Top Three Social Media Sites to Promote Your Business
As I said it in a previous post, you should concentrate on building a following – let’s say a following of 100 people… or, why not 1000 people… and then you can easily promote your services and products to these highly responsive individuals who are following you because they like your information and your product and probably like and trust you too.
It used to be that networking – and building a quality following – was done in face-to-face environments, at your local Chamber of Commerce, BNI, or other networking groups (and some of us with eMail marketing). However, today you can network – and even more effectively, if you do it right – with thousands of people right from the comfort of your home.
However, while there are endless numbers of social media out there, you can be most effective if you concentrate your time on the top three to five of them:
- http://LinkedIn.com is most likely the #1 place to build a network of business connections. Here you can post your business, what you are selling, and can connect with pottential clients rather easily.
LinkedIn has also several built in applications. You can post PowerPoint presentations on your profile page, you can have your blog posts show up on your profile page, and can take advantage of several other applications.
Warning! While you can search and browse pottential customers, your account will be blocked if you invite as “friends” people who you don’t know. The most effective way to build your network is to join LinkedIn groups of your interest – and there are countless great groups for every application: twitter, Public Speaking, Event Planners, IT, DiSC Chat, Conflict REsolution, etc.; you name it, linkedIn has a group for it. Once you join a group, answer other posts, post your own questions or articles… and the beauty of it is that you can invite anyone from the groups to be part of your network. If your goal is to build a network of 500 individuals in a few day, that’s probably easily done on linkein by following this strategy.
Warning #2: Most of the groups do not allow direct promotion of your products or services; however, you can always do that in more subtle ways, such as posting articles that have a link to your site, asking for others’ imput on a new product or on your product copy, etc. Use your imagination… or just notice how others’ get their message out there.
If you get on LinkedIn, make sure to find me too and invite me as a friend: try to find E.G. Sebastian or egSebastian
- http://www.Twitter.com is also a great site where you can develop a great number of followers in a short time. The key is to be consistent and provide good content.
When you set up your account, make sure to set it up with your business in mind and have your title and a link to your main website show on your profile.
To gain followers, you can go by it in several ways:
- in the People Search feature, type in keywords that would identify your pottential customers; for example, “Human Resources,” “Public Speaking,” “Coach,” “Coaching,” etc. AND follow everyone who seems like a good fit for your business – most people who you’ll follow will in turn follow you (if they like your profile) — some people’s twitter account is set up in a way to AUTOMATICALLY follow anyone who follows them.
- go to http://www.search.twitter.com and type in a keyword that would identify your customers, then again click on each person’s profile and follow them — again, they’ll thank you for your follow by following you…
- take a look at what the top business twitterers are tweating about and try to emulate them. You can find the top twitterers here: http://twitter.grader.com/top/users
- add your twitter name to your email signature (dang! I still have to do that myself), at the end of your articles, blog posts, and everywhere else possible
To manage your Twitter most effectively, I highly recomend to download TweetDeck from http://www.tweetdeck.com/beta/ ; there are also dozens of other applications out there, such as tweeting from your cell phone, easy ways to manage multiple twitter accounts, etc. Simply do an internet search with the “twitter applications” terms and you’ll get more applications than you can ever use… So control yourself and use only the top two to three applications that you really need.
If you want a great description on how to use Twitter, visit http://help.twitter.com/portal
Make sure to follow me on twitter by clicking this link http://twitter.com/egSebastian and then click on the Follow button. Here I tweet about marketing, non-salesy sales tips, public speaking, social media, and other business related topics.
If you want to get leadership quotes every day tweeted to you, you can also follow me at http://twitter.com/leadership365 (I’m collecting these quotes for an upcoming book, and I thought I’ll share them with the world… at least it keeps me consistent about collecting them 🙂 )
- http://www.FaceBook.com is another great social site where you can develop a great following/networking platform. Here you can post your upcoming events, teleclasses, workshops, seminars, etc.; you can promote your products and services… It’s a true playground for anyone who wants to get massive expossure.
The key here too is NOT to post only promotional material. Allow the members in your network to know you as a person… put up some pictures with you in business environment and perhaps a few of your family pictures too (so you come across as a real person and hence generate more trust)
Again, view a few successful FaceBook users and emulate them: three great examples of my friends who use FaceBook very efficiently are:
Tom Antion http://www.facebook.com/people/Tom-Antion/1031444410#/profile.php?id=1031444410
Melinda Day-Harper http://www.facebook.com/people/Tom-Antion/1031444410#/profile.php?id=1005837407&ref=ts
Jeff Herring http://www.facebook.com/people/Tom-Antion/1031444410#/profile.php?id=1047041874&ref=ts
See how they are promoting their business and emulate them; or find other great marketers and emulate their “style.” I’m not saying copy what they are doing – I’m just saying learn from the way they are marketing themselves and adopt similar strategies.
FaceBook is also a great place to post your videos; you can also take the videos uploaded to FaceBook and embed them into your blog(s).
If you want to become friends on FaceBook, visit my profile here: http://www.facebook.com/people/Tom-Antion/1031444410#/profile.php?id=1269004716&ref=name and click on Add as Friend
These are my top three picks of social media – if you are not on these three, you are missing out on some great “list building” and networking opportunities. Remember, people buy from people who they know and trust. The above three social media outlets give you that “power” to become known and trusted (especially Linkedin and FaceBook – and Twitter has the pottential to allow you to expose your message to thousands of people day after day).
What social media have you been using successfully? Share with us?
Or how have you been using the above three in a way that I did not list? Please share…!
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Next time we’ll explore some more social media strategies and how they can give you massive expossure…