Persistence Marketing:

Have you ever experienced those times in life where you felt as if you were participating in the movie “Ground Hog Day”? For the benefit of those who have not seen the movie, it is a comedy based around the premise that this guy is caught in some type of weird phenomenon whereby he keeps repeating Ground Hog Day. After he begins to figure this out he starts to have some fun with the fact that he knows exactly what is going to happen before events take place.

Well enough about the movie. In my case it would seem that over the past week or so I have found myself in what would appear to be repeated discussions centered on Twitter, Facebook and social media as a whole. With the under lying concern being how do I make use of these tools and not have to give up my life away from a computer. Believe it or not there are people who still enjoy life, stay busy with life in general and have challenges with thoughts of being tied to a computer more than they are to date.

Then there is the issue of the learning curve required to make effective use of Social Media and all that comes with it. More to the point, when it is all boiled down to the foundation what you are really addressing is the marketing of yourself, your company, your products or whatever your goals may be.

In looking at some of the most successful people and businesses in any industry, you will find that many of them focus their efforts on their strengths while outsourcing their weaknesses.  Does that cost them money (or something)? The answer is a resounding: Yes.

However, when outsourced to the right people this business expense should actually be earning them far more than what they are spending. What takes most people out of the game is that with any marketing or advertising, very seldom do you see the returns on your investment overnight. Then just before they would begin to reap the rewards of the time, effort and cost associated with their marketing/advertising campaign they pull the plug, not realizing the rewards that were just cancelled.

If you are one of these business owners still sitting on the side lines when it comes to social media because you have not had the time required to learn the answers to all of your questions, keep in mind that for many of you, your competition has a head start on you.

Take some classes, hire a professional or simply schedule the time that you need to START!

I personally have been fortunate enough to meet some VERY qualified professionals in my area through many of the networking events that are available to me on a monthly basis. My guess is that most of you reading this have networking events in your area whereby you would be able to meet the social media professionals that could take your business to the next level.

For those of you who live in isolation somewhere, there are lots of people on the internet that would be willing and capable of helping you in these areas. Like you may imagine, there are many masquerading as social media professionals that would have trouble spelling it, much less helping you. Ask for references; get referrals or whatever you need to do to ensure that you are working with someone who can in fact help you.

As many of you already know the two social media platforms that gain the most press time are Twitter and Facebook. In direct proportion to this you will be able to find the most help in these areas. However, for many of the more generic principles, they will apply equally well to any number of other social media platforms.

More of a hands on type person or you have a limited budget because you are building your Network Marketing business part-time, there are options for you as well.

Later I will give you a short list of some of my favorite tools, but keep in mind that these tools do not change the fact that you are now filling a marketing role in your business. As such you will need to be able to write effect marketing copy to be able to maximize the benefits of your marketing efforts.

Let’s say that you have created a fantastic following via Twitter and Facebook. More importantly these social media sites are not driving large amounts of traffic to your website. Now what?

*How much of that traffic are you able to convert?

*How many of the site visitors are returning to your website after the first visit?

*Based on your written marketing plan, are your results measuring up to your goals?

While this list of questions could continue, and they are equally applicable to those who have outsourced and the do-it yourself readers, I am sure you get the idea.

Keep in mind some simple guidelines:

*Have a written marketing plan containing specific goals that can be measured

*If applicable, define a budget that you can maintain long enough for your marketing efforts to become self supporting and eventually begin grow your business.

*Do-it yourself type person: Work smarter not harder. Make use of the tools available to you so that you are able to maximize your time invested.

That last guideline brings us to some of the tools that are available to you and your social media efforts.

Tweet Later (http://www.tweetlater.com/) – Schedule tweets and keep your Twitter stream ticking over with new tweets even when you’re not in front of your computer. Publish tweets when your international followers are online and you’re asleep….much more.

Tweet Deck (http://www.tweetdeck.com) – TweetDeck enables users to split their main feed (All Tweets) into topic or group specific columns allowing a broader overview of tweets. The default columns can contain All Tweets from your timeline, @replies directed to you and direct messages. The GROUP, SEARCH and REPLIES buttons then allow the user to make up additional columns populated from the live tweet information.

Twollo (http://www.twollo.com/) – Never miss out on a conversation. No longer hear only one side of the story. Tell us what you like, and we do the hard work of finding the conversations that you should be involved in.

Twitter for Wordpress (http://rick.jinlabs.com/code/twitter/) – Twitter for WordPress displays yours latest tweets in your WordPress blog.

HootSuite (http://www.hootsuite.com/) – HootSuite is the ultimate Twitter toolbox. With HootSuite, you can manage multiple Twitter profiles, add multiple editors, pre-schedule tweets, and measure your success. HootSuite lets you manage your entire Twitter experience from one easy-to-use interface.

While I could fill pages with all of the tools available to you, above you will find a few to get you started.

Regardless of your objectives, be it simply growing a following on your website, building a traditional business, growing your online business or raising awareness for your favorite cause, social media is a marketing channel that you cannot afford to overlook.

Whatever it takes to get started, start today. Hire a professional, take a class, or schedule the time to dig in and start learning for yourself from one of the many online resources.

To Your Success!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Eight Thoughts on Social Media in ‘10 (markevanstech.com)
• Are Businesses Confused by Social Media? (blogworldexpo.com)
• Publish your Blog Posts to Twitter with Hootsuite (dknewmedia.com)
• What I Need To Discover about Twitter (thecustomercollective.com)