There’s a good chance you are already doing some form of “Social Media Marketing” or “Attraction Marketing” for your business. Defining it and understanding it is the first step. Then you can fine-tune your niche marketing strategies and increase your online exposure. Having a clear path or direction will help you get the most out of any online marketing campaign.

What is ATTRACTION MARKETING?

Attraction marketing is about branding and marketing yourself. It’s about using the numerous free resources we have in today’s hi-tech world to brand yourself and having people seek you out to form an alliance and/or join your business opportunity without you having to seek them out using traditional means and ways of marketing. Make yourself popular, and you’ll find that attraction marketing can send a steady flow of leads to your door daily.

The key to a successful online marketing campaign is content, whether you use a personal website, SEO content, article writing, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, blogs or other strategies for building an online reputation for yourself. Information exchange and service is, after all, another form of attraction marketing that will work for you. Anytime you can provide others with info, advise or helpful service, you’re creating a positive image for yourself that will build trust and confidence in you, which in turn develops a following.

What is SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING?

Social media marketing is a recent component of organizations’ integrated marketing communications plans. Integrated marketing communications is a principle organizations follow to connect with their targeted markets. Integrated marketing communications coordinates the elements of the promotional mix—advertising, personal selling, public relations, publicity, direct marketing, and sales promotion—to produce a customer focused message.
[1] In the traditional marketing communications model, the content, frequency, timing, and medium of communications by the organization is in collaboration with an external agent, i.e. advertising agencies, marketing research firms, and public relations firms.

[2] However, the growth of social media has impacted the way organizations communicate with their customers. In the emergence of Web 2.0, the internet provides a set of tools that allow people to build social and business connections, share information and collaborate on projects online.
[3]Social media marketing programs usually center on efforts to create content that attracts attention, generates online conversations, and encourages readers to share it with their social networks. The message spreads from user to user and presumably resonates because it is coming from a trusted source, as opposed to the brand or company itself.

Social media has become a platform that is easily accessible to anyone with internet access, opening doors for organizations to increase their brand awareness and facilitate conversations with the customer. Additionally, social media serves as a relatively inexpensive platform for organizations to implement marketing campaigns. Organizations can receive direct feedback from their customers and targeted markets.

Publishing a Post to a Blog

Simple and informative video on how to manage blog posts on your wordpress blog.

Publishing A Post On A Blog from Mike Wiggins on Vimeo.

Email Marketing

Email marketing and monthly or bi-monthly newsletters can be very successful.

Why it works
Email marketing works for a variety of reasons…

It allows targeting
It is data driven
It drives direct sales
It builds relationships, loyalty and trust
It supports sales through other channels

Modern email marketing services and solutions support database integration, segmentation and various other tricks and techniques for improving the targeting of outgoing messages. Advanced methods generate on-the-fly emails customized down to an individual recipient basis.

And every email campaign you send out generates a heap of actionable data you can use to refine your approach and messages.

Email promotions and offers generate immediate action: sales, downloads, inquiries, registrations, etc. Informative email newsletters and other emails send people to offline stores and events, prepare the way for catalogs, build awareness, contribute to branding, strengthen relationships, encourage trust and cement loyalty.

All in all, a pretty good way of going about your marketing business.

Almesa Winery eShop

Recently added eCommerce to Almesa Winery website.

Original site design was done by Konig Media out of San Luis Obispo California.

Finally finished the new website for Fujimamas Restaurant in Waimea.

http://www.fujimamas.com/

Surprisingly, lots of people don’t know how to change the icons of folders and documents on a the mac os x platform.  Read below for further simple manual instructions on How To Change any of your icons including mac os x application icons.

While there are various methods of doing so, the manual is the simplest way to start instantly changing the icons of an item.  By downloading folders with the icon attatched you can use already created folder image icons or create you own (should you be blessed with the photoshop abilities and know how or simply visit Iconic).

Step 1: Create your own or go and download some icon folders!

Suggested place to download folder icons:

Iconic (Iconic is a free application that creates beautiful custom folder icons for Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard)

Icon Archive
Apple Downloads
Glance.com

Step 2: Take the folder or file that you want to change its icon, and click ‘Get Info’

Step 3: Then take the folder with the icon that you want to replace the original with, and also click ‘Get Info’ you should end up with this:

Step 4: Select the icon you want to replace the original with, it should be highlighted blue when u click on it. Copy it, and then click on the icon that will be replaced (again, it should be highlighted blue) and then, paste it. Viola, complete!

Screenshot 2

Screenshot 3

HawaiiSailingTours.com Website

This site was designed for Capt. Dan of Hawaii Sailing Tours out of Hilo Hawaii.

Project Details:
Informational and Marketing Website with Home Page Video & Photo Gallery

Website Goals:
Lead Generation

About the Hawaii Sailing Tours:
Hawaiian Island Sailing Tours by Captain Dan. Experience unique views on the Big Island of Hawaii from the Pacific Ocean.

Web Address:
http://hawaiisailingtours.com/

SPAM ISSUES

Client:  I am having trouble with important emails being directed to my Junk Mail Box.

Hey ******,
The SPAM issues you are having are a result of your email SPAM filters.  All email applications have SPAM filters these days.  Unfortunately I only have a few simple suggestions that might help.

1. You should be able to change your SPAM filter settings.  SPAM filters can usually be changed to be more or less strict.  That will change how and what the SPAM filters label and don’t label as SPAM.
2. You can also simply turn the SPAM filters OFF completely
3. Lastly you can just periodically check your SPAM or JUNK MAIL BOX and mark the corresponding emails as ‘NOT JUNK’ which can help validate future emails over time.
4. Blacklists & Whitelists are also another way SPAM filter settings can help to allow or deny emails coming from a specific server or web address or email address.  Visit this site for more info. http://www.allspammedup.com/anti-spam/spam-filter-blacklists-and-whitelists/

Good online SPAM resources:

http://www.spellingcity.com/checking-for-email-in-the-spam-filter.html
http://www.allspammedup.com/anti-spam/

Hope this helps.

Thank you.
Ian Hatch
A.S. Designs & Services LLC
134 Kilauea Ave. Hilo, HI 96720
www.hilowebdesign.com
ian@hilowebdesign.com
Office.  808-990-2149

We launched the new Peacful Sky Alliance website in November of 2009. In just a few short months peacefulskyalliance.org monthly visitors surpassed 3,000 with the month of March 2010 at 3,927 and April already set to break the 4,000 monthly visitor marker.

Peacful Sky Alliance is a perfect example of how a blog can bring instant and increased web traffic as well as help build a following online with relevant and regular posts and updates. Congratulation to them and their continuing online success.

Thank You from Peaceful Sky Alliance