Aug 9 ' 2009
Define your Audience, Locate your Potential Customers, build a Social Relationship with them and promote your Brand and Website. What you choose to do on Social Networking site depends on what your business needs. Below are some important points to remember to market your brand and website:

1) Select a Target market:
Many start-up enterprises resist this advice. They don't want to focus, for fear of missing out on any opportunity to generate business and bring in money. They also like the comfortable illusion of having an unlimited number of prospects.

In fact, the more you know about your customers the easier it will be to come up with a marketing plan. You’ll also be able to design a website that is the most appealing to these customers. The biggest advantage of marketing on the Internet is that it allows you to become targeted towards your desired customers. Determine who your target audience is:

What business are you in – do you have a product or a service?

What type of client are you looking for?

Who are they?

What is your target market looking for?

What are their concerns, their fears, and their wants?

What age group do they represent? Young? Middle-aged? Seniors?

What need are you going to fill – how can you help them?

What problem are you going to solve?

Take the time to think about each one of these questions so that you have a clear idea of who your target audience, or ideal, customer is.

2) Create a Business Network:
Once you have identified your target market, you need a strong marketing message to make you stand out and not sound generic.

Often, the key to using a business network successfully involves the creation of your personal friends — or business connections — group.

New business owners often have the hardest time explaining why they are unique and then offering proof. The way to explain why you are unique is by completing the following statement: "Unlike other Web companies, we…"

Create Marketing collateral that will attract prospects and set you apart. Prospects don't want a pitch. They want value. So your marketing piece should educate them, give them important information, and leave them wanting more.

3) Get Visible in your target market:
The primary way to do this is by working your network. Contact people you know and let them know about your business. Suggest ways you can help them succeed or grow their business, and make sure you understand what kinds of referrals they seek.

Globally, the use of online social networks as a means to communicate and interact is rising sharply. Interactive social media has given people more control over their media experience. This creates both new opportunities and challenges in marketing.

Across the globe, consumers are becoming more connected through the help of new technology. In particular, increased broadband internet access has encouraged new internet users, as well as those already using the internet to spend more time on it, because it enhances the user experience and makes the evolution from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 possible.

4) Follow up to Build Relationships and Credibility:
Over time, if you keep following up and building relationships, people will begin to remember you. They will know that you are not another one of those contractors who is in between jobs, but a serious businessperson.

But you have to follow up. Research shows that it takes 4 or 5 positive interactions before a prospect is willing to consider you for a project and hire you. So stay in touch with the people you meet. Find out their interests and professional aspirations, and support those, for instance by sending them articles or inviting them to seminars of interest. Keep up your newsletter. Stick with your community service efforts. Send referrals to people in your network.

While initiating contact on social media sites is great, it is just as important to continue to keep in contact. Don’t just start something and not finish. For example, starting posts on a blog is great, but you need to show people you are not just visiting, but are there to listen to them. When people add comments in response they might need a response from you. If available, follow or subscribe to the hot feeds that you have contributed to.

If you keep following up, you will jump ahead of your competitors, most of who tend to meet with a prospect once and then give up on them forever.