The basics of social media, what it is, how it works and why you should use it to market your business.

1. Using Social Media to Enhance Your Marketing

2. What is Social Media? At its most basic sense, it’s a shift in how people discover, read, and share news, information and content. It's a fusion of sociology and technology, transforming monologue (one to many) into dialog (many to many.)

3. Types of Social Media Facebook Linkedin Twitter YouTube Flickr Plurk Digg/Delicious Biznik Plaxo Naymze

4. Why Socialize? 67 million Americans use online social media networking in an average month 2/3rds of the global internet population visit social media sites Visiting social media sites is now the 4th most popular online activity – ahead of personal email Because while 14% of people trust ads, 76% trust consumer recommendations for their purchase decisions

5. Impressive Social Media Facts Facebook has more than 300 million active users. Twitter has surpassed 21 million users. If YouTube was a country is would be the 3rd most populated place in the world. Linkedin is now over 36 million members. 76 million users still use MySpace

6. What Are The Benefits? Create Awareness/Visibility Ability to brand yourself or product Impact on search engine rankings Creating a targeted list of followers Building a reputation Driving traffic to your website/blog Monitoring what’s being said about you Customer service tool Gives you access to important people Makes you accessible to JV partners

8. 2 Biggest Reasons It’s FREE! And your competition is using it…

9. You need to go where your prospects & customers live online. If your customers, prospects, and influencers are there, you need to be there: listening, engaging, sharing, and helping them.

10. 3 Social Networking Strategies I See Coaches Using None - You don’t have any profiles at all Passive - You have a profile and use it casually and infrequently. It’s there is someone looks you up. Active - You are using social media to actively locate clients, promote your products and build your list

11. Where do I start? Determine who your target audience is What is your objective? How much time will you dedicate? Are there any niche sites I can benefit from? What is my strategy to connect all my efforts?

12. Which outlets will you choose for your strategy?

13. Then what… Pick 1 or 2 networks to start with Fully complete bio and add a head shot Start by adding/inviting friends & clients Pick 25-50 people who are thought leaders in your niche and follow them Search for 10-20 targeted people per week to add Start developing relationships with these connections Be engaged in the conversation & add value Be consistent with your efforts

14. Think of Social networking as a cocktail party What would you talk about? What kinds of questions would you ask? Would you try to sell your services to a stranger? Would you ask a person you just met for a referral? Compliments go a long – give them if sincere. If you know someone they should meet help them make the connection.

15. Once you get to know people, you can invite them over. Develop relationships & get to know people. Offer them value with your content. Then you can invite them back to your home base. This would be your blog or website where you can introduce them to your products or services.

16. Please don’t forget… Social media is for building relationships – NOT for making sales!

17. The Rules Are Simple If you follow the rules of the individual site and become a contributor, mentor, friend or thought leader, people will be drawn to you. Remember the Law of Reciprocity - The law states that whatever you do will be returned back to you. In other words, if you want to create success for yourself, help someone else become successful.

18. To conclude…