Places where cool young people go to hang out on the internet, right? Wrong! People of all ages and education levels are hanging out in these sites. More importantly, business are popping up within them.
SMM can be used as another branch to an SEO campaign, although this is still a subject of contention among the SEO community. The dilemma is the whole idea behind social media is just that: it's social. Social is not a term we normally associate with work. And most of the people using social media websites are not there to do work stuff or have yours thrust in front of them.
Why should I engage in social media marketing?
Because it will return you with large, short bursts of traffic to your website and increase the number of links to your website or blog. It will build your online profile and is also a good way to diversify your traffic and make your website not as reliant on traffic from Google or Yahoo.
From a soloist's perspective, it can fill the water cooler gap by providing you with conversation, a sense of community and hopefully a pat on the back for your contribution.
As a solo business owner, one of your greatest assets is your expertise and SMM enables you to share that with people. Think of it as the human approach to marketing - because the basis of social media is about feedback, it can provide you with a warm and fuzzy connection to a real person.
How do I do SMM as a one-man band?
Get ready to Answer!
Business opportunities abound on Yahoo Answers. Answers works just like you'd expect: someone asks a question, someone else answers it. Questions are categorised so you can search for your area of expertise and start answering people's questions. There's even a small business category.
The best bit of Answers, apart from getting real leads, is out of all the Social Media Marketing tools Yahoo is one of the few that encourages you to link out. If you can provide a relevant link to your website in an answer – do it.
Build your profile by becoming an expert and people will start to click through to your website or blog to check out your services – just like that!
Get clickin' on Flickr
If your work is best represented by a picture, get onto photo sharing site, Flickr. If I was an architect, builder, hairdresser, fashion designer, restaurant owner or I sold beautiful products, I would post pictures of them on Flickr.
Flickr is organised by groups. There are hundreds of thousands of groups on Flickr, so there is a strong chance there is already a group created where you can add your work.
Flickr is a social community, so you are not encouraged to promote your business everywhere, however by joining a relevant group, creating an in-depth profile with a link to your website and sharing and commenting on pictures, you can again build yourself as an expert or promote your products in a different light.
I recently came across some pictures of food from a Sydney restaurant that were so beautiful I had to go and eat there.
Just make sure when you write your descriptions about photos you upload that you don't write how much they cost or where people can get them. Relax, take off your marketing hat and write about what you see!
Get LinkedIn
No article on this topic would be complete without mentioning the one SMM dedicated to businesses. LinkedIn works the six degrees of separation theory, once you start connecting to people, you can view their contacts and start to find potential clients or service providers. LinkedIn is just like your local networking group, only online.
Social media marketing is a rapidly expanding marketplace. The three sites I've highlighted are those I think provide the biggest return for solo business owners. However there are hundreds of sites emerging, so take a look around and see what fits you.
Just a final note of warning – social media marketing can be a double-edged sword. Some businesses find it has brought about negative publicity so just remember you are in a social environment, mind your manners and leave marketing speak behind.
“ From a soloist's perspective, social media marketing can fill the water cooler gap by providing you with conversation, a sense of community and hopefully a pat on the back for your contribution. ”
Louise Gorrie is all things web. Her business, BlackMax Media, helps other businesses define and achieve their online goals using a holistic approach to website development, online marketing and search engine optimisation.
