Tying up a bunch of loose ends, and re-shaping the business model. Not as easy as I thought it would be, and certainly more time-consuming. We basically came to the conclusion that Jerry West was right when he said to (paraphrased) “fire all your clients and start using all this knowledge for yourself!”

While that is exactly what I’ve done, it doesn’t mean that we’re out of the loop when it comes to all things social marketing. Quite the contrary. We’re applying them to our own properties and are more than happy to share our insights here.

Check back. I promise you’ll be glad you did!

~Keith

Choosing the specific web properties you’d like to implement for your social media marketing strategy can be a confusing and time-munching matter. There are literally thousands of Web 2.0 sites out there, each purporting to be exactly what you need. So, as I said in a previous post, you need to be really clear about what it is exactly you’re after. Then you have a basis for choosing dance partners!

First, you need to be pretty plugged in if you’re doing this yourself. many times people come to social marketing thinking they’ll just get themselves a Facebook or MySpace account and everyone will simply rush right over after they see they’re there. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. Just the fact you’re reading this is a great start, and there are many more voices that can shed light on the ever-changing landscape of social media. For me, I start my day by logging into my Google Reader and checking out the feeds of the various sources I listen to, and I have subscribed to a few! (You want to limit this to whatever number doesn’t keep you glued there all day!)

Now that you have an ongoing education in what’s hot and what’s not, you can begin to choose. Remember not only your goals and objectives, but what exactly will be the return for that investment? You can spend months building up thousands of friends and followers on some of the social networking sites, but if your goal is search engine traffic then you need to know that Google and others don’t give link credit from sites like Facebook, MySpace and others. So what is their value then? Their value lies in getting people excited enough about you that they’ll click through your profile to your website, where the fun can begin! And yes, you can gently massage them in that direction!

If your goals lie more in the direction of search engine rankings and traffic, you’ll be examining sites with a whole different set of eyes. You want sites that give live, followed links, that are very social, and that are getting lots of attention from the search powers that be. (Namely Google) These sites come and go all the time, but there are some that have lasted a while and are proving their worth to those who know how to use them, such as StumbleUpon, Digg, Tumblr and others.

There’s a lot to consider when choosing sites for your social media marketing arsenal; make sure you come to the table armed with all the knowledge you can!

Next time we’ll talk about the methods you use, and what you need to have done for you.

~Keith

Hi! The Social Marketer is a place that both myself,  Keith Thompson, and my partner at Social-Marketer.com Shelby Larson have created to both contribute and learn from all the people we can in the world of social media marketing. I have been marketing on the internet for several years now, and have been writing for many more than that. Shelby also has writing roots, having ghosted many very high-profile clients you definitely have heard of.  She is also the owner of ContentDivas.com, one of the most respected content outsourcing firms out there today.

We will share what we’ve learned both as marketers, writers and content providers, and hopefully learn from all of you as we go along this journey. We’ll both be posting here regularly, and we hope to have guest interviews posted here on our blog as well.

We will always point you in the direction of voices we feel are worth listening to, as the world of Web 2.0 and social media marketing is very fluid, and a bit akin to the wild wild west! (Black-hatted villains and all!)

We know that there are many ways to reach our goals, but our emphasis will always favor the ways that appear to be the best for the long haul. It does me little good to promote for the short term, unless there is a specific path to follow, such as a particular product launch.

Make sure to check back in often, as we will be posting new content here quite regularly!