Social Media (SM) is an important tool in marketing any business when it's done right. And, SM is here to stay so this is the first post in an ongoing series of SM.SM can go wrong is you are not careful. In the paper today there's a story of a news station that asked viewers to tweet what they are glad is over in 2014, since today is the last day of the year. It backfired. Viewers ended up mocking the station and the news casters too. (read story).
What is Social Media (aka social networks)
There are a slew of social media providers. The top ones in USA are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+. Those four are also free to use. There are many social networks that started free but now you must pay. For example Ning.com; however, there are no ads in that one like you see in Facebook or Linkedin. Click here to view an entire list of social media sites in Wikipedia.
How Does Social Media Work?
The old school term is networking. Nowadays, it depends on what SM tool you are using in how to best put it to work. Keep in mind that SM is ALWAYS morphing with updates and new technology. I am going to focus here on the top four that I already mentioned. One key thread in these four is that they are use your email account(s) to garner people to link with you.
The basis is friends. When you share a post it is distributed to your friends. Depending on how they have set their "viewing settings," they may or may not see your post. There are also communities, but I have never used them or participated in them.
The basis is followers. When you send a tweet it is distributed to your followers. The idea is the more followers the more exposure. In the old days you could just sign up an account without much fuss. Today, when you setup a new account, you have to pick a scad of people to follow. That means you begin by being on the receiving end of their tweets.
The basis is contacts. You can do a short post or a longer article, which is a recent change. LinkedIn is revamping its structure. Now when you do a short post it is distributed to your contacts but you can never see it or manage that post.In the other SM you can see your previous posts. Plus, in the new feature of a longer article, you can see that/those under the Profile menu. Obviously, Linkedin wants users to start doing longer articles. There are also communities here and I have used them somewhat but not had much success.
Google+ (G+)
The basis is circles. From your email account you connect with people and place them into one or more circles. For example, I have a business circle, a client circle, and so forth. Blogspot.com is Googles free blog, when you make a post there, you select what circle will automatically receive it. Or, you can sent it to the general public. There are also established communities, some open and some need an invitation, where you can make relevant posts to that community. I have had a lot of success in G+ communities.
Common Feature in those four: The link in your post, hopefully it is to your blog or web site, and works to boost your page rank.
I will go into those four in more detail in future posts. I think it's important since those are here to stay and they contain millions of potential viewers of your products and services.
Measure Your Results
The best part of any serious effort in life is measuring your results. Here is a simple, free, and easy way to track the results of your social marketing.
#1 Use the Chrome Browser.
#2 Install free add called "Social Analytics" after you have installed Chrome. You can find this by googling "Chrome add on social analytics".
Now when you visit a web page, that add-on will automatically show you how many people have shared the page in the top four social networks. If you have a blog, go to the blog post to see the results for that specific post.
I hope this has been helpful to you in marketing your business. To get automatic updates join my Google+ circle in the right hand column of this post. Receive my free SEO Tips booklet here.
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