Social Media Marketing for Beginners

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Social Marketing for Beginners

People have been talking about social marketing for about two years. There’s so much involved with social marketing that if you’re a beginner, you may be overwhelmed. These ideas will help get you up to speed on social marketing and tell you how you can use it for your own online business.

Instead of trying to use all of these tips at once, take one or two and master them before trying to add another. By taking your time in adding additional social marketing areas, you will be able to tell if your efforts in the two you’ve chosen are actually generating more traffic to your website or more sales for your business.

1. Twitter is one of the fastest growing social media outlets on the internet. If you’re not familiar with it, you’ll want to get familiar. This is a micro-blogging platform that allows you to type 140 characters at a time which is seen by everyone who “follows” you. You can use Twitter in any number of ways including sending people URLs for your website or with your affiliate link.

2. Squidoo Lenses are another great way to get traffic to your website. The format is easy to learn so there’s really no reason not to give it a try. Read the tutorial for Squidoo and then browse around the various pages; you’ll be amazed at what you can do with them.

3. Create a blog and update it regularly. Make it easy for your visitors to contact you or leave comments. In this way, you allow them to ask questions, comment on your blog post, or reach you if they have suggestions.

4. Concentrate on helping others rather than merely driving traffic to your own website. Be sure you provide something of value no matter what social marketing platform you use. You may even want to offer a free ebook or product that will meet your target market’s needs and you’ll benefit in the process.

5. Visit other people’s blogs and leave comments, particularly if they’re in your niche. Be sure to be polite and sincere in what you say and that you’re adding something of value rather than commenting on how nice their blog looks.

6. When you set up your own blog, be sure to include tools so visitors can Digg what you have to say, vote for the post being Del.icio.us, or telling others they Reddit. Use plug-ins that you add to your blog that will include buttons for all of these, as well as many other, social bookmarking sites.

7. Share the love. Don’t be afraid to let others know about blogs or websites that you frequent without worrying about getting something in return.

8. Join micro-communities as long as they pertain to your business. Online forums can be considered micro-communities as well as these examples: gardenweb.com, care2.com, and education.com. Be sure to offer relevant comments and pay attention to what others on these sites are talking about.

9. Don’t be afraid to ask for feedback. Ask visitors what they would like to see on your site or how you can improve it. Try something new and then ask for opinions. If someone gives a suggestion or comment, be sure to thank them and seriously consider their suggestion.

10. Include links to all of your social networking profiles on your website. For example, if you have a Facebook and a Twitter page, provide links to your profiles on your website so web visitors can follow you.

Social networking is an effective tool to build a community, and in this day and age that’s the key to building a sustainable and profitable business. Social marketing can be time consuming and addictive. Don’t forget to spend time doing what brings income to you rather than merely spending time with social marketing. However, that being said, do give it a try. It can do your business a world of good!

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Tags: Social marketing, social marketing for newbies, social media, social networking, what is social media

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 8th, 2009 at 4:39 am and is filed under social media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.