Home Business Leads From Twitter

Twitter has become one of the fastest growing means of social networking available today. Social networking provides many useful benefits that enable business owners to connect with customers in a way that is quick, easy and innovative. Home business owners can find leads on Twitter. Click the blue “follow us” image to see our Twitter profile.

Direct Sales Business – Twitter

I know that many in direct sales or home based business are hesitant to get involved in Twitter. If you are in the direct sales business, you are aware of the importance of acquiring business leads. There are many ways to do this and Twitter is most definitely among them. Twitter is a website that allows you to participate personally with your potential and current customers. You will be able to post updates for others to read and they will know immediately what is going on with your business.

You can check your Twitter account often for comments others have made. You can also easily respond to feedback left by your readers.

Twitter allows people to connect in a way that is truly unique. Much news is exchanged each day and there is never a shortage of it. Now you can add your news to what already exists.

Direct Sales Consultants Sign Up For Twitter

Even if you are not sure if Twitter is for you, you should at least sign up and give it a try.

Signing up for Twitter is easy and free. You simply go to the site, enter in a few pieces of information and you are ready to go. Posting is also easy and you will be able to utilize a wealth of useful tools that will then be made available to you.

The basic Twitter search function is a great time-saving filter. It allows you to set up searches on your name, company name, brands and competitors. This enables you to monitor your business reputation and can even know when people are replying to your tweets.

Advanced Twitter Search For Leads

There is even an advanced search that is where the real data mining comes into play. Here you can filter everything that is being said for your keyword phrases. This can be very useful because you can set up searches for your specific location and target just those people. It’s all in real-time and really enables you to develop some great leads.

You can also create advanced searches around topics that would identify hot leads. This is very easy to do and can be accomplished by using the form on the advanced search page. You can also use a host of operators in the basic search page to create some very interesting searches.

Twitter can be a very useful social networking tool and if used correctly can really bring you in the leads. You can use it daily if you want to keep up with what others are doing as well. See what your customers are saying about you and make changes according to the comments they post. Likewise, you can use the positive feedback you receive to keep track of what is really working for you.

When using Twitter, keep in mind people are asking questions and posting comments in every corner of the world and they are often more than happy to hear from someone who has the information they want. It’s here, it’s real and it really works. Many people are using it and you could be among the masses who are making more money for your business by simply tweeting on a regular basis.

In direct sales it is important to take advantage of every lead generation opportunity. Take the step, try Twitter! I can tell you from experience that it is a good lead generation tool. Check out our Twitter profile. If you need help setting up your Twitter profile or would like a branded Twitter background just click the banner below and send an email:

How To Start A Blog For Your Party Plan Business

Blogs have become one of the main ways of promoting any business over the internet. As a party plan or direct sales consultant you should use every marketing opportunity available and a blog is just that…. another marketing opportunity.

Blogs can come in the form of helpful tips and hints, small summaries of articles pertaining to a particular industry, or small articles about a specific topic. If you are in the home party plan business, you can use a blog as a very effective promotional tool. The information below will help you create a blog.

I frequently get asked, “What should I blog about?” You should blog about anything that can or would create desire in the market for your product, opportunity or services. Blogging is a way of serving the public. Your blog focus can be anything that is related to your product or niche. Some titles or ideas to get you thinking about good blogging topics might be:

Your Own Blogging  Topics

Your blogging topic should be specific to your business, not just your company but your own personal business. Think about: What is your business personality? What is your product line? What is your niche market? How can you bring value to your customers?

You are in a direct selling company selling cosmetics, fashions, or jewelry:

• Beauty Tips Blog
• Women On The Go
• Beautiful Women Working At Home
• The Modern Woman’s Fashion Consultant
• Moms Look Good Too
• Mom, Kids and Good Looks

Your home business company focuses on kitchen tools, food, or food mixes:

• Mom’s Fast Kitchen
• Fun, Fast And Healthy
• The Convenient Gourmet
• Cooking On The Run

You sell health items, vitamins, or outdoor active clothing:

• The Active Family Blog
• Healthy Living Tips
• Outdoor Living and Healthy Choices
• Growing Up Healthy

The blog topic can be general, which will leave you open to a wide variety of articles. If you sell jewelry and your topic or blog theme is jewelry, that is cool. If your topic is fashion and tips on how to look good on a budget, then it opens you up to many different types of articles which could include jewelry and more. Your new blog will have the feature to create groupings called “categories”. So, in the example of jewelry, you could have a jewelry category, an accessories category, a parenting category, a junior fashion category or any other subject you want.

Keep in mind that a blog should be updated on a regular basis. Some people even choose to do this every day. Basically, any time you have something to report or an event to pass along, you will want to update your blog. The more you update your blog, the more “real estate” you put out to the search engines. Every page becomes search engine “bait”, so the more the better.

Free WordPress Blogs

I recommend WordPress because it is a very search engine-friendly blogging platform and easy to use. Free blogs are available. You can start a free WordPress blog if you are not sure that you will stick with it, but if you are serious, then you should really go all the way and have a real WordPress blog that you actually own. WordPress is easy to master after it is set up. For your first blog, it would be advisable to have someone else set it up for you. It is not uncommon for people to have more than one blog. After you blog for a while, most likely you will be able to set up the second blog yourself. Deb provides affordable WordPress installation service for home business owners. Be careful on the web, because it is easy to spend too much money on a blog set up service!!

You can also create a blog through various social media websites such as Squiddo or Nings. This will enable you to reach your friends who are already on those sites to expand your customer base. I recommend that you create your blog, then “feed” it or stream it across your social sites. That way you get the benefit of having a search engine-friendly blog as well as the social site connections.

You can place a blog on just about any website with the exception of a direct sales company affiliate site. If you already have an official website for yourself or your business it is easy to add a blog to it.

Party Plan Company Rules & Blogging

Please note that it is really important to check with your party plan company’s online policy before you start blogging.  All companies have rules to protect the brand and it is your responsibility to know what your company allows and follow their guidelines.

Once you establish the blog itself, it’s time to begin writing in it. Create a consistent schedule and make it a routine. You might even consider setting a blogging schedule. You don’t have to write in each blog every day, but the more you do, the more publicity you get. Do a little bit of studying on how to make your blog article more search engine-friendly so that you get the most bang for your bucks.

Remember: The most important thing to remember about blogging is to provide VALUE!

Just because you have a blog does not mean everyone is going to show up. The blog is the first step. Publicity is another topic!

Home Business Marketing, Online

Karen Clark presented an excellent workshop last night on how to market your home business online. Her focus was on how to generate leads from local customers or businesses as a result of your online marketing efforts. She gave us many online resources to use to bring customers to us who live in our town, and even our neighborhood. Karen has an online marketing presence that proves that she knows her stuff.  Enjoy the excerpt of the call below!

Online Lead Generation For Home Businesses

Finding business online and generating leads in your own neighborhood is definitely possible.  Home businesses who reach out to local consumers will generate new customers in their own town or neighborhood.

What can you do to reach out online to local people in your own backyard?

It used to be that a large printed book of yellow pages was what consumers consulted when they needed to find a photographer, bookkeeper or realtor. If they weren’t sure where to go for art supplies, books or pizza, they let their fingers do the walking. The majority of today’s consumers locally and globally, however, turn to online searches and internet directories to find what they are looking for. Within a few seconds they are given information about the closest service provider, restaurant or shop, along with real time customer reviews, ratings and “buzz” that influences their decision on which business to patronize.

Making sure that your business shows up in the search results is determined by whether or not you have your town, county or region listed on your website, blog, or social media profiles, as well as if you have a presence on several of the social networks online that are geared toward serving a local clientele.

Click the green button to listen to Karen.

Speakers In The Park, Direct sales training, continues on July 28th with presentation skills for direct sellers. Join the newsletter to get the dial-in. The training calls are free and the MP3 downloads are affordable. Get all the calls via MP3 within 24 hours! Join the Elite Club!

List Your Business Online

Some of the most popular and higher ranking sites to list your business online are:

• Yelp: http://biz.yelp.com

Yelp is the most popular business rating, feedback and referral social network and because of its popularity, when your business is listed, your listing will have a powerful presence on the web. Past customers and clients can write reviews and testimonials on your business profile, and potential new customers can find you, learn more about your business, and contact you. The community of Yelp users is expansive and social, and connections are readily exposed to their friends’ favorite businesses. Since Yelp users are directed to businesses closest to their chosen metropolitan area, local people are drawn to you and share your information with other local people. When filling out a business owner profile on Yelp, be sure to thoroughly describe yourself, your business and your company mission, and include all of the extras such as photos of your product or service in action, and any special offers or announcements.

• Merchant Circle: http://www.merchantcircle.com

This network is truly a stand-alone community geared toward connecting local independent businesses with their neighbors. Their platform allows businesses to create mini-websites, blogs, coupons and newsletters – free. Consumers for whom it is important to use local business instead of chain stores or franchises appreciate being able to depend on Merchant Circle to steer them toward truly local, responsive companies, who offer them incentives to do business with them. Emails to your local neighborhood go out on a regular basis, and your business information or coupon is included. Whether you have a website or blog already, creating a presence on Merchant Circle is another powerful way to engage with your local community.

Google, Local Business Listing

Each of the three major search engines have local business listings where you can create a complete profile that outlines your business description, location, web addresses, categories and photos. Take the time to submit your home business listing to Yahoo, Google and Bing LOCAL.

http://local.yahoo.com
http://local.google.com
http://local.bing.com

Customers can rate your service, leave a review or testimonial, and share your profile with their contacts. Creating a local account on the search engines requires verification by phone or mail and that adds credibility to each of the listings, since people know that the businesses listed are verified to be who they say they are. Since these directories are associated with each search engine, having a presence there means that your listing is bumped to the top of search results when someone in your area uses the search engine to find someone who does what you do.

Karen Clark, Work At Home On The Internet

Online Marketing, Speakers In The Park Wednesday, July 14th

Our Speakers In The Park presenter this week is the online marketing and social media consultant Karen Clark. Karen and her team at MyBusinessPresence provide online marketing training, branding and seminars to work at home business owners. Her background in sales, website development and social media integration, coupled with an intense focus on communication, relationship-building and networking makes her one of the top educators in work at home services.

Local Business Leads – Online Website

Karen’s Speakers In The Park topic is finding local leads online. Marketing online and driving traffic to your website is great but how do we generate local business? In party plan or relationship-based work at home businesses, sometimes the online leads just are not close enough to service properly. Online parties are fun and yet the party plan concept centers on visiting people in their own homes.

Top Work At Home Training

The Elite Club is for you if you cannot make the calls. It is one of the most affordable work at home training opportunities for direct sales consultants and delivers top notch education year-round. Members get the Speakers In The Park MP3s within 24 hours of each call.