All Entries Tagged With: "social networking"
Contrarian Blog Marketing Advice From One Remarkable Blogger
I like Michael Martine. He’s a competitor, but he’s earned my respect.
Recently, Michael posted a video on YouTube in which he tells his audience NOT to use social media to market their blogs. It seems like bad advice on the surface, but I’ll have to agree with him. The nuance that might go missed by some is that social media is a good tool for marketing, but that using it as a tool to harp on your blog is not a good idea. You’ll have to see Michael’s video to catch the full drift, but do pay attention to what he’s saying because it makes a lot of sense:
If I wasn’t having a bad hair day and wasn’t pressed for time this morning, I’d offer a video response. I would like to address one thing about what Michael says in the video, namely, that he got no benefit out of marketing on Facebook. Frankly, I’m not surprised. Facebook is not a good venue for Michael’s services and it likely wouldn’t be for ours either. LinkedIn, however, is a much better social media choice for Michael, and for us at Blog Content Provider.
Like Michael, I get annoyed with the silly vampire bites, what’s your favorite color questions, super duper walls, and other crap on Facebook. I think a part of that has to do with your choice of friends. But even if you choose good friends, you can still get poked by retards. It can be quite annoying.
LinkedIn is set up differently. There’s no poking, no gargoyles, no silly little high school dating questionnaires or virtual college frat parties. It’s a professional organization that caters to traditional professionals who just want to do business with other mature and professional people online. Much more conservative. That’s why I don’t like it.
Why Social Networks Are NOT One-Size-Fits-All Prom Dresses
Now, wait a minute, Allen. You just said LinkedIn would be a good place to network for BCP.
Yes, I did. And it would. If I had the time to actually get in there and rub elbows with people. But I don’t.
I could make the time. It would probably benefit me if I did it right. But I don’t have the inclination – right now. That could change in the future. But right now, LinkedIn is not the social network of choice for me. I am working on other things.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m totally dedicated to BCP. But I also have my own websites. I’ve been writing poetry for over 20 years and I have a poetry website with almost 100 pages and a blog with 150 blog posts. My poetry blog is on page 1 of Yahoo! and moving up in the other search engines. I have pages on my website that are on page 1 of Google, page 1 of Yahoo, and ranking well at MSN and Ask also. I have discovered that I can bookmark a blog post or web page at StumbleUpon and get massive traffic. I can bookmark the same blog post at Digg and get nothing. On the other hand, I can bookmark a BCP blog post at StumbleUpon and get only meager results, even less at Digg, but if I bookmark it at Propeller or a bookmarking site designed specifically for Internet marketers then I’ll get much more traffic.
The reason why I think that happens is because of the personalities of the different social media sites. People on StumbleUpon are a lot more free wheeling and artsy than people on Digg. There is a type of informational blog that will get a lot of votes on Digg if the information is valuable and those pages don’t do real well at StumbleUpon. When we apply this principle to the social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn, it becomes evident that you have to use the networking tool that is most appropriate for your audience.
Which Social Network Is Right For You?
Poets like to hang out at Facebook. When I browse the Facebook profiles, there are so many groups and applications that appeal to people who write poetry, fiction, and other types of literature. There aren’t so many on LinkedIn.
That doesn’t mean that LinkedIn is a bad place to network. It’s just a bad place to network for people promoting themselves as a poet. On the other hand, if you are trying to hire yourself out as a business writer then LinkedIn is the perfect place to network. Facebook may or may not be based on who your target market is.
Since I only have so many hours a day that I can devote to social networking activities, I’ve decided to spend my time on Facebook instead of LinkedIn. I’m not worried that my blogging business is going to suffer if I don’t network. On the contrary, BCPs blogging business is steadily growing. But if I don’t spend a little bit of time each day promoting my poetry then it won’t get promoted. That’s why I make the point to do a little bit of networking and content creation each day, usually in the evening.
The Right Way To Use Social Networks
Now that you understand where I’m coming from, what’s the best way to use a social networking site? I believe that Michael Martine has hit it on the head. Instead of promoting your blog or your website, which people don’t really care about, promote yourself. People join the social networks to make friends, not to find material that they can read. They have plenty of that. What they don’t have plenty of are friends who take a genuine interest in them and what they have going on in their lives.
When I was an active user at MySpace, I got frustrated at all the comment spam that came across my profile. I, like a lot of other users, would accept any and every friend request without considering whether or not that person would truly be of benefit, or whether I could benefit them. I was going about it all wrong. I ended up abandoning my MySpace profile because of it.
Social networks are not friend collection receptacles. They are places where you can find people interested in the same things that you are interested in. If you do it right, you’ll make friends and those friends will eventually turn into business partners, customers, or other people who can benefit your business (and your business theirs). Do it wrong and you’ll end up frustrated, on the outs, and wondering why no one likes you. I hope this improves your social karma.
Niche Blog Marketing For Products For Sale
There are still a lot of people around who do not believe blogging and social bookmarking can lead to sales for commercial products. Just like those that thought blogging was only a fad back in the 90s, bloggers who think that blogging and social bookmarking have no real benfit for businesses and product sales will learn they are wrong.
Many SEO people are convinced the only way to make money on the web is to rank well in the search engines and that you live and die by search engine traffic alone. Smart SEO people do not rely solely on search engines and try to get traffic from many different sources.
Here is a good example of a niche blog using the blog to sell product. It is well put together and with social bookmarking will likely rank well in the search engines for their products. With social bookmarking added into the mix they are also likely to make sales that do not go through the search engines.
If you would like to get pricing from us on how we can set up a sales blog for you, Click here and submit a pricing request for professional blogging services
Social Marketing Guide
There is a great social networking guide at Search engine Land that you should bookmark and keep handy if you plan to get busy with social marketing, networking, and bookmarking.
The Social Media Manual: Read Before You Play
I get so many questions from people about Digg, Propeller, Reddit, Stumbleupon, and other social news sites every day that I decided to write this little “manual” as something to read before you jump in head first into any social site, and to keep by your side as you progress through the ranks. It should not only help you succeed with your social media marketing efforts, but also help you avoid some of the mistakes I’ve made.
1. Before you even think about signing up with a socially driven news site, consider this: Have you spent some time browsing the community (reading the content and the comments, learning about popular sources and players)? Do you understand how the site works and the niche it serves? If so, is the site for you?
While all socially driven sites have the same basic elements (reading, submitting, voting, and commenting), not all of them function the same way and they definitely don’t serve the same niche (remember, it is not a zero-sum game, and it is with good reason that so many socially driven sites have managed to not only co-exist but also grow at the same time). If you don’t invest time in determining whether a site is right for you from the start, all your subsequent hard work likely won’t pay off and you will have to switch to a different community at a future date.
That first tip is a very important one. If you jump right in with whatever social networking site you found recommended by someone and start bookmarking your blog posts and such, you may find it not working for you and may find yourself banned from the site.
Read the Terms of Service. Learn the rules. Vote on some stories. Comment on some stories. make some friends. Be part of the community. Then start sharing.
Social Media Optimization (SMO) Just What We Needed Another Abreviation
It was once called keyword research. You needed to use keywords in your content and metatags to get the search engines to rank you for those words.
Then it became SEO, Search Engine Optimizaqtion, and included link building and other things as part of the strategy to get more traffic to your website. This was before Google was a portal. Good original content and link popularity were always important before Matt Cutts had a blog and before you could perform searches through Google.
Then along came SEM, Search Engine Marketing. This is the part of your Internet marketing plan that is geared completely toward search engine traffic and includes PPC.
Now with the popularity of social networking, comes SMO, Social Media Optimization. Not like we needed to confuse the average user anymore than we already have.
Social Media Optimization
Most Internet users have heard of Search Engine Marketing (SEO) but the new “buzz word” in the Internet Marketing world is Social Media Optimization (SMO). SMO tactics are used to drive large amounts of people to a web site through new channels. Google and Yahoo, while still major players, are not the only sites that push traffic anymore. The basis of Social Media Optimization lies in creating a community that brings interested users together. Wikipedia describes social media as… “The online tools and platforms that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences, and perspectives with each other. Social media can take many different forms, including text, images, audio, and video. Popular social mediums include blogs, message boards, podcasts, wikis, and vlogs.”The old version of online marketing and the new have one very important rule in common: content is king. Writing a blog (online web log) that does little more than advertise your services or products will not create a community. Writing a blog that shares your expertise, opinions, latest industry news, and your insights has the potential to bring in interested visitors and gives them a reason to come back. Linking your blog to sites like Digg (digg.com), del.icio.us (del.icio.us.com), and Facebook (facebook.com) will spread your message across the Internet faster than any search engine. This is the Internet’s version of “word of mouth” marketing. People will have the opportunity to read your posts, visit your site and learn more about you and your business.
Those are some great tips, but the writer only includes a small number of the social websites you need to use to do proper SMO. There. I used it. SMO. Getting used to it I guess. He didn’t mention StumbleUpon which brings in a ton of traffic and didn’t mention propeller.com that can help you get great search engine ranklings for your bookmarks. He didn’t mention reddit.com.
Well let’s just say don’t limit yourself to only the three mentioned in the post or the ones I added. Search google for a list of social networking or social bookmarking sites and you’ll find all you need.
