Social Media Marketing – Will It REALLY Help Your Business?

And the next big question is how?

I look at Social Media Marketing in two ways.

One I call the hard wired and the other is the soft wired.

Let’s just focus on the 2 biggie social media marketing platforms – Twitter and FaceBook and how this hard wired and soft wired concept impacts them.

The hard wired means the actual SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) benefit or spin off.  For the most part this is how I see Twitter benefiting your business.

You make a “tweet” and there’ll be a link back from that tweet to your website with the full story or offer. That’s the SEO benefit, the search engines have “seen” your tweet and followed it back to your site so now the search engines have visited your site. Great, that helps with your site being “indexed” and search engine authority (see site indexing post here!)

Trouble is, the chances that a real person has followed your “tweet” is debatable. I’m not saying that people don’t hang around and read stuff on the Twitter “wall” but it moves that quick it’s hard to keep up with. Your “tweet” can be up on the wall one second and gone the next.

That’s one of the problems with Twitter – It’s like being in a big hall and everyone is shouting but no one is listening. A heck of a lot of noise and not much ‘connection’ or real business building.

Is it likely you will get direct business out of Twitter? Probably not direct, BUT… there is the hard wired benefit and it’s a real dinkum benefit.

Back links! It IS worth having. Especially with Google showing “Real Time Search Results” nowadays (see real time search results post here!)

Is it possible you will get business out of Twitter? Absolutely, I have a client who checked out my ‘tweets’ and ‘posts’ which led to us becoming “friends” on FaceBook which led to a deal so it certainly does happen. It’s just not a high converter.

Over to the soft wired stuff.

The softy wired benefit is the relational aspects or benefit. This is you actually making a connection with people.  The big shaker and mover is this realm is FaceBook. I’ve developed some great relationships through FaceBook. I connect with my family and friends and my ‘business friends’ get to see a bit more about the ‘real’ me. Hey, people want to do business with people. As long as you’re not a yobbo and too outrageous, otherwise you’ll damage your credibility but, people do love to see the authenticity in your life.

There are also hard wired benefits with FaceBook too. Google are indexing and following links back on FaceBook so when you make a post on your wall with a link back to your site the search engines will follow that. Another link back, great!

But the real power and long term benefit is in the soft wired social media marketing. The relational stuff!

Making a connection with people matters! Especially with the number of growing entrepreneurs out there! And the fact that more and more people are spending more time online and as a result we have less face to face time available. It’s only natural that we’re looking to the online stuff to connect.

My advice is this – take time to read peoples posts, think about what’s happening for them, make a comment, an encouragement perhaps. I use my sense of humour often, gotta watch that people don’t misinterpret my wit with sarcasm though. You’ll be surprised at how your relationships and followers will grow.

I post useful marketing tips and tricks and business posts. I make posts about what’s happening in my life like “My 16 year old son is doing my head in” or whatever else is happening for me, some stuff that I’m doing around my fitness maybe and perhaps family related comments.

What happens in the business arena is my FaceBook friends start reposting my business related posts to their “wall” which means I’m being put in front of an audience that I would not otherwise be exposed to. Plus the credibility factor of what someone else says about you is exponentially more powerful than what you say about yourself.

One of the issues facing the professional and small business entrepreneur is lack of time so the key to success with social media marketing has to be TIME… and that is why we’ve automated this whole process. This is why WordPress is such a winner.

All you do is make your “post” or article and your website gets updated along with your social media accounts being updated, all with a link back to your WordPress website.

You do only 1 action yet 4 actions occur – posts to your website, posts to your Twitter account, updates your FaceBook profile along with your LinkedIn profile too. All automated, it’s a beautiful thing.

Here’s a recent blurb from a non tech savvy client who reaps the benefit of this automation.

Hi Peter,

Just posted my daily inspiration and wanted to thank you because it went directly into Twitter and FaceBook today.

Woo Hoo!!! Love it, love it, love it. Speak soon.

Wishing you an Inspirational Day! 

Annette Stanton 😆

Australia’s Leading Lifestyle & Business – Vision Success Specialist ~ Coach ~ Author ~ Speaker

If you’re not using WordPress as your website platform you really are missing out on a lot and we need to talk about how we can flip your site over. The automation will save you so much time. Plus Google and the other search engines just love WordPress.

If you want to know more about that you can go here –

https://www.smartmortgagemarketing.com.au/17-point-marketing-website-prosperity-check

So to summarize, social media marketing will build your business.

The right focus with providing useful and helpful content, feedback and encouragement – if you operate on the “do unto others as you would have them do to you” you’ll do well. Don’t always be doing the “sell” bit in the social media arena. Make sure you balance your time wisely, build relationships, be helpful and your business will reap the rewards with this social media marketing phenomenon.

PS: If you’re in Perth then I just got wind of a social media marketing one day workshop being run by Josh Williams, a very savvy marketer who specializes in social media as well as video marketing. You can talk to Josh on 08 9240 7607 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              08 9240 7607      end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              08 9240 7607      end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              08 9240 7607      end_of_the_skype_highlighting to book your “limited seats” spot.