Social Media Marketing for Entrepreneurs

1. SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
FOR ENTREPRENEURS
By:
JASON DELA ROSA
Co-Founder, One Network eCommerce, Inc.
APRIL 2015
Published by:
http://www.onenetworkecommerce.com
Copyright 2015 One Network eCommerce, Inc.

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Social Media: Fast and Vast
When it comes to marketing strategies for online entrepreneurs, social
media, that is fast and vast, is simply very tough to ignore. According to
eMarketer, because of the proliferation of inexpensive mobile devices and
affordable fast broadband access, the Internet will hit an estimated 3 Billion
users this 2015, and nearly half of the world’s population will have access
to the World Wide Web by 2018. Presently, over 80% of web users are
driving the traffic for popular sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Google+,
Pinterest, Twitter and LinkedIn (for more professional interactions).
Roughly about half of this demographic search, research online and study
comments of other netizens before actually paying for something or giving
out their credit card numbers. Because of the non-personal nature of social
networks, about 30% of these buyers prefer to chat on social media

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instead of the phone. In the case of individual freelancers and
entrepreneurs, over 90% of them use social media as an advertising
medium because it does not require a humongous corporate budget and
it’s essentially more direct to their target market. Definitely, the world has
grown a lot smaller, allowing people from across continents to share
information and exchange goods.
This eBook discusses general strategies to effectively and personally
market your own products and services through social media as an
individual. Our core teams have summarized an effective strategy we have
been exercising with our own endeavors creatively called “Ninja Marketing”
because of its stealthy, precise and undercover attributes. It uses the same
principles found on this eBook. This is effective in amplifying your efforts in
A.M. or popularly called Attraction Marketing. Attraction Marketing is about
providing value to someone wherein you provide tips, experiences and
ideas about the industry you are in, causing interest to brew. You will also
find a concept called “Funded Proposal Concept”. A group headed by
Social Media Strategist Edison Victorino, Calvin Clien Rosales, Gary Salas,
Paulo Ramos and Jonas Cosme formulated these methods of online
marketing and business building.

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As start-up entrepreneur, we understand that you still do not have the
financial powerhouse and the manpower of a giant corporation, yet. Social
media is your top choice for marketing your products simply because it’s
free and it’s easy to reach people you want to sell to. However, because of
the web’s massive, erratic and highly democratic nature, it also comes with
the danger of bruising your own online reputation, getting bad mouthed by
competitors, getting your friends and contacts irked because of your
annoying persistence and consistent spamming. News travels fast these
days, and one mistake has turned lives 360 degrees. That is why it is very
important to understand the different aspects of social media marketing so
that you will be able to market successfully without falling into the pitfalls of
being blocked or erased from someone’s contact list.
A great deal of the examples here revolves around Facebook as a social
media tool, since more than 50% of online marketers choose it as their
most important online marketing platform. In fact, 90% of paid global social
media advertisements went to Facebook. However, I would suggest that you
also spread out since Facebook is not the only channel. For more lifestyle
and consumer based products, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest are our
top choices. For more professional and high value services, you may try
using Google+, Linkedin or Twitter. Of course, there are other means of
getting to your customers such as Blogging, Google Ad words, Search

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Engine Optimization, Banner ads placed on high traffic sites, lead
generation tools, Mass Email marketing, SMS, video advertising such as
YouTube channels, short-form video such as Vine and mobile advertising.
Whatever concepts we discuss here, it can be applied to all of these
channels. It is really up to you how creatively you reach your potential
client. Each channel has its own strengths and weaknesses. For example,
small consumer products are best sold on Instagram because of its simple
photo-sharing tool, and high value real estate is best advertised on
Linkedin because of the presence of high net worth individuals.

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Advantages of Social Media Marketing
Exposure and Traffic. A very high percentage of online entrepreneurs agree
that marketing through social media has increased their exposure and
traffic, for the simple fact that there are billions of users on these sites.
Most of your friends, if not all, are on Facebook.
Engagement. In social media, you are able to interact directly with your
prospects through comments, private messaging and likes. Notifications
allow you to answer promptly to inquiries through all your devices.
Loyalty. You can also engage with existing customers rather quickly
therefore increasing loyalty. Loyal fans of your fan page will always wait for

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fresh new content. Make sure you post content that are relevant and
interesting so that you can keep them loyal as long as possible.
Feedback and Research. Social media allows you to get instant feedback
from customers, and test certain reactions to sponsored advertisements
you release. This allows you to improve the content and creativity of your
posts.
Partnerships. A huge chunk of partnerships were forged on social media. It
is easy to get in touch with other like-minded entrepreneurs and collaborate
on business projects.
Affordability. You can do Facebook sponsored posts or ads for as little as
one dollar. The affordability of doing advertising through social media
allows you to do test runs, trial and error, research, and full blast
campaigns without breaking the bank.
Increased Sales. Ultimately, your goal is to increase conversion rates. With
social media, after all the exposure, research, loyalty and leads generation,
you are able to efficiently lead them to the right product page, which
eventually leads to sales (and repeat sales). The more positive customer
feedback you receive, the more referrals you receive, the more sales you

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can rake in. Engaging in social media marketing has also seen increase in
search engine rankings and may funnel in more sales to you.
Define your Target Market
It is very easy for us to get carried
away and say we want to target
everybody on the web. That is
ambitious, and if you start
budgeting in trying to get them to
talk to you, you will know that this
is a complete waste of time. Niching is not sexy, but it is absolutely
necessary. It allows you to filter those who do not really care much about
what you have to offer.
Facebook, for instance, has a tool that allows you to filter those who will see
your posts or sponsored ads by age, location, gender, or interests. There
have been online reports that say 80% of those who will like or comment
on your page from a sponsored advertisement are fake accounts or useless
leads. True or not, there is now more impending reason to try and craftily
personalize your message and get authentic, potential prospects.

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Profiling Your Potential Client
Employers around the world take advantage of social media sites such as
Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin to conduct background investigations on
applicants trying to get a spot in their companies. Why? Because the
applicants’ posts, profiles, groups and friends’ comments tell us a lot about
their personality, trustworthiness and “hireability”. For example, a lot of
family photos can say that you put high value on family life. Consistent

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violent and immoral video posts on your wall raise warning signs. His
interaction with friends on his posts tells us about his social skills.
You can actually do the same when prospecting for leads. You can
categorize your prospects into Inner Circle and Outer Circle. Inner Circle
prospects include people within your sphere of influence such as close
friends, family and relatives. These are people who care about your posts
the most, and would most likely engage with you. They are more likely to
close a deal with you if you have a good reputation among family or friends.
They are also difficult to approach due to sensitive issues. Outer Circle
prospects include people you are not acquainted with, but believe that they
have some use for your products or service. They are not likely to close
with you based on reputation alone. This is not to pry into their personal
lives, but to get an idea on how to approach them when pitching your
product.
Check out these things when prospect for leads:
Their interests and passions. You will be able to see this on their status
messages or wall posts. For example, “I love going trekking. Going up again
this Saturday!” or “Painting is a way for me to relax”.

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Events they are going to. If they are going to an event created on
Facebook, you will get a hint on what type of activities they love joining.
Groups they are involved in and Personal Photos. A person being in a Dog
Lovers Group already gives you a clue what pets they like. You can easily
join groups on Facebook, and engage with people within the same group.
From here, you already have a first level of filtration of prospects, because
at least 50% of the group members are there because of the group’s
name, cause or purpose.
Influencers/Group of friends/Mutual Friends. Who do they hang out with?
Are they hanging out with influencers or do they follow? Check your mutual
friends if they hang out with other like-minded friends. You can also check
out their Linkedin groups because more likely, these are more serious
participants.
How do they post, their moods. You can see by their posts if they are
mostly happy, or just mostly indifferent. This will give you the right timing in
terms of initiating a conversation with them. If they post things like “I can’t
stand this person! He’s disrespecting me by posting an ad on my wall.”
Stay away and move on to the next prospect.

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What they bought or ate recently. A lot of people post what they bought just
to brag or to get attention. Checking this will give you a clue on their
purchasing power and the way.
Hashtags. These are small phrases that start with “#”. It is used to
categorize posts and messages. Clicking on it brings you to related content,
or posts of the same category. This gives you more clues about your
prospects, on their interests and activities.

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Social Media Marketing Essentials
Be Clear on Your Objectives
What is your objective? Boost sales? Create awareness? Build a database
and gain new subscribers? Your strategy will be molded based on your
business objectives. Having clear, written and concise objectives will allow
you to put this side by side with your outcomes, and see if your methods
were effective when you test your campaign. Being clear on your objectives
will save you time and money.

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Be Prepared
You can’t go to battle without the right weapons. You have to be equipped
well or you would be dead within seconds. If you are selling beauty or
health products, be ready with before-and-after photos, the active
ingredients, FDA documents and testimonial videos. If you are into
multilevel marketing or insurance, be ready especially with return on
investment scenarios and product features. If you are selling real estate,
make sure you have the online map, loan options and the mortgage
computations ready. These have to be in digital format with visual content –
website, explainer videos, or PDFs – which you can easily send through
Facebook chat or email. Have a working demo that you have tested
beforehand if you are selling software-based products.
You have to know what you are talking about. Sometimes you get only one
chance in getting your prospect’s attention. Once he or she asks a
question, you should be ready with links to materials or answers off the top
of your head. You have to sound knowledgeable about your product. Be
ready with (1) your value proposition (2) your uniqueness (3) and your
advantage over other competitors.
It’s all about extreme personalization and customization. Do your research
about your prospect. Profile your prospect. They want to feel that you did

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your homework about their business or what they need. Knowledge equals
Trustworthiness – and being trustworthy is the first step in building up the
rapport to finally sealing the deal. Make sure you have links ready for cut
and paste, especially the link to the product page where he can immediately
purchase it online.
Know the Appropriate Timing
When you see a friend who
recently just lost his job,
would you go and borrow
money? Of course not.
You timing would have
been off. Knowing the
current mood of the prospect through his posts will allow you to time your
approach. Knowing the mood of a prospect allows you to get a more
positive feedback. How do you know the timing? There’s a lot to be
deduced from the way posts are written.
Facebook has a little convenient tool, which allows you to post your mood
such as “Feeling Happy”, “Feeling Sad”, or “Feeling Angry”. You wouldn’t
want to engage when that person is feeling something negative, unless it’s

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a personal message of comfort. If that person is feeling positive, LIKE or
COMMENT to initiate an engagement. A comment such as “Feeling the
same way! I’ve got a lot of things going. I’m happy for you” will start a
conversation. Once, you see a reply, and then you can respond quickly and
build up the theme of your engagement to lead to a sale. Whatever the post
may be - be it a celebration of moving to a new house, getting married,
raving about a new movie – you can always time your approach. The
ultimate goal is to lead the person into a private chat or a chat group you
have set up.
Delivering your messages on social media also require strategic timing. You
have to determine what time of the day is your target market actively
participating online. Is it during office hours or off hours? Weekends or
weekdays? Is it during lunch break or during coffee break? Daytime or
evenings? What time do they check their emails? What tools or social media
sites are being used during these times? This data can be gathered by
doing a survey or observing date and time of posts on your wall. Timing is
everything.

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“Hi, I’m Here! Talk to Me!”
There are three levels of engagement on social media. First level is to let
the prospect know that you are around. Be careful not be invasive. Just a
like, follow or small comment will do. See how the prospect will react to this.
Second Level is to do small engagements such as making a longer
comment or sending an introductory message. Always introduce yourself.
Do this second level of engagement if your First Level garnered some sort
of response. At this level, you may send links to different webinars you have
set up or an explainer video. During this stage, if your prospect is
interested, he will send you a response. Third Level now engages you
with the prospect with the hopes of closing the sale. This engagement
involves more detailed chat sessions, demos, and email exchanges of
documents and sending of draft contracts. Prospect may also add people

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to the chat who he feels may benefit from your product. Getting from the
first level to the third level and how quickly you escalate requires sensing
the response from your prospect. Do not overstep boundaries or engage in
obvious private conversations.
Post Relevant, Meaningful and Original Content
Did you ever wonder why your wall posts are only getting one or two “likes”
and a few comments from friends? Only a very small fraction (I suspect
even less than 1%) of your contacts will be able to actually see your post,
because of algorithm changes of the system in displaying wall posts. You
can’t possibly expect Facebook to show
millions of posts on your wall. One way of
improving your visibility is to improve your
content, making it more “likeable”,
“shareable” and “commentable”. The more
engagement a certain post have, the more
visible it will become.
One of the main purposes of posting some content on your wall is you are
expecting it to produce “likes” and “comments”. Another way of putting it
is we want to induce meaningful engagement. When I scan through all the
wall posts on Facebook, I notice that the ones getting higher number of

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likes and comments are meaningful posts such as a new baby, a wedding
proposal, or about a new job. The post must mean something to people,
and this will lead to engagement, the more chances of it getting more
visible on other people’s walls.
Interesting photos and videos get more engagement than just plain text
because they take up a lot of space on the wall, especially on a mobile
phone. A post that requests for action, such as an interesting puzzle to
guess or a trivia, get a lot of engagement points as well. Usually, viral
content contain humor such as Memes or spoof videos, so you have to get
good writers to come up with a funny post. Be entertaining. Be excited.
Posting a message that shows your excitement about a product or what
you have been doing can attract people to comment or like, which will lead
to an opportunity in closing the sale. If you have the budget, offer a prize,
and lead them straight to your page or site. Vague and unclear posts
usually don’t get any engagements. You can also post testimonials from
other people to give you additional credibility. You also have to take into
consideration that most emails/posts are read on mobile phones – so it’s
best to be concise so that it can be understood even on small screens.
Most importantly, make sure your content is original and unique. The top
three for us are original written content in post or blog format, original

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video or photo, and originally curated content (content from a third party
source, but you provide original insights).
Respond and React Quickly
If your content is good enough, people
are going to like or comment
on it. They might even
send you a private message.
Don’t forget to engage and respond
quickly so you can capture them at the
point when it’s still fresh on their minds. Send a private chat because
people appreciate personal messages. Seize the moment. Respond Quickly.
Personal messages make people think that you have thought about them,
or what they need. Don’t forget to thank them for giving you the
opportunity to share your product. If the feedback is negative, you have to
react quickly as well through reassurances, product adjustments and good
customer service. Give feedback to your customers as soon as possible.
Establish Credibility
Your profile page or website alone should establish your credibility. Do not
post anything that will discredit you or will drop your trustworthiness. For

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sure, the first thing that your prospect will do is check out your profile and
do the same profiling you have doing to them. Prepare your credentials,
documents, past work, CV and website if you have any to add to your
credibility. Have a way for your clients to contact you by email, mobile
phone or landline. Another effective way of establishing your credibility on
social media is to post photos or videos of you with credible people (and
no, not stolen selfies). You may also ask your reliable contacts (those with
reputation or a contented buyer) to post testimonials or reviews on a
prominent portion of your page so that people may notice them. A website
with your own domain name adds also authority, especially with visible
security features such as SSL (Secured Sockets Layer). And nothing ruins a
legitimate website than poorly written content that did not go through
spellcheck or grammar check. Proofread everything that you post, or better
yet, have someone else proofread it for you.
Follow up/Professional Persistence
There’s nothing wrong with being persistent with your prospect, but you
have to do it in a professional way. Give some time between follow ups, and
do not use intimidating words such as “Have you thought about it?”, “Can I
follow up my proposal?”, “Are you ready to invest?”. You have to make
sure it’s all about listening to your prospect. Be direct but ask the prospect

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if he needs to know anything else. By the way, know when to stop and move
on. If a prospect clearly does not want to hear from you, don’t waste time
and shift to the next prospect.
Sense of Urgency
Creating a sense of urgency allows you close the sale faster. A lot of online
promos have limited time offers that ends after a certain time or date. In
order to create a sense of urgency, buying earlier must have a specific
advantage than buying at a later date.
Test, Implement and Focus
Unfortunately, most people don’t know how to come up with their social
media campaign’s return on investment. To determine how successful your
campaign was is challenging. Before you can measure the effectiveness of
your post, as mentioned earlier, you must first be clear on your objectives.
Is it to gain more free subscribers and sales leads? It is to have more
conversions from click to purchase? Ultimately, we all want sales and
conversions. After you have determined this, then you can already
accurately and mathematically compute and compare numbers. Initially,
you have to test multiple strategies and messages. Release one paid or
unpaid post/sponsored ad then see the response. Release the second one,

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and see the response. It is a tedious exercise at the start, but it saves you
a lot of time and effort when you execute your actual marketing campaign.
After doing the math, then you can determine which message or posts was
the most effective, and retargets your efforts to that message, or create
similar ones. Check your sales as compared to the number of likes or
comments on the particular post. This is your conversion ratio. Further
breakdown your message and focus on that. Determine your best
customers and find more of them.
Social Media marketing, to be effective, requires discipline and a lot of effort
in building the most precise and effective message. Once you determine the
most effective message for your product or service, you can now confidently
commit more time, effort and money to it, making your social media
marketing campaign a more fruitful one.
Use a Data Capture Strategy
With all the chats, comments and messages that you will have with your
prospect, it is very difficult to keep track of your leads. Utilize a single data
capture page or website that allows them to register their information into
the system for your future reference. Give them motivation to sign up by
giving them free access to content or if you have the budget, a raffle prize

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to be given away. At the end of the day, even if you don’t close the sale, the
database is very valuable for future references. Integrate a business
intelligence tool if there are any, so you may know your demographics very
well. There are a lot of data capture pages available for free on the Internet
with you can set up with your own personal link which you can share to your
prospects when you engage with them. You should also have explainer
videos and content about your product or service on the capture page itself
before they sign up. Give your prospects incentives when they share your
capture page to their friends. This will widen your network with fewer efforts
on your part.
Teamwork
Sometimes, after sparking interest, you
have to bring in the prospect into a chat
group session where your team can help
you close the sale. In social media, it
doesn’t matter where they are as long as
they are online. Your team must consist of
three types of people: The Motivator, The Knowledge Expert, and The
Testimonial. Simply put, the Motivator “motivates”, the Knowledge expert
supports you in terms of information, and the Testimonial gives his
experience about the product or the service. These three or a mix of the

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three increases your chances of closing the sale. Make sure you let your
prospect beforehand that you will be inviting some other people to your
chat group.
Leverage
At the end of the day, it’s
really the bottom line that
counts. Your goal is to be
able to build your business
network online, increase sales
and build loyalty.
Leveraging means being
able to accomplish something by replicating a process with less personal
time and effort. You only have a limited number of personal contacts on
social media, but if you multiply that amount with the friends of friends of
friends of your friends, that is a number that cannot be ignored. You can
leverage on this by cascading down the online tools and ready to use
documents/links to these people, so that it’s very easy and convenient for
all these people to share your information, write reviews and compliments,
give suggestions, and paste links on their chat messages. You should make
it easy for them to add or grab your products to their own social pages,
blogs or their websites, so that you become more visible on the web with

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half the effort. Giving them rewards or referral fees for successful sales is a
very effective way of replicating your effort. Leveraging creates sales
momentum.
Conclusion
The web is a vast and fast universe. There is no perfect strategy. It takes a
lot of trial and error, study, testing, and retesting. But if you want to cash in
on social media, you must know your objectives, be prepared, establish
credibility, zero-in on your target, keep testing before your implement your
campaign, determine what works and focus on that. That could be YOUR
effective strategy. Use extreme personalization, and deliver original,
meaningful message in perfect timing that talks to your customer intimately
and directly. Always be ready to respond and react quickly to feedback.
More importantly, be careful what you post all the time, since social media
is unforgiving and can quickly destroy your reputation. Keep these tips, and
you’re on your way in creating your lucrative market on social media.
Good luck on your endeavors!

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ABOUT ONE NETWORK ECOMMERCE
One Network eCommerce, Inc. is a social eCommerce company that
allows the entrepreneur to create on online super store with built in
thousands of products that is connected to each other, earning rewards
and rebates. We use social media and online marketing techniques for
exposure and sales conversions. For more information you may check us
out at:
1106 The Centerpoint,
Julia Vargas cor Garnet Rd
Ortigas Center, Pasig City,
Philippines
Website: onenetworkecommerce.com
Register for FREE: onesupershop.com
Email: info@onenetworkecommerce.com
Call us: +632 9978088