Where do you find your customers?
It’s a valid inquiry, so why don’t you place more thought into it?
You hear having a Facebook Page, being on Twitter, and writing a blog are all fantastic supplements for your affair.
You’ve set each of these things up, and even craft what you reckon is pretty excellent content, but still…
No one shows.
Believe it or not, your customers aren’t just “out there” perched around in the ether of the Internet. In fact, they might be closer to you than you reckon. You just have to start being a small more strategic about where you find them.
1. Go Down The Rabbit Hole
All counting your grandmother has a Facebook.
If they’re a small more savvy, they’ll also have a Twitter, and maybe even a secret Tumblr blog.
But what are the other lower-profile sites that are hiding your customers?
I’m not talking about the really well-hidden, backchannel type places (not exactly, anyway). Instead I’m talking about social platforms urban particularly for a smaller group of people.
I’m talking particular forums, blogs, and ::shudder:: yes, maybe even a star gossip site.
It’s not always intuitive to seek these places and join in, but that’s exactly what you need to do in order to set up camp among the folks you need to talk to and hear from.
Don’t just rely on the top three-to-five largest social platforms to be ample. Seek out your customers in the other places they’re active.
If you sell lighting equipment, find photography forums.
If you sell car parts, cooperate with car enthusiasts on Twitter.
If you sell Facebook Pages, get active website design blogs…
See where I’m going with this?
2. Stalk People
It’s 75% investigate and 150% do.
If you’re trying to catch the eye of key players in your field, you need to know who they are and where they hang.
You also need to know how they cooperate with each other and how they expect to be spoken to. It seems simple, but if they’re not the type to call people “dude,” and you approach them with, “duuuude!” you look like a moron.
Use Twitter to “spy” on key influencers. Watch their tweets and get a feel for their sense of humor, their workload, and most importantly places where you might be able to offer a hand.
Many influential people will vent their frustrations, or make an offhand joke about something on Twitter, so if you’re able to either A.) offer help or B.) make them laugh, that’ll go a long way in construction a link with them.
Same goes for your customers, at any given time you should be monitoring for “Keywords” that are related to your product or service.
Lend a hand to someone in need. (without being spammy!) Use what you find in their before tweets to get a feel for them. Do this enough and you’ll start to spot your “ideal” customers, so you can work only with people who you will delight in working with.
3. Be nice to the “Small Guy”
There are no “small guys,” there are just differing levels of success.
Don’t expect that you’ll only ever need to speak to the major figures in your niche: networks are full of guys like you, and guess what? They’re the ones who make you a success.
Never forget that without the support of the average joe, there would be no huge names, no key players. So, don’t be a jerk just because you don’t recognize someone’s name straight away.
4. Shut Up, Just Listen
Before you start pushing content in your new networks, learn to listen.
There are tools unfilled to help you scan the “chatter” of the internet – feed readers, alerts, keyword filters, etc.
Finding and utilizing tools that entire sum fresh content for you means you’re as well-informed as possible.
You can find and absorb content from others in your field, keep an eye on key players, and locate content belonging to other contributors that you don’t mind sharing.
Listening is always more valuable than self promotion. You can push content on others all day long and be ignored, or you can catch the eye of the folks whose attention you want, by re-sharing their in rank and helping them on their way.
5. Share Others, But Be Selective
Some folks will start later you before you’ve even said no matter what thing.
Others engage with you only if you’re a team player. No one will like you if you spend all your time massaging your ego… don’t be that guy.
Be a team player by interacting with other people’s work. Retweet it, share the link, “like” it, post it in a forum… you get the thought. Be vocal in your encouragement of other folks’ work.
Show them that you’re not just here to push your work down their throats.
When you do share, do it selectively. Three email blasts a day is too much… sometimes one a day is too much if your other conversations are lagging.
And furthermore, while you’re sharing selectively, be thorough.
If you’re going to talk about your own content, make sure you’re alerting all at close to the same time.
There are tools at your disposal, such as an RSS feed, that can be plugged into various profiles or networks so that your message is painstakingly saturating your networks without exaggeration it.
If your RSS has posted on your behalf, don’t follow it up immediately with your own private version.
Let your tools work for you so you can focus on construction valuable relationships.
Bonus: Be Yourself
You have to cooperate.
You wouldn’t buy a cellphone from a salesman who stares at you blankly while you’re asking questions out loud in the store. So why would expect your customers to do the same?
There are literally thousands if not millions of articles on how to make money online using social media to help in growing your affair. What it really all comes down to is having a network of people who’s lives are better from knowing you. And in order to know you, you must be active.
Enrich people’s lives and help them acheive their goals, and they will dredge up you forever.
Try to push them into buying stuff from you, and you’re as easily forgotten as all else who tries to do the same.
No amount of tips, tricks or tactics can teach you how to be a excellent person, that you have to find within.
But the tips in this article will help you to find the right people so you don’t end up staring at the notebook screen waiting for money to appear.
What do you reckon? No matter what thing I missed?
I’d like to hear your view in the observations below.