How to use social marketing to promote your business

There are many different ways that you can promote your business by using social marketing. It is one of the latest and most popular ways to market your business. You must be sure that your products, services and market will lend themselves to this form of marketing, because it does take a little time to do and you want to attract the right market.

1. Myspace: Myspace has become increasingly popular, and is now one of the most trafficked sites on the Internet. There are many tools you can use here. There is a classified advertisement center, where you can place ads. But the biggest way to advertise your business is not to advertise as such but to talk to contacts and mention products and services that can be useful to them on Myspace itself. This is a fun way to market and works well if you are not looking for a very tight niche market. You can specialise a little but this form of social marketing is better for a more general market.

2. Forums: Forums are a good form of social marketing, and some marketers use these a lot. Again do not advertise on these forums, because you will be pretty unpopular and may even get banned by the moderator. Instead participate by asking questions and giving good advice. Always leave your little sig file with your post; this is acceptable and even expected. When people get to know you and trust your advice they will visit your website and may even buy something in time. Always choose a forum that is targeted to your market.

3. Discussion boards: Discussion boards are similar to forums but there is a little more debate. The rules are the same and you can use the same techniques to promote your business. Yahoo and Google lists can also be used.

4. Network sites, such as Ryze can be useful. You can join networks that are related to your market. Here you can, not only post and discuss topics but can also post your articles. These are good places to prove yourself an expert in your field. Again you cannot advertise but can leave your sig file with website URL. As in the forums and discussion boards, people can visit your site. In addition there is a private message board that others can contact you on. Many times potential customers will write to you about your product or service.

5. Web 2.0 tools: This is a suite of social marketing tools. It includes video sites, where you can advertise your products and services through videos. This again will work with the right products and services and can be very effective. Some are useful to students others can be adapted for marketing. Myspace and the video sites are the most useful sites for marketing in this set of tools.

6. Seminars: Seminars have been used for many years to promote businesses. Again it is not for every market and they take quite a bit of work to organize and promote. If you are already a well-known figure it is much easier to promote and use. Be sure you have good speakers and target your market. You will need to give people their money's worth, and more, to make this fly. Plan a series of seminars. If the first one is successful then you can travel around the country and many people will gladly pay to go to all of them. Once you get a reputation of being a good speaker and having good speakers at your seminars then you will find this a wonderful marketing tool.

7. Blogging: Blogging is a powerful social tool when used correctly. You need to be aware of a few tips before you try this fun form of marketing. Make your blogs concise and enjoyable. Try to blog every 1-2 days to keep your readers busy and build up traffic. Make blog networks to really build up targeted traffic.

Be sure that you choose subjects and events that your special market will enjoy, and write them so that your readers will be compelled to read all your blogs. You can include links to bigger more detailed articles and also to new products. Properly done blogs can be very profitable and are one of the best social marketing tools you can use.

Social marketing is fun to do. It does take a little time but if you want you can hire other people to write your blogs and articles for you. You can make many friends and build up good business relations with social marketing. It is a wonderful way to practice customer relationship marketing and is well worth looking into, as an alternative and cost effective way of marketing.

About the Author

Sean McPheat is a leading authority marketing consultant and helps businesses across the UK, Europe, US and the Middle East. Sean's marketing services include direct mail, internet marketing, sales copy, sales training, telemarketing, PR and strategic alliance marketing.

Source: Marketing Articles on ArticlesTree.com





Recent Marketing Articles

Top Five Reasons Affiliate Marketers Fail
Internet marketing is a term that is thrown around by experts, media outlets, and average internet users in a context that makes it seem like a "dirty" industry to get into. Sure there will be a fair share of affiliate marketers that feel that they need to maximize profits even if it means selling their souls by advertising programs and products such as Zango that benefit nobody but themselves and company.

Banner Stands- Make an Impact at Your Next Exhibit
When participating at any live event as a vendor or seller it is important that you present yourself and your products in a professional, appealing manner. This might seem like a difficult task since the average exhibit or convention is a hectic affair but it is possible.

Build Your List And Increase Your Income
In any kind of business, marketing is the most important tool to achieve growth and develop your business. For this reason, you need a very effective marketing strategy in order to boost traffic, productivity, and sales.

Effective Back linking
Back linking is basically getting other sites to point back (link back) to your website or blog. Whether you go and make these link postings on that site, or they link to you voluntarily is irrelevant.

How To Generate Network Marketing Leads On Line
Rob with the MLM OutLaws back again with another OutLaw Network Marketing Tip for you.... today I am going to talk to with you about learning how to generate your own network marketing leads on line. So lets begin by looking a bit harder at this concept of generating your own network marketing leads on line.

How to use Digg to get more traffic
Before we get into details, here's a quick note for beginners who don't know what Digg is. For those who already familiar with digg.com, you can skip this section. What is Digg ? Digg is a free "social media" website where the news on its pages is controlled by the community of users (over 500,000+ at this point of time).

Keyword Elite Review - Must Read!
Looking for a Keyword Elite Review? Is Keyword Elite Actually Worth It? Will you be able to save on PPC costs and make a BIG profit using Keyword Elite? Discover the truth in my honest review.

4 Top Tips Help You Profit From Affiliate Product Review Blogs
A product review blog can generate huge revenue for both average affiliates and pros. When you start a blog, you have to keep adding content in order to attract visitors to read your articles. Most blog owners make money from affiliate programs by putting banner ads, text ads on the sidebar.

Ad Infiltration Review - Does Ad Infiltration Work?
Ad Infiltration is a Google Adwords method that was created by Steve Goltaio. Using this method Steve was able to add thousands to his monthly income! The method involves using the site-targeting feature in Adwords.

Add Water - Instant Success: How An Unknown Company Made Big Waves
Well, it’s not quite that easy, however here’s a short review of how one of our clients, an unknown technology-based, company with a breakthrough product, put it all together. The Setting Our client is a fast-paced, communications technology company that had spent years developing a breakthrough Multi-Antenna Processing solution.

Compassionate Designing
Designing your marketing materials is all about enhancing that passion, not only to make a superior design, but to serve your clients and users well by creating a design that they really need and demand.

Content is King Finding User Generated Content
In my younger days, I frequented the bar scene. My college buddies and I had somehow conceived this as a good idea to find a date, in spite of the fact that most bars were filled with other men on the same mission.

Enterprise Customers are People Too - Marketing Mobile to Enterprise Users
Marketing to enterprise customers can be a challenge because of the complicated chain of decision makers, long sales cycles, and the frequent need to customize processes or products to meet their needs.

Heads Up on the MLM Lowdown
All MLM Business’s need these two things to make their business succeed! These two things are important to get free leads and to build your down line! The first thing your business needs is a Lead Capture Page.

internet marketing for small businesses - business opportunity seekers
Selling products and/or services through the internet is one of the fastest growing methodsof doing business in the world today. It's estimated that sales for 2008 will top the 100 billion dollar mark! Millions of people from all walks of life, and in all parts of the world are "into" internet marketing for small business, with more coming in every day.