It’s a mistake I see far too many marketers and entrepreneurs making. They are being lured into seductive social media communities, wooed by and caught up in the passion of these interactive environments. They without the right strategy, they invest hours of their time forgetting that the only tangible benefit (their database of friends or followers) is controlled by a 3rd party who can change the rules of the game at any time.

A perfect example is how most users of Twitter have had a rude awakening over the last 48-hours or so. They awoke yesterday to find their “following” and “followers” lists slashed in half… or more! Hundreds and even thousands of contacts gone! POOF!

Twitter’s explanation:

Poor excuse, but who’s to blame?

Twitter’s “spam” excuse is a poor one. I and several other people I know on Twitter personally visit the page of each new Follower as new requests come in. So to see several hundred followers disappear and have Twitter say they “spammers” is clearly BS.

That’s to be expected and nothing to get upset about. It’ a danger you should expect. Twitter can do and say anything they want. And so can any other Social Network. Any of them can change the rules of the game whenever they want. They can arbitrarily put caps on the number of followers or friends you can have. Even delete people from your list at their whim.

See, the problem is not with Twitter, Facebook, or any other “free” Social Networking channel. The blame rests with you if you leave it to these services to have control over your contact list. Harsh, but true.

Some people learn the hard way that Social Networks are merely communication channels, not storage facilities. Let’s help you avoid any hard lessons in the future.

Protecting yourself and safe-guarding your hard work

So how do you protect yourself from the painful loss of contacts and connections you’ve worked hard to gain from Social Networks? It’s simple!

Keep the focus on your New Media Marketing Hub!

Social Networks are ONLY channels to leverage. They are NOT to be trusted with your most valuable asset; your contacts. They are conduits through which you attract and connect — but the core of all your efforts, the home base for all your Tribe – must be your Hub!

Your New Media Marketing Hub is where the ever-upwardly spiraling Tribal Seduction ™ Action Trinity (Attract-Connect-Convert) yields the greatest long-term results.

Your New Media Marketing Hub is the Alpha and the Omega of ALL that you do online. It is what will grow and protect your Tribe, your business, and your bank account. Your Hub is the home where your love, passion and primary attention belongs. Not out on the streets of the Social Networking communities.

What a New Media Marketing Hub IS and IS NOT

Before we take a look at the 5 simple steps to maximizing the profit impact of your New Media Marketing Hub, let’s get clear on what a hub is and is not.

• A New Media Marketing Hub is NOT a blog.

  A blog helps with two parts of the Tribal Seduction? Action Triad: Attraction and Connection. Conversion cannot be done efficiently on a regular blog.

• A New Media Marketing Hub is NOT a regular sales site.

  This type of site may be optimized for Conversions, but no matter how well written the copy, no matter how persuasive the videos, no matter how shocking the offer is – it will fail miserably when it comes to the Attraction and Connection of the Action Triad. (And in many cases, this type of site works against you no matter how you send people there, even from your blog.)

• A New Media Marketing Hub IS a single site that combines Attraction, Connection, and Conversion.

  By having one central destination for your Tribe, the hard pitch can fall away. Instead, with a little bit of careful planning, application of Tribal Seduction principles and an understanding of human nature — you can strategically hide “pathways” to conversion that your Tribe will discover on their own.

These seemingly hidden pathways are a core component of Tribal Seduction mastery. When you leverage your Hub this way, people discover offerings on their own. And when you have automated persuasion triggers that are activated when they arrive on those particular pages – they own the decision. You are only there as the trusted provider, not hard-pushing salesperson.

When it’s done properly, no rapport is broken…
And even if you don’t make a sale, trust is actually increased!

More on this important Tribal Seduction principle in the future. But for now, suffice it to say that if you have people jumping around to different URLs, you will break rapport, lose sales… and most damaging of all – chip away trust!

How to keep a profitable perspective and make your “Hub” work for you

So how do you maximize the profit impact of your New Media Marketing Hub?

I’ve kept it real simple here and broken things down into 5 steps. Some require you to take action, other things happen auto-magically. And I’ve provided some images to help you envision how this would work for you.

Steps 1 and 2

In Step 1 you start at your hub with the creation of content that’s valuable to your Tribe. You choose a media format, post it and you’re off!

In Step 2, like the rays of the sun shining out across the sky; you begin to radiate additional sources of exposure for your new content. Some of these destinations you may have to actually take action yourself. (BLOGi360 members are lucky since most all of Step 2 is automated within the system as soon as they hit the “Save” button.)

Step 3

In Step 3 you (or one of your team) must go out and actively interact in the New Media channels available online. There is no cheating here. Step 3 requires personal interaction.

You don’t necessarily have to hit every one of these channels. Depending on your Tribe, your Communication Code™ and your Persuasive Selling Platform™ – the channels you use here can be pre-set. Or they can vary based on your content or the media used to share that content.

Step 4

This is an easy step because this is happening auto-magically for you behind the scenes. Whether you build and maintain a New Media Marketing Hub on your own, or put a BLOGi360 Hub to work for you – the key thing to focus on here is the automated service to your subscribers.

Streams of new visitors and traffic are great. But the most important people are your current subscribers and customers. The only way to build trust, rapport and deeper relationships with your Tribe (and turn them into raving fans,) is through repeated NON-sales contact.

When you’re leveraging your New Media Marketing Hub properly, you can see below in Step 4 how you’re getting BOTH new exposure and relationship reinforcement automatically. Something you can only do with a Hub.

Step 5

Once again, a drop-dead easy step – enjoying the fruits of your action. As your engagement radiates out from your Hub into the New Media Marketplace, the energy you put out returns back to your Hub in the form of tangible results.

Deeper relationships with current clients, more trust with new members of your Tribe, and new visitors – which you immediately focus on welcoming into your subscriber family.

Wrapping it up

We’ll expand more on the New Media Marketing Hub concept in the near future. But for now, use these charts and the Hub overview presented here to remind yourself of where your focus should always start and return to… no matter where you may roam in the New Media Marketplace.

• Always be focused on executing the Tribal Seduction™ CHARM Formula™ and Action Trinity™.
• And most important of all — persuasively, influentially and seductively — move people from interaction with you on social networks over to your New Media Marketing hub.

How can the New Media Marketing Hub concept help you?

- Have you gotten a new (or renewed) perspective on what you main goal is when marketing online?
- What profit or list building ideas have you gotten from the Hub concept?
- How will you change the way you spend your time, energy and resources marketing with New Media?
- Do you have some other ideas we didn’t cover here?

Spill your mind. Share your thoughts in some graffiti down below.