For some reason many people seem to discount social media. They think it is only for kids and has no real business value to it. This is both untrue and great news for you! This means that many of your competitors do not use social media in their marketing mix.
The truth about Social Media is that yes, SOME of it is geared more towards the young. MySpace is generally used by a younger crowd than Facebook and LinkedIn. MySpace also tends to have a less affluent crowd than some other forms of social media. However, this doesn't mean you should discount ALL forms of social media.
Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are all very viable avenues for marketing and networking. Over 41% of all Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn users have a household income over $75,000. 38% of LinkedIn's users make over $100,000 a year. These are the people you want to reach. These are the people who are going to be buying homes.
Here are 3 steps to get you started on Social Media.
1. Ask your friends/family/clients/colleagues to add you.
Send out an email to everyone you know and ask them to follow you on Twitter, or to become your friend on Facebook. This will be the easiest way to get a network of Socail Media friends at the beginning. The best part is now that you are connect to them, you are also connected to their friends and followers.
2. Interact with local businesses and organizations.
Start conversations with local business owners, clubs, organizations, etc. on your Social Networks. Think of it as a networking event, except it is online. You are there to meet new people and to build business relationships. I have actually sold a personal online business of mine solely through Twitter. We were in the same niche, we started talking and become friends, a few weeks later he made me an offer that I couldn't refuse. We have never met in person or even talked on the phone. Everything was done online and Twitter is what got it all started.
3. Join other peoples conversations.
The great thing about Social Media is a lot of times you can join in a conversation without ever being invited. Now if you were at an event and just jumped into a random conversation with your opinion people might think you were weird. However online this is very normal. If you see an interesting conversation on Twitter, go ahead and tweet in your opinion. You can do the same thing with Facebook. Chances are they will respond to you and you can start building that relationship. Aside from that, now their Social Media friends will see the conversation and they might join in as well.
4. Keep in touch.
Just like in your personal life, if you do not keep in touch people will start to forget about you. If you have a few people or businesses you think would be a good match for your business, keep in touch with them. Every couple weeks just drop them a message asking how things are, telling them about something interesting, or just commenting on something they have written online. If you keep the conversation going they are much more likely to remember you, and even start to consider you a friend.
Social Media can be an extremely powerful networking tool when used correctly and consistently. Despite what you hear about MySpace, do not discount Social Media all together, it really can bring you in a lot of business.