In Part 1 of this series, I highlighted the basic points that all small business owners need to know before getting involved in Social Media Marketing. In this blog post I am going to discuss in detail how to create and distribute content on the popular social media websites in order to drive relevant traffic to your blog especially if your site is relatively brand new.

Step 1 – Brainstorm ideas and create new content:

Take the time to think of a topic in your field that raises a lot of questions and brainstorm for several content rich answers. The trick here is to make sure you write down all the ideas that come to mind because the more they are, the more choices you have to pick from and use as content for your blog. Once you have a number of solutions to the problem you are attempting to solve; come up with an attention grabbing title and several sub-headings within the content to make it easier for your audience to read. You also need to think of the relevant keywords that best describe the main topic of your content since you will have to make use of them within your blog post; these keywords also help Search Engines like Google, Bing and so on determine what your content is about and hence drive relevant traffic to your site. If you are not able to cover all the points in one blog post then create a series of post (just like I have done with this post) that you will blog about over a period of time. Coming up with the idea for your post is the toughest part of the whole exercise and the most fun at the same time because you get to see how your idea goes through several stages; you get to turn one main idea to several mini-ideas and points that you now have to connect together and make one concise blog post.

Step 2 – Post the content to the blog:

Before posting the content on your blog, review it and then review some more; this is very important and you will be surprised to find out that you still have some additional points to add or find out that you still need to fine tune certain sections of your content. Once the blog post is ready, post it on your blog. If your website is new and you are still building a list of subscribers then distribute your content on other sites more popular than yours by turning it into an article, press release and so on (I will get into some more detail below). Before distributing your content on other sites, I suggest you wait for at least a week in order for it to get fully indexed by search engines. Make sure you reply to all comments readers leave on your blog and always be positive even when someone leaves a negative comment. Remember the internet is a public medium and you should always be on your best behavior; your business is counting on it!

Step 2 – Turn the blog post into an Article:

In order the do this properly you have to make sure that you edit the tone of your blog content to match the tone of an article. Also add an Author Resource Box (a small paragraph that talks about your expertise and has a link to your blog) at the end of the article. Then submit the article to several article directories with a Google PageRank of 6 or more out of 10. The reason is because you only want to spend time submitting your article to highly trafficked sites such as Ezinearticles.com, Thefreelibrary.com, Selfgrowth.com, Articlesbase.com, Zimbio.com, Goarticles.com and Isnare.com; all of which at the time of writing this post has a Google PageRank of 6 or higher.

Step 3 – Turn the blog post into a Press Release:

Turn your blog post into a Press Release by making sure you edit the tone of the content to match the tone of a press release. In essence you have to modify the content so that it’s newsworthy and appealing for journalist, local media outlets and other online media sites to be interested in it. Distributing press releases can be very expensive; hence, I recommend using a press release distribution company like Officialwire.com; they offer a monthly subscription product and for a small fee you get to submit unlimited press releases. They also will give you view count which allows you to see how many people actually viewed your press release since you released it. Your press release has to be relevant to current affairs and it must not be written as an Ad but a contribution piece that is very informative.

Step 4 – Turn the blog post into a Video:

You can keep this process simple by creating a PowerPoint slideshow that highlights the key-points of your blog post and then record a video explaining each point by using a screen capture tool such as Camtasia Studio OR You can also create a much fancier presentation by using Prezi.com; a presentation creation tool on steroids that allows you to create really dynamic flash based presentations OR your can take it a step further and have someone ask you questions based on the content of the blog post and then you can respond by going into more detail than you did in your blog post. When editing the video make sure you include a watermark; I suggest you use the URL to your blog as the watermark so that viewers can come back to your site to leave comments or check for new content. Once the video is created post the video on YouTube.com; this is the most popular video sharing website hence you need to post all your videos to this site. You can also use a video distribution site such as TubeMogul.com to post the video to several other sites such as DailyMotion.com, MetaCafe.com, Viddler.com, Vimeo.com and Revver.com.

Step 5 – Post the article on several niche websites:

Let’s say your content is about a topic that is of particular interests to Real Estate Agents for example, you will need to post your article on several high ranking sites (with Google PageRank of 5 or more) that cater to them. In order to find the niche sites to post your content to, do some research on Google using the keywords you used when you created the blog post.  Make sure you completely update your profile on these niche sites with links to your blog so that when people view your profile they will know how to find you. One important thing to remember when posting to niche websites is that you are there to provide free useful information, you want to create relationships by being a resource before becoming a vendor. Avoid the urge to sell your product and/or services from the very beginning and focus on how you can enhance your perceived expert status in the eyes of the users of the site by providing them is timely content rich and useful information that meets their needs.

Step 6 – Bookmark your blog post:

Submit the URL to your blog post to several bookmarking sites; again only concern yourself with those with Google PageRank of 6 or more such as Delicious.com, Digg.com, Technorati.com, StumbleUpon.com, Mixx.com, Reddit.com, Propeller.com, Mister-Wong.com and Folkd.com. Make your bookmarks are public by editing the account settings of each bookmarking site so anyone can see the links you have submitted, also make sure that you completely update your profile and include a link to your blog. Whenever you bookmark your blog post, include a summary because it will help to give the readers an idea of what your content is about. Besides bookmarking just your own content, feel free to bookmark links to other useful sites within your niche, the main goal here is to provide users of these sites with as much useful information as possible.

Step 7 – Post the links and summaries of your blog post on social media websites:

There are three main social media websites to focus on; Twitter.com, FaceBook.com and LinkedIn.com. The reason I suggest you focus more on these sites is because they are the most popular social media sites and posting your content on these sites will expose your website to tons relevant of traffic. In order to do this properly you need to first create user accounts on each site. During the creation of your accounts make sure you include as much information about you, your expertise, your company, your services and the URL to your blog. Always be a resource before you become a vendor on each of these sites; remember to respect and follow their established site rules. Twitter will only allow you to post up to 140 characters at any given time hence you might have to use a URL shortening tool such as BudUrl.com to shorten the length of the URLs to your blog post. When posting to Twitter include the title of your blog post and then the shortened URL. FaceBook allows you to create both a personal profile for your friends and a business profile called FaceBook Fanpages that allows you to get fans for your business. I suggest you create a Fanpage for your business and post the link to your blog post on the Wall of your page. The key to here is to ask a question that your blog post answers and highlight to your fans that they need to click on the link to read the rest of the post. LinkedIn is a site used by mostly entrepreneurs and hence a good way to network with other business owners. Create a group on LinkedIn wherein you can post the link to your blog post. To increase the number of your group members on LinkedIn start connecting with other users and also answer questions in your field that have been posed by other users.

Conclusion

In this blog post I have highlight several ways to distribute your blog content and eventually generate traffic back to your site. Though this is a not an exhaustive list, it is sufficient and enough to get started and begin to see results. The most important point is to have the mindset of service and to provide people with good content first and eventually they will become your client. The points I have highlighted in this blog post might seem overwhelming to implement all by yourself hence look out for Part 3 of this blog series because I will go into more details on how to get a Virtual Assistant to take over these tasks and handle the bulk of your social media marketing efforts.

Do you have any questions or suggestions? I’d like to get some feedback from you; how are you currently using social media marketing for your business? Please enlighten us!

Visitors who read this post also read:

• Social Media Marketing Tips for Small Business Owners – part 3
• Social Media Marketing Tips for Small Business Owners – part 1
• How to use Youtube Videos to train your Virtual Assistant on the tasks you need done

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