Good place to get solid data is Hitwise. The latest data tracks everything from top 20 Websites (ranked by visits), top search engines by volume/visits to top 20 social networking websites. No suprise on the results, Facebook (for the week of 9/26/09) was the number one most visited social networking site at 41%. MySpace, YouTube, Tagged and Twitter round out the top five.

If you want to know where to focus your Internet marketing efforts this data can help! Enjoy!

I asked the dynamic duo, Leah Turner and Jennifer Lee of Creating Your Masterpiece, just that and turned on the camera for their answers!

What I got was a fantastic brainstorm on how they use social media to build their professional speaking, coaching and training business.

Incredibly generous with their insights, you can learn a lot by hearing how they market on a shoestring budget using Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Blog, Podcasts and Email Newsletters.

First of all, everyone likes an expert, but no one like a know-it-all. Remember to be humble, thank the people that have supported you and give credit where it’s due. Remember that being online isn’t always about YOU. Even in industries where your main objective is to market yourself – sounding like you’re a know-it-all can really turn people off from you, and that’s certainly not your goal.

So for instance, your blog should showcase the ways that you plan to service your customers, instead of only having photos of you and all of your accomplishments. Save that for the “About Me” section, where it’s perfectly acceptable to brag about all of your uber-cool awards. There’s a definite way to reach your customers, without putting them off and making you seem like your head is too big to fit through the door. Remember to make yourself seem approachable – even online. It’s important to balance your business sense with your common sense.

The solution I am proposing is to use social media to reestablish trust by allowing your raving fans to do the selling for you! Who do consumers trust? Each other! We naturally trust our neighbor’s referral over any type of formal advertising. Traditionally this has been called “word-of -mouth” marketing.

Here is the GREAT news. Social media is word-of-mouth networking on steriods. And, this is no longer just my supposition. Today eMarketer.com published a study that confirms online advertising trust is on the rise worldwide. “According to the “Global Online Consumer Survey” by Nielsen, 41% of worldwide Internet users trusted online advertising.” In fact, the study reveals the number one advertising tactic trusted by consumers is “recommendations from people I know”. You should definitely check out this fantastic article by eMarketer.com.

This strategy will require risk on your part. What if the reverse happens? What if someone says something negative? Can negative comments destroy all the trust you’ve worked to build up? Yes, if you don’t have a service recovery plan in place. You need a step by step plan in place to handle any negative posts. The plan should answer the following questions:

• How fast will you respond?
• What will your message be?
• How will reassure your other online followers?

With a plan a place you can effectively handle negative posts. AND, get this….you can actually earn MORE trust by allowing an honest dialogue to take place, showing that you have a plan in place and that you take your customer’s concerns seriously. This is the mark of a trustworthy company.

But, let me quell your concerns about negative posts. I monitor a lot of “business” social media sites. I don’t see a lot of negative posts EXCEPT for the big “corporation” type companies. Why? No one wants to fire the first shot across the bow. I believe we are all thinking “If I start the negative avalanche it will eventually catch up to me!” We are afraid to say something negative about another business in fear someone else will do it to our business. Make sense? In fact, I mostly find social media pages for small businesses to be a sickening love fest of unrealistic proportions!

Start allowing your past, current and future customers to talk to each. They can sell you better than you ever will. Open up the dialogue and reap the rewards.

We practice what we preach! Please post a comment below and we invite you to disagree! And, we invite you to become a fan of the Internet Marketing Hotline on Facebook!

Need help with social media? Sign-up for Meredith’s Social Media Boot Camp, Aug. 11, 18 & 25 at the HBA of Metro Orlando.

You don’t need to run out and sign up for every one of these, but see what you think will work the best for you, and start there. You can use this list as you become more familiar with some of these applications and continue to add them to your arsenal of business tools!

12seconds - You like video? You like Twitter? What an ingenious way to connect the speed of Twitter, with the personalization of  web video blogs. 12 Seconds is a micro-video-blogging site that limits your video to… you guessed it, 12 seconds. You can connect your 12 Seconds account to your twitter and facebook pages, so they automatically update whenever you post a video. You can even upload from your mobile phone! On a fun note – one of the cool things on 12seconds is the daily challenge Check it out! http://12seconds.tv

Don't Be A Jurassic Adaptor!

If you are really interested in the topic of Web site design, I highly recommend Steve Krug’s book “Don’t Make Me Think.” I read the first edition several years ago and it became my bible for good Web site layout and design. I recently re-read the second edition and recommitted our team to developing sites that never ever make visitors “think”!

eMarketing research indicates visitors spend less than 27 seconds per page and they leave in less than two minutes if the Web site makes them think.

A good benchmark for your site is a five minute visit length with seven to eight page views. Of course, the larger the site (number of pages) the longer the visit length should be and the more pages they should view.

Twitter Icon

Wondering where to get the social media icons to proudly proclaim you are now on Twitter, Facebook or Wordpress? Look no further! I found a great source at http://www.iconspedia.com/. This site offers more free icons than you can possibly download! I found the categories in the left side navigation difficult to use and not particularly intuitive, but the search feature works very well. From Facebook, Google to Twitter,  just type the name of the icon you are looking for in the search field and it comes right up. For the purpose of posting icons on a Website or in an email signature, I recommend downloading the PNG file type and either the 32 X 32 or 64 X 64 size. The icon in this post is the 128 X 128 size so you can get a feel for that size. Click on the size you wish and then click save. The download will start and either automatically save to My Documents/My Pictures or to a file you designate manually. Make a note where you saved the image so you can find it later when you upload it to your site. I hate it when I forget where a file is!