Maximizing Social Media Marketing Efforts Through Micro-Blogging
By: Leanne Hoagland-Smith
Just having a blog and posting daily will not secure you all the Internet traffic necessary to increase sales unless you are already well known. The current interactive Internet platform (some call it Web 2.0) allows you to leave comments on other sites and this is called micro-blogging. There are public sites such as other blogs, Twitter and Facebook and then not so public sites such as LinkedIn.
Currently, Twitter has an estimated 200 million monthly users (Exact Target) which means this is a smaller social media site (14.6%). According to Facebook statistics, there are over 570 million active users with 50% of all users logged on at any one time. These numbers alone suggest microblogging is a viable and a necessary 21st century marketing activity.
To maximize your efforts requires you to be organized and disciplined. Of course if you are a single office/home office entrepreneur or even a small business owner with a 1 to 50 employees you may not be able to devote the time necessary to leverage this "free" marketing strategy. Sales Coaching Tip: The reason free is in quotes is because it is not free since it requires time and time costs money.
Recently, I have constructed an Excel File where I have listed the various blogs I have encountered. Actually in one LinkedIn discussion group, the Blog Zone, there have been several hundred blogs listed ranging in genre from retail to self-improvement to continuous process improvement to politics. What I do is to quickly determine if this is a viable blog, and then list (each in a separate column) the:
Date found
Blog's title
URL
Blog's owner or author
Main genre
Sub top
Alexa ranking
Compete ranking
Date Visited with comment
Notes
Sales Coaching Tip: Viable answers this question: Will this blog attract my potential target market?
When I have a few moments, I can quickly glance as to what blogs I have not recently visited. When I visit a blog and leave a comment, all I do is change the date visited. Since my goal is to use my time wisely, I always attempt to leave a comment unless the blog has not been recently updated. I will make of note of this in the Note Column on the Excel file to ensure the quality use of my time.
By taking note of the Alexa.com ranking, I am looking to link to those blogs that have a better Alexa ranking. This is only a trending tool. However if I can find sites with better Alexa.com rankings than mine, this does help my overall SEO rankings.
Additionally, through my marketing calendar, I have a commitment to invest 30 minutes each day on various social media sites. This time is usually scheduled early in the morning so that it does not interfere with actual production activities such as making calls, returning calls, face to face business event networking or emails and scheduled appointments, consulting or coaching sessions.
When real people not those self-serving marketers make real and doable comments on my blog, I will immediately note their blogs within this file and travel over to their sites. Fortunately, I have always been able to find at least one posting where I can leave a comment. And since my overall marketing action plan is one based on educating not selling, my comments do provide possible insight and value.
Another solution is to hire someone to engage in micro-blogging. This can be a very affordable marketing strategy and if you have a larger marketing budget you can engage a full fledged marketing firm.
Micro-blogging can increase your own knowledge, bring traffic to your site, establish new relationships and increase sales. Just make sure you have defined your goals along with your target market. Revisit your marketing action plan and make those course corrections so that you can secure a positive return on all of your investments of time, energy, money and emotions.
Executive consultant and sales coach, Leanne Hoagland-Smith, partners with forward thinking leaders who want a NEW status quo. Call 219.759.5601 CDT USA to have a quick chat about the desired results you are seeking.
Discover sales success with this sales book, Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, the Keys to Unlocking Sales Success.
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