Free Social Media Marketing Plan- The Top 4 Ways to Use Social Networking and Media for Online Marketing:

1- Social Bookmarking: This is a clever way to essentially give your content more votes and improve its ranking on the search engines. Simply use a bookmarking site such as Digg or Propeller to bookmark a link to an article or video that you have done and instantly improve your rank on Google or yahoo.

2- Forums: Another great method of free social media marketing is to participate strategically on online discussion forums. Provide value and helpful links and info while also providing links back to your websites or blogs through anchor texting.

3- Social Networking: Twitter and Facebook are excellent free social media marketing tools that you can use to promote your business while making fantastic connections and contacts to share helpful tips with and provide more opportunities for driving traffic to your websites and getting more prospects. Just be sure to have a balance. Remember that social networking is all about making a connection and providing value. Never make a nuisance of yourself by just spamming and posting your links all day long.

4- Keyword Research: While this may not appear very social at first glance, it is so important to keep in mind that with everything you do online to market your business as well as any free social marketing, it is absolutely critical that you remember to use relevant long-tail keywords within your posts to be sure that the search engines will find your content and give you priority placement among the search page results.

When it comes to free social media marketing, and any of the other most popular internet marketing tactics, is often not enough to just use a free word tracker tool to do your keyword research, but there is a company that offers over 10 hours of professional keyword research to their members while providing massive lists of the best keywords to use within your online marketing campaigns and titles so be sure that you do your homework to locate the best Online Marketing program to ensure that you will have an edge on your competition and stand out in the marketplace!

Where to go to Learn Social Media Marketing:Remember, that free Social Media Marketing and Networking is a technique that requires patience, balance and careful strategy. Be sure to look for a legitimate Internet Marketing school and mentor with the experience to train you to be as effective as possible in all your online marketing efforts. You must provide value and connect in an honest and open way. Remember, that people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care!

I talk to so many winery owners and I understand their concerns. They already have a full time job running the winery, where will they find time to do SM? I have some ideas that I may share in the future when the time is right, but for now, I think anyone considering SM should do a little bit of cost/benefit analysis. They may believe their time is too valuable to be spending on Twitter or Facebook, especially if their traditional marketing is working fine for them. But I’m sure the companies who advertised in Gourmet, Metropolitan Home, I.D., Southern Accents and PC Magazine thought the same thing. After all, according to certain wine writing professionals and wine blog satirists who crossover to traditional news media, all this blogging stuff is pointless anyway. Nobody actually reads it. (So I guess that makes you and Josh nobodies.)

Now I’m not alluding to the demise of any wine magazines, but who’s reading that stuff now anyway? I have a subscription to a well-known wine publication and I don’t even think I’ve cracked open the last 5 issues because I spend most of my time reading things online. How effective can your marketing be if your audience’s attention is elsewhere? And that’s with someone like me who grew up with traditional media. What about the millennials who do most of their reading online anyway?

Anytime you want to undertake something new, you have to prioritize your time to accommodate your new activity. Some wineries will find that SM is not a priority for them and therefore will simply say they don’t have the time. Other wineries have seen the light and realize that having the venue to interact with their customers is not only valuable for their brand recognition and customer satisfaction, but for some they actually find it fun. Imagine that.

Thanks for stopping by and leaving your comments.

Cheers,
Eric

Thanks for stopping by again and participating. You know, of course, that only other wine bloggers will read this.

It would be hard to put the benefits of Social Media into a set formula, but what you suggest there could work. I don’t want wineries to believe that SM is something formulaic where if you do this, this and this, the result will be X. I think each winery has unique circumstances and ultimately some of the ROI for SM is difficult to measure. I’ll be covering more on that topic in my last part.

It’s a fine line I walk to provide examples. On one hand, I want to use actual ideas and suggests, but on the other hand, I don’t want to reveal any ideas that I intend to use for my day job. Of course, doing a Google search will return lots of real-world examples, but I’m happy to at least plant the thought in people’s minds.

As always, I appreciate your comments.

Cheers,
Eric

There is a time commitment but the reward can also be big. I think there may be some scientific relationship you can show something like T x C x C = ROI+BA (Time x Content x Care = Return on Investment + Brand Awareness)

Josh