What's Your Online Strategy?

"WE GET PAID FOR BRINGING VALUE TO THE MARKETPLACE" JIM ROHN

Building Your Own Brand

In the midst of your social media marketing strategy, I have to ask – is your blog at the heart of your marketing? 

I know that probably sounds strange to ask – you know me for my love of social media, especially when it comes to using social media for your SEO.  

But I have to tell you this – your social media should be an extension of your marketing strategy.  Your social media isn't the focus of your strategy.  It shouldn't be your primary strategy.  

And it shouldn't be what you focus the majority of your attention on. 

Sure, scheduling your updates and responding to your customers and prospects takes time.  

But your site is your virtual storefront. It is the one thing online that represents you and your brand to your customers, and it's the place online where you share your story with your customers.  

For this and so many other reasons, your website (blog) is at the heart of your online marketing and must be respected accordingly. 

(Please read the full article)

   Social media marketing demands being active on various social sites and having updated profiles on those social sites. However social site profiles and blogs are not what we should center our social media marketing around but rather you should have your own blog or website apart from the social sites you utilize. Social sites give limited freedom to totally organize and customize what you do with their blog platforms. Using social site blogging platforms does more to brand the social site than you. Invest the time to build and promote your own blog or website to truly brand yourself in social media marketing.

Sell Yourself

Currently, the key to social media selling success is to establish and grow a Twitter presence as well as LinkedIn presence. This allows a salesperson the ability to move a message among their followers/connections. The larger the following, the more eyeballs see the message and the eventually resulting in more leads. It is also necessary to establish one’s self as a thought leader in their field. By building this thought leader status, the sales professional will establish a positive reputation, become more relevant and will gain popularity in the field. Doing so will grow more followers, will garnish the attention from people that matter in that following and will give the ability to move messages that actually get read by decision makers.

Besides social media, a sales professional should also grow their own blogging presence. Steady industry blogging results in many new targeted visitors/readers hitting the salesperson’s website, reading the writer’s viewpoints and gaining information from the writer. Since online search marketing today is very centered around geographically local websites and blogs, a sales professional can now use this strategy to get prospects to find them. They visit the website based on a search that relates to something once blogged about, then they see contact information that is listed on the side of the blog. Hopefully, at that point they will contact the rep about what they sell. Even if they don’t contact the sales professional, that website view builds name recognition for the sale professional.

(To read the full article, which is highly recommended, click here) 

  Success in social media marketing is more than just sales. Your online "brand" will ultimately result in sales, particularly if you are viewed as a "thought leader" in your sales, product or service niche. Being a "thought leader" is not being viewed as some "guru" or super expert in some field of interest but rather as someone that is a channel for informative, inspiring and sometimes entertaining digital content, whether your own original content or sharing the content of others. Success in social media marketing also entails just being a "sociable" and a genuinely caring person. People buy from genuinely friendly persons and businesses with good products and services. Sell yourself in social media marketing.

Pinterest Marketing Works

3 Primary Pinterest Marketing Strategies

To manually promote your Pinterest account you need to connect and interact with others. Here are the primary 3 Pinterest Marketing Strategies:

1. Repin

2. Make Comments

3. Follow others

Any repin on Pinterest will give you opportunities to drive traffic. On Pinterest when you repin another’s pinned picture, they get notified via email. Hopefully they will follow the links to your account and see where you pinned their picture, giving you an opportunity to have them look through your boards. The obvious need here is to have boards that interest your new visitor to the point that they consider following your links to the site you are promoting.

Making comments is a great Pinterest marketing strategy that can drive traffic too. When you hold your cursor over a pinned picture you see the “comment” tab, the “repin” tab, and the “like” tab. When you make a comment is stays with the picture, so whatever you say has the potential to catch peoples’ attention and drive traffic- so say something thoughtful. You might even consider some kind of “call to action” if it’s appropriate. In addition, Pinterest will notify the person who pinned the picture that a comment has been made and give them a link to respond to your comment, again giving you a chance to drive traffic.

When you follow others on Pinterest you definitely will have the potential for driving more traffic. Each person you follow gets an email notifying them that you are following them and either says that they are already following you, or gives them a link to allow them to go to your account and follow you. So each person you follow is an opportunity to connect with someone new and drive traffic to your promoted sites and pages.

(To read the full article click here)

     

   On the surface Pinterest may seem to be not very relevant to marketing. Lot's of pretty pictures about fashion, food, nature and art abound on Pinterest but so do great infographics on social media and the Internet. I like the inspirational quotes that have been made into images as well. Create a Pinterest profile and at least one Pinterest Board while following the marketing strategies above and you will see the marketing potential of Pinterest come alive for you. Pinterest marketing works.

Social Media Branding

Social Media ROI

A great infographic explaining social media ROI.
Infographic by MDG Advertising

It's All About Sharing

Effective Social Media Marketers should:

1. Promote products, services, and deals less often and instead share advice, tips, and tools that enrich their followers’ lives, inspiring them to share those same tips with their followers and friends. Thus begins the viral marketing campaign via social media.

2. Never ignore messages, comments, and posts from followers and fans. Social media gurus are responsible for reaching out to followers as friends and equals, emphasizing the “social” in social media.

3. Repost and share helpful information and tips from followers, fans and customers. For example, if a business focuses on the sale of baking products, featuring recipes and photos from fans via social media will excite followers and promote more sharing, growing the brand online.

(Read the full article by clicking on the keywords, "Social Media Marketers")

  Social media marketing is not about selling. Social media marketing is all about sharing. Good social media marketers share tips and tools, both their own and others (providing links to the original content of others). In the simple process of sharing good content "follower", fans" customers and referrals will follow because that's the "nature of the social media marketing beast". It's all about sharing.

Image courtesy of [Stuart Miles] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The SMM Holy Trinity

Time Is Money

Using the power of social media is just plain smart if you’re starting an online business on a budget.

You can reach thousands of potential customers from social media without spending huge sums on advertising.

The internet and especially using social media can introduce you to people from all over the World. Some of these people may be people you already know whom were unsure what you did, while others will be people you don’t know and may never speak to or meet.

This new way of marketing can at times be overwhelming, frustrating, and downright confusing but the fact it is so popular means it cannot be ignored.

Which social media site should I spend the most time on?

In the beginning you will need to experiment with different sites. Use the ones that you are already on and then expand from there.
The great thing about social media is that you can track exactly where your enquiries (clicks) are coming from so you can easily measure which site is sending you the highest number of leads and more importantly leads that convert to sales.
This information takes the guesswork out of seeing which site is most effective for you.

How often do I need to be on social media to make my marketing succeed?

You have to be realistic about the time you have.
Social media is fast-moving and therefore it is much better to visit frequently in very quick bursts rather than putting in an hour just once a week.
If done properly, social media will be a very important part of your business and may be the major way that you attract new customers and promote your products. Many people who are involved in sales and marketing, network marketing, multi level marketing or affiliate marketing expect to spend of half their time finding new customers, so having a successful social media strategy is hugely important to having a successful business.

Is social media marketing expensive?

The major cost of using social media is your investment in time.
As a small business owner, time is a valuable resource and therefore you need to have a structured approach to the use of time within the areas of social media, but you also need to consider what alternatives there are and the time that can be used up in those other methods.

(Please click on the keywords "social media" to read the full article) 

   The good thing about social media marketing is the fact that SMM is low cost marketing. The bad thing about social media marketing is that it can be time consuming if you let it. Just remember that "time is money" and use your time wisely when using social media to advertise and promote your businesses and income opportunities.

"Social Media Karma"

I’ve distilled what I’ve learned into five key techniques ANYONE can use to become a leader in social media. Some of these would rightly be called “secrets” because so few people seem to have ever heard of these concepts. So if you’re ready to have thousands of new users interested in what you have to say, let me start with the biggest secret of all:

1. Find And Champion Key Users

2. Don’t Talk To An Empty Room

3. To Become A Leader In Your Own Community, Start By Helping Existing Communities

4. Create Community Interactions, Not Just Individual Interactions

5. Focus On High-Value Or Efficient Interactions And Connections Only

(Please click on the keywords "social media" to read the full article)

   Success in social media marketing is essentially following the "Golden Rule" of doing unto others what you want done to you. If you want followers then be a follower. If you want Twitter ReTweets then ReTweet others. If you want blog or article comments then comment on others blogs and articles. If you want your posts shared by others then share their posts. Doing this will create good "social media karma".

 

 

 

 

 

Be True To Your Self

Are you being consistent with your social media?  This may seem like a simple question, but when we break it down, there are many different pieces to look at.

Consistency does not just mean your are posting a certain number of times a day, every day.  That is definitely a part of it.  However, being consistent also refers to your voice or brand.

One of the worst things that you can do with your content creation and social media is change your strategy too often.  If you are working on engaging a certain audience, come up with a plan to do so and stick with it for a while.  



Bottom line, if you aren’t posting regularly, you have zero chance to reach your target audience. 

(Please click on the keywords "social media" to read the full article)

   Being consistent in your social media posting is more than posting regularly, as important as that is. Being consistent in your social media  posting is also being consistent in your "brand" or social media "voice". That means sticking to the niche, audience, subject and demeanor of your social media posting. For example if you post about marketing tips to online marketers in a serious vein, in essence your "voice", you shouldn't change from that social media "voice". Being true to your social media "self" is what being consistent in your social media posting is all about.

Social Media Marketing ROI

Is there really a good ROI for social media marketing?

Where Do You Share?

This is a great infographic showing where people share the most. Surprisingly regular e-mail ranks second! Where do you share the most?

When And How To Post

A great social media posting guide.

Just Be Creative

Great infographic for the primary uses of the popular social networks but with a little creativity all can be used for social media marketing, just be creative.

Social Media Marketing Karma

Social Media Optimization (SMO) is the practice of increasing the probability that people will pass along your message, website, or product through online social networks, and content sharing Websites.

Similar to Search Engine Optimization, a practice which seeks to increase the likelihood that people will find your site through search engines, SMO seeks to increase the probability that people will pass along your message, product or website through online social networks. SMO is often used synonymously with the larger practice of Social Media Marketing, which refers to the overall strategy of marketing through social media. "Optimization" refers to making your site more linkable and your content easy to pass along, and "Marketing" includes not just optimization, but actively participating in social media to spread the word.

(Please click on the keywords "Social Media Optimization" to read the full article)

   An important element in social media marketing is SMO or social media optimization. We all want our content to be shared through others social media outlets but the trick is how to get persons who read our content to share that content themselves. Obviously having quality content goes a long way in getting others to share that content. Providing social site buttons helps as well. But a forgotten element of SMO is us actually sharing other content ourselves perhaps letting that person know we shared their content. That creates good social media marketing karma, the essence of social media optimization, as I see it.

Your Brand Sells

The primary reason to use social media is to brand yourself. This infographic presents some great tips along those lines. Your brand is what sells in social media marketing.

New School Marketing

Social media markeing is the "New School" of online marketing that is very effective if you know how to use it.

Don't Overlook Moms

Don't overlook a very important Internet demographic, Moms!

The Social Media Wave

When comparing social media traffic to other forms of traffic, such as search engine, the numbers typically are going to look rather bleak. While you’ll hopefully see a spike in number of visitors and pageviews, that will often be accompanied by higher bounce rates, lower pageviews per visitor, and a lower average time on the site. With stats like this many bloggers wonder if social media traffic is even worth the time and effort.

Despite the tendency of many social media visitors to quickly exit your site and move on to the next one, there are still some very convincing reasons why you should care about social media and why it is worth your time.

1. It’s Free

2. Quick Results

3. It’s Flexible

4. It Gets Easier with Time

5. It Will Lead to Other Valuable Sources of Traffic

6. Building Links with Social Media is Safer than Buying Links

7. Social Media Users are Predictable

8. It Doesn’t Require as Much Time as You Might Think

9. Branding Through Social Media is Possible

10. The Future of the Internet is Social

(Please click on the keywords "social media" to read the full article)

    The future of online marketing will be social media though traffic exchanges, text ad exchanges, safe list, solo and PPC ads are still effective means of online marketing. Social media marketing is very cost effective compared to other marketing strategies though it can be a little time consuming. However the advantages of social media marketing far outweigh the disadvantages. Catch the next wave of online advertising and promoting, social media.