Key social media strategies

I reading this new post from Charles Heflin and laughed (in a good way, of course) when I saw his second suggestion.

Never let someone else tell you which networks to use

He is so right and I’ve been conversing with people about this subject all week.

When you’re engaging people through social media, you don’t need to worry about which social media site has the best SEO benefit. When you’re already connected to your current and future clients and referral sources, you’ve already been found.

People who are still spinning their wheels with SEO magic have already been bypassed by you.

That’s the beauty of social media. In the Web 2.0 world, you can engage people directly. Those who already understand the concept of social engagement and networking (something that’s been common in the real world since sometime around the beginning of creation), take to online social media naturally. Those who have been playing the Internet Marketing hustle (get traffic, capture name, make pressured offer, who cares who doesn’t want it) will probably be scratching their heads over it for some time to come.

What? I have to connect with people and if I insult them online they might not want to buy from me?

While that may seem obvious to some, I’ve already seen highly visible Internet Marketers make total a**es of themselves on Twitter by calling other people names over the current Presidential campaign. Hey, you can have your opinions–you should have the guts to have your opinions–and you should share them when appropriate too, but name calling?

Seriously?

Social media is going to take some getting used to for some people out there…

http://www.nvisolutions.com/blog/ Simon Abramovitch

“When you’re already connected to your current and future clients and referral sources, you’ve already been found.”

I’m not sure I’m already connected to all future clients, since they’re… in the future. I would guess most people trying to attract business are trying to expand their client base in all directions. With this ambition, ignoring search engines isn’t smart. Just because you can connect directly in social media doesn’t mean thousands upon thousands of connections indirectly achieved are not worth grabbing at (and we’re not talking random connections here; we’re talking in response to a search query, which is, as far as internet traffic goes, very qualified).

“SEO Magic”… Google is real, and so is its user base, and its algorithm. It’s not random. Those who know the ways in which it’s not help those real users reach real websites, where they can become real customers. Social media is directly relevant to this end.
http://www.davesaunders.net Dave Saunders

Simon, many of your clients are in the “future” and that’s true of everyone. This is why people have been networking since around the beginning of time. Using social media the ability to engage people directly is no different that walking across the room at a Toastmasters meeting, making eye contact and saying hello.

In fact, when you focus on engagement SEO is secondary. SEO is certainly a useful pursuit, but my point is that it is not the only way to generate business online and it’s easily proven (even just from the testimonials I’ve received through http://www.yoursocialbrand.com) that people with no SEO rankings have been able to engage and generate leads and business through social media. It’s truly a different paradim from mere traffic generation.