The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Blogs, News Releases, Online Video, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly

Establishing a social media marketing strategy and creating effective Web content that is indexed by search engines is critical for any business. When people are looking for answers to problems, they go online first! People and organizations)that participate in social media (creating YouTube videos, participating on sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, starting a blog and the like) become part of a vibrant online community and show that market that they are worthy of doing business with.
Unlike non-targeted, in-your-face, interruption-based advertising, social media is content that people actually want to see. How cool is that? Rather than forcing you to convince people to pay attention to your products and services by dreaming up messages and ad campaigns, search engines deliver interested buyers right to your company’s virtual doorstep. This is a marketer’s dream-come-true.
However, most marketers don’t know how to harness this exciting form of marketing. Their most common mistake is to spend way too much time talking about your company’s products and services and worrying too much about being “on message.” In addition, many companies are fearful of jumping into the social media waters because it seems scary to put yourself out there.

Top Seven Ways to Get the Most Out of Social Networking Sites:
1. Target a specific audience. Create a page that reaches an audience that is important to your organization. It is usually better to reach a small niche market than try to go large.
2. Be a thought leader. Provide valuable and interesting information that people want to check out. It is better to show your expertise in a market or at solving a buyer’s problems than to blather on about your product.
3. Create lots of links. Link to your own sites and blog, and those of others in your industry and network. Everybody loves links—it makes the Web what it is. You should certainly link to your own stuff from a social networking site (like your blog), but also link to other people’s sites and content in your own market.
4. Encourage people to contact you. Make it easy for people to reach you online, and be sure to follow up personally on your fan mail.
5. Participate. Create groups and participate in online discussions. Become an online leader and organizer.
6. Make it easy to find you. Tag your page and add your page into the subject directories. Encourage others to bookmark your page with del.icio.us and DIGG.
7. Experiment. These sites are great because you can try new things. If it isn’t working, tweak it. Or abandon the effort and try something new. There is no such thing as an expert in social networking—we’re all learning as we go!

Source: The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Blogs, News Releases, Online Video, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly, 2nd Edition