In this ongoing series of “How To’s”, I will be covering the basics of Search Marketing, Social Media, Website Optimization and much more. There are a lot of businesses out there that just need a little jump start, and once the tools have been put into place, they require minimal assistance.

This week’s How To will be covering : Building Your Social Network

This may sound like a very vague topic, and it is to a certain extent. A social network, in the traditional sense has nothing to do with making a sale, or the bottom line. However, this is a very naive way of approaching social networking.

Even only a decade ago, the only way businesses were spreading their message to potential (and even existing) customers, was TV, Radio, or Print. This was only effective with bloated budgets, massive up front costs and countless man hours.

Today, these traditional means of advertising are truly showing their ineffectiveness, especially when compared to the possibilities offered online. Constantly barraging viewers with ads and hoping for feedback can only work for so long.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could track down to the penny, exactly what you’re getting for your advertising dollar?  Welcome to the world of online marketing. But, I digress.

Gone are the days of the ‘banner ad or nothing’. Today, through the use of social media, there are countless ways to attract and connect with customers. These methods are much less intrusive, provide the means for customers to leave feedback and best of all, let them generate word-of-mouth (or… text-of-fingers… *ahem* sorry….). Anyways, some of the most effective tools, which I’m sure you’ve heard of, are listed below however, what you do with those tools is entirely different.

Tool To Achieve Effectiveness

Twitter
  1. So you’ve set up your Twitter account.  Now what? Start tweeting! See something interesting on another website, relevant to your business field?  Post it.  Retweet someone else’s post if you think it has relevant. Be creative.
  2. Once you have a few posts under your belt, you may or may not have noticed some followers.  How did they find you?  Well, there’s a Search function included with Twitter that shows related posts.  So, if you’re tweeting about something interesting, or relative to a visitors search, they may find you interesting enough to follow you.  Great!!
  3. Get out there and start following others. Don’t just follow anybody though.  Chances are, Ashton Kutcher doesn’t want to buy your product or service, no offense. Follow people in your field, or related AT ALL to your business.  Don’t be too specific, but also don’t waste your time.
  4. Don’t expect everyone to follow you back. There is no specific percentage, but if you follow 50-100 people in a day, expect a handful to follow you back. Don’t worry, people don’t check their computers/email/twitter accounts every single day, so it will take time.
  5. Once you have a decent following, just stick with what you started doing. Writing relevant, interesting and informative posts.

Facebook
  1. It’s important to keep your personal Facebook profile separate from what are called ‘Pages’. Pages are very similar to what you may see when looking at one of your friend’s profiles, except Pages are used solely for organizations, brands, large events, artists, bands, etc.
  2. The potential for reaching out to customers is enormous on Facebook, for a couple of reasons. First of all, the fact that it has over 500 million active members helps, but the fact that it offers built in feedback, photo gallery, discussion areas, and the ability to customize content on tabs provides nearly limitless possibilities. For an example, please check out the Harley Davidson page.  Not your typical Facebook page, but something similar is definitely not out of reach for even small or medium sized businesses.  You don’t have to have a million dollar budget for similar results.
  3. Try not to barrage your fans with posts and content. Stick to making a small update once every day or two, and keep in mind that you can suck in tweets and blog posts to add to your content stream.

LinkedIn
  1. LinkedIn is a resource for networking with other industry professionals. The one achilles heel here, is that unless you personally know the people you are speaking to, it’s best not to bother them. Far too many users add hundreds, even thousands of individuals to their LinkedIn account, many of whom they have never met or spoken to. This is a very quick way to find yourself getting ignored.
  2. Establish your business as a LinkedIn entity by listing your employees, website and integrate your Twitter account and blog.  You may connect with old colleagues who found themselves in a similar industry as yours.

Blog
  1. Blogs are generally have less of a corporate and more of a personal feel. This is the best way to approach them however, don’t forget who you’re talking to.  Your blog readers will be industry colleagues, prospective clients and existing customers. Expect feedback and be ready to answer it quickly.
  2. A general rule of thumb is one blog post a week, but if you have enough time and enough content to write one a day, go for it.  Find a routine and do your absolute best to stick to it.
  3. Posts do not have to be novels, in fact, the more concise the better. Can you get your point across in 2 paragraphs?  Go for it… but make sure it’s interesting, and straight to the point.

Email Lists
  1. First and foremost. If you don’t have a userbase, forget about it.  Who exactly do you expect to send emails to?
  2. If and when you do have a substantial userbase (I’m talking about only 100 or so registered newsletter readers), make SURE you do not overstay your welcome. Even an email every day is too much.  Limit your emails to once a week and you may find that you keep your readers instead of drive them away.

These only scratch the service. I haven’t even mentioned Facebook ads, LinkedIn ads, Promoted Tweets, etc. I also haven’t mentioned how to measure Social Media and Networking success and performance. But alas, those will have to wait for another day!

In what innovative ways do you connect with customers?

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