So far we have done…
Day 1 Personal bio
Day 2 Professional interview
Day 3 Business cards /printed marketing material and done signature lines on our emails
Day 4 Listed new item, tweeted and thought about what makes our product so special.
Day 5 Learned Twitter 101 using Tweetdeck
Today is more about Twitter. There are several ways you can search for people, topics or locations for twitter users. I will make a couple of suggestions of sites that will help but there are many… Maybe our seasoned Tweeters can jump in with comments on their favourites.
1 To find people by location you can use
http://www.twellow.com/twellowhood/ . Following local people is a very good idea. It allows you to stay in touch with your local community and network with local people. You will build name recognition with locals and also you will establish some terrific networking opportunities and very helpful people for day to day life. Find some and follow 50 to 100 people.
2 You can search by interests and there is
http://wefollow.com/top that will allow me to search for people that I will have much in common with. Follow 50 to 100 people here.
3 For the balance of Bootcamp get into a Daily Routine of adding people … say 20 – 100 but be discerning! Also start slowly retweeting interesting people and tweeting at least a few of your own products… space them out if you can. Try to engage with people. Next week we will be introducing a few more twitter tools that will help you keep organized.
4 Remember on day 4 I asked you to consider what makes your product special. Your task over the weekend is to write a 100 – 200 word commercial about you and your product. Less is better! This is a bit tough because we all try and say too much. Your first draft can be 300 words or more but with each draft try and make it more succinct, with high impact and compelling for a buyer to buy or seek you out. Post it sometime Friday, Saturday or Sunday.
This “advertisement” is valuable information for someone wanting to “mention” you on their blog. It can be easily modified for your “elevator speech” This is where you bump into someone and they ask about your product and you respond with a compelling message in 15 seconds. Your commercial can be written on a product postcard with a collage of 9 or 12 product pictures on the front… mail these out or hand them out at an Artisans’ show. GalleriaLinda had some excellent examples of postcard advertising where almost nothing was written on the front. So the back, with as few words as possible, you need to make an impactful statement about your stuff.
This takes practice but is extremely important in promoting you and your product within your community. There are tons of buyers for you in your hometown you just haven’t communicated with them yet. This is the cheapest, easiest and most profitable kind of marketing for you and yet most sellers focus only on online customers.
Good luck and have a good weekend. No assignments on Saturday or Sunday but I will be posting some “reference” information in the forums… and maybe I will let you in on a surprise that I know you will like.. But you have to get all your homework done first. Grin Grin.
Cheers
Christine
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