By Laureen Falco

I remember a few years ago, I took an E-Book Mastermind class with Bill Hibbler in San Antonio for three days. I signed up for this class, because I wanted to write e-books and books and put them on the Internet. At that time, I only used the Internet for business, personal e-mail and games.

In this seminar, there were only 8 people. A small class, but I've continued a friendship with at least 5 people in that seminar. Bill instructed us to open up Twitter and Facebook accounts. I wasn't exactly sure how I would use Twitter or Facebook, but I was open to the concept of connecting with a lot more people in order to market my products.

I slowly started adding friends on Facebook and following all my friends on Twitter. Slowly, but surely, I began to communicate with lots of like-minded people. As a member of the Indie Business Network, I began to follow all the members - and they began to follow me! I'm also interested in "green" or "eco" products, internet marketing and self-improvement philosophies. I found it easy to add friends on Facebook of like-minded people. I spent days adding potential "friends" over a period of months. As a result of that work, people began requesting me to follow them. In fact, today - two years later, I've had to turn down many requests for friends because I'm near my 5,000 friend limit! Two years ago, I couldn't even fathom having 1,000 friends!

I joined an Internet Coaching program - Pat O'Bryan's Portable Empire Coaching program (Gold). In this program, we got to interact with other internet marketers, participate in a weekly call, and learn through the private and group forums.

When I first joined this internet coaching group, I didn't even have a product completed. I was filming my soy candle DVD in Houston with a professional film crew while taking a full load of graduate classes. I finally completed my DVD in October, 2009, but had to work on a website to promote my DVD. That was first experience building a website (with a web developer), and learning how to market my DVD on YouTube, MySpace, Digg, and yes of course, on Twitter and Facebook too. I uploaded my video trailer and other "bonus" segments to YouTube - including an "Outtakes" or "bloopers" segment.

Since this was my first DVD, and the first time on camera in 10 years, we had plenty of video footage. I believe the amount we kept was in excess of 21 hours, and we edited to a final version of 50 minutes. I learned how to write press releases and market my video to the Associated Press, U.S.A. today, and thousands of media outlets across the country. I believe that I was able to really promote my video because I believe that I produced a quality product and I was very proud of it.

On the Indie Business Network site, I learned to upload pictures, video and articles on this website to promote my products. It's paid off, because my blog articles, videos and pictures have been featured. I was also interviewed and I was a featured member last December.

I learned how to shrink my website links so I could post my links on Twitter - which only carries 140 characters. I've also learned how to blog. I had my main company website built with a WordPress blog. I've been blogging and promoting my blog articles ever since.

I also learned to write articles on Ezine. I currently have 12 articles, with over 4,000 views.

I use to carry a Blackberry for work, and would only use it for phone calls when traveling. Now, I can honestly say that I'm addicted to looking at my Twitter, Facebook and e-mail accounts.

I interact with hundreds of people everyday, and this has led to great relationships, sales, and opportunities that would have not otherwise existed, if I didn't embrace social media.

I'm grateful that I've had wonderful teachers and coaches, and I know that there is much more to learn. I look forward to increasing my knowledge of using social media.

 

Laureen Falco is a CPA/Entrepreneur/Artist. She lives in Houston, TX and has filmed a dvd entitled "The Art of Soy Container Candle Making" available at http://www.SoyCandleU.com. She is currently conducting a social media workshop "How to Use Social Media To Market your Business" in Clear Lake, TX on Saturday, October 9th. More information http://www.ClearLakeSocialMedia.com