Do You “Do” Social Media?

By Bill Davis on Apr 7, 2012 in Social Media | 0 comments

Hi guys, I wrote a fairly lengthy page today about social media and I’d like you to check it out.

Social Media–All the Cool Kids Are Doing It

As you may have guessed social media is popular. Well, duh, you might say. You might also say, “How does this benefit my budding internet marketing business?”

Social Media Week

I point out in the page that social media has two very important benefits (build your expertise and give you SEO benefits), but, of course, that’s not all. You can build direct traffic, connect with cool people, build backlinks (which adds to the search engine optimization coolness), and build your Klout.

I know—I just threw that last one in there!

Two Specific HUGE Benefits of Social Media

But the two benefits I talk about on the page are really important.

It’s very important to build your rep, your street cred, your expertise. People listen to you and follow your directions much more carefully if they perceive you as an expert. There are two parts to being an expert:

Actually be an expert
Be known as an expert

See, you can be #1 but if nobody knows it, then you may as well be a Monday Morning Quarterback—you’re pretty useless and nobody’s going to listen to you. You will never have a following, much less a tribe.

You are actually better off in this world having #2 than #1. That’s sad commentary, but it’s a fact. It’s better to be known as an expert than to be one and have nobody know it. You can “fake it until you make it” I guess.

Obviously, it’s best to combine the two. That way, you really know your stuff, your expert peers know you know your stuff, and everybody looks to you as an expert.

That’s where you want to be.

Social media can help you get there. Now, you can let thousands—if not millions—of people know in an instant that you know what you’re talking about. Prior to the emergence of social media, it might have taken you years to achieve that sort of reach.

Of course, getting people to share your knowledge within their social and professional circles gives you tremendous opportunities for direct traffic.

Plus, you can get loads of backlinks. This is of paramount importance when you’re trying to rank for specific keywords and keyword phrases.

Having a solid social media presence and being active on social media networks can accelerate your SEO progress.

Being found on the first page of Google, for example, only enhances the perception that you’re an expert.

Social media can do all of the above, and more, in very little time. However, now is the time to jump on the social media bandwagon and leapfrog over your competition. Odds are, they have yet to embrace the virtues of social media.