There are a number of tools that can be used in a social media marketing strategy.  Currently, I am using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and this blog.  Interesting statistic…since our company and consultants started advertising our business on Facebook, Facebook is consistently one of the top 5 referrers to our website.  But what’s even more exciting is how long our visitors spend on our site when they come from Facebook.  Our average site visit is between 1-2 minutes.  But our average Facebook-initiated visit is between 5 and 8 minutes!!!  That means that, through the power of the relationships built through Facebook, people are a LOT more interested in browsing our product line, learning about our career opportunity, and basically finding out what we have to offer at Learning is an Art.

THAT is the power of social media marketing.  The power of relationships.

I publicize this blog exclusively through the social networking sites I’m a part of.  When I update my blog, I post it on Twitter.  When I’m lucky (and folks are kind) I get a few Re-Tweets (when people share your status update with their friends.)  I also post it to my Facebook Profile, and to the industry-specific groups I’m a part of on LinkedIn.

My goal with the blog (as well as on my social networking sites) is to provide useful information that will help others.  In social media marketing, content is king.  So I spend some time in the morning searching the net for articles specifically related to direct selling.  For example, did you see Jim Cramer from the MSNBC show Mad Money talk about how he thinks Direct Sales is recession-proof? http://actlightning.com/financialmeltdown/network-marketing-direct-sales/msnbc-mad-money-direct-sales-is-a-recession-proof-industry

Then I share my findings with my social media world.  I share some of it in my blog, and post that on LinkedIn.  I tweet links to useful info on Twitter.  I post those items to my Facebook page.  The goal is to provide information to people that they need, so they keep reading and I become a trusted resource.  Then, when I share information about my own company, people already trust me.  And that becomes a much warmer lead than “spam” as I discussed in a previous post.

I’ll say it again: the basis of social media marketing is relationships.  You must begin by giving, if you hope to profit from your relationships.  But what I will also say is by participating fully in building relationships, you will gain more than money.  You will gain a network that will educate, inspire, and entertain you in many, many ways.

p.s. This is unrelated, but if you’re not using Twitter yet, here’s a great article on “The How and Why of Twitter”: http://www.bertdecker.com/experience/2008/12/why-and-how-to-use-twitter.html

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