8 Secrets to Boost Your Business Through Social Media

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1 8 Secrets to Boost Your Business Through Social Media A Networkers Guide to Social Media Brought to you by:

2 Social Networks Are Here to Stay According to BlogHer, 93% of the 164 million U.S. adult internet users are on Facebook. That is 152 million users in the US alone. According to comscore, 1 out of every 8 minutes online is spent on Facebook. And the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the average Facebook user spends more than 11 hours a month on Facebook! The fact of the matter is social networking is here to stay and, when utilized properly, creates a warm market platform that extends well beyond your standard circle of influence. Leveraging your social networks will tremendously impact your 200,000,000 Users 350,000,000 Tweets/Day 900,000,000 Users Avg. 130 Friends/User 3+ Billion Views/Day business for the better, and may even result in additional friends you never knew you had. Social Networks = Big Business Did you know that in 2011, 67% of businesses surveyed said they acquired new customers through Facebook? Small businesses across the country are flocking to social networks to market to their current and potential clients and customers. In fact, according to Zoomerang, 44% of all small businesses currently use some form of social media to extend their company s reach beyond their doors. How different is network marketing compared to other small businesses? Regardless of what you may think, you are a small business owner. You are in this category. You have a true business. Networking icon Bob Schmidt said that in order to have a successful network marketing business you have to treat it like a business. Businesses are acquiring customers and promoting themselves on social networks...are you? Network marketers who neglect their social networks lose the power their title contains. Network marketers who neglect their social networks lose the power their title contains. Start leveraging the power of networks by utilizing your social networks. In this report we ll point you in the right direction to get started and give you some helpful tips for marketing your business. The Basics: Getting Started Start slow and work your way up. If you re not already on some social networking platform, don t immediately sign up for every one out there and try to manage all of them. Start first with what has proven to be the most widely used: Facebook. To sign up for a free account go to and click on Sign Up. If you already have one, or several social networking profiles, but have not used them to any great depth, now is the time to focus your efforts into one channel: Facebook.

3 8 Secrets to Boost Your Networking Business Through Social Media It s a Social Network... Be Social! Online social networking is perfect for even the most introvert of personalities. Within a relatively small amount of time you can tell all your friends about your day, wish your friend happy birthday, look at a few photos and even see what your favorite celebrity is up to. Similar to face-to-face relationships, Facebook friendships are best nurtured by both people. This means that rather than just posting pictures on your wall and sharing your status with your friends, you need to interact with those you have friended. Here are a few activities you should regularly participate in to effectively engage your Facebook friends: Tips for Being Social Comment on at least 3 friends post each day Like 3-5 items each day that your friends have posted Upload photos that include friends and Tag them in it Post on your own wall at least once every other day Seek out new friends and accept friend requests promptly Send a private message to at least one friend a week Repost items that your friends have posted that you like Don t Burn Out Your Friends All too often an overzealous marketer hoping to strike it rich will post numerous things about their product or opportunity. While this person may be extremely excited and feel like they are extending their reach, the reality is that their network has options. And one popular option for spam posts is to Unsubscribe. When this happens you are actually accomplishing the exact opposite of what you set out to do. Rather than expanding your circle of influence, you re shrinking it! For this purpose it is highly recommended that you post about your product or opportunity only 1 out of every 8 posts. In addition, any posts related to your business or product should relate to a personal aspect of your life or real world experience rather than be advertisement-like. This may include information about your personal life, or perhaps an article you found. A good example of a post related to your product or opportunity would look something like this: Short and Sweet Research has shown that posts between characters get 60% more Likes, comments, and shares than those that have 250 or more characters. This should be the objective. You want people to engage with what you are posting, so keep it short and sweet. Facebook Camera App on Your Smart Phone Social media expert Dan Zarrella, who analyzed more than 1.3 million Facebook posts from the 10,000 most liked pages, says photos get the best engagement response, followed by text and then videos. The moral of the story...make sure you have the Facebook Camera app on your smart phone to more easily take and upload photos to your wall. Doing so will increase the chance of engagement from your friends and ultimately the success of your business.

4 Timing is Key In his research, Zarrella also states that posting when others aren t posting helps boost the likelihood of Shares and Likes (your end goal). This includes updates later in the day, Eastern Time, with Shares peaking at 6pm and Likes peaking at 8pm. Take a little time in the evenings to post an update, even if it is just what you re eating for dinner. Include Links to Your Website Whenever relevantly possible include a link to your website or other information. Obviously a link to your company or product is not going to make sense if you are posting a silly photo of your dog in the bath. (Unless of course your company sells a dog shampoo.) Make it relevant. If you post about the tasty snack you re eating on your diet and you have a webpage that talks about that snack or a link for someone to purchase it, it makes sense to include it in your post. However, you need to be careful about how frequently you use these links (see point #2). Try to vary the links that you post. If your system is a MyBuilder system from Sound Concepts, consider building a presentation around several different products. You then can post individual pages from your site. You can post links to the presentations you ve built, videos, PDFs and much more to keep the information fresh for your network, which will decrease the likelihood that they turn you off in their news feed. Mix it Up You can have too much of a good thing. If you keep pointing people to your company site, no matter how good the site, it s not good. If you are only posting photos of you traveling, people will get bored. Mix it up. Post photos, ask questions, post favorite quotes, or videos. You could even add a poll. Everybody is different and what might resonate with one person in your network inevitably won t with others. For that reason alone it is important to reach out to your entire network using various forms of posts on your wall. Consistency, Consistency, Consistency Don t neglect your network. Consistency is key. Not just consistently posting interesting content, but consistently participating and interacting with your friends in your network. There are some tools out that can help you with one aspect of consistency. If you have a MyBuilder system from Sound Concepts, chances are you have access to the Auto Post Tool in your back office. This tool will help you post relevant content both company specific and generic to your wall on a schedule you determine. There aren t, however, any tools our there that can replace the social aspect of social networking. You still need to consistently comment, Like and repost your friends posts in order to be effective.

5 Social Networking - Final Thoughts Do you think that social networks are only for younger minds or more tech savvy users or are irrelevant altogether? Think again! Social networks create big money for small businesses...and that includes home businesses. Neglecting the social networking aspect of your business is like accelerating your car Flinestone style (with your feet). You can still move your car and get from A to Z, but using the gas pedal will get you there that much quicker. If you re new to social networking, start with the 8 secrets previously mentioned to jump start your social networking presence. As soon as you master the 8 secrets mentioned it s time to start looking at additional networks (Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and others) that can help you in your efforts. Mastering your social networks is not difficult; it does however, take time and some effort. This report is brought to you by: 2012 All Rights Reserved. Sound Concepts, Inc. To request a demo of the MyBuilder system please contact sales@soundconcepts.com. Networking is not about hunting. It is about farming. It s about cultivating relationships. Don t engage in premature solicitation. You ll be a better networker if you remember that. ~ Dr. Ivan Misner, Best Selling Author Social media isn t the end-all-be-all, but it offers marketers unparalleled opportunity to participate in relevant ways. It also provides a launchpad for other marketing tactics. Social media is not an island. It s a high-power engine on the larger marketing ship. ~ Matt Dickman, Technomarketer.typepad.com How can you squander even one more day not taking advantage of the greatest shifts of our generation? ~ Seth Godin, Best Selling Author