I had another one of those “social media” conversations today with a friend, you know the one…why don’t people get that they should be using social media to grow their business? As a practitioner, I am constantly trying to help a potential client to understand the power of the people, I actually try to shy away from calling it social media, to me its all marketing. Some will just never get it. Some want to but struggle. Some will only do it if you show them how it makes the register ring. Some clients get it extremely well and are enjoying tremendous success because of it! We love them (see Amy’s blog.)
It got me thinking about this. The client who wants a big article in a glossy mag or to be on Oprah (for the latter, you’d better rescue a small nation) wants to be on those platforms because they believe that’s where the majority of their customers will be and they want the biggest bang they can get. Interestingly enough, there’s a little thing called the Internet and your customers just happen to be there, a lot, every day, even the days Oprah is not broadcast.
So, why not concentrate on the things you can control, which is not the glossy or Oprah, and create reasons for your customers to find you? You call it corn, we call it content!
I love content! I am one of those dorky creative types who loves to create…well, anything! When someone needs to name their business, car, child or whatever, I love to help them figure one out! So with my over active brain and my Flip video, I now get to make content for my clients. Fun for me, great for the clients. We are no longer begging for attention, we are creating it ourselves, authentically, with the right messaging. They are not all winners, but they are all search results!
My advice to anyone seeking publicity is to never poo poo a small publication that is not in your geographic area, because they are most likely online and that is your geographic area. Feedback that praises your company, no matter where they live, is helpful to someone who may be seeking out a service or product like yours. Using feedback from your current, happy customers, you can create videos, articles, how-tos, haikus – anything that will appeal to new customers. Go for it all, something will appeal to someone and if you do it right, they’ll share it with everyone!
