Relationships are so important-- they are really the backbone of your business. A significant part of relationships is building your reputation.
Unfortunately, there is so much scamming and spamming around the internet. It is getting harder and harder to get visitors to your site to even part with an email address. No one is going to part with their hard earned cash without a healthy amount of trust being established first.
So, building your reputation and branding yourself is the first step. It takes time and effort to do this. It is an ongoing process that requires you to think all the time and be very aware of the ramifications of your actions. The social media properties are a good place to start.
Of course, you want to capture attention. Sometimes you will even hear other marketers recommend creating a controversy to get noticed and speed matters up. This advice works if you think things through. Just make sure the attention you get is the kind you’re aiming for. All the work you’ve put into building a good reputation can be gone in a second. Human nature is such: that all the good you’ve done before gets forgotten the minute you do something that looks like it is bad, and all anyone remembers is the misstep.
Recently, in a forum I and a lot of other marketers frequent, a newer marketer made an ill advised post detailing a scam method of getting business. When another poster pointed out this fact, he tried to pass it off as just an idea. I suspect, he was looking for attention and hoping to have a hot thread in the making. This was a very public way of crashing and burning. Of course, he can just make another account alias and start over.
But, time is something you never get back, and he wasted any time he spent trying to make himself a name there with that alias.
So what is a good way of getting attention? Giving out good content and advice--Answering questions is a good way of doing this. If you don’t have enough knowledge to trust yourself in the advice department, you can pose the questions and keep the conversation going by adding to the discussion.
You are not only reaching out to others but giving knowledge back to them. The act of giving builds trust...the quality of the content you give attracts attention and makes others take notice of you. Both grow over time improving your reputation and relationships.
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Last Updated on Friday, 27 March 2009 11:45 |
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Well, sorry about the long hiatus. RDG and I have been working like the mad women we are on the product line. There just haven’t been enough hours in the day lately…I’m sure you can relate.
Anyway, I’m going to revisit social marketing because I still see so many marketers that don’t get it yet. Remember I said there’s only so many hours in the day?? Well you learn very quickly that social properties and Web 2.0 activities are very time consuming. But, they are the hottest way to grow your business right now.
This is where the problem I see arises. You and I only have so much time…so we are constantly looking for ways to get into social marketing without putting in the time. In fact a whole industry that sprung up to *game* the systems. Automate everything!! Hey, there’s nothing wrong with games…I love them. There’s nothing wrong with saving time in my book either.
But, don’t confuse the game with the intent for using Web 2.0. You want to grow your business and profits. All these automated things are great if you just want to make money fast. Sounds great on the surface, doesn’t it? I want a piece of that…
However, you need to see that course of action for what it is. You’re falling into the trap that has plagued internet marketing since the beginning. Take a look back… Adsense then-- Adwords…fast money…but no real business foundation. Many people made a killing with both for a few years. When things changed because the systems were gamed into oblivion, many marketers lost their shirts (Most of the good ones will admit it, too) because they built everything on the fast money route and had nothing in place that was long term.
There’s a reason it’s called social marketing. To build your business long term, you need to build relationships… There’s no way to automate that or there wouldn’t be a divorce rate… |
Many newer marketers do not understand how social bookmarking works. You’re familiar with the big sites like Delicious and Digg. You may have even heard of some of the others like StumbleUpon. There are at least ten credible bookmarking sites with high page rank. You’ve probably heard other marketers say that they get massive amounts of traffic from these sites. Well, that is true…you can get a large number of unique visitors in a very short period of time provided you’ve laid the proper groundwork first. But…Yes, there’s always a but…
 In this case, it is a very large one. The traffic you get may look great on your stats, but unless you have thought things through, made some important decisions, and taken some necessary steps before setting this traffic loose on your site, you will be disappointed in the results. More about that later…
First, let’s talk about bookmarking basics. You can get very nice high page rank backlinks from participating in a social bookmarking site. One way to find out if your niche is appropriate for the site is to search Google for your keywords or tags. If you see other sites listed from the property, then you’ve found one that is a good fit for your niche.
Then, you should join the community. Look around and learn how it works. This is not a set it and forget type of activity. Here is where many marketers drop the ball. Nearly all of the bookmarking communities have some sort of “Most Popular” list. From this list, you can discover two things. The first is the type of bookmarks that get the most attention. The second is the other members of the community who have the most clout in the form of friends and followers. I’d recommend you check out the profiles of these influential members. It will take work on your part. The work involves not only the setting up of your account, but you will need to continue using the property once you begin to get the benefits you hope for. Much like starting a blog, you cannot throw your bookmarking account up and expect any type of results without building a relationship within the community.
Your profile is important in any type of Web 2.0 activity. It serves the same function as your signature file in article marketing or forum posting. Take the time to craft your profile using the keywords you want attention for. At this point, you want to have a very clear picture of what you wish to accomplish with social bookmarking. If you just want traffic numbers, that is fine, you won’t need to do any more thinking then. However, if you want the traffic to actually buy from you, then you need to select the type of keywords or tags that bring you motivated and targeted traffic. Otherwise, you may knock yourself out to get lovely big numbers of visitors, but absolutely no buying action.
It is also possible that the wrong type of traffic can backfire on you within the community. If the huge numbers come based on your tags, and they only get a sales pitch without the information they expected from your tags, you have damaged your credibility and lost their trust. Often times, they will never follow your recommendations again.
How to you get them to follow your bookmarks in the first place? Now, we come to the knock yourself out part. Oh come on, you knew it was coming, right? These sites are called social for a reason. You have to participate and build relationships. So, you will want to take part in the forums and discussions. Commenting and voting draws attention to you and begins to build your credibility in the community. Like any forum, building your reputation is what will entice others to check out your profile and what your website is offering. By all means, bookmark your site, but don’t just stop there: bookmark the sites of other members that you are trying to establish a relationship with. If you work on the relationship building, you can begin to add other members as friends and receive votes from them for your own site.
Now, a word about how much work is involved to get results. Start small with one or two sites at the beginning, unless you have good outsourcers in place. For your social bookmarking efforts to produce the result you want, they will take quite a bit of time from other aspects of your business.
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Last Updated on Monday, 05 January 2009 10:56 |
It’s the end of the year and the beginning of the new one. New Year Resolutions lists are everywhere, as well as, the best of 2008 product lists. Any news show and any news website will have one. Most big retailers on line or off will have them too. Amazon.com put theirs out the other day:
- Lose Weight.
- Get Your Finances in Order.
- Go Greener.
- Curb Your Vices.
- Get in Shape.
- Relax More.
- Pursue a New Career.
- Upgrade Your Technology.
- Organize and Optimize.
- Start a New Hobby.
I’ll bet, if you made any resolutions, at least one or more are on that list too. The list hardly ever changes. It’s pretty much the same year in and year out. Why? Because these are the ten basic human needs. For a marketer, these are the top 10 golden niches.
If you take a look at Amazon’s Best of 2008 customer favorite’s book list, in the top 25, 3 are something to do with food, losing weight, or how to look younger. One is about going green, one is about financial matters, and several are loosely tied to hobbies. So, the buyers agree with the list.
Of course, there are hundreds of sub niches for each of the resolutions, any one of them could be your ticket to filling your bank account in 2009. Looking through the Best of lists can give you a guide to what sub niches people are actually spending money on.
One point I’m trying to make here is-- you knew this. This is basic human knowledge you can take from your own life experiences. Often, when you start working on line, you get sucked into thinking that everyone knows more than you. You forget that you are the best filter for what is going to work for you and what you are going to be successful at. It’s important to learn to trust yourself.
You don’t always need the latest and greatest whiz bang product. Many times, the product isn’t right for you anyway, and it never gets used. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not glossing over the fact that when you’re getting started there is often a giant learning curve. Learning is very important. But, you don’t need someone to tell you everything. I’ve seen people get mired for weeks or months trying to pick a niche. The sad thing is the niches are there inside of each and every one of you. Just pick one, and get going.
Tapping into the goldmine in 2009…
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Last Updated on Monday, 05 January 2009 10:24 |
Some of you may know who I am. Many of you have heard RDG mention me, as The Lady. We’re good friends and have had several successful business ventures together.
She asked if I would write some basic specific marketing articles here and there as my schedule permits. I’m a teacher at heart; so this is right up my alley.
Well, the chaos that is the holidays is winding down at home; so this is as good a time to start as any.  I hope, you’ll stop by once in a while and see what I have to say. You may or may not learn anything new, but perhaps I might remind you of something that slipped through the cracks.
Great talking with you,
The Lady |
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Last Updated on Monday, 05 January 2009 09:59 |
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