Introduction
In another of my earlier articles, I mentioned the importance of social networking when marketing your consulting business. I thought it could be worthwhile sharing a number of my very own experiences in this regard.
Website
Barring your own personal interaction along with your clients, this is your ultimate weapon for winning mandates. Your clients will head to your website to see your offering and understand you. Everything you do on social networking needs to have the greatest goal of getting people to see it - because of this, it is crucial your website:
- is professional and portrays your products and services clearly and succinctly
- has contact details where clients can reach you, preferably both a telephone and email address
- is linked from your own social networking tools and also displays links back to them
Which social networking tool to make use of?
For almost any professional services business this must certanly be your priority. LinkedIn allows you to put down your CV at length, plus you can cause a typical page especially for your business. What better way to portray your expertise in your field and, at the same time frame, promote your organization?
Think of LinkedIn as your most formal marketing effort. People are on LinkedIn primarily for business related matters, so you'll need to tailor your approach accordingly.
Blogging
Blogging is a good way to advertise your expertise and knowledge. Remember the following:
- You can be quite relaxed and personal along with your blogs
- As an over-all rule, don't write long blogs. People desire to be engaged, however in short, meaningful bursts
- Use your blogs as a teaser to show people how clever you are - let them have adequate to want more; hopefully that'll drive them to your website where all your services are presented
- Don't use blogging as a selling tool, per se.People will soon be put off hard-sell on your own blog
Publishing articles, like this 1
Use Ezine and industry-specific forums to publish formal articles that showcase your expertise. Share information which will be useful and don't be afraid that you are giving this away for free - it will soon be appreciated and will soon be another way to obtain people engaged with you Facebook & Instagram Advertising Consultant . If your articles reveal that you know what you are speaing frankly about, people may well be more likely to engage with you.
A significant indicate keep in mind, however, is that articles are far more formal than blogs. Think of them more as a professional reference point as opposed to an informal teaser.
If LinkedIn is formal, Twitter is casual. Here is the opportunity to show your personal side and you are likely to take part in a cultural fashion. That doesn't mean you can't link your posts, blogs and articles into your tweets, you have to! I do believe this is the least-understood facet of Twitter and how powerful it is often as a business marketing tool.
Facebook Page
You can cause a typical page for your organization in Facebook. Yes, it will soon be linked to your profile, but you need to use it mainly for your organization marketing. The reach of Facebook and the easy way of creating an advert makes the case for Facebook marketing compelling. Because of all of the data that Facebook collects on people, Facebook adverts can be highly-tailored to your target audience.
Google+
Google+ is powerful mainly because it's part of the biggest se on the planet. That means it can be used to operate a vehicle your SEO efforts.
Joining Circles and participating in Hangouts (or starting your own) will allow you to connect with a targeted audience.
However, Google+ does require some effort. If you don't put any in, you is going to be staring at a clear screen wondering what most of the fuss is about.
Podcasts, Instagram, Flickr, Pinterest, Vimeo and You Tube
To the extent that images, audio and video can be used to market your organization, they're also great tools to use. Creating an instructive podcast or video can be used as your own interaction along with your audience - blogging without writing!
Images and photos are perhaps more worthy of a product-driven business, but creative ways can be used to market a services business too.
Conclusion
I'm still trying out every one of the above, plus a few more that I came across (Tumblr is my latest foray). I'm giving all of them some attention, although I'm certain that I'll gravitate to the 4 or 5 that make the most sense for my particular business and audience.
I certainly won't be depending on only 1 or 2. A combined effort is yielding good quality results.
Ernest is one of the Co-Founders of The Business Advisory House ( [http://www.tbah.co.za] ), a business advisory and management consultancy offering tailor-made solutions based on a long-term trusted advisory relationship.
He's using his 2 decades of investment banking experience and CEO roles to offer Board-level strategic advice to his clients. His newest appointment has been to Chairman of the Board of one of the entrepreneurs he advises.