When I got started working online in 1998 there was no Facebook. There was no YouTube. Hell, there was no Google!
I got started sending traffic to my websites by domain type-in traffic and inbound marketing by placing articles on other similar websites with my link! I would have KILLED to have a social network!
Within the next hour you can setup profiles at Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube for your business. I know there are even more than this, but with these FOUR, you have the ability to generate enough business to keep you busy for the rest of your career. You just have to be creative!
When you setup your social profiles, don’t go on a spamming frenzy posting like a drunken sailor. As one great salesman once said, “people hate to be sold too, but they love to buy.” This is so true!
If you can genuinely connect with people and form relationships with them, the sale is the easy part! But if you’re always cramming the sale down their throat, you’re going to shoot yourself in the foot before you have the opportunity to make the sale.
Start by adding people you know that maybe interested in your web hosting service. This maybe the local banker you know from when you got your car or home. Perhaps there is a local butcher you buy your meat from. Start with this audience and start posting inspiring, helpful posts and see what you get a reaction on.
My Facebook account is a complete marketing ploy but I hardly ever share a link to NameHero. Instead, I engage with my followers by asking intriguing questions or something that is going to elicit a response. If I can get them to consistently see and remember my name, eventually they’ll research my companies and I can make the sale.
LinkedIn makes it even easier. If you click on your connections page you’ll notice that LinkedIn allows you to send them a pre-typed congratulation or happy birthday message. Do that every day!
Even though you’re not directly marketing to those individuals, they’re going to appreciate the thought, and may decide to check out your company! If you’re connecting with relevant connections, then you already know they are going to need web hosting eventually.
This is where re-targeting comes into a very important piece of the puzzle. When your connections eventually do decide to check out your website, even if they don’t buy, they’re going to consistently see your ads on relevant websites and you will become their “go to” brand.
With all this said, you can still cross-post your blog posts and coupon specials, just try not to cram it down their throat. Personally, I’m much more aggressive on my company pages than I am my personal. I don’t want people to throw my personal account into the “annoying MLM salesman” category, so I’m very careful with that. In general, people expect companies to be pushy, so it is what it is.
None-the-less social media provides an excellent, free, medium for you to connect with customers. Spend an hour or two a day working it (not dazing off into ADHD paradise) but understanding your connections and marketing to them without hard-selling. You’ll be surprised at how hard this will pay off.
Ryan Gray is the founder and CEO of NameHero, one of the fastest growing independent web hosts in the United States. Ryan has been working online since 1998 and has over two-decades experience in Internet Entrepreneurship.
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