Everywhere you turn, everything you read, and almost everyone you speak to these days has picked up on it. The new buzzphrase for 2009 seems to be ‘Social Media Marketing’. It’s almost as if it came from nowhere – ‘experts’ are springing up, and every man and his dog is being told that they need to take part, or pay someone to do it for them.

It’s easy to forget, with everyone jumping on the bandwagon, that Social Media has been around a while, and it’s not as complicated as it may seem. Not only that, but you don’t necessarily need someone else to do it for you – the tools and help are there for you to do it yourself; and the great thing about Social Media Marketing is that it’s trackable and measurable pretty much immediately, allowing you to see what is and isn’t working, and adjust accordingly.

So, without further ado, here is a quick guide to three of the aspects of Social Media you might be hearing about, with links to places that will help you to ‘do it yourself’ , and details of how we can help you if you need it.

Twitter

Let’s get this one out of the way first – it’s everywhere

What is it?
A ‘Microblogging’ site that alows you to tell the world (or your followers) ‘what you are doing’ in 140 characters or less. Allows you to interact with clients and potential clients, and push your message out to people who choose to folow you, thus reaching a new audience.

Can I do it on my own?
Without a doubt, yes – it costs nothing to sign up to Twitter, and you can be up and running in less than 5 minutes.

Pros?
It’s quick and easy, followers tend to be loyal and pass on (or ‘retweet’) things they like, great for getting traffic to a site or bog

Cons?
Easy to get wrong, time consuming if you let it be, building up ‘followers’ isn’t always easy

Links to look at:

• 10 Irritating Mistakes That People Make With Twitter
• Twitter Checklist for Businesses
• Twitter is easier with Tweetdeck
• What is Twitter? In Plain English

Can you help me?
Yes, if you want to run your Twitter account yourself, then consider our Tweetmentor program, a daily email to help you make the most of Twitter – our current promotion means you can pay as much or as little as you want to sign up.

If you want someone to run your whole Twitter promotion and account for you, then we offer this service too, from £150 per month – contact nikki@nikkipilkington.com for more info.

–oOo–

Article Marketing / Blogging

You can’t fail to have noticed the amount of people talking about blogging and article marketing recently, and that’s because it’s a great way to promote yourself.

What is it?
By writing and distributing articles and bog posts on your area of expertise, you become synonymous with your area of expertise, and gain credibility and referrals.

Can I do it myself?
Absolutely! If you are able to write convincingly on your area of expertise, then setting up a blog and writing regularly costs nothing but your time. Similarly, most article websites charge nothing to list your article, which links back to your website.

Pros:
Costs nothing but time, develops brand and credibility, sets you out as ‘the expert’

Cons:
Can take time, you may not like / be good at writing, ideas hard to come by at times and needs regular upkeep

Links to check out:

• Wordpress.org – set up a blog for no cost
• Become an Expert
• Top 10 Tips To Make Article Marketing Work For You
• Ezine Articles – a great place to submit articles
• What is Article Marketing?

Can you help me?
Yes, we can help in many ways, whether you need a bespoke blog site setting up and / or managing, or just article writing and submissions. See our Article Marketing Packages for more info, and ask about our Blogger Specials.

–oOo–

Facebook

Once seen as a place only for teenagers, this site has come into it’s own in the last 2 years as a great place to promote your products and services.

What is it?
Facebook is a social networking site that allows businesses to connect with customers and potential clients through the use of fan pages, business pages, groups and more.

Can I do it myself?
Yes! It’s free to open up an account, either as a person or as a business, and you can set up fan pages, groups and blog pages without paying too.

Pros:
Huge potential client base, easy to manage / update, for some people easier than updating their own website!

Cons:
Can be time consuming, easy to miss out on opportunities, needs to be ‘kept alive’

Links to check out:

• Facebook
• Creating a Facebook fan page for your business
• Promoting your business on Facebook
• How to promote your business on Facebook
• Nikki Pilkington on Facebook (let’s connect!)

Can you help me?
Yes, we have set up many Facebook pages, groups, fan pages and ad campaigns for clients, and can help you to get the most out of Facebook for your business. Whwther you just need setup and then left to run it yourself, or you need complete management, we can help – drop us an email if you want to know more.

–oOo–

So there you have it, just 3 aspects of Social Media Marketing that you can try yourself, and have up and running in less time than it took you to read this newsletter!

Hopefully this has taken a little of the mystery out of SMM, and given you a few ideas. As always, if we can help, please let us know.

Next time we’ll cover Online Business Networking, talk about Blogging in more detail, and touch on the use of multimedia in promoting your business.

Until then, thanks for reading

All the best

Nikki Pilkington
NikkiPilkington.com

http://www.nikkipilkington.com
nikki@nikkipilkington.com

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/NikkiPilkington
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/nikkipilkington
Skype: nikkipilkington
MSN: nikkipilkington@hotmail.com
ICQ: 9330127

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This entry was posted on Sunday, June 7th, 2009 at 8:12 pm and is filed under Articles, Blogging, Freebies, Social Networking, twitter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.