Social marketing - using popular social websites to promote your business - is becoming increasingly popular but also controversial. There's a lot of conflicting advice on how to profit from it - or even whether you should use it for business purposes at all. What's the truth?
Depending on who you listen to, there is a right way and a wrong way to succeed in social marketing
Social marketing is about growing your business through user-driven websites like youtube, facebook and digg (plus hundreds more).
Some advice says you should create a large number of different user identities on many sites and then start promoting your own sites to drive extra traffic.
The alternative view is that you should select one or two relevant sites carefully, building a personal profile on them and contributing value to the communities before even thinking about marketing anything of your own.
No doubt either of these methods can be effective and maybe the first one will work fastest.
But, leaving aside that it risks getting you banned by the sites, it seems a bit like joining 10 different local networking groups like the Chamber of Commerce or BNI - and rushing round them all just handing out order forms rather than concentrating on building strong relationships in one or two.
And, as many members of social websites are strongly against marketing or selling - it's more like going to the health club or the golf club and expecting everyone to buy from you.
The Law of Friends, from Kevin Hogan's Psychology of Persuasion, says that people will be more likely to follow your request if they believe you have their interests at heart.
This arguably applies even more in the rapidly changing online environment. People find it harder to know who to trust so they are looking for someone who will help them rather than sell to them.
The huge benefit of this new approach is that anyone can have access to a huge pool of contacts around the world.
There is little doubt that marketing in this way will become increasingly important but that it's still totally new to most business owners.
These are some of the keys to success with social marketing:
Define your objectives: Decide what you want e.g. contacts or information.
Be selective: Stick to what you are looking for and don't get sidetracked.
Manage your time: Set a specific amount of daily time for this task and don't go over it.
Give before you expect to receive: Contribute to the communities.
Be consistent: When you have selected the sites you want to use, visit them regularly.
Social marketing is a fast developing field that's still in its early days. Spending a little time to learn how it can help you build your business could be very rewarding.
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