For those of us that work in the consulting world, internet marketing for multiple clients can pose a particular challenge as well as some benefits. With the explosion of social media over the past year or two, it is a given that you will market your clients via websites like twitter and Stumbleupon. Of course, we all still reach for that brass ring; massive hits through search engine queries, but nowadays it has become more and more likely that a good chunk of your blog traffic will come from social media as well. This is where it can get messy, because if you are working for several clients, you have to try and find a way to represent them individually.
One of the reasons I love twitter so much is the fact that you can set up more than one account, which makes internet marketing for each client relatively easy. I say relatively because it can get quit confusing and time consuming to bounce back and forth between each account and keep track of each set of followers you have. The problem comes in when other social media sites you are utilizing such as Stumbleupon, only allow you one account. Now you can try and set up different accounts for each of your clients, but I’ve been hearing that Stumbleupon sees that as a big no, no and will ban you from the site if they notice different acccounts with the same ISP address. And given the fact that I have acheived very good blog traffic through Stumbleupon, I don’t want to do anything that will get me banned. Oh, and you’re also not supposed to stumble your own articles, so that’s where building up a good relationship with your friends on this site comes in because they will submit them for you.
Finally, my biggest issue with internet marketing for multiple clients is the lack of consistancy. This may just be the clients I work with, but I’m finding that they get very excited to start the process and want me to post several articles a week, but after a month or so their interest begins to fade. What many clients don’t understand is that marketing through social media, or any new media for that matter, is not a quarentee of huge sales and that it can take quit a while to build your brand image and reputation on the internet. I know the most active people on twitter are aware of this because it is a big topic of discussion. One of the main things internet marketers focus on is blog traffic, and this doesn’t happen overnite. But, if a client is willing to be patient the rewards can be immeasurable and result in thousands of hits to their blog or website a day.
I’ve been doing the internet marketing thing in one form or another for the past four years, and to be honest, I’ve been seriously considering giving up on the consulting jobs and thinking it may be time to find a permanent home. Of course, in today’s economy that is nearly impossible to find. That being said, I’m interested in what you all think and have to say. Do you consult? If so, how do you handle multiple clients, and which social media sites do you utilize the most. Are you frustrated with consulting? What are you ideas, suggestions and questions? Please leave a comment and let me know what you think.
JBerry Marketing Consultants 