What is social Networking?

In the broadest of senses, social networking can be defined as an online community of people who share similar interests, likes, or activities. These sites are web or internet based, and they provide the community the ability to communicate with one another through various platforms, such as email, instant messaging, bookmarking, or web based platforms.

There’s been such a buzz over the past few months about Web 2.0 or some of its other names like Social Networking or Social Marketing. You’ve heard all the names: MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, Squidoo, but you don’t really understand how to leverage those sites to drive traffic back to your website.

Traffic to these sites is immense. How big you ask? In going to Alexa, I pulled up the traffic statistics on Facebook, the most popular of all the social networking sites. Over 10% of all internet users world wide visit Facebook. To put that number into comparison Reuters, which is seen as the trusted world wide site for news in the English language, pulls in on average only 0.35% of internet traffic. In simplest terms, Facebook pulls in 20 times the traffic as Reuters, and the numbers are similar when looking at MySpace as well.

The best part about getting traffic from these networks is the cost. It’s absolutely free traffic. For marketers who’ve used pay per click advertising to generate traffic, they see the value of this type of traffic immediately. Free targeted traffic can add so much to the bottom line of each of your marketing campaigns.

Another great thing about these sites is that the search engines absolutely love them because they give the search engines the one thing that they crave, FRESH CONTENT. These sites are updated many times per day each and every day. They tend to have tremendous page rank, and links to your site from one of these hubs is great for helping your webpage rank higher in the search engines.

What makes using these sites tough for marketers is that all of these sites don’t like marketers using them as a place to plaster their website and/or affiliate links. If you happen to go too far over the line, they tend to ban you, and that isn’t going to help you generate traffic.

So, that leads us to the big question. How do you go about using these sites to drive traffic (FREE traffic) back to your website? Wouldn’t it be great if there was a step by step guide to show you exactly what you need to do and how to go about doing it?

I’ve found a comprehensive video series that shows you exactly how to do it. These 8 videos show you step by step exactly the plan that experienced marketers use to generate massive amounts of targeted traffic from these sites. The videos will show you everything, from first registering your username, setting up your profile, and customizing your profile with the purpose of generating traffic back to your money producing webpages.

I have been involved in Network Marketing for about 10 years now. I have had pretty good success but I found myself wanting more, more, more. After all, who doesn’t enjoy getting up whenever you want, going where ever you want and being the master of your own time. No one puts time restrictions on me and I love that!

I have read every self help book, written & rewritten my prospecting list, ran through my memory jogger again & again, attacked my warm market, called leads, followed the 3 foot rule, did 3 ways, duplication (make it simple), watched webinars, did thousands of conference calls and so on. Sound familiar? I was what you would call, a traditional network marketer. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with the old system and it still works today for many people including myself. I still prospect the traditional way, that will never leave me but, I have added an additional prospecting tool…the internet. Here is how that happened:

I had begun to get stale with the old style prospecting and started my search for new ways to reach large groups of people. After all, I had become one of the most well versed people in my company about my products & leadership but, I needed to be able to share that with the masses.

I met with a local Chamber of Commerce group called SCORE. SCORE is a group of retired business people that were/are highly successful with their ventures. They take a look at what you are doing and they give you ideas on how to achieve the next level of success. Weirdly enough, I was the very first network marketer that they had counseled with. Even so, they really dug in and came back with a smart business plan for me.

They told me that I needed to position myself as an expert in my field, someone that people wanted to feature at meetings or on websites etc. That would be easy enough…I had giant knowledge on my product, I love to get in front of a group of people and I had become a leader that people respected. They told me that as I was positioning myself as an expert in my field I needed to begin Social Networking. I was unaware of that term at the time but soon after that I began to read about it everywhere. They mentioned that I needed to get very familiar with social websites like MySpace & Facebook. I needed to learn their rules and begin networking…as an expert…on those sites offering more than just my product, there are millions doing that. I needed to offer them something different than all of the others, an experts view with useful information. Attraction marketing, attracting prospects to your expertise and/or useful information.

Wow, I was excited! I was going to go right out and get myself in front of the masses…right? Hold up, not as easy as it sounds without connecting with someone who really knows about exactly how to do it. Time went on, I searched all over the internet for information on how to begin my quest at Social Networking. Luckily I found Ann Sieg’s 7, Great Lies of Network Marketing, which lead me to a couple of e-books that I bought that were exactly what SCORE had been talking about, how to get into the social network. I read both of them front to back, highlighted, turned pages down, underlined and basically destroyed the books. I was even more excited now, there were so many ways to do social networking, I was going to be an overnight success.

As I began my research on a few of the avenues, I became highly overwhelmed, there was so much to know! So much that I sat back and said…if I, of all people, am having trouble absorbing this and even knowing where to begin…how in the world am I going to get my team members to duplicate? Roadblock!! Or, so I thought. All I needed to do was learn all of it and then put it in a simplified version to all of my interested team members, right?

Many late nights of studying this type of marketing for prospects continued to solidify in my mind, this IS going to be the way to go, I must learn. I just need the right coach…someone who has positioned themselves as an expert on this info. I am going to become the expert in my field but to do that I needed the help of an expert in another field…makes sense. Just what the SCORE group said, I was beginning to believe that they actually knew what they were talking about. Wow, good advice for free, how uncommon.

There was a ton of information in the e-books I had ordered and the companies that I bought them from followed up with great emails about Social Networking. I was jumping all over the place trying to compile as much info as I could when BINGO…there it was!

A Social Marketing University, right there in one of my books. A University that I could join for only $40 a month that would teach me everything I needed to know, and in the order I needed to know it. They basically took my hand and guided me like I was a kindergartner through all of the different avenues I could use to market. They walked me through a step by step tutorial on setting up anything I was going to need to become successful at this. They also hooked me up with the right resources (priceless) that I would be using, and they taught me how to do all of this at a very minimal cost to me…most of it is free. They even taught me how to make money with some of these sites while I was prospecting so I could recover some of the costs I would incur, including the $40 monthly membership…this is called monetization, very powerful. Thank You Ann Sieg for leading me there!

Yes, it was time consuming to go through all of the modules but, when I think of the time & money I saved myself by letting them guide me through it…I am amazed. (not to mention I probably would have gotten too bogged down with my research before I succeeded, and put it on the back burner).

They set me up to succeed, which is exactly what I am doing. With my knowledge I can market how ever I want. I can market my product, my self and my opportunity all in a way that people come to me for these things. The days of talking someone in to joining my team are over! I have people that want to join my team that don’t even know what my product is. The University taught me that too. Like I said, a priceless tool.

Social Marketing is just the answer I was looking for, SCORE told me that for free and now I am doing the same, sharing good information! Nothing comes without some work but, the effort you put in up front with this program will certainly pay for itself over and over again. I love this quote…it makes all kinds of sense: If you get a chance, take it! If it changes your life, let it! No one ever said this would be easy, they just said it would be worth it.