Social marketing isn’t as simple as most people seem to think. You cannot just join dozens of social networks, add a bunch of people, and start spamming your links. There is an intricate process you must follow in order to see results.
Don’t Spam
If you spam, people will automatically tune you out, and nothing you can do will make any difference whatsoever.
Many marketers jump right into social networks and start posting link after link. Not only could you run the risk of being banned if you do this but you will also upset the very people you are trying to market to.
I know it sounds strange to refer to spamming when you “technically” have permission to post your links. After all, these people knowingly confirmed you as their friend. However, that doesn’t mean they’re giving you permission to flood them with link after link.
In fact, it’s highly counterproductive to continually spam your links. You’re only going to make people ignore you – and they might even get you banned. Just don’t do it!
Instead, spend most of your social marketing time posting useful links, informative articles, and helpful advice. Post self-serving links only occasionally. You’ll get better results.
Interact with Followers
Don’t just talk. Listen! Interact with people. Let people feel like they’re getting to know you on a personal level.
Let me ask you something. Who would you rather take advice from if you were in the market to buy an HDTV – the sales guy at the store who works on commission, or a good friend who just bought a new HDTV recently?
More than likely, you’d rather take the advice of the friend, right? Why do you think that is?
It’s probably because you know the friend has your best interests at heart, and you assume the sales guy is only out to get your money. Right?
Well, guess what? People feel the same way about strangers on the internet. People will automatically assume that, as a marketer, you are only out to get their money.
You have to turn that on its ear. Make people see you as a trusted friend, or at least an unbiased expert. If you do this, your income will increase exponentially!
Get Personal
Interacting with your followers is important, but don’t forget to do so on a personal level from time to time. Don’t go overboard, but it’s nice to post information about your personal life now and then.
Post a cute picture of your pet. Let people see what you had for dinner at your favorite restaurant. Show people a picture of yourself on vacation. This will show people you’re a real person, not just some nameless, faceless marketing machine.
Avoid Controversy
Although you should interact on a personal level occasionally, make sure you keep your posts professional. In other words, don’t start rambling about subjects that might offend your core audience.
Don’t post about potentially offensive topics. Save those for your personal account, if you must. Stay away from discussions about politics, religion, drugs, alcohol, sex, and other potentially offensive topics.
The exception, of course, is if you’re marketing in these areas. If you’re specifically targeting a market such as Christians or the LGBT community, obviously you can post about such topics. However, make sure you understand your market well so you don’t inadvertently offend them.
It’s not true that any publicity is good publicity. Bad publicity most certainly can have a detrimental effect if you’re selling something!
Avoid Arguments
While it’s fine to engage in friendly banter with your followers, be sure to avoid getting into all-out brawls with them. Trading barbs is never a good idea. Allow people to disagree with you, but keep your responses polite and professional.
Let’s say you have particularly strong feelings about a particular subject and someone posts an inflammatory statement that upsets you. What should you do?
First of all, don’t ignore them. This could actually make them angrier, because people don’t like being ignored.
Instead, defuse the situation by posting something like:
“I personally disagree with you, but I respect your opinion. Thank you for posting your thoughts on the subject. ?”
It’s a good idea to put the smiley face emoticon in your post to let people know you’re being friendly. Sometimes words can be misconstrued online, because you can’t see someone’s facial expressions to tell in what context they made their statement.
Keep your responses polite and professional at all times. If you have to, step away from your computer for a while to give yourself time to calm down and think rationally.
Complete your Profile
Let’s say someone wearing a ski mask showed up at your door trying to sell you a car for a dollar. He refuses to tell you his name, and won’t produce any kind of identification. He refers to himself only as “Bob.”
It’s a strange picture, I know, but bear with me for a moment…
What would you assume in this situation?
You’d probably assume the guy was a scammer or a thief. You’d probably think the car was stolen, or that the guy was trying to get into your house to harm you.
That’s an extreme example, but it illustrates my point…
When you try to add someone to your friends list on a social network and you don’t have a complete profile, you’re nothing but a nameless, faceless stranger.
To some, you may be frightening – like a stalker. To most, you’ll only be a potential spammer, nothing more than a mere annoyance to be swatted with a single click of the “decline” button.
Either way, you’re not likely to receive a positive response.
As soon as you join a new social site, fill out your profile! Make sure you include the following, at minimum:
• A profile picture, ideally your own. If you feel you must use a stock photo, try to choose one that isn’t obviously stock. Find an average looking person who is casually dressed and is on a very normal looking background.
• Your date of birth. You don’t have to put the year if you’d rather not, but at least put your month and day.
• Your hometown. This isn’t absolutely necessary if you’re a private person, but it can help people trust you more if they feel they know the general vicinity of your location.
• Your website. Don’t forget to include a link to your blog or website! Not only will it show you’ve filled out your profile, but you may get some traffic from it.
• Basic personal information. Here, you’ll want to include a little information about your hobbies, interests, and passions – especially those that relate to the niche in which you’re marketing. Be sure not to include anything that might offend your core market, though.
A complete profile will instantly boost your trust level, and you’ll have a lot more people willing to accept your friend requests.
Use Hash Tags
Like using keywords in SEO, you should remember to use hash tags on sites that use them.
A hash tag is like a keyword or phrase proceeded by the # symbol. It looks like this:
#internetmarketing
The hash tag makes it easy to get more followers, because people will search for these keywords to locate information about subjects they are interested in.
Whenever you post something on a site that uses hash tags, be sure to include them in your post like this:
“Have you seen the new Home Flower Gardening show on HGTV? #homeflowergardening.”
Lifestreaming
Lifestreaming is a new phrase for a relatively old concept. Basically, it’s the use of aggregation services to pull together various media in one central location.
Some websites (like Posterous.com, which I mentioned earlier) make this simple to do in on location. You can also do it on your own blog by using a plugin like Lifestream.
Why use lifestreaming?
Because it provides a central location for all of your updates. This makes it easier for people to find out what you are up to.
Lifestream Plugin for WordPress
(http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/lifestream/)
(http://www.enthropia.com/labs/wp-lifestream/)
The Lifestream plugin allows you to:
• Add unlimited feeds and extensions to your blog
• Store feed history
• Group events to minimize spam
• Summarize your activities at a glance
If you don’t have a WordPress blog, there are plenty of other services you can use instead. I mentioned Posterous and Tumblr earlier, but here are a few more:
Remember, the more of these you use, the wider your reach will be. You can attract the users of these services, as well as additional organic search engine traffic.
Finding Followers
Obviously, the crux of any social marketing system is finding followers. But you shouldn’t focus solely on gaining large numbers of followers. You need targeted followers.
How is this accomplished?
First, you need to figure out where the people who are interested in your niche congregate.
Forums
Forums are a great place to find followers, because they are usually very well targeted to specific niches, and people who visit forums are already predisposed to socializing.
Join the forum and add a link to your social networking profiles in your signature. (Read the rules to be sure this is allowed!)
Look through the forums to see if there is already a thread for social networking. If not, you may consider starting one.
(NOTE: Only do this AFTER you’ve been a member for a while! Otherwise, people will assume you only joined the forum to spam your social networking pages.)
A good thread title might be something like:
• Are you on Facebook or Twitter?
• The OFFICIAL Social Network Thread
• Post your Social Profiles!
Pick a thread title you think would fit well with the forum you’re posting on and start the thread. Post links to a couple of your major profiles like Facebook, Twitter, and/or Google+. You can use these accounts to send people to your other networks, if desired.
Be sure to ask people to post their own links. This will make it more likely that your thread will stick around instead of being deleted.
Fan Pages
Obviously, it’s a great idea to start your own fan page, but did you know you can poach users from other fan pages, too?
You have to be careful about how you do this. If you’re too blatant about it, you’ll find that you offend a lot of people. You have to be subtle.
Log into Facebook using the account you want to add followers to. Ideally, this will be the account you have a fan page set up on. Remember, you can only have 5,000 friends on a personal account, but you can have as many fans as you want on a fan page!
In the menu on the left, click “More” to expand your options if you can’t see the “Pages” link. Click “Pages.”
Locate your page and click “Switch” beside the page’s name. This will allow you to start using Facebook as your fan page.
Now, use the search box at the top of the screen to find fan pages related to your niche. Click the “Like” button at the top of each page to join them. You can see how many followers a page has in the menu to the left. You’ll want to join pages that have at least 100 followers or so. Smaller pages aren’t usually worth the effort.
Now, make useful posts on those fan pages. People will notice your fan page’s name posting, and they’ll click it if the information you post is interesting to them.
You can also try to get the owners of other pages to promote your page. Simply link to those other pages using a “shout out”.
Type this into your page’s Facebook status:
“Shout outs to @Pagename, @Pagenametwo, @Pagenamethree!”
When you type the @ symbol followed by a name, Facebook will give you a drop down under your staus window that will show the profiles of the people or pages you mention. If you click those, it will make a link to the pages.
Not every page owner will automatically return the favor, but some probably will. This is especially true if you become friends with the owners. Cross promotion is a great way to benefit you both!
Directories
I spoke earlier about using various directories to find followers, but you should be certain you’re using them correctly. Don’t just start adding everyone you come across!
Look for targeted followers. Search by keyword. Locate people who are already showing an interest in your niche.
Hash Tags
Hash tags are popular on Twitter. Have you ever seen someone type something like “#keyword” in their post? That’s a hash tag. It’s like a keyword that lets people find your post when they search.
It’s an excellent way to uncover potential followers, especially if you can find trending tags in your niche. Just use the search box to search for keywords related to your niche and follow people using them!
In Conclusion
You now have all of the information you need to create a high powered social marketing campaign!
Focus on branding yourself as an expert in specific markets. Create a focused, direct marketing campaign for every niche you are involved in, and start engaging your audience directly through a variety of social media outlets.
The more you establish yourself as a credible source for information, the easier it will be to maximize your income, increase your brand’s overall influence, and fully monetize your social media activity!
It’s important to keep your social media accounts updated. You want to engage your audience, by posting frequently and remaining consistent. Try to consolidate your updates by connecting various social accounts so that when you update one – you update all others within the same market.
Good luck!
