The very first concept to grasp in starting the inbound marketing approach is getting found.  The old model of interrupt marketing is quickly dying and those who struggle with using social media in an effort to advertise their businesses are most likely faltering because they continue to use the interrupt method.  It’s the equivalent of bursting into a room and screaming “buy my stuff”.  We wouldn’t do this in real life and we shouldn’t do it in the virtual community of social media either.  Nothing wrong with mentioning what you do occasionally it just can’t be all about that.

The key is shifting your thinking toward having the ideal audience find you and your company.  For many of us this new way of doing things is a very tough transition.  We now have to be focused on giving content – at no charge – to attract a community of followers.  The community your interested in attracting are those who might want to buy your product or service.  We’re now building an environment where everyone wins.  The consumer receives guidance and information and you get the opportunity to earn their business by demonstrating your expertise in a particular area.  You’re building a true relationship with your customers and prospects, much like the old general stores of the past where everyone in the community knew the merchants on a personal level.

The concept is simple but the methods for doing it get intricate and a bit complex.  Building a good inbound marketing foundation will take time, patience and dedication.  No drive-by selling here, you must be in it for the long haul.  The good news is this approach means no wasted efforts since each step is a foundational building block to the next and only contributes to the big picture going down the line.

Getting found online involves three steps.  1) create content 2) optimize the content 3)promote the content.  Please note the third step is promote the content, NOT the goods and services you sell.  You will now promote what you have to offer that is free of charge.  Again, this is stating it very simply.  Each of these three steps needs to be unpacked to much more intricate stages.

The next discussion in this category will tackle the first of the three steps to getting found.  Creating content.  There are a number of primary vehicles for doing this online.  Creativity will offer opportunities to add others but we’ll focus on five or so to get the ball rolling.

I invite you to share your thoughts here in the comment area of this post and I hope you will subscribe to the monthly newsletter (in the right margin).  I would like the opportunity to hear more from you within my communities on Facebook and Twitter.

If you found this information useful I hope you will share it with others.

Lisa