In the world of business today, social proof is becoming more and more important. Jumping on the bandwagon of social media right now is going to give you an edge over some of your competitor because you will be working towards gaining your social proof. When they are ready to get started with social media you will already be miles ahead.

It’s amazing how many big businesses are coming online and using all of the different platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube; some of the big name giants!

When you have a website that has social proof, meaning people are complimenting you on your product, complimenting you on your service, saying great things about you, what you’re doing when you have those kinds of testimonials on your website, is you are influencing the decisions of others. Influencing the decisions of people who come to your website who haven’t yet made up their mind about what they’re going to do. When you have a website with the social proof, you are going to maximize your reach. Now wouldn’t that be wonderful?

Maximize your reach even further than you already do, because you will find that when people start talking, they have friends in other areas. They have friends in other geographic locations, and if your product or services are available to be used by people in different areas and different geographical locations, you will definitely be expanding your reach.

With social proof, you will also find out what people are thinking about you. They’ll be talking about your product or service online and you’ll be able to go in and thank them for the compliments and take action if necessary if there are any complaints or anything that’s not so great online. You will be able to identify the people who want or need your product or service.

You will be able to go into forums, into Facebook, into Twitter, and see who has a problem that your product or service might be able to solve. What kind of problems do people have, what kind of solutions are they looking for. You will know whether or not your product or service will be able to help them.

Social proof and social media will also allow you to engage with your customers more. You will see what’s happening with them in their life, in their business, and you will be able to interact with them much more easily and much more quickly.

Recently, I had someone give me a good compliment and someone give me a not so good complaint, and I was able to very quickly go in and address the complaint. Plus I was able to have the compliment be spread more widely than the complaint, but then once the person’s complaint was resolved, they were another happy customer as well. Save these compliments so that you can use them later in your on-line and off-line advertising.

Where do you look when you go online. When you do a Google search these days, you will find that comments and posts from both Facebook and Twitter come up on your Google searches. Facebook is the second highest ranked website out there, and Twitter is 10th.

Do you want people finding you there? Do you want people to find you more easily?

Your social proof of having other people talk about your product or service will definitely bring more traffic to your website, more traffic to your business, and more traffic will lead to more profits. How important is social proof to you?

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Carla_McNeil

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6135196

By Carla McNeil

Social media marketing (SMM) is not just for the big companies who are interested in advertising to a world market. It also works for smaller local markets too. It can assist you in "getting found" in your local market.

Here are three benefits for advertising online using social marketing.

Branding: What is different about your business? How do you stand out from the crowd? SMM enables you to take your brand and consistently spread it across many platforms. When you are branded correctly for your business you will stand out in your market and it is much easy to come up with the core messages to post on your social sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. A strong brand allows you to set yourself up as an expert in your market.

Generate More Leads: There are millions of people searching the web every day and even in your local area there are probably thousands. You don't need to catch everyone for your business to be successful. With your branded information available on your various social media sites it is much easier for people who are interested in your product or service to find you. It is fairly simple to target geographically, many of the social media sites allow you to search by keywords, some even have specific geographic targeting capabilities. Generating leads for you business online is a win/win situation. The people who find you are looking for what you have to offer. You can easily and quickly answer questions that demonstrate you are an expert in your market. Social marketing is truly an amazing tool for connecting with people.

Increase Sales and Profits: SMM can be a lot less expensive than traditional marketing. When you have your branding right and are generating more leads, then it goes without saying that you will make more money, Right? This is not always the case, you must be able to convert your new leads into sales. Once you have the conversion process figured out yes you definitely will be increasing your sales and profits. Remember your message on the various sites must be consistent with your products or services. If you are talking about real estate investing in your messages attempting to sell accounting products would not be a wise choice. Using these social tools to interact with customers takes time and money, and the decision to get started requires planning and tools for measuring. When you have that managed effectively the sales and profits will flow.

Social networking is changing the way we find and meet people, and the way we develop relationships.

Today many employers are concerned about employees wasting time, sharing confidential information or say something stupid that will damage their name or brand. Yes the potential is there, however policies and procedures for employees to follow will dramatically reduce or eliminate the problem. When the telephone was first introduced or when email for the masses came along I am sure that the same things were being said and worried over.

Who uses social networtking? The Director of Online Marketing at Tealeaf; Regional Sales Manager at ConnectandSell and 1000's of others who realize the importance of having that approachable on-line presence.

According to a Gigya report titled "Social Is the Next Search"…

• About 20% of online users have started using content within social networks (also known as social feeds) as a key navigational tool.
• In today's cut throat competition among businesses in every industry, consumers are simply given limitless options in the form of advertisements, messages and enormous data available on the World Wide Web.
• With social networking sites, consumers can take their friends wherever they go online.

Small business owners have an advantage when it comes to social networking. Big companies such as those mentioned above must provide effective policies, timely planning and disciplined implementation, these all take time. Home based business owners can simply jump right in, because in most cases there are only one or two people involved.

Social media is really picking up speed, more and more are realizing the benefits of connecting and interacting with customers and potential customers. You hear many stories today about CEO's and the like having their own presence on-line, learning valuable information about their companies from none other than their Customers!

Are you ready to get started with little or no budget and reap the benefits?

Marketing tools like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin are great place to find new customers, clients and contacts. The added bonus is that you can easily stay on top of customer trends, desires and needs.

When used effectively Twitter is a very effective marketing tool. It is the starting place where you find people who are interested in your product or service. That is where the relationship starts.

Twitter provides a platform where you can create huge promotional value. It provides the power to engage your followers quickly…

Here are 5 strategies that you can use in your local business to find customers and clients locally

1. Create coupons -tweet your coupon to your followers, "come in tonite and receive…." Or "Today's bargain just for Twitter is…". I like to use the phrase "Twitter knows first" when I am creating something new or different.
2. Weekly events – these can be "tweeted" more than once during the week
3. Be visual – you can take pictures of your business, use twitpic
4. You can easily ask your customers and clients questions, this will provide you great insights about your business and what you can do next.
5. Give a little free advice – you want to be seen as an expert in your field. This is easily done on twitter by providing answers to the most commonly asked questions in your business. You want to set yourself up as the go to person in your area.

One time during an attack on Twitter my account was not active for a couple of days. I saw a dramatic difference in the number of people who were reading my articles. That proved to me that Twitter really is an effective tool in finding customers and clients on-line.

You will find that you can get pulled in many different directions because there is much to learn and do! When you set up good habits in the beginning you are setting yourself up for success. Here are 5 practices that I have found thru trial and error that have served me well!

Do your research – The type of information and links that you post on your social media sites reflect who you are. Too many people just blindly post links to information where you can tell they did not actually look at the information themselves. One day I saw a link from a trusted source and was simply going to retweet it, lucky for me I did not, I clicked on the link to watched the video. I am very glad I did as the video was full of swearing and vulgar language. Not something that reflects who I am. I did not post the link.

Be Consistent – Where I had challenges in beginning of my social media adventure was that I wanted to do everything but didn't have knowledge, time or resources. I wanted to be posting on all of the sites multiple times per day, unfortunately at the point in my learning that was just not possible. As a result my presence on the web was inconsistent. Give serious consideration about how much you can do each day and set yourself a realistic target. As you learn more you will be able to do more, give yourself that gift of time.

Do not fall victim to do as I say not as I do mindset (something my father used to say often as I was growing up) You need to be doing exactly what you tell your customers and clients to do. You want to build commitment and contagious enthusiasm for your product and brand. When you "walk the talk" it translates your good intentions into predictable practices.

Respond to your contacts, customers and clients, consider social media your first initial conversation, do not ignore anyone who reaches out to you and comments or likes something that you have done. This practice is done by very few and the first time it happened to me I was very pleasantly surprised. I had just found Jeff Herring on Twitter, was interested in writing articles and wanted his information. I RT'ed something he posted and he came back and thanked me for it, that made me feel real good, like I was providing something of value to him. Stop and think about how you like to be treated as a customer and provide that type of service to your customers, clients and new friends.

Keep your promises – there are so many people on the internet today who just willey nilley go out an post affiliate links. No support or service behind what they offer, do yourself a favor and be different. Keep all the promises you make, and I do mean all of them. Remember when you post an offer for a product, workshop or teleseminar what you plan on delivering is out there for all to see. Do not promise something you are not capable of delivering.

There are many ways your business can benefit from everything social marketing has to offer. And it is always easier when someone shows you how.

Here are three tips to assist you in mastering social media…

1.     There are so many different tools and applications out there it is critical that you use only the essential tools for your business. With all of new applications being developed, it's easy for you to get caught up in "the latest & greatest" syndrome. Yes, you will need to check out some of the new tools, because as you become more proficient your needs will change. Instead of chasing after the latest and greatest, take a moment to really understand what your needs are. If you are looking at a new tool or application ask yourself " what exactly would I like this to be able to do for me?" You will get to the place where you only using tools that are essential to your home based business needs for your social marketing needs.

2.     Don't multitask. This one was the hardest for me to accept as I had always prided myself on being an excellent multi-tasker. If you want to create excellent blog content, you have to turn off Twitter, only open your email at certain times of the day and focus. Social media has people believing that it really is possible to multitask, but your results will often be less that you expected compared to those who focus.

3.     Cross-link content sharing. Do things like using your Twitter account to share StumbleUpon or Digg links. Join or create a tribe and encourage users from one network to share content in another. Get creative with how you do this, your tribe will be a wealth of ideas!

The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Unknown

Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and YouTube can all be a real asset or a liability, it really is up to you and how you invest your tme.