Leveraging “Free” Social Media
With all the time many of us have right now, there is no better use of spare moments than focusing on social media to keep your business “fresh” with your target clients. If you do not have a social media presence, now is the time to build it! Many of the platforms are “free”, that is a great perk during a Pandemic!
Before I left my corporate position late last year, a colleague asked me if I would be buying the back cover of our local business paper to plaster my face and new business out there. I laughed. First of all, the cost for that would not warrant the return for my niche business. Second, I planned to embrace the digital social media platform of advertising using only the “free” component. The ironic outcome is that my first paying client, along with a recent Pandemic acquisition client, both came from social media, they were Facebook friends of mine. And one is not even local.
LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and even these Blogs, are all platforms Illuminate has embraced to “market” and advertise our brand. And we have not yet purchased any of the platform levels which require financial investments. This was not due to lack of advertising funds, it was a calculated choice. Building a brand takes time, resources, and a definitive plan on where you wish that brand to go. That journey is not always present from day one or it may change at any time during the life of a business. Social media allows that journey to help shape the future of a business. And, it may take your business into a path not yet considered nor planned by the owner. And, without cost, which is a great advantage over traditional business advertising strategies of years ago.
LinkedIn is a good platform to reach corporate executives or clients. It is used by many large firms and a profile is often required once employed. The basic platform, which I have used since it was developed, has been a useful channel to share my Blog with Centers of Influence from my previous career. It is an effective and efficient way to reach executives and professionals and garner their interest in your product or service. And, it can be a very helpful source to identify targeted clients and tout your brand. It can provide the pulse of the economy to your fingertips and allow you to search for local or distant new markets. If there is someone you wish to reach out to, see if any of your contacts are “linked in” with them. Ask those contacts to make an introduction. That has been a very productive manner for prospecting for me in the past. Your contacts usually will not decline such a request, it is, afterall, why everyone is on this platform, make the most of it!
Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook all allow your business to reach out to a vast individual marketplace. Use your hashtags appropriately, tag places or institutions in relevant posts and watch how retweeting or reposting can help your products or services reach untapped channels. Instagram is a terrific platform to showcase visually what your business has been up to or is about to embark upon and can be linked to Facebook so the same post occurs from just one platform. We are a visual species, use it to your advantage! Pictures can be very eye-catching versus just words. The more your brand is seen, the greater chances it has to succeed.
Blogs, to me, are the most intriguing free form of business advertising. They cannot be streams of consciousness essays. Choose an appropriate name for your Blog, adhere to common themes, choose a consistent time-frame (Making A Point airs every Monday), and allow your readers to be informed on the varied topics that either are your business or impact your business. Make it interesting, use relevant but enjoyable photos, make it worth their time, if not for the content, for the photos! Seek feedback from your audience, do you have a Subscribe button on your website, making it easy for readers to effortlessly be sent your Blogs? Ask them to share your content and remember those other social media platforms I mentioned above? Share your Blog to each and every one of them! And, a tip, once you copy the link, erase the actual internet ip address that shows up on your post. Those are often annoying and lengthy. Other than Twitter, we have found you can erase that eyesore and just have the Blog, itself, show up with the associated picture. Bring your reader’s eye right to the photo and the content, they do not need to be distracted with anything else.
With so many consumers unemployed or working reduced hours due to Lockdowns and the Pandemic right now, it is an ideal time to teach yourself about the free aspects of social media and educate yourself on its best use, relative to marketing your business, your brand, your effort. And, rest assured, you are not the only one these days turning to Social Media for education, information, shopping, and entertainment. And, while you are at it, make sure you retweet & repost, it is the singular form of corporate flattery you can bestow on a fellow business, and hopefully, they will return the favor. Your audience and, perhaps, your next client are just a post or a tweet away!
We are all in this together, make that statement work for you by engaging with social media and telling your story and other’s, when appropriate. It’s working for us, we hope it can work for you also!
Be well.
