It is very difficult when running a home business startup, to know the difference between marketing and simply communicating when you are active with social media. So when someone wants to use social media for their business, they tend to market (or even worse, try to sell) a product or service to their ‘friends/followers’.
However, if you simply relax and involve yourself in communicating as others do in Facebook Linked in etc, then you may be surprised at how that can support your business in the long term.
Instead of promoting your home business startup event, you may decide to answer a question in LinkedIn. Rather than push testimonials about how good your product is, why not go to Facebook and make a comment (perhaps on an achievement or a photo they have published) or respond to a question.
If you provide links, don’t make them to your product but rather to videos that pull on the heart strings (e.g. a great restaurant, new singer, wonderful doggy cleverness)! Answer questions or make comments in Blogs or Forums. ‘Like’ or ‘tweet’ what someone else has written.
The more you involve yourself in the ‘warm and fuzzy’ comments, photos and videos, the more people are going to like you and your home business startup and appreciate what you have to say. Soon you will be seen as a caring person or an expert in a particular field; and guess what? These same people will want to learn about what it is that you do and could become your clients. This is attraction marketing in its most pure form.
Let me give you an example. I had a woman ask me how to pronounce my last name. I told her. Then she asked me how I was going – I told her about my stroke and brain tumour. She then wanted to know more about how I coped with this, so I sent her to my video on You Tube where I had a topic titled ‘Thank God I Had a Stroke’. She then asked me what it was that I did – I told her about my silk painting. She then wanted to know what subjects I painted, so I sent her to my website to see some of my art work.
She ordered some silk scarves from me and then asked me to let her know when my book on ‘Thank God I Had a Stroke’ was published as she wanted to buy a copy. This sort of attraction marketing does take some time; but the beauty of it is that you are not trying to sell anything. You are just sharing information and showing that you are a real person with real problems and real skills, running a real home business startup.
Easy – isn’t it?
Hmm very clever indeed. Well said.
its really cool!!
Your website shares the most important marketing processes to enable you to build on your business. great share
Attraction marketing…. Very interesting. It’s a new idea for me, I’ll give it a try for sure.
Good read indeed…..! have a small home business . Your article provides lotx of info about how to run a business to make it more successful and that would definitely help me.
This article makes some really good points. We don’t want to be pushy with family and friends when it comes to our business. But we don’t have to be, if we make use of these suggestions.
The power of social media definitely should not be underestimated when it comes to modern day business marketing! With the right touch the news of your site certainly can spread like wildfire
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I can see where building personal relationships can help when you are starting a business. Good article to think of the simple things that you can do to promote your new business!!
Cool…… I’ve always wanted my own business and this post makes me realise just how exciting and rewarding it can be.
This was such a good article. I have a small based home business, and this will help me so much.
Interesting and relevant information. Thanks for sharing it with me.
I know from personal experience that you not only need smart marketing strategies, but they must also incorporate social networks, blogs and other more “personal facets” to get your business going. This is just as important as advertising the conventional ways. People need to “feel” who you are and why you want are selling such a product. Emotions play a critical role in promoting any business. Sharing and socializing is vital.
Relationship is very important in all home or online business etc. this is a great post; thanks for guidance for us all
This is an excellent example of marketing at its best. I have to agree to be more of a friend than a salesman when dealing with Social Media. This has been one of the ways that I have gone about doing my business. For me it all started on a personal level and then I introduced the Store tab and now I have introduced the Blog that now attracts all my friends and family to become small business owners. This is an excellent read…
Your point, which is to remain genuine and sincere in all of your communications is good advice.
Great job making the distinction between throwing advertising at people and giving value added communication to people. Definitly clears things up for those new to the online business world
interesting – thnx for providing this information!!!!!!!!
What you state is really important in the online business. Great article!
I had heard of “attraction marketing” before, but was never exactly sure what the concept was. Your example of the silk painting made it pretty clear. As I run a startup myself, thanks for the valuable info – can’t wait to try similar techniques myself!
excellent work!
this is a great article if you want to learn marketing, it will help in long term business, very helpful. it has amazing strategies to learn marketing if you have a new business.
Excellent advice. I learned the hard way that social marketing is not the same as sales. You must build the relationships -must!
The idea of social marketing is really to build a community around your brand. We have a number of social media “gurus” in our area, and funny enough, none of them have customers. However we do have a woman who runs a deli, and she is genuinely interested in her customers and their well being. She also has bought a half million dollar condo from the continued patronage of her tiny little corner deli. Something to think about.
Word of mouth is extremely powerful so I completely agree with this article.
Relationships are a key to start your business if you are starting from scratch. It sure takes time, but in the end, you will be glad you found the time to nurture your relationships with potential clients.
This is true. It is very important to focus on developing relationships. A lot of people focus too much on selling which can actually hinder their success. If you put some effort into socializing and actually forming and nurturing relationships with others, your success will be greater.
Wow! I never thought about it this way. I guess it should have been obvious, considering how easily I myself am pushed away by obvious advertising and how much more open I would be to someone simply being nice to me, but sometimes those ideas that should be most obvious are the ones that are, in fact, most elusive.
Matty, your Deli lady satisfys a need and obviously treats her customers well. There is no reason you cannot do this with Internet marketing. The problem is often people using this channel concentrate on getting large numbers rather than taking the time to build relationships with smaller numbers and making them feel special. Thanks for your comment….very thought provoking!
Your article is really helpful – I now know how to properly utilise social media to support my business
Well, this is true. Its not easy making strong relationships with potential clients but with your tips, it won’t be a problem