The number of outlets for social media marketing is staggering. Blogs are just the beginning. Now you can choose from social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, social bookmarks sites such as Delicious, social news sites such as Digg, social shopping such as Kaboodle, social media sharing sites such as YouTube, and social communities such as Ning. This Cheat Sheet is a guide to the wealth of social media marketing platforms and resources.
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Four Secrets for Social Media Marketing Success
What you already know about online marketing will stand you in good stead. Start with these marketing basics and work from there to create a social media plan.
Create a hub Web site or blog with a domain name that you own. Social media are a way to cast a wider net for your products or services. Ultimately, you still need to drive traffic to a core Web site or blog for additional information or purchasing.
Develop a standard set of eight keywords or phrases and a page description for search engine optimization. Just as you optimize your Web site, optimize your social marketing content and profiles. Use the same description and terms over and over to improve your ranking on search engines, and to appear higher on internal search results for each social media outlet.
Plan your marketing and work your plan. As with all other forms of marketing, your decisions are driven by your target audience. Market on the media outlets they use. Before you actually do anything, define your market, establish your goals, and decide how you will measure success.
Keep it simple! Unless you have many people on your marketing team, you need to keep your social media efforts under control — or they will control you. Generally, you get better results by posting more often on a few sites than posting occasionally on many sites. Create a simple monthly schedule of activities that includes posting somewhere at least weekly.
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Great Social Marketing Resource Sites
The first phase in writing your social media marketing plan is research. Use the Web sites in this table to put together the best possible social media marketing plan for your company.
Web Site | Description |
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href="http://addictomatic.com/">Addict-o-matic | Search for the current buzz and trends on any topic |
BIG Marketing for Small Business | Social media, online, and offline marketing tips |
href="http://www.frogloop.com/social-network-calculator">FrogLoop | Online ROI calculator for social network campaigns |
HubSpot | Inbound marketing blog |
href="http://www.marketingprofs.com/marketing/library/100/social-media"> MarketingProfs | Social media marketing tips, including B2B |
href="http://www.marketingsherpa.com/">MarketingSherpa | Social networking research with B2B focus |
Mashable | Well-known social media guide |
Online Marketing Blog | Blog about online and social marketing |
href="http://www.practicalecommerce.com/blogs/5-The-Social-Retailer"> Practical eCommerce | Blog about social marketing for retailers |
Quantcast | Demographic research on most sites |
Slashdot | Social news service about technology |
Social Media Marketing Group | Professional, non-promotional discussion group; approval required to join |
Social Mention | Tracks post about topics on 100 social media services |
href="http://social-networking-business.blogspot.com/">Social Networking Business | Social networking blog for business |
href="http://www.socialnetworkingwatch.com/all_social_networking_statistics/index.html"> Social Networking Watch | Aggregates news and statistics for social networks |
Technorati | Real-time blog search engine and index of blog popularity |
Bookmark any sites you find most useful to continue accessing after you have your social media marketing plan in place.
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Twitter Applications
If Twitter is a part of your social media marketing, several applications can streamline your workflow. This table outlines several applications you may find helpful.
Web Site | Description |
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TwitPic | Upload your images to this site and add the URL to a tweet to share an image with your Twitter followers. |
Digsby | A desktop application that lets you get e-mail alerts, instant message, and manage your social media accounts. Digsby is available as a free download for Mac, PC, and Linux. |
Twitterfeed | Feed your blog posts to Twitter and Facebook. |
Twhirl | A desktop application that lets you tweet without being on the Twitter Web site. You can also simultaneously post your Twitter updates to Facebook and Linkedin. |
Twitterurly | Tracks the URLs most mentioned in tweets. |
TWTpoll | Create polls for your Twitter followers. |
Tweepler | An online application that makes it a breeze to manage your Twitter followers. |
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Controlling the Social Media Monster
Using social media doesn't have to be a chore. Use these helpful tools and techniques to manage your social media campaigns. They’ll save you time, money, and stress.
Repetition is wonderful when it comes to keywords, tags, and labels. Utilizing the same core search terms and page description over and over on your Web site and all social media outlets, not only saves time but also improves ranking on search engine results.
Use tools like Ping.fm, hellotxt.com, Onlywire, or RSS (real simple syndication) to post similar content multiple places at once. For instance, you can simultaneously upload photos to multiple social media sharing outlets, or simultaneously post to your blog and Facebook.
Tweeting once or more a day is a real nuisance. Schedule tweets in advance so you don’t need to remember to log on with timely messages. Use tools like SocialOomph, twitresponse, or FutureTweets.
Keep track of daily social media activities. Schedule tasks for a month at a time or more with a simple calendar on Windows, Google, or Yahoo!
Correlate data from multiple sources. Configure one standard analytical package, such as Google Analytics or Woopra.com, to measure all your social media results.
Get organized! Create a master dashboard with links and tiered log-ins to all your social media outlets, tools, calendars, and analytic sites in one place. Configure Netvibes or HootSuite to meet your needs.
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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/social-media-marketing-allinone-for-dummies-cheat-.html