When you are working on marketing something, whether it is a business, a charity, or anything else, know that you will have to spend some time and possibly money investing in the event.
One of the best things you can do is get the word out about it to try and get people to attend and help with whatever your goals on. A great way to do this these days is with social media. You will have to spend some time and effort using social media, but it does not have to take much money. This is more of a sweat equity investment than a cash investment.
For instance, many people are now on Facebook. You can create a personal page as well as a business facebook fanpage to help you with your business. The best way to promote yourself is to get to know people on a personal level, and they will get to know who you are from the messages you post.
But if the first time you stop on someone’s page and you say “Hi, I am with such and such business”, you likely will not get very far. The investment is getting to know others and that it may take a bit before you get tangible resources. Of course, if someone posts asking question that is relevant to your business, than it would be appropriate to reply with your business information.
This can be an investment where you are not sure when or if it will pay off. You likely will not be successful if you only post a few comments every day or two, you need to get into it and connect with people. A large part of business relationships is networking, and this is yet another type of networking, done through the computer instead of in person. If you connect with the right people, your business could really explode, and isn’t that what you want?
One of the greatest investments that you can make is to create a fanpage where people can interact with you and your business. Invite everyone to become a fan, and then make sure that you are posting relevant and helpful information. Every post should not be a sales pitch, but information that may be helpful for your readers.
Maybe in October your sales page will post information about breast cancer, even though you sell books. This helps to endure you to your readers and will allow you to build those relationships. You may also gain new customers with these types of approaches.
While you may feel that you are wasting your time on the social media sites, it is important that you get to know people and they get to know you. People are more likely to deal with someone that they know and have a relationship with than a random stranger, if they are able to.
It can take a while to harvest these relationships and see results, but you could also have someone who comes out of the woodwork right away who is looking for someone offering exactly what you are offering.
This is a guest post, if you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines.
Image Credit: OverSocialized
11 comments