Is helping others the best way to market your company?
How social media can drastically affect your brand image, position and growth potential.
There is a country song I sometimes hear called the Chain of Love by Clay Walker. It’s a nice little story about how helping others inspires others to help, and that one day the favor you started will return kind fate to you.
Isn’t this how we should market our business products and services?
We know, we know… who has the time to give away services? Well, we tried this approach recently by providing in-kind services to companies that couldn’t afford our rates and we were rewarded in spades. In fact, our last two contracts came from referrals from people we’ve helped in this way. Ah, feels good and generates revenue – now that’s a nice combination.
Enter social media: The new chain of love.
What is social media? Wikipedia defines social media as information content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies.
When implemented properly your social media should actually help others. It should educate, raise awareness, teach, inform, and interact with interested prospects seeking information. Seeking INFORMATION, not necessarily an exact product or service. By presenting your brand (and your products and services) through helpful tools, articles, ebooks, whitepapers, blogs, reviews, press releases, authority articles, etc. you will catch your prospect “leaning in” looking for you rather than the “leaning back” invasive approach of traditional advertising or direct sales.
"But if I tell them all they need to know they won’t need to hire us!"
That’s the art….you tell them enough to generate substantial interest, helping the prospect realize that they need your products and services. In most cases, they really don’t want to do things themselves; they want to hire a professional.
By publishing helpful, insightful content, including video, presentations, widgets, articles, guides, etc., and using social media to promote this content you can attract customers who are looking for you. And because you have helped them, they will be much more likely to do business with you.
Visit www.imageworksstudio.com for more information on branding and inbound marketing.
By Scott C. Margenau with Cristi Spahr on lead guitar
