The StartUp Blog at PartnerUp

This is a guest post by Zeke Camusio, founder of The Outsourcing Company.

Nowadays, everybody is talking about Social Media Marketing (SMM) and how great it is for promoting a business. The truth is, most people are really confused about SMM, and they feel very frustrated because they want to take advantage of it but just don’t know how. The goal of this article is to help those people plan and execute a successful SMM campaign.

The first thing you need to understand is that relationships in social networks are not too different from those in real life. It’s all about people interacting with each other. The only difference is that in online networks, there are a bunch of computers between you and the people you communicate with.

Because online networking is a lot like real-life networking, the same rules and etiquette apply. Here are some guidelines to becoming successful at SMM.

Give Before You Take. Share your expertise, help others, post articles and answer questions. Don’t start asking for business on day one. Social networking is for building relationships and trust.

Be Active. Spend 15 minutes every day building your network, posting comments and contacting other community members. If you aren’t noticed in your community, you might as well not be there.

Don’t Spam. This is the most common mistake I see in social networks. People join 100 groups, post a self-promotional message to each of those groups and then disappear forever. This is the online equivalent to walking into someone’s office unannounced and starting to pitch him in the middle of his work day about something he doesn’t need or even care about. Take the time to know people and learn how you can help them—if at all.

Have a Complete Profile. People want to know who you are, where you are located and what you do for a living, so complete your profile. They also want to know what you look like, so don’t forget to upload a photo of yourself. Remember to put tags or keywords in your profile so when people search for someone that offers the kind of services that you do, they can find you.

Share Your Knowledge. If you are one of those people who wants to join social networks to benefit from what others know, but you’re not willing to be generous and share your own knowledge, you will never be successful at SMM. When you start sharing what you know, people open up to you. That’s when you start building valuable relationships. If you are always giving, people will want to reciprocate.

Have Fun! SMM is fun. If you don’t enjoy it, don’t do it. People can read between the lines, and you won’t get much from SMM if they see that you are there just to sell them something.

SMM and online networking are great ways to build relationships and position yourself as an expert in your field. Take advantage of them, grow your business and have fun!

Zeke Camusio is a serial entrepreneur. His sixth endeavor, The Outsourcing Company, is an Internet marketing agency with offices in Aspen, Colo. and New York. Zeke writes an entrepreneurship and Internet marketing blog called Let’s Do It! Check it out at www.TheOutsourcingCompany.com/blog.