Social Networking for Local Business
Social networking isn’t brand new but it has hit the Internet scene like a storm over the last few years. It has taken the web to a whole new level and allows everyone to now get involved.
Personally, I think it’s ingenious because now instead of learning programming languages and other fancy computer junk, we can all interact and do cool stuff online.
Recently I saw that even my church and other organizations who I thought barely had websites mention that they were now on Twitter and Facebook.
Typically when everyone is talking about something then it’s time to move on, but in the marketing world this gives great insight into where everyone is hanging out.
You see the beauty of the web is that you can literally see where everyone is at, what they want, what they need, what they like and dislike. These web 2.0 sites as we’ll call them provide an easy means to just that - get into the minds of your target market and get right in front of them.
The key here is that there is a right way and wrong way to do it. For example, forums have been around for quite a while where we can go and discuss our interests with others. Now say you own a car repair shop and you sell a car repair tutorial on the web. Now if you go and sign up and start to spam these places, you’ll be invited to leave quite quickly.
However, if you go in to a forum and provide real value, answers, and posts that help, then people will warm up to you as an expert who has something great to offer.
Another great thing is just like Google and other search engines these Web 2.0 sites offer geo-local targeting, advertising, pages, and more that will allow you to pinpoint your target market and only pay for traffic that makes sense. Of course this is only one step in the sales process, but it gives you quite a leg up than spending a ton of money on shotgun-style marketing in a local media source.
Here are just a few of the sites that you should be implementing into your online marketing strategy - even for local means (note that some don’t allow for localized targeting but can be valuable for search engine optimization)…
- Facebook - build a profile and pages around your business
- Twitter - Not sure how this took off, but it’s a great way to market and stay in touch with your followers regularly
- Squidoo - build a lens around your business - offers the ability to link to your site, add your RSS feed, and more
- Zimbio - a wonderful place to post articles
- Ezinearticles - this is our favorite place to post articles - great for backlinks
- Local business directories - it’s not tough to find business directories that relate to your locality or business that provide free advertising opportunities
- Craigslist - this can provide amazing results but you must stay on top of it
- Hubpages - another cool site where you can build your own page and profile
Other great ways to get in touch and use Web 2.0 sites that we will cover in future posts include video marketing on spots like YouTube and Google Videos, RSS submission, social bookmarking on places like Digg, and more.
This is just a start and all of these offer amazingly wonderful and free (for the most part) ways to get directly in front of your target market and promote your business.
To your success,
Joe Collinsworth
Be sure to contact us if you’d like to discuss how to implement and utilize these strategies on an ongoing basis.
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