Social media marketing is something virtually
anyone can do, if they are willing to put in the effort.
What makes social media marketing so attractive is how
simple it is to build an audience. But "simple" doesn't
mean easy. You need to put in a consistent effort over
time to get results.
Whether the site calls them "followers", "friends" or
"connections", the ability to reach thousands and
thousands of people for free or low cost is as close to a
"sure thing" as possible.
There are four basic fundamentals to exploiting social
media:
1. Posting GOOD content, that's of interest
and relevant to your niche. The better and more relevant
your content is, the more friends and followers you will
get.
2. Getting friends and followers.
3. Optimizing your efforts. This includes things like
posting good content at the times your friends and
followers are most likely to read it, best use of hash
tags, using tools to automate repetitive tasks, etc.
4. Being social and engaging with your audience and
niche leaders.
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Search over 500 popular social networks, over 150 domain
names, and the entire USPTO Trademark Database to
instantly secure your brand on the internet. KnowEm allows
you to check for the use of your brand, product, personal
name or username instantly on over 500 popular and
emerging social media websites. Grab your name and secure
your brand before someone else does. http://knowem.com/
LinkedIn has a feature that lets you export your
connections' contact info. You can use this info to
contact them directly or by using retargeting or Facebook
ads.
https://www.linkedin.com/addressBookExport
TopLinked is a
site where people that want to connect with others sign
up. LinkedIn members are more "spam aware" than other
social sites and may not like random requests to connect.
TopLinked gives you lists of people that want to connect
with you and agree that they will not report you for a
request to connect.
TopLinked has a paid option, but I just used the free
lists they offer.
One of your first goals should be to get to 500+
connections. LinkedIn shows how many connections you have
until you get to over 500, and after you reach 500
connections linked in will simply display 500+ as the
number of your connections.
So once you reach this mark it will make you look like
you're well-connected.
Note that LinkedIn limits you to sending 3000 invites,
although you can have as many connections as you want,
assuming they contact your first. So know that you'll use
about 1000 of your 3000 invites using TopLinked to get you
to 500+ connections. You should get about a 50% response
rate. Upload them early during business hours on business
days, USA time, for best results.
After you get 500 - 1000 connections from TopLinked, you
will want to save your invites for specific targeted
people that you feel will help your business the most.
Take note that you don't want to join many groups
consisting of your peers. For example, if you offer web
design services, don't spend your time in web design
groups. Instead, you will want to go where your CUSTOMERS
are, and that will be in business related groups, not web
design groups.
In addition to people you will meet in your niche groups,
pay special attention to:
Business Coach
Consultants
Accountants
Loan Officers
Commercial Brokers
Attorneys
Commercial Insurance Brokers
Toastmasters
Chamber Of Commerce / Chamber Of Commerce
Directors
Conventions
Promotional Product Sellers
Caterers
Office Supplies Providers
Newspaper, Yellow Pages, Etc. Advertising Reps
People in the lines of work above deal with other business
owners on a regular basis and can help you connect with
people and businesses that need your services.
I don't have any automated tools for helping build
connections through LinkedIn because:
1. TopLinked.com
lists work so well and are very easy to use.
2. LinkedIn members are more likely to report requests
to connect they feel are spammy.
3. After using Toplinked.com, you will really want to
focus on the people that can help you most. And this
takes a real human brain. One well-chosen connection can
be more valuable than 1000 automated connections.
Here's a good video from Lazy Ass Stoner that shows how to
make money with Tumblr:
Note: There aren't many Tumblr bots available. You can
check out Monster Social, which has a subscription
service, but I haven't tried it and can't say if it's any
good or not: http://monstersocial.net/features/tumblr-bot/
Pinterest
Women spend more
money online than men. Pinterest is full of women. Before
you dismiss Pinterest, be sure to read these articles:
Tweriod - This site gives a free report about when your
followers are the most active. They offer a premium report
for $2.50. It makes sense to tweet when your followers are
most likely on Twitter, working smarter and not harder. http://www.tweriod.com/
Posting good content is an essential social marketing
strategy.
TopContent, KeywordKiwi, and ContentIdeator. These tools
will help you find popular content from your competitors,
effective keywords to use in your content, and great
content ideas all in one spot. http://www.contentforest.com/
Free social media tool that shows you popular content
within your niche. http://www.inpwrd.com/
Buzzsumo uses social media shares to determine if a piece
of content is popular and well-liked, so this information
will help you see which content ideas will do well. http://buzzsumo.com/
Swayy - "They have free and paid accounts, and you log in
with your Twitter ID, Facebook account or both. It
analyzes your audience and then shows the most popular
trending topics your audience is talking about." http://www.swayy.co/
RiteTag is a tool to help you find better hashtags to get
your tweets found and shared. https://ritetag.com/pricing
ScoopIt - "Discover, curate and publish great content to
get visibility online." Has free version as well as free
trials for the paid versions. http://www.scoop.it/pricing
Content Sharing and Rating Sites
With content "rating" sites like these below, you can
discover, use and share content that you know is
well-liked. If it's liked by many on these sites, chances
are your friends, followers and connections will like the
content too, as long as it's also relevant.
Popular SubReddits by Industry - This page offers a free
spreadsheet download with the 750 most popular sub-Reddits
in various industries. Good for finding content as well as
promoting content. http://www.siegemedia.com/popular-subreddits-by-industry
In addition to using Reddit to find good content to share,
you can also use it to drive content to your own content.
In the video below, Lazy Ass Stoner shows you how:
BizSugar - Like Reddit, but only includes things from the
business/marketing world. http://www.bizsugar.com/
There's a number of smaller social and web 2.0 sites you
can take advantage of to expand and diversify your
network.
Use the sites below to find even more social sites. Enter
the domain name of a popular social site like
"Twitter.com" or "Pinterest.com" to find similar sites to
expand and diversify your network?
KnowEm is a great site that checks lots of social and web
2.0 sites to see if user names are available. It's also a
great tool for finding more resources for you to exploit.
YouLikeHits
is site where you can either earn free points or buy
points for social media benefits.
This is my referal link...If you sign up and are an
active member, I'll get 300 free points.
Free Twitter Followers, YouTube Views, Likes,
Subscribers, Pinterest Followers, Website Hits -
YouLikeHits http://www.youlikehits.com/?x=859371
I generally prefer embeds to just getting links. The
reason is, with an embed you not only get a link but you
also have the ability to get real views on another
location.
With any embeds, make sure you get a list of URLs of the
pages where your video has been embedded, then you can
submit/ping these URLs, as well as build a few bookmarks
and other low value links to each.
Depending on the services you want, be sure to request
that each worker uses a blog that they own. Also, have
them write a short description. Fiverr and SEO Clerks
will generally use 3rd party blogs such as Tumblr and
Blogger. You'll want a good mix of both.
The goal here is to find the RSS feed URL for your social
accounts, then submit the RSS URLs of your social accounts
to the ping sites for a little extra "ooooomph".
Be sure to check if any online resource you are using
provides an RSS feed for your content. Not all social
sites offer RSS. This page lists the RSS feeds for many of
the social sites. RSS still has some value for getting
pages indexed. http://www.labnol.org/internet/rss-feeds-directory/21242/
There's a difference between "pinging" and "submitting"
RSS feeds. You submit RSS feeds to directories only one
time. You ping RSS feeds whenever your content is updated,
although I recommend you don't ping more than once a day.
Generally, you want to use the major social and web 2.0
sites as "authority sites", then push links, bookmarks and
social signals to both your "authority sites".
You can create open/public Facebook fan pages and
groups, Embed content with links to your own money
sites on your FB assets. You should also embed your
Youtube videos as well. Then point all sorts of social
signals, links, and bookmarks to them.
There's plenty of other potential authority options above.
You can even create a Twitter account specifically for a
niche and treat it like a "regular web page" and point
link juice to it to.
Here's a few basic linking strategies:
Bookmarks => Authority social and Web 2.0 sites.
Bookmarks => Youtube.
Social signals => Authority social and Web 2.0 sites.
Social signals => Youtube.
Social signals => Your money sites.
Authority social and Web 2.0 sites => Youtube.
Authority social and Web 2.0 sites => Your money sites.
Don't point low value bookmark links to your money pages
hosted on your own domains unless you know what you're
doing. Instead, point those links to social and other
authority sites, then point links on those sites to your
money sites.
Highly Recommended:
MassPlanner
Yes, this is an affiliate link. However, MassPlanner is
the best social media marketing program on the planet and
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