Unless you’re living under a rock, most all of us have participated in (or at least had a kid/colleague show us) the social networking e-Media phenomenon. YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn….the list goes on for social networking sites. I know that I have accounts in ALL of those I listed above. I love the sites…I log in nearly on a daily if not multiple times a day basis. I want to be “in the know”, I want to see what my other friends are doing/going/see a piece of what they’re living (hello mini-reality tv) and I recognize the power of such social marketing opportunities.
However, it seems like most people are just starting to professionally pick up on these “in’s”…it’s free advertising. Think about the company you work for….does it have a ‘branding’ issue, is the advertising budget next to nothing? Why not look to the web and to social networking e-media. It’s an outlet where you, the individual, can target/focus on who you want to be seeing this….it’s basically a free sales lead sheet. Type in the market of your company into the search area and voila…up appears a list of people that you can invite to your network. Not all will ‘accept’ but if you position your title/headliner in the appropriate manor, it’s a fantastic way to introduce your product/company/idea to the world.
In another example, take your at home hobby—why not start a social network advertising your hobby, or a blog that shows people how to “make custom jewelry” or whatever it is that your hobby is. Get your message out to enough people and all of a sudden your nighttime hobby just turned into a full fledged business with hardly zero dollars out of your wallet…just some of your time.
From a marketing perspective, it amazes me how few companies capitalize on these free advertising opportunities, or won’t even give it a thought (too risky, legal issues, unknown to our company…) the list goes on forever! But as a rule of thumb, no publicity is bad publicity. Even if your social network gets comments that are negative towards your service/product, it’s at least creating a buzz….buzz=people talking about you=more people know about you=business. Bad publicity is easy to fix–show the solution, prove the publicity wrong…do that and you’ll bring more people to your company because they’ll see you’re a solution provider.
Hey girl! Loving your blog keep you the great work!