Is Social Media A Fad

Social media giant Facebook is currently ADDING a million 25+ (non-student) adults per week to their rosters - that's 52 million new users a year...
YouTube.com gets over 50 million unique visitors per month... over half a billion a year...
MySpace.com sees over 49 million unique visitors each month - over 1.6 million a day...
Those numbers are CRAZY!
And new social sites of all kinds are popping up each day... social networks... social bookmarking pages... user generated content sites... video sharing... photo sharing... blogging... virtual worlds... and more are all growing at an explosive rate.
"But Aren't These Social Media Sites Just For Kids?"
Is Social Media a Fad?

This is just one of the myths that some business leaders have about social media. Here are a few more:

"Facebook is only useful for finding old classmates and catching up with friends", says one business leader.

"My kids use MySpace to share music. I can't possible see how I can use it grow my business", says another.

"Aren't blogs used to share with the world what you're eating, drinking or watching at this very moment?"

"Only teenagers are listening to podcasts. I mean, I don't even own an iPod".

"The dot com bubble burst in the late 1990s, so it's only a matter of time before the social media hype dies down".

"Second Life to grow my business? Naw, it's just used by anti social twenty-somethings who use it to simulate sex".

A long time ago, I too believed some of these myths. I thought that social media was just a way to make friends online. You know - swap recipes, gossip about Hollywood celebrities and play mindless 3D games to pass the time.

But then in 2005, I opened my first account on a social networking website. I was amazed at how many business people I met who only wanted to build relationships for business reasons.

While some were interested in talking about their favorite science fiction television show, the majority of people I met wanted tips on how to solve some of their biggest business related problem.

So, I joined more social networking websites and found the very same thing.
Business leaders using common networking tactics to open doors, close deals and make money over the Internet.
Social Media could be considered a fad maybe two years ago, but now these sites are crammed with professionals with all kinds of disposable income (who are comfortable buying things online) - look at who is signing onto these social sites, for example...
62% of MySpace visitors are older than 25 (40% are 35+), and 83% are making over $30,000 a year...
and 19% are making $100,000 and up...
Facebook.com is a little younger since it started with college students - but that's changing in a hurry - 46% are over 25 and 34% are 35+... but they've got deep pockets - 88% make more than $30,000... and 23% make $100,000 or more...
To put that into perspective... that means 880,000 twenty-somethings who make over $30,000 a year are joining Facebook.com
this year ...
That's over $42,500,000,000... 42.5 BILLION DOLLARS of new spending power flowing into Facebook.com alone -- EVERY WEEK!
And that's just counting the users who make 30 grand a year... (and remember we're just counting Facebook here, not those other 1,919 social media sites)...
The traffic is there... the prospects are there... they have the money... now all that's left is to figure out how turn that "potential" into actual growth and increased profits for YOUR business...
Why Am I Telling You All This?
At this point you might be wondering... what does any of that have to do with me? Why should I care?
After all, those people aren't going to come and spend $42.5 billion on your site, right?
Well, here's the IMPORTANT part - right now you can pull huge streams of targeted traffic from those social media sites... for free or almost-free.
Let's get this straight - Social Media truly IS a revolution. If you doubt me, just go walk into any Starbucks (or any coffee shop that has wireless). Walk around and look at what people are doing on their notebooks and MacBooks.
I'll bet you see the same thing I do - AT LEAST half of the people will be on YouTube or MySpace or Facebook.
But let me tell you who probably is NOT on those sites - your competition. For some reason, most businesses have been VERY slow to catch on to this revolution. And that means OPPORTUNITY for you. Big traffic, lots of buyers with disposable income... and not a lot of competition.
That's why I'm saying it's like 1998 all over again. And the only difference is the opportunities are even bigger and easier than back in the old days - because there are tens of millions more people online.
Do you see where I'm going here?
The Social Media sites are just waiting for you... they're practically begging for you to show up and claim your spot.
Bottom line - driving traffic and building your business hasn't been this easy for at least ten years.
It is brain-dead simple to grab a big tasty piece of that traffic... because you'll have hardly any competition at all!
But you have to jump on this now, because the door is hanging wide open for now... but you know as well as I do that it's going to get slammed shut soon. The people who are already in will be set.
The people who are still out in the cold... well, they're going to be out in the cold looking in, wishing they had joined the party.
Social Marketing will make you money in not just one, but FOUR important ways
No. 1: Search Engine Domination: When you start social marketing the right way, the search engines will suck up to you like nobody's business. Until you've actually seen how this work, it's just plain hard to believe. Shocking really. You'll start to see multiple rankings, yes 2, 3, even 8 or more placements... higher up in the first page for your most profitable keywords.
Which means you're going to be seeing double... triple... even quadruple the traffic from better search engine rankings alone.
No. 2: Social Networking Builds DIRECT Traffic and Buzz: Viral marketing is more powerful now than ever, because more people are spending ore time talking to each other online than ever before.
When you discover how to post profiles and pages on social networking sites that people love to read... that build raving fans... and establish you as an expert and thought leader in your particular industry... your traffic and viral marketing buzz is going to shoot through the everlovin' roof!
No. 3: Better Converting Traffic: Because you're going to be doing social marketing the RIGHT way... not by using spammy, black-hat methods that will only get people HATING your business... you'll be developing a relationship with your prospects BEFORE THEY EVEN HIT YOUR SITE.
They'll have read your posts... seen your profiles... listened to your valuable information... and instead of being a noisy, annoying marketer - you'll be seen as a trusted advisor, a valuable friend who they'd line up to buy from.
You know what? All that new traffic you're getting will be highly responsive and hungry to buy from you... that means more sales and more money in your pocket.
No. 4: Income From The Social Media Sites: OK, up above I said there was no money on those sites. I was a bit over-excited up there. The reality is that you CAN make some money directly on those sites. This is a relatively small chunk of revenue right now... but it's going to grow. Some of the social sites you're using will actually pay you a percentage of the money they make from the advertising they're running on your pages.
There you have it - four ways that Web 2.0 is going to put cash in your pocket.
Let's get down to brass tacks here - lots of people say you can't make money from these Web 2.0 and Social Media sites. And you know what? Back in 1997 or so, there were lots of people (probably most people) saying you couldn't make money on the Internet.
Guess what - they were wrong in 1997, and they're wrong now.
Life and Death 2.0
I've shown you how this Social Marketing opportunity is simply HUGE... how the traffic completely dwarfs Google and is growing larger every day. And how EASY it is to use the social media sites to get big traffic - directly from the sites and also by improving your search rankings in Google.
But here's the flip side... sooner or later your competition will figure this stuff out. And it's definitely going to get a lot tougher then.
I've shown you the charts - Social Media is obviously where the entire market is going. You can either get there first and thrive... or you can sit this one out - and hope you survive.
Bottom Line: Social Media Is The Fastest Way To The Top Of Google
There is nothing - nothing - that will get you to the top of Google and the other search engines the way these Web 2.0 sites will - but ONLY if you know how to use them properly.

While you're here, why not sign up to receive info about the free courses and tutorials?

Social Media Marketing Tutorials

Links to courses and tutorials will be sent directly to your inbox after you enter your first name and email here:

http://e-bizsecretsexposed.com/socialmedia

When people speak about driving traffic through social networks, the first site that comes to mind is usually Digg. Digg's popularity is obvious: as the numbers increase above the "digg it" button, the likelihood for increased traffic goes up as well. There is a plefora of information on the Internet on how an extremely popular link on Digg can bring you traffic and links.
A lot of people want to get their page on the Digg main page, but in terms of popularity of other online social mediums, it stops there. There are other means of getting good - perhaps better, when considering that it's targeted - traffic, such as StumbleUpon.
StumbleUpon is highly personalized traffic based on your interests that is served to you when you are actively looking for new sites to discover. The service requires a download of a very easily-integrated toolbar that sits right under the Address bar on your browser. To begin using the service, you click on the "Stumble!" button on your toolbar, and you can rate a site with a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down sign. As sites are continually rated with a "thumbs up," the page is served to more and more SU users.
The toolbar, which was recently updated with more eye-grabbing icons due to StumbleUpon's continuous desire to improve the user experience, is shown below:

StumbleUpon also allows you to "discover" new sites. In your regular browsing experience, you might find a site that you think would interest other people. The "thumbs up" icon works for all sites, and that is how new sites get into the database of StumbleUpon pages that are served to the end user during their stumbling session. When you "thumbs up" your site and it hasn't yet been submitted, you'll see this window:

The URL is inherited by default, but you can personalize your initial submission with a title and the brief description of the page. You can then categorize this into any one of the categories listed and you can tag it with whatever appropriate tags would benefit your visitors. Once the site is in the system, people will begin stumbling and learning more about the site you submitted.
How can you leverage your StumbleUpon influence to get your submissions noticed?
Personalize your page. Upload an avatar, tell people who you are (fill out the "General" section), and share with the community what you like (the "Interests" section). If people are browsing the user community, they'll get a truer sense of who you are.
Join the communities relating to your interests and your business. To make sure that you are served pages that truly interest you, you'll want to join targeted communities so that the traffic is desirable. You'll also be able to contribute similar pages to the StumbleUpon engine so that they are added. If your page relates to these groups, they will be served to the group members. You can join up to 63 groups in the following main categories, which should cover just about everything:

Befriend people who have similar interests. Adding friends whose pages interest you means that they will likely appreciate the pages that you're submitting as well. It grows into a mutual relationship. People who like the pages you submit will befriend you and you will be serving them content based on the relationship. With the StumbleUpon network, you can have up to 200 friends.
Stumble often. Just submitting and stumbling upon a single page doesn't bode well for your reputation, and keen users will take notice of this. Stumble frequently. If people like the pages you've stumbled upon or submitted, you'll likely also be rated highly in the community.
Label and tag your submitted pages appropriately. When you tag your new submissions, be relevant. Pertinent tags will bring you the most targeted traffic from the users who specifically have expressed an interest in the topic you are serving content for. If you cover all the keywords (and tags) that you could possibly think of that don't relate to your site, your popularity (if any) will be short lived when the thumbs-down button is pressed. Bear in mind that once the page is submitted, tags can be added and removed by the community members (which is a definite indication that they're visiting the site!)
Why should you look at into directing StumbleUpon traffic to your site? Beyond the obvious benefits of extremely targeted traffic, the traffic doesn't come all at once compared to a site like Digg. There's the inherent benefit of having that "15 minutes of fame" on Digg until it crashes your server. StumbleUpon traffic is generally much more gradual. In one particular example, Neil Patel explains that StumbleUpon drove 17,209 visitors to his site in 25 days. Traffic coming directly from Digg is much less memorable, and most Digg users don't venture farther than the front page.
An alternative is to consider sponsoring your site on StumbleUpon. Compared to the most obvious rival, Google Adwords, StumbleUpon traffic is sought and is the only page being served to the user at the time. It's also incredibly cheap at $0.05 per visitor (with a maximum of 2,000 visitors per day). The results have been pretty amazing and provides "qualified traffic instantly" compared to Adwords, as indicated by a recent user's experience.
So if you're not interested in advertising, go social. The StumbleUpon community is a great way to find some pretty neat pages that you'd have never previously heard of.

While you're here, why not sign up to receive info about the free courses and tutorials?

Social Media Marketing Tutorials

Links to courses and tutorials will be sent directly to your inbox after you enter your first name and email here:

http://e-bizsecretsexposed.com/socialmedia