Cheap Internet Marketing Tip: Social Networks Are Almost Free

Here’s a cheap Internet marketing tip: social networks are almost free. For absolutely no monetary cost (just your valuable time), you can create a profile on one or more social networks that will drive visitors to your business website.

Here’s how to go about it.

1. Find your niche(s). There are two schools of thought when it comes to social networking: Big fish in a small pond, or small fish in a big pond? You can participate on a huge network (like Facebook) and shoot for the big score, or you can participate on a small network and market to a highly targeted niche. While I recommend niche network participation ahead of big network participation, the reality is that either can lead to success as long as you work at it.
2. Take your profile seriously. One of the biggest sins in social networking is an incomplete profile. Fill out every box, answer every question, and put some time into it. Incomplete profiles make you look like a spammer.
3. Use a real picture. Don’t use your company logo as your profile logo – social networks are about people, not logos.
4. Act like a human being. Success in social marketing is all about relationships. Don’t talk about yourself or your business to excess, be nice, help others, and try to contribute to the community.
5. Give it time. The best social networks are built one person at a time. Focus on building a relationship with everyone you contact and don’t rush it.
6. Don’t worry about numbers. A close relationship with 50 people is better than no relationship with 500 people. This really goes back to my first point – I think the best strategy for success in social marketing is to build relationships in a small niche related to your industry.
7. Don’t spread yourself to thin. When you first start building a social marketing presence, you might be tempted to get involved in dozens of networks. Unless you’re a social marketing superstar, you probably don’t have the time or energy it takes to really build out dozens of good social profiles.

As you can see, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Social marketing is “cheap” in the sense that it doesn’t cost money…but it’s not really “free.”