亲爱的安妮：最近，我结束了26年的打工生涯，创办了自己的咨询公司，第一个客户就是我的前任老板。朋友向我推荐了一篇您的专栏，是有关如何开发新客户的，我都一一照做了。但我还想利用互联网让更多的人了解我所提供的服务。到目前为止，我使用了职业社交网LinkedIn，Facebook, Twitter和博客，但肯定还有其他一些在线推广的途径，您能给我一些建议吗？

    还有，我该怎么处理博客上的网友留言？博客上总会有些恶意评论，我该据理力争，还是置之不理？——单飞人

    亲爱的单飞人：“当下，网络营销和社交媒体的拥笃不少，但大多是夸大其词。”帕特里克•施华德菲格如是说。施华德菲格是一位经验老道的创业家，现在是企业家和小企业研究院（Entrepreneur and Small Business Academy）的领导人，该研究院设在加州伯克利，服务对象是全美小企业主。

    他补充说：“但是，的确有一些企业靠着互联网一夜暴富。”

    他们是怎么做到的？施华德菲格坦言，过去七年里，为了建立自己企业的公信力，提高知名度，他已“尝遍百草”。他承认：“有些行得通，大部分都行不通。”

    为了让其他“单飞”创业者少走弯路，施华德菲格撰写了《个体经营者营销捷径——利用资源，树立信誉，击垮对手》（the Self-Employed: Leverage Resources, Establish Online Credibility, and Crush Your Competition）一书，专门用来介绍创业经验。这本书分为80个章节，每章都循序渐进地介绍了打造品牌的步骤。

    可喜的是，大部分策略的成本都十分低廉，甚至是免费的，也比读者想象的更省时。比如，书中说“去相关行业论坛发上50条评论，尽显你的专业智慧。发一条有建设性的论坛留言也就不到10分钟的时间，发50条也就是几天的功夫。”当然，别忘了在帖子下面的签名处留下电话号码和邮箱地址。

    还有一个更高明的方法，就是摇身一变，以业内专家的身份通过iSnare和EzineArticles等收费低廉的互联网平台发表文章，并在文章里植入个人网站或者博客地址。

    施华德菲格说，文章不用太长，500到700字就够了，但内容要足够有见地。在线读者对这样的文章会更感兴趣，并渴望了解更多内容，最终他们会点击文中植入的网站链接。

    千万不要担心文章发表到网络后，客户免费获得了这些信息，就不愿再选择你的付费服务了。恰恰相反，这是放长线钓大鱼的策略。施华德菲格讲了一个故事，说的是波士顿一名牙科医师，写了一本20页的电子书，名叫《健康口腔，健康性爱》（Healthy Mouth, Healthy Sex），发布到网上供人们免费阅读。结果读者蜂拥而至，纷纷造访她的网站，甚至前往她的诊所，成了她的真实客户，她的年收入也从15万美元蹿升到了100万美元。

    你在信中提到你是Facebook的活跃用户。根据施华德菲格的建议，发表博客文章后，可以在Facebook页面上发布公告，并使用“Facebook评论”小插件，来增强和读者的互动。如果你还没有开始这样做的话，那就赶紧着手做吧！

    针对你所说的，有些互动有明显的恶意倾向，该怎么办呢？答案是，坚持回复。但施华德菲格建议，要先等24小时再说，等到自己的情绪彻底平复之后再去回复。他还说：“尽己所能回复这些负面评论；当然，总会有些不通情理的人。”

    “最重要的一点是，要保证你的回复中只有百分之五是针对存心找麻烦的人；而其余百分之九十五都是针对大部分读者，因为他们同样会看到最初的那条恶意点评。”换句话说，让本来和谐的交流气氛演变成一场骂战并非明智之举，它只会让人觉得你脾气暴躁，缺乏专业素养。

    施华德菲格也处理过不少类似情形，但他始终都尽可能把抨击的言论当做学习和改进的机会。这里有个很好的例子，他2006年录制的一条播客遭到了一番“恶毒的”评论，但冷静下来仔细想想，他才意识到，当时的确没有给出足够有力的数据来支持自己的结论。

    那段批评是在播客的第四节发布之后出现的，施华德菲格说：“如果你听完整个系列，会发现从第五节开始，我用来支撑观点的证据比之前多得多。换句话说，第五节往后的节目质量比前四节提高了不少。”

    这个故事的真谛在于：“负面评论有时候是求之不得的好东西，这听起来有点讽刺，但是这样的评论的确能帮助我们改进。”

    反馈：如果你也在借助网络开展营销，那么，您觉得哪些途径最有效？而哪些只不过是徒有其名？欢迎发表评论。

    翻译：富来细特

    Dear Annie: I recently left a 26-year corporate career to start my own consulting business, with my former employer as my first client. A friend sent me your column about how to drum up new business, and I'm doing everything it suggests, but I also wonder how to make the most of the Internet in getting the word out about my services. So far, I'm just using LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and a blog, but there must be more I could be doing online if I just knew where to start.

    Also, how should I handle negative comments on my blog? When people make nasty remarks about points I've made, should I respond and get into a protracted argument, or just ignore them? — Flying Solo

    Dear Solo: "A lot of people are singing the praises of online marketing and social media these days, but much of it is just a bunch of hype," observes Patrick Schwerdtfeger, a serial entrepreneur who now heads the Entrepreneur and Small Business Academy, a nationwide network of small business owners based in Berkeley, Calif.

    "A few businesses, however, really are using the Internet to explode their revenues practically overnight," he adds.

    How? Over the past seven years, Schwerdtfeger says he "tried everything" to build his own ventures' credibility and exposure. "Some of my efforts succeeded. Most didn't," he admits.

    To spare other solo fliers that trial-and-error approach, he has now collected his experiences in a book you might want to check out. Called Marketing Shortcuts for the Self-Employed: Leverage Resources, Establish Online Credibility, and Crush Your Competition, it's organized into 80 short chapters, each with step-by-step instructions on a different brand-building move.

    Happily, most of these tactics are cheap or free and take less time than you might expect. For example, Schwerdtfeger suggests, "Contribute 50 intelligent comments on relevant industry forums. Offering a quick piece of advice on a forum is easy and can be done in 10 minutes or less, so you could accumulate 50 of them in a couple of days." Include your phone number or email address in your forum signature.

    A more in-depth approach to positioning yourself as an expert in your field: Publish articles online, through low-cost services like iSnare and EzineArticles, and include a link back to your website or blog.

    The articles needn't be longer than 500 to 700 words, Schwerdtfeger says, but they should be packed with enough insight so that people who come across them through a search engine will want to hear more from you and will click on the link at the end.

    Don't worry that giving away information online will make prospective customers less inclined to pay for your services. Instead, it's more likely to prime the pump. Schwerdtfeger tells of a dentist in Boston, for example, who gave away a 20-page e-book called "Healthy Mouth, Healthy Sex" online for free -- and attracted so many visitors to her web site, and ultimately her office, that her annual revenues shot from $150,000 to over $1 million.

    You mention that you're already active on Facebook. If you haven't already done so, Schwerdtfeger suggests you start announcing your blog posts on your Facebook page and using the "Facebook comments" plugin to encourage interaction with readers.

    And what if, as you note, some of that interaction takes the form of snarky comments? Always respond to those, Schwerdtfeger recommends, but wait 24 hours first, to give yourself time to cool off. "Answer negative comments as best you can, but there will be some individuals you'll never be able to appease" he says.

    "The important thing to remember is that your response is only 5% intended for the person who's carping at you. The other 95% is intended for all the other people who will read the original comment followed by your response." In other words, letting the exchange deteriorate into a virtual shouting match will just make you look hot-headed and unprofessional.

    Schwerdtfeger has dealt with his share of hecklers, and he says he tries whenever possible to see potshots as a chance to learn something. A case in point: A "vicious" comment from someone about a podcast he recorded back in 2006 made him realize, once he thought it over calmly, that he wasn't giving enough hard data to support his conclusions.

    The criticism came after the podcast's fourth installment and, says Schwerdtfeger, "If you listen to the whole series, you'll notice that, starting in the fifth installment, my statements are backed up by a lot more supporting evidence. In other words, the later episodes are better than the first four."

    The moral of the story: "Ironically, sometimes negative comments are the best thing you can hope for. They tell you how to improve."

    Talkback: If you're using the Internet as a marketing tool, what have you found to be effective and what is just hype? Leave a comment below.