Now days when someone says “A little birdie told me” then it’s not because they heard a whisper around the office. It’s more likely that they have been twittering or tweeting!

That’s right. Twitter is one of the hottest social networking sites today, with over 6 million people twittering with each other already. Facebook is still much larger in numbers with over 125 million active members. While I am not a huge fan of spending too much time on the computer, I do love that I can not only catch up on a few friends and associates activities, but also use these media as a way to let them know what I am doing. The chances are that at least some of them will want to know more (about my business) and visit my site. And so will some of their friends, and some of their friends, friends…and so it goes on.

Belinda shared a few great tips so that these social media can work for you by driving more traffic to your own site or portfolio.

1. Get Smart

To be good at anything you do you need to be educated. It’s never going to be easy at first and you will save a lot of time and frustration if you learn a little about these media before you use them. By becoming educated you will have confidence and not be so overwhelmed by where to start. There is so much information out there you need to make sure you don’t continue to read about it and never get anything started.

If you’re not sure about blogging, you can also learn a lot about them on the internet. You will need even more education before you can build your own blog, but it really is easy once you know how. Check out a few blogs and then start making some comments. Of course, once you have your own web presence, you will leave a link back to your own blog, website or portfolio.

Whatever you do, don’t miss out on this massive opportunity to build your customer list or gain traffic to your own portfolio or website. Just do it!

2. Make Time

You need to dedicate some time to implementing the new strategies you have learned. Once you have decided which strategies will work for you, then they will take some time to work for you. You cannot plant a seed and expect to see a tree pop up out of the ground immediately. It takes weeks before you see any result and then months before it starts to look exciting and years before you can gain any fruit from the tree. You still need to put a set amount of time into caring for your plant.

You need to set aside time in your diary to work on the strategies you will learn to make these media work for you. You may feel like you are simply chatting at first. Showing off images, talking to others about what you are doing, but this is what building relationships are about. For the sake of a couple of hours a week, you may reap huge rewards in the years ahead as these people begin to trust you and need your services.

3. Be Consistent

Once you decide to go ahead and start a blog, then you need to be consistent. This strategy is not a one hit wonder or overnight success. If you decide you are bored with it, and don’t keep posting information on a regular basis, then it just won’t work. Social media also needs to be consistent or people will become bored with you. At first these strategies seem a little complicated because you are not sure what you are doing. You must persist, even if it’s only to log in and say “Hi” and then log out again. This will help you familiarise yourself with the site/blog and you will soon be able to quickly and easily log on and add quick comments and post articles. Before you know it you will have a following of people and visitors. Hopefully, this will increase your sales and ultimately your profits.

So if you make the decision to use one of these media, you need to be consistent. Use one at a time if you are time poor so that you gain maximum benefit from it. For blogging it does take a bit of time to start to get a profile built up so you need to get out and look at other blogs in your industry and start commenting on those so you start driving people back to your blog and getting people commenting on yours. The only way you can do that is by building ongoing relationships with people online and being consistent in posting content to your blog and also being consistent in using the social media which may also lead back to your blog.

So whether you blog, twitter or facebook, you can always be a ‘friend’ of mine by searching for me now. See you on the other side.

The above article was written by Julie Watson of www.ezipixphotography.com.au after interviewing me on the topic as part of her Conversations with Experts program.