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Imagine driving down the street and seeing a billboard with a bar code on it, now imagine pulling out your phone and scanning that bar code like a candy bar at the grocery store, seconds later imagine pulling up the website of that billboard advertiser on your phone.

Now imagine advertising on a billboard with a bar code, imagine your best prospect driving by your billboard, whipping out his phone and scanning your code and immediately visiting your website where you give him a clear call to action.

Now imagine your bank account full of money from a successful marketing campaign! Ahhhh so good. Well let’s cut to the chase here… you don’t need to imagine it… it’s real, it’s possible, it’s doable.

We live in an era of instant gratification and we long for quick response. Being able to figure out what you need when you need it, being able to access it when you’d like to and how you’d like to is a must. It’s your responsibility as a business owner to supply your services and message in whichever way your clients and prospects demands it.

You know the bar code I mentioned in the paragraphs above? Well, it’s called a QR code – QR refers to ”Quick Response”, as it allows its contents to be decoded at high speed. Anyone with a camera phone can scan such codes and access it’s contents.

There are many applications for the codes, especially as companies look to make offline mediums more integrated with online efforts. Promote the code in offline mediums like magazines, outdoor, point of purchase, on signs, buses, business cards or just about any object that users might need information about! So cool!

To read the code, users must have a QR Code reader installed. The most compatible reader for mobile phones is provided by BeeTagg. Open a browser on your phone and go to http://get.beetagg.com and download the reader.

When you see a code open the BeeTag Reader and scan the image of the QR Code and unlock its meaning. This causes the phone’s browser to launch and redirect to the programmed URL, or to display any copy embedded in the code. This act of linking from physical world objects is known as a “hardlink” or “physical world hyperlinks.”

So, why wouldn’t you just state the URL in your promotion? A fair question. First, many URLs can be lengthy and impossible to remember, especially if part of a promotion with a landing page. It also requires the user can remember the URL with all of its words, punctuation, etc. A QR Code removes that room for error.

Secondly, it’s fun. Users view the QR Code as a game – a very high-tech, cool, cutting-edge game. It’s a mystery – the code could reveal anything. Cracking the code is fun and exciting and a great way to bring the interactivity of the web to your offline efforts.

Why not start a trend by dropping QR Codes into your business card or print advertisements. At the very least, people will ask what it is, inviting you to explain this new(-ish) technology and your company.

Try it out! Download the reader, take a picture of the code below, and see where it takes you!

We have a free teleseminar coming on May 28th on traffic and lead generation for businesses. We’ll show you several new strategies.
Register now for the Lead generation teleseminar.
We have a limited number of lines available.

Technology has redefined the way consumers, peers and industry leaders communicate. Today, consumers are researchers; they’re also interactive. Miserable is the business mentality that social media is just chatter, noise, and a waste of time and resources.

As an entrepreneur you need to care, love your customers and communicate with them. Use the many social media tools out there to accomplish this. Even if not for sales or partners, do it for brand exposure and audience growth. You can be successful by investing your time and passion into growing it, only for a few dollars. So don’t wait another minute, through social media you’ll become visible among competitors as you strike up a conversation and demonstrate a leadership position in your industry.

This issue of the Engage magazine is jaw-dropping good! Be prepared because you’re in for a treat. With an open mind, a willing heart, and eagerness to learn and implement I invite you to flip through these pages and absorb as much information as humanly possible! Read every note, every article, highlight it, tear it, consumer every bit of information and see how you can apply it to become a better person, a better leader, a better follower, a better business owner. Go on… off you go now…

I like to be a leader. It is just part of my personality. Since I was very young I always enjoy having other puppies follow me. Because this is a natural trace of my personality, one would think that other dogs would notice it and just follow. I wish! It takes a lot of work to show them how to follow you.
Here are my strategies and I hope they will help you get more followers. After all, that is all you hear today, isn’t it? “How many followers do you have?”, “Do you tweet?”, “I just tweeted to my followers.”
It sounds like we all live in this giant bird cage. I, for one, refuse to tweet, I bark. So do my followers. Well, I digress, back to my strategies.
This is how I do it and I usually use this approach when I’m in the park.
One of the things that really make my day is to run wild around the park and have a lot of dogs after me, so I choose one that I think is very strong and would run well and I approach it. First, as a well educated pooch, I first smell its butt and let the other dog do the same. Then I face the dog, put my head down, my paws to the front and my cute butt up with my tail wagging a lot.
I then, make a quick move like if I was going to run, but I don’t. That is the cue. I may repeat this move a couple more times if the dog I chose is not the smartest lamp in the tanning bed, if you know what I mean.
Then, I run and don’t look back. Most of the time, the dog comes after me and the other dogs in the park join.
We run a lot for quite a while. I’m very good in quick curves, so they never catch me and we keep running.
Sometimes this strategy goes viral and every dog around joins the race. When this happens, I’m happy for the whole week. For me, this is what engagement really means. We all get involved in one activity, we all have fun. What could be better? At some point, it doesn’t really matter if I’m the leader or not, we are all interacting and having fun.
Some other days, no matter how much I try, no one seems to pay attention to me. I have to run alone, which is not very fun at all, but that is the way it is. You don’t get a home run every time.

By Apple Boyayan

Geo Twitter
Twitter location tracking site
GeoTwitterous
Track a person across the map
Mibazaar
Shows current posts as they are posted on maps
My Tweet Map
A high tech map that tracks the location of a person
TwitSpy
Another way where you can track the location of tweets
Twittearth
Watch as people from different parts of the world tweet
Twitter Atlas
Find the conversations at certain locations
Twitter Faces
Map + Faces
Twitter Local
Find out Tweets about a certain locale
Twitter Map
Same with GeoTwitterous
Twitter Vision
Watch Twitter in real time and see the location of Twitter users

Here are some tools you can use with Twitter to find out about trends.

Flaptor Search
Search tool that can be installed on your browser.
Favotter
Find out the most favored (saved to favorites) tweets
GoodBadMe
Keep track of the good and bad with the #GoodBadMe hashtag
Tweetmeme
find out the most tweeted blogs, images & phrases
Tweet Scan
Search keywords on Twitter
Twistori
Find out what twitter’s love, hate, think, believe, feel & wish
Twitbuzz
Find out the latest links and conversations on Twitter
Twitscoop
A search tool that tracks trends, key words & topics
Twitstat
real time twitter analytics from your mobile device
Twitterment
Search Twitter users and topics
Twitter’s Search
Search for the key words, names or the latest trends on Twitter
Twitterverse
Find out what Twitter is doing
Twitturly
Find out the most talked about 100 stories on Twitter

According to a Nielsen survey, from February 2008 to February 2009, Twitter grew 1,382% while Facebook grew 228%

Twitter biggest demographics is 35-49

In January 2009, 735,000 unique visitors accessed Twitter website through their mobile phones.

I get this comment a lot: “I have a Twitter account but Ihave no clue how to use it to promote my business.”
When I’m speaking to entrepreneurs I usually tell them to focus on providing content and good tips 98% of the time. This will help them be perceived as an expert on their topic and generate more followers.
Today, I want to show you how some industries are using this amazing tool.
Last week, I mentioned how Dell generated $1M in revenue from promoting their products to its followers.
You probably heard that companies like Comcast, Southwest, Zappos use Twitter as a customer service tool and to prevent bad PR.
Red Cross uses to alert followers about crisis.
Tim Ferris, author of “4 hour work week” uses Twitter to raise money for charity. For each follower he gets, he donates $1 toDonorschoose.org and a company will match $2 for a public school fund.
CoffeeGroundz takes to-go orders with Twitter and customers can make orders from their seat.
Zoomdweebie’s Tea Bar offers different tea blends each week to theirfollowers. This is what they say: “We were shipping maybe one or twopackages every two to three weeks,” Horbelt said. “Now we’re shipping40 to 50 packages.”
Other companies promote online and offline events.
Authors create book parties to promote their books
As you can see, all sizes of companies can benefit from this fr33 tool.
Twitter is at least a great brand-monitoring tool.
Don’t you think it is time for your company to hop on this train?

1. They are moving themselves UP the economic ladder and restructuring their services, products, sometimes the entire business, marketing strategies in order to attract with a more affluent customer.

Will people pay? Yes, they will as long as you provide good value and master the art of creating desire. Lowering your prices in a moment like this will probably lead you to business death. Remember: low prices = low profits= no future.

2. They pay attention to the fact that people use “small indulgences” to ease their financial pain and incorporate that into their existing business, or create a new one. You can incorporate services or products and position them as an affordable, deserved and enjoyable small indulgence.
3. They give customers something they cannot get anywhere else or provide for by themselves
4. They are able to create services people cannot live without. Here you find the membership models- Your cable TV is an example, some softwares that you pay monthly another.
5. Segment the conversation with customers. Talking to different customers in different ways, after all, their needs are different. Yes, it is more work, but it pays to do it this way. The one-message-fits-all approach doesn’t cut anymore.
6. Create new things. No one is doing that, so yours will shine a lot more.
7. Think about repackaging services and products to different niches.
8. Products that save people time, help them make more money or bring residual income sell well during these times. The “in a box” opportunity is included here.

Just don’t sit and wait, this will kill your business. Market more, more often. Are you using Facebook? Twitter? Dell just released a report showing they were able to generate $1 million more in revenue by just promoting their products on Twitter.
Can you create an special offer just for your followers? Yes, you can!