As with any marketing campaign, you should monitor your Twitter promotional campaigns by tracking the results.

One free way to do this is to use http://search.twitter.com/ to find all instances of people talking about you or your business on Twitter.

Another tool you can use is called Tweet Beep: http://tweetbeep.com/. This service will automatically email you whenever something about you or your business is Tweeted.

Finally, you can check your website’s analytics/traffic statistics program to determine how much traffic you have received from Twitter.

If you don’t currently have a good traffic statistics program, you can get one for free from here: http://www.google.com/analytics. It will tell you where all your visitors come from, including those that come from your Twitter profile or your Facebook fan page.

Another interesting thing to track is if links in your tweets get clicked and how often.

I’m using http://hootsuite.com for this. It has lots of useful features for professional Twits.

Facebook is one of the most promising web 2.0 sites when it comes to marketing your products and your internet business. One good way to use Facebook is to create a fan page on the site; and to use it to draw in potential buyers.

Start by investing some time to create a high-quality fan page.

This page should include…

• links to your site,
• a well-written description of what you do,
• and a brief description of the purpose of your fan page

A sample for the purpose could be: to provide all of your loyal customers with free information about upcoming product launches, product give-aways, and coupons.

How to win “fans” for your facebook fan page?

If you don’t yet have enough “fans” to get the ball rolling, it might make sense to start by giving people an incentive to become a fan.

You could do something like this: offer everyone who joins your fan page a 20% off coupon for one of your products.

You could then say something like “if this fan page has over 5,000 members by July 10^th, every fan will get product X for free.”

But the first step certainly is to create your fan page.

No reason to put it off…it takes only a few minutes.

Login to your facebook account now.

If you’re into web 2.0 marketing, there’s no doubt you need a Twitter profile.

First go to http://twitter.com and look around.

Once you are familiar with the site, go to the sign up page (https://twitter.com/signup) and create one or more accounts. (See Web 2.0 Marketing Tip #1)

Once you have setup your Twitter.com account, it is critical that you spend some time to personalize your profile.

If you do not do this you will be perceived as spammer when you ask Twitter users to follow you.

When it comes to setting up a personalized profile on Twitter, there’s not much to do. It’s very easy and takes only 5 minutes.

All you have to do is

1. Login to your Twitter account and go to your Twitter settings page.
2. select a pre-existing background (or create a customized one),
3. select your avatar thumbnail photo,
4. then fill in some short “bio” and “about me” information,
5. and of course add your internet business web site URL.

As far as your avatar goes, it is probably a good idea to use the logo for your internet business; and it may also be a good idea to create a custom background that also includes your logo.

Regarding the bio section create a bio section that briefly explains

1)    what your business does; and

2)    what the purpose of this Twitter profile is (i.e. to give away free stuff, to hold contests, or to provide free information).

This web 2.0 marketing tip tip closely relates to tip #1.

Once you have your web 2.0 site profiles setup,

1. you’ll want to start finding followers;
2. and then using those followers to collect information and market products.

As you go through this process, it is important to maintain a coherent message.

For this reason, it might make sense…

… to spend some time planning a general “theme” for your web 2.0 profiles.

For instance, is their purpose to alert people to sales and to tell them about contests you are holding? Or is the purpose to discuss the general industry in which your internet business falls; and mention your new products casually?

There’s not necessarily a best approach to take here, but it is important that you pick one and stick with it.

Creating an incoherent message and confuse and drive away potential customers who are following you.

Now that you’re ready to enter the world of web 2.0, it’s important for you to spend some time carefully thinking about your web 2.0 identity.

Before you create a Twitter account, launch a Facebook fan page, and begin to market your business through web 2.0 channels you need to know what image you want to project.

The first thing you will want to do…
…is decide whether you should market your business

• as your business,
• as yourself,
• or as both.

Each of the three options has benefits, but it is ultimately up to you to decide which will work best for your particular situation.

Once you have selected your route, you should create accounts on web 2.0 sites and setup a profile that reflects your choice.

For instance, a Twitter account for your business should focus exclusively on business activities—and not your personal life.

What you probably need is a simple step by step plan to implement web 2.0 marketing to your business.

Well, you guessed it: here it is!

If you follow through with this simple step by step plan, you’ll achieve a presence in the web 2.0 sphere that very few of your competitors can match.

The rise of web 2.0 has transformed internet business as we once knew it.

In the past, business owners were limited in

• how they interacted with customers,
• how they collected information about them,
• and how they marketed new products and services to them.

Today, these strictures have been removed, permitting business owners to gather information, learn, and respond much faster than ever before.

It has also transformed the internet business landscape in another way:

by creating a rift between those who know how to navigate web 2.0 sites and services; and those who do not.

Those who don’t know how to use web 2.0 services may find themselves on the defensive constantly—doing anything to retain customers—even if they had a successful business model only years ago.

Those who feel comfortable with web 2.0 may now find themselves at a significant advantage.

Whether you’re currently using web 2.0 to promote your internet business or are thinking about doing so, it is important for you to understand how to do it correctly.

No matter whether you’re inexperienced or a veteran social marketer, if you don’t have the right information, it can be easy to botch a marketing campaign or simply run out of ideas.

Fortunately for you, this blog post series was designed for people in your exact position: those who know that web 2.0 is an important part of doing business today; and who want to learn how to use it correctly.

In the rest of this blog post series, I’m going to provide you with 77 easy top tips that you can use

• to integrate web 2.0 into your internet business,
• to market your products,
• to find new customers,
• to manage existing customers and extract information from them.

They are stand-alone tips. You can do them step by step from start to finish, or you can just do a few of them.

Consolidate everything that is working; and move forward with a new model.

These unprofitable sections of your internet business might include websites that are poorly monetized; or products that don’t seem to sell very well.

Whatever the case may be, consider selling it on a forum like SitePoint.

If you have monthly revenue data (from AdSense or PayPal records), this will be helpful.

Even if the site doesn’t sell well for you, that doesn’t mean it can’t for someone else.

This is something that is important to highlight when making the sale.

Point out the positives about the site (such as its daily unique visitor counts); and then mention how this can potentially make more money if monetized better.

One good thing about selling your unprofitable sites is that you can usually get something like 7-10 months worth of profit from the sale.

Even if your site was making a meager $100/mo, this could translate into an immediate sale for $700-1000.

As far as e-books, reports, and unprofitable intellectual property go, consider selling them on forums.

Do whatever you need to in order to make the most from them—whether it be selling the master resale rights; or simply selling them to many people with a restrictive license.

One way to do this is to make offers that they cannot refuse.

For instance, you could offer to develop a product independently and at your own expense (and also agree to revise it until the JV partner finds it acceptable) if your partner will give you a mere 5% split of the profits she receives from promoting it.

While it might seem like you’re giving away too much here for it to be worth it, this can often be one of your best options when you’re in a bind.

If even one marketer with a large list accepts this offer, you have the potential to make hundreds—if not thousands—of sales. This could translate into you making several hundred dollars in the span of two weeks.

This might consist of something like a standard graphics package for a site, including a logo and banners; as well as a 10-15 articles.

Once you have created your content mini-site, consider how best to sell it.

Usually, the best place to sell it is a marketing forum.

The price and the number of copies you want to sell may be harder question.

If you believe you can make two sites per day, then it may make sense to sell them for as little as $30/each.

Remember, also, that you should research the topics you pick in advance, so that the sites you create will target lucrative keywords for your buyers.

If you need cash badly, consider using this section on one of the larger Internet marketing forums to sell something that a lot of people need for very cheap.

For instance, consider writing a 15-page report on a current hot topic; and selling it for $3 per copy as a special offer.

This may sound like a tiny amount—and indeed it is—but that’s exactly the point.

You’re not selling a massive, comprehensive set of encyclopedias.

You’re simply selling something small and targeted for a tiny price, so that potential buyers don’t have to think hard about what to do.

If you do a good job with this approach and create a valuable product, there’s a good chance you’ll make hundreds of dollars from your offer.