Welcome to this month's edition of Marketing Magic. In last month's newsletter we discussed about Social Networking and it's role in your MLM business.

This month we will continue our online marketing series and talk about selecting the right social networking platform for your business.

Marketing Magic's Contents

• Finding the right social networking platform
  
• Strategic planning to network on Online Networking sites
• Time-saving social media tools
  

Generally, people love to surf on the Internet and get lost in its infinite whirlpool of information. Then suddenly spring out of it as if it were a time warp and are unable to believe the hours gone by. As a network marketing business owner, you must avoid falling in to such pitfalls and use your valuable time on the Internet effectively.

The need for using the best marketing resources and tools to realize productivity gains in your business are critical with growing competition. To achieve success in your business, have strategy in place utilizing social media tools and maximize the online marketing efforts. It starts from planning your Internet activities to micro details. This will certainly help you secure a good position in mastering social networking.

Best Social Networking for Business

With thousands of social networking sites now present on the Internet, you will have to shortlist the ones that will help you network with the right people effectively. Any network marketing business can succeed using the social media sites as networking with people now has become much easier.

Each and every one of the social networking platforms can benefit a business. Before signing and setting up profiles on various sites, it is important to understand the needs of your business and match it to the best available social media sites that can empower your success.

Before choosing social networking sites, look at the questions below:

• What is the business you are trying to promote?
• Where is your prospect/client base currently – online/offline?
• Will a social networking site help you in connecting to prospects and clients?
• How much time are you willing to spend on the social media sites in a given day?
• Are your colleagues present in the social networking scene?
• Have you considered joining their community before you create one? Repetition may not work!!
• Having created your community, will it be able to sustain long term?
• What strategy do you have in place to start community conversations? What are the incentives offered to attract users?

After spending some time pondering over these questions, create a game plan to propel your online business persona. The tips below will help you move in the right direction.

Find the social network that's right for you.

This will be the first and most important step. Identify your niche market. Browse through the top 30-40 social networking sites and select a few that best suit your needs. Though some of the social media sites may have less traffic, they could have the capacity to cater to your target audience much better.

Get maximum benefit by planning ahead.

As cumbersome as it may sound, plan your daily social media surfing activities. This includes the specific days and times that you will spend on these sites.

One option would be to spend alternate weekdays (Mon-Wed-Friday) for posting updates, article links, etc. Other days focus on reading responses, commenting on other people’s posts, etc. Take time to devise a social network marketing strategy that will work for you.

Use time-saving social media tools.

When you have all the time saving tools offered by social networking sites, it would be wise to use them. One of the best sites I have come across is Ping.fm. The concept of this site is to broadcast your message across multiple social networking sites. Also, some sites like Atomkeep.com help you have a desktop application where you can post updates to multiple social media sites. Co-tweet.com automatically updates your profile at regular intervals.

In order to make the best use of social networking, you must learn to manage your social networking resources effectively.  Time and sometimes money are the most important investments here. One of the crucial mistakes made by business owners is to pick the wrong social networks to invest in.  They end up having many online profiles rather than focus on the most appropriate sites.

Facebook is perhaps the most popular social networking site. Currently Facebook users are mostly people aged 25-54, and about 25% being 18-24. Though there has been emphasis on Facebook for business networking, it is not as effective for professional networking. Sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, etc are equally good for many viral marketing programs. In addition, there are many paid business social networking sites available today. But they are mostly inactive and do not provide the promised services. 

It is beneficial to focus on 2 options:

• Most popular networking sites, or
• Sites that are specifically targeted to a niche audience. 

As a network market business owner, keep in mind that the benefits from social networking come with hard work.  Social networking sites are to be used as any other business strategy and expect profitable return on investments.

Until next month....Happy Networking

Troy Rocavert

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www.network-marketing-business-school.com