The Best Ways to Succeed in Social Media Marketing
What you may have noticed by now in promoting your website and business is that the majority of niche marketers out there are looking to the avenue of social media marketing to give them that extra edge and connection that they can’t get anywhere else. If you haven’t pursued the options in social media marketing that are out there, then you are sitting on an untapped resource, my friend, and I am here to give you some of the best ways that you can succeed in growing your online business through social media marketing.
First, when you are joining a site like Facebook, Squidoo, or Hubpages, make sure that you are there to make connections and form relationships. You must avoid self-promotion. If you take all of your time plugging yourself and your company, then the users will not respond well to that and your reputation in that particular social media site will be shot as a spammer. Believe it or not, when people begin to see you as a credible authority on your business and subject through social media sites, then they will come to you to ask you questions about, say poker chips and where to find them (if that is what your site sells), and that is how a loyal relationship with your customer is born. It almost seems a little old fashioned, doesn’t it?
Next, please do not try to ride someone else’s coat tails in their efforts. Be original! If you see someone that has taken the time to build a poker group, or anything related to your business, and you then jump in there and begin promoting yourself and your site, that is a serious social media marketing faux pas. People will not respect you when you are simply trying to edge in one what someone else has created, so it is wasted efforts on your part. Instead, be original, and take the time to create quality groups of your won that poker lovers can join to get the latest poker tips and find out where to get the best poker supplies.
Lastly, you completely need to give to get. If you want people to start checking out your site, your business, your poker tips, then you need to first look in to what they have to offer. If you are constantly sending people comments or tweets saying, “check out my new poker supplies at XXX”, then that comment will most likely be disregarded as spam. Instead, if you begin to go to other poker player’s blog and comment on them, then their interest will be peaked to visit your site or blog as well to see what you have to offer. You may notice that the majority of users in the social media marketing venues are all about taking and promoting, so just the mere fact of you showing interest in really connecting with someone else’s community will set you apart as a real person that people will want to buy from. And that is what you are, right?
I hope these ideas have shed some light for you on the best ways to navigate your way through the social media sites that are thriving out there right now. Use these tools for the proper internet marketing etiquette, and you will be surprised to see how easily it gets you ahead in the game and draws traffic to your site. Brilliant!
Learning How to Start Out in Social Media Marketing
Now that you have learned the vast amount of ways that you can promote your business and website through social media marketing, your next step is to actually put it all into practice. I’m sure that it may seem overwhelming at first, but this is your time to shine without training wheels! Let me just say that these social media sites truly beat marketing methods where you hand out our business card to random people you meet who will probably throw it away shortly thereafter. This has been proven to be a sure way to make a lasting impression on your niche market and to draw traffic to your site.
You have to be willing to experiment in your social media circle. If you are one of the many users out there that tries Twitter, Facebook, or Hubpages and feel like it didn’t work to market your site, then I have to say that you may not have been putting your efforts into the right areas. If you have simply set up a profile in several sites but have not put forth the necessary effort, then of course you are not going to see hardly any results in that time period, sad to say. When you actually delve into these communities, good or bad, then you will be able to know what does or doesn’t work in marketing your site.
Stick to the ideas that work. When you are putting yourself out there in the social media sites, and you notice that one of your particular comments or groups or blogs got quite a few responses, then you should stick to that for as long as it is working for you! There is a reason that numerous people responded to your specific blog topic or tweet, so you need to tap into that resource and give your audience more of what they are looking for. From there, you can check out what your peers are doing to succeed, because there are so many people out there like you who are using these social media sites to promote their service or business, and it is working for someone! You wisest move would be to pay attention to the individuals who are creating a mass following and see how they do it. People on every social media site do want to take an interest and follow other users, which is why they are all there as a community. The catch is that the person worthy of the large following has to provide a genuine reason as to why the public should be interested in him or her. Seems easy enough, right?
My personal recommendation to you is to get away from the cookie cutter type approach to people and begin to market what is unique about you. Whether you make a personality for yourself that is related to your site, or just tailor your approach to people in a more personal way, you want to make sure that you are standing out from the crowd. This in essence is a popularity contest, but users out there are really wanting to see something original. What comes to my mind is one of the most popular Twitter users that is a mommy blogger, and all she does is make hilarious comments about parenting. That’s it. And people lover her! So that backs up my point about doing what is authentic to you to create a huge following that will end up trafficking to your site. Viola!
How You Can Market Your Blog to Rank Your Site Higher
Now that we have established to the need for a solid blog to add to your site, the next thing that you need to do is get the word out there so that your blog is generating more traffic for you, as it is supposed to do. The whole purpose of your blog is to draw a loyal audience that will in turn be drawn to your site, so you want to market your blog to the public as much as you can. Just as much as people love a good TV series that they can get hooked on, they are also looking for a relevant blog that they can keep going back to again and again. This is also your time to shine! If you have a lot to say about the different perfume brands on your fragrance site, then your blog is the prime outlet to showcase all of your knowledge and expertise. So, how do you get people to start reading…?
Blog Directories: If you type “blog directories” in to Google, then you will see many solid options appear. It is best to submit your blog to as many blog directories as you can since that is where people who are searching for inside information, like the hottest new fragrances for the fall, will go. Consumer love to search blogs because that can be a solid source of recommendation from their fellow peer. The key is to get yourself out there so that people are taking advantage of what you have to say. Just look for the category in the blog that matches the theme of your blog, since many blog directories are categorized, and you can submit to that appropriately.
Social Bookmarking: This is a very popular and widespread way to get the word for your blog out there since there are so many social bookmarking sites being used today. When you have a fantastic specific post on your blog that really stands out, it is best to submit it to these blog directories for the public to see and take advantage of. Again, you can look to places like Digg, Mixx, or Newsvine to submit your blog to increase traffic to your subject and your site.
RSS Feeds: If you are blogging regularly on a site like WordPress, then you may already know that WordPress operates by a default RSS feed. The good news for you is that you can then submit your blog’s RSS feed to other related RSS feed sites so that your blog can be showcased on even more websites. This is the perfect way to branch out and expand the circle of your blog so that you are reaching people that you may have never reached before. Keep in mind that people can subscribe to your blog’s RSS feed to receive timely updates on your posts, which is exactly what you are wanting as it creates a loyal following and more traffic to your site!
These are just a few key ideas that will help you market your blog and your site to the niche that you are targeting. Use your blog to bring out the authority in you, as people want to know that they are buying their quality perfumes or other goods from a site that is run by experts who are passionate about what they do. It may go without saying, but also make sure that your blog is optimized for SEO so that the search engines can pick it up everytime. And happy blogging!
