My Favorite Tools to Manage Social Media
There are so many reasons why social media is good for a home-based business. There are so many things social media can do to help you grow your business in a powerful way: · FIND PROSPECTS who are looking for your products and opportunity right now! · Provide BETTER CUSTOMER SERVICE than you ever thought possible ·Position yourself as an EXPERT that people go to for product recommendations · BUILD COMMUNITIES of people that want what you have to offer, and who will refer their friends to you ·SUPPORT YOUR GROWING TEAM members, and help them learn from one another ·Grow professionally as you LEARN from the best of the best All of this results in additional income for your business.
There are so many online tools that can make it easier for you to use social media effectively. A few of my favorites include:
TweetDeck is a great tool that can be used to sort your Twitter stream. As you begin to gain more and more people that you follow on Twitter, the number of comments flying by can get a little overwhelming. And since there are specific people and search phrases that you really want to pay attention to as you build your business, TweetDeck is a FABULOUS tool to help you keep up. Twellow - Dubbed the "Yellow Pages of Twitter," Twellow is a fabulous search tool that helps you find people in your targeted niche market to follow. Simply enter the key phrases that your targeted niche is most likely to include in a profile, and a list of Twitter users will appear. Browse the list, and choose who to follow! Twitter Search is another great way to search for people and topics important to your targeted niche. Twitter search enables you to search conversations.
Blogs
Feedburner allows you to set up an RSS feed for your blog. This means that the people who read your blog and like the content can be automatically notified, either through a feed reader or through email, when you update your blog. Some of you have already signed up for this service on my blog. It's a great tool because it lets you know how "sticky" your blog is...how many readers want to come back for more. And that helps you produce better content.
AutoResponders
Did you know that it takes 7-15 times for someone to hear from you before they purchase from your website? Now if you've been in direct sales, you know the effort it takes just to do the regular follow up needed for your party customers. How are you going to keep up with contacting the right people at the right time with the right messages in the right order? It gets overwhelming! Fortunately, technology comes the rescue again, through the use of Autoresponders. When someone signs up for your mailing list on your blog, you can have a series of emails, already in place, pre-written, that they receive on a regular schedule. This might take the form of an e-course, valuable info, a newsletter, or some other information. The point is, when people start receiving info of value from you, they start to trust that your emails have value, and they're more likely to read them. Then, when you make a product recommendation at the bottom of the occasional email, it's taken a LOT more seriously. Trust me, if you are considering marketing your business online, you NEED an autoresponder. I spent a LOT of time looking through autoresponder programs, trying to pick the best one. After a lot of time, I've finally decided on AWeber. It's got the most user-friendly features and templates, and it makes your life a LOT easier, once you get it set up. And for less than $20/month, it's TOTALLY worth the investment. So that's my summary of tools that I think are great when you're implementing your social media strategy. You don't want so many tools that you get overwhelmed. But by making careful, informed decisions about selected tools, you can be more efficient and effective, saving you time while reaping the benefits of social media for your business.
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