As a former PPC affiliateer, I became enamoured with social marketing because the guru’s were saying,

“For the same amount of work, you can get the same amount of traffic, from the same type of qualified prospect… for FREE. Now, buy my progam…”

Of course, over the past 2-3 years there’s been many a guru selling social marketing know-how. The best of which is actually quite FREE, The Authority Black Book.

But, sadly, I have a confession or revelation or, even better, a revealing confession…

Before you freak, let me confirm that the marketing tactics and strategies that utilize social media (like those offered here at Web2Center) can and do bring BIG traffic.

Social marketing works! But it has a dark side.

There are so many options… so many sites, so many communities, so much to do that unless you are focused and deliberate you may find yourself wasting days, even weeks and months, but feeling OK because you’ve spent nothing (but countless hours).

Does this all feel a bit familiar?

Do you:

Forget or neglect to keep track of your social marketing efforts?

Do a little of what one guru says, then move to the next and do a little, then move to the next and do a little?

Sign up to one social networking site after another and then have to sign up to a site like Profilactic.com to keep track of them all?

If so, it’s OK because everyone else does the same (or similar) things…

Let’s Change That Right Now - Efficient Social Marketing

Where should you spend your valuable time? Which social media sites will give you the most stars for your social marketing bucks?

Each niche requires something different; there is no one-size-fits-all list. So, instead of randomly signing up for all the web 2.0 sites on someone’s “list”, use the following qualifiers to laser in on the social sites that are sure to provide a generous return on your valuable investment of time.

Indexed by Google
Some social networks (like Facebook for instance) do not show up on Google. The pages inside Facebook are not indexed by Google so, if you are “bending the web” or creating anchor text backlinks, all your efforts on Facebook are bust. Before you sign up, do a quick “site:www.domain.com” Google search and check to see if there are lots of pages indexed.

General or Niche Related
Before you sign up, don’t forget to take a look at the categories. Is there a category for you? Or, even better, is the theme of that social network related to your niche? Of course, you want to stand out but, trust me, you don’t want to have to create a category just for you.

Popular Content
What do you think would be the best indicator of whether your content will rank well? How about the posts that are already ranking well? Simple huh? So, before you sign up, look at the category(ies) that you will submit to and check the stories getting lots of votes or attention. Can you create content similar to it? What’s popular might be stories that you don’t like and would never post to your blog… this may not be the social media site for you then.

Member Activity
Before you sign up, browse around your potential social media site, check your categories and take note of the energy and tone. Ask yourself, “Is this community active?” “Do they vote, comment and otherwise participate?” “Do they hate anything that is intelligent?” “Do they hate anything that even hints at marketing or salesmanship?” Make sure your tone and energy matches that of the site.

Seasoning
This refers to the length of time the site has been around… has it seasoned? If the site is brand new, you take a risk spending hours developing authority only to see it all washed away when the guys behind the curtain decide to pull the plug. On the other hand, you may be gambling on getting in early so that when this site becomes the next Digg you will be sitting on top of the mountain. It’s your choice but you may want to do a bit of research to see when the site launched and how well funded it is.

Now It’s Your Turn

These are the qualifiers I use… If you have found other qualifiers that have helped you waste less time on the duds, please share your insights with our readers. We gladly approve comments that help us all!

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