If you’re running a small business of nearly any variety, it’s incredibly important to understand who your niche market is. Unless you’re one of the Wal-Marts or Amazons of the world, you definitely do have a niche and being able to define and cultivate it will help you with improving your web analytics, increased sales revenue, and robust brand management. Here are 3 tips for catering to your niche through social media:

Offer promotions, contests and incentives. Creating a verdant garden of discount possibilities, savings, and incentives is one of the best ways to cater to your niche. In short, people like getting stuff for free. They also like to compete for free things, so hosting contests on your social media sites, such as Facebook or Twitter, is a great idea for creating an online stir. Have a logo design contest, or a viral video contest and host it through YouTube. Inviting user generated art and design can be a tremendous boon. Also, promote your brand on Foursquare, where you can offer discounts on products in exchange for check-ins.

Promote valuable independent resources. Customers respect a company or site that is not afraid to refer to others. For example, if you’re running an online education forum and your site lacks decent tutorials, you should provide links to great sites that do have tutorials such as the Khan Academy or Open Culture. Not only will this enhance your community, it can lead to you getting linkbacks, blogroll features, and considerable street cred. There’s always the opportunity that later on you will be to partner with these other sites in a way that is financially agreeable to both of you. In short, put your money where your mouth is—if you claim to be “the leading authority on…” don’t tolerate obvious gaps in your knowledge base.

Use media effectively. Consider having a YouTube video of the day that is relevant to your niche. See the previous tip about viral video contests. Many companies use online video as vehicle for ingenius marketing campaigns in which the consumer ends up doing your marketing for you. Or consider having a photo contest through Tumblr, Flickr, or Imgur. Beyond just video and photos, investing in some research as to what kinds of visual aesthetics your niche prefers can go a long way. You don’t have to get too psychological about it, but your website and company ethos should appeal visually and emotionally to the demands of your community. For example, if your niche is science fiction, a general space-age aesthetic wouldn’t be too cheesy would make your fans feel at home.

Appealing to your niche market is one of the most important elements of running a small business. Investing considerable effort and resources into defining who your niche is and how you will reach them is an excellent idea for the present and future.

kyle lacy
ExactTarget
(blog) www.kylelacy.com
(join) www.smallerindiana.com
(tweet) kyleplacy

Social Media Consultants Tend to Reheat Leftovers

There are a couple of things that I try to keep constant in my life. One of them happens to be reading Seth Godin’s blog every morning. The post for today caught my eye because of the title, The New Lazy Journalism. The post is excellent because Seth brings up an interesting point that we all need to understand as marketers.

From Seth’s post:

We don’t need paid professionals to do retweeting for us. They’re slicing up the attention pie thinner and thinner, giving us retreaded rehashes of warmed over news, all hoping for a bit of attention because the issue is trending. We can leave that to the unpaid, I think.

The hard part of professional journalism going forward is writing about what hasn’t been written about, directing attention where it hasn’t been, and saying something new.

(Back to Kyle) The random mention of paid professionals retweeting was a little off topic… in my opinion. However, it does bring up an interesting point.

In a world where days mean nothing and seconds are everything… how do you create content that is new? How do you create something that will be shared? Not because it is a trending topic but because it is original. And because it helps your bottom line.

There are many social media consultants who talk about retweeting, friending, following, building content calendars, and automating tasks. I’m at fault as much as the next… we create content calendars and systems in order to gain more attention online… and we tend not to focus on the important part of the overall puzzle.

Systems and automation are important but only a small part of the puzzle.

One extremely small part…

The biggest puzzle piece should be – our content. The biggest issue in marketing, content creation, and story telling is the lack of…. actual content. Real content! New content!

Let’s say you are having a dinner with important guests. It is important that you find a professional cook… because frankly… you are terrible at cooking. When interviewing for the meal… are you going to hire a professional cook to reheat the leftovers or create a meal that will dazzle?

The same applies to your marketing.

I’m still an advocate of creating your own content but if you need to hire a professional… talk about real content. What does it mean to them and how does it drive revenue.

kyle lacy
(blog) www.kylelacy.com
(join) www.smallerindiana.com
(tweet) kyleplacy

It is a simple fact that the website is changing. The traditional idea of a website is turning into a changing, content rich environment where visitors can learn and interact with your business or nonprofit. We know of multiple ways to promote your individual or company blog online but what about offline? The following is a list of 20 ways to promote your blog in a “traditional” sense. Some of the tips are a little outrageous but ya know what… we are all outrageous in some ways. Good luck and get at em!

1. Schedule a Seminar. The best way to promote your blog is to get speaking engagements or just create one. Use Eventbrite to market your seminar and talk about things relating to the content on your blog. Build the concepts of thought leadership.

2. Library Business. Go to your local library and grab books that cater to your blog and industry. Place your business card within the book (make sure your blog URL is on the card).
3. Add Your Blog URL to Your Business Card. If you have a personal bog (like mine: www.kylelacy.com) or even if you have a business blog off of your current website. Single out your blog on your business card.

4. Talk about you blog with every breath you take. This does not mean you overpower and drown people with your blog thought and opinions. This DOES mean that you talk about your blog when the time presents itself. If somebody is asking your opinion on a certain topic… give them your ideas and point them towards your blog.

5. Stick em up! Stickers for promotion. I have seen multiple bloggers and Internet-preneurs have stickers designed and printed that promoted their blog. If you have a catchy URL or tagline (example: Sometimes it is better to be socially creative) it might be a good idea to produce some stickers and hand them out.

6. Traditional Networking Rocks. If you are a small business owner, sales manager, or account manager… you are more than likely already involved in a traditional networking event. Hand out your business cards, pass out your stickers, and talk your blog up! People want to read content that helps them with a pain point in their lives. Help them out and they will be forever grateful!

7. Hire a Dominos or Liberty Tax Guy/Girl. We have all seen them holding a promotion sign and dancing on the side of the road. I have had my fair share of almost running them off the road by accident but out of all honesty, it could be a great way to promote your blog. There is one benefit to hiring a roadside promotional person… they are hardcore!

8. Change Display Computers and Set Your Blog to the Home. If you find yourself in a Best Buy or any store that may have display computers… jump on the computer and surf to your blog and walk away. Now, this is not going to push any valuable traffic to your blog (who knows) but it was a funny idea.

9. Write a Magazine Article. There are plenty of local magazines around your area. Find the magazine that caters to your demographic and write articles for submission. This will help in your ability to gain traction with a knowledge hungry public.

10. Expensive Traditional Marketing. It pains me to write this portion of the tips but the ideas can still be used to promote a blog. Buy traditional marketing. Traditional marketing could be anything from radio, TV, billboard, or yellow page advertisements. I wouldn’t mind seeing my blog on a billboard but honestly, you have to REALLY justify the cost.

11. Sponsor a Fundraising Event. Find an event or not-for-profit that you can sponsor as a writer or blogger. This will help in your promotion to the community. One tip: Make sure you believe in the community based sponsorship before you buy.

12. Gifts. Maybe we should call it “swag.” Create a small gift like a frisbee or a can opener to hand out to potential readers. Jay Baer has an excellent business card that is fashioned as a bottle opener.

13. Attend Conferences and Conventions. This idea could be delegated to an individual inside the company or yourself… it is all dependent on your time and ability to commit to different conferences. The same concept applies to offline networking groups applies to attending the conferences and conventions in your industry. Your online relationships are SO much stronger if you connect in the offline environment.

14. Buy a Vehicle Wrap for Your Car. We have all seen the massive car wraps. If you are wanting to REALLY promote your blog… get a car wrap but to be honest… I wouldn’t recommend it.
15. Write a Press Release and Include Your Blog. There are individuals better at writing about promotion through the use of public relation tactics but it is still a viable option to promoting your blog.

16. Attend a TweetUp. You are probably already using Twitter and if you are not… you probably should be. Twitter users usually have different networking events where different users can meet each other in a specific geographic location. Attend a TweetUP and give more face time with the people you communicate with online.

17. Use CafePress to Design a T-Shirt. Put quotes from your blog on a t-shirt. Make sure that you wear them around as much as possible. This may seem a little egotistical but come on… most of us are… at least a little bit.

18. Your Top Post Should be a HandOut. Many of us are in agreement when we talk about the power of an integrated marketing approach when it comes to promotion. Create a brochure that is catered directly to your blog. Take the best and top read post from your blog and transfer it to the print material. Be sure that you hand your blog-chure out whenever you have the chance. This could be extremely valuable at speaking engagement. I have printed blog posts out in order to hand them to event attendees.

kyle lacy
(blog) www.kylelacy.com
(join) www.smallerindiana.com
(tweet) kyleplacy

If you have been reading my articles for awhile… you know I am a huge Seth Godin fanboy. Yes, fanboy. I decided to pick up his book Free Prize Inside in order to give it another read… for the fifth time. In the beginning of the book Seth states:

“If your goal is growth, marketing is all that matters–and everything you do is now part of marketing… Every product and every service can be made remarkable. And anyone in your organization can make it happen!”

This excerpt is speaking directly to social media! The concept of EVERYTHING you possibly do in your company (both large and small) being connected to marketing is still an idea that has been somewhat ignored over the years. I still have conversations with corporate employees and small business owners who are still stuck in the void between PR, marketing, and communications. Why is it that the three sides fail to communicate more often than not?

Every service you create. Every phone call you take. Every PR release and marketing campaign you run. It is all connected to growing a brand… to growing your company. If you want your employees to talk about it. If you want every piece of your business to be a marketing vehicle… doesn’t social media make sense as part of the communication platform?

Zappos has perfected the use of Twitter as an employee communication model. Why can’t you? It is time to stop being afraid of the massive force of online communication. It is time to stop putting firewalls up because your afraid your employees are not being productive. They are not being productive for a reason… and it’s not Facebook. If they love what they do… maybe it is time to allow them to communicate that fact..

and if they don’t…

You probably have more problems than communication.

Empower your employees to be the true intersection between marketing and PR. Allow them to be the voice and the advocate to drive interaction within the company and beyond!

kyle lacy
(blog) www.kylelacy.com
(join) www.smallerindiana.com
(tweet) kyleplacy