Social Media Marketing is a phrase we hear often these days, but, for the most part, very few know how to make it work. There are 65,000 social media sites on the Internet. However, most people would be hard pressed to name ten, much less sixty five thousand.

There are only a few social media sites that come to mind when we think of social media. Those few make up most of the bulk of usage for the general populace, with the remaining thousands taking up niche markets that most of us will never utilize.

The big four - Facebook, MySpace, LinkdIn, and YouTube will be the ones we consider in this article. I’ve included YouTube in the social media group since it fits the definition even if it isn’t exactly the same as the other three. In fact, Facebook and YouTube are the two biggest and are the ones most everyone uses today.

The real question is how does one go about utilizing the power of social media in a commercial application? Since the big four were not designed nor intended for commercial applications, they don’t lend themselves very well to that application.

Too often we see people or businesses trying to force the commercial usage of what is primarily a social, friend to friend medium. This causes many to shut out the offending person or business and the results are far from what that person or business wanted to produce. Then, how is a business to use this powerful medium?

There are two answers to that question. First, the answer is to add value to the marketplace and not to spam or overtly sell your product, service or opportunity. By adding value, you attract people to you as opposed to having them ‘hide’ you from their friend list, as often happens when you spam.

Adding value means to write articles specific to your business that are informative and have some value to those who read it. Videos can also be produced that inform or educate, thus adding value to those who watch. You then share these articles and videos with those in your group or groups.

You should find groups that would be interested in your products, services, or opportunities. If you are trying to find people for your Network Marketing opportunity, you should be joining groups that have an interest in Network Marketing or home based businesses.

When you start adding value to those groups about their interest, you will start attracting them to you and thus increase your business naturally rather than trying to spam them.

The second answer is to find, out of the sixty five thousand social media sites, one that is specific to your business and that has people that are interested in that type of business. In addition, finding a commercial social media site will also aid you in increasing your business.

In conclusion, if you want to attract people to your business, you will have to give them something of value that will offer them a reason to look at your business. Once you have their attention, you can then pitch your product or business and they will listen. It is that easy.

Social media is a powerful tool that can bring hundreds, if not thousands, to your business if it is used properly.

If you are promoting you MLM opportunity, you will have to utilize these principles if you want to have any hope of attracting people to you. If you try to lead with your product or opportunity, you will fail.

Dee L. Martin

http://www.deemartin.net

http://www.gowealthyplus.com