I just attended a very interesting webinar run by Jon Morrow (from the famous Copyblogger) and Laura Roeder (creatingfame.com), which went back to the basics of Social Media Marketing.

Looking at the comments during the webinar on Twitter (hashtag: #copybloggersm) some of the attendees expected to learn about innovative social media tools and secrets that no one knows about yet. Instead, Laura and Jon talked about the basics, that these people felt they knew already. But did they?

For me it was rather a timely reminder. How often do we “struggle” at keeping up with yet the newest and best Twitter applications and social media trends while actually we are wasting our time doing this. It’s not important to have a profile on every single brandnew social network just invented, it’s important to build deep relationship. Jon was very clear about that. How often do we feel we need to join every social network under the sun to be “in”? Not at all necessary, Jon explained.

Both Laura and Jon stressed that focusing on one or two channels is much more profitable when it comes to business. After all business nowadays bases on relationship building.  Check where your target market hangs out – where are they? Are they on Facebook, Twitter or on MySpace? Concentrate your effort on this specific network and forget about others because they are not important to your target market. A little research is required (ask your VA to do the research if you are pressed for time).

If you have a blog, congregate your community there. Don’t get tempted to start lots of different channels to talk to your people, stay put and build the community of your blog before you rush out and build a forum because you heard someone else has a forum. How many “ghost forums” do you know that start off with a lot of noise and then develop into a ghost town with “new posts” dating back from half a year ago? Don’t create a forum when your community is less than 100 people, Jon recommended. Rather focus on your blog as point of contact.

Instead of getting nervous about having to create a blog post daily, rather write one really good one weekl. This will actually help you and your readership better than a lot of mediocre posts. Post this post out to your Twitter or Facebook friends, connect the social media channels. Your VA can automate this for you if you don’t know how to do it.

When you subsribe to other blogs to make new connections, don’t comment saying “good post” only. Give reasons or extend the subject of the blog post so that you add valuable information. This will give your comment an edge and start off new conversations.

Laura stressed that you need to remember that all social media channels are seen as customer service channels as well, so be sure you are contactable on your social networks. Check your messages regularly to avoid disappointment from your readership.

To eliminate the overwhelm in your inbox every morning, make a rule and send the notification of new Twitter followers to a separate folder. Go through these emails at a convenient time, not when you are already stressed out. Also make sure you don’t send direct messages from Twitter to your cellphone, otherwise you will be inundated with those, which will create overwhelm and stress for you.

Be authentic in social media. Jon mentioned Frank Kern and his personality. Frank is a character who shows what he likes and what he does. He is open about his life and what he is doing and his readers can easily decide if they like him or not. Not everybody may love you, but the people who have similar interests and behaviors will love you. So focus on being you, rather than being a bland nothing. Show your social media friends who you really are, what your interests are and what makes you tick. The deep bonding and relationship building will be much more profitable than being a bland marketer who sends out a lot of  spam saying: “buy my products”.

Laura said that promotion is ok in social media and on your blog, but don’t overwhelm people. The 80/20 rule (80% valuable content and 20% promotion) definitely applies. Jon expanded on this saying that you even have an obligation to tell your target audience about valuable tools and products that are out there if it’s relevant to your audience. And I agree with this. If a social media friend tells me of a good program that would be beneficial for me I feel grateful. Promotion is not all bad, but do it right and be relevant with it.

Summing up, it’s important to go back to the basics of social media. Deep connections are better than shallow ones. Yep, we all know that, don’t we? But do we actually adhere to this?

Focus on a few networks or social media channels to learn all about your target market and the problems they need to have solved. Engage with people rather than sending out spammy messages. Show your personality, you will attract people who are like you and you can create a vibrant community.

Don’t jump on every new social network, go where most people of your target market are. Connect with people who are important to you and don’t try to reach “everybody”. Less can be more and quality goes over quantity. We all know that, don’t we? So let’s start doing it.

Check out Jon’s Twitter profile on http://twitter.com/jonmorrow and Laura on http://twitter.com/lkr.