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5 Ways to Ensure Your Social Media Marketing Doesn’t Bomb…
By Terrance Charles |
Social Media, if not one of the most powerful and viral mediums you can use for your business, whether to increase your personal brand or to use it to help market your business and gain more exposure that you couldn’t have gained from other sources as effective.
Social media is basically word of mouth, engagement, entertaining and live and direct, basically a 2 way conversation that can be taken to a 10 way conversation. And it has already proven to take people and brands to the top of the charts, so how do you use it correctly?
How To Ensure Social Media Marketing Success?
#1 Engage…
I see so many people making this mistake, and the fact is, if you use this wrong you’ll actually damage your brand and credibility no matter how much messages or how much times people see your profile image and name, they’ll always ignore you and remember you as the one that doesn’t engage and connect with their followers, readers and community.
Remember it takes months to years to establish your brand and credibility and only one bad mistake to ruin it for good, so you want to engage your followers and not just rapidly send out promotional links, if you engage them the right and real way, they’ll check it out on their own.
#2 Give Value…
If not one of the most important methods you can use. How else do people get to know, trust and like you? By giving them value, something that they will remember you for. The key words are can they get to know you, can they get to trust you, can they get to like you. That is your business survival plan, you want to make sure that your hitting all 3 points to keep your business surviving and people recommending you to their community.
In the offline world, you give value to your friends by inviting them to a good party, or taking them out to play some pool etc, and they’ll remember that, social media is like a party, people want to hang with people they know, like and trust, and that’s cool of course, no different than offline.
#3 Keep It Real…
This is self explanatory, don’t try to be something your not because as human beings we are conditioned to seeing how unique and real a person is and we can tell by looking at them, listening to them, or watching them in a video.
If you come of as shady, people will NOT trust you and if we don’t understand or can’t figure out why we don’t like something, we stay away from it, right? Be your unique self, people like you for you, not what your trying to be, and that’s a BIG one to remember.
#4 – Educate/Entertain/Enlighten…
People don’t like boring people, you don’t go to a party and hang out with someone boring right? So why would you do this online or even think someone else will want to do this online. How to do you educate, entertain and enlighten? Give content, not just any content, valuable content that will take care of all 3 social media (e’s).
You can do this by sharing things that your already interested in, like funny videos, funny stories, personal experiences, how to videos, and giving information that people did not think about yet until you brought it to light. This is the internet, content s everywhere and it doesn’t have to be just your content, as long as you source the person or website where you get the content, your fine.
#5 – Show Love/Have fun…
That’s what it’s all about, like a big o’le party. When you are having fun on your social media networks, people take notice and they want to have fun with you. Social media is really what’s HOT and what’s NOT, what’s entertaining, what’s cool, and keeping up with your friends, business partners and potential prospects.
Show them you know how to have and help them have a good time, and they’ll stick with you. Don’t forget to always show LOVE back to the ones that are showing love to you, those people are valued because they took the time out to give you gratitude.
Sending them a quick @ reply or message will make their day because they know that you truly appreciate them for being them. All in all, engage, give value, keep it real, educate/entertain/enlighten, show love and have fun.
To The TOP,
Terrance Charles
TerranceCharles.Com
Popularity: 1% [?]
Topics: How-To's, Internet Marketing Tips, Online Social Networking | 14 Comments »
Twitter: johnhg57
1:08 am on March 14th, 2010
Hi Terrance,
I have just started to try and make a living on-line and find your comments to be very helpful I always try to give good value, helpful free stuff and find getting traffic seems to be the biggest problem anyone is going to face.
At the moment I am giving away an ebook showing how to build a website exactly the same as my own which on sign up also gives the customer a free step by step video instruction business course.
So far i’ve only had 2 sign ups and I know that this book and course are one of the best start that any newbie could possibly wish for. Do you please have any advice as for getting some free or cheap traffic? Thank you for any help…
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Terrance Charles
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March 16th, 2010 at 9:32 pm
John, I understand your concern, traffic is essential. I can’t explain in full details here, but I will tell you, there is 3 types of traffic, traffic your create, traffic you buy, and traffic you borrow. If you want to create free traffic that will get you more subscribers and build you back-links at the same time, I recommend article marketing, hands down.
Using a article directory like http://ezinearticles.com is a great place to start and start creating articles around your product, not promoting your product but solving the problem people are having that your product can solve and leave your squeeze page in your authors resource box.
Creating atleast 1 article a day is essential, you can create as much as you like and use a service backed by Willie Crawford (EPBT) http://www.su.pr/2hkBBS will submit your articles to the TOP article directories and much more like press releases, audios and videos.
Another way around this is to utilize all the social media networks, especially Twitter. If you don’t have a twitter account, now is the best time to get one and start creating your marketing presence, and with the above blog post as I explained, these 5 principles will help you build trust, credibility and find other joint venture partners that may interested in what you have to offer.
Once you start to build traffic and create a routine, you’ll want to start doing email “adswaps” with other marketers where you each promote each others product to each others list to give you more momentum to build your list, traffic and profits at the same time. You can find a “adswap” community at http://bit.ly/9fuD1M – It takes time, but it will result in more traffic and exposure for you.
Thanks for your comment, and remember, put it to use
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7:45 pm on March 15th, 2010
Terrence,
You hit the nail on the head. Social media is an add value / receive value type deal. The more you give – of your knowledge, time, and assistance – the more you’ll get. Works like a charm for the really good givers.
I also keep this in mind: be a person, not a thing. So easy to view people as number, whether it’s prospects or the competition.
You are doing business with people. They appreciate being treated like people. Be social!
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Terrance Charles
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May 2nd, 2010 at 12:52 am
Thank Ryan, and I couldn’t agree with you more. The more you give, the more you’ll get without asking for it. And as you mentioned, social media really works for good givers, people that give value to the community, because it seperates you from those that don’t, and with social media, this will propel you to the top of your industry, because people remember.
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Twitter: known
2:03 am on March 16th, 2010
Hi Terrance!
Nice post. Appreciate the human element and perspective. Great and very valid points too. All true.
I enjoy the people I’ve come to know on both Twitter and Facebook. And you’re correct about the importance of engaging and giving value. For the longest time I was an observer, lurker, and then one day I began the dialog with so many people. I’ve learned tons and in the process I feel I’ve also been able to give back. And the beauty of both sites is there will always be those who are smarter, both in experience and original thought, and those who eagerly ask questions and opening the door to be able to share information.
Keeping it real really goes hand in hand with having fun, don’t you think? Otherwise, where would we be!
Thanks again for another great post on a relevant and timely topic.
Cheryl
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Terrance Charles
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March 16th, 2010 at 8:10 pm
No doubt Cheryl, I like that you brought up stepping out and just engaging with other people, because you meet a lot of cool people and even gain long-term business partners that you could not have otherwise, and that’s what will take you a long way, Thanks.
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Twitter: carltonf
3:37 am on March 16th, 2010
Terrance,
What you have done in a nutshell here is to fully describe “attraction marketing”. People gravitate towards those who are funny, entertaining, insightful, giving, and engaging. This is the type of basic-level advice that people need who are having trouble attracting attention on social media communities. I’m going to use this as a daily “check-up” to make sure that I stay focused on what really draws a crowd!
Thanks, and keep up the good work!
Carlton
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Terrance Charles
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March 16th, 2010 at 8:13 pm
You said it best Carlton, it’s the good o’le relationship and attraction marketing, people stick to people they know, like and trust, and that’s one of the biggest business lessons, it’s not about your websites, it’s about YOU, and if you can keep it real, they will see that quality.
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11:50 am on March 16th, 2010
Yo Terrance,
I’ve seen dozens and dozens of so called blogs over the last year, and I’ve not bothered to read any of them all the way through. But I’ve read every word on this page, and will return.
“keep it real, educate/entertain/enlighten, show love and have fun”.
All this has been lurking at the Back of my mind… Though it’s amazing how sometimes all it needs is someone to just say it out loud.
I’m really impressed with your writing style,and couldn’t help think, what’s he selling. I actually wanted to know!
“You are what you think you are, life is what you think” and your page is really clear and succinct.
I feel you coming through as a bright warm character. So for me that’s what you are.
I hope you get to where you want to go, if you’re not already there yet.
Warm Regards
Pat
PS I’m relatively new to blogging and will definitely keep an eye on your Blog. 10/10.
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Terrance Charles
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March 16th, 2010 at 9:19 pm
Pat, a BIG Thank You brother, I really appreciate what you said, it means a lot to me. I always try to deliver what works, what I’m using, and what’s current. As you pointed out, keep it real, educate/entertain/enlighten, show love and have fun, and you will defnitely get noticed. See you around on the blog
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Twitter: brendafranzo
3:55 pm on March 16th, 2010
Hi Terrance! What a great post…You hit every point perfectly! I love social media marketing… it really is just like hanging out and socializing with friends!
Keeping it real…
Brenda
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Terrance Charles
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March 16th, 2010 at 8:17 pm
Thanks Brenda, it’s a big o’le party, and also like the offline world, the same way you interact offline, bring it to your online business and people will see that you are genuine and someone to listen too. Thank You!
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Twitter: SuperAffil
5:34 am on March 17th, 2010
Great post, Terrance, and it brings home an important point – marketers from online OR offline biz shouldn’t ‘play’ at social media. Either take the time to interact and get involved or leave it alone. Whether it’s good or bad for your business depends on YOU, not on the site or it’s service.
As a marketer, it’s important to realize your entire online presence reflects on your business – you wouldn’t attend a trade show in ripped jeans and a dirty t-shirt, so don’t do it online either!
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Terrance Charles
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March 17th, 2010 at 7:49 pm
I hear you on that one Doug
That’s the thing about social media, if you do it right, it’s rewarding for you and your business, do it wrong and you’ll ruin your credibility.
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