Microblogging is quickly becoming one of the most popular technologies on the Internet with adoption of tools like Twitter growing at an exponential rate.

As the number of people using these technologies grows, the way people take advantage of them is becoming more sophisticated: they are being used more and more as a business tool. This article explains what microblogging is and introduces the most popular microblog sites. It discusses how these are being used from a business and marketing perspective and provides tips on safe and effective use of these forums.

What is a Microblog?

Microblogs are very simple internet technologies that allow users to post short statements or sentences, usually limited to 140 characters on a central site. The post can be made available to anyone or only to a chosen audience. Much like the Facebook status box these services were used initially as a forum to share triviality (like what was for breakfast) with a wide audience but people quickly tired of the banality and now the way microblogs are used is becoming more sophisticated.

Sometimes seen as a factor in the evolution of blogging, micro blogs are, as the name suggests, like mini blogs in that they allow you to post information and streams of consciousness and make these available to the world over the Internet. Unlike a blog, however, a microblog doesn’t have unlimited room for creativity – you are forced to get to the point.

Which Microblog?

By far the largest microblog is Twitter (according to Hitwise in Australia alone the popular microblog grew by over 500% new users in one calendar month this summer). Twitter was founded in 2006 and quickly gained attention by winning a prestigious South by South West Blog award in the spring of 2007. Although the site is growing at a tremendous rate, the user volume is still very small in comparison to social networking behemoths like MySpace. Using a simple clean interface, users can get set up and start Twittering really easily.

Another microblog technology that is growing in popularity is Plurk. Plurk differs from Twitter in that it provides a more visual “timeline” interface showing your “Plurks” and those you are following on a time sheet-style screen. Just launched in May this year, Plurk is a little more complex than Twitter to use but once you get the hang of it, it definitely appeals to those left brained people among us.

The omnipresent Google of course has its own version of a microblog which they obtained in late 2007. Jaiku has since been closed to new users as they beta test the latest version (which seems very visually appealing with a nice map interface). Request a beta invite to try it out.

The other major player in the microblog scene is Pownce. This one is very similar to Twitter in its look and feel but it has more capabilities in terms of being able to share files and events. Also Pownce doesn’t limit you to 140 characters so you can add more detail to your posts.

Newcomers in the field Spoink promote microblogging by phone from wherever you happen to be. Nothing new in that since most of the other offerings allow you to post from your mobile but what is different about Spoink is that it features the ability to podcast from anywhere. This is one to watch.

Microblogging for Business

Now that we know more about microblogs and the tools in this arena, let’s take a look at how companies and individuals are using microblogs to benefit their businesses.

The first thing any company or professional should do is to ask themselves: is a microblog pertinent to my business? are my peers using this service? and, more importantly, are my customers either using or listening (monitoring these forums) to microblogs? The early microblog adopters tended to be the youth market and the tech community but more and more mainstream professionals and companies are becoming active as time goes on. If you decide that your audience is applicable then the benefits of microblogging actively are numerous:

A microblog presence is a stellar way to establish expertise and build awareness of what you or your company does. Build your brand by regularly posting on your subject area. Remember to add your logo and branding to the design of your microblog page and link to back to your blog if you have one so that your microblog contacts are aware of it and can click to read more. Threadless, the T shirt company that has made social media marketing an art form uses Twitter (@threadless) to update their audience regularly in this way.

Microblogs are a great way to expand your network and build your contacts. To do so share neat links and always add value for your followers, if you do this effectively you can sit back and watch your contacts expand.

Microblogs provide a good source for the latest information in your industry – if you’re following the right people, that is. Be cognizant of this as you add friends. Check out posts and look for those that add value, are industry luminaries or are using the forum in innovative ways. Network with peers in your industry to develop your knowledge and to build better partnerships.

Microblogs are shorter than blogs and more concise so if you only have a few moments you can hone in on the juicies more readily. If you don’t have time to blog but still have something pressing you want to share, microblogs are a great way to do this quickly and effectively.

Microblog technology can be used to expand the reach of your service and spread word quickly. An example is the police and fire services using Twitter to get the word out in emergency cases. The Los Angeles Fire Department (@LAFD) uses Twitter to spread fire related Tweets to interested parties.

By linking or announcing new articles or changes to your site from a microblog you can drive more traffic to your site. Twitter is now the 4th largest driver of traffic to the Out-Smarts blog.

Use microblogs for research by monitoring what’s being said about your product or industry so you can keep ahead of the pack. It’s also an excellent medium to elicit feedback on an issue you need more information on or are in the dark about. Tweetscan is a very simple tool that facilitates listening.

Some companies are using microblog technology too collaborate on projects with decentralised participants or colleagues in short blasts. The CBC recently did this to great effect on Twitter during the Canadian federal election and were able to incorporate feedback from Twitterers on the ground in many constituencies.

While direct selling on microblogs is discouraged, many companies use it to bring awareness of the existence/benefits of their products and services to new markets or to provide customer service updates. Whole Foods (@wholefoods), an organic food chain headquartered in Texas does exactly that whilst adding value by Twittering on community events and organic topics too.

Effective Twittering Tips

I have it on good authority that the Twitter microblog site is this year’s web 2.0 tool of choice for net savvy professionals to communicate with and grow their networks. Here are some tips for you to use to tweak your “tweets” and get more out of your Twitter presence:

Add value – don’t just spout off about boring stuff. Nobody is interested in what color shoes you are wearing (maybe your underwear but definitely not your shoes!).

Use TinyURL or a similar url abbreviation tool to shorten the length of url links in your Twitter posts so they fit in the 140 character limit.

Don’t spam or sell.

Friends and Followers – be selective about who you follow. Before you follow someone, check out their recent Tweets to see if they are of interest to you before you add them (they may not be of interest at all). If someone starts following you, don’t automatically add them and follow – take a look at the number of followers they have compared to their following If someone is following way more people than they have followers then it may be best to avoid them. They could be “Follow Spammers” more interested in gaining exposure than in finding interesting Tweets.

Don’t let Twitter suck up too much of your time – it can be very distracting. Instead schedule it in to your week and spend a few minutes each day updating and enjoying.

Limit the number of people you follow to avoid Twitter information overload. If you’re following too many people, you might miss that gem of information.

Use Twitterfeed to feed your blog to Twitter.

Monitor the Tweetosphere and make sure you are aware of anyone who mentions you so that it comes to your attention and you can be ready to counter any adverse Twittering. Use Tweetscan to monitor what is being said about you or your company on Twitter.

Don’t click on a link from anyone you don’t know or trust. Many Twitterers use TinyURL or similar to shorten URLs (I do) but this camouflages the true source so you don’t know what you’re clicking on. These could be disguised links to potentially dangerous sites or viral downloads so be careful.

Read the Twitter blog for updates and information on malware and spam issues.

Secure your Twitter name. Get a Twitter profile in your business name before someone else does.

Use common sense when Twittering and remember that most of these announcements can be seen by anyone and everyone. You don’t really have to announce that you’re away from home.

If someone you’re following overloads you with spam then use the Twitter block at the right of the side panel to block them and let Twitter know too.

Call on the community. If something adverse does happen then make your community aware of it. You will be amazed at the support, advice and action of the collective.

Conclusion

If you decide that your business can benefit from microblogging, participation in these sites can really impact your online marketing efforts, drive more traffic to your site and increase brand awareness. Before you start microblogging, take some time to check out the different offerings to find out which is best for you. Once you choose, schedule time to microblog and grow your contacts and always look to add value and tell your community something they don’t know. If you decide to hold off on microblogging for now, keep this on your radar: with its speedy user adoption rate. It’s only a matter of time before, like social networks, these become mainstream.

Follow this link: Microblogging For Business

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So you’ve signed up to a MLM company. You paid something to join, a start up package, or a distribution system, or something of the sort. You probably have been told by your recruiter how easy the money will come once you get the ball rolling.

You’ve probably been told, by the same guy, about the company’s compensation plan, how it is the best in the business, and it’s the only one returning 60%, or whatever the percentage. He also, most likely, told you to make a list of a 100 people you know, and start calling them and pitching your great company and great product and most of all your great opportunity.

OK. You took action. You made a few phone calls and maybe you even held a presentation pitching your company to your family and friends. And who knows, maybe you signed up somebody to your company. Great!

Well, what’s next? You most likely ran out of people to call, or you’re so afraid of the phone by now, that you make up every excuse not to pick it up and dial. You ran out of leads. It’s hard to build a MLM business without leads.

That’s where the internet comes in.

Or actually, internet marketing. On the internet, marketing your opportunity is relatively easy, if you know what you’re doing. And frankly, marketing is the only thing you need to know how to do. You don’t want to sell, you want to market. Also, you don’t want to market your opportunity or product. You want to market YOU. I know it sounds kind of crazy to you, but it really works. What it ultimately boils down to, is this; Network marketing is a people business, and people do not want to join a company, they want to join you.

There are a number of ways to create your own leads online for free, and even more ways to do it at low cost.

There are people on the internet right now making a killing in marketing. They are making five, six, multiple six, and even seven figure incomes, just by marketing online. And marketing themselves, not their products. They are the heavy hitters of the network marketing industry and they certainly know what they are doing. They lead with funded proposals and have systems that spit out daily leads on complete autopilot. They use different kinds of marketing methods, Pay Per Click advertising, social media marketing, article marketing, blogging, and so forth. The opportunities are endless, when it comes to marketing online.

What you really need to do to get your business growing, is to find out what these top producers are doing, what kind of systems they use, and duplicate them. That’s it. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel, so to speak. These heavy hitters have proven ways of marketing and making money. And that’s what it all really comes down to. Making money. That’s why you joined a MLM business in the first place. So, get out there, roam the internet and find out what is working right now and make it work for you. Make some money.

See the original post: How to Build an MLM Business

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Whether it’s called Carrier Ethernet, Metro-Ethernet, or business Ethernet the premise is pretty much the same. Choosing Ethernet for the backbone to your network platform is a smart choice for most any organization. Ethernet is not a fad, but rather a proven cost effective and highly reliable transport medium for both LAN and WAN deployments.

Compared to other dedicated bandwidth solutions such as bonded T1 lines, DS3 bandwidth circuits, MPLS, and SONET (optical carrier designations such as OC3)…. Ethernet by any name offers clear and distinct advantages. Just consider this…. the technology was developed by Xerox in the 1970′s, while the term “Ethernet” taking it’s Greek roots literally means “a network of everywhere.”

Case in point…. Ethernet has become the most successful and widely deployed Local Area Network (LAN) transport technology in the world. While other technologies have become obsolete, Ethernet has more than 100 million clients deployed today, making it the interface of choice for most network-capable devices.

Carrying this further…. the last 30 years have seen significant development of Ethernet technology. However, the most significant development from a wide-area networking (WAN) perspective has been fiber optic transmission at 100 Mbps, 1 Gbps, and 10 Gbps at transmission distances from 2 kilometers (km) up to 2000 km using long-haul dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) systems. This advancement helps allow Ethernet to uniquely support true multipoint communications….. effectively enabling Ethernet to live up to its root word meaning of “a network of everywhere”.

Briefly, here are a few more advantages of Business Ethernet…..

Speed and Cost – These are Ethernet’s most obvious advantages over other dedicated bandwidth options. For example, Ethernet services tend to not just rival DS3 pricing, but can be considerably less costly as well. You may well find yourself paying less for Ethernet service for point to point data connections or dedicated Internet service than you would going with traditional DS3. Plus, while DS3 caps out at around 45 Mbps, Ethernet speeds will get you up to 1000 Mbps. More if you get into the Gig-E protocols.

Upgradability – Although there are several other superfast network protocols, most must use Fiber optics and thus their price is much greater than that of Ethernet. However, since Ethernet is based upon more affordable technologies installing Ethernet should make any future upgrade to a faster network easier and less expensive in the future.

Simplicity of installation – Ethernet is much easier and less expensive to configure than other network protocols. It offers efficient ways to connect across Mac, PC, Linux, Unix workstations, IBM mainframe, and many other kinds of computer systems.

Connectivity to backbone – Ethernet has an advantage in connectivity to the network backbone because other LAN protocols lag behind in backbone innovations. For example, Ethernet can assimilate with several backbone connectivity choices such as Gigabit Ethernet, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), and routing switches.

Class Of Service – Another advantage of Ethernet as a transport is its support of class of service (CoS) that allows up to eight classes of service to be defined. This characteristic makes Ethernet as a WAN technology very attractive because the Ethernet WAN can be seen as an extension of the campus LAN.

The bottom line is that Ethernet technology is the most deployed technology for high-performance Network environments. With just the advantages cited…. and others not listed…. Ethernet would make obvious business sense for your organization. Choosing Business Ethernet would also put you amongst the many already benefiting from “a network of everywhere.”

See the original post here: Business Ethernet Advantages

How to Start a Network Marketing business

If you believe a lot of the baloney put around on the internet by some of the so-called internet marketing gurus, all a network marketing home business involves is doing a little bit of work sitting in your underwear at your computer, leaving the rest of your day to count your money and drive your Bentley to the nearest beach.

Not so – anyone who is doing well in the network marketing business will tell you it’s a hard climb to the top. Be prepared to work for months without any return, seven days a week, and as many hours a day as possible.

The most successful network marketer I know – he’s now a millionaire – worked for three years before he started making the big bucks, and still works at his business for a few hours every day. He answers all his own emails personally – they are returned in minutes – even with a number of internet businesses and a massive 10,000 people in his network marketing downline.

It takes about three months to find out if you’ve got what it takes, after which time the majority of people simply give up. Why? Here’s a number of reasons:

They choose the wrong MLM company
They choose a product that is not right for them
They are not passionate about their business/product
They choose a product that isn’t viable (few people want it because of cost etc)
They are not prepared to work hard
They don’t have a system
They don’t delegate/outsource work
They don’t invest in time-saving tools
They don’t treat their business as a business
They don’t have self-discipline
They don’t know how to sell effectively
They don’t deal with rejection well

So, if you want to have a successful marketing business turn the above “don’ts” into “dos” and you will have some idea of what you’re getting yourself in to.

Now is a very good time to start a network marketing business, we appear to be coming out of this recession. We’re just about at the bottom of this economic cycle, so if you are prepared to work hard for a couple of years, your success will curve upwards with the economy, and you will do well. Don’t wait for the job market to get better – it will take years – create your own home business now.

With gas prices being the way they are today, more and more people are turning to the internet to purchase things – it saves them time and money, they can get the best prices, they can get lots of information about what they want, and it’s very convenient.

So yes, go ahead and start your research now and find something you would enjoy promoting, check out any MLM company thoroughly so you can be sure of what YOU are going to get out of it, and get to work. Ask these questions:

How long has the company been in business? Over 5 years shows stability, 10+ years is good
Do they have a product you would enjoy promoting?
Do they have solid management?
Do they have a good reputation?
Is their product evergreen (if the product is popular now, will it be in five years’ time)?
Does the company have first class, on-going training/educational programs?
What is their compensation system and can you understand it?
Is the market for their product already saturated?

As a network marketer, you must find the best MLM company and product for your home business. Set the foundation of your network marketing business on solid rock, and you’ll have the foundation of a successful network marketing business.

Read more from the original source: Network Marketing Business – Reality About Getting to the Top

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As an owner of a small business you are the key person for your success. It is important to understand traits both personal and business that an owner must have to succeed. And, if some traits are missing, learn how to fill the void. The below lists should help.

Personal Traits

Passion for the business
Appetite for risk
Focused
Self Driven
Motivated
Decision Maker
Leader
Innovative
Work oriented
Time sensitive
Organized
Ethical
Caring

Business Traits

Management skills
Organizational skills
Basic finance
Competitive
Educated
Emotional stamina
Physical stamina
Basic Marketing
Decision maker
Rounded
Leader

It’s important to fully understand your personality and business traits. Only by knowing where the limitations exist can they be filled. The place to start is defining your personality through some tests and a good place to go is www.humanmetrics.com. Or go to the internet and type in free personality test to obtain more options. Have fun but the goal is to identify voids, what lacks and needs filled to be a rounded leader.

No one can have everything needed to run a successful small business. No one has all the traits listed above but through organizations, the owner can find the help. The partial list below will get you started. Build a network of people to fill your voids and get educated.

Join trade organizations and network
Hire experts when needed
Get a mentor from SCORE
Go to chamber lunches and events
Get involved in your community to network
Poll your friends for specific business needs
Network, network, network

It is the responsibility of the small business owner to recognize their shortcomings and fill them.

Link: Successful Small Business Owner Personality Traits

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Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania is one of the most outstanding business schools in the world. Thousands of people submit applications each year to attend. Only 800 are accepted. Graduates include Donald Trump and at least one of his children, along with numerous highly successful executives of Fortune-500 companies.

Carbon Copy Pro is the premier educational platform in the world for Internet Marketing. Thousands of aspiring entrepreneurs submit applications each year to join this community. All applicants are accepted who demonstrate that they are serious about becoming successful. Graduates include Jay Kubassek, Aaron Parkinson, Michael Force, Jeff Learner, Dr Charlie Smithdeal, and many other top earning Internet entrepreneurs.

Wharton’s MBA curriculum is a two-year program. The cost to attend is roughly $160,000. (Tuition = $50,000 per year, plus books, materials, room, and board.) Students must be physically present in Philadelphia, Pa. Graduates consider the cost a bargain in return for the education, training, and opportunities received. Wharton does not provide tools or systems essential for conducting a specific business after graduation.

Carbon Copy Pro’s basic education and training is typically completed within 90 to 120 days. Ongoing support and training updates are provided for as long as members remain active. CCPro’s application fee is $39. The complete online educational system costs $395. Monthly tuition of $150 begins the second month. Students and members learn Internet marketing and operate their online business from anyplace in the world that offers an internet connection. Most Internet entrepreneurs work from home. Carbon Copy Pro provides all tools and systems essential for conducting a successful Internet business. Among these are 1) professionally designed websites with proven landing pages and “thank-you” pages, 2) archived and live weekly training calls, 3) video tutorials, 4) multinational conferences, 5) accounting systems, 6) marketing systems, 7) advertising training and materials, auto-responder e-mail messages, 9) weekly updated marketing information, 10) live support, and more.

Wharton School cannot guarantee that any particular student or graduate will succeed in business. It offers a general business education for business models used since the industrial revolution. To do this, it provides experienced professors and business coaches, an outstanding core curriculum, plus numerous electives in a variety of specialized business categories. It also offers an opportunity for students to network with: 1) fellow students and faculty, 2) noted business leaders through executive speakers’ series and conferences, 3) on-campus recruiting, and 4) full access to Wharton’s alumni network and club activities.

Carbon Copy Pro cannot guarantee that any particular student or member will succeed in Internet Marketing. It offers the best education and training available today for a business model born of the information age and Internet revolution. Put quite simply, Carbon Copy Pro members are shown how to market anything to anybody on the Internet–at anytime, and from anyplace in the world. For the person who has their own product or service to market, CCPro first shows them how, and then provides the tools to do so. When someone does not already have a product or service to market, CCPro suggests ones that have proven to be in demand.

Carbon Copy Pro offers its members an opportunity to network with 1) fellow members, instructors, other online marketers, 2) noted internet marketing leaders and “gurus” through guest lecturer “webinars” and live conferences, and 3) full access to Carbon Copy Pro’s alumni network and activities in more than 160 countries.

Wharton School is one of the most outstanding educational institutions in the world for anyone who desires a general business education.

Carbon Copy Pro is the most outstanding educational system in the world for anyone who wants to understand and successfully apply the new business model of Internet marketing.

Originally posted here: New Business Model – Carbon Copy Pro Vs Wharton School of Business

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