or cocktail party, in which many conversations can start to oil the wheels of business - but without the constraints of time or space. You simply meet like-minded people and start conversations, help others with their questions, ask questions and add some value to the community. This starts to build trust between yourselves.

"What do I do to get started?"

Firstly, if you have not done so already, open a personal account, use a good photo, people want to see who they are going to do business with (so that one you have after a few drinks on holiday probably won't do!) Add your work details, interests photos etc. However...

Profiles are for people - not companies!

You will need to create a business page, you will find a link at the bottom of this page to show you how to do this. Simply build and publish your page (you need to be logged in to do this).

Here are a few tried and tested tips...

Create an engaging page. Include things like company events, videos, photos, discussions and blog articles.
Allow users to engage with you - each activity is shared with their network as well!

If you have an opt-in list that you are communicating with via auto-responder, include a link in your email signature to your Facebook business page.

Blog about your Facebook business page and include a link on your personal Facebook page to your business page.

Post a text link (or a button) on your website or blog directly linking to your Facebook business page.

Advertising on Facebook

A growing amount of businesses (including blue chip companies) are now advertising on Facebook.

You can choose between pay per click or pay per view, we recommend pay per click as the click through rate on Facebook is low compared to other pay per click advertising in the marketplace.

We hope that this article has helped you decide that Social Media Adverting is worth investigating further. May we wish you all the best with bringing your business to a much, much wider audience.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6327422