Stephen B. Henry

Often internet marketing involves creating a brand and then selling products through that brand. But unlike in many other businesses, that brand does not have to be a bland corporate brand. You do not need to have a fancy logo or to have some meaningless and hip name.

Another option is to make yourself the brand. This is what is called personal branding and it is a fantastic strategy for anyone that is looking to promote a product online and that does not mind putting themselves out there.

What is Personal Branding?
Personal branding means that you are turning yourself into the figurehead of your business in a very public manner. This can mean either you are the business and you trade under your own name (it saves you money on trademarks at least!) or it could just mean that you are featured front and center on your website and social media.

A good example of this would be the Smart Passive Income Blog where anyone who reads the blog regularly will recognize Pat Flynn. Likewise, you have the Four Hour Blog where Tim Ferriss is front and center. These are examples of personal brands that have worked very well.

Advantages
One advantage of a personal brand is that it can make you famous. Sure, some people will see this more as a disadvantage but if you are the sort of person who likes the limelight it may well appeal.

Another advantage is that it lets people feel as though they know you and it gives your brand personality. This means that when you interact with someone on Twitter or Facebook, they will feel like they are talking to an actual human being rather than just being the recipient of market speak.

It is definitely worth considering and if you are interested, pay close attention to the Internet’s big names to see how they are making it work for them!
 

Many internet marketers who are highly successful at what they do, count having a big mailing list as one of the single most important keys to their success. With a large mailing list you have direct access to the inboxes of countless people who have actually given you permission to contact them. What is more, you are not relying on any kind of third party like Facebook or Google in order to reach them.

But to be successful at e-mail marketing you first need a list. And that list needs to be both big and highly targeted. Here are some tricks you can use to accomplish both those things…

Use Pop-Overs
A pop-over is an opt-in form that appears over the top of your content. These can be a little disruptive to the user but they force them to engage with your mailing list and to take notice of it. Studies show that these can increase subscriptions by an order of magnitude which makes them very useful.

Talk About Your Mailing List
Many people think that they can create a mailing list and then simply leave it in the corner of their site for people to sign up to. Unfortunately, it just does not work like that and in most cases no one will find it.

Instead, then, make sure you talk about your mailing list from time to time and outline why it is worth signing up to!

Incentivize
You can encourage sign ups with a strong incentive – like a free eBook or report. When doing this though, make sure you are not encouraging sign-ups from people who just like free stuff. Keep the incentive highly relevant to your product and make sure that it helps to promote it further in itself. You can also make the mailing list itself the incentive by creating a newsletter or eZine.
 

If you are planning on selling more than just one item as an internet marketer, then you need to ensure people know who you are and that they know they can trust you.

One way you can do this is through smart branding and a big part of this is creating a logo that will be instantly recognizable and that will set the tone for your business. But how do you go about creating a logo that can work for you?

Finding Inspiration
The first step is to find inspiration. This can be harder than it sounds and it is very important that you avoid the obvious clichés. Lightbulbs, check markes, and globes are all seriously overused and if you use them your business will appear derivative and unimaginative.

You can find inspiration by creating a mood board. In essence this is a collage of images that you find inspiring or that relate to your niche/industry. Look for other logos you like, products in your niche and items that are relevant to your topic. Once you have done this, you will have a single board you can glance at that will give you a kind of artistic direction for your logo.

Another tip is to think of your company name. Are there clever ways you can use the letters? Does the name itself evoke anything in particular?

Brainstorming
Now, brainstorm by writing down as many ideas as you can. The main aim here is not to be picky so jot down anything that comes to mind without judging. This way, you can stumble upon ideas both good and bad. Create a few versions of your best ideas and then show them around to other people – it pays to get an outsider’s perspective. Get votes and then choose the one that is the most successful!
 

If you want to make a big impact on social media, one of the key factors is to have strong branding and an excellent logo.

One of the big roles of social media is to help you promote your brand and increase visibility. At the same time though, a great logo will also help to make your brand appear more professional and it will ensure that there is consistency between all of your different channels. If the same professional looking logo is used everywhere from your Twitter account to your Facebook account, then these will become linked in the minds of your visitors and that will send a clear message.

But in order for this message to be a positive one, that logo needs to look the part. So how do you go about designing a great logo for your social media campaign?

Quality
It starts by ensuring that your logo is high quality and that it looks professional. To accomplish that, you either need to have the right tools and know-how yourself, or you need to hire someone who does.

One thing that is crucial here is that your logo be made with a vector file. These are files that are easy to edit and that do not lose any quality when they are resized. This is what will ensure your logo always looks maximum quality.

Design
Of course the design is also very important and in an ideal scenario, you will ensure that both the image itself and the name of your company together tell a story of what your brand is about.

So, for example, if you are a fitness brand then you need to make sure that is immediately apparent. And not only should your viewers be able to see that you are a fitness brand, they should also be able to see what kind of fitness brand you are. What is your mission statement and ethos? What kind of person will like this?

The aim is to create a logo that, when viewed with anyone of your posts, makes the right kind of person instantly want to click subscribe because they feel that it is exactly the kind of thing that they are going to enjoy. If you can manage that, then you should expect to see a huge increase in traffic and better engagement from the fans that you already have!
 

If you look for advice on how to create a buzzing social media channel, you’ll find that the general consensus is to try to offer something of genuine value. Your aim is to try and create something that people will be entertained or informed by and that way to think of your social media page almost a product or as a service in its own right. The aim is to make a page that people will be excited/eager to check in on.

That’s easy if you have a business in fitness. All you need to do is to regularly post inspiring quotes, workout tips and pictures of people training. Job done!

But what if you work in life insurance? Or accounting? How then are you supposed to come up with a channel that people can relate to?

Being Tangential
In these scenarios, the simple solution is to make a social media page that is not directly about the niche or industry that you’re focussed on but rather one that is tangentially related. A great example of this for example might be a company that sells lightbulbs.

Now this is a pretty dull (no pun intended) product and it is not something people will want to read about every day! But what is tangentially related here is interior décor. People have lightbulbs in their lamps and lamps are a key part of our decorating.

So you can therefore create a social media page that is about decorating. A great example of this would be a Pinterest board where you collect inventive and creative ideas for interior décor. This could include hacks for storage or beautiful home-made designs.

Either way, you now have a page that’s filled unique ideas that homeowners might want to check out for inspiration and you’re providing a service. You can this way build a big following, get lots of shares and only then occasionally try and promote your lightbulbs!

Know Your Why
What’s also important is to know the reason that your business exists and what drives it. Why do you do what you do? What is your value proposition and how do you make the world better?

Once you know this, you can find that through line that connects your topics. So for example, if you sell life insurance, your mission statement might be to create happier families. And if that is your mission statement, then a Facebook page about fun activities for families will serve the same end goal and be a perfect marketing strategy!
 

When you think about social media, it is important to not only think of it as a way to promote your blog. This is how a lot of webmasters and bloggers approach social media and thus their posts are all about building traffic for their main site.

The point they are missing here though, is that their main site should also be promoting their social media. Your social media should in this sense be viewed as equally important from a marketing standpoint and, when you get this right, you will find that you can much more effectively generate traffic.

The Virtuous Cycle
Why? Because then you create a virtuous circle where one aspect of your brand is helping to fuel the other, which is then helping to fuel the first!

Each time someone visits your site and likes your content, they should be shown your social media and given the chance to follow. When they do that, they will then be updated with more of your content through their homefeed. And when that happens, it will lead them to then click on those links and return back to your main site. When they share the content, they bring more people to your website, which in turn brings more people to your social media!

How to Get to This Point
So what tools and strategies can you use to make this happen? The first is that you should place social media buttons – simple links to your social pages – right on your home page. This way, as soon as someone comes to your site and gets a good idea of what you are all about, they will then be able to click to visit your social pages and sign up for more similar content.

Another tip is to use a feed as a widget. This way, people can actually see your latest posts on Twitter or Facebook right on your site – and if it is any good, then you will get more people to sign up.

Of course it is also important to include sharing buttons in the content itself. This way, if someone enjoys a post of yours, they can then just click to share it with their friends and followers, which will mean yet more people are exposed to your brand and more people come to your site.

With just three simple WordPress plugins then, you can put rocket fuel in your marketing strategy!
 

When people tell you they want to start earning money on the web, often they will say it with a sense of self-importance. They see themselves as the next Mark Zuckerberg, or as some genius entrepreneur and as such, they construct some elaborate business plan or some insane ground-breaking app that they think will change the world and they get to work.

While this all sounds great when they tell themselves it though, the reality is that this is a completely misguided way to go about making money as an internet entrepreneur.

Making Money: Normally Very Dull
Creating the next Facebook or Flappy Birds might sound very exciting but this should be your first clue that something is wrong. Normally making money is just not exciting. Normally you do not get paid to do things you love doing. Normally, making money is dull.

Meanwhile, if you think you are the next Mark Zuckerberg, you are probably not. Even Mark Zuckerberg never thought he was the next Mark Zuckerberg. Instead, you are more likely to be what the industry calls a wantrepreneur.

So, how do you go about making money online?

Often it is a very simple process: find a product that is selling very well and start selling it as well, perhaps as an affiliate. Or better yet, find a product that is selling very well and emulate it. If you can recycle the exact marketing materials, even better.

This should be a product that targets a small and clear niche or demographic and it should aim to solve a very straightforward problem for them. This is easy to market and it is easy to sell.

It is not likely to be very exciting. It essentially amounts to copying and pasting. But, if it is a product or service proven to work, then why would you do anything else? Making money doesn’t mean changing the world – most often the two do not go hand in hand.
 

When we are trying to build a big following on social media, often we will ask our website visitors and customers to follow us and thereby imply that they are doing us a favour.

“If you liked this video, then please consider liking us on Facebook – it really helps!”

This is a good strategy and it can certainly lead to a few more likes and shares.

But it is not the best strategy.

Because if you are asking people to follow you on social media, then you’re implicitly suggesting that they are doing you a favour and thus there is nothing really in it for them.

To get a HUGE number of followers, you need to make them WANT to follow you.

One way you can do this is to do what we are always taught to do as marketers: to supply value. If you are posting useful or interesting content, then people should automatically want to follow you to see more of it.

But to go further than this, you need to suggest that following you makes someone a VIP – that they are becoming part of an exclusive club or group.

People love to belong and they love to have things that other people can’t have. We love feeling like a part of a privileged group and this is why Gold Memberships are so important. It is not just about what that gold membership gets you; it is about the status and feeling of importance and belonging that comes from it.

You can create this same kind of identity through your social media by making your brand into more than just a product and instead making it a movement. For example, you will find that a lot of fitness and weight loss brands will talk about themselves as The New Fitness Revolution or something comparable. Of course people will want to sign up to that! Who would not want to tell people they are part of a new revolution? Or to feel like they are a part of a big movement?

And this has another amazing benefit too; you are making people feel as though they are taking a step closer to their goal simply by following you. When someone makes the decision to get into shape and to look and feel healthier than ever, they will want to do something to cement that decision and to make a statement to that end. Following you is the perfect way to do this!
 

When you are trying to build a successful social media page that will help to sell your products and build you a big following, what is important is to try and sell the dream.

So what does that mean? It means focussing on you value proposition.

A value proposition meanwhile is the way in which your product or your service can change people’s lives for the better.

What is it that people should get from your product if all goes well? The old saying goes that you do not sell hats, you sell warm heads; you do not sell steaks, you sell the sizzle. This is to say that people do not buy hats because they want to wrap fabric around their heads and they do not buy steaks because they like the look of read meat. They buy these things for an end goal that will make life a little more comfortable. Your product and your service are more than the sum of their parts.

The Emotional Hook
This is even more important when what you are selling has an emotional hook. The ideal example here is the Make Money Ebook. This is just a PDF with lots of words, which in itself does not offer that much value. So the value proposition is tied to what those words can do for the person. And of course this means that you are going to help your readers to become richer, healthier, in control.

More than that, you are going to help them end the stress of debt and you are going to help them to be more attractive to the opposite sex. They can go on lots of holidays and buy nice watches that make them feel more confident!

That’s the emotional hook and if you were trying to sell the product on a sales page, that is what you need to focus on.

In social media, you do not want to be so on the nose. Instead, your objective will be to focus on the lifestyle that is associated with the product you are selling and to promote this through your channel.

How to Sell the Lifestyle
So how might you do this? A quick look on Instagram will quickly show you how people are selling fitness products and clothing: they do it by creating a lifestyle and sharing images and videos of themselves working out, or just looking generally attractive in their clothes.

And this helps to gain them followers who want that lifestyle and who want to live vicariously. And it also generates a lot of sales – more effectively than any on-the-nose marketing attempt!
 

Kickstarter is a crowdfunding site that anyone can use in order to drum up support for an idea or a project. The idea is that you are creating something so unique and exciting that your prospective audience really want to see it become a reality. As such, they support you by giving you funds and get a sense of involvement as well. Normally they give enough that they also secure a discounted preorder of the item.

This is a great system though and its usefulness goes beyond just raising capital for a new business. In fact, if you are an internet marketer then there are countless benefits to getting on Kickstarter too and a number of ways you can do it.

Advantages of Kickstarter
Other than the fact that you can get preorders for a product you have not yet completed, Kickstarter offers amazing marketing advantages by letting you generate hype and excitement. Not only that, but it gives you access to a community around your project and a community that feels involved and like they are a part of your movement – very important factors when you are trying to build enthusiasm and excitement. Kickstarter even lets you e-mail your backers subsequently, thereby giving you a direct line to a huge number of people who have demonstrated a proven interest in what you are doing and even a willingness to pay for it.

So how do you get on here? Simple: you take your digital product and you find a way to make it exciting enough to warrant that kind of support. This is a great thought experiment in itself. How do you take this kind of digital product and make it into something that people will be absolutely crazy about?

If you get it right, you will conquer not just Kickstarter but the web!

If you want to become a successful internet marketer and you’re thinking of promoting a product or service for cash, then it’s important not to forget the value of forums.

With social media now being as ubiquitous as it is, many people have forgotten that forums exist. There are far fewer forums sure, and they tend to focus more on very specific niches and communities, but nevertheless they are still incredibly valuable and actually have a number of unique advantages even beyond Facebook.

The Benefits of Forums
The smaller number of forums and their very cliquey nature can actually be seen as a positive thing. Very often a forum will be a place where a group of very passionate individuals can meet to discuss a topic that they find fascinating. They will often spend a lot of time on these forums and in doing so they will gradually build relationships with the other users there and become very tight.

If you are marketing to that niche then, a forum will present you with a perfect place to find a large number of people who absolutely love the industry and who are eager to talk about it.

If you go in here guns blazing and start posting adverts though, then you can expect a backlash. This is like a members only club and you are going to need time building their trust.

On the other hand, if you spend time gradually creating relationships by engaging in discussions, asking questions and providing advice and ideas then you will find that you become accepted by the community and even trusted. You can use these interactions to build important contacts and even to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise.

THEN when you eventually post your link, you will find they do not just follow it but even go as far as to help you promote it and drive more people to it.
 

Accordion Content

Here is a strange problem that many internet marketers share: they are shy.

What am I talking about? Well, if you are an internet marketer, then ask yourself when the last time you posted to your Facebook timeline about your business was. And no, I am not talking about your Facebook page – I am talking about your actual Facebook account with your name and face on it and with all your friends watching.

Because the problem is that a lot of internet marketers just do not like putting themselves out there like that and are too awkward about what they do to want to promote themselves in that way.

Hopefully you can immediately see the problem here. Your job is to shout about your products and services from the roof tops – but you are afraid to do so to your own friends?

Not only is this a very bad mentality and a bad habit that will not be conducive to overall internet marketing success, it is also missing out on a lot of opportunities.

The people you know in the real world are a valid audience and what is more, they are actually a better than average audience because they like you and want to support you.

Your friends from school are not only more likely than average to buy things from you, they are also much more likely to share your posts with their friends and to promote you on your behalf.

Your friends know other people and those people know other people. And nowhere is this clearer than on LinkedIn where you can actually see how people you meet every day provide you with amazing connections in a degrees of separation kind of way.

So, please, do not be shy to show your friends and real colleagues what you do. They are a valuable resource and what you do is amazing. Now, get promoting!
 

It is important to understanding that social media is all about communication. It is the key to getting likes and shares which expand your reach. Here is exactly why!

Do you want to get more people to like your content on social media and share it with their friends? Of course you do. Then it is time to go right back to basics and to remember why people use social media in the first place. You need to remember what it is that social media is first and foremost. And what is that? It is a form of communication.

And communication is inherently about expression.

Once you understand this, you will be able to better understand the psychology of sharing and thereby encourage people to share much more of your content. So read on…

Why People Share
So social media is about communication, which is about expression. This holds true in real life too – when we communicate, we are largely expressing something about our views, our feelings, or our personality. We love to express ourselves and, in fact, most of us are pretty narcissistic. Given half a chance, we will almost always try to steer the topic onto something about us!

And this is also apparent when you look around someone’s bedroom or home; it will be decorated with things that say things about themself. It is about their sense of style, their hobbies and interests, and their families and friends.

Your Facebook profile is very much an extension of this. And the things you share on your wall and the pictures you post are all about showing people what matters to you and what you like to do (or what you’d like them to think you like to do!).

Knowing this, what is it that makes someone like a Facebook page or share a link often? Self-expression.

If you write a post that is all about the health benefits of martial arts, then who do you think is going to share it? Martial artists! Why? Because they want people to know that they agree with your statement and thereby make it a part of their identity.

Likewise, if you write something about working from home and it is amusing and relatable, then people who work from home will post it so that their friends can learn a little more about the way they work.

As you can see then, sharing content is very commonly just a way to show off different aspects of your own personality.

Sharing With Friends
And the other reason we share? That is simply to show that we are thinking of someone. When we are not expressing ourselves, we are usually sharing content that we think is ideally suited to someone else.

So what do both these scenarios have in common? In both situations the content is aimed at a single, very specific person. Do not try and please everyone – try to write expressive content with which the right people will identify.
 

Being successful on Instagram is all about storytelling. It is all about being able to paint a bigger picture than the one you actually include – and it is about implying a lifestyle and an ethos.

This is something that many Instagram celebrities do very well. What immediately springs to mind are the women who post photos wearing outfits provided by sponsors. They earn millions of dollars but how did they get to this point?

Simple: by posting photos that make them look highly attractive, while also showing off a glamorous and desirable lifestyle.

They will post pictures stepping out of luxurious cars, or running down the beach in a beautiful frock. Perhaps working out with immaculate makeup!

These images might not be true to life but they sell an ideal and a way of life. And their followers buy the dresses because they believe that by doing so, they can accomplish that way of life too.

To a lesser extent, this is what you are trying to do with any photos you take on Instagram to promote a brand.

How to do It
So how do you do it? A good place to start is with a better camera. A good camera will make everything look better and especially if you use features like macros in order to bring the extreme foreground into focus while blurring out the back.

Learning to take good photos will also help. There are many aspects to this but the basics are to think about lighting (actually position yourself to get the best Rembrandt lighting on your subject) and consider composition. Think about how you can create a sense of movement, of depth and of scale and think about how you can frame the shot and the subject matter in a way that’s interesting and dynamic.

You also need to think about what the lifestyle you are trying to promote is and everything that comes with that. You can start by thinking about your target audience and what it is that they want. What are their hobbies? How do they dress? What inspires them? Who are their heroes? You can then integrate this seamlessly into your photos.

One way to do this is by making a photo just a single piece of evidence, left by a much bigger event. What is more powerful – a photo of a large group of people filling a room at a big party? Or a photo of a single empty lipstick-stained-glasses the next day?
 

If you are looking to gain traction on Google and to bring more visitors to your site through social media, then you need to ensure you are consistently adding high quality content to your website. The only problem with this is it can be hard to keep coming up with new ideas for articles and it can be even harder to keep writing that much content.

One potential answer to this problem though, is interview content. Read on and we will see just why this is such a valuable and powerful addition to your internet marketing efforts.

What Is Interview Content?
As the name suggests, interview content is any content that is essentially derived from the transcribing of a recorded interview you have conducted with someone. This might mean a video or audio interview but more often it will be a simple set of questions and answers you can post like any other blog post or article.

The Benefits of Interview Content?
So what benefits are there for interview content? Well, for starters this kind of content does not require much work on your part and is thus very quick to generate. Simply send out your questionnaires, wait for responses and publish them! As long as you give the interviewee the chance to plug themselves, they will normally be more than happy to play ball and take part.

At the same time, interview content is highly sharable. The interviewee will likely share it themselves in fact, which means you will get to benefit from their existing network – especially if they are an influencer.

What is more, interview content is sharable for others because it is unique and exclusive and, if that person has fans, then you can bet they will lap it up.

So give it a try, send out some interview questionnaires and enjoy getting lots of free, highly sharable content right back!

If you are looking for ways to get more followers on social media then there are endless different strategies and techniques you can use. Some in particular though you will find are very easy and quick to perform while offering decent results for the amount of time you are putting in.

In this lesson we will look at some of the easiest and best ways to increase your followers…

Retweet People’s Tweets
If you retweet other people’s Tweets, then each time you do you will be engaging with that followers. The power of reciprocity is a strong urge and as such, they’ll be very likely to do the same back, thereby exposing you to all of their followers.

Engage in Discussions
Another tip is just to engage in discussions with other people. Do not always be looking for opportunities to promote yourself but instead just make sure you’re occasionally having chats on various fan pages or in communities. This way people will get to see you know your stuff and they’ll likely add you to hear more of what you have to say.

Add People
If you add someone on Google+ there’s a very good chance they will add you back. This is a very simple system and it applies to most different social media platforms.

Use Rapportive
Rapportive shows you the LinkedIn account of anyone who e-mails you. This is powerful stuff because it gives you a legitimate reason to connect with anyone you do business with, thereby extending your network.

Add Everyone You Know
If you really think about it, you probably know loads of people. Not only do you know loads of people now but you probably have known countless people. So connect with all of them! Add everyone from your first school and then invite a bunch of them to like your company’s page!
 

Are you looking for a way to get more out of your internet marketing efforts? Then you should definitely consider using a virtual assistant.

A virtual assistant is essentially like your very own PA, except with one key difference; they work entirely remotely.

In most cases, a virtual assistant will likely be stationed in India, the Philippines, or elsewhere overseas. A foreign VA will provide you with any number of services from secretarial functions to blog posting or website editing.

If you are in the U.S., Canada, Great Britain, Australia, or some other country where English is the primary language then in some cases you will be limited to using them for services that do not require amazing English, though many people from English as a seond language countries may actually speak, and write, better English than a first language English speaker. You will also want them only for tasks that do not require them to be there with you in person.

You can actually use a virtual assistant in your everyday life. Imagine never worrying that you have forgotten your anniversary again! Or how about being able to book a holiday without actually checking a single website yourself?

But for an internet marketer, the uses of a virtual assistant are more focussed on profit and productivity.

Jobs for Your Virtual Assistant
Let us say, for instance, you want to send a round of e-mails as an internet marketer. In this case, you might need to collect a list of e-mails – perhaps of bloggers that allow guest posts on their blog, or maybe of potential business partners. Instead of spending more valuable time finding those contacts yourself, you can use a virtual assistant in order to collect them for you and you then simply send the e-mail. Perhaps the VA can even manage the email list and, in some cases, can actually craft the email message itself.

Or how about getting them to check for dead links on your site? Or to respond to your e-mails for you when you are not available? Or to submit your site to directories and research keywords?

The potential jobs are endless and the best thing about these professionals is that very often they only charge $3-$6 an hour — a good wage for them but very reasonable for you if you live in a high cost of living area.

The money you can make in that time by doing other things makes this a fantastic return on investment and hugely increases the amount of work you can do in any given amount of time.
 

Why You Need to Know Your ‘Why’ on Social Media Want to be a big sensation on social media? Then you need to go right back to the basics and ask yourself what it is your business actually does and why it does it. It is not enough to think of your social campaign in a vacuum. It is not enough to think of it as something separate and distinct from everything else you do. Rather, you need to look at this from the perspective of what you want to achieve and how you’re going to go about doing it…

The Golden Circle
Know your why is something of a catchphrase that has become popular among businesses and the origin of this lies with Simon Sineks’ talk on what he calls The Golden Circle.

Simon explained in a TED talk that there are three different layers to what most businesses do – an outer, middle and inner ring that make up the golden circle.

That first outer layer is what your company does. Maybe you make computers, or you sell insurance. The second inner layer is how you do it. Maybe you are a reseller, or a manufacturer. And the final inner or central layer is why you do it. Do you do it to make the world a greener and cleaner place? Do you do it because you love futuristic hardware? Do you do it because you believe in small business?

Whatever your reason, it is this inner layer that is your driving force, your ethos and your mission statement and this needs to lie at the center of your social media strategy? You need to approach things from the inside out, from the why.

So why why?
The answer is simple: people will follow you on social media if they are your fans. That means that they need to identify with your business in a way that goes beyond simply knowing and liking your products.

You might find that you use toilet paper from a certain brand a lot of the time and perhaps you like that product. But you will not be a fan of the company for very long unless you find some deeper meaning behind the toilet paper – like a big push for eco friendliness, or perhaps an ethos of comfort and luxury.

If you want to make fans out of your followers and gain a huge boost in shares and likes as a result, then you need to know what it is that people can identify with about your business, your products, and you, and how you are going to communicate that! Start with your why!
 

Why You Need to Provide Value to Have a Great Social Media Page Want to build a big social media page with thousands of followers? Hoping you can use this to build awareness for your brand and drive traffic and sales? Great!

But if any of that is going to happen, then you need to ensure that you are approaching social media in the right way and that you understand the secret to success.

The good news? That secret is very simple and easy. And we are going to share it right here…

The One Thing You Need to do to Succeed
When you are trying to succeed on social media, there is just one thing you need to do and that is to provide value.

In other words, you need to make sure that you have a social media account that is offering something useful to the follower. That might take the form of jokes and entertainment, it might take the form of inspiration and encouragement, or it might take the form of useful links and posts.

But whatever the case, it needs to be actually useful. And a good way to know whether you’re accomplishing that is to imagine that your social media were to get taken down tomorrow. How would people react? Would they be genuinely disappointed that something they enjoyed reading or found useful is no longer available?

Or would no one care?

If you answered the former then well done; you are on the right track!

What a Lot of Businesses Do
But unfortunately, a lot of businesses just do not understand about doing this. They seem to think the purpose of social media is simply self-promotion. Sure, it is in a way, but if that is all you are doing, then what incentive is there for anyone to follow you?

A lot of small businesses will create social media pages and then all they will post is the occasional statement like, “We Make the Best Till Systems in the Area!” or “Find out why we’re number one… call today!”

But ask yourself, if you followed a page like this, would you stick around for long? Or would you eventually unsubscribe? Most people would say the latter.

Not only that but using this kind of approach will just make a business look out of touch and outdated – they appear to not understand how to use social media at all. Who wants that?

So think differently and start asking what your followers would want to see from you. And then deliver it!