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How to Successfully Use Your Digital Footprint - Essential in a social media world

Guest post by: Stuart Ayling

Article Overview: Remember when you walked on the beach? You could see a trail left by those who had been there before you. In today’s online marketing world you need a digital footprint and it is very important.

How to Successfully Use Your Digital Footprint - Essential in a social media world

Remember when you walked on the beach? You could see a trail left by those who had been there before you. Their footprints went this way and that. Some seemed to disappear into thin air. Whilst others were firm and clear in the sand.

You left your footprints on the sand too.

And others could choose to follow you, or not.

Now, in the online marketing world you also need a footprint.

It's called your 'digital footprint'.

And it's very important.

In fact, the topic of creating a digital footprint was discussed at the recent workshops I have given about using social media.

You see, when people 'see' you online, they usually only get a glimpse of you. Maybe they read an article written by you. Or maybe they see one of your blog posts. Or maybe they read comments on your wall at Facebook.

But that's not enough. They will want more... because they only have part of the puzzle.

They need to be able to follow your digital footprint to get the complete picture.

OK, so what is your digital footprint?

My definition of a 'digital footprint' is:
The combination of online information, links and interaction that will lead a prospect to your main marketing message.

Your digital footprint can include your website, blog, social network participation, PDF documents, audio recordings, online presentations, micro-blogging (such as Twitter), photo sharing, video publication and more.

Example #1

Let's look at a simple example. You publish a blog. And you have readers who receive updates when you publish each post. When your readers visit your blog and read your post, what do they do if they want to know more about you? Or if they want to find out details of your services?

In most cases they will visit your website. There will be a link on your blog to your website. That's pretty much standard practice now.

Example #2

Let's look at a more complex example. An example that reaches even more prospects. You publish your blog. But you also use Twitter and you also have a profile on a social networking website called LinkedIn.

Now when you publish your blog post you also send a Tweet mentioning the new post, with a short URL link to your blog. At the same time you are also participating in an online discussion at LinkedIn about a topic you are knowledgeable on.

Someone reading your comments at LinkedIn likes what they see. So they 'follow' you on Twitter - to see what else you might have to say or recommend. They are interested in your 'tweet' about your blog post and visit your blog. They like what they find there and
decide to visit your website for even more details on what you can offer.

See what happened?

Your expanded digital footprint in the second example (website, blog, Twitter, LinkedIn) encouraged your prospect to learn more about you at each step they took.

They followed your footprint.

It was easy for them to find out more about you.

And it was very easy for you to tell them more about you. In fact, you didn't push any information at all. They took it from you.

And the best thing is... by the time your prospect reaches your main marketing message (usually on your website) they have really gained a much stronger image of who you are and how you can help them.

Your digital footprint has done it's job of leading prospects to you.

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Article Tags: audio recordings, digital footprint, facebook, footprints on the sand, glimpse, interaction, main marketing, network participation, photo, prospects, puzzle, thin air, twitter



Related Forum Posts
Re: Twitter, Social Networking: What's Your method? - The bottom line: You can have thousands of friends, and it takes only a second to add one, if you don't make conversation with them, it is a useless tool, like all social media sites. I know many people who concentrate mainly on social media marketing, and they make money, but it takes time. Personally, I rather skip social media and focus on other stuff, like article marketing, and I use social media only for fun and communicate with best friends.
Re: Real Estate via social networking? - Now day’s people love to busy on Social media websites especially on Facebook. They are also using internet for all other usual task of their life. They are getting all things on social media sites that's why social media transfer lot traffic to website.
Re: Social Media Marketing Ignorance - Has anyone read any good books on social media they'd like to share? I've been considering reading one, but wanted to see if anyone had any recommendations on an informative one. Someone earlier mentioned a lack of time. That is one reason I'm still in the dark ages as well but I realize that I may be falling behind the times by not at least considering the business case for social media against the time consumption. I'm also hesitant to use facebook and the like fearing it will turn into a platform for old friends to reconnect v. a way to grow my business. I also am unsure how much time it really takes to maintain various social media...any thoughts? Anyone made any mistakes or had any huge successes using social media for business that they'd like to share?
Re: How much is social media part of your marketing strategy? - Most of the companies make gross mistake by using techniques listed on the internet without even looking into whether they are suitable for their business or not. If you are dance company, music company etc etc then you simply cannot afford to ignore social media. There are several other businesses which perform well in social media promotion. You need to look whether social media will help your business or not. If you see huge pool of customers who are searching for your services on Youtube, metacafe, then surely you must jump for it.
Re: FILL IN THE BLANK: My favorite way to market my business is: - [quote="Evan":14pe90vp]Trent - agreed - people who come from SEO have the most willingness to take action and are the most likely to convert![/quote:14pe90vp] Yep, that's what I try telling other marketer's all the time, but too many of them are stuck in the social media clouds and not getting anywhere. I like social media to an extent but I'll take ONE visitor from Google via my SEO efforts over 10 visitors from [insert any social media site here] any day!


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