Nancy Marmolejo is a visibility expert best known for her work in the social media field. She created two marketing systems, Profitable Essence™ and Spotlight U™ , to teach business owners how to attract clients, referrals, media spots, speaking engagements and much more. Nancy was twice named one of the Top 50 Most Influential and Powerful Women in Social Media, and has been featured in many business magazines. LoveToKnow asked for Nancy's expert advice on creating effective social media profiles. Many people write their profile pages quickly, but a well crafted social networking profile can translate into more leads and sales for consultants, business owners and more.
The Importance of Professional Social Networking Profiles
LoveToKnow (LTK): How important are social networking profiles for business people?
Nancy Marmolejo (NM) Your social networking profile is equivalent to a warm, memorable greeting in the offline world. Offline, we make sure we smile, make eye contact and greet with a warm handshake. We need to reproduce that experience virtually with a social networking profile. It's your chance to make a strong first impression.
LTK: Can you give some pointers on how people can set up an attractive social networking profile?
NM: What I say for one site will be the same for all: make sure you say who you are, what you do, who you work with, and the results people get from working with you. The various sites will alter how many words you can use to say that, but bottom line is to communicate well and clearly. You also want to make sure any links you have to your website are clickable links and lead to a page that gives them more info about you and the work you do.
Choose a Great Profile Photo
LTK: What about profile photos?
NM: General rule of thumb for business is to use a professional looking headshot that has you looking into the camera. While you may not be able to invest in a professional photographer if you're just starting out, be sure to choose a professional-looking headshot.
Of course there are exceptions. For instance if you're super well-known then you can get away with just about anything. If you're in a profession like fitness training, you may want to show yourself in action.
Don't assume that everyone will "get" you if you post something silly or unprofessional looking. Such photos can damage your online credibility. Remember, first impressions are lasting impressions!
Using Social Networking Profiles as Part of a Marketing Campaign
LTK: How can you use a social networking profile page as part of your online marketing campaigns?
NM: You always want to give people the links to your social media profiles on your website, blog, ezine, and other marketing materials. And it's not enough just to list them, you need to make sure you're out there interacting and engaging with people, too. You can also include your social networking links on your email signature, too.
LTK: What do you see as the number one mistake business people make on their social networking profiles?
NM: Number one is TOO MANY LINKS. Some people have 20 websites and they want to put links to all of them. I suggest you use a single link. If you give people too many choices, they tend to choose nothing and move on. You can even create a special "Social Media Landing Page." It's a great idea and you can then link to your other sites from one landing page. You can see an example of how I use a social networking landing page on Viva Visibility.
LTK: Can you share a few tips in general for incorporating social media into an online marketing campaign?
NM: Integrate it with your regular marketing. So for example, you may want to send out a promo one week that has people take action by going to your Facebook fan page. Or like when I do teleseminars, I enlist the help of my listeners to go on Twitter and scribe notes using a hashtag. (A hashtag is the pound or number symbol placed in front of a word: #NancyMarmeljo, #marketing, #LoveToKnow are examples of hashtags.) They create new conversations and get huge value and visibility for themselves. You can also set up your blog so your blog posts get published on Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, and other sites. These are ways to make your traditional online marketing and your social media marketing work for each other.
21 Tips Download
LoveToKnow wishes to thank visibility expert Nancy Marmolejo for her social networking tips. You can contact Nancy through her website, Viva Visiblity. She offers a free download with 21 tips for great social network marketing.
