Balance Your Promotions

Balance Your Socialization Skills

Some of you go from one extreme of social networking to the other. You’re either all in or all out – both to your detriment. You have to have a nice balance when it comes to networking online.

On one hand, it’s kind of a necessity for an Internet marketer. It’s how we engage and communicate – and if you refuse to do it, then your competition will just trample you in your niche.

On the other hand, it can’t be all that you do. You have to squeeze some real work in there – you can’t just be flitting around Twitter and Facebook all day. So here are some balancing tips for you in regards to this type of branding and promotion:

Choose Top Social Networking Sites

Don’t try to be on every single social network there is every day. Pick the top ones for your niche. Aren’t sure?

Well, everyone’s on Twitter and Facebook – so definitely go there.

In addition to that, you might want to go on Google Plus, since Google is the major search engine most people use.

Pinterest or Instagram might be good if you have a niche where pictures can help you brand and engage your audience. For example, fashion or food or beauty are all good for picture-laden sites like this.

Tabs Are Your Friend

If you use Google Chrome, like I do, then don’t be afraid to use tabs to flit around here and there with your social networking.

I’ll have several tabs open at once, including:

·         Email – so I can stay on top of it.

·         Twitter – so I can post a quickie message

·         Facebook – so I can respond to comments or post something I want to share

·         Research sites when I’m researching for whatever I’m creating

Now if you’re the type of person who just has to take a peek whenever you hear a “ding” sound that says something new has been posted, then you might need to mute your volume.

I only check in between little tasks. For example, right when I finish this paragraph, chances are I’ll quickly click on Gmail, FB and Twitter just to take a quick peek and see if there’s anything for me – then it’s right back to working on the next paragraph.

Some people will need to do the opposite. They can’t get interrupted or they lose their train of thought. That’s okay, too. You can set side time if you want, but to me, that never felt right.

How can I predict how much time I’ll need whenever I get on Facebook? Maybe there are no comments and I have nothing to share. That would require less than 60 seconds.

Or maybe one of my posts has generated 30 comments, and I need to spend a little more time interacting with my audience.

So that whole “egg timer” thing just startles me – and irritates me – while to others, it might be a solution that keeps them from getting sucked into wasting time on the sites.

Balance Selfishness with Selflessness

Whenever you use social networking sites, please don’t become one of those people who just promotes. That doesn’t help people become loyal to you – it doesn’t help them feel like they know you better.

When you wake up in the morning, while having your coffee, post a quick hello and good morning to everyone on your Twitter, FB and G+ accounts. Did you dream about something funny? Share it. Be personable.

Throughout the day, if you complete a new blog post or launch a product, pop in to share it with your social networking audience. Remember, not all of these people will be on your email subscriber list – they’re strictly tied into you via web 2.0, so you want to promote everything there, too.

While you want to have a focus on promoting your own links and also your personal life, social networking sites aren’t supposed to be all me, me, me!

You have to be selfless there, too. That means balancing out your own posts with sharing, commenting and acting on other people’s posts, too.

Always keep in mind that your audience on those sites is trusting you, not the person you’re Retweeting or sharing. They’re trusting your judgment, so if you see one of your followers who is promoting their own link, you want to make sure you feel confident recommending that to others.

When you see other people’s personal posts, spend a little bit of time commenting and letting them know someone’s listening to them – the same way you like for people to acknowledge your personal posts.

This is how genuine friendships are created online – and people take that personal friendship to the next level by sharing your professional links, too.

Have Balance with Your Email Marketing

There are two ways you have to balance your email marketing. The first is timing and the second is the type of emails that you send to your list. Both are important.

Timing is important because you have to balance out your goal of building brand loyalty and cultivating a relationship with your subscribers with being overly communicative – to the point many people start unsubscribing because you email too often.

There’s no one right frequency you can pinpoint for your emails. Some email out almost daily. Sometimes marketers will go a few days in a row without emailing – like if you’re busy doing activities with your kids.

If your list is used to hearing from you daily, they start emailing you worried about you. Now a few days is okay – but if you were to go three weeks without emailing anyone, and suddenly you email daily, you have a problem.

People have to hear from you often enough to remember that they chose to opt in to your list.

Types of email messages are also important. You want to include more than just spammy promotions in each email. Have a nice, warm personalized greeting and closing.

Make sure you balance out items you’re selling with good, free advice. Link out to a good blog post you created, not just to your sales copy for your latest project.

Remember that emails don’t have to be entire, lengthy “newsletters.” They can be short and to the point – you know – the way a real email to a friend might be? Value other people’s time.

Balance Your Blogging

“How do you manage to blog when you’re going through so much?”

Whenever you’re going through a lot, you still have to understand that you have obligations to your blog audience. You can be honest with them about the fact that you might be blogging a little less.

When marketers were polled about one area in your profession that you feel doesn’t get done when ”life happens,” many of them said they neglect their blog.

It’s hard to show up – especially if you don’t have a following yet. You feel like no one’s listening to you. But if you only knew how many people lurk and never comment, you’d be amazed. You might get thousands of hits to your blog and maybe 20-100 comments on a GOOD day. Out of thousands.

Then out of the blue you’ll get emails from some random person you’ve never heard of who tells you they’ve read your blog for years but never reached out. So make sure you show up, because your readership will grow with good content.

One problem I see here is that you view your blog as a personal diary. A blog is not a diary. A blog is (CAN BE) a place to make money in your niche.

I’d like for you to start looking at your blog as an advertising billboard that doesn’t cost you anything.

Every time you post a new (good) blog post, you’re doing the following:

·         Branding yourself for a slant

·         Giving search bots new content (so free traffic opportunity)

·         Bringing in people who will see your ads in the sidebars

·         Bringing in visitors who might sign up on your list

Those things are things people pay money for. And you’re able to post what YOU want on that blog. There’s no Squidoo headquarters rule or forum owner clamp down that’s going to tell you how to run your blog.

It should be a safe place for you – one that YOU control. You keep out spammers. You get to choose content topics. You decide on length and keywords. It’s one of the few places where you have total control.

But you have to balance your need to blog with your desire to blog. I don’t map out a month’s worth of blogs. I DO jot down a topic I might want to talk about to my readers if I can’t get to it the second it pops into my head.

Don’t box yourself into a schedule, but as you start mapping out your daily task list (which we’ll be covering soon), try working in a place for a blog post. That way, if you have something worth sharing, you can do it daily!

Balance Your Participation in Forums

Forums are an excellent place to network. I’m not just talking about marketing forums, although if you’re a marketer, it’s also a great place to be. I’m talking about putting yourself out there as a leader in your niche – whether it’s a parenting forum, health forum, or whatever.

But forums, like social networks, can be a time suck if you let them be. The key is to balance your participation with sensible time constraints.

Again, I’m not an egg timer kind of person – I don’t like putting a set amount on what I can spend time-wise. But it’s OKAY if you ARE like that! Do whatever you need to do to ensure you get some forum experience, as long as you aren’t wasting time.

I don’t go in forums every single day, but I used to! It was a great way to learn and test the waters at becoming an experienced leader.

When you’re in a forum, no one is paying you for your expertise. So when you see someone ask a question and you spend time giving a thoughtful answer, you can see how well (or not so well) it was received.

This can either boost your confidence or show you where you’re lacking in skill. Both are beneficial for you.

Learn how to use forums in a balanced way – both for information you need and to cut your teeth as a leader in your niche, serving others.

You’re never EVER too big to ask questions – even questions that sound stupid. I do it all the time.

While some gurus never stoop so low as to look anything other than perfect, I like the guru who can get out there and be one of us – show us his or her obstacles and guide us in how to get past them.

Don’t spend all day there. When you go into a forum, use it to gather information about what your niche needs. You can scroll quickly down the page and look at thread titles. Only pick the ones you really care about to read further.

Go in several times a week to see if there’s anyone you can help. There’s always someone on a rung of the ladder below you who needs a helping hand. But don’t hang around allowing yourself to get all riled up and participate all day in a back and forth with another forum member.  This just keeps you from balancing your work and home life.