Social Media Syndication

Living in France, Social Media Syndication is a “buzz” phrase that you may not yet have come across. But if you have any form of web site, the words Social Media and Syndication are becoming increasingly important to the success of businesses who have such a presence.

If you’re like many business owners with whom I’ve talked, the changing economy has presented you with an unbelievable number of challenges.

Decreasing numbers of new clients or customers, discovering that the old “tried and true” methods of advertising and marketing doesn’t work as well anymore (if they work at all), challenges with figuring out how to use the Internet as an effective marketing tool.

You will find in the Classified section of our local, English language, French newspapers that many of the advertisers include the details of their web sites. I also see that the majority of entries in Page Jaune (Yellow Pages) include the web address.

The problem is that, there is little point in having a business presence on the internet if no-one can ever find you.

Is that effective marketing? Should you be concerned?

Let’s look at some facts:

• 70% of online searchers use “local search” to find offline businesses. (Source: comScore Networks)

• 54% of Internet users have substituted Internet/local search to replace the phone book. (Source: comScore Networks)

• 60% of all local business searches now happen online (33% happen in printed yellow pages) and 82% of the people using local search sites follow up their research with offline action.  (Source: TMP Directional Marketing-comScore)

What is Local Search?

Simple … When a prospect needs a local service in say Paris, they go to Google (or other major search engine or directory) to find services close to them to do a bit of research before deciding WHO to call and where to go (on the map)

This is the results of a local search for “Lawyer Paris”.  In October 2009 there were 1,600 searches for that term.

So even if you are a smaller business that provides goods and services locally, it is becoming increasingly important for your customers to find you easily. How many of these potential clients/customers are you losing per month because you’re not in front of these “prospects”?

But with so many big businesses jostling for top position on the search engines, like Google, what chance does the smaller local business have?

Get To the Top of Google in 27 minutes.

This is the worthy claim made by Bill Crosby, an internet marketing specialist based in North America who is offering various “Done For You” services, using social media syndication.

I say “worthy” because any experienced marketer who is familiar with social media tactics knows full well that it is simple to come top of a search engine search for a particular “key” term. But professionals involved in traditional Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) will tell you that it takes a huge amount of resources (money) to keep their clients web pages “above the fold”, let alone in the No. 1 spot.

Does your business have those “huge” resources? Probably not…

So where should you be spending your limited marketing resources?

Social Media Marketing.

Now I need to introduce a paradigm shift here.

Most businesses interested in the social media for marketing purposes, like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, start out on the wrong path from the start. Whether they are large companies, like CME Group (with 765,935 Twitter followers) or Susan Hazelwood who runs a holiday cottage business complex in Brittany (#la_vache, with 630 Twitter followers), what they are doing is Social Media Networking not Social Media Marketing.

One of the biggest mistakes that Internet marketers make is believing that they can launch a social media marketing initiative inside of social media networking environments (like Facebbook, Twitter, etc.)

Social media marketing and social media networking are two VERY different initiatives. If you try to do one inside the other you are bound for disaster. People join these social media site to be sociable – they do not join so as to have a bunch of followers shouting “Look at me… Look at me”.

If you are looking for business benefit, there is a clear and distinct order in which you engage social media. If you try the networking bit before the marketing bit then you are not operating at maximum efficiency.

Most people have it wrong. They network with people in an attempt to build their business, i.e. prospecting. This is the most inefficient way to use social media and a great waste of time, energy and resources.  Besides which, it is impossible to measure the results.

This is what I do.

I create a Social Media Syndication marketing campaign for every blog post I write (including this one).

I syndicate the post to many social media sites where the members are bookmarking, voting and commenting on that post (lots of eyeballs).

My syndicate then increases the visibility of the post by creating comments, votes and shares on each network where I syndicate my blog post. (I use a tool called Synnd for this function).

As the content gains votes and comments it becomes more visible to a larger and larger audience.

In a few hours I will see:

1. An almost immediate increase in traffic to my new blog post
2. The blog post has been indexed by Google and ranked higher than usual (usual being if I did not syndicate my blog post to social networks).
3. A steady increase in traffic as the visibility of my content is increased through bookmarking voting and commenting.
4. A steady (and automatic) spread of my content from the original networks I syndicated to other networks as other people spread my content through bookmarks, inbound links from blog posts, mentions in forums, etc.
5. A steady and increasing amount targeted traffic arriving at my blog post.
6. A steady and increasing amount of people who opt-in or download my free report (they are now in my sales funnel)… PROSPECTS!

These are the people that I NETWORK with, I network in one place – not, many places.

I can measure all of this and I have a clear and definitive ROI (Return On Investment).

My investment (in the case of this blog post) was 1 hour of writing this post, 2 minutes syndicating (using the tool Synnd) and no time is spent in increasing the visibility of my content because the Social Media Syndication network handles it for me.

No time spent spreading my content because I made sure the post was educational, enlightening and/or entertaining so it will spread from network to network automatically because people find it interesting.

So in total I spent 62 minutes on “Social Media Syndication” this blog post. This blog post will draw traffic, action (opt-in’s, rss subscribers, report downloads) and sales.

All measurable, all repeatable.

If you would like to take advantage of this process, I can offer you 3 options:

The Platinum “Done For You” Social Syndication System & Coaching Programme

• I’ll set up your Social Media sites
• I’ll set up your Social Bookmarking sites
• I’ll set up your WordPress blog
• I’ll set up your membership in my 500+ strong syndicate, Synnd
• Platinum Mastermind Calls for 8 Weeks directly with me answering your questions and allowing you to network with each other in your own private network.
• I will provide you with all the tools and information to take over running you own Social Media Marketing campaigns.

This is very much a “hands on” programme, so I am limiting this to the first 20 participants.

Cost: a one time $1200 plus $67 per month Synnd membership

The Gold “Done For You” Social Syndication Gold System.

• I’ll set up your Social Media sites
• I’ll set up your Social Bookmarking site
• I’ll set up your WordPress blog
• I’ll set up your membership in my 500+ strong syndicate, Synnd
• I will provide you with all the tools and information to take over running you own Social Media Marketing campaigns.

This is less of a strain on my resources as it does not include the 8 weeks of Platinum Mastermind Calls. Nevertheless, I will provide you with on-going training and support until you are completely satisfied that you have it.

I am restricting this to 50 participants.

Cost: $250 per month until you are comfortable, and thereafter $67 per month Synnd membership

The Silver Social Syndication System Multi-Media Training Programme

• I’ll set up your membership in my 500+ strong syndicate, Synnd
• I will provide you with all the tools and information set up your own Blog, Social Media sites, Social Bookmarking sites and create a Social Media Marketing campaigns.

This is limited to 100 participants.

As this is a pretty much a “Do-It-Yourself” Programme, the cost is a one time payment of $250 plus a monthly payment of $67 for Synnd membership.

Before you put you hand in your pocket… check it out.

You recall that I mentioned Bill Crosby and his Social Media Syndication campaign.

I said that it was simple to Get To the Top of Google in 27 minutes, but that it was not easy to remain above the fold. This blog post is part of my Social Media Marketing campaign to push Bill’s campaign below the fold (no offense Bill).

Do a Google search on “Social Media Syndication”

All of the results that refer to my colleague, Ashley Scott,  or Kevin Phoenix (me) stem from this, our Social Media Marketing Campaign and our syndicate, Synnd.

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