Jun
23
What is Wrong with Ning
Filed Under List Building, Networking and Marketing Strategy, News, Ning Sites, SPAM, Social Media and Social Networking Sites, Web Marketing | 17 Comments
Nearly a year has passed since my first Ning article, Ning Social Networking Sites.
Since then online social networking has taken some exciting twists and turns. MySpace has lost luster, while Facebook and Twitter have become social media darlings.
Ning Still Facing Obstacles
Ning seems to be in somewhat of a holding pattern.
There have been some changes here and there, mostly for the better in my opinion, but no exciting breakthroughs. There are new apps, a new Ning central networking site, and new flexibility, but site creators and users still have their reservations.
As mentioned in Ning Social Network Controversy, the Ning management has been criticized for its policies and its tactics and, as too many people are aware, Ning sites haven’t been immune to spamming by both Ning members and by intruders.
My Ning sites now all require membership pre-approval, since I know of no better way to deal with persistent outsider spamming.
What is Right with Ning
Despite any shortcomings, I still feel as when I wrote about the Ning controversy, that Ning truly epitomizes Web 2.0. Ning sites are communities of people, and Ning is a community of community sites.
I’ve certainly written a good deal about social media list building including both List Building Paradigm Shift and List Building Using Ning Social Networks. Nevertheless communities are the essence of social media, not lists, and social marketing must therefore favor community building over list building.
Fortunately Ning can be used to build either communities or lists. There are creative ways to build communities within Facebook and Twitter, but Ning networks were designed expressly for that purpose and afford marketers a variety of useful tools and a degree of social media ownership.
Ning Still My Favorite Networks
I still use Ning social networking sites more than all others. I like them for the reasons cited above and for the many other reasons I’ve discussed in previous Ning related articles.
I have so far created four Ning sites of my own and hope to create more in the future:
- Let’s Follow Each Other - This is a fun networking site for Twitter folk who want to gain followers, share ideas, promote themselves and network with each other.
- Beyond Business Coaching - This is a site for entrepreneurs and marketing professionals who are interested in social media, customer acquisition, customer retention and CRM.
- Online Kosher Networking - This is a niche site for orthodox affiliated members of the Jewish faith to network and share their ideas about Jewish values, Israel, religious observance, charities, politics, jobs, business, etc.
- Outside the Box - If you enjoy my blog, but you don’t use Twitter, and you aren’t necessarily business oriented, this may be the right site for us to connect and network together.
In all fairness, I must tell you that Ning has competitors such as SocialGO, GROU.PS and others but admit that I haven’t yet evaluated them. If you have tried other social network platforms, I invite you to share your experiences with them.
To learn more about using Ning, please read Introduction to Using Ning Sites.
Don’t miss any future articles! Subscribe to my RSS feed or by e-mail. Let’s get acquainted too at my About and Connect pages.
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Mar
29
Top 10 Social Marketing Challenges
Filed Under List Building, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Social Media and Social Networking Sites | 10 Comments
I explained in Top 10 Reasons for Social Marketing why marketers need to add social media to their repertoire and promised to “write about the unique challenges that social media marketing poses” to early adopters.
Here then are my top ten challenges that social marketers will likely grapple with:
- Social media often meets with skepticism and resistance inside an organization. This reaction is normal to anything radically new. I suggest that you present social marketing to your colleagues as an experiment that will complement conventional multichannel marketing if successful, not replace it.
- Results aren’t achieved nearly as quickly with social media as they are with direct marketing techniques. When planning an experiment or production, be careful about forming unrealistic timing expectations.
- The social media learning curve is very steep. Few books or courses teach social marketing, and much of the information available online is unreliable or even biased. I recommend that you seek experienced outside professional help to chart your social marketing path, set policy and facilitate implementation.
- It’s easy to spin wheels and waste lots of time going nowhere. There are way too many interesting social networking sites and lots of hype surrounding them. Be sure to read Social Media Targeting for People and Businesses.
- Marketers tend to think in terms of generating leads and building databases rather than building a following and a community — new media style. Furthermore, social media is about relating person to person, not about relating impersonally to people as a company. Be prepared to think in new ways.
- Since social media is community oriented, contributing to one’s community is essential. It’s not enough to communicate just to customers or to prospects.
- Traditional push marketing and list building techniques are usually regarded as spam and are ineffective in the social media world. Old and new media approaches tend to be incompatible. In the social marketing paradigm information is made available online for discovery and hopefully action, and this process isn’t something that can be forced.
- Most newcomers to social marketing think one dimensionally and latch onto fads such as the social media site du jour. Social marketing isn’t one site or one strategy fits all. Once again I recommend Social Media Targeting for People and Businesses.
- Social media is still evolving rapidly and tends to be a moving target. While social media is global, participation in non-English speaking countries is stilted towards English speaking demographics such as students and upper classes. Remain alert to changes in technology and new opportunities that are bound to occur.
- Social media can work against a brand, not just for it — and can be very unforgiving. However, this is true even if companies elect not to use it for marketing or for their public relations. It’s therefore better to be proactive than reactive.
I’m sure you’ll agree that these are all important issues. I hope deal with them individually and in more detail in subsequent posts.
Don’t miss any future articles! Subscribe to my RSS feed or by e-mail. Let’s get acquainted too at my About and Connect pages.
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Mar
26
Top 10 Reasons for Social Marketing
Filed Under List Building, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Social Media and Social Networking Sites | 12 Comments
Even today social media remains a mystery to most marketers. In the minds of most retailers and marketing executives, social media consists of teens messaging on Facebook, sharing pics on Flickr, writing in their blogs or tweeting all their doings on Twitter.
Perhaps they read a few news blogs themselves or have a profile on LinkedIn, but they’re still scratching their heads and wondering how any of this could possibly be useful to them in business.
Coming from the conventional marketing world myself and looking back to my first impression of social media, I can appreciate the retailing and B2B marketing establishment’s legitimate skepticism. That’s why I put together my top reasons for using social marketing for you to share with your colleagues and top management.
Let me caution you however, that social marketing requires its own mindset. Marketing strategies that work well with traditional media won’t necessarily be as effective if applied to new media.
These then are my top ten reasons to take social marketing seriously:
- Social marketing is a logical extension of the multichannel marketing strategy of diversification. Social media sites can extend a company’s web presence far beyond the limits of its e-commerce, lead generation or information sites.
- Social media builds awareness of products and brands by attraction rather than interruption, and by pulling rather than pushing. Consumers enjoy the discovery process and don’t feel annoyed by it.
- Social media employs a community and list building paradigm that’s much more comprehensive, natural and intimate than conventional databases and autoresponders.
- Social media marketers engage customers in dialog. They talk with the customer rather than at the customer as is generally the case with conventional media. Social media can also facilitate post-sale support and dissemination of valuable product tips to customers.
- Social media used properly can build frequency less expensively than conventional media educating and informing the consumer over time.
- Social media can help reach target markets that are too difficult or expensive to reach using conventional means.
- Reach doesn’t determine cost, so social media can target a narrow vertical market while at the same time casting a wide net. Efficiency doesn’t really matter much in the context of social media reach.
- Search engines like social media, and social marketing leverages free high-quality search exposure which is preferable to paying for low-quality pay-per-click or banner advertising.
- Social media sites and your e commerce websites are available 24/7 more or less indefinitely. It’s much like having an ad run in every issue of a publication or like having a catalog or sales letter retained until the customer is ready to make a buying decision.
- Using social networking sites it is often possible to connect directly with B2B decision makers without interference from protective gatekeepers.
Social marketing is different from other forms of Internet marketing. I write about the unique challenges that social media marketing poses in Top 10 Social Media Challenges.
Don’t miss any future articles! Subscribe to my RSS feed or by e-mail. Let’s get acquainted too at my About and Connect pages.
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Feb
8
Top Reasons for Using Twitter
Filed Under Blogging, Communication, List Building, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Social Media and Social Networking Sites, Twitter | 22 Comments
Nearly a year ago I presented the Top Reasons Why I Blog. I’m a big fan of blogging, and I enjoy writing for you.
Now it’s time to list my top reasons for using Twitter. If you use Twitter, please feel free to comment and share your experiences. If not, this list may encourage you to begin.
These are the top reasons why I use Twitter:
- Simplicity - Twitter is easier for people to understand than many other social media sites. There are only a few Twitter concepts to learn: how to create a profile, follow, update, reply, search, retweet, send direct messages and use hashtags. See Brand Yourself and Market on Twitter.
- Networking - With hundreds of thousand of people using Twitter, you’re bound to find, as I have, people with common interests to connect with. Advice I gave in Get More Personal applies here to networking on Twitter. Speak on the phone or meet in person, but don’t hide behind your computer.
- Traffic - Twitter is a blogger’s dream. Last week 328 people from Twitter visited my blog a total of 390 times and viewed a total of 651 pages. In case you’re wondering whether all this traffic was targeted, 6.4% of the visitors from Twitter subscribed to my my RSS feed or blogcast.
- List Building - Twitter is a great tool to cultivate a following in your niche. I presently have more than 5,000 followers on Twitter. What will I do with these followers?
- Branding - I use Twitter to brand and market myself to my followers. Through Twitter many people are getting to know me who would otherwise not have had this opportunity. Even people who choose not to follow me can still learn about me. Keep this in mind: It’s not what you know or whom you know, but who knows, likes, trusts and respects you.
- Communicating - I can send direct messages or use hashtags to communicate with my friends.
- Research - Twitter is an excellent tool for research and keeping up with world developments. You don’t necessarily need to follow people or for them to follow you to read their tweets and click on their links.
- Discovery - We can learn new things on Twitter, even when we’re not looking per se.
- Mobility - Wherever you are or wherever I am, we’re only a tweet away. As more and more people use cell phones and text messaging, the compact 140 character format makes Twitter easy to access.
- Fun - Twitter is a blast! It’s a giant party, and the black tie is definitely optional.
As a side note, there are times when I simply don’t feel like writing a complete article. Fortunately, even at those times I can usually cope with a modest 140 character tweet.
I’m @larrybrauner on Twitter. I look forward to reading your tweets.
Like this article? Please subscribe to my RSS feed or by e-mail. Let’s get acquainted too at my About and Connect pages.
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Feb
1
Tons of Great Twitter Resources
Filed Under Networking and Marketing Strategy, Social Media and Social Networking Sites, Twitter | 26 Comments
In past posts we’ve discussed what Twitter is and looked at some ways you can use Twitter.
In the current post I provide a Twitter resource meta list to help you explore a wide range of business and social topics in substantial depth.
I expect to add to this meta list periodically, so do watch for my tweets @larrybrauner or check back here from time to time.
Mainstreaming of Twitter
This, our appetizer, addresses two important questions:
- Is Twitter a serious social media venue for mainstream users?
- Is Twitter useful for businesses, or is it just for fun?
I hope the following presentations will persuade you that Twitter is a viable business and social tool.
- Why Twitter Will Go Mainstream In 2009 - Dennis Goedegebuure from The Next Corner writes on TwiTip and makes some predictions about Twitter in 2009.
- Has Twitter (Finally) Tipped? - Geoffrey Ellis writing on his wife’s Sarah Lacy blog explains why he’s “convinced that Twitter has finally tipped and is about to explode”.
- How Social Media Won Obama the US Election - No matter what your political views, this excellent article by Australian Matt Granfield writing on MarketingMag.com.au underscores President Barack Obama’s stunning use of social media — including Twitter — to rally support for his successful 2008 bid for the top US office.
- Using Twitter to Build Your Business - In a short video clip @WarrenWhitlock asks @GaryVee why businesses should be using Twitter.
- Top Reasons for Using Twitter - Writing on Online Social Networking I list the likely reasons one would choose to use Twitter.
Twitter Ideas and Tips
This, the main course, looks at how to use Twitter effectively.
- NEW! Twitter Power System - A very comprehensive set of videos, e-books, resources and tools. New users learn how to set up an account and all the basics they need to get going. Experienced users learn how to craft powerful tweets, how to create viral tweets — and everything in-between. Read my Twitter Power System Review.
- NEW! Twitter Tutorials and More - Ongoing training and: “The fastest, easiest way to learn about all the latest Twitter applications and tools with quick, simple Flash videos”.
- Top 10 Things New People to Twitter Should Know
- Marc Warnke writing on MarcWarnke.com provides some very useful Twitter guidelines. - 7 Tips for Expressing Yourself in 140 Characters or Less - Ivo Jackson writing on Be a Better Writer shares some of her Twitter writing secrets.
- Twitter Follow Back Basics - Samer Forzley writing on SamerForzley.com reveals his method to avoid spammers on Twitter.
- How to Lose Twitter Followers • How to Lose Twitter Followers: Part II - These articles appearing on Socialplasm.com help readers to avoid common “Twitter noob” pitfalls and to hold onto hard their earned Twitter followers.
- Twitter: How to Get Started Guide for Business People - C.G. Lynch writing for CIO has some excellent advice for business people.
- 50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business - Chris Brogan writing on ChrisBrogan.com offers many valuable pointers to Twitter business users.
- 10 Tips to Be Effective at Marketing on Twitter - Salwa M from BlogRiffic writing on TwiTip shares tips to marketers who want to use Twitter.
- 7 Ways to Get Your Twitter Followers to Click Your Links - Eric Brantner writing on SEO Hosting teaches how to use links successfully on Twitter.
- List Building Using Twitter - Discusses the importance of list buiding and building a following on Twitter.
- List Building Paradigm Shift - There’s more to list building than using web forms to add leads to autoresponders. Writing on Online Social Networking I explain the concept of List Building 2.0.
- Online Social Networking Using Twitter - How to build a targeted list and network with people on Twitter.
- How to Integrate Social Media into Product Marketing - Hutch Carpenter writing on I’m Not Actually a Geek examines social media “from a professional perspective”. Twitter is one of the tools Hutch uses.
- Marketing a Niche Website on Twitter - Jonathan Thomas from WebinarCentral.net writes on TwiTip about niche marketing on Twitter.
Twitter Resources
Our meal wouldn’t be complete without delicious side dishes prepared to perfection by expert chefs.
- Let’s Follow Each Other - Site for People Who Absolutely Love to Network -Make friends and build your network on Twitter, Facebook, Ning sites and on your blog. Follow, follow back and network with your fellow members, so that you can build a strong network and following. Created by me, @larrybrauner.
- Most Popular Twitter Clients Revealed - Pete Cashmore CEO at Mashable lists the top clients (methods) people use to access Twitter.
- TWITTER TOOLBOX: 60+ Twitter Tool • Twittermania: 140+ More Twitter Tools • 8 Awesome Firefox Plugins for Twitter - Knew we could rely on Mashable to stock up our toolboxes.
- Even More Twitter Applications - Thanks you @airbongco for your very helpful Squidoo lens providing more Twitter applications plus some surprise bonuses.
- Twittering - Another great Squidoo lens, this one by @jpetals that simply has to be seen to be appreciated.
- What Do Your Twitter Followers Think? Conduct a Twtpoll and Find Out - Erick Schonfeld writing on TechCrunch shows how to poll users on Twitter.
- Twitter Me This: 25 Twitter Resources You Don’t Know, But Should Be Using - Another excellent resource list courtesy of The Freelance Squad.
- 5 Good Ways To Discover Twitter Applications - Robin Wauters writing on TechCrunch tell you how to find even more Twitter applications. If you think you might be spending too much time on Twitter, try exploring all the available Twitter apps and then let me if you perspective changes.
- 11 Best URL Shortening Services - Vote Your Favorite - Plenty of room here for personal preference. Brought to you by Lee Odden writing on Online Marketing Blog.
- Send A List Of Links As A Single URL With 1Link.In - This is a service you can use on Twitter, in your e-mail and in your web pages explained by Karl L. Gechlik writing on MakeUseOf.com.
My Interview on Blog Talk Radio
I was interviewed on the Blog Talk Radio Profiles of Success by @staceychadwell. To listen, click here.
I’m @larrybrauner on Twitter looking forward to your tweets.
Like this article? Please subscribe to my RSS feed or by e-mail. Let’s get acquainted too at my About and Connect pages.
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Jan
18
List Building Paradigm Shift
Filed Under List Building, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Ning Sites, Outside the Box, Twitter | 10 Comments
My social media experiences have dramatically altered my thinking about list building.
What you are about to read may cause you too to completely rethink everything you have been taught and believe about list building.
My Articles on List Building
I have discussed building a list and its importance in several articles which I list here for your convenience:
- Building a List with Online Social Networking - List building today isn’t the exclusive domain of autoresponders.
- My Online Social Networking Strategy - A winning strategy on nearly all social networking sites is to build a large targeted list of friends or contacts, generally the larger the better. Thousands are better than hundreds.
- List Building Using Ning Social Networks - Your Ning site will help you to grow your online list virally, and you’ll be able to use the many channels that Ning social networks provide such as broadcasts, forum discussions, blog posts, private messages and profile comments to communicate with your list. (My Ning network is Critical Thinking Outside the Box.)
- List Building Using Twitter - Twitter is possibly the fastest and simplest way to build a list. (Visit my Twitter profile and connect with me.)
List Building Before Social Media
I remember the Rolodex, “a rotating file device used to store business contact information” according to Wikipedia. I still have one in a carton somewhere at home.
I long ago replaced my Rolodex with a spreadsheet, but contact information I collect online I store in an autoresponder, a widely used e-mail marketing tool.
Most online marketers today would tend to visualize list building as a well-written lead capture page linked by a web form to an autoresponder. While this type of list building is still extremely important, especially in conjunction with online or offline advertising, it is nevertheless List Building 1.0.
Concept of Follower
In order to broaden our view of list building we introduce the concept of follower, a term frequently used in the social media world.
A follower is a person (or organization) who subscribes to (or in some other way receives) messages, sometimes called updates, from the person (or organization) whom they follow.
Examples of Followers
The concept of follower applies to List Building 1.0. A subscriber to my autoresponder is certainly one of my followers.
However, a friend at a social network (to whom I can send messages whenever I wish) is just as much a follower as my autoresponder subscriber. What’s interesting in this case is that I’m also that person’s follower. We’re mutually following each other.
A subscriber to my blog’s RSS feed (who receives an update whenever I post an article) is also a follower. What’s of interest here is that my follower is totally anonymous.
I have no way to identify this follower unless that person (or organization) chooses to step forward. For all I know I might even be following my follower without realizing that he or she is following me too. We could be mutually following each other without ever knowing it.
Suppose I own a radio or television station, or I host a talk show, my listeners or viewers are followers who keep track of me and receive my messages without subscribing in any way.
List Building 2.0
When list building is viewed as the process of acquiring and nurturing followers, you can easily understand how in List Building Using Twitter I could claim that “list building possibilities are endless”.
They really are, and the many reaching out methods you devise can be mixed, matched and synergized to develop a rich and heterogeneous following. Welcome to the world of social marketing and List Building 2.0!
Would you care to follow me?
Don’t miss any future articles! Subscribe to my RSS feed or by e-mail. Let’s get acquainted too at my About and Connect pages.
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Jan
11
List Building Using Twitter
Filed Under List Building, SPAM, Social Media and Social Networking Sites, Twitter | 20 Comments
Importance of List Building
Reach and frequency are basic advertising metrics. Reach refers to the quantity of people your message reaches, while frequency refers to the number of times on average each person is reached.
It is frequency that builds trust and drives your message home. Advertising without frequency is hardly ever effective. Marketers are relying more and more on list building to repeatedly reach people in their target market and achieve desired frequency levels in their marketing campaigns.
List building possibilities are endless. Last week we discussed list building using Ning social networks. Today we turn our attention to Twitter, possibly the fastest and simplest way to build a list.
Building Your Following on Twitter
As I stated in Brand Yourself and Market on Twitter:
Twitter may very well be the hottest online social media venue today. It’s a social network, micro-blog, instant messenger, mobile communications tool and giant party — all rolled into one site.
Creating a following on Twitter is easy, even for someone new to online social networking and social media sites. Here are three remarkably simple steps to get you started:
- Twitter Training - I used to recommend Bill Hibbler’s Affiliate University. Bill’s Affiliate University was dissolved, so I refer you to the Twitter articles and resources in Tons of Great Resources. If you’re looking for a complete step-by-step Twitter course, the Twitter Power System is your best choice. You can read about it in Twitter Power System Review.
- Build Your Reach Instantly - Here is a cool trick you can use to quickly get some very influential followers. Start with the top 50 Twitter users based on reach listed at twinfluence.com, one of my favorite Twitter tools. You will notice that the majority of those listed have as many “friends” as they have “followers”. They are the ones you should follow. They will almost certainly follow you back and increase your reach.
- Manage Your Connections - Once you have completed Step 2, many people you don’t know will start following you, and for the most part you’ll want to follow them all back. You can manage your Twitter connections using Twitter Karma, another of my favorite Twitter tools. After some time has passed, you’ll notice that many of the people you’ve been following become inactive — they haven’t “tweeted” in months. Stop following them in order to improve your ratio of followers to friends, a measure of your Twitter influence.
I applied this method myself about a month ago, and now about a hundred Twitter users begin following me each week.
When I “tweet” a link, roughly one to two percent of my followers click to see what the link is about. Isn’t that how any list is supposed to work?
This approach is easy, and it’s free.
Respect your followers and they’ll keep following you. Spam them, and they’ll stop following you in an instant.
That’s all there is to it.
Like this article? Please subscribe to my RSS feed or by e-mail. Let’s get acquainted too at my About and Connect pages.
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Jan
5
List Building Using Ning Social Networks
Filed Under List Building, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Ning Sites, Social Media and Social Networking Sites | 10 Comments
List building is an essential part of online social networking, and Ning, if used properly, is a powerful list building tool.
Here are some strategies that I believe will help you with list building on Ning.
Creating Your Own Ning Network
You can create your own Ning social networking sites. Ning was designed with that end in mind. My new Ning site is Critical Thinking Outside the Box.
Your Ning site will help you to grow your online list virally, and you’ll be able to use the many channels that Ning social networks provide such as broadcasts, forum discussions, blog posts, private messages and profile comments to communicate with your list.
As tempting as it might be to start your own Ning social networking site as quickly as possible, I advise you to wait until you develop a substantial online following before taking that step.
I have seen many Ning sites die off from a lack of momentum. However, once you can personally enlist 100 to 200 people to become members of your site, you might very well be able to get it off the ground.
Joining Other People’s Ning Networks
You can start building a list by joining other people’s Ning sites. The best sites to join are those that attract the kinds of people you’re looking to meet online.
Don’t be afraid to join a new network that might not be right for you. You can always leave the network if you wish or you can create a profile, abandon it and move on. On the other hand you might really like what you find once you join, so if it looks interesting, give it a try.
When you join a site, you’ll be connected as friends with anybody there whom you befriended at another Ning site. This makes perfect sense, but it can work against you.
Messaging Restrictions on Ning Networks
You can only send messages to your friends, so of course you’ll want to add friends when you join a new site. You will be able to mail to them individually or as a group, but the latter is usually more effective.
Unfortunately, if you have more than a hundred friends at a site, Ning will not let you mail to them as a group. To avoid hitting the 100 limit, you should try to add about eighty friends max on each site.
Pre-existing friends will count against you. If you join a site, and you already have forty friends there, you’ll only be able to add forty new ones on that site before reaching your eighty target.
In addition, the overlap between this site and others will cause your friends to receive duplicate messages across networks each time you send an announcement.
Yet despite Ning’s messaging restrictions, you should eventually be able to directly mail to hundreds across all the networks to which you belong.
Exceeding the Messaging Limit
If you join a large Ning social networking site and end up with more than 100 friends there, you won’t be able to mail them as a group.
Don’t despair — add even more friends!
Later, when you find a site you really like or start your own Ning site, you’ll be able to invite friends from this site and others to which you belong all at one time using Ning’s “invite friends” feature.
You’ll even be able to invite them more than one time, as long as you don’t make a pest out of yourself.
Using Messaging to Build Your Brand
Don’t spam your friends. They’ll quickly tune you out.
Send useful information that positions you as a leader or as an authority. If you have a blog, you can send blog announcements to attract new readers and subscribers.
Eventually you’ll have the influence and following you need to start your own thriving Ning social networking site.
Like this article? Please subscribe to my RSS feed or by e-mail. Let’s get acquainted too at my About and Connect pages.
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Sep
16
Diane Hochman spoke recently in My Private Classroom about moving the free line, a concept that every marketer engaged in list building these days ought to understand.
Internet marketing expert Brad Fallon explains the “free line” concept in this YouTube video:
Widen your sales funnel at the top to let more people in, but don’t widen it so much that you have nothing left to sell. You have to find the right balance.
You can give away free information, training or product samples, even free trials of services. However, choose carefully where to move the free line, and once you’ve made that choice, stick with it.
Don’t let the customer move the free line. You do have a right to get paid.
Don’t miss any posts. Register, it’s easy, or subscribe to my RSS feed! You can also subscribe by e-mail.
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Jul
20
My Online Social Networking Strategy
Filed Under Best of 2008, List Building, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Outside the Box, Social Media and Social Networking Sites | 15 Comments
How I Use Social Networking Sites
I wouldn’t start a blog called Online Social Networking if I didn’t like social networking sites.
Let’s look at some of the ways that I use social networking sites to meet my business networking objectives.
Casting a Wide Net
I join a wide range of social networking sites. I know that even if I will not be active at a particular social site, the profile I set up there will add to my online presence. So if I like the site, I’ll become part of the community. If I don’t, there’s no harm. My profile will remain there as long as the site continues to operate.
Consider the social networking site Yahoo 360°. If you Google me, this networking site will appear in the top search results. Sometimes it will even show up in the top position on the first page of results. Yet, this is a social networking site I rarely visit. It’s not my cup of tea.
When you Google me, you’ll find page after page of results that are me. What happens when people Google you?
Joining a bunch of social networking sites should jump start your web presence. It’ll give you some Google juice. Why not join some of my favorite social networking sites featured on my blog’s sidebar? As a plus, in most cases we’ll automatically be connected as “friends”.
Building Large Targeted Lists
When I like a social networking site, I settle in and become part of the community.
A winning strategy on nearly all social networking sites is to build a large targeted list of friends or contacts, generally the larger the better. Thousands are better than hundreds.
For some sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Yuwie there are friend adders, but I don’t like to use them. I prefer the personal touch, and I don’t want to risk losing my profile for suspected spamming. I spend a modest amount of time each day requesting new friends on each of my favorite social networking sites.
There are two ways that I target my requests.
On sites that allow profile browsing by specific demographics such as age, gender, geographic location, marital status, and parental status, I browse to find people to add.
On sites that have groups or clubs I browse the groups that are likely to attract the people I’m looking for.
I tend to accept nearly all add requests from others. I reject blatant spammers, men masquerading as women in order to attract favorable attention, and crazies.
Networking and Attraction Marketing
Social networking sites are meant for online social networking and not for advertising or spamming. They’re a great place to get to know people. You get to know people by asking them questions.
Please visit or revisit my earlier post, Social Networking vs. Advertising, for a full explanation of this absolutely crucial concept.
Social networking sites are also great from attraction marketing. Be the type of person you want to attract, and that person will be attracted to you.
Videos of you presenting useful information or explaining an important idea, not making a sales pitch, can showcase you as the knowledgeable leader you are.
Blogging is a big part of my branding strategy, so when I network online, I invite people to visit my blog, read, comment and register or subscribe. And many do.
I invite people I like on one social networking site to connect with me on another site. I don’t want to lose track of them if the first site closes down or if one of us happens to have his or her profile deleted. And yes, many do… connect that is.
At Direct Matches, I invite people to visit my profile page where I have a subscription form, and people can sign up for my training newsletter. And again, many do.
Every time people go along with my request, they’re opting in another time to our relationship. It’s sort of like dating.
Branding Yourself
Social networking sites, video sites and blogs are great for personal branding. In fact, your whole online presence can serve as a branding mechanism.
Craft your personal branding strategy and develop a web presence that is consistent with your strategy.
Being Consistent and Following Through
Possibly the most important online social networking strategy is to be consistent and follow through, not to expect instant results.
First you need to build your list, and then you need to gain credibility with the people on it.
When I’ve tried to push things, people sensed it. When I’ve been patient, people have often come to me, and what could be better than that?
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Apr
15
Online Social Networking: Quantity vs. Quality
Filed Under Best of 2008, List Building, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Social Media and Social Networking Sites | 3 Comments
On April 4 in Building a List with Online Social Networking I discussed the role of online social networking in permission-based marketing.
When you add a friend at one of the social networking sites, you are adding that person to your list, and at the same time you’re adding yourself to his or her list. It’s reciprocal list building.
You’ll readily agree that a tiny list is not likely to get you far. Right?
You must build a large list. But how large? And do you focus on quantity or quality?
Whether you have 100 or 500 or 5,000 people on your friends list, you aren’t going to be able to have a regular intimate dialog with all of them. So why opt for smaller rather than larger?
In Stan Relihan’s interview with Ron Bates, the most connected networker on LinkedIn with around 40,000 direct connections, Ron answers the question quite succinctly. He says that “there is quality in quantity”.
In other words, the larger your list, the more people there will be who are just the ones you’re looking to meet. Some relationships will remain superficial while others will become strong friendships.
Ron also discusses the importance in business today of what he refers to as an “additive online presence”. Before somebody does business with you they’re likely to Google you to see what comes up. That’s your online presence. Each place you network, post an article or bookmark a site adds to that presence. This you may recall is a subject we touched on last month in Social Networking Sites: Your Web Presence and is frequently discussed at My Private Classroom for Marketers.
I encourage you to listen to Stan’s interview with Ron Bates and Stan’s other online social networking podcasts. You’ll find loads of gems.
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Apr
4
Building a List with Online Social Networking
Filed Under Best of 2008, Communication, List Building, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Social Media and Social Networking Sites | Leave a Comment
List building today isn’t the exclusive domain of autoresponders.
Sure, a reliable autoresponder is still a vital tool if you’re marketing on the Internet. However, online social networking and friend lists ought to weigh more heavily in your permission based marketing strategy.
I started realizing this in 2006 when I first joined MySpace. I noticed how much richer and more effective the two-way communication of social networking sites was than the ongoing monologue associated with e-mail marketing.
I always encourage my e-mail contacts to write me back, but few actually do. And I never learn enough about them, unless of course they choose to join me on MySpace, Facebook, Yuwie or one of the other online networking venues I frequent.
There is another big reason to incorporate online social networking in your online marketing repertoire.
Consider the ease with which you can add thousands of friends on MySpace compared to the cost and difficulty of building your autoresponder list. Whether you use one of the “friend adders” and risk suspension of your profile by the networking site owner, or whether you add friends manually, it’s still much more straightforward to build a permission based marketing list through social networking than it is using more conventional opt-in list building techniques.
I myself do both. I add new subscribers to my autoresponders on a regular basis and simultaneously add new contacts to my friend lists on LinkedIn, MySpace and Yuwie. I have a good reason for doing so.
Not withstanding my previous remarks, it’s easier for me to broadcast a message on demand to my opt-in list than it is to my social networking friends.
Most people check their e-mail at least once a day. If they want to hear from me, they will.
If I post a bulletin on MySpace they can easily miss it. I have to post it several times each day to keep it “on top”. And if they don’t log in, or even worse, if they’ve abandoned their profile, they won’t see the message at all.
So why should you put all your eggs in one basket? Diversify. E-mail people and contact them through multiple sites and through multiple channels on each site to maximize your message delivery and response rate.
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