IM Advice - Social Media really needed?

This is a great post, JSammy.

But to ignore social media is to ignore potential.

I cannot even begin to tell you how much power social media has given me in the last 10 to 15 years. This is a big subject, so I won't expand too much in this initial post. I just wanted to let you know my take on things, and strongly advise you to embrace social media.

There are people who don't use it and make a killing despite not using it.

There are people who use it and make a killing with it.

There are people who use it who don't make any money with it.

If you can find a way to profitably incorporate it into your marketing, then do it.

If not, you can still do great things without it.

The key with social media is to develop a system and to use it to leverage existing content.

It's also an investment in the future without too much effort.

Also, once you get sufficient traffic from it and earn money, you can outsource it.

The key is to gain a large group of followers where people hang out and make them want to return to your site with each post. It is very good traffic source for me it is 30% of traffic between the top 5 networks.

That kind of traffic is very valuable as they are fans and interested in connecting with you. Now crappy marketing techniques are a waste if you are spending your time posting to groups that are not targeted. Facebook ads are ok but other networks are too expensive and I dont see value in advertising there.

I don't think you do see the value, JSammy. Look at it this way. Take Warrior Forum as an example. If you're selling anything related to MMO this is a thriving little self contained ecosystem just swarming with prospects. All you need to do is figure out what they want and give it to them.

Same thing goes for eBay.

Same thing goes for Amazon Kindle.

Same thing with Twitter and Facebook.

What do all of these venues have in common? People that are devoted to hanging out and shopping there. Millions and millions of them.

So what does this have to do with Social Media? Everything. Facebook keeps extensive records on users. So one way to use social media is by figuring out your demographics and putting ads in front of them.

But that's not all you can do. You can do it manually or you can get software to search the entire site for people and groups devoted to what you're doing. And then you go to the hottest sites and schmooze. What I mean is you become part of the community and share content with some of the heavy hitters and build relationships that way. Then they share content with you.

One thing I never forget is that it's always going to come back to providing great value with your content. But you don't necessarily have to do that exclusively through your site. You can go to the various little ecosystems out there and actually rub elbows with people interested in your stuff, just like certain smart marketers do here.

So many people think all there is to Facebook is gathering up a bunch of silly Likes. That's only a small part of the game.

Facebook is a huge site but you can isolate your prospects and identify your own ecosystem for your target market and sell them stuff there or point them back to your own site. And yes, this will take time away from your site but it's time well spent.

This isn't rocket science. I've gotta laugh at the people who are so hell bent on SEO, where they're out there trying to rank with billions and billions of other pages. Why not do the smart thing and identify your market within a larger market and then give them what they want? Get it?

Facebook and twitter are 2 social media sites I like using. Like explained above, identify your target audience well and promote it well with the specific needs. Thus, you'll be dealing with a particular group of people with specific need that you'll solve. This is the best thing for your business. That's why social media marketing is such a strong tool for you to use.