Using Social Networking Sites to Build Your List of Followers in Three Simple Steps

There's a lot of talk about social media marketing and a lot of debate about the ROI but here my take on why you should invest time, resources and energy into building a profile across different social networking platforms and how you can use your profile to drive traffic to your website.

With so many social networking sites out there it's easy to get lost in the woods, struggling to find your way around and find yourself camped out, talking nonsense with the social media fools, freaks and geeks sending postcards, virtual drinks and all those other latest social applications floating around the social media universe.

So, to avoid wasting your time, energy and money (after all time is money) here is a three point plan to making a success of your social media marketing campaign;

First, decide who you are and who you want to be in the social media sphere. Branding is the key to unlock the door to any good marketing campaign and if you get this step right you can attract the right type of prospects and leads to your profile page whichever social networking site you join. Get this wrong and you will struggle to see the light of day with all those group invites, free gifts and invitations to play that will land in your inbox or on your profile page.

Second, research the social media platform before moving in and wasting your time and energy on a social networking strategy only to find that the type of people you are looking for don't use that particular social platform. Let's face it, with so many social networking sites out there and new ones shooting up each and every day, you should be able to find your niche if you look closely enough. A Google search should provide the results you are looking for if you need a specific niche for your business.

Third, get in there and listen to what's being said before you start to speak. There's a lot of noise online and to stand out from the crowd and develop a good social media marketing presence the first thing you need to do is listen. Take twitter as an example and it's easy to see how few people have any real idea or knowledge of how to use this particular social networking site.

The bottom line is simple. Be different, add value and entertain and when you do this you will see that you when you speak people will begin to listen and when they begin to listen you can begin to tell them about your site and your business and they might just take a look for themselves.

Neil Ashworth is a former Pro Soccer player and leading member of the CarbonCopyPro Internet Marketing Group specializing in social media marketing tools and techniques to help you build your online business.