Page 165 - Social Media Marketing

150 Walk Like a Giant, Sell Like a Madman

to attract dozens of positive reviews, you may find yourself turning
on the NO VACANCY sign every night.

Taking Advantage of Social Media Marketing

Whether or not you become actively involved in social media mar-
keting, your clientele or prospective clients are likely to be talking
about you or the products and services you sell. They will also be
searching for information about what you sell and perhaps looking
for a supplier of those products or services. In other words, social
media marketing is going to affect your bottom line whether you
choose to get actively involved in it or not. In addition, you can cer-
tainly benefit from it, even if all you do is research what customers
who use your products and services have to say.

To use social media marketing to your advantage, I suggest that
you take one or more of the following steps:

• Find out what people are saying about you. Use your favorite
Internet search tool to find out what people have to say about
you, the company you work for, and the products and services
you sell. On Google, for example, you should search the Web,
News, Blogs, and Groups to do a broad search of any content
that pertains to you or your competition. Find out what cus-
tomers like, dislike, and are looking for but not finding. Visit
some of the top blogs and newsgroups in your industry to find
out what people are saying.

• Identify yourself. Before customers will buy from you, they
will want to know a little bit about you, so provide some infor-
mation about yourself. You can do this by creating an About
Me page on your blog or web site. Create a profile on social net-
working sites, including LinkedIn, MySpace, and FaceBook. If
your industry has its own networking site, such as ActiveRain
(www.activerain.com) for real estate professionals, post your
profile there. Wherever clients or potential clients tend to hang
out and where the service allows you to post your profile