Tips For Promoting With Social Media

Social Media Promotion

These days everyone needs a website, and just about everyone over the age of twelve has one, or three. However inaccurate, it lends a certain level of authenticity and legitimacy to you or your company, which in turn provides a sense of comfort to your visitor and prospective client.

But having a website isn’t enough. Even if people happen to find it, you want them to keep coming back. You need to offer more than just good content, and some freebies. Instill the idea in your visitors mind they will get something good by regularly coming back to your site.

The trouble is people have short memories. Tell me, can you remember what you had for breakfast yesterday? Most likely it took you several minutes to remember. Probably because you have no emotion attached to that event. But what about an event for which you have attached emotion? You can probably remember every detail, down to the color of your socks, of major events. The trick is to get your visitors to attach an emotion, hopefully a positive one, to visiting your site.

One of the best ways to do this is to create a sense of anticipation for your visitors – as soon as they get there, give them a reason to want to come back: An ebook, or a series of short video clips in exchange for an email, or just a good story with promise of the ending to come later. My strong personal preference is for aesthetically pleasing sites: if the website looks pleasing to me (ie: the layout is nice, uncluttered, and use friendly) I’m far more likely to come back for the freebie, sign up for regular updates, or anticipate the next chapter in the story or article.

Here area few simple ways to promote your brand, book, or service.

Twitter – Simple, easy to use, and at 140 characters it’s a great way to teach you to keep the message short and to the point. Like any society, there are unspoken rules of behavior. Pay attention to how others act on Twitter, search around for tips – there are a ton. If you aren’t careful you can alienate yourself from those your wish to friend. Be a friend if you want to have any.

Facebook – That goes the same for Facebook. Don’t use guerrilla marketing tactics on your friends. There are other marketing professionals who will argue against this, and go so far as to suggest adding everyone you can on any social network. To me it seems not only dishonest, but unscrupulous. I don’t trust people who do that, and wouldn’t by anything they’re selling.

YouTube – People like pictures. We’ve found short video clips to be one of the most clicked-on items we post for clients.

MySpace – While not as popular as it once was, it’s still a strong contender if you’re in the music, entertainment, or some art industries.

LinkedIn – Like MySpace, it’s developed a certain market. LinkedIn lends itself to the professional, white collar crowd, and is primarily for networking and building contacts with the hopes of locating a good job. If your business happens to fill a need by that group, such as resume writing, or recruiting, consider creating a profile.

Tweetdeck - A great software for updating and monitoring many of your social media networks in one spot.

HootSuite – We haven’t tried this web-based competitor to the above, but have heard it is superior and completely free. Guy Kawasaki uses it, and that’s good enough for us.

One common mistake? Too much sales talk! Don’t hit your visitors over the head with your sales pitches. Don’t sell something in every email or contact. People hate ads. If you are lucky enough to get their email address don’t use it to endlessly promote your service, book, or whatever.  The rule of thumb is to give 80% of the time and sell 20%, or less.

More tips on connecting with your audience coming next! (see how I did that

UPDATE: Read more tips here: How Your Readers Can Connect With You