Creating a buzz for your business during early stages can be a heap of work. The quickest way to reach the mass is through the internet.
First we have to admire how the use of internet has grown so much. This is before we even get to the social media space. There are countless number of ‘free’ tools that are provided by the internet that small start-ups can take advantage of.
I have sat down, did a bit of research and compiled few pointers that can help you promote your business with the use of internet:
Take advantage of Facebook
Dull corporate-like posts don’t attract viewers. It would be beneficialto be witty and humorous with your posts, however, this depends on the type of business you’re involved in. Get your associates, friends and family to like and share your Facebook page. Timing of your posts is crucial. To reach the friends of the people who already like your Page, create an advert from the ‘advert creation tool’ on your page. When you create an advert using the advert creation tool, use “interest targeting” to reach people who already like or have a connection to other things on Facebook that are similar to what your business offers. Short funky video ads will also give you an upper hand. Don’t forget to mention your other social media platforms!
Exploit Twitter
Twitter offers a feature called “Twitter for business” it gives you a list of campaign objectives to select from to suit your needs. These include:
– Tweet engagement – retweets, favs, replies etc.
– Video views- get people to watch your videos.
– Followers- to grow your community on Twitter
– Leads on Twitter- collect emails from potential customers
– Website conversations- send people your site
You can select any objective(s) that suit your business best. An even cheaper course of action is to employ online extraordinates “Twelebs” to promote your business. Their opinions and influence are fairly received well on twitter.
Reach out- Engagement: you may have seen ‘questionnaires’ from different companies on your timeline, this is because Twitter offers polls. A Twitter poll allows you to weigh in questions directed to your audience with a maximum of 4 possible options to choose from. The total votes count and the remaining time to vote are displayed under the poll choices and the results are instantly displayed after tapping your choice. This feature allows you to engage with your current and potential clients and to precisely know what they are interested in.
Promoted Tweets: Similar to sponsored posts on Instagram, you can purchase promoted tweets on Twitter to reach out to an even wider audience. It is the quickest and most effective way to drive short term goals like a competition, awareness for your business and/or events, drive sales etc…
Don’t forget to use hashtags on your tweets e.g. #YoMzansi
Advance to Instagram
Create ads for Instagram using sponsored posts, it increases the likelihood of your posts being seen by people who don’t follow you.
Most importantly post branded, high quality content that people want o see. Well-made content has a strong possibility of making your account be discovered by non-followers on the ‘explore’ tab. It is advisable to incorporate the ‘Repost’ app to your Instagram page.
It helps you to repost your client’s posts to your timeline and simultaneously gives them credit for the original post.
Newsletters & Email Marketing
Establish a customer database. Kindly ask for your (potential) customer’s email addresses to send them electronic newsletters stipulating product and/or service information, feedback, promotions, competitions and general information.
This also gives them a platform to ask questions and place orders. And the easiest way to collect email addresses, have a mail sign-up on your website or categorize people in your email inbox. The all you have to do is have sort of a time plan on when do you send out the newsletter, this can be weekly, during sales season or monthly. But try avoid flooding your database clients with countless specials or promos.
Well there it goes, feel free to share ways that work for you. Drop your comments below & Join the conversation , even on our Twitter or Facebook :
