Today, while going through my daily morning LinkedIn routine, I came across a white paper that every small business owner should read – especially if you’re still in the process of developing your social media strategy.
The paper brought to mind something that is often overlooked by people when developing their online strategies.
Self Promotion!
While generating valuable, unique, expert content on a regular basis is crucial to expanding your brand and increasing your businesses reach – it doesn’t do you any good if no one knows it’s there, right? You need readers!
What good is a blog if no one is reads it?
Sure, eventually you’ll build up enough content to influence the crawlers, and possibly rank high for certain keywords, but what you should really be after are Inbound Links, Qualified Referrals, and Word of Mouth Buzz…
So how do you get it!?
One of the best ways is to find online communities focused on your area of skill and add something of value to the conversation: answer questions, provide insight, ask questions and offer expertise.
DO NOT SHAMELESSLY PLUG YOUR BLOG OR WEBSITE
Just be a part of the community the rest will take care of itself. Once you become known as a reliable source of quality information people will seek you out on their own. They will mention you to their friends and colleagues, provide recommendations, and ask you for advice.
Give them a reason to find and follow you – and once they do make sure you keep them there with quality, engaging and relevant content!
Check out the white paper that inspired this post here:
Title: Generating Small Business Customers with Social Media Marketing: Small Business Case Studies
Published by: HubSpot
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