Strictly speaking, a social networking website is one that has the primary purpose of enabling registered users to connect with other people; whether those people are existing contacts or not. Other types of social websites include social bookmarking sites where users can bookmark and share useful links as well as social media websites like Flickr, YouTube, and to an extent Blogger.

The key to effective social networking is being active within your online community. Setting up profiles, adding a couple of posts, and then walking away is unlikely to yield any kind of positive result. Users appreciate the effort of other users that take the time to post, and are especially grateful to those that post informational and useful content.

Another facet of good social networking is combining your efforts into one cohesive unit. You should have accounts with at least a handful of social networking sites, all of which will be regularly updated and all of which will eventually have their own fans, followers, and leads. Encouraging users to visit the whole spectrum of your online network will help all of your efforts and will also ensure that your website and business gain the greatest possible benefit.

Social networking for business can largely be considered a form of guerilla advertising because it can be done by you or somebody else within your organisation. There are no formulas or guaranteed methods of success, though, and there is no single one-size-fits-all solution to social networking for business. The most effective social network will be tailored specifically to your business in the same way that each social networking website has its own demographic of users.

The sales bit (sorry!)

Lukerative has extensive experience and knowledge in the social network and social marketing arena. We can tailor a package that is specific to your needs and to those of your target market. We will use our experience to generate traffic from some of the busiest and most active communities on the Internet so that you can enjoy increased traffic, improved conversions, and better bottom line profits. What’s more, our dedicated social marketing packages mean that you can concentrate your time and efforts on the core aspects of running your business and completing the necessary daily tasks.

In terms of word of mouth marketing, reputation really is everything. Whether you’re operating online or offline, your brand should always be the first one that people think of and by offering a top quality product or service, friendly customer service, and exceptional after sales support you can expect great referrals from your existing customers.

However, word of mouth marketing can be much more than this, especially on the Internet. Viral marketing is the term that has been adopted to basically incorporate virtual word of mouth marketing. By developing a high quality website or offering content or giving away something of value it is possible to create a buzz even among those that are not your customers.

Word of mouth marketing can come in the shape of forwarded emails between friends, colleagues, and others with similar interests. It can also mean free advertising on social media and social news websites as well as industry websites but above all it is without doubt one of the most desirable forms of marketing your business.

The perception of value is critical. Even giving a product or service away for free is no guarantee that the word will be spread. The item has to be perceived as being valuable, useful, informational, or helpful in some way. If you can achieve this then word of mouth marketing could become one of your biggest assets.

So, What Is SEO?

Search engine optimisation is the act of optimising or improving web pages so that they rank highly in search results pages for relevant searches. By using the most appropriate keywords and then adding these to the content of your website and then building links using those same keywords it is possible over time to rank at the very top of the pile with major search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN Live.

You Don’t Know Until You Learn

While SEO is certainly a beneficial form of generating traffic it does have to be undertaken properly in order to be effective. Many of the “rules” that govern successful SEO could be considered common sense or best practice but, as is often the case with these things, you don’t know until you’ve been told or until you find out. What’s more, it does require constant work in order to keep up any good search positions you manage to acquire.

Fresh Content

First off, search engines love content; especially fresh, unique, and relevant content. They live organic or natural content even more. While a site with a single web page can perform well in the results, it is more likely that a five, ten, or fifty page website will perform better - not least because these extra pages enable you to target more keywords.

Site Usability And Navigation

Usability is also an important facet of SEO. Clear and simple to follow navigation, quick loading pages, and properly formatted code is absolutely critical to enable the search engine spiders to access and crawl your entire website.

Relevant Inbound Links

Once you have a good looking website, optimised with your researched keywords, you need to start building relevant links. Relevancy is a term that runs right through the SEO process and in terms of links it means gaining inbound links from quality pages based on a similar topic to your own. It also means gaining proper HTML links using relevant keywords as anchor text.

SEO For You

This is only a very basic outline of SEO and you will need to undergo considerable research if you wish to embark on your own SEO campaign. Unfortunately, it is sometimes viewed as being a slightly mystical form of marketing largely because of the acronyms and jargon that are used and you will first need to find your way around this. Alternatively, you can use a professional and ethical SEO service like Lukerative in order to identify the most beneficial keywords, optimise your website, and continue to build links and improve on your overall SEO results.

A Plan

The planning stage of e-commerce is the most important. You first need to outline your goal by setting up online. Will the Internet be your sole source of sales? Will you be using the web to promote your physical stores or shops? You need to be able to answer these questions before you even consider contacting a developer, although a good developer will certainly be able to help you work through many of the steps and answer a lot of your questions.

The Website

Whether you’re intending to manage a simple brochure page that gives details of how to find your physical store or you will be managing hundreds of different products in your own e-commerce store you’re going to need a website. There are tools to help you build your own but if you don’t have any experience in design, development, and to a degree, marketing, then it is best left to the professionals. A poorly designed site can instantly turn visitors away and, worse still, send them to your direct competitors as a result.

Shopping Cart

If you intend to sell products directly on your website then you will need some form of shopping cart software. This software enables you to add and display products, categorise them, and add price and postage details. More advanced options can include cross product promotion, gallery pictures, and even detailed sales and traffic reports. There are many shopping cart options available to you and your best option is to discuss your needs and wants with your developer, because they will be responsible for installing the software.

Payment Processor

To sell items online you need to be able to accept payments online. Service providers may be able to get away with requesting bank transfers or BACS payments to a large degree but offering the option of credit and debit card payments will almost certainly enable you to reap greater rewards. Services like PayPal, Moneybookers, and NoChex can be integrated into your website without the need for a merchant account.

Traffic

The best designed site with the most intuitive interface, the most competitive prices, and the most appealing products will still not yield results until you generate traffic for your website. The Internet is literally awash with methods to promote a site and help you sell your products or services.

Here are some of my tips for working from home… something which I have done for many years now…

Workspace

Its important to have a separate workspace. You need somewhere where you can setup your business, ideally in a spare room. To me, this is one of the most important things! I have two small children and being able to close the door to block out the noise and distractions is very handy!

Try and make your workspace inspirational; somewhere where you want to work. Put up artwork or posters that you like. You will be spending a lot of time in your new office so you need to like your surroundings.

Plants are a worthy introduction too! Try and get something quite hardy as, if your like me, you will forget to water it!

Take a look at some of the images below for some inspiration workspaces:

Also, check out Flikr for loads more inspiration: http://www.flickr.com/groups/inspiringworkplaces/pool/

Keep Clutter Free

Try and keep clutter a minimum. Make sure you have proper usable storage in the form of filing cabinets. A simple ‘ins and outs’ tray is also a very handy addition.

Ditching the personal organiser may help too! There are tons of applications out there now that can work on iPhones, Macs and PCs alike that can manage your appointments - use them! It really will make your life easier and clutter free!

Being Productive

As potentially you are spending a lot of time on your own, you need to be quite disciplined. It can be so easy to waste a morning catching up on Facebook or using Twitter.

I have seen loads of tips in the past about working for 45 minutes then having a 10 minute break…You need to find something that works for you. Personally, I like to get my e-mailing out of the way in the morning followed by my least favourite job after that. You need to remember to take breaks though - it can be very easy to get tied up and spend hours working without stopping. You wont be doing yourself any favours there!

There are also programmes that you can use to help you be more productive…

• HighRise - Track communication and conversations with leads, employees, clients, colleagues, vendors
• Campfire - Real-time group chat and file sharing
• Zoho - Free business tools
• Ta-Da Lists - Free to use task manager
• ActiveCollab - Open source collaboration and project management tool
• Freshbooks - Tracks time, manages invoices
• MS Office Accounting Express (Free) - Free Microsoft Accounting (offline)
• Open Office - Open Source (and free) Office type suite (offline)

No Space?

Space can be tricky. If you don’t have a spare room, you may want to use a section of your dining room or conservatory. Another option, if you have the space in the garden, is to purchase a garden office. There are loads of really smart garden offices out there that are available from around £3000. Its also a great way of working from home… but kind of not!

Keeping Sane

Unless you are out an about with meetings and the like, spending 24 hours a day at home can eventually drive you up the wall. Its good to chat with people in the same situation as you. Use tools like Skype or Twitter to chat to friends and other ‘work from homers’. If you can, try and vary your work place a little. In the nice summer months you may want to spend a bit of time working outside. Quick tip for you… if you wear sunglasses, you can see laptop screens much better!

Thats it!

If you are part of a larger organisation and work from home most of the time, or if you a full time work from home freelancer, leave your tips and comments below.

No matter which industry and which niche your website or your business operates in you will have to face competition. The more competition you face the greater the challenge you have to become the go-to company that potential customers choose. Regardless of the number and quality of competitors you have, though, part of the challenge that you face is standing out from the crowd.

The successful business is the one that offers something unique or does it better than their competition but no matter how unique or how good your product or service, you need to let potential customers know. Standing out from the crowd is something that Lukerative excels at.

Creative marketing solutions from Lukerative deal with every aspect of running and marketing a business. We operate as a member of your team and get under the skin of your operation as well as your potential clients. We determine your Unique Selling Proposition (USP), the benefits your product or service offers to your clients, and any other marketable factors. We then work on creating a marketing plan that plays to these advantages.

As well as the more traditional forms of advertising and techniques of marketing we break the mould in promoting the businesses of our clients. We look for unique, innovative, and effective methods to ensure that your business and your website are being seen for all the right reasons and by all the right people. With this potent combination of ideas we can help you develop or expand your business presence.

What do you think? Leave your comments below!

The big question is do you have the resources and the expertise to effectively establish and maintain all of these marketing methods?

• Can you write press releases?
• Can you craft compelling content?
• Do you know how to conduct keyword research?
• Do you know the most effective ways to build links for your website?
• Are you able to formulate an effective viral marketing campaign?

Don’t worry if you can’t answer yes to all of these questions because, in reality, very few companies can. In fact, there are marketing companies out there that can’t manage all of these aspects of marketing and this is just the tip of the iceberg. Who’s to say what the next big thing in marketing will be, right?

The Pool Of Knowledge

One of the biggest benefits when outsourcing your marketing is that you gain access to a pool of knowledge that you don’t already have. A marketing company specialises in marketing in the same way that your business specialises in manufacturing your products or providing your service.

If you were to attempt to undertake all of your own marketing then you would need to employ an extensive team of marketers. You would need to pay for the office space, utilities, and the cost of computer equipment, software, and hardware. Plus, of course, you would need to pay your new marketing team a competitive salary to ensure they stay with your company.

The Cost Of Knowledge

That leads us to another advantage of outsourcing, in general, and outsourcing your marketing requirements specifically - the cost. Employing a team capable of fulfilling all of those functions would cost a prohibitive amount of money for most small businesses and many of the team members would find themselves with little to do for a lot of the time.

A marketing consultancy is only paid for the work they do. When the work is done, or when there’s nothing to be done except wait, you won’t need to pay wages or rent office space or meet any of the other overheads.

Intricate Insight

The biggest downfall of using a marketing firm is that they won’t have the same intricate knowledge of your business, your products, or your services as you and your employees do. This makes it vital when choosing a marketing consultancy, that you choose one that gets involved and makes decisions based on your specific requirements rather than offering a one size fits all solution.

H&M Poster Campaign

Vespa poster campaign in the US

28 Weeks Later

28 Weeks Later (again!)

Pet Shop Boys, Music Video

Restaurant in Barcellona. Provides daily menu updates.

Mini Poster Campaign

Pepsi Max

Featuring in a book. Provides links through to Wikipedia articles.

Umbro Poster campaign

Have you seen any other creative uses of QR Codes? Why not reply to this post with some links!