Social media is a godsend for businesses and independent professionals looking for an edge on the Internet.  In as little as a couple hours, you could be promoting your brand to thousands of people without spending a dime.

In this economy, every small business and freelancer is looking for an edge over their competition. But with every new initiative comes its drawbacks.

In this free webinar, we’re going to dive deep into the upsides and downsides of social media as a whole. We’ll be talking about things like:

• What kind of time commitment you’ll be looking at if you get into social media
• What bottom line return you can expect from your promotional activities
• What sites you should target depending on your market
• What the best way of monitoring your online activity is
• Which tools you should be using in order to market most effectively

So many companies have the misguided notion that social media is about blatant promotion like TV spots and newspaper ads. It’s not. Social media is about interaction. And with interaction comes best practices :0)

The webinar itself is Thursday, May 7th at 2:00PM EST.

To sign up, fill in the form below. You’ll receive a link in your email which’ll let you register for the free show! You’ll also get a bunch of other free stuff like free online classes and ebook downloads!

If there is something you’re looking for specifically explained and gone over, or if you have some burning question lurking deep in your mind, leave it in the comments. I’ll do my best to answer it during the presentation!

Today, it’s my pleasure to announce a contest!  In a nutshell, the winner will receive a free one-hour consultation on rocking out with social media.  All that’s required is a quick entry on the form below by Monday, May 4th at Midnight EST! After that, we’re going to close up submissions and pick the winner!

Here’s some things we’ll be covering:

• Website Optimization Strategies – How to make your new users ’sticky’
• Lead Generation Techniques – How to capture leads from people you’ve never met before
• The Top Rated Tools For Making Social Media Marketing A Breeze – Access and demos on the top tools in the social media industry
• One On One analysis – Expert guidance on making your social media marketing a success

All you have to do is enter your name and email address below.  You’re going to be getting our special report “The Top 10 Free Ways To Generate Leads From Your Website” in addition to the entry for free consulting!

Is it the right thing to do?  Is social media right for your business model?

There are three basic questions we ask before we determine whether social media is right for your organization:

• Is your target market using it?
• Are people talking about your business online?
• Is it possible to have someone in your organization run your campaigns?

If the answer to any of these questions is no, then social media isn’t a good fit.  It’s probably better to run pay per click campaigns or do intensive search engine optimization on your website.

If the answer to all three questions is yes, you are uniquely positioned to run social media campaigns to further your brand and your client interactions.

The point of social media is to target areas that your customers are already going.  If it’s Facebook and Twitter (currently the big two networks), you’re best bet is to jump in.  If you operate a business to business sort of service, LinkedIn is a good place to start.

The bottom line is your goal should be to develop and build relationships using social media.  It isn’t a magic bullet.  It simply provides a means to getting in front of your target audience.

As I’ve said before – the people you want to be in front of aren’t reading the newspaper.  It’s your job to get back in front of them…

Social Media is a living, breathing thing.  If you don’t continually add to the conversation, it’s lost.  If you don’t market your profiles like you do your brands and your products, the followers and fans go away.

As such, we have outlined three packages catering to what most of our clients are looking for.  They all have elements of training and consultation.  The difference is the level of depth they get into and the number of consulting hour they include.

Social Media Packages:

• The Free Package – Perfect for those who want to get familiar with social media marketing.
• The Social Media Training package – This package was built for marketing professionals and business owners who understand social media but need trained on the finer points of social media marketing.
• The Ultimate Implementation Package – Built for marketing teams and agencies who need help with building social media platforms including design, implementation and future strategies.

All of the social media marketing packages include access to the special report, “5 Things Your Marketing Agency Isn’t Telling You About Social Media.”

For more information or hour to hour consultations, please contact us asap!

These people are saying they love your new product line.  They’re discussing the classes they took last semester and who the best professors are.  They’re giving their friends your phone number and your website so they can check up on you.

This stuff isn’t happening here.  These conversations aren’t the kind you have on the phone or over dinner.  These conversations are taking place online.

For those out of the loop, social media networks are websites that bring people together.  Anyone can log in, create a profile and start chatting with their friends and acquaintences.  The most popular social media sites on the Internet are:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Digg
• StumbleUpon

These websites server millions of page views a day.  Their members spend hours on them, talking about anything and everything imaginable.

Do you have a voice in these conversations?  Do you have a person designated as a brand champion encouraging social media members to try your product or sign up for your service?

If not, you need to get involved.  Now.