As a Social Media Strategist, I spend more time than most setting-up and managing social media accounts; both for myself and for my clients. As more and more “brick and mortar” businesses have flocked to the popular social sites over the past couple of years, I have seen an increasing discrepancy between the typical business owner’s use of these sites (for marketing purposes), and their understanding of how those sites work.

Despite the almost constant barrage, offered up by gurus of all stripes, of the “latest and greatest, whiz-bang secrets” that promise to unleash the proverbial “flood of hungry customers to your web site via social media sites”, few, if any, of the promises come true, and the expected flood of sales leads coming from the typical marketing campaign usually turns out to be a mere trickle.

The problem isn’t the social media channels; it is true that there are untold millions of potential buyers out there. The problem lies in how the media is being used – or misused – when trying to attract those potential buyers.

This is where the business owners are being misled, and where they make their fatal mistakes in the social media circles. These mistakes are almost always a result of a faulty, linear mindset. Business owners are used to viewing marketing activities as a linear, cause and effect relationship; i.e. place an ad, pull in some leads, distribute some flyers, see more walk-in traffic, that sort of thing.

Social media marketing, on the other hand, doesn’t operate in such a linear fashion; it is far more dynamic than that. Social media marketing is about developing relationships. It is about engaging the prospect, helping to solve problems, offering useful and timely information, and allowing the prospect to develop trust with the business and their products and services.

In short, social media is not about selling the prospect; it is not about taking the customary direct approach that so many business owners and marketing managers are used to in other forms of marketing.

Rather, to be effective, these campaigns needs to take an indirect approach; and it is this indirect approach to marketing that is so misunderstood by, and so frustrating to, many business owners. In my opinion, this is why many business owners eventually throw up their hands and claim that marketing through social channels is a waste of time.

OK, if the direct route in social media doesn’t work well, are there any specific ways in which you can use this media to increase sales leads for your company? Yes! Here are a few specific steps to take:

1. Develop a personal style – Your posting style can be funny, serious, professional, or any of a number of other styles. Just pick one that is natural for you. Don’t try to be something – or someone – that you are not. People really can spot the disingenuous speaker (or writer) and that will turn your prospects off.
2. Speak like you are speaking to a friend – Imagine you are at a cocktail party. Most people wouldn’t walk up to a complete stranger and start selling them something; at least if they didn’t want the other person to get up and walk away. Instead, speak to the other person like you were speaking to friend. Get to know them – what they like and dislike, what they want and need. Offer solutions. Point them in the right direction. Be helpful. That is how you develop a relationship.
3. Build out your network – Many businesses set up a page on, say, Facebook, and then sit back waiting for the multitudes to stop by and “like” their page. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. Social media marketing is a lot like dating: you have to get out there and introduce yourself. Start with people you already know, and that are already on-line. Invite them over to your new page and ask them to like, follow, or link-up. Then, branch out and search for others who match your core demographic and find out where they are hanging out (hint: search on-line for blogs, forums, groups, etc.). Listen to their conversations. Comment where appropriate. Seek out the problems they are having and offer solutions. Build credibility and trust and they will start to show up on your page.
4. Think beyond the obvious – If you can’t figure out where your prospects are hanging out, then start liking, following, and linking-up with groups and organizations that are likely filled with your best prospects. For most off-line businesses, a natural starting point would be pages sponsored by local Chambers of Commerce, business organizations, and community service organizations (like Kiwanis and Rotary Clubs) and other non-profits. Depending on your particular type of business, city government pages might be a good resource as well. The point is that all of these organizations, and thousands like them, are probably already in the social media circles with their own pages. Your job is to connect with them, join the conversations and offer value through your postings (again, DO NOT jump in and start selling here – that activity should be reserved for your home web site).

Remember that social media is about building relationships first; sales leads will come later. Complete the four steps above and you will start to see your social media sales leads increase.

About the Author

Scott Spooner is an Internet Marketing Consultant in the Los Angeles area who specializes in the areas of Strategic Internet Marketing, Niche Market Research, Traffic Building Strategies, and Sales Conversion. Scott publishes The Niche Marketing Blog where he discusses the topics, resources, and tools available for niche marketing, market segmentation, and market research. To learn more, visit The Niche Marketing Blog

The biggest reason businesses fail in social media is lack of strategy. Businesses have to remember to stop looking for “shiny new tools” just because everyone is using them and thinks they are the “holy grail” of the online world. It is paramount to take the time to learn the correct way to use social media, and implement the strategy that is suitable for your business. And, the truth is it should always come last in any planning you do for your business. It is also important to understand that it is not the end-all solution to your business problems, and it should never be used as a replacement strategy or as a stand-alone.

If you want to succeed with this, there are some strategy steps you must take before you dive into the online world. So, let’s strip away all the hype and go through the right steps that must be taken to help you determine if social media is appropriate for your business. If you go through the following 10 steps in the order I list them, you will gain clarity, save time and reduce it overwhelm.

1. Be open-minded and change the traditional way you communicate with customers, employees, investors, partners, the media, etc. As an entrepreneur, it is important to create a social mind-set for relationship marketing, networking, engaging and collaborating.

2. Educate yourself and become familiar with all the categories and how they can be integrated together as well as the entire marketing mix in order to leverage and maximize your efforts.

3. Pinpoint existing resources that may be needed for (employees, time, budget, tools, etc.).

4. Determine if you have weaknesses in your business that may potentially hurt you online (i.e., poorly designed website or no website, bad customer service, weak content, negative comments from customers, etc.)

5. Determine if you have strengths in your business that you can leverage online (i.e., available content such as videos, e-Books, or brand lovers who are already talking about you, etc.)

6. See what your competitors are doing. Just observe and takes notes; do not be a copy-cat.

7. Identify your target audience, and determine when and where they hang out online.

8. Set clear goals and objectives. Goals are general statements (i.e., “We want to leverage social media to improve customer service”). Objectives are more specific and measurable (i.e., “By December 2010, we want to triple traffic to our website and increase sales by 20 percent”).

9. Decide what you want to use for (i.e., prospecting, recruiting, customer service, etc.) and how you want to engage your online audience. Do you want to use it for communication, collaboration, education, entertainment or all of them?

10. Based on what you came up with in the last nine steps, select the social media categories and tools you want to use (social networking, video, podcasting, photo-sharing, blogging, etc.).

There are many more factors to consider before putting together a strategy; however, if done properly, these steps will give you a clear picture of the landscape and help you determine whether social media is right for your business or not.

Named as one of the “smartest people in social media,” Mirna Bard is a social media consultant who inspires organizations and entrepreneurs to leverage the Internet. You can find more information on Mirna and get practical, hype-free social media tips and business advice on her blog. You can also connect with Mirna on Facebook athttp://facebook.com/socialwebstrategyconsultant where she gives great advice and fun giveaways.

Everything starts with a blog.

I get asked a lot what should I post on Twitter? when I get asked this I know that the asker is in doubt about the entire point of social media.

If you are in business, Blogs and social media are there to pay the rent period. As much as we all love to write and engage with people, the banks and building societies whom we all owe money to, would not really be so forthcoming if we said;

“Sorry no rent or mortgage money this month, but I’ve done you a lovely blog…look”

For me this is a living, and the very reason I, and many more people are taking to writing and becoming blog copywriters is to earn a crust.

There is a strategy for Social media marketing and there is in my eyes, only two types

One, if you are a celebrity and your fans want to know what you had for breakfast, or a Footballer and people want to know if you really did head-but some other player.

Two, and for the rest of us mere mortals people don’t care what you are up to, they want info and GOOD info. Social media (If you like conspiracy theories) was invented by students and completely sabotaged by business. Do you really think Facebook would be so popular without company pages?

Here is my successful Social Media strategy

1) Buy a decent keyword rich domain
2) Build a Word press blogsite
3) Intergrate your social media into it
4) Write consistent, interesting, heading centric, blogs for people with info and keep an eye on the top keywords
5) Post that to social media and bookmarking sites (and you need a good following)
6) Write a minimum of once a week
7) Write press releases to all the top sites regularly with a link back to you.
7) To make a living you will need half a dozen different blogs

Blogging for affiliates

You can either sell affiliate ads on your sites and you will need around 10,000 unique visitors a month bare minimum (That’s through Google analytics or 15,000-18,000 AWstats if you are using Hostgator) to make the current average of 1/100 uniques to click to your affiliate advertising. Then you must learn all about what you are selling and make sure it fits in with your blogs. You will have to invest heavily through online marketing avenues like Google and Facebook ads and give away gifts to get your following. Ah yes there are a plethora of sites promising this and that, get real! you would do well to remember that Google still rates the age of your site as a major factor when placing you on the search page. You will have a major battle on your hands if you are tackling a well populated arena like Insurance or computers, it can be done, but be ready to sacrifice looking at your children for the next three years!

Blogging for your own business

“Companies that blog have 55% more visitors than those who don’t” Hub spot

Use these blogs to write laterally about your business on a separate site to your usual commercial site, for example if you are an undertaker write about the life, achievements, and contribution to society of the people you inter. (Who says there isn’t a blog for every business?!) If you are Librarian do a book review blog. Everyone is interesting in some way. Then each blog you write has a call to action at the bottom of the article to say if you want this product or service, ‘go here’ with a link back to your main business site. This will endear you to Search engines like no other way can and quickly!

Many people are trying the internet now to find a way to work from home as the recession is biting hard everywhere, even well trained 40 year olds both sides of the pond are worried they will ever work again. A lot of UK business people are investing in online marketing courses to learn how to blog and have an online presence. Even the UK ISMM (Institute for Sales and Marketing management) have proffered that companies who are not using Social media marketing will be dead in 5 years! All I am saying is it must be done but look harder into it it’s a full time job like anything and there are so many people promising a silver bullet with SEO, just follow the strategy above, and you will be ok. it is like anything worth having you have to sacrifice time and effort into it.

If you literally do not have 2 hours spare a week to write a blog and you seek a company to do blogs for you, make sure they have a decent following on social media as in at least 1,000 on their Facebook page and 1,000 followers on twitter minimum! And have a look at their blogs.

Netmediauk Limited (incorporating netmediathailand) has been online for 6 years and has written over 500 articles on over 30 blog sites. We have over 20,000 people we can engage with on various groups and pages on Facebook Twitter and LinkedIn. We write about business, life and the pursuit of happiness. We train companies anywhere in UK and the Far East how to blog and engage in social media. We also have a blog writing service and we can run an effective social media strategy for you contact http://www.netmedia-uk.com

Keen to be seen as cutting edge, some website owners are diving headlong into the social web to find they’re only bog snorkelling in the shallow end of real audience engagement. Fixated on their five new portions per day of Twitter, Facebook, Blogging, YouTube and LinkedIn, businesses can blunder hopelessly at the edges of the buzz and too soon, give up the ghost on grasping the zeitgeist!

It’s not rocket science! They have no defined strategy as to what specific goal they want social media methods to achieve. Nor selected the requisite channels best suited for reaching the desired outcome and sustaining meaningful engagement to the long game aim of customer conversion.

Too often, it’s about quickly getting the accounts set up, with those shiny buttons on the home page and asking some of the boys and girls in marketing to put out the latest product offers, ten tweets a time every day. More an extension of good old online ma- throw enough out there and see what visitor traffic cares to click back in!

While social media, like organic rankings, is obviously not like the click mechanics of SEO paid search where ROI is measurable, its equivalent of outcome forecasting to prepare resource needs is essential before hitting the enter key! Neither should traditional thinking be applied over rigidly selecting a social medium as a ‘better use’ of company time and resources.

The key approach is aiming to discover where potential audiences are located and actively engaging in the social networks, media sharing sites or blogging communities via preferred platforms. Developing a social media strategy requires a purposive, yet open-ended approach with cumulative successes at homing in on overall goals, whether simply to first establish credible brand identity, better engage with enquiries, deliver improved customer support or drawing pre-qualified traffic to site pages.

It’s crucial for a company to understand their audience preferences and behaviours to constantly fine tune the right tactical mix, which can be implemented in an ongoing relationship. Just launching into the blogosphere or leaping off the tweetdeck without knowing who they want to engage with and why, is always going to lead to disillusion with negative results leading to early abandonment. The smart, consumer savvy and the well researched always neatly integrate social media into their overall communications mix and marketing strategies.

Social media is fast becoming familiar practice and features such as Twitter, Facebook and blogs are being included as a standard, key interactive website experiences for user participation. The shift to social commerce is only likely to accelerate as smartphone usage continues to grow and its intrinsic, fast functionality demands instant target results which include extended locations, products or services.

It is vital that businesses begin by building a loyal community and consumer relationships. The emphasis is on listening, responding and to be seen to be creating real engagement value. As feedback aggregates and response levels develop, those companies who have listened well will see opportunities to implement social commerce further with ever refined precision.

Daren Bach is founder of Provoke Online Marketing & Web Design
We can help our clients understand their target audiences and work with them to make sure that all their marketing material delivers results.
http://www.weprovoke.co.uk

Social media pays a pivotal role in our daily lives. Facebook has more than 150 million users, Twitter, a relative newcomer to social media, has exceeded10 million users, and it seems as though everyone has a blog.

Tapping into this goldmine of existing and potential consumers is the goal of many companies. A social media strategy has become a vital part of achieving a company’s marketing goals. Whether used to create a buzz about the company, launch a new product, or incite customer loyalty and feedback, social media is an effective tool to connect a business to its consumers.

WHY YOU NEED SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media creates a level playing field for companies large and small to market their brand, product, or service to the masses. It allows the company to recruit new customers while breeding loyalty among existing customers. Used as part of a comprehensive marketing campaign, social media helps drive traffic to the company’s campaign website and incites a desire to buy the product.

Social media not only makes people aware of the company or brand, it also allows the business to protect their reputation by tracking what is said about the company or product. In the face of negative comments and feedback, a company can do damage control earlier and connect with the public directly to renew confidence in the product or brand.

SOCIAL MEDIA & YOUR BUSINESS
Though social media is often the responsibility of the marketing department, it is important that all departments from executives to IT are on-board with the social marketing strategy to help ensure its efficacy. For many businesses, the easiest medium to break into is a company blog, in which the president, CEO, or other designated employee posts brief articles pertaining to the company or thoughts of general interest to the consumer.

“How well someone is deploying social media depends on the niche they are in,” says Kevin Palmer, Owner and Chief Strategist for Boston-based Social Media Answers. “Companies need to look within their industry and evaluate who the leaders are and why they are successful. If nobody in their industry is a leader, it is ripe for them to develop a strategy and become the thought leader within their industry.”

The best example of social media permeating all levels of the company is the use of Twitter by the online shoe and apparel retailer Zappos. Not only does CEO Tony Hsieh tweet regularly, his employees also post messages on their individual Twitter feeds, sharing what they are doing and what interests them on zappos.com and beyond. The employee Twitter feeds are linked to the Zappos website so anyone on the site can read what’s going on at the company. Zappos tracks who is talking about the company on Twitter and posts these links to their website as well. As a result, the consumer feels a connection to the company which may lead to increased sales.

While some companies may only update their status to announce a new product, promotion, or event, companies that are most successful with social media maintain relevance by posting on a regular basis. Content is still king and it is imperative to use the status update to your advantage.

Starbucks is one company that has mastered the art of updating the company’s status with relevant content. Though Starbucks is ubiquitous in every town, they take advantage of their social media as a smaller company would. The Starbucks Facebook fan page announces more than new products. They post videos, music and book reviews, articles about their employees, and encourage fan participation with fun polls and surveys. As a result, Starbucks remains on the radar of their tech-embracing consumers by updating their status and posting new content every few days. The level of engagement they have with their Facebook fans results in an active, and loyal, consumer base willing to provide feedback and promote the company to their online social groups.

In the changing world of the internet, nothing is immediate, including results. Companies should have realistic expectations. “Take time and do research before you dive in,” says Palmer, “Listen to what people are saying within your industry, about your product, and figure out where your target audience is and how they are using social media.”

Though tales of instant social media buzz do occur, much like sightings of Sasquatch, it may take a few weeks or months to generate enough buzz to increase sales. This is especially true for small to medium sized companies who may not have the brand recognition that large, established companies have.

Laura Clapper is an editor at Business Review USA, a pioneering digital media site for professionals and executives that have an interest in high grossing businesses and corporations within the USA. Through its Business Review USA Digital Magazine, online website, daily news and weekly e-newsletter, Business Review USA helps executives stay up-to-date by focusing on leadership, finance, technologies, and operations within the manufacturing, supply chain, construction, and energy industries.

Every business needs a marketing plan that works. In the past, that meant figuring out where to invest your marketing dollars so that you got the best return on the investment. Often, that was done with a print ad, with ads or listings in the Yellow Pages, perhaps through the use of telemarketing, or through the use of radio and television. In today’s world, all of the rules have changed.

Customers are changing how they connect to businesses. Today, it’s not uncommon to find that more people use the internet to search for businesses and services as their primary means of finding information. It’s faster, and the search engines make finding a local business easier every day. What that means for your business is you have to be visible in these spaces.

How Important is Social Media for Businesses?

If you’re on the fence and not sure if entering this new way of connecting to your customers, consider this:

* 94 million Americans use the Internet daily (nearly 1/3 of the total population)

* 63% of those access search engine sites daily

* 64% of Americans use Internet search as the primary way to search for local businesses

As an example, if I am looking for a groomer for my dog, I don’t use the phone book or the newspaper. I go to Google and enter “pet groomers in Pueblo, Colorado.” That pulls up a list for me based on my location for businesses that offer these services. Sadly, not many local businesses are taking advantage of this.

Businesses who develop an online presence will find themselves connecting to more customers.

Developing the Right Strategy

It’s important to analyze your industry to decide what the best strategy is for your business. Perhaps your customers read blogs. Even though blogs are becoming a more popular way of connecting with customers, the competition is still low. This means you may have a good opportunity. The use of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn increases daily. Customers are seeking businesses and brands to connect with using these channels. If your business isn’t there, those customers will end up connecting with someone else.

It’s About Relationships

In the end, creating a good social media strategy means creating a way for your business to have a relationship with your customer base. That relationship is perhaps the most important investment you can make to grow your business.

Does your business have a social media strategy? If not, today’s the day to get started developing one.

Kathy Nicholls is a certified inbound marketing professional working with local businesses to grow your business through the use of a social media strategy. She isthe president of Nicholls Consulting Services. Businesses in the Southern Colorado area can also find information on making social media work for your businesses at Pueblo Connect. Your customers are in this space, you should be too!

The social media phenomenon is one of the biggest marketing challenges for businesses today. All the “rules” that were fairly easy to understand and implement in traditional marketing channels may or may not apply in these new marketing outlets – a reality that has caught more than one company off guard. Even large corporations with well-staffed marketing and communications departments have been blindsided when a post on Facebook or YouTube has gone viral.

Regardless of the size of your company, if you’re in business, you need a social media strategy. These tips will help you develop and implement a social media plan that will work for your company:

1. Begin with an overall approach to dealing with social media. The specific vehicles are likely to change, so your strategy needs to be flexible and allow for evolving technology and consumer trends. Take the time to understand the big picture and make the commitment to staying current on what’s happening as new outlets are introduced and old ones fall out of popularity.

2. Understand how the people you are trying to reach use social media. Consider all of your markets – customers, decision-influencers, media, suppliers, and so on – and design your plan so it positions you appropriately within your markets. For example, if you’re trying to reach retail consumers, Facebook is a good place to be. If you need business-to-business networking, you need to be on LinkedIn.

3. Be realistic in your expectations. Just because some companies have thousands of followers on Twitter or fans on Facebook doesn’t mean you will – or that you even should. Companies like Walmart and McDonald’s have different goals for these efforts than a professional services firm targeting a narrow local market. Does it really matter if 5,000 people “like” your Facebook page if none of them buy from you? Wouldn’t it be better to have 1,000 people “like” you and at least one-fourth of them be paying customers?

4. Remember that there’s more to a social media campaign than simply setting up the accounts. Decide in advance who in your organization (employee or consultant/contractor) will be responsible for developing, implementing, and maintaining your campaign. A great Facebook page won’t do much for you if you are not posting regular status updates that provide value to your subscribers.

5. Integrate your social media efforts with your overall marketing plan. The design, tone, and message of each element should blend so that you are easily identified no matter what the medium. Remember that while social media can make a substantial contribution to your marketing efforts, it shouldn’t be your marketing foundation.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of what it takes to effectively use social media to grow your business. It is, however, a good starting point for you to use in evaluating the role of this rapidly-evolving phenomenon in your marketing plan today and in the future.

Jacquelyn Lynn is a business writer and ghostwriter based in Orlando, Florida. She is the author or ghostwriter of more than 25 books, including Entrepreneur’s Almanac; Online Shopper’s Survival Guide; Make Big Profits on eBay (with Charlene Davis); In Search of the Five-Cent Nickel (with Don Abbott); and 11 titles in Entrepreneur Media’s StartUp Guide series.

Jacquelyn writes and ghostwrites a wide range of materials, including articles, newsletters, brochures, social media copy, blogs, website copy, books, ebooks, white papers, special reports, and more. Visit her website at http://www.jacquelynlynn.com to sign up to receive free business tips via email.

Social Media Strategy: How Do We Have Conversations with Friends

A social media strategy creates a brand by facilitating a “conversation among friends”. This conversation takes place on a social media platform. There are many social media platforms and many of these platforms are integrated. For this article I would like to describe “creating a conversation” using the Facebook platform.

Okay. we have to create brand by having a conversation between brand and customer. HOW IS THIS DONE? In very simple terms this is done, when a customer goes to a brand’s Facebook page and engages with content that is on that page. This engagement begins a deeper relationship (a conversation and friendship) between the product and the customer. This deeper relationship is the thing that creates a brand.

The “friendship” and “conversation” between a product and a customer to create a brand takes on an almost human dimension. To explain how a modern brand is created, let us recreate a human conversation. Two people meet. They have to have a place to meet. People meet on the street, they meet at a gym, they meet at a coffee shop. In the case of creating a brand, a consumer and a product meet at a Facebook page to converse. The two people continue to converse, with each offering something to the conversation. The conversation begins to evolve and it begins to get deeper as the two people get to know each other and get comfortable with each other. The conversation begins to evolve, the comfort level begins to expand, and the two now become friends because they find they have things In common and they like to be around one another. Each of these two people has their own social network, which is integrated with the other individual. If each of these two individuals has five friends, the original network expands from 2 to 12. If both of the original individual tells their friends that the new meet-up is a “good guy”, the new individual will join the new social network. A brand has been created. There are many individuals, but we gravitate toward our friends. In a large group of people, we will seek out our friends because these are the people who have a brand with us. This is how modern branding is done.

An individual wants to know something about a product. They go to the product’s Facebook page. They engage with some interesting content the company has put on that page. They make a comment in the “comment” section, which increases the conversation between product and company. The individual then posts what he has done with his other physical friends. This is how the brand is expanded.

For example, say Pepsi wants to introduce a new drink. On their Page, they offer a free coupon to anyone that will try the product. These people try the product, like it, go back to the page and give a post on the comment section. They will post to their friends about this new drink. Facebook has a wide scale. Because there are so many people involved, the new drink can get a wide following very quickly. This is how a brand is completed. A thing to remember about a Facebook Page is that if you reply in some way, either with a vote “like”, or you make a comment, etc. new news about the product will appear in your Newsfeed. You will come into contact with the brand each time you login to your Facebook account.

If the brand has a good strategy, they will follow you discreetly, trying to have more and deeper conversations about their product. This is why compelling content is critical to an effective branding strategy through social media. Just as in human relations, if you have the same conversation over and over again about the same topics each day that is going to become boring. You won’t want that person for your friend. A company has to constantly post new and engaging content to create the conversations that are needed to create world class brands.

Creating a brand is a very complicated process. The purpose of my article was to explain in very simple terms how a branding conversation is started and continued. There are many qualified trainers on the Net who have excellent training webinars in the technical “what to do”. It is my hope that you will seek these individuals out. Social media branding works. If it is done correctly, it creates a strong brand almost overnight. Examples are President Obama in his 2008 campaign, and the Ford Fiesta, which sold 12,000 units in its first week on the market, even though Ford had invested no money in conventional advertising.

Dean Hambleton

dnhambleton@gmail.com

Dean Hambleton
dnhambleton@gmail.com

The social media strategy plan I am going to share with you has been proven to increase traffic, leads and income by over 300%. The proper strategy plan must include a daily strategy plan and all the tools you need to be effective within your marketing efforts.

Social media has changed the way marketing is performed online. It is really important that you understand exactly how to market if you are going to be effective.

I want to first say that affiliate and network marketing companies are awesome, but the tools they offer you, put in the trash.

They are their to build their list, their database and their business, not yours. Sure you will earn a few dollars with the sales of their products or services but that is not going to build you lifetime wealth.

With the social media strategy plan below you will be able to build a very solid business where you will have:

• Your own list which offers lifetime security
• Your own blog so you are in control of which affiliate products you decide to promote
• Multiple streams of income which is the only way to place financial security into your life online

Our prospects today within social media are looking for free information that will help them to accomplish their goals. I personally like this as it allows people the opportunity to find out if someone is qualified to help them.

Once you offer free content to your prospects and they decide to become your customer, you will have a customer for life.

Your blog must be your central hub. Each time you start the marketing funnel you will link to your blog where there should be several call to actions for a free gift that you are offering to your prospects. Those call to actions should involve:

• A “Pop Up” which will increase your optins by over 100%
• A WordPress plugin called WP greet box where you can place a strong call to action at the beginning of each blog post
• A sidebar optin form which you can easily create with Aweber
• An Ebook cover for your free gift at the end of each blog post

Every call to action should take your prospect directly to a capture page where your prospect can fill in their information to receive their gift. Every image within your blog should also be linked directly to that capture page since people love clicking on images.

So now that your blog is set up for success let’s talk more about the exact marketing strategies. The beginning of your marketing funnel starts within any of the many social media sites like:

• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Forums
• Niche related blogs

With both Facebook and LinkedIn you are able to simply place your blog post URL directly into niche related groups which will drive tremendous traffic as well as having a strong backlink to your blog post.

Forums offer the opportunity for you to answer questions that are related to your blog post and when appropriate placing a link back to that blog post.

Finding other niche related blogs that have high page rank will give you the backlinks you need to boost your rankings within the Google.

So we have the start of the marketing funnel beginning in places like Facebook where you are placing the URL of your blog post into many groups. This will give you both traffic from Facebook and LinkedIn as well as getting backlinks from high authority websites.

An effective social media strategy plan would not be complete without understanding the importance of syndication. Each time you publish your blog post you want to be sure to blast your new blog post out to all the platforms above.

Take a couple of hours and sign up for onlywire which has 40 of the highest page rank websites online that will syndicate your blog post with a simple push of the button.

This again will accomplish the two major goals of traffic and backlinks to your blog. It will take you a couple of hours to sign up for all 40 accounts but it is once and done and well worth the time.

The most important part of any social media strategy plan is your marketing funnel and a daily strategy. Here is a Free 3-Day Training “The Secrets Behind Social Media” That I assure you will set you up with a proper marketing funnel and give specifics about the strongest marketing strategies online.

A social media strategy plan must include a systematic daily plan and the proper tools if you are going to reach your financial goals. The free course above is offered by WorldWide Partnership which is one company you will not find any negative about because of the success their program offers.

Social Media Strategy: What are the Six Strategies for Creating a Brand?

To create a world class differentiation, a marketer can employ any or all of 6 strategies.

The six strategies for creating a world class brand are: Product brand, line brand, range brand, umbrella brand, parent brand, endorsing brand.

PRODUCT. A brand is a symbol, a word, object, or a concept—all at once and one at the same time. The purpose of a product-brand is to assign an exclusive name to a product. This is the strategy that Proctor and Gamble employs. Tide is P&G’s laundry detergent. The product is so well marketed that when consumers hear the name, Tide, the first thing they think of is washing clothes.

RANGE. This is a group of products all under one name and one promise. This is how television networks brand their shows. During promotional breaks, a network will advertise several shows at once. The network goal is for a consumer to think of several shows when they hear the name of the brand.

LINE. Includes group of products that have complementary products. Cosmetic products are branded in this way. In many lines there is a shampoo, a shaving cream, an after shave, and a deodorant, all under one roof. The advantages to this strategy is that it raises the selling power of the brand and creates a strong image of consistency. It creates an easy movement to line extensions and it reduces line costs.

UMBRELLA. This method is used when a group of very different products are marketed under one brand. A brand umbrella may be motorcycles, pianos and guitars.

SOURCE This is like Umbrella except under source branding, the products are now directly named. A brand might include names like product Dairy Crunch, Nescafe, Nesquick.

ENDORSING. Car companies brand this way. Pontiac, Buick, Oldsmobile, and Chevrolet are branded in the United States. Opel and Vauxhall are branded in Europe by General Motors. The advantage to this type of branding is that it adds more touch points. Each particular name evokes a forceful image of the product in the consumer’s mind. In the case of a car brand, there are many individual products. Using the endorsing mechanism allows a company to save a great deal of expense and it simplifies the product in the consumer’s mind. These six brand strategies all are case types. In reality, firms adopt hybrid configurationssin the from of a range, umbrella, parent, or endorsing, according to the product.

Dean Hambleton
dnhambleton@gmail.com

I hope this article has helped you in understanding brand. If you feel that I can help you, please contact me.

Dean Hambleton
dnhambleton@gmail.com