Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, Oh My!

Social media has made it big in the news, and the news is that you can use social media like Facebook and Twitter to built you business and bring in sales. Several time a week I have people asking me to make a Facebook post and bring the business pouring it.

It doesn't quite work like that and I'm finding few people are willing to put in the time required to make it work.

Facebook and Twitter are not marketing silver bullets. They don't magically bring in more business. But, when used with an understanding of how they work, they can make a big difference.

To be effective you must participate. With Facebook you must build your network of friends. With Twitter it is a network of followers. These are people who are listening to what you say. Of course, if you are not saying anything, then no one is going to bother to listen. So building your network requires participating with others, and saying interesting things in your posts... and here's the most important thing: you must say something. Opening a Facebook account and then sitting back waiting for something to happen does not work.

That's what I see people doing. Make two or three posts on Facebook, or in a bog, and expect something to happen. It's not going to happen. That's right. Success takes work, even when you are building your success with the latest tools on the internet. There still is no free ride.

Search Marking Has Been Good

It's been nearly a year since my last post. Why? Because business has been good and income has been high. In other words, I've been busy. Even now, while everyone else is slowing down I'm adding more clients and could be working 12-7 (12 hours a day, seven days a week) at $100/hour if I chose to do so. Two things have been happening...

In these slow times people are recognizing the power of the internet to increase sales, and even grow their businesses.

Businesses have been getting web sites online, and upgrading existing web sites--creating some beautiful web sites... that don't perform. There's a lot of web activity, but the results are not so good.

Why?

Because there are a lot of people who know graphics and how to put a web site together, but they don't know marketing. A beautiful web site that no one sees is a waste of money. A web site that tens of thousands see, but which does not convert visitors, is a waste of money.

It's not about having a good looking web site. It's about having a web site that brings in the sales!

So why am I writing a post? I'll be very blunt... because it's an easy way to get a link for my clients. I had forgotten about this blog. But as I was thinking about links last night it occurred to me that I was wasting an easy way to provide a link... my own blog. So, whenever I feel like it I'll make a post about one of my clients. I'll try to post about each web site early in the marketing process. In most cases business come to me with web sites that have been designed by others and they want me to save their web site. So you'll be able see each web site change as I work with it to change it from something that just occupies space on a hosting server, to a web site that builds a business.