What do you think of when you hear the words Twitter, Facebook, and other online social media websites? Do your eyes glaze over?  Do you think, “That’s just for young kids!” If so, you’re missing out on valuable and FREE marketing platforms that exist to promote your business.  Did I mention that it was FREE?

There are over 251 Million internet users in North America alone, over  1.6 Billion Worldwide!  So if you’re not on social media, you risk losing all those potential customers to the smart business folks who are utilizing social media marketing.

Here are Seven Points as to why social media must be used no matter what you are promoting:

Point 1: You Can’t Beat “FREE!”

The current most popular social media platforms being used for business are FREE: Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. These are all sites that build relationships with a targeted audience in mind. It’s definitely more cost-effective than spending money on online advertising techniques such as Pay-Per-Click or banner ads.

Point 2: It’s A Small World After All!

It’s a global market out there! Why not take advantage of that? On Twitter you have the opportunity at any time of day or night to see real-time “tweets” from people in Japan, England, the U.S., India and many other countries.

Say you have a book that would appeal to anyone in the world who reads in English, why limit yourself to just promoting in the U.S.? Thanks to Amazon, people outside the U.S. can buy your book even if it is only available in U.S. stores.

Point 3: Targeted Marketing for a Targeted Audience.

Socia l media allows you to join groups of like-minded people with similar interests and goals. You can join groups as varied as  Web 2.0 Marketers to Foodies to Sci-Fi Geeks. Join the groups that would most benefit from your product or service, build your own community. This can pay off in increased sales for you.

Point 4: Use Social Media to Let Out Your Inner Guru!

If I’ve learned anything in the 20 years I’ve been in sales, it’s that people won’t buy anything from you unless they trust you first!  You could be selling a car that successfully runs on air, but if your client doesn’t feel comfortable with you…good luck!  If you share your knowledge with others online via your social media marketing groups, you can establish yourself as an expert, someone confident and in the know.

You may receive invitations for article interviews, guest writership, BlogTalkRadio show interviews or podcasts. This can lead to more free marketing plus more free exposure for your expertise.

Point 5: Birds of a Feather…

Once you have begun building your followers, start your own community of people who are in your niche of choice.  Share information, sources, tips, etc.  Swap leads and referrals.  Share your knowledge within your community.  These people can be your loyal fans and help spread the word to their friends and followers.

Point 6: Why Can’t We All Just Get Along?

The face of business is rapidly shifting!! In the virtual world of social media marketing, our would be competitors in the off-line world are collaborating to provide products and services to their combined clients/customers.  Marketing is changing from competitive to collaborative.

And consumers are very responsive to these cross-promotions, affiliate programs, joint ventures – especially when another expert is introduced by a first expert they already know, like and trust.

You and your affiliate partner can each benefit from the other person’s clientele list, greatly expanding your customer base.

Point 7: Your Life in Real Time, Anytime in No Time at All!

Updating these sites to let your peeps know where you will be appearing, what you will be speaking about, what products you are endorsing, etc takes seconds!  There are even online applications that allow you to update several of your sites at one time or schedule your updates in advance!

So once you take that leap of faith into social media marketing and start building your own communities, you’ll find that it’s not as imposing or confusing as you had thought.  In fact it’s a great tool to promote your products and services! In the very near future we will look back at our pre-social media marketing days and wonder how we ever did without it!

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