How Well Is Your Business Adapting To Social Media: 4 Ways To Measure

How is your business marketing working for you right now?

If you are reading this blog you know that marketing as we know it has changed forever. New technology, new applications combined with a tough economy to completely change the game. This coming year will be the new beginning for many businesses…or the beginning of the end for some.

Why? Huge economic advantage awaits companies that can lower their average cost per lead and increase their average revenue per customer. New mareketing techniques in the distributed web, including social media marketing, will be a big driver.

The question is how is your business doing?

The begining of a new year is a great time to reflect on these areas of your business and set new goals for 2010:

1. Are you listening? Does your business have an active, pro-active strategy and plan to make sure you are observing all the relevant conversations occurring across the web? Winners in the new marketing paradigm will understand their customers and competitors better than anyone else.
2. Are you adding value? How well are is your business creating valuable content to educate and nurture your prospects so you can grab and hold their attention?
3. Are you participating? Being regularly involved in conversations makes you known, and if done well, liked in the community you are working within.
4. Measuring and monitoring! This ties it all together. Measuring key metrics like where your traffic is coming from and what are the conversion metrics. How is your list growing for various social networks as well as your overall database. If you are not growing, something is not working.

Gone are the days when you created a print or TV ad, agreed on a media plan, and ran it though the year. This requires and active, daily presence by your business. You need a strategy and plan to make it work.

What do you think?

Is Your Content Organized For Social Media Marketing?

Over the next year you are determined to get your business focused on social media marketing. That’s great. Now let’s spend a few weeks getting our content organized so we make it easy to become a content publishing machine.

At this point you should have done your research so you know the keywords and phrases that your businesses is looking to compete and win with. You should also have a Unique Selling Proposition that positions your product or service differently than the competing brands in the space. Now we need to translate that into attention getting, educational content that motivates your target customer to interact with you business and convert to a sale or a lead.

Don’t get stumped on content ideas you can use for “link bait”. So everyone is on the same page, “link bait” is content that is specially created to attract your best prospects and convert them to leads. It should have a high perceived value by the target customer because it gives them just the information they are looking for at the right time. It can be in the form of a whitepaper, video, ebook, webinar, special consultation…you get the idea.

Here are a few ways to think about developing solid content that will get your target customers attention and make them want to learn more about your business:

1. Answer your target prospects most burning questions. Whatever medium you use (Video, whitepaper, article, ebook), you want your content to be found when your prospects are looking for solutions to their problems. Answering questions you know they have is a great way to find yourself at the top of the search engine results page.
2. Create an innovative approach (a “system” or “formula”) and use various content to educate your target audience about this specially designed approach. Key in on why it  saves them money, time or get’s them more customers.
3. Tips and mini courses are another way to make interesting content and be able to educate your target customers.

Now you are going to have two types of content.

First, content on your “home base”, that’s your website and blog. For the most part, you want to have your “link bait” on your “home base”. Second, you will have content that gets published in your distributed network. That’s web 2.0 sites, social networks, article directories and other places in the distributed web that your target audience hangs out in. You will then use your distributed content and social media to engage with prospects and drive them to your “home base”.

Key in this example is you are not hard selling at any time. If you have “link bait” that answers questions or is helpful and additive to the discussion taking place in the various web communities you are involved with, this is a natural process and you are a helpful person.

Now, let’s get organized. When you go to publish your content and register for accounts around the web…you will need to register for just about everything (article directories, web 2.0 sites you build pages on). If you are just getting started, here is a list of content and other resources you should put into an easy to access folder so it makes publishing a breeze:

• 10-12 articles
• 250-350 word doc with your website/company mission
• Agree on passwords and usernames for all the accounts you will open up
• Have a short and long form bio for the “author” or your articles
• Have nice graphics of your “link bait” with a description of what it is and why it’s important
• Don’t be shy, create video either in screencast or headshot form. Do 5-10, 30 sec to 2:30 minute videos that you can use on social sites, your own website and on video channels like You Tube
• If you have a company/product PowerPoint, you can use that as well
• Put company contact info in the folder so it is handy
• Keyword worksheet so you know what your titles and anchor text should be

Now you, or someone you delegate this task to, can quickly build up your presence in social media presence. Add content to this folder on a regular basis and you will have a content publishing machine. Make sure you are monitoring what articles and “link bait” is getting picked up most and learn why so you can further hone your content to attract your best customers.

We have a complete step-by-step social media marketing program that walks through this process in much more detail at Surefire Social.

Now go do it!

Video Marketing: How To Get Jump Started For The New Year!

Let’s have a little me time shall we?

After all, you need to get yourself a Christmas present, right? Let’s make it something that will last throughout the New Year! Something that will help you grow your business and add another important layer of marketing to your social media marketing program.

I’m talking about video equipment and software so you can quickly produce and distribute video content across all your distributed platforms. And guess what, as much as businesses seem to talk about video marketing, not many are really doing it. If your businesses does it, you can really put yourself in a very strong competitive postion in several ways:

1. Search results- Search engines love video and it gives your business an opportunity to get a double listing if you are already ranking for your keywords
2. Authority in you market- In the attention economy you need to be able to get and hold attention with information and education marketing. Adding video to your mix gives you an entirely new dimension to engage your customers.
3. It’s cheap and easy- That’s right. Once you get the hang of making videos, and you have the right set up, doing new videos are a snap. All you need to do is create a quick script and you are off.

Equipment (your Christmas Present)

For simple video production capability you will need 5 basic pieces of equipment and two types of software for the complete package:

• An HD camera- if you can find it, get the Kodak Z
• A light weight camera tripod
• A green screen for background (Optional)
• Basic three stand lighting set (Optional but highly recommended)
• Lapel microphone (optional but recommended)
• Screencast software for your computer (Here’s a great post in Mashable with reviews and links)
• Video editing software (see reviews of top options here)

We recommend going to B&H Photo to buy your equipment as they seem to have the best prices and availability. The total cost for all this equipment can range from $600- $6,000 depending on what type of camera you buy, lights etc. But for $600 to $1,000 you can have a great quality video set up that will make you proud.

What to do with your new equipment?

Here is the first thing you should do to get your video marketing started. Launch a video campaign that drives people back to your site (to sign up for something so you get a lead). What should the videos be about? How about answering the 10 most frequently asked questions you know your top customers have when they are searching for solutions that you provide? Just make them 30 second to no more than 2:00 minute videos. After you do those, make another 10 that are questions your top prospects should be asking. This gives you a great opportunity to give your own perspective and differentiate your product or service. Then put some simple royalty free music in the background and your logo and web address on the video using the video editing software…and you are ready to publish.

We use both Traffic Geyser and Tube Mogul to distribute our videos…they make it easy to distribute videos to all the video distribution platforms including Your Tube.

That’s it. You have everything you need now to start 2010 off with a great new marketing tool that will generate more leads and more customers while making you an authority in your market. Have fun!

What do you think?

Event And Social Media Marketing: 5 Keys To A Successful Promotion

Event and social media marketing can team up to become a very powerful, viral marketing lead generation tool. Here is a great example from a Christmas event I just attended.

Ok….I’ll just get this out of the way. I went to the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular Show the other night with my family and friends. What can I say, when it comes to Christmas I love all this stuff!

Well, soon as we walked into the Patriot Center my daughter and her friend noticed a Capital One (the event sponsor) floor display with several attractive women offering to have a picture taken with the Rockettes, for FREE! WOW…these girls were excited. Now, the Rockettes were actually nowhere in site. This was the say, “virtual Rockettes? It was just a display and background with a place for participants to stand so when they superimposed the Rockettes image it all looked good.

After shooting the pic, the attendants of the display gave us a card with a unique code and instructions for how to retrieve the photo online within 72 hours. I started thinking, this is going to be very cool. I knew where this was headed. Think about it. A few years ago all event sponsor could do with and event marketing program like this is put the picture up on a website for someone to download. Maybe order a print online (that costs money!). With the power of social media marketing applications and easy to share functionality, this was a completely different story.

Capital One did not disappoint. We put our code in and the picture looked great. Very fun. Even better, they had share, email, print and save (for Christmas card maybe) buttons all around that picture to make it viral. BTW, we can also put that pic on a newly minted Capital One card which I am still considering.

You guessed it, this picture will be all over Facebook profiles for two families within hours of this post…and that exposure for Capital One is only from one picture taken at the event. Did I mention their was a line to get the picture taken?

I am not sure if the holidays have me carried away or not, but this was a great application of social media and event marketing that worked really well for Capital One. The leverage and exposure for Capital One was huge. I would love to see the numbers.

Here are some keys to the success of this event/social media marketing program:

• Strong reason for sharing- This is special holiday event for the family that people love to memorialize. Combine that with the celebrity power of the picture with the Rockettes, and this is something people want to share and talk about.
• Immediate action- Operationally this worked great. We had the pic available within 48 hours. It would have been great if they gave us a heads up instead of making us check every time.
• Impactful presence at the event to engage people- The location, feel and people that engaged attendees at this event made it fun and inviting. I have seen programs like this go bad because they have uninterested attendants engaging with potential participants or the display looked lame.
• Online interfaces very easy to use- The UI and functionality was dead simple to use and also very easy to share the photo and have fun with it.
• FREE- Free works great to engage your target. Give them something valuable and they will like you. We use this technique a lot with information products and education. This was a great use of a free product to engage the target customer group and generate leads.

One aspect of the campaign I don’t understand is why Capital One didn’t get any contact information from participants. This really was a branding campaign, and I am sure it worked well in that regard. But I wonder if their was a missed opporutnity to get name and email addresses in this process. For example, get the name and email address of dad or mom when the pic is taken and send them a reminder email to pick up the picture when it was ready. Great reason (to get the email) and you can send them follow up auto responders that tie to that event…so them what the credit card would look like with the picture that was taken and get them to buy if for holiday shopping?

It’s ok…share your pictures and stories about event and social media marketing!

Social Media: Can a Twitter Post send you to the Big House?

The answer is: YES.

As you read this post, there are probably a handful of twitter users, facebook updaters and linkedIn networkers who are causing an online crisis with their updates.  Here is a small tip: keep the defamation and slanderous comments out of the social media environment. Social media is a wide-open field, meaning that there are more people to catch you when you make a mistake…and believe me…they will.

Many of us have the feeling that the Government can be a little behind the times. Well, that is definitely the case with the interactive Internet. As more laws are emerging, more confusion and chaos is being caused amongst social media sites. To tweet or not to tweet? That is the question. But isn’t it our right as Americans to speak freely regardless of the communication medium?

Let’s look at the recent story of Amanda Bonnen, a questionable defamation comment was Tweeted regarding the mold in her apartment and the fact that her building management company, Horizon Group Management LLC., felt that it was “okay.” Rocker Courtney Love, who is no newbie to the courtroom, was recently sued for libel for Tweeting negative comments about a famous fashion designer.

In a recent CNN article, the differences of the legality of public and private information comes into question. Where do we draw the line? What is considered slanderous content tarnishing someone’s reputation or a Constitutional right to speak freely about whatever you wish.  What do you think?

When updating your Tweets or commenting in forums, keep this in mind to prevent any damages to yourself or your business:

• Don’t Tweet When Your Angry: It may sound cliche, but it is very true. When you are in a state of intense anger, you are less likely to make responsible, rational decisions. Don’t do something you are going to regret. If you are mad, take a breather and walk away from your computer. The longer you wait and let yourself cool off, the less damage control you will have to do.

• If it has your name on it, they are your words: Many people have staffers or outsourcers handle and organize their social media updates. Be sure to set down guidelines for your updates and be sure that nothing is being released, under your name, that can be incriminating or slanderous.

• Know The Laws and Abide By Them: Being ignorant to the law is never an excuse. Cornell University has posted Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act in 1996 which pertains to Interactive Internet Communications. Make sure you, your employees and your clients know the rules and closely abide by them. The Internet is an enormous community, so don’t think that you won’t get caught.

• Be Generous and Graceful: Social media marketing should be fun and rewarding in many ways including the opportunity to get to know your customers, partners and market much better. If others overreact, give them a break. You can demonstrate leadership by treating others well and being helpful when things get out of hand.

Marketing in this new world is becoming more complicated because the rules are changing all the time. The other managment issue is in the “old days” you created and ad and then ran it forever…no changes or issues. Now you, and your staff, are creating new “content” every day. This is worth a training session with everyone who touches social media in your business.

Check out this post “10 Rules for Social Media Participation (for Employees)”. This is a great guide to review with your staff.

What say you about this issue?

Social Media Marketing: Why Videos are Cool Tools for Generating Leads

A huge part of the fun that social media marketing holds for innovative owners is the wide array of business marketing tools that are available to promote any company. You’re at liberty to try and then use whatever tool is more effective for your own business situation; it’s a matter of trying out and going with what works as each company is unique.

One very cool social media tool is video. If you’re into making movies, you may already have some up on YouTube. YouTube is now the world’s top search engine, having recently bypassed Google. But don’t worry about Google losing its edge—it bought YouTube in 2006. Together, YouTube and Google are behemoths of the search engine world.

YouTube’s tagline is: “Broadcast Yourself.” I might add, the better to sell your ideas and skills.

For example, if you’re a graphic designer, you might feel more at ease in showing how to design and balance white space with images in laying out an attractive magazine page—rather than write an article on how to do it. Video then is a terrific medium to show-n-tell with your voice-over explaining the steps, in synch with your hand actions.

Video production requires good lighting and a distinctive background to promote your brand image. So does a clear and crisp sound. Speak slowly and lucidly. Make sure there are no extraneous background noises. Script your production by outlining the process including words you’ll use. Rehearse beforehand. 2-4 minute videos are most effective.

Meantime, you’ll have a silent production partner promoting your company. That is, use a white board as your backdrop with your business name and website written on it. Just be sure it’s in the eye of the camera.

The whole idea behind social marketing is to get people to start commenting on, and exchanging, ideas. As I mentioned in one of my articles, that’s how I met up with Michael Licamele, VP of Marketing at TotalMortgage.com. As a result of our meeting through social networking, we’re now teaming up to write a book on how real estate agents can use social media for marketing properties. From out of the blue!

Don’t let Internet marketing for small business slip by you. Don’t play small, either. Stretch your reach and be amazed at how you can cultivate leads that last a lifetime—based on authentic, relationship-building.

Chris Marentis is a serial entrepreneur and recognized Internet Marketing expert having served as SVP at AOL and CEO of Clearspring Technologies. For more information on Online Marketing and Advertising, go to http://www.gennextmedia.com today.

The Reason Most Companies Will Fail With Social Media: 5 Phase Process To Get it Right

I have to get this off my chest.

Over the past few months we have encountered way too many great organizations implementing new websites and social media marketing programs without any clear objectives, strategy, measurement for success…nothing. Just and email from an executive demanding something get created that resembles social media so they look good in a press release, to the board or the CEO.

It reminds me of when I was running a major web 2.0 widget syndication platform company, and I got a call from the President of the digital division of a major entertainment company demanding that they need to get a Facebook application up asap!  It was when Facebook opened up the platform to third party developers for apps. When I asked why, it was just cuz…

We need to stop the madness or this social media marketing thing is going to hit a wall. Lots of time, money, and more importantly expectations, will be put into programs that will not work. Yes, it’s not that costly to build a Squidoo page, and you can build a Facebook Page in 45 minutes. But trust me, these efforts done in isolation, without being connected to all the other activity your business is doing, and without a strategy that builds on each piece, will not result in any meaningful impact on your business.

Seth Godin wrote about this issue in the context of businesses finding it easier to create events versus employ a process. It’s much easier to create a event (Seth uses the example of a trade show, but you could substitute a Facebook Page instead) because it has a specific focus and it’s temporal. It’s much easier to implement and get people rallied around a trade show booth…or get your 25 year old developer to do a Facebook Page! Social media marketing is a process that takes time, attention and a new kind of professionalism. Done right, it is a process and can be very effective and giving your business a real economic advantage.

Here is an outline of how we think about the process when we engage a client:

• Understand The Client’s Business:
  • What does your sales and product funnel look like?
  • Who is your best prospect, what is the emotional connection and how can we improve engagement?
  • Who are the top competitors and what makes them successful?
  • How can we improve exposure and coverage?
  • How are we empowering the community to interact and expand?
  • How can we increase lifetime value of each member of the community?
  • How can we build a voice and a new stage for your licensees?
  • How do we bridge offline experiences with online presence?
  • How are we extending to the mobile environment?
  • Baseline metrics

• Digital Forensics: Complete Analysis of the Marketplace
  • Reverse engineer digital footprint of target customers, key competitors and existing licensees
  • Uncover the most powerful, high volume keywords and phrases used that we can win
  • Step inside the dialogue going on in the target customers head while searching for related solutions
  • Partnership and linking strategy
  • Evaluate how competitors are implementing keyword/positioning and conversion mechanisms

• Get The “Home Base” Right: Website and Blog Evaluation, Organization and Structure
  • SEO site structure including landing pages and site sculpting
  • Content planning for distributed web, blog and website
  • Blog strategy
  • Take advantage of content pumps and leverage

• Build The Distributed Network: Social Media Content Build-Out And Distribution
  • Blog, Website and landing pages (plug-ins) as needed
  • Build and assemble content assets and other resources
  • Publish and distribute 10-12 SEO rich articles to start
  • Create 10-20 videos in the form of FAQ’s or mini-course. Distribute to over 80 sites using four different keywords
  • Create 4-5 Web 2.0 SEO optimized pages including Squidoo, Hub Pages, Facebook and Twitter (also vertical focused)
  • Establish Internal and External linking strategy
  • Blogging and forum participation strategy
  • Tools, dashboard and workflow
  • Integrate lead follow-up with autoresponders and/or sales people

• Measurement: Monitor key metrics on dashboard
  • Identify what is working and do more of it
  • Identify what is not working and do less of it
  • Work the math model to reduce average cost per lead/customer over time

This is a four plus month process and it actually never ends because you should be continually optimizing. These phases build on each other and are all connected so they have huge impact on your business. Also, this new marketing paradigm is moving so quickly, new concepts are being introduced daily, you should be always integrating new ideas.

Their are many terrific people and firms that can help implement a similar process. But as a businesses owner or manager, you can no longer abdicate the knowledge of what should be done, and how to do it right. Don’t let the “event planners” ruin your opportunity!

Forum Marketing Secrets That Will Explode Your Business Opportunites

Through years of experience in online marketing (forums go back to the early days of the Internet) and the many projects at the GenNext Social Media Lab, we know that forums are one of the best ways to market your brand, generate qualified leads and develop relationships with other individuals in your niche market. It’s amazing how this can snowball into new marketing partnerships, guest blog opportunities and traffic to your blog or website.

Don’t know where to start?

Well, finding a forum for your niche market couldn’t be easier. Technorati is the webs largest blog directory and a great place to start. You can also search in Google Blogsearch. Just search by keyword for the niche or market you are competing in. You can also search in Alltop, this is a curated site which means sites must be submitted and approved. So, you know these are pre-qualified to some degree. While you are at Alltop and Technorati, make sure you submit your site as well!

The key is to start your focus on a few sites that you can put into your RSS reader and easy check and participate in daily. Start with 5-6 sites and move on as you get the hang of it. Be sure to visit many sites before you choose a few that you are going to concentrate your efforts on.  Also, it’s make sure you scan the forum posts to ensure that this is, in fact, a forum within your niche and has an active participation level.  Do not waste time replying questions and posting threads if no one is there to see them.

Simple But Effective Art Form

There is a simple art to Forum marketing that many businesses are unaware of.  Here are some of the secrets to creating an established presence within a forum and sky-rocketing the visibility of your product:

Introduce Yourself

Most forums have an introduction section for new members. Some also use community forum management applications (like Disqus) that provide an opportunity to add a profile so people can look you up and learn more about you. This should be your initial step when entering.  Tell everyone your name, company, title, website and blog address and expertise.  This establishes rapport with the moderators of the forum and also gains the trust of the members.

Brand Yourself

Create a signature that you add at the end of every post you make. Many forums allow you to use one or two links, so use this to your advantage if they do. You can find out by looking at other posts and seeing what others are doing. Key here is to use your “link bait”, blog posts or articles on your site as targets for your links so it does not appear to be commercial.  These links will increase the traffic to your site. Do NOT spam people with promotion. This should be about sharing experiences and relevant information in the context of the discussion, not marketing.

Listen First

Initially, it is important to become an active listener. Take some time to look through the posts and get a feel for the tone of the conversations. Become familiar with the moderators and those members who are frequent posters. Get a feel for how you can help. This could give you great insight into what kind of educational materials you will want to develop for “link bait”.

Be Consistent

Be a constant presence. A forum is similar to any blog or group, you must remain visible in order to establish credibility. The more people see your name, the more they will remember you. This is about smart commenting and participation in the community. You are there to help!

Wrap-Up

The objective here is about producing leads and increasing your bottom line.  This is not done over night though. Forums are a great way (for FREE) to converse with members of your market in a casual and hassle free manner. You will learn as much by listening as you will be talking. Beware though, forum’s are like families.  There are rules and guidelines that are established by the site owner. Become aware of these and abide by them or you will do more harm than good to your brand.

Find another great post on forum marketing at Social Media Examiner.

Have you started to participate in forums yet?

Don’t Fake It…Is Your Brand Authentic?

Have you ever tried to find a restaurant that your family can stop in quickly while you are on the road in an unfamiliar place.  You start looking for places along the side of the road, and make split second decisions about where you will eat…what brand you will buy!

Last weekend while on the road with my family we did this, and it struck me how we were making these decisions.  In this case, we were thinking about two different Italian places. One was a chain and the other was a family owned restaurant. The chain seemed to be a well organized, nice looking store but it felt sterile, not very warm or inviting. Even more important, we did not see many cars in the parking lot. We got the impression that the chain was going to have “fake” Italian food. In contrast, the other Italian restaurant was smaller, but something felt “authentic” about the look and feel.  Not very polished like the other restaurant, but it was inviting. Even better, a TON of cars in the parking lot…we had to wait for a seat.

Not all chains are bad and not all family owned restaurants are good.  That is not the point here. Being true to what you are, and making that contagious among your best customers and prospects is the difference between an average business and one that needs “extra parking”. McDonald’s does not sell on the fact it has the best burgers in town or most comfortable environment. But if you have kids, and you are looking for a quick, no hassle place to get a meal everyone will like, who does not absolutely love it when you see those golden arches in the windshield?

This principle of authenticity is going to become even more important in the emerging digital era of social media marketing. The opportunity is to energize the social graph with what your product or service is about. The net effect is brand buying decisions like we see in the analog world (discussed above) are happening real time in the digital word now. How do you make sure your business marketing reflect your brand or service in an authentic way? Here are some ideas:

1. Don’t let others define your brand, be active. If you make adjustments because of competitive issues or customer insights, make sure they become core touchstones in every facet of your business. We have a strategy document that among other things outlines specific touchstones for communication. Anyone in the company (or outside contractors) has access and uses it as a guiding principle for creating any touch-points with customers or prospects.
2. Explore various ways to communicate your brand authenticity and measure reaction. You want to get people talking, sharing and engaging with your brand. The great thing about the social web is it costs virtually nothing to participate. You can try approaches in fairly quick cycles and get feedback. In the analog world, you have to build a store and it is very hard to change it once it’s done.  Not so in the digital world. Use this to your advantage.
3. Participate! I wrote a blog post a few weeks ago about how I think blogging makes me a much better business person.  It clarifies my thinking and gets me in the conversation with my customers. Also, participating in forums and other blogs plugs me into the top of mind issues that my customers and partners are taking about, and allows me to make adjustments if I am not talking to those issues.

The big reason why you want to be authentic…it will differentiate your brand. The worst thing you can do is blend in and be like everyone else. That chain Italian restaurant probably suffered from this more than any other issue. I did not see a reason to go!

Every business and every person has a unique, interesting personality that people will want to engage in if you let it out. Are you?

How to Make Time for Social Media Marketing? 3 Ways to Get Back Time For The Social Web

The Thanksgiving break was a great time of reflection. We have learned a lot the past year in our GenNext Media social media marketing lab. As I sat around with my family and friends digesting my Thanksgiving feast and watching football, I scanned some of my favorite business marketing blogs (tip #2) for an answer to this daunting question , “What is it about social media marketing that makes business owners so scared?”

Internet marketing helps businesses build relationships with customers, generate new leads, and increase profits and visibility of their business. However, the one area that left them asking for more was: time.  

It’s an issue we all face as we get deeper into the execution of our social marketing programs. How do I make time for social media marketing? The Social Media Examiner had a terrific post about this subject about a week ago.

Being a small business owner myself, I can commiserate. There simply is just not enough time in the day to run your business effectively.  However, it is important to remind yourself of your businesses overall goal: to increase customer leads and produce more profits.  Social media marketing is, or will become a key part of running your business and a means to an end goal.

Here are three ways to organize your social media marketing efforts and make the most of your time online:

1.  Time is Money: Social media marketing has the capability to sky-rocket your business, however, it also has the ability to be a immense waste of time.  Many businesses set aside time each day for “marketing and networking.”  By making a structured schedule for marketing efforts, there will be less room for procrastination and wasting time. Set aside 1-3 hours for browsing industry blogs, updating your Facebook page and participating in forums within your niche market.  This will ensure that you remain visible within the distributed web and keep your efforts focused, for a specific amount of time, each day.

2.  Spend Your Time Constructively: Whether you are going on a business trip, sitting in front of the TV, or waiting for a meeting to start, you have time for social media.  Check your messages, send out a “Tweet”, reply to posts, etc.  Any extra effort that you put in will benefit your business, increase your visibility and attract more leads.

3.   Allow Yourself to Have Fun: Social marketing should not be a burden to your life or schedule.  It is there for your convenience and to help your business increase its customer base.  If you forgot to reply to a comment, distribute an article or update your blog today, IT’S OK.  If you treat social media marketing as a helpful and valuable way to market your business and foster relationships, then you will be less stressed and have much more success.

Social media marketing takes time, organization, and dedication, but it almost always pays off in the end.  That being said, embrace the distributed web and put yourself out there for other people to see and communicate with.  So stop reading, and start doing!

What are some of the ways your business finds time for social media? I would love to hear your insights…

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