SEO Mentor

Ideas by Garrett Pierson and Illustration by Mike Dyson

With the growing phenomenon of Social Media, there seems to be a disconnect between how much is too much. I myself spend hours daily on Plurking (Plurk.com), Tweeting (Twitter.com), Friend Feeding (FriendFeed.com), Digging (Digg.com), Tagging (Technorati.com), Stumbling (Stumbleupon.com), Bookmarking (Google Bookmarks), Reading (Reddit.com), Facebooking (Facebook.com), Favoring (Faves.com), Propelling (Propeller.com), Hellotxting (HelloTXT.com), Mixing (Mixx.com), Eating (Del.icio.us), and that is just the beginning.

With all of this crowding the mind and giving us all Socialitis we need to put on our project managers hats to bring us back to reality so that we can keep our heads on straight. Yes this is all a lot to work with, but Social Media Marketing is totally changing the dynamics of how we market and network online but we need to remember that social media is not just another direct marketing channel. Social media marketing makes it possible to construct brand awareness and create customer loyalty, as long as you go about it the right way and get organized.

With this all in mind here are 10 tips, tools, and suggestions to get the most out of your social marketing campaign and to not go crazy:

1. My number 1 tip would be for you to “HAVE FUN“ this is the best part of Social Media is that you can have a ton of fun while you network, build your authority, and grow traffic.
2. Never Give Up! This has been the motto of my life and should be yours as you take on the task of social media marketing. I will be very honest it takes time, effort. and consistency.
3. Watch how the top Social Media Marketers are writing, networking, using tools, etc. In my opinion Tamar Weinberg is one of the best social marketers to date and I follow everything she does.
4. Take your time to build credibility and position yourself as an authority (unless you are already one) in your niche, don’t force yourself in just like any social aspect you will be shunned if you get in everyone’s face.
5. Use the available tools to help be more productive and organized!
6. I know you just asked yourself, “Well what tools Garrett?” Here are some tools and firefox addons that I currently use and am testing: Websites & Applications – Social Addict, Twirl, SocialMarker, Onlywire, FriendFeed Machine,  Firefox Addons – Brief 1.2 (for RSS feeds), Twitterfox, Clipmarks Tool, Dugged, DashBlog, Facebook Toolbar, Share This, Digg Firefox Extension, Shareaholic, MySocial 24×7, Filter Friendfeed, and the Stumbleupon Toolbar.
7. Choose the Social Media/Networking sites that fit you and your market best, and stick to these sites and don’t waste time on sites that don’t match your personality or niche.
8. Pace yourself, and carve out dedicated time during the day whether it is 30 minutes (at the least) or 10 hours (if you are crazy) to keep your profiles up and add great & valuable content to the various social sites where you participate.
9. Share the wealth! What I mean by this is if you give you will get back. So work on giving valuable comments on others posts, profiles, etc.
10. Finally, give yourself a break every once in a while. If you burn out early in the game you will be turned off by this stuff and it is too important for you and your business to miss out on this exciting trend in online marketing!

Conclusion

If you get anything out of this post you need to remember that Social Media Marketing is still in its infancy and there is a lot to learn so I would suggest that you stay up-to-date on all the new tools and tips and a great way to do this is to start listening to my podcasts where I will have weekly tips and news episodes on the SEO, SEM, and Social Media industries. Also I will be doing weekly interviews with industry authorities and newcomers.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 at 11:24 am and is filed under SEO Cartoons. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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