Social media marketing is exploding as brands are now realizing the potential behind getting involved in building online communities through blogging & social networks participation. Many people like to make use of social media to market or promote their businesses. This is mainly because social networking sites had been proven to be a great channel of communication. The sad thing is, there are lots of people who don't know how to start or how to handle their social media marketing. If you would like to be successful in using social networking sites, you have to follow these 8 basic rules.

 

1 - Listen First

Pay attention! Learn how influencers in your community use social networks, what they talk about, how they engage others in the conversation. Learn from their successes and failures.

Reach out for help! Ask questions & get advice from early adopters - they can help you promote your brand and your site. Those are the people who've been involved in social media marketing for a long time and understand the ins and outs clearly. Elissa from The Canvas Factory said ‘Social media has turned into a whole new channel of communication with the customer. If the flow is only one way then you’re not really communicating. Listen to what is being posted on social media and you’ll learn a lot about how to serve your customers better.’

 

2 - Be Yourself, but Better.

Don't fake it! Don't try to be someone else just to be more popular. You can only pretend for so long. Be authentic, be yourself. There is only one YOU in the world so rock it, baby! Have personality, be funny, be different, and be interesting. I constantly see people who keep changing their "voice", their strategy. If you do your homework and listen first you should have a pretty good idea of where you fit in and what is your message. Don't confuse your community by constantly shifting gear. Just because something worked for another guy doesn't mean it will work for you.

 

3 - Spread the news!

Let people know that you have social media accounts and then encourage them to take a look at your account or profile. Your profile contains your business information and thus for sure, they will get to know about your business. Make your social profiles very prominent on your site, even the New South Wales Government is doing it – NSW Gov Social Media Profiles.

 

4 - Connect with your audience

If you feel that it is not important to connect with your audience, then there is no point for you to continue your social media marketing. As you can see, social media marketing is not all about posting and advertising your products, but it is also about communicating with your audience. You can do this by leaving some comments, by taking part in conversations and by answering questions.

 

6 - Post wisely.

As the cliché goes, "First impression lasts." This does not exempt social media marketing. Therefore, if you would like to leave a good impression to your audience, you have to post wisely. Make sure that your posts are relevant and not just some sort of spams. If you would like someone to post for you, then make sure that you will instruct him properly.

 

5 - Keep updating your posts.

Updating your posts is a very crucial step that you should do every day. Updating your posts would require some time from you, but despite that, you should still not ignore it. Customers would likely to give attention to updated posts because such posts will provide new information to them. If you will not update your posts, your readers will find it a waste of time to check your wall or your profile because they know that they won't gain anything from it.

 

7 - Save time by using aggregator software

You must leverage technology to save time. If you are not using aggregator software for your post, start using one today. Aggregator programs allow you to post to several social media site simultaneously. They also let you schedule post at future dates. These programs can save you lots of time and energy. I personally like Tweet Deck and Hoot suite. Search for them on the web and you will find they are free to use.

 

8 - What does this cost?

You have to set financial limits. I know what you're saying. You're already spending too much time (and money), posting to social media sites. If you still find this to be too time consuming, hire a service to do your posts. They can be had for as little as $100 a week. It can also run you $2000 a month if you're wanting to grow big and fast all at the same time.

 

By following these 8 simple rules for social media marketing, you will attract a huge following, join more people into your business and sell a ton more products and services than those who don't. Guaranteed!