5 Commandments for How to Act When Social Marketing
If you have started the difficult task of social marketing and you’re unsure how to approach things, perhaps an article on WebProNews may help to give some guidance.
With a title like “Getting All You Can Out Of Online Social Communities“, you may think all your prayers have been answered. Sorry to disappoint you. The article is good guide on how to act and I recommend you read it if your just starting out. I wont, however, tell you how to get the most out of your online community experience.
In a nutshell, the 5 commandments for social marketing are:
- Get to Know That Online Community
- Give to the Community- Don’t Spam
- Be Transparent
- Don’t Leave the Community
- Start with One Community and Then Add Communities
These are messages which in one way or another have been discussed here in previous posts. It always helps to put them together as a friendly reminder.
Online communities are really no different to offline communities. You attend and offline meeting of individuals related to your niche. Obviously you need to get to know the community, its aims and its members.
When you attend a offline community meeting, you are not going throw leaflets everywhere. I am sure that most community members would happily see you out the door if you did. However, they may not mind you having a neat stack of leaflets or brochures available for people to take if they are interested.
Being transparent is allowing others to know you are from the business community related to the niche. People know you are using social marketing to attract customers. In most cases, they don’t mind. In fact, having an industry ‘expert’ who can answer questions and help with problems is often seen as a big plus. In other words, you are probably giving more than you receive.
Don’t give up and leave. Social marketing can take quite a while for people to go from seeking help to becoming customers – but many of them will. The final ‘commandment’, start with one community and build is really a personal preference. It should really read, only take on as many communities as you can handle given time and other constraints. You are better off giving 100% to one or two communities than 60% to two, three or four communities.
Ultimately, social marketing requires that you become a part of the community, not someone who drops in for a quick promo and is not seen again for a month.
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