True confession time: I am not even close to being smart about using social media for online marketing. No big surprise for those of you who know what an introvert I am. But still, I am using Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and I think you should too. Here’s why…
I am a psychologist who helps others get found online, get known in their niche, and get clients. If you’ve read my story, you know how I started using the Web ten years ago, as a complete techno-klutz. All that changed in 2004 and 2005 with the popularization of blogging platforms like Typepad and WordPress.
This ushered in new business success for me and my former partner as The Blog Squad. If you’ve been online for a few years now, marketing your business using the Internet, you probably experienced the same phenomena… all of a sudden you don’t need to be a computer geek to get a site up and start making money.
Around 2004, sites like Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter came along, but they didn’t really pick up steam until 2006 and later. What happened is beyond comprehension on some levels… and totally natural.
Now Facebook boasts one of the highest web traffic numbers and Twitter has become a news source re-broadcast on network TV news stations.
It was only natural that once the technology made it easy for Web readers to become publishing participants, the doors to connecting and networking unleashed a Tsunami of traffic. We are social animals, and the Internet makes it incredibly easy to find like-minded others.
Facebook claims over 400 million active users. For an interesting overview of how Facebook got started in a dorm at Harvard, read the story on Wikipedia, it’s interesting.
Twitter has 75 million accounts. Read their story here on Wikipedia.
LinkedIn went from 2 to 40 million in May 2009 and 60 million by February 2010. Their story is here, and here.
An interesting user statistic for LinkedIn is this: “Senior Executives” (est. 8.4 million) are somewhat less tech savvy and are using LinkedIn to connect to their existing corporate networks. They have power jobs which they are quite content with, and are likely to have been invited by a colleague and then realized how many key contacts were on the site and started building connections (32 on average). Senior Executives have the highest average personal income ($104,000) and have titles such as Owner, Partner, Executive, or Associate.
There are hundreds of social media experts offering expensive programs to learn all about how to use these sites for online marketing. But let’s simplify and learn a few basics first.
What do social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn mean for you and your business? Yes, you still need a blog for your business, because this is where you’re going to link back to on the short message boards that social media sites offer.
Beyond that, you’ll need a few more tips and a plan to follow. I incorporate social media management for my elite blogging service clients, because it is now so essential to online content marketing.
You can’t have good, effective content marketing without a blog and social media participation. Social media sites are huge sources of traffic to blogs. They are a #1 way to get new people over to read your blog. Furthermore, the readers who come from social sites are more likely to leave comments, because they are used to typing in messages on sites.
My point is this: you don’t have to be an extrovert or a big fan of social media, neither do you need to be one of those geeky first-adopter types that tries out every new service that comes down the road. Pick one or two and stick with them. There are three sites I recommend for small businesses:
- Twitter (follow me here @PatsiBlogSquad)
- Facebook (friend me here on Facebook)
- LinkedIn (join my network here)
And, you may decide to start with just one. For ease of use, I recommend starting with Twitter. For businesses, I highly recommend LinkedIn.
In the next weeks I’ve enlisted some social media experts to join this blog and share tips for small businesses who want to start using Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. I hope you’ll come back often to learn some great tips for expanding the reach of your content marketing efforts.
Later, I might get some other experts to share about SlideShare, video sites like YouTube, and iTunes for podcasts.
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