How to Start Social Marketing

There are many ways to promote your products and services but one of the most profitable strategies today is to use social marketing techniques to help create brand awareness. Social marketing requires only a small investment on your part to cash in on this new phenomena. Here are some things you can easily do to implement a social marketing strategy:

Blogging - Although considered dead in some circles, blogging is still a great way to drive traffic to your main site, and an excellent tool for staying in touch with your customers. Conversations help you to understand what customers are thinking, how they feel about your products, and can provide excellent hints as to where your customer service can be improved.

How much time you invest blogging is entirely up to you but the more effort put in will reward you with more traffic and interest. It isn't necessary to become a blogging slave but a regularly updated blog will prevent visitors from stopping by and seeing that nothing has changed.

A blog does not have to be a daily journal of your life, although a few sprinkles of personal experiences can be enticing to read. Think, rather, in terms of posting what's new about your products and services. This will, in turn, inspire you to add new content on your main site because you will need something new and interesting to post on your blog. Also, take time to read what others post and respond in kind.

Everyone likes to know that they have been heard and understood. For the small investment of time required, the returns can be huge.

Upload & Share Photos - Use a service such as Flickr to upload and share photos of your products or services. Popular photo hosting and sharing services can provide an avenue to litterly thousands of highly targeted potential customers. You can upload and share hundreds of your photos for free.

Flickr has many interesting features and caters to a large enthusiastic and active community. For instance, you can download and install the Flickr desktop uploader that you can run on your PC or MAC to directly upload photos or you can visit the Flickr upload page to send up to 6 photos at a time.

Upload & Share Videos - Video cameras are so cheap that anyone can use them to give their business profile a solid boost. The most viral videos are typically spontaneous but a produced video of your products, landscapes your company has created, sheds that you build and sell, gardens maintained, or homes that you sell are worth every second invested. Of course, YouTube is a great place to upload your videos for maximum exposure but there are some other great opportunies such as CitySearch, or, load the videos up to your own web site with descriptions that can help drive traffic. Find other video hosting services where you can upload your videos as well.

Offer Expert Advice & Opinion - People and business flock to those who offer sound and practical advice for nearly anything and everything imaginable. Establish yourself and your company as an expert in your field by finding services that are constantly in need of experts. Yahoo Answers is one of these places where you can connect with people interested in the products and services you sell. For an hour or two per week, you can establish yourself as the most trusted expert in your field of expertise. Think of what that will do for the traffic flow to your web site.

Get Discovered - There are many so called "discovery" social marketing sites and some of the most well known are Digg and Reddit. However, they can be a bit complicated for someone new to social marketing. Try something a little easier to master such as StumbleUpon and join groups that share a common interest in your business. When you signup and create a few lists you can upload content for others to "stumble upon". When you receive good feedback, your content will then be shown to even more users. Even through you can't sell your products and services directly, benefits include increased traffic, which can lead to increased brand awareness and ultimately more profits.

Join Groups - Be sure to always read and follow by the rules when you join a social network and do a little research to find out where your customers hang out and try to contribute. It can be a little nerve wracking at first but as you get more comfortable, your message will be heard with your more comfortable style of delivery. Try Yahoo Groups and Google Groups to share like interests.