6 SOCIAL MARKETING AS ADVERTISEMENT
Social marketing is one of the keys to online success. You have your business website up, but now that it is, you need to get people to it. You can do this through social marketing.
Many people do not realize just how important it is to be social in today’s marketing world. In fact, in 2018, it is likely that you will see more websites develop that are designed to provide business owners with numerous additional ways to market their business socially, rather than through paid advertisements.
Social networking is the process of interacting with others one on one, or at least informally. It is the opposite of paying for commercial advertisement where you will sell your product through a catchy television ad. Rather, you are promoting your business by promoting yourself, by simply interacting with customers one on one.
While it is hard to imagine doing this on your own, many websites help to make it easier for businesses to interact on the web. The tools mentioned in this chapter are websites you can join (mostly without cost) and begin building your business.
Most of these websites have the same goal. You will sign up for them, build a following by finding others to interact with and then socially build a relationship with them. You are providing both a personal experience and advertising your business through them. Since most have this same style, the details of using these sites are only included.
Most of these will be all important places to be for 2018.
#31: LINKEDIN
LinkedIn.com allows you to find others on the website that you know and then allows you to connect with others in a business atmosphere. It has less of a basis on social aspects than other sites, but it allows you to become recommended by others, which can help you to increase customers.
#32: FACEBOOK
Facebook.com is not just a website for teens. It is an excellent medium for finding others interested in what you have to offer. There are more than 600 million searches and more than 30 billion page views each month on Facebook. Your business can be part of that in 2018.
#33: MYSPACE
A more socially based website, MySpace will continue to be important, especially to online businesses, in 2018. Here, you build the same base of individuals and generate interest in your business through the community. Link back to your website to get people to visit.
#34: VISIBLEPATH
Another website that you might not have heard of just yet, but that you should be part of is VisiblePath.com. It will help some businesses to determine who their real network is, by looking at emails and calendars specifically. It is likely to explode in 2018.
#35: SOFLOW
SoFlow.com is yet another business and professional based website for social networking. Here, you will find numerous opportunities to find business partners to work with. It is a bit harder to use, especially at first, but has proven to help some businesses to get off the ground on the web.
#36: ORKUT
This Google run social networking website has worked for some, while not well for others. The goal here is to build a relationship within the communities on the site. You will want to try to find out if it is likely to work for your business. However, it may be less beneficial to offline businesses.
#37: TWITTER
Twitter.com is a microblogging website because you send out very short messages to your followers. Building followers is easy enough to do. However, it does take time to make Twitter work for you. In short, you will chat with other users about their messages and send out your own.
You can often include links back to your blog posts or website as a way to get clients to your site. For example, if you are selling real estate in New York City, you can search for those who are looking for such opportunities and then friend them. All others who are your friends can see your messages about a great deal.
#38: DIGG.COM
Digg.com has dropped a bit in popularity within the last part of 2009, but it is still an outstanding tool for those who are looking to build their business from the ground up. It works simply. You sign up for the site and then submit newsworthy blog posts from your website or blog to the site. Other members Digg them or mark them as a good read. This helps to get even further people interested in them while driving more and more traffic to your website.
#39:YOUTUBE.COM
How can YouTube.com, the popular video site really help you to promote your website or your business? It is a form of social marketing. You will post a video on the site that is directly or indirectly related to your business. For example, as a plumber, you may want to show a video about how to quiet that leaky faucet. Then, clients can get right back to your website where they can purchase the tools they need to accomplish the job. The key with YouTube.com is that it has such a high ranking in the search engines and is easily going to help boost your search engine ranking by linking to and from your website.