What’s This Foursquare Thing I Keep Hearing About?

First the big social network was MySpace, then Facebook, then Twitter and now, Foursquare! Foursquare is basically a social network “game” where people check into specific locations. If you have a smartphone, such as an iPhone, Blackberry or Android, you can use Foursquare.

Why would you want to use Foursquare? The fun of Foursquare is to let people know where you are so if they are nearby or at the same place you can meet up or find new places to go to – like restaurants, museums, parks, etc. Now, this usually works when you have your actual friends on Foursquare, so it is best to add other Foursquare users who are your actual friends. Once you visit places, you will notice that you receive badges, which correspond to things like, checking into a specific place a certain number of times, or tagging specific places using keywords.

If you check into a place at least 3 times, you will become ‘The Mayor’ of that place. At some businesses that participate, being the mayor of a place gives you special discounts and treatment. You also get points every time you check in somewhere. While these points are just points for now, Foursquare is figuring out what they can translate into in the future. In my opinion, I was unsure about it at first because I was revealing my whereabouts, but the great thing about is that you can check in and not tell anyone your exact whereabouts but still get the points and badges. But, what’s the fun in not telling anyone where you are, right?

Foursquare is free, and has potential to being the next big thing in social media this year. What do you think? Are you on Foursquare? If so, do you find it valuable, or just ‘stalkerish?’ Discuss it in the InternetMarketingClub.org forum or in the comments below.

Pepsi Missing A Super Advertising Opportunity?

Don't look for Pepsi's great commercials this year. The company will not be spending the estimated $2.5 million for 30 seconds of air time during the most popular advertising spot on TV, the Superbowl. Instead, the company has decided to stop the 23 year run and shift to social media and helping the world, which is a great thing. This new interactive campaign, "Pepsi Refresh," plans on giving $20 million in grants to fund projects for health, arts and culture, food and shelter, the planet, neighborhoods and education. The website Refresheverything.com is going to be extremely active with people voting and submitting ideas on the most appealing projects for the money. When you go to vote, you can connect through Facebook and Twitter which shares your interest with your friends. I know they want this to go viral and it is a great idea, but I'm not sure how many people are going to talk about this at our status meeting on Monday at TGR. Ultimately, sales will determine if Pepsi made the right choice.

Twitter On the Red Carpet

Entering the music scene in the latter part of the 90s, Imogen Heap hails from London bringing indie / electronic like music. Known for her distinctive beats and melodies, she may now be known for something a bit different – a Twitter dress. While accepting an award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical at the 2010 Grammys, Imogen Heap showcased a dress which displayed Twitter pictures sent by her fans using the hastag #twitdress.

This is just another illustration of how social media is so incorporated with our lives. I personally happen to listen to Imogen Heap’s music, so I appreciate her creativity. But theoretically this concept could be taken a step further. Maybe one day a concept such as this could be used as live walking ad space?

Imogen Heap may have opened up a brand new take on “real time” with social media.

TrafficWave and Team OceanSwell - Part V

Working from home is the dream of a great many people in the United States and around the world. If you're clever and you work very, very hard, it's certainly feasible. But at the end of the day, 'working from home' means starting and running a business.

It's complicated and requires a great deal of determination.

Starting and then successfully running a business is what many people talk about doing and very few people actually DO. Most never even get their dream off the ground and those who do usually fail for one of two reasons: They didn't have enough money and they didn't have a good plan.

Of course, there are other reasons why businesses fail (including home-based businesses), but those are the two primary ones.

Fortunately, the rise of the Internet makes it possible for average people (with little to practically nothing in the way of start-up capital) to create a functioning home-based business. Buying and selling on Ebay is a good example. And since Internet businesses can be launched with little to nothing in the way of 'start-up capital', the marketing PLAN becomes the most important element with regards to ultimate success or failure.

That's why Team OceanSwell was created for those wishing to market TrafficWave's famous affiliate pay plan. You see, it takes an ENORMOUS amount of advertising in order to have any hope of success with an online affiliate business. If you are one of those who have tried one program after another and failed, it probably wasn't your fault. You just didn't advertise enough.

That's the genius of the Team advertising co-op. An organized group of like-minded people can succeed with an affiliate marketing program FAR more easily than the average person can on their own.

If you tried to build a business with TrafficWave (or any other MLM affiliate plan) before, the future doesn't have to be like the past. If you're ready, you can join our team and start down the road to having something that very few ever actually attain; a real Internet business that pays you money every single month and never stops growing.

How about it? Are YOU ready?

Click-To-Call Mobile Advertising

Google recently introduced click-to-call phone numbers in local pay per click ads on mobile devices. Now, if you have Adwords pay per click ads targeted on mobile devices with full internet browsers, you can include a phone number which people can call with a simple click. Included in this update is new tracking data that allows you to track the number of people who called you from clicking on an ad.

It is often the case in pay per click advertising that including a phone number in the ad copy can increase click through rates. This also holds true for click-to-call mobile advertising as seen in data gathered from beta testing that shows an increase in both website visits and phone calls as a result of adding a click-to-call number.

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents 10 Strategies For Social Media Search Engine Marketing

Join Jay Berkowitz, Author of "The Ten Golden Rules of Online Marketing," where he will explain how to use Social Media in combination with Search Engine Marketing to drive traffic to your website or your personal social media locations.

Also, learn how to use Crowd Sourcing, People Search, Search Results from Social, Social Media Transcriptions, Link Bait and ‘Follow’ Link Sites for your benefit.

This free webinar will take place on Wednesday, February 3, 2010 12:30pmEST – 1:30pmEST. To register please visit: 10 Strategies for Social Media SEM

Back to Basics: Why Start a Blog?

Blogging has been around for quite some time now, and every day, someone decides to start a blog. There are many reasons why people start blogs – from wanting to share their daily lives with their friends (or complete strangers), to helping out others through the knowledge they have, and even to make money, there is a blog for that.

When starting a blog, or even if you are just thinking about starting one, the first thing that you should think about is – what is the goal of your blog? There should always be a purpose to doing something, just like in everyday life. Do you want to help others with your knowledge in SEO? Or, are you a photographer who wants to show off your latest photos? Are you a business that wants to promote your products? A defined goal is definitely important to have.

Once a goal is set, you will then have to figure out a name for your blog, figure out if you want to host it on a blog platform like Wordpress or Blogger. If you’re really serious about blogging, and you may not know right away, it will be best to buy a domain name (like a dot com) and web hosting. From there you can either set up your blog using the Wordpress platform or by using Blogger.com.

When your blog is set up, you can go ahead and start writing out posts. Another important part of blogging is planning out what you want to write about. Having a list of blog post ideas definitely helps. Adding relevant images to blog posts also livens up the post and makes it more appealing to read. It is also best to post frequently, so you have fresh content for your readers. Three to four times a week is recommended. Once you have about 15-20 posts on your blog, you can go ahead and promote your blog through Twitter, Facebook, and submit to Blog directories.

A blog is a commitment, just like any project. You may not get any comments on your blog at first, but as long as you update and promote your blog, people will slowly come to your blog. So make sure you keep at it!