QR Code Generator zxing The QR Code Generator from the ZXing Projectis workable for the following information types:

* Calendar event,

* Contact information,

* Email address,

* Geo location,

* Phone number,

* SMS,

* Text,

* URL,

* WiFi network.

To add a Geo location, you can enter the latitude and the longitude, paste a Google Maps link, or find one in the map.

2. BeQRious

QR Code Generator Beqrious With BeQRious, you can generate many types of QR codes:

* URL,

* Email address,

* Phone number,

* Text,

* Contact information,

* SMS,

* YouTube,

* Services,

* Graphical (to put an image into your QR code for a URL),

* Google Maps.

The Graphical is the most cool feature of the BeQRious QR Code Generator.

3. Delivr

QR Code Generator Delivr The DelivrQR Code Generator is workable for the following information types:

* URL,

* Services (such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, etc.),

* Google Maps

* Contact information,

* Email address,

* Phone number,

* SMS to phone number,

* SMS to short code,

* Text,

* RSS feed.

So, the special features of Delivr are services, SMS to short code and RSS feed. You can shorten the URL with the delivr.com domain, choose the QR code size (Small, medium or Large), or download the QR code as PNG or EPS file.

4. Azonmedia

QR Code Generator Azonmedia The AzonmediaQR code generator supports the following code types:

* Text,

* URL,

* Phone number,

* SMS,

* Email address,

* Email message

* Contact details (vCard & meCard),

* Google Maps( location search is available),

* Social networks (such as Facebook, Twitter, Delicious and some other services).

For the QR code, you can change its error correction quality, point size and color, download the image, or embed it into your website or blog.

5. Maestro

QR Code Generator Maestro Maestrois a free online QR code generator which is available for you to convert the following information types:

* Phone number,

* SMS,

* Google Maps （location search is available）,

* URL, * Contact information (MeCard, BlackBerry Pin and BlackBerry vCard),

* Text (RAW), * App Store (for Apple, BlackBerry, Android or customized),

* Calendar event (vCal).

The QR Code will be generated instantly after you enter the information.

6. goQR.me

QR Code Generators GoQR.me The goQR.mewebsite is available for you to generate QR codes from the following information types:

* Text,

* URL,

* Phone number,

* SMS,

* vCard.

You can select the size from 60 x 60 to 1000 x 1000, change the color, margin, encoding and some other output, or enter “http://goqr.me/[text-or-URL]” into the browser address bar, then the QR code will be generated instantly.

7. Online Qr Lab

QR Code Generator onlineqrlab The Online Qr Labwebsite is available for you to generate QR codes from the following information types:

* Text,

* SMS,

* Email,

* Call,

* Contact,

* Location.

You can change the QR code size and the encoding type.

8. Mobile-Barcodes

QR Code Generator mobile barcodes Mobile-Barcodescan generate the following types of QR codes:

* URL,

* vCard,

* Text,

* Phone number,

* SMS,

* Email address You can embed the QR code into your website or blog with the HTML code.

9. KAYWA

QR Code Generator Kaywa KAYWA is a simple website for you to generate 4 different QR code types:

* URL,

* Text,

* Phone number,

* SMS. You can choose a size (S, M, L or XL) for the QR code.

10. BeeTagg

QR Code Generator BeeTagg The BeeTagg QR Generator supports the following information types:

* URL,

* RSS feed,

* Contacts,

* YouTube,

* eBay.

You can shorten your long URL with the BeeTagg Optimize Size option, and you can also create BeeTagg code and Datamatrix code besides QR Code. Among the above 10 websites, ZXing Project is my favorite, which one is yours? Or do you have any other QR code generators? Share with us by adding your comment below.

So here I present to you 21 Cool Ass WordPress Plugins. Your blog is incomplete without these:

——————————————————-

1. All-in-One SEO Pack

The All-in-One SEO Pack is the ultimate SEO (Search Engine Optimization) plugin out there. It automatically optimizes your blog for search engines, and has several options for the more advanced users.

2. Akismet

Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not, and lets you review the spam it catches under your blog’s Comments admin screen. With the ever increasing amount of spam on the web, you’d be dumb not to get this plugin.

3. FeedBurner FeedSmith

The FeedBurner FeedSmith plugin detects all ways to access your feed (e.g. yoursite.com/feed/ or yoursite.com/wp-rss2.php etc) and redirects them to your FeedBurner feed so you can track every possible subscriber. It will forward for your main posts feed, and optionally, your comments feed as well.

4. Google XML Sitemaps Generator

The Google XML Sitemaps Generator plugin generates an XML sitemap of your WordPress blog. Ask, Google, Yahoo!, and MSN support this format. Having an XML sitemap and submitting it to the search engines that support it can really increase your blog’s search engine visibility, especially when it’s new.

5. WordPress.com Stats

WordPress.com Stats is a traffic statistics plugin that shows only the most popular metrics a blogger wants to track – such as page views, referrers, top posts & pages, search engine terms, and clicks – and provides them in a clear and concise interface.

6. Sociable

Sociable automatically adds links to your favorite social bookmarking sites on your posts, pages, and in your RSS feed. You can choose from 99 different social bookmarking sites.

7. WP Super Cache

I’m sure you’ve heard of the Digg Effect and the Slashdot Effect. They can cause a server meltdown, and if you’re on shared hosting, get your ass kicked out. To Digg-proof your blog, get WP Super Cache. It reduces the load on your server b generating static HTML files from your dynamic WordPress blog.

8. One Click

The One-Click plugin allows you to upload themes and plugins straight to your WordPress blog from the browser. Just upload the zip file, and it’ll automatically unzip the contents and install the plugin for you. Now you never have to use FTP again!

9. Dashboard Widget Manager

Ever felt your dashboard was too cluttered? Then download Dashboard Widget Manager. It allows you to remove unnecessary widgets from your dashboard so it’ll look clean and load faster.

10. Exec-PHP

Exec-PHP lets you execute PHP code in posts, pages, and in the text widgets of your sidebar.

11. Google Analytics for WordPress

The Google Analytics for WordPress plugin lets you insert the Google Analytics code automatically throughout your blog. It discounts your own visits, automatically tracks and segments all outbound links from within posts, comment author links, links within comments, blogroll links, and downloads. It even allows you to track AdSense clicks, add extra search engines, and track image search queries.

12. Lighter Menus

Lighter Menus creates drop down menus instead of the regular admin menus for WordPress, so you can browse items in one click. It’s fast to load, adaptable to color schemes, and comes with some sleek icons.

13. PageMash

Customize the order of your pages, manage their parent structure, and hide them, all using PageMash. It features an Ajax drag-and-drop administrative interface, and is a great tool to re-arrange the order of your pages quickly.

14. Simple Trackback Validation

The Simple Trackback Validation plugin helps to eliminate trackback spam by performing a simple a simple but effective test on all incoming trackbacks.

15. WP-Spam Free

Fed up of all that comment spam? Stop wasting time checking and clearing your Akismet spam queue every day and download WP-SpamFree. It will eliminate 99% – 100% of the comment spam you receive. Yep, I’m not joking. And it does it without captchas! WP-SpamFree uses a combo of JavaScript and cookies to stop the spambots. Since 99% of the spambots out there can’t process JavaScript, they won’t be able to submit comments. It also doesn’t slow down your blog one bit.

From the day I’ve installed WP-SpamFree, I’ve received zero comment spam! I highly recommend you get this one, unless you’re masochistic.

16. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP) inserts a list of related posts below each post on your blog, and in your blog’s RSS feed. It’s extremely configurable, and a must-have.

17. Contact Form 7

Even though there are tens of contact form plugins out there, I’ve always liked Contact Form 7. The problem with most contact form plugins is that either they are too simple or way too complex. Contact Form 7, on the other hand, is extensible yet easy-to-use. It supports Ajax-powered submitting, multiple forms, CAPTCHAS, and Akismet spam filtering.

18. Manageable

Manage allows inline editing of the date, title, categories, tags, status, and more of both posts and pages without ever having to leave the “Manage” admin section. No need to load each post or page individually. Simply double-click anywhere in the post or page row and when you’re done, press enter.

19. WordPress Database Backup

You should always backup your WordPress database regularly. However, doing it manually every time can be difficult and time consuming. The WordPress Database Backup plugin lets you easily backup your WordPress database tables. You can even schedule a backup, and it’ll email the file to you every day!

20. OIO Publisher

OIO Publisher is the ultimate ad management plugin. It’s great for those who want to sell ads on their blog by themselves. The great thing about OIO is that it removes all the hassle one gets from self-selling ad space: you only have to approve purchases. OIO Publisher handles everything else. Using OIO, you can sell reviews, links, ads, and even your own products! Heck, it even allows you to create your own affiliate program, so other people can sell your ads and products for you.

21. SRG Clean Archives

The SRG Clean Archives plugin displays your archive listings in a clean and uniform fashion, that’s search engine and user-friendly, on a dedicated page or in your sidebar. If you’re still manually updating your archives page, stop doing it!

Free wordpress themes. Just click and download.

Enjoy!

Free WordPress Themes

 Swiss Dessign

Info & Download | Demo

 Big Square

Info & Download | Demo

 WordPress Anniversary Theme

Info & Download | Demo

14. Aurelius

Info & Download | Demo

16. BlueBubble

Info & Download | Demo

Smashing Multimedia

Info & Download | Demo

Furvious

Info & Download | Demo

Inuit Types

Info & Download | Demo

39. Igloo

Info & Download | Demo

Many times, when I receive those requests, the blogs that are shown to me are either on Blogger.com or WordPress.com – Free blog hosting websites. Usually, when I receive these requests, my response is the same – get away from those sites and start your OWN hosted blog, one that you control and are free to do whatever you want with. This is advice that I received from one of my Mentors when I was getting ready to start my blog. In this article, I want to address why this should be done, however, lets first talk about these Free Services.

A Little about WordPress and Blogger.

Blogger and WordPress.com (not to be confused with WordPress.org) are amazing systems. They make it extremely EASY for anyone to sign up for an account, and start a blog, even without any significant technical expertise. Blogger, owned by google, has a very simple three step process to setting up a blog. You create and account, name your blog and then choose a template – That’s it! Your blog is up and running. WordPress is very similar to Blogger, and also allows for anyone to set up a free account and start blogging.

These blogging solutions are considered externally-hosted blogs because they are not hosted by YOU. The benefit is that they take care of providing the blogging software automatically. They also have some additional benefits of helping to drive traffic. However, there are some downfalls to using services like these.

Why you should host your own blog

Free is good! However, Free is not always best. The problem with using blogging platforms like Blogger and WordPress is that you do not own your blog. They are owned by Blogger and WordPress and they have the power to shut down your blog, whether you like it or not. When I first thought about getting into blogging, one of my mentors told me about a guy that did a lot of work with a blogger blog to grow his business to where he was making around $2,000 per month. Now, that’s $2000 extra dollars that can come in handy.

One day, he woke up to his blog being shut down by google, and never got a full reason why it was done. Because of that, his income dropped from $2000 to $0 overnight, and there was NOTHING he could do about it. Well, I guess he could’ve decided to start all over and grow it again to that point, but trust me . . . that can be a long a painful process. This is the biggest reason why I recommend for everyone to get their own self-hosted blog, but there’s more.

When you own your blog, you have the ability to do a lot more customization – something that comes in handy as your business grows. The possibilities are limitless and it provides you with much more space to grow. Owning your own blog is like having your own piece of virtual real estate. If you are serious about building an online business, this is essential.

WordPress’ Self-hosted option

I spoke earlier about WordPress.com, but there’s another side to WordPress, and that is WordPress.org. This is THE industry standard for self-hosted blogs and is also a free script that you can install on your own hosting account. This is the route that I’ve chosen and is the preferred option among bloggers today. One of the great features of wordpress is that it’s a system where anyone can develop plugins to work with wordpress, which gives you a significant amount of options to what you can get your wordpress Blog to do. If you have an idea of something to add to your blog, chances are, there’s a plugin for it, and if not, one can be developed.

The cost of owning your own blog

One of the great things about having an online business, is that it does NOT take a lot of money to get started. In the past, if you wanted to start a business that is to be successful, you needed to have a significant amount of startup capital, and in many cases, you needed to rent a physical building, and the costs just kept adding up. Fortunately, in this digital age we are living in, it’s quite affordable to have your own online Real Estate. Typical hosting accounts start around $5 per month (much less than renting a building for your business). For a few dollars more (around $8), you can host an unlimited amount of domains. In other words, you can have as many websites as you want.

Recommended Hosting and Domain Name Company

GoDaddy.com Hosting Plans from $1.99 per month! Now with Unlimited Bandwidth!

SEO simply means search engine optimization or search engine optimizer. You might be saying okay now I know what those letter stand for but how the heck does it work?

I’ts the process of increasing the amount of visitors to your website by obtaining a high-ranking placement in the search results page of a search engine (SERP-Short for search engine results). The higher a website ranks in the results of a search, the greater the chance that your site will be visited by a user. It is common practice for Internet users to not click through pages and pages of search results, so where a site ranks in a search is essential for directing more traffic toward your site. SEO helps to ensure that your site is accessible to a search engine and improves the chances that the site will be found by the search engine.

Now doesn’t that sound good?

Here are some helpful tips for your blogs to increase traffic and use SEO correctly.

Creating a SEO Friendly Blog

When creating a blog choose a title and URL that is search engine friendly and use keywords. Pick a topic and use it in your URL. Remember, a URL should not be more than 20 letters in length. This way the URL is easy to remember and type.

By using keywords in your URL and blog title, the search engines can relate searches to your blog.

If you are using WordPress there are many SEO plugins that give multiple options to help your search engine friendliness. Some themes have search engine options built into them already. Make sure you visit all the options and set them up. Just having the plugin or theme with SEO options built in is not enough if you do not set them up. Choosing a theme that is not complicated and that does not have “dirty CSS” coding is key also. You want the web crawlers to be able to read your content easily.

Creating A SEO Friendly Post

Each post you write on your blog is another chance for more traffic to your site. Create on topic posts using the topic as the keywords in the post, slug, tags, and categories. you can search for related keywords with Google Adwords Keyword Tool. Make sure you have keywords in the first sentence and last sentence. You can also use bold and italics to emphasize keywords. This helps the web crawlers understand the topic of the post. Link to content that is related to your blog post that is outside of your site. This will build relevance to your post.

If you have SEO options, fill them in with your keywords and create a description that is attention grabbing that includes your keywords. People searching for the topic will see the description. You want them to choose your site over the other search engine results.

Tracking SEO Results

You need to know if your SEO efforts have paid off. There are several ways to do this. Doing a simple search for your keywords is one way to see if you come up where you want to in search engine results. You can also use tools like Google Webmasters tool, your analytics program, and plugins to track your visibility. You should be looking how many times a certain keyword or keyword phrase was searched and a visitor arrived to your site, how much traffic is from search engines, and the most popular topics searched.

SEO is a very large topic and there are many steps involved in getting it right. You might not get it all at first but continuing to learn about it and finding with works for you is key. Search engine optimization is key to gaining more exposure and traffic for your blog.

Plugins are software scripts. Plugin is usually a number of files compressed into archive that can be downloaded to your hard disk from plugin directories or from the site of the plugin. This is the official plugin directory: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ You don’t need to have programming skills when using most of the plugins but you have to read carefully the instructions given by the plugin author and follow them. If something is wrong with the plugin you should consult the plugin author. When selecting a plugin you should see to compatibility of the plugin with the version of your wordpress blog. Very often it is written in the description of the plugin. It is strongly recommended to make backup of your site in case something go wrong, before installing a plugin.

Here are some cool plugins you should look to add….

• W3 Total Cache – This WordPress plugin is great for two reasons. First, it makes your pages load way faster. Second, since it stores static versions of your site, it requires much less CPU processing than using WordPress all by itself. This WordPress plugin is number one on the list for a reason.

• HeadSpace: WordPress SEO Made Simple- Move over All in one SEO. There’s a new guy in town. HeadSpace provides you with the features you need to drive your site to the top. People spend way to much time working on SEO and too little time writing great content. This plugin let’s you put your focus back where it belongs. It takes care of all the SEO work that your blog will need.

• WP-DBManager – This little gem is amazing for backing up your website. It actually has quite a few functions that it can perform but perhaps it’s most impressive feature is it’s ability to email the entire WordPress databse to me every day.

• Thank Me Later – This plugin is great. It sends an email to all first-time visitors. You can write up the email to remind them about your RSS feed or just to invite them to connect with you personally. I do both.

• SEO Smart Links – Do you inter-link your articles? You should. Linking within an article to other articles is a great way to build Page Rank throughout your site and it’s a great way to get readers to find your other articles on similar subjects. This plugin will interlink keywords to your other articles for you.

Have Fun!!!

As a marketing tool, blogs are full of all kinds of potential. Blogs have some truly unique characteristics as a marketing tool. First of all, they are much easier than newsletters when it comes to getting your idea across. They can be added to, and they can be updated at any time and from virtually anywhere. Blogs also have long lasting shelf lives, as they exist on the internet until you decide to remove them. This contrasts well to newsletters which have extremely short shelf lives, because once you send it out, it’s sent, then trashed, and gone. Unless you are just posting marketing materials that are deglossed, most blogs offer a large amount of credibility. Whether your blog is a personal blog or a business blog, viewers come to blogs expecting to find frank and personal perspectives on a topic that you are passionate about.

If you maintain your viewers and you respect the idea that you should be passionate about the content of your blog, then your credibility will go up, and this is what blogging is truly all about. Blogs are easy to syndicate, meaning that you can get your information and opinions out there, and can allow them to spread like wildfire. If you have an opinion to share, a product to sell, a brand to market or something else to say on the internet, and you think that people are going to want to read what it is that you have to say, then blogging is an excellent option for you to consider.

If you do not already have a blog that is associated with your business or your website, then now may very well be an excellent time for you to start blogging. You should not think that blogging is unnecessary simply because you are employing other strategies for marketing or communicating online. There are completely different dynamics when it comes to e-mail communication and blogging. Nothing facilitates conversation, communication and community the way that blogging does. There is no confusion about blogging being spam the way e-mails can be looked at as spam. Blogs have a long shelf life, meaning they last longer than e-mail correspondence and blogs work very well in conjunction with other forms of communication and methods of marketing as well.

Think about this, things online move rapidly. Spending 2 months to promote a blog and get traffic would only take 1 week of full absence to have that traffic diminish. With that in mind, we’re in big trouble. But of course like anything else, there are smart fixes and solutions for that and in this blog post I aim to talk about those things.

Write in one sitting

If you’re really busy, there’s a good chance that you can still have a day or two where you can write some blog posts. Believe its more than enough.

The way I do it most of the times is write my blog posts in one sitting. So basically you could pick your most productive day, in most cases, its every Monday, and then sit down and don’t do anything other than write blog entries. You would be surprised how many high quality articles you can pump out in that day.

For me I usually do it every morning mostly in my home office (anyone can call their room their office ) and spend almost 6 hours in writing articles. I can then come up with 5-8 blog articles that I can now set on queue. The important thing here is that you have the continuity of content which will definitely help with consistent traffic and awareness around the blogosphere.

Utilize Social Media accounts

In the event that you cannot really go out and market your blog through commenting or other things, you can simply just utilize your social media accounts such as Twitter, Facebook and etc.

Most people can access this through their mobile phones so just a simple tweet maybe every three hours can do wonders. Social media is still a hot commodity when it comes to traffic generation and if you have good following on social sites then there’s a good chance you can benefit from it a lot by doing it consistently.

Make things Structured and Automated

One thing that I learned a lot ever since having a job is making things automated and structured. Of course before, I thought I was very structured but I know I improved a lot.

Here are some of the things that you can automate so you no longer need to do it manually.

• Automate your tweets – This can be done in various ways. You can signup to a service known as twitterfeed. What it does is simply just automatically tweet your latest post published so there’s no need to do it manually. Another is by utilizing this plugin called as Tweet Your Old Post. This brilliant plugin simply just tweets any random posts of yours in a certain time interval and the beauty about this is that you can have control on types of posts that you want to publish. Let’s say you just want to continually publish your top posts. What you can do is filter it using your categories so that you can eliminate your personal posts from being tweeted.
• Structure your newsletter series – Just like in posting blog posts, you can actually do your newsletter of one week or 2 in one sitting. In my experience, the best way to do it is every Sunday since you are much more relaxed to write a series of newsletters.

Seek for outside help

In an event where you feel you really need outside help, you can simply just hire a freelancer out there to do things for you.

Contrary to what most people think, its actually not that expensive. You can simply do a contract that would pay a freelancer on a per article basis so you don’t need to shed a lot of money for something that is not done daily.

You can also hire virtual assistants that can oversee minor operations on your blog such as publishing blog posts, deleting spam comments, answering emails and maintaining small things. Hiring someone can be really really helpful especially if you want to maintain consistency in your blog.

There ya go! Those are the 4 things that you can do to be able to maintain your blog even when you don’t have time to do it on a daily basis. Strategic blogging involves being wise enough in facing certain problems mentioned above. If you can make yourself involved lesser than ever while still reaping the same benefits, then you’re doing it right.

But it’s not. The truth is, there are only five different ways the Fortune 500 use social media. Seriously — just five. And once you know what they are, you can figure out which ones would be most useful for your business.

These five social approaches, though different in many respects, all have one thing in common: Each of the Fortune 500 use them to generate a profit. After all, they’re not using social media just to be social. They’re using it to make money.

In order to make money with social media, you have to set up your campaigns to be measured. And I’m not talking about simple metrics like number of followers or unique page views (although those are important). I’m talking about real metrics like leads generated, prospects converted and profits realized. Those are the kinds of metrics that enable you to track the success of your social media campaign on an ROI basis. And when you’re tracking your social media campaign on an ROI basis, you’re making your CFO happy (along with your CEO, your CMO and everyone else in your company).

Branding

Some companies use social media strictly as a branding tool. Typically, this means running a YouTube campaign that (hopefully) gets a lot of buzz around the water cooler. While using social media strictly as a branding tool might be considered “old-school” these days, it can still generate some positive sales growth.

Take Toyota as an example. Its YouTube mini-series featuring the Sienna Family has generated more than 8.3 million impressions. Those are not passive impressions fed to consumers during a TV commercial break, but engaged views attained through social sharing. When people share your commercial with their friends, they’re reinforcing your marketing for you, and it’s the best kind.

Of course, one of the most successful campaigns of this type is the Old Spice YouTube campaign that has more than 140 million impressions and, according to Nielsen, helped sales increase 55% in three months, and a whopping 107% during the month of July alone. Part of what made this campaign successful was that Old Spice set it up so it could quickly respond to viewers’ comments about the videos. By engaging the viewers in the videos, Old Spice improved the stickiness of the campaign and, best of all, enhanced the viral nature of it.

e-Commerce

If you can sell your product or service online, then you’ll want to drive people to a landing page on your website where they can buy your goods. How can you accomplish this? Just do what Dell does. It tweets about special promotions for its folloers on Twitter. Right now, the DellOutlet account has 1.5 million followers. If you crunch some hypothetical but fair numbers on the back of an envelope, Dell’s ROI might look something like this:

DellOutlet followers: 1.5 million

DellOutlet followers who actually see the promotional Tweet: 50,000

Followers who click on the link in the Tweet: 500

Prospects who purchase a computer based on the Tweet: 50

50 purchases x $500 computer = $25,000

That’s $25,000 in revenue just for sending out a tweet. Not bad for a day’s work. Of course you’ll have to put in the effort to build your Twitter community in the first place, but those are certainly resources well spent, given the potential return.

Research

Many companies are using social media as a tool to do simple, anecdotal research. Sometimes, this involves building a website that engages customers in a dialogue. Starbucks has done this famously with MyStarbucksIdea.com. When visitors land on the site, they’re asked to provide new ideas to Starbucks on ways to improve the brand. Visitors can share ideas, vote on which ideas they like the best, discuss the ideas that have been submitted, and even see the results of their suggestions in action.

But you don’t have to build an entire website to keep tabs on your customers’ needs. Got a blog? Great. Ask your visitors to leave suggestions in your comments section. Have an e-newsletter? Terrific. Use the tools from ConstantContact, ExactTarget or MailChimp to include polls and surveys in your e-newsletter. Active on Twitter? Wonderful. Then use Twtpoll, SurveyMonkey or SurveyGizmo to drive people to a survey page on these sites.

The bottom line is there are plenty of ways to keep your finger on the pulse of your community’s needs, using social media tools that are readily available to both you and the Fortune 500.

Customer Retention

A good rule to remember is that it costs three to five times as much to acquire a new customer as it does to keep an existing one. Given that, wouldn’t it be smart to use social media as a tool to keep customers loyal and engaged? That’s what Comcast and Southwest Airlines do. They communicate via Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms to help solve customer service issues.

When Frank Eliason at Comcast first noticed that people were making comments about his company on Twitter, he probably wasn’t very happy. After all, if you’re going to Tweet about your cable company, it’s likely a complaint. So Frank took things into his own hands and started Tweeting back to the disgruntled customers. His tweets offered suggestions and tips on how to fix the problems people were having with their services.

Research has indicated that if you take a customer in a heightened state of anger and help them out, they’ll actually become brand advocates. In other words, they start promoting your brand to others because you reached out to them and helped them at a time of need.

That’s what happened with Frank and Comcast. Customers went from being disgruntled to being brand advocates — all because they were pleasantly surprised when Frank reached out to them via Twitter and helped solve their problems.

If you find yourself reading negative comments in the blogosphere about your brand, don’t shy away from them. Engage with them. You’ll be surprised how effective it can be.

Lead Generation

If you’re having difficulty selling your product or service online, you may want to invest in a social B2B lead generation strategy. At my company, we use social media to drive prospects to our online magazine for marketers. When prospects get to the website, they can read a blog post, watch a 60-second video or download a white paper. Once we gather their contact information, we (gently) re-market to them by reminding them of all the great results our partner generates for its clients.

This hub-and-spoke system works like a charm. Why? Because B2B and professional service firms are often sold based on a relationship. Much of the decision process is based on a vendor’s reputation and trustworthiness. What better way to build trust than by providing helpful, useful information to the client prospect via social media?

Remember, when you’re using this hub and spoke system, you don’t want to limit yourself to just the big five (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and MySpace). You’ll also want to use e-mail marketing, speeches, e-books, webinars, blogs, videos and other social media tools to build trust and awareness.

Jamie Turner is the chief content officer of the 60 Second Marketer, the online magazine for BKV Digital and Direct Response. He is also the co-author of How to Make Money with Social Media, now available at fine bookstores (and a few not-so-fine bookstores) everywhere.