3 Social Marketing Tips by Janet Callaway, The Natural Networker

Social media marketing changes so quickly that this article could well be called “3 Social Marketing Tips of the Hour.” Within the past couple of weeks, Facebook changed its profile pages, twitter reached 100 million users and Bing 90 million users. Mashable's list of “what's new” is about 30 items per day—and those are just the major items.

While the “how to” will change, the basics are remain the same.

1. Social marketing and social networking are fantastic ways to increase your exposure and to generate traffic to your website or blog. However, remember the first word is Social. The emphasis needs to be on socializing first and promoting second. Think 80/20—80 social/20 promotional.

2. Socialize, offer value to your friends/followers and build trust. We know from surveys that 78% of people trust recommendations from people they know vs. 14% trust advertisements. If people feel they know you because of your posts/tweets, don't you think they are much more likely to trust you rather than someone they perceive as a spammer?

3. When marketing products or services with social media marketing, make sure you post useful information on a consistent basis. This establishes you as an expert because it showcases your knowledge in your niche. Remember, in addition to posting and tweeting, you can link back to longer articles, free ebooks and reports. Give people value—consistently and generously.

Do you like the constant changes in the social media world?