4G's of Social Networking: G #1

"G" NUMBER ONE:  GROUNDWORK

In this section, I am going to go through some key components that every social media universe traveler needs to learn, understand, and always apply to their social media experience.  As we have all heard, 60 percent of anything is starting, and social media is no different.  But the key is starting with the right plan!  Before getting into the social media universe you need to prepare yourself, your business, and your marketing messages to be ready to enter the world of dynamic interactions and virtual connections.  You must do all the necessary groundwork before you attempt to use the social media tools for business development.  If you merely jump in without out a plan, you may become frustrated and end up creating more work for yourself to undo what you haphazardly laid out.  It's much better to do it right the first time and reap the rewards of your efforts without the headache and hassle, don't you think?

DETERMINING YOUR MARKETING MESSAGE

One of the first things that you need to get ironed out before jumping into the social media universe (SMU) is your company's marketing message.  A marketing message needs to be the same across all platforms and it is important to be directly related to your products, services, or offerings.  I am not going to go into great detail on how to create a powerful marketing message that gives your brand credence, but I will say that if you have no idea on how to generate a thoughtful, catchy, and targeted marketing message, then I would highly suggest hiring a business to business brand strategist.  These kinds of professionals are highly skilled and deal with all sorts of businesses and brands.  They can help you out in many ways.  If you need a reference for a great brand/marketing consultant, I have listed several professionals in the index of this book that can help you with your marketing endeavors.

When it comes to social media, your marketing message is the cornerstone of your brand exposure and will be one of the main things that your contacts in this universe remember, so it is important that it is a message that explains clearly what you do and that you are the key contact person.  If you work for larger company, say a multi-level marketing company, a lot of the work creating brand exposure for the products and services has already been done by the mother company and you merely need to regurgitate their marketing slogans and materials in your social media efforts.

One item to keep in mind is that you need to stand out from the crowd.  So if you are using a mother company's brand and marketing messaging, you will need to separate yourself from others that may be marketing the same or similar products and services.  We will cover this in more details when we get into the section where I discuss "Individual Branding".  In short, Individual Branding is about blending what your company, big or small, does, with who you are as a unique person.  This technique works well with entrepreneurs and self-employed individuals that are looking to brand themselves in a specific niche and target market.  And as the United States stats would show, over 82% of business are small businesses, and 48% of those have under 5 employees AND are working in specialized niche markets.  Individual Branding will be a crucial component in your overall social media success, so stay tuned, we will go into that in more detail in future sections.

CREATING YOUR CONTENT ARCHIVE

If you haven't guessed already, the social media universe (SMU) is fueled by relevant content.  Your content, your contacts' content, and your competition's content make up the framework of the social media universe.  Creating the groundwork for your content distribution before you delve into the social media universe is an important step to grow and maintain your followers in this new virtual world where more and more people are choosing to interact.

Your marketing message and your relevant content is found by those that are searching for your kind of content.  It is similar to the "Google Search", but in social media, not only are items that your create and share relevant content, but also everything you do and your contacts do in the social media universe (SMU).

The SMU is constantly evolving and changing.  Why?  Because more and more people are interacting and participating in this world.  Every act of participation, whether it be a simple status update on Facebook, or a more robust article in someones blog, each contribution is molding and shaping the way others find that content and interact with it.  Think of the SMU as a buffet line with unlimited information consumption options.  It is where all data and information stored there is constantly being categorized and re-categorized by you, me, and our businesses.

So this begs the question: "So is all of this out of my control?"  Quite the contrary!  There are two sides to the is coin.  The head's side is that by fueling the SMU with fresh content about you and your business, your information will constantly be re-evaluated and re-categorized in this world, which in short, makes you and your business more visible in the SMU.  The tail's side is that you MUST fuel the social media engine with fresh and relevant content about you and your business, otherwise the SMU will deem your content less and less valuable and will categorize it as such.  A simple rule to learn here: Infusing the SMU with relevant content leads to greater exposure for you and your business in the SMU.  And exposure leads to...BRAND TRUST.  We will explore virtual trust more in depth in the next section tomorrow: G#2, GROUPS.

For more information on how your can start increasing your exposure AND make money with social media, visit www.socialmediasuperiority.com for an online, on-demand system that will excite your social media marketing and show you how you can turn social media mediocrity into social media MONEY!

Again... check out www.socialmediasuperiority.com, fill in your name and email and receive access to a complimentary Facebook tutorial that will start you on your social media money making journey!

Until next time,

Dan Fowler