Social Media Marketing Tips

Posted on June 03, 2012 by Amanda Carter MBC, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.

“Networking is not about hunting. It is about farming. It’s about cultivating relationships. Don’t engage in ‘premature solicitation’. You’ll be a better networker if you remember that.” – Dr. Ivan Misner

Truly, if you want to promote yourself, your business or your wares on social media platforms like facebook, twitter, linkedin or any other platform, there are some easy to remember but rarely followed rules that can keep you out of the red flag zone when it comes to social media advertising.

1. Absolutely NO Soliciting!

Seriously. If there is one thing people do not like mixed in with their social media is that crazy person who keeps trying to sell them something, get them to click on that link or just go like that new page. If you really want to solicit someones attention, time or money – INFLUENCE them by being INSPIRING. That’s all it takes.

2. Do Not Get The “Friend-Flu”

The “Friend-Flu” is the name for the crazy behavior of people and especially businesses that come onto sites like facebook or twitter, in an attempt to gather friends, followers and fans in mass, with no rhyme or reason. This is waste of time for your business and will set off facebook/twitter spammer alarms, even if you had no intentions of spamming anyone. Not to mention, if anyone marks you as “not a friend” or reports you as spamming on facebook (a particularly important platform for businesses), you’ll get a 4 or 30 day block from making any new friends, accepting friend requests or sending messages to anyone you don’t know. These may not seem important now, but if you are serious about your success, you’ll learn now and not later.

Instead of following the crowd and catch the contagious Friend-Flu, try a different tactic. Try adding friends slowly by hand picking them. Make sure they are in YOUR location (others can be added later on), that they are interested in your service or product, that they don’t have their profiles marked “private” and try to send them a message that lets them know you are interested in making a connection with them. Be open, be real and act like a person connecting with another person, not a business trying to find customers.

3. Make Yourself Available

One of the best way to attract authentic friends, fans and potential clients, is to make yourself available to people who are already interested in what you have to offer. As an example, with my coaching service, I went to linked and facebook and joined groups where fellow coaches are, as well as groups where users were searching for coaches, advice, relationship help, business ideas or local activities/services. Through that, I’ve had endless connections from people who were already searching those pages. I didn’t have to advertise or solicit to anyone. I simply interacted with other people as I would with my friends, and those that wanted to learn more about me or my services requested to be friends.

Anyways, the idea is that if you get out there and interact with people, truly ENGAGE them in who YOU are and what you’re about, and not your business, you’ll attract people to you, which is much more effect in social media, and a lot more fun to boot.

4. Join Klout

Klout is an online interact tool that measures your influence throughout social media platforms. It really speaks for itself more than anything, and it’s a tool that every marketer needs if they want to understand just how to become fully effective in their social media marketing

http://klout.com/#/StrategyLifeCoa

5. Don’t Over Post

Twitter in particular is not fond of over posting. Even if each post is unique, interesting and engaging, posting too much can crowd up peoples feeds with just your posts, and while that might seem lucrative, it will lead people to unfollow, defriend or unlike your profile or page. Instead, try making sure you have many spaced out posts daily that are engaging, interesting and interactive. Ask questions, post local news and talk about issues that are important to you personally.