Why am I not getting leads from Social Networking?

Hello Sta.rtup.biz Members!

One of the most important things that you can do when you are trying to utilize Social Networking to build your personal brand is to start a Blog. These are the marketing sites of the future and if you do not have one, you are going to be left behind. Gone are the days of replicated marketing sites.

There is a process involved and you have to set yourself up to know this!

So I see this all of the time! It seems that people think that if you put a Blog online and you write a couple posts that every visitor should be filling out your form or subscribing to your posts via RSS and this is just not the case!

You have to change your mindset. We live in a society that has come to expect instant results, but when you are using Social Networking you must understand that it is a process.

My first Blog was nearly a year old and had hundreds of articles before I started getting subscribers on a regular basis. This did not bother me because that is just what I expected.

I did not Blog because I wanted to make money and build a list, I did it because I really enjoyed what I was writing about.

If you have a new Blog, you should expect it to grow very slowly. There are ways that you can help it along however and that is by doing some of the following.

1. Add your Blog URL to your social sites and send people there instead of your marketing sites.
This will actually attract more people because when you send them to a marketing site, 99% of them will hit that wonderful back button. But if you send them to a Blog, it can help them get to know you.

2. Create an account at www.Technorati.com
Create an account here, and look for other Blogs in your niche and read and comment regularly on them. Get to know the authors. Repost some of their best articles on your site. This will create what is called pingback and chances are they will then do a pingback to your blog.

3. Create what I call your "Social Web"
Connect all of your social sites together so that when you post an article on your Blog, it is syndicated to ALL of your social sites like Twitter, Facebook and linkedin just to name a few. I teach you exactly how to do this on my Blog www.whoisdavidfoster.com

4. Use a WordPress Self Hosted Website
WordPress is by far the leader in Blogging for many reasons. I highly recommend that you use a self hosted WordPress site because it is the best for the search engines and just various customization reasons.

5. Post consistently
This is VERY important. Especially to a new Blog. You have to be consistent with your posts. If you write sporadically, your readers will come that way too. Initially you should be doing a post every day. Do one MAIN article every week and then smaller informative posts to fill. The reason is when you finally do get readers, you want there to be information there for them to read. If you only have one or two articles, they will not stay long, and they will definitely not subscribe.

6. Minimize Ads
Your Blog should not be one big Billboard. If you visit my Blogs you will see very little advertising. I have come to HATE Blogs that are all ads and banners. It makes it so hard to find the actual information and it can really lead people to leave your site in a hurry.

So in a nutshell, this is how you should set up a potentially successful Blog. I teach this on my own Blog and I also do a live broadcast every Monday night where I answer your questions live to help you figure out how to build YOUR Social web and attract people to you.

This is the REAL magnetic sponsoring system. You will notice that this is where ALL of your top marketers are heading, and you have a chance to be ahead of the curve right now!

I offer a FREE Blogging Course on my Blog that shows you how you can set up your own Blog. Visit me at www.WhoIsDavidFoster.com!

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Comment by MARY MCKINNEY on July 6, 2009 at 2:12am: Thanks for a great idea. Got anymore? Share with us!

Comment by EntrepreneursCoachGarethEmberton on July 5, 2009 at 2:38pm: be yourself and if you have enough passion and vision you will attract the leads you want

Comment by David Foster on June 28, 2009 at 3:21pm: Sean,

The product that I am promoting is my own ebook LOL. That is not at all what I am talking about as far as advertising. I am talking when you go to a site and it is all full of ads on every section. If you want to make money blogging, you do have to have some ads...my point is not to have ALL ads...

"6. Minimize Ads
Your Blog should not be one big Billboard. If you visit my Blogs you will see very little advertising. I have come to HATE Blogs that are all ads and banners. It makes it so hard to find the actual information and it can really lead people to leave your site in a hurry."

David Foster

Comment by Sean J. Kennedy on June 28, 2009 at 3:16pm: ironically I clicked to your website David and right at the top is an ad promoting a product so I clicked the back button to post a comment here.

Comment by Eric Tompkins on June 28, 2009 at 11:21am: Great article. One of the misconceptions that we find with our customers is that after joining a social network business just happens. Social networks are a powerful TOOL that aids in relationship building. It does not a substitute for the steps that are required to secure a new customer. If one wants to be truly effective, engage potential customers using the same approach as would be used in real life.

Eric
Tompkins Consulting Group

Comment by Rick Hendershot on June 28, 2009 at 10:00am: Hi David,
Thanks for the interesting post. I agree with much of what you say, but I think you are have not mentioned one of the most important dimensions for getting traffic. I have noticed that most blog posts that get response (like this one) get that response from a direct invitation to visit or comment. For example, many successful marketers will write a post and then send an email message to their list inviting them to comment on that post.

This is what I call "Blog and Mail". This method does not rely in any way on SEO or social networking. It is easy to implement and the results are almost immediate.

Yes, it involves developing a list. But every entrepreneur or company should be doing that anyway.

Comment by Marilyn Shannon on June 25, 2009 at 9:18pm: I appreciate your honesty in writing this blog. I found it to be worthwhile.

Comment by Pamela Baker on June 24, 2009 at 7:01pm: Great Article! Thank You!

Comment by David Foster on June 23, 2009 at 1:50pm: Rabb,
The reason that I am always in touch with my community is because I always want them to know that I am there. Not all emails pertain to all of them, but at least they know that I am there and that I am committed to seeing them succeed. Sure I could be one of these guys who vacations 20 days a month and then sends down one single email, but to me that does not show my dedication...when I feel compelled, I send. =-)

Thanks for your input Rabb and I hope that things are going better for you!
David