Over the past five years, we've published over thirteen articles regarding marketing plans and how to work them, the most recent being "Defined Marketing". Even though marketing has evolved over the years, many strategies remain relevant in business today. However, one of the greatest challenges to success is keeping updated on current trends and keeping a handle on the current trends in marketing. We consistently read articles about "the law of diminishing returns" or about how to keep track of the latest in Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. The truth is those two tools are just a fraction of the information one can study to develop their strategy. Another source of insight into the law of diminishing returns is the social network that is called MySpace. If you can study social networks you can get clues about how to effectively market your business. We all know that keeping up with the times is important in advertising, product placement, and sales... but is it necessary to do this? Here's a quick note from the dictionary about the purpose of advertising: "to direct attention or to Station a figure or figure in one's mind". Creating awareness by sending an initial message and "targeting a figure or figure in one's mind" can be achieved with the use of social networking sites.

Social Networking

An effective means of advertising, product placement, and sales is through the use of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. But how do you optimize those social networking sites to benefit your business? Social networking sites draw attention by telling others about your products and services in many ways. By joining social network sites you can create "sales by correlation" by showing others what you are selling, sharing your knowledge or experience, and recommend others who may also benefit from your experience. Here are a few tips to maximize your campaign:

1. You don't have to spend thousands of dollars to get your business out there.

2. You don't have to be an "expert" to make money with the various social networking sites. Becoming an expert at social media allows you to share information without being according to someone with a big title of "expert".

3. Make sure your entries or content is helpful as opposed to being self-promotional. Keeping that in mind will also help limit which sites you have profiles on.

Advertising & Product Placement

If you have a product or service you want others to know about, you have to advertise it to them to reach the ultimate goal, sales. The challenge today with advertising is you can better advertise your business than before by the use of social networking, but you have to have a strategy to excel. The following are some tips that will help you improve your campaign:

1. Learn what sites are currently popular and see what they are doing. Also, take note of where they fail the most. These results will help you fine-tune your marketing campaign.

2. Make sure you know who is already connecting with your target market. If the site was not created by a person with the target market in mind, is it worth going to all the time and effort to connect with this person? An electronic marketing campaign is the best medium to help you do this.

3. Make sure you bring value to the site you are a contributor to, aside from promoting your product. You may be a business owner but you cannot talk about yourself, or your company to others in the same way. Post content that is relevant to your industry, your organization, and the readers of the site.

Social networks can also create “user-generated content”, which is good for your business. This means that more people like to hear from their mutual contacts. Follow up with your clients and customers to help build a relationship with them. This alone will help you gain deeper connections and trust. Social networking sites allow you to share knowledge-based content, so people tend to share the content they like. Just be sure you don’t just “shout” about your new products with everyone who may be interested in them. It will immediately create a sense of insecurity within your organization and drive it out of your psyche.

Social media allows you to create a connection and provide knowledge about your industry, this will drive up your success with your business and help people become aware of your products. So stop being afraid of social networking sites and try it out for yourself and see how for yourself.

Also, make sure that you are easy to find. When doing business in the real world make it so that people know where you are located, especially if you have a physical location. This will help make your company as visible as possible and will establish a unique source of potential sales and income. This is one of the fastest and easiest ways to grow your business. The internet provides several tools to help you reach more potential customers.