In-bound Marketing

Find the people who are already looking for what you are talking about or offering.
In-bound marketing.
In the past marketing was solely placed around TV and radio, newspaper ads and HTML emails— these forms of marketing really hit people over the had with your marketing message. These old school way of marketing are becoming more and more less effective due to TiVO, spam filters, DVR, and customized content becomming overwhelmingly popular and the norm. So we now look toward placing marketing and ads, in places that are already reaching your targeted audience.

Meet people and start conversations. Answer questions and help others, from this trust is gained and a relationship is likely to be formed. Social media is the business networking event of now! In the past at a networking event or a cocktail party your reach is limited...now your reach is much much broader, more authentic and personal, if done properly it is a much more effective conversation with "real people". Engage genuinely and interact with people, build authentic relationships, add personality, and converse with your audience.

Reasons for blogs:

• Showcase your personality
• Create a feedback cycle
• Build a loyal community
• Create an emotional investment
• Increase your credibility

Be proactive...whatever industry you're in, start building relationships now in the community because you may need to pitch something in the future. While blogs are now considered mainstream with more businesses using them to get their message out if you don't have one start today! And don't forget to engage in customer conversations and respond to negative comments.

What about facebook?

http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php
Create a business page, become a fan of your page to affiliate yourself with the business page. Create an engaging page...no body cares about you or your services except for you...so what do you do? Host events, videos, discussions, articles...things of interest and things that engage people with your content. Leverage the viral nature of things like news feeds and social bookmarking features.....engage your users and fans...that activity becomes published and all their "friends" get to see this, further extending your reach.

A few tips on your business page with facebook:

• Create your ad...add social actions.
• Choose PPC beacuse CTRs are very low on facebook.
• Find the URL then make a "find us on facebook" link
• Create applications that your audience will want to have, and they will pass it on