This just in from Kanika W. of StartUpBiz...
New methods for marketing your business are popping up everywhere, and online communities are no exception. So, exactly what is an online community and what does it have to do with growing your business?
The truth is, you won’t know how it affects your business until you try it, but there are three key tips that can help you use them to effectively grow your business over time. What IS an online community anyway?
First let’s be clear about what an online community is and how it can be beneficial. Online communities are like local networking events, only they take place online. They provide a way for businesses to interact with their customers, for customers to interact with a business, and perhaps most importantly, for customers to interact with each other.
Online communities are a form of social media and can often work well when mixed with other forms of social media including blogging, email newsletters, podcasts, rss feeds, and others. So how can online communities help you grow your business?
TIP #1 Be Consistent
No matter how you look at it, participating in online communities is a long term investment. If you stick with it and stay consistent, the pay-off can be rewarding. Frequent your favorite areas of the community, post a blog, post threads, but just like your local networking event, once you introduce yourself, you have to keep coming back so that people remember who you are. People do business with people they know and trust.
TIP #2 Be Realistic
Just because you joined the community, doesn’t mean all of a sudden sales will come flooding through your door (if this has happened to anyone, please send an email to my inbox and let me know your secret). Online communities can be like any other form of advertising-- you try it, you test it, you see if it works, and if it does, you stick with it, if it doesn’t; well, you move to the next thing, but you have to remember that all social media is about building relationship based business. It’s a long term investment and it takes people time to get to know you. In addition, understand why you joined the community.
Growing your business should not be the only reason. There’s significant value in gaining free insight from experts who know the challenges small businesses face better than anyone else, and that’s your fellow business owners. Tapping into the knowledge base of a good online business community, can be just as rewarding as finding a new customer.
TIP #3 Add Value
A wise man once said, “people like to buy—they don’t like to be sold to.” There’s nothing worse than an online community member that spams everyone with there sales pitch in a discussion thread. If you want to lose respect in an online community, this is a great way to do it.
Add value, provide insight, or share an experience that may be beneficial to someone else, but please don’t spam the members—we want to keep people in the community, not send them running.
For those of you that join for the purpose of growing your business, I think plugging your own business is fine, but educate people about your business and tell them what problem your product or service solves. Publish a blog and become an expert in your field, offer advice on solving an issue you recently experienced—in the end, you will get much more respect, meet more colleagues, and gain more credibility for your business.
I hope to meet many more of you as we all continue our path to growth and success.
I’m rooting for you!
KW
www.biznessdoor.com
Thanks Kanika for your insightful post and we look forward to more.
Talk soon,
Frank Tocco--Marketing Mentor
Get Paid To Generate Responsive Leads--Free Videos
Free Website Traffic Tips
Social Media Networking Tips
Showing posts with label Forums. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Forums. Show all posts
May 5, 2008
5 Free Internet Marketing Methods You Should Use for Maximum Traffic and Sales
5 Free Internet Marketing Methods You Should Use for Maximum Traffic and Sales By Frank Tocco
If you want to market your business on the internet for free, there are five techniques you can use that are absolutely free.
Some will require a little bit of knowledge in order to implement them, but once you have them in place, you can continue to drive tons of traffic to your website.
1. Blogs/RSS
By blogging, you can build a relationship with your potential customers by providing information about your business.You can build a free blog on sites like Blogger - http://www.blogger.com - and submit your RSS feed for your blog to the major blogging sites.You can also add a subscription box to your site using one of the free services available so that you can build a list.
2. Article Writing
Articles are another way to build your reputation in your chosen area of expertise. It's also a way to offer potential customers value by providing them with information on your topic. Article Marketer - http://www.articlemarketer.com - will allow you to distribute your articles to thousands of publishers for free. You'll be able to get traffic to your site immediately, as well as create a viral marketing strategy for your business.
3. Search Engine Optimization
Although search engine optimization of your site can be time consuming, it's worth the effort. By optimizing your site for the search engines, and then submitting your site, you can drive traffic to your site by choosing the correct keywords to target and then creating content for those keywords.
The best software for helping you optimize your website for the search engines is Web CEO, http://www.webceo.com . This free software works on any computer and includes an HTML editor that will tell you if your pages are properly optimized.
4. Press Releases
Press releases are news about your business. In fact, they're actually better than advertisements because you are providing information about your business. With press releases, like articles, you can write search engine optimized content to submit to the main press release sites. Not only is this inexpensive, and sometimes free, but your press release could be featured on major news sites. You can submit press releases to PR Web: http://www.prweb.com
5. Networking/Forums
Networking is a great way to meet other people in your industry. This is especially important if you want to do joint ventures because joint ventures can help you quickly increase your bottom line.
Forums are similar in that you can meet others in your industry, but you can also go to forums on your topic of interest and meet others that are interested in your products and services. To find the best forums and networking sites to market on, go to Alexa: http://www.alexa.com.
Search for "topic" (whatever your topic is), and forum. The reason you want to use Alexa is that you can quickly get traffic stats and find out which forums and networking sites rank highest. This will help you with linking because you can add a link to your site in your signature file when you post.
Although there are plenty of ways to market your business on the internet, some are more effective than others. Try these five to help you quickly get more traffic and sales.
Frank Tocco Is An Established Online Entrepreneur, A Californian Living In Cancun, Mexico. His Company Shop4Dreams Inc., OffersA FREE 5 Day Website Traffic Generating Camp To Learn The Secrets To Generating Hordes Of Laser Targeted Leads To Your Online Business.
You may use this article to post on your blog or website as long as you do not change anything in the article including the links and give full credit to the author.
If you want to market your business on the internet for free, there are five techniques you can use that are absolutely free.
Some will require a little bit of knowledge in order to implement them, but once you have them in place, you can continue to drive tons of traffic to your website.
1. Blogs/RSS
By blogging, you can build a relationship with your potential customers by providing information about your business.You can build a free blog on sites like Blogger - http://www.blogger.com - and submit your RSS feed for your blog to the major blogging sites.You can also add a subscription box to your site using one of the free services available so that you can build a list.
2. Article Writing
Articles are another way to build your reputation in your chosen area of expertise. It's also a way to offer potential customers value by providing them with information on your topic. Article Marketer - http://www.articlemarketer.com - will allow you to distribute your articles to thousands of publishers for free. You'll be able to get traffic to your site immediately, as well as create a viral marketing strategy for your business.
3. Search Engine Optimization
Although search engine optimization of your site can be time consuming, it's worth the effort. By optimizing your site for the search engines, and then submitting your site, you can drive traffic to your site by choosing the correct keywords to target and then creating content for those keywords.
The best software for helping you optimize your website for the search engines is Web CEO, http://www.webceo.com . This free software works on any computer and includes an HTML editor that will tell you if your pages are properly optimized.
4. Press Releases
Press releases are news about your business. In fact, they're actually better than advertisements because you are providing information about your business. With press releases, like articles, you can write search engine optimized content to submit to the main press release sites. Not only is this inexpensive, and sometimes free, but your press release could be featured on major news sites. You can submit press releases to PR Web: http://www.prweb.com
5. Networking/Forums
Networking is a great way to meet other people in your industry. This is especially important if you want to do joint ventures because joint ventures can help you quickly increase your bottom line.
Forums are similar in that you can meet others in your industry, but you can also go to forums on your topic of interest and meet others that are interested in your products and services. To find the best forums and networking sites to market on, go to Alexa: http://www.alexa.com.
Search for "topic" (whatever your topic is), and forum. The reason you want to use Alexa is that you can quickly get traffic stats and find out which forums and networking sites rank highest. This will help you with linking because you can add a link to your site in your signature file when you post.
Although there are plenty of ways to market your business on the internet, some are more effective than others. Try these five to help you quickly get more traffic and sales.
Frank Tocco Is An Established Online Entrepreneur, A Californian Living In Cancun, Mexico. His Company Shop4Dreams Inc., OffersA FREE 5 Day Website Traffic Generating Camp To Learn The Secrets To Generating Hordes Of Laser Targeted Leads To Your Online Business.
You may use this article to post on your blog or website as long as you do not change anything in the article including the links and give full credit to the author.
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