You do have an agency Facebook fan page don’t you?

Why exactly should you have one?

The reasons are many why you should have an agency Facebook page working for you even if you do not have a Facebook account, so many in fact that the question probably deserves its very own article. Briefly, however, I’ll give you 750 million reasons plus 5 more just to start this conversation off:

#1 through #750,000,000 – Facebook topped 750 million users last month; if Facebook was a country it would be the third most populous, below China and India and above the United States.

#750,000,001 – A visitor does not have to have a Facebook account to visit and view your company page.

#750,000,002 – A Facebook page has GREAT search engine optimization benefits and rank highly if handled correctly.

#750,000,003 – Consumer interaction. Engage potential customers in 2-way communication without the psychological sales barriers people put up when shopping for a service provider.

#750,000,004 – Brand identity and name recognition. iModerate Research Technologies’ research indicates that 60% of Facebook Page fans “are more likely to recommend those brands since becoming a member. And an impressive 51% of Facebook members are more likely to buy the brands who’s Facebook Page they are a member of.”

#750,000,005 – It’s completely FREE to host a Facebook page. Many companies are actually foregoing a company website in favor of a very well constructed Facebook. You are getting all of the above named benefits for free if you build and manage the page on your own.

And there’s the rub… doing it yourself takes time and expertise to develop that page into an effective marketing tool and online presence, but as I said before, there are many other obvious, and not so obvious, reasons to set up a Facebook page for your private investigation agency!

Let’s say you’re ready to make a go if it though and you get the page looking great and it clearly conveys the message that will convert fans into evangelists and prospects into clients. The first question is “How do I get people to ‘like’ my Facebook page now?”

First, watch this video (hopefully you learn something), then we’ll get into the REAL methods used to attract and engage your page visitors in a way almost guaranteeing that they will “like” your page and come back time and again.

Here are 15 ways you can begin to add “likes” (and visitors, i.e. prospective customers) to your page right now:

1. If you have a Facebook account, start with inviting your friends and family members to like the page.
2. Post status updates, links to interesting articles, photos, videos and poll questions two (2) times daily. Ask your fans to share your posts with their networks of friends and family.
3. When you get 25 “likes” you will have the opportunity to get a shortened URL for your page. Choose this URL wisely! Once it is set, you cannot change it and the difference between a good choice and a bad choice can hurt your search engine ranking, which is one way of attracting more visitors to your site.
4. Include your new custom URL in your email signature and on your business cards.
5. Include a Facebook icon, hyper-linked to your Facebook page, on your website (if you have a website).
6. Include a “Facebook Like Box” on your website (if you have one).
7. Try Facebook advertising. It can be ridiculously inexpensive and have laser-like targeting capabilities ensuring that you are paying for ads that are meant for your ideal client. Target by location, interests, groups, company, employer, occupation, age, gender, etc., or any combination thereof!
8. “Use Facebook as your page” to visit, like and comment on other, appropriate, Facebook pages. DO NOT SPAM PAGES or risk being banned by the page’s administrator and eventually by Facebook.
9. Link your Facebook page to a Twitter account. Facebook pages can upload posts automatically to Twitter, which is great for viral traffic.
10. Use the “Featured Pages” display on your page to gain mutual partnerships with other page owners that target your same ideal customer demographics.
11. Use “Facebook Events” to host virtual gatherings, meet-ups, product and service launches, or as a viral press release.
12. Upload and post agency commercials… use video to engage your fans!
13. Give genuine and meaningful discounts on your services or product offerings. Take a cue from Groupon: 10% is not a discount… 50% is a discount worth getting excited over.
14. Use the “Insights” feature, an easy to understand analytics function, of your investigation agency’s page to see what’s working and what’s not. “Learn from history or be doomed to repeat it!”
15. MOST IMPORTANTLY- Post original KILLER content that you have either developed or have found from the Internet on your own. If a fan is also a member of several other pages where you are finding content, why does that fan have to “like” your page when they are just going to see the same stories and information from someone else?

BONUS TIP: If your content is more about you than your fans, they will FLEE your page because no one wants to be blasted by sales messages. Think 90% fan interest content and 10% well-crafted marketing message and you should be safe.

There is a really great new agency page for a Private Investigator in Costa Rica who I think is doing about 95% of all the right things and his number of likes is rising steadily as a result. The only thing I might suggest right now is to add a “Welcome” tab (a “Fan Gate”) with the promise of a free giveaway in return for the visitor to “like” his page. It’s a great looking site, well optimized and filled out completely. Check it out at http://www.facebook.com/PrivateInvestigatorInCostaRica

There really is so much more to discuss if you want to turn your Facebook page into the marketing weapon it has the potential to become… “don’t worry about the number of fans but the quality,” gamification, EdgeRank and newsfeed optimization, Fan-gating and reveal tabs, add-on apps, etc.

Suffice it to say, if you simply follow the rule of building a good looking, functional basic page, keep the content fresh and original and you will definitely see the major benefits behind a solid social media marketing campaign. Social Media, Facebook in particular, is really pulling well for my own agency as well as the others I am currently mentoring.

Want to learn A LOT MORE about Marketing your agency on the web and via social media? Check out http://www.facebook.com/PIMarketing

The first concern is that this area of background checks is new and unregulated. The court systems, as well as our federal, state and local laws, are lagging far behind technological advances. However, just because this area is unregulated does not mean there are not legal traps to fall into. Many of them fall into the categories of privacy rights and employer regulations that already exist.

As with any inquiry of a person’s background, privacy is at the forefront of considerations to avoid any criminal and civil liability. Although social media pages are considered a public and social forum, anyone with a remote sense of techno-ability knows that there are privacy settings that can be set for each account. The Supreme Court has ruled ample times that intruding where a person has an expectation of privacy is a violation. I would expand upon this to say that it does not have to be a secure place, or, in this context, account, as long as the expectation exists and a reasonable person agrees.

For example, it is reasonable to have an expectation of privacy in your personal email. This is why law enforcement must have a search warrant for any messages sent or received by your account. The same expectation applies to social pages that have had privacy settings applied.  To avoid any confusion in privacy matters, make sure it is explicitly stated in the consent form that you will search for all content, including messages, photos, posts, etc., that may be found on any social pages belonging to the applicant. Most importantly, ALWAYS have the written permission of the applicant to access their account.

For recertifying employees (conducting checks after they have been hired), consider the following Supreme Court case regarding company owned devices. If an employer has a policy regarding rights to review messages, or if an employee is using an employer provided device, the employer may then have the right to review any messages sent or received from any account used (City of Ontario v. Quon). The case was based on a police officer transmitting sexually explicit messages from a department owned pager, which resulted in discipline against the officer. The court reversed a 9th Circuit judgment by stating it “was incident to reasonable, work-related audit intended to assess efficacy of monthly character limit.” In other words, if the company owns the device, it retains the right to retrieve data transmitted on it. It’s not a far leap to apply this to content posted, and messages sent, through social pages with a company owned device.

The next consideration in social media background checks is the origin of the content you are checking. If you have had a social page anytime in recent history, you know how often pages are hacked, or content is posted that was not intended by the page owner. As careful as I am with my social pages, I have fallen victim to a similar scam. It often comes in the form of an interesting article with a photo that entices the page owner to click on it. For example, a current scam going around Facebook is a photo of a horrible abrasion on someone’s skin with a tag next to it stating, “See a spider growing under this person’s skin.” Before the victim knows it, they are a fan of a porn page or an obnoxious advertisement that may hinder an applicant in the hiring process. Then their friends click the post on the wall, and before long it becomes viral.

If the origin of the content cannot be determined, I have already educated my clients to ask the applicant about it. If it can be explained reasonably, it is probably safe to move on to the next step in the hiring process.

Once you have established the page ownership, you have legal access to the page, and know the origin of the information, you must now consider whether the information you are viewing is legal to consider in the hiring process. As an investigator, you won’t be making the hiring decisions. However, you will need to keep the protection of your client in mind. Ensure that you are not passing on information that would influence a client’s decision illegally. For example, let’s say you are looking at an applicant that has a debilitating disease, but for all intents and purposes they are able to do the job applied for. They have posted about their treatment or rehabilitation on their page. You then release this information to your client. As a result, the employer concludes the applicant would not be a “good fit.” They may be in violation of federal Equal Opportunity Employer standards.

Finally, remember this one key aspect of this type of background check: Just because it is posted, tweeted, tagged, or in any other form placed on a social page, does not mean that the information holds any factual bearing. For example, two friends are posting in comments that they wanted to kill someone over what was said at the office. This does not mean your next case will be a murder. It may just be a figure of speech, of which we are all guilty. Remember, any information viewed that is questionable may be discussed with the applicant for better context or meaning. In the end it will be the employer’s decision, but these considerations will go a long way to protect yourself and your clients.

About the author:

Brian Taylor,
Innovative Investigations, LLC
P.O. Box 2073
Richmond, KY 40476
Phone: 859-948-2075
Website: http://www.innovative-pi.com
Facebook: Innovative Investigations, LLC

Brian Taylor is the managing partner of Innovative Investigations, LLC. He is a licensed private investigator offering background checks and other services. He is also a certified collision reconstructionist. He can be reached at brian.taylor@innovative-pi.com

What can social media really do? And exactly how important is social media to your business, your career and your networking abilities?

Consider what social media has already done in the entertainment business for the career of Betty White.  After a stellar Super bowl ad in 2010, Facebook fans ran a grassroots campaign to get her on Saturday Night Live: her career soared.

And the political world is no different: Tens of thousands of Egyptian citizens recently protested against their government, organizing primarily through social media websites Facebook and Twitter.  Their methods were so effective the Egyptian government blocked access to the sites.  Social media’s power continues to grow and it’s now one of the biggest ways to reach out and communicate.

As professional investigators you have the opportunity to network and make contact with more potential customers than ever before through social media.  There are dozens of social networking websites out there, but the two you should be paying most attention to are Facebook and Twitter.

Facebook makes it easy to set up a page for your business, and from there you can start posting content and interacting with current and potential customers. (See Pursuit Magazine’s Facebook Page as an example) Word of mouth is important in the physical world, and the virtual world is no different – if you create your page and invite current customers to (in Facebook parlance) “like” it, you’ll be extending your reach to all of their profiles, which will drive more traffic to you.

But be careful that you follow the rules of Facebook etiquette so that you don’t come off like this:

Twitter is a whole different beast than Facebook – when asked to compare the two, I often say, “Take the status updates of Facebook and make them shorter; that’s Twitter.”  It’s an oversimplification, but it gets the point across.  Twitter revolves around networks of conversations based on status updates (or “tweets”) 140 characters or less.  Similar to Facebook, Twitter allows people to “follow” you, which means they’ll see all of your updates in their timeline.  Likewise, you can follow others that you find relevant to your business.

It’s key that you maintain your presence on social networks – it’s not enough to set up a profile and then let it stagnate for a month or two.  Consistent, relevant posts will keep those who follow you involved and interested, and if you don’t keep putting relevant content in front of your customers, they won’t be as engaged or enthusiastic about you.

IRBsearch is currently hosting a four-part series of marketing webinars centered on using social media to promote your business:

Intro to Social Media – Get a great overview and learn how to get set up on Facebook and Twitter.

Watch it now at www.irbmedia.com

Writing for Social Media -  Learn to write compelling posts that generate interest and awareness.

March 10th at 4pm EST
http://goo.gl/83NRo

Social Media is a Two-Way Street – Discover how to take advantage of the two-way nature of social networks.

April 14th at 4pm EST
http://goo.gl/C7qNo

Social Media is Always With You – Easy tips on how to keep your profiles updated while on the go.

May 12th at 4pm EST.
http://goo.gl/K6hHZ

All webinars are free of charge and last about an hour—to sign up, head on over to www.irbmedia.com.  Social media is a great opportunity for your business; make sure you don’t miss out!

During this anonymous phase of my Facebook existence, a colleague occasionally would ask when I was going to join nearly every other person on the planet and finally sign up.          I would shrug and change the subject.

But then the private investigative company I manage opened up its official Facebook page, and this gave me the encouragement I needed to begin using my real name. It was not an easy decision to make—giving up the anonymity I had previously enjoyed—but if I didn’t come out and “like” my company, who else was going to do it? After this coming out, I set about befriending the many students and clients I had been shunning all these years. Altogether it has been a liberating experience, but it has also caused me to feel like I have a multiple-personality disorder.

As a private investigator, I see the Internet differently than most people do—or I did until I decided to stop hiding behind the pseudonym. For me and many of my colleagues, Facebook and other social networking websites are, first and foremost, a rich source of potentially valuable information that might be relevant in one way or another to our investigations. If you’re not an investigator, social media sites are primarily vehicles for connecting with people. I used to find this outlook naïve, but I have gradually come to learn the technology’s true value. I confess it hasn’t been easy. At first I assumed that sharing information is antithetical to the mindset of being an investigator. Let me explain.

It seems we can’t go more than a month without hearing of someone being embarrassed, disgraced or even fired for something they posted on a social networking website, whether it’s Obama’s speechwriter, Jon Favreau, cupping the breast of a cardboard cutout of Hillary Clinton or Octavia Nasr, then CNN’s Senior Editor of Mideast Affairs, tweeting positively about Hezbollah. The National Labor Relations Board recently offered employees some protection from themselves by ruling that they are permitted to write disparagingly online about their employers without fear of adverse action, provided the writing is done in concert with other employees. But what of those sex-laden snapshots or the fact that an employee “likes” the Facebook page titled “drunkenly stealing random useless objects” (which, by the way, has over 91,000 fans!)? The fact of the matter is that people of all walks of life have been “busted” in a sense by assuming that they enjoy privacy or anonymity on a social networking site.

Ever since I started sending out my friendship requests, some employees of the law firms I work for—people who I’ve been friendly with for years—have sheepishly asked me about my intentions. Would I divulge the content of their Facebook pages to the partners, who I’m also friendly with? Were my friendship requests nothing but a “pretext” to delve into their private lives or perhaps to discover whether they are spending too much time on the Internet?

On one level, I understand, these are common concerns whenever one lets a coworker into the sanctuary of his or her quasi-private online life. I write quasi-private life because the investigator in me knows that almost nothing having to do with social media is ever truly private; even the information that many assume is sacrosanct may still be released with a subpoena. I also recognize that trust is a central issue in friendships among colleagues in any industry, not just private investigation.

Of course, I assured my new Facebook friends I will respect their privacy, because that’s what friends do. But being an investigator makes the duality of uses for these media much more pronounced, because, bluntly put, it is an investigator’s job to pry into people’s quasi-private lives and use that information against them. In other words, there is good reason to be wary of befriending an investigator on Facebook when it comes to concern about one’s privacy.

To illustrate my point, I had lunch with one of my business partners a few weeks ago, and we discussed a recent case where he used a Twitter search to identify a witness in an assault at a private event. The witness tweeted about the assault as it happened, and identifying this person and subsequently searching his Facebook page helped my partner find the party’s entire guest list. Naturally, much interviewing and subpoenaing ensued—and once again social media played a critical role in an investigation.

My partner’s case is not unusual. Tweets and status updates are now standard fodder for investigators throughout the country. In fact, I would venture to say that social media plays some role in the majority of cases now investigated by my company. It is in this light that I grew accustomed to viewing social media like a lion might see a grassland panorama. Where most people probably see sunshine and frolicking gazelles, I just saw one big hunting ground, complete with personal information about subjects that can’t be found anywhere else. There is no denying that Facebook and other social media are a very rich source of nutrients—I mean, information—that could be relevant in one way or another to an investigation.

But we investigators are humans too! I crave social interactions just like the next person. Facebook recently helped me reconnect with my best friend from elementary school. Twitter has given me instant access to the latest in news in my areas of interest and has afforded me a forum to share some of my knowledge with like-minded people too.  There is no denying that social media are now an integral part of a great number of people’s lives, and they are an integral part of my life too—and not just for the dirt it gives me on people I am investigating. Simply put, I’m not sure how I ever lived without the sense of connectivity I’m now feeling in my brave new social world.

It was in this spirit that my company created its Facebook page. I envisioned a place where my partners and I could learn a little more about the people we work with and where our employees, if they choose, could share a little more about themselves when they’re not wearing their investigator hats. I’m addressing residual skepticism one colleague at a time.

But I still wonder whether investigators can really have it both ways. Can we befriend our employees and clients, continue to maintain their confidence—and also continue, with a clear conscious, to exploit social media for our investigations?

I am one private investigator who is banking that we can.

Philip A. Becnel is the managing partner of Dinolt Becnel & Wells Investigative Group LLC and is the author of Private Investigator Entry Level (02E), an introductory textbook on conducting private investigations. Philip is a licensed private investigator in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, DC.

His book may be found at Amazon, among other venues.

Link to purchase book:  http://www.amazon.com/Private-Investigator-Entry-Level-Investigations/dp/1440194114
Link to company:  http://www.dinolt.com

Podcasting is another of these online marketing tools.

Exactly What is Podcasting?

Podcasting is a way of delivering audio content online through an RSS feed. Podcasting is similar to the radio-on-demand sites that allow anyone to listen to audio files online. But, with podcasting, there is more variability and customization available. A podcast may begin at a certain time, but it can be listened to later at any time that the listener chooses.

Using Podcasts for Marketing

Listening to a podcast is a popular alternative to simply reading information on a page. It gives information a personal feel and can deliver entertainment at the same time. With podcasting, listeners can see the faces behind the website.

Poscasts are often used for attracting more readers to a website. By scheduling a live podcast and telling people in advance when the podcast will air, people are drawn to the site to hear the message. By scheduling regular podcasts, such as one per week, they will gain a following.

Gain Credibility

One of the most useful aspects of using a podcast for marketing is that hearing the person’s voice as they discuss the topic gives the speaker a credibility that is hard to get through test alone. The audio files are listened to much like a news broadcast would be, and they are a great way to earn quick respect as someone who is knowledgeable about the topic.

When deciding what is podcasting, think of information that can be made engaging and entertaining. Consider interviewing another authority on the subject so that readers hear the questions that they may have answered. Vary the content of each episode so that listeners to will tune in to the next one to see what else will be covered.

Make the broadcast personal by introducing yourself and talking about your experience with the subject matter at the beginning of each file. This will encourage loyalty and a familiarity that will bring listeners back over and over.

Direct Horizon Business Development Group has over 50 years of technical experience behind it’s business practices. Whether it’s web design, content creation, content distribution, point of sale systems, traffic and conversion tracking, pay per click or custom software, Direct Horizon Business Development Group is the one you want to call.

For access to our blog please visit http://blog.directhorizon.com
For access to our website please visit http://www.directhorizon.com

This group is to network, build professional relationships, share stories and advice – all the things that listserves did many years ago, but has lost for various reasons. Almost any professional investigator is welcome – you must provide complete business and professional information (do I really need to explain this?). Email me privately if you have any questions or concerns. My only intent is for this to be a fair and supportive group.

Group home page: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theInvestigators

Feel free to post:
- Your introduction (feel free to repeat in moderation)
- Services you offer and where
- Experience and other associations
- Goals, accomplishments and other bragging points
- Products and services (i.e. books – see item 1)
- Requests for assistance, guidance, looking for work, etc.
- Offers of assistance, guidance, etc.

What I would really rather not see – because they are prolific on other lists – ‘asset checks’ or ‘site inspections’ that don’t offer enough to pull out of the driveway. We are all worth something, don’t insult us. Also, if you have a concern about the legitimacy of a poster – make an inquiry before blasting something insulting. Finally, if it should be private – make it private (or warned and removed).

This is designed to be a self-moderated group of professional investigators in the private sector. Those that cannot reach to that professional level will be warned and then removed, or suspended for a period of time.

There is lots of room for jokes and banter – feel free to use moderation in sending messages, and also remember there is a delete key. If you feel concerned, email me privately.

Bottom line – have fun, make friends, form a network, and act like this group is a combination of an association meeting, coffee meeting, happy hour, or other place you might chat with friends. If you would share at the table, share here – if you would not, don’t. I do ask that you include a signature line – just like handing a business card. Thanks, Dean A. Beers, CLI

I think you get the idea.  I hope you join me, tell others, and we all grow personally and professionally from this new experience!

To subscribe, send an email to: theInvestigators-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Regards, Dean

—–
Dean A. Beers, CLI
Board Certified Legal Investigator
beersda@Forensic-Investigators.com

Forensic Investigators of Colorado, LLC
www.Forensic-Investigators.com

Larimer County, Colorado
(970) 691-0813 Office
(970) 372-4717 Fax

Pirate Bay is the world’s largest “BitTorrent tracker,” a server that assists in the communication between peers using the BitTorrent protocol. BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file sharing protocol used for distributing large amounts of data in which many network users, called peers, each only distribute a fraction of a requested file to the recipient. As more peers download a specific file then each user on the network only has to share a smaller piece of the file easing each network user’s bandwidth and network requirements. The distributed nature of this type of peer to peer file sharing makes it nearly impossible for groups like the RIAA and BREIN to target specific file sharers.

Unable to serve the Swiss owners, Gottfrid Svartholm, Fredrik Neij and Peter Sunde, by usual methods, BREIN leadership decided upon more modern means, “You can find the defendants on Facebook and Twitter. Internet works for enforcers as well as infringers. Now they know about the court case in The Netherlands.” BREIN Director Tim Kuik said.

From the Dutch Anti-Piracy.nl website:

“The BREIN foundation is the joint anti-piracy program of authors, artists and producers of music, film and interactive software; A unique bundling of forces of the entire entertainment industry in the fight against Intellectual Property theft.

BREIN is the central contact for government, law enforcement, trade and media in the Netherlands with respect to all issues concerning the unauthorized copying and distribution of entertainment products both offline and online.

BREIN is the Dutch acronym for ‘Protection Rights Entertainment Industry Netherlands’ and also the Dutch word for ‘brain’.“

This article was written by L. Scott Harrell and is posted courtesy IRBseach, LLC.

IRBsearch offers The Most information, The Best data sources, and The Fastest delivery for locating people, businesses, and their assets. With one click you can search billions of records in just a fraction of a second.

A chamber of commerce is comprised of many business owners whose primary goal is to further the interests of businesses. You will find that a local Chamber does not limit the number of people who can join from any one profession or industry. You will meet and network with many business owners from various industries that may eventually broaden your client base and reach.

Here are ten very important reasons to utilize your local Chamber of Commerce as a marketing tool:

1. Making New Business Contacts – Chamber members gain access to hundreds of prospective customers for their business. You can obtain a directory listing, mailing labels and contact lists by being a member of your local are Chamber. Local Chamber events also allow you to introduce yourself, your business, and network with other members of the Chamber.

2. Effective, Low Cost Advertising Opportunities – Advertising opportunities through the Chamber are generally only available to members. The Chamber often develop and maintain relocation packets and newsletters they disburse to other potential business owners, current business owners, potential residents and current residents inquiring for specific services. Most Chambers also offer a directory listing in print and on their web pages. Advertising on the chamber website is often very effective and inexpensive.

3. Publicity & Exposure – Many local Chambers allow you to put company-related materials on display at their events or in their lobby. Three business showcases each year give our members an additional way to promote their products and services to the public, as well as fellow Chamber members. Member business can also gain publicity and exposure through a free ribbon cutting. Finally, our weekly Chamber Link newsletter is a way to share your information with other Chamber members.

4. Ongoing Training for Business Professionals – Some Chambers hold training seminars to provide a way for Chamber members to continue their business education.

5. Member Discounts – Many Chamber businesses offer member to member discounts on their services. In addition to business and government connections, membership in your local chamber often will offer your business a variety of benefits including group health care insurance access, advertising opportunities, discounts from local merchants, reduced BWC premiums and more!

6. Credibility - Many members of the community consider Chamber membership to be a sign of a reputable, established business. Chamber of Commerce organizations receive hundreds of phone calls each year from individuals checking to see if a business is a Chamber member.

7. Recommendations and Referrals – Remember, while all of the people you network with at the Chamber provide services, they also need services, or may know someone who does. From tourists to new residents, people call the local Chambers for service referrals all the time. As a member, you are generally put on a referral list. This increases your customer base and revenue that much more.

8. Supporting your Community – As a Chamber member you are also supporting many other business owners thus supporting your community as a whole. Trust me…those efforts do not go unnoticed. People will remember you.

9. Free Services – Local Chamber groups sometimes offer a variety of free services to their Chamber members. My Chamber organization offers free new member orientations, free Notary Public services, free use of the office equipment at our Chamber office, such as the fax machine and scanner. We are also able to post job openings and view resumes of people looking for jobs in the area for free. Additionally, our Chamber sponsors local legal associations providing small business owners an opportunity to bounce off ideas, issues and strategies in an informal setting via free one-on-one counseling sessions. What a great way to meet attorneys!

10. A Chamber Exists to Serve Members – Local Chamber groups are generally very proactive on issues affecting legislation and local economic development in their area. As a business owner it is important for you to stay abreast with such issues that may affect your business.

Just simply becoming a member of your local Chamber is not enough to make this marketing and networking tool work. You have to put some work and effort into your membership…Here are some tips on making this marketing campaign work.

* Find a Chamber- Show up and sign up.
* Volunteer to be a guest speaker for one of their meetings or events.
* Get involved – volunteer for a committee or event. Chambers sponsor golf tournaments, networking events, annual meetings, auctions, business expos, job fairs or other events that are ideally suited for your offerings, thus gaining some valuable exposure.
* Write articles for their newsletters and/or publications.
* Become a leader – Join a Board of Directors.
* Get to know your Chamber staff, ask how you can be of assistance to them. Before you know it you will be on a first name basis!
* Hand out lots of business cards and brochures at events and meetings. Many Chambers allow you to leave such material in their offices on display racks and such.
* Be an Active Member and Expert in your Field
* Listen to others! Remember at meetings you are there to listen. Go to network and gather information. Ask questions and demonstrate genuine interest in other members and businesses. Be professional and you will be remembered.
* Mingle. Don’t congregate with the same people over and over. Meet and greet new members. Sit with a new group of people every time you go to a meeting or event. Broaden your horizons and networking base.

Every business owner should make it a point to investigate their local chamber of commerce. Find out where the office is and request a membership information package. Before joining sign up for an event or two to see whether the membership is a good fit for you and your business. As I said before, many Chamber groups allow you to come to one event for free to check things out. During the process of choosing your Chamber group make sure you have chosen one that knows how to hold successful networking events and has a strong and thriving membership with proven leadership.

You can find your local Chamber at ChamberFind.com

ChamberPeople – For some added social networking check out this chamber-focused social network complete with discussion boards, member blogging, and easy networking with your peers: ChamberPeople.com

This article was written by Stephanie Mitchell and is posted courtesy IRBseach, LLC.

It’s been a little while since our last Editor’s Update so we wanted to check in and let you know what we’ve been up to and let you in on some of our recent projects in the past couple of weeks.

If you have not discovered the power of social networking and viral marketing yet, then it is seriously time to for you to jump on the bandwagon…

TWITTER:
Pursuit Magazine has joined Twitter. Some of you may know, Twitter is a FREE social networking site allowing you to micro-blog to users, send and read other users’ updates (better known as tweets) and network with many, many people with the same interests. It has been a fantastic tool for us to send out updates on news, articles and industry related information.

Join us on Twitter: Pursuit Magazine on Twitter

FACEBOOK:
If you are a Facebook visit and join our Pursuit Magazine group. You may find some familiar faces or new friends!

Join our Facebook group at: Pursuit Magazine on Facebook

MYSPACE:
If you still love and cling to the world of MySpace… then join us there! We have given our profile page a new look and our list of friends and supporters continues to grow.

Add us as your friend today: Pursuit Magazine on MySpace

Today, we are linked with thousands of private investigators, bail enforcement agents, attorneys, customers and friends. Establishing these important online connections has become an extremely rewarding experience with valuable gains for our business.

I want to give a special thanks to everyone who has already joined us (without you, there would be no network) and to those of you who continue to support us!

Remember we are always looking for new authors, ideas and news.

Email Us Here.

Writing
Outreach
Referrals
Keeping-in-touch
Internet
Networking
Getting Publicity

Writing has always been the first part of my W.O.R.K.I.N.G. approach, though its importance has increased exponentially since the race to attract attention via the Internet began heating up. It used to be that writing was the main method by which I built my own subject matter credibility but, while writing continues to be an integral part of my overall branding effort, I have found that the overall symbiosis between writing and the Internet component of my W.O.R.K.I.N.G. approach to entrepreneurship has become more important.

Writing is now a vehicle by which I supercharge my Internet efforts.

Since you are reading this article, you have either come across it through one of the online article submission websites for which I originally wrote it or you are reading it through a website, e-zine or publication that derives its content from the article submission site that is hosting it; in this way, articles on the Internet provide viral exposure. Additionally, the effort that goes into writing and submitting just one article is negligible compared to the results it will achieve as it is picked up by those who need content for their own publications and then picked up again from the secondary publisher by another; in fact, the cycle may encompass publishers who are several “generations” removed from the original posting.

I have one article I produced under a unique pen-name (for tracking purposes) that was included in 314 publications (web and print) and eventually made its way across 8 “generations” of publishers; that is to say that the eighth-generation publisher reprinted the material which was reprinted, which was reprinted, which was reprinted, which was reprinted, which was reprinted, which was reprinted, which was originally printed!

Not only did I get great “press” through the exposure but this article has been indexed in search engines for 6 years now and still remains on at least 17 high-traffic websites. I can directly attribute client leads I continue to develop today to that one article.

How’s that for publicity?

In these days of increasingly cutthroat search engine optimization tricks, deceptions and methods, article submission is one of the few “white-hat” strategies left that consistently and reliably produce results. Case in point: I recently launched a new website promoting a book I wrote and was able to get it indexed in Google, MSN and Yahoo! in less than 4 days by simply converting a few chapters of the book into 10 different articles and then borrowing 2 hours out of my secretary’s day to submit them to a few article submission sites. I’ve made $1,038.70 in just a few weeks through the sale of that book as a result.

Writing for web logs, or blogs, can also have positive effects on your overall web exposure for similar but slightly different reasons as article submission. Blogs can have the same “speed to search engine” results as article submission services but I find that they take a great deal less time to maintain. I can sit down and write a few thoughts in the evening, instantly publish them to my blog and be done with it; these posts are often less than 100 words. Search engines go crazy over blogs that are updated regularly and they really don’t care if the blog posts have a finely focused message based around well-crafted meta tags and keyword density!

The down-side of putting all of your effort into just a blog though is that unless you treat each post like you would an article being written for submission and publishing you won’t typically generate the same subject-expert credibility which comes with being a bona fide word-slinger. That’s alright by me since I look at blogging as a facet of search engine optimization rather than a credibility building exercise. My overall search engine strategy has always been to use web logs to drive links back to my websites. I fashion every link with anchor text which is contextually important to the page that the link is pointing; this increases the relevance of each link.

In my experience, the real advantage of owning and REGULARLY posting to a blog has been the ease of climbing the Google Page Rank ladder. In a little less than 6 months with very little real effort my oldest blog (yes, I have more than one) attained a page rank of PR5. As a result, every outbound link from that blog carries real weight… consequently giving a huge boost to the lesser-ranked pages to which they point also.

Writing is the first part of my W.O.R.K.I.N.G. approach to success. The power in its ability to build credibility and the perception of subject matter expertise is unquestionable. However its ability to have an explosive impact on your Internet efforts as well may soon have you searching for your own inner-Hemingway in the ongoing pursuit of success.