6 Tips to Succeed in Social Media

In the last year, social media has become very popular. Everybody is talking about it and almost every online marketer has used it. However, most of them have failed at it. Why? They just don’t get the way it works. I am about to share with you some of the things we discovered promoting over 80 clients using social media.

1. Don’t Steal Other People’s Work

I see this all the time. Someone takes the time to create a group, sends them great information, and builds a relationship with his followers. Then someone else wants to take advantage of this group that took the owner so much work to put together and starts posting promotional comments about his own company. Needless to say, these comments are always removed and the poster ends up looking like a spammer. If you want to succeed in Social Media, create your own group and post your own content, don’t try to cash on someone else’s efforts.

2. Avoid Self-Promotion

Don’t talk about yourself and your company all the time. People don’t care about it. Give them something of value, build relationships, and get people to trust you. Let them know what you do but don’t try to sell them anything. They will call you when they are ready to buy.

3. First Give, then Ask

Don’t you just hate it when someone sends you an email every other day asking you to do something (check out a website or register to get their free ebook) but they don’t do anything for you? We encourage some of our clients to join lead groups. The first thing we recommend that they do is to send leads to other members. Then these members start sending leads their way. That’s how it works. 95% of the people take, take, and take. They never give. Do things the other way around and I guarantee that you’ll be noticed.

4. Use Your Real Name

I get about 10 friend requests per day on Facebook and LinkedIn from companies. I ignore all of them. If you want to network with me, tell me who you are and show me your face.

5. Do It Only if You Enjoy It

I love meeting people and networking. I love having conversations with strangers and exchange ideas. I am not always thinking about how I can make money out of the person I am talking to. If you don’t enjoy the process, you are not likely to be successful at it. People can read between lines and they can tell if all you care about is their money.

6. Don’t Annoy Your Followers

Send them a message or a request only if they will be useful to them and don’t do it ten times per week. I immediately unsubscribe from lists that send me more than 3 messages per week. This guy sent me 15 emails per day last week! That’s not the way to get others to buy your stuff. Monitor the number of people that unsubscribe from your lists. If that number is too high, revise your strategy.

Follow these tips and you’ll have a strong basis in utilizing social media for your business!