Social Networking as an Internet Marketing Tool

What do MySpace, Orkut and FaceBook all have in common? They are all social networking sites that give Internet users the opportunity to communicate with others quickly and create online communities consisting of like-minded people. Social networking groups can range from small groups of friends to professionals and businesspersons.

To Internet marketers, these networking groups are a virtual gold mine because they can reach their target audience in social networking sites inexpensively or even for free.

However, social networking sites have become subject to abuse by unscrupulous marketers. This is the reason social networking sites are cracking down on new types of spam, such as bulletin spam and message spam on MySpace. This type of social networking spam results from attempts by marketers to artificially inflate their "friend" count or how many people are in their social network. They do this through mass-adding and bots. Most of the time, these people market their own products or services to their "friends" or they charge a fee for others to advertise through their social network.

In general, social networking spam does not work. This does not mean, however, that it won't convert; it means that this method of social networking for Internet marketing rarely yields a decent ROI or return on investment compared to other Internet marketing tactics.

Below are three reasons social networking spam is ineffective:

1. The big social networking accounts rarely have target members. Thus, if you try to build your social network through mass-adding and bots or by paying someone who owns a large social network to blast your advertisement to his group, the people who will see your advertising message are not likely going to be people who are in your target market.

2. If you pay someone who has a big social networking account to send your advertisement to his friends, be aware that most of the people in his network are not going to ever see your ad or message. This is because your ad is only going to be visible to them if they are logged in their accounts.

3. If your target members ever do see your message, it is more likely that you'll have a very low response. They will read your message, but there is no guarantee that they will do what you want them to do in your message, such as check out your link or offer and actually buy from you.

You can still use social networking sites effective as part of your Internet marketing efforts. Here are some tips:

1. Build your "friends" list naturally. Resist the temptation to use bots or mass-add people to your network.

2. Make it a habit to personally welcome anyone who joins your social network.

3. Send out your bulletins and messages to members of your social network when they are likely to be online. For instance, sending your bulletins during a holiday or weekends would give your message lower exposure because the people in your network are highly likely to be away from their computers.

4. Instead of just sending links to members of your social network, take the time to actually craft something that would prompt them to read and check out your offer.

5. Regularly contact members of your social group. However, avoid contacting and sending them too many message too frequently because you'll look like a spammer.

6. Search social networking sites for groups related to your niche. Join these groups and make sure you read and understand the posting rules there before you send out your message or ad.

Building Loyal Subscriber Lists

Successful online services are those that provide good customer satisfaction and have well-implemented customer loyalty plans. Statistics are continuously being compiled and published showing that across industries there are a variety of different ratios between the costs of retaining customers and the costs of obtaining new customers. But, these statistics continue to show that across nearly all industries it is cheaper to take steps to retain customers than it is to try to replace them with new customers. This presents the problem to all business owners of “How do I retain my customers?” On the Internet, where you have much less direct contact with your customers, this is a particularly hard question to answer. But, the good news is that there is a proven solution that can work for nearly all Internet business types. Building loyal subscriber lists through newsletters that fill the same niche topic as your business is perhaps the most proven customer retention strategy for Internet businesses.

Even those website visitors who do not buy your products are there because something on your site appealed to them. Provide them with an opportunity to subscribe to a newsletter on the same topic that appealed to them and you can hold on to them just as if they were already a customer. Likewise, of course, you want to provide each paying customer with this newsletter that appeals to them in the same way as the products you sold to them. These people are the most likely people to be interested in the topic of the newsletter, as they've already shown a willingness to make a purchase related to that topic. This means they will be the most likely people to read each edition of your newsletter as you email it and thus see whatever advertisements or promotional materials you place in that newsletter.

One of the great aspects of retaining customers in this fashion is that it is so inexpensive. Even if you do not write the articles in the newsletters by yourself, paying a few dollars for a high quality article that goes out to thousands of proven customers is about the cheapest high-turnover advertising medium conceivable. Most of the newsletter management is handled almost completely by scripts you have installed, so maintenance time and costs are very low. As long as you remember to keep your newsletters interesting and related to the niche of your website, you can be sure your advertisements will get a high readership from a very well-targeted market.

Any time you are offering a new product, service, or reason why loyal subscribers would be interested in visiting your site, you just mention it in your newsletter and you have nearly free advertising with high conversion ratios. In fact, if you build loyal subscriber lists by providing highly entertaining content, it is not uncommon for your subscribers to forward the newsletters to people they know who may be interested in that topic. Since that topic is directly related to your site niche, you have just achieved viral marketing and customer retention at little or not cost.

Many people fear the use of the "unsubscribe" link when they try to build loyal subscriber lists. This should not be the case. This link provides a service to subscribers who are no longer interested in your newsletter. More importantly, any spikes in the percentages of subscribers unsubscribing can be an alert to you that something needs fixed or refined. You will then be able to investigate matters to determine if you need to make your articles either more interesting, more colorful, or more niche specific to keep your subscribers loyal.

Or, in some cases maybe you just need to give them more bonuses or good deals on your products. Free giveaways or sweepstakes, where allowed by law, can keep people reading your newsletters. Consider giving away free ebooks if they are of a high quality. Coupons are sometimes a good idea too. Having a super-sale for the first few customers to read the newsletter on a regular basis is a time-proven subscriber retention and readership booster.

Sometimes your articles may be well-written and right on topic, but your tone is turning people off your newsletter. Generally speaking, keeping the tone of your newsletter lighthearted, when applicable, will keep more of your readers. For most topics people will find this refreshing. You can diversify your tone for your topics to keep people guessing. Sometimes be humorous. Other times, be wacky. On sad topics, pull their heart strings and then end with a bright outlook for a better tomorrow. On anger-inducing topics, end with a call to action.