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Page 3
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction ...........................................................................................7
Traditional Media ...................................................................................... 8
Social Media ............................................................................................... 9
Why You Need Social Media................................................................... 12
Twitter....................................................................................................................12
Facebook ...............................................................................................................13
YouTube.................................................................................................................14
LinkedIn .................................................................................................................15

Before You Begin..................................................................................18

Consistency ...........................................................................................................19
Domain, Brand and Usernames .........................................................................20
Avatar or Images ..................................................................................................21
Target Audience ....................................................................................................22
Listening ................................................................................................................23
Tone/Style of Voice ...............................................................................................25

Analyzing and Changing ......................................................................... 29

Setting Goals ........................................................................................31
Branding ................................................................................................... 33
Introduce Yourself ................................................................................................33
Comment Regularly on High Readership Sites and Blogs ................................34
Interview Top Names In Your Industry ...............................................................34

Engaging Your Audience......................................................................... 34

Increasing Traffic ..................................................................................... 35
Delivering Top-Notch Customer Support ............................................. 37
Putting Your Plan.................................................................................38
Face the world with Facebook ............................................................... 40

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 Facebook Groups..................................................................................................41
Facebook Pages ....................................................................................................44
Tips for Using Facebook.......................................................................................50

Tweet.... Tweet.... Tweet.... The entire world is tweeting .................... 51

Social Bookmarking................................................................................. 52
Blogging .................................................................................................... 55
Blogger...................................................................................................................56
Wordpress .............................................................................................................57

Social Video Sharing ................................................................................ 60

YouTube.................................................................................................... 61
Free Tools for Creating/Editing Videos ...............................................................62
Windows Movie Maker.........................................................................................63
Apple iMovie..........................................................................................................64

Photo Sharing Sites ................................................................................. 65

Flickr.......................................................................................................................65
Photobucket ..........................................................................................................66

Professional Social Media Sites.............................................................. 67

LinkedIn .................................................................................................................67
Wikis.......................................................................................................................68

Forums and Community Message Boards ........................................... 69

MicroBlogging .......................................................................................................70

Social Networking.................................................................................... 70
Events.....................................................................................................................70

Platform Integration ...........................................................................72

Save Time ................................................................................................. 73
The Launching Your Social Media Presence .....................................78
Example Beginning Strategy...............................................................83

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 Maintenance: (Preferably at least once per day) ................................. 84
Analyzing Social Media Data ..............................................................87
RSS Feeds ................................................................................................. 88
Social Media Tracking ............................................................................. 89
Maintaining Your Social Media Presence..........................................92
Have Fun With It ..................................................................................95
Social Media and Internet Marketing .................................................... 96
The Future and How to Prepare For It .................................................. 97
Outsourcing ............................................................................................. 98
Have Fun With It ...................................................................................... 98

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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Page 7
 “We’re still in the process of picking ourselves
up off the floor after witnessing firsthand the
fact that a 16-year-old YouTuber can deliver us 3
times the traffic in a couple of days that some
excellent traditional media coverage has over 5
months.”

– Michael Fox, founder of Shoes of Prey on the

power of social media in today’s business climate

As an Internet marketer, if you aren’t using social media with your

current campaigns, you are seriously hurting your chances for success.

To understand the implications of that statement, close your eyes and

try to think of ten successful people that you know who don’t have a
social media profile. If you are like most people, you probably can’t do
it. That’s because social media has taken the world by storm, and for
good reason.

Traditional Media
Before social media hit the scene, all we had to rely on for information
was traditional media. We got our news, gossip and anything else that
caught our interest from television, radio, movie theaters, magazines,
newspapers, CDs and DVDs.

These types of traditional media served their purpose, but they were
very limited in scope. First of all, the information that came from our
television screens or magazine pages only went one way. They went
from the screen or the page and into our psyches. That’s as far as the
message would go. For business owners, there was no way to target
individuals for specific messages. That’s because anyone could turn on

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the TV or pick up a magazine. Likewise, there was no way for us to
respond to and share the information with others.

Sure, marketing companies can choose which magazines to place their

ads in based on the demographics of the subscribers, but even that is
limited. Sometimes the ads are effective and sometimes they don’t
quite reach the right people.

Today, we still have those traditional forms of media, but now we have
social media to complement it. Social media presents a totally new way
to connect with people as well as get, share and enjoy information like
never before.

Social Media
Social media allows us to catch up
with friends we haven’t seen in
years, and it also allows us a way
to gain new business contacts
through likeminded people. But
it’s the way we get our
information that makes social
media so special.

Unlike traditional forms of media,

you are able to interact with the
information you’re given. You can make comments on a news story to
let your voice be heard, you can share that news story with others, and

Page 9
you can even create your own content that can be shared in the same
exact way.

That’s the power of social media, and that’s why it’s the new goldmine
as far as Internet marketers are concerned.

Yet most Internet marketers never succeed with social media. In fact,
most businesses especially big business, struggle and fail with social
media marketing. Why? Because, big business doesn’t know how to talk
to their customers. They only know how to pitch and sell. That’s why
entrepreneurs and small businesses have a much greater chance of
succeeding in the social media realm. It only requires knowing what to
do.

Unlike traditional media, you can’t just build a website or profile and
expect people to come. People’s attention spans are too short and
there are too many attractions, and distractions, online. For that
reason, you have to work at social media to garner the attention you
are after.

Some social media marketing efforts fail because people think social
media should replace traditional forms of media, or that traditional
media is now considered ‘old school’ or ‘passé’. That’s just nonsense.
Social media should complement current marketing efforts, not
replace them altogether.

The only difference is that you must work at your social media
presence. You will need to put in lots of effort to build your target
audience and engage those within your community.

Page 10
But the primary reason most marketers and businesses fail is because
they don’t know what they’re doing, or they keep making the same
common mistakes over and over.

Don’t worry. By the time you are done reading this, you will know
exactly what to do to succeed at social media marketing.

First, let’s take a look at what you can gain from implementing social
media into your current Internet marketing campaign.

Social media can:

• Increase the visibility of your brand, business, charity, band, etc.

• Allow you to monitor how others perceive you and you can
actually influence your target group’s opinion of you, your brand,
etc. No longer do you need to spend money on a target research
group. Social media provides that for free.

• Allow you socially interact with your target audience.

• Allow you to build relationships with customers, put out PR fires,

and enhance your image in the eyes of potential and current
customers.

• Allow you to reach more target groups.

• Help you increase your income by gaining far more leads, sales,
joint ventures, etc.

Page 11
Why You Need Social Media
To figure out why you need social media, we should first look at a few
facts:

Twitter
http://www.twitter.com

• As of 2014, the social networking platform Twitter had nearly

645,750,000 users and those users were sending over 58 million
tweets per day!

• 68% of all Twitter users are in the age group of 24-54.

• 87% are heavy users.

• Twitter enables access on the go, real time news.

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 • 18% of Internet users report using Twitter or other news service
to share updates about themselves and others.

• Twitter allows you to put a human face to your company or

brand so that you can engage in real time conversation with your
target audience.

• Also, with Twitter, you can gain immediate feedback and respond
to questions and/or problems.

Facebook
http://www.facebook.com

• Facebook, currently the reigning champ of social media, has

more than 1,310,000,000 users and the average person has 130
friends.

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 • With Facebook you can send updates, create polls, post events,
advertise a page, and convert visitors to fans.

YouTube
http://www.youtube.com

• YouTube, the world’s most popular video sharing site, is the

Internet’s second largest search engine, behind only Google.

• Approx. 100 hours of content are uploaded every minute (which

means it would take you over 16 years of non-stop viewing to
watch the content uploaded in a single day).

• 1 billion users view 4 billion videos on YouTube every day. A total

of 6 billion hours of viewing per month.

Page 14
 • And with YouTube Analytics, you are able to see the age range,
genders of your viewers, and views over time, where visitors are
coming from, where people are tuning in and out, etc.

LinkedIn
http://www.linkedin.com

LinkedIn, a professional social media site, has seen an influx in

membership as a result of the recession.

Currently, Linked in has over 300 million users and counting.

Linked In is great for connecting with similar professionals and building

relationships.

LinkedIn allows you to extend your profile with feeds from your
blog/website.

Page 15
Those are just four social media sites. Four. And when you consider
that there are thousands more, with more popping up every day, it
should be painfully clear why social media is the next big thing for
Internet marketers everywhere.

If you want to get more exposure for your campaigns, and maximize
profits, you must jump on the train known as the social media
phenomenon. One thing is certain: your competition already has a
social media presence in place. And if your competitors are getting
their own Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, then you had
better get them too.

Internet marketing is a very lucrative

business, but it’s also a very
competitive business. If you do not
keep with the trends, and that means
jumping on board with social media,
then you’re not going to go as far as
you’d like. Only by adopting the newest
techniques, and rolling with the
constantly evolving Internet and social media platforms, will you come
out on top amongst all those vying for the same customer base.

So, let’s get started creating your social media presence. Before you
start creating profiles, you need to do a little preparation first.

======================================================
HINT: Many businesses fail at their attempts at social
media marketing. Mostly this applies to big business
because they don’t understand how to communicate
socially with their customers. People use social media
for that purpose: to be social. Therefore, most users

Page 16
 of social media networks have a natural aversion to
anything sales/marketing related.
======================================================

That’s why individuals promoting a brand or even small businesses

have a better chance at succeeding. But you must have a predefined
goal of why you want to use social media for Internet marketing
purposes or else you are doomed to fail.

This book is different than other social media marketing guides that
are filled with a lot of free information that you can get from just using
the various networks out there. With this book, we’re going to dive
right in.

Soon, you’ll know exactly what to do to increase your brand or

company’s awareness like never before.

Page 17
CHAPTER 2

BEFORE YOU
BEGIN

Page 18
 “You will make mistakes. If you are sincere about
helping the community, the authenticity will show
and your mistakes will be forgiven.”

– Zia Yusuf, executive vice president for SAP’s

global ecosystem and partner group

Social media marketing needs to be handled carefully if you hope to

get the most out of it. Many marketers and businesses just jump on
social media sites and start creating profiles. That’s the wrong way to
go.

Instead, you need to do a little prep work. Consider this akin to

checking to make sure your rifle’s in good working order before you go
hunting, or making sure you have all your clubs, check the weather and
make Tee-time reservations before you hit the links.

Before you begin with social media, you need to make sure you know
what you’re doing.

Consistency
If you are going to create social media profiles to build a brand, to
promote a business or a band, or to create awareness for a charity or
social movement, you must remain consistent across every platform
you decide to use.

This means consistency in:

• Domain, brand and usernames

• Avatar or images
• Target Audience

Page 19
 • Tone/style of voice

======================================================

Note: All of this information could change somewhere

down the line. We’ll get to that later. However, no
matter what changes, it must remain consistent across
all platforms if you want the most people to recognize
you, or your brand and what you’re trying to
accomplish.

======================================================

Domain, Brand and Usernames

Before you come up for a name for your project, you should make a list
of domains and usernames that you plan to use. Then, use a service
like Knowem (http://knowem.com), which allows you to search over
400 social media sites and 40 domain names to make sure your
domain, brand or username isn’t already being used.

It allows you to choose the domains, brands and usernames so that

they can remain consistent across every social media network you
choose. There is also a subscription service that allows you to protect
your domains, brands and usernames from being used once your flag
is planted. You can also use Knowem to see how your business,
product or usernames are being used across the Internet.

Page 20
Once you have a list of names you’re going to use, only use those
names from this time on.

Avatar or Images
You will want to create a standard avatar, image or logo that you’ll use
on all the profiles you create. This must remain consistent so that
people can recognize whom you represent in one glance.

This should be used as the profile image for every single network.

Avatar Tips:

• Use a white or neutral background

Page 21
 • Don’t try too hard to stand out. Just be consistent and use
recognizable and memorable avatars.

• Don’t use celebrity images, copyrighted images or abstracts.

• Register and upload your avatar with Gravatar

(http://en.gravatar.com) so that your avatar appears next to your
comment on blogs and other social networking sites.

• K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple Stupid.

Target Audience
You must know whom you’re trying to target and where they are likely
to hang out on the Internet. Don’t just assume that you already know
who your target audience is or what they’re about.

Page 22
If you hope to develop a working social strategy, the entire thing rests
on the fact of whether or not you know who you’re marketing to.

You also need to know what your target audience needs and what
value you can add to their lives to make them pay attention to you. The
best way to do that is to listen.

Listening
As an Internet marketer, you never consider a niche until you’ve done
the proper research. Likewise, your keywords are well researched if
you know what you’re doing. That same research effort needs to be put
into social media marketing.

Before you get started with social media marketing, make sure you
research to see what people is talking about and where your target
audience tends to congregate.

The best way to do that is to do a search for your niche, brand, charity,
band, or anything else you’re trying to promote. Then, just listen and
observe.

Try to learn as much as you can from the conversations and use this
information to create your social media blueprint that includes where
to become active and also what tone and style of voice to use.

Page 23
Use tools like

• Google Blogsearch (http://www.google.com/blogsearch),

• Technorati (http://technorati.com) or

• BoardReader (http://boardreader.com),

Page 24
Or similar services to use words or phrase to find out what
conversations are taking place. However, don’t just listen to your
target audience. Listen to others in your industry, including your
competition.

Tip: Seek out fresh content from blogs and other news
services with RSS feeds, which will save tons of time.

Tone/Style of Voice
Your conversations and your interactions are the very core of your
social media marketing strategy. Therefore, you need to be prepared
to engage in conversation with your
target audience. This means you have to
plan a consistent tone and style of
voice, as well as some specific
parameters, before you type even one
word into any social media platform.

Remember, most big businesses fail in

social media because they don’t know
how to communicate with the average person. They only know
marketing and advertising methods. People will quickly become
annoyed with any marketing advertising or sales pitch on a social
media site. That means if you use these techniques in your
communications, your image can become tarnished or you can be
banned completely.

Luckily, I’m going to offer you some tips so that you don’t run into any
trouble as far as choosing your style and tone of voice are concerned:

Page 25
Here are some tips to get you started:

1. Develop a style and personality that’s consistent with the

image you’re trying to convey: Your tone, the content you use
the language you use and even the use of punctuation should all
be tailored according to what your target audience uses.

Try to speak to people as if they were your best friends or they

were sitting across the table from you. Never think of your
contacts as customers or else you’ll be selling to them in no time,
even if it’s a subconscious impulse. Keep things personal and
humanized and you’ll be better off.

2. Always be honest with your communications: You must be

honest about who you are and what you represent at all times.
The thing about social media is that it’s all connected. Don’t
assume that something you say on one network won’t be found
out on other networks. Especially if your social media marketing
campaign is successful, any lies or misconceptions you propagate
are going to come back to bite you and that’s a quick way to kill
any headway you make with social media marketing.

3. Establish your communication rules early: You need to have

some firm rules in place of what you will and won’t tolerate when
it comes to social media networks. This could include abusive
comments, inappropriate language, etc.

4. Don’t use social media for corporate communication

purposes: Never send out company updates or any other
business matters, and never talk about finances on a social

Page 26
 media network. This is going to quickly annoy your contacts and
this could tarnish your image permanently in their eyes.

5. While consistency is the key to social media marketing, you

need to understand how each platform works and tailor your
campaign accordingly. You may have a different type of audience
on one platform as another, and so your tone of voice/style may
change. So only change your strategy if your audience demands
it and responds accordingly to it.

6. No selling! This can’t be reiterated enough. You’ll want to keep

your communications short, relevant and to the point. And most
of all is, be creative. You’re not only on social media to self-
promote; you’re there to share information and knowledge.
You’re there to gain the trust of your target audience and you
want them to see you as an authority in your niche or field. If you
try using a sales pitch on your contacts, you’re not going to have
many contacts left before long.

Instead, engage customers on a customer service level or engage

them in some type of debate related to what you’re doing.
People will see you in a much more positive light and they’ll want
to keep up with what you’re doing. They’ll want to engage you.
Use your personality and you’ll go much further. Try to be a
salesman and you’ll fall flat on your avatar’s face.

7. Never ignore feedback! This is another crucial one. When

people become your contacts, they demand transparency. Again,
anything you say on social media can be held against you several

Page 27
times over, so never try to cover up negativity by deleting
comments or by pretending to be someone else to discredit the
negative comment.

Social media users are extremely savvy and using tactics such as
these will quickly be discovered. Therefore, engaging in any sort
of mischief will tarnish your reputation amongst your audience,
which is the last thing you want to do. Instead, strike up a
conversation by asking questions and make sure you follow up
and always respond.

You should expect to spend a lot of time cultivating your social

media network relationships. They’re not like websites where you
can just set them up and leave them alone. You must speak to
your audience, respond to their comments and questions, and
you must keep up with how your brand is perceived and
discussed by others.

Even one slip up can result in irreparable damage to your

company or organization’s image or brand. It’s not worth it. If
you’re not going to participate in conversations, you’re better off
not having a social media campaign at all.

For once you lose control of the conversations about you and
what you’re trying to do, there’s no getting it back.

Page 28
Analyzing and Changing
When it comes to consistency, you need to make sure you keep track
of every detail. Then, you must analyze the data you glean from your
tracking efforts. This can be used to tailor your campaign to better fit
your audience. Whatever changes you make, whether they be your
avatar, your slogan, or your tone and style of voice, you need to stick
with that until it’s time to change.

Whenever possible, keep changes to a minimum so as to avoid brand

confusion. But we’ll talk more about that later when we get into how to
analyze your data.

ACTION PLAN:

• Create Domain, brand and usernames

o Go to Knowem (http://knowem.com) to make sure your

names are original and available

• Avatar or images

o Create an avatar that’s appropriate and that fits with your

brand.

• Target Audience

o Listen in on social networks. Use programs like Google

Blogfinder to see what people are discussing. Find out

Page 29
 what people are talking about within your niche, about
your product, your brand, etc.

• Tone/style of voice

o Gauge the tone and style of voice your audience uses in

their regular communications. If you talk like them, they’ll
be more likely to connect with you and your brand.

===========================================================
HINT: Be consistent, professional, honest, transparent, and
never try to sell. Just be social and do it in a way that
causes people to take notice of you and your brand.
===========================================================

Page 30
CHAPTER 3

SETTING GOALS

Page 31
 “Social media isn’t the end-all-be-all, but it
offers marketers unparalleled opportunity to
participate in relevant ways. It also provides a
launchpad for other marketing tactics. Social
media is not an island. It’s a high-power engine
on the larger marketing ship.”

– Matt Dickman, technomarketer.typepad.com

Every marketing strategy should always have a clear set of goals and
social media marketing is no different. When it comes to goals, think
S.M.A.R.T!

S- Specific - Vague goals cannot be met and can quickly become

forgotten. Instead, create very precise goals and never lose sight of
them.

M- Measurable - Make sure you know when you’ve achieved your goal.
Set those parameters early so that you have a clear image of where
you’re trying to be.

A- Achievable - Make sure your goals are reachable.

R- Relevant - Make sure your goals are in line with what you’re trying
to accomplish.

T- Timeframe - Set your goals with certain deadlines so that you can
determine your progress and also so that you can prioritize more
easily.

Page 32
Your goals should represent everything you’re trying to accomplish
with your social media marketing campaign. This should consist of four
primary goals.

These include:

1. Your Branding
2. Your Engagement With Your Audience
3. Increasing Traffic
4. Delivering Top-Notch Customer support

Branding
This is about increasing brand awareness. Every social networking
profile you create is another group of people you can hopefully
influence. Branding yourself is going to take time. You can’t just jump
on the scene and expect people to flock to you like flies on honey. But
there are various ways you can brand yourself quickly.

Introduce Yourself
A great way to get yourself noticed is to find other people in your niche
and develop a relationship with them. One way to do this is to read one
of their blog posts and then let them know what you thought of it to
start the introduction on a good foot. This will show you have a true
interest in that person and their work, and that can go a long way
towards making a great first impression.

Page 33
Comment Regularly on High Readership Sites and
Blogs
If you comment often enough in the right places, people will start to
take note and they’ll remember who you are. You’ll begin to be noticed.
This could open the door for a great business opportunity somewhere
down the line. This is also a great way to solidify yourself as an
authority over your chosen subject matter.

Interview Top Names In Your Industry

One of the best ways to increase your brand awareness quickly is to
interview a group of leaders in your niche. This could also cause your
campaign to go viral.

Going viral means it spreads like wildfire as people share your content
with everyone they know. Having content to go viral is what every
social media marketer dreams about.

Your interviewees will take note of you and appreciate the exposure,
and your audience will see you as someone who may be worth
following. These can also open doors later on.

This is one technique that is very effective and should always be used if
you hope to achieve brand awareness in a quick manner.

Engaging Your Audience

While we already spoke of keeping your tone and style of voice
consistent, as well as setting certain rules and boundaries, sometimes

Page 34
it can be difficult to judge how to react to certain comments or
individuals. After all, the anonymity of the Internet makes some people
into literal monsters that are hard to deal with.

Therefore, I’ve come up with an acronym to help you in your dealings

with people.

Whenever you’re dealing with anyone in your social media marketing

campaign, remember the word: SOCIAL

S- Straight to the point: Be concise. Don’t ramble on.

O- On Time: Always respond to your audience in a timely manner.

C- Clarity: Always be transparent in your social media dealings.

I- Insightful: Always bring something to the table and show people

you’re a leader in your industry.

A- Authentic: Always be real in your dealings and never try to use lies
or misinformation to get ahead.

L- Laughter: If you can make your target audience laugh, they will
remember you above everyone else, including your competitors.

Increasing Traffic
Your main goal when setting up any social networking site is to get as
much traffic as possible. The only way to do that is to build brand

Page 35
awareness, build relationships, cultivate your relationships and try to
get as much exposure as possible.

Some things that really help build traffic include:

1. Entertaining Photos/Videos: Many brands have gone viral

because they created a funny/racy/sad/thought-provoking photo
or video that people felt compelled to share with others. If you
can create that one thing that everyone wants to pass around,
and it has your brand on it, prepare for your brand to go global.

2. Give Something Away for Free: This could be a report, an e-

book, a how-to video, an interview, or anything else that people
find useful or interesting. Make a point to offer distribution rights
so they know it’s ok to pass it around.

3. Offer Value: If your audience finds your content useful, it’s much
more likely to be passed around. So really listen to your
audience, find out what they’re lacking, and provide it.

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Delivering Top-Notch Customer Support
Another aspect of keeping ahead of your competition is making sure
you provide the best customer service possible. When you finally reach
the stage where you can start recommending products to people, you
have to anticipate that you’ll have at least one person who needs help
or has questions. You must respond to these inquiries immediately so
that you can provide the best customer service experience possible.

By providing better customer service than all the other marketers in

your niche, you’ll soon become the preferred contact to buy products
and services from in your prospects’ eyes.

Page 37
CHAPTER 4

PUTTING YOUR
PLAN

Page 38
 “There’s no need to re-create everything from
scratch. Look at some of the early adopters,
see what they’ve done and see if it makes sense
for your organization. And then think about what
you need to do to customize it.”

– Dave Fletcher, Utah chief technology officer

It’s time to unleash your brand upon the world. But first you must build
your infrastructure. You should begin building your social media
profiles one by one before you start using them. They should be built,
and then linked together and only then should you have an official
launch of your social media presence.

If you treat your social media campaign like a new product or business
launch, you’ll be much more successful.

Now, onto those profiles:

======================================================

HINT: Not all platforms are created equal. Some are

more important than others. And sometimes that
hierarchy will change. For example, as of this
writing, Facebook is at the top of the social media
food chain, whilst once mighty MySpace is no longer a
major player. Twitter is second only to Facebook in
reach.

======================================================

Now, it’s up to you to decide which social networks to use. We will

focus on the most popular ones at the moment to get you started.

Page 39
Let us start with the social media behemoth known as Facebook.

Face the world with Facebook

(http://www.facebook.com)

Even if you don’t have a Facebook page, it’s likely most of your contacts
and acquaintances do. The first rule of Facebook is to keep your profile
very professional. You should use your profile to share information
about your brand or business and to promote any special or
noteworthy events.

However, in terms of marketing, the best aspect you gain from

Facebook is the ability to share links to articles or other media, and
even share links to your other social media platforms.

Using Social networks like Facebook to spread your marketing

campaign can be tricky. That’s because people who use Facebook tend
to have a natural aversion to any marketing or selling practices, and
they will quickly shun and ostracize you.

Page 40
However, there have been some who were successful. Here’s an action
plan to get you started.

=================================================

HINT: Never attach your personal account to your

business account.

=================================================

That being said, if you want to promote your brand, you have two
options. You can create a Facebook Group or you can create a
Facebook Page.

Facebook Groups
Facebook Groups are for organizations, charities or clubs. They allow
bulk invites to be sent by administrators of the page as well as
members of that group. Some marketing professionals say that
Facebook Groups are better for quick conversations and to garner
attention.

If you are going to use a Facebook Group, you will have to create a
personal account first. Then, you will go to the Groups application and
click ‘Create a Group’ in the left hand side of the page.

Page 41
You will be taken to a page that will allow you to describe your group in
detail. You will need a Group name, members to be added. Then, select
the ‘Privacy’ settings and simply click ‘Create’ and you’re done.

Page 42
After that, you will have access to the control. These settings can be
changed at any time by simply clicking the cogwheel that appears
when you hover your mouse over where your group is listed at left side
bar of the page.

Page 43
Facebook Pages
Facebook Pages are for brands, celebrities and events. The great part
about fan pages is that they are visible to unregistered users and they
are even indexed by search engines. Marketing professionals are of the
agreement that Facebook Pages are much better for generating long-
term relationships.

Even experienced marketing consultants hesitate when their clients ask

them which is better: groups or pages. That’s because they both have
their ups and downs.

Facebook Groups, for example, with the ability to send bulk messages,
would be better suited for a viral marketing campaign.

Page 44
Facebook Pages, on the other hand are effectively anonymous, as
nobody can see who the owner or admin of the page is, and so your
page will always appear unconnected with your personal account.

Fan pages are also better for long term relationships, they are visible to
non-registered users and they’re also indexed so you have an
opportunity to reach even more people. You can run as many pages as
you wish from one Facebook account.

According to Facebook, both accounts are susceptible to banishment if

you are caught with two accounts. So don’t be tempted to create a new
account to use as a Page admin, it’s against the rules and in any case is
completely unnecessary.

You can create a new Fan page from the left menu of your Facebook
home screen:

Page 45
You will be taken to a page that allows you to create a community page
and an official page. The community page allows you to create support
for your topic by creating a page that, if it gets thousands of fans, can
be adopted and maintained by the Facebook community.

Page 46
For the Facebook fan page, you will have to choose what you are
creating the page for (business, brand, product, organization, etc.), and
you’ll have to select a page name. You must then select Brand and
Product Name and then accept the terms and condition by checking
the option “I agree to Facebook pages Terms”.

======================================================

Note: Select the Brand and Product name carefully as

it will be the name YOU want your Facebook Page to be.

======================================================

Next you simply follow 3 short steps.

Page 47
1. Add the description of your page or product to improve the
ranking of your page in search.

2. Add a logo or picture to serve as your profile image.

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 3. Add a link to the Page to your Favorites bar for easy access:

Lastly you’ll be offered the opportunity to purchase advertising for your

new Page. At this stage, simply click ‘Skip’, as you need to get your

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content ready first. You can always explore paid advertising at a later
stage.

Tips for Using Facebook

Once you’re all set up, make sure you adhere to the following tips and
you’ll be much better off:

• Use your status updates wisely and sparingly. Only add

something when you have something to say.

• Search for friends, family and schoolmates. This is to garner

attention that can attract more attention. People love to follow
others and if they see a group or page with a lot of followers,
they’ll want to know what all the hype is about. Just make sure
you tell your friends, family and schoolmates to keep it
professional. Keep the drunken nights and the dirty jokes on
your personal page only.

• Create lists of your various contacts to keep them separated by

age, gender, location, etc. This allows you to test what works by
targeting specific groups.

• Engage each of your followers with relevant content such as

questions, photos, videos, testimonials, reviews, etc.

Page 50
Tweet.... Tweet.... Tweet.... The entire
world is tweeting
(http://www.twitter.com) One of the most popular online social
(http://www.twitter.com
communities is Twitter.
Twitter is considered a micro
blogging platform. In 140
characters or less, you can
tell your ‘followers’ what’s
going on in your life, your
inner thoughts, you can
share a link that you find
interesting or funny, or you can spread some important news.

Twitter has been steadily gaining speed as one of the most popular
social network platforms. The downside to Twitter is that it allows
messages to be distributed without knowing the origin of that
message. Also, with only 140 characters to work with, proper
punctuation, spelling and grammar are sometimes impossible.

There is a way you can use Twitter for marketing purposes.

Twitter allows you to share valuable brand content with your followers
and it allows real time news and access on the go.

Twitter makes it very easy to set up an account. Just go to the site and
click sign up. You’ll need to enter your name, email ID, password and
the Twitter username you want to use (remember to be consistent).

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 HINT: If you really want to maximize your results with
Twitter:

1. Consider what tone of voice you’re going to use.

2. Use the Twitter Search to find relevant users.

3. Listen to what people are talking about and

respond with interesting insight.

4. Be patient. Results will come but you have to

wait. Don’t go crazy with your Tweets!

5. Enter into relevant conversations.

6. Use hashtags, trending terms and RSS feeds to see

what’s hot in the Twitter world.

7. Use (http://search.twitter.com) to search your

brand to see what people are saying.

Social Bookmarking
Social Bookmarking sites are one of the
quickest ways to get noticed. Instead of
video/photo sharing sites like YouTube or Flickr
where you store the content on the site, social
Bookmarking sites merely mark the location of
that content with a link.

The best part about Social Bookmarking is that users can often rate
and vote on content. The content with the most votes ascends to the
top of the list aka the front page. That means it’s going to get far more
exposure.

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List of most popular social bookmarking websites is given below:

1. Facebook

2. Pinterest

3. Google+

4. Tumblr

5. Reddit

6. Digg

7. Twitter

8. Metafilter

9. Delicious

10. Newsvine

A good practice is to put each blog entry or industry specific news item
on your Social Bookmarking sites to attract even more attention to
your brand.

ACTION PLAN: Social media is for sharing information and

knowledge. Therefore:

1. Setting up accounts on these sites is straightforward and every

single one of them is free.

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2. Use social media bookmarking sites to ‘bookmark’, ‘publish’, or
‘syndicate’ your blog or content to get it out to people who want
to read it.

3. With Social bookmarking sites, people are able to rate your posts.
The posts with the highest ratings get sent to the front page.
Therefore, make sure you have catchy headlines, relevant and
useful content and make sure your postings are interesting
enough that people want to spread them around. That’s a great
way to increase traffic exponentially. Do this correctly, and you
can create valuable readers of your posts, and valuable
subscribers to your blog.

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Hint:

1. For every posting you make, tag each post with a few
words to help organize and categorize the post to make
it easier to find.

2. Maximize your chances of getting higher ratings by:

a) Offering something of value

b) Always taking part in the conversations about

your posts

c) Always trying to offer something entertaining or

amusing as those will travel the farthest

d) Offering some valuable information such as a

report or short e-book

e) Giving advice or mentoring when appropriate

f) Giving a discount to your valued

readers/subscribers

Blogging
Blogging is known as the cornerstone of the social media marketing
campaign. It’s a great way for you to put your business, your ideas,
your tips and tricks and your secrets for success in your own words in a
way that’s amusing and informative to your audience.

Blogging is not a way to sell your products or services, but instead it’s a
way to share your expertise so that you can attract tons of readers and
subscribers. If you constantly pitch to those subscribers, you’ll soon not
have any left. However, if you can give them content that they can use

Page 55
(tips, tricks, advice), you will have loyal followers that will always look
for the next posting from you.

Also, always allow comments on your blogs so that you can receive
feedback and participate in discussions about your postings. This
allows you to get into the minds of those who read your blog. Keep in
mind that you can moderate comments, but this can alienate some of
your readers, which is never a good idea. Instead, keep a level head
when dealing with negative comments and then deal with them in a
professional, rational manner.

ACTION PLAN:

1. Choose a platform:

Blogger
(https://www.blogger.com/)

Blogger is one of the most popular blogging

platforms available today. You sign in with your
Gmail account logins.

Google owns it, and it is extremely user

friendly. You simply drag and drop ‘gadgets’
that can become html files, photos, videos, and
all sorts of other content so that you can
completely customize your blog to your liking.
You can add as many pages as you want, and

Page 56
it’s absolutely free. Blogger makes blogging easy, even for the technical
novice.

Wordpress
(www.wordpress.com)

Wordpress is also a free blogging platform.

There are two types of Wordpress. Webmasters may be familiar with

www.Wordpress.org, which is a platform that’s used for most websites
these days. It’s also extremely user friendly and it makes the use of
plug-ins that enhance analytics, SEO and more.

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Wordpress.com is for blogging and offers the same UI format as
Wordpress for websites, but without the need to have web hosting or a
domain name. Just like Blogger, there are drag and drop elements and
it is very user friendly.

There are other blogging platforms out there, such as TypePad.

It is SAY Media's premier hosted blogging service, powering millions of

professionals and small businesses, but the two above are the current
champs in the blog world.

1. Create a themed post weekly or every two weeks

2. Make use of categories

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 3. Activate networked blogs and push your entries to your
Facebook, Twitter and all other social media accounts

4. Use lots of videos and photos while being wary of copyright laws

=========================================================

HINT:

1. When creating your blog name, keep it short and easy

to remember. It should also be specific to your niche.
Don’t be too clever!

2. Use your blog to communicate directly with your

audience as you share your insight and knowledge in a
fun and entertaining way.

3. Make your blog a mixture of articles you’ve written as

well as content that’s developed by other people.

4. Your blog should be your way to nurture your current

relationships. It should also be used to invite new
contacts to read your blog so that you can establish
an air of trust and credibility.

5. Use your blog to get leads from people who have found
your blog online.

6. Never replace your website with a blog. A blog should

supplement a website, not replace it altogether.

7. Your website can remain static, but you should always

update your blog as often as you can.

=========================================================

Page 59
Social Video Sharing
Even though book publishers, authors and
English professors everywhere may not like the
trend, people’s attention spans and tolerance
for text of any substantial length is diminishing
rapidly. The sad truth is, most people would
rather watch a video than read text.

As an Internet marketer, you’re probably used to using text to get your

messages across to your prospects and customers. You also use text to
instill confidence in your clients.

A video is a chance for you to show your personality, to prove that

you’re committed to what you’re doing and it provides a personal
touch that can’t be delivered with text alone. You can use a video to
introduce yourself, announce an upcoming event or even a product
launch.

It doesn’t take much to record a video. All you need is a cheap

camcorder and video editing software, such as Window’s Moviemaker
(which comes free with Windows).

Then, just upload your video to YouTube, which is also free, and then
link all your videos to all your social networking profiles.

If a picture says a thousand words, imagine how many words a video

contains. Make the right use of video and you’ll accomplish your social
media marketing goals faster than ever.

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You can unleash the power of social media by using videos in your
marketing strategy. One of the best ways to expose your brand to the
right audience is to use the video site’s search engine to find relevant
content and likeminded people. Then, engage in comments and
conversations about the videos, thus reinforcing your authority.

The most famous video sharing sites to date include:

YouTube
(http://www.youtube.com)

YouTube is the most the popular video-sharing site in the world. With
YouTube you can create your own channel, post your own videos,
share videos with others and discuss those videos.

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YouTube is linked to most social networking sites. It’s also owned by
Google, which means you can create an account directly from your
Gmail account, if you have one.

If you don’t have a Gmail account, you can still create a YouTube
account. The best part about YouTube for Internet marketing purposes
is YouTube Analytics. This is YouTube’s analytics program that will tell
you everything you need to know about who is watching your videos
and when.

There are other video sharing sites online, but YouTube is the most
popular. Of course, that could change. List of top video sharing sites is
here:

1. YouTube
2. Vimeo
3. Netflix
4. Hulu
5. Vube
6. Metacafe
7. Viewstar

Free Tools for Creating/Editing Videos

While it’s fairly simple to create a video (after all, all you need is a
camcorder or cell phone), it takes a little bit of effort to make a video
that’s presentable to the public.

If you are going for maximum exposure, and you want your video to go
viral, you want to make sure it’s polished, entertaining, and, hopefully,

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share-worthy. That means as soon as someone sees it/views it, they
can’t wait to pass it on.

You don’t have to be a video editing wizard to create a great video. You
just need a video-editing program. Luckily, there are quite a few that
are free.

Windows Movie Maker

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-live/movie-maker

Technically, Windows Movie Maker isn’t free. It comes bundled with

Windows, which costs money. If you have a later version of Windows
you may need to download Movie Maker separately from the Microsoft
Website.

You can include music, effects, and you can even use the auto movie
feature that puts your frames together for you in a way that can really

Page 63
make an impact with your audience. Windows Movie Maker is very user
friendly and it allows you to create a video in minutes.

Apple iMovie
Apple iMovie is just like Windows Movie Maker for the MAC.

Unfortunately, just like Windows Movie Maker, you have to purchase a

new computer for it to be free. You can buy it separately, however. It is
said to be one of the best video editing programs on the market.

There are many free programs on the market and each one should be
able to help you create the videos you need to showcase your brand’s
image. You can find few free videos editing software as:

1. Blender
2. Avidemux
3. ZS4 Video Editor

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ACTION PLAN:

1. Test Your Audience with a Sample video and link it to your

website, your Facebook page, Twitter account and all other social
networking sites that allow you to link videos.

2. Follow the comments to your entries and also the ratings so that
you gauge the feedback your video is garnering.

3. Use analytics programs like YouTube Insight to gauge the age

range and gender of your target audience, how many views your
videos have received, where your viewers originate from, and,
the best part, where people are tuning in and tuning out.

Photo Sharing Sites

Once you get started with social media marketing, you’re probably
going to find yourself collecting a lot of images and photos. With online
photo sharing sites, you can upload your photos to the site and then
link them to your various social media platforms much the same way
you can do with video sharing sites.

Here are the most popular photo sharing sites currently available:

Flickr
(www.flickr.com)

Flickr is a great way to store, search and share photos online and
through other social networking sites. Flickr helps you organize all of

Page 65
your photos so that you and your contacts can make comments or
even tell stories about them. It’s free to sign up for Flickr and you can
begin sharing photos right away.

Photobucket
(http://photobucket.com)

Photobucket can be used to edit and share videos, but most people
know it as a photo-sharing site.

It’s similar to Flickr in design and you can even share photos, videos
and albums by email, IM and mobile phone.

ACTION PLAN: Upload your avatars and any other photos to any
photo sharing sites you plan to use. Then, start linking them with your
Facebook accounts, and all other social networking platforms.

======================================================

HINT: Just like when choosing your avatar, make sure

any photos you choose to share are relevant, promote
you in a positive light and don’t offend anyone. Also,

Page 66
 make sure they are worth sharing. Don’t go crazy with
the photos as you only want to show the very best ones
to your valued contacts.

======================================================

Professional Social Media Sites

LinkedIn
(http://www.linkedin.com)

It’s best to think of your LinkedIn profile as a virtual business card in

what has commonly become referred to as a ‘cyber rolodex’.

LinkedIn focuses on your professional background, your achievements

in your current and past positions, the level of education you possess
and your specialties. You can even include testimonials and
recommendations from others in your same network.

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LinkedIn has over 175 million users worldwide and it’s a great way to
connect with and build professional relationships within your given
field. It’s also a great way to stay ahead of the competition.

ACTION PLAN:

1. Create a personal LinkedIn profile

2. Invite your contacts to connect to your profile

3. Join in discussions that are relevant to your field and that have a
lot of participation from other members.

======================================================

HINT: You can take part in LinkedIn Answers or create

your own LinkedIn group to garner even more attention and
to establish even more authority in your given field.

======================================================

Wikis
Wikis are user generated content. That means anyone can contribute
to the data. One of the most popular Wikis is Wikipedia
(www.wikipedia.org). You can create a Wikipedia page for your
business or brand, you can write a Wiki How-To to promote your
business or brand, or you can use any of the other Wiki sites.

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Be mindful, however, that anyone can edit the page. Therefore, you’ll
always want to watch for anyone altering your sites to prevent any
damage to your reputation.

Forums and Community Message Boards

While it would be possible to list tons of forums here, and there are
literally thousands out there, the forums you’ll want to subscribe to are
going to be industry specific. For instance, if your business is in the

Page 69
hunting niche, you’re not going to do very well on a forum for animal
conservation.

When you do find a forum, make sure your profile includes the same
avatar and profile information as your other social media networks.
Also, make good use of the profile’s signature.

Most profiles allow for a signature that will allow you to post a link to
your website, and you can even use it to promote your social media
networks. However, most forums these days allow you to insert the
contact information for your social media networks directly into your
profile. This makes it even easier to link everything together.

Other social media sites include:

MicroBlogging
• FmyLife (http://fmylife.com)
• Foursquare (http://foursquare.com)
• Plurk (http://Plurk.com)
• Tumblr (http://Tumblr.com)

Social Networking
• Orkut (http://Orkut.com)
• Myspace (http://Myspace.com)

Events
• Eventful (http://Eventful.com)

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 • Meetup.com (http://Meetup.com)
The truth is, there are hundreds if not thousands of social media sites.
The trick is to choose only the ones you determine to be relevant at the
moment (through research), and to not be afraid to abandon a social
site if it falls out of favor with the social media audience as a whole.

Now that you have your social media sites set up, it’s time to link them
all together.

Page 71
CHAPTER 5

PLATFORM
INTEGRATION

Page 72
 “Social networks aren’t about Web sites.

They’re about experiences.”

– Mike DiLorenzo, NHL social media marketing director

This is where you’re going to link your Website to your Facebook

account, your Facebook account to your YouTube account, your blog to
your website, and then you’re going to link them all internally.
Essentially, you’re going to create a web of social media networks that
you hope to trap visitors and subscribers, not unlike a spider do with
its prey.

Save Time
To become successful in social media marketing,
you need to update your sites regularly. If you
don’t, you could lose relevancy in the eyes of your
audience. Remember, Internet users have very
short attention spans. While you don’t want to
annoy people with too many messages, if you write to few messages,
you risk becoming old news.

However, if you were to update all of your social media sites, this
would take an exorbitant amount of time. That is, unless you’re smart
about it.

By using the tools provided by the various social media networks, you
can save a lot of time. Most social media networks allow for
syndication between all of your platforms so that you minimize the
time you spend updating and maintaining your social media profiles.

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You do not need to be everywhere at once and succeed in at social
media. You just need to work smarter, not harder. Here are a few
techniques you can use to cast your web that you hope will capture all
the contacts, views, leads and sales as humanly possible.

ACTION PLAN:

a. Send your blog posts to your Facebook Fan page by using

the Notes Application.

b. Or, you can use Networked Blogs to get your blog posts
even more exposure
(http://www.facebook.com/networkedblogs)

Page 74
c. Share your YouTube videos on your Facebook account. You
can either add the video to your profile or you can include
it with status updates

d. Share your YouTube videos on Twitter: YouTube comes

with a share button under each video that allows you to
send it to multiple social networking sites.

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e. Share YouTube on your blog: YouTube offers the URL of
the video as well as an embed code that you simply plug
into your blog platform.

f. Update Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and many other social

sites all at the same time: There are several sites that offer

Page 76
 these types of services. A few include (http://ping.fm) and
(http://hootsuite.com).

g. You can also see your activity and anyone else’s activity by
going to (http://friendfeed.com).

HINT: To make things really easy, simply post an

update on your blog, add an automatic feed from that
post to your Facebook using the Notes Application and
then add another auto feed from your post to your
Twitter using Twitterfeed.

You can also add the WordPress application to your LinkedIn account,
which allows for many plug-ins that automate updating your social
profiles, saving even more of your valuable time.

Now that you’re all set to unleash your social media presence upon the
world, it’s time to start the countdown to launch.

In… 5….4….3….2…1

Page 77
CHAPTER 6

THE LAUNCHING
YOUR SOCIAL
MEDIA PRESENCE

Page 78
 “Those who ignore the party/conversation/network when
they are content and decide to drop in when they need
the network may not succeed. It’s pretty easy to spot
those that are just joining the network purely to take
– not to give. Therefore, be part of the
party/conversation/network before you need anything
from anyone.”

– Jeremiah Owyang, Web-Strategist.com

Ok, you’ve set your goals, you’ve created your profiles using
consistency and you’ve linked all of those sites together. It’s time to
unveil your social media presence so that you can start building
relationships right away.

First, seed all of your networks and profile pages with some initial
content. This is where you can introduce yourself and your projects
and you can even invite others to participate in related debate and/or
general conversation.

It’s always a good idea to make an official announcement across all of

your social media networks on the day of your launch. Treat it as a new
product or company launch.

As soon as your content goes live, you should post it on your social
Bookmarking sites such as Digg or StumbleUpon, Facebook, Twitter,
discussion boards, and any other social networks you use.

List your accounts on WeFollow:

Page 79
And you can also write a short email to influential bloggers. Avoid using
a press release, as it’s likely to be ignored. In this email, you’ll want to
describe who you are, what you’re trying to accomplish, any
associations you have or what groups you belong to.

Also, see if these bloggers have Facebook pages or groups and make
comments on those pages introducing you.

Don’t just tell people about your company, brand or project, but
instead give them a reason to participate. Invite them to visit your
website or blog and tell them to leave feedback or suggestions. Tell
anyone who wishes to know more about you to contact you.

Your job is to get people excited about your projects and make them
interested in what you are doing now. Do not just leave your social
network profiles blank until the day of launch and expect people to

Page 80
flock to your sites. You need to give it time for your work to pay off if
you hope to gain an audience who will not only read the information
you provide, but also who will want to share it with everyone they
know.

ACTION PLAN:

1. Once your profiles are set up across your various networks, seed
them with initial content.
2. Announce your official launch date.
3. On the day of launch, make an official announcement.
4. Seek out influential bloggers and introduce yourself.
5. Register your networks with WeFollow
6. Get people excited about your project.

======================================================

HINT:

Check in with your social networks

several times per day and don’t just
watch the conversations, participate in
them.

Check discussion forums every day and, again, participate

in conversations

Analyze your social networks so that you can change

accordingly to suit your target Audience (more on this in
the next chapter)

Maintain your audience. Work at growing your audience (More

on that, too)

Page 81
Create accounts with link shorteners like http://bit.ly so
that your links aren’t so long. This is going to be
especially crucial for platforms like Twitter that only
allow a certain number of characters per post.

======================================================

That’s it. Now you’re live. The only thing left to do is to remain relevant.
The only way to do that is to analyze your audience, and how they react
to your social media presence.

Page 82
CHAPTER 7

EXAMPLE
BEGINNING
STRATEGY

Page 83
 “Monitor, engage, and be transparent; these have
always been the keys to success in the digital space.”

– Dallas Lawrence, Levick Strategic Communications

Step 1: Use a video editor to shoot your first “Let me introduce myself”
video. Upload the video to YouTube and connect the video to your
Facebook, Twitter, and all other accounts.

Step 2: With your new Flickr account, join local groups and begin
adding photos that deal with your industry, your product, your
business, etc. Begin connecting these photos with your various
platforms just like you did with the videos.

Step 3: Post a blog and connect that blog to Facebook, Twitter,

LinkedIn, and also bookmark it on your social bookmarking sites.

Maintenance: (Preferably at least once

per day)
Step 4: Log into your various social networking accounts.

Step 5: Log into a service like Comsposer.io that updates your

networks for you.

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Step 6: Respond to any friend requests you may have received.

Step 7: Check for updates; respond to messages, comments,

notifications, invites, etc.

Step 8: Update your social networks with highly relevant and

interesting content. Use Google alerts to find the hot topics in your
niche to write about.

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Step 9: Use Composer to update your social media status
simultaneously. This includes your Facebook profile, fan page, Twitter,
LinkedIn, etc.

Step 10: Chat with someone for a few moments.

Step 11: Log out and check analytics so that you can tweak your
campaign to make it even more effective.

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CHAPTER 8

ANALYZING SOCIAL
MEDIA DATA

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 “If your reputation sucks, none of it matters. People
with lousy products, crummy business practices, and
shady backgrounds get found out. And word spreads with
frightening speed.”

–Sonia Simone

If you hope to remain relevant, succeed where others have failed, and
you hope to get the most out of social media marketing, you must
track your social media profiles. You must then use that data to tweak
your campaign so that it fits exactly with who you’re trying to target.

That sounds like a lot of hard work. The good news is that there are
tools you can use to make your job of tracking and analyzing social
media data extremely easy.

RSS Feeds
RSS feeds, or Really Simple Syndication, allows you
to link to any blog or website so that you are
instantly notified whenever that blog or site is
updated. You’ll then use a RSS feed reader to receive
that content.

Much like your email inbox populates when you have a new email, the
RSS feed reader will show you links to blog entries or website entries
you ‘follow’ whenever there’s a new post.

You can use RSS feeds to have your own information sent to you,
including any comments made on your posts. This allows you to see

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how your brand is being perceived, what people are saying about it,
and what you need to do to improve your campaign.

You could find some list of popular RSS feeds here:

http://lifehacker.com/google-reader-is-shutting-down-here-are-the-
best-alter-5990456

Social Media Tracking

Your next step is to actually set up tracking on the various platforms
you use. Some platforms like YouTube come with their own tracking
capabilities. YouTube insight can give you a lot of information as to
how well your videos are received. However, for the other platforms,
there are various tools you can use.

ACTION PLAN:

1. Set up an account with

bit.ly, which is a link
shortener. Not only does
this shorten your links, but
bit.ly will also track the
metrics of your links. This
allows you to easily see
who is clicking on your links
and how your links are
being used. Make sure you
shorten all of your links
with bit.ly, or a similar

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 program so that all of your links can be tracked.

2. Set up a Google analytics account (if you don’t already have one)
to track your websites and blogs. You can also include the Social
Media Metrics plug-in to your Google Analytics account for easy
tracking of all your social media networks.

3. Set up a monitoring account with Social Oomph

(https://socialoomph.com/) and set up an alert for all the
keywords associated with your company, brand or image.

4. Set up a Google Alert (http://www.google.com/alerts) to search

for your usernames, and any other information about your
brand. Set the alert to email you three times per day for best
effect.

HINT: Every day, do the following:

1. Check your bit.ly link metrics.

2. Check your alerts and keyword searches to find

out if others are syndicating your content or to
see if others are talking about what you’re
doing.

3. Check your network’s metric tools to monitor the

traffic your sites receive, where your traffic is
coming from, what links they are clicking the
most, where they arrive and when they leave, how
long they spend on your site, etc.

4. Set up a few separate searches for:

a) Mentions of your brand

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 b) Mentions of your products

c) Any events or promotions related to what

you’re doing

d) Your competition

e) Any relevant product launches

Now, that you are keeping a keen eye on how your social networks are
performing, it’s time to use that information to improve your social
media presence, and gain a larger following.

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CHAPTER 9

MAINTAINING
YOUR SOCIAL
MEDIA PRESENCE

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 “Businesses used to have a small suggestion box
near the door that mostly housed dust bunnies and
an occasional piece of gum. Rarely would someone
get back to you. But people can now make a post
from an iPhone or a BlackBerry while they’re
sitting in your restaurant.”

– Charles Nelson, President of Sprinkles Cupcakes

president

When you are set up with analytics, this is your chance to really tweak
your social media presence so that it’s even more effective than before.

Remember all those things I

told you to keep consistent
and to never change? Well,
sometimes those rules need to
be broken when it comes to
social media. Because, social
media is such a living entity,
it’s going to constantly evolve.
That means media that were popular a month ago might not be today.
Sometimes, media that were hot yesterday has lost its flavor.

Keeping that in mind, you must always tailor your social media
presence to fit with those you’re trying to connect with. Don’t be
blatant about it. Do it gradually. But use the data you glean from your
analytics such as bit.ly or Social Oomph to find out what your target

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audience wants, and what value you should deliver to them to receive
maximum benefit.

ACTION PLAN:

1. Change your strategy, goals and any other aspects of your

campaign based on the metrics you glean from your analytics
tools.

2. If something isn’t working, change it. The great thing about social
media constantly evolving is that experimentation works very
well. If something doesn’t work, try something else until it does.

3. Test various strategies across several platforms in order to find

the best fit for each.

======================================================

HINT: Based on the analytics you receive, you may find

that your voice, your strategy and your goals vary
from platform to platform. This is normal. There could
be more young people on one platform as opposed to
another, and there could be more women than men or
vice versa. By being flexible and tweaking your
campaign according to your tracking data, you’ll
position yourself to connect with a far greater amount
of people.

======================================================

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CHAPTER 10

HAVE FUN WITH IT

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 “Don’t say anything online that you wouldn’t want
plastered on a billboard with your face on it.”

– Erin Bury, Sprouter community manager

Social media finally allows us to have our voices be heard. It allows us

to connect with other people, stay in touch with people from our past,
it allows us to share things we think are funny, sad or controversial,
and the various platforms are just a great way to connect any one
person to everyone else in the world.

Social media is here to stay and anyone who says otherwise is looking
into the wrong crystal ball.

Social Media and Internet Marketing

If an Internet marketer doesn’t embrace social media for all of his
campaigns, he is seriously missing out on a huge chunk of the pie. With
more people signing up for social media sites every day, young, old and
in-between, there is more of a chance than ever to get maximum
exposure for your brand, product, service or business opportunity.

But to make the most of social media, you need to learn more about
the various platforms available, and you must study the new ones
coming up. Only by familiarizing yourself with the various platforms
online can you determine which ones you want to spend your time and
resources on.

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The Future and How to Prepare For It
The future of social media as it pertains to Internet marketing still isn’t
clear. With the introduction of smart phones and other mobile devices
that allow social media to be accessed everywhere, it’s likely that you’ll
be hard-pressed to find a person who doesn’t have a social networking
profile in the near future.

Therefore, study up on all the

social media sites you can
and make use of them when
you come across one that
seems as though it’s worthy
of your time.

When you are able to take a

current campaign and
implement a social media
marketing extension of that
campaign, and everything
comes together in perfect
harmony, it’s a beautiful thing.

If you can accomplish that and offer content that people can’t wait to
pass around, you’ll finally find the financial freedom you’ve been
hunting for.

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Outsourcing
As your social media campaign takes flight and things start to get even
more expansive, it may become necessary to outsource certain
responsibilities to others. If you are a sole Internet marketer and you
are trying to make it with social media, you’re going to quickly find
yourself overwhelmed when things begin to take off.

After all, how can you possibly field questions, customer service
problems, and other issues your prospects come to you with while
keeping up with conversations at the same time so as to build
authority? And how are you going to do all that across multiple
platforms?

Just make sure that, if you’re going to outsource your social media
responsibilities, you trust the person at the helm of the platform you
delegate responsibility to, and you know the person will say all the right
things so that you can maximize your success.

Have Fun With It

Everything contained within this book works and if implemented
correctly can make you lots of money. In the end, however, it’s all up to
you. It’s up to how well you follow the instructions contained within
and also how strong your drive is when it comes to succeeding.

If you treat this as a hobby, you’re never going to make it. You must
work at it daily. It must become a full time job. That’s the only way to
cultivate relationships properly that will stand the test of time.

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When you finally do make big money with social media marketing, and
you’re able to maintain your authoritative position so that you can
make money over and over again, make sure you do not rest on your
laurels.

When it comes to social media, it’s always going to be advancing, and

it’s going to constantly be evolving. You must roll with those punches
and you must keep up with the latest news and trends.

That’s the way you can get from point A to point B so that you can
retire early if you want to. Making money with social media isn’t hard
when you’re an Internet marketer, as you can see, but it does take
studying the right techniques, and staying away from the wrong
mistakes, to make sure you build that solid business foundation that’s
sure to create a successful business that enjoys longevity and success.

The key is to have fun with it. Imagine you’re at a party and all of your
contacts and even contacts you haven’t yet met are at this party. All
you have to do is mingle, make conversation and connect with people
on some level. If you can do that, if you can just make friends and
become part of the group just as you would at a company Christmas
party, you’ll go far when it comes to social media marketing.

Here’s to your social media success. Now get

out there and show the world what you’re made
off with the perfectly planned and executed
social media marketing campaign.

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