Very few people know this, but LinkedIn has some very cool applications.

These are my three favorite:

WordPress
Show your latest blog posts on your LinkedIn profile page.

Tweets
A great way to integrate Twitter with your LinkedIn account.

Events
This application will allow you to find events in your area and events your connections are attending.

Check out the rest of the LinkedIn applications here.

Shooting a video and posting it to YouTube is OK; it’ll definitely help with your marketing. But, if you want to be really successful at video marketing, you need to take it to the next level.

In this article I’ll share with you 3 of my favorite resources for video marketing.

Video Marketing Resource #1: TubeMogul
TubeMogul is an awesome tool that allows you to distribute your videos to a lot of video sharing sites at once and gives you statistics that you can use to learn what works best (so you can do more of it).

Video Marketing Resource #2: UStream.tv
What’s better than online video? LIVE online video! This website allows you to broadcast your videos LIVE to the whole world.

Video Marketing Resource #3: Advanced YouTube Tricks
Did you know that you can download YouTube videos, embed high-quality videos on your site and make your YouTube videos autoplay on your website? These are some of the coolest YouTube tricks.

TweetBeep
Awesome tools that notifies you every time your name, brand or any keyword you choose is mentioned on Twitter.

FriendOrFollow
Find out A) who’s following you that you’re not following back and B) who you’re following that isn’t following you back.

Twitter Tools
WordPress plugin that allows you to pull your tweets to your blog. It can also update your Twitter status every time you post.

Ping.fm
The easiest and fastest way to update your status on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and over 40 social media sites.

Qwitter
Are you losing a lot of followers? This fantastic tool can help you understand why.

Twitter Grader
Do you want to find out how good is your reach and influence in the Twitter community? This tools can help you.

TweetDeck
An amazing Twitter client that allows you to sort your tweets into
replies, topics, groups, keywords, etc. You can even filter the results.

HootSuite
In my opinion, the coolest and most powerful suite of Twitter tools out there. Track your stats, manage multiple Twitter accounts, monitor your brand, schedule tweets, update all your social networks and much more.

TwitPic
Cool Twitter app that allows you to send photos on Twitter.

TweetStats
A great tool that gives you a very valuable insight on your Twitter marketing campaigns.

Start Discussions

1. Search for groups and join them.
   
2. Wait for the group admins to approve your request.
3. Once your request is approved, start a discussion. You can post articles, questions or whatever you want. This is a great way to connect with a lot of people.
   

Share News

1. Join groups and wait to be approved.
2. Once you’re in, click on Submit News. This is a great way to share your blog posts with the entire group.
   

Complete Your Profile
So many people have incomplete profiles! This is one of the worst things you can do on LinkedIn. Add a nice photo of yourself smiling and complete your work history, education, current company, websites, etc.

Also, don’t forget to update your status. This is a great place to promote your blog posts:


Answer Questions
Very few people are aware that there’s a Q&A section on LinkedIn. This is a great way to position yourself as an expert in your field.


Search for People
If you’re getting started, don’t wait for people to connect with you. Be proactive. Let’s say you sell a software for immigration attorneys. This is what you should do:

1. Search for immigration attorneys.
   
2. Add them to your network.
   
3. If you have shared connections, you can say “Hi, we’re both connected to John Doe and now I’d like to connect with you”. Give people good reasons to connect with you. Look at their profiles and invest some time reading their blogs and bios, then make a smart comment showing them you took the time to learn who they are. This will make a lot of people feel great about accepting you as a connection on LinkedIn.

Get Recommendations

1. Go to Profile > Recommendations.
2. Choose the job you want to be endorsed for and click on “Ask to Be Endorsed”.
3. When people recommend you, LinkedIn shows you as a recommended resource. Plus, having a dozen recommendations on your profile page will really make you stand out.

Help Others
Most people start Social Media Marketing asking themselves “how can I benefit from this?” That’s a valid question, but I encourage you to ask yourself this question instead, “how can I help other people achieve their goals?”

First of all, let me say that the first step is to help THE RIGHT PEOPLE. If you sell your software to immigration attorneys and spend your time helping accountants, you won’t see any results.

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Add THE RIGHT PEOPLE to your network.
2. Look at their statuses and see how you can help them. If they’re asking questions, you can answer them. If you know someone who might need their services, introduce them to each other. Nothing will get you more recognition than introducing two people who could do business together. Be a connector.

Monitor Your Name, Brand and Keywords
Use the search feature to find out who’s talking about your and your products.


Re-Tweet
Re-tweeting is the equivalent of email forwarding. When someone tweets about something you find interesting, re-tweet it so your followers can benefit from it too. Plus, when you re-tweet other people’s content, they notice you and want to learn who you are.


Grow Your Network
These are my three favorite ways to grow a Twitter followers base:

• Follow people talking about a keyword related to your market. They’ll follow you back. Un-follow those who don’t. I use FlashTweet for this.
• Find the authorities in your market and follow the people following them. They’ll follow you back. Un-follow those who don’t. Again, I use FlashTweet for this.
• Use Twitter directories such as Twellow and WeFollow to find people in your market.

But remember, it’s about quality, not quantity. I’d rather have 500 great followers than 5,000 good ones.

Respond to Messages
Click on your Twitter ID to see who’s talking to or about you.


Avoid Direct Messages
It’s OK to send some DMs once in a while, but a lot of spammers DM people all the time, so use these with caution.


Tweet Often (But Not Too Often)
If you don’t tweet often, you won’t get any visibility. But, if you tweet every 5 minutes, people will get annoyed. I found that 1-10 times per day is optimal for most people. Monitor your followers and if you notice too many people are leaving you, you’re probably tweeting too much (or your tweets are boring or not interesting).

Invite People to Follow You
Add a link to “Follow Me on Twitter” to your blog, website, business cards and email signature.


Contests, Content, Events and Specials
My four favorite kinds of content to tweet about are contests, events, content (article, videos, resources) and specials.

Share Other People’s Content
Most people tweet about their own content. This is not a good idea. When you find stuff you like, tweet it.

Balance Following/Followers
If you follow a lot people and very few people follow you, you’ll be seen as a spammer. If a lot of people follow you and you don’t follow them back, it’s not very nice of you. Use FlashTweet or FriendOrFollow to balance your ratio.

Help Others
See what your followers need and try to give it to them. A lot of people use Twitter to ask questions; answer them.

Use Hash Tags with Caution
A hash tag is a keyword preceded by the pound sign. Used right, hash tags can be very beneficial, but if you use them to stuff your tweets with keywords, people won’t like it.

So many people are afraid of videos! Well, you shouldn’t be. Here’s why: most videos that make it big are NOT professional productions. They’re just a guy -or a girl- who gets in front of a camera and talks about what he/she knows best. You don’t need expensive equipment or a professional studio.

These are my top 10 favorite tips to grow your company using YouTube.

Copy What Works
Don’t reinvent the wheel. Spend an afternoon watching YouTube videos and learn what works. What are the videos in your market with more views, better ratings and more comments? Why are they successful? Who are the users with the most subscribers? Why?

Customize Your Channel
Before uploading your videos, customize your channel (profile) and make it look nice. Include some info about you and a link to your site.

Use Keywords
The best way to help people find your videos is by including your keywords in them. This is an example (the keyword used in this example is in red):

Title: How to Motivate People
Description: http://www.YourSite.com/blog - Do you want to know how to motivate people? This video reveals the 3 secrets of people motivation.
Tags: how to motivate people, motivate people, people motivation, motivate employees

Add Your URL to the Description
Add your the “http://” version of your URL to the beginning of your video description so people can click on your link and visit your site.

Soft-Sell
You shouldn’t ask people to buy your stuff after watching your videos. Most people aren’t ready for this. Plan your marketing funnel and you’ll see a much better response. This is a example:

Watch YouTube Video > Go to My Blog to Watch More Videos > Sign Up to Get My Exclusive Videos (You Capture Email Addresses Here) > Try to Sell Them a Low-Ticket Item > Try to Sell a High-Ticket Item to Those Who Bought from You Before

Video Responses
Look for videos related to yours and whenever is appropriate post your videos as video responses to them. This will allow you to piggyback a lot of the traffic that these videos get.


Create Playlists
Playlists are a great way to get your videos watched by a lot of people. If you have a dog training videos, grab some other great videos on the same topic (from other people) and create a playlist. Call it “Dog Training Tips”.


It’s a Social Network!
YouTube isn’t just a video sharing site; it’s a social network. You can add friends, message them, join groups, create your own group and use the bulletin board to interact with the YouTube community.

Use Multiple Calls to Action
These are my favorite calls to action to use on YouTube:

• Subscribe to my videos.
• Visit my blog for more great videos.
• Follow me on Twitter.
• Please post your comments.
• Send this video to your friends.
• Please rate this video.
• Check out my channel.

YouTube allows you to add overlay text in your videos. Use them for your calls to action.


Promote Your Videos
Uploading videos to YouTube isn’t enough. You need to promote them. These are some ideas:

• Embed your videos in your blog.
• Promote your videos on Twitter.
• Email your YouTube link to your friends and contacts.
• Ask people you know to tell their lists and contacts.
• Write an article about your video and post it to article directories and forums.
• Post your video to LinkedIn, Facebook and your other social networks.

Use the Groups

1. Find a group that interests you.
2. Share stuff with them (blog posts, articles, videos, links, etc.)

Use the Events
You can turn everything into an event:

• Specials
• Seminars/webinars
• Contests

The best part is that once you create an event, you can invite all your list with just a few clicks, which will save you a lot of time.


Use the Pages
Create a Facebook Page so people can become fans of your company. Share videos, photos, links and articles with them.


One of the main benefits of having a Facebook page is that you can add an opt-in form to grow your email list.

Use the News Feed
Every time you update your status, your friends see it in their news feeds. This is a great opportunity to share resources, including your own content.


Use Tagging (Carefully)
Every time you tag someone in a video or a photo, they are notified by email. But be careful: you don’t want to piss people off by tagging them in photos or videos that have nothing to do with them.

Schedule Your Posts
When your friends update their statuses, these show at the top of your news feed and move down as other people post more updates. So, unless you post very often, your updates will be buried very soon. There’s a solution to this: post stuff all the time. The problem with this is that it’s very time-consuming, but there’s a way you can automate this process.

1. Open a Ping.fm account and add your Facebook account to it. Ping.fm can also post to over 50 social networks, including Twitter and LinkedIn.
2. Open a HootSuite account and use it to schedule your posts to Ping.fm.
3. This is how it works: every couple of hours (or any frequency you choose) HootSuite posts to Ping.fm and Ping.fm distributes your post to dozens of social networks, including Facebook.

Be Part of the Conversation
Adding friends isn’t enough. You need to connect with them and help them in any way you can. Be part of the conversation, share resources and ask people how they’re doing. Basic communication skills can go a long way.

Strategy #1: Start Using Posterous
Posterous is one of the coolest and most underutilized social media services. With Posterous you can send text, photos, videos and audio files to an email address they give you and all that content gets posted to your account. There’s no easier way to post content.

Strategy #2: Publish a Book
If you want to be the go-to expert in your industry, there’s no easier way to achieve that goal than by writing a book. When you’re “John Doe, the author of…” a lot of doors open for you. The problem is that people think getting published is a lot harder than it really is. There’s a great alternative to traditional publishing: self-publishing. CreateSpace is a company owned by Amazon that will make everything very easy for you.

Strategy #3: Get LinkedIn Enforsements
One of the coolest features of LinkedIn is their endorsements. People can endorse you if they think you do a good job. You can get your clients, old clients, co-workers and bosses to endorse you.

Go to Profile > Recommended > Get Recommended.

When a lot of people recommend you, LinkedIn suggests your company to other people that might be looking for your services. This takes 5 minutes and can get you a lot of new business.

Do you know why most people fail miserably at Social Media Marketing? Because they don’t really get what it’s all about. They think it’s about promoting their companies. It’s not; it’s about MAKING FRIENDS.

“Really? Making friends?”

“Yes, really.”

See, people like doing business with their friends. If your toilet breaks and one of your friends is a janitor, you’ll ask him to fix it. If you don’t have any janitor friend, then you might ask your friends if they know a janitor they trust. People do business with their friends for two reasons:

1. They get a better service, price, deal, etc.
2. They give money to people they care about.

So, how can you apply this principle to Social Media Marketing?

1. Make sure your social media profiles say what you do and have links to your site.
2. Make friends. Discover your target market and start talking to those people. Don’t sell them anything; just make friends with them and check out their status updates. What are they doing? Is there anything you can help with? Are they asking questions you can answer or looking for something you can give them?
3. After a few interactions, something very interesting will happen. They’re going to ask you the BIG QUESTION: “so, what do you do for a living?”. Just tell them what you do but don’t make it sound like you’re trying to sell them something. This is where your elevator speech will come into play. In case you want to know what an elevator speech looks like, this is mine: “I help companies get thousands of qualified visitors for their websites.” Create an elevator speech and be ready to share it when people ask you what you do for a living.
4. People will add you to their “mental Rolodex”. It works something like this: “Joan P. - High-end catering services”, “Marty K. - Real estate agent”, etc.
5. When they need a real estate agent, they’ll call Marty. And, they’ll also recommend Marty to anyone who needs a real estate agent (assuming that Marty took the time to build strong relationships with his contacts instead of trying to sell them his services).

I can’t emphasize this enough: Social Media Marketing is about MAKING FRIENDS, not about selling your stuff. But remember: making friends is a great way to sell your stuff!

I believe that if we all understood the concept in this article, the Social Media Marketing world would be a lot more fun and efficient, so let me ask you a favor: spread the word. Send this to your contacts, re-tweet it, share it on Facebook, or share it any way you want. Thank you!

Let’s see if you’ve been paying attention… What’s my favorite word? If you said “steak” you were close, but the answer I was looking for is “LEVERAGE”.

Let’s define leverage as using other people resources to multiply the outcome from your efforts. Guest blogging is one of my favorite ways to use leverage because:

• The most influential bloggers in your industry have access to thousands of people you don’t. When your content gets published on their blogs, you automatically gain access to all these people.
• The most influential bloggers in your industry are seen as experts and they’re highly trusted. If they trust you, so will their readers.

So, How Do You Become a Guest Blogger?

1. Do a Google search for [keyword] blog.
   
2. Check the top 50 results and find blogs with a lot of readers. The best way to find out if a blog gets a lot of traffic is by checking how many comments their posts get. Good, active blogs get plenty of comments.
   
3. Subscribe to the blogs and start commenting often. Bloggers love it when people comment on their blogs.
4. After a while, once they know you, send the bloggers emails and congratulate them on their blogs. Don’t ask for anything yet. Just say something nice.
5. Keep building these relationships. There’s no magic number as far as how many emails you need to send them. Just play it by ear. Find ways to help them. If you have suggestions for ways to improve their sites or topics for them to blog about, send them your suggestions.
6. Once you have a great relationship with them, tell them you have a great idea for an article and ask them if they’d like to publish it. Don’t ask for a “guest blogging position”; ask for a small commitment instead. Just one article on a great topic. Tell them that you can write it and if after reading it they decide not to publish it, you won’t be offended.
7. After your first article gets published, ask you friends to check it out and comment on it. Most bloggers love comments and the more they get the happier they’ll be.
8. At this point, go for a slightly bigger commitment, like 2 articles per month or 1 per week.

Very Important: Build real relationships with the bloggers. Don’t just kiss their butts to get something from them. This won’t take you very far.