Willy Lim asked:

“Social media marketing…what’s that? Never heard of it in Asia.”

I can almost hear you say that.

That was MY response when I first researched it on Google. I have been using parts of this form of marketing but have never knew the collective term for it.

So What is Social Media Marketing?

I found this rather formal definition on the internet…

“Social Media Marketing (SMM) is a form of internet marketing which seeks to achieve branding and marketing communication goals through the participation in various social media networks.”

After reading it, I’m still confused as to what it is! So I have decided to put it in layman terms for you.

Basically, social media marketing covers all the activities that center around:-

Creating content (articles, videos and audios) on websites or blogs Social interaction within social networking sites like Facebook Sharing videos on You Tube Bookmarking and sharing interesting articles on Digg…. …just to name a few.

Why Do InterNetwork Marketers Need Social Media Marketing?

A lot of people get online onto the internet and become all excited and hyped up about new technologies and forgot all about the “Why?”.

Remember the Dot-Com days? Without a clear focus on bottomlineMany have become Dot-Gone!

In business, network marketing or otherwise, we should never get into anything just because it is the in-thing that everyone else is doing. It would be wise to first evaluate the business implications before investing a huge amount of time and effort into anything.

So how exactly does this social media marketing help us build our network marketing business?

Well, in the offline world, a nicely renovated shop on a busy street will attract lots of customers.

In the online world, however, having a nice flashy website does not attract customers to you…You will need to write lots of relevant content on your website, and leave lots of content footprints everywhere, only then will you attract lots of targeted prospects to your website and opting into your mailing list.

Content creates Traffic. After you have Traffic, you can deepen the relationship and PREsell through emails. You can utilize social interactions within social networking sites to allow people to know you better as a real person. Done correctly, this will position yourself as a solutions provider. It moves your prospects through the process of Knowing You, Liking You and Trusting You. And when your prospects reach the stage of trusting you, Monetization is simply asking for the order

The Anatomy of Social Media Marketing & Where Should You Start?

With so many choices and options and upcoming variants, it’s hard to stay focused and get something productive done!I have recommended below a few areas of social media marketing that I have personally used to build my internetwork marketing business.

1) Website

My website is the centerpiece of my social media marketing strategy and is powered by Site Build It!. This is where I write majority of my content and where majority of my content gets found by Google. If you are wondering why did I choose a Site Build It! website over a Blog, you can find out more by subscribing to my InterNETwork Marketing Newsletter below.

2) Content Sharing Sites

These are sites where you can write articles on a variety of topics. The reason you want to post articles here is because search engines love them and they get found quickly.

I recommend Squidoo and Hubpages, and that you start by learning how to post articles there.

3) Video Sharing

If you have done some searches on Google, you will find that some of the results are videos! Videos are also content (most people miss this one)! People can find your video if they searching for the keyword that you have put into your video’s description.

I recommend You Tube (for short videos) and Google Video (for long videos).

4) Social Networking Sites

These are like those clubs and societies that you have in the real world. People socialize, play games, flirt…whatever in these social networking sites, pretty much like what happens in the real world too! But the best part of these social networking sites is the ability to connect to your friends’ friends’ friends’ friends’ friends (you get the idea?), and keep track of those relationships. This is impossible in the real world.

There is also this function of updating your profile status to let people know what are you doing at the moment. This allows people to “follow” you and know you as a real person. Also, after you have written a new article, you can update your status in your profile with the url and people may actually click to read what you have just written.

I recommend that you start with Facebook, play around with it and make some new friends online! You may also what to check out Twitter, which basically lets you know what other people are doing and tell other what you are doing (it’s fun, just don’t get addicted to it).

5) Social Bookmarking

After you have created so much content, you can share it at social bookmarking sites, so that even more people will find your content and come to your website. I personally used Digg and StumbleUpon.

I hope my recommendations gives you some direction as to where to start in this vast, complex, but yet exciting area of Social Media Marketing.

Beer Crafting

John asked:


First of all: is there an online survey or questionnaire I can take that will help me decide? If not, I welcome your advice.

Background:
- Graduated 2009 with a BA in Music, BUT I don’t want to study or play music professionally
- 3.5 GPA on graduation (not great I know, but I have good writing skills and study habits)
- 1 year work experience in social media marketing BUT I’ve decided I don’t want to work in sales, advertising, or marketing (maybe for a nonprofit… *maybe*.)
- I want to go back to school and study something I’m genuinely interested in
- Huge politics and natural sciences nerd. Science interests: earth/space, biology, astronomy, oceanic/atmospheric
- I would love to do something involving science awareness/advocacy/education for teens or youth.
- Solid computer skills, but no programming experience other than HTML/CSS
- I love computers, I’m totally fine with working at a computer all day
- Cost is not a huge concern, but must be less than $20,000/yr
- **Must be a west coast school**

Thanks in advance!!!

Wines Recipes

Jude Cunningham asked:




Spend ten minutes in a day to monitor your social media marketing through the social networking websites.

1. Tweet about your company for about 2 minutes daily

You can monitor real time conversations about your company by using special Twitter tools like twitter search. Use RSS feed to shift the various search results to your Google reader. This can be done easily by clicking on the small RSS orange icon after you complete a search.

2. Go through Google Alerts for about 1.5 minutes

Scan your Google Alerts for your company’s name, its products, executives’ names or other brand terms used often. To set things up for this scan to become possible, you can enter your search words and select to receive the updates whenever they happen (or maybe once every day). So, when people now post their blogs about your products, you will receive an alert in your inbox. You must give your quickest possible response to them.

3. Your FaceBook statistics for about a minute

For a minute, visit your company’s FaceBook page. You can find this when you click on the ‘more’ button under the main photo on the current page. Go through your fans list and view the fans count. Check once if any new discussion has started.

4. Remain LinkedIn for at least 3 minutes

Look for questions on linked in which are related to your industry type, which you or your company representative can answer. You can again set up an RSS feed for certain broad categories of the questions so that they directly go to your Google reader. When you see any relevant question, you must respond to it quickly and give a link (URL) to your company’s website.

5. Check other relevant social networking sites for about 2.5 minutes

You can use Google reader to check your Flickr, Digg, Delicious and other similar websites. You can again set up for an RSS feed. It will direct the search results of your company name and industry to your Google reader. This step is similar to Twitter and Facebook, where again you can centralize your readers’ searches.

Beer Brewing 101

When I first start talking to people about Twitter, some people have at least heard of it, others have no clue what I’m talking about. I usually describe it as less intrusive than chat, less formal than email, yet enabling you to hear and learn from a wider audience where everyone is on an even playing field.

Also, it’s good to think of Twitter as a party, or networking event – You can walk around, shmooze with people on topics of interest – engage in conversation, ask questions, answer questions, and more. It’s about conversation. It’s about meeting people. It’s about learning. It’s about sharing. It’s about connecting. In a nutshell – It’s a free web and sms social networking service.

It’s called “micro-blogging” because of it’s simplicity and because your blog entries/tweets are limited to 140 characters or less. From the beginning. For those of you who haven’t used Twitter (the rest read anyway)… Get an account. Pick a username consistent with the rest of your social networks. You can scan your email address books for people and/or take recommended tweeps. Upload a photo (please don’t leave the default avatar), also upload a background picture. Add a basic bio – nothing long and keep it comical and/or informative. Add your website. Set your Profile to Public (everyone can see) or Private (just people you personally approve). Find people to follow through http://search.twitter.com or http://twellow.com.

Get used to lots of things starting with a TW sound. Just tweal with it Some Twerms: Tweet – Verb or noun, depending on usage. The micro-blog post you enter.

Retweet – Repeating someone else’s Tweet – Mentioned in detail below. DM (Direct Message) – A private message.

Device – Refers to your phone (SMS/Text). Click Settings/Devices and add. Followers – Readers who follow (subscribe to) your Tweets.

Following – The Tweeple that you are following. Follow People. Listen to them. When you are ready, reach out either though a DM or a @Reply. @Replies are flagged to the recipient and viewable by the public D (direct) messages are only viewable by the intended viewer.

So, to send a message just to me, privately you would put D williger in the message box. Make Sure to read your @Replies and Direct Messages (you can see this from your ‘Home’ navigation on Twitter. People may be reaching out to you and expect and deserve your reply. Well, usually – some people have automatic DM’s, it’s not a bad thing – just makes you weed through your inbox.

Be Cool – I can’t stress this enough. You may razz your friends in person, don’t do it here – especially when starting out. Micro-blogging, SMS, email, they all lack inflection – remember this. Don’t Worry – Don’t be afraid to start talking about what you are doing or engaging in a conversation. It’s just like any other type of communication, get used to the medium and run with it.

Promote It – Add your Twitter URL everywhere – Email Signature, Facebook, Myspace, Business Cards, etc.

To follow-back or not. This is a tough question with varying answers. It’s not an easy one to address as neither is right. Personally, I follow back everyone who follows me (well except spam bots and the like). Basically reciprocals, like myself look at this as good etiquette, a way to increase follower numbers, and give you more people to learn from. Discriminators focus on following very few people, which limits the variety of people they communicate with. Discriminators argue they have tighter relationships, and reciprocals argue they learn from more people. No way is ultimately right – start slow and see what works for you. Yes, it’s really easy.

Some Useful (and did I mention FREE) Tools HERE!

The ReTweet – I have to touch on this. A RT, R/T, or Retweet is a way to compliment someone’s Tweet by forwarding it to your Twitter follower stream. For instance, if I posted a useful quote, or a link you could take that quote or link, type RT @williger (and paste my post here). What this does is 2 things – it gives credit for the Tweet to the original author, and it introduces people in your stream to the author. It’s considered generous to RT. I will be putting together a seperate article about this soon. This should be a solid reference to start with, and I will be adding more articles here to help.

Please feel free to @darrenwilliger me any questions along the way. I’m learning more every day, just like everybody else. Come back for my next Twitter articles about integrating other sites, making backgrounds, RT etiquette, and hash tags. I have met some amazing people so far who I really enjoy communicating with. This is why I keep encouraging everyone to Tweet it up already!

1. Click here for a look at the future of social media.
2. Click here to check Social Media Business Codes.

The next step is to start sharing and connecting….