This article is by Brian of SEO and Marketing. He is a social media marketer and his explaining why a rock solid foundation is very important for social media marketing strategy. You too can join in by following our guest blogging guidelines.

Similar to building your first home social networking and social media marketing needs to have a solid foundation to work from. Could you imagine trying to build a three story home form a cracked or weak foundation?

Simply put, you cannot do that and all your efforts will lead to failure. Building a foundation for a home is relativity easy. You have bricks, cement mix and then you add water. You eventually come to the perfect thickness, then you can start laying your bricks and pouring the cement.

Building on your social media foundation takes much more care and ingredients. This can also take more time and dedication on your part. So many things are included in building the perfect social media foundation it’s overwhelming. I think we should discuss some of the more important factors.

Branding: When creating your online Brand be sure to use the same image and user name for all the communities you join. This will be detrimental to your online success when developing your brand. People cannot know you by many names.

Relationship Building: Try and build positive relationships with many individuals online. Join webmaster forums, blogging communities and build as many online relationships as possible.

Personal Image: Make sure to use similar images for your personal profiles. You can change it up but so make sure both images can clearly show you are the same person. If your branding a website or business do not mix up your images, stay consistent.

Attitude: Try and keep a positive attitude when posting in the public forums or on individual blogs. Be informational and help others get the answers they are looking for. Try to create a friendly grass roots environment for all your online friends and customers.

I’ve been marketing online for the past two years and I know a few tricks. I also know what works and what doesn’t. I’ve never paid for any of my marketing, I’ve done it all myself and have promoted all my projects personally using webmaster forums and social media marketing activities such as blog commenting and blogging in general.

I wrote an article a few weeks ago that is regarding social networking tips you should probably read and take notes from. I’m always writing about social media marketing because I really love the way it works. I enjoy meeting new people online, interacting and building on my relationships. Sure you cannot please everyone and eventually you will clash with other individuals but don’t dwell on it. You must move on and focus your attention to mare important things.

Do not give up

People can easily say “don’t give up”, but, do you actually now what this means? This statement is not on an individual basis this statement is for everyone and everything you do in life. Don’t give up on your brand, don’t stop believing and don’t give up on building your online relationships.

Like I said earlier I’ve been building my online portfolio for 2 years and it’s been hard. At times I felt like quitting. The biggest obstacle I had to over come was dealing with online spam within my social community. The spam issue got so bad that I had to close registration to my social network and made it invitation only.

The point is, don’t stop believing because when you do the game is over and you will lead yourself into failure.

Feedback

Give me some feedback and let me know your thoughts. Post a comment below I’ll be sure to discuss it with you. I know I touched a large subject here within this article so if anyone has any questions please share them with us all. Remember, no one is perfect and I would love to hear your feedback.

I also want to send a big thank you out to Gautam for inviting me to guest post here on his blog. Many of you probably already know me so do post a comment and join us in discussions.

Thanks everyone,

Brian

Image credit: Matt Hamm