See that picture? That’s Alcatraz. If you use the social media wrong, you may as well be in Alcatraz. That’s how much chance you’ll have of building a good presence online.

You have no doubt seen many, many examples of social media online. This blog is social media. MySpace, Facebook, Digg … all social media where people get together and communicate with each other … as opposed to a static, never-changing webpage.

In many of these media, when you fill out your first form, their #1 question is something like: Are you here for

• friends?
• relationships?
• networking?
• dating?

The idea is to help tag you for others. It’s also a lesson to you about why people are there. It’s helpful to understand the “social media mindset.”

People come to these sites for friends, relationships, networking, & dating. That’s interesting. Do you notice that one category not here is …

to be advertised to

No one goes to a social media website to be advertised to. They didn’t go to MySpace so that you could change their life. No one filled out a Facebook profile hoping you would show up and preach to them about how much you love some product or company. They didn’t go out on a quest to find a bunch of people they don’t know and will probably never meet and yet, those people ask them for money.

THAT is definitely not the purpose of joining a social networking website. They don’t show up, hoping to be hammered into submission. And yet … and yet … I sure see a ton of people trying to do just that.

If you try that, the game is over. They click away. It’s not what they want. You go someplace else. And yet I see it all over - Facebook pages, Myspace, blogs. You see people who have a company logo as their photo. Or they have a product as their photo.

Let’s review …

Networking. Friends. Relationships. Dating.

To be advertised to?

NO!!! Who wants to network with a company logo? Who wants a relationship with a company logo? Who wants to date … well, you get the idea.

The value of the social media is in building relationships. And what we have found … I work closely with Charles Heflin at SEO2020.com, presenting the Perpetual Internet Traffic Machine for you to assemble and use … what Charles has found over the years in his testing is, the social media don’t really give you very good leads.

Is that a bummer or what, after all the time & effort you’ve put into it?

You can certainly get site visitors from the social media, but that is not where you get your best prospects.

However … if you tightly define what your target market wants and then do your research and uncover content your target market will really value … and you link to it in your social media … then people will connect with you. They will want to build a relationship with you, because you give value. They’ll link back to you. And they’ll promote your links to others in your target market, who will also link back to you.

You can get a lot of inbound links to your blog (Central Hub) by promoting other people’s great content from your social media sites. And as far as Google and MSN and Yahoo & the other search engines are concerned, nothing impresses them more about a website than inbound links. THAT is a site they will rank high.

So you’ll get more searches. And you’ll get more click-throughs, more people to your blog. And those are REAL prospects, people who have been searching keyword terms appropriate to your target market. Those visitors are way more valuable than the ones who come straight from the social media. But … you made use of the social media to find them. That is how it ties together.

One more time. The social media mindset is, people come to your blog (Central Hub) to be entertained, educated, enlightened. They are NOT looking to be hammered into submission. They are not looking for a salesperson.

They are looking for someone they can trust. That is key. They are on the lookout for good people in their niche to build relationships with. They want to find specialists in their niche, people who share their interest, people they can learn from.

Let that be YOU! Let someone else go to Alcatraz.

Richard Dennis

You need several very simple ingredients to be successful in social networking. Unfortunately, most business people start with a recipe that their visitors choke on and spit out.

Marketing in social media is 100% attraction marketing. People must come to you because you give value they want. You can never, ever advertise. You can’t treat social media as a revenue opportunity. You can’t treat your profile visitors as business prospects.

They won’t stand for it.

Your job is to educate, entertain, enlighten. Give value. Then give more value. Help people.

If you try to sell anything, you are dead in the water. Even if you just try to get their contact information right off the bat, they’ll be offended. They do not know you. They do not trust you. They are not looking to buy from you. As soon as they see you trying to make them do something, they will click away.

Is this so hard to understand? I mean, it’s exactly what YOU do!

Internet marketers see social media as just another advertising tool. You got no hope with that viewpoint.

IMPORTANT FACT: Time & testing have revealed that most of your direct visitors from social networks are NOT good prospects to begin with. Even if you have a terrific presentation, just a very small percentage will ever convert to sales.

Why?

Because they are not well-targeted. People on the social networking websites are NOT just regular targeted buyers who you can advertise to, as you would in other media. It’s a completely different market with different wants, needs and desires. You had better treat it as a different market, or you will fail.

To get really targeted prospects, you need to use social networks to build your online reputation, to leverage the search engines. This isn’t difficult to do. But the bottom line is:

Your job is to educate, entertain, enlighten. Give value. Then give more value. Help people.

So what should you do?

Choose a social networking website where people who share your interests hang out. Set up your profile. Go into detail. Answer all the “prompt” questions in the profile. Upload a photo.

If you don’t upload a photo, your chance of success is very, very low. People won’t trust you. Everybody else has a photo. Why don’t you?

It all comes down to trust. The social networking sites were set up for social networking. People resent anyone who comes in with some other agenda. And if you start out talking about the wonders of your free ebook, then they see you as just another huckster.

It’s obviously the start of a sales pitch. Visitors figure that if you really cared about a trust relationship, you wouldn’t start off selling to people you don’t even know. They’ll avoid you like the plague.

Social networks - and your blog is definitely a social network - are for networking socially. You’ve got to know the right recipe. Be friendly. Be helpful. Give great value. Be very passionate about whatever is your blog focus.

And never sell. It will not work.

Is the fog starting to lift?

Richard Dennis