Social media represents one of the largest shifts in modern business—and because of this your customers are changing.  No longer satisfied with listening to marketing messages and doing what companies want them to do, customers now want their voices heard and they want companies to react and fulfill their needs—not the other way around.

Social media can be an incredibly effective way for companies to get their messages out to their audience, but more importantly, it’s a way for companies to actively engage and listen.  Social media creates direct access never before been seen in the business world, access that helps businesses provide products and services directly to those who want or need them in a very targeted, real-time manner.

So how do you use sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Blogger in an overall marketing strategy and even create new revenue streams in the process?  In addition to showing you why being involved in social media is important, this book provides you the tools to get a running start.

Power Social Media Marketing not only explains how social media has changed the game for anyone doing business online, but also provides lessons about traditional Internet marketing tactics and ideas.  This is an important point because traditional Internet marketing tactics still work.  The people making the most money online understand that pay-per-click advertising, search engine optimization, and effective content are as important as any of the new tools available.  A combination of both is what will take your business to the next level.

Building an audience and driving traffic from social media sites to your own website are two key lessons taken from this book.  But what is just as important is learning what visitors are doing on your site, what they are searching for, and how they got there.   The chapter in Power Social Media Marketing on how to use analytics software will give readers an understanding of how to create a better website experience for their visitors while also learning how to market better to these visitors.

SEO is another key element to building solid exposure online that is discussed in this book.  Creating a search engine and social media friendly website is absolutely key to gaining exposure on the social web.

This book also tackles blogging. Learning how to properly use a blog for PR, reputation management, and marketing purposes is an essential and cheap way to enhance your business online.  You will also learn how to use a blog to create additional revenue streams—something of interest to every business owner.

This book is a great primer on social media and how to get started promoting yourself and your business online, but it is also good for the experienced marketer who wants to build more market share and make more money on the Internet.  It combines knowledge of traditional Internet marketing with the evolution to social media to help you build a solid foundation built on both.  Power Social Media Marketing lays out a roadmap that will take you to the next level in Internet business.

Buy it now for only 9 USD

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How long has Coca-Cola existed? It does not really matter, but the well-known beverage has been in existence since the late 19th century. Of course, Coca-Cola did not come into the mainstream until it built a brand — not just a drink, but an experience. Even the world’s most popular drink was not a success until Asa Griggs Candler, a businessman, built a brand around it with aggressive, long-term marketing.

Social media marketers need to think less like salesmen, and more like long-term marketers. There is a difference between instant sales — metrics that drive your current actions — and potential sales — projected success that comes with long-term planning and branding. The biggest problem for marketers is translating this potential long-term success into a realistic, scalable social media strategy.

So, how do you do it? It starts with building a consistent brand, or at least laying the groundwork for one. Those who worked with computers in the early 1990s will remember the Apple Inc. of fifteen years ago; called Apple Computers, rather than its current name. Their brand — not just their image, but their actions — was completely different. Instead of their current sleek line of ultra-simple computers and products, the Apple of the 1990s was a mess of multiple models, ultra-complex operation, and ‘boring beige boxes.’

Now, they are one of the strongest brands in the world. Apple are a walking story of how brands can change over time, and how social media marketers do not need to have everything worked out at the start. Even if your brand loses its appeal — as many online brands often do — there is always a chance to re-brand it and come back stronger. For all of Apple’s failures in the mid-1990s, they rebounded, largely due to regaining their most powerful personal asset, and created some of the most popular and highly acclaimed tools in computing.

Craft your social media brand the same way that you would any other: with care. If things go wrong, it is never the end of the world. For every negative indexed search result, there is a chance to generate enough positive word of mouth feedback to render it ineffective and inconsequential. For every social media bungle, there is a chance to absorb it, learn from it, and create a more powerful brand as a result.

Coca-Cola, Apple, and the rest of the world’s most powerful brands did not make it big by playing for short-term sales. They created something remarkable, spent a lot of time developing both their product and their image, and created a long-term marketing campaign that drove them to success. Look at any powerful figure in social media and you will see the same.

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Social media, on the whole, has not proven to be a particularly profitable platform for affiliate marketers. It is partly a problem of education and mindset; more social media power users are relatively well versed in affiliate programs, and understand that they are paying for someone else’s commission. On top of that, there is an overwhelming belief that bloggers simply should not be rewarded for sales — a backwards idea that is slowly strangling the blogging and social media world of any worthwhile revenue streams.

Still, there are thousands of marketers that make social media work in their favor. From authors and TV stars to affiliate marketers, more people are generating an income from social media traffic. It is not down to any advanced tactics, but simple strategies that help convince users to buy their products. These five tips can help you join that group of profitable social media marketers.

1. View your account as a long-term investment.
Let us use Twitter as an example, as it is a highly popular social media platform at the moment. Smart marketers know that a couple of days on the service and a few hundred followers are not enough to market any products successfully. Sure, they might sell one or two things, but the time spent doing so will hugely outweigh any potential profits that could come from it.

The best social media affiliate marketers view their profiles and social media presences as a long-term investment. Instead of starting the marketing cycle straight away, they spend a lot of time building the most important marketing currency available: trust.

2. Don’t market poor products.
It only takes one shady product for you to lose all of your social media influence. As effective as poor products may be for conversions through PPC and SEO, they will bring you down when you make them a focus point of your social media strategy. Take a step back and examine what your audience would like to buy — they will value quality, honesty, and products that you personally use. Do not sell them short with anything else.

3. Be honest about your affiliate income.
If your profile, blog, or account isn’t known for sending out affiliate links, let people know that you are. It is a little funny — certain blogs and profiles end up under fire for linking to affiliate products, but the entire potential storm can be tamed with a simple (affiliate link) disclaimer. If you think your audience would like full transparency, give it to them.

4. Know your audience.
A group of moms are not likely to be interested in web hosting. Likewise, an account followed by teenagers is not likely going to generate any sales for miracle hair loss cures. Knowing your audience can bring you much greater sales and significantly better returns. Much like you would target different demographics in a PPC campaign, target different demographics on social media service with highly targeted offers and messages.

5. Learn from losses.
For marketers, one of the best things about social media is that it is very difficult to lose money. Time, on the other hand, is a completely different story. The more time you sink into an account — even a failed account — the more you are learning, adapting, and picking up. That is valuable information, and sometimes the greatest marketing failure can yield highly profitable future campaigns.

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With this rush towards social media services, many businesses are wondering if they are missing out on a piece of the pie. Much like the dot-com rush of the late 1990s, companies are desperately trying to adapt to social media, even if they do not understand the direct effects that it could have on their businesses. For some business owners less experienced in social media, that means hiring an external social media consultant to come in, patch things up, and create a social media presence for their business.

The big question on the mind of every business owner is, of course, are the consultants actually worth it? The question has been the subject of hundreds of blog posts, numerous studies, and a great deal of arguments within the blogosphere. Of course, the social media experts and consultants are protecting their positions, and in many ways they have every reason to. The question itself is slightly flawed, and is generally a poor indicator of whether or not social media consulting services are worth anything to your business.

If you are a business owner who wants to make the most of the new communications methods popping up today, do not consider the messenger so much as the platform. A social media consultant might have the skills to put your business in front of many Twitter users, but that may not be the ideal goal of your business. To some, social media is a wave that must be surfed, while to intelligent businesses it’s a tactic that could be used, should it prove itself effective.

This is why it is much more important to look at social media in the entire sense, rather than just at the consultants that could possibly bring you social media success. A lot of social media is very simple, but if it is not going to bring a direct return to your business, what is it worth to you? Would you spend money on direct advertising that failed to bring in any real returns? Of course not. So why do so many businesses spend money on a social media presence that’s hard to monitor and often fails to bring in any new income?

If you are planning a major social media campaign, look at is as a tactic rather than a strategy. A consultant could help you plan a massive Twitter barrage, but if it is not going to bring in any returns, why bother? Social media can be an incredibly smart move for businesses — just look at the way AirAsia has leveraged the social media space — but it is only valuable when done right. Measure the potential effects of social media for your business, create a plan, and then look at consultants and outside hires.

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