by Julia D. Stege, MFA
@magicalmarketer
One of the greatest benefits of living in the technical age is that we can do all sorts of things from home just by going on the internet. We can shop, learn, be entertained and connect with others without even getting dressed! As a social being, I like to go out in the world once in a while to network with friends and colleagues, but there's nothing quite like connecting with peeps from all over the world without leaving my ergonomic comfy chair.
Back in 1998 I started actively networking online using sites like craigslist.org, care2.com, yahoogroups.com and ryze.com to meet people, share passions, and make business connections. Now, with the addition of sites like Facebook and Twitter I can build my contact list by dozens per day, and on Squidoo and Hub Pages I can get to page one of Google almost instantly! This activity combined with a stellar website makes for easy online attraction, no matter what my hair looks like that day!
And it's fun.
Often I sit at home in my PJ's (guess what I'm wearing now!) and share my passions, illuminate with tips, offer help and advice, check out the brilliant sharing of others, and most importantly promote other people for free by writing on thier walls or retweeting them (see RT article). All this activity helps me to attract perfect customers. Sometimes I even do this while watching my favorite soap (recorded on TiVo). It's a really fun way to market and make friends. I cannot recommend this enough.
Remember that feeling good about your marketing is vital if you want to become a magnet for your perfect customers. They will sense who you are and as Dale Carnegie wrote back 100 years ago, people will buy from you when they know you, like you, and trust you. That's way more important than what you are actually offering (though that's hard to really grok at first.)
Here are some tips on networking online:
1) Find social networks that you really like and that reflect your personality. The two biggies now are Twitter and Facebook, and you can find almost any flavor of community there. Twitter is growing by 40% per month and Facebook is pushing 200 million users now. Interesting to note that the average Facebook user spends 20 minutes a day there. That's a lot of time for them to see your shares!
There are other social networks you can check out:
- care2.com is for folks who like to contribute to causes,
- ryze.com is for entrepreneurs,
- theWell.com around since '85 is a "literate watering hole for some articulate and unpretentious thinkers"
- Waccobb.net is for the West Sonoma County, CA community though Barry is expanding it to the whole Bay Area and beyond. (do you have an online bulletin in your community?)
- YahooGroups.com has thousands of bulletins by category, many of which allow advertising from members.
2) Join the networks you like best and set up your profile. Make sure to include your picture (Jill Lublin says make sure your picture is no more than 2 years old), a description of what you do for biz, your personal passions, your mission, and your service/product list. Don't forget to include links to your website/s, blogs, and other social network pages.
3) Search your network for folks of like mind and heart and introduce yourself. You can find them through your friends or through groups by topic. Invite interesting people to join your network. Join their network. Re-Tweet their stuff. Contribute. Visit your network often and spend at least 1/2 hour per day. .
4) Respond quickly to inquiries from others on your social network. Timing is everything. Let people know you appreciate their desire to connect and make efforts to really get to know them. See if you can get involved in their network of friends.
5) Create a blog ~ blogger.com is the easiest to learn which is why I teach it in my 10 week Social Networking class This will be a great place to post your latest interests, info, tips and queries so folks can keep up with you, your discoveries, and your offerings.
6) HAVE FUN! Magical Marketing is all about doing what you love to do and being open to receiving all you desire!
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Magical Marketer Julia D. Stege, MFA helps people attract their perfect customers with a unique combination of Law of Attraction, wildly attractive logos and websites, and smart Social Networking techniques. If you're ready to start attracting your perfect customers now, get Julia's free Magical Marketing Toolkit at http://www.magicalmarketingtoolkit.com/
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