Friday Conversation & Giveaway :: How do you Use Social Media to Promote Your Business?
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I have 10 business & marketing books sitting here on my desk that I have been meaning to give away to you fine readers for ages. And since I would like to pick your brains on a topic, I figured this was the perfect time to get this stuff out of my house, I mean, spread some holiday and conversational cheer while hopefully encouraging you to share your thoughts.
First up - The Goodz
All of these books are fantastic resources to help you start or grow your business!
Meatball Sundae by Seth Godin (his latest!)
Word of Mouth Marketing by Andy Sernovitz
Book Yourself Solid by Michael Port
93.3 Random Acts of Marketing by Drew McLellan
Award Winning Customer Service by Renee Evenson
The Creative Business Guide to Running a Graphic Design Business by Cameron Foote
Digital Design Business Practices by Liane Sebastian
Fresh Ideas in Limited Budget Design by Betsy Newberry
Meet & Grow Rich by Joe Vitale & Bill Hibbler (2 copies)
Plus a BONUS PRIZE - whoever puts the most thought into their answer will also get a copy of Business Forms Software CD from Socrates.com (judged totally subjectively by your truly).
So… how do you get your hands on one of these fine books? Leave a comment answering one (or both) of the following questions. I will pick the ten best answers to win. But if your answer turns into a lengthy response, you are definitely encouraged to write up your answer on your own blog instead. Especially if you think your readers would benefit from your thoughts:
How do you use Social Media (social networking, social bookmarking, forums, communities, blogs, comments, groups, listservs, etc.) to promote yourself and your business?
AND / OR
Are there ways you would like to promote yourself or your business online that you aren’t doing, and why? (Lack of knowledge, fears, time constraints, etc.)
Although I can’t promise that you will win the book of your choice, feel free to let me know which book you prefer to win so that I can try to accommodate your request.
And thank you in advance for participating! 
Sparkplugging Founder Wendy Piersall is dang passionate about helping people start & grow a business while maintaining life balance (somehow).
Dawud Miracle has one focus: to help you get it. The it? How your website, and blog, can change the way you do business. You can find out more at 
Teresa Morrow manages online book publicity and event promotion for authors, speakers and writers with her company 
I just signed up for Youtube today. I never thought video would be a relevant form of media for my blog, but it’s amazing how quickly things can change sometimes.
I am now facing unexpected time expenditure in migrating and redesigning my blog –thanks, Blogger
— which is taking away from my ability to learn and use other social channels, which had been my primary goal earlier this week.
If I win, I’d like to check out Digital Design Business Practices.
I think the most important way I use social media to promote myself and my business is by building a rapport with my current and potential customers. Being in the knitting business I find myself on the forums and other sites answering questions, or giving tips and tricks of the trade. I am also involved with some classes and tutorials through forums and other online media, and this makes me quite approachable. I am always around and visible, and available.
I find that people appreciate this, and are willing to purchase a pattern from me that might be a little beyond their skill set, knowing that I will be there to support them.
One big way I would like to promote myself and my business more, is by getting more video tutorials put together to post on my website and other video websites like YouTube. People have outright asked me to do this, and I know they would be quite popular.
Up until now it has been mostly an equipment issue. Now that I have a decent camera, the time issue is rearing it’s ugly head.
The second thing I would love to do to help promote myself online is to make over my blog into a full blown website that is easier to navigate. That can be chalked up to a little lack of knowledge (though I am married to a great resource!) and the time issue monster!
Here’s my post:
http://kidsfunreviewed.com/a-little-diversion-on-social-media
I currently use a blog to promote myself online. I first started to blog to increase my search engine exposure. I have found that it has opened a whole new world for me to continue to market myself and my product. On my blog I offer free advice to help people organize their life, and while people like my blog, they like me, and I am now an authority on organization. The blog has given me an opportunity to appear on a local morning show, which helped to promote my business, and I am going to be speaking at 2 events in January about organization, one of which they are flying me out to speak! I never imagined that as I posted on my blog so many new opportunities would open up!
The best advice I have for getting the blog to work for you, is to post content that is helpful (like what you do here). My content is also very relevent to my actual product. Which ties them together very nicely, helping my search engine exposure!
My first exposure to social media was through a digest like woman’s group. I immediately thought it was a place where I could impress folks with my knowledge, and sell, sell, sell. I basically got moderated ALOT for being over eager and blatant selling. What I learned from that experience was languaging and how powerful a tool that was. When ever I posted not about what I had to sell, but about me - parenting antics, being human, single parenting - I would get a ton of woman appreciating my point of view. I find this on my blog too - posts that are raw seemingly get responses. What I established there at that digest was a credibility, one that I am told is tremendously enjoyed - who knew?? Of the 4 years I’ve belonged it took me 2 to establish repor - time and patience is obviously needed like in developing any great relationship. I only have a dozen nutrtional clients from that time. yet alot of great friends!! With my blog - in 6 months it has yet to foster a single new client yet has unfolded into potentially a rather lucrative freelance gig in writing. I am in a bit of a identity crisis because what I do really really well is mentor folks to health success and I am not ready to give that up. I want to find a way to shift my blog work to finding those that need that service. AND I want to disappear into the northern woods and write, write, write , write ( and get paid for it!!) I am blown away by blogs that make money and haven’t a clue how to do that - I can create organic traffic though!! I feel I am still in the lack of knowledge category.
if I win I’d adore the newest seth - his permission marketing concepts altered the way I work tremendously
Great questions - wendy
Mother Earth aka Karen Hanrahan
http://www.bestwellnessconsultant.com
To promote my business on social media, I try to be active in work at home mom Facebook groups (my blog is for wahms). I also use StumbleUpon and other bookmarking sites, but probably my most used method is commenting on blogs.
I would really like to explore the world of video, but at the moment, I´m too busy reading stories to my kids and building block towers.
Most of my promo work is done during naps and after bedtime, which doesn´t leave me a lot of time to learn new techniques. Perhaps in the next few years, but right now I am trying to keep in mind the two cute reasons I decided to become a work at home mom!
I use my blog as a way to get to know my customers and to get them to know me. I am currently in the phase of building trust and relationships with my readers. I have a steadily growing list of ezine subscribers and RSS subscribers that I will eventually market my products and services to.
In the meantime, I am learning a lot about what they are concerned about through their responses to my blog posts.
I also use my blog, other’s blogs, forums and social bookmarking sites, as networking tools to get to know like-minded individuals and potential customers. This helps me learn more about the business of blogging and about my target market (women entrepreneurs).
Recently I started a series on my blog in which I profile a woman entrepreneur each day during the holiday shopping season (Thanksgiving through Christmas Eve). This has had a huge benefit all around - I get an opportunity to demonstrate some of my expertise in the area of small business development, I get to learn more about these women and their concerns, the women profiled are thrilled with the free press, and they in turn promote my blog to their network of friends and clients. Hopefully we all get more exposure and customers. I’m considering publishing the series as a free ebook as I think it is fascinating to go behind the scenes of these varied businesses and fascinating women entrepreneurs.
I’ve also started participating in virtual book tours in which I review or interview a published author. They get exposure and I get a free book!! (my favorite currency!)
Since you asked - my first choice would be Seth Godin’s book, second choice would be Michael Port’s….and of course the bonus would be great…..(:
Good book giveaway! I’m on it!
I’ll answer your second question. I don’t use social networking much, and sometimes I feel that I’m missing out. I tried it a year ago, but found that everyone on MySpace that I tried to connect with was really a bootstrapper that didn’t want to pay more than $10 for marketing. Not my niche.
So while I fully promote the use of social networking, I have to add a caveat that it’s not for everyone, including me. However, I am on LinkedIn, and keep up with my contacts that way.
I do use blogs (my own and commenting on others) as a way to show my face at the water cooler, so to speak. It’s my socializing every day, which keeps me from becoming a total hermit!
Something that’s a bit scary for me right now is the very strong possibility that I’m about to start a second blog, on being an entrepreneur! The learning curve this time around will be infinitely shorter, so that should allay some of my fears.
My blog IS my product. I don’t sell anything; I’m just building an audience for columns about everything from telling your kid about sex (complete with inadvertent coital finger movements) to tales about what happens when formerly cute toddlers grow into boys with smelly feet.
Because I focus on writing, I post less often (2-3 times a week) than many other sites.
Commenting on blogs and establishing a network among other family bloggers has been the most valuable to me.
I’ve joined Facebook and futzed around with Stumble and BlogRush but I feel guilty when I’m focusing on marketing and it eats into my “real writing” time.
I have recorded 3 podcasts but haven’t published them yet, and I wish I felt more confident about that process. I think humorous columns lend themselves well to podcasting, but I can’t seem to get over the final tech hurdle.
Additionally, my online readers trend a lot younger than those who read me in the print work I’ve done, and the two audiences don’t seem to cross over. In other words, when I publish a magazine article, I rarely see a burst of traffic on my website.
I’d be interested in knowing whether other people have been able to “convert” print readers into web readers or whether for this generation (say, lots of the 30 and over crowd– I am 40) the two audiences will remain distinct.
Finally, I do lots of old-fashioned networking outside the web: handing out cards, speaking at clubs and schools, and that seems to be as effective as anything at developing an audience for my particular product.
Wendy, I’ve enjoyed your blog; any cutting edge skillz I have are slowly improving with your help and motivation!
Hi Wendy - I answered your question in a post I did last week called Social Media Mania - What’s A Gal To Do? at: http://www.entrepremusings.com/index.php/2007/12/13/social-media-mania-whats-a-gal-to-do/.
Happy Holidays!
I use social networking to promote my personal blogs and websites sometimes. The key is to do it non-intrusively. On Orkut, whenever I update my profile, it displays my name on the home page of all my friends showing the update. I have a lot of friends and a lot of websites so it generates good traffic and word of mouth.
I use digg, stumbleupon and other SB sites to promote my sites as well.