Social media is a great place to promote your micro-entrepreneurial business, but you must be careful to market your business the right way. If you approach business marketing on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media sites appropriately, you’ll build your customer base and awareness for your brand, and network with other entrepreneurs in your business niche.
Focus on the social aspect first and then the business aspect. There is a time and place for everything, and social media is no different. There is a time for being social with friends and a time and place for sales and marketing.
Social media first and foremost is a way to keep in touch with friends and family. Before you use it to market your business, find out whether business talk is appropriate on the site. Relate to people and find out their needs, wants, interests, and so on. Market research comes before marketing.
For example, what would you think if you received a message from a college buddy? You’d probably think, “How nice!” But what would you think if you soon discovered that it was some type of business deal, after your friend launches into a sales pitch?
Remember this: It’s okay if you’re eager to use your Facebook connections to leverage your business; just be careful how you do it.
Discover how the ropes work. Every social media venue has its own quirks, rules, and so on, so take the time to figure them out before you do any attempt at selling.
Be a lurker. Lurking sounds bad only in the offline world. In the online world, it’s okay. No matter what the social media site, you can view other peoples’ posts. Find out what they say and how they say it.
Make yourself knowledgeable online. In the same way your mother told you that you would learn more by listening than by talking, you should read all the posts that are relevant to your field or topic before you start participating.
Watch others. Focus on the activities of others within that media. Take notes about how they market themselves. Ask yourself why they’re successful. Determine what makes them interesting or compelling.
Look for any tactics, techniques, and strategies they use that you can duplicate. Focus on what the leaders in your niche are doing to build their business.
Rinse and repeat. If you think that a single effort by you will yield riches, think again. Watch what happens and then measure the results, make any revisions, and then try again. Successful people try again. Failing people give up after one effort doesn’t work.
Tread carefully because the world is watching. Think twice before you post anything negative, including attacking someone or accusing someone of anything. Assume that anything you post could (if you aren’t careful) come back to haunt you.
It can range from embarrassment to the loss of clients to potential legal problems. As micro-entrepreneur, err on the side of being positive or just not posting at all.