Smart business people know that getting referrals is the best way to attract new customers. Why? Referred individuals are more likely to do business with you because someone they know or trust suggested that you can help them. Research shows that customers who come from referrals are better customers. They pay faster, complain less, buy more, and stay longer term.

At the end of last year, I wrote the article “Networking Strategies to Maximize Your Social Networking Results“, in which I mostly discussed utilizing FaceBook. In the article I explained that even though I had my profiles set up on FaceBook, Plaxo and Linkedin, I had not put them to good use before last year. I just went through the motions: accepting friend requests or checking on others, but not using the social sites as marketing tools.

My strategy has changed a lot since then. I now use social networking on a daily basis. I also added Twitter, which I have to be honest, I still don’t really understand how it works. How can 1500 people follow me? Where do they come from? In the end I don’t really have to know the mechanism of Twitter, because I already see the results. I take every opportunity and medium to get exposure.

My clients who haven’t spent time with me discussing social marketing ask me all the time, “should I use social media to promote my business and get clients; and how do I do that?”

The great advantage with social media is that it’s free! You can potentially start your business with no cost and still have a great marketing tool to promote your business on a shoestring budget.

The problem with social media is that it can take up too much time. If you are not organized or don’t have a system, you will be very quickly overwhelmed. You won’t have strategies and won’t see any results. You may give up or become distracted before seeing the positive aspects of social networking.

Here are some suggestions to get you started:

1. Start a blog, even if you have a website – Use free sites like blogger.com or wordpress.com. Post twice items at least twice a week. Blogs get better ranking than websites on Google, so it will be easier for people to find you. The more you post, the better your ranking.

2. Set up your profile on Facebook, Linkedin, Plaxo and Twitter – Fill out as much information about you and your business as you can. Mention your website and blog. Put your picture, add articles, videos, everything you have that will help people to get to know you and your service/product better. Link your Plaxo account to Facebook, so you don’t have to update it. Each time you post on Facebook or make a change, it will automatically appears on Plaxo. Link your twitter account with your blog. The linking options save you time and worry.

3. Post on a daily basis – I post twice a day, usually – in the morning before I check my emails and in the evening before I turn off my computer. After a while it becomes automatic. A lot of people ask me “what do you write about twice a day?” You have to find a balance between giving free information and promoting your business. If you try to sell each time you post, people will see it as spam and will block you.
Don’t try to sell anything; promote your free offer instead. Bring people into your marketing funnel. Attract them with a free report, or a free CD, or both (as I do on www.theconnectionqueen.com, when people sign-up they get my free mini e-course “15 Ways to Maximize Your Networking Results”, and my free audio “Networking Know How”). Let them sample your services, get to know you, like you and trust you so when they will be ready, they will buy from you or send you referrals.

4. Join groups and forum related to your target market. I personally noticed a better result with the groups on Linkedin, than on Facebook. I post once a week. My posts normally involve an invitation to my teleclass, offer free tidbits of information or promote a product. Since you joined a targeted group, you know that people will relate to what you do and promote. I get numbers of new subscribers from those groups.

5. Start using videos and post them on Youtube, Viddler or Facebook and everywhere you can. Don’t wait until you will get a professional video. Take your camera and make a 2 minute video to start. What you want is exposure, not become a professional film maker. I know millionaire internet marketers that still make amateur videos because they get more results than with a more professional one. You want to be true to people.

6. Join BlitzTime - I mentioned BlitzTime recently in my newsletter. It offers a new way to network over the phone. I like the concept because it is between a live event and social media. You can speak with about 10 to 12 people per hour and you don’t waste your time going somewhere. You do it from your home, office or everywhere you are as long as you have a phone. You network with people from all over the country and not just locally. I meet a French Canadian woman last week and a couple of days later we followed up out side of BlitzTime. We realized that our businesses are similar: helping people set up businesses in the US or in Canada. After our conversations we decided to start a partner together to grow our business.

The advantage of a tool like BlitzTime is that by speaking with the person you have a direct contact, compared to just exchanging email or showing your business via post or website. Social networking sites are great marketing tools to promote your business by generating interest and traffic to your websites for free. It is important to use them to brand yourself as an expert in your industry and get as much as exposure as you can.

But remember communicating with people and getting new contacts/friends on social media is just step one. You must also have a follow-up system to keep in touch with those people after, or you waste time and money.Don’t miss the boat use social media to your advantage.

If you haven’t done it yet join me on – Facebook – Twitter – Linkedin -
BlitzTime – Networking – Networking

Just let me know you are already on my newsletter or a reader from the blog to make sure that I accept you. Connect with you soon.

Putting out a high quality product is a given these days. With all the competition out there, you have to look great in every aspect. So proofreading all copy is extremely important and here are some tips to help you to proofread your own work after you’ve finished editing it:
　
Read through your copy the next day — many times your eyes tend to ‘deceive’ you by reading what’s supposed to be there rather than what may actually be there! Reading it a day or two later helps you to look at your copy with a fresh perspective! At the very least, wait a few hours and look at it again.
But make sure you check out Nita’s site since she is offering a 15% discount on her services throughout the month of September if you mention “Biba” when you contact her. So contact her soon as her schedule is filling up quickly – and don’t forget to tell her I sent you!
　

Use ’spell check’, which is available on most programs. Although they’re not perfect, they will help you to find many errors. In Microsoft (and other programs at well) programs, a red squiggly underline means the word may be misspelled, a green squiggly underline may mean a grammatical or punctuation error. If you’ve put it into Notepad or another program without spell check, try copying and pasting it into your word processing program. Print it out. Reading it in print can many times help you catch things you didn’t catch on the screen.

If at all possible, have someone else read it. They can catch sentences that may be too long, be unclear, etc. You know the point you’re trying to make in your copy, but if others don’t understand it, rewrite it so it’s more clear to everyone.
Be very careful how you use words such as ‘then’ versus ‘than’. These words are used incorrectly quite often but mean different things.
　
‘Then’ is primarily used to signify time, e.g. “We went to the grocery, then we went to the bank.” ‘Than’ is primarily used as a comparison, e.g., “I would rather go hiking than take a nap.”
　
Other words to watch for are ‘loosing’ versus ‘losing’, ‘everyone’ versus ‘every one’, ‘breathe’ versus ‘breath’, etc. There are a lot of questions about the hyphen (-) versus dash (–) and here’s the basic rule:
　
A hyphen is used when you are putting two words together or adding a prefix to a word. Here are some examples: twenty-four, re-signed or long-time.
　
A dash is used when you’re interjecting into a sentence (such as, “I love taking the dog for a walk — especially on warm days — because it is great exercise for us both.”). Remember, when using a dash, you use one space before the dash(es) and one space after the dash(es).
　
In many programs a dash will look like a long hyphen instead of two hyphens next to each other. Dashes are also many times used in place of parentheses in more informal writing. Punctuation inside or outside the quotes? Here’s the basic rule for this one: if you’re using a comma or a period, they go inside the closing quotation mark. Colons and semicolons go outside the closing quotation mark.
　
Question marks and exclamation marks are different and depend on how they are being used (just to complicate things more!). If you are directly quoting someone and a question mark or quotation mark is needed because what you’re quoting is a question or exclamation, it would go inside the quote.
　
Here’s an example for this one: He asked, “Are you going to the party?” “You bet!” she exclaimed.
　
If what you’re directly quoting isn’t a question or exclamation, the quotes go inside the exclamation or question mark.
　
An example of this is, ‘Did David say, “You must have fallen out of bed”?’, or ‘Linda actually said “You must be right”!’
　
Learning these rules may take a little time but if you print out this article and post it near your computer, you can refer to it any time you get confused. Remember, you don’t have to worry about it while you’re writing and editing your copy (that’s when you just let the creativity flow); worry about it after all revisions have been made and it’s time to proofread.
　
You can also go to your local bookstore or library to choose a Grammar book to read and refer to. There are many to choose from so look through them to find one you like.
　
If you feel you don’t have time to proofread, don’t want the hassle of trying to learn the rules, or just don’t want to worry about it, you always have the option of hiring a professional proofreader. Professional proofreaders (as well as copy editors) can be found via a search on the internet or by asking other writers who they use (if they have good, clean copy). When you’re searching for a
proofreader, make sure they are skilled in the type of writing you do (business writing versus sales, informal or conversational writing) and that they have no errors in their copy — if they aren’t extremely careful with their own work, do you think they would be with yours?
　
The money you spend on a professional proofreader, besides easily being made up with the increased sales you should expect by having a more professional product, is easily worth the time, effort and frustration you will save yourself. So take it easy, let the creativity flow, send the work off to a professional for editing and/or proofreading, then sit back and relax while your copy is being groomed to perfection!
　　
(c) 2000 Nita Helping Hand?, all rights reserved.

Nita has been a successful professional proofreader, copyeditor, and Virtual Assistant for 20+ years, and is the President of Nita Helping Hand? Please visit Nita’s website to sign up for her ezine, Including several free gifts, and for more information about proofreading, copyediting and other administrative needs available at NitaHelpingHand.net Nita is your ‘Partner In Perception’.

As you know I am always trying to find the best resources to help you grow your business faster. In the past I have been very shy; I had trouble walking into a room to meet and greet people. I thought by having my own groups, hosting events and welcoming everyone I would be able to get over my shyness. I began to organize networking events in New York.
　
But if you’re shy or introverted, you don’t need to start your own group. There are other ways to overcome the challenge. Help is on the way in the form of a new ebook, written by my friend, Patricia Weber (Networking Expert of Introverts) called “Debunking Negative Introvert Myths: Bringing Your Introvert Strengths to the Party!”

You have got to see this, Click-here
Best part —> you can get the first chapter 32 page for Free Continue to read.
- Once and for all demolish any devastatingdoubts and discover your true worth.
- Feel good about who you are, rather thantrying to learn to become an extrovert.
- Be happier at work and in your personal life.

Learn the truth about introverts and let the negative myths dissolve. Here’s your guide to how you can:

Get your Free 32 page excerpt! “Debunking Negative Introvert Myths: Bringing Your Introvert Strengths to the Party!”

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Get your hands on Internet Selling For Newbies. This bonus alone is a $147 value and you’re about to snatch it up for FREE.OMG! You can’t wait to get your hands on this bonus package. This is Mike Filsaime’s and Omar Martin’s revolutionary coaching program that teaches you how to SELL online.

Take action now and you’ll also get this Cd-Rom delivered to your doorstep!

Finally, the cover design for the new version of Power of Networking Secrets is complete! Stay tuned, I will reveal it soon.
 
I am working hard on the final touches of the new version. I remember from my first version that the end details take some times. They may be smaller details, but there are more of them and they are sometimes harder to define.

Check this. It’s a wake up call… Tellman my new coach, just released an incredible video that will show you how to get a complete business up and running for pennies on the dollar. But this video is only going to be up for a little bit.

For the last month and a half I have been working with a new coach who specializes in internet marketing. I feel as if I am entering a whole new world as there are so many new strategies to learn. I feel as if I have worked harder to
learn these new tactics and implement them than I have worked in a year! By using just a few of the strategies on one of my website (www.startyourdreambusinesstoday.com) my conversion has gone from 20% to 80%.

My new coach, who is a millionaire internet marketer, has mentioned the big names in Internet Marketing, such as John Reese (who was the first person to make a million dollars in 1 day by selling products online),
http://tinyurl.com/TonysVideo, Frank Kern, Matt Bacak, Shaw Casey or Mike Filsaime. You may have heard of them before, but a month ago I didn’t know who they were.

Six months ago Anthony Robbins discovered those big guys, internet marketers, too. And just launched a new program called “The New Money Master” on which he interviews those marketers to expose the psychology and the systems that work for making tons of money online.