In Part 1 of this article series, we talked about what social media sites are and how they can be
used together to drive traffic, get links and build your list. But we didn’t get into any
details… so we’re going to pick up where we left off and discuss your social media
marketing strategy.
1) Register and Start Networking ASAP.
Social media sites are by their definition places where you network, socialize and get in contact
with those of like minds. That means you can’t hold a one-way conversation where you
“lecture” to your prospects and participate in activities that will directly benefit
you.
As such, that means you need start networking and participating on these sites
before you start doing those things that directly benefit you. For example:
* Comment on
and rate videos on video-sharing sites like YouTube before you start posting your own videos.
* Comment on and rate other people’s content before you start bookmarking your own
content on Digg, StumbleUpon, ReddIt, and similar.
* Comment on and rate other
people’s content while you are building your own Squidoo Lens or HubPages.
If you
become a part of the community first, then you’ll be able to grow a good reputation quickly.
This makes you more authoritative and influential when you do start submitting and bookmarking your
own content. And that means more traffic, fast.
2) Start Sharing Quality
Content
Once you’ve helped other members and contributed to the community,
then it’s time to start contributing your own quality content. That means you can share
videos, bookmark your pages and build your content sites. You can also run a blog on these sites,
start niche groups and similar.
3) Network with Like Minded Others
You may find plenty of prospects on these social networking sites, which is why you should
work to get people on your mailing list. But don’t forget that you may also find potential
joint venture partners on these sites – so network accordingly.
4) Commit
to Doing Something Every Day
Finally, you should commit to doing one social
media marketing activity every day. For example, load a new video, create a new Squidoo page or
answering five questions on Yahoo! Answers.
The reason for this consistency is because
the more you do, the more traffic you’ll get and the faster you’ll build your list. See,
you can’t just “do” social marketing for one day and expect it to pay off for
months. But you can do just a little bit every day and watch as it pays you handsomely every day.
You’ve seen just the tip of the social media iceberg in this article. That means you
need to check out Social List
Building to discover what the gurus know about building their lists using YouTube, MySpace,
Digg, Squidoo and other social media sites!