Why you need to be online!

A professional online presence takes on many forms but at the end of the day we are all here to do the same thing...Inform customers and make a profit. An online presence looks far different today than it did 6 months, or even 6 years ago and it will be a lot different in 6 months from now and crazy different in 6 years from now. Its no longer only your website that is a part of your online presence. Today its about your facebook and twitter page, your email newsletters, The relevance of your blogs, etc, etc...

Your online presence must remain consistent with your branding and your companies intended message. It’s important that we not only have an online presence but that its professional and enticing to our customers. Dont make the mistake of having an online presence that actually hurts your chances for gaining business, such as a home made website or unmanaged Facebook page.

Your website and web presence says a lot about you. It will help people understand the level of quality and service that you offer and fully explain your products and services. Today people have more access to more information than ever before. The results are people have are more critical. 

A professional online presence takes on many forms but at the end of the day we are all here to do the same thing...Inform customers and make a profit. An online presence looks far different today than it did 6 months, or even 6 years ago and it will be a lot different in 6 months from now and crazy different in 6 years from now. Its no longer only your website that is a part of your online presence. Today its about your facebook and twitter page, your email newsletters, The relevance of your blogs, etc, etc...

Your online presence must remain consistent with your branding and your companies intended message. It’s important that we not only have an online presence but that its professional and enticing to our customers. Dont make the mistake of having an online presence that actually hurts your chances for gaining business, such as a home made website or unmanaged Facebook page.

Your website and web presence says a lot about you. It will help people understand the level of quality and service that you offer and fully explain your products and services. Today people have more access to more information than ever before. 

What is iCloud Apple

WHAT IS iCLOUD? iCloud is an apple based service that stores and syncs your music, photos, documents, contacts, and calendars, and more...and it does it all wirelessly and automatic between all of your mobile IOS 5 devices and computers. MainlineMediaOnline.com

Intro to VIDEO BLOG

This video is an introduction to a video blog by Brandon Roberts.If you are an entrepreneur, executive, or a future business owner check out the blog each week to get real world useful information on Social Media, Facebook, Twitter, Ping.FM, Branding, Business Planning, Online Marketing, SEO, Search Engine Optimization, PPC, Pay Per Click, and a whole lot more

Five Steps to Create a Marketing Plan

While your business plan generally outlines your entire business, a standalone marketing plan focuses specifically, and in more detail, on just that one function. When business owners want to dive deeper into their marketing strategy they will likely put together a detailed plan that outlines their marketing goals -- as well as the steps needed to accomplish them.

The standard components of an effective marketing plan can vary depending on who you ask. Here is my recommended five-step process for developing a marketing plan that will help you achieve your goals for business growth.

Step One:

Look inward. Think of your company as if it were a person with its own unique personality and identity. With that in mind, create separate lists that identify your business's strengths, weaknesses and goals. Put everything down and create big lists. Don't edit or reject anything.

Then, find priorities among the bullet points. If you've done this right, you'll have more than you can use, and some more important than others. Kick some of the less important bullets off the list and move the ones that are important to the top.

This sometimes requires input from your managers as well. For example, your management team thinks being conservative on spending is a weakness but you don't. That might be something to drop off the list.

Step Two:

Look outward. The next list you'll need to make outlines your business's opportunities and threats. Think of both as external to your business -- factors that you can't control but can try to predict. Opportunities can include new markets, new products and trends that favor your business. Threats include competition and advances in technology that put you at a disadvantage.

Also make a list of invented people or organizations who serve as ideal buyers or your ideal target market. You can consider each one a persona, such as a grandmother discovering email or a college student getting his or her first credit card. These people are iconic and ideal, and stand for the best possible buyer.

Put yourself in the place of each of these ideal buyers and then think about what media he or she uses and what message would communicate your offering most effectively. Keep your identity in the back of your mind as you flesh out your target markets.

Step Three:

Focus on strategy. Now it's time to pull your lists together. Look for the intersection of your unique identity and your target market. In terms of your business offerings, what could you drop off the list because it's not strategic? Then think about dropping those who aren't in your target market. For example, a restaurant business focused on healthy, organic and fine dining would probably cater to people more in tune with green trends and with higher-than-average disposable income. So, it might rule out people who prefer eating fast-food like hamburgers and pizza, and who look for bargains.

The result of step three is strategy: Narrow your focus to what's most in alignment with your identity and most attractive to your target market. In other words, focus on the area that is shared by all three lines in the diagram here.

Step Four:

Set measurable steps. Get down to the details that are concrete and measurable. Your marketing strategy should become a plan that includes monthly review, tracking and measurement, sales forecasts, expense budgets and non-monetary metrics for tracking progress. These can include leads, presentations, phone calls, links, blog posts, page views, conversion rates, proposals and trips, among others. Match important tasks to people on your team and hold them accountable for their successes and failures.

Step Five:

Review often and revise. Just as with your business plan, your marketing plan should continue to evolve along with your business. Your assumptions will change, so adapt to the changing business landscape. Some parts of the plan also will work better than others, so review and revise to accommodate what you learn as you go.

Building Your Brand with Social Media

Building Your Brand with Social Media Five steps to establishing a credible online presence for your small business.

Tapping the vast audience of the social Web is a low-cost way to catapult a small-business brand onto the global arena. Building your brand using social media allows you to develop new (and strengthen existing) relationships, which often leads to everything from brand awareness, loyalty and word-of-mouth marketing.

While perhaps initially daunting, the trick is to break the process into manageable pieces. From creating your online destinations to connecting with influencers, following these five steps will get you on your way to building your brand and boosting your business.

1. Create branded online destinations.

This is the first step to raising brand awareness and loyalty. Companies with the most successful social media branding surround consumers with online experiences that allow them to select how they interact with the brand.

Consider using popular, free options like blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and so on. Of course, for small-business owners without the manpower to effectively manage too many destinations, you should consider testing each of these to determine which social media service you're most likely to stick with over the long haul. This will become your core destination. All your other online destinations should link back to the core.

2. Establish entry points.

One of the most important aspects to accomplishing this with your branded online destinations is to continually publish meaningful content that adds value to the reader's experience. The goal is to publish useful information that people will want to talk about -- and then share with their own audiences. This creates additional ways for people to find your branded destinations and it can lead to higher rankings from search engines like Google.

Here's one way to think about it: If you have a website with 10 pages of content, there are 10 ways for search engines to find your site. If you attach a blog to that website and write a new post every day for a year, you will have 365 more ways for Google to find your site, and your brand.

I call this the compounding effect of blogging. You cannot buy that kind of access to a global audience.

3. Locate your target audience and bring them back with you.

Where does your target audience already spend time? You need to spend time in those places, too, and engage in the conversations happening there. Get started by conducting a Google search for keywords that consumers would be likely to use when searching for a business or products like yours. Follow the paths that those consumers would follow and you're likely to find them.

Join relevant online forums and/or blogs, and write posts, publish comments and answer questions. Once that audience understands that you're there to genuinely offer useful information and not to self-promote, you can start leading them to your own branded destinations -- particularly your core branded online destination.

4. Connect with influencers.

As you search for your target audience, you should identify online influencers in those communities and get on their respective radars. To do so, leave comments on their blogs, follow them on Twitter and retweet their content. You can even email them to introduce yourself.

The key is to make sure they know your name and understand that you add value to the online conversation. This also exposes you to their audiences.

5. Give more than you receive.

Success in social media marketing depends on being useful and developing relationships. If you spend all of your time promoting then no one will want to listen to you. It's not a short-term tactic, rather a long-term strategy that can deliver sustainable, organic growth through ongoing, consistent participation.

A good rule of thumb is to apply the 80-20 rule to your social media marketing efforts. Spend no more than 20 percent of your time in self-promotional activities and conversations, and at least 80 percent on non-self-promotional activities. In time, you'll see your business grow from your efforts. And it starts with leveraging these fundamentals.