One of the first things that I did when I started this blog was to link it up with Google Analytics. I wanted to see just how much traffic my site would get and from what referral sources the traffic was coming in.

I have learned a lot in these past two weeks about how people get to the site, how long they stay, and how many pages they view just to name a few. And with great pride, I watched how the daily traffic to my site steadily built on itself…that is until Sunday and Monday (yesterday).

I did not post anything on Sunday or Monday because I wanted to see what would happen to the traffic. And if you didn’t guess it already, Sunday’s traffic dropped off drastically and Monday’s was nearly non-existent.

How many times have you stumbled upon someone’s blog post because of a link in an article or due to a Google search, only to see that their last post was from over two ago? Even if their post was earth-shattering (at the time), you most likely didn’t finish reading the article, or worse never went back to that site because as we now know…no new content = no new traffic.

So get to posting & then keep on posting. For that is the only way that you will stay relevant in the minds of those you wish to eventually sell something to.

John Zalepka

We have all heard the many success stories about how average everyday people are just crushing it (you know making million$) with social media. The great news is that these average everyday people are using the very same social media platforms that we all have access to, and the best part is that most of them are FREE!

However, just having access to them for FREE! does not guarantee you anything.

It is the equivalent of having a FREE! gym membership and expecting to have six-pack abs because you go to the gym once or twice a month. You need to put in the hard work necessary to really get in shape.

Similarly, your FREE! social media membership will only benefit you in direct proportion to the amount of hard work you put in.

This is how I’m getting started…

I believe that the best way to get started is to concentrate on your core. Much in the same way it is important to have a strong core when working out, it is important to have a strong core when starting out in social media…my Core 4:

Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, YouTube

Studies have shown that people only believe about 15% of online advertising, while they believe 90% of their peer reviews.

Get your accounts up and running and start connecting with people. But whatever you do, don’t start selling (adverting) right away. Instead, start posting great information (content). Information that your customers and prospective customers will find useful. Try to become THE source for when people need information about something in your industry. Become the local celebrity expert! We’ve all seen people become famous recently just because of something “crazy” they posted on social media. But really aren’t they just positioning themselves as the expert of ‘how not to jump off your roof onto a trampoline while riding a bicycle’?

After you have connected and engaged your friends / readers / followers / subscribers by providing great content, they will start to give you back their information and hopefully start to refer you to others who may find your product or services useful by retweeting, reposting, liking, etc, etc, etc.

Make sure to put links back to your website where people can get more information and make a purchase; only then will you be able to capitalize on your hard work on the Core 4: Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin & YouTube.

So let’s get started!

John Zalepka