1. Your skills should have a price tag – The big problem I often notice is that a lot of people do have all the necessary skills but don’t get paid for it. This is primarily because they don’t put a price tag on themselves. If you know all about social media and know how to use it strategically, then you should work around it. There are chances that people will pay you for it.
2. Work for free but just once – You will have to prove how good you are at growing the online communities both to your potential clients and to yourself. I will recommend you to find some cash strapped tiny business or any non-profit organization and then offer to do the work for free. This will go on your resume and will also build your knowledge and self-confidence. You will end up growing your network too and there will be clients who will recommend you.
   
3. Landing your first paid client – You might find it hard to work for free but it is ideal to start like this because you get a lot of experience. Also, you will get more clients through your existing one. So how to sign that first client? For me, it happened through my existing friends and contacts. You can tap your networks through Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and your own blog. Also, don’t hesitate to tell your friends, they will help you spread the word and you might get to a gold mine through this.
4. Decide what are your services – Your offerings shouldn’t just say ‘do social media work’. Are you going to teach people how to use Facebook and Twitter? Will you make blog strategies for the companies to implement? You might even grow online communities for the clients. You should also consider the type of clients that you wish to work for – organizations, businesses, individuals, or all. If a new acquaintance asks you about what you do, then you should be able to explain everything in simple terms and you should use examples too.
5. How much are you going to charge? – Social media consulting prices can start from free and go up to several hundred dollars per hour. Irrespective of your price tag, there will be people who will either think that you are dirt cheap or that you are too expensive. It is essential to find a sweet spot between the experience and skills.

Your charges can change from one client to the other. If one client can afford to pay you more then you can charge more money per hour or per project. Some times a client can lose interest in you once you reveal your price. If you are worried about this, then you can offer that client several tiers of services having different price tags.

During my experiences as a blog writer, I realized that there are some things that you cannot avoid. Here are four cornerstones or pillars for building and marketing any business.

Relationships – You need to create strong relationships with your audience and this is important everywhere. Instead of hunting for the new customers, I would recommend you to create a valued environment which benefits the existing customers and readers. You should be able to keep them coming back for more. Your readers should spread the word for you and bring in more people to your blog.

Direct response copywriting –

You need to keep yourself updated with the latest social media trends or create them sometimes. Once you find a good topic to write on, sit back and come up with killer headlines. Then move through your story strategically for creating something that holds the attention of your readers. Follow the old-school copywriting advice for making a difference between a blog which fades in to oblivion and the one which flourishes successfully.

Content marketing – This is my ace – delivering great content is of utmost importance. You should deliver great content and it should be focussed in one direction. It is also recommended that you develop a strategy for this. One great way to do this is to offer some cash money to readers or come up with something else where the reader benefits.

Have something that is worth selling – Everyone out there is looking to sell something. This might be product, service, idea, download or even a worthy cause. The thing that you are selling needs to be worth the price. You should never forget that the attention of the reader is a very valuable commodity and it is also limited in supply. When you ask for dollars, pounds, yen or any valuables, you need to deliver on something which is worth the asking price.

I have given my four bits above and it is up to you to bring these four pillars together while blogging. Together, these four can do wonders but if you miss even one of them; you might not get the desired success.

It’s hardly been a month since Google’s+1 button was out and it is already common on major Websites. The +1 button is now more widespread than Tweet button. BrightEdge, who is an SEO platform enterprise developer studied about 10,000 sites out on Web sand found 33 percent placement for the Google +1 button in the past few days. The company says that +1 button is not on 4.4 percent sites up from 3.6 percent in the month of June. On the other hand, the Twitter plug ins are shown in just 3.4 percent of sites.

Both Twitter and Google are trailing behind Facebook whose ‘Like’ button is seen on 20 percent of sites front page. The chart shown below shows Twitter’s plug in button as Twitter Share but Jim Yu, the BrightEdge CEO calls it Twitter Tweet button.

‘Like’ button of Facebook turned up on about 50,000 sites a week after it was launched in last April. In just one month, the number rose to 100,000 sites. On the other hand, Twitter’s Tweet button came in August.

The study has also noted adoption for the links to Twitter feeds or Facebook Pages on the front pages. These links are more famous than the buttons. However, more than half or 51% of sites still don’t have a link for Twitter or Facebook on the front page.

“The consumer isn’t a moron; she is your wife.”
I’m sorry, but I had to open with this one. It’s my favorite, I still remember how this cracked me up when I first read it. Even in this digital age it is still apt for not just marketers, but also bloggers. Don’t talk down to your customers or readers; they are someone you should value and cherish. And if you can do this, it will take you a long way. And now, since we live in such serious times…

“The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible.”

Some of the best posts I’ve written on here have been a bit light-hearted and funny (or as funny as I could make it). It very often is the craziest and funniest things that resonate with your readers/customers. Don’t underestimate the power of humor.

“Don’t bunt. Aim out of the ball park. Aim for the company of immortals.”
Another class quotation, and in essence this is something that Donald Trump also said in his autobiography whose name I don’t remember now. Of course, your expectations should be realistic as often as possible but that’s no reason to think small. Aim higher and try to do things you never thought you could, and who knows…you might surprise yourself with what you can get done.

“If you’re trying to persuade people to do something, use their language, the language they use every day, the language in which they think.”

All of the grammar Nazi’s can go take a long walk of a short pier. Sometimes, being grammatically correct is important, but the importance of communicating lies in getting the message across any way you have to. Write your blog posts or ads as if you were talking directly to the person in question. Even if it’s not the best English, it doesn’t matter. Always be relevant to your audience.

“If you ever have the good fortune to create a great advertising campaign, you will soon see another agency steal it. But don’t let it worry you; nobody has ever built a brand by imitating somebody else.”

Truer words were never spoken. It is annoying and extremely heart-wrenching to see your idea or thought process being hijacked by someone else. The key to being relevant is to constantly offer unique content and information, perhaps put a different spin on things. Nothing good ever came by copying someone else’s work.

But what if niche marketing doesn’t particularly inspire you? What if you don’t have a niche to speak of? And just how do you make a niche work for you, instead of having to work hard for it? For starters, your niche gives you a particular target and makes you focus on it as best as you can. Think of a thoroughbred at the races; putting a pair of blinkers on it makes the steed gives it all while galloping away towards the finish line with nothing but one prime directive in mind. That’s what niche marketing does for you. It chops away all of the deadwood and makes you do only one thing, but do it exceptionally well.

Just like a leggy supermodel on the cover of a magazine or a photo of a supercar adorning a cover tells you what is in store inside, your niche purpose tells your readers what to expect from you. And what is niche marketing for blogs, but simply the effort taken to tailor your blogs to your readers needs? Use the titles of your posts, the headers of your blog, the SEO keywords and the posts itself (of course!) to tell your readers what to expect. When someone lands on your page, they are there either because they have come directly while searching expressly for something or because a search engine has directed them there. Within a few seconds, if they don’t feel that they will get what they want, they will surf away (clicks fingers) just like that. And that’s something your blog can’t afford.

Here’s a quick question then; what if you have nothing to focus on, what if your blog is all over the place? What do you do then? If that is the case, localize your content. Make your content aimed at people living somewhere. People always (yes, always) turn to the internet for information on local happenings, news or information. So why not give the people what they want and localize your content? Your blog might be a great place, but without giving someone a reason to come on over, you will forever be walking down the road to nowhere. The chances are that if someone is talking about something, they will be searching for it on Google. And that opportunity is there for you to grab. Step up to the plate and knock it out of the park, hombre. This game’s there to be won.

That’s what separates A-list bloggers and businesses from the decent ones. You can spot those that go the extra mile and use those few special branding strategies to mesmerize their audience. It’s why these showmen achieve the success they do. Don’t be the opening act for the rock star and don’t hang up those boots and guitars. You can be the best showman there is and be amongst the dominant players in your niche. What is showmanship, after all, except the expression of an idea or message in flamboyant and entertaining terms to a wide audience? All it boils down to is the development of a style that sets you apart from everyone else, something distinctive and unique.

Take Lady Gaga for instance (no, it wasn’t her concert that I went to. I don’t even like her that much). Born as Stefani Germanotta (Lady Gaga is such a wonderful name for a showman though, don’t you think?), she is a gifted songwriter, vocalist and pianist. Just search for videos of her early years on Youtube if you don’t believe me. But she knew she had to be different to get noticed and make it big, and so Lady Gaga was born. Now that’s what I’m talking about. For years, there was no one in the pop or rock industry with that kind of pull or charisma. Queen is the last band I can think of in that regards, and it’s no surprise that Lady Gaga draws a lot of  her inspiration from a band that included one of the ultimate showmen in Freddie Mercury.

And Gaga achieved this while having near total mastery over her craft. Don’t mistake showmanship for gimmicks; showmen are the real deal and they know almost everything (or everything) there is to know about their trade. Where they excel however is in showcasing their talents where others don’t. I have no doubt there are more talented musicians than Gaga out there. But they will never be as successful as Gaga so long as they focus solely on their craft. They need to rebrand themselves, use branding strategies that set them apart. Only them will they have the audiences eating out of their hands. And the same rule applies to you as well.

And if you’re not doing this, why aren’t you doing so already? Free content that is well written has great potential to increase the sales and credibility of a small business. I’m going to be brutally honest here and say that while there’s tons of free content out there on the internet, the main problem with it is that most of it is rubbish. So you can understand how quality content will stick out like a sore thumb (but in a good way of course). You might rightly feel that writing is not your strongest suite, but you don’t have to write anything at all. There are plenty of people out there that would be willing to ghost write for you for a fee.

Several forums allow you to set a budget and specify what is needed and accordingly you get responses from people that would be willing to do the job for you. And even if you don’t want to go online in search of writers, consider your hometown as a pool of talent as well. Talk to the college career department about the possibilities (an internship, a project based assignment, whatever) and you’d be surprised how students would be willing to do it for cheaper than most professional writers would. That’s because they are willing to write not just for the money it’ll pay, but because it is a requirement of their course and they get credits for doing so.

Once the article is written, your job isn’t finished yet. You must make sure that it goes viral by posting it on forums and boards that tie in with your target audience and linking it back to your blog or business website where it is located. You can even compile articles into an e-book and give it away for free (everyone loves free stuff) so long as it helps you get the hits rolling for your business. Good luck with your viral marketing ventures!

I didn’t know what to say. Here were sensible folks that clearly needed to put their energies behind a marketing or branding campaign and yet they tell me instead to use “creative packaging”…what does that even mean? That I use not marketing, but something else that is equally sleazy to get the job done? Or is it that they do want marketing done without their name being attached to it? But then what’s the sense of that? It’s like a tree falling in a forest when no one can hear it. It’s an exercise in futility.

I didn’t know what to say to that, or if the question even merited a response. I had half a mind to laugh and ask the client in question if they were high or something of the sort. But suddenly within me an idea sparked and I smiled at the thought welling up inside me. I looked at the client and knew just what I had to say.

“You know what? I have just the idea for you”

“You do?”

“Indeed. Here’s what we’re going to do; instead of using a full-blown marketing campaign, which you clearly don’t want and which will cost a lot, we’ll just use creative communication and tell your customers how they stand to benefit from using your product. We’ll just talk to them, engage them, converse with them, put everything in context for them. How does that sound?”

For a few seconds, the client was asked and then simply asked whether I could do that. When I replied in the affirmative, we closed a deal pretty fast. But that right there was what creative packaging is all about. What is communicating but marketing in itself? Marketing is nothing more than the function of the message it has to place in the minds of its consumers, making them feel good about using it. And that’s what I told the client I would do for them. Sometimes, it seems to be that a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet. And you can use this creative packaging to sell almost anything to anyone.

Like this; instead of saying something is 25% off, I’ll just say you buy 3 items and get a fourth of your choice free. See what I did there? Now go have some fun and weave some magic of your own. But just don’t call it marketing, please.

The mind and brain function is a potent weapon for marketers and bloggers alike. Using it, capturing it and controlling it will help you immensely. Some feel that they constantly need to reinvent their schedule to appeal to their audience. That is not true in the slightest. The thing is, once your prospects are used to something you shouldn’t take it away from them. People don’t like change, especially if they like it and it resonates with them. Change it and you’ll undo all the good work done so far.

But what’s more important is you risk confusing them and their minds, and brain function will struggle to fully interpret different messages. The brain doesn’t want to remember everything, it is selective in its choices. But if something is repeated relentlessly, it will remember it since it figures it is important. This is also true for messages that are emotion heavy and consistently delivered. It’s why you remember your wife nagging you so clearly while you don’t remember where you kept that damn remote/key/pair of socks. Emotional context can be everything for brain function.

Advertisers know this and that’s why we remember advertising slogans dating back to our childhood more than we remember our fourth grade teacher’s name. It’s also why our first crush or love is remembered so vividly since details of him/her are played over so often in our heads. That’s the power of repetition, and that’s the power of harnessing brain function. Get a message and stick to it; the minds of your prospects will thank you for it and retain your message better.

Be visible, always

Is your online presence limited to your own blog or website? Are you running a blog sans videos? Then you’re not building your brand through visibility. People relate to a face and the qualities it exudes. It’s part of the magic mojo. It’s part of who you are. There’s no point in being a world-class sage at the top of the Himalayas if you want to get your message of wisdom heard. If no one knows where you are or who you are, you’ve lost the battle.

Cash? Never!

It’s fair to say that Trump has more cash than most. But he rarely pays cash to get new audiences. Many people understand the fundamentals of business but they still do the basics wrong. Robert Kiyosaki doesn’t write books to get his jollies. He does it for a reason. Everything done in a business is for a reason. Everything is strategic. Think strategically of how to acquire something for nothing. That’s leverage baby.

Outperform expectations

The Trump International Beach Resort in Miami caught me by surprise. What I felt I’d get and what I got was very different. The staff was polite, the air smelt great (what a wonderful fragrance it was) and it was all a bit shocking. But it was pleasantly so. You perhaps cannot do a Trump. But you can do the little things exceedingly well and delight your readers or customers so that they want to return.

You too can be like ‘The Donald’ and dominate your niche market. Okay, it’s hard to take someone difficult when he has hair like that. You’d imagine someone worth millions, billions even, would have a good hair stylist. But you can’t argue with his results and how it can work for you. You can’t knock it unless you try it.