Turning a profit using social media,
for some, is as elusive as a white rhino. But, it doesn’t have to be.
Think of social networks as a big party and try to fit in — not be the
life of the party.
My Infographic, courtesy of my partner, Ideas and Pixels,
shows great tools for making money with social media — and other tools
for making money online. Many of these tools fit together to create an
integrated online marketing strategy to support your online marketing goals.
But, you need to go beyond these tools to know HOW to apply them to making money with social media.
Here are 10 tips for making money with social media (notice none of them involve hogging the microphone):
10. Be authentic
Social
media isn’t like traditional advertising and it shouldn’t look and feel
the same. Social media is a community designed to share comfort,
support, information, expertise, and entertainment.
You need to develop a voice in social media — one that talks like a
real person, shares like a real person, and that people can relate to as
a real person. Share your foibles, mistakes, sense of humor, and what’s
going on in your life. Let people backstage.
9. Don’t interrupt
If
folks are having fun sharing on social networks, join in. Don’t bring
the party down by talking about yourself. Have fun with them or create
your own fun.
8. Leave them with something to talk about
Share
something interesting — something of value. Social media is definitely a
pay-it-forward world and if you don’t get that, then hire someone who
does. I give away tons of valuable stuff — like the first chapter of my new social media analytics book.
Grab a copy today and let me know what you think. No strings attached.
And, if you give me feedback or edit my work, I’ll send you a PDF of the
book when it’s finished. What a deal!
7. Follow your target market
Don’t
fish where your boat is, fish where the fish are. You’ll be more
successful. If the fish aren’t biting, move your boat. For instance, I
used to get a lot of traffic to my website from Twitter — now, not so
much. I still use Twitter, but I now focus on social networks that bring
in traffic, especially the kind that will buy from me — my target
market. I find Facebook much more valuable, especially my group, which I
call my social media marketing tribe. Feel free to join us and share your great content with the group.
6. Build trust
Trust
is a big word… it’s important. And trust in marketing is low because
for years we’ve made promises to consumers then failed to meet our
obligations. Firms have a lot to do to make up for this.
5. Engage
Get
your target audience involved with you. Ask questions on Facebook. End
your blog posts by asking for feedback. Participate in Quora
conversations. And, make it easy for your target audience to engage. For
instance, I use a plugin allowing visitors to comment using their
Facebook profile. The plugin also brings comments from Facebook back to
my blog. This increases engagement.
4. Build your community
Don’t
just pretend to care about your visitors — truly care about them. That
means responding quickly when they post a question or concern. Remember,
social media is always on, so plan for responses during the evening and
on weekends. When visitors share your content or comment on a post,
thank them and consider ways you can repay the compliment.
Building community means being a good member of that community and helping everybody out.
3. Give value
Don’t think about yourself — think about your community. Why are they engaged with you? What are their pains? How can you help?
I
recently met with a client interested in using social media to connect
with younger prospects. Yet, they were uncomfortable when I suggested we
find out what types of posts might help these prospects, they only
wanted to talk about themselves in their social media marketing. FAIL!
2. Plan, plan, plan
You
can never plan too much. And, planning isn’t done — you need to
constantly update your plan as things change. I commonly suggest to
clients that we meet on a monthly basis to review results and plan for
the next month’s campaign. Putting your social media marketing on
autopilot isn’t going to optimize your opportunity to make money with
social media.
Contingency planning should also be part of your
social media marketing plan. Social media marketing is, by its nature,
less predictable. You never know when someone is going to say something
off the wall or where they’re going to choose to say it. You need a
contingency plan so when something bad happens, you’re ready with a
response.
Recently, Jesse from Jess3 behaved badly at a
conference. I wasn’t there, so I don’t know the details. The important
thing is he quickly responded and apologized for his poor behavior
before others started complaining about it.
1. Measure, analyze, respond
Social
media is great because there’s so much information available, but don’t
get sidetracked with vanity metrics like # of Fans or Followers. These
don’t translate well to conversion, so keep you eye on the ball. Assess
things related to making money with social media — things like reach,
SEO, and conversion. Be sure to assesses these metrics in a way that
helps you focus your efforts on creating more content that performs
well.
Don’t bury your head in the sand. Listen. It’s important, as
mentioned above, the listen and respond to both positive and negative
comments and answer questions quickly. To find out more, go to:
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