How to Get Free Marketing

If I told you that there was a button that you could press to effectively market your company for free, you wouldn't believe me.

 

Which is good, because there isn't. Well done for not believing my hypothetical claim and proving that you have a brain that does in fact possess a working common-sense-core. There is no such thing as free, effortless, effective marketing - it's hard work and often a harrowing mix of guesswork and spreadsheets. However, there is now, thanks to our modern social media age, such a thing as free marketing.

A guide to social media is nothing new and we all like to think we know everything there is to know about social media platforms. I have however recently realised it's a good thing to periodically have it summarised and put into different words.

Linking in

Apart from being unable to read LinkedIn as anything other than "Link Edin" in my mind, LinkedIn is an excellent if not largely misunderstood tool for both marketing and networking.

I've read many posts and guides about various forms of LinkedIn etiquette, but generally speaking, they don't quite capture the general attitude of people on this corporate-themed social network. Being thought of as a social network for serious business type people, I find it odd that it appears much more relaxed and engaging than most other social networks that seem to get clogged up with hyperactive over-posting over-caffeinated grammar abusers.

If you have done business with someone, find them on LinkedIn and add them. This gives you both a recorded touch point for building on any future business dealings and can help you access each other's extended network in the process.

I've seen lots of people arguing that you need to write out long personalised messages in requesting a connection but really, in my experience, the simple canned invitation works for me and I've never been sniffy about accepting someone that I recognise if they haven't bothered to write a personal request. It's a bit like writing a message in a birthday card - that sort of thing is near impossible to pitch unless you know someone really well.

"You can tweet things from Twitter"

I once attended a conference where one of the keynote presentations that dressed itself up in deep social-media insight loosely translated as "You can tweet things from Twitter".

I'll hasten to add that this was a recent conference and not one that was running when Twitter was still a novelty. However, I will repeat the message all the same because I think I can finally see the value in it.

You can tweet things from Twitter. In fact, I'm going to go and tweet something right now.

That rather simple tweet reached a mediocre yet growing number of other Twitter users and has the potential to be picked up and retweeted around the world. Even with a niche area like public liability insurance we've found that Twitter has been incredibly useful and was one of our first ports of call. From personal experience, it has been invaluable to our marketing efforts bringing extra traffic in and spreading our name further.

Twitter has not necessarily revolutionised the media, but it has certainly caused it to shift slightly. You watch how news is reported for any length of time and you'll see that tweets are now regularly included in stories in print, digital and even broadcast reporting.

Twitter is constantly being watched. It is used for business and pleasure in equal measure and where it truly succeeds is in darting back and forth across that line at a high speed. If you persist, it will reward you with greater visibility for your brand, products and services as people pick up your marketing communications whilst scrolling through their feeds. So go ahead and tweet things from Twitter.

Everyone's favourite stalking tool

I'm sceptical about Facebook as a marketing platform. It's not that it's useless for marketers, I just don't think it's right for all types of business. I can't imagine YOUR Insurance would do very well on Facebook for example, so we've not really concentrated on a Facebook presence.

As well as this, policing and moderating any kind of social media can become a significant headache and considering that Facebook content is very heavily geared up to people leaving their own comments on your pages, this can stick around and come back to haunt you, regardless of how amazing your company actually is.

The popular poke-and-like-based social network has also started doing some interesting

How to Get Free Marketing

things with how many of your fans actually receive messages from you, so it's not necessarily a great idea to invest heavily in a Facebook page or rely too much on its reach, but it is still undeniably a hugely popular platform and is constantly experimenting with new ways to leverage its data.

Facebook shouldn't be written off entirely and its tremendous popularity warrants it more than just a cursory glance, but approach with caution.

Additionally Google

The great sleeping social media bear of Google+ has been predicted by many to very soon wake up and startle all other platforms with its might roar, but this has been predicted for quite a long while now. Ever since its rather disastrous Google Buzz ninja-launch, Google hasn't quite got its social media flagship off the ground.

Of course, subtle changes to the search giant's ranking algorithm could greatly improve the popularity of Google+ and there's already mutterings about authorship that's linked to Google+ playing a significant part in that pecking order.

In short, watch this space, and maybe get on this particular lift whilst it's on the ground floor, on the off chance that it suddenly takes off.

Remember MySpace?

No, I'm not suggesting that you need to invest time in MySpace, but remembering it makes this point almost by itself: Social media moves fast. Will Facebook be such a dominant force in 10 years time? It's unlikely. More than anything else, when the next generation of Facebook users grows up, I find it unlikely that they'll want to be on the same social network as their parents - it's bad enough for the current generation that they're stuck with theirs. The next LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Google+ could be something completely different. Social media itself is still pretty much in its infancy, so be prepared to go with the flow and adapt to anything that gets thrown your way.

A final qualifier

I suppose in retrospect "free marketing" might be pushing it. You still need to get someone to push the right buttons at the right time after all, and experienced marketers are worth their weight in popcorn, but "free marketing tools" is definitely fair.

You can teach yourself how to get going on these platforms for free and can pick up marketing techniques on the fly if you're a small business with limited resources. If you're not taking advantage or at least trying to take advantage of some of these free marketing channels, then you are, quite simply, missing out on a tremendous opportunity.