This post is for women business owners who want to expand their brand using social networking tools.
In my last few posts, I’ve talked about LinkedIn for business (link), Facebook for business (link), and social networking in general.
Use social networking as a powerful way to engage your audience, share your expertise, increase your “validity” as a provider in your chosen field, and build your community of clients on the web.
What if you’re too busy to spend hours on these sites?
What if you don’t have the time or inclination to dedicate resources to this type of marketing?
What happens if you don’t “keep up” your profile, connections list, or friends list? Is it bad?
What if you don’t understand these types of marketing avenues?
If you are the type of person who simply does not “get” social networking, then please review my introductory posts on this subject (link) and (link).
If you *are* the type of person who realizes that genuine web interactions, valuable information sharing, two-way or multi-person discourse, and the spirit of collaboration will determine your business succes, read on.
Your company’s ability to dominate your chosen keyword or key phrase will make the difference in terms of your business success. We’ve all heard the stats that certain businesses do not make it past the 12-month or 24-month mark. If you are thinking ahead and you plan to be in business in 3, 5, 10, or 20 years, now is the time to consider your strategy for working with the Millenial Generation.
So.
What are your key phrases for your business?
Mine are:
minority-owned woman-owned web design (search in Google)
a successful woman (search in Google)
woman of color business blog (search in Google)
How are we doing? My results are the first listing for each of those (or at least, they were last time I looked!)
We originally intended to work with people who specify those key phrases in their search.
Guess what? It works!
When we first opened up shop, we worked with a wide variety of clients, some of which were not the best fit for us. Now, we’ve been able to refine and hone our client list and the types of people with whom we now work match our preferred profile exactly (green, progressive, women, minorities, eco-friendly, sustainable). Business is also a lot smoother and easier for us, as a result of this “tweaking” within our search terms. Tthe types of people who come to our website spend longer (an average of 18 minutes on 10kwebdesign.com!), learn more about our company, and truly decide if they’re a good fit before they connect with us to build their website. People also self-select, meaning they are ready to move forward with us when they contact us, either because someone else referred them, they like what they see on our site, or they’ve come to our business from one of the other channels we use like our blogs, Twitter accounts, or Facebook profiles.
If you are not yet in a position to manage your website to do this type of preparatory work for you, consider using social networking tools to expand and complement your marketing efforts. Use your Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed, or Ning community to share your information.
Also consider having someone else maintain your social network, if you’re too busy to do so. We have been considering this as an option in our own product offerings. Would you hire an external person to do the ongoing maintenance work that’s involved in engaging with your “tribe” through your social network?
We are considering offering something like the following on a monthly basis:
Review trends of your specific keywords
Identify potential hotspots for blog links
Update Facebook Fans page = 25-50 postings
Identify and connect with potential Facebook friends
Update Twitter account = 30-50 Search Engine Optimized postings
Leave comments on blogs and websites related to keywords = up to 50 comments on targeted blogs
Create up to 7 articles related to your product (articles to be 250-400 words in length) and post to your blog
Develop relationships with top 10 key Influentials in your field/industry
Develop, manage, and increase your Key Contacts list of Influentials
Actively search and post at other venues related to your business
We do this type of work already for our own business.
If you don’t do this type of work already, how much is it worth to you for someone else to take it over? Consider that all other forms of spending (print ads, radio, television) are going down and companies are working harder and harder to identify and communicate with their niche audience.
Let us know in the comments section if you think this is the type of work that you would either a) want to do, or b) hire someone else to do!!
Monica S Flores
Monica S. Flores leads large-scale web development projects in refactoring, redesign/redevelopment, digital platform buildout, & new product launches. She works with US-based & international associations, non-profits, public agencies, & startups on how to reach their communities online. Her focus is to build community, foster connectedness, & use her technology & management skills to make a better world. She believes each of us has an ability/obligation to use our knowledge, ideas, & talents to advance fairness, justice, safety, health, sustainability, & wellbeing. Find her books at Amazon or connect with her on LinkedIn.
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