Building a creative business using the internet and social media can be very confusing to most people. You may think that if you post about your creations that followers will flock to you, but unfortunately, building an online network takes time, a lot of work and there are rules one must follow to engage followers. If you haven’t started building your network online because you’re intimidated or you’ve started but are unsure how to work your accounts, then let’s talk about why this is a key component to your business. The world has entered a new business territory and to thrive as a creative, one must become internet savvy.
There are important steps you have to take and things you must know about yourself and your clients to be successful online. There are certain ways to Broadcast Louder and effectively! It’s time to stand up and say, my creativity deserves to be noticed by the RIGHT buyers and purchased.
Understanding how to express yourself and share effectively with others will get the perfect client to take notice, be inspired by your work and want in! The beauty of being you and owning your own business is that you get to set your own rules. You can create what you want, choose your clientele and charge what you are worth, and the only person who determines your worth is YOU.
7 Do’s and Don’ts for Engagement on Social Media
1. Listen more than speak. Just like you’d allow your buyer or client to talk and listen to their needs, the same rule applies online. Listen, then help, if possible. You want others to trust you and feel comfortable with you and that won’t happen if you’re spewing your opinions and talking about yourself or your company on each post.
2. Keep your brand mission and message in mind when you post: If your company offers eco-friendly materials, find earth conscious articles and share those as well as articles relating to your work or your trade. Just like you do on your website, speak your clients language when posting. Your company’s personality should come shining through. This will help your clients recognize you: the main connection that your followers have to you is the way you communicate to them (and with them).
3. Share other people’s blog posts and articles: It’s important to share information online and when you do, please give credit to the account you’re sharing from. When you share information, it may also be shared, opening your business up to others. There are social media sharing websites that you can sign up to, to get your articles or information shared by large groups of people, such as Digg or Social Buzz Club. Of course, you will have to do your share of sharing!
4. Do. Not. Curse. You wouldn’t curse to a client at a show or when talking to strangers at a networking event, so don’t do it online.
5. Tag, Tag, Tag. (and we don’t mean tag everyone in your post!) On almost every social networking site, people search using keywords. If you tag your updates either to other people or with keywords, your posts will be found more easily.
6. Communicate to connect: Ask questions in your updates, answer another person’s question and comment personally on other people’s posts. If you’ve been social networking for a while and few people are commenting on your updates, it’s probably because you’re not speaking to them. Just at them!
7. Ask for help: If you have an important status update that you want shared, ask others to help you get it around that social networking site. You can send them a private message or tag them in the post. Ask the accounts who you communicate with and who’s updates you tend to share most. It’s not wrong to ask for a share as long as you don’t take advantage of others and ask too often.
Is It Still Possible To Have Privacy on the Web?
November 15th, 2011 | Posted in Blog, marketing | No CommentsTags: commenting anonymously, domain ownership privacy, email and gravatar, facebook private groups, gravatar image, linkedin groups and privacy, linkedin private groups, posting address on website, privacy, private domain registration, private facebook groups, private groups, social fears, social interactions, social life, social media, social network, social networking, what's still private
LinkedIn also has groups and I’m wondering the same thing, when commenting, is it only within the group or does that information show up elsewhere?
You can register the domain for a website you want to create and pay extra to the host to make the ownership private, if you don’t want anyone to know about it. Once you start that website be careful though, if you use an email for that website that has a “gravatar” image attached to it and start commenting, your picture will be right there to let them know who you are! So be sure to create a new email account to go with the domain and website, so it all stays anonymous.
I remember a few years back and client asked me to just have her name and email link on the contact page of her new website, and didn’t want the address displayed. I thought to myself, ” Do you think they can’t Google your email or name and find out everything easily?”
Last week someone asked me about our Frogs Are Green kids’ art contest and whether we were displaying the kid’s names, city and/or country. I said yes if they were providing the information. Not their full address of course and in some cases the children are part of a school, so just the school name and city.
At events everyone has their iPhone, digital camera, video camera and the next day or so it’s up on Facebook, Twitter and/or YouTube.
So, what privacy do we have left anymore?
I suppose you all can’t see me typing in my office right now, so I still have some.