Large companies are effectively using social media tools for online marketing. Those same tools are available to small or home based businesses. Anyone business can use Twitter, for example. It is not just for chatting amongst friends, it is a popular way to share short messages about a product, person or event. Business people tweet, or send out short messages to friends and followers.
Facebook users share pictures, thoughts, and favorite books and foods with friends. But Facebook users can also share your photos and business information with their network of friends. Each friend has their own network and so its possible for your message to be shared among many more people that you could normally reach.
One of the great values that using social media tools can provide is promoting your business by word of mouth. A friend tells a friend and that kind of message is considered insider information and it more easily trusted. Also, with the ease of finding more information by just clicking on a web link, current customers and new prospects can be taken directly to an online information page.
Creating a business network while working from home can be difficult. Opportunities to meet, lunch, and casually check in with a peer or team member just are not there. By using social networking tools and other online tools, you meetings, project check ins, shared documents can be conveniently available. In fact, some marketing, such as multi-level marketing (MLM) relies exclusively on business and personal networks to sell services.
Professional referrals and relationships have to be created and maintained for a small business to thrive. LinkedIn, an example of a work or business related social media tool, is a web space where networks of professionals can provide work histories and resumes, recent projects, business information and statistics. A business referral can be created by just sharing a link. Prospects, sales associates, professional association members and team members can be invited to join your professional network.
As small or home based businesses begin to share information and opportunities using social media, customers and peers have more opportunities to understand your brand. The business brand can be built not just by using the product or service but by building a predictable web and social media presence.
Creating a brand, a presence in the mind of your customers and prospects, can be created and easily maintained with Twitter and other social media tools. Reaching out to interested people in your network is as easy as sending a text. Reminders, coupons, events, anything you use to bring more value to your customers can be promoted and shared in an instant.
Any home based business can benefit from effectively using social media, just like any well known brand or product. Signing on with Twitter and sending out a tweet to your customers can remind them that you are there and ready to do business. Friends and work associates will know where to find you and what your business is all about.
Jeramy Colvin is an attraction marketing coach who specializes in helping home-based business owners brand themselves and setup attraction marketing systems. He is an expert in attraction marketing, and works with entrepreneurs to get started marketing online. Please visit to learn how you can get started building a business online using his exact system.
categories: marketing,social media,home-based businesses,mlm,multi-level marketing,advertising,communication,facebook,prospecting,linkedin,twitter
