How To Really Use Social Media For Real Results

Yes, social media presents some of the most powerful and cost effective means of marketing today, especially for small businesses. However it is still incredibly amazing to see so many entrepreneurs and business owners approaching it in completely the wrong way.

If you look at 100 Facebook fan pages today you will probably be lucky to find one or two really doing it right. Still you will likely find a couple of comments on these pages from other businesses who are spamming and are prime examples of the wrong way to do social media marketing.

People are still confusing social media with old, traditional forms of advertising in which they pitch and hard sell the public in the hope they can convince them to buy. This is not what social media is about. In fact that isn't what most marketing should be about anymore. Savvy marketers are realizing that it is simply much better to be in the right place at the right time and be there for consumers who are actually interested in what you have to offer instead of spamming the masses with annoying messages that they have no interest in.

People are open to interacting and following businesses online if marketing is done right. Craft the right message and they will come to you and be thankful for your communications.

Social media is really about building credibility, trust, relationships and connecting with new prospects. Yes, you can still close business this way and this doesn't mean having to wait forever. Your goals should be to create a presence and messages that make your target market want to hear more from you and want to do business with you and make it easy for them to choose to do business with you when they are ready.

Think about it as building a platform. Adding followers and fans that stay and enable you to tap into their spheres of influence and personal networks as a powerful referral is much more valuable than trying to make one high pressured sale.

Of course, as you have probably heard before this involves providing free, valuable content. For those of you that are cringing at the sound of giving anything away for free this doesn't have to be incredibly expensive but it will pay off big. You will also no doubt discover that this is far more profitable than many other expensive marketing materials, channels and strategies that you may have been contemplating.

From this platform and with this following you will find that the door is open to launching many products and services that can provide you with limitless income opportunities. Just don't wait too long to start or you will find yourself feeling the pressure to over sell and become one of those detested spammers.