Your very best marketing tool is your profile

What do most people do on social media sites when they read something that is of interest to them or offered good information?

9 out of 10 will view that persons profile. Most profiles on social media sites reflect your activities: articles you wrote, discussions you participated in, your comments, your pictures, etc,

For that reason I always skip the invite part whenever I join a network. I always start with setting up my profile so that people get an impression of who I am and what I do.

It all starts with uploading a profile picture.

Your profile picture

Always upload a picture of your face as an adult. Not your child, not your pet and not a logo, celebrity or cartoon. It is best to use the same picture everywhere for personal branding sake. On longer term people will start to recognize you. When you have reached that point, using your profile picture on branded splashes, banners, squeeze pages can help to get a better CTR (click through rate) and better conversions.

Introduce yourself

Do not only post your business on your profile. Become a person among the millions of network faces. Tell a bit about yourself, your family, your interests and your goals. Why? Because people follow people! That is not always the best thing to do. You must develop skills yourself do determine which programs are legit and suited for you. But that is another topic.

APSense members can actually have fact 2 profiles. The other one I am referring to is your ABC.. The APSense Business Center is a mini business site where you can list all your businesses, affiliate programs, resources and links. It also shows your testimonials you received from other members if you have any. You can use your ABC link in signatures on forums or use the link on profiles where you can list only one URL i.e. on TE profiles.

Make your profile interesting

As I mentioned before, on most networks all your activities are added to your profile automatically on most networks. So you need to be active. Write an article or blog, write some comments and connect to people. The last is important because on most networks only your connections see your activities.  So setting up a great profile and than leave to return occasionally (or never) won't help your business a bit.

It is much better to select a few networks where you are active on that to join hundreds where you only set up a profile. Take a look at my profile on APSense where I have been active for a few years. This will make clear why I say that your profile is your most important marketing tool.

Which network should you choose to be active on?

It depends very much on your type of business. If it is a internet marketing service or a home biz opportunity a business network like APSense or this one is suited. If your business is about animal care a niche network for pet lovers is much better.

With above statement I do not want to say that it is a waste of time to post articles about i.e. pet care, collectibles, growing tomatoes, or what ever. Unique content posted on social media sites are picked up very well by search engines like Google (provided you also ad the proper keywords).

However you have to start somewhere so if you have not been active much on social media it is best to pick one that suits your needs best. Once you have chosen one or a few what should you do next?

Read and explore

Take the time to explore all features of a network. Read the TOS on what is allowed and not allowed. Figure out how the features work. On many network features are related and connected whereby one enforces the other. Most networks have groups and tutorials to help members find their way.

Read and interact with other members

I can honestly say that I made found several good friends and partners through social media that helped me to develop my own skills. Some of them became very close friends and enriched my life in more ways than just on a business level.

Of course it takes time to turn a connection into a prospect or business partner. In some cases you will be disappointed too. People are not always what that appear to be. Thats life. If that happens move on. Never give up, you will enjoy the fruits of your efforts at some point.