I was working out this morning when it occurred to me that for the first time this year, I can start to see all my effort paying off. I’ve always worked out, but its becoming increasingly more difficult to repair after the holidays!
Social media marketing is much like that, believe it or not. When you first start working on that social media muscle, you won’t see immediate results. That’s okay. The repetition, consistency, and diligence will pay off, just not right away.
Be Diligent
Diligence is what makes you do what you don’t necessarily feel like doing, just because you know you should. Don’t just attack Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn with random, reckless abandon. Rather, knowing you should be connecting socially, create a plan of attack. If you go into a gym and work out hard on every piece of equipment without knowing what you’re doing, should you expect results or injury?
Take some time to consider how you’re going to build this muscle. How are you going to attract the people you need in your arena? What will your message be? Are you going to offer information, inspiration, or network connections? Remember, this social media muscle will take time to develop. You’re probably going to make mistakes, but if you’re diligent about this, relationships are inevitable.
Practice Repetition
You probably wouldn’t notice any shape or form if you didn’t repeat an exercise several times. Same thing with responding to comments on your blog, and leaving comments on other blogs you read. This is an important muscle because it gives you an opportunity to leave a link or trackback to your site and blog. As your community sees your repeated involvement, you become known for your friendly interaction.
Be Consistent
Working out for a month and then sitting for a month will just be a waste of your time. That’s why lifestyle changes have to happen for true fitness. You may grow tired and want to stop, but just get back out there again.
Blog. Blog. Blog. It’s the new credibility muscle, and its built with consistency. This one takes your area of expertise, and shares it with a slowly built readership base. These people will inevitably be involved in a conversation, probably online, and say,”I know where to find the answer to that, I saw it just the other day on so-and-so’s blog! Here’s the link.” That link will take them to your blog, and connect them to your website.
Social media muscle building brings your customers to you. Time to work out?
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Social Media falls into a larger umbrella called “Inbound Marketing.” Traditionally marketing would be 1) cold calls/ telemarketing 2) print marketing such as magazines or newspapers 3) radio advertising 4) TV advertising 5) outdoor advertising. The before mentioned techniques would be labeled as “Outbound Marketing.”
Yep, Susan, as you pointed out, that social media muscle requires flexing on a regular basis. You must become part of the community & make your presence known through active participation. If your ultimate aim is to make money, you must establish a position as a credible authority in your niche.
Two of the best communities I’ve found are Squidoo and EzineArticles…the squid for authority backlinks and EZA for the bounce effect as articles are republished with your bio.
A little different from the more popular chit-chat communities.
Thank you for your comments, Joe. I enjoy Squidoo and EzineArticles myself for the same reasons. I’ve been somewhat unreachable recently, and can really tell that it’s time to flex again! It is so important to stay current in our communities.