So now let’s talk about social media sites. There are hundreds (actually 1000’s) of Social Networks to join and participate in, however, I am going to point you in the direction of just a few:
- Facebook – a website that allows users, who sign-up for free profiles, to connect with friends, work colleagues, or people they don’t know, online.
- Twitter – think of Twitter as a global billboard. It can be used effectively on a much smaller scale, it just depends on what your marketing goals are.
- LinkedIn – this is a great place to reach out to people on a professional level.
- Youtube – is a great place to not only enjoy videos but also to interact with other YouTube members.
- Instagram – a free, online photo-sharing application and social network platform
- Pinterest – Users collect photos and link to products they love, creating pinboards and following the pinboards of other people whom they find interesting.
- TikTok – is a social media platform for creating, sharing, and discovering short videos.
Keep in mind, that social networking is all about building relationships, engaging in conversations, and providing relevant content, with the ultimate goal of drawing people into your message and onto your website.
Remember to mix it up, your status updates should include: thought-provoking questions, quotations, links to your website, links to relevant blogs and articles, pictures, and links to videos.
People want to do business with people that they know and trust. And, if all they know about you is the products you sell (or services you provide) – you are not networking, you are preaching!
Automation and Syndication
My favorite automation and syndication tool is Hootsuite.
At Hootsuite, you can schedule multiple status updates for days, weeks, or even months ahead of time. Hootsuite has lots of functionality. I can link it to Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Google+ Page, Facebook, Facebook Pages, Facebook Groups, AND, not only can I schedule posts, but I can also engage right at the Hootsuite dashboard with my ‘followers’, ‘friends’, ‘fans’, ‘connections’ and group ‘members’.
Visualize this, you sign up with several social networks (and social bookmarking sites), fill in the blanks (bio, contacts, website, etc.), and invite your friends – then automate and syndicate your posts… now you are reaching 1000’s (maybe even hundreds of thousands) of ‘friends’, ‘followers’, ‘fans’, and ‘connections’.
Some people in the know believe that you should concentrate on building relationships, reaching out to prospects, and engaging in conversations with a relatively small number of people. In other words – Quality vs Quantity. However, if you take a look at the Social ‘Rockstars’, you will find that they have thousands of Friends, Followers, Fans, and Connections on their networking sites.
So there you have it! Sign up on several social networks, then automate and syndicate your blog and social networking posts to drive tons of traffic to your website.
In Tip 5 we will address the big picture – Inbound Marketing.