It’s almost common place to expect to see references to Twitter, Facebook and MySpace on cable and national network newscasts.  I suppose it was  just a matter of time to hear references to the major social networking sites on the local news program.  It was also no big shock to hear both the CNN pundits and George Stephanopoulos of ABC News request a follow on Twitter and Facebook during their Sunday morning talk shows.

Shortly thereafter, however, I changed the channel to the local (Kansas City) news channel (KCTV 5) to catch up on the local information and weather.  As luck would have it, I changed channels just as a special feature segment started.

The topic: Low-cost Marketing Techniques for the Small Business Owner.  During the segment, the reporter was interviewing Mr. Jerry Smith with the Marketing Action Club located in the KC Metro area.

Mr. Smith was quick to point out that during these tough economic times, even small businesses need to keep a substantial marketing effort alive.  Failure to do so could result in the customer-base losing contact and confidence in their businesses’ viability.

He specifically pointed out five different low or no-cost methods to maintain a reasonable marketing effort to keep your message in front of your target audience.  To my surprise (only because of where it was mentioned) these included:

1. Article marketing using sites such as Ezine Articles;
2. Social networking presence on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn;
3. Blogging;
4. Email marketing campaigns; and
5. Local networking clubs.

Even though I interact with numerous references to the first four tools online each day, it brought a smile to my face to both see and hear it on a live local TV news cast. I commend Jerry Smith and his Marketing Action Club for a great set of basic tools and insightful message.

All of these tools are indeed low or no cost options to assist anyone (small store-front business, network marketing business or home business) get there message out to their target audience and help build a web marketing presence.

Always remember, however, to use the proper approach and be sure to provide information that helps the prospect or customer find a solution to their problem and just don’t “pitch your product or service”.

As the popularity of Twitter continues to grow, the number of supporting software applications do as well.

Following is a list of Twitter applications that I either use or are on my “To Check Out” list based on the recommendations of my “Tweeple”.

Twitter Applications You May Want To Check Out:

Twhirl - Desktop client allowing you to perform normal functions (posts, RT, DM, etc.) with followers.

Tweet Later – This one application contains several Twitter productivity tools.  You can track keywords, track replies, schedule tweets, send welcome direct messages, and much more.

Ping FM - Post Tweets and Status Updates (with shortened URLs) to Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and more than 25 additional social networking sites

Twitter Toolbar - You can use the toolbar to access online Twitter tools, check your Twitter stats, post your updates and more.  Versions are available for both Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Twitoria - This app lets you find out which of your followers has not been actively tweeting.  Easily sort through your network of followers and purge the inactive users.

Blip FM - DJ your own musical favorites and “Tweet” them out to all your “Tweeple”!

Digsby – Keep track of everything your followers are doing at all times.  The Digsby box display gives you a real time view into your Twitter account right from your browser.

Bubble Tweet - This unique application lets you post a short video message that pops up on your Twitter profile in a bubble shaped player.  You can personally introduce yourself and/or your business to anyone who visits your profile.

Twitter Gallery - A collection of free background themes for your Twitter account.  You can use the one click installation or manually install them yourself.  Lots of nice designs and colors to choose from.

Twit This - Allow visitors to your blog or website to easily post Twitter messages about you or your business.  Post the TwitThis button to your website or blog pages with the instructions and coding provided on their site.

TwitterFox – This app lets you post Twitter updates without visiting the Twitter site each time.  A small icon is added to the bottom of your Firefox status bar.  The icon opens to reveal your friend’s most current updates.  You can add your updates from that dialog box.

Future Tweets -  Allows you to schedule your tweet ahead of time for a specific date and time.  You can even schedule reoccuring tweets to post daily, monthly, even yearly.

TwitPic – This app lets you share your favorite pictures on Twitter.

TwitterHawk – This marketing app helps you connect with consumers in your area and related to the keywords you choose.

Tweetburner – Lets you shorten URLs and track the clicks your tweets accumulate.

Tweetdeck - Displays your Twitter friends and messages in a unique columned user interface. Allows you to group people together and search across the “Twittersphere”.

Twitter Safe – This free service will restore your network of followers in the event that your list is compromised.

Twimailer – Gives you more more extensive email notifications when your account obtains new followers.  Instead of the generic Twitter email notification; the email contains the followers location, followers stats and their most recent tweets.  At the bottom of the email, you can choose to follow the individual without even visiting Twitter.

I hope you find them useful!

Hordes of business people have been using these sites as platforms to deliver their message to the masses that in many cases are very willing to form a connection.  Or at least they are until they get bombarded with product and opportunity pitches from the less than coy marketers or high-pressure sales-types.

The unknowing or uncaring online marketers that make quick connections and then turn to instantly pitch their goods have lost sight of the main purpose for these communities – to socialize!

That doesn’t mean there will never be a time where an introduction to your business is appropriate but there is definitely a right and wrong approach in presenting it.

For those of us who have been involved in MLM/DS businesses using the traditional or old school network marketing approaches (hammer the warm market, employ the three foot rule, etc.), we quickly learned the “quick pitch” methods tended to make people very gun-shy. (Now there is an understatement for you!)

Our new connections on the social networking sites are usually more sensitive then those in our warm market with an added disadvantage: they can disown us with a mere click of a mouse button.

More care is definitely needed when approaching our new-found online friends.  It is crucial to be open and authentic during your interactions and make an earnest effort to build a relationship with them long before mentioning your business.

Here are a few key points you should remember when networking with new friends on the social networks:

1. Be social first and keep talk of your business off-limits until a true relationship is formed or an inquiry is made.  Even if the other party asks first, if it is early in the relationship it is often best to keep it to the generalities and let the discussion build over time. Don’t rush it!;
2. When the relationship starts to solidify mention a general statement about the business (but never the details).  It is usually best to do so towards the end of conversations or messages;
3. When enough time has passed a great low key approach would be to describe a situation that might relate to a problem or good news and seek your contact’s opinion or advice;
4. When they are ready, your friend will open the door in their own way so be ready to listen first and then respond to the questions, just don’t rush into your pitch when the door cracks open.

This should be one of the top concerns for anyone using the various Web 2.0 social portals to deliver your message to the widest range of readers.  It stands to reason that one of the key factors to consider would be the daily traffic of unique visitors to the site.

But have you thought about the demographics of those visitors?  I mean would it really make a lot of sense to put a considerable amount of time and energy into a networking site that is dominated by visitors in the 0-17 age group if you want to discuss retirement investing?

(O.K., I realize that it should be one of their concerns but most of them don’t realize that yet!)

Well if this is something you have thought about but were unsure where to find the information there is a summary of various demographic parameters compiled from three of their reports at Ignite Social Media (www.ignitesocialmedia.com).

The summary website is entitled “The 2008 Social Network Analysis Report – Geographic – Demographic and Traffic Data Revealed“.  The report provides basic data on more than 35 social networking sites including:

• Digg
• Facebook
• Friendster
• LinkedIn
• LiveJournal
• MySpace
• Reddit
• StumbleUpon
• YouTube.

The report identifies Google Insights and Google Adplanner as the sources for all of the data compiled and indicates that all data was not available for all of the 39 sites evaluated.  Some of the more interesting information indicates that:

• Digg seems to have hit their high point of unique visitors (at about 1,000,000/day) in November 2007 but has been declining ever since; visitors are mostly male (> 70%), the 35-44 age group is highest and many are college graduates;
• Facebook has been showing a steady increase in daily unique visitors with ~ 16,000,000 in October 2007 and over 35,000,000 in October 2008; visitors are ~ 55% female many in the age range of 35 – 54 with some college experience;

MySpace shows a decline in unique daily visitors with ~ 22,000,000 in October 2007 and ~ 18,000,000 in October of 2008; over 60% are females;  0-17 age group is the highest (>30%) with 45-54 second and less than high school or some college are highest on the education graph.