Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the scores of other sites that allow marketers to take to the social media airways are powerful tools when used in the right way. But there are boundaries and if marketers overstep those boundaries it can lead to consumer backlash.
In a recent article by Susan Gunelius at Entrepreneur.com she outlines what she defines as the 10 Laws of Social Media Marketing, summarized below:
1. The Law of Listening
Success with social media and content marketing requires more listening and less talking.
2. The Law of Focus
It’s better to specialize than to be a jack-of-all-trades. Have a highly-focused social media and content marketing strategy.
3. The Law of Quality
Quality trumps quantity. It’s better to have 1,000 online connections who read, share and talk about your content with their own audiences than 10,000 connections who disappear.
4. The Law of Patience
Social media and content marketing success doesn’t happen overnight.
5. The Law of Compounding
If you publish amazing, quality content and work to build your online audience of quality followers, they’ll share it with their own audiences on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, their own blogs and more.
6. The Law of Influence
Spend time finding the online influencers in your market who have quality audiences and are likely to be interested in your products, services and business. Connect with those people and work to build relationships with them.
7. The Law of Value
If you spend all your time on the social Web directly promoting your products and services, people will stop listening. You must add value to the conversation.
8. The Law of Acknowledgment
You wouldn’t ignore someone who reaches out to you in person so don’t ignore them online. Building relationships is one of the most important parts of social media marketing success, so always acknowledge every person who reaches out to you.
9. The Law of Accessibility
Don’t publish your content and then disappear. Be available to your audience. That means you need to consistently publish content and participate in conversations.
10. The Law of Reciprocity
You can’t expect others to share your content and talk about you if you don’t do the same for them.
I agree mostly with the laws shared above and think it is important that all marketers realize that social media cannot be used in the same way that billboards and radio ads of years past have been used. You cannot be an idle marketer, rather you need to be actively engaged. My favorite law shared is the Law of Value which states: “If you spend all your time on the social Web directly promoting your products and services, people will stop listening.” This has happened to me, and I am sure all of you can relate as well.
Just in case any company thinks they don’t need to invest in social media marketing or take the time to build their social media brand I included the following video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8
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