Getting the ettiquette of social media marketing right is so important if you want to create trust and respect for you and your brand.

1. The Definitive Guide
to
Social Media Marketing
by Annie Robinson
This e-book/article is the intellectual property of Anne Robinson and is not to be copied, reproduced,
modified or published in any way without the express permission of the author. 1

2. The Definitive Guide to Social Media Marketing
2009
Brisbane Queensland
Australia
© Copyright 2009, All Rights Reserved Annie Robinson and thezenbull.com.
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3. What is Social Media Marketing?
The Wikipedia definition of SMM:
“Social media marketing (SMM) is a form of
internet marketing which seeks to achieve
branding and marketing communication goals
through the participation in various social media
networks”. Or
“Social media marketing is an engagement with online
communities to generate exposure, opportunity and
sales. The number-one advantage is generating exposure
for the business, followed by increasing traffic and
building new business partnerships. “
According to Wikipedia, social media first and foremost “depends on
interactions between people as the discussion and integration of words builds
shared-meaning, using technology as a conduit.” In other words, social media
is primarily about user-generated content (where the public become
publishers) and the conversations that exist within the communities that
flourish and thrive around that content, whether it’s video, audio or text.
However, I like to tell people my definition of social media marketing and that
is: The use of social and community sites to begin conversations with people
and form relationships based on those conversations and once that has
happened to use this friendship as a base to helpfully recommend products and
services.
Just as in real life, we have many conversations over lunch, coffee or just in
passing where we recommend a good product or service to our friends and
acquaintences and never think we are advertising, but rather offering a helping
hand. This kind of marketing is all about making real relationships and
friendships, not so much about advertising which to me is a different thing.
Advertising to me is a radio, newspaper or TV ad which is a one way
conversation, one voice only is heard.
However in SM marketing both voices are heard and there is little if any
blatant advertising done unless it is understood by both parties as being
permitted in their conversation.
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4. What does this interaction do for your marketing? How does your business
profit from these online conversations?
Before I answer those questions let me ask you this?
What ways are open to you to market your website and your business?
• Television
• Radio
• Newspapers
• Business Cards
• Word of Mouth
Which one will cost you the least and pay off on the bottom line more often?
Any marketer worth his or her salt will tell you that word of mouth is by far the
most sought after marketing solution. In fact word of mouth marketing is what
all other media is aimed at achieving, it is known as the Holy Grail of
marketing.
Word of Mouth marketing is when one person tells another how wonderful your
product or service is and that person tells another and another. Why is it the
Holy Grail of marketing, because all recommendations are made in a
conversation based on trust and therefore much more likely to result in a sale
or booking. So much so, that all marketing is aimed at creating this creditable
domino effect.
Why Would I Use SMM?
What if I told you that word of mouth
marketing had now become, through the
advent of SMM, 'word of mouse' marketing?
And what if I also told you that by using online
socialising you could reach an audience of
billions on a daily basis?
Yes! BILLIONS of people eagerly waiting to
hear about your product or service.
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5. A few statistics to whet your whistle:
• Facebook now has over 200 Million users
• Twitter is fast catching up with over 110 Million users
• Over 13 Billion videos are watched on Youtube every month
• There are over 110 Million Blogs online
Just imagine if you were to spend just 20 minutes twice a day on these sites
and be able to tell them all about your product, services and business in a few
simple conversations? Your prospective audience would be in the billions!
Social Media Marketing can help you increase the activity around these top
goals:
• Website Traffic
• Sales conversion and tracking
• Page views and ad exposure
• Brand awareness
• Positive brand association and reputation management
• Business development and a broader customer approach
• Search engine optimisation
Creating content that others want to read, intitating conversations around your
brand and business, and adding value to social interaction and users, : can get
your site incoming links from top ranking sites, create a viral attraction to your
site, increase brand awareness from nothing to high in just a few conversations
and best of all because you have increased trust your incoming visitors are
more likely to buy thus increasing sales conversions.
Costs of SMM: The cost of joining most of these sites is – NOTHING! Just a
little of your time is needed to initiate conversations and keep the momentum
going. So for most start-ups this is the most efficient and cost effective
marketing they can do. You can even leverage many of your profiles with
advertising. The most likley costs of a SM marketing strategy is the cost of the
staff learning curve which should include knowing which sites are the most
efficient, what their rules are regarding marketing, best practices and
ettiquette and how to plan, implement and track your marketing energy.
Brand Building: Social media provides a platform like no other in history to
build your brand. As you build your conversations, friendships and followers
your brand is parried from one profile to another without your even trying.
Followers often send messages to their friends and followers, post your links
on their profiles and recommend you to their friends on a daily basis, just for
being their friend and perhaps recprocating their generousity.
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6. Loyalty: Producing content which adds value to your community induces
loyalty, trust and leverages not only your existing friends and followers but
those of your friends and followers as well as they edify you and your content
to others. The massive flow-on effect from a loyal band of followers cannot be
underestimated and can send one link from you outward into the internet
universe at an exponential rate in a very short time.
Level Playing Field: Start-ups and small businesses are at an advantage
rather than a disadvantage in SMM, as big brands are not known for having
relationships with their customers and clients and this brings you into a level
playing field where you just may have the advantage. One of the greatest
benefits is the ability to leverage a loyal community by harnessing the power of
their loyalty. Word of mouth loyalty spreads quickly on the social web as does
gossip and this can continue to build your customer base even when you are
not online.
Convergence of PR and Social Media: As social media communities
continue to build, news is spead faster by Twitter or Facebook than the news
channels and media. You can create buzz in your market by things such as
applications for employment posted online, invitations to speak or guest write
for your blog or podcast and other online activities.
Ongoing Education and Personal Development: One of the best benefits is
that as fast as the internet and its interactions are growing you can keep pace
with it, by keeping track of trends, news and industry gossip. You can tap into
the unbelievable force of the internet knowledge base at any time and into
your own communities for more information, often given free of charge as a
part of the pay-it-forward value given to online social sites.
A List of various Kinds of Social Sites (with notable brands who use
them):
• Blogs (Johnson & Johnson, Delta Air Lines)
• Bookmarking/Tagging (Adobe, Kodak)
• Brand monitoring (Dell, MINI)
• Content aggregation (Alltop, EMC)
• Discussion boards and forums (IBM, Mountain Dew)
• Mashups (Fidelity Investments, Nike)
• Microblogging (method, Whole Foods)
• Online video (Eukanuba, Home Depot)
• Organization and staffing (Ford, Pepsi)
• Photosharing (Rubbermaid, UK Government)
• Podcasting (Ericsson, McDonalds)
• Presentation sharing (CapGemini, Daimler AG)
• Public Relations - social media releases (Avon, Intel)
• Ratings and reviews (Loblaws, TurboTax)
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7. • Social networks: applications, fan pages, groups, and personalities
(British Airways, Saturn)
• Virtual worlds (National Geographic, Toyota)
• Widgets (Southwest Airlines, Target)
• Wikis (Second Life, T-Mobile Sidekick)
Some of the different types of content that may work include:
* Breaking news
* Guides / tutorials
* Interesting stories
* Pictures
* Videos
* Statistics
Try to use enticing titles for your content, never lie and always back up your
facts by citing your sources.
When you're planning a submission it's important to examine your goals. If
traffic is the primary goal then the content you produce might be quite
different to the sort of content you would create while trying to attract links
from authority websites.
The primary benefits of a social media marketing strategy can be summed up
as building relationships that can bridge that gap between you (the seller) and
your buyers.
Getting Started
The very first thing you need to do is research, find out which of the social
sites will meet your needs and work for you. Just because Twitter is one of the
highest ranked micorblogging site doesn't mean it will work for you, if you just
don't 'get it.' So please look around, try a few different kinds of social media
sites and decide what will and what won't work for you right now. You can
always change your mind later and try it again. Remember to factor into your
research the terms and conditions of each site, some sites allow fairly brazen
marketing and some do not and that has to be a factor in your research.
Next, sign up and create profiles on those sites you have chosen, my advice is
to choose a couple from every genre: video sharing (YouTube, MetaCafe),
social networking (Facebook, Ning), social bookmarking (Stumbleupon, Digg or
Delicious), article sharing (eZine, Squidoo or HobPages).
When creating your profile be honest about who you are, include some
personal information like your book interests, hobbies etc.., you want to be a
real person to the people checking out your profile with a view to being your
friend. Show your human side after all you are about to create a relationship
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8. with these people, a virtual for sure, but no less real for that.
Please be aware that there is nothing wrong with using a psuedonym in these
situations, it helps protect you from identity theft, but be as real as possible.
One more hint I will give you re: identity theft is to never give out your real
birthday, particularly your birth year.
Add images you like and even a few personal pictures if you like, particularly a
head shot of your smiling as your profile picture. I personally avoid pictures of
children but that's my choice. In other words be real while maintaining a
certain amount of discretion.
I like to add in quotes I like to show everyone my tastes and preferences as
this also creates connection with people. This is what we are here for, creating
connection with a view to creating a relationship, so be authentic and when
you begin to create conversation be authentic and heartfelt.
SMM Etiquette
This is a very important part of this education into Social Marketing. Ettiquette
on social sites is that they are SOCIAL SITES advertising is not allowed.
However, marketing is, and there is a difference. Marketing is allowed with
some boundaries and those are; to keep it subtle and no hype.
Here are a few of the most important rules of ettiquette for social sites:
1. Add Value, Add Value, Add
Value: This means before you
market anything at all you get to
know people and allow them to get
to know you by offering tips,
resources or information that has
nothing to do with your site, service
or product. Yes, of course if you
know something about natural
health, or organic beauty or golf
clubs you will only do yourself a
favour to get known as the go-to-
person who answers questions in
your field. Just don't try to sell them
anything – at first. Motivational or
spiritual quotes, great books ideas,
in other words post interesting, informative and helpful things as people
get to know you. Join conversations and add your point of view, add a
forum post with a hint or link that others might find useful. This
establishes you as a helpful expert. Once you have established yourself
your next step is: Add Value, Add Value, Add Value!
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modified or published in any way without the express permission of the author. 8

9. 2. Converse: yes it really is that simple, just talk to people about life, the
universe and everything. Every time I get caught up in a conversation
with one of my online friends I end up with about 30 more followers as a
result. I make friends, network and get offers of places to stay all over
the world. What could be better than that? Add value to others
conversations, in other words if you see an interesting conversation and
you have something helpful or valuable to add join in. Imagine you are
at a networking function and act in the same way, chat, build
relationships and discuss the weather and occasionally hand out a
business card in the form of a post about your business. Think of it like
this: If you were at a party, a coffee morning at your childrens school or
a networking function and you stood up on your chair with a large
banner and started to advertise your business, service or product –
wouldn't you expect people would not only look at you strangely, but
start moving away and eventually you would be summarily discharged
from the event for making a public nuisance? These social sites are the
same, just because you are behind a screen and type your conversation
does not make it any less of a public nuisance.
3. Engage your audience by telling stories that connect people in real
ways. The art of storytelling is as old as time and in any conversation we
tell stories about ourselves, our lives, our history and our dreams. This
helps you to create that all important connection with your friends and
followers. This kind of storytelling also creates a feeling of knowing you
and it tells your audience that you are authentically connecting with
them. This establishes trust and that trust is worth its weight in gold.
From there you will be able to market to your friends and followers and
gain the gold of not only having them purchase from you, but tell others.
The holy grail of advertising is Word of Mouth – I like to call the online
version Word of Mouse.
4. Treat your friends and followers like real friends: we all tell our
friends about great products or services we know will help them, so it is
no different online with your virtual friends and followers, market to
them with the same respect you would recommend a product or service
to your real friends. After all behind the screen is a real person, have
respect for them.
5. Listen: really listen you will learn so much: what is hot, what is not,
what trends others can see coming, what people want, what they are
looking for, what people are saying I could go on and on. One of the best
educations around is just listening to the buzz, there are so many big
experts and most of them are giving away priceless information for free
as long as you take the time to listen.
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modified or published in any way without the express permission of the author. 9

10. 6. Ask for help when you need it:
nothing endears you to others like feeling
needed and appreciated. Please look for
moments in which to express
appreciation for a great post, piece of
information, link or help do so honestly
and spontaneously.
7. Don't: spam, add links to others profiles
without permission, use e book give-
aways as value adding (they're not
considered value), message your friends
or followers with ads...
A list of Ways You Can Add Value on Social
Sites:
• So one way to add value is if someone asks a question that you can
answer, answer it or if you are on Twitter and don't know the answer re
ask the question out to your followers or friends and see if you can get
an answer for them.
• Repost information for other users, especially those not directly in your
field but close enough so that you can gain some of their followers or
friends.
• Post helpful news and blog content links, videos etc.. concerning your
field, just to the news feeds or blogs not to others sites.
• Post funny, amazing and other items, pics and vids of interest (the rough
ratio of unrelated posts to your ads posts should be about 10:1 that is 10
posts that are not about your product, service or website to 1 that is.)
• Make real relationships with real friends and have real conversations with
them. There is a secret tips regarding these conversations that can boost
your site click throughs so fast that your stats will literally double
overnight and none of it has anything to do with directly advertising on
your posts or profile.
• Ask for assistance yourself regarding things not in your field. Others love
to help so give them a chance to do that, others who also want the
answers might friend or follow you just to see what you will ask next.
• Connect in real ways, do not automate what you are doing, or you will
find that people will un-follow and un-friend you. Join conversations just
as you would when at a networking event. Pretend that is where you are
while you are on these sites and you will find you make fewer mistakes.
• Once you get to know a few people well enough to ask, do a swap with
them, tell them you will RT their info if they will do the same for you.
• Participate in conversations, forums, groups and fests for a full
experience and the most marketing potential out of the time you spend
online.
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modified or published in any way without the express permission of the author. 10

11. Extras
List of Social Media Sites I Recommend:
Social Networking Sites:
• FaceBook
• Ning – these sites are focussed so search with 'your keyword + Ning to
find sites suited to your niche.
• LinkedIn
Microblogging Sites:
• Twitter
• Plurk
• Niche microblogging sites – there are now a few (more every day)
sites which are focussed to certain niches such as internet marketing,
business etc.. search: microblogging + niche or keyword.
Article Sharing:
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modified or published in any way without the express permission of the author. 11

12. • Ezine
• Squidoo
• HubPages
Video Sharing:
• YouTube
• MetaCafe
• Google Video
Social Bookmarking Sites:
• StumbleUpon
• Digg
• Delicious
• Reddit
Photo and Image Sharing Sites:
• Flickr
• PhotoBucket
Blog Sharing Sites and Search Engines:
• BlogCatalogue
• MyBlogLog
• Technorati – make sure you 'Claim' your blog on Technorati, it is the
fastest way to get your blog listed on search engines – Technorati is a
blog search engine.
Happy Socialising!!
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modified or published in any way without the express permission of the author. 12