Tag Archive - Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing – Why You Must Start Now

Socail Media16 Social Media Marketing   Why You Must Start Now
When you take the right steps to promote your website through basic social media channels, you’re tapping into a rather powerful force that can earn you links and tons of traffic. This practice is known in the online world more formally as social media marketing.The truth about social media marketing is that there simply isn’t a better method for producing large numbers of hits without spending money – or at least a lot of it. It doesn’t matter whether you sell products or services or just create content and enjoy some ad revenue, social media marking is a very viable method that will make a site flourish over time if it’s used correctly.People that ignore the importance of social media marketing tend to come in three types – people who know nothing about the vehicle, people who don’t know how to use it and those who think there is no value in its use. The benefits of viral marketing, however, can disprove the latter class of people rather quickly.The simple truth is that creating link baits and coming up with methods to gain popularity on social media sites can deliver big benefits, including:* Traffic. These sites tend to improve both primary and secondary traffic. Primary involves the traffic that comes directly from a social media marketing site. Secondary traffic comes from referrals that other web sites create when they link to you after finding your content on social bookmarking sites.* Quality links. When your content becomes popular on a site like Reddit, you will gain a ton of incoming links. Some might be relevant and some not. If your content is particularly good, you can count on a number of links that are relevant and high in quality. This, of course, results without having to buy any links, which can be fairly expensive!So, what exactly does this all mean to your website in particular? Let’s take a look:* Links matter. If your website obtains a large amount of permanent, natural links from trusted sites, your site develops authority. This means search engines will trust it. Should you take the time to set up linkbait and site structure well, you will start ranking and gaining visitors. Even a brand new site can gain links if a social media marketing site’s populace thinks an article or submission is worthwhile.* Secondary traffic will increase. This happens when other sites link to yours because of your placement on the social bookmarking site. Secondary traffic can actually be more valuable because it tends to be more targeted. The social media marketing site is nothing more than a platform to get your voice heard. People that are interested in what you have to say will return and they will recommend your site in the process.So, should you really fuss with social media marketing when there are other options like link exchanges, advertising and so on? Absolutely! Here’s why:* Natural links. Go this route and your site will obtain natural links and tons of exposure. This is different from paid advertising in that it relies on word of mouth and genuine recommendations.* You can strategize. The fact is social marketing can offer a lot of traffic on top of what the search engines provide. While it’s hard to control search engine traffic, you can control social traffic by strategizing.* You can’t beat the price. baby kist . Social media costs can be incredibly low. In fact, time is often the only investment.* It doesn’t hurt other efforts. This kind of marketing is very community based. It will not interfere with other traffic generating efforts. In fact, it can complement other campaigns well.While social media marketing will not earn you money directly, it can have incredible spin off effects. To be successful, your site needs followers. This type of marketing can help you increase your core base. Social media marketing efforts will drive traffic to your site, giving you the ability to grow loyalty, repeat visits and revenue.This form of marketing is very valuable to bloggers, too. It provides a time-saving, effective means for generating traffic that doesn’t involve a ton of work. Focus in on excellent posts and push them through these services. This will save you from the effort involved in posting on a ton of other blogs or writing guest posts. Make social media marketing the lynchpin of your strategy and it will pay off.Social media marketing can have incredible effects on any website. If you create valuable content and promote it wisely, you will have success. Social media marketing also works as well for those who sell products and services as it does content providers. It pays off greatly, so don’t delay!Socail Media

Practical Social Marketing Tips – How to Avoid 3 Really Bad Blogging Mistakes in Social Media

Socail Media9 Practical Social Marketing Tips   How to Avoid 3 Really Bad Blogging Mistakes in Social Media
Social Marketing is a powerful force for traffic generation, list building and creating online visibility. And your blog is a powerful part of your social media system. It seems like some people forget that their blog is a significant part of their Social Marketing.Even when online marketers get how important their blog is, unfortunately many bloggers consistently make 3 really bad blogging mistakes. Let’s take a closer look at these 3 mistakes and what to do instead.Mistake 1 – Failure to make your blog the hub of your system – Many people neglect the power of their blog in Social Marketing. This is a big mistake because your blog should be the hub of your system. You can communicate more clearly and you can communicate longer on your blog, and thus people spend more time on your blog.What to do instead - Use a WordPress Blog and hook it up to the rest of your Social Marketing System. For example, each time I create a new blog post, it is automatically announced on Twitter and Facebook. You can also set it up so that all your articles from EzineArticles and all your tweets from Twitter show up on your blog.Mistake 2 – Failure to post often to your blog – I see so many people set up a blog and then rarely update it with new posts. When someone goes to your blog and you have not posted in a month, you are communicating that your blog is not important or relevant. tafelzoetstof . It’s not likely they will be back.What to do instead - There is just no excuse to post at least 3 times a week to your blog, and more would be better. There is just so much you can post: your tip of the week or day, recent articles or turn an article into a several post series, your own videos or ones you find valuable from others, invite guest bloggers. Get in the habit of posting new content at least 3 times a week.Mistake 3 – Failure to “seed the tip jar” - Part of the lifeblood of your blog is the comments shared by readers. This is how your readers “share in the conversation.” If you don’t have discussions going on in the comments section of your blog then something is wrong.What to do instead – First of all, invite readers to comment. Invite them right in the blog post. When you email your list or announce your new blog post on Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere, invite people to “share their comments and join in the conversation.”Then “seed the tip jar” in your blog. You know how you will see a tip jar at a coffee house or a bar? Have you ever seen the tip jar empty? I bet not, because the owners have learned to put a bit of money in the jar to “seed the tip jar.” They are using social proof to get the behavior they want.You can do the same thing by “seeding your blog comments with your own comments on your blog post. This one little strategy encourages others to begin commenting and join in the conversation.Cynthia ~Social Cowgirl www.SocialCowgirl.com

Social Media Marketing For Small Business

Socail Media15 Social Media Marketing For Small Business
Where does social media – networking sites, forums, blogs, wikis and the like, fit with your overall marketing strategy? Social media does not replace all of your other marketing – it just changes the mix.
When I look at a company’s marketing I categorise it into two main areas – Online and Offline. I then break these down into further categories.

Online:

• Website & Search engine strategies

• Customer strategies

• List building strategies

• Sales strategies

• Social Media

Offline:

• Hands-off strategies (where you communicate with your customers indirectly) such as advertising, marketing collateral, direct mail, sponsorship, press releases

• Hands-on strategies (where you communicate face to face with customers) such as trade shows, seminars, events, client nurturing

• Shared strategies (where you work with others to jointly grow your businesses) such as networking, alliances, joint ventures, referrals

When a business is looking at marketing, they need to look at the right blend of these strategies to meet their specific goals.

Social media is just one part of the blend – but there are many reasons I love the Social Media for small business.

For starters the big one – it’s almost totally free! The only cost with much of the social media strategies is time if you do it yourself.

You can target your social media strategy so it also achieves the side targets of all of your other online strategies – more loyal customers, bigger list, better sales, and increased search engine presence.
The downside is it can be tricky to learn what to do; many of your peers and colleagues look at you as if you have suddenly grown two heads when you talk about it (so peer support can be quite low); and if not done correctly it can **** up hours of time without much result.

Off-line strategies are more traditional and have been proven to work over the years. The downside is they are often quite costly and in many cases you don’t get the results you were hoping for.

I know of people who have paid $3000+ for a tradeshow booth plus fit-out and printing costs, as well as wages and time and ended up with very little result.

With all marketing strategies – both online and off line, you need to calculate return on investment. You want to see how much the strategy costs to acquire a new customer.

So in the case of the tradeshow – let’s assume they spent all up $5000 on the show and acquired 10 new customers – the cost to acquire each new customer was $500. You need each customer to spend more than $500 with you over the life of their history with you in order to generate a return on investment.
I recommend businesses run the stats ruler over their networking activities in particular. Add in the membership fees, annual fees, meal fees, lost earning time (if appropriate) and then calculate how much new business you have generated from that process.

This is very confronting for many people – they may enjoy their networking but when they run the financial ruler over it they find they are paying out much more than they are getting back in financial return.

Of course not everything is about money – if you are getting your personal needs for connection and being part of something bigger met, then your investment in networking is a worthwhile one for you personally. Just be clear it is not really a business strategy but a personal strategy and you will go into your next session with a slightly different outlook and will gain more from it as a result.

So back to where social media fits with your marketing strategy. Well it all depends on what you want to achieve, the demographics of your market, the amount you have to spend and the time you have available. In my experience it is something worth adding to your marketing blend.

Cynthia ~Social Cowgirl
www.SocialCowgirl.com

Social Marketing Traffic – How to Start Using Twitter to Start Driving Truckloads of Traffic

Twitter Marketing13 Social Marketing Traffic   How to Start Using Twitter to Start Driving Truckloads of Traffic

Anybody can start their own Twitter – but what separates you from the hundreds is that you know what you are doing. Here are the basic rules of starting Twitter:1. Define Your Desired OutcomeMany give this little thought, but your reason for signing up is very important. Not knowing your desired outcome will result in an unfocused and scattered twitter page. Before you ‘tweet’ another word, ask yourself…- Do you want to be perceived as an expert and build your profile in an industry or niche?- Do you want to drive Twitter traffic to your page?- Is it a branding blog? Or is it more of a social blog?- Do you want to reveal your personal side to your readers?You have to know why you are using Twitter, that way you can focus in one or a few related subjects. If you really need a wide coverage of subjects, you may want to start multiple accounts and just link your accounts to one another.2. Stay Disciplined with Your SubjectsOnce you have decided your Twitter subjects, you need to flow towards them. It is like resolution or goal that you make – success will only be achieved when you stay on the right track. plameco plafond . Though this doesn’t mean that one can’t occasionally mix it up a bit and think out of the box. But the majority of your twittering needs to stay focus on track.3. Be Original and UsefulThis is true in all blogging – who would want to read a blog about something that is old, copied and useless? Take a moment to improve your blogs; your readers will greatly appreciate this.Cynthia ~Social Cowgirl www.SocialCowgirl.com

Starting a Social Marketing Campaign

Socail Media21 Starting a Social Marketing Campaign
Social marketing is an often misunderstood form of marketing that is reaping huge rewards for website owners who use it. Most webmasters who understand it, even while being very new to social marketing, are seeing results like:1. Higher search engine rankings for their top keywords2. barbecue design . More rankings of additional keywords or “long tail” keyword phrases3. More link popularity from sites linking on their own accord4. More link popularity from social media sites5. More activity on their blogs, such as more commenting and interaction6. Direct traffic from incoming links on social media sites (One good StumbleUpon.com submission can net thousands of visitors alone.)7. Fast traffic increases and steady growth in unique visitors month after month8. An increase in subscribers and sales. Social traffic, properly acquired, is very warm to your message and products.The problem for most people when thinking about social marketing, after getting a taste of all the hundreds of sites there are to interact with, is becoming overwhelmed and paralyzed into inaction.They assume established social marketers gained their “social authority” in a short period of time. This is simply not true. Although the opportunities for driving serious traffic and rankings from hundreds of social sites exists, it is an embarrassment of riches.And it cannot be conquered over night. It is a gradual process you manage with all your other responsibilities and grow as time allows.What I encourage my clients to do is set aside enough time each day to get one more link, participate in one more conversation, or sign up for one more account on a social site.A little goes a long way and social marketing is not an “all or nothing” situation. After some time you will become established on the social sites you need to have a presence on. And you will have a schedule that allows you to keep up with your other work while adding this extremely powerful marketing method to the mix.10 Steps For Starting a Social Marketing Campaign1. Schedule a bit of time each day to do some new things. Don’t just say you are going to do them. Write the time into your day and follow through.2. Sign up for the major social news sites: Digg.com, Propeller.com, Mixx.com. Fill out your profile page completely and hold back on submitting your own stuff until you’ve really done a good job submitting, voting, and commenting on stories not directly related to your site.In fact, BE a real presence and don’t try to push your own content onto the networks you belong to. It should feel and be natural and you will know what “natural is on each network by participating, commenting, voting and getting a general sense of what members think is good and bad content. Watch their comments and votes and you will know how to proceed with your own site’s content from there.3. If you don’t have a blog, you must install one immediately. This is not an option. It is an absolute necessity on today’s web. Our company uses WordPress and recommends it over any other blogging platform, and it can be installed easily by you or your webmaster. WordPress download: http://wordpress.org/download/Option #2: Check with your web host to see if they have Fantastico available to you and, if so, that it installs the latest version of WordPress. If so you are very lucky because the software can be installed by you very easily in just a few steps with Fantastico.4. Once you have your blog set up, join the following networks. (These are blog communities that will help you generate visitors, authority, and links and most bloggers belong to them.) MyBlogLog.com (install the widget on your WordPress blog), and BlogCatalog.com. (they also have a widget to install)5. Join groups, interact with other publishers, and make friends with the easy networking tools these sites provide. Especially the people who would be most likely to link to your blog and send you traffic who write about similar things or have an audience similar to yours who’d benefit by knowing you. You can even start your own group, promote it in the network, and send “shouts” to the group when you have announcements or need attention to a new post.6. As soon as you establish yourself on the sites mentioned above, move on to other sites like them that might be more targeted directly to your niche and the market you work in. There are a lot of new “vertical” social sites popping up that focus on much more narrow markets and their membership is far warmer to your kind of information than on the bigger, more general networks above.Add a new site to the mix as often as you can and repeat the steps for becoming established there as mentioned in Step 2 above.7. Join a group dedicated to social marketing to pick up tips from other social marketers and find new places you can sign up with to continue building your social authority. New sites pop up every single day. Follow places like Go2Web20.net to find new opportunities to connect with your market.8. Remote blog. Join blogger.com and put content there that is good, just not good enough to go on your main blog. This serves two purposes: 1) you get to use more of the great content you find as you travel through all the social news sites and 2) it gives you another place to link back to your main site and pass on traffic and link popularity over time.9. Track your progress diligently. If something you are trying on a social network isn’t working, you need to know that in order to save time and move on to something more fruitful. MyBlogLog.com (above) has a tracking system which will show you where your traffic is coming from so you can avoid time wasting efforts and focus more on the sites that are really pulling in good traffic for you.10. Don’t freak out! This is only overwhelming if you act like someone at an all-you-can-eat buffet with no self control. You have other things to do and this needs to fit into, not dominate, your current business and marketing.Social marketing can partially or completely replace other methods you are using to promote your site including paid advertising. Many people completely drop their paid advertising or PPC campaigns once they see the organic, natural traffic and search engine rankings pile up from social marketing.Until then, just take it one step at a time and do some social marketing. A little goes a long way and before you know it, you will reach a point where a lot of traffic and lots of search engine rankings are piling up because you simply started doing something each day.There’s a lot you can learn about social marketing. And not all of it can be found on free blogs.Cynthia ~Social Cowgirl www.SocialCowgirl.com

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