How Much Content and Social Media Activity Do I Need

This is my 4th video in a 20 video series of common questions I get because of Marketing or Advertising ...

Social Media Strategies create communities around your business and create casual opportunities to interact with your customers.

Social Media is exploding as a form of Online Marketing, and the Marketing world is buzzing with strategies for tapping into and profiting from the surge. Basically, Social Media works to promote your business by directing traffic, producing links, and generating awareness through the spiderweb of personal and professional networks.

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Blogging and Social Networking Sites

Blogs promote your intellectual capital and provide links to your site. Business blogs can be created through any hosting service and connected to your own website. You can also create a blog on your own website. Focus on creating interesting, relevant content, and try to avoid talking about your product or service all the time. If your content is genuine and you post regularly, people will link to it and drive traffic to your site as well as boost your search engine ranking.

Social Networking Sites drive awareness and provide likes to your site.

Popular Social Networking Communities include Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter (and lately, many, many more). Facebook allows businesses to create their own pages, and then individuals with profiles can then become "fans". Content you post to your business' Facebook page will appear in all your fans news feeds, and they will be able to receive instant updates.

Twitter is a fairly simple network that connects people and allows you to post and update your status. You can follow others status updates, and they can follow yours. Your "ranking" or popularity is determined based on the number of people who "follow" your "tweets" and the number of people you follow.

LinkedIn is a bit more business-like, but Marketing still has to be done correctly, or you will be a nuisance. And I mean, a REAL nuisance! The direct sales approaches I get there daily are pathetic. No relationship building, no comments about who and what I am, nothing about why they are trying to connect with me, just pathetic.

Businesses are getting creative with how they use these services though. As with Blogs, Social Networking is not about promoting your business every chance you get. It is about being part of a genuine community, informing and educating your audience, and listening and participating in an honest way that contributes to everyone who is a part of it. If you hog the conversation, it will hurt your reputation. If you sell, sell, sell, NOBODY will pay you any attention.

Remember that the Internet is an evolving tool, and so successful Internet Marketing requires a Strategy that continually evolves. And when it comes to the "amount" of content and activity necessary, it is MASSIVE, that's how much ... Know this ... If a competitor writes better content, and more of it, you lose ... Anyone who searches, will appreciate them better ... And so will the search engines ...