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Social Networks Provide Marketing Opportunities for your Startup

Marketing you business website has become even easier with the wild popularity of social networking sites. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and countless others provide an open forum to get your message out to people you never could have reached before. Using these resources only takes a few hours per week to maintain, and the payoff can be enormous.

With most social sites, you can post a profile page for your business for free. Your profile page should be simple but exciting and clearly outline what you do, who you do it for, and why potential customers should click through to your business website. You don’t have to list every detail of your business on the profile page, because the link back to your site will be easy to find. But you do want to ensure that the profile page is consistent with the rest of your marketing kit, including your actual website. That is, the theme, colors, and marketing messages should be clearly related between the sites.

Most social sites also allow you to start a group. A group, in this vernacular, is a bunch of folks with common interests who sign up to network together. Starting a group around the subject of your business will draw both potential customers and networking contacts, and provide an opportunity to listen in on what people are talking about in these circles. You can also join existing groups. Be sure to only join those that are relevant to your business...joining at random to “advertise” will build a bad reputation for your business and may even get you banned from the site.

Most social sites also provide a searchable marketplace where you can list your business, and most offer paid advertising opportunities. Typically, these ads can be purchased as per-click or per-impression, and the rates are very reasonable for either. Generally, you can select certain criteria to target who sees your ad, based on whatever demographics you have determined for your target market. And, there is almost always a tool for tracking the success of these ads – you will know how much you are paying to actually get each customer to you site.

The best feature of signing up with social marketing sites is the ability to keep in touch with your potential customers. Post a new message three to four times per week. Do not use every opportunity as an obvious marketing message...space those out with interesting facts, links to interesting articles, or relevant advice. If you keep a blog on your business site, post a link every time you write one. Some of the social sites allow you to import the blog, where it will then appear in your newsfeed as well as your contacts’.

Promoting your website via social networking sites is cheap and easy – it just requires a few hours (at most) per week and a little effort to come up with interesting items to keep your fans’ attention. The close, repeated contact with your potential customers is worth every bit of work, and over time your business will see the effort reflected in the bottom line.

About the Author

LaunchX.com is dedicated to training entrepreneurs to turn their good ideas into great companies. The LaunchX System provides step-by-step education in the mindset and skill set entrepreneurs need to succeed. Our program includes intensive seminar training, key business software, and specialized workbooks that teach you the fundamental skills you need to achieve your financial and worklife goals through entrepreneurship. Register today for our introductory course and see what LaunchX can do for you!