Why You Should Not Be Afraid of Social Media
Many times I will see members here at WA claim that they are afraid of using Social Media for the marketing purposes of their websites. Why would you be afraid? It is necessary for your success. If it weren't there wouldn't be an entire course devoted to it.
HERE'S WHY YOU HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR
You are engaging in social media everyday you are engaging within WA. Yes, Wealthy Affiliate is another form of social media. If you have no problems posting and sharing links here, commenting on them and liking them, then using other social media platforms will be a breeze.
Like Kyle says in Level 4 Lesson 1 of the Online Entrepreneur Certification Course, "Social media is a space where people hang out... A place where people socialize..." People will get guidance from others, ideas, learn something new, share information,... just like we do here at WA.
If you have no problems doing all of these things here within WA, then why would you think it would be such a problem doing it on the other social media platforms? Now I understand that each social media platform has rules you will need to learn, but by contrast, the rules we have here at WA are more strict.
You cannot post and start discussions about religion and politics here like you can on other social media platforms. You also cannot self promote your affiliate marketing websites here either, but you can elsewhere. And if you try to spam here, you get locked out, but not the other networks.
USING SOCIAL MEDIA IS EASY
So you see, using the social media aspects of Wealthy Affiliate are harder because of the WA Rules and Regulations. Using the other networks like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, and the others, are far less strict. And all you will be doing is posting your website links and interacting with others.
It will take a little bit of time to get use to each social media network, just like it took you some time to get use to using the WA platform. And if you need help, the training and guidance is here. I and several other members have created easy training in how to use Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, Instagram and others.
Before I joined WA in 2013 all I knew how to use was Facebook. But I also learned more from Kyle and others here. I discovered that posting website links into targeted Facebook Groups will yield quicker traffic and results than creating a Facebook Page. An easy learning process.
But I had no knowledge of how the other networks would benefit my website business. So I did what Kyle's training said to do. I opened accounts in each of the networks and then I slowly began to engage with them. I eventually started getting non-WA members to follow me. I then repeated the process on the next network I set out to learn.
The trick is to NOT try to learn all of them at once. Start with one. Get to know the nuances of each, spending about 15-30 minutes a day learning social media, and slowly start posting your website links to your social media profile. Social media is like riding a bike. It may seem hard at first but it is really quite easy.
Though I knew about Facebook already, I followed Kyle's training and started learning Google+ first. Being that we want Google to rank us, using Google+ will help boost that outcome. The next network I focused on was using Twitter for Social Media Marketing. Seeing how Google and Twitter are now working together, I recommend you learn Twitter early on.
Just remember. Do not waste time by avoiding social media for the marketing of your website. It is very important for your success that you use it. You cannot rely solely on Google rankings and Google also uses social media metrics of your website for its ranking purposes.
If you have any questions about what you just read or about social media in general, please leave them below or check out the several social media training tutorials I have done and those done by others, by typing your questions in the search bar at the top of this screen.
Recent Comments
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Conquering the fear of the unknown is to just jump in and try it. Like many others that do, you are enjoying the learning process.
Thanks I have always had a fear of the social networks because of things I have heard from friends and others but now I will venture into them.
You are welcome. That fear is caused by people who do not know how Social Media Marketing works. Yes there is a lot of garbage and annoying clutter posted on social media, but that will only be a problem to you if you allow yourself to be distracted by it.
Hey Rob, thank you for writing this great article.
You mentioned that posting website links to targeted Facebook groups bring traffic in quicker than a Facebook Page and I understand this but would you recommend making a Facebook Page anyway?
Regards,
Monica
You are welcome Monica.
Yes. If you want to create a Facebook Page as well, by all means do so. Though posting in targeted FB Groups will give quicker results, having your own FB Page is still beneficial, especially in the long run.
Thank you Rob for responding back.
I have this bookmarked. I now have a Facebook Page and understand in the long run it will have benefits.
I joined one FB group for my niche and will be sharing some of your blogs here to my group(s) in a 'gentle' way. I'll spend a few days interacting with the group so they can get to know me too.
Thanks again and Kind Regards,
Monica
Sometimes SM can be a good servant but a poor master Robert! With the latest things going on in FB we must use caution!
This is true Michael but if one avoids the distractions and focuses on interacting with only those in their niche, the SM problems can be kept low.
Thank you. This is a great reminder that i know i need to do more on social media. Thank you fot sharing
You're welcome Glenys. All it takes is just a little effort everyday, 15-30 minutes, depending on how many networks you belong to.
Knowing that you have to learn something new for the future success of your website business is bound to make most people not much into social media have the hebe-jebies.
But like all things, it gets easier as time goes on. Just don't rush the process James. Learn one network at a time. There is no benefit to learn them all at once, and only start when the training tells you to.
Great advice. I'm starting to like social media, even though I still have a great deal to learn about socializing. Anyway, that will come with time. At least I started.
This is one great post. Thanks for sharing.
You are welcome and you are correct. The socializing will come in time. Not everything has to happen in the beginning. As long as you have started and taken that first step, just keep stepping forward.
I have yet to socialize period! I have never socialized much and if I did, It would be to give an opinion about something.
Thanks for this great blog Boomer and this is so much help for people who are perhaps not too sure about using things like Facebook and twitter etc.
I didn't have the problem as I was already using Facebook and Twitter but I can imagine how daunting it must be to people if they are just starting out using them.
I agree with you though, there really is no need to be scared of using them. xxx
There will always be fear of the unknown. But if we want to succeed, then we must overcome those fears.
We overcame them when we started WA, which is far harder to learn than social media.
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Excellent post Robert. Thank you for the information and your reasoning for your sequence of learning other social media platforms. With minor adjustments for my own personal situation, I am definitely going to follow your advice.
Rick
You are welcome Rick. Another tip I would give is to not get distracted by the other clutter posted on social media. If you see something off-topic you wish to comment on, do it later when you are not working.