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Listen, Read, Plan (Don't Market)

Searches engines have changed the way we find information. It was very difficult to access information before the Internet was invented. We now live in a real-time world of continually updated information, which we have access to at almost at any point during our day. We come into contact with so many Internet marketing messages and there are hundreds of ways to find what we're trying to answer, that businesses have to be listening and contributing.

Search engines are the starting point for the consumer and it's the place where businesses should begin too. Locate your target audience on the Internet and then start to listen and research what their problems, needs and wants are. It's critical at this stage of marketing that you don't market. You must listen for several weeks you before you start commenting or engaging. You need to gather the information and then create a strategy.

The strategy is the most difficult part of the process. It needs to be specific and have goals that you want to meet in alloted time frames. Before you attempt to create a strategy you must use or know the different methods and tools you can use to communicate your messages. Homework should be done to learn the methods of how to use social conversation tools to improve your messages. I read a ton of white pages and listen to hours of webinars. I researched how marketing (communicating) has transformed and then started using facebook to listen, reading blogs on a daily basis, sharing content, tweeting, the list goes on.  Webmarketing123 produces very informative webinars that teach you tactics that can be implemented quickly and increase your Internet presence in a mater of a few weeks.

Once you are educated and have listened, you're able to create a strategy. It should detail the next 6 to 12 months of how you'll be communicating with your customer and respond to what they need and want. Planning is the most important part of a business and you must have a plan for the new ways you should market. You have a plan for  the ways you do/used market and learned the techniques. Marketers must communicate effectively and with purpose with their target audience in the social conversations. Planning is your best tool.

Mark K.

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Topics: Social Conversations, Listening, Marketing, search engines, planning, social media

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