Social media sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, allow you to connect with other people with a greater presence and in less time than doing it in person. I’m not suggesting that attending live events and networking locally is not important, but doing it online truly leverages your time and efforts.

On Facebook, tell people about what you are doing online. Join groups where your prospects are already spending time. Those groups are the very best place to find new friends. Create your own group, using your keywords in the title.

Twitter is great for connecting with people in just a few seconds. Share what you are doing two or three times each day, but relate it to what you do online. When someone asks you a question or makes a comment about something you know about, answer them quickly and let them know you want to help. This will make a
huge difference over a period of time.

I use a site called FriendFeed to tie all of my social media together. There are other sites that do the same thing, so find one that is easy to use so your time will get out to as many new people as possible.

Social media and social networking will save you lots of time and money, and will definitely increase your bottom line. It doesn’t take long to learn how to use the sites quickly and effectively. Continue to network with others in person and at live events and seminars, but do not overlook the power of social networking and how it can help you in a variety of ways.

How to Use Twitter and Facebook to Connect With Prospects and Clients For Your Business is a post from Marketing Turbo-Charge

Probably the biggest question I get asked is if social networking is worth it or a big waste of time. Well, if you’re doing social networking to make money, and you aren’t making money, then it most certainly is a waste of time.

So, how do you make money with social networking? A lot depends on the words you use and how you interact with your friends and followers. Today I’m going to focus specifically on Twitter.

Remember, for Twitter you only have 140 characters including spaces for every tweet. That means every character counts so use them wisely.

Here are 3 more tips to make those tweets as compelling and persuasive as possible.

1. Get your personality in there. The beauty of social networking is it’s driven by relationships. You build relationships by letting people see who you really are. That means showcasing your personality.

The more people can get a sense of your personality, the more they’ll decide if they like you or not. And the more they know, like and trust you, the more likely they’ll become your customers.

In addition, people don’t like to be sold to. If your tweets sound canned or not authentically from YOU, they’ll be turned off. And turned off people are not likely to buy from you.

2. Give and you shall receive. The more you give, and do things for other people, the more it will come back to you. You spend your time helping other people, the more they’ll help promote your products and services, the more likely they’ll go check out what you offer and if it’s a match, the more likely they’ll buy.

If all you do is push your own stuff on Twitter, you’re not going to get very far. You need to spend most of your time doing things for other people. Then, when you do promote yourself, people will take notice and be more likely to act.

3. Be entertaining. There’s an old quote in the copywriting world that you can’t bore anyone into buying something. (I think it was David Ogilvy who first said it.) Same goes for Twitter. You can’t bore people into building and maintaining a relationship with you. You can’t bore people into promoting your products or events. And you can’t bore people into buying your products.

Now this doesn’t mean you have to a stand-up comic. Sure this is easier if writing short, pithy statements comes naturally to you. But don’t forget Tip #1 — stay true to your personality. We’re all interesting in our own way, even if you’re not a stand-up comic.

The key here is to be entertaining in your own unique and personal way. What, you don’t think you’re entertaining? You have friends, right? You go out to dinner with them, right? What do you talk about? You’re entertaining them or they wouldn’t want to go dinner with you.

So entertain your twitter followers the same way. And the ones who respond to that will respond to you. And as they get to know you, they’ll move to like and trust. And that leads to them becoming your customers.

Twitter – How to Write Tweets That Get Peeps to Take Action is a post from Marketing Turbo-Charge

I just returned from San Diego where I walked my third marathon. It took me 6.5 hours. (I’m not a runner, I’m a walker, and that’s averaging between a 14- and 15-minute mile.) Now if you know anything about marathons, you’ll know that I’m never going to make the Boston marathon with that time.

In fact, I was beaten by an 86-year-old woman from South Carolina (we were neck and neck for awhile — she pulled away when I stopped for a bathroom break, beat me by 5 minutes) by a man dressed in a banana suit, by naked man (he whipped off his shorts when he crossed the finish line, although it’s probably not fair to compare him to me as he definitely had less wind resistance than I had) and a bunch of guys dressed as Elvis.

My point is if I was doing marathons to win, I would probably be in the depths of despair this week. Lucky for me, I do marathons for other reasons that have nothing to do with speed and everything to do with perseverance.

In fact, I think every business owner and entrepreneur should complete a marathon at least once in their life. No, not because I want partners to share in the torture and agony, but for the same reasons why I do. Let me explain.

I’ve come to the conclusion that nature has intended for the human body to only travel about 20 miles at any one time. I’ve decided this based on both science and my own experiences.

Now, I’m not a scientist but here’s my understanding of what’s going on when you walk a marathon. Your body only has around 2000 calories of ready energy it can use at any one time. How long does it take you to run out of 2000 calories? Oh, about 20 miles. After 20 miles, your body starts attacking your muscle to use as fuel (your body can’t burn fat on its own, it can only access the fat through burning something easier, such as carbohydrates or muscle).

At the same time, the hormones your body produces when you run (the ones that are responsible for the “runner’s high”) are used up. When that happens, the natural pain killer that’s part of the runner’s high also disappears, so now you feel every bit of the pain your muscles are going through.

In other words, somewhere between mile 20 and 24, your body runs out of ready energy and starts attacking your muscles and also runs out of the hormones that give you extra energy, stamina and pain relief. There’s a term for this you might have heard. It’s called “hitting the wall.” And if you’re going to hit the wall, you’re going to hit it somewhere between mile 20 and 24.

As someone who has smashed head first into said wall, I can tell you it’s not pretty. You can get a second wind at mile 12, 16, even 18. There’s no second wind at mile 24.

During every marathon I’ve done, there comes a time where nothing helps. Nothing. Everything hurts. Everything. You’re exhausted. Every muscle in your body is screaming for you to stop. You’re keeping your legs moving on sheer grit and determination alone. There’s nothing else left.

The only thing that even comes close to helping during this time is the people cheering on the sideline. The ones near the end yelling “You can do it, you’re almost there.” (Note to spectators, this is the time to lie. Tell the runners or walkers or limpers they’re almost there or the next mile marker is around the corner, even if the next mile marker is actually around the corner, up a hill and a half-mile away. You need anything you can grab on to at this time.)

So for all you spectators, yes your cheering really DOES help. Don’t let our grumpy expressions fool you. We’re hanging on to what you’re saying for dear life.

(On another note, the neighbors who live between mile 15 and 16 who every year buy a gazillion oranges, spend hours cutting them up and then MORE hours standing on the street handing them to us as we go by, I only have one thing to say to you — I’m leaving you in my will.)

Okay, so my hypothesis is the human body is only supposed to walk or run for 20 to 24 miles. And a marathon is 26.2 miles (and yes, that .2 is VERY important — that .2 of a mile is harder than the first 20). So what that means is you are literally pushing yourself past your body’s limits for at least 2.2 miles.

In fact, that’s why I think marathons ARE 26.2 miles. Because they push past your physical boundaries.

I suspect this was the discussion back when marathons first came up. The Marathon God was sitting around with the other Greek Gods in Mt Olympus and the conversation went something like this. “Maybe a marathon should be 20.4 miles.” “No, no, that’s still within their body’s limits.” “Okay, so how about 28.8?” “No, that’s too far. Too many people will drop out or die and that defeats the purpose.” “So what about 26.2 miles?” “Perfect, just far enough to push past their boundaries and not so far that they give up or die.”

So walking marathons is about pushing past boundaries. If you can push past your body’s physical limits with your mind, then you should have no problems pushing past other boundaries with your mind, such as income boundaries or business growth boundaries.

After all, you know it’s possible to build a multi-million-dollar (or billion-dollar) business from scratch. You’ve seen other people do it. And after you walk a marathon, you’ll know you can push past boundaries because you’ve just done it. So therefore, now you know you have the capability to push past whatever boundaries you’ve set for yourself. You’ll have physical, tangible proof of it. (And they even give you a medal when you finish.)

And that, my friends, is why I think every business owner and entrepreneur should walk or run a marathon at least once in their life.

Musings from the Marathon (and How it Can Help Your Business) is a post from Marketing Turbo-Charge

When people realize I walk marathons, one of the questions I frequently get asked is “how did you do it? How did you finish the marathon once you hit the point of ‘nothing helps?’”

Well, I can tell you it’s not easy. Lots of demons come out to play and you have to push past them.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Why would knowing how to finish a marathon have to do with your business? Because you might be having the same problems in your business — demons coming out to play and you throwing in the towel too soon and not seeing the success you deserve.

Let me explain. It’s been documented that lots of business owners quit too soon. They either quit the business altogether or they lower their goals (i.e. “I don’t need to make 7-figures, I’ll be happy in the low 6-figures”) or they drop a product or service that’s not selling.

However, many times the turning point in their business is just up ahead. They’re right there, the finish line is a half mile away, but they stop. They stop and they use all sorts of excuses as to why it was a smart decision to stop.

This happens to me all the time after I get past mile 20 in the marathon. It gets even worse once I hit the point of “nothing helps” — the pain is awful, I’m exhausted (a deep, deep exhaustion, so deep it makes it difficult to fall asleep for several hours after you’re done) and I’m extremely grumpy.

All the demons come out. “I’ve done this before. Why do I have to make myself miserable now?” (The first year it was “I can try this again next year when I’m in better shape and know what to expect.”) “Boy that pain in my knee feels bad — maybe I’m permanently hurting myself. I should stop.” “Look at all those other people in the medical aid tent, they’ve stopped I can stop too.” “Why the heck (or something stronger) am I doing this to myself again?”

And on and on.

So along with walking on despite the physical pain, you’re also battling mental demons. And this becomes an even bigger issue the longer you walk because at the end it’s all mental. There’s nothing physically left — the only reason why you’re staying on your feet is because you’re forcing yourself too.

Does any of this sound familiar in your business? “Why should I bother marketing and/or selling? People aren’t buying anyway. And the economy is bad. And my industry is struggling.” “I haven’t sent out a newsletter in months, I’m just too busy.” “I know I have a stack of business cards on my desk I should follow up with, but I’m just so busy. And besides, do they really want to hear from me anyway? It’s probably too late.” “This product launch was a disaster. Only 2 people bought. I guess no one is interested in this after all.” (Never mind you only sent out a couple of emails and called that a launch not to mention never sending out a newsletter.) “I’m almost done with my first product. I just have a couple more things to add/change.” (And you’ve been saying THAT for 3 years.)

And the most insidious of them all “I’ve been doing everything so-and-so said for months and it’s still not working. Maybe I’m not cut out to run a business. I should just quit and find a job before I run up any more debt.”

All of these are just variations of the same theme. You’re throwing in the towel before you’ve reached the finish line. And chances are, if you DO quit, success is most likely right around the corner.

Now this isn’t to say there is never a time to quit. Sometimes you really do injure yourself and you can’t finish the marathon. And sometimes a product or a service you’ve launched really isn’t a good fit for your target market and should be dropped. And sometimes things have so radically changed in your market you need to change something or you’re going out of business.

But, a lot of times the reason why things aren’t working is because you aren’t marketing enough (or marketing smartly). Maybe that product really isn’t a good fit. But if you only send out 2 emails to your email list that only hears from you once in a blue moon and call that your launch, you don’t know enough to say it’s not a good fit. You haven’t given it a fair shot.

What can you do to push through? Even when you feel like you’re doing everything you’re supposed to and nothing is working? Just do what I do after mile 23. Put your head down and keep walking. Don’t listen to the chatter in your head, just keep walking. Focus on the cheerleaders on the sidelines telling you you’re almost there and keep walking. The finish line really is just around the corner, and eventually you’ll get to it, but only if you keep walking. The moment you stop, you’re done.

Are You Throwing in the Towel Too Soon? More Musings from the Marathon is a post from Marketing Turbo-Charge

Have you ever had done something you thought was a really good idea at the time and then it completely backfires on you?

Well, it happened to my good friend Nancy Marmolejo, Viva Visibility.

If you don’t know Nancy yet, you really need to. She is a social media rock star. However, sometimes even rock stars have days where the guitar is out of tune and the speakers catch fire and explode on stage.

Here’s the story in a nutshell. As you all know, social networking is pretty darn new and Twitter is the brand spanking new kid on that shiny new block. Because it’s so new, things like vocabulary and etiquette are still being hashed out.

It’s better coming from Nancy herself why she got so fixated on this, but she was busy telling people you “tweet” not “twitter” (including yours truly). She also decided to write a letter to Inc Magazine about this.

The result? Inc Magazine called her on it and, well, won.

Now I’m telling you about this for 2 reasons.

1. I’m quite excited I can now use “twitter” as a verb (I just hated saying “tweet” — I felt like I should put a chicken coop in my yard.)

2. Nancy handled the whole situation brilliantly. In fact, I would go as far to say this was actually a really good thing in the end.

So what did Nancy do? Well, to start she owned up to it. She didn’t try to hide her mistake or pretend it never happened (which is simply not possible to do in this day and age anyway.) She ‘fessed up.

Lesson #1 — if you make a mistake, and it’s a public mistake, just suck it up and admit it. It’s when you start lying and hiding that things get so out of control. Look at Bill and Monica. People lied, tried to hide things, and that just made everything worse.

By owning up to it, Nancy completely diffused any negative publicity around it. In fact, if you read the comments, most people didn’t think this was a big deal at all. (Which it isn’t — until you start hiding and lying about it. Then suddenly everyone wonders why you’re lying and hiding and it can blow up into a bigger deal.)

The second thing she did was write a very charming and witty blog post about it. Now, you might not be able to write a charming and witty blog post, but it might be worth it to find someone who can for you. She was entertaining about it, which again helped diffuse the situation and caused all her followers to rally around her.

Now, humor isn’t good for all situations. Remember the Tylenol and Cyanide scare? If the Tylenol CEO had come out with humor that would have been completely inappropriate. However, what he did do was immediately take responsibility, come up with a solution, and didn’t come across as defensive or trying to shift the blame.

Lesson #2 — if you’re going to take a stand, do it graciously. Don’t be defensive, don’t try and shift blame, and for heaven’s sake don’t be a baby about it. Do it with class and people will respect and admire you for it.

The result? Nancy’s post got TONS of comments, pretty much all of them supporting Nancy. She’s back on stage, bigger than ever, with her guitar all tuned up and brand spanking new speakers.

Publicity — What Do You Do When PR Goes Horribly Wrong? is a post from Marketing Turbo-Charge