It’s been a common knowledge that social networking sites, such as FaceBook and MySpace, have become a blessing for all internet marketers to gain free traffic to their sites. The emergence of social bookmarking sites, such as Digg and Reddit, also opens more ways for webmasters to promote their sites to a broader audience for free.
However, more often than webmasters realize, the habit of using social networks for marketing usually leads to spam and over-blown proportion of self promotion. One needs to be reminded that like the name suggests, social network sites main goal is for social purposes, such as to get to know each other and to network, not to promote or sell your products blatantly.
How to correctly use social networks for marketing?
There are several guidelines that you can use, and here are some of them:
1. Use your real photo in your profile picture:
do not use dollar signs, the logo of your sites, or lavish stuffs like sports cars. There is no better turnoff than someone who boasts about him or herself. Use a modest, professional picture of yourself. People want to know you as who you are, and as a human being.
2. Tell about yourself wholeheartedly in your info page:
tell people about who you are, what you do, what your hobby is, and even your favorite sports team. People are open to others that share the same interests, let people relate to you by opening up yourself, only then you can begin to establish a more serious connection for your social network friends.
3. Once connected, don’t promote right away:
I have confirmed many friend requests in my FaceBook page coming from internet marketers and network marketers. What mostly happen is that once I confirm their requests, they start inviting me to their business groups or opportunities, some even tagging me on product pictures that I have never even used in my life. Don’t do this please. Doing this is such a turn off honestly.
4. Share interesting stuff, not just your business:
I often see that most new marketers post about their products often in their status updates. This is also a mistake. You are not letting anyone to get to know you by doing this. Shares things that are more personal in your updates more often, then people will relate to you. Then, once and a while, you can promote your business in your status updates, but this time people will actually read it because they have seen you as an honest guy who likes to share stuffs that are interesting and news-worthy.
In conclusion, use social networks in its main function, don’t use it as a blatant spam machine that will ruin not only your business, but reputation as well.
This article is written by guest author Hans David – the owner of NetMarketersCentral.com, a website offering all things related to Internet Marketing and promotion. You can also submit guest posts and share your social marketing tips.