I often get asked how to make sure that you don’t ‘waste time’ on social networks and how you can get a return on investment. I personally track new business and strategic partnerships that arise from my engagement in social networks – and yes they have also resulted in new friendships, personal development, support and they are fun too. All the things I look for in in networking in the ‘real world’.

On the one level social networking is ‘free’ in many cases – thought we often don’t account for the time we invest. And yes we can ‘Google’ for help or check out YouTube – but if you want to accelerate your success it’s also worth considering investing in attending training events or programmes.

Nancy announced yesterday that she has a 24 hour sale of her most popular social networking programmes taking place today (total investment for her programme is US$499 AND she has a 2 pay option and lots of additional resources).

So if you are a solopreneur and in need of some additional support in your social networking programme for your business, make sure that you take a listen to the conversation I had with Nancy and if you find that helpful, head on over to check out her products. Note: her sale ends at 8.59am ET/1.59pm Ireland and UK on Friday 3 April 2009.

We will be discussing ideas and strategies about how to enhance our business results by collaborating and developing effective joint ventures.

You can access Elizabeth’s soon to be published book which she co-authored with best selling author Michael Port HERE

Here are the details of the Masterclass:

DATE OF THE JOINT VENTURE MASTERCLASS: Monday 11 August 2008

TIME OF THE JOINT VENTURE MASTERCLASS: 6pm Dublin and London/ 1pm ET/10am PT

INVESTMENT: FREE

HOW TO LISTEN

• Join us live by dialling into ‘Biz Growth Live Blog Talk Radio Show’ (it’s a US number). Call-in Number:  +1 347 633-9467
• Access the live streaming audio of this weeks at ‘Biz Growth Live’ Blog Talk Radio
• Subscribe to the show through our ‘Biz Growth Live’ Podcast feed and you will receive an update when the recording of the show is available
• Subscribe to the show on iTunes – see the link on our ‘Biz Growth Live’ BlogTalk Radio page

SOME OF THE QUESTIONS WE WILL BE COVERING

• How to attract such high profile names to joint venture with
• Developing an immediate and also long term benefit of  joint ventures for your personal brand
• Process, systems and procedures that you need to make sure that the joint venture runs smoothly
• How to identify and source the administrative support for your joint venture.

If you have questions for us you can ask them by posting them here or on our live questions page or to our FriendFeed room.

If you want to access insights and ideas about developing joint ventures so that you thrive not just survive during recessionary times, don’t miss this Masterclass – and remember it’s free to join us.

Last week on ‘Biz Growth Live’, my guests were Jimmy Vee and Travis Miller who shared strategies and ideas to attract clients naturally.

You can now access the live streaming or download the interview. Be sure to take notes as Jimmy and Travis provided some invaluable advice about direct mail and advertising.

SHOW NOTES

00:52      Show begins

05:30      The power of gravity in marketing and why it’s an important concept at times of economic uncertainty and recession

10:50      The three key elements of gravitational marketing

14:20      How to determine why people will be attracted to you – being ‘worthy’ of attraction

20:10      Uniqueness in marketing and ‘the rule of thirds’

21:37      How to respond to negative feedback we might receive

26:00      Why being considered an expert is important when marketing

38:35      Guidance on direct mail and key strategies to deploy as part of your marketing plan

52:40      Tips about buying advertising to promote your business

61:01     How to become a gravitational marketer online and effective investments online

67:17      Additional resources

68:17     Gravitational Marketing show closing notes

HERE IS WHAT ONE OF OUR LISTENERS SAID ABOUT THE SHOW

THAT WAS A GREAT SHOW! Loved every minute of it Krishna -Tynisha Thompson, www.booksavvymedia.com (you can follow Tynisha on Twitter)

HOW TO LISTEN TO THE SHOW

• Access the streaming audio of this weeks Biz Growth Live Podcast here
• Subscribe to the show through our Biz Growth Live Podcast feed
• Subscribe to the show on iTunes – see the link on our Biz Growth Live BlogTalk Radio page

If you like the show and appreciate our guests sharing their experiences and guidance, do add us as a favourite on the Biz Growth Live BlogTalk Radio page

You will also find us in iTunes – just search for Biz Growth Live.

HOW TO LEAVE A COMMENT

We really welcome your comments and feedback about the show. What would you like us to cover in future shows? What questions do you have about implementing social media strategies to support your business strategy?

Leave your comments and feedback about the show at our comment line (we have lots of choices so there are no excuses!)

• Contact us by email : commentnow(at)gmail.com
• Calling from Ireland dial 01 443 442
• Calling from the UK dial 0131 208 4423
• Calling from the US dial 818 528 4423
• Calling from elsewhere dial +1 8185284423
• Calling or sending us an IM via Skype then reach us at:’mycommentnow’
• Join the conversation at our Biz Growth FriendFeed.com Room

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Order your copy of ‘Gravitational Marketing‘.

Access additional resources from Jimmy and Travis’ website and blog HERE.

NEXT WEEKS SHOW – 6pm Ireland/UK and 1pm ET on Monday 11 August 2008

Remember to join us next week for the live show when we will be joined by Elizabeth Marshall, coach and co-author of the soon to be released book ‘The Contrarian Effect’ and we’ll be talking about becoming recession proof through collaboration rather than competing and creating joint venture partnerships.

Join us by either listening to the live streaming of the show, or you can dial in to our Biz Growth Live Blog Talk Radio show (it’s a US number).

Call-in Number:  +1 347 633-9467

And if you miss the show, don’t worry, its available as a podcast.

I ‘lost’ a couple of hundred of friends who had been following me and also found some people who I had been following disappeared. I am still not convinced I have managed to remember all of the key people that I followed and it was a timely reminder that when we join a social network that it’s not good business practice just to rely on the online data base of the online network to be the primary place for business contacts.

One action I took last week was to make sure that I had another way to access the Twitter feeds for key people in my network and I did this in FriendFeed.com.

FriendFeed is an free online service for you to keep up to date with the online activity of friends from updates they make on their blog, Twitter, YouTube – in fact over 40 different services are supported.

So when I realised that I had ‘lost’ some of the people I was following in Twitter, I made sure that I had ’subscribed’ to their feed in FriendFeed.com.

But what is all your friends are not using FriendFeed.com? After all, we know how many of us struggle to keep up to date with being an active member in one or two social networks.

Well you can create ‘imaginary friends’ in FriendFeed.com. For example, as I knew the Twittter name they go by, I created an imaginary friend profile for people I wanted to follow on Twitter but were not using FriendFeed.com. The only time I found this not to work is when someone has their Twitter account set up in a way that you have to request to follow them.

A second feature I really like in FriendFeed.com are the rooms – a place online for a particular subject or group of people. Rooms can be private – for example I have created a private room for my own research, or public – I have a FriendFeed room for the ‘Biz Growth Community’ where you can add feedback and questions about our ‘Biz Growth Live Masterclass’ calls. I have also created a FriendFeed room for ‘The Podcast Sisters‘ for listeners of the show and a room for ‘Social Media in Ireland‘. There’s no limit to the number of rooms you can join or create.

A third feature that is really helpful is that there is also a FriendFeed bookmarklet which enables you to share anything from the web – either in a specific feed or in a particular room.

In a recent Podcast Sisters podcast we discussed FriendFeed and you can access the FriendFeed podcast we recorded here.

So if you have not checked out Friend Feed, why not do so today? And if you are using FriendFeed, how have you found it has helped you build your network online or as a productivity or research tool?

Here are the details of the Masterclass:

DATE OF THE GRAVITATIONAL MARKETING MASTERCLASS: Monday 28 July 2008

TIME OF THE GRAVITATIONAL MARKETING MASTERCLASS: 6pm Dublin and London/ 1pm ET/10am PT

INVESTMENT: FREE

HOW TO LISTEN

• Join us live by dialling into ‘Biz Growth Live Blog Talk Radio Show’ (it’s a US number). Call-in Number:  +1 347 633-9467
• Access the live streaming audio of this weeks at ‘Biz Growth Live’ Blog Talk Radio
• Subscribe to the show through our ‘Biz Growth Live’ Podcast feed and you will receive an update when the recording of the show is available
• Subscribe to the show on iTunes – see the link on our ‘Biz Growth Live’ BlogTalk Radio page

Some of the questions we will be covering include:

• The power of gravity in marketing and why it’s an important concept at times of economic uncertainty and recession
• The three key elements of gravitational marketing
• How to determine how you can attract great clients
• Why being considered an expert is important when marketing
• A deep dive into direct marketing and direct mail and key strategies to deploy as part of your marketing plan
• How to ensure that investment in ad space is relevant for your business, what are some of the key print media we should consider and tips for buying print media
• The most effective investments for gravitational marketing online to ride through a recession.

If you have questions for us you can ask them by posting them here or on our live questions page or to our FriendFeed room.

If you want to get the low down on gravitational marketing to make sure that you thrive not just survive during recessionary times, don’t miss this Masterclass – and remember it’s free to join us.

This week on ‘Biz Growth Live’, my guest was Kim Dushinski, the author of the forthcoming book ‘The Mobile Marketing Handbook‘.

You can now access the live streaming or download the interview. Be sure to take notes as Kim provided some invaluable advice about how to get started with the mobile web and mobile marketing.

SHOW NOTES

00:06      What is mobile marketing and why is it an important strategy for us to begin to consider

00:09      The differences in the mobile market across the globe

13:00      The different elements of a mobile marketing strategy that we need to consider

19:00      The top three mobile marketing strategies recommended for small businesses

21:00      What do we need to take into consideration if we want to develop a mobile website

34:00      How to include text messaging as a mobile marketing strategy

43:00      Examples of text messaging mobile marketing campaigns

51:00      Predictions for the mobile marketing space

57:00     Key actions small businesses should take if they want to get started developing a mobile marketing strategy.

HOW TO LISTEN TO THE SHOW

• Access the streaming audio of this weeks Biz Growth Live Podcast here
• Subscribe to the show through our Biz Growth Live Podcast feed
• Subscribe to the show on iTunes – see the link on our Biz Growth Live BlogTalk Radio page

If you like the show and appreciate our guests sharing their experiences and guidance, do add us as a favourite on the Biz Growth Live BlogTalk Radio page

You will also find us in iTunes – just search for Biz Growth Live.

HOW TO LEAVE A COMMENT

We really welcome your comments and feedback about the show. What would you like us to cover in future shows? What questions do you have about implementing social media strategies to support your business strategy?

Leave your comments and feedback about the show at our comment line (we have lots of choices so there are no excuses!)

• Contact us by email : commentnow(at)gmail.com
• Calling from Ireland dial 01 443 442
• Calling from the UK dial 0131 208 4423
• Calling from the US dial 818 528 4423
• Calling from elsewhere dial +1 8185284423
• Calling or sending us an IM via Skype then reach us at:’mycommentnow’
• Join the conversation at our Biz Growth FriendFeed.com Room

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Create your mobile website using Winksite as recommended by Kim

Consider joining the Mobile Marketing Association who host conferences and events and have a number of free guides available on their website.

Access the Mobile Marketing Association mobile marketing guidelines HERE.

Access the Mobile Marketing Association glossary of terms for mobile marketing HERE.

Pre-order your copy of Kim’s ‘Mobile Marketing Handbook’

NEXT WEEKS SHOW – 6pm Ireland/UK and 1pm ET on Monday 28 July 2008

Remember to join us next week for the live show when we will be joined by co-authors Jimmy Vee and Travis Miller who will be sharing strategies and ideas to attract clients naturally. The Masterclass will be based on their book ‘Gravitational Marketing’ published by Wiley in 2008. . Join us by either listening to the live streaming of the show, or you can dial in to our Biz Growth Live Blog Talk Radio show (it’s a US number).

Call-in Number:  +1 347 633-9467

And if you miss the show, don’t worry, its available as a podcast.

Well I’ve great news for you – as we have now moved the programme to our ‘Biz Growth Live BlogTalk Radio‘ and the content of the call was so terrific the last time, our guest expert Kim Dushinski has generously offered to be our guest again this week.

I do hope you will join me to find out how mobile marketing can help you as a small business especially as the economy continues to suffer and marketing and client attraction is getting increasingly challenging.

In fact this week I heard a number of difficult situations with contracts being cancelled for some of my colleagues and unexpected job losses for friends of mine.

So over the summer, rather than taking a break as planned from our ‘Biz Growth Live Masterclasses’, we are going to hold them each week. Stay tuned in our newsletter for all the details.

Kim Dushinski, is the author of the forthcoming book The Mobile Marketing Handbook and I’ll be in conversation with Kim on Monday 21 July 2008 at 1pm ET  (6pm Dublin and London).

Here are the details of the Masterclass:

DATE OF THE MOBILE MARKETING MASTERCLASS: Monday 21 July 2008

TIME OF THE MOBILE MARKETING MASTERCLASS: 6pm Dublin and London/ 1pm ET/10am PT

INVESTMENT: FREE

HOW TO LISTEN

• Join us live by dialing into Biz Growth Live Blog Talk Radio show (it’s a US number). Call-in Number:  +1 347 633-9467
• Access the live streaming audio of this weeks at Biz Growth Live Blog Talk Radio
• Subscribe to the show through our Biz Growth Live Podcast feed and you will receive an update when the recording of the show is available
• Subscribe to the show on iTunes – see the link on our Biz Growth Live BlogTalk Radio page

Some of the questions we will be covering include:

• What is mobile marketing and why is it an important strategy for us to begin to consider?
• What are the different elements of a mobile marketing strategy that we need to consider?
• How mobile marketing should be implemented in relation to your overall marketing strategy for your firm/business
• What we need to take into consideration if we are to invest in making our website mobile friendly?
• How and when to use text messaging as part of your mobile marketing strategy?

If you have questions for Kim and I you can ask them by posting them here or on our live questions page or to our FriendFeed room.

If you want to get the low down on mobile marketing, don’t miss this Masterclass – and remember it’s free to join us.

Well that’s the subject we will be covering in this week’s Biz Growth Live Teleseminar Masterclass when I’ll be in conversation with Rich Klein, VP of Beckerman Public Relations who has more than 25 years of experience in public relations and journalism to Beckerman Public Relations, on Monday 14 July 2008 at 1pm ET  (6pm Dublin and London).

Here are the details of the Masterclass:

DATE OF THE ONLINE REPUTATION MASTERCLASS: Monday 14 July 2008

TIME OF  THE ONLINE REPUTATION MASTERCLASS: 6pm Dublin and London/ 1pm ET/10am PT

INVESTMENT: FREE

REGISTER: Register here by subscribing for our newsletter if you are not already a member of our community and you will receive the dial in number.

• How the role of PR is changing for businesses given the changing world of social media

• The challenges in terms of managing our reputation online in this world of digital transparency

• How to track and monitor your reputation online and offline

• What actions you should take if conversations are taking place online about your brand that are far from favourable

• What to do if the online commentary is personal – about you as a business leader

• Guidance on best practice in terms of pitching to bloggers or the press

• Tips to communicating in a crisis in a digitally transparent world?

If you have questions for Rich and I you can ask them by posting them here or on our live questions page or to our FriendFeed room.

Don’t forget to join me for this Biz Growth Live call as this is becoming an increasingly important subject and impacts our effectiveness in attracting and retaining clients.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Enjoy access to Rich’s articles on his blog.

Read three key articles on pitching to bloggers and podcasters here:

How not to pitch a blogger

How to pitch to bloggers and podcasters – your blogger code of outreach

Why businesses should appreciate bloggers

Or do you find that when you are out an about and you search on a web browser from your mobile phone or PDA that you find it difficult to get the information you need about a business – perhaps the opening hours of a shop or their phone number from their website?

Whether we are ready or not, mobile marketing is here and it’s here to stay.

But what does that mean if you have a small business?

Well that’s the question I am putting to Kim Dushinski, author of the forthcoming book The Mobile Marketing Handbook on this week’s Biz Growth Live Teleseminar Masterclass. I’ll be in conversation with Kim on Monday 30 June 2008 at 1pm ET  (6pm Dublin and London).

Here are the details of the Masterclass:

DATE OF THE MOBILE MARKETING MASTERCLASS: Monday 30 June 2008

TIME OF THE MOBILE MARKETING MASTERCLASS: 6pm Dublin and London/ 1pm ET/10am PT

INVESTMENT: FREE

REGISTER: Register here by subscribing for our newsletter if you are not already a member of our community and you will receive the dial in number.

Some of the questions we will be covering include:

• What is mobile marketing and why is it an important strategy for us to begin to consider?
• What are the different elements of a mobile marketing strategy that we need to consider?
• How mobile marketing should be implemented in relation to your overall marketing strategy for your firm/business
• What we need to take into consideration if we are to invest in making our website mobile friendly?
• How and when to use text messaging as part of your mobile marketing strategy?

If you have questions for Kim and I you can ask them by posting them here or on our live questions page or to our FriendFeed room.

If you want to get the low down on mobile marketing, don’t miss this Masterclass – and remember it’s free to join us.

Have you considered how our relationships with our colleagues and teams in the organisation impact how engaged our people are at work, our reputation for being an company that is a magnet for talent, and how it can impact business performance?

Well that’s the subject we will be covering in this week’s Biz Growth Live Teleseminar Masterclass when I’ll be in conversation with author and US nationally syndicated columnist, Anita Bruzzese on Monday 23 June 2008 at 1pm ET  (6pm Dublin and London).

Our conversation is inspired by her most recent book, 45 Things You Do That Drive Your Boss Crazy… and How to Avoid Them.

Here are the details of the Masterclass:

DATE OF THE EZINE MASTERCLASS: Monday 23 June 2008

TIME OF  THE EZINE MASTERCLASS: 6pm Dublin and London/ 1pm ET/10am PT

INVESTMENT: FREE

REGISTER: Register here by subscribing for our newsletter if you are not already a member of our community and you will receive the dial in number. 

Some of the questions we will be covering include:

• Why is it that many people say that they can’t get along with their boss or that their boss doesn’t understand them? 
• The top 5 issues that drive bosses crazy and what we can do to avoid them
• The top 5 things that we do as leaders or executives that could be driving our people crazy and which impact their performance and their personal motivation to stay with us as employees?  
• How to handle situations where colleagues are driving us nuts 
• How to cope in this ecomonic downturn where people are under immense pressure at work to perform and how to keep our heads when all around us others seem to be losing theirs!

If you have questions for Anita and I you can ask them by posting them here or on our live questions page or to our FriendFeed room.

Don’t forget to join me for this Biz Growth Live call as what we will be discussing are ideas to ensure that you engage and inspire your colleagues so that you develop positive relationships at work – and as we all know relationships can results and revenue.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Enjoy access to Anita’s articles on her blog.  

Read a recent article about employee engagement through a recession and why it’s a critical skill to winning the war for talent.