As a result of this mass participation it’s getting harder and harder to run a business online without paying attention to what’s happening in the social marketing and social networking sphere. Many businesses are failing to get a grasp of this new marketing and networking medium before they lose market share to savvy competitors.

It’s not a question of IF you’ll get involved in social media, but when. There is a huge information demand and lack of supply, and to date there has been no place to get clear step by step instructions on understanding the all encompassing nature of social media and how it’s radically different than the traditional internet marketing systems that we are all used to.

We wanted to lay out a simple but powerful step by step formula to help you better understand the power and leverage of social marketing and to allow you to begin to apply some of these tactics to generate free traffic, targeted leads and convert more sales in your business.

This is how you can implement a professional Social Media Marketing Strategy:

1. Social Media Mindset: First learn how and why social media marketing and social networking is radically different compared to traditional forms of internet marketing because of the social media mindset…

2. Central Hub of Operations, Your Blog: Once you understand social media and the mindset, you build your “central hub” which is the core of all your social marketing activities and the center of all your search engine rankings and the new SEO. Your WordPress blog on your own server is the professional industry standard.

3. Market Research: Then you learn how to move to the cutting edge of your market, learn it and explore it so that you understand your market from a social perspective. You focus on keywords that are relevant and already attracting traffic on the search engines for your niche.

4. Targeted Social Media Networks: Once you understand your market, then and only then can you discover the social media networks that will build your business.

5. Social Networking – Tribal Marketing: Once you know the social network sites that will help you build your business, you engage a systematic approach or process for learning how to network and build relationships in your communities.

6. Social Media Optimization: Once you learn your communities and how to engage them, it’s time for social media optimization: the process of tying everything together with your central hub and your sales/marketing funnel or process.

7. Content Syndication Strategy: Now that your web presence and social media networks are optimized for social marketing, you will develop and deliver a content strategy that is designed to sell your products and services to your community.

8. Personal Branding & Community Building: Now that you have developed your initial content strategy, it’s time to begin to engage your community and target market with the content you have developed through personal branding and community building. You’ll learn how to build large followings of people that will spread your links, content and your message to the far reaches of the social media and social networking world.
BONUS: Your Internet Marketing Sales Funnel: This entire system, or Perpetual Internet Traffic Machine, as some experts call it, is all designed to intelligently lead targeted, motivated people directly into your internet marketing sales funnel (lead capture page, autoresponder, sales letter) so you can generate traffic from the content and syndication efforts and then transform that targeted traffic into leads, prospects and sales for your business.

As you work to build your presence on the web you’ll learn how to tie all of that into a constantly growing web of influence while you gain higher and higher search engine visibility and develop a powerful community that compounds and grows over time.

Begin to learn and implement these strategies so you can see for yourself how an integrated social media marketing initiative will not only increase your web presence but will ensure your continued success on the internet and put this powerful social marketing initiative into play in your business for generating influence, search engine exposure, free traffic, free leads and more sales and profits…

Franco Gonzalez is a professional internet marketing trainer who helps individuals build full time home businesses on the internet quickly and affordably. The Free Attraction Marketing Newsletter provides new marketers as well as experienced marketers a simple, step by step course to help understand exactly how to profit online. Click here to watch a free Social Marketing training video that explains more details about this 8 Step Formula for Social Marketing Traffic Generation.

Author: Franco Gonzalez
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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One of the first things I tell contractors who want to generate more business online is to start creating content. The new customers who find you online will typically do so as the result of a search on Google, Yahoo, Bing or some other search engine. The more content you have online–either on your site or on unrelated sites that may link back to your site–the better your chances of being discovered by that potential customer. For example, a video on YouTube about “plumbing repair in Macon” could lead someone right to your website. An article titled “Shopping for Air Conditioning in Tempe” could likewise bring a new customer right to your door. And fresh content added directly to your domain every day will make the search engines positively giddy. Those are proven methods for attracting shoppers and increasing your search engine placement results. A blog can do the same thing, and often do it much better.

A blog is really nothing more than a really easy way for one or more people to add to content to your website, without having to mess with navigation issues or sitemaps or any of the regular things that come into play when you add a page to a website.

Adding a blog to your site shouldn’t be difficult. I always recommend WordPress because it’s easy to install, easy to customize, simple to post to and it has an endless supply of ready-made plugins that can make it even better. Especially when it comes to search engine optimization.

If you’re unable to add a blog to your site for technical reasons, or don’t want to take a chance on installing something that won’t get used, you can install it on a new domain. That’s even easier and can sometimes be better. Putting your blog on a new domain, for example “PlumbingRepairinPodunk.com” or something similar will allow you a little more freedom than you might have otherwise. If it’s hosted someplace other than your main website, it can also provide a link back to your site. That’s not a big deal but every little bit helps.

So where do you get content for this blog? I often hear people say they don’t know what to write about or they don’t have the time to write or they’re not good with a computer. All those things can be overcome, and should be, especially if you understand the power of the blog.

For example, I created an air conditioning blog for a client that targeted an affluent suburb outside of a major city. After putting up a home page, about us, contact us and about 5 blog posts, he started getting traffic to the site. Since then, he’s averaged about 70 visitors a month (for the last 9 months). That may not sound like much,  but consider this. Using pay-per-click, he spends about $15 per click for major keywords in that area. If each of those 70 visitors had clicked on his ad instead of finding him organically, it would have cost over $1,000 per month. Doing it for the last 9 months would have cost him over $9,000. Not bad for a 10 page blog. If he was more diligent about posting to the site, those figures would increase dramatically.

This particular contractor is one of those guys who can’t type and is very uncomfortable on the computer. Because of that, I developed a hands-free blogging system. It allowed him to call a voice mail box and leave a message from wherever he was. That message was then transcribed and uploaded to his blog. Simple and effective.

So what should you blog about? Everything! Every day there are interesting stories taking place in your company. Think about the things you tell your husband or wife when you get home. Think about the funny things that customers do or say, or that technicians see on the job. Have your techs email photos from the job site that can be posted online. Have them email videos. Still stumped? Try making a list of frequently asked questions and then post them with your answers online, one at a time. Just write something, but when you do, be sure to include your main keyword in your title every once in a while, and throughout your text. You main keyword will be the search term (actually terms – don’t focus on just one) that you’d most like people to find you under.

One of the most useful features of a blog is that you can set it up so multiple users can post to it. If you can’t update it yourself, assign a few people to take turns. Have your dispatcher post some quick thoughts once a day – maybe tips for making the service call more convenient. Have the install manager highlight some great jobs you’ve done. Run a poll. Do a survey. Ask a simple question. You can add pictures, videos, links, podcasts and whatever else you can think of. It’s not hard, and it can pay off big time.

Think of your blog as a social media tool. Use it as a way to touch base with your customers in a less formal way. Once they get used to seeing new info on a regular basis, they’ll start coming back more often and they’ll share it with others. Of course it’s now a 2-way tool for you. Be sure to engage your customers and don’t forget to acknowledge them if they leave a comment.