Online Marketing Focus: SEO and Social Media

Small business owners have a wide array of marketing choices when selecting the right online marketing strategy to pursue with the goal of finding new leads that actually turn into sales. The most popular being paid advertising, SEO campaigns, and Social Media Marketing. Making a site that is streamlined to be attractive to the search engines through Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the most talked about tactics that drives traffic to websites generally through Google. It is always important to build a website based on proven SEO principals, but in today’s online world failing to engage with the community through social media sites is a big mistake.

Google now puts value on the number of shares, likes, +1’s, etc. that a site receives when producing its search results. Therefore social media campaigns also have an impact on a company’s search rankings for their desired keywords. A great SEO strategy with lots of backlinks is no longer enough to gain high visibility and traction online. The best marketing campaigns for a small business include a combination of both solid SEO principles and promotion of social media channels. Paid search advertising and banner ad space can get a new site the exposure it needs to reach customers; but it is usually way too expensive for most small business marketing budgets.

Basic SEO Principals

In order to get the most out of your social media campaigns it is wise to have a site built based on best practices concerning search engine optimization. The following are a few guidelines that are important for your web development team to follow when designing your site. But doing these alone will not drive the traffic you desire until you begin sharing your website’s content on Twitter, Facebook, and elsewhere providing readers the opportunity to share, like or +1 the content you are distributing.

• Create a site map.
• Develop unique page titles, keywords, and page descriptions.
• Use keywords in headers and body of text, but don’t overdo it.
• Create backlinks, but use a family of similar keywords not just one or two.
• Include blog titles in the URL for the company blog

Of course there are dozens of other aspects for building a website with SEO in mind and so it is important that you have a web developer that is adept at SEO techniques when building the website. Many small business owners fall into the trap of trying to implement what they read about SEO strategies that pertain to affiliate marketing companies that are only seeking traffic through Google search and are not actively selling a product themselves or building a brand that customers will return to.

Social Media to Drive Traffic

Using Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Youtube, and other sites to promote content about the business, products, and services provided should be the majority of your focus. Building a community of people interested in the industry the business is in, is much more effective than building thousands of links on irrelevant websites. Individuals that actively follow a business on Facebook or engage with the company on Twitter are actually helping to promote the brand to their followers and friends simply by engaging and having a discussion. This can be the best kind of exposure as the business is able to reach additional people that may have similar interests. By focusing on creating an effective social media marketing strategy the business has a much greater chance of being noticed by others that will take the time to write or comment either on the social sites, but also on their own blogs and other websites which can result in very high quality links. Building links is a huge part of any effective SEO plan and one of the best ways to get others to link to your content and discuss your brand is through unique and original content that is shared through social sites.

Make sure your site has the basic requirements that the search engines are looking for. Be sure to have a well-designed website and leverage social media to generate the high quality links and discussions that will really send traffic to your site. If you have the ability to create original content then you don’t need to worry about creating an intricate link building scheme as it will more than likely end up getting sniffed out by Google anyways. Small business owners are much better off spending their online marketing budgets building value for their community and actively participating in industry focused discussions throughout the web.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

Attract New Business with Video Marketing

An important element of any marketing strategy that’s aiming to attract new business should be the inclusion of videos in the marketing campaign. Videos can serve several purposes in a joint venture marketing campaign including: educating about a partner or a product, used for acquiring new leads, or explaining a process that is internal to the business relationship among many other functions.

Video is a great medium for getting facts and information across in a short time frame and can allow a customer to engage with a brand despite being on their computer or mobile device. Creating a video that supports your businesses goals in attracting new business does not need to be a significant investment especially if you are a smaller business or start up, a low budget video can still be extremely effective. Sell your brand through video and you will attract more business and reach more customers through channels set up with joint venture partners.

Marketing Uses for Video

Here is just a high level overview of the places and uses for video content in a joint venture marketing relationship. Video allows you to be creative in both creation and distribution yet still retain control complete control over the message inside.

Youtube - Keep an active Youtube account. It will have a positive impact on your businesses natural search engine results and is a great place to send people looking for more information to look through all of the videos.

Facebook & Twitter – These social media sites are perfect for allowing your community of followers to share your content with others that may find it interesting.

Partner Training Website – Have videos that relate to the joint venture marketing partnership on your website. If there is in-person training when the partnership kicks off make sure to have it recorded so a future employee can get up to speed on the business relationship.

Landing Page / Marketing Pages of Website – Using video on a website or in a landing page can be very helpful when attracting new business. I recommend not having a video that starts immediately on your landing page however, having a video that is prominently located on the page and easily click able by the customer is great. Loading the video and playing instantly can impede the persons experience with the website if their Internet connection is slow.

However, a video is capable of packing in all of the details a customer may want to know about if they like what they see in first few seconds of a landing page. The video should help attract and close the new business and direct people how to get in touch with a sales representative or direct them to the e-commerce site.

Email and Newsletter Blasts – Include a video in your next company newsletter or customer update newsletter and track the success of the video. You can upload a new video prior to sending out a new message to see how many people are viewing your videos. If you have a high rate of success of getting people to click on videos from your newsletters then you can expand on selling to the potential business that you have attracted interest of.

Embrace creating content to drive awareness about your partners’ products and service when selling for a joint venture marketing partners including making videos and other visual content that interests your target market. Videos and pictures are key drivers in attracting new business and then a solid pitch and answers to the customer’s questions will be able to seal the deal.

Make a new video about a business partner and see if you can drive new leads that might not have been otherwise cultivated.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

Attract New Business with a Monthly or Quarterly Partner Promotion

Attracting new business through a joint venture marketing partner can be achieved with a higher rate of success when a special price or unique product offering is available or exclusive offerings that are only available to clients of a joint venture marketing partner can be pitched by sales teams to their relationships. Discuss potential promotions with JV marketing partners and be open to their suggestions about potential promotions that will work well with planned marketing campaigns. Customers always appreciate a good deal, so use special promotions to acquire new business that is being serviced by a competitor or previously just not ready to make a buy decision.

Channels for Promotions

The following are excellent channels to use to promote a special product or service discount.

Email - Sending an email to a joint venture partner’s existing customer base should be part of any new promotion strategy. Collect emails from people that visit your website or read your companies blog and include them in your email blasts for deals.

Facebook / Twitter - Spread the news about monthly or quarterly special offerings through the social networks. Include specials or unique offerings that are only available to your online community at Facebook and Twitter.

Internal Contests - Reward sales team members of your company or from your JV partners based on their performance. Whether its cash or a nice gift, giving something special to the sales person that sells the most of a monthly or quarterly promotion can help drive more success from the team as a whole.

Online Deal Shopping Sites – If the products and services are consumer facing then consider listing any deals developed with a joint venture marketing partner on sites like SlickDeals.net or FatWallet.com. Both sites allow promotions and special coupons to be listed and shared with the public.

Attract New Business

While many business partnerships use promotions to market to an existing customer base and to extract more revenue from the customers that the business already has, promotions are always a good reason to contact customers to make sure that the business is at the forefront of their customer’s minds and to continue to build strong relationships with them. However; when using a promotion specifically to attract new business, it’s wise to include some of the following techniques in your offering in order to win over new potential customers. While existing customers are always looking for savings or a unique offer, new customers are seeking a major change from their existing providers or they are new to the market and need product education and additional hand holding that an established client may not need.

Free - Include something for free in your offer regardless if it ends up being a minor detail in the overall product or service. A complimentary assessment or small item can get the new customer relationship off to a good start.

Match or Beat Competition – Promising to match or beat the competition’s price on similar items or services is an excellent way to acquire customers that are currently dissatisfied with their existing solution and open for a change even if the savings or discount is only for a limited time frame.

Time Sensitive – Using timing in a promotion can be done in a couple of different ways. Place a specific trigger date that the offering is valid through. The other way to leverage time sensitivities when attracting new business is to provide a new customer with a special discount that only lasts for a certain period of time as a reward for becoming a new customer.

Incorporate the right strategies inside of your monthly and quarterly promotions and it will be much easier for you and your JV marketing partners to attract new business. By making sure the promotions are tailored to the needs of customers that are looking for new solutions or opening to changing what they currently have, your promotions will be more likely to resonate with people that will become new business. Make sure if you’re doing promotions with business partners to extract business from their existing customer base, saving time and energy to be focused on obtaining new clients.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

Tips for Getting More Clients from Marketing Activities

joint venture marketing

joint venture marketing

The new year is always a time to review last year’s execution and make plans for growing the business. The following tips and techniques can be used to maximize your existing marketing activities in getting more clients. If you have a product or service that is currently being marketed through your own activities or from your joint venture marketing partner then it’s necessary to close every lead and potential deal that is on the table. To acquire a customer it often takes several different attempts with layered marketing of the company and its offerings. By quickly following through with every marketing activity you can potentially hit a customer in multiple channels.

Blog Posting

A blog post may about a new product or new company information that is posted in order to educate customers and potential customers about the product or company. Blog posts are a great foundation to build on and leverage for improving the companies rankings in the search engines. It’s important to expand the reach of your company blog by using the following actions and services on websites to promote the blog post.

Email – Blast a company message with the title, link, and summary of the blog post to people in your newsletter lists.

Facebook - Post a link to your company’s blog post. These should be posted on both companies Facebook pages if it’s a joint venture.

Twitter - Post a link to your company’s blog post. The co-branded blog posts should be posted on both companies Twitter accounts.

Fiverr - Hire someone to submit blog pages to social sites like Reddit, Digg, StumbleUpon and other locations. Hiring additional people to also promote and engage with the content can help posts gain traction faster in the Search Engines.

While results may not be instantaneous, if you follow the steps above your blog posts will receive more value in search engine rankings for your target keywords from Google due to the links that will be created directing back to your specific blog posts. This will help create more traffic to your company’s main website through promoting your content.

Facebook

Facebook can be a unique place to advertise for many businesses. However; there are a few strategies that can work for companies and their joint venture partners that are looking to gain access into specific local markets and have a solid presence on the social network.

• Facebook ads can generate interests from a partner’s existing customer base that follow them. Create an advertisement special that customers of a partner can have access to if they post a message in there Facebook status about your brand. Getting more clients from Facebook requires them sharing your company with their friends.

• If you want to build a following of people, then as a company you have to be educational and have interesting content that makes people want to subscribe to your content. Create interesting videos that provide specific details about a topic in 2 – 3 minutes and post them to your Facebook page as well as on Youtube.

• Create an interesting ad that targets very specific demographics. The ad itself needs to be short and sweet and catch the attention of viewers for the target market your business is after. Purchase ads to the exact details of the market that you need to reach whether it’s regional or based on the individuals occupation, age or gender. Facebook allows for creating amazingly detailed ad campaigns. Make the campaign about clicking like to your Facebook page versus redirecting to your website or a sales landing page.

Brochures / Mailers

If part of the marketing activities is sending out a regular printed brochure, catalogue, or promotional newsletters / sale offerings then it is important to maximize each piece of mail, due to the cost of regular mail campaigns.

Email - Sending an email at the same time as a physical mailing is a good way to use the marketing material twice and help reinforce the physical papers that may get shuffled around for a few days before being reviewed. Invite them to a webinar that will be conducted concerning a topic related to the products or services that are being offered in the mailer. Include a form in any emails that can be filled out and sent in requesting more information as some people prefer to communicate through these channels rather than making a call.

Phone Call – Making a follow up phone call 5 – 8 days after sending a letter / package to a perspective client is always a wise idea. If you are conducting a massive mail campaign and neither you nor your business partner has a call center, it’s ok. There are people that can be hired for a fairly affordable rate that can quickly understand your company’s basic information and products to make lead generation calls to provide hot leads to your sales team. Train sales people making follow up phone calls to get email addresses during the conversation as it’s the easiest way to ping potential customers on a regular basis.

Have a great 2012; enjoy growing your business and maximizing all of your existing joint venture marketing activities to get more clients.

christian fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A joint venture marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more joint venture marketing Strategies join his free report on joint venture marketing.

joint venture marketing

joint venture marketing

Host an Educational Seminar to Attract New Clients

joint venture marketing

joint venture marketing

Reaching out to potential customers through a joint venture marketing partner by hosting an educational seminar is an effective way to attract new clients. There are a couple of ways to set up and host a seminar in order to get in front of new customers, the most popular being a meeting in person or a webinar that is done over the web. It’s essential when preparing to host a seminar that the focus of the seminar is a topic that will be of interest to the audience and be educational about the topic versus a pure business pitch selling a product or service. Remember to capture the content created during the seminar in order to use it for future marketing activities. Work closely with partners to craft exciting and interesting topics that will strengthen both companies’ brands with the target audience and consider opening the events up to anyone that may be interested as another channel for attracting new clients for both companies in the partnership.

Meet Up or Webinar to Attract New Clients

The first major decision that needs to be made when considering to host an educational seminar with a joint venture partner is whether the event should be a real in-person meeting or done through the web in the form of a webinar. There are pros and cons for both and here are few of the most common differences and items to be aware of when making a decision.

A meeting in person is beneficial because a face-to-face interaction allows for a much different relationship to form with potential clients versus an online exchange. It also allows provides more structure for the seminar and can be planned around a breakfast, lunch, or dinner which is often appreciated by people attending. If setting up an in-person seminar, then it’s also important to have marketing collateral prepared and printed as well as product samples on site if relevant. Live seminars should be video recorded in order to be used online later for building a library of interesting information for other future potential customers that are also interested in learning about the topic of the seminar. The biggest drawback for a live meeting are the costs associated with hosting such an event, especially if a location needs to be rented to host the seminar and the seminar is restricted to only a specific geographic area. However, if a partner has a conference room or larger meeting space that can be utilized and the number of potential clients in a specific area warrants a seminar in person then it should be highly considered.

An online webinar is a very effective method to reach many potential customers very easily. This is the best method if the customer base is spread over a large region. Depending on the platform that is chosen for hosting the webinar, the host can still share marketing collateral, PowerPoint presentations, and links with the audience. A webinar is generally easier to record, share or publish to the web and many webinar platforms have this capability built into the product.

Utilize Social Media to Maximize Seminars

Maximize your decision to host a seminar for a joint venture marketing partner’s existing clients by opening the seminar up to the public and promoting it through both company’s social media accounts. An industry related educational seminar should always be looked at as a way for both companies to increase their presence with potential customers. If a live seminar is being recorded it can also be streamed live so anyone that is not able to attend in-person can still attend via the web. Services like Ustream and Justin.tv allow for anyone to easily live stream video from the event. If your event is open to the public you can promote it through sites like MeetUp.com or eventful.com. Make sure that all partners promote seminars through their Facebook and Twitter accounts as well as through more traditional means such as mailers, email, phone calls, and personal recommendations to attend.

Remember when hosting an educational seminar the focus should be on the topic at hand for the majority of the event and through providing interesting and relevant information. The goal is to be seen as an industry expert that can help the potential customers which will ultimately attract new clients. Spending too much time directly pitching a product or service can be a hindrance to developing relationships with potential customers and be a turn off, so go easy with the pitch and have fun educating people about a topic that can be presented with passion.

christian fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A joint venture marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more joint venture marketing Strategies join his free report on joint venture marketing.

joint venture marketing

joint venture marketing

Establish a Strong Presence to Get Clients Online

A joint venture marketing partnership can help promote a brand or product to a large customer base, but in order to get clients online it’s important to have a strong online presence with positive remarks from many thought leaders in an industry across many different online communities. It is not easy to quickly build a very visible brand online as most savvy Internet users rely on many different websites and personal recommendations to assist their decision making process when evaluating a new product or service. For most industries there are several places that are important for a business to have a strong brand.

The following are all sites that should be considered for creating content to achieve the product awareness that is required to get clients online. While a joint venture is extremely important for getting a name into a customer’s mind, most people will initiate at least a basic Google search for making even small purchases and will go deep in Google if the purchase is of a significant dollar value. A business person doing their proper due diligence before making a purchase will often go to at least a few of the following locations looking for additional information, personal product / service reviews and search for both positive and negative opinions. It’s common knowledge that it often takes multiple marketing approaches to reach an end customer and close the deal, so prepare for the momentum that can occur with the promotion provided by a joint venture partner.

Social Networks

Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google Plus are all important to utilize to develop a strong brand presence in order to get more clients online. Small businesses may only have the capability to set up a simple profile with the business owner promoting the product or service to their personal networks within these sites. Larger companies are capable of setting up more complex campaigns with larger groups of people participating with their brand online, but regardless of a business’s capability to fully capitalize on the benefits of social networking, avoiding them altogether can damage the online brand by simply not showing up at all. When a partner recommends a product or service to their customers it is important that the customer can find more information about the company when searching on their preferred social network site.

Business Listing Sites

Yelp, Google Places (which is combined with Google Maps), and the Better Business Bureau are all important locations to have a basic presence. It only takes a few minutes to go through the processes of signing up and claiming the business as your own if you are the business owner. This allows for customizing the profile and providing additional information that’s important for customers to find. Failing to go through the claim process will not mean the company does not show up on these sites, as they still will if the business has been around for more than a few days and has an active website, is incorporated, etc. However it will mean that an opportunity to craft the message customers receive about the company is lost. These sites all have a high likely hood of showing up in the top natural Google search results if a potential online client is searching for more information after hearing about the business through a joint venture partner recommendation, so take advantage of that by building out a strong profile.

News & Information

Creating basic press releases and developing a process for promoting newsworthy information through press release distribution sites like PRLeap, Reddit and Digg which are news aggregation sites and Quora or Yahoo Answers will help get broader community opinions about the product and service. While social networks and business listings are easier to control and manage, news sites have the capability to provide reader opinions which can be positive if done right and negative if done incorrectly.

Getting news stories indexed within Google news can be frustrating at first, but can be achieved through several PR websites for a fee. When participating in News Aggregation sites and Question and Answer sites it’s best not to over sell and to be supportive of the community in general rather than just talking about a specific product or service in order to build the credibility from others within a specific industry. Use industry expertise and knowledge to build a strong brand online through these sites which will result in getting more clients online.

Develop a strong brand online to reinforce the positive impacts of joint venture marketing campaigns. By developing a strong online brand a company will not only ensure that a joint venture marketing activity is more successful, it can also be a catalyst for acquiring JV marketing partners and thus should be an integral part of any efforts to develop a strong JV marketing business model.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

Get More Clients through Joint Venture Marketing Partnerships for Facebook Pages

Small business owners can benefit greatly by setting up Facebook pages to get more clients from a joint venture relationship. Setting up focused Facebook pages with marketing partners give businesses the capability to capture audiences that are very interested in a specific topic or reside in a certain location. The rewards from social media marketing can be tremendous when the campaigns are executed correctly for driving traffic to websites. Small business that are product focused companies can benefit immensely by creating joint venture marketing partnerships with companies that are capable of developing the right marketing campaigns, interact with large networks of social power users, and get the product in front of potential buyers. A well-executed Facebook page can be way more valuable than spending money to advertise on Facebook, people use the network to interact with friends, find interesting information, and get recommendations from their social graph and it’s these three activities that a business wants to tap into in order to generate revenue from a Facebook campaign to get more clients with joint venture marketing.

Facebook Marketing Partnerships

Building a Facebook page that generates lots of interest from a target demographic is not an easy task. However, when a partner has the ability to create fresh content that can be distributed through the right online users to the sites and places that create successful viral marketing campaigns a business can generate significant numbers of leads that result in sales. There are lots of expert marketing individuals and firms that have these experiences and small business owners that want to build a brand through social networks can develop joint venture partnerships with social media marketing as the focus. Instead of having to hire internally to develop and implement social media content and campaigns do a business deal to drive sales and brand awareness through Facebook.

Content for Page

The content that is required to get more clients through a Facebook page will be very diverse. It is important to have a combination of content that is interesting for visitors and fans of the page. Short blog articles are an important element for educating fans of the page about the products or company. Videos that are educational in nature and videos that are funny are more likely to be shared with other people or posted on other sites. Creating infographics or pictures that provide a lot of information through photos and short blurbs of text or display information in a unique way as to make a specific point, can be interesting and something people like to share with others.

Give Back to the Fan Community

It’s important to be open to developing a rewards program for fans on Facebook that purchase and use your products and recommend them to their family and friends through the social network. This can be accomplished in a few ways very easily. Provide special discounts that are time constrained and go out only to the people that are friends on the page. If you have excess inventory in a specific month work with your Facebook marketing partner to develop a unique campaign focused on that specific product and provide a significant deal to the Facebook network. Give fans of a product the ability to earn money through their own recommendations. Giving a fan a 5% revenue share for business leads that come through their social network is not a huge tax on the bottom line if it helps develop a long term customer. Another common reward, if applicable with the products being sold, is if someone refers three people to buy the product they get one for free or at a significant discount, this a common marketing tactic used by daily deal sites such as Groupon and Living Social to help promote social networking activities amongst the customer base.

Depending on the product or service you provide using picture contests on Facebook or other types of content contests is a great way to keep fresh photos, videos, and blog entries on the Facebook Fan page. Photo and video contests can be excellent ways to get people to not only share their own photos using a product, but also an opportunity for them to ask friends to vote for their picture so they can win the contest. So be open to giving back to the community that a joint venture partner develops to market the brand and products too. This will drive more traffic and participation from the community rather than a standard Facebook page that is only interested in pushing out content from one contributor and lacks incentives to share.

Utilize Facebook to engage with specifically targeted customer bases to establish a strong online brand in the market. Many small businesses have a better social media marketing experience when they establish a joint venture marketing partnership versus hire a marketing firm or just use internal employees to create a Facebook Fan page and develop a fan base. When executing a social media strategy make sure to service the community at large with rich and interesting content and allow for personal engagement with the page with the potential for reward, just for loving a company’s product and talking about them on Facebook.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

Effectively Integrating Your Joint Venture with Social Media

Developing an effective strategic plan to integrate your joint venture and social media is essential for growth. In nearly every industry, social media influence has led to major changes in how joint venture partners do business. Finding and communicating with their customers are the two primary goals.

The tools for a joint venture and social media

Over the last ten years businesses have increasingly diversified their advertising budget to include online resources. The first wave of change was creating appealing and informative websites. The last three years have seen the rapid integration of joint venture and social media profiles for products or services with these websites. For a business with a large product line and customers from all corners of the globe, using these tools are practically required. The building blocks of your strategy is a website featuring links to your profile on Facebook or Twitter. YouTube is also very helpful, especially when educating customers about a new offering. For a business-to-business focused joint venture, LinkedIn is an essential social media channel. One of the newest trends is geotagging your social media content.

Using social media to communicate with joint venture customers

Whether it is breaking news or building product buzz, social media has accelerated the sharing of information. It’s not an exaggeration to use the cliche “faster than the speed of light” when referring to how quickly a joint venture can send information. Governments and businesses continue to learn how important it is be ahead of the information curve about their organization. Over the last three years, we have witnessed how quickly word can travel thanks to social media whether it’s positive or not.

A brief mention of a “fly-in-my-soup” kind of experiences can spread within minutes thanks to the exponential growth of social media usage via mobile tools. If an influential user with a smartphone posts a complaint on Twitter, it is retweeted five times within minutes of sharing. And that is just the beginning. This is damaging for banks or blue-chip companies. But the average neighborhood shop or small business might find themselves severally hampered by a critical review or unconfirmed rumor. These types of joint ventures thrive on their reputation and a damaging social media image can hamper growth.

Facebook has become one of the top three search tools consumers use to learn more about a company’s product or services. It is also the first place they go online when not pleased with customer service or the product they bought. At the bare minimum you should set up a free Google Alert via email for the name of your product or service. Choose the as-it-happens option for delivery. The faster you respond to criticisms as well as compliments, the better.

Relationship building with your customer

The ongoing integration of your joint venture and social media communication is a key method of building relationships with your customers. Allowing your customers to have the opportunity to join a dialogue with you is a great way of building trust. Consistent and quality content shared via social media allows your joint venture to quietly stay on the radar of your potential customer. Perhaps they do not need event planning help today, but what about next month? If they read on Twitter your party planning how-to tips regularly, then when they need the services of an event planner, you might be the first call.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

Capitalizing on Social Networking for Joint Venture Marketing

Nearly everyone has a Facebook or MySpace page today, and unless you have been living in the Dark Ages of late, you have probably “tweeted” someone through Twitter. Social networking is all the rage, and now businesses are beginning to understand the value of effectively using social networking tools that literally reach millions of potential customers every day.

This article will discuss how to use social networking in your JV marketing strategy to link up with an even broader potential customer base.

Options in Social Networking

One of the biggest draws to social networking in JV marketing is the number of options in social networking today. Some of the choices include:

• FaceBook

• MySpace

• Twitter

• YouTube

One of the most popular options for professionals today is LinkedIn, which is primarily used to market one’s abilities for the job market. However, businesses are also tuning into the advantages of marketing their business through this social networking site as well.

Another option is to find a niche market website that specifically works with businesses or business owners like you. For example, the Toilet Paper Entrepreneur attracts small business owners with the opportunity to read blogs and post comments regarding running a business today. There are also blogs like Networking Effectively, which is designed to help business owners utilize the latest technology in social networking to the benefit of their bottom line.

Tips for Effective Marketing

Perhaps you have thought about posting your business on Facebook or Twitter, but you are unsure how to use the sites effectively to market your company. We have a few tips to help you navigate the world of social networking with professional savvy:

• Think about your audience as you are designing your social networking accounts. Are they young and hip, motivated by trendy purchases?  Are they professional yet cutting edge, looking for the best technology?   Make sure your social networking account is in line with your target audience, as well as your current branding strategy.

• Get the ball rolling with a topical discussion about your product or brand, and listen to what others have to say. You may gain a wealth of information regarding what prospective customers are looking for and how you can effectively reach them through your JV partnership and your advertising campaign.

• Provide real time information about your business, including current promotions and specials going on in your store. Social networks are the perfect way to cross promote your joint venture.  You might be amazed at the level of traffic you receive when shoppers begin to sniff out a deal.  Think about creating JV combo packages exclusively for patrons of the social networks.  When you build relationships online, you build them for your business as well.

Using social networking to build a business is a free marketing strategy that is already proving successful for many business owners today. While a JV partnership is a good beginning to finding a broader customer base, the use of social networking by you and your JV partner may increase business exponentially. Social network websites appear to be the wave of both the present and the future for profitable business owners.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free Joint Venture Marketing Wealth Report.

Why Your Joint Venture Should Join Google Buzz

A sound joint venture marketing strategy includes an entry into social media. Millions upon millions of people sign on to social websites every day. Are they going to find you? At the very least, you should have a strategy and presence on the most popular social websites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. However, Google has entered the social media arena with their new “Buzz” social platform. Here is why you should get on board as well.

Create a Google Account

Your JV business should have a Google email account. Even if it uses a domain email (i.e.: info@yourbusinessname.com), you can set up a free account on Google’s Gmail system. Ideally, you would want something like “yourcompanyname@gmail.com”. That email account can then be used as your Buzz account.

Start Following People and Businesses

Right now in its early stages, Google Buzz is much like Facebook was when it started. It focused mainly on people and individual networking. However, Facebook has expanded to become a networking hub for businesses. A business can set up a “fan” account and collect followers just like an individual.

Google Buzz is already growing in popularity, and businesses are taking advantage of the additional social networking opportunities from a reliable host. Start building your Buzz network. Those you follow get notification and can follow you back. Thus, the more you follow, the more likely you’ll get a following in return.

Post Creative Content

A status update once in a while will not build a loyal following. However, using the tools available at Google Buzz, you can promote your JV in creative ways. Write blog articles. Take colorful product photos. Produce high-quality video content. All these can be seen or viewed easily in your status updates.

Get Recommended

The nice thing about Google Buzz is that it uses the same technology Google uses for its Adwords links. Google Buzz takes a look at the content that gets the most attention and brings it to your attention first. You can get the most relevant updates from your contacts and vice-versa.

Also, Google Buzz looks at the type of content you post and read. It will make recommendations to you based on your usage. This is also good news for your JV business. The more your JV Google Buzz accounts gets noticed, the more likely it will be recommended to others, and your network can grow without you lifting a finger.

Social Media SEO

Google now is using Google Buzz updates in their search results. The items you post to your Google Buzz account can affect your SEO. Use it wisely. Post keyword-rich status updates and blog posts. Use keywords for your photos and videos. The more relevant your Google Buzz posts are, the more likely it will get noticed in search results.

It was inevitable that Google would enter the social website market. Make good use of your social media sites, and include Google Buzz in your mix. It could improve your JV SEO and overall Internet presence.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free Joint Venture Marketing Wealth Report.