Slowly, slowly catchy monkey.

This now global phenomenon is a real bonus for all but a few businesses. However, like most things it is even possible to get this wrong! I know we are talking about marketing; marketing as we know it, has the aim of promoting and creating interest to drive prospects into the buying process of your business. With that in mind, I would suggest you take into account some of the sales rules, in particular:

•                 People don’t like to be sold to but they do love to buy.

•                 Don’t concentrate on the product, concentrate on the person.

•                 Create an environment which makes people want to buy.

•                 Don’t pitch too soon, learn about the people first.

So, if you’re going to use social networking sites, apply the same rules and use ipatter (shameless pitch). Tell people what it is they want to hear, in the way they want to hear it. Before you do, you need to gain their trust. You need to show you are a trusted resource of information and an expert in the area you have positioned yourself in.

With the pure social sites you’ll need to be more personality orientated and give something of your personal life, otherwise you’ll just be seen as another business trying to score cheap goals on a site which is designed for network connections and in our case commerce.  With our site designed more for businesses you can afford to be more business orientated, although you will still need to follow the rules.

Using networking sites to build your database of contacts.

I believe the best use of online networking sites is to build your contact database for a variety of online marketing material. Keep in mind what complimentary information will be of value to your target markets, based upon the different personas identified in your research.

Probably the most effective way to do this is to offer regular, email output which is easy to read and gives the reader a clear vision of your understanding of the issues they face, with solutions to help them. I use this method to help develop, through reminders, what my audience may already know, to educate on aspects they may not have considered or maybe have forgotten over time. One system for this I have found works well for me is to take the following very obvious and logical steps:

Establish profile – Once you are a member of the sites most suitable for you to use, the first thing to do is to set up your profile. Although this sounds, oh so simple, take your time. Pick what you write and the pictures you use with care. Remember first impressions are all important. Decide how you want to be seen and what impression you want to create before you start. If need be, get some second opinions before you publish anything.

Invitations – when you first join most of the social and business networking sites they give you the option to automatically review your computer based contact list for people who are already part of the site and to invite others from your contact base who are not. Take advantage of this, as well as inviting as many people as you are able to join the site and connect with you there. Another good way to build your connections is to start to connect with as many other people as you can. Be selective; you need to remember to maintain your reputation, brand and values, you don’t want to be seen to be connected to the wrong people.

Create content – In reality, the content phase will be concurrent to the invitations. You want the people you connect with to see the content quickly to maintain their interest. Make it interesting, conversational, not too technical and of value to the personas you are aiming the content at. Remember this is not a pitch but your chance to give value, related to the issues the prospect will have experience of and demonstrate you are an expert in the arena.

Deliver extracts – Once you have your content, update and add to it on a regular basis. Send out samples of the content to motivate the recipient to want to see the entire work, driving them to your website and into your buying process.

Build links – Make sure you post your content on other sites and link them back to your main site. Use sites like Digg, so your content can be found easily by people who have an interest in your content but are not currently on your distribution list.

Referrals – Try to encourage people to refer your content on to others so you can constantly expand your reach and build your database of readers. Twitter is a good mechanism for this kind of activity.

Get feedback – It is important you are constantly reviewing the success of your content. You should encourage and welcome regular feedback of your content and how fit for purpose it is. Once you have the feedback, use it to amend and develop your content and start the process again.

Getting the best from your networking sites.

Once you decide to use these sites to help with your marketing and also, perhaps, to raise your profile, you need to consider optimising the content to help get the best results possible. Here are just a few examples of some of the things you can do to achieve your goal:

•  Be specific; who it is you are targeting with your content. Make sure the content is pitched right to appeal to them directly.

•  Be a thought leader; ensure your content is interesting but more than this, make sure the content offers value to the reader, not just fluff. Remember you are showing you are the expert and a trusted resource. Concentrate on the issues your target market have, not your product, that comes much later.

•  Find your level and make it your own, never emulate someone else, be unique. Always act with integrity, be honest, be transparent and use your mother test. If your mum would think it was not right then it probably isn’t!

•  Use links to and from your website and blog; people can see the full story and the full range of possibilities. You should always link between the content on the social networking sites and your own site, it is an absolute must have. Wherever you can, encourage people to contact you. Make it easy for people to reach you online and then make sure you always follow it up personally.

•  Participate as much as you can with online forums and other group sites. Ideally you should create your own groups and then encourage and participate in as many discussions as you can. Become an online leader.

•  To really make things work well you need to make it really easy for people to find you. Linking content to the blog search sites and also encourage others to create links and bookmark your content on sites like Digg.

Like all marketing, the secret is to try a number of concurrent activities. Experiment and use what works; dump the things that don’t. Never worry about a bit of organised chaos, that is fine. It’s a better option than doing one thing at a time and taking months to get the activity completed.