The digital age has changed the way we do business.  People live on email, social networks, and Starbuck’s coffee.  Our mornings begin and end with the Internet.  But something interesting is taking place.  I wonder if you have noticed the growing desire and compulsive need being expressed – people want to have personal conversations with total strangers.

Privacy and anonymity seem to be a passing fad, a priority of the past.  Guards are down as people share their most private experiences, thoughts, and relationships to a global market.  The need to talk, question, and comment, may sometimes borderline obsessive behavior, but is actually a blessing in disguise for those email marketers who integrate their marketing campaigns with social media marketing.

As we engage our clients in blogs, twitter, and facebook, we want to have a discourse in meaningful and influential dialogues, furthering the discussions on a positive and informative note.  Our strategies are to develop trust and respect for our company, product, or service.  Without which there is no loyalty or repeat business.  But what happens when a negative comment is made on a blog or email communication?  Does it spiral out of control?  The need to learn how to respond in an open, unmediated arena will reduce that fear.  Learning to adapt to the continuing dynamics and constant challenges of the social Web is a daily experience.  Our attitude towards any criticism, however, should be to learn and grow from every experience.

Is the Comment True?

Whether a negative comment comes from a colleague, friend, relative or customer online we must ask ourselves is it true?  Don’t go into combat mode, as if you are being assaulted.  For some of you, honesty has always been an uncomfortable and unpleasant experience when dealing with negative remarks.  The world is filled with dishonesty.  Salespeople lie about their products, employees make excuses for their mistakes, and customer service people lie about when the product was shipped, and on and on.  It seems that telling a lie is easier than admitting a fault or product defect.  So we practice this thinking when dealing with our clients online.  But, that is not the way to go.

Having smart conversations with people who have something important to say, is being wise.  Productive criticisms about your product, service, website, or support, can only lead to improvement on your end and trust on theirs.  Being honest is being vulnerable.  But how can we develop loyalty and trust, if we cannot institute that in our own actions and lives?

Remain honest and straightforward. Most of your clients have been around the block.  They know when they are not receiving honest, straightforward responses.  Don’t try to impress, but address their issues honestly and respectably.

Be a proactive communicator. Keep your communications alive.  Many email marketers send communications when a new project or client has come on board.  Make sure you are both on the same page.  Never assume.  Question what is not clear, or what you might have missed.  Strive for excellence.  Email your client on a periodic basis.  Let them know they are very much alive in your thinking and planning.  Even if it seems redundant, keep the good vibrations going out to them.

Communications are a lifeline to business and client alike.  Honest communications today, build loyalty and trust offering a better bottom line tomorrow.

What do backlinks and signposts have in common?  They point the way; give us direction, showing us the path to take.  Without the proper direction, we would find ourselves going around in circles, never finding our desired destination.

Pointing potential customers to your website is every email marketer’s goal, big or small.  Without website traffic, there can be no conversions, without conversions, there will be no income.  You cannot remain neutral; you must have some definite goals in mind, with specific and carefully researched strategies, with which to carry them out.  Like a wise investor, you need to incorporate a diversified portfolio, knowing that one marketing plan, will never be enough.

Welcome to the World of Backlinks

If you have any knowledge about Search Engine Optimization, you have no doubt come across this term.  Backlinks (also termed Inbound Links) are links that direct traffic back to your website, or a particular landing page on your website.  As more and more people rely on the Internet to promote their business, backlinks are now considered one of the main building blocks for smart SEO website strategies.

Why are backlinks so important?  Because search engines like Google give more relevance and credit to those websites that have more backlinks than the others, when they do a search query.  We need to insert a caution here.  Search Engines also consider the quality of the links.  Inbound links should come from other sites whose content is relevant to yours.  The higher the relevance, the great their quality is considered.  For example, if a website is all about health related issues, and you are promoting travel, that backlink would be assessed as having no relevance.

Don’t try to fool the search engines.   Many webmasters do whatever they consider necessary to influence the search engines with as many external backlinks as possible which has been termed “Link Farms”.  Because of these deceptive practices, a search engine’s criteria for quality inbound links has become even tougher.  Those pages that are determined to be link farms are negated and can put your site in danger of being banned entirely!

Reciprocal Linking.  When web sites link to one another, either directly or indirectly through different website pages, a search engine considers those links to be reciprocal links.  As a person is judged by the company they keep, your backlinks will be judged by your reciprocal partnerships.  In other words, don’t hitch your wagon to a bad apple.  When you apply your personal rules in friendships to your reciprocal links, you will become more cautious and choosy on whose company you want to keep, making sure that webmaster is using white not black-hat SEO techniques.  For further reading on this, please see Google’s explanation on Link Schemes.

Some handy tools for your backlink building campaigns:

• Domain Stats Tool:  Displays the backlinks of domains in Google, Yahoo, and MSN.
• Backlink Builder Tool:  This tool searches for websites that have relevant themes and content related to your site.

Web Directories

Web Directories are like an Internet phone book.  Filling out a web directory, as in a phone book, helps you get found.  You can list your services, information or products for sale.  With each directory, you choose a category under which you want your business to appear.  Another great advantage is that a Web Directory lets you pick your own keywords, also called tags.  These tags are used like search phrases when someone searches a directory for a particular service or product.  This is another way of creating a backlink to your website.  Most directories are free and do not require a reciprocal link (a link back to their site.)

Article Directories

Writing and submitting articles to articles directories are another great source when creating valuable backlinks.  Most article sites are free.  The only drawback is that it can be a tedious process.  While some submission sites just ask you to submit an article, on the fly, the better ones will require a double opt-in sign up, with a required step-by-step article process submission form.  The good news is that you are allowed to put your website and email as a signature in each article.  It is a great way to get your name, company, and personal voice out into cyberspace.  For further reading…

Forums

Forum signatures are an easy way to obtain backlinks from topic related discussions. Adding your backlinks to a forum signature when posting your responses is another way of getting your company noticed.  Make sure that your responses are valuable and real.  Do not try to sell yourself on a forum.  Many forum moderators constantly scan the communications for spammers, and will quickly blacklist you if they see a sell in your response.

Blogs

Blogs are not only a great way to get backlinks, but give you a chance to write about the industry, product, or service that you represent.  They open dialogues with your clients and give prospects the chance to exchange ideas and thoughts with you directly.

This is not an exhaustive discussion.  They are many doors and roads to follow when growing your ROI.  Research, read, check, test and prove what works for you.  Perhaps in your future blog, you will be able to share some valuable information with us.   Understanding and apply SEO is a continual learning process and experience, in which we are all students.

Once considered a luxury, (hey I am dating myself), cell phones are now falling out of everyone’s pockets, including kids.  Having a cell phone is like having a watch; you can’t leave home without it.  How exciting it once was to receive a call outside the home!  You felt important, privileged, and singled out from the crowd.

In 2010, from Nextel to Blackberry to IPhone to Android, the transformation of that little cell phone, coupled with the latest state of the art technology, has overwhelmed and excited even us die hard techies.

Nope, it’s not just for texting and taking pictures anymore.  Cell phones are being used to help people in developing nations, bringing global awareness of their needs, raising their living standards, along with diagnosing their problems!

Mobility and literacy
“A variety of other applications for cell phones in remote areas are also being developed, including some aimed at improving coordination in areas where transportation both for people and goods is often unpredictable. One such system, called Transport Link, also developed in NextLab, is a way for people who rely on infrequent bus service to get timely updates on when the next bus will come through their area or to arrange informal transportation with others in the area who have private vehicles.”  Read Entire Article

Predictions for 2013
“Yet, personal mobile devices with Internet connectivity encompass a broad array of devices and with a wide range of functionality that continues to evolve and expand rapidly.  To put this in perspective, the number of mobile devices accessing the Internet is projected to reach 1 billion by 2013 based on research by IDC.  Say “mobile” to most marketers and they think cell phone, maybe SMS (define).”

Mobile E-Marketing Strategies
From an e-marketing perspective, this leads to increased complexity and expense. In order to integrate a mobile strategy to take advantage of this evolving market, here are some basic suggestions:

Conform your e-marketing campaigns for mobile surfers. Make sure your mobile campaign can be easily read on a mobile smartphone.  Most mobile shoppers are looking for high priority items, quickly scanning the surface in between meetings and travel.  They want to find what they need quickly.  As with any email marketing campaign, use brand name they will recognize, with a visible call to action.  Don’t forget to include your phone number, e-mail address, or Web site on the bottom.

Mobile Demographics

Before starting a mobile-oriented marketing program, gather your demographics.  Survey your customers and prospects, finding out which devices they use and what type of mobile content they’d like to receive from you.  Don’t forget to find out what your competitors are creating and sending.

Create a Mobile Website

“Think of where customers are when they access your information and include critical information like phone number, store hours, location and/or directions,” recommends Microsoft Mobile Solutions Specialist Steve Siegel.

Register and Index your Mobile Site on:

• Yahoo.mobi
• msn.mobi
• Google Mobile
• aol.mobi
• 4info.mobi

Based on Nielsen tracking, mobile search grew 102% in 2009.  Remember you can’t be found if you aren’t there.

Mobile Metrics
* Count the number of impressions from mobile Web sites.
* Track your mobile marketing advertising results.
*  Monitor social media stats related to mobile communications.

As the variety and power of mobile devices continue to grow, marketing strategies need to evolve as well.  Remember, whether or not you have a mobile strategy, your prospects and customers are already receiving your competitor’s marketing messages via these devices.  Don’t be left behind.  Your ROI is depending on it.

Whether for your own company or the one you work for, beginning your adventure in the social media world of digital communications is a good decision.

Social Media has become one of the most aggressive ways to promote your site or business, increasing back  links, resulting in additional website traffic.  For any business counting their costs, while weathering a bad economy, social media has become a lifesaving path.

Social media is all about conversation.  It is a very appealing way to create relationships online – giving a face and voice to small and large businesses.  This strategy can easily add to an email marketing campaign, whose name and brand begin to take on a more personal and widespread public recognition.

Beginning your SM Campaign Strategy – Before jumping in head first, you need to know what tools you will be using, as well as the information you want to share.  As with any email marketing campaign, research, time, and strategy must always come first.  Here are a few tips:

Preparation and Research

• Create an audience persona. What does your target audience look like?  As an email marketer, demographics is a survival word.  Get an image of your audience, age, gender, spending and surfing habits, what sites they visit, and how they use the Web.  This forms your foundation.

• Check out your competition. Find out what your competition is doing in the social media arena.  What are they talking about, what are they writing about.  See what kind of responses they are getting.

• Policy Guidelines. Make sure your company has a social media policy in place.  Guidelines are needed for any employee that engages online conversations representing your organization.

• The Designated Blogger. It is very important to designate a blogger.  Whether you hire a freelance blogger, or give someone in your organization this opportunity, this is a serious commitment.  Blogging needs to be consistent, live conversations need to be monitored.  Give this serious thought – you need the right person creating the right voice and conversations.

• Goals and Meetings. Have your plans and strategies clearly defined.  Make time for follow-up meetings on the outcome and results.  This is a learning process.  You can easily modify ideas and content along the way.

• Interesting and Relevant. Whatever message you put out there, cannot be taken back.  People are stressed, quickly skimming through titles and bits of conversations, as they surf.  Take the time to surf around at what your target audience is talking about on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.  Do not let stress or urgency make your efforts sloppy.

Don’t forget to have fun. Social conversations should have some lightness about them.  We are not engaging in metrics or behavioral sciences.  Bring a bit of fun into this.   The very fact of the enormous proliferation of social media, proves that people want a more personal relationship and voice with those they do business with or buy from.

Here are some of the top SM sites in which to get started – Click Me!

Google has given us a brand new toy, Google Buzz.  Google Buzz is a brand new way to have conversations about things that interest you, while enabling you to share updates such as photos and videos with family and friends.  There is no installation.  You simply open up your Gmail account, and there it is.  At least, that was my experience.  No warning, just a cute little colorful icon waiting to be pushed.  Sharing information is faster than ever.   A possible new email marketing tool?

All responses will be sent by Buzz directly to your inbox – in actual real-time.  Buzz is also available on certain cellphones and smartphones, so you don’t have to be in front of your computer to create or read a Buzz.

Google Buzz  seems to be Google’s strongest and boldest attempt to get into and build a strong and popular social network.  They have taken and implemented the best of the most powerful social media programs like Twitter and other social services, combining the most popular elements together into one aggressive package.

Importing into Buzz
Do you use Flickr, Picasa, or Twitter?  Now you can automatically have those items imported into your stream.  Buzz will even recommend items you might like based on your friends’ preferences based on their activities.  Instead of building their own social network from the beginning, Buzz is now an integrated key part of their Gmail, with its own distinct icon tab underneath the inbox.

Even though thousands use Gmail, there are still plenty of people without Gmail accounts.  Will Buzz be enough to entice new users to sign up and start using an email service just because of Buzz?

A Bit more Complicated
Twitter is so simple.  If you have created a public account, anyone can see and follow your tweets if they have decided to follow you. It’s as simple as that.  With Buzz, it is not that simple because there are public and private buzzes.  Buzz will create plans for business and educational users.  So public buzzes may only be available within your particular organization or school.  You will have the option for a private buzz to designated individuals within your network.  Remaining flexible, it becomes a bit more complicated.

When users were asked why they are using Buzz, here are some of their reasons:
1.    Easy to use
2.    Simple interface
3.    No setup – Automatically embedded into Gmail.
4.    Users feel they get a wider and quicker global connection

How will G-mailers respond?  Will we buy into this quick sharing of information and brand new communication tool for social media?  Google believes we will.

If you would like to see a video introduction, along with a more detailed explanation of Google Buzz, please go to Google’s Official Blog about Google Buzz

If you have chosen to try email marketing, you have chosen a good path.  Email marketing is still one of the most cost-effective ways to promote any business.  While balancing your business and life in a tough economy, the tough need to be creative and resourceful.  Using email marketing campaigns enable you to be creative, while learning who your niche market is.  As you know, with any serious investment risk, planning and strategy need to be included to achieve successful results.

How do you Get Started?
There is a learning curve when it comes to sending out direct email marketing campaigns.  You may find yourself having difficulty trying to figure out your first step.  We have anticipated that question and hope that this article will help provide you with good basic starters to get you up and running.  There are no pat answers, so you need to see what will work for you within your budget and time frame.

Mailing Lists for Targeted Email Campaigns

Without a mailing list, you have no one to send your e-campaigns to.  But how do you start?  Normally, there are three options:  Buying a list, renting a list, or creating your own.  If you are a new business, the last choice may be impossible, even though it is the best one.  You may not have time to wait, and need to start somewhere.  Here are your options:

1.    Renting an Email Address List
Renting an email address for direct email campaigns can be very cost-effective.  Whether obtained from email campaigns, direct bulk email marketing, or an email newsletter subscription, these email address lists are a valuable source of sales and leads.

2.    Buying an email address list
The alternative to renting an email list is to buy the list.  Once bought, you have full control over your list sending out your own promotions, whenever you want.

3.    Building your own mailing lists
Building your own mailings lists takes time.  Your reward is the fact that you have managed to create a list of prospects who want to receive your information and e-newsletters.

An Optimized Website:

Getting on board with SEO: How do get started?  Here are some of the key things to know:

Keywords and key phrases: Know the right key phrases or key phrase optimization.  These are the words and phrases that will be picked up by the search engines when someone does a query.

You need the specific key phrases that describe your services or products, strategically placed within your content, thus allowing your site to show up on the first results page, of a search query commonly referred to as the (SERPs).  If you are not sure what those words are, go to Google AdWords – this site will help you determine what words come up in a search.  You can also put your competitor’s website URL in the search to see what keywords they are using.

Back links: Back links are links on one website that lead back to another.  Creating back links to your site is another way to be found.  Here are some suggestions:

1.    Articles: Write articles – get them published with your website and name as a signature.  There are at least 100 websites called Social News and Social Book Marking.  Write an interesting article about your field or something you feel strongly about.  Once published, your article will be parsed in the Search Engines and come up under the right keywords, as well.

2.    Press Release: If you are new and have newsworthy information to share, write a press release about your company or product and get it published on as many press release submission sites as possible.  Remember, it must have a common interest to your targeted audience.

3.    Reciprocal Relationships. Find products that compliment what you do and agree to put their link on your site, with a reciprocal back link to yours.

Networking and Sales Leads: Join Yahoo Groups that align with your goals and business objectives.  Answer questions poised by other members.  Show your knowledge and get your name out there.  Attend different events that partner with other organizations.  Make contacts as you create new leads.  Do not let them grow cold.  Reach out in someway.  Keep your name and company in the front of their minds.

Company Blog: Not only is this a great way to share information about your company or service, but you are communicating to your audience in a person voice.  Blogging is huge, and people love to share their opinions.  Start a conversation with your clients and prospects.  Let them know you are a person, not just a company.

Landing Pages: Before sending out any email marketing campaign, you must have a matching landing page.  This is page will have a specific and clear call to action.  Your page should match your campaign and create a strong sales pitch to the prospect upon landing.

Communication and Permission Email
Before sending any of your leads any email newsletters or campaigns, reach out to them in a personal email or phone call, asking them if they would be interested in joining your newsletter or reading your blog.  Don’t be labeled as a spammer.  Your reputation represents your company, product, and service.

Get informed. Any email campaign marketer needs to become familiar with The federal CAN-SPAM Act protects consumers against unwanted e-mail.

Becoming an email marketer is easy.  Becoming a successful one takes research, time, and planning.  Before taking the plunge, make sure you know how to swim.

YouTube is one of the most popular websites that exists today and it can be a great method for online marketing, no matter what business you’re in. Everyone on the web has had the experience of seeing a video from YouTube or seeing a video embedded onto another blog or Website. After launching the site in 2005, and being purchased by Google for $1.65 billion dollars in 2006, there seems to be no chance of stopping YouTube from being the leader for online video sharing.

YouTube is both amazing and unfortunate at the same time for the same reason. It’s amazing that anyone can post a video easily on the site. It’s unfortunate that really anyone can post a video. Every other person is reaching out for their 15 minutes of fame as we speak with their video blogs, talent shows, Star Wars routines, karaoke, and so much more. Nowadays news stations use clips from YouTube, people can watch clips from their favorite TV shows as well as theatrical trailers for new and upcoming movies, music videos…. Why bother staying tuned to listen to the President’s Inaugural Address when you can watch it later on YouTube in your spare time?

YouTube is as simple as…

Anyone with a video camera or web cam with a microphone can post content on YouTube.

To open an account, you must confirm that you’re 13 or older and create a username and password for the site. Once you are confirmed, you can begin uploading anything you want to show on video to the world, as long as it’s not copyrighted material (unless you own the copyright). If it is copyrighted, it will be removed, perhaps not the second you put it up, but probably very soon after. If just one person claims the material is copyrighted, it will immediately be removed. Each video can’t be longer than 10 minutes. You can have a succession of 10-minute videos if you want. After that you’re done and perhaps even on your way to getting your 15 minutes of fame. People can view your videos, you can view others, comment on them….

Learning with YouTube

YouTube is not just a place to show your favorite music videos, it’s a place where you can learn and teach others. Offer your expertise with tutorials on video. Learn how to draw like an architect, escape from handcuffs, pick a lock, moon walk like Michael Jackson, get really White Teeth. Pretty much anything you can think of someone has created a video about it and how to do it.

Marketing with YouTube

If anyone can use YouTube, why can’t you? Why can’t you market your business on YouTube or your school or University? The non-profit online Western Governors University established a contest amongst students. Students were given the opportunity to create a video about how a degree from WGU can enrich a person’s life. The contest promotes creativity amongst the students and it also advertises the university in a positive light.

At one point, Swiffer established a contest for people to make a video about how to break up with their mop. This was great exposure for Swiffer, people were entertained with the entries, and some lucky winner got $15,000.

So how can you use this if you’re a small business? Just make a video about your area of expertise or the products that you sell. See if others like it, comment on their videos, link your video to theirs, and already you’re getting viewers and comments. Now do it again and again and you increase your SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Now link your videos to your website and blog, which helps you increase traffic to your website, so you should have a blog in addition to a website. And there you have it; you have successfully used YouTube as a marketing tool.

Keywords have become the foundation of any email or online internet marketing, including social media.  Without adding the right keywords and phrases in your website, you might as well set up shop in the desert. The whole goal is to be found.  Sounds simple, but it is not.

Understanding how keywords work, takes a bit of time and research.  The good news is, the Worldwide Web has all you need to know – and that information  is available, at the click of your mouse.  Here are a few simple strategies.

• Know How your Audience Thinks: Hey, I am  not advocating mind reading.  But you need to anticipate words that people might use when looking for your product or service.  It may not be the exact words you would have used for your product or service keywords, but if you don’t test your words, with the right tools, you could miss a sale.  At the end, it’s all about your target audience.  You need to understand how they search and think.  For example, a furniture company discovered the search word being used for sofa was the word couch.  They immediately updated their keywords and made an immediate sale.

• Relevance: When we search online, we have certain ideas and expectations of what our keywords will bring us.  If you are like me, and you start getting responses back that are not exactly what you had hoped for, you keep revising your search word and search phrase to get that perfect result. Your website content should match the keywords people are searching for.  If it doesn’t, they will leave your site and you will lose a possible prospect.

Here are some free tools related to keyword research and tracking:

• Social Media Keyword Research:   Social media is a great tool.  Find out what people are talking about and what words they are using that relate to your market.  You can create a list of those targeted words to use on your website.
  • TweetVolume: Enter keywords to see their frequency within Twitter
  • YouTubeKeyword Tool:  Find video related keywords and tags used – similar to the Google Keyword Search Tool.
• Google Trends: With Google Trends, you can compare the world’s interest in your niche market.
• Google Insights for Search: Compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, time frames and properties.

Keyword research is vital for your search engine and website optimization goals.  Your site must target the right keywords for a high ranking performance.  As important as it is to be found, you need to be found by the right people. This takes thoughtful planning and strategy.  Using the right tools can give your website a strong online presence.

Remember:  Don’t just spend your time and energy on the aesthetics of your site.   That would be like cooking a spectacular meal, with all the trimmings.  It may look and taste fabulous, but what good is it if no one shows up for dinner?

BizReport: Mobile Marketing: March 17, 2009

A chain of fashion clothing stores in the U.S. used mobile coupons to bolster sales.

The coupon campaign was promoted online via the store’s website, blog and on various mall websites where the store was featured. Offline, the campaign was promoted via signage in all Planet Funk stores that displayed the shortcode and corresponding keyword.

The results were phenomenal. Planet Funk created over 20% of their total December revenue via the mobile campaign. Nearly 2,000 coupons were generated and 91% were redeemed. In addition, 15% of those that redeemed coupons opted-in to receive future mobile campaigns.

According to BrandWeek: A new study finds that 72% of consumers are using more coupons than they did six months ago.   While newspapers and magazines were the primary source of coupons for 51% of consumers, 39% said they wanted to receive their future coupons via direct mail, while 26% said e-mail, either direct or through newsletters, would work. Another 16% preferred Web sites.

We all love a bargain – and so do our prospects and clients!

Coupons are highly effective and should be added to your marketing mix and coupon strategies.

Why Use Coupons?

• Coupons can reactivate your old customers. Give them a good reason to start buying from you again, rather then going to your competitors.

• Coupons can be a catalyst to other sales.  Offering a bargin or discount on one product, gives you opportunities to sell something else.

• Customer Feedback.  Reach out to your customers and prospects.  Ask them for honest feedback.  See what they want and are looking for in a sale or discount.

Make your Coupon Campaign a Success

1. Customers want to know exactly how much money they will be savings.  Do not be ambiguous.  Specify the dollar amount.
2. If you are using a discount in percentages, use the higher percentages as in 25%.  Lower percentages give a cheap display.
3. You can offer the buy one, get one free or buy one get half off on your second purchase.
4. Make sure you are clear in your advertisement.  We all want to know exactly what are the discounted items.
5. Use graphics and pictures  of the item on sale – this will help support the text and leave no room for confusion.
6. A strong call to action.  Have an urgency with an expiration date.  You want them to act immediately.
7. Use coupons to obtain subscribers to your newsletter.  Give them a small discount for signing up.
8. Put your campaign on your company blog.
9. Use social media.  Advertisement on Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace.  You can assume your targets are already using these tools.  This will enhance your Web exposure.  Create a strong buzz.

Demographics

When designing your coupon campaign, you need to know:

• Who your target audience is?  Prospects, clients, or wanting to reconnect with old and inactive clients.
• What is the focus and goal of your campaign?  A clearing house special, a new product, an upgrade?

Don’t forget to track your campaign results. Tracking campaigns results is the only way to measure success.

Social Media has become a fantastic way to market yourself or your business. With easy accessibility to the Internet these days, it makes sense that we would learn to take advantage of it. We can share our whole world with people with one simple click of the mouse. We can meet new friends, connect with old ones, blog about our lives, share our inner most thoughts, and sell our skills and businesses. All this is possible through Social Media. This all sounds amazing, so how could there possibly be a downside to it?

The Bad

With the ability to share our whole world with the whole world that means everyone can know everything about you. People used to be able to have a public life and private life. Our private life, that time that we spend with friends and family, when we are at home enjoying meals with our significant other has become part of social media. Who only knew that their friend was single because his Facebook status was changed from being in a relationship with (insert any girl’s name, I’m sure she’ll be on Facebook) to single? And who hasn’t seen hundreds of wedding pictures and babies’ births on Facebook of MySpace? Some people may like the idea of showing their friends these special intimate moments in their lives, but they are forgetting that once it appears on the Internet it can travel anywhere and to anyone.

The Ugly

Some people out there might be wondering why they’re having such a hard time finding a job these days and maybe it’s not just about the economic recession. Maybe it’s because you sent your resume to a company who has interns that look up potential employees through Facebook. And maybe, just maybe, you forgot to take down those pictures of yourself wasted at a bar during your Spring Break when you were 20. It doesn’t matter if the pictures are 5 years old or 10 years old, if they are linked to your name, chances are you just lost a job opportunity because your potential employer chose someone who didn’t have evidence of them being a drunken mess. This may seem hard to believe but some businesses actually do look at your facebook profile and your MySpace profile when they’re looking to hire.

Do the benefits outweigh the risks?

This doesn’t mean that you should automatically become paranoid and delete your Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and Blogger accounts in the next 30 seconds. It just means that you should be careful what you publish about yourself. Don’t tell the whole world about your fetishes, don’t add your personal videos if you don’t want people that aren’t your friends to see them. And even though all of these sights have Privacy Policies, there are still ways around it. Sure you think only your friends and subscribers can see what you post, but their friends can see it which leads to their friends’ friends seeing it and so on.

The whole idea of Social Media is to effectively branch out and communicate with others around the world by introducing yourself and your business. People have never been so connected before. Companies can market themselves in Israel even when they are based in the U.S. or India. The key is to market your skills, the positive points of yourself that will make others interested in you and the services you can offer them.

You can now determine whether or not you can open your products up to a new market just by using SEM techniques for research on the web, by typing in the right keywords and within a few minutes you can already begin to understand a different culture and how to become a part of it.

So take part in social media, the benefits certainly outweigh the risks. Just be careful and stick to advertising your skills, and don’t share information that you would regret if it got out to the world.