Have you ever thought about the power of a story?

I was sitting around listening to some kids talking yesterday and one was telling a story about his recent camping trip with his parents to a few other kids. As I listened it hit me that social media marketing is a story dressed up as marketing.

In fact, as the kid was telling his story it was becoming more and more animated, while more of the other children on the bus began to quiet down so they could listen to him. The more I watched, and listened, the more parallels I saw into social media marketing.

The Story of Social Media Marketing

Stories have an appeal that, when used correctly, can hold the attention of the masses for a long period of time. You have probably heard of Stephanie Meyers, J.K. Rowling, and Dan Brown. Even if you have never read any of their books, you would have heard of these names. They are masterful storytellers. When people read these novels they are transported to another place and time. And they can’t wait to tell others what they read.

That should be social media marketing.

Social marketing and social networking should be done in terms of a story. A story where there is a plot, cast of characters, problems, solutions, action, and even drama. A social media marketing campaign should be two things. First, social networking and marketing should be very natural in the flow of how you present yourself of your brand. Second, it should evolve and continually tell a story.

One of the best examples of this right now is a guy named Chris Brogan. Everything he does is a story. He continually evolves into something different that brings you along. You want to talk about it, and you can not wait until the next chapter.

The Story of Social Media Marketing

Over the next coming weeks I am going to be putting together a series of posts, audios, and even videos (yes, for the first time ever!) about this concept of telling a story in your social media marketing and networking. Everything from blogging, Twitter, Facebook, and any other social websites, or practices, will be covered.

I’d like to take you along with me. Actually, I’d even like you to contribute some. Do you have a story about your social networking and marketing? If so, I’d love to hear it! Fire off an email to tim AT guaranteed-ads DOT com with your story, your ups and downs, your triumphs and failures.

You’ll be hearing a lot more about this coming up soon, but in the meantime subscribe to the RSS feed so you don’t miss any of the announcements.

Other Posts Dealing With The Story of Social Media Marketing

As things get closer to the launching of Story I will be writing some posts that deal with this topic. You can check them out here as they are listed.

How To Build A Story For Social Media Marketing

Story of Social Media Marketing: Are You Captivating?

Social Networking or social media marketing is great for those people who are naturally outgoing and/or confident in themselves. However, when you grow up as a shy introvert, the whole social networking thing can be quite overwhelming. At times, even frightening.

As kids we are drawn to be social. We don’t have to think about it too hard. It just comes naturally. Even the shyest of kids have friends and participate with them in social type activities. Sadly this doesn’t always stick with us. We tend to shy away from being social and have a hard time interacting with others.

Social media marketing is all about interacting. The more you interact, the more effective it is for you. It’s very easy to say that. The reality of the whole social networking thing, however, is that there are still a lot of people who are scared to try it.

Something The Experts Need To Really Think About

I don’t think that the “experts” of social media take into consideration that not everyone in the world is a bubbling extrovert just ready to jump into conversations and have pithy little sayings on Twitter that everyone is going to reTweet.

I was talking to a new client this morning about a social media presence and he said he tried, but it didn’t work. One of the reasons is because he didn’t really know how to engage with people. But, the biggest problem was his fear of the engagement. A lot of people will tell you to just jump into the conversation and start talking. The sad reality to that is, it is a lot harder than it sounds.

8 Social Networking Lessons From Kids

Kids know how to be social. They can easily be drawn into a circle of new friends no matter where they are. This past week, my own kids walked right into an out of town playground and began playing with kids they didn’t even know. By the end of the hour or so they were laying together they were best friends! Here are a few of the ways that you can get a grip on all of this social media marketing and jump into the playground.

1. Observe The Fun From A Safe Place

When playing around a new bunch of kids, I can see my own kids just watching for a few minutes. They see how they play, is it going to be fun, and how to do the activity. An example is a few weeks ago at a hotel pool. My kids were watching another family of kids play some sort of game in the water. After watching them, from the safety of the steps entering the pool, they saw how they were playing and then moved onto the next step.

You can view from afar by watching some of the conversations through using a social media search engine. Something like search.twitter.com will help you notice the trendy topics and who is talking about them. Type is a search term that deals with your niche, or topic, and see what’s going on.

2. Move Closer To The Action

Once you have seen some of the action, then move a little closer to it. If you haven’t already, use a desktop client like Seesmic to keep track of your Twitter and Facebook friends, and topics. (Another option is Tweetdeck)

3. Ask A Question Or Say Something About The Topic

Before following someone, and jumping into the pool or playground of social media, reply or make a comment on the topic. If you notice that someone has stated something about your niche, then send a quick @ reply to them. It can contain some more useful information, or a funny little anecdote. The key though is not to be too self promoting. Do not include a link to your site. Include a helpful link or even encouragement.

4. Ask To Play

When kids begin playing with a new group of kids they generally go the polite way about it. They simply ask. After watching some kids play in the pool we were at, I watched my daughter swim – cautiously – to the other side and ask the little girl if she could play with her.

In social marketing this is called “friending” or “following”. After you reply, or enter into a conversation then send a friend request (if in Facebook) and ask if you could be friends.

5. Offer Input

As my daughter began playing with the other little girl, she started to make some suggestions on what they could play, or how they could play a game. In the social media marketing world, this is best done when you participate in conversations and offer your input into problems, or enhancements.

6. Be A Real Friend

Whenever my daughter meets someone new she automatically claims them as her best friend. It’s funny how quickly things change when we get older. One of the things that has always bugged me about social media marketing is that people do not really want to be friends. They want to build large followers so they can advertise their own blogs, websites, and products. While there isn’t a problem with building a large group of friends, followers, or connections, there is a problem when you do not interact with them. Comment on their own postings, reply to them and offer encouragement, choose a few each week and make it a point to interact on some level.

7. Introduce To Other Friends

After the two were playing for a few minutes, my daughter then introduced her new friend to her brother. Then, he introduced them to a new friend that he met while in the pool. After this, they made their game a little larger and had a great time.

If you have some friends that you think would also benefit, or be able to add to the conversation, with your new connection… then introduce them. On Twitter you can say something like, “Hey @whoever, I think you would really like @soandso! They also have some expertise in your area.” – Or something like that.

8. End Each Conversation With Encouragement

I love this about my daughter. Every time she sees someone she knows, she gives them a hug. When we are leaving, or they are leaving, she gives them a hug. I never fail to see a smile come across their face. When you are talking with someone in your circle of friends, end each conversation with a ‘hug’.

Tell them you appreciate their input. Tell them how much their solution helped. Tell them how great it is that you connected. Just offer some sort of encouragement.

Have Fun With Social Media Marketing!

Many people will make it sound like social media marketing is a burden, a hardship, and another form of “work”. However, if you follow these simple guidelines you can have fun with this new form of marketing. Just act naturally, be yourself, and contact your inner child.

Twitter is all the rage right now. Everyone from news networks, celebrities, athletes, marketers, teenagers, schools, churches, and government officials are tweeting it up.

The real time interaction is incredibly powerful networking and marketing tool. It’s like you’re attending the world’s biggest, never-ending networking party. What this provides for marketers, affiliates, PR, or anyone wanting to gain momentum and authority, in real time, can’t be done anywhere else.

However, to enjoy the benefits of Twitter, and other social networking websites, there are a few rules, or rather guidelines, that will help you have a much more effective Twitter presence and have more fun doing it.

25 Twitter Rules To Tweet By

1. Don’t try to follow too many too fast. The power of twitter is in your followers, but if you try and follow thousands of people right at the start you will be come overwhelmed very fast trying to keep up.

2. Set up your profile. Before you even follow anyone, or send your first tweet, make sure your profile is completed.

3. Have an avatar. Yes, having a picture of yourself, or logo, is a big “must” when networking on Twitter or any other social media site.

4. Respond to @replies as quickly as possible. This is how you communicate with Twitter. By placing @ and then the username you can have a conversation or solve problems. The key is to respond as quick as you can.

5. Respond to Direct Messages in a timely manner. As with the @replies, your Direct Messages are also a way of communicating just between you and your follower. This is a little like email, but you are still limited to 140 characters. Respond quickly and efficiently.

6. Tweet before you follow. Having a few updates available for people to see when they check out your profile is a good way for them to know who you are and show you’re not a Twitter spammer.

7. Follow slowly, but consistently. I already touched on this above, but it is important that you get this concept. Start following a few people to get use to the idea of Twitter and then continue to find others. Once you start building, then continue to do so in a consistent manner. Adding a few people a day is a great way to naturally add people who fill follow you for the long haul.

8. Offer solutions to problems. You’re going to see a lot of questions and people looking for solutions. This presents you with a great opportunity to interact by offering those solutions. Reply to those people with links, information or anything else that might help them.

9. Promote others before yourself. One big turnoff is when people just advertise their own blog posts or services. The real “networking” happens when you begin to promote other people and their products, without monetary compensation for yourself.

10. Have a Twitter landing page. A Twitter landing page is a great way to maximize your Twitter presence and develop new followers of not only your Twitter account, but also your blog or website. A landing page will take over where your profile ends and gives a much better look at who you are and what you can offer.

11. Stay active. Keep to regular tweeting schedule. It’s pretty easy when you first get started because it is new and fresh. The hard part comes in when you don’t feel like you have anything to say at all. However, just a simple “Good morning!”, or “How are you doing today?” can start a conversations. Try to keep something happening on your Twitter stream so people don’t forget about you and unfollow you for inactivity.

12. Make an effort to build relationships with followers. This might seem unlikely to those people who are following thousands of people. But, if you’re just using Twitter as another opt-in list to blast your own links and build up your own ego, then you’re missing the point. Make a focused effort to send DM’s or replies to people to get to know them. Or, you could just say hi to someone each day. @ZnaTrainer is a perfect example of this in action.

13. Go mobile with your tweeting. Twitter is all about getting to know people while you’re letting them get to know you. You can’t just do that while at the office or at home. Using one of the many mobile Twitter clients can keep you connected even when you’re not at a computer.

14. Sync other sites to your Twitter stream. This is a great time saver in social media marketing. By syncing your Twitter stream with other sites you can post/update several sites at once. Of course, if you’re going to be involved in a lot of networking sites then Ping.fm is the best solution to updating to them all.

15. ReTweet often and frequently. ReTweeting is really just tweeting something that someone else in your stream did. This way the people who follow you can see it too and see the person who originally sent the tweet. This is a great way to share information and find new people to follow. Don’t do this for everything, but anything you think your followers would enjoy, or use, then by all means… ReTweet it!

16. Use a desktop client for ease of use and quick twittering. You can continue to refresh the actual Twitter website, but thankfully developers have made some desktop twitter clients that automatically update and have some great features. Tweetdeck and Twhirl are the most popular now and are both pretty good.

17. Automatically update Twitter with your latest blog posts. While you want to make sure that this isn’t the only thing that is seen on your Twitter stream, it is a good idea to have your new blog posts automatically updated to Twitter. You can do this easily with Twitterfeed

18. Keep to the 140 character limit. I have had several times where I wanted to send several tweets in a row to finish a thought that was a lot more than 140 characters. It seems like a good idea, but what it does is confuse the people who are following you. They might just happen to see it in mid tweet and not realize what it is you’re talking about. If you have to take time to explain it then you’ve lost the effect you were going for.

19. Don’t let the number of people you’re following vastly outnumber your followers. For a variety of reasons this is a bad thing. The two most important is that Twitter itself will not let you add more followers if this ratio is too far out of whack and they might suspend your account. The other big reason is that the people you want to follow you back might think you’re just a Twitter spammer.

20. Stay active but take a breather. It’s good to stay active with your tweeting, but don’t get too active. Twitter is a social creature. That means there are others involved in this too. It’s not all about you and your precious updates. If you’re updating 20 or more times every 30 minutes then your tweets will be overpowering everyone else’s. This can cause people to get frustrated and just choose to unfollow you.

21. Don’t Tweet something you don’t want public. Twitter is a great way to socialize, but it is also a great way to get into some serious trouble. Even if you didn’t mean to. Twitter is searchable. So, if someone wanted to search for something at search.twitter.com and your tweet happens to come up… let’s just hope it’s not something you didn’t want to say.

22. Link to other tweets in your own content or blog posts. Again, twitter is all about socializing, collaborating, networking, and helping each other out. In the same way linking to other sites in your articles or blog posts is a great way to spread around the love, linking to your friend’s tweets is also beneficial.

23. Don’t follow if you don’t want to follow. Twitter can be overwhelming if you let it be. Part of that is because you begin following too many people and are trying to keep track of it all. Or you’re following people who you just don’t have anything in common with. There are different rules of thumb for following people. Some people live by the “follow me, I follow you” rule of thumb. And others just follow those they feel will add something to their twitter stream. Of course, there are those that just follow a certain few and ignore everyone else. I’m probably in the middle somewhere as I follow a wide variety of people because you never know who is going to add value to your Twitter stream. But, I will unfollow if nothing is there.

24. Take your Twittering offline. There are these great things that are happening all over now that are taking Twitter to the next level of social networking. It’s called a TweetUp. Basically it’s a meet up made up of local twitterers who want to interact and share in the real world. Tweetups are a great way to maximize Twitter in your marketing and if you have the opportunity to participate in one… don’t hesitate.

25. Don’t get into pointless arguments. This is one of my pet peeves. I hate arguments. I think they are pointless and only lead to tension and hard feelings that don’t go away quickly. In the heat of the moment, things are said that you can’t take back (remember #21). This makes you, and the person you’re arguing with, look bad and don’t be surprised to see a lot of unfollows as a result. While I do agree that some differences of opinions, and slightly heated conversations are good… arguments are immature.

There you go.

25 rules for tweeting and participating in social networking. While I used the “rules” term to describe these don’t get too freaked out by it. The best thing to do while social networking, or being active on Twitter is to be just that. Active. And learn the rest along the way.

Social media marketing is useless unless you know what you want to accomplish by participating in the various networking websites. I once heard a saying that I’ve pretty much kept in the front of my mind no matter what I’m doing.

If you don’t aim for something then you’ll end up hitting nothing.

This is very true in social media marketing. You must aim at something.

If you go about your merry way and just begin to participate in several different networking sites then you’ll ultimately fail at it. The key to success with social media marketing is to have some goals in mind while you’re interacting and communicating.

Connect

One of my biggest goals in social marketing is to connect. Not just to connect with people (although I will just about friend, follow, or be a fan of anyone that I find interesting), but to connect with people who will stretch you and make you better.

Some people call this looking for A-type people. I call it common sense. I am always looking out for those who are doing new things, being creative in their own way, saying something new, or are going out and making their success. Those are the people I want to connect with. I do not, will not, and will never recommend to connect with people just because everyone else is. Most of the time I’m disappointed and sever the connection.

You want to make it your goal to connect with people you want to connect to that you feel comfortable with. Not just because some mucky muck expert said so. (There is my little rant for the day.)

Seriously. Connect with those who will help you become better, more creative, and will appreciate your efforts too.

Develop Rabid Fans

Some people have got this one figured out cold. People like Mari Smith, Deb Micek, Lynn Terry, and Warren Whitlock have been able to use the power of social media as a platform from which to reach thousands everyday with their message. Through this they have been able to develop rabid fans. And there is nothing wrong with that.

Your goal should be the same. You want to be able to reach people, everyday, with your message. Above that though, you want to get through to them. The one way to do that is they are incredibly loyal to you and your brand. Or, in other words… rabid fans.

I would call myself fans of those I mentioned as well as several others that I follow. When they say something I usually tend to listen, check it out, and recommend or not. But, they’ve been able to do it because I can see that their focus is set on that goal and not just socializing.

When you’re networking on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Plurk, StumbleUpon, or other social hangouts, you want to make it a goal to do it in such a way that people begin to look up to you and respect your information.

Create points of entry for your websites

You can connect and have people fall madly in love with you, but if you stop there you are going to be sorely disappointed in the outcome. The whole point of marketing within the context of social media is to get people to like you, trust you, believe in you, and spend money with you. That’s the ultimate goal for every single person who uses social media in the internet marketing world. To do that you must create entry points for your websites.

I can’t tell you how many people I’ve worked with in the last few months who don’t do this. Basically because they don’t make it a goal of theirs. Somewhere along the line they were told that if you just participate that will be good enough. But, in that participation you should be thinking of ways to usher people to your site, or pages within your site.

Social Media Is Goal Oriented

Creating a marketing plan without a goal is pretty much like shooting a shotgun up in the air. The pellets come down eventually, but you never know where. But, if you know where you’re going, know what you need to accomplish to get there, and process each step along the way… you’ll hit the bullseye every time.

Social media is goal oriented. It has to be. There is just too much about it that can get you distracted and be a huge waste of time. Set up some goals. These three are some of the ones I use. Use them or think up your own. Maybe you already have goals you want to accomplish. What are they?

Before there was MySpace or Facebook there was social media. It wasn’t exactly called social media, but the concept was there.

Blogging.

Blogging can be called social media, or social networking, because it enables the owner of the blog to do a few things. Connect with readers in a more personal way, socialize through blog networks, and even meet other bloggers at blogging type events. Blogging was social media before social media became cool.

Blogging as Social Media Networking

Social media networking is usually connected with websites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or MySpace. Websites, like blogs, are not usually counted among the social aspect. However, as I just said there are some social networking aspects to blogs.

Community. I feel the biggest idea, or principle, that has come out of all the new social media marketing stuff is the idea that community is powerful. When you can align yourself with a wide circle of “friends”, and engage in meaningful, and beneficial, conversations with them you are building a community. This community helps you in several ways.

Marketing your products and services through word of mouth by your blogs readers.

Link back to your website, blog, or landing pages from your communities blogs.

Free traffic by leaving comments on blogs you frequent.

Added income by selling your services and products from other bloggers recommendations.

Priceless exposure of your brand.

Friendships that transcend distance.

Mutual Help. It’s amazing the people you can come into contact with through websites like Facebook or Twitter. I’ve met literally hundreds of people who do the type of things that I need help with. When I have a question, need work done, or have a client who needs help… I know who to go to.

Blogging does the same thing. Through comments left on your blog you can begin visiting other websites and, as an added benefit, begin building your online rolodex of other service providers. Through comments left on my blogs I have also met up with people who I can recommend or use myself for other projects. Likewise, once a relationship is started and you are connecting, they will also come to you when they need something or need a product to recommend.

People Contact. One of the things about online marketing is that it can become a very solitary, lonely existence. You get up in the morning (or afternoon depending on what time you got to bed the night before) and sit at the computer for a day of keeping up with newsworthy items to blog about. The comments that are left, and the interaction that develops from it, creates a way for human (kind of) contact. While it may be through email, IM, or Skype at first, it can turn into great relationships with meetups at events and other gatherings.

Wide Variety For Stimulation. Blogs bring stimulation of the mind. And the immense variety of blogs contributes a great deal to that stimulation. My Google Reader is full of blogs that cover everything from sports, news, homeschooling, movies, bodybuilding, blogging, and social media. There are currently over 800 RSS feeds that I keep track of and I am adding new ones all the time. I don’t necessarily read each entry ( I hit the “Mark All As Read” button a lot), but I do try to spend time through the day skimming headlines. This helps kick the brain cells in gear and helps me with topics and newsworthy items.

Social Media With Blogging

The two go hand in hand.

Social media needs a central hub. A base of operations so to speak. A place where everything comes together for an ends to the time spent with social networking. A blog, or blogs, is the perfect place.

Perfect place for people to know who the heck you are. Your About Me page is a great place where people who want to know more about you can do so with a little more information than a little blurb in a bio or profile.

Use that page as the basis for entry into your social media activities.

Perfect place to establish reputation. When people “friend” or “follow” you they will want to know more about what you do, or what you can do. Where can they find that out? Your blog.

What will usually happen is that the new friend will read through your posts, get to know who you are, and feel comfortable with you and your networking.

Perfect place for listing all your social networks. You can pretty much list a lot of your social networks in several places. Sites like FriendFeed, SocialMedian, and SecondBrain allow you to do that. But, a blog allows you to be able to put all your social networking activity in once place where people can see every place they can connect with you without having to search several different sites.

How does your blog fit into your social media activities?

What do you think? How does your blog fit into your social media activities? How do you use the two in your marketing efforts? Leave a comment below and lets get the conversation started.

In the realm of social media marketing there are certain things you absolutely must do. You can’t get away with cutting corners and leaving anything out. Kind of like breathing… you have to do it. If you don’t, you die.

Social media marketing is, of course, more important than breathing.

Seriously, in today’s online marketing world, if you are not utilizing the powerful medium that is social media you are on life support until someone decides to pull the plug. With that in mind, there are a few things, well… ten things, that you absolutely, positively must do.

Social Media "Do’s"

1.) Be real. You don’t have to try and be someone that you’re not. You are into social media to grow your network, meet interesting people, and be involved. So, you don’t have to try and hide behind a great than life persona. Whatever you share make sure it’s you and from your heart.

2.) Be involved. It really doesn’t do any good to market your website if you just create an account and put up a quick profile at each social marketing website. You must be actively engaged with the people you are following or friending. This is something I have learned the hard way.

I made the mistake of believing that an account at Ping.fm would help me update all my social media websites. What it did was actually alienate me and put up a wall. I have been working to tear down that wall and become more active on each of the websites. You should learn from my mistake. Don’t try to automate everything. Be involved and active with each of the sites, and each of your friends.

3.) Have a plan for your social activity. There is no way you will be able to keep track of all your social networking and activity if you do not have a social plan. Let me repeat that…. there is no way you will EVER be able to keep track of all your social networking and activity if you do not have a social plan. I can not emphasize that enough.

4.) Have fun with it! I love social media. I think it’s absolutely amazing. However, I don’t think I would like it so much if it felt too much like work. Yes, I have a schedule to make sure that tasks get completed, but I have fun doing it. It’s fun to reply on Twitter. It’s fun to write on someone’s wall and encourage them. It’s fun to update with funny little posts. I don’t want social media to begin feeling like a job.

A lot of people are just plain boring. They don’t add any applications to their Facebook account, only have an account at Twitter disregarding any other micro blog sites, and unfollow people at the drop of a hat. That’s too restricting. Open up a little and have some fun.

5.) Interlink as much as possible. Great you have a Facebook account. Now you can add the Twitter application which connects the two and updates Facebook automatically when you post to Twitter. That’s what I call interlinking. Think of it as a wheel with a bunch of different spokes. Each one is connected to the middle hub, but are a little different in their own right. Choose a main hub. Could be our blog or a social network like Facebook. Then start interlinking… connecting each one together with the main hub, and each other, as much as you can.

6.) Take advantage of third party applications to help you save time. Yes, it takes a lot of time to keep up with each social network and update consistently. Even monitoring each one, even with a FriendFeed account, can take up time. That’s where the abundance of third party applications come in handy. Most are built using Adobe AIR and can be used right from your desktop.
Applications like Twhirl, Tweetdeck, and Facedesk are great ways to keep things updated without actually visiting each site.

7.) Remember that you’re dealing with people and not robots. When writing articles and website content you can get away with using a keyword a few times at the beginning, middle, and end to help with search engine rankings. People know that and when they read and article, or visit your website, they tend to accept it. However, don’t think that will work on your social networks. Treat people like what they are…. real people. They are not robots, but actual people who could be interested in what you have to offer.

8.) Give More Than You Receive. One of the biggest temptations of social networking is to put things on autopilot and just update with blog posts, new ezine issues, latest affiliate product, or newest service. Really, we’re only doing what we’ve been trained to do. For years the cry has been “automation, automation, automation!”, while you go about doing other things. Social media should never be automatic.

With that in mind, one of the things to remember is to always be looking for ways that you can *give* as opposed to receiving. Try to give answers to questions, links to relevant websites (not your own), solutions to problems, encouragement and praise, and perhaps even mentions of what other people are doing, and connecting others together. Doing this shows that you’re not just there to “get”. You’re there to be a functional part of the community.

9.) Do unto others as you would have done unto you. I have a personal policy that when someone follows me at any of the different social networking websites I will also follow them. It really doesn’t matter if I know them or not. I still follow.

This is a personal preference, but I do feel it’s very important to your overall marketing efforts. There are those that don’t feel its necessary to follow everyone and attribute it to some reason or another. However, I think they are missing out. The opportunities that are lost by not following people is tremendous. Each new person means a new idea, a possible partner, a possible new client.

Now, there is another side to this also. When you follow, or friend, someone you would like them to also respond in kind. After all, how can you build a community if everything is all one sided?

10.) Be consistent. I have to admit that this one has been my problem as of late. Life has a way of getting in the way and, even though we have the best intentions, some things have to give way. However, it doesn’t make being consistent any less important.

Staying consistent is the only way that you will be able to keep your name, your brand, your website in front of the people who decided to follow you, or friend you, in the first place. Staying consistent isn’t one dimensional either. There are many facets to consistency in your social marketing.

Social Media Is More Than A To Do List

What I hope you’ve been able to see through this list of “Do’s” is that marketing with social media is more than just a long list of to-do items. It’s about your interaction within your social media circles.

When you enter into social marketing with the mindset that if you do this and that then you’re going to see amazing results, you’ll see a much different picture unfold. However, when you are a real person, who gives more, and interacts on a consistent basis you’ll see increased traffic and loyal customers.

Give these “do’s” a try. Let me know how things are progressing.

I’ve been told recently that there are in the area of around 3,000 social networking websites on the internet now. Probably by next week there will be countless more. That’s a crazy number. It’s a little overwhelming and can scare someone away from engaging in social media and might even discourage those who already are.

Are you suppose to join every one? Do you have to set up a new profile in over 3,000 websites? When can you ever find the time to keep up each network?

The good news is that a lot of those 3,000 are focused niche networking sites. For example, if you’re not into real estate you probably wouldn’t want to join a real estate agent networking website. By focusing on your niche you can really narrow the scope of the social networks you might be interested in.

However, that could still be quite a large number. Should you join each one in your niche? You could possibly be looking at hundreds of websites where you feel obligated to set up an account and post regularly to. Way too much. You’d never have the time to keep up with each one. And you’d definitely never have a life. I’m sure your family would love you.

Ten Social Media Sites Everyone Should Be Actively Engaged In

So what do you do? You start out small and work your way up.

Social media can be extremely broad in scope and it can be very focused. You can join websites that cater to everything under the sun, and/or you could join networks that only deal with very focused niches. Either way you’re plugged in. But, for maximum effectiveness I would have to go with a little bit of both. But, where do you start? What networks should you be a part of?

Here’s ten that I think are essential no matter what your niche is.

1. Facebook. Probably the most important of all of the social networking websites. At least in my humble opinion. There is just too much you can do here to establish your identity, brand, and expertise.

2. Twitter. Without a doubt, Twitter has revolutionized the way that social networking is done. It’s quick, clean, and immediate. In fact, the power of Twitter is so powerful that some have been wanting to ban the use of it. In a networking sense, Twitter is only surpassed by Facebook in effectiveness.

3. LinkedIn. The last of what I call the ‘Big Three’, LinkedIn is a great way to connect with people in the same niche as well as find others who do work you might need.

4. FriendFeed. I really like what is going on over at the social media aggregator Friendfeed. It’s a great concept that enables you to keep track of what’s going on at a bunch of other networks without actually visiting them. I follow people who have their Twitter updates, Plurk updates, blog posts, things they’ve shared on Google, Tumblr, YouTube and other social feeds and I don’t have to visit them. It’s all in once place. It’s also integrated into Facebook which keeps your Facebook friends tapped into what you’re doing.

5. YouTube. Not your typical social media website, but a very powerful one. I haven’t really dabbled into video yet (although there really isn’t any excuse anymore with the cost of cameras like the Flip Video Mino Series Camcorder) I still believe that YouTube is integral to social media marketing. The videos at YouTube help you enter into conversations with the people who make them. When you subscribe to someone’s video, friend them on Facebook or Twitter, then you have something you praise them for or use as a means of an introduction.

6. StumbleUpon. This social bookmarking site is a great way to get to know people who are interested in the same things that you are. It’s also a great way to get people to see your website and even “stumble” your pages. If you’re not spending at least an hour a week working with StumbleUpon you’re missing out on a lot of traffic and social networking.

7. Google Reader. At first glance you would not think that Google Reader is much of a social networking site. However, you can share items from your reader with friends and they, in turn, can share items with you. This is powerful in the fact that you are now able to get more information without actually subscribing to more feeds.

8. SocialMedian. Another website that is a little like StumbleUpon as far as bookmarking goes. Instead of stumbling a site, you “clip” articles that you like so that your followers will see them and be able to clip them also or just read them.

9. Digg. The last couple of social media sites have been those where you share information in the form of sharing, stumbling or clipping. Digg is not that much different, but is still essential. Digg users are fanatic about digging websites and if you digg for them, they will digg for you. A front page listing on Digg can mean thousands of hits to your website.

10. MyBlogLog. Let’s face it. Everyone is blogging. Social media actually got started because of blogging. If you really want to be technical about things, blogging is actually social media networking. You leave comments, you visit other sites, you interlink to other blogs… it’s all a big community. MyBlogLog helps you to be in contact with other bloggers, join their communities, be seen by others, get more traffic. It operates on the same basis as any other site. You find people you want to follow, they follow you back, see your updates, and visit your blog. MyBlogLog is a great way to market your blog and find new ones to follow.

That’s Only The Tip Of The Iceberg

I only listed ten sites that I feel are essential to getting a start in social media marketing. These will help you get your feet wet, try it out, and learn a few things. But, there is so much more out there. I never mentioned Plurk, Disqus, Brightkite, Bloghology, Rejaw, or even MySpace.

You can take a look at those as well, but if you are new to social media, stick to these ten.

Social media is taking the world by storm. It’s everywhere from people on Twitter announcing events and happenings before the news channels do to people connecting and building large networks to further their business.

Oh, and there is even some people using social media for other purposes such as keeping in touch with families and sharing their everyday lives. However, for the most part it’s all about you, or me.

In most cases social media is all about social networking rather than community building. For instance, a lot of my own social marketing is an effort to build my presence on the web. I might want to help others, but the fact still remains that MY agenda is paramount.

In my mind there is a big difference between networking and community building. Networking is the act of connecting with others in order to build relations with others for a mutual benefit. There is a you, or me, thought process. “I need to connect with so-and-so because if I do then other people will see me and want to check out my blog.” “If I start a conversation with this expert, they will be able to mention me and drive some traffic to me.” “If I answer this guy’s question they will be more inclined to come to me the next time.”

It’s all about you. Sure, you’re helping people, engaging in conversation, and offering solutions to problems. However, the underlying agenda is all about you.

Isn’t that they whole idea?

Sure it is. You want to build your presence, be seen by as many people as you can, show your expertise, and all that other stuff. However, is it building a community?

Community building is the act of creating an environment where everyone benefits but also feels like they belong.

Are you building a community? Or is your social networking just that… networking.

Don’t get me wrong. I feel that networking is an essential part of social marketing, or marketing in general. You need to meet, connect, and share with others in your industry and especially with your target customer. What would happen if the ends were shifted from a you mentality to an us practice?

A community of like minded people, all reaching for the same goal, would emerge and actually be more beneficial than if you try to build a network.

I am an observer. I like to watch what the people in the community do as a whole instead of what they can do as individuals. I love stories of how people come together as a community to avert some disaster, rebuild after a catastrophe, mourn with each other, and celebrate amazing miracles. For some reason it just carries more emotional response than a lone ranger.

A community of social networkers can be a very powerful thing. You become a we. I becomes us. When this happens you’ll see a tremendous difference in your business building, and eventually profits.

Building Community Instead of Networking

In order to build a community instead of just networking try some of these suggestions.

1.) Invite people to connect with you, but have a goal in mind. Don’t just pick people to connect with but have a goal for your relationship.

2.) Connect with those who will benefit your community. If you are a copywriter then connect with people who design, who can create videos, who are great at marketing, and those who can add specialty type writing. If you are a software developer then connect with those who excel in other aspects of development where you might lack.

3.) Make yourself available to connect with your community alone. If you are all on Twitter keep some of your communications between yourselves. Set up another account specifically for your community. The same thing applies to other social websites.

4.) Be picky. When you are in social networking mode then by all means add everyone you can. But, when building a community… be picky. Don’t just accept anyone because remember you want to build your community with a goal in mind.

5.) Build each other up. A community is a close knit group of people who help each other instead of trying to hurt each other. You must make it a priority to help the others in your community build up their weaknesses and perfect their strengths.

6.) Meet. Yes, I said get off your cyber butt and actually meet with the others in your community. A strong group of friends is a powerful force. You only gain that type of strength by doing things together… in the real world.

7.) Don’t let it be a burden. That’s the reason why I said to be picky. If you let someone into your community who just brings you down, is negative, doesn’t produce, doesn’t add anything… it becomes a burden. Then the community fails. Have fun with it. Keep it fresh, alive, and prosperous. Don’t let stagnation creep in. And do not let negative thoughts, actions, or talk have any place in the community.

Your thoughts

I’m curious. What do you think? Should your social media marketing to all about your ends or should it be a community action? Should it be all about your or should it be about us?

Please comment and let us all know.

Social media websites revolve around on central theme. Conversation.

The conversation between friends, followers, listeners, plurkers, etc… is they key that turns the entire social media machine. Without the conversations you don’t have social. Without the social you don’t have a network.

In the marketing world, the conversation is also the key element to a successful marketing campaign. Marketing within the social networking environment is therefore conversation heavy. In other words… you have to be a part of the ongoing conversations in order to have maximum impact for your marketing.

But how? How do you do that? More importantly, how do you do that and not look like you’re marketing anything?

Creating conversations in social media

Add something useful Whichever social media website you’re engaging on at the moment (Twitter, Facebook, Plurk, Pownce, MySpace, etc.) the key to your success in joining in the conversation is to add something of value. When someone asks a question, if you can, provide an answer. When someone states something about their day, comment with something encouraging, constructive, or equal to their own statement.

If someone posts a blog link thank them for it. If someone says something you disagree with engage in a non-hostile way. Just state your view and leave it at that. No need for arguing, name calling, bashing, or otherwise ruining your own reputation.

Just add something useful to both that person and for the others who will also see it.

Reply when the situation merits it. There are so many times when I’ve sat there and asked myself whether or not I should, or actually have to reply. For instance, when someone says ‘Good morning’ on Twitter or another microblogging network, should you reply? Here’s when I would reply to something like that.