A great question asked by John of SparesBoyz at the workhsop in Johannesburg on Monday 17th.  where do you start exactly.

Research and listen

Personally, if I were in your shoes I would start by doing some research and listening to what customers are saying about products and services in your industry.

• I would firstly do a search on Google for industry related sites,
• Research keywords and look for what search terms are being used by customers
• Assess industry sites and think about what I like and don’t like
• See who my competitors customers are.
• Think of things that I could do better than my competitors

And most importantly I would think about  the benefits, it is all about benefits, firstly, what is your customer’s pain and how are you going to fix it.

Strategy

Once I have an idea of what my competitors are doing, who my customers are and how I’m going to fix their pain.  I would work on my plan of action and decide which sites I’m going to target and set my goals and objectives.

Keywords

Do a final keyword check, to make sure that you are happy with your chosen keywords and incorporate them into your bio, profile, website content and your blogs.

Profile and Bio

Then comes the profile.  I would right a short and clear tag line which tells my audience exactly what it is I do and who my best customers are  and work on a short bio which will make me stand out from the crowd.

Branding

Work out your branding if you haven’t done so already.

Content

Content is king.  Start writing some content.  If you feel you are not good at writing, then hire a copywriter but sometimes we have the tendency to under estimate our own abilities.  Just be natural and be yourself.  If you need some copywriting done, we have a service which can assist in this area.  Sometimes having a good combination of using a copywriter and writing your own content for blogs and articles reduces the workload of having to do it all yourself.

Set up a blog

You must have a starting point, your blog is like having a shop window where you get to display everything you have to offer and where you get to display your expertise and this is where you content and keywords come in.

Network

Network, network, network, follow, connect and participate.  Social media is all about networking.  We have all done it offline and done it all our lives.

The basic starting poings I would recommend is Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook from there I would then decide whether I would like to join another site which may be of benefit to me.  Generally I would choose a local community site.

Don’t give up

Lastly, don’t give up, keep at it, be consistant and the results will come.

If you need social media assistance and would like to know more about our services you can contact me via Twitter: @romanythresher or Skype: directassist.  We cater to both UK and South Africa.

Useful Blog
Scaling Social Media by Chris Brogan

Reading a section in Trust Agents the other day co authored by Chris Brogan.  I decided to summarise a section in his book because I could not have said it any better and it was written in a way that is just so clear about how to become a power networker and how to build the trust factor.

Think about it, the online world is run by humans and so what happens in the real world should happen online in a sense.  For example, if you had a friend whose services you respect and value, you are going to tell others about it.  If you had a friend who is looking for a job, you would be on the look out for any potential jobs and pass the information on to them.  You would also make introductions and connect your friends to each other if you felt they would be a good fit.  The same applies then to our network and to online social media.

Here is the section I summarised from Trust Agents:

What do Trust Agents do?

• Trust Agents help others by promoting their work
• Trust Agents reach out to the up-and-comers
• Trust Agents make friends with people starting out, those who might not be the big voices or the movers and shakers, but who are interesting, driven, talented and have potential.

How is this accomplished?

• Commenting on people’s blog posts
• Responding to their Twitter messages
• Help by getting the word out abut their causes or efforts
• Connecting people to each other
• Meet some of the people you’ve built online relationshops with, this strengthens the relationship even further

A solid network consists of:

• Building a presence online
• Meeting the person
• Sustain the relationship with several more online touches over time.

Personal networks are extenders – a way to reach into more places and a way to scale.

They are a resource for finding new jobs, new business opportunities, new anything….

Trust Agents can call upon their network to help solve a problem.

The key elements of network building is all about

Being helpful and forming new relationships without expecting anything in return

What do you think?

I’m very excited. Here is my interview with Erik Qualman on his book Socialnomics. There is a much longer interview which is still waiting to be uploaded where I ask Erik a few other questions.

This interview describes everything you need to know about reading the book. What the book is about, who should read it and why really. I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I enjoyed interviewing Erik.

Would love your feedback on what you thought of the interview.