Ok, I have to say it. I have been hearing from lots of people recently that social networking web sites are not “as good as they used to be”.

By this people who are talking to me mean that social networking landscape has changed. Here is what I have heard recently:

- There is much more noise on social networking web sites than there was two years ago…

- It is not as easy to invite people to your calls, or to your newsletter anymore…

- No one on Twitter and Facebook is interested in coaching…

The good news is, while social networking landscape has changed dramatically in the last two years, one thing remained the same. The spirit of social networking stayed the same. When you use social networking web sites to share, help, educate, give, connect and refer on social networking web sites, you will get the same in return.

Now, I do want to clear one misconception that a lot of people ask me about. Should you market at all on social networking web sites? Should you let your connections know about your upcoming teleseminar, your coaching program or your new book?

Here is what I think. There is absolutely nothing wrong with marketing yourself on social networking web sites. There is nothing wrong with inviting your social networking connections to a preview call you are holding or letting them know about your book launch. As long as you are using your social networking presence to share, help, educate and give, there is nothing wrong with using a few of your status updates to let your connections know about your offerings. After all, if your connections don’t know what you are offering, they will not do business with you.

But what if you are experiencing what I described above, that social networking just isn’t working for you? Here are a few things to take a look at:

- Are you connecting with the right people? Even if you are doing everything right when it comes to social networking, you still need to be connected with the right people, people who are interested in what you have to offer.

If you are not connecting with people who are in your target market, you will still have fun on social networking web sites, but you won’t see the results you are looking for.

- Are you sharing tips and ideas? Sharing tips is the best and simplest way to promote your expertise. You can share short tips as a status update. To share a longer tip, right a blog post and share it.

- Are you letting people know what you have to offer? Sharing your offerings in an authentic and thoughtful way is a huge part of social networking. If you share about them too much, many people will tune you out.

On the other hand, if you don’t share at all, you are guaranteed that no one will take advantage of your offers.

Learn more about using social networking web sites effectively:

- The Simplest Strategy To Build Your List With Social Networking

- How To Get Leads On Social Networking Web Sites

If you want to use social media marketing to get more clients, the first step to take is to use social networking web sites, such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to get more traffic to your web site. Here are the top five ways to get traffic to your web site from social networking web sites:

1. List Your Web Site In Your Profile. When you are using social networking web sites, and are connecting with someone new, the first thing they are going to do is check out your profile. And when they check out your profile, whether on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn, they are going to look for a link to your web site to learn more about you.

Make sure to link to your web site from all of your social networking profiles. This is one of the easiest ways to get more traffic to your web site.

2. Use Twitterfeed To Post Your Blog Posts To Twitter. One of the most effective ways to get more traffic to your web site is by sharing your blog posts on Twitter. When your followers are interested in what you have to say, they will visit your blog and read your blog posts.

Use twitterfeed.com to automatically share your blog posts on Twitter. That way even if you forget to post a link to your blog post on Twitter, this tool will do this for you automatically.

3. Notes On Facebook. Just like you should share your blog posts on Twitter, you should also share them on Facebook. On Facebook you can use application called Notes. To find it, click on “Applications” and then “Notes”.

Once you set it up, your blog posts will be automatically posted to your Facebook account.

4. Status Updates. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn all let you post status updates. Use some of your status updates to invite your connections to visit your web site. Don’t link to your web site using every update and don’t invite people to check out the same page every time.

Vary your updates, vary your links and vary what you invite your connections to check out to get the most traffic.

5. Get Traffic To Articles That You Post To EzineArticles. EzineArticles.com lets your connect your account with your Twitter account. This way, every time your new article is approved, it is automatically posted to your Twitter account.

When you do this, you will get more traffic to your articles, and, since your Resource Box invites people to visit your web site, you will get more traffic to your web site as well.

For more social networking tips, get my FREE Report, How To Get Clients and Make Money With Social Networking at http://www.HowToUseSocialNetworking.com

More Social Networking Tips:

- The Best Way To Get Clients With Social Networking

- Squeeze Pages 2.0: How To Create A Squeeze Page To Capture Your Social Networking Traffic

- Thinking About Leaving Social Networking Web Sites?

Have you been thinking about leaving social networking web sites, because they are not bringing any clients to your business?

Have you been spending a lot of time using social networking web sites such as Facebook and Twitter, but are not seeing any results?

Here are three questions you need to ask yourself. Answers to these questions will help you get more out of your social networking presence:

1. Are You Getting Traffic From Social Networking Web Sites?

Check your web site statistics to see whether you are getting any traffic from social networking web sites that you are participating in.

If you are getting traffic, then see the next question you should ask. If you are not getting any traffic from social networking web sites, then take a look at why not.

Do you have a link to your web site in your profile? Do you share your blog posts on social networking web sites? Do you share useful content that makes your connections curious about what you do to go and click on your links?

2. Are You Getting Targeted Traffic From Social Networking Web Sites?

Some people tell me that they have been getting traffic from social networking web sites, but the traffic isn’t taking action with them and isn’t turning into clients.

In order for your traffic to take action with you, your traffic must be targeted. This means that the people who you are networking with on social networking web sites must be in your target market.

If the people are meeting on social networking web sites are not in your target market, then you are not going to get targeted traffic to your web site and you are not going to be able to turn that traffic into clients.

3. Is Your Web Site Converting Your Traffic Into Clients?

If you are getting targeted traffic, but are not getting any results, then you are not doing a good job at converting this traffic into leads and clients.

Do not send your social networking traffic to a page on your web site where you have many links. Doing this will only confuse them, and they will leave your web site without signing up for anything.

Instead, send your social networking traffic to a squeeze page. Doing this will give your web site visitors just one choice, and will ensure that many more of them will take action with you and become your newsletter subscribers.

For more information on getting clients on social networking web sites, grab my FREE Report, How To Get Clients And Make Money With Social Networking at http://www.HowToUseSocialNetworking.com

More social networking posts:

- How To Create A Squeeze Page To Capture Your Social Networking Traffic

- The Simplest Strategy To Build Your List With Social Networking

- Mistakes You Are Making When Building Your List With Social Networking

Hard to believe, but it is already middle of September, and there are only about 3.5 months left till the end of 2009. How are you doing with your goals for your business? Now is a good time to review your plan for 2009 and to see how you are doing with it.

If you are not reaching your goals (yet!), there is still enough time to achieve them. This blog post is about how you can jump-start your goals and reach them in 2009!

But first, here is an update on one of my goals for 2009. One of my goals for 2009 was to start learning how to bake. Here is a picture of a flourless chocolate cake I made recently:

Now let’s talk about your goals for 2009 and how you working towards them:

Are you getting enough web site traffic? If one of your goals was to get more web site traffic, but you are not getting enough web site traffic, here is how to start getting traffic tomorrow! Article marketing and social networking are two marketing techniques that will start bringing you traffic immediately, as soon as you start using them.

Start participating on social networking by joining web sites such as Facebook and Twitter, connecting with people and starting a conversation. You will start getting traffic almost immediately.

Submit articles to article directories, and you will start seeing traffic almost immediately as well.

Are you turning your web site traffic into leads? If you are getting web site traffic, but it is not buying your products and services, then you are not converting your traffic into leads.

Test how well you are turning your web site traffic into leads. If you are not getting the results you are looking for, there are some tweaks that you need to implement. These include creating effective squeeze pages and doing copy writing for your squeeze pages.

Are you getting enough clients? If you are not getting enough clients, then you need a system for getting clients for your business. During the Ultimate Social Networking Training you will learn the step-by-step system for getting clients from social networking web sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Click on this link to register for the training and you will be on the way to achieving your 2009 goals!

Biana Babinsky

More social networking posts you will enjoy:

- Thinking About Leaving Social Networking Web Sites?

- Social Networking Mistakes You Making Now

- How To Create A Squeeze Page To Capture Your Social Networking Traffic

I have been hearing from coaches and other service professionals, who have been telling me that they are getting web site traffic from social networking web sites such as Facebook and Twitter, but they have nothing to show for it.

The social networking traffic comes to their web sites and leaves and doesn’t take action. Their social networking contacts come to their web sites, but don’t hire them and don’t buy their products.

Here is a typical email that I receive:

“Biana, I have been watching my web site statistics recently. I see that I am getting a lot of web site traffic from Facebook and Twitter. This has been going on for some time now. However, I haven’t seen an increase in my clients or newsletter subscribers.

What should I do? I would like to be able to convert this traffic into clients.”

It sounds to me like the issue is with where exactly you send your traffic on your web site and what action you want this traffic to take.

When I audit social networking profiles of my clients, 9 times out of 10 I see them sending traffic to the main page of their web site. The main page of their web site usually has 6-15 options for people to click to.

There is a link to a page about the coach, a page about coaching, a coaching services page, products page, newsletter page, a page about the associations the coach is a member of, etc, etc.

The idea is that when a person from Facebook or Twitter comes to the coach’s web site, they will pick the link that interests them (services, about the coach, newsletter, etc), read it, then learn more about products and services and become a client.

It Doesn’t Work That Way!

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. When you send your social networking traffic to a web page that provides many options, your web site visitor becomes confused. And when they get confused, they leave without taking any action, exactly what you DON’T want to happen.

To Get Clients From Social Networking Web Sites You Must Create Squeeze Pages!

In order to get results from social networking, you must send your social networking traffic to a page called a squeeze page. A squeeze page is a page with just one goal: to convert the visitors you receive from social networking web sites into newsletter subscribers. If you are not using squeeze pages, you are losing newsletter subscribers every single day!

Three Tips To Create Effective Squeeze Pages

1. The Squeeze Page has just one goal - convert your social networking traffic into newsletter subscribers. Make sure that EVERYTHING on your squeeze page is helping you do just that. Don’t ask people to buy a product or register for your services.

2. Offer A Gift. People are more motivated when they get something in return. Since you want them to take action and subscribe to your newsletter, offer them a free gift in return.

3. Use Effective Web Copy. Explain your squeeze page offer in terms of benefits to your target market. What’s in it for them? Why should they get your gift? Don’t just say: “Subscribe to the newsletter”. Share the benefits that people will receive!

To learn more about creating squeeze pages to capture your social networking traffic, join me for the Ultimate Social Networking Training. During this training you will learn exactly how to create Squeeze Pages For Social Networking Web Sites that will convert your social networking traffic into newsletter subscribers.

More social networking posts:

- How To Create Your Own Short URL

- How To Create A Squeeze Page To Capture Your Social Networking Traffic

- Thinking About Leaving Social Networking Web Sites?

Many coaches and other service professionals have been asking me how to build their lists on social networking web sites. After all, telling people “subscribe to my newsletter” doesn’t work too well on social networking web sites.

Why not? Because by saying “subscribe to my newsletter” you are not showing your contacts how they will benefit. And when your contacts don’t know how they will benefit, they will not take action.

Here is how to show the people you meet on social networking web sites the value that you provide, and how to get more of them on your list as a result:

- Find an issue that your target market is interested in solving. The best way to show the value that you provide is by showing that you know what your target market’s issues are and how to solve them.

- Create a product (report, audio, event, e-course, etc) that helps your target market solve that issue. If you have an issue or a problem, what do you want? To solve it, of course! Your target market is no different - people in your target market want to solve their problems.

Give this product away at no charge to everyone who subscribes to your newsletter.

- Use social networking to get the word out about your free product. Now instead of saying “subscribe to my newsletter”, you can share information about your gift, that provides value to your target market. And when you show how you are providing value, you will get many more newsletter subscribers.

Get the Grow Your List Quick Start Guide to learn my step-by-step process for building your list with social networking web sites and article marketing.

Biana Babinsky

Are you using social networking web sites to promote your business? Are you getting results? If you are using social networking web sites to promote your business, but are not getting the results that you want, chances are you are making social networking mistakes that prevent you from growing your business.

Take a look at your social networking strategy (if you are saying: “what strategy?”, than that’s your first mistake :) for growing your business with social networking and see whether you are making one of these five mistakes. Each mistake can cost you thousands of dollars in lost profits:

Mistake #5: No Clear Purpose For Social Networking

I have heard from many people that they just want to check out Twitter or see how Facebook works. And that is perfectly fine in the beginning - you take a look at what is available and see whether you like it.

Then they start hanging out there on a regular basis, meet lots of people, but in their mind they never change the purpose for using social networking web sites. In their minds, they are still hanging out there and checking it out.

So if in your mind you are still checking it out, that’s what you are doing. Become clear on what you are looking for when you are using social networking web sites. Are you looking to get more business? Become better known? Researching a new opportunity?

By becoming clear on what you want to achieve, you are taking the first step on getting there!

Mistake #4: Too Much Noise, Not Enough Information

A coach I know got started on social networking web sites by logging in a few times a week and sharing a link to request a free coaching session with her. That’s all she did, and, not surprisingly, she didn’t get any results.

If all you are doing is linking to your service page and telling people to register for your services, chances are you are not getting much luck either. Re-think your strategy and start sharing information before you ask people to register for your services.

Mistake #3: Never Promoting Anything At All

I am sure that you know that too much promotion and not enough anything else does not work on social networking web sites. What many of clients are also very surprised to hear is that never promoting anything does not work either.

If you never tell your connections about what you do, and what you have to offer, how are they ever going to find out about your latest teleseminar or upcoming book?

Make sure to sprinkle information about what you do from time to time. That way your connections will be able to check out what you do and learn more about your products and services.

Mistake #2: Not Interacting With Others

I see so many people doing that - they share a lot of useful information, they share information about their upcoming calls, but they never interact with others. They speak “at” their people, not “with” them.

Start a conversation! Respond to others on Twitter, start a conversation and respond to people who respond to you, etc. When you are engaged in a conversation, your connections get to know you better. And when they get to know you better, like you and trust you, they are much more likely to do business with you.

Mistake #1: Not Having A System

If you want to be very successful with social networking, then you must have a system for using social networking to bring people into your sphere of influence, convert them into leads and then convert them into clients.

Without this system you will not be able to get clients on social networking web sites.

Want to learn how to stop making these mistakes and start getting clients with social networking web sites? Then join me for the Ultimate Social Networking Training

Biana Babinsky

More social networking posts:

- How To Create Your Own Short URL

- How To Create A Squeeze Page To Capture Your Social Networking Traffic

- Thinking About Leaving Social Networking Web Sites?

Here are two e-mails that I have received recently from coaches about effective social networking:

#1:

“Biana, I have started using Twitter, but have been shy about promoting myself yet. I have been chatting with people and slowly building up my list of followers. I feel that now I should start letting people know about my coaching services - what is the best way to do that?”

As you can see from these e-mails, neither approach is working. Just telling people you meet on social networking web sites about your services does not work. They don’t know you well enough yet to buy your services.

Not telling people about your products and services isn’t going to work either. If they don’t know anything about what you are offering, how will they be able to buy from you?

What is the best way for these coaches to promote their services on social networking web sites? It might be surprising to hear, but the most effective way to sell your products and services online is not selling at all.

Building the groundwork by generating leads for your business is the most effective way to sell your products and services. Your leads are people who are in your target market; people who want, need and can afford what you have to offer. Your goal is to get these leads on your list by offering them something valuable. Once you have them on your list, you can spend time on building a relationship with them and sharing information about your products and services with them.

When you bring leads into your business on a regular basis and are able to communicate with them, great things happen. You get more customers and more clients every time you send out an email how great is that?

If you are not getting clients from your social networking efforts, revise your social networking strategy. Instead of trying to sell your services, create a strategy to get more leads. It is much easier to turn your social networking contacts into leads and you will get much better results.

Learn the strategies for getting clients with social networking in the FREE Report, How To Get Clients And Make Money With Social Networking. Get the report FREE at http://www.HowToUseSocialNetworking.com