Social Media and How to Market Using It October 30, 2008
Posted by office2008 in : General , trackbacksocial media is a area of great promise and profit possibilities and is being greatly talked about on the Internet. Especially in business and entrepreneurial circles even showing up into corporate America and the Fortune 500 crowd.
It is an old concept. The ability of socially networking and connecting with other persons has been around since since humans first walked the earth. It is even a essential part of our core built into our DNA that we are talkative beings.
What is new are the different mediums where this type of introduction can take place. And social networking is new to the web within the last two years and is still in its infancy.
There are certain manners you want to follow when playing in the social media space. Especially when you are there with secret marketing motives in mind.
Because this is a social space people don’t take kindly to blatant advertising messages which you normally see on places like TV and radio. These ad models have been dubbed “interruption marketing” because you’re watching a show or listening to a radio commentary and all of a sudden they take a break and a blatant advertisement is thrust right in your face.
The easiest way to get started with the lot of social media sites and blogs and social networking sites is to think about it like it’s an extension of any normal real world social situation you’d find yourself in. Imagine it like you’re going to a party where you don’t know anyone there.
Would you walk up to someone on the street who is a complete stranger to you and you didn’t know anything about them, would you just thrust your business card into their hand without saying a word to them?
Of course not. No sane person would do that because it will do you no good and just waste the resources you spent to create your business card and the money spent to get it printed out.
Yet I see the online equivalent of this foolishness daily when people send me a friend request with a blurb about joining their business.
Every time you talk to someone about your business you want to convert them into a member and have a high probability of converting them to a paying customer of yours. That’s the main goal and everything else is stupid to waste your time on.
What’s the most efficient way to accomplish this with these various social media sites?
Much like you do at a party where you don’t know anyone you have to make introductions. With the social sites usually this involves making a friend request.
Normally, all you have to do is find some friends with similar interests in the business and market you’re in and click on a “friend” button.
The most egregious mistake I see people making is just randomly sending friend requests. Like any marketing effort you’re doing you want to target people who are like you and have an interest in your market because they will be likely to want to buy your products assuming you do a good enough job with the steps of the system to warm them up to buying your product.
Don’t include anything commercial in this initial friend request. All you want to do is find groups and in most sites you can do a search to find groups which are interested in your market whether it be health, fitness, or even blue jeans lovers. There are also many business groups and entrepreneurial type groups if you’re in those markets.
Go into these groups on a same topic your business is in and start clicking on group members and making friend requests. The 1 thing you want to do at this point is send a friend request telling them “hey I saw you in this group and wanted to be your friend”. Obviously, you include the group name and that you joined which they are part and you are also a part because that gives you a thing in common with them and they’ll be far more likely to become your friend by clicking yes which is the first step to being able to communicate with them.
This will give you a good start in your social media marketing adventure to success. After you make and secure a few hundred friends then I’ll instruct you what the next step to convert them to buyers of your product or clients which is sending them an introductory e-mail about yourself.
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