Can You Really Use Social Media To Do “Free” Marketing On The Internet?

The Concept Of “Free Marketing On Social Media”

Many people get excited about the idea of “free marketing” on social media sites.

Yes, looking at it from a monetary point of view, it is possible to do marketing and communicating with people without spending money. Taking Facebook as an example, you can communicate and post without spending money, but there are also options for paid advertising available.

Free marketing is a relative concept though. Perhaps you don’t have to spend money, but surely you will have to spend time. An important fact to consider in this scenario, is "time is money". This means you will have to invest time in order to build relationships and get the desired results.

Whether you invest time or money is your choice. The good news is that if money is a problem, but you have some time available, you can go ahead and build your business.  

Social Media Won’t Make You A Millionaire Overnight.

There is a lot of hype out there that leave many people with the impression that they are going to make a couple of posts on some social media sites, and the millions are going to come rolling in.

Unfortunately, in reality it doesn’t work that way. The truth is that you have to build relationships with people, and that takes time. Even though you do not have to speak to people face to face, you communicate via the internet. You are still communicating with real people.

What Social Media Can And Can’t Do For You

Social media cannot make up or cover up for a bad product or service. Using Social Media can have a viral effect. But this can go in both positive and negative directions.  If you use social media wisely, you can use this to your benefit to test and find out what people are saying about you and your product or service. Once you know what the response is like, you can determine your future strategy. If on the other hand you just dive in and start selling, it might actually backfire on you. That same viral effect you so desired can now end up hurting you more than doing you any good.

With the right approach, you can first build relationships and trust. Then you start testing your product or service. If done wisely and correctly, it now can go viral in the right way.

Posting On Social Media Sites

Do not try to sell something in every post you make. People will see you as someone who just wants to sell something. If that is your ultimate aim, I wouldn’t recommend social media marketing. Then rather go for the paid advertising route, which is commercial from the word go, and everybody knows what to expect.

The term “social media” explains exactly what it is all about. Socialize and build relationships. Make posts with quality content. It might be motivational, or contain some valuable information. I believe a good ratio for a business post with a link can be about 1 in every 10 posts. Use this as a guide only. As long as you feel comfortable with your posting and you get positive responses, you should be fine.

It is so much more rewarding to make some real friends in the process, instead of making money only.

Investing Your Time In A Productive Way

If you have to spend all your time posting and interacting with people, you might ask where you will find the time to actually work.

This is the beauty of technology. There are various tools available that you can use to schedule your posts. By doing this, you can automate the posting process for some time in advance. This will free you to be able to carry on with the work that needs to be done. You can plan your day to the extent where you can decide how much time to spend on Twitter or Facebook and interact with your followers and friends. It can be 10 minutes; it can be 30 minutes per day. The choice is yours.

One such tool is BUFFER. It is a free tool that you can use to schedule your posts. It has an analytic feature also to analyze your results, showing how many views you receive, how many clicks, re-tweets etc.  This is all very important information for you to base you marketing actions on.

Social media is a great marketing tool and it can be fun, but you will need to make some kind of an investment. Whether it is time or money, but when used correctly, it will be worth your while.

Know Where You Are Going Before You Start Your internet Business.

Internet Marketing can be exciting, but with all the information, terminology and different choices to be made, it can also be very overwhelming to a new person. Still, there are so many opportunities available, and that is why it is so important to set your goals before you just dive in and start working on your internet business.

Now, which opportunity do you choose? How do you know which is the right one? Every so-called “internet guru” recommends another program (obviously his own). The first thing you ought to do is to determine your own goals. Decide exactly where you want to go, and how you are going to get there. What do you want to achieve and why? Once you achieved it, what then? When people set goals without proper planning, it often results in nothing but frustration. You set out with one goal in mind, and once you’ve reached it, the challenge is gone. The process becomes boring, meaningless and frustrating. 

This is why it is so important to have your journey mapped out. Before you even start, you should know where you are now, what your ultimate goal is and why. Once you reach your destination, will you enjoy where you are and be happy? Will having to actively maintain what you have achieved give you any satisfaction? Or will it lead you to the next challenge?

Once you can answer these questions, you will also have a better understanding about what type of online opportunities you are looking for.  This should always be the first step. From there, keep taking one step at time until you are confident that you have chosen a specific end-goal and mapped out the route to get there.

Eat Your Elephant One Bite At A Time

Break your goals down into smaller goals for action steps until you achieve your ultimate goal. It's like drawing a map to get to your destination.  You will always arrive easier and sooner when you have planned your route and you know exactly where you are going.  

Don't be scared of the competition. Never rush into things if you didn’t plan properly. Nobody is going to beat you to YOUR destination. There is enough room for everybody on the internet.

On the other hand, don't wait until you think you know everything. Things are constantly changing. Get going and learn on the go. I made that mistake of thinking I don't know enough yet. Before I realized, I have wasted a lot of time, and made NO progress. Even the top guys are continuously learning. That is how they stay on top. Any business - whether online or offline - is a living thing.  It is constantly changing and you have to be able to stay with it, change with it. You must be able to adapt.

What Is Your Strategy?

What you need to develop and stick to, is your strategy. Find a strategy that works for you, and once you do, stick to it. There are a different ways to generate income online.  You can market your own product (which can be a physical product, information products or even a service), you can take part in affiliate programs (as I do myself) where you market someone else's product or service, or you can take part in joint ventures with other internet entrepreneurs.  Another option will be profit sharing programs (Google Adsense) where you don't have to sell anything, but you share in the profits generated from advertising programs.

Your strategy will determine which of these modules you are going to follow. What is important to keep in mind, is to aim for generating a passive income. Passive income means that you will put in the effort now, but eventually your business will be generating an income whether you are active or not. This is the proper way to build your own business, and not to just create another job for yourself.

Affiliate marketing is one of the easier ways to start generating an income online. Many people claim though that you can make more money marketing your own product, seeing that you can then utilize affiliates to also market YOUR product. While this is true, I think it is wise to first start off taking part in a good affiliate program. It will give you the opportunity to learn and gain some experience first. Focus on one item or program until it is up and running. You can then always later develop your own product, while you maintain the affiliate program. It is always good to create multiple streams of income.

There is a company that (to my opinion) basically combines two of the above mentioned channels in one business opportunity.  Affiliate marketing, and marketing your own product.  Strong Future International (SFI) provides you with an excellent affiliate program, and also an online store with a range of thousands of products you can sell, and treat it as your own online store. They provide you with ongoing training and great support. This is extremely important. In online marketing, you WILL need someone to help you. You need to be able to communicate with people and get advice from top guys. I can strongly recommend them. Trying to go at it alone is not a good idea.

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