Your Blog as the Hub of Your Social Media Marketing
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Using social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn are a good way to introduce yourself know to the people in your market niche. But, in my opinion, somewhere along the line you should be drawing people to your blog.
As I see the progression, I would start out with Twitter. Why? Because it is quick and easy to set up and start using. It is also easy to find people in your market by using Twitter’s search and trending topics features. Once you have started conservations with people (it is called social networking for a reason…be social!) you can start to ask questions and learn about your market. You need to know what problems they have and what they need to solve them.
Whatever you do don’t start trying to sell your products or services as soon as you open your account! That will turn people off immediately!
Once you have a good idea of what is needed you can start offering advice to your community on how to solve their problems. This along with regular conservations helps to build trust which is essential.
After Twitter comes Facebook. Why? Because Facebook allows you to be more expansive when addressing your market. You aren’t limited to 140 characters for one thing. You can also add audio and video as part of your educating process.
Other social media channels like LinkedIn, YouTube or podcasting can also serve to help establish you as an expert and build trust. But again you should be getting people to visit your blog to learn more about you, your business and how you can help them solve their problems.
Your blog gives you the chance to go into greater depth about all the different facets of your business. You can write posts that offer greater detail on what you do, you can do a video or if you are camera shy you can record a audio presentation. You can even post photos. And because blogs allow comments you can get instant feedback on your posts. Comments also make it easy for people to ask questions and offer suggestions on improving your product or service.
And of course, you can use your blog to lead people to your other social media channels such as Facebook, YouTube, Podcasts etc.
And finally your blog is an excellent place to direct people to your “money site” whether it be within your blog, another website or a brick and mortar store.
So make your blog the hub of your social media efforts. Use your other social media channels to entice members of your various communities to visit your blog for an in-depth view of what you do and how it can be of benefit to them.
And remember it’s about them not you!
