Saturday, June 27, 2009

I Squidoo...You Should Too!




by Tammy de Leeuw
Social Marketing Mentor


By now, you've probably heard of SQUIDOO, the nifty Web 2.0 site founded by my marketing hero SETH GODIN. Some of you may have even put up a lens or two just to test the waters.

But...

I am betting only a handful of you actually "get it", "it" being the tremendous marketing and SEO potential afforded by Squidoo.

Squidoo is one of those Web 2.0 tools that cost you nothing, yet has the potential to help you sell tons of products and services...provided you take the time to do it right.

CONTENT IS KING

Squidoo allows anyone to make a nice-looking webpage, called a "lens" with little to no knowledge of HTML. However, this "anyone can do it" accessibility means that the quality of lenses can vary wildly. In order for you to effectively market on Squidoo, you must stand out from the poorly written "pitch" pages by focusing on providing useful content.

Squidoo lens content can be created easily in the form of an article. A good way to promote your particular product or service, for example, would be to write a quality review of the product, with an emphasis on how it can help a prospect solve his or her particular problem.

The same goes if you are a consultant or service provider. Talk about a pspecific problem, then DEMONSTRATE how your expertise is able to address that problem. You might write an article called "Three Ways Estate Planning Can Help Your Heirs Avoid Taxes" and give real-life examples of people who were helped by you as an estate planner.

People are on the internet looking for clear, logical, and HELPFUL information, for understanding and insight , and for solutions for their own problems. The more "ah-ha's" you can generate from your lens, the more useful it will be to you as a marketing tool.

USE PHOTOS AND VIDEOS

Another way to make Squidoo work better for your business is to make sure that all your lenses have at least one good-quality photo related to the article and one video. You can post your videos directly from You Tube. If you don't have any of your own videos yet, choose one from an expert in your field that backs up what your lens says. Watch the video BEFORE you choose it, to ensure that the information complements your lens and does not contain anything inappropriate or contradictory.

USE SQUIDOO'S RSS FEATURE TO FEED YOUR BLOGPOSTS

If you have a blog, you should absolutely take advantage of Squidoo's RSS feature, which allows you to feed headlines from your blog directly into your lens. This provides additional interesting content for your readers and drives traffic to your blog. How cool is that?

Be Sure to Have A Guestbook

Squidoo allows you to post a guestbook and to monitor comments. DO THIS! It is a well-known fact of marketing that comments and ratings play a huge role in generating traffic. When you post your new lens to Facebook or Twitter, be sure to encourage your readers to comment.

When used as directed, Squidoo is one of the best free marketing tools around, one which you can effectively use to attract prospects and convert them into clients.

See Squidoo In Action:

http://www.squidoo.com/referralsgalore

http://www.squidoo.com/tweetbyandby

http://www.squidoo.com/sendandreceive








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