Social Media Marketing
You start an online business, build a website and now you are looking for ways to get advertisement of your business out to the people of the world. How will you approach advertising that will give you more bang for your buck? By using Social Media Marketing.
Now there maybe some of you who get scared by the words “Social Media” but those fears are totally unfounded as they more than likely have no bearing on the marketing aspect of social media. You are probably thinking that you are going to have to put up with all of the silliness that can and does permeate throughout social media networks.
The truth is that you will only have to put up with it if you allow yourself to succumb to it. When I use social media for my marketing purposes that is all I use it for. I go up to whichever site I am sharing my content on, post my content, reply to comments if there are any, and then I promptly leave.
I do not hangout and read every little comment that one friend makes on another friends post or view the pictures and videos of people and places. I’ll do all of that when I have my free personal time but when I am working on my marketing I post my content and promptly leave. You have to police your actions or you will get distracted and have to deal with the very things that make you afraid of social media in the first place.
Can I just skip the Social Media Marketing?
No you cannot skip this aspect of marketing because in today’s world it is absolutely vital to your online success to share your website content on social media networks. This is where the majority of the online world hangs out, gets their news from, socializes and re-shares information. If you post something that hits on a hot button issue or is the solution to what many people are looking for, it could very well sell itself on social media.
I’m sure you have heard the term “Going Viral” before? That is something that everyone who markets on social media hopes will happen to the content they share. That will expose what you are selling to a huge market of people beyond the scope of those you originally shared it with. That’s like free advertisement that you do not have to lift a finger to initiate.
Sharing your content using social media is highly important, even beyond all of the engagement you can get from it. Have you ever heard of the saying, don’t put all your eggs in one basket? That basically means that you shouldn’t depend solely on one solution or process. In the case of getting traffic to your website many people feel that if they only create great content that the search engines will highly rank them and they will get tons of traffic.
Though ranking highly in the search engines will help to give you more exposure it is not a sure thing. Google is constantly updating their search and ranking algorithms and unless you produce real quality content you may not rank high enough for people to see your work. The majority of people that go up on search engines will not go past the first page of results. So you need to make sure that your content is written well enough to make it to Page 1 or at least to Page 2 in order to see decent website traffic.
Using social media will help to get you traffic faster because you are not relying on the search engines to expose your content to the online world. When you are using the social media networks, and using them correctly, you are putting your content out there for the world to see instead of waiting on the search engines to do it for you.
Which Social Media Networks should I use?
That is totally up to you which networks to use but personally I would use as many as I can. You do however, have to be a member of a social media network in order to share your content with them. I personally use and recommend Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, and if your website is business oriented I would use LinkedIn too.
When sharing your content on social media there are certain times in the day when they receive the most traffic. I cannot give you exact times because they vary from place to place and niche to niche but I can give you general time frames. You will want to try and share your content during these times to maximize the chances of being seen.
• FACEBOOK = 9AM – 12PM and 3PM – 5PM
• GOOGLE+ = 9AM – 12PM and 3PM – 6PM
• TWITTER = 10AM – 12PM and 3PM – 5PM
• PINTEREST = 3PM – 6PM and 8PM – 10PM
• LINKEDIN = 10AM – 12PM and 1PM – 2PM
As you can see all of the social media networks except for Pinterest are busiest during the morning and afternoon hours. Pinterest is most busy in the late afternoon and in the evening, once people are home and can spend more time browsing and pinning pictures.
Rules for using Social Media
When you share your content on social media there are a few of basic rules that you need to follow. If you want to have a long and productive experience with whichever network you are using it is best to know what not to do. Too many people think that social media is a dumping ground for what they want to share and will just flood it with whatever it is that they are promoting or selling. DO NOT DO THAT!
1. The first and most important rule is to not share too much in a short period of time. The reason why is that you do not want to be labeled as a Spammer and then blocked from being able to share your content. You want to space out the sharing of your content so that there is at least 20-30 minutes between shares and do not to share the same piece of content within a day.
2. The second important rule is an easy one. Read the guidelines of whichever social media network you are engaging in. Each one will have their own set of rules for you to follow.
3. The third rule is to engage within social media by “Liking” the comments and shares of others. You should also read and comment on their content and make sure you read it first so your comment is relevant. By engaging with others they will be more inclined to want to follow you. This will also be beneficial because those that follow them, may also want to follow you too.
4. The fourth rule is to re-share the same content. Just because you share your content once publicly doesn’t mean that everyone will see it. It also doesn’t mean that the people who do see it will click on it. So you want to keep sharing your content over and over again at different times. For some networks like Google+ you do NOT want to re-share the SAME content within the SAME month. I normally wait a month before sharing the same content on Google+ because they will remove your content if you share it too often. Whereas with Twitter, you CAN re-share the same content everyday.
5. The fifth rule is to share smartly. If you have built up a group of followers who are specific to a certain niche, then share with them only the content that pertains to that specific niche. If you have not built up a group of followers or are just starting out, share your content “Publicly” and not to a defined set of followers. With Google+ you should not just share “Publicly” but also to “Extended Circles.” This will send your shares to the people in the circles of the those in your circles. This will give your shares more reach.
Traffic is the lifeblood of your online success
In order for your online business to be successful you need to get traffic coming to your website. Writing quality content will greatly help you in achieving that goal. However it is not the only thing you must do to gain that traffic. Sharing on social media networks will greatly help you to gain traffic and will do so quicker than waiting to be highly ranked in the search engines.
There are other ways to market what you are promoting and selling on your website but social media networks are by far the best and easiest way to get traffic. If your content is well written and people are well informed by it, they will want to share it with their other friends on social media and so on and so on.
The more you do to simply share your website content with the online world, the more traffic you will see coming to your website quicker than if you did not engage in Social Media Marketing. Just like those planes that drag a banner behind them while you are at the beach, you need to seek out people on social media if you want them to know about you. For more information check out, How to Get Website Traffic. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below and I will respond to you.
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Short but very accuratе info… Thanks for sharing this one.
A must read article!
You are welcome. I am happy that you enjoyed the information I shared on the best practices of using Social Media.
Hey there.
Lots of great information here that I haven’t thought much of myself. I’ve never been very active on social medias and find them a waste of time really, but maybe you got a point here. Do you have any good tips on how to get started with this? Anyone can post something on social medias, but how do you get more people to see and read what you’re sharing if you just opened an account on say for example google+?
I also find your blog really motivational and informative and will definitely keep an eye on your future progress 🙂
Thanks, and keep up the good work!
Tommy
Thank you Tommy! The best way to get started is to first become a free member of any of the social media networks. Then when you have content to share post it on your profile and share it publicly. Do not just share it to your friends or those who follow you. You also want to do a search for other communities or followers on that social media network that are interested in the same thing or niche as your website. So if your niche is about Organic Foods you would do a search for Organic Food and if you find groups or communities that are specific to your niche, join them and interact with them. Like and comment on some of their shared content. Eventually you will build up a following.
Hi Robert,
Great article, easy read and very informative. You actually gave me so good points as to how to use social media. I think anyone over the age of 40 has some reservations about using social media, well maybe it’s just me…lol…But great insight and advice you’ve provided, will definitely attempt to follow 🙂
Thanks,
Derrick
Using Social Media Derrick is an unavoidable step in the growth of an online (or offline) business nowadays. It is absolutely vital for you to use if you want to succeed. You are not going to be using it in the highly distracting way that everyone who doesn’t have a business to grow uses it. You must have discipline and a solid work ethic if you wish to use Social Media Marketing (SMM) to help your business grow and establish your brand. Using SMM is going to be an ongoing process of your business development and needs to be taken seriously and engaged in every single day. So the sooner you start using SMM the sooner you will start to learn and reap the benefits from it.
Wow! Great post with lots of valuable information. And thanks for listing the times too. I LOVE twitter and have found that late afternoon works best for me. And you’re right about getting sucked into Facebook. It’s like get on, post your stuff, and leave! Otherwise you’ll be there all day 🙂
Exactly Liz! When you are doing your social media marketing (SMM) you have to police yourself and don’t fall into the trap of distraction. You are on social media for one thing, to post/share your content. You can always go back and comment, like, and look around later when you are not working. The key is to have discipline otherwise SMM will not work well for you and everyone needs to use SMM to make their businesses grow nowadays. – Thank you for your comment Liz.
Hey Robert,
As I slowly piece together my scam watchdog site I find myself looking to you for guidance. Tackling social media has been one of my weak points and am currently learning all I can about Google+ before I move on to Facebook and Pinterest. Twitter still blows my mind and I’m clueless on how people get followers 🙂
Anyways, thanks for always throwing down some great information!
-Brandon
You are welcome Brandon. Learning and understanding is going to take some time. Just keep at it and you will get it eventually. Once you do you will see why it is vital in today’s world that it be used but used properly. Do not use it to spam people. You must engage and network with people in order to market successfully what you have to offer. In my opinion Google+ is a great place to start!
Great information Robert, I used think posting on social media was a complete waste of time. I post now at the same times as you have specified and get much more engagement. Social media can totally boost you business to new levels. I guess we are all waiting for that one or couple of posts to go viral.
I agree Craig. I too was hesitant about going up on Social Media to share my content but if you want to promote your business nowadays you need to do so on Social Media and to do it smartly. Now that I see the benefits and how my content is being shared and my traffic increasing, I actually look forward to sharing my content now. And yes, I too am waiting for something I create to go viral. That will be party time! 🙂
I love your website it is so informative. It has a ton of great ideas and logic. Please check my site out and see what you think.
Thank you Wanda. I’m glad you enjoyed my website and I will take a look at your website.
Thank You for this information on the social websites and how to use them. I really do not enjoy using them because there is so much on them that is of little interest to me. I have two at the moment that I would particularly like to not see anymore. Not because they are so offensive but because they are not beneficial and because they are making and overabundance of posts. It is difficult to get through them to what it is that I do want to see. There are sometimes 10 posts from the same person. I have saved this to my favorites so that I can refer back to it again. Thanks. Robin.
Robin, I believe that you are not understanding the purpose of using Social Media networks for marketing your website content. They are something you must use nowadays if you want to garner website traffic and awareness. You need them to share your content. You do not go on them to browse and hangout and waste time. You want to use them efficiently and as a form of self advertisement. If there is something that you see that doesn’t interest you there is no one forcing you to click on it and read it. When you are working on your marketing you should post your content and leave. You can do your reading and browsing later on your own time.