Thursday, July 21, 2011

Social Media Networking & Marketing Advice


With more and more home-based businesses starting and using social networking to market their products, it's good to have a few tips on how to work these free advertising venues.

1. Follow the rules. If you join a group or website that has rules, then follow them. When you break rules, you are a trouble maker, not a revolutionary. Other group members will think, know, you're just there for marketing and don't care enough to learn about the group and support its members. Ultimately, you might even be banned from the group and your company becomes the one that was kicked out of the circle. You lose because groups have valuable information and even potential customers.

2. Don't steal friends. To sit there and go through another businesses friends' list is down right rude. Facebook and twitter have made it easy for you to find people who share similar interests, add them if you want more followers. If you're just starting out and all of sudden you have all the same friends as another shampoo maker, something just doesn't seem logical even with the friend suggestions. Plus, their customers will be quick to call you on it. Instead do the work to get friends, that way you're adding slower and actually get a little inkling of who the person is.

3. Don't abuse tagging. Don't just randomly tag people that you really don't know. Yes, the site is free and you can do what you like, but it costs you in long run. Would you want other businesses tagging you and filling your pages with their items? When you start tagging it becomes a two-way street. Will you be happy, jealous, or angry when your friends start liking and buying from those who tag you and link on your pages? You have your pages so link them from your blog or website, cross-feed twitter and facebook, and suggest your fan page to friends. Also, if you want to get an item noticed by others, then share a post/link from your business page and tag yourself. That way whoever is following you will see it in their feed. It's just that simple.

4. Give, interact, and be thankful! Try to interact with other companies and your customers while giving them something useful. If you have a little advice or a product you like, share it. Be sure to check your pages and tweets for comments to answer questions and give thanks for compliments and retweets. And when all else fails and you think you have nothing to give, give your services or your product. A give-away is a quick way to get everyone excited, including yourself!

What this all boils down to, is don't be lazy. If you really think about it, all it takes is time and a little effort to reply, say thank you, post a link, and network. That little effort really does pay off if you are consistent. When you take short-cuts you will come up short.

What advice do you have for promoting your business on social media outlets?

8 comments:

Narahs' Jewelry said...

Well said!

Tip: Don't post how long it takes for something to ship all over your business page and then take 3 times that amount of time to ship it. Even if you print a shipping label and don't ship it...the customer knows. That's what tracking is for. Duh! If they are another business owner like myself, then you can't pull wool over their eyes. If you print the label today...then ship it today, but no later than tomorrow. Geesh!

Carmennc said...

Thank you Narah! I agree with you on that. Sometimes, I have gotten in the shipping problem by printing labels when I really wasn't ready to ship. But the delay was on a day or two. The mailman is truly a ninja in the dark. But days and weeks out, is a too much.

vanita said...

This is definitely a good post. Too many times people abuse the power of social media. They take take take and never give. Thanks for sharing this. Visiting via @Business Women Divas

Hard Work Pays Off. said...

This was such a wonderful post. I really like the one about tagging people. Don't just tag people for the sake of tagging. I am going to share this post with my business group.

Carmennc said...

Hello Ms. Vanita & Ms. HWPO! Thank you so much for stopping by to read the post and for the comments. I'll admit I was an abuser of the power too. Thank you for sharing too! Much success to both of your businesses.

Unknown said...

I agree, I messed up by posting shipment info to early to soon. I did a collaborating post with Toys'R' Us and things didn't work out as plan. I feel awful but I am trying to make it up to the winners. Once again, great advice.

Carmennc said...

Hey KeeKee! When things do go wrong, I try my best to correct them as soon as I can and the best that I can while keeping the people involved informed.

Unknown said...

I really appreciate this. Thank you for posting it.