Life of an Internet Entrepreneur

With the rise of social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn, you have more ways than ever to get your business in front of potential customers.

Graphic artists can showcase their designs with custom Twitter profiles and Myspace backgrounds. Programmers can strut their stuff by designing apps and plugins that they can give away for free as list building tools to create an audience aggregator, and PR professionals can get the word out for their client.  For the creative marketer, the list of ways to use social networking for self-promotion is virtually endless!

Here are a few tips for navigating the world of social media as a marketer, without looking like you’re only involved for marketing reasons.

Be Real

Your colleagues and potential clients are interested in getting to know the real you - that’s why they took the time to add you as a friend, follow you, or bookmark your blog.

Don’t let them down!

For each post, tweet, or comment that you make marketing a product, make at least one post showing off your personality. Share a joke, a quotation, a book you’re reading - anything to demonstrate that you’re a real person with real interests, not just someone interested in selling a product.

Include Your Real Life Friends

Don’t make the mistake of using social media solely for marketing. Instead, use it to interact with your friends and family, as well. You never know when your cousin’s friend might know someone who needs your services or products, and establishing networking connections is what social media is all about! On top of that, your cousin has a better chance of convincing his friend to give your service a shot than you would have with a cold lead.

Promote Wisely

There’s nothing more annoying than someone who does nothing but link to affiliate products. Instead, take the time to be social, and share products that you’re truly passionate about and feel good about recommending to your followers.

Build a network of people who trust your recommendations, and soon you’ll have a highly responsive list that feels good about purchasing products and services based on your recommendations.

The key point to take away is that when it comes to social networking, it’s all about being social. Spend some time constructing your tweets, updates, and posts in a friendly approachable manner. Make your social interactions less about what your followers can purchase from you, and more about what you can offer them.

Take the time to show what an interesting person you are. Look for a happy medium between promotional and social posts, and allow the people you’re networking with to really get to know you as a person. Your social life and your business will both benefit.

I have also written about specific tips for growing your business using LinkedIN, which I recommend you read if you own a business.