Social Media Marketing -- What You Can Automate to Save Time With Your Social Media Management Plan

Social Media is taking the world by the storm and studies show it is becoming one of the best ways to market your products and services online. This is because it is based on Word of Mouth Marketing. Statistics show that people prefer to do business with other people they know like and trust and Social Media allows you the opportunity to build relationships with people in your target market.

The only real downside of Social Media Marketing is it can take a lot of time. These are tips on how to automate as much as possible in your Social Media Management plan so you can focus your time on the most important part of any successful Social Media Management plan which is conversations, engagement and building relationships.

Twitter

-Automatically send a Tweet when you post to your WordPress blog using the pluggin Twitter Tools
-Automatically follow back everyone who follows you using http://SocialToo.com
-Automatically add your Tweets to Facebook using facebook.com/twitter -- You need to be careful with this one though. If you Tweet a lot it will fill up your steam with too many weird looking updates and this may annoy your friends.
-Automatically send a Direct Message to everyone who follows you using Socialoomph.com . Be careful this is not a sale type message or it will annoy your new peeps. It should be something useful and relationship building

Facebook

-Pull your Blog posts (or any blog posts of your choice) into your Fanpage stream using the Networked Blogs App
-Pull your blog or any RSS feed into your Fanpage stream using the Notes App
-Connect Twitter to your Facebook account using facebook.com/twitter

LinkedIn

-Import your Blog RSS feed to your profile page
-Connect your Twitter account so your most recent tweets show up on your profile page
-Pull in your Amazon.com reading list in so people can get to know you better

YouTube

-Make sure you allow embedding in your settings so people can grab the code and put your videos on their sites
-Make sure your videos are set to public not private
-Make sure you allow comments so you encourage conversations about your videos
-Make sure you allow notifications so there is a Tweet generated automatically every time you subscribe to a channel or comment on a video

WordPress.org Blog

-Twitter Tools plugin Tweets each of your blog post automatically
-Facebook Connect widget in the sidebar allow people to see and join your Fanpage right from your blog.
-The http://Ezinearticles.com widget in the sidebar shows your most recent articles and allows people to click through to read them.
-Google Connect allows people to connect with you using your Google Profile
-The Tweetmeme plugin allows others to Tweet about any of your blog posts with one click.
-Install the Facebook Like plugin so people can "Like" a post right from your site.
-The Sexy Bookmarks plugin allows people to add your blog post to over 30 different social networking sites with one click.

Ezinearticles.com

-Enable automatic Tweets for every article that you publish in your settings
-Connect your Wordpress.org blog to create an article from every blog post
-Make sure to add the links to all your Social Networks so they show up in your bio

Posterious.com

-You can email a post to your account and it will update all the social networks you have set up access to such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. It is also a great way to add pictures from your iPhone to your social networks.

Gravatar.com

-Create an account with your profile picture so it automatically shows up when you comment on blogs that have gravatar enabled. This is good for your visibility.

Wordpress.com

-Create an account so your profile information will automatically show up whenever you comment on another wordpress.com blog. This is good for your visibility.

About the Author
Would you like to learn more ways to use Social Media to market your products and services online? Lauren McMullen is a bestselling author and Social Media Marketing Consultant at Easy Social Media Management. She teaches coaches, speakers, authors, consultants and other solo-entrepreneurs how to leverage the power of Social Media to market their products and services online using the 3 part strategy of Conversations + Connections + Community Building = more Clients & Customers. Visit Easy Social Media TV for Video Tips, Tricks & Tools to use in your business. Lauren McMullen may be contacted at http://budurl.com/doitforyou. Click here to view more articles by Lauren McMullen.