Social Media Marketing Done The Right Way!

In this article, I will introduce the phenomena of “Online Social Networking” and discuss some general principles.

The task here for you is to gain an appreciation for what social networking sites do and recognize their importance in growing your digital marketing business.

You will discover in the end that these Social Networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc, are all important to Internet Marketers because making connections and forming trusted relationships is at the heart of successful marketing.

Why have Internet users taken to Online Social Networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc? Well, for one thing, Online Social Networking just seems natural. Online Social Networking is a closer approximation to how people relate in the offline world than anything on the Internet to date.

The big three Internet players; Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft were led in this direction during the early stage by the popularity of pioneering social networking sites such as Friendster and MySpace but today, they’ve all given way to the likes of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.

A peek at some of the sociological theories on social networking is helpful to understand how and why the process works, both offline and online.

Let’s take a moment and look at how people have traditionally related to one another in the offline physical world.

People need each other to survive. We need not only our families but social groups and communities as well, from which to learn and with which to share resources. Except for the occasional recluse or shy person, people have always tended to group together for a number of different reasons.

Closed Groups.

Early humans used to hang out together in tribes of approximately 150-200 people. The number of individuals that made up a tribe was fairly consistent from group to group. There seemed to be natural forces at work that kept smaller groups from surviving and larger groups from holding together.

British anthropologist Robin Dunbar developed the sociological theory that approximately 150 people were the most people with which any one person could maintain a stable inter-personal relationship at any given time. This is referred to as “Dunbar’s Number.”

In times past, when people lived in tribes or small villages, the choices of who you grouped up with were pretty much made for you at least in your early life. The people in your tribe or village, or your neighborhood if the village was larger than 150 people, were your group and that was that. However, in the last 300 years or so, and with the increase in communication technology and transportation options, physical location began to play a smaller and smaller role in the process.

With the advent of the Internet and social networking applications, average people have the option, for the first time in human history, of choosing their relationships from pretty much the entire world population.

Larger Association.

Notwithstanding “Dunbar’s Number,” people are capable of successfully maintaining associations with very large groups. Dunbar’s limitation of 150 people, based on the social capacity of the human brain, applies only to close, stable, inter-personal relationships.

You can certainly know, communicate with, and associate with a much larger number of people without any problem. It is just that you have to keep the emotions out of the picture when dealing with your “extended groups.”

The human brain has almost unlimited capacity to deal with information—the brain’s limitation is in dealing with the emotional issues, the kind of issues that matter when it is important for you to maintain a close emotional tie to the other people in your group.

For purposes of exchanging information and ideas, on a polite social or business basis, there is no built-in limit to the number of people with whom you can become associated, so long as you don’t get “too personal.” The stronger the emotional ties become within a group, however, the smaller the group will become. The more that “personalities” and emotions are kept in the background, the larger the group can become.

Time is another limiting factor with respect to how large a group you can deal with, even on a polite social or business basis. Relationships, even non-emotional ones, require communication, and communication takes time.

Another thing to recognize is that social groups are not static. New people enter a given group from time to time while other people are leaving. (Just remember from your secondary school days how you might be “in” with a given group for a while and then on “outs” with them.)

On the close personal level, you may realize over time that some people that have gotten close to you are not really your type after all and you may move away from them, or them from you.

You may encounter new people with whom you feel more compatible and seek new relationships to replace the older fading ones. Sometimes people physically move to another geographical area and are unable to stay in touch. Sometimes people die or become too ill to maintain relationships of any kind.

As for both close personal groups and extended social or business groups, you see “members” come and go from time to time.

Another factor that comes into play in social groupings, especially in the modern world, is that people can be members of multiple groups. Not all your friends know each other. Your friends know people that you don’t know. You know people that your other friends don’t know.

Thus, groups tend to get connected to other groups through common members. In fact, even in a world of billions of people, it’s believed that there are only “six degrees of separation” between any two people in the world.

It is suggested that any one person can “reach” any other person by going through only six people.

The movie star Kevin Beacon is often used as an example. That is, it is said that no matter who you are, you know someone(1), who knows someone(2), who in turn knows someone(3), who knows someone(4), who in turn knows someone(5) who knows a personal friend(6) of Kevin Beacon. If you wanted to get a message to Kevin, it would only have to go through six people to get to him (provided everyone in the chain knew the right acquaintance to pass it on through).

Connections.

People are connected to people and groups. Groups are connected to people and other groups.

Connections are what it is all about!

Everything is in some way or another connected to everything else. Everyone is in some way or another connected to everyone else. It is often said that “using your connections” is the way to get ahead in the world.

Simply put, Social Networking is a way of creating and managing your connections with people and groups.

Trusted Relationships

Remember that most of what you have read about so far has focused on “trust” and “building relationships.” Let’s examine again briefly why this is important in marketing.

A simple telephone has the technological capacity to connect you to almost anyone in the world, provided they would take your call. Whether they will take your call, or, if taken, give you any significant time to converse with them, is the real issue in connecting with people.

In general, when one sees an unrecognized name or number on their caller ID, they are hesitant to answer it.

People want to deal with people that they know.

People prefer to deal with people with whom they already have a relationship. When it is a “trusted relationship,” people will listen very carefully to what you have to say.

Every good salesperson knows that if you can be introduced to a potential customer by someone they know and trust, you have a much better chance of closing the sale. While you may not have time to build a trusted relationship with every potential customer, you can build trusted relationships with certain key people who can then introduce you to many potential customers who trust them!

Because you were recommended by their trusted friend, you are given the benefit of trust unless, until you prove otherwise.

This is the key concept in Social Network Marketing!

Connecting with people and gaining their trust, people who are, in turn, connected to other people who trust them. Thus, it is certainly worth our time to look at some of the sociological issues involved in this process. So, let’s look again at some of the things we discussed above, expand on them, and see how they have practical applications.

Any given person can have a close personal relationship with no more than 150 people at any given time, most often far less. A person can have a trusted social or business relationship, if kept politely distant and non-emotional, with many more than that. But, to form a trusted relationship requires some connection that is already trusted.

Membership in a group often accomplishes this purpose.

Most groups have a certain sense of loyalty. Even though someone doesn’t know you, they will give you some benefit of the doubt if they know you are a member of one or more of the same groups to which they belong.

Another way to become trusted, as mentioned above, is through an introduction by a common friend. Being a “friend of a friend” is like being in the same group. So, who you know (and who they know) and what groups you associate with become very important.

Otherwise, you are limited to less than 150 people that you could have influence over…and that’s not many when it comes to marketing.

So knowing now that making connections and forming relationships is important to our Online Social Networking and your digital marketing endeavor.

Unfortunately, though, many use the sites as a pool of potential prey for their schemes and scams or deviances. Many use them as a forum for acting out their personality problems. Also, many, otherwise harmless people, just use them unwisely to trash the venue with meaningless junk and personal indulgences.

As you venture into Online Social Networking, you must take precautions to protect yourself and your friends from predators and indulgers.

You also need to protect yourself against the waste of time to which much of the activity on the sites can lead.

In a nutshell, mainly what you do with Online Social Networking sites is express yourself (through words, pictures, music, and video), make friends, and join or form groups or communities.

As one final point, it is important to recognize before venturing into Online Social Networking that you should not blatantly promote your business interests in these venues. Rather, you use these sites to make connections with people and groups of common interest to you and your business.

Do not approach the sites as advertising sites!

Think about it for a moment, would you walk into a social gathering or Owambe party, and go directly to the MC, collects the mic from him, and announced at the center stage that you were solely there to sell a product or service? even to an audience who doesn’t know you at all?

In the same vein I ask, would you want to introduce yourself to an Online Social Network site or group as there just to sell?

You should, instead, go there to form relationships and make connections. Those relationships and connections will, over time, greatly help you in your business growth.