Ten years ago, the phrase “Facebook fired” wasn’t in our vocabulary. Today a Google search for “fired for twitter post” brings up 158 million pages. Although you can delete photos and status updates, you can’t un-ring the bell, as too many “soon-to-be ex-employees” have found the hard way. Using Social Media is like living in a glass house – people on the outside can see what you’re doing on the inside. This doesn’t have to be a stressful situation. Instead, it represents a huge opportunity to connect with your target audience if you go about it the right way.

Post strategically

The key to living in the glass house of Social Media without worry is to approach posting socially as a strategic activity. The purpose is to connect with your audience and build and develop the “know,” “like,” and “trust,” factors that are crucial to converting prospects to clients and maintaining a long-term relationship. A strategic approach means developing a series of guiding principles that your posts and updates will be in alignment with.

Post in integrity

Nothing turns people off as fast as duplicity. People will forgive a lot of mistakes, but hypocrisy is a tough one for people to get past. There are lots of examples of people and businesses whose efforts have been hindered because the incongruity between their public face and their private face caught up with them. As Zig Ziglar once said “If you always tell the truth you don’t need a long memory.” If you only use Social Media to share pictures and post updates that are in alignment with your business and your personal “brand”, you don’t have to worry about living in a glass house.

For some, this really won’t be much of an issue at all. For others, it will be. The key here is that if you think that this could be an issue for you, don’t use Twitter, Facebook, etc., spontaneously. Instead, think about it before you post it. Sounds simple, but this simple approach, if followed, would have saved many public figures embarrassment and in some cases their livelihoods.

Mixing business and personal

Social Media marketing done right is not about being clinical or sterile in your updates. It is about achieving a balance between professional and personal that will attract your ideal audience and make them want to follow you and engage with you and then go on to do business with you. To achieve this balance steer clear of “TMI” or the sharing of too-much-information, usually personal in nature. Share the kind of things that will be interesting to your audience and supportive of your social marketing goals. Steer clear of anything that won’t help you develop know-like-trust with your target audience.

Social marketing can help you connect with your target audience like never before and contribute to the growth of your business. Don’t let the stress of living in a glass house keep you from moving into Social Media. To put the power of social to work for your business, check out 5 Ways to Grow Your Business Using Social Media.

It is rather mystifying why so many new marketers assume being educated isn’t important.

You wouldn’t be able to safely drive your car around town if you didn’t take driver’s training. No one would ever try to fly an airplane without going to pilot school. Yet, for some unfathomable reason, over 90% of new affiliate marketers get the crazy notion that they can cash in big without any knowledge at all. Those are the ones who complain all the time. They could be busy making money if they had only seen the importance of enrolling in an affiliate course. Marketing online is the road to making millions.

There is a right way to perform the work of an affiliate marketer.

Those are the steps and strategies that can make a millionaire out of the garbage man. There are a lot of wrong ways to be an affiliate marketer too. Like taking shortcuts and not doing the initial research needed to open up the revenue stream. One of the worst things you could do is waste tons of time hanging around in the affiliate forums. Yes, you can learn some great stuff from the big dogs do drop into a forum from time to time. The most frequent forum dwellers are losers at actual marketing. If they put that effort into learning what they need to know in affiliate course, marketing would be their focus instead of complaining.

What can you learn from an affiliate course? Marketing strategies like these:

o How to work smart and not just work hard.
o The easiest way to make your landing page convert fast.
o Why over 90% of affiliate marketers fail to make money.
o How to take total advantage of free marketing tools online.
o How to get people to pay for information.
o Why the free way is not the right way.
o How to cash in through social marketing.
o How to locate and drive the right target market.
o How to get on the fast track to making big bucks.

You owe it to yourself to do whatever it takes to learn everything you need to know to succeed.

Marketing does work. There are affiliates raking in over a million bucks a year. That isn’t a scam, it is the indisputable truth. When you have enough of working hard, you’ll either see the light or throw in the towel. It is worth some sacrifice to get past the learning curve as a marketer. I ate peanut butter bread, Ramen noodles and frozen French fries for a week to be able to enroll in the affiliate course. Marketing with the right knowledge made it all up to me really fast. I’ll never have to eat Ramen noodles again! What about you? If you are ready to make some serious cash, get started on a solid marketing education today.