The Next Big Idea

Are you looking for the “Next Big Idea”?

Look no further because the Next Big Idea is among us!

We are talking about the convergence of Social Media with Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, and Network Marketing. Social Media (aka Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, FourSquare, etc…) are having a profound impact on the way we do marketing on the internet. If you are an internet marketer then you will want to research and implement how you can leverage Social Media to grow your marketing efforts in ways never available before.

We’ve all heard about “Viral Marketing”. Social Media provides the mechanism to make this phenomenon possible for anyone that understands how to leverage Social Media in their marketing efforts.

Google Takes Notice Of Social Media

One of the biggest companies on the internet today is Google. Recently, Google launched its Google+ service which is an obvious response to the threat Google has identified by Facebook and the likes. Google hopes to get into the social Media race with it’s Google+ service and we can only hint to the fact that they are hoping they are not too late. At the time of this post, Facebook has over 800 Million members that is a huge lead for Facebook in the social media arena. However, the fact that Google, as large as they are, is trying to play catch up should tell you how BIG Social Media is to the future of any company.

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What impact does Social Media have on Marketing

In the past Internet Marketers used a variety of tools for their marketing purposes. Some of the tools applied included Email Marketing, PPC Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Link Building, and a host of other techniques. All of these approaches had the same intended results – “Drive more visitors to the owners websites”! While these tools can be effective in their own way for the majority of website owners the results have not always been as expected.

Enter Social Media, now for the first time in history an owner of a business can establish a Facebook Fan Page, link it to their web site and drive traffic to their web site through the use of “Likes”, “Sponsored Posts”, and “User Testimonials”. While this may not seem any different than any other method of building traffic. The possibilities are staggering if you understand the integral relationships that your followers have through their friend networks on Social Media Websites.

“Viral” Social Media Spread

Let us provide you with a hypothetical situation, that could happen in your marketing efforts, all because of Social Media.

Imagine that you have sufficient knowledge of Social Media and that you have effectively integrated it into you marketing efforts. For this scenario you have an established WordPress website, and AWeber list account, a Facebook Fan Page for you business, a Twitter account, and a LinkedIn account. All of these have been integrated into your social media persona so that when you post to your blog the post goes out to your Facebook Fan Page for all your Facebook followers, it sends out a Twitter posting to all your Twitter followers, it updates your blog posts on LinkedIn, and notifies all of your list followers via Aweber. While this integration sounds difficult it really is very easy to do. If you follow us here on the NetworkCEO website we will show you how this is accomplished. Now let’s get on with our hypothetical scenario.

Viral Marketing Network

Viral Marketing Network

Let’s further imagine that we have done a decent amount of marketing to where we have built our own Social Network of followers to;

  • 200 Personal Facebook Profile family and friends
  • 100 Facebook Fan Page followers.
  • 1000 Twitter followers.
  • 500 AWeber list members

Our hypothetical contact list is around 1800 people, assuming that we don’t have duplicates across our network.

The above looks like a pretty impressive list of contacts. In fact, anyone with some marketing know how can build a contact list like this with minimal marketing effort in as short of time frame as several weeks. However, the power of these contacts comes in when you understand Social Media and it’s reach. Social Media is about networks of friends, family, followers, and business contacts. So if you consider that everyone of your followers has a network of 200 people (average defined per Facebook) then the real power of Social Media comes into play.

Let’s just look at our Facebook contacts which consist of 300 personal and professional friends. Via Social Media and the reach it has through networks we actually have access to 6000 people (300 * 200). This access is based on the interaction we have and can inspire with our immediate followers. However, it doesn’t stop there, because if we can inspire or followers to comment and post on our posting then their followers see the posting. This has a snowball effect to where we see something more like (300 * 200 * ? * ? * ? …) = MILLIONS!

For example, we write a blog post that inspires comments from 50 of our Facebook followers. Their comments are now visible by thier followers. If one of those followers also makes a comment then our post is now visible by his/her followers and the snowball effect is on!!! How often have you commented on a post by someone that you didn’t really know but one of your friends commented so you thought you would add your .02 cents worth?

Conclusion

The ability to leverage Social Media in your marketing efforts brings about possibilities like we have never had before. This is “The Next Big Idea” and it is here now. In the coming days we will research and post information about how you can leverage social media in your internet marketing efforts. “Like” our page and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and this blog. Also, be sure to comment on our posts and let us know what is working or not working for you.

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