Today’s virtual and globalized working environment finds company CEOs looking at employee engagement as a key challenge. Reaching out to its people in a distributed working environment is done through the global phenomenon – the internet.

The World Wide Web brings closer the physical distances and bridges these distances between people in the communities and the society as a whole. While this method of communication is not yet all pervasive, it is certain to become the basic standard for communication in the future.

Blogs, an abbreviation for “weblogs” are microsites on the web that stand by themselves or are part of traditional websites. A corporate blog is either published by or with the support of an organization in order to reach the organizational goals. External blogs help strengthen relationships with target groups and position the organization as industry experts. Internal blogs on the other hand are used as tools for knowledge management and collaboration.

From politicians to novelists, business pros and aspiring businessmen, everyone seems to be starting a blog. Many large corporations already use blogs to communicate internally to their employees on a regular basis. This helps the organizational heads to cut across hierarchies and deliver their views without the concern of misinterpretation. Blogs are also considered to be a less formal way of communicating with the existing customers, prospective customers and investors. While many of the blogs are authored by individuals, group blogs are also becoming popular in a company setting.

Although, currently, blogs are used by a small number of consumers online, they have garnered a great deal of corporate attention and it is believed that they will grow in importance. At a minimum, companies can monitor blogs to learn what is being said about their services and products.

Collaboration

There is no denying the fact that the success of a business is due to the people that work in the company. These are the people that are trusted with the customers every day, trusted to talk to the media, trusted to talk in meetings, and now they can certainly be trusted to talk on the internet on behalf of the company. Blogs can be used as a workspace where project members keep others updated without having to waste time searching the inbox or writing reports. They work as a tool for collaboration, discussion and research.

Communication

Even individuals who otherwise have no means of participating in a discussion can participate in blogs. The biggest gain can be from internal blogs that open up communication channels between the management and employees, where CEOs can share their thoughts with employees openly and honestly. Improved communication, better team working, improved employee benefits have been reported by many organizations who use internal blogs regularly to communicate directly with their staff. They believe blogs helped them resolve a lot of HR issues, which otherwise may not have been brought to the notice of the management.

Investors

Investors are people who have invested their money in an organization and are keen to know the developments. Blogging can communicate everything indirectly to these people, including details of changes in policies, procedures, customer feedback etc. This gives a sense of security to the investors who will appreciate not being left in the dark about the internal happenings of the company.

Bringing People Closer

If the business of an organization is spread across different continents, countries, cities or even locations locally and there is need for people at different places to work together, blogging is the best way of creating links allowing people to communicate in the most efficient way. Blogging improves the spirit of teamwork, exchange of ideas and facilitates tutoring among other things.

Cultural

These blogs are used to strengthen organizational culture. They mostly contain non-work related posts and informal content which is social in nature. The management itself takes care of these blogs or designates bloggers, and some companies even let all the employees post on these blogs.

Safety Measures

There are potential risks of speaking to the world in public, for both the employer and the employee. There is a good chance of inappropriate posts being made by an employee and this could lead to several issues, even legal. This is the reason, organizations should have a blogging policy in place and it is also important to educate their employees on appropriate blogging and communication online, to be able to benefit from blogging.

Blogs are the most targeted tools used by organizations to form communities and bring about a change, create new businesses, improve existing businesses, improve human relations and discover new things. Corporate communication has evolved into a much needed benefit and whether to blog or not is not a question anymore. The question is how to use the corporate blog effectively to deliver thoughts and impart knowledge. Organizations today believe that sharing with the help of technology gives birth to innovation.

That’s all you hear all the time. Gotta have a GREAT product. That’s how you get the big bucks. Okay, but how?

For an internet marketer, one of the most difficult things to do is coming up with product ideas. For people who are new to internet marketing, it becomes even more difficult as they have no idea where to begin or even if their idea is going to be a success.

There is nothing better than creating your own product. Let us see how you can go about getting new products into the market. Once you come up with an idea that you like, make sure it is implemented immediately. This is where a newbie remains new for a long time. Because they are unsure of themselves and of their product, they do not implement many of their ideas.

“Often the difference between a successful person and a failure is not one has better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on one’s ideas, to take a calculated risk – and to act.”
~~ Andre Malraux

What Do People Need?

This should be the first question you should ask yourself. It is obvious that the product has to be something that people need and are looking for, something that is not out there or something that can be better than what is already out there in the market.

You can get to know what people are looking for by observing and understanding their problems online. Once you are able to identify a problem, time to think how you can help them with it. Finding problems on the internet is easy and this can be done by looking at the questions and complaints posted by people. Yahoo answers are one of the best ways of finding out what people are looking for. Simply put – their questions should be answered by you – in the form of a product.

Improve On An Existing Product

Take a look at all the products available in the niche you are interested in and see if there is anything that can be done better, if you can come up with a better product that is an improvement on the existing product. This technique is used by many internet marketers, even the more experienced ones, but never fails to work. The important thing is to choose products that are in demand. You are actually at an advantage here, because someone else has already done all the research for you, which means you have about 90% of the market conquered and all you have to do is add that 10% that makes it a totally unique and a better product.

A Forgotten Product

Look around and you will find many products that were previously sold but not anymore. There will be several products that people would have completely forgotten about. You must see what you can do to revive the product into something to cater to today’s market. Once you have changed it enough to make it totally unique, your very own new product is ready to be launched.

Take The Help Of Your List

If you are new, you may not have a list; but if you do, this strategy will help immensely in coming up with a new product idea. Find out from them what they want. Send a mail asking them for suggestions. Make sure you do not sell anything to them in the same mail. In fact, it has been found that people love being asked for suggestions and you will get many fresh ideas from them. One of their responses may just be what you are looking for.

Combine Products

Find two good products in the same niche and combine them into one. You must make sure the products complement each other and you are able to convert them into a single product without making it obvious and patchy. Package it uniquely and you are well on your way to earning big money with the benefits of two already in-demand products.

Conduct Surveys

If you are a webmaster and already own a website, you can conduct surveys asking visitors what they would like to see from you.

Adwords Ads

If you go online, to your right, you will see a lot of paid Adwords ads. There is a reason why those people are advertising in spite of having to pay for every click. The reason is simple – they are getting something out of it. Check the ads related to your niche, visit their websites and see what they are selling there. You can get some wonderful product ideas from these websites.

Selling A Physical Product

If you are keen on using physical products, then do your research and find a hot product that is already selling well. You will then take that product and add something to it and package it. For example, if a Yoga Mat is hot and selling well, you could add a good Yoga CD or something related to that. You will come up with hundreds of such products with a little research.

Keeping Track Of The Current Trends

Since internet is a fast changing medium, trends keep changing every day. It is Madonna one day and Avril Lavigne the other. As far as internet marketing goes, it is Bum Marketing one day and Adwords the other. Capitalizing on these changing trends is what it is all about. You could come up with products for every trend; however, to be able to do this, you will have to keep a close watch on the market and be quick. During the Cricket world cup season, you can create something related to cricket and take advantage of that wave.

Creating An Existing Product For A New Niche

What this means is that if a product is much in demand in one niche, it can also be introduced into another niche where it may be useful. You will have to of course make sure that the product has not been used in the new niche before. You will need to put in an effort here in doing your research.

All it needs is a little bit of research and a huge amount of common sense to come up with product ideas. The key to coming up with a great product idea is “people.” Look around and see what they need and you will find the answers you are looking for.

The first thing that has to be done is to get a good idea on whether to pursue a niche market or not. This entails keyword research, which includes coming up with keywords that people are searching for and finding out how much competition there is for that particular keyword.

Initially, it is no good going for generic keywords that have a lot of competition. For example, if you type “Golf,” it is a generic term with millions of sites. If you target your keywords better, such as “Golf balls” or “Travel Golf,” you will find less number of searches but you are aiming at a particular audience in the niche. Remember! It is always better to be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond.

After you have chosen your niche, choose a few more keywords specific to your niche. Now time to check on your competition. What are the keywords and phrases they are using? Right click on “view source” and look at the META description tag (you will find it at the top.) Are these keyphrases helpful to you? Narrow down your list. Search on Google with the keyphrases you are planning on using and see if any similar sites are coming up. If they are, you are on the right track. Some of these keyphrases will be used on your site in the content and some will be used as links.

To do well with your website, it is important to be high up in the search engine rankings. Anyone who tells you otherwise is wrong. How many times have you gone to the 3rd page of Google search results when looking for something? Most people click on the first few results only.

The question you should be asking is, “What have the other sites done to reach the top?”

Start at the very beginning and take a look at the design of their sites, including colors that have been used and the template. The idea is to see how the site layout is and do one better than them.

But that’s where the importance of looks end. You would find that many an ugly site is at the very top. There could be several reasons for this, such as great information or good back links. Look at the content the other sites are providing and ensure you do better.

Now that we have our keywords ready and we have created the design of our site, the next step is to bring traffic to the site. A great looking site without traffic is no use?

This can be achieved through on-page optimization and off-page optimization. On-page optimization includes incorporating keywords in the text, title, meta tags and headings. If you notice in the source, some of the top sites do not do this and you can rest assured, your site will fare better.

Off-page optimization makes a world of difference between a top page rank and a low ranking page.

One method is getting other websites in your niche to link to your site. The more links there are, the better the ranking. It is not just the number of links, but the page rank of those sites linking to you is very important.

Take a look at the top ten sites in the same niche. Try and find out the techniques they used. Make a list of these sites.

Now take one of those top sites and type link:http://www.sitename.com/. Instead of ‘sitename,’ you should type the actual name of the site. With that, you will be able to see the sites that are linking to your competitor’s site.

You will have to find out the page ranks of all these sites. You can download the Google tool bar for this. If the page ranks of the sites linking back to your competitor’s site are not too high, you have a chance of being up there.

I know it all sounds complicated. But when did anyone say that being the top site is easy? Going through the whole thing a few times will register better.

In simple words, a complete website can be built along with great back links, just by observing what the competition is doing.

That is because, it is a tough task deciding on the kind of domain name that catches people’s attention.

There are a couple of ways to go about this. One is using the keyword method and the other is branding.

The keyword method involves keyword research, where one searches for a domain name that is rich in keywords, on the niche that is being targeted. They say that Google loves keyword rich domains.

For example, if you are planning on setting up a website on weight loss, the first keyword rich name that comes to mind is obviously something like weightloss.com, which would obviously be taken already. So, you will need to search for other keywords in the same niche.

Short keywords are the most favored for domain names as they are easy to remember, but we cannot always get them. Try to choose a domain name that reflects the problems faced by the niche, such as easyweightloss.com etc. Although, this is not a short and punchy name, something like this that is longer but describes “what’s in the box,” works wonders too.

A domain name should be something that people can remember, whether it is a short or a long one. It is very difficult to remember something like, “kckfc,” unless it represents a well-known brand. Not everyone uses bookmarks to remember sites. It helps to have an easy to remember and easy to spell domain name. Just because the original spelling is not available, many people end up using mis-spelled domain names, which do not do much either.

An easy to remember domain name also entails having a .com extension, only because people are used to that. If your domain is easy to remember but without the .com extension, people will type the domain name in and type .com, they will be taken to some other site. You do not want that to happen. It is not that all other extensions are bad, but only that when choosing a name, preference should be given to a .com.

The second method of coming up with a good domain name is branding, which means giving the website a name that has nothing to do with what the website is about, but people will know it all the same, such as sites like Yahoo and Google.

A brandable domain name should look interesting with a good pronunciation. It may not be descriptive but can be very effective all the same. Once a brand is known to people, they will associate it with your website. Branding is tougher to pull off as a lot of marketing needs to be done.

If you have noticed, domain names with hyphens or numbers are cheaper. The reason behind this is because they are inconvenient for people to type. It is very easy for people to forget the hyphen or numbers and it is highly advisable to avoid them as far as possible.
The above factors may be important in finding a good domain name, but at times it is difficult to find one which fits the mould. There is no need to be discouraged if this happens, just go ahead and pick a name that suits your need. There are several websites on the net which do not comply with all the factors given above, but they are well known with lot of visitors.

Having a good domain name is one thing but promoting the site and making it well known is something else.

Though the www represents itself as an example of global village, but the whole system cannot work in isolation, i.e. standalone websites, and thus it needs transformation of ideas and experiences into a platform. The platform that best meets the requirements of contemporary times is Social Media. And this origin of Social Media defines it as a platform integrating technology and social interaction in order to bring innovative solutions through user experience with less response time. But this integration and interaction do not result as innovation if the optimization factor is absent, i.e. if website is not visible to the targeted user, or the user is unaware of it in any way. This creates the need of Social Media Optimization, but what actually it is?

Social Media Optimization is an internet marketing technique that includes a number of methods to promote your product/service/business/website on social media. It can also be considered as an advanced form of viral and word to mouth marketing using web. In simple words, SMO is defining and executing strategies and methods to implement changes in order to optimize a website in a way that it is highly visible in social media searches and on search engines, and is frequently included in the relevant blog posts etc. SMO cannot be bound to have a general course of action, as it depends largely on the current trends, evolving concepts, and user to user varying requirements, but some common components of it can be listed as under:

• Blogging
• Podcasting
• Video Sharing
• Social Bookmarking
• Social Networking
• Collaborative Ranking
• Rating Systems
• User Reviews
• Wikis

Now each of these components can either be used in a single context or in combination for better exposure, but the effective optimization of a site on social media needs a collaborative effort of all the components mentioned above. Though Social Media Optimization shares basis with SEO and web 2.0, there exists some complex differences, that need to be discussed for better results.

Starting from content, SMO demands quality, uniqueness and users’ oriented stuff as it’s needed for SEO, but when it comes to sharing, SMO allows maximum spread out of same information holding that as much as it’s distributed, the maximum credibility goes to you. This credibility results as linking on one hand and users’ trust on other. Bookmarking along with tagging, especially social bookmarking and tagging can play a vital role in helping content to travel round the World Wide Web. This content traveling works as WOM marketing, and as much as content travels, it increases the user base.

SMO encourages mashup, whereby data from different sources is enabled on a single platform, i.e. Youtube, Facebook, eBay, Google Maps etc. The content for mashups requires RSS or Atom Feed, and Screen Scrapping etc. Further SMO suggests rewarding inbound links, in order to expand the outreach.

Having an overview of Social Media Optimization, one can raise a question of its importance. SMO’s importance can be well identified from the benefits it rewards an organization, business, or an individual with. The level of benefits varies with the nature of business, but SMO rewards all sort of establishments, i.e. from a freelance developer to a software solution providing firm, from an individual to an organization and so on. And these benefits include:

• High visibility in the World Wide Web
• Users’ trust
• Brand building
• Accelerated product innovation via reduced response time
• Quick feedback and users’ credibility
• Reducing gaps between the business and the end user
• Development of and exposure to high end functional applications

SMO as it benefits, but only if it’s done effectively, and the effective optimization depends largely on how much social media trusts you. In order to optimize your site for social media, make sure that whatever you’re sharing on social media is of your targeted users’ interest, so that he must consider it, and before sharing content it’s better to find out if that particular social site is the best place to share or not. Growing your network by making new friends on a social site is very good idea, but loses its essence if one prefers quantity over quality. Being active, helping and having positive attitude make you prominent and your site a focus of attention. And above all voting for stories that let’s you express yourself: may develop the other members’ trust if you’ve gone through the site carefully and given your true opinion in the form of comment by reading the actual story.
Some things that should be avoided include, random posting, self promotion in any way, submitting your press releases, affiliate programs and clients’ projects etc, sending shouts for every item you share, and voting only for mutual friends.

In a nutshell, SMO provides a live and interactive exchange of information and resources benefiting both businesses and users, but optimizing a site on social media requires qualitative efforts, and time. Quantitative efforts aiming to get a move on to shorten the time and desire to see the overnight results may help one to have a short term visibility, but may also cut back on the development and trust.

Social Media Marketing is a divergent phenomenon, whereby the strategies are based on choices and preferences, tastes, variations and innovations, and something that supports a constant variation in procedures is always sustainable. But the present digging/stumbling culture and paid opinions may reel back the sustainability to the ninth degree. The true SMM culture can, however, be established only by having the inside picture of it, i.e. understanding the situation and nature of business and knowing that the variation will need equal change in strategies, outlining the short and long term objectives, and then using the appropriate social media tools in accordance with the research.

Whatever the situations are, marketers must know that:

1. He’s to think like a user not provider, as SMM is volatile in nature and knowing what audience likes is the key to success.
2. He’s to build relations based on trust because in Social Media that is open for all, the vulnerability to unethical practices is relatively high.
3. It needs parallel time to research and analyze the audience and to build an effective network.
4. It’s a learning process and you find something new each time you develop or execute a single strategy.
5. Knowingly relaying false information may let you get a single step ahead but the long run will be a dead end.
6. Since the SMM model works on choices, preferences, attitudes, tastes and style, no such thing can get about that’s not sought for.
7. It’s your identity that works more than you, so making best use of it is the way to leave imprints in all possible and related area of influence.
8. If you want others to abide by certain rules, be a live example.

Knowing these basics of SMM opens a sustainable end. Let’s say I follow the unplanned current Social Media Marketing tricks to improve the visibility of my content, but when I come to know that it’s of no use, I’ll probably end by giving it up. That’s what people term as ‘unsustainable’ end of Social Media Marketing, but in fact it’s nothing to do with the sustainability, instead the fault lies in the approach. If I happen to explore the fault and reconcile, it’ll certainly work and in long run of course.

SMM may be taken away from its exactness by unethical social media practices, time and budget constraint, and unplanned use of SM tools etc, but it’s still sustainable for those who have a thorough knowledge of Social Media, Internet Marketing, Behavioral Mapping, excellent Communication Skills and System, and above all Target Marketing. All these attributes of sustainable Social Media Marketing may be summed up as SMM Education, which is crucial if the best out of SMM is desired.

The duplicate content issue and incorporation of million of sites and reduced time frame for accessing all available data may also restrict SMM from being effective technique, but technology if incorporated accordingly can resolve this issue as well, i.e. iPhone and FEEDM8.

The sustainability of Social Media Marketing is a never-ending debate, holding justifications both in favor and against, but the opportunities it has for young entrepreneurs and experienced professionals hark back to its constructive incorporation. For some, it’s as sustainable as any other buzz-generating medium while for others it might be just a temporary stage. The business end of SMM, however, aims to benefit both the individual and the organization. The business gets exposure while becoming a Social Media expert by having hold at networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, and forums etc along with good communication skills and knowledge of commercial markets are what the leading brands scout about. In a nutshell it’s more fun learning and earning through Social Media, and the sustainability of SMM depends on the efficiency of marketer.

Social Media Marketing (SMM) uses web marketing techniques for achieving brand marketing and awareness. It blends branding tricks through the social media. The branding and advertising needs and trends may be different for different organisations. While one tries to generate brand awareness, another may be looking for product visibility or market penetration. It may also take the form of online brand image management. The marketing strategy here is unlike the traditional hard selling techniques. Social media marketing requires tactful marketing of a particular product or service in a particular community or group to achieve maximum referrals. Identifying the target audience and adopting marketing strategies targeted at them, is the right way. It all starts with selection of the right medium and using it resourcefully to appeal to the target audience. A blend of information, leisure, hilarity, debate can do the trick.

Social media marketing is much like: Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Word-of-Mouth Marketing, and Social Media Optimization (SMO). Many people consider that SMO applies the principles of SEO to social media websites. SMM takes a more vigorously premeditated role hinting at the community to unite with the content.

Social Media Marketing – Steps

- Build web pages that supply links reversely, to the website owned by you.
- Use keyword rich content on the pages that can be optimized.
- Make accounts or profiles on popular sites (Orkut, Ryze.com) to market yourself.
- Help social media websites add a degree of value and brand image through your contributions.

Do’s and Don’ts and tricks for SMM

- Asking a friend to put forward a story about you on your own website can catapult credibility. This is an important promotional tool with promising returns. People recognize your credibility through the notions of others.
- Preconceived notions and opinions are unwelcome and therefore avoid putting them up in any form.
- Buying votes is a big no. This method doesn’t work always. It is just your credibility that you have in these types of communities.
- Take active participation in the community and gain a unique recognition.
- Be an active follower of community’s rules and regulations and avoid breaking the rules in any form.
- Don’t flood the website or community messages with inappropriate content or spam messages.
- Try creating a brand image by leading people and creating your own communities if possible.
- Be of some help to people. This will give you recognition make them come to you again.
- Make more friends and be magnanimous. People will further introduce their friends to you.
- Post important articles and interesting information that can catch attention immediately.
- Reward users that contribute to your website and develop a name.
- Ensure that your server is not low. People logging in first time may be diverted due to it.

Social Media Marketing Strategies

Boost your linkability – There is a constant need to update information on a website in order to increase referrals and business. You must provide important and content rich links preferably to a blogs or a profile page. This can be very helpful and can generate huge traffic every given day. You can also create links leading to white papers or interesting articles, thoughts, poems, or any other eye grabbing content.

Reward inbound links – Inbound links can dominate search engine rankings and boost traffic. Creating inbound links to your blogs or websites is the key technique. This can be done by listing interesting or new blogs to your web pages and increase their visibility in no time.

Make your content go places – Through portable videos, PDF files, images, audio files, etc. you can make your content travel far and wide to various people and places and provide a link there to help them reach back to your website. This can be done on YouTube or even on Tagged.com, etc. This will help you to penetrate faster in the market and reach wide customers.

Allow free sharing and access – Allow people to access your content freely and share it with others too. You can use animation and flashes on your website and make the website user friendly too. YouTube is a prominent example of this. Also provide features like creating your own videos, slideshows, images and a whole lot of other interesting features. This can enhance the growth of your website and also increase your networking among people. People will further recommend it to others. Thus you need to support mashup.

Popular sites to market yourself

Digg | Orkut | Ryze | MySpace| Del.icio.us | Wikipedia | Flickr | Yahoo! Answers |Yahoo! 360 | Secondlife

Benefits of SMM

1. The traffic and referrals to a website increase in two fold and these websites come up from time to time in various newspapers and publications as change agents and boons to the society. This also leads to an increased user login and advertising capacity.

2. The links provided by you can help you market yourself and your organisation and increase your brand image.

3. By creating your profile you can develop a name and a certain brand value.

4. Active participation in communities and posts can be a source of additional income through brand awareness.

5. You can also pick up advertisers if your website has a huge traffic and can earn in the form of commissions.

6. There is a huge potential for websites including user friendly features like video sharing, image and slideshow sharing, blog making, etc as these interest people of all ages and generate huge views and traffic on your website. If the server is not low there may be many more people logging in to your website.

Internet Marketing

The most important aspect of internet marketing is designing websites that attract customers and give a solid impression of know-how and respectability. Too many good products go unsold as would-be customers are turned off by amateur appearing websites. To avoid this pitfall, a marketer has two choices. The first is to pay a designer to build a custom website, and the second, more affordably solution, is to download a template and build a professional looking site without the extra cost.

Why Web Templates?

If your budget is unlimited, by all means, build a custom site, but many internet marketers have some budget constraints. Often building a website represents the introduction of a new product line, and there is no guarantee that the site will be successful, although there is a great deal of hope on the marketer’s part. Most marketers start small and build up as the business picks up speed. Start a new venture with a basic template, use the money saved for advertising, and see success,

To cut costs, some markets use a free template or no template at all and design a website with no character, and occasionally, no color. The site gives the impression the marketer either doesn’t know what he is doing or doesn’t care enough about his product to put some time and effort into the site. Free templates always look better than nothing, but are missing some of the professional flare higher quality templates provide. Building a website is the first step to success, so it makes sense to invest less than one hundred dollars on a site worthy of the enormous efforts.

Reap the Benefits

Unless a marketer is selling to other internet marketers, customers will be none the wiser that he used a template. Indeed, there are so many templates available, it is quite possible to purchase a template and never see that same design elsewhere. All that really matters is that a quality product or service is represented by a professional looking website, not that using a template made that professionalism possible.

Customers are the bottom line, and customers won’t be impressed by a website that could have been slopped together by a child. Webmasters pay a lot of money for content and marketing. At the very least, they should start with a quality looking site, and what better way to get it than by using web templates?