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10 Steps to Promoting You and Your Business using Social Media

December 23rd, 2007

Oh, if I had a nickel for every time I heard “you’re too old for MySpace”. If I did, I wouldn’t have to try and grow my business at all, I would be retired. Problem is, people are quick to judge and I am short on nickels. In today’s online world, you either promote yourself and your business online in some capacity - or you fade away. Period.

Social media is not a fad. It is here to stay and it brings a profound change to your potential client’s experiences. Now, not tomorrow, is the right time to implement features that will make you and your business social media friendly and will allow you to implement networking and marketing techniques that will realize increases in traffic to your website, and your bottom line.

Step 1. In the immortal worlds of Pete Townsend – Who Are You?

Let the world know who you are and what you do. People don’t deal with unknowns well, and when you are just starting to build a web presence; you are exactly this, unknown. Create a personal website along side your business website. From your personal website, link to your many vehicles of online networking; such as Linked IN, Facebook, and MySpace (to name just a few). Today’s online entrepreneur has multiple online presences and you need a central hub to manage all of these. Promote your online presence from this centrally managed online personal page.

Step 2. Create Online Profiles…

So, you need to start somewhere, but where? Start by creating a Facebook and LinkedIn account, Facebook is the online leader in social media and Linked in is the premier networking site, with just these two, you are well on your way. Spend two hours a week in the beginning building your profiles, connecting with colleagues, associates, and friends, and publishing content to these sites. Below is a list of other website which will let you create free online profiles or communities - for after you get your feet wet with Facebook and LinkedIn and have the need for more…

Step 3. Start a Blog…

This is free and easy. The obvious choice for the beginner is the Google owned blogger.com, but for a more serious approach that allows customization, you may want a custom setup of Wordpress, LiveJournal, or other software. This allows for customization and you can provide an easy bookmarking feature to social bookmarking sites like Digg and del.icio.us or other listed in step 4.

Step 4. Yes, It Is A Popularity Contest…

Provide an action button for direct posting of blog articles to Digg. Digg, and others like it, are community-based popularity website that combines social bookmarking, blogging, and syndication. A well dugg article can bring thousands of visitors (read: potential clients) to you.

Step 5. Short and Sweet…

Provide RSS feeds for your blogs, forum postings, websites, etc. An RSS feed provides easy access to your user base and allows them to quickly and easily navigate your information. Frustrated people often do not hang around long, and if they don’t hang around, they won’t learn about you or your business. Keep people happy and keep them on your site.

Step 6. Get it out there…

Publish all your feeds at Feedburner (or others from the list below). Much like Facebook, Feedburner is the premier RSS provided media distribution and audience engagement services for RSS feeds. They custom RSS feeds and management tools to bloggers, podcasters, and other web-based content publishers. Services provided to publishers include traffic analysis and an optional advertising. If you have something worth reading, you will be able “bank it” using their services.

Step 7. Going Viral

A Viral video refers to video clip content which gains widespread popularity through the process of Internet sharing, typically through email or IM messages, blogs and other media sharing websites. Now, not all of us have the potential for this, but we all have the mechanism. Remember, if you have a camera phone, you could have a viral video, which is posted, can drive traffic to your site, regardless if it is relevant to your business.

If this form of advertising and social media shenanigans is not for you, then take comfort, you can still provide video. Your video can be educational or service oriented and aspire to inform your clients or users on products and services you provide. Video is a medium maybe more powerful then the written word, but takes a bit more knowhow and thought.

Step 8. Spreading the Virus…

Provide embedded links to your remotely hosted videos from your blog, website, or social media sites. YouTube as well as others allow a community driven video sharing experience while keeping the load off of your server.

Step 9. A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words…

Use social photo sharing sites like Flickr and SmugMug to share pictures related to content on your site or blog. Use many of the techniques discussed earlier for social video sites.

Step 10. Sharing is Caring…

Provide a “Send to Fríend” feature for all the products and services you provide, your RSS feeds, your videos, and your pictures (pretty much everything we covered above. This feature is a link that sends the article, product description, etc. to a recipient via e-mail. This allows people to spread the word at no cost to you, and after all that’s what we are trying to do here right? Put in the work up front and let the internet and social media take over. It will take time, but it will be worth it.

These steps are not a get rich quick recipe, but a strategic formula for long term success in an overwhelming online world. If you have questions or comments, please leave them here or contact us.

Read more at inspiring design, llc.

This is an article in a weekly series - how to promote your business online.

Posted by Justin Johnson on 12/23/2007 10:22 AM

Comments (46)

business, marketing, online, social media, sem

46 Comments on 10 Steps to Promoting You and Your Business using Social Media

DEC

2007

Welcome to the Rain! Very excellent suggestions. There are some on that list I need to do as well. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Justin,

Thanks for providing this great list of to do's. I get a lot of business from places I never heard of thanks to a lot of early networking I did along time ago signing up on sites that I don't even remember now.

Last week I had a new client come to work with me because they said when they checked the internet I was everywhere.

Is there any better reason for following your advice above?

Justin - Great post! Social marketing is an important part of my business. There are lots of agents that haven't caught on to how important it is going to become. Not only from the standpoint of making business connections at the various sites but also creating baklinks for your website and blog.

Justin,

Great information! Hey I recently bumped into a site named submitedge.com that is to list you with social networking sites. My biggest problem with all this is that I want to work on what I know, REAL ESTATE, I wish there was a service where one could go and have all this managed for a fee.

For information on purchasing your next home in Claremont or anywhere in the Inland Empire call Empire Realty at 909-579-6611 or visit us on the web at Empire Realty.

Empire Realty is your one stop shop for information and Full Service at a Discount.

Hi Justin, very good post. I would also add that while doing all this online networking, it is important to keep the consumer in mind. Ultimately, online buyers want to see homes and sellers want online marketing of their home. An online presence needs to balance between being found and providing something worth being found.

Hi Justin and thanks for the well thought out, comprehensive post. Welcome to the marketing group.

Justin, Thanks for the information. I have a lot of people in my office with myspace accounts but I never have set one up. After reading your blog looks like I need to do that. But with all you just mentioned in your blog how much time will I be spending on the net to set all this up. It looks over whelming. Time to get started

Thanks for providing a good social networking roadmap. As real estate agents start to feel overwhelmed with so many online possibilities, it's nice to have something like this to refer to.

Fantastic article. Yes. I was the one who was "too old" for MySpace, Facebook and the like. Of course, that was the opinion of my teen aged daughter! Your article really helped enlighten me on the "whys" of participating in these services.

I would like to ask a question however. I can provide a lot of content but how in the world does a real estate agent, or any other professional, balance blogs, social networks, AND actually DOING the business we're in? I can certainly see the point of it, I just can't figure out where you find the time.

Thanks again.

Justin - Thanks for thae great info. You were very detailed.

DEC

2007

I too had a call this past week saying they choose me becaue I was all over the net!

I am grateful for this list of blogging resources and have bookmarked it so that when I get home from work I can work on putting your research to good use.

THANK YOU!

--Fantastic article. Yes. I was the one who was "too old" for MySpace, Facebook and the like. Of course, that was --the opinion of my teen aged daughter! Your article really helped enlighten me on the "whys" of participating in --these services.

--I would like to ask a question however. I can provide a lot of content but how in the world does a real estate --agent, or any other professional, balance blogs, social networks, AND actually DOING the business we're in? I --can certainly see the point of it, I just can't figure out where you find the time.

--Thanks again.

JohnD,

That I guess is the eternal question with no real good answer, how to manage it all and still do what puts food on the table today. I see two option, both probably way to obvious to even state, but you can do it yourself or pay somebody to do it for you. For the do it yourselfer, I see this as a process that should take only a couple hours a week. Nobody really knows about you and your business like you. On the down side, you have to keep up with all the trends in social media and blogging, which is tough, even for me. And if there is anyone like me, two hours is just the start of my day when it comes to this stuff.

Then there is paying someone to do it, not alway high on the likes list of everyone, but an alternative to those of us that just don;t have the time, not even two hours. Our company provides comprehensive online marketing solutions tailored to the individual business, part of that is exactly what I talk about above. Read more at http://www.inspiringdesignllc.com/marketing.php

I have also reffered people to a service that you can pay people to blog for you:

http://payperpost.com/advertisers/blog-advertising.html

Shoot me an email if you have any other questions.

Justin

Thanks for the list.... So many places to get the word out...

Great Stuff, and a little overwhelming... where to start? I guess one thing at a time...

I am not very computer savvy. When you starting talking RSS feeds, etc., I start to shut down. I pray I can get it together one day.

DEC

2007

Great list! Social Media Marketing is on the rise and such an important strategy to use when considering your total marketing plan. Don't forget the niche and demographic social media sites. Like Facebook might be thought to be geared for the "younger" crowd, EONS.com is more for the "Life on the Flip Side of 50" crowd. So be sure you're targeting all the right groups that make up your "target audience".

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Thanks for the update on all the places we should be.

Justin: Really great info you are sharing. I love active rain, and this would be good to link to, as well.

Thanks so much, I will be sure to check them all out this week!

What a lot of information on promoting. Have you looked into video email like co video or

Hello World

Interesting Post. I have facebook, blog and website, I might try linkedin or twitter, I don't really know anything about them, but your post has inspired me to look further into them.

DEC

2007

Justin... great post full of great info and suggestions. I've got you bookmarked and look forward to implementing. I agree with you that social netowrking is huge... and growing.

Great information....lots of stuff here....

great post jason and well compiled

Anne

DEC

2007

I love all your ideas! Wow, there's no end to 'free' internet marketing and blogging. Thanks for sharing.

DEC

2007

There are so many blogging sites out there, that it makes me wonder...everyone will be doing this and some of the greats will fall to page 20 of google because it will be so saturated. From Blog to Clog.

I have setup a real estate specific profile for Myspace.com even though I have been focusing my efforts elsewhere, I should get working on that project.

Where do you people find all the time to comment, write content, post blogs, etc... do any of you actually leave the computer? I swear some of you don't.

DEC

2007

For all you doubting Thomases;

Myspace has already yielded a qualified lead for me, and I have only been blogging for about 3 months. Free, quick, easy? You bet! Use the tools!

PS -- I usually blog at 5am before my kiddies are up and before I can honestly feel comfortable making phone calls - 1/2 hour a day.

Thanks for the great list to get started on in the new year.

I wish I was techno savvy...there are some here I haven't heard of thanks for the post! I'm learning!

DEC

2007

Great Post. DIGG is especially interesting.

JAN

2008

great article. I had a Myspace profile that I all but gave up prior to starting my RE biz. Now I'm using it and Facebook (which is much better btw) to promote the biz and my services.

JAN

2008

Great list! I have a couple of profiles on some social networking sites and they seem to drive a lot of traffic to my website.

JAN

2008

Great post! I'm a huge fan of social networking, emarketing, etc. Quick question: how can I add a "send to friend" button on my online content? Is there a widget for that? Thanks!

JAN

2008

Justin,

Thank you very much for this great training! It is very much appreciated! I have subscribed to your blog and I look forward to many more great posts!

JAN

2008

Excellent introductory guide to social media. There are a lot of people who want to get into it, but have no idea what it is or where to start, this is a good crash course.

JAN

2008

Great info. One could spend 24 hours a day on the internet. Time management is a must.

JAN

2008

Terrific information. Thanks so much for sharing it!

JAN

2008

Justin:

Let me add my name to the list of people saying THANK YOU.

THANK YOU!

Will be spending more time on this, with todays market what do we have the most of but time.

JAN

2008

Great suggestions! My marketing strategy is to choose few key websites to focus my online efforts and not spread myself so thin with all the different online options.

JAN

2008

Great information and perfect timing.

Great intro into the this new "social media" thing... this was really great info for those of us shy about getting onto the web....

JAN

2008

Time management is a must and not everything works for everyone. Pick a few and dedicate some time. Once you see the value, it doesn't seem like such a chore, but another extension of your business day.

FEB

2008

Justin, wonderful post on social networking. There are so many ways to promote your business via social networking that's it hard to know which ones to focus on.

FEB

2008

Thanks Justin! I'm a newbie to blogging, but absolutely understand the benefits. You've helped me understand things a little better & if there's anything I can do to help - feel free to ask! Thanks for the article man.

Justin - awesome post. It's been bookmarked! I'm still learning my way through this online stuff - and this kind of post will help so many people!

MAR

2008

these are all great, practical tips

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