On a regular basis, I talk to auctioneers who are proposing and contracting auctions across state lines—in some cases across multiple time zones. Whether these auctioneers are selling for distant estates with local heirs or for banks with holdings in multiple states, they are faced with the same dilemma: how do we find buyers in geographic areas outside of our expertise?
Your company promotion can communicate something far different from what its words say. Sadly, most small business advertising says, “I’m much better at what I do than telling you what I do,” or “You need to trust that we’re more professional than our advertising makes us look.” Don’t be one of those companies.
The artist formerly known as biplaneproductions.com exemplified what some experts call a “brochure site” or “web 1.0.” It was good-looking with its stock photos and Flash animation; but, unlike the auction-filled sites of my clients, it didn’t have new and regular reasons to visit. While it was more than a giant PDF, it wasn’t much more than a company brochure—a brochure that my clients don’t need and that my prospects don’t have on their radar.
This episode illustrates the power of social media: the ability to engage your clients in conversation, the medium that can humanize your brand—and make your customers and friends want to introduce you to their customers and friends. It’s both schmoozing and feedback, both customer service and brand building, both grassroots initiatives and guerrilla marketing.
The Microsoft Tag isn’t yet a must-have tool in your marketing toolbox, but it gives you another way to prove you’re a step ahead of your competition—or at least, that you’re more colorful.
For the marketer, Twitter offers a chance for their brand to be a newsmaker.
As with many other tools in life, there are right and wrong, efficient and inefficient ways to use tools.