The secrets of marketing
No matter what you sell on the internet today – whether it is eBooks,
products you have to mail out or services that you provide yourself – you
need to find customers.
That much is certain, but the more creative you are at finding those
customers (especially when those methods don’t involve spending any
money) the more successful you are likely to be.
And that’s why it is in your best interests to become familiar with social
networking sites. Not to tell people all about what you do in your spare time,
or to share the intimate details of your life with, but to use as a method to
gain more business.
Yes, there are thousands of customers to be found on these sites. Despite
the fact that they are intended for social purposes, they can be used for
business purposes too. You just need to know how to do it.
And there is no doubt that the people who are doing it already are reaping
the rewards. There are such a high proportion of internet users who are
members of at least one social networking site that you are ignoring a huge
number of potential customers if you don’t at least try it. Facebook alone
has over a hundred million users as of the middle of 2008, so you can see
just how big an opportunity this is.
But I can guarantee that once you HAVE tried marketing to your audience in
this way, you won’t want to stop.
TO START WITH – DO YOUR
HOMEWORK
This is vital if you are going to get some good results. Some social
networking sites are quite lenient when it comes to members using them for
business purposes. Others are completely against it.
You need to know exactly where you stand with each one before you get
started, because if you take a laid back approach with a site that doesn’t like
it, you won’t get anywhere.This part is easy though. All you need to do is read the terms and conditions
of each site that you are interested in, to see how promotional you are
allowed to be. The more you know up front, the better you will be able to
integrate yourself into each website.
You should also take a look round and see what other people have done. But
be careful with this approach because you may well come across people who
have broken the rules and haven’t been discovered yet. And you certainly
don’t want to join them, do you?
DON’T OVERDO IT
Before we get into how to make the most of social networking for business
purposes, we should cover one important point.
There are a lot of social networking sites online today, and it can be tempting
to join them all. But this can actually harm your chances of marketing
successfully through them.
It works far better to join just two or three social networking sites rather
than as many as you can. Just think about the amount of free time you have
available each week. If you focus your efforts on a few sites rather than a
lot, you’ll get far better results.
Why? Simply because the people who start to follow you on the sites you do
use will expect you to be reasonably active on there. And if you are trying to
keep up with half a dozen or more sites, you will naturally be spreading
yourself a lot thinner.
And that means the effect will be diluted as well. So make sure you choose
the best networks with the most people – and stick with them. And here
we’re talking about the networks that have millions of followers. You won’t
be aiming to connect with all of them, but you’ll soon find that you have a
bigger niche audience to aim at – which is good news when it comes to
making money.
Incidentally when you are thinking about the sites that you should be joining,
think about the type and age group of people who are using each site. You
may need to do a bit of research here but it will be worth it. One site may
have a huge audience comprised of college graduates, while another may
feature a lot more young professionals. And if you are aiming at young
professionals, then that first site – no matter how many users it has – won’t
be the ideal one for you to join. THREE POPULAR SOCIAL
NETWORKING SITES YOU
SHOULD DEFINITELY THINK
ABOUT JOINING
Please note that these are my personal favorites. They are well worth
considering for different reasons, which I shall reveal as we take a quick look
at each one. So let’s take the guided tour, shall we?
MYSPACE
It’s big, it’s popular and most people have heard of it. And those are three
good reasons why you should get involved with it too.
They don’t like affiliate links, so if you’re planning to promote other people’s
products and you don’t have a site of your own, you’ll benefit from getting
one. But that aside, you’ll get a comprehensive profile page that will help
you tell people what you’re all about, and you can list your interests too. If
you make sure these are related to the focus of your business, you’ll draw
even more interest.
Oh and did I mention you can have your own blog on MySpace as well?
People can access this from your profile page, and you can end up with quite
a few fans simply by writing a great blog on a regular basis.
FACEBOOK
The other huge social networking site out there today. And this one doesn’t
mind you promoting your business either, which is why it gets on my top
three list.
You can actually join by proclaiming that you are a business and opening a
business account, but you should be aware that you can’t then have a
personal account as well. The rules regarding this are quite complex, so it’s
worth checking out the help section before joining.Facebook is laid out differently from MySpace, but the principle is the same.
And the fact that you can be honest about why you’re there – to market your
business – makes it a lot easier and arguably more enjoyable to use.
TWITTER
If you want big results for less work, then Twitter is the site for you. Why
write a long message to people who are interested in what you have to say
when 140 characters will do?
That’s all you get to communicate with on Twitter, but it makes it easy to
keep busy on the site. A minute or two here and there and you will soon
have plenty of followers hanging onto your every word.
Some people have even created a series of necessarily short pieces of
advice, labeling them ‘1 of 12’ and so on, to create interest. It works well,
too, and simply experimenting with using the 140 character limit to your
advantage can create some good results. ADOPT A DIFFERENT
APPROACH TO SUIT EACH SITE
To really make the most of social networking, you need to present yourself
as someone down to earth but professional. So let’s take a look at how you
can do that by focusing on a few important points to remember.
WHO ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?
On a very basic level, you’re looking for customers. But you’re also looking
for a certain type of person who is going to become your customer.
What you need to do is to find out who that person is. What do they like?
What are they really interested in? And so on. And once you have found out
the answers to those questions, you can target your social networking efforts
towards that person. This should be easy to do if you know your product well. And it also means
you won’t get overwhelmed by the volume of people on the social networking
site you are targeting – because you will know exactly which ones you are
aiming for.
But make no mistake - knowing your audience is the key to using social
networking sites successfully when it comes to marketing your products. If
you don’t know who you are aiming at, you won’t attract much attention at
all. At least, not the type you are looking for.
This follows up on choosing the right sites for you in the first place. Once
you have done that, don’t assume that everyone on that site is going to have
an interest in you. It’s just a question of narrowing your focus even more
and zoning in on the people you want to reach. Don’t try and sell to
everyone because it won’t work
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