The Science of Social Media
To be successful online you need to know the Internet is the greatest marketing tool of all time but the industry is filled with wrong data, confusing steps, and hype that mislead what you should be doing for your business to attract more leads, get more clients and make more sales. Social Media has transformed the landscape, SEO is even more vital, and brand management is at a premium. If your online presence isn’t working for you, it’s working against you.
One of the biggest changes for a business was the loss of the Yellow Pages and the introduction of social media.
Social media is a critical element to incorporate – but only if you have a plan. Random posting about your cat or favorite coffee joint is not productive use of your time.
There are 3 reasons you do social media:
- Build a relationship and position yourself as the expert
2. Drive your followers into your funnel by offering a landing page based incentive
3. Sell them something (only rarely though)
Then you need to understand which social media platforms you need to be on, as hundreds are cropping up every month, what you should be doing on them and then branding yourself consistently across each of them.
There are 4 to focus on:
1. Linkedin
2. Facebook
3. Twitter
4. Google+
Linkedin:
If you are in a profession at all, you need to be on Linkedin. Currently I have over 12,000 followers here, and they are incredibly responsive.
There are tons of benefits to Linkedin – but the two that people may not be aware of is there are specific groups you can join that can make you money. For example, I have gotten many speaking engagements from there by being part of groups such as Need a Speaker. Groups exists for almost every niche, field, product or service.
The second benefit is there is often research in there by an organization or group that you can use for your own target marketing. For example carpet cleaners have a group up there that assists people in that industry to understand what is happening, and what they need to focus on.
Social media is different than other online marketing activities because the purpose of it is to engage an audience – not necessarily sell to them. That comes later when you create a community of people that know you, like you, trust from you and ultimately buy from you.
Facebook:
This is the platform for relationship building. It’s structure makes it easy to connect, engage, participate, and follow a conversation. You can create personal pages, groups, a company site, and where I spend most of my time is in my private Facebook group for upper level clients. It’s a great way to remain accessible, and connected to your followers.
Twitter:
The other way I use social media is to drive traffic to my landing pages, so that I fill my own funnel. You have to remember that a social media platform such as Facebook or Twitter, any followers you have, aren’t yours so you need to get them in your own database. If Twitter wanted to close your account today, they could. So if you became dependent just on those for leads or your marketing, it is a fragile structure. It’s like building your house out of straw.
Twitter is a tool that asks one question – What Are You Doing? and you answer that and anything else in 140 characters or less. I am not sure is serving much purpose unless you are a celebrity, however I use it to drive traffic/subscribers to a landing page. It is how I list build.
I have never seen a greater or faster way to specifically locate and target your audience for free, engage them, and pull them into your own funnel – which is why it can’t be ignored as a business practice.
Google+
Google+ is a relative newcomer to the game of social media but with a name like Google it doesn’t take much to change the game. They have combined the power of other platforms, and created an environment that is ideal for businesses. Make sure you add this to your portfolio and get familiar with these features:
Circles: one of Google Plus’s key innovations, allowing you to separate your customers and suppliers into different groups, which is perfect if you market to multiple niches.
Ripples: a cutting edge analytical tool that helps you understand how your business is being viewed by your customers and potential customers.
Hangouts: the teleconferencing facility allowing you to hold meetings, meet with customers and even host online seminars.
Translate: this is the world wide web. So, if you’ve limited yourself to English so far, here’s an instant way to widen your reach – massively.
Research each of these – and I’m sure there is a YouTube video demonstrating the power of what these are – the key is you need to start familiarizing and using these now.
But the big difference and the real why you need Google+ is it’s the only social media platform that indexes your post to Google, giving you the SEO power you want for free. With its plan for internet domination, and with $200 billion in it’s pockets, it will probably succeed and you want to be at the forefront of this wave.
Now you might be asking about YouTube – absolutely be there, but that’s a whole article in itself. And what about Pinterest and Instagram, they are best suited for specific industries, so I would talk about those from the perspective of retail, restaurants, and artists.
As you have probably guessed there are a lot of places you should be and it can feel like a time waster, but when you choose the right social media platform for the goal and purpose it serves, it makes your time both profitable and well spent.
So I’ll see you on each of these, until next time – happy posting.
About:
Tracy Repchuk, is a 5-Time International Bestselling Author and Online Marketing and Social Media Strategist and speaker. As an award-winning entrepreneur since the age of 19 with over 30 years of business, internet, SEO, and marketing background she has helped thousands of clients get their message online fast and effectively. In addition she has appeared as a technology specialist in National TV segments with ABC7, San Diego Living, Good Morning New Mexico, CNBC, Report on Business TV, HGTV, FOX, ABC, NBC, Vegas Inc, The CW, USA Today, Forbes, MSN, and over 50 publications, newspapers and magazines, plus hundreds of speaking appearances in over 35 countries. Get Tracy’s ebook Instant Online Impact for free at: www.FastActionResults.com
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