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Social Media Marketing (SMM) is a popular, inexpensive and practical addition to internet marketing. To increase inbound links to your website, which opens the door to curious visitors, this type of link strategy is relatively simple to do. So how does social media marketing create more inbound links to your writing website? Here are 5 quick and easy ways to do it:

Blogs create a conversation between you and other visitors that establishes interest and will open the door to more inbound links to your website. Just in case many of you do not know what a blog is, it’s a website or webpage that provides text, a personal diary, commentaries or other newsworthy subject matters. It may include photographs, music, podcasts or mixed online mediums.

Blogs have a newfound popularity among politicians, celebrities and other professions. Comments left on a blog builds a relationship between you and the blogger. It offers you an opportunity to insert your site address under your name, depending on how the comment sections are set up. However, on blog comments resist the urge to advertise. Instead, make helpful advice comments that could be beneficial to other visitors that will make them curious about what you do.

• Social Media applies to social advertising, networking, shopping, events, games or video sharing. Social Media Marketing is your online business card, direct mail marketing, newspaper advertisement, radio spots, promotional postcards or flyers.
• Real Simple Syndication (RSS) Feeds is syndicated content used by many online publishers, weblogs or news related sites that allows people using the web, the ability to retrieve the latest information on subjects of interest. Through article marketing, you will open a window of opportunity to provide information to those seeking information that you share a common bond with and open the tables of discussion regarding your writing business.
• Social online networking is becoming increasingly popular through online communities such as You Tube and My Space. Getting involved in internet forums, message boards, blogs and various niche communications also offers the opportunity for open dialogue to discuss your expertise.
• Bartering is also a good way to increase your inbound links when you have a limited marketing budget. If you can exchange writing services with other businesses as a contributor to their ezine, this will increase your link popularity. In your bio, you can include the link to your website.

Your conversation between authors and peers is a great networking opportunity for your writing business. Social Media Marketing is basically strategic online socializing. Through online socializing, you don’t have to worry about what to wear and the cost of putting gas in your vehicle to drive to a social gathering that you are invited to attend.

First, I look at the avatar or photo of the Tweeter. I want to get an idea of who I am interacting with. No photo, no follow. I prefer to see a photo of the real person–not their dog, their logo, kids, or a caricature.

Second, I read the Tweeter’s bio. If the bio is interesting and complete, I am much more likely to follow that person than if there is only a URL or a few words that don’t really tell me what the person does or enjoys. Since Twitter has shut down their “search by category” feature, the bio is a quick way to see if I share common interests, business goals, location, or area of expertise with the potential Tweeter. Even if the person is my competitor, I hope to learn something from them.

Next, I read through the person’s recent Tweets to find out what type of information her or she is offering. Big turn offs: 90 percent of the messages are in reply to someone else and I have no idea what they are talking about. While I appreciate the interaction, I feel like I’m intruding on a private conversation if there are no other types of exchange. Big plus: links to helpful tips, articles, and even products to check out. I want interesting content, not just a URL with no explanation as to what I might find by clicking.

Then, I look at the number of updates and the date of the last Tweet. If the person is not active on Twitter, there’s no point in following him or her. If someone Tweets fifty times a day about nothing more than their hairdo or what they’re eating, I’m probably not interested.

Some people wonder why I use Twitter.grader.com. This service evaluates using criteria similar to what I use to decide whether or not I want to follow someone. If I am leaning toward clicking the follow button but I’m still not sure, I will actually go to the trouble of checking a person’s grade on Twitter. If the Tweeter has a high grade, I will probably consider following him or her. If Grader doesn’t rank a person high, I’ll probably pass–not permanently–I may come back later to see if the score improves. It could be that the Tweeter is new to Twitter and doesn’t have much history for Grader to use in giving a score.

Lastly, I check the ratio of followers to following. If a person’s Tweets are interesting and helpful, people will follow in return. If someone is following 1,000 people and only 65 are following them, I suspect the person is either a spammer, a newbie, or boring.

So, if you are following me and I’m not following you in return, check the above points and make a few simple changes. Not only am I likely to follow you, so are others!

Twitter is a great way to test your headlines and short copy effectiveness. Hundreds of followers and a 140 characters maximum makes for a powerful marketing test environment. Twitter is a quick and efficient way to see if your headlines convert into clicks.

Article Library

Start with a good repository of articles. You should create a significant number of articles in a variety of topics. Good article diversity and quantity will ensure you have a ready-made test bed for a variety of projects.

This article library can be an article directory (eZineArticles), one or more blogs, or your website copy portfolio. Using your own blog or website gives you the added benefit of driving prospective business traffic too.

Since Twitter users, like most social networkers, don’t like constant self-promotion I suggest you routinely test using others websites, blogs, or articles as well as your own. The other authors will love the traffic, may link back to you, preserves your credibility, and it still achieves your conversion testing. 

Tracking Conversions

Don’t forget the primary objective–tracking conversions. If you are using your own website or blog this is pretty simple–look at your blog stats or Google analytics. However, what about Tweets that you point at websites you don’t own?

In the past there was little opportunity to collect measurable results from these tests. You could use Summize to track keyword discussion and possibly track re-tweets. Unfortunately, this only measures buzz and typically has more to do with the destination content, not the headline. It doesn’t give you the core metric–do people click because of my copy?

Enter bit.ly and TweetBurner, a new tiny URL technology that lets you track source and traffic through your shortened URL. So, now simply shorten and attach a unique bit.ly or TweetBurner URL to each of your headline or short copy tests. Then you can track sources and volume of click-throughs.

Respect Your Audience

The quickest way to damage this excellent focus group is to abuse it. So, here are a few cautionary etiquette suggestions to keep yourself from poisoning the water:

• Promote others, as well as yourself, with your headline tests
• Stagger test headlines over various days
• Make sure the destination content is interesting
• Do not link your headline tests to sales letters or landing pages
• Participate in the community too (ask questions and participate)

Happy Testing!