Six Cardinal Rules for Success in Social Media Marketing

You've heard everyone talking about how powerful social media is for marketing your business. How if you're not using it to market your business you're is stuck in the 80's. So you go out and create a Face Book page, open a LinkedIn account, start tweeting on twitter, build a Blog and start looking at YouTube. Now what do you do?

You're told by a friend to post snippets about your businesses and create a blog post about things you know, (although you're not sure what a blog is). You start to share information on various sites in the evening and before you know it. Bam, you're spending dozens of hours a week and getting nothing to show for your efforts. You say to yourself, what a pain in the neck social media marketing is!

If you want to avoid the pain of spending too much time posting to social media sites and not getting anything in return, then read on. I will show you a half-dozen cardinal rules you need to abide by to keep your credibility. I will show you how to avoid the most common pit falls beginners make, and I'll help you get the most from the time you spend marketing to your social media sites.

Social Media is not Advertising

First, remember that social media posts are not advertisements in the typical sense. You need to post what I call the cardinal 4 wanted items! People are looking for useful information. They want interesting facts. Participants want to be entertained and they want to connect with others! Posting information about your product/service should be a rarity. To be successful on social media, you have to give participants what they are looking for. If you want to do conventional advertising on social media sites, use their pay-per-click/view services. Their ads run about $1 to $3 per click through, other wise posts only the cardinal 4 items.

Create and stick to a schedule

Second, set aside a scheduled time to post your information and stick to it. It's all too easy to sit down, start posting your information and before you know it, it's three AM! I schedule my post twice a week and spend an hour each time. During the week, I gather useful information and links from my daily life. These include; email communications, my current events, new and old photos I find, online article I read, RSS feeds I use, internet headlines I like and just surfing the net. I suggest you do the same. Use these as part of posting the cardinal 4 items I spoke of earlier.

Be patient and stick to your growth plan

Third, don't create false expectations for your results. Before your network can produce meaningful traffic, you need it to grow to a reasonable size. Having a total following of a couple of hundred Face Book Fans, contacts on LinkedIn and followers on Twitter is cool but it not a big enough network to produce powerful results. Your social media influences (i.e. power to make things happen), is directly related to the number of members in your network. Social media has a viral quality to it. In this sense, it is a type of word of mouth marketing. Word of mouth depends on your credibility and the size of your network.

Save time by using aggregator software

Forth, you must leverage technology to save time. If you are not using aggregator software for your post, start using one today. Aggregator programs allow you to post to several social media site simultaneously. They also let you schedule post at future dates. These programs can save you lots of time and energy. I personally like Tweet Deck and Hoot suite. Search for them on the web and you will find they are free to use.

How big is big enough

Fifth, if you are going to build a social network, you must have a goal. It's my experience that real power becomes readily apparent at about 1000 unique followers. I'm not saying that anything smaller is useless. However, real movement, powerful results start with your ability to influence 1000 plus people.

If you concentrate your efforts on building your social network by providing your followers with what they are looking for (i.e. the cardinal 4 items), your network will grow at a slow but steady pace. If you want it to grow faster, provide them with what feeds their needs more often. Post to your network every day if you have time. The more often and regular you post, the better. The only other way to make it grow faster is to either spend more time on growing it or pay someone else to spend more time growing it.

What does this cost

Sixth, you have to set financial limits. I know what you're saying. You're already spending too much time (and money), posting to social media sites. If you still find this to be too time consuming, hire a service to do your posts. They can be had for as little as $100 a week. It can also run you $2000 a month if you're wanting to grow big and fast all at the same time.

If you have, an organized method that you developed, you can hire a college student to enter your post for a lot less. As a marketing expert I can generate anywhere from about eight to twenty new followers per day. You can do the same by following my advice.

By following these six rules you will get a lot more out of your social media marketing efforts. Remember to post the cardinal 4 items regularly. Create and stick to a schedule, even if you don't finish, stop posting when your hour is up. Set goals and limits for time and money your spending. Use aggregator tools to be more efficient and above all be patient. You know the saying. Rome was not built in a day, well that also goes for building your word of mouth social network. That will take some time also. Stick to your plan and before you know it, you will be ready to start harvesting rewards from your social media marketing campaign. That's my opinion, I welcome yours!

Hector Cisneros is an entrepreneur/businessman with over 25 years experience, is a 17-year veteran of BNI, and was BNI Director for 6 years. Currently he manages 3 businesses, writes and coach's business people in the art of Word of Mouth and internet marketing. He has several intl. published articles covering word of mouth marketing, social media marketing and how to improve your 60-second presentations. His new book "60 Seconds to Success" is aimed at helping business people make great first impressions and make more money through referral and word of mouth marketing. To learn more about Social Media, Internet Marketing d Word of Mouth Marketing visit the Networkers Apprentice workshop at http://networkersapprentice.com/ To contact Hector write him at hecisneros@gmail.com

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Group Says Studios May Have Violated Ad Rules

A watchdog group on Tuesday asked the Motion Picture Association of America to investigate whether Walt Disney Studios and 20th Century Fox broke industry guidelines governing the advertising of two PG-13 films during television programming aimed at young children.

The Children’s Advertising Review Unit, a division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus that works as a type of self-regulator for the advertising business, said ads for “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” (Disney) and “X-Men: First Class” (Fox) appeared inappropriately in recent months on channels like Nickelodeon.

A spokesman for Fox said the ads in question were pre-approved by the Motion Picture Association for the time slot. Disney also said it believed it was in compliance with industry guidelines.

View the original article here

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The New Rules For Successfully Landing Media Coverage

This truly is a new age in the public relations and media world. The Internet has turned the communication world on its head. Many say it heralds the end of traditional media, but I believe what is actually happening is not the death throws of one form of media, but a morphing of different forms of communications. This new media world is still young, but, when the dust settles, it will result in the advent of a new, more exciting and more robust media and communications world.

One of the upsides of the net, social media and blogs, is that you can now learn so much about writers, editors and producers that you are pitching. You can learn their interests and study their writings Now, when you pitch a story, you can have a much better take on whether your pitch is appropriate or off-base. You can still call or email to make sure you're making an appropriate pitch, but the information that the Internet now puts at your fingertips makes it much easier to be prepared and go in with the right pitch.

This type of homework does take some time, but that is one of the many changes in the world of PR and media relations. Instead of sending out hundreds of emails and packages hoping that a few hit the right target, which, sadly, is how things happen much of the time, the savvy approach is to pick a small number of media contacts, do your research and make more focused targeted pitches.

With That In Mind The New Rules For Pitching The Media Are:

1) Develop a strong pitch for your product or service.

2) Don't just make it a sales pitch, come up with a story

3) Study various media outlets that would be appropriate to pitch your story to

4) Find specific writers and producers that work at those media outlets

5) Go online, find articles, blogs or segments they've done and study their work.

6) Make a list of between 25 to 30 journalists to pitch

7) Tailor your release and a cover letter to each particular journalist's needs and interests

8) Send out your pitch via email or mail. Sometimes snail mail is more effective.

9) Wait a day or two and make follow-up calls.

10) Don't use the calls to sell, but to build relationships.

Effective PR is all about communication. If you communicate your story and pitch effectively and appropriately, you might not land a story with each pitch, but you will build strong relationships with the media. They will see you as a resource who understands their needs and their market. Take the time to understand what the media is looking for and you're positioning yourself for success.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2010

I'm Anthony Mora, President and CEO of Anthony Mora Communications, Inc. and author of Spin to Win. We specialize in public relations, image development, media training and Transformational Marketing, http://anthonymora.com.

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Harnessing Social Media - 3 Important Rules

I enjoy receiving questions and input from viewers and even though the two questions received below are regarding dentistry, they can apply to businesses as well. Here are the two very interesting questions:

1)What are the top three rules for harnessing Social Media to the advantage of a dental practice?

2)What are three most effective things a dentist should do with his or her FaceBook or Twitter account?

Social media is still relatively new in the realm of using it for business and offers an incredible opportunity to get to know your target market. Social media is a bridge that gives you access to people, information, and even companies/businesses you didn't have access to in the past.

Word of mouth advertising is the best form of advertising and social media IS word of mouth advertising...on steroids!

Used correctly, it isn't something that can be done quickly, it does require strategy, a plan of action, and like anything else you are building...it takes - time.

To a degree, because it is relatively new, the rules are still to be figured out. However, there are some rules that are already in place if you want to use SM correctly for building your business/practice. In answering your questions:

What are the top three rules for harnessing Social Media to the advantage of a dental practice?

1) Social media sites are NOT about making sales, they are about making contact, building (profitable) relationships, and establishing value, credibility, and trust.

The above is first and foremost with social media. Gone are the days when the print medias (yellow page advertising, magazine ads, flyers) were leading or "selling" the consumers. Users (consumers) are in control now and it's a total mind change. Today's consumer is Internet savvy and is not going to be "sold", they want to be educated first in order to make informed decisions.

Today's business owner gives the consumer the information they are seeking, helps solve their problems, and along the way, the business establishes themselves as the thought leader in their field. Having taken the time to establish credibility, given value, and developed a relationship between consumer and business, the consumer will naturally turn to you when it's time to purchase.

Enter Social Media sites...the most effective and most efficient way for business owners to get their information to savvy consumers and to develop those relationships.

2) Authenticity and Transparency: Whatever is done must be done with quality. Be transparent and authentic, you are developing profitable relationships. Everything you do should have a strategic intent.

These sites aren't about making sales, they are about building relationships, credibility, value, and trust and that's done using your two strategic keys: Being Authentic and Transparent. Then those contacts tell everyone they know, who tells everyone they know...about you, your business, product or service. This is viral word of mouth advertising, people telling LOTS of other people.

3) Online Reputation Management. Social media makes it easy for you to share information as you network with your community. You have something to offer...remember? That's why you went into business. Social media is conversation and makes it easy for you to engage in discussions about what you may be able to help them with. This is where you can establish yourself as a thought leader in your area of expertise.

Social media also allows you to monitor and be more responsive to your target market. Paying attention to questions being asked and statements being made by your target market about you, your business/practice, your brand, your products and services...good and bad.

With your community, being "visible" online can also bring out negative comments as well (there's always one in the crowd). The reality is angry customers are already talking whether you are online or not. But at least when you are online, the person and comments are "in your space" and can be addressed.

You can't always "control" the conversation, but a lot of site applications allow you the option to post or not to post their comments. But even if posted, it can be addressed.

Also, clients/patients genuinely appreciate seeing how businesses and practices respond to legitimate criticism and many times will come to the aid of the business/practice with their our positive responses. This is called Online Reputation Management.

What are three most effective things a dentist should do with his or her FaceBook or Twitter account?

1) Repeat #1 and #2 above- These are first and foremost with Social Media. If you don't understand this, you will miss the incredible opportunity with Social Media.

2) Build a quality local network/community and build your brand. Target your local area, your clients/patients. Found out what their problems are, what you can help them with. You want to establish you not only have their solution, you are their solution. Establish yourself as the thought leader in your area of expertise.

As you build your brand, you don't have to be a McDonalds or a Starbucks. It can be as simple as your avatar (picture), your logo, a tag line, or even a specific color. Point is - when used (viewed) regularly, each impression strengthens peoples awareness of who you are, your practice, and what your services and products are about. You are being seen.

3) Be consistent with your time, your content, and your marketing. Not every person on your social sites are going to be members of your target market, but by providing good solid content, helpful links and information, and regularly contributing something of value and useful to your community, the viral nature of social media will get the message to those who are looking for you.

**Side Note: Make sure you have created your social media guidelines and policies (and possible training program) if someone else within your business/practice or outside your business/practice is creating/posting your information.

In summary: Use social networking to add value, build your credibility, and develop trust. Value + credibility + trust turns an observer into a follower, a follower into a fan, a fan into a lead, and a lead into a patient/client!

What are your thoughts? What do you think qualifies as a "top rule" for harnessing Social Media to the advantage of a business or dental practice?

Still not sure about Social Media and what it can do for your business? Read this & get your Free Special Report [http://bit.ly/19y45w]. Livvie Matthews, Copywriter and Social Media Specialist, Blogger, Author, and Speaker helps businesses, dentists, coaches, consultants, and individuals grow their business and increase their Online visibility through building profitable relationships, providing customer solutions, and social media marketing. Visit http://www.WriteBusiness.net

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