Now that I have your attention really the most important rule to remember when participating in facebook, my space, twitter, squidoo, linked in, merchant circle, hub pages and the other thousand of social networks that are taking over the internet is DON’T BE A PITCH PERSON, DON’T FOCUS ON SELLING YOUR PRODUCTS, SERVICES OR SELF. You need to be a real person and actually be a valuable addition to the communities that you join for anyone to notice of you. You need to earn the respect of your peers before any of them will become your customers.
If you are truly knowledgeable in your field, there are a long list of ways to gain followers, referrals and loyal customers. Over time you will have opportunities to introduce your products, services, and sell yourself, just be patient, take your time and know that people are watching your actions and it’s important to really want to enrich the communities you belong to. Contribute often but be selective of your contributions. Ask yourself is what I’m adding interesting to others, am I just talking about myself, my products, or services? If so, rethink what you want to add make if of value and interest.
If you want others to follow you, follow others. Join groups that you are interested in, not only professionally, but those that you personally have interest in. Learn from others, watch those that are successful in your field and sit back and be an observer for awhile, track their actions and see how others respond to them.
Facebook is one of my favorite social networks, it’s powerful and robust! Tons of apps and tools you can use to grow your business. It’s important to set you profile up, contact info, relationships, personal info, education, work info and add a real photo of yourself for your avatar, no-one wants to see a picture of a squirrel they want to see you, a real person, this allows others to make a personal connection with you, which ultimately strengthens your relationship.
Once you have spent time building up your profile, joining groups, participating in groups, setting up your notification and watching and observing others interact, add the business pages app. THIS is the magical tool to promote your products, services or self. Once you have set up your pages and made them rich with content become a follower of the page and watch others do the same.
If you are active in the Pay per click arena and you haven’t tried facebook ads yet I totally recommend using some of your budget in Facebook. as well. Facebook allows your pay per click ads to reach an incredibly focused, targeted and active audience. If you try this path let me know what you think.
To sum up Social Networking can be a very powerful tool but if misused it can also be a very powerful tool in a negative way avoid becoming a spammer by following the good practices I have listed above.
See you online. Word tracker is calling my name, gotta go run some reports now. If you don’t have a facebook account yet .. go sign up for one now and look me up (Mary Killelea) and send me an invite to become friends and I’ll accept the invitation and learn about you and your interests.
Facebook, Portland SEO, SEO, Social Media
