Promote Yourself 3 Ways With Social Media Posts

You probably know that many marketers are reaping big
rewards from posting on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and
more. You've probably heard some good advice about where and
how often to post.

But to maximize your ROP (Return on Post), you need a
diversified Post Portfolio. And each post type calls for
unique copywriting strategies.

Post Type #1: Shameless promotion of yourself, your
products, or your affiliate products.

Too many shameless posts will drive away your friends and
followers. But every so often, you can (and probably should)
drive traffic to your sales letters and sign-up pages.

Direct response sales copy needs to be changed because your
audience is different. With direct response copy, you're
like a space probe looking for friendly life forms in a huge
universe. With social marketing, you're talking to guests
you've invited to hang out at a backyard barbecue. You even
know if they're looking for tofu over easy or big slices of
beef, medium rare.

Sometimes you overlap with...

Post Type #2: Straight information. This post type will be
your bread and butter. You deliver useful tips and tidbits,
with or without a URL to your sales page.

Here's where you can showcase your expertise, one idea at a
time. For example:

"Use the 2-treat technique with hard-to-train dogs." "Want
to lose weight? Forget diets and refuse to say good-by to
chocolate."

One of my own posts that drew some friendly supportive
comments was: How can twitter help build a community around
my project? http://budurl.com/socmktg

Post Type #3: Let us get to know you.

This post is the trickiest of the three types. You are
always "on," even when you're posting about your weather and
your trip to the gym.

Do you cringe when you see posts like these:

"My car just passed inspection. Yaay!" "Just took a shower.
Ran out of hot water." "Just ate a donut."

Use your posts to present yourself as the kind of person
your prospects want to work with. What will help others feel
a bond to you?

Well, everybody bonds over dogs and cats. I'm discovering
some top Internet gurus -- the kind who never smile in their
photos and send those heavy-duty sales letters -- are owned
by cats with names like "Fluffy."

Lifestyles help you bond. During the cold season, everybody
seemed curious about who was getting snow and how much.
Reference to unplugging your cable will bring replies from
others who feel very virtuous because they did the same
thing. And then there's the whole area of food and
fitness... very hot these days, sometimes literally. Oatmeal
versus sugared flakes? I won't go there.

Bottom line: Most people don't realize they're going to be
copywriters when they sign up for Facebook and Twitter. But
every tweet and post can help you connect with your
prospects, referral sources and allies.