Rise up - Social media

This powerful force is not going away, in fact, it's exploding!

There are currently 70 million professionals on LinkedIn. In the first quarter of 2010 alone, 4 billion Tweets were posted on Twitter, which now attracts over 14 million visitors in the US per year.

So how can you harness the power of social media to benefit your business?

The trick is to employ social media tactics that have been known to bring in leads for businesses. Here's five tactics that have already proven to be very successful.

KEYWORDS AID WEBSITE SEO

A good Google ranking will drive sales leads. This is the first and most important step in your online marketing. You should aim for your website to appear on page 1 of Google for a few high-search keywords or phrases.

First, discover the words your niche market most commonly types into Google to find services like yours. Find your words using the free Google Adwords Keywords Tool. Make sure you set your region as Australia and look at the local traffic figures.

Search for specific, ‘longer-tail' keywords - for example ‘independent mortgage broker' or ‘Sydney mortgage broker' - rather than the high-traffic ‘mortgage broker'. Everyone's competing for that term, but over 10,000 firms can't all be on page 1 of Google for such a high-traffic term.

However, page 1 is possible for a longer keyword in your geographical region.

Once you know your keywords, use them on your social media profile so you'll be found for these terms. When people search for a mortgage broker in LinkedIn, you are more likely to show up - especially if you are connected to one of their connections.

Use them 3 to 6 times total in your profile: in your bio/summary, job description, headline and wherever else you can fill in information about yourself. But don't overdo it so that the writing becomes clunky and turns people off.

FOCUS ON ONE SOCIAL NETWORK

Choose sites wisely - there are literally hundreds and you could just waste your time. If you want new clients, to grow revenue, only one strategy works: commit to using one site first, and once that's working think about using others.

For brokers, there is only one choice: LinkedIn, which is the network created for managers and professionals.

If you set up profiles on half a dozen sites, there'll be no time or energy to make any work - your efforts will fail. Commit to one.

Throughout the remainder of this article I will focus on LinkedIn, the most relevant social media avenue for broking businesses.

‘ADVERTISING' ON LINKEDIN

Your profile on LinkedIn is like your own personal newspaper.

You're the writer, editor, distribution manager - you get to decide what people are going to read about you and your business. Your profile is your opportunity to advertise. But the way to do it without coming off as a ‘salesy', ‘me me me' type is to make your profile all about your clients.

You need to talk about the benefits of your service to them.

Perhaps discuss how it's your professional mission to solve problems for clients like them in order to build trust. And offer something your competitors don't - a little sweetener to increase your credibility.

You might provide some free tips, a link to download a free informative white paper, and your business contact details, for instance.

NETWORKING

The beauty of sites like LinkedIn is that you can see the extent of your business networks and your potential client base.

Once you set up your profile, firstly connect to people you know.

Then start selectively targeting people you don't know but who could be valuable.

Always send a personalised invitation to your peers and clients, highlighting why it would be beneficial to connect.

A great way to connect with people you don't know is to join relevant groups.

You can search for groups by typing keywords into the LinkedIn search field. You might connect to other brokers or to a group which offers investment advice to consumers, for example.

Have a play around searching different words and try to think of groups it'd be beneficial to get your name known in.

Some groups will let you join automatically, and others will have to approve you before you can be active.

Once in, contribute some time and knowledge; that means asking and answering some questions to demonstrate your expertise in your chosen field.

You can invite people from the group to connect with you as soon as you join, but it's good form to contribute a bit first to see who the key players are, and then connect with people once you have a better idea of who in the group is generous with their knowledge and keen to network online.

Remember: send a personalised invitation. Once people see your activity in the group they'll connect to you as well.

These become your first level connections, and you can now contact all the people connected to your first level connections with an introduction.

Joining LinkedIn will dramatically expand your business network.

LinkedIn takes advantage of the ‘friend of a friend' theory to enable you to reach people you don't know personally, but who you would love to do business with.

It's also a great network for giving and receiving referrals - so be generous and tell connections if you know somebody is looking for services like theirs.

The first rule of networking is simple: Give first to (maybe) receive later.

Be generous and people will reciprocate in the online world.

TESTIMONIALS

On LinkedIn, you can give and receive ‘recommendations', which sit on your Profile.

They act as advertisements for you and your services, and add to your credibility and business reputation among the community. Brokers can even include a photo on their profile.

They are valuable as potential clients who are browsing will see your profile and your third party endorsements.

A good way to get recommendations is simply to ask for reccomendations on your LinkedIn profile - it's that simple.

How valuable are testimonials online? Well, they vary, and you should examine the testimonials of others with a critical mind.

Some are just friends giving mutual, back scratching recommendations while many are from employees looking to reinforce the brand.

However, online testimonials are incredibly valuable and will grow further for one reason: they come with the person's resume and contact details, and the reader can evaluate them.

Good ones are very powerful.

Some social media experts will tell you it looks great on your profile if 10 per cent of your connections have provided you with a good online recommendation.

As a general rule of thumb around 10 per cent would be great. My theory is, the more the merrier, but quality matters.

Toby Marshall is the principal of Lead Creation - a Sydney based company that specialises in small business marketing