Top 10 Social Media Marketing Tips

1. 
   Keyword Selection is Foundational: 
   Good content requires that you are strategically embedding high-quality
   keywords across your content.  What you think your keywords
   are is irrelevant.  Focus on what your customer uses to search for your
   products or services.  Ask yourself the question, “If I didn’t know my
   company or product name, how would my prospective clients describe my
   business/service/product in a Google search?”
   
   1. 
      GOAL:  Identify the top five
      (5) keywords which reflect how prospective clients describe your
      business.
   2. 
      RESOURCES: 
      
      
      http://www.goodkeywords.com can help you refine your keyword list.
      
      
      http://kendelllang.blogspot.com/search?q=keyword+selection gives
      more detail around developing your keyword list.
2. 
   Social Media Marketing CONTENT: 
   Content has been, currently is…and always will be KING!
   
   If you don’t like writing or don’t believe you have time to invest, get over
   it and realize that this is the single most important investment you’ll make
   towards achieving your marketing goals.  This is worth repeating…CONTENT is
   the single most important component to your base website, your SEO strategy
   and now your Social Media Optimization Strategy (SMO).  Focus on producing
   content which is fresh and unique every week.  If you can’t commit to
   producing new and updated content at least once a week, find someone who can
   do that for you.
   
   1. 
      GOAL:  Write a Press Release
      about an event or newsworthy story, incorporating your keywords above
      into the Title, the Summary Description, the Body and the About Us
      section.
   2. 
      TIP:  Make sure your “About
      Us” section includes a link to your website.
3. 
   Social Media Marketing Accounts: 
   Once you’ve identified your keywords and have written your killer CONTENT,
   now you’re ready to post that content out on social networking websites. 
   Since there are over 500 social networking websites, you’re going to have to
   decide where to invest your time and where you are going to want to post
   your content.  For immediate impact, we are providing two suggested social
   networking websites per major category, so pick three (3) sites and go
   create an account at each website:
   
   1. 
      Social Networking Category:
      

                                                               i.     


http://www.facebook.com

                                                             ii.     


http://www.bebo.com

2. 
   Social Bookmarking Category:

                                                               i.     


http://www.digg.com 

                                                             ii.     


http://www.stumbleupon.com 

3. 
   Social Blogging Category:

                                                               i.     


http://www.wordpress.com

                                                             ii.     


http://www.tumblr.com

4. 
   Social Video Sharing Category:

                                                               i.     


http://www.metacafe.com

                                                             ii.     


http://www.dailymotion.com

5. 
   Social Photo Sharing Category:

                                                               i.     


http://www.flickr.com

                                                             ii.     


http://www.photobucket.com

6. 
   Social Professional Networking Category:

                                                               i.     


http://www.linkedin.com

                                                             ii.     


http://www.naymz.com

7. 
   Social Press Release Category:

                                                               i.     


http://www.1888pressrelease.com

                                                             ii.     


http://www.free-press-release.com

4. 
   Post Your Content:  Now that you’ve
   selected your keywords, written your content and created your selected
   Social Network accounts, now you are ready to post your content.  Log in to
   each of the accounts you just created and follow the instructions for
   posting that content into each account.  Since you’ve written a Press
   Release, start by posting your press release to one of the Press Release
   sites.  After that, you can modify that content slightly and post it at one
   of the Blogging sites, and finally at your last account.
   
   1. 
      GOAL:  You want to be able to
      quickly and efficiently post your content to three (3) social network
      accounts you created in #3 above.
5. 
   Commit to Outbound Marketing:  As a
   business owner promoting your products or service, you should focus on
   pushing Content TO your social network accounts and writing content with a
   goal of pulling traffic FROM your social networks TO your base website.  
   You want to EDUCATE…INSPIRE…ENGAGE with whatever content you are posting. 
   Always remember to include a compelling “call to action.”  The goal is not
   to build traffic for social networks, but to benefit from their traffic and
   attract prospective clients to your website with compelling “calls to
   action.”
   
   1. 
      GOAL:  You want to publish
      relevant and interesting content that attracts potential clients to
      “click thru”
   2. 
      NOTE:   It is going to feel
      counter-intuitive, but you want to PUSH your content to social network
      websites with the goal of PULLING viewers to your website.
6. 
   Get Your Google Places:  You need to
   stake your claim to your physical address.  Search engines are heavily
   focusing on “Localized” search, so the more robust you make your Local
   profile, the better you will rank.  Enhance your listing
   with keyword-rich content targeting the top keyword phrases prospective
   consumers may use to find you.
   
   1. 
      GOAL:  go to
      
      http://www.google.com/places and register your business by location
   2. 
      RESOURCE: 
      
      http://www.worldclassid.com/page/google-local-maps provides a
      step-by-step guide for how to claim your Google Maps Listing.
7. 
   Get Referrals and Testimonials:  Your
   ranking in social networks or referral based social networking sites like
   Yelp, Foursquare, Groupon or Living Social will be greatly improved by
   having solid recommendations or testimonials.  The more “reviews” you have
   the higher you rank.
   
   1. 
      GOAL:  get three clients to
      write a recommendation and give you permission to post
8. 
   Claim Your Social Name:  Whether it
   is a trademarked name, your service name, a branded product as a keyword or
   your personal name, just like the domain name land rush…you are going to
   want to “claim your name” as a social account name.
   
   1. 
      GOAL:  You want to “preserve”
      your brand, so get your name reserved at as many social networks as you
      can.
   2. 
      RESOURCE:  
      
      www.WorldClassID.com has a comprehensive list of more than 500
      social networks, and it’s all FREE.
9. 
   It’s Not About Friends: 
   Here is where we depart from traditional marketing resources and we
   encourage our business clients to modify their perspective about social
   networks.  Contrary to popular opinion, we discourage personal involvement
   in social networks for business purposes.  It is one thing to make a choice
   to personally get involved in Facebook or other social communities.  It is
   entirely another matter if a dentist who gets paid to do patient procedures
   is spending 4 hours a day on Facebook thinking that somehow that is going to
   build his dental practice.
   
   1. 
      GOAL:  encourage active movement
      of prospective customers OFF the social networks and draw them TO your
      website.
10. 
    DO NOT Put Links On Your Website:  We
    have a focus on outbound message insertion into social networks with the
    sole goal of pulling traffic back to our client’s websites.  We do
    everything possible to DISCOURAGE the posting of links to any of your social
    networking websites.  All this does is drive traffic AWAY from your website,
    the exact opposite of your goal to draw traffic TO your website enabling
    them to buy or engage with you.