by AJ George
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about an excellent online Social Media Marketing course I took. Since then my interest has really been piqued (and my number of Twitter followers has jumped from just 5 to more than 100). I thought I might share a few more of the social media marketing tactics I'd learned through my Twitter connections.
Become a Yahoo Answers Source of Knowledge
Often when I have a question, I'll run a Google search on my query and one of the top results will typically be someone else with the same question on Yahoo Answers. If you are knowledgeable in your field, why not be the one answering the questions on topics that matter to you? Doing so will help improve back-links to your site and increase your Google SEO. For more tips on building traffic with Yahoo Answers, click here.
Track your Website Strength and Social Media Presence
If you're going to be doing marketing online you're going to want to know how well your hard work is paying off and how far-reaching your online presence is. Luckily there are some great free tools to help you do this. During the early stages of your social media marketing plan, use a website SEO grader like this one to see how your website stacks up and what you can do to improve its ranking. Also check out this site to analyze your social media presence. Check back to these sites often to see your progress as you expand your brand.
Target your Twitter Audience Using Advanced Google Searching
If you're just starting out in the Twitterverse (or are looking to expand your reach quickly) finding followers who are in your niche market, and who will actually care what you have to tweet about, can be a daunting task. Twitter's basic search feature often won't prove all that helpful.
Say you want to find and follow eLearning developers. Doing a search for eLearning will turn up results for everyone who mentioned eLearning in a tweet. Using advanced Google searching can quickly turn up the exact results you want. If you use the links in this article, you won't even have to type in those long, pesky Google search phrases yourself. You can just plug in the search terms that apply to you and you're set. Zing!
Get Creative with Branding
Viral marketing is a fun and exciting way to get your brand noticed. An obvious choice is YouTube videos. StickyBits, which recently launched at this year's SXSW, could be another fun way to market your brand. StickyBits allows you to scan any barcode (those pre-existing on products, or your own that you can create online). Anyone who downloads the free app could then use an iPhone or Android phone to scan your barcode and view whatever you've attached. You could, for example, attach a barcode to the back of your business card that links to your website. If you hand out products at trade shows or conventions you could attach barcodes to your products that link to your website or blog, or maybe even to an eLearning video of how to use the product. What's more is that anyone who scans the barcode can then add to the content. Think of it as an Easter egg hunt that could make your money.
About the author: AJ George is IconLogic's lead Technical Writer and author of the book "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and the just-released "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials." You can follow AJ on Twitter at http://twitter.com/andrayajgeorge.