Why You Should Focus on Social Networking

I once heard a very interesting interview on the web with an Internet Marketing Guru. This guru was talking about his success on the web and how he did it. He explained that if you want to reach success today on the web then you must focus on social networking in addition to education based marketing, the two go together.

This guru explained that in the late 90's those who undertsood something about internet marketing knew that it was very important to build up a mailing list. Not everyone back then understood this and more then that - many still believed back then that the internet was'nt going to take off like it did later on, with the blast of social media.

This was his story: In the Mid 90's He was running a simple local consulting business and he figured that in order to create some leverage in his business he would need to develop a product, so he wrote a guide on "how to start a business". Now it was all a matter of reaching customers who would buy his guide. After doing some research and asking around he decided to give the internet a shot, so he started a mailing list. For the first few weeks things were pretty much dead. He was calling clients up telling them about his new mailing list and asking them to join. What was he writing on these mailing lists? Nothing much, regular emails advertising himself. After a few months when he saw that nothing was moving he decided to try something different: He would share information in these emails and maybe this will help him get word out about his guide and his own consulting business, maybe if people see his expertise - he will get a better response.

He began sharing valuable tips and information on how to start a business, ideas in marketing etc.. and little by little word was getting around and more people were joining his list. As his list was growing - so was his business.

By the end of the 90's he already had over 50,000 subscribers. By the end of the 90's he was getting invited as a guess speaker at seminars and confrences all over the world! Within this period of time he was able to develop more products, hire more people and develop a multi million dollar business.

At the end of the interview he was asked: What advice can you share with someone starting out today on the internet? His response was: Get involved in social networking and start building your network! at the same time share information with your network and create value. In the 90's those who built up massive mailing lists - made lots of money; it wasnt an over night thing and it took time. Today it is easier then ever to build a network of people around you, your product or your service. Utilize the tools that social media offers, maybe you won't see much results in the first few months or even years but if you stick with it and you are consistently sharing information and adding value - Then your network just may 'reward' you in return like those who built massive mailing lists and created so much value for their 'networks' back then.