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Can you really profit from Social Media Marketing?

by Ed on 21st July 2009

Image representing Twitter as depicted in Crun...Image via CrunchBase

Social Media Marketing is the art of using ‘community driven’ websites like YouTUBE.com, Facebook.com and MySpace.com to attract new business and increase sales and profits.

There’s a lot of buzz at the moment about social marketing.

Increasingly more “everyday small business owners” are becoming aware of it as another approach to online marketing.

In fact maybe you’ve heard about Twitter?

It’s been featured on the news lately, and the front page of the Federation of Small Business “First Voice” Magazine — and no doubt countless other business publications around the world.

Now, I agree Twitter is definitely the ‘coolest kid on the block’ at the moment.

I don’t deny some businesses are set to make a killing on those kind of sites. In fact many already are.

I know of at least one business that’s successfully using Twitter to get more clients. (Hey Cindy, I’d love to interview you about that! :-)

So this all begs the question – why haven’t *I* been “preaching” social media marketing on my blog here, or in my e-mail newsletter?

And to confuse people even more, I also recently announced I’m writing a book on e-mail marketing… which is just about the OLDEST online marketing tactic available!

So why have I been ignoring the ‘cool’ new tactics?

Well the fact is… I can clearly see that very few small businesses are using even just “plain old” e-mail marketing.

So for most businesses, looking at anything other than email marketing at the moment is like signing up to take a Degree… when they haven’t even taken their eleven-plus, O-levels, or GCSEs!

(The old maxim “Walk before you run” springs to mind!)

E-mail marketing is THE most essential tactic every business should have in place BEFORE they look at all the other ‘cool’ stuff.

And here’s a case in point:

At this very moment one of the year’s biggest online product launches is taking place.

Perry Belcher and Ryan Deiss are two of the most successful entrepreneurs in the (short) history of Social Media Marketing, and they’ve created what sounds like an incredible training programme that explains how to profit from social media.

Perry has got more than 100,000 followers on Twitter, which is a big deal if you know Twitter or maybe have an account. (Did I mention all the best social media sites like Twitter are free to use?)

Anyway, as part of their product launch, Perry has released some brilliant videos which explain how to use social media to generate new business, open up new revenue streams and ultimately make more money from the web.

They’re extremely compelling. Click here to sign up and watch them. You’ll see what I mean!

WARNING

Compared to Perry, I definitely come across
as the Brit with the Stiff Upper Lip! He makes use of a fairly
colourful vocabulary – so be warned if you decide to watch
the videos. (I found them extremely entertaining as well as
informative.)

Something you’ll notice in their videos is that they still advise you to ultimately direct your social media traffic at e-mail capture pages.. so you can then perform e-mail marketing. (What I call list building landing pages.)

In other words, they’re still bringing it all back — full circle — to e-mail marketing.

Why?

Because having your own e-mail list of prospects and customers and clients is STILL the number one way to use the web to effectively grow any small business.

Social media marketing is just one (admittedly very powerful way) of injecting more e-mails into your sales funnel.

Anyway, whether or not you’re e-mail marketing, I strongly recommend Perry’s videos — check them out now…

==> http://www.edrivis.com/recommends/perry-smm-videos/

As well as getting videos you’ll also get some ‘cheat sheets’ to support the videos – I’m really impressed with the quality of the free stuff they’re giving away as part of this launch.

NB: If you who took my advice and got hold of Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula should sign up to this launch, if just to see how a launch being done to perfection!

And if after watching the videos and getting his downloads you find yourself asking the question “should I (YOU) be using social media marketing?” the come back to my blog here and post the question below.

I’ll be happy to answer individual questions on this one (unless I get to many to cope with – so if you have a question make sure you get back to my blog quickly to post your question as a comment.)

Here’s the link one last time – sign up to watch the videos and get the ‘cheat sheets’ while you still can… http://www.edrivis.com/recommends/perry-smm-videos/

WARNING: By signing up you get to watch the videos and all of the free content which they release as they countdown to the launch day for their social media marketing training programme.

That content is extremely compelling. It’s designed to be, so that come launch day you fully understand the benefits of social media marketing and want to go ahead and buy their training programme.

However, if after watching all that content you’re still wondering whether social media can help your business then don’t buy their programme — come back here and ask the question, because for some of the small business owners who read my blog it won’t be 100% relevant. (The main way to decide is this — do you have customers, clients and prospects who use the social networking/community sites like Facebook, Twitter etc.

For most businesses the answer will be yes, but there will be a small percentage of busines owners who say ‘no’ or who sell to a tightly defined geographic region and won’t get a return on the time they invest in social media marketing. SO: If in doubt, come back here and ask me BEFORE investing.

All my best,
Ed.

P.S. For anyone who signed up for announcements about my new book on e-mail marketing – I’ll be sending an email shortly… I want you to help me choose which cover design to use. (I’ve got two versions to choose from). Hope you can help out.

If you’re not on the announcements list for E-Mail Marketing Dynamite click here to sign up.

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Article by Ed Rivis

I'm the Amazon 5-star rated author of three books about web marketing, and since 2008 have spoken to more than 4,000 business owners at conferences and seminars around the UK. I've also developed software that automatically generates lead pages and home-study programmes that help small business owners like you generate more sales-leads and win new customers and clients, online.

Ed has written 326 awesome articles.

  • http://blog.1plus1makes3.co.uk/ Karin H

    “Social media marketing is just one (admittedly very powerful way) of injecting more e-mails into your sales funnel.”

    That’s what I come away with watching the first video (Perry does remind me of a rather ‘infamous’ Dutch presenter, same enthusiasm and ‘bloky’ mannerism ;-) ): new tool to add to the sales funnel. Make sure you use this new tool is the givers gain method, as with The Biggest Mistake made by many with email marketing: don’t start selling for the word go, start building trust and expertise first.

    Most needed ingredient – as Perry concurs: patience (and good content).

    Looking forward to your new book.

    Karin H. (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)

  • http://apeel-solutionsblog.info Andrew Peel

    Great post nice to see another Brit fan of Perry I got all his free stuff and even small suggestions have taken subscribers to my Blog RSS from 2 per week to about 5 – 7 a day!. I was familiar with the Party Principle I am now focusing on The Matrix. Perry is the genuine article I mean the guy even comes clean about a genuine marketing mistake he made in the middle of a pre-launch I mean how transparent is that and ballsy?

  • http://cindyking.biz/ Cindy King

    Hi Ed,

    I think most businesses can benefit from social media… if they are ready to connect with their clients on a totally different level.

    This is the hard part for small businesses or businesses that consider themselves outside of this sphere of influence. It is hard to commit to and invest the time it takes to create a new strategy. And this is also why small businesses need to think outside of the box… and strive for great overall business strategies :)

    The good news is that social media helps you to know your clients better, and small businesses are usually able to use this knowledge to react faster than bigger companies.

    I have to say that as a small business I use social media for three main reasons:

    - I don’t hunt individual clients, instead I look for great referral sources. And have identified a few that can make a business work by themselves. Of course, I still have all of the networking and business strategy to do to make these connections work. But I found some gems no one could have found for me. And of course individual clients do seek you out.

    - I use it to develop my own business intelligence to get in front of everyone else.

    - Easy international business networking for visibility and authority building

    When people say that social media cannot help their business, I disagree. If you have clients, they are probably already using at least one social media platform already and if they aren’t using one today, they probably will be in the future. You just need the right mindset to figure out how to make a connection, what your should be saying and when & how to say it. People like doing business with people they like and social media gives you platforms to create more personal relationships and increase your likability appeal.

  • http://www.edrivis.com Ed

    Hi Karin – Absolutely agree. If building trust isn’t the most important thing these days I don’t know what is. Thanks.

    Hi Andrew – Like anyone successful Perry seems to get a lot of people ‘having a pop’ at him. But then like you and I there are also a lot of people who admire what he does and his unique approach. I guess this proves the ‘polarization’ is effective. Thanks for your comment.

    Hi Cindy – Great comment thank you. Given the obvious success you and Richard are having with your social media marketing strategy I hope a lot of people see your comment and take note. Thank you.

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