EDIT: Apologies to John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing, he points out in the comments I was acting very “dubious” and ironically questionable in my fair use of his article.  This was not at all intentional. Please find the additional credits/links as repentance of the violation.  It was a really good article with much more to say after the link…as I did point out.

Sometimes simple is better.  These are some great concepts, click here the link at the bottom to get the whole picture:

1. Listening is the best way to develop strategy
   “Everyone knows they should develop a social media strategy before diving into to every network they can.”
2. Nobody really wants to read another blog
   “what I am saying is, write what people search in your market and your town, educate with your posts and you blog will pay off faster than any other online play.”
3. It’s kind of a real estate game
   “there is a bit of a real estate grab that comes on the front end of getting value from social media. There are many profiles that you can claim and optimize, even if you don’t quite yet know what your development strategy is, and you should claim them.”
4. Sell awareness and the money will follow
   “A lot of people will tell you, and perhaps you’ve experienced it first hand, that you can’t sell using social media sites.”
5. Networking hasn’t really changed
   “The key difference being one of a style of engagement and perhaps a different set of follow-up steps.”
6. It makes your offline play stronger
   “Most business is still done across a desk, but starting relationships on LinkedIn and then building them much deeper over lunch is the killerest combination.”
7. A system is the solution
   Marketing is a system and one of the best ways to keep social media participation from becoming your full time job is to create systems and process for how you participate.

7 Simple Truths of Social Media Marketing

When it comes down to it…it’s not that hard.  It’s WORK.  You want to do questionable things, the crowd will see right through you.  One mistake can cost you followers.  And followers is the hard to get fish in the social media sea.

And if you don’t like this article – then check any of a hundred more that will tell you the same.  Thank you Zemanta!

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