Here are ten ways to use social networking sites to accomplish your goals:
- Use niche marketing in your social media sites. Know the needs of those you post to – their persona. Targtet those needs. Use keyword phrases when networking. Meet their needs anyway, even if it doesn’t relate to you goals.
- Identify the influencers that are already networking. What social networks are they using? What groups in those networks? What are they doing? What are their keyword phrases?
- Identify the people that need to hear your message. What network are they on? How can you reach them?
- Lead from ideas. Be a thought leader Don’t try to “sell” anything or force something down their throats. Identify a hungry market, jump into it, and lead from ideas to draw them in.
- Encourage people to contact you. Ask people to comment on your blogs. Raise questions in other postings, asking people to reply. Set up polls. Make it easy for people to reach you, providing multiple methods. Follow up with people quickly.
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Create lots of links. When using Twitter, link people to your blogs and (if you have it) your Facebook and/or Linkedin account and others. Use tools like http://bit.ly to shorten your URLs in the links. Pull traffic into your web site or blog to get them more involved.
- Contribute. Join groups in the networks, create groups and contribute, contribute comments to the blogs of others.
- Try new things constantly. Use tools to monitor what is working and what isn’t.
- Encourage links into your site and/or blog. Identify subject directories and get in these. Make it easy for them to bookmark your site. Use del.icio.us., DIGG. StumbleUpon and others.
- Use RSS to enable people to monitor when you update your web site or blog.
