Social Networking Is Another Mean To Expand Your Business
By Jackie Khor
31 May 2008
By now you’ve probably heard of sites such as MySpace, Facebook or YouTube, but are you using these tools to grow your small business? If you’re not taking full advantage of social media to expand the profitability of your business, you’re not taking advantage of a new medium for driving traffic, leads and sales to your websites. It doesn’t matter what you sell. You can still leverage social media to attract more buyers to your site, build a customer list and sell more often.
One of the biggest issues most marketers face is knowing how to attract the right type of traffic for their products, services and affiliate programs. Social marketing and Web 2.0 are here to stay for they have impacted more lives, and reached many times more people than tools such as search engines and web pages. Social networking sites are based on getting likeminded people to do good and it is possible to use the platforms to just talk to people and in the process “sell goods without selling”.
I am giving you some basic “Social Networking” tips that you can tap into them which I find work pretty well. With any marketing, it’s important to stay on top of it as much as possible. However with social networking, it’s almost a job in of itself as you have to maintain so many sites. Don’t get me wrong, the work you put in to some social networking sites can be worth your time to gain friends, followers and etc if you apply what you’re doing appropriately.
You know that what you offer is spectacular, but if other people don’t know that, you’re going to have a really difficult time growing your business. Social networking platforms such as MySpace, Facebook and HubPages allow you to form relationships with people instantaneously. In social networking your connection with people is permission based and you establish your global presence. This is just another form of advertising you and your business and for free. The advantage you have with social media marketing over the traditional marketing is that your potential customer gets to know who you are and you begin to build trust. People buy from those they trust. Thus if they do buy, it is because of you, not the company you represent nor the products they don’t desire.
Here are some basic tips to help you get started to position yourself as an expert within your business niche.
1. You would want to consider choosing a few social networks you enjoy and/or who rank the highest and stick to those. Don’t try to do them all. Otherwise you have another full time job! MySpace is number one at the moment and falling in second place is Facebook. Hubpages, Linkedin and StumbleUpon are other ones high up there to consider. A few of my friends recommend Twitter. Apparently it is rated high in the U.S. Twitter is a micro-blogging platform where you can send out short messages to your readers. You can get flashy with Squidoo where you can create fantastic looking photos or videos on your lens.
2. Don’t just sign up without planning to participate to some degree. It is your participation that gets people to know you and build trust.
3. Make sure to fill out your profile information, the real personal you so that your potential customer gets to know who you are and you begin to build trust. Photo and web links are very important.
4. Once you have set yourself up, now it is time to socialize. You may post an article that is factual, relevant and helpful to your readers on some sites.
5. Surf around for others in the same field as you and make some friendships.
6. Give positive comments or shout about their blogs or sites.
7. Post a few ’shouts’ a week and keep them public.
8. When someone follows you and asks for friendship, use your best judgment to do it back to them.
9. Keep your social networks fresh and don’t leave them outdated. I confess I fail to do this sometimes.
10. When you ’shout’ or post updates don’t make them about “come buy or view my products or business”. Instead give some relevant free tips or advice that are helpful for others to participate.
11. Set up a blog and post articles (best to write your own articles) so that others are aware of your websites. You can use Wordpress or Blogger.com (both are free) to shine your expertise. A blog allows you to write short articles on topics pertinent to your customer base. Just make sure you write articles that have useful content to the readers so that they will keep coming back for more.
12. Participate in community forums that you enjoy. This will drive you some traffic.
Hope this helps
Jackie Khor
P.S. Learn more about how to set up your business on the Internet and generate your own endless leads, click here Learn How Create Your Own Capture Page
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Great post. You highlight an important point in that it’s important to actively participate in social networks and win trust. What helps me greatly is joining niche social networks based around my specific products. There’s so many social networks out there now for a whole variety of subjects. To find relevant ones I use a search engine called Find A Social Network. Check it out here at http://findasocialnetwork.com
Nice article! The ideas and insights are very worth reading. You really gave me valuable information. Thanks for sharing it!
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