Internet marketing is now a crucial part of any business marketing plan. However finding the time in most medium to small business to focus Internet Marketing is difficult. If you wish to make real progress, you must set time aside some dedicated time each day for marketing online. Why don’t you take a moment right now to block out regular time for online marketing over the next few months, beginning today.  If you really want to improve your Internet marketing presence then you need to give it the focus it requires.

Spend some time now to define some Internet- based programs in your plan. You don’t have a  plan yet?  No problem. Now is the time to put it in place.  You want to finish your social media marketing plan so you can plan your activities appropriate, get the right training of find the right people to make sure it happens You can however, begin improving your online presence today by doing one or more of the following:

Join an Online Network

All of the social media networks allow you to set up a profile page about you or your business.  This allows to see your professional interests and will lead onto interaction with others who have your same professional interests.  Each network has a slightly different focus and caters to a different type of audience, each having their own culture, which you’ll want to read about before joining. It is a good idea to spend some time watching until you understand the rules, before plunging in. Some networks to explore: facebook.com, linkedin.com, myspace.com,  twitter.com.

Online Interviews

Videos, Podcasts, Webcasts, blogs and newsletters (ezines) are all venues for online interviews or discussions. You’ll can approach publishers who conduct interviews with guests such as yourself.  Finding opportunities will take some research. You can searching general search engines (such as google.com or bing.com) or directories. Some directories to get you started: podcast.net (podcasts), and ezinehub.com (ezines).

Create a Press Release

Most importantly, the release must be something that is newsworthy to the media.  Be sure to include a link to your Website or blog in the press release. Finally, distribute the release through an online press release service such as PRWeb.com.

Start Surveying Your Website Visitors

Surveys give you an opportunities for improvement.  Online attention spans are very short, try asking a single two-part question such as Fred Reichhold’s Ultimate Question:  On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to recommend __________. Fill in the blank with your Website name (or other relevant product). To those who reply with a 6 or lower, ask why not.  If you look closely you will see a pattern in the comments left by the recipients that will point to ways of improving your Website.  People love to give feedback. There are software packages to help you set up an online survey.  On such is surveymonkey.com, a popular interface for producing online surveys.

Identify 5 Bloggers in Your Category

Send them one of your products as a gift. This will  expose your product to influencers in your market.  You are giving them an opportunity to try it free and thereby making a connection. If they like it, they might give it a mention on their blogs. Note that this is a subtle online marketing technique. The idea is NOT to advertise to them but to ask a favour of them or ask them to blog about the product. Choosing to mention (or not mention) your product should be solely up to them.  By creating good relationships with these sort of people and making positive comments on their blogs will also attract them to your blog.  This helps to create a good community profile for yourself and people will start to see you with some credibility.

You can find and read blogs by searching blogging directories such as technorati.com.

Study Your 5 Closest Competitors; Websites and Online Marketing Activities

By doing this you are gaining a better understanding of trends in your industry, you will also gain new insights into promotional strategies and tactics for your own business. As you research, brainstorm a list of ideas and use that list to plan a new online strategy or tactic for your own business.

There you have it, six ideas for improving your online marketing presence. Choose one and get started today!