You would have to have been living under a rock not to have heard about the “New Media” or “Social Media” and how many businesses are using this platform to market their products and services online. Here are 25 of the most important concepts to grasp to make sure this platform works for you and your business?
Just so we are on the same page, here is my definition of Social Media. Social Media is any online platform where people can have conversations and create relationships with other people. Social Media Marketing is when you leverage those relationships to market your products and service.
- Connection – The social networks are built around this concept, so it is very important you get this first for success. You begin by connecting with your friends, family, and people in your target market. Then you connect with their friends and family. Before you know it, just a few connections become many.
- Conversation – One of the most important things to remember on the social networks is you cannot begin with the end (sales). It’s like going to a cocktail party. Would you go to a party, meet someone new and right away launch into a sales presentation? Of course not. You would first get to know each other this is what social media allow you to do online. You begin with a conversation, and you learn what your new friend needs and how you can help them.
- Create Relationships – As you have these conversations online, you begin to get to know each other. This leads to a better understanding of what your new friends need and what they love to do. You find out how you can help them. Like all great relationships, it should be less about you and more about them.
- Content – The saying on the Social Networks is CONTENT is king! Your goal is to provide useful, relevant, free content to all your new friends so they can get a feel for what you do and how you can help them. Don’t worry about giving away too much because strangely, the more you give, the more you will get in return. It’s a huge paradigm shift from the traditional marketing model, but it does work.
- Community Building – Your community is your core group of like minder individuals. They more time you spend on the social networks the bigger that community will become. It starts out slow but as your community grows the faster you will grow your connections because you have access to an ever growing pool of people. For example, if you start with ten friends and each of them have ten friends you then have access to 100 people. Once you become friends with those people, you then can connect with each of their ten friends, and it just goes on and on in a geometric progression. Now not every one of their friends will become your friends but the larger the pool of choices the more chance you have to grow the number of people you have relationships with.
- Caring – As human beings we all hunger for other humans to connect with. It’s just built into our DNA. Because our jobs and family commitments isolate us a lot of the time, it becomes harder and harder to find and create connections. Our online communities can help to fill that void. The most successful communities are the ones where people truly care about each other and try to help each other. When you give of yourself, you open yourself up to receive more in return, and this is where Social media shines! It is the perfect platform for giving to others.
- Clients – Studies show that people prefer to do business with other people they know like and trust. Once you grasp all the previous concepts the next logical step is for your friends to do business with you. The cool part about this is you don’t need to “sell” your products and services. Those people who need what you are selling come to you presold. Because of everything you have given them for free online
- Find People Interested In Your Product or Service
Social Media Marketing is an excellent way to find people interested in your product or service. You can easily find discussions and join in the conversation. Keep an eye on the conversation, drop in when you see where you can add value, offer tips and resources, however, do yourself a favor, Be Social! If you wade into the conversation with constant “buy my stuff” you will be ignored.
- Deliver Quality Content
You can create blog posts, share pictures of your products, ask questions, conduct surveys, and write articles, share teleseminars and webinars. There are 100’s of ways to share quality content. However, in the beginning, it can be challenging to know just what to post. You can find information that others have posted and share it. Remember this content does not always have to be yours, but please do give credit where credit is due. Make sure you name who created the content, they deserve the credit. - Gather Their Information
You may be creating a list of followers on Twitter or a great group of friends on Facebook, remember that information belongs to Facebook and Twitter, it is not yours. They could shut down, or god forbid, block you. You must have a way of gathering the information of the people who are interested in your product or service. There are various services out there such as Infusion Soft, 1Automation Wiz or Mail Chimp that can enable you to collect the names and email addresses of the people who are interested in your product or service. These systems will also enable you to follow up and stay in touch consistently and easily People ask me “just how do I make money with social media?” That would be similar to asking “How do I make money with a yellow pages ad?” Social media is where you find people who are interested in your product or service and where people find you. Take the time to learn it yourself or find someone to do it for you.
- Share tips, tricks, and ideas
If you have a way to help do something faster, share it with others. They will appreciate it. - Retweet or repost other people’s stuff
This one will get some great Social media love going on, and they will be more likely to help promote you as well. - Be part of the conversation.
Don’t just post your stuff. Talk to people, share with them. Offer advice and help them out. Comment on what they have going on as well. - Be consistent.
Don’t slack off. Ideally, you will post once a day, but at least post once a week. Keep connected with other people. Reply to their comments, ask questions, and answer other people’s questions. But post often. You can’t expect to be good for a week and then let it go to nothing. People will think you dropped off the Earth and stopped following you. They will give up on you because they expected you to be part of the conversation and you let them down. It takes time and consistency to work for you. Pretty much every marketing venue out there is the same, but social media marketing is more so than anything else I have ever seen. Let me tell you about an example of this. I have a lot of followers on Twitter. From time to time I like to go in and clean up my list. One of the first things I do is look for people that haven’t posted for a while. I just wiped out over 100 people that haven’t posted anything in over six months. YES, six months! Many of these people started their accounts for business, and then were really good for a month or so and then gave up on it. They stopped posting and say that Twitter isn’t a good marketing tool. Now I hear this about just about every type of marketing I see people trying from postcards to networking, to newspapers, to online marketing. Too many business people think that they can just try it for a bit and if it doesn’t work, drop it and move to the next shiny object. If you want any marketing to work, you have to give it time to work. People aren’t going to buy from you right away. They don’t know anything about you. They need to get to know you first and get to trust you. Especially, with Social Media. It’s a harder place to get people just to buy. It’s exactly what the name implies “Social” media. That means that you have to be social and build a relationship with your followers. And one of the most vital things is that consistency will help you build that relationship. With all the tools out there to cross promote your social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc., there isn’t any reason you can’t keep up with it. I spend about 15 minutes a day, and most of that is actually in direct communication with other people. By the way, that 15 minutes is for ALL of my social media sites, not just one. You need to keep up with it. If you can spend 5 minutes to post something that you can share with your followers, it will build each and every day. You will build a better relationship with those people and the byproduct of that… more sales. Here is a couple of things that you can post that will help build that relationship with others. By just following these few steps a few minutes a day you will build up a large following of loyal fans that want to know what you have going on and share out your message with their followers. But, be consistent. Don’t let your work go to waste. It’s going to take a bit longer but you will have a much stronger following, and people will be much more likely to want to hear what you have to say.
- Connection to a combative diary post: There’s nothing higher for inspiring engagement than somewhat disputation.
- Let Interest move you: Interest could be a goldmine regarding finding staggering pictures you’ll share (especially pictures with quotes). Essentially make a point to offer right credit.
- Share a valuable asset: If you’re included concerning sharing the first accommodating information along with your adherents, don’t be hesitant to direct them to various individuals’ significant substance (not just your own).
- Post a Slide Share Introduction: If you might want to search out one that is as of now turned out to be very much enjoyed, visit the ‘Inclining in Social Media’ segment at the most reduced of the Slide share landing page.
- Connection to a contextual investigation: Case examines pleasant for conveying accommodating data in an exceedingly way that is extra food and vile than an average weblog post.
- Connection to partner industry-related IFTTT formula: Haven’t distinguished of IFTTT (short for If This Then That)? You might want to find out it out. At that point share a connection to a recipe your supporters would see accommodating.
- Fire audits or tributes: Eliciting surveys from fans or devotees is one among the best ways that to encourage tributes you’ll use as social verification on your site.
- Fan photographs: scrounge around for hashtags related to your business or item, and offer a client picture on Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest.
- Advocate an instrument: Share an (ideally free) device or asset you’re suspecting that your supporters would notice helpful.
- Share a most loved book: practically like #23, offer a book suggestion your fans or supporters would appreciate.
- Every day inside the life post: gives a recap of a commonplace day inside the lifetime of a visual creator, creator, CEO, and so forth.
- Advocate your most loved items: If you’re AN internet business site, share a stock of your high merchants or most noteworthy evaluated item. In case you’re an administration provider, share a stock of the item that helps you achieve your business.
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