Posts Tagged ‘Social Media Marketing’

Social media marketing (web 2.0 marketing) is the process of promoting your site or business through social media channels like digg, stumbleupon, blogging and it is a powerful strategy that will get you links, attention and massive amounts of traffic. In current time it’s the most effective tool to generate traffic.Web 2.0 marketing is the only low-cost promotional method by which you can reach to large numbers of visitors, many of them will come back time to time on website.

If you are selling products/services or just publishing content for ad revenue, social media marketing is a potent method that will make your site profitable over time.Those who ignore the efficacy of social media usually fall into three categories; the ones who don’t know much or anything about social media, the ones who are interested but don’t know how to use it and those who don’t believe in the value that a social media strategy can bring to any site or business.

So the over all Social media is the perfect tool which contains all elements that provide traffic, popularity and etc.If you talk about alternative of Social Media Optimization then it must be equally match with all social media elements. Alternative must have the elements to drive visitors on site, web popularity affection and etc.

The nearest competitor of Web 2.0 Marketing is SEO Search Engine Optimization. SEO has the capability to drive the traffic thru search engines and other websites like web directory. By using SEO you can popularize you site web arena effectively But the SMO Services can do, no other has the capability to do the same job as Web 2.0 marketing.

Social media marketing is a new, free and very powerful tool and it can serve you very well when you are searching for free internet marketing methods to promote your internet home business online.

Social media site are called social for a good reason. This is a place for people from all over the world find and connect with other people with same interests and hobbies, and form groups online, build friendships, have new relationships and share their favorites interests and ideas.

It was only natural for these people to start and use these groups, friendships and new relationships for their businesses. When you have online friends, you can reach a larger crowd of people, all are potential customers, and this is how the social media marketing or social networking was born.

So how easy it is to use the social bookmarking for internet marketing purpose?

Step 1 – Join some of the leading social media sites. Websites such as Digg, Mixx, StumbleUpon and more are very popular social media sites. Bookmarking a page in those site and some other sites can be indexed very quickly by the search engines, this is very good if you want to drive traffic to your website, free and let the search engines notice you.

This tactic is very good, When you need to drive traffic to a new website and have no money to invest in advertising.

Step 2 – Complete you profile. If you want to promote your internet home business using social media sites and social networking, try to give as much details as you can. When you are online do not hide behind a screen name, if you are here for business let the people know a little about you, sign in with your real name, write a few detail about yourself and on your home business. At the end give a link back to you website and a few of your mostly recommended products.

Step 3 – After finishing your profile is time socialize. Social marketing is all about making friends, finding people with the same interests as yours, joining groups and building relationships.

These friends are important for your business and they will help you in time to promote your home business, but you will have to help them too.

Step 4 – Now it is time to start the social networking. Social bookmarking is the word. You bookmark you website or blog, and you let people know about it. You also have to bookmark other people websites and blogs, and vote for your friend’s bookmarks.
When in social media marketing you need to give to others if you want them to give back to you, this is when you get the best results.

Step 5 - Ask your friends to vote for your favorite links and offer to do the same for them. From here the traffic to your website will only grow and you get it all for free.
If you join the top leading social media sites, you will get more traffic, as the website popularity grow you will get more votes, your bookmark get indexed faster and this is also counts as a backlink from some of those sites.

Understanding the big picture, the business concept, of the social media sites is crucial, because it gives you the idea how to utilize them for your internet business. What is their driving force?

1.What Is A Social Site?
As we see, the term is built of two words: media, which means advertising distribution channel and social, which means a group of same thinkers inside some bigger group of people. It also means the interaction between the group members. Both parts are very useful for the internet business marketing and actually belong to its basic vocabulary.

So social media means communication place, which is established for people, who has the same interest or hobby, where they can change ideas and share benefits. If you think your own internet business this sounds just great!

Wikipedia puts it in this way:
“Social Media is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into content publishers. It is the shift from a broadcast mechanism to a many-to-many model, rooted in conversations between authors, people, and peers.”
It is important that social media uses the crowds and their own will to connect information in a manner they want. So the social media sites are voluntary and extremely interactice, which gives lots of benefits for their members in the form of internet business forums, message boards, weblogs, wikis, podcasts, pictures and videos. Funny thing is that social media sites are driven by users, they make the content.

2.How To Grab Attention In The Social Media Sites?
When people participate in the social media, they act in interest groups, which is natural. In the internet business marketing this is called segmentation. If an internet business marketer wants to grab attention on the site, he has to stand out from the crowd. The requirement to be different is the same than in other mediums.

Social media sites are like open markets, where you as one participant build your own brand, your own expertise, which attracts some of the group of the same thinkers and a part of these interested people want to visit your website. In a way the question is about pre selling job, but never about advertising.

If the social media site has exactly the same content or idea than your internet business site has, then it can be a lead producer for your website directly or your website can even be able to sell the products to the visitors. In case of the leads, it gives your internet business site a great opportunity to approach them later with several emails or newsletters.
The competition in the social media sites requires that you need the AIDA process: attention, interest, desire and action. It is a process which needs planning, because the sites are full of personal messages. The most important thing is your promise: what is so useful in your offer?

The social media sites offer a great place to build your own brand, which is a multistep process. It is all about information, about influences and about feelings towards different actors. Social media marketing also involves the process of promoting and spreading ideas among targeted internet business audiences. Social media marketing can also be used as a calculated tactic to nurture feelings or goodwill towards a specific website or internet business.

Social media marketing is a strategic and methodical process to establish your influence, reputation and brand within communities of potential customers, readers or supporters.

I was thinking the other day why I have enjoyed consulting with small business owners for so many years. Talk about reality shows. What is more real than talking to the person who created, owns and operates a business? They have made their dream a reality. It’s a whole different conversation and level of engagement from talking to a marketing or business development manager working for a small or mid-size company.  I don’t mean to imply that the marketing or business development manager knows less about the company’s business than the owner. It’s about the level of passion for the business. Passion or entrepreneurial zeal, as we know, doesn’t always translate into being able to run a company successfully but I love to hear their story.

I enjoy the initial phase of a search engine optimization or pay per click management campaign for any new client. We call this the discovery phase where we gather quantitative and qualitative information about a business to lay the groundwork for the project. The more we know about what they do, how they do it, who they are trying to reach and what their goals are the better we can develop and implement a successful online marketing strategy for them.

One big difference I notice almost immediately when talking to an entrepreneur is the desire to talk about their business. You never have to worry about keeping the conversation going that’s for sure. Entrepreneurs love to talk about their business. It’s their passion. That’s why they are doing it. Many businesses, if not most, are built based on the personality of the owner and more often than naught these owners have an outgoing, engaging personality. That is why social media marketing can be so powerful for small business owners.

Social media marketing is not just about creating profiles on facebook, myspace, linkedin and other social media networks to try to create buzz and links to your web site. It’s about being actively engaged in the networks. Let people get to know you. Be real. Tell them about your business, why you do it and how you do it. Not from a sales and marketing stand point so it sounds like every other Tom, Dick and Harry selling the same thing but from your personal stand point – your personality – let it shine through. Just a warning here, if you are a real drone with a negative view point on the world this might not work. :>) Find people with the same interests as yours and participate in their discussions. It has to be a two way network for it to work best.

Are you thinking how in the heck am I supposed to find enough time to do this plus run my business? This is a valid point but if done correctly this can reap big benefits for your business. Millions and millions of people are participating in social media networks every day. Instead of actively participating in 4 or 5 determine which one best fits your desired demographic and focus predominantly on that one. Also, you might really enjoy it. Just talk about your favorite topic – your business.

Where have YOU been?

Unless you have lived in a cave the last 4 years, you have probably heard of this. It is a rocking hot social networking site that seems to be almost everywhere today. It is on the news. It is on the radio. It is on the minds of millions of folks a day.

It is called “Facebook” and over 350 million people are active on this site.

Ok- I know that you may be asking,” A LAW about facebook?” Yes, 10 of them for marketing and business success in what you do. There are marketing laws that all marketers and business professionals must follow if they are going to have Success in the marketplace online.

It is the same for Facebook.

Lets cover them briefly:

1) The Law of Visibility on Facebook.

You MUST be visible on facebook of you are going to get your message out. You must spend time on facebook and get to know people. You must put yourself together a “facebook blueprint” and work it. How many hours a week are you going to be seen on FB? How many times are you going to befriend someone this week? How many times are you going to upload photos this week? All of these things put you in the ‘Visibility Zone” on facebook, and on the radar as far as people on facebook. Be SEEN and be THERE on a daily basis.

2) The Law of the Powerful Facebook Profile.

Why would people want to get to know you? One of the first things they check out is your facebook profile. What does it say- but better yet- what does it DO? Does it make people curious and want to get to know you? Does it make them think? Does it make them smile? Does it make them see that you have Value for their life and can help change it?

Powerful facebook profiles are NOT based on what is said in your profile- but what it DOES.

Does it direct them to DO something? Does it tell them you are person they MUST know? Or someone that has a nice picture and a nice profile- with no magnetism? Put yourself OUT THERE and tell the world WHY they need you as a friend, and get them to take action towards YOU.

3) The Law of the Facebook WALL.

You MUST use your Wall to market or message. many folks regard their Wall as a communication utility like email. It is not that. You already have a facebook email. The Wall is for you to BUILD- BRICK BY BRICK- MESSAGE BY MESSAGE- NOTE BY NOTE- VIDEO BY VIDEO- your Brand on Facebook. Every time something happens with you- it goes on your Wall. Don’t stare at the wall- CLIMB THE SUCKER and make your message the PEAK of the page- and keep yourself out there with the Wall. And answer the messages on your Wall. Thank people for sharing with you their visit or message. This will show up on THEIR wall. This will set you apart from most on facebook. The Wall is simply a BILLBOARD of what you are doing and your friends are doing on Facebook. Use it often and wisely.

4) The Law of Your Facebook Network.

You are part of a local facebook network and you have access to that network to befriend them. I live in Birmingham Michigan, and the network i am a part of is the Detroit network. There are 640,926 people in my network that I could potentially MEET LIVE in a local place and get to know them and connect with them. You have local folks as well. Where do you find your network?

Click on “settings” and then click on “network.” You will find it there. This is a GOLD MINE of people in your local area to CONNECT and Construct new trust bridges that may lead to business down the road.

5) The Law of the Facebook Notifications.

This is an overlooked and rarely talked about utility. Notifications are part of your “facebook email system.” Go to “email” at the top of your Facebook profile page, and then click on “notifications.”This is list of who is thinking about you, talking about you, including you in tags, and generally is pointing to you. This is a GOLD MINE of people that have PROVEN they are behind you and willing to make you a part of their Facebook experience. Pay attention to the facebook notifications. Thank them for their thoughts of you on their Wall and let them know you appreciate it. Include them as well on your tags and other activity on facebook. The notifications are GOLD and is a prospecting Vault of Leads. And make sure you stay CONNECTED to them.

6) The Law of Facebook Link Love.

The Link application on Facebook is a HOT commodity. It allows you to post a link that you like and then sends it out on the news feed that is on your home page. It picks up the image that you want on the link page, and allows it to be a LIVE link. Send out other people’s LINK and givem some LOVE. Do NOT just send out your own links. Let others do that. Find interesting links of others and send them out.

WHY? EXPOSURE for you. You will be given credit for the link. People LOVE link love. If you send out a LOT of other people’s links on facebook, they will start sending out YOUR links. Been there done that.

7) The Law of Facebook Groups.

Join groups. Join a LOT of Groups. Start your OWN groups. The join MORE groups. Why? Here are a few reasons: EXPOSURE. CONNECTION to other Group members. AUTHORITY. Start your own and be a Leader. INCREASE YOUR REACH.Groups extend your reach into Facebook. MULTIPLIED PROSPECTS. There are more people in a group — then on a profile page.

Duh. Build a list in your own group and then you can become an admin and email messages to them. Make them messages of VALUE and interest.

8 ) The Law of Facebook Events.

Attend events. Attend more Events. And then attend many MORE events. Why? It allows you to leave a message on the events page wall, and create exposure. I attend at least 2 facebook events every week- to learn- and to network. Events can be found on the new Facebook page in the upper right under “Upcoming”-these are the events that are upcoming. There is one unique twist: You have birthdays under the “upcoming” tag- and you can send presents to folks. THIS will get their attention as it shows up on their wall and the news feed as well. Attend as many events as you can. make them worth your while- learn and grow from them. BUT’always leave a RSVP message about attending or not- with an encouraging message. This will show your professionalism, and caring.

Event UP! This will do you well on facebook. Put the term “events” in the search box, and it will find every event that is going on in your network of friends. It is a GOLD MINE of new possibilties of business. Become a master of events!

9) The Law of Facebook Multimedia- Videos and Photos.

People LOVE photos and videos. They are the most looked at and watched pages on facebook. Make some videos and upload them. Upload some photographs. Not only will the be seen on your wall and the facebook news feed, but also will allow you to “tag” others on these. This means that you can pick out people you have befriended and let them know you are thinking of them. And when you tag someone- it shows up on THEIR wall. Not isn’t THAT cool? It is called EXPOSURE!

10) The Law of the Facebook NEWS FEED.

This is the big kahuna of Exposure on facebook. This gets you out to ALL of your friends and creates a massive exposure vehicle that can keep your brand in front and recognized. You also will be many times on the “featured” part of the new news feed on the right. This gives you HUGE exposure. Whatever you do, like change your status, upload a video, write and publish a note, or just comment on another person’s message on the facebook news feed- it SHOWS UP in the news Feed. Be seen- and be seen often if you are trying to brand yourself on facebook.

Yes, you need to establish relationships, and build community. But if you are going to MARKET on facebook-then you need to at least get a guideline of what and how to do it. The 10 Social Media Laws of Facebook hopefully gave you some idea in your social media marketing.

While I was driving today I saw a van with Progressive Auto Insurance painted on it. It was probably a company owned van, but I was also reminded of the Geek Squad Beetles that I see every once in awhile and some other company painted cars. This got me thinking. I noticed that paintings or signs on cars often get noticed. People even look at other people’s car license plates. Basically, these cars get a lot of eyeballs.

Applying my background in Social Media Marketing, I came up with a new marketing idea that is low cost but highly effective. This is how it works: A company creates a program, where they would advertise on the cars of people who commute long distances everyday. They can pay a couple hundred dollars to these people every month to do the exact same things they would be doing anyway. Heck, instead of paying money, this company could just offer to pay all their gas bills.

I include this as social media marketing because the essence of social media is that everyone can be a publisher. Instead of having large budgets to publish on a billboard, everyone has their own little properties (such as blogs) and they can reach their own little niche by publishing or advertising on their little properties. I seriously think more companies should advertise on blogs because bloggers are easy to satisfy monetarily, and you seriously reach a large crowd who pay attention to you just because “Oh! This blogger found advertisers! I wonder how much is she getting paid. Maybe $50/month” “Oh, it’s the same company ad on this other blog too! They’re all over the place now!” $100 to make 1000 people think you are all over the place. Not a bad deal. So in this case, we’re taking the exact same principles but just applying it to an offline property, specifically one’s car, where we know already has a lot of eyeballs and follows where the customer goes.

Especially in this economy, people are very stripped of cash and a lot of them would signup since it does not make their lives more inconvenient. Gas price is expected to rise again, so a program offering to pay for their gas is a win-win situation because the driver would not be concerned of driving longer distances, while the company would gain more exposure for that. If you have 200 of these cars driving around, with lets say about $200 per car per month. That’s $40,000 a month, which is the price of many billboards. However, it’s convincing that each of these cars will be seen by AT LEAST 20 different people a day(I would say over 100 if the driver spends more than an hour a day commuting), so the total reach would become 20×30x200 = 120,000 per month. What’s even better is that these ads are guaranteed to be at where a lot of people are, since it’s the people themselves that are taking them there.

If your company is one of the first to do something like this, people will start to talk about you if they see the same promotion on 3-4 different cars while driving to work. The press might even cover you so there’s a lot of added benefits, making it even more cost effective. Even the 200 people who wear your ads will excitingly talk to their friends and their coworkers about it, creating WAY stronger effects than just a billboard ad. Also, what better way to make people’s day better than having them be cheerfully reminded of this everyday in the morning? If you know you are making money off just driving, it makes you feel better about commuting, or even when you are stuck in traffic. (Note: for environmental concerns, please still commute when you can. I am referring to people that are already driving that distance no matter what.)

In terms of practicality concerns, it would probably be difficult have people’s cars painted, because they need something that they can be easily opt out from. However, creating some sort of easily removed stickers and have a few on each side of the car should have the same effects with very low set up costs. Sure, there might be some dishonest people who turn in the gas receipts of their spouses car too etc etc, but even if that is the case, the price of having these mobile ads is still excellent. Obviously it shouldn’t go way out of hand, but that’s easy to detect. You could probably include in the contract that once someone is caught cheating, they need to return all the gas money that was every given to them because there is no way to verify how much did they cheat on. Fear of that and losing this good deal would probably stop most people from cheating. The point is that you are getting a crazy promotion deal with a fraction of what it would cost you otherwise, and it makes the driver happy too. If you refer back to my blogpost How to Impress Everyone by Just Driving Around, driving becomes ultra productive. You increase your level by learning from podcasts, and you get paid doing it!

Web 2.0 has evolved the web based technologies to such an extent that interactivity between people from around the globe becomes a pretty natural process. It revolutionalize the communication scenario and streamline the connectivities through internet. That’s where the social media sites tends to get the much higher traffic from all over the world and become a great source to promote your products and websites. An effective strategy can help one attain maximum attention from relevant audiences and massive traffic.

It is a potential method where implementation of effective marketing strategy makes your site profitable by many folds. The things now become lot more easier as when you like something online and want to share it with your friends then you can simply send e-mails to your buddies through these social networking channels. It helps you expand your friendly circle by adding people who have the same taste as you. Social media sites are all about communication with likeminded people and sharing ideas and thoughts with ease.

Through social media/ social application sites as Stumble upon, Digg, My Space, You tube, Orkut etc one can get natural links from relevant niche and his site got exposed to large groups of people in a spontaneous fashion without having to spend a penny. It’s through that participation and interactivity that your site is distributed around, and that’s what brings traffic to your web site.

One must have to become familiar with the communities in social networks and participate actively to get enough attention. Soon your brand product will automatically start recognizing among the community members. Our seo company recommends you to avoid the ideas of adding keywords or tweaking meta tags. It’s better to focus on something which members would love to appreciate e.g. add stories that are relevant your business, productivity estimation for the next quarter or current market trends in your industrial region.

Social media marketing now become such an evolved marketing tool that every company (how big or small) want to exploit its resources to get the maximum traffic out of it. So it’s always good to get started with building trust among people. Get involved in all kind of activities relevant to your niche and extract maximum fruits out of this interactive cyber revolution.

To those of us who use social networks frequently, or are familiar with the way the social web works, this post will seem self-evident.
However, in conversations with a couple clients and individuals lately who are unfamiliar with social media marketing, this question has consistently cropped up.

The main problem people have is reconciling making friends with possible ROI. What you need to know is that by adding friends or accepting friend requests, you are taking one more step to building your authority and visibility in your industry, which WILL lead to ROI (in the form of traffic, sales conversions or whatever your goal) as people recognize you as a leader in your field and choose you over possible competitors for services and products they need.

Here are 5 general, point-by-point reasons friends matter on social networks:

1. Relationship building.
The whole reason social networking is successful is because its very foundation is built on creating and maintaining relationships with people. Start conversations, introduce yourself, do everything you can to put yourself out there and meet as many people as possible. If you like the person or company you’ve built a relationship with, you’ll probably recommend them to your friends, and vice versa. If you make friends with someone in a related industry, you’ll benefit from recommending their services to your clients, and they’ll benefit from recommending you to theirs (e.g. a web designer recommends a social media marketer they like, a Realtor recommends a mortgage provider they know is honest and effective, and vice versa).

2. Referrals and recommendations.
You matter to me, and I matter to you, because if I like that really cool video you sent me, I’ll visit the site its from to look for more.
If I digg that awesome article and send it to my friends, or they see I dugg it, they might check it out too. If I get an awesome deal on this website’s service, I’m going to send you there. Or if I hear from you about it, I’m going to go there. If I find a fan page for a product I love, I might stop by, create a profile, and add myself as a fan, then tell all my friends about it. You do the calculations.

3. Access to more user info.
Many sites hide people’s profiles until you add them as a friend. Thus, adding someone as a friend is a good way to communicate with them in a more personal setting.

4. UGC, or User-Generated Content.
The more friends you have and interact with, the more content is produced on your site or page, and the more visible it becomes.
If you have a ton of people talking on your Facebook fan page, for example, all that content is adding to your area’s ability to be ranked on the search engines AND attract more users.

5. A large social community.
The more people you add as friends and the more you get to know them, and they you, the more popular you or your social networking profile becomes. Soon, you have a large community of supporters that further reinforces your authority and leader status in your industry.

What better way to brand your company and communicate a specific message to a mass of people?

Social media marketing is a very effective way to get your message out about your business because it allows you to interact with your visitor when they visit your website or blog. Some people are afraid of social media marketing because they are unsure how to go about getting involved with it.

There are many different forms of social media marketing including Internet forums, blogging, video, audio, pictures, graphics, podcasts, and on and on we could go. Let me make a couple suggestions to you of how you can get involved very quickly with social media marketing.

1. Internet forums are a fantastic way to market your business on the Internet today. This doesn’t take any particular skill because you do not have to record a video, or tape an audio and try to put it online. You also don’t have to do anything special like upload pictures or download graphics and try to get them online.

Internet forums really only require that you be able to type. As a matter of fact there’s a software called Dragon Naturally which is a speak and write program that allows you to just talk and it types of words for you. This would make it just about as easy as it can be.

The key to forum marketing as a form of social media is that you get involved in forums that relate to the theme of your business. You then take the time to get involved in the discussions going on within the forums.

You contribute worthwhile information without expecting anything in return. And you do it on a consistent enough basis that people began to know who you are.

The marketing side of this comes in when you create your profile and your signature file. This is where you can tell little bit about yourself and your business and you will passively drive traffic to your website and blog from this.

2. If you do not have a blog of your own it is something you should look at doing. For example, you can go to blogger.com and set up a blog in three easy steps. Then again, all you have to do is type your thoughts about a specific topic and you are blogging.

Granted, there is more to this in terms of getting traffic to your blog, and these are things you will learn how to do. But making a blog post is something anybody striving to be an Internet marketer can do and is a great form of social media marketing.

Come and Join us on the UK Small Business Network

If you have decided to jump on the bandwagon and join thousand of people using social marketing as a tool to grow their business, then you are on the right track. Social marketing has proven to be effective and sustainable in influencing the target market to buy your products and services. One of the most utilized strategies is by tapping on social marketing sites that are popping up everywhere. Of course it is necessary to choose only those that are reliable and good for your ecommerce business. Among the most popular social marketing sites today are:

Flickr:
It is perhaps the best online photo sharing site in the world. It allows you to showcase photos to friends, family and even to those you do not know. Launched 5 years ago, it now has more than 3 billion photos stored. It is a great site to promote your business. There is also PhotoBucket

YouTube:
This video social marketing site works wonders for any business. With YouTube, we can share videos for everyone to see. By uploading some videos, you will have people comment and share ideas on your page, which is a great way to understand your target market.

Twitter:
Twitter is a site which enables  Micro Blogging of 140. It has become one of the most popular ways to communicate  with the outside world, whether that be personal of business. There are something like 8 Million Tweets every day. Twitter can be easily used for business and it is a simple process to get an account up and running.

Others to note

• Metacafe: It is the number 2 site for video social marketing. You can upload and share videos about your products and services so people will know who you are and what you have to offer.

• Digg: In this website, you will find everything you need- from articles, blogs, insights, etc. If you like to improve your marketing and sales, then you need to get started with Digg. This is especially helpful for those who are new to social marketing.

• MySpace: With the music and video now part of its package, MySpace has definitely become one of the top social marketing sites in the world. It has high exposure to most countries in the West and East. Asia is also quite into MySpace too. With so many people joining MySpace, it will be easier to find your target market here.

Social media sites are indeed very helpful in getting you on track with your business goals. In so many ways, they allow you to stay connected to your target customers through photo and video sharing, blogging, commenting, and many more. The important thing with social marketing is you need to be able to keep up with the demand. People feed you with information- they tell you what they want and what they do not want, and in return, they expect you to be able to address their concerns. As a good social marketer, you have to be ready for any challenges that come your way when you use these social marketing tools.

As any good social marketer knows, being prepared for anything is vital to the success of your business. If you can do this, if you can apply the techniques involved in the social marketing process, then go ahead and tell the whole world about your business. You will find that it is probably one of the best things you have ever done.