I am soooo bloody enthusiastic and passionate about Social Media that when I mix this with small business I just wanna go BANG!

It’s a goldmine for small business right now; we’ve never had it better! Use this economic downturn to your advantage, and in fact you may find there is no downturn!  

Of course you can sit down and whinge about how you need to cut back, and how you need to be more careful with your spending, the banks the government, blah blah…or you can invest this whinging time soaking up this power space called Social Media…. and getting super productive with it!

It’s no big scary thing…you don’t need to be a techie…..STOP IT WITH THE EXCUSES! I’m sick of people saying “it’s ok for you, you’re a techie head”! Damn it guys, I’m no techie!

I’ve only been in this game 2 years….and started from scratch!  What I am is a small business owner who wants to grow my business in a powerful and super productive way (the fewer the costs, the better). What I am is a connecter, a no bullshit girl – If I see something that’s going to benefit me, my family, my business then I take action!

 Everything I have built up boils down to learning new things, connecting with people, caring, taking action and bloody hard work!

 I’m passionate, enthusiastic and energetic and I love the business I’m in. That’s key! You’ve gotta be enthusiastic and passionate otherwise what’s the point! With these qualities and Social Media combined, our business is growing by the second! When I say growing, I mean growing with followers/fans…people that talk to others about us, refer us on…people that are building up our brand (unconsciously) , people that come to us when they want to learn, along with the power people that assist us too (my twitter buddies – just look to your right) ! That’s how we have gone from a Melbourne based business to a business that operates globally and has fans in many areas of the world!

Ok, so I have blown my own trumpet a lot however I want to make a point!  I want the newbie’s out there to get it! It’s our time now people…..it’s 2009! Get with it!

Social media is giving us the opportunity to promote our personal brand or product in a way we could have never imagined! It’s now not a case of spending big $$$$ on your marketing budget – this stuff is FREE and I believe it’s more powerful than anything out there right now (traditional media included – TV, newspapers, radio). Why? Because Social Media is all about great contacts, connections, PEOPLE!!!!! Start watching our next leg of celebrities burst out from this space – the internet – that’s ME included!

So what do you need to do to take advantage of these great marketing platforms? Start building up your lists (fans) NOW while you have the time, while there is an economic downturn, because I promise you, if you leave it til next month, next year then you’re missing out, you’re falling behind!  Yes, it takes hard work, yes it takes extra added hours when you feel like jacking it all in, yet if you’re passionate and enthusiastic about your brand then that’s what keeps you powering forwards. It keeps you going, and that’s what attracts people to you!

Click here to see 1 place to get started…some other places to start building up your list of groupies are Twitter and Facebook!

That rant had to be released…he he….! To be honest it’s not usually my normal fluffy and warm style yet I had to make a point, and it’s because I care. I care about small business and I care about you guys who are reading my post right now! It does my absolute nut in to think small businesses out there do not know about Social Media and the power of this space – that’s why I’m here, and this blog too! Ahhhh…..and those who choose to neglect it, that’s just crazy stuff, yet I guess I can only go so far with this……. it all boils down to a matter of choice!

I trust you make the right choice! 

High fives and whoop whoop! I’m here for ya! Comments please…click the comments section below!

I am always looking for quirky and powerful ways to market the business online, whilst exposing our clients too! WIN WIN!Being a Web strategist, I need to keep it fresh, original and catchy for my target market and reader base. I also need to think about how I can increase good quality traffic to my website via the platforms and keywords I choose to use – then capture the viewers interest so as they keep coming back for more.

Last week I had a MASSIVE brain energy surge (thanks to my broken leg).You know the ones I mean right? Those entrepreneurial light bulb moments, that wake you up like a bolt of lightening…usually around 3.30ish in the morning! Shazam!  

Here is what the early morning hours injected me with. Why don’t I utilize my supportive leg cast as a means of advertising space? Here I can softly promote the outstanding businesses I consult for (Rob Hartnett and Think Tank Media) ah, and of course Let’s Refresh too!  This strategy could be used to gain exposure via all the juicy web2.0 platforms in a unique, catchy and extremely powerful way. Now stick with me here!

Click here to see how we did this. It was such a fun and entertaining ‘cast paint branding session’ guys, with a few gin and tonics thrown in….because we can!

We used many platforms to expose the leg cast in a text based, picture and video format, this gained us an unexpectedly high amount of traffic and attention! We received a whole bunch of emails, tweets and we even saw people sharing this with their friends .Yet why? 

I put my inspector cluedo hat on (I do have one you know!)   and delved deeper.  I asked my trusty followers on twitter why they were sharing this. Here are some of the answers I received:

1.       Business owners saw it as a way to gain THEMSELVES attention-immediately (on twitter). Interesting hey!

2.        They wanted to help me out (sometimes people love to assist others, they find it easier to promote other people rather than        themselves-gotta love human behaviour for this-use it to your advantage guys!)

3.       Using our quirky pictures and videos got them more click throughs to their own websites.

4.        They believed their follow base on twitter increased due to “retweeting  this” (sharing my post on twitter via their tweets) .

5.       It got them thinking outside of the box, with new ways to promote their own business.

6.       They had a resource, some material and content that they could write about in their blog posts. Blush blush!

We even got asked how much would it cost to advertise on the cast! Hmmm… interesting!!!!So, they were using our pictures as a way to gain themselves attention yet at the same time, they were passing on our message (WIN bloody WIN)!

This is why social media and social networking works – I love it!  It’s all about word of mouth (and THAT my friends is one of the fastest ways to gain exposure, attention and build up a trust worthy fan base for you business – then drive traffic to your site).

What did I (as a small business owner) take from this, apart from a whole bunch of ideas and some quality feedback? Plain and simple – a new strategy to our business plan.  Let’s Refresh can now utilise Web2.0 even more. By using this strategy we can add value to our clients by gaining them some powerful and free exposure, yet at the same time we get a healthy promoting session too.

Each month we decided we would offer one of our lucky clients the opportunity to be promoted exclusively in an extremely quirky and catchy way- I’m excited already! When I say promoted, what I mean by this is giving them viral exposure, growing their presence through the wonderful web2.0 platforms (eg. on our blog, twitter, facebook, flickr, bookmarks, youtube plus many of the video platforms we use and drive traffic to their site too). It will be unique, catchy, and different! It also raises my heart rate above 100BPM, and I’m guessing you now me by now, I love that!

 Have a think about what you have just read!

How can you use web2.0 to shamelessly market your business?

How can you add value to your clients/target market through the Web2.0 platforms?

How can you make it fresh, different, catchy and at the same time make it a win win?

Click the comments section below-I’m really interested to hear what you come up with. If you need any quick ideas then feel free to comment too and I will get straight back to you!