Developing a thriving online community is a challenging task for many small businesses. But if you have a business with an offline component – a retail store or physical location, a call center, or any other offline way that you interact with customers and prospects – you can use this to your advantage. Don’t compartmentalize your thinking by trying to build your online community only with people that you reach online.
I suggest focusing efforts at first on bringing your existing (and happy!) customers into the online fold – this can really help build your community, grow your audience and kickstart organic online community growth.…
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I live close to a golf course, so my garage is always full of golf balls collected by my children. We literally have big plastic containers filled with golf balls sorted by type and condition. While I like to keep a container with the best of them in my trunk to restock my endless need, my children have other ideas.
If you are like most entrepreneurs, you would already have milked different social networking sites for all their worth. And why not? It sure would drive more traffic to your site. The higher traffic percentage your site gets, the higher chances of getting more sales.
Gone are the days when businesses just relied on neon signs, tarpaulins and pamphlets. Since the inception of social networking sites, entrepreneurs harnessed it to maintain business relationships and attract new customers. Marketing has taken on a whole new meaning once social media became prevalent, especially for small businesses.
One of the keys to success for every small business is a really smart marketing program that keeps existing customers in the fold and continually incites prospects to join. The program should include the most cost-effective ways to raise brand-awareness, leverage your expertise and share deals.
Many business owners are now relying heavily on social media to help market their products and services. You may already have a business account with Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. You may also see that with these sites, your sales went up higher than you expected. But you should not stop there. People regularly think of ways to let them connect with others who share the same interests and you have to be updated so that your business can thrive.
