Once I became certified in Social Media Networking my business took on a whole new caliber and niche market.  I have new clients coming in weekly.  I am currently working with a writer and we do package deals to help our clients have great success with social media. 

Here are some more examples of what getting certified with Craig Cannings and VAClassroom.com can do for your business:

One graduate of the Social Marketing Specialist Training Program at VAClassroom mentioned that she landed a great new Social Media client in the plumbing business. Plumbing? If pumbing businesses are starting to use Social Media Marketing strategies, then can you imagine the massive potential client base that is just waiting to be tapped into?

Another graduate from VAClassroom, mentioned that she is working with a Real-Estate company setting up a blog and performing other Social Media Marketing activities.

There are so many vertical markets to tap into and the opportunities for Social Media Marketing Specialists are truly endless at this point!

Since Craig at VAClassroom is so excited to hear these success stories from the graduates of the training program, he wants to make sure that as many people as possible have the opportunity to be trained in this “high demand” area right now.

So, VAClassroom is running a special for the last ten days of April.They are knocking off an additional $100 on our training program ($397) and offering it to you for $297 until midnight on April 30th.

If you are serious about growing your business in 2009, then there is no better opportunity right now then to position yourself as a Social Media Marketing Specialist.

Just click on the link below for all the course details. Also, please make note of the below coupon code that will give you the $100 discount off our training program.

Click Here: http://tinyurl.com/dykp2w
COUPON CODE: april09

Once you click one of the order buttons, you will see a “coupon” field where you can insert the above coupon code.

In these trying times for the economy and money is tight we are all looking at ways to tighten up our marketing efforts. 

Here are 5 tips for Free or low cost advertising

1.  Submit an article to your newspaper.  This article should be of interest to people and not solely based on your business.  Remember to submit it to the correct editor that handles the articles.

2.  Write a Press Release about your business.  Have you learned something new with your business or made any additions?  Announce it to the world!  Once you write a press release there are numerous places you can submit them.  Submit to the editors of your local newspapers and submit online to the online press release websites.

3.  Make a Donation to your church or another community event.  A lot of places do fund raising.  This is a great way to advertise your business through giving.

4.  Have fun with Social Media!  Join Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.  Join groups that relate to you or your business on these sites.  Become engaged in conversation with others.  Build those relationships with others. 

5.  Volunteer.  I cannot stress enough how good it feels to volunteer your time and services to others.  Businesses and especially non-profits are always looking for volunteers.  If you cannot find a place to volunteer call your local Volunteer Hot-Line and they will line you up with a place. 

We all want business right now.  Do your part to help others.  Think outside the box and have fun with this.  Getting your name and business name out there can be challenging but fun at the same time.  

By now most of us have heard about Twitter, a social networking site that is described as a mini blog.  As texting is to the cell phone, Twitter is for the computer.

If you are a entrepreneur or small business owner social networking is a must for your business.  You should be on all 3 social networking sites which are Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

If you are unfamiliar with some of these social networking sites, Twitter you get followers, LinkedIn you make connections and Facebook you are friends with others. 

Twitter now has over 7 million people as of March 2009.  It is the largest in the world and the best part – it is FREE!  The 3 social networking sites I have mentioned are all FREE. 

Sell on Twitter?  You bet!  For example Dell computers last year made 1 million off of Twitter.  How did they do it?  For people who followed them they offered promo codes for money off of computers.  The special was only for Twitter people and they had a special promo code to use
when ordering the computer. 

However before you sell you MUST build relationships first.  That is the most important.  People are not going to buy from you unless they know and trust you.  If you go out there and try selling, selling, selling on Twitter it won’t work.  Build those relationships first.  When first starting out on Twitter tweet about 3-5 times a day.  As you grow more familiar with it, tweet more often. 
Promote other people’s products.  Then in turn people will promote you.

I am on Twitter to network with others.  I love helping others connect. 

What is your goal for your business?  Make it work with Social Media

Jo Simmons is a Certified Social Media Expert and can help entrepreneurs and small business owners with their social media.  She owns a Multi-Virtual Assistant company called www.simmonsvirtualassistant.com.  You can contact Jo at 605-221-5605 or by email at jo@simmonsvirtualassistant.com