Social Networking – Hobby Or Marketing Tool?
The phenomenon that is social networking is taking off massively at the moment. With mobile phones accessing the internet now too there are not many people that feel they are too far away from their latest tweet or Facebook update. The mobile networks know how big this is too so the latest pay as you go schemes even include free data access to the most popular social networking websites.
But can the latest craze make you money?
Gone are the days where you can put a sales page on the internet, start a Google AdWords campaign and get people to buy your product or service. When the internet was relatively new you may have got away with it but people have wised up to this and they don’t buy anything from anyone anymore! People buy brands they know or from people they know, like and trust.
Think about your TV for example, you probably watch it most days, if it broke it would be inconvenient to say the least so it’s a product you would take care to research when purchasing a replacement. You are going to most probably head down to your local Currys or Comet, maybe have a look at Amazon or other on-line shops you know and trust. If you were to walk past Bob’s Bits electrical shop on a backstreet you are going to be less likely to pop in for such an important purchase.
The internet is very much the same. If you have a product or service to sell you need to now get to know your customer and more importantly get them to know you and in turn like and trust you before they will buy from you.
This is now why internet marketers and network marketers are turning to Facebook and Twitter. So let us look at some of the reasons why.
First and foremost, it doesn’t cost anything; they can both be used as free marketing tools.
If I refer back to that buzz phrase “the money is in the list” I’m sure you have heard this before, people spend a lot of time and effort and sometimes money to build a list of people interested in their niche to market to. These lists will stay very close to people’s chests but with social networking these lists are on show for everyone to see!
There is an important approach for marketing in this way however. Once you build up your friend list or list of followers you need to respect them. You maybe connected but they still don’t know you yet so sending endless adverts to your websites or products will result in them un-following you, nobody likes to be spammed!
Think of it as a relationship you need to build, you wouldn’t jump in to bed with someone you have just met, you want to be wined and dined first, you want to know that this can progress to a place that makes you happy. I may be the first to compare on-line marketing to sex but keep that in mind and you’ll be on the right tracks.
In this day and age everyone is looking for “something for nothing”, we are a world full of freebie loving people so take this knowledge and use it wisely. While networking with you followers and friends always try and help them, inspire them with food for thought quotes or send them to your videos and blogs that give them help and advice, in essence solve their problems. They also want to know you more personally, let them see pictures of you and videos of what you get up to when you are not tweeting.
Only then can you hope to potentially get a sale. If an individual gets to know you, and you have helped them then yes they will look seriously at what you have to offer. Then you can turn one of the biggest growing pass times of the masses in to your personal cash machine.
