subject: If You Want To Make Money Marketing - Be Social [print this page] If You Want To Make Money Marketing - Be Social
Social marketing is a skill few of us have yet mastered. We know that it involves linking to other web users and we know that we can use it to sell our products but many of us just don't know how to do it. Yet.
We know what we have to do; we just don't know how to do it. Confused?
O.K. Look at the problem this way. You have just written an e-book, converted it to POD and you are ready to launch it. It has all this great information bundled in an attractive design. You know that it could be a best-seller, but you have no captive audience. What do you do?
The first stage is to define the problem.
Question: What do you want?
Answer: You want 100,000 people to know that you have an e-book for sale.
This defines what you have to do. You have to get 100,000 people to view your book. (and then buy it)
The problem now is to decide how to do it and this is where most people get left behind.
Be Social
The best way of selling anything is word of mouth. Personal recommendations are the number one method of making sales. You trust your friends don't you. Even if you have only met someone recently you would be inclined to accept a recommendation from them. So the first thing you have to do is be social.
Question: What do you have to do to increase your social interaction?
Answer: Join one or more social networks and start making friends.
Social interaction takes place when we talk to each other, not when we talk at someone. This can occur in real time or through mediums like Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin.
Key action - make friends by talking to them and finding out what they are doing today.
Result of action interest in you, your products and increased sales. (Over time)
It takes time to make friends
Don't expect to start chatting, make new friends and then start selling to them. Don't do that. Don't ever do that! They are supposed to be your friends right? So what that you have never met them in the flesh! Respect them and they will respect you.
Let conversations flow, give and take by asking about other people. Be genuine and keep things real. You will find that when you have established good relations with other members of your social network that things will start to happen. One friend tells another friend about your new book. Another friend writes an article on her blog which is then read by ten thousand of her avid readers. You get mentioned to a friend's e-mail list or newsletter.
It's like repurposing your articles only better. The potential is endless, your book could end up being seen by millions of interested readers and all because you just talked to a few online friends.
This is not the only method of getting your book out there, (you can still use article marketing, buy ad space on writing websites and forums), but it remains one of the best ways.
