Today Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and blogs are the hot tickets in online marketing. We hear it everywhere, and there are TONS of ebooks, webinars, and other products to tell you how to make millions using them!
Is there any truth to this and what should YOU do?
First, yea, they can be extremely effective, IF your target market hangs out on them. But, regardless, these methods should not be all you do, but is just part of what you should be implementing. In fact, you should have your PLAN (as in marketing plan?) put together before you start any marketing! And, these methods should be part of that bigger picture of what you want to accomplish in your marketing.
What else can you do, then?
Writing short articles and submitting them to article submission sites is still an effective strategy. One article submission site to add articles to is www.EzineArticles.com. Organizations and businesses will go to these sites to find articles for their own blogs or newsletters. I’ve even had a few show up in print media! This leads to a wider potential audience for your services!
Determine where your ideal clients hang out and offer to provide THOSE sites with short articles, too! And, if they have a networking area, jump in and develop relationships within that site, also.
Writing a short online newsletter/eblast helps you feature different programs you offer from time to time, and develop an ongoing relationship with potential, current, and previous clients. You can easily create a following of people who do NOT go on the social media sites. Think about it: Do ALL athletes spend a lot of time online? Maybe not.
With every one of these methods, however, when marketing online, make sure you track your progress. How many people come to your site via these social networking sites? How many people read your articles (EzineArticles will send you stats)? As you put your plans together (which is essential!), you want to also determine the expected outcomes. This way, if you decide to start Tweeting about your new membership program, with expected outcomes of increasing your website traffic by 30%, you can measure how well that’s working for you. If it IS, you can do more of it; if it’s not, you know you need to make a change, or eliminate that strategy.
Afterall, no matter what they say not many people (if any) make millions on Twitter…
Margie
Marjorie Geiser, MBA, RD, NSCA-CPT
MEG Enterprises
Marjorie Geiser is President of MEG Enterprises, and is author of the book, "Just Jump: The No-Fear Business Start-up Guide for Health and Fitness Professionals ".
