I posted a message with this headline on a few lists and heard back from a few coaches who told me that based on the traffic statistics for their blogs, even their dogs do not read their blogs.

Here is what you need to do in order to be successful with your blog:

Define Your Goals For Your Blog.

What do YOU want to happen? Do you want a million readers? More newsletter subscribers? A lot of clients to find your blog?

Let’s say that you are a coach and author who recently released a book. So your goal for your blog is to sell more of your books.

Set Up Your Blog To Help You Reach Your Goal.

What does your blog need to have in order to help you reach your goal? To continue with the previous example, if you are a coach and an author, whose goal is to sell more books, you must add information about your book to the blog. Add information to the header and to the menu, so that information about the book is visible on every blog post. You should also blog about your book once in a while as well.

Blog About Things Of Interest To Your Target Market.

Since you would like your target market to come to your blog, create blog posts on topics that your target market is interested in.

Drive Your Target Market To Your Blog.

Now that you know what your goals for your blog are, you have set up your blog to help you reach these goals and you blog about things of interest to your target market, you need to bring the actual target market to your blog.

In order for you to actually achieve your goals you need your target market to come to your blog and purchase your book. You can achieve that by bringing your target market to your blog.

How can you do that? You can do that by using online marketing techniques such as article marketing, social networking, newsletter publishing, and many others to drive traffic to your blog.

I discuss many different ways to drive to your blog in the How To Get More Traffic & Readers For Your Blog Study Guide. You can get it now at https://www.marketingsalad.com/blog.html

Biana Babinsky

I have been getting questions from many coaches lately about how they can use Twitter as a part of the online marketing strategy for their coaching business.

I really enjoy networking on Twitter! It has been useful in many different ways – I have done research, connected with potential clients, found joint venture partners and am working on a few new projects, all thanks to Twitter!

Here are five tips to show you how to use Twitter to promote your coaching business:

– Do Market Research. Connect with members of your target market and see what they are talking about. Are they experiencing issues that you can help them with? This is an opportunity to find topics for new hot products that you can create!

– Get Help And Information On Many Different Topics. I follow different people in different industries, who share lots of useful information. My connections share information on social networking, marketing, new interesting web sites, trends, and lots of other things.

– Create Personal Connections. Twitter gives you an opportunity to connect 1-on-1 with many different people, from potential clients to people you can do joint ventures with to people who you have always admired but have never talked to.

I love being able to chat with people whose newsletters I have been reading for a long time!

– Let Your Followers Know About Your Blog Posts & Articles. Don’t keep your blog posts and articles to yourself – share them with your followers! Twitter is great for sharing your blog posts and articles with other members.

And you can use twiterfeed to have your posts post to Tweeter automatically, saving yourself time. For example, this blog post will be appearing on my Twitter page.

– Promote Your Teleseminars And Other Events. You should spend a lot more time on networking, helping and connecting with others than on promoting yourself, but it’s perfectly fine to let your followers know about your teleseminars and other events you are holding from time to time.

Just don’t make ALL of your twits about your events – your followers will lose interest and un-follow you.

There is a ton of other things you can do on Twitter – create joint ventures with other business owners, get newsletter subscribers, find people to teach teleseminars with, find business and marketing resources, find vendors, ask for recommendations, etc. It is a great social networking web site that can help you promote your coaching business. Check it out and join it!

And for more information on how to use Twitter to promote your coaching business, get the How To Use Twitter To Promote Your Business Home Study Guide at https://www.avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/ztr

Biana Babinsky

If you are using social networking, chances are, you have an account at Facebook. Facebook has thousands of applications you can use and you might be wondering which ones to use to promote your business. A few weeks ago I wrote a blog post on Why You Should Not Use Too Many Applications On Your Facebook Profile.

Since then a few business owners have asked me what I actually use and recommend to others to use on Facebook. Here are my recommendations:

– My Box Application. This is a great application that lets you display HTML code on your Facebook Profile. Use it to display your newsletter sign-up and promote your free gift and your newsletter on your Facebook page.

But you are not limited to just promoting your free gift and newsletter – you can use to promote anything you’d like. And, since the box will display HTML, you will be able to use colors, bigger fonts, etc on your page. Just don’t overdo it – a bit of color will bring attention to the information. Too much color and too many things will only confuse people.

– Notes. These are fabulous for sharing ideas and articles and promote your expertise. The best part about the notes is that they are viral. When you post a note information about it gets into your feed that your friends can see.

Your friends can comment on your note, and once they do the information about the comment will be in their feeds, and their feeds will now virally promote your note.

Another great use of notes is to use them to import your blog posts. That way each one of your blog posts will be posted as a note and will be listed in your feed, giving your posts lots of exposure. Your friends will also be able to comment on your posts right there on Facebook if you use Notes to import them.

– Events. Do you offer events, such as teleseminars, webinars and others? Then use Events to let your friends know about them. Just go to Events, create a new event and follow directions to post it and invite others to it.

You can also send updates to people who invited to your events to remind them where they need to register, how they can attend, etc. Don’t send too many reminders, but do remind them once or twice to make sure that everyone who wants to come remembers to register.

I love using this option on Facebook to promote my upcoming teleseminars. I have used it to promote both free and for-fee teleseminars and have always gotten good results.

Just like with everything in marketing, remember to work with your target market and make everything you do relevant to your target market.

Want more social networking tips? Join me for the Social Networking Teleseminar Series

Biana Babinsky

As registrations are rolling in for the How To Get Clients And Build Your List With Social Networking Teleseminar Series, I am having conversations with business owners about social networking.

One question that I have received a few times is:

How Can Coaches Use Social Networking To Promote A Coaching Business?

This is a great question, because I think social networking is one of the best media for coaches to promote their businesses. Sadly, I see many coaches under-use, mis-use or not use social networking at all.

Here are three steps to help you get coaching clients using social networking:

#1: Describe Your Coaching Business On Your Profile.

Don’t just say that you are a life coach, a business coach or a career coach. There are thousands (or even millions!) of other life coaches, career coaches and business coaches using social networking web sites. How is your potential client supposed to know which one to hire if everyone is a life coach?

Instead, use your profile to discuss the benefits that your clients will receive when they work with you or buy your products.

For example, many times I don’t even mention “coaching” or “consulting” when talking about what I do. Instead, I concentrate on clients’ benefits. I tell my potential clients that they will be able to Get More Clients Online when they work with me.

#2: Share Your Free Gift On Your Profile.

I am sure that you would like everyone you meet on social networking web sites to immediately become a life coaching client. Unfortunately, that will happen very rarely.

When your potential clients just encountered your profile on a social networking web site, they don’t have a relationship with you yet. Because of that they do not know that you are an expert at what you do, and they are not willing to invest into coaching with you (yet!).

They are, however, ready to get your free gift and subscribe to your newsletter. Make sure that information about your free gift is VERY visible on your profile. That way you will get more subscribers.

Don’t have a free gift for subscribers yet? Create a free gift now, because a free gift can triple the number of newsletter subscribers without increasing your web site traffic. Once you have your free gift in place, start offering it to people you meet on social networking web sites.

#3: Create Information Products (And Share Information About Them!).

Once your target customers opted in and downloaded your free gift, start sharing information with them and building relationships. As you are building relationships, make sure that you mention what you have to offer.

Many coaches only offer coaching services, and they mention this in every newsletter. However, very few people will be interested in your coaching services. From what I have seen with many of my clients, fewer than 1% of subscribers are interested in one-on-one coaching services. For some people it is the issue of pricing (one-on-one packages cost a lot of money), others are more interested in other ways to learn (e-books, audios, group coaching, etc).

Therefore, if you are only offering coaching services you are leaving a lot of money on the table. Many of your subscribers and people you meet through social networking will not work with you one-on-one, but are interested in buying your products.

Start creating information products to increase your revenues and get more clients through social networking.

Biana Babinsky

I like using Facebook for social networking (if you are a member of Facebook, add me as a friend. Just let me know that you read my blog.). It has been great at helping me connect with members of my target market, find affiliates and create joint ventures and other opportunities for my business.

I like learning more about people and visiting new and old friends’ pages to see what’s new in their businesses, on their blogs, etc. Unfortunately, sometimes I have to leave the pages without learning anything about the friend’s blog or business. This is because some people on Facebook have so many applications on their profile pages that it takes them forever to load.

I know that it is hard to resist to add an application that helps you send someone a hug. Or send someone flowers. Or offer someone a drink. Or add unicorns to your page. Or….

Remember, though, every time you add an application to your Facebook profile page, it becomes bigger. This means that it will take the page longer to load. People are impatient, so if your page isn’t loaded instantly, they will just go on to another page without looking at yours.

Also, since you are on Facebook to bring more clients to your business, think about what those hugs, drinks and unicorns applications say about your business.

Here are three tips to make your Facebook Page more effective:

– Make Your Profile Page Load Fast. If your page takes a long time to load your visitors will go elsewhere and no one will ever find out about you and your business.

Make sure that your Profile Page loads fast on both fast connection and on dial-up. Yes, some people still use dial-up, so you want your page to load for them, especially if they are in your target market.

– Add Business Applications To Your Page. Some of the Facebook applications help you display your blog posts, promote your business web site, promote your newsletter, etc. These are exactly the applications you want to use on your profile.

I myself use applications to display my Free Report on getting clients online, to display my blog posts, etc.

– Decide If You Really Need Non-Business Applications On Your Page. Since you use your Facebook page to market your business, do you really need non-business applications on it?

You may want to add one or two that you really like, but stop there. You are serious about building your business, so make sure that your Facebook profile reflects that as well.

Want to learn more about using social media to build your business? Get my Social Networking Home Study Guide at https://www.avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/znetwork

Biana Babinsky

If you have read any marketing and business books, you will have read that you need to ask for a sale in order to get one. For example:

– When you are meeting with a potential client to discuss how you can help her, you need to ask for a sale at the end of the meeting.

– When you are publishing a newsletter, you need to ask for a sale at the end of your article/post/announcement

– When someone calls you for a free introductory coaching session you need to ask them to become a paying client at the end of the session

All of these are excellent examples of asking for a sale if you want to get one. In all these examples your potential clients have some prior knowledge of who you are and what you do. Because they are already familiar with the business owner offering services, they will be much more receptive when the business owner asks for a sale.

However, in social networking, when you just meet someone, they don’t know who you are and what you do. So asking for a sale is not appropriate. This is why you should not send an MLM pitch/sales message to someone you just connected with on Facebook.

Instead, you want to start building a relationship and get your new connections to know you. How do you do that? By promoting your newsletter!

If you want to keep in touch with people you meet through social networking for a long time, make sure you promote your newsletter! Promote it in your profile, link to it from your signature, post a link to it from your “About” page, etc. The more visible you make your newsletter, the more people will get on your list, and the more people you will be able to keep in touch with even if you stop using some social networking groups.

When you have just met someone through social networking web sites, it is not time for a hard sales pitch. Start building a relationship and invite them to join your list. Once they have been on your list for someone, they may contact you about your services and your products. This is when you will be able to ask for a sale.

Want to learn more about using social networking to get clients? Join me for the How To Get Clients And Build Your List With Social Networking Teleseminar Series at https://www.avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/znetwork

Biana Babinsky

You should have built your own list….

Think about this for a second – what will happen if you get banned from your favorite social networks, the one you use the most often, the ones you use to connect with others, to network and to promote your products and services?

Will you be able to get in touch with everyone you need to get in touch with? Will you be able to update them on what’s going with you without using the social network?

And you don’t have to be banned from a social network to lose your contacts – what if you just decide to leave a social network on your own and delete your account? You will not be able to contact people through the network anymore, so unless you have other means to connect with the people you met through this network, you will not be able to connect with them anymore.

In my 10+ years of social networking, I have joined and left hundreds of social networking groups. But I kept in touch with many people I have met through those groups. How did I do it? By inviting people I meet through social networking to join my list. If you don’t do that yet, here is a plan to help you get started:

– Evaluate what you are using social networking for. If you are using social networking to get more clients and build your business, don’t rely on the social networks alone to keep in touch with the people you meet.

Spend some time now to create a plan to do that.

– Create a plan to keep in touch with your contacts. Get started with your plan. How do you want to keep in touch? Blogs? Newsletters? Some other means?

– Start promoting your newsletter. One of the best ways to keep in touch with people you meet through social networking is by inviting them to subscribe to youR newsletter.

In order to do that, make sure you promote your newsletter! Promote it in your profile, link to it from your signature, post a link to it from your “About” page, etc. The more visible you make your newsletter, the more people will get on your list, and the more people you will be able to keep in touch with even if you stop using some social networking groups.

Want to learn more about building your list? Join me for the Top 5 Strategies To Build Your List Teleseminar at https://www.marketingsalad.com/build-list.html

More social networking posts:

– What To Do With Your Social Networking Traffic

– Is Social Media A Fad?

Every once in a while I receive a question from a coach who has heard that newsletters are old news and web 2.0 is the way to go. Here is a question I received recently:

Question: Biana, I have been a life coach for about 4 years now. I have been publishing my newsletter for about 2.5 years. About 6 months ago I started reading articles and hearing from everyone that newsletters are outdated and that I should start using web 2.0 exclusively.

Did I make a mistake? Should I have been publishing my newsletter instead of starting the blog and doing social networking?

My answer: First of all, I LOVE web 2.0. Blogging and social networking has been bringing leads and clients to me for a very long time. However, your newsletter is a foundation of your marketing strategy. Before you blog, before you use social networking sites, you MUST have a newsletter.

Let me explain. Your newsletter helps you build long term relationships with people in your target market. It is your most important piece in your marketing strategy. When you meet people in your target market – in person, through speaking or networking, or online, though social networking, article marketing, etc – you need to invite them to get on your newsletter list.

Once they get on your list, they will be able to receive your newsletter, get to know you and become aware of products and services that you offer.

The best way to use web 2.0 is to use it to get more people to subscribe to your newsletter. When people are reading your blog, make sure that you invite them to subscribe to your newsletter. You can do that by using an invite in the blog header, including a newsletter subscription box in your menu, etc.

And when you are using social networking, make sure that your personal pages on different social networking sites promote your newsletter. That way you can use your newsletter to continue building relationships with people you meet at social networking sites.

So I recommend that you continue using your blog and social networking sites, but you should also find a way to continue building relationships with people you meet through those means.

I talk a lot about using your newsletter to get clients in the Grow Your List Home Study Course that you can see at https://www.avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/znews

Biana Babinsky

If you are overwhelmed with social networking, you are not alone. Every day on my Facebook account I have new friends requests, dozens of invitations to applications, lots of new events to review and much more. And then, there are messages. Messages from people I am connected with, messages from groups I am a member of, messages that people leave on my Wall….

And this is just Facebook. If you, like me, networking through other web sites and groups in addition to Facebook, you know that there will be messages, invitations and requests from those groups as well. Lately, it seems that it is a full time job to just maintain a few social networking accounts and keep in touch with people we meet through those sites.

As business owners, though, we have other things to do as well. We have our clients to take care of, we have classes to teach, new products to create and new strategies to design. So how do you keep up with your social networking AND still have time left over for your other business activities?

I do that by:

1. Targeting My Social Networking. I have created my social networking plan and because of it I know exactly who I want to meet and who I want to network with. Because I am targeting my networking, I only spend time on targeted networking.

2. Setting Time Limits On Social Networking. Social networking can be fun and you can spend a lot of time doing it. But if you spend all of your time on social networking, who is going to work with your clients and who is going to create your products?

I spend some time on social networking and then I spend time on my clients and my marketing activities.

3. Prioritizing. I simply do not have the time to participate in all the networking groups I would like to participate in. Instead, I use my time to prioritize the social networking that I do and spend time networking in places where I can meet the people that I want to meet.

I have spoken about social networking and lack of time with my friend and time management expert, Julie Bestry. Julies has taught me about time management and she has a lot of ideas on how to minimize the time you spend on social networking, while maximizing your results. I invited Julie to do a teleseminar with me called Time Management Secrets For Social Networkers: Get Better Results In Less Time.

Julie says that if you’re suffering from Social Network Fatigue, spending hours on end posting to networking forums and your connections’ Facebook wall, twittering and following other’s tweets but not reaping the financial rewards or truly positioning yourself as an expert, there’s a better path for you. I can’t wait to hear what she has to say about all this – register to join us at https://www.marketingsalad.com/vf/zjt

Biana Babinsky

One of the most popular questions I have been receiving this year from clients, colleagues and online friends (some of whom I met on social networks) has been Is Social Media A Fad?

I even had a discussion on this same subject at a non-business event a few months ago. One of the participants found out what I did for a living and we had a great discussion of social media, how it affects the way we do business and if it is here to stay.

As someone who has participated in social media and social networking online for the past fifteen years and recently taught a social networking teleseminar, I know that social media is not a fad. However, I can see why this question keeps coming up over and over again. Social media and social web sites have become the “it” things on line in the past 6-8 months, just like blogging did a few years ago. And because of their “it” status there have been many articles in mainstream publications about social media and how business owners use it for business development.

As a result of those articles, many people who have never used social media before decide to give social media a try. But since they are new to the social media scene, they are not sure how long social networking is going to stay around for. They do not want to spend their time on something that may just be a fad, so they are looking to make sure that social media and networking are here to stay.

And from what I have seen in my many years online, I can tell you that social media is here to stay. Social networking started as soon as people started using the Internet. I remember communicating on Bulletin Boards, then through mailing lists, then message boards. I started using social networking as soon as I got online. The very first social networking medium that I ran was a message board.

Since then I have joined and left countless mailing lists, message boards and social networking sites. While the media that I use changes with time (new networking sites, new mailing lists, etc), social networking stays. While we might not use the same social networking websites five or ten years from now, we will still be using social networking. Just like I used it fifteen years ago. And this is why social networking is not a fad and is here to stay.

More social networking articles:

– Getting Results From Social Media Sites

– What To Do With Your Social Networking Traffic

Biana Babinsky

P.S. What do you think? How do you use social networking?