THE SECRETS OF MARKETING VIA SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES - Part 5

 GO FOR REGULAR EFFORTS 

This is one of the rules that could be applied to every single type of marketing you do. And just because the social networking kind might seem more casual, it doesn’t mean it should be on your side of things.

These sites allow you to attract followers. They also allow you to follow other people. Have you ever heard the saying ‘give and you shall receive? If you have you’ll be delighted to know that this applies to social networking sites as well.

You're main focus is to generate a large following of people who will be interested in what you have to sell. But to do that you need to attract attention – and sometimes the best way to do that is to become interested in other people. Think of it like this. If you have a product that has to be sold to people face to face, what would you do? Would you go out and talk to people about it? Or would you sit at home in the hope that they would come and find you?

This is very similar to what will happen if you get your profile ready for action on a social networking site and you don’t go out and find people yourself. Start by looking for people who have the same interest as you (or at least the same interest that ‘the business person you’ has!).

You can then start following them or become a friend of theirs. This is by far the best way to start building your network on each site. You will normally find that a proportion of the people you start following will check out your profile and start following you in return. And since you’re all sharing the same interests you should find that they will take a look at your website as well.

An active start is certainly the best way to get results as quickly as possible. And this means being regular with your efforts. If you’re setting up a website you can get away with putting in a lot of effort to get it up and running and then just tweak it every once in a while.

But if you are going to try social networking for your marketing efforts, you will need to keep at it. People won’t follow someone who only pops up every couple of months.

KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR RESULTS

 Marketing via social networking is much like any other form of marketing. You need to be aware of how you are doing to see whether your methods are working or not.

It would seem to be a great idea to get involved in a particular site and start making connections all over the place. But along with perseverance and effort, you must also be prepared to MONITOR your results.

Let’s say you resolve to try all three of the sites I mentioned earlier. After three or four weeks take a look at how you are doing with each one. Are you getting the results you wanted? Or is one site not working too well for you?

If this is the case, don’t drop it. Take a closer look and see what you have been doing that could be at fault. If the methods you have tried so far haven’t been working, you need to find an alternative way to connect with that audience. Each site attracts certain types of people, and what may work really well in one place could fall flat on its face elsewhere. So be aware, experiment, review, and revise as necessary to get the best results.

You also need to be honest and ask yourself whether you have been putting enough effort in. This is one reason why using the Firefox browser with the required add ons is such a good idea. It serves as a constant reminder that you need to log in and get active within that community.

So don’t expect great results in a short period of time. Expect sensational ones within a longer period of time instead – and believe me, it’s perfectly possible.