From Teenagers & MySpace, to Electing Obama

Social media is a phenomenon. Today, it's more than a teenager thing. It's big business. Socia media is regarded as one of the key marketing strategies used by the Obama Administration to get him elected as President. Entrepreneurs looking to take their career & business to the NEXTLevel, are jumping on the social media band wagon and riding it all the way to the bank.

So, what exactly is social media? How does it work? Who are the key players? How can you tap into this phenomenon for yourself & for your business? Can you make money using social media? These are common questions being asked by millions of on-line marketers today. Articles are being written on the subject every day. Training classes are being conducted in every city in the US promoting the value of engaging social media as a major strategy in building an integrated marketing communications program. 

Many people think about social media as a way of staying in touch with friends & family or just spending leisure hours "people watching". In the past this may have been true but now social media is a productive, effective and a great way to position yourself for wealth. And best of all, it's FREE! Social media is the biggest marketing secret out there today. Obviously, when you first start out on the internet, you don't have a list of people who are in your target business niche. Yet the key to internet marketing is a large and responsive contact list. The question becomes what can you do to increase the number of potential clients you can acquire on-line?

Just a couple of years ago the only answer to that question was to run ads and cross your fingers. Today we are very fortunate to have social media available as a marketing tool. Note that we call it "social media" and there is a reason for that name. Sites like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter are designed to support social interaction among members as their primary purpose and as a marketer, you must respect that.

Add to the conversation

You can promote yourself and your business using social media but you must be considerate of other users and you must add to the conversation. It is perfectly acceptable to make a relevant and helpful comment to someone on Twitter or Facebook if you comments add value to the conversation. For example, if you come across a conversation about teleseminars and you have a product or a course that answers the question someone is asking about teleseminars then it is fine for you to include your product and ideas in the conversation.

Give away your stuff for FREE!

Social media is a great way to let the world know what you do and how you do it. You can offer free items to the people you are involved with on the internet and you will build connection, trust, and revenue for your business. If you're a business consultant for example, you can give away a "Special Report". Something of value that another business owner can read and maybe get some helpful tips for running his business.

Offer an invitation to join a teleconference

Social media sites are a great way to invite people to check out your articles, blog posts, teleclasses and other FREE information. You may decide not to promote paid products on social media but we really see nothing wrong with offering an invitation to take part in something for free.

A word of caution on this issue because some social media people do not like promotion of any type and they may be offended by promotion they consider advertising. If people complain about your promotion this could get you banned from some sites so be very careful to get to know people and be social as well.

What is Facebook?

Facebook has many opportunities to find people in your target coaching niche. Facebook has groups of all types that you can join to meet people who are interested in your niche. There is a search groups function on Facebook that will list all the groups involve a given topic.

You can join those groups and ask other members to be your friend on Facebook. You can post helpful comments and contribute to the conversation in a group. Soon by sharing your information and expert knowledge to help others they will check out your site.

You can also create your own group on Facebook and invite your friends to join it. The advantage of having your own Facebook group is that you can do whatever marketing you wish to do to your own group. Obviously, people don't want to participate in a group that is only marketing material so you must also provide a great deal of value to your group members.

You can also create an event on Facebook and invite friends to attend your event. I usually kick off all my new products with a free preview event and I invite friends to attend the free preview.

Twitter?

Twitter is what is known as a microblog. Twitter allows you to post tweets that are 140 words or less. This is a great way to hone your copywriting skills and build your list.

People connect with each other by becoming followers on Twitter. Once you get an account on Twitter, you will be amazed at how fast people begin to follow you! I like to pick out people to follow who are in my target coaching niche. When I follow someone in my target coaching niche I know they will be interested in what I have to say and I will be interested in what they have to say.

To find people in my target coaching niche I look through the follower of other people in my target coaching niche who are well known. By holding the curser over the names of their followers, I can read what each person has written in their profile and I can choose to follow them or not.

Profiles?

You will have the best results when you write a great profile for your social media accounts. This is what people will look at to find out that you are and what you are about so you want to put some time and effort into your profile.

Tell people who you are, what you do and how you help others. When you include this information you will attract people who are interested in what you have to offer and those that are not interested with be able to determine that they are not your target niche.

Caution?

Remember that social media is just that. It is mean to be social and Facebook in particular takes that very seriously. I make sure that I post comments that are social five times before I post a comment that is more marketing oriented. Facebook will kick you off if people complain about how you are using it to promote yourself and it is very difficult to get back on once you have been banned. So remember make friends and give to others on social media.