Do you really understand social networking? Â Ever been “liked” on Facebook? Done any tweeting lately? At first glance, social networking can look overwhelming and difficult to understand because it uses a lot of jargon, and so many players are in the field.
However, the one thing I like about social networking is that you are dealing with people. Not a Google bot.
Social Networking Strategy
Social networking allows you to connect with current friends or make new one's while sharing updates and such on these platforms. Â If you have a site or blog, then you already know that it is important to create:
- Friendships– You can form long-lasting bonds with people you meet online. Â By building your social networking sites, you inevitably find others who share your interests.
- Communities- Connecting with other people is one of the greatest ways to improve your blogging experience. Other bloggers are using social networks to connect with those who share their interests or passions
- Audience-Â Bring more eyeballs to your blog. Â The fact that these eyeballs belong to people you already have things in common with is a plus.
In general, social networks that have blogging tools are good for, well, social networking! Â If you're starting a business or professional blog, these blogging tools were once considered “amateurish” or unprofessional. Â Over the last couple of years, that attitude has changed dramatically. Â It is now a requirement that bloggers use social media sites and their tools to promote themselves.
The Most Important Social Networking Strategy
Recently, I was asked to speak at a blogging convention in Louisville, KY. While there, I was surprised at how many people asked me this question: “What is the most important part of social networking?”
Basically, the key is to know your audience and to choose what information to share with them. The more information that you can share among the social networks you use, the more attention that you can bring to your blog. You take the time to identify your audience and choose your networks where that audience is active. Be sure that the social media sites where you spend your time are those that likely can repay your efforts.
You are looking for interaction with others on these types of sites. Â Don't just throw links at them! Â Make friends and communicate. Â This is what is going to drive your reputation higher on these platforms
Prompting interaction is key
In order to tie your audience with the latest blog post that you have just shared you must make sure that your top priority is content. Making sure that your blog post is informative and helpful, or causes some sort of emotion that makes the reader react to what you have just written is what is going to take to get them to share it.
BONUS VIDEO from Ms. Ileane : How To Find Your @ Mentions on Twitter and HootSuite
Connecting with your audience
You can tie your blog and your social networks together, letting blog readers know about your actions on social networks and vice-versa. The payoff? More readers and, hopefully, more readers from the audience that you're trying to attract.
Essentially, if you participate in a social networking site that has something to do with the topic of your blog, the friends you make on that network naturally fit into your target audience. And the readers of your blog are also likely to want to join your social networking updates, bringing along with them their groups of friends, family, and colleagues, who may in turn be interested in what you have to say!
Once you get the connection, don't drop the ball! Â I can never say this enough, but being “social”, is the most important part of social networking sites!
Don't Underestimate the Power of Social Networking
Always be there. Â Create a posting schedule and stick with it on these sites. Â Let the reader remember who you are if you are trying to make that connection with them. Â Be sociable and interact with people, because the end result will be that of a person that will end up loving your content!
One other thing…
These social networking sites are there for you to use. They are there to bring your site's integrity to the next level. It's exciting to understand that these types of social networking sites are there waiting for you to be a star…
Don't disappoint.
A great share bro !
Agree with you that interaction is the key to make strong bonds with the audience.
P.S: The Bonus video by Ms. Ileane on finding the mentions on twitter is really useful!
Thanks, glad you liked it!
Hi Wade,
I totally agree with you on the importance of social networking, just to highlight why social networking is becoming the key for bloggers and webmasters is that what is happening with each Google Search Engine algorithm update, while Google try to fight online spammers they take down some legitimate businesses and websites as well, it’s becoming harder for bloggers to keep following SEO rules therefore they should rely more on social networking to cover their organic traffic losses.
Yeah, it’s getting harder and harder to build quality links because Google is so finicky sometimes. Social media is where we all need to be as far as making connections anyway.
The Google changes have done SEO more difficult and social networking sites like FB has become more interesting. Posting good content is the key and learn to know your audience. FB has a good tool for that – Insights. Make posts and use the Insights to see how many people they reach and how many talks about you. Use that tool and you’re one step closer to create the perfect post…
POW! I was waiting for someone to say this! You can’t just hop on social media sites and expect to get lots of traffic. You have to create great content to get them there!
that video is quite useful. I definitely agree with a lot that has been said here. Social media profiles should always be used as an extension of one’s website/blog. And it is necessary to engage with customers on these mediums and be an active member. Activity and engagement are two different elements. And business-owned pages that are successful with the execution of both these aspects are usually the ones that are able to create a strong presence on social media.
People take social media for granted. You have to actually engage people and be “social” on these sites for this strategy to work.
Great share Wade, Being helpful and friendly is must in social media sites to build trust first and try to get more and more bloggers and people that are interested in what you do to connect with.
Well, I believe that treating your own blog like social networking blog is also a good idea that I’ve been doing on my blog lately.
You’re right Ehsan! Treating your own stuff like social networking is a great idea!
I really appreciate the bloggers who have been in blog-o-sphere before 2005. And, I have wondered how will I be promoting my articles if there was no social networking sites like twitter, facebook, etc.
You really have highlighted some wonderful points in your article
It’s a great platform to promote your site on! But you have to really interact with people. Unlike the Google Algorithm, your social media status is controlled by you.
Yup, that’s true. At least social followers are determined by our interaction with fellow bloggers. And, definitely, social networks can drive quite a lot traffic to our blog
That’s true, but I see a lot of people that aren’t consistent with it and they fail and then wonder why they aren’t getting any traffic.
I couldn’t agree more with you. Social media is reigning right now. We should try as much as possible to make use of it wisely. Most especially if your blog posts are very informative.
You’re right!
Hi wade, thanks for giving us another useful post. This time it is about the most powerful one “The Great Social Media”.
Nobody can argue with points that you made. Building friends, community and audience is must do’s for any blogger or marketer.
Yes, connecting is an important part of a social media strategy!
Well said!
You know something? I think you’re right. Now all I have to do is make a plan to strengthen the connection with my readers. I mean, I can’t always share my links, I should share something else that interests them. 😀
When you create a connection and a relationship with your friends on social sites, then you don’t have to worry about sharing. They will do it for you!
Well, I always try to make new friends, so it takes time until I build the relationships that were mentioned above, which means I do have to worry about the info I share with them.
What I meant by that is if you’re creating great content anyway, then you don’t have to worry about it.
The basis of social networking is building relation ship. And once you succeed in building relations with real peoples, then you are the real online marketer. Since marketing is all about dealing with valuable peoples.
Great post..
Thanks, you’re totally right!
Hi Wade!
This is something that I always say to my friends, and fellow bloggers. Social Networking is just an amazing way to connect and get attention of masses with correct approach and content.
The video you shared is amazing! It’s the worth watching for me.
Thanks, but the video was added by Ms Ileane. It is pretty good isn’t it?
Well, I understood the power of social networking when I created Facebook fan page after 14 months since my blog was launched, I noticed immense change when i started sharing the article with my friend and readers. Sincerely social networking needs to be taken seriously
Yes, this should be practiced by everyone who is wanting to get their site noticed!
The idea of social networks is very appealing due to its immense potential of driving in targeted traffic. Nevertheless, the are just a few networks that are able to send significant traffic, but we can use the rest of them for enhancing our brand, as well as to gain a backlink.
Forget about the backlink. If you are obsessing about building links then you will go crazy. I have had to think of this as building relationships instead of links. When you do that, the other stuff comes.
Social Networking is the new Internet. Just like back in the day when some dial up users never left AOL’s walled garden, some people don’t leave Facebook. If you’re not on Facebook or Twitter you’re not on these people’s Internet. Social activity is what keeps people logged in.
Yeah you’re right. These are two giants of social media!
You’re my man Wade! 🙂
Social networking is the key to getting those new readers on the blog.
It isn’t hard to do the networking. I just ramped my social strategy for Internet Dreams, and I am starting to see the rewards 🙂
Back at you Samuel! It’s nice to see the rewards of a good social media strategy come into effect isn’t it?
Hi Wade,
Obviously social networking is now more important then it was a while ago, I wanted to ask you…Do you have any tips for making your readers to be more willing to share your posts on social networks?
Thanks for this great post. Have a great day.
~Philip
Well there are a few things that I do. I wrote a blog about it called Did You Share That Post To Social Media? It basically breaks down some things you can do to get more shares.
Social networking online is one of today’s hottest trends. They make use of this strategy as part of their web marketing campaign in order to build a wider customer base and morph visitors into buying clients.
Hi Wade,
In Social Networking, replying to people is the most important. If people tweet a post from blog or share great stuff with us, most people just ignore it but it’s great to reply a thank you message to them.
Thank you – Ferb
I agree. Always interact.
You have driven home the importance of using social media to build traffic to my blog. And you have made me realize that there is more to being social than just sharing each others links. Thanks!
Thanks Larry, glad I could help!
Not only to build the relationship and other things, but Social Networking is also proved to improve the SERPs. I’ve tried 2 ways on my blogs and blog with Social Networking promotions showed minimal positive impact, while blog with no Social Networking and Social Media promotions experienced decent hike, but as of my tests, it reflects that Google is expecting us to buzz our articles on Social Media as well.
Great Article and I underneath with the every point you’ve mentioned in the article.
I believe that one day the Google Algorithm will be tossed or really have a major overhaul on it due to social sharing.
Hey Wade,
For Social Networking it’s really important to first build relationship with people. Don’t just always share your site links. Be creative and share useful & informative posts from other blogs as well. Be always reachable through social media sites so that audience feel connected with your all the time.
Yes I agree. People want to see you interacting with them on a personal level!
Thanks for the post, blogging is the place where we can share our ideas with different peoples, with the help of social networking we can do same things, blogging helps to increase our out knowledge’s too, so keep blogging … 🙂
Hello Wade,
Social media is valuable part of Online marketing & millions user are connected with Social media. There are so many reasons behind Diving Into Social Networking. Some people are crazy for Social Media for having fun & some people use Social media with their benefit. Social media really helps in in lot of ways ! well before some past time a news was announced that a boy found his family via facebook. So its very simple Social media is really valuable & helpful
So it’s used for other purposes?? Lol! Good points! Social media has saved my life too!
Do you find your retention and conversion rates on your social media campaigns are high? I’ve seen some stats and it looks that social media are brilliant for reach, but they don’t really work very well for conversion.
My conversion rates for social media strategies are higher than that of any other strategy. You just have to work at it to get these results.
These are good points. People want to see the real you.
Right. Most people forget that in order to be an Internet Marketer, they actually have to go out and talk to people! Interaction is key.
To this day, more now than ever, content is truly king. It seems that those doing the best out there, especially with social media, is becoming an expert at quality content. The game always changes yet still remains the same 😉
You’re right. The song remains the same. We still want traffic. Now, more than any other time, is the time that we need to be focusing on better content, how to establish relationships with people, and bringing our blogs together in unity.
You can’t do this by yourself. Don’t even try.
Social networking can fetch you free recognition and fame if you follow a good and effecient strategy. Maintaining a good relationship or bond with the friends on facebook and twitter is one way of attracting attention. This will benefit our blogs as well because we can start promoting the blog on such social networking sites initially that is free.
The only success I have had with social media is when a couple of people retweeted some of my articles, apart from this I have achieved nothing myself, I thought I was approaching it in the right way but after your article it is clear that I’m not.
Back to the drawing board for me. 🙂
Just stay consistent with it. Check out my site for more info about Twitter and other social media platforms.
I’ve had good luck with social media, but only when I directly message other businesses. Rarely do my tweets or status updates get reposted..
You are bang, no one can afford to ignore social networking. it is the future of online world but i think just like any other thing, we need to have a optimum level rather than overdoing things like too many tweets or share. Thanks for sharing this great info
Yeah, you can’t overdo it on these social networking sites. Too much will basically drive traffic away!
Social networking is free with the minimal charges of having an internet and a laptop or desktop and nowadays also through smartphones. Then why not use these free sites and create your own promotional and advertising strategies to be popular on the net. We can make a lot from social networking without putting in much money.
I think most people take social networking just for granted.If done properly,it can go viral and bring you in lots and lots of visitors.
Social networking has the potential to generate traffic to your website because people are very active on these sites nowadays.It is a great way to connect with people.Also it is very inexpensive and can easily target global audience along with the local one.Thanks for sharing such a wonderful post.
Thanks wade,Social Networking it’s very necessary to 1st build relationship with individuals. Don’t simply always share your web site links. Be artistic and share helpful & informative posts from different blogs as well. Be forever accessible through social media sites so audience feel connected with your all the time.
Yeah, like I said above, you can really drive people away with too many links.
Spending time building your audiance through good topical stories is one of the most important things you can do with social media.
Yes, interacting with them and showing them that you are real is great.
Yeah, I use Twitter and FB to do that and try and syndicate great quality content on other sites as well. SEO def’ has changed but I don’t think it’s exactly dead. As long as there are search engines then there will be SEO.
No, you’re definitely right. SEO will always be here as long as there is a search engine to put our content on.
Many of us including myself have looked at social networking the wrong way. As I now see it getting traffic from it is kinda like courting a woman in that it takes finesse instead of just thinking you can hit and quit it!
Lol! You are so right! You have to build up trust with people on these social platforms.
Hi Wade!
I totally agree with you on the importance of social networking, just to highlight why social networking is becoming the key for bloggers and webmasters is that what is happening with each Google Search Engine algorithm update, while Google try to fight online spammers they take down some legitimate businesses and websites as well, it’s becoming harder for bloggers to keep following SEO rules therefore they should rely more on social networking to cover their organic traffic losses.
Well, I also believe that treating your own blog like social networking blog is also a good idea that I’ve been doing on my blog lately.
Creating a site that people feel comfortable interacting with each other on is what we should all strive for.
I’ve recently started getting into Twitter as well after ignoring it for longer than I should have! It’s probably the best stupid thing ever invented. Klout.com is another good site you can use in a lot of cool ways as well.
If you like Twitter, you should read my post on Twitter Tools For Boosting Traffic
Social media is getting very popular for advertising your business now a days. It is a good platform where one can interact with the actual consumers. This not only increases your visibility online, but also promotes your business at very low cost.
Is that possible that social media visitor turn into a customer, well everyone has their own interest.
Why wouldn’t you want to convert every person you could?
Great info. I too agree that social networking is really where it is now. If you are not interacting with your readers then they are just going to pass you up. Lets face it most people spend there time on the web on social networking sites, so even if you are not there, they will be.
Yeah, a lot of time is spent doing things that we shouldn’t be doing when in fact, we should be interacting with our readers.
hi,
nice sharing . i totally agree with you. social networks sites are really helpful for a blog and website. you have shared really great post
Thanks.. 🙂
Thanks so much!
I think facebook and twitter is coming on top on the social networking. We can say social
networking sites are a type of ads. and its helpful increase audience to blog or website.
I believe you’re right! I get thousands of visits per day from Twitter by using a simple tool. Twitter and Facebook are both coming to the front for traffic. See the blog post I did on this tool to get hints on what I use.
Hi Wade,
Social Networking plays a wide role in your life if you are blogger. As building relationship from people all over the world is possible through social networking only.
Sharing each other blog post maintaining healthy relations are the key to sucess.
For people that do not include social media into their blog traffic strategy, they have a very disappointing day ahead of them!
Social Networking is the best way to increase and improve your business.Social networking provides the better way
Thanks for providing an effective Blog that offers complete synchronization between creativity and information.Your Blogs meets all the requirements of the readers and is user friendly and provide the best and best information to the reader.
Thank you so much for share the great information…!!!!
I’m glad that you liked the blog!
Pinterest is pretty much the only one I don’t find that useful now.
I get what you’re saying. However, when you look at the stats that Pinterest brings every day, you should at least start an account with them, get some friends and start sharing your blog pictures. Never hurts..
Hi,
I love to read this post.Social media is the best way to marketing your site.
Its very helpful for increasing traffic your site.
Thanks for the useful information.
You’re welcome!
For the marketing strategy social marketing is the key of success in your relationship in market platform. It’s true if anyone share more information among the social networks they use, the more attention that they bring to their site. Just you need to remember being ” social” is the most important part of social networking site.
You’re so right. People need to see you talking and interacting with them before they will grow to trust you and the links you send out.
absolutely right social networking is the best source to get traffic and audience thanks for sharing nice post social marketing absolutely is the key of success.