Contrary to popular opinion, effective social networking and online marketing is not about volume, it’s about presence and positioning. It’s about being a credible expert.
Here are some quick tips on how to act credible in online communities:
Profile Picture: If you want people to trust you, especially online, you can’t show up with a shirt and your hair messed up as your profile picture. This doesn’t mean the standard head shot; it means having a professional picture represent the image you want to project.
For example: I use my cartoon as my profile picture on all my social communities. I wanted an image of professionalism and fun mixed together. Strategy development, which is what we teach, can be very serious scary. By showing the fun side of this process has helped establish a great credible image for Effició online.
Videos: Video’s should be professional and showcase what you do best, not you in your bedroom talking about it. If you do a video it’s better to do an interview format vs. just speaking to the web cam at your desk. If you have clients in the same city; set a date to record testimonials. Or at your next speaking engagement, get some of the attendees to provide video interviews. This is much better than telling the world how good you are sitting at your desk.
If you’re doing an infomercial or a brief introduction to your site or your business – that’s completely different.
Promotional Information: Information is good, just make sure it’s not sell, sell, sell. It should be help, help, help. Trying to sell your business so much can be a turn off. Sell the solution vs. selling the business. For example, some people choose to showcase four or five interviews on how good they are, but you really only need one. Just replace the old interview with a new one on a consistent basis and you have an online identity that’s clean and flows nice. It also may encourage people to come back to see your latest promo.
Posting: Most experts aren’t usually heavily, heavily engaged in posting every day. Depending on your overall social media strategy, anywhere from a couple of posts a week to just a couple per month is sufficient to keep your information fresh.
Making Friends: Most experts choose to connect with professionals not only because someone has 3000 friends. To be honest, having a lot of friends does not necessarily make someone worth your friendship. You have to be willing to decline people. A lot of people are looking to accept everyone that sends a friend request because they’re playing the numbers game and it’s more about quantity than quality. Making friends online should focus on quality.
This doesn’t mean scrutinize everyone that you’re making friends with. Yes, the more friends you have the better your reach. Just make sure the bulk of your lists include qualified credible business connections.
External Links: Make sure any external links your provide has clear path to what its purpose is. This is directly related to your social media strategy. What’s your overall goal when providing information that includes external links?
Online Personality: Make sure your business profile is professional with a little personal mixed in when developing your online personality. Exclude religion and politics, these are things that you hold true to yourself and your family – it should not be showcased with your online activities for business. It’s a turn off for the majority, not because of beliefs but because they want to know how you can help them.
There’s a huge misconception about social networking that everyone wants to know what you’re doing. Honestly, based on my research and feedback, most could care less. They just want to stay connected with you but not necessarily a play by play of your daily routines.
Proof of Success: People want proof of success, but don’t overload them with how much money you’ve made as your proof. Instead overload them with how your success translates into success for them. Testimonials are good; again keep it simple and replace old with new vs. providing more and more.
Expert Position: One of the essential strategies of social media marketing is to position yourself as an expert on your topic. In order to do this you have to pick a topic. What are you an expert in?
Being a credible expert online is truly about reputation when you get down to the politics of business. Those that have the best reputations are generally far more financially successful than the “wanna-be” experts.
Experts are researchers. Sure, they have opinions, but most of them didn’t earn their reputations based purely on their opinions. So when they make statements online or in groups, they often back it up by citing sources, whether it’s something they’ve written themselves or that someone else wrote.
Now it’s time to build your network of alliances, prospects, and clients by sharing and socializing as the expert you are in the virtual world while integrating those things you do physically. Be a credible expert, and you will attract more business.
© Effició, Inc.
