Discussion: Promo Power.

What does it take to “put yourself out there”? How can an online business owner market themselves? What kind of promotion is needed to gain more blog/site traffic? These are the questions I’ve been asking myself over the last week. I’m sure if you write for a blog or have your own blog, you’ve probably thought the same thing. Also if you, like so many others on the internet, have an online shop you probably know how to at least attract customers to your product. Well, if you’re kind of fuzzy on marketing your blog or your business via the world wide web then all I can say is “welcome to the club!”

Excluding my personal online journals, this is my first REAL blog and even though PrettyZombieGirl isn’t my first attempt at selling things in an online environment, it is my first serious business effort. Therefore, I want both of these endeavors to be successful. Lemme tell ya though, this is a lot more difficult than I originally expected, but I will not accept defeat of any kind. So, I’m writing this in hopes of reaching out to my fellow bloggers for advice.

How do I promote myself or my business?
First thing I did after setting up my Etsy shop was create a Facebook page for it with my logo as the profile pic & an eye-catching cover photo. I then wrote a readable description and added my contact info up-to-date. I had all of my friends & family “like” my page which kick-started my online marketing journey. As much as I despise Facebook on a personal level, I would have to say that in this day & age it is absolutely necessary for your business to have it’s own page. I’ve noticed that people will look at businesses, products, or even blog Facebook pages before looking at the actual websites! It seems the more you “like” and “share” things, the more people will pay attention to your page. Also, connecting every other social account to & from your Facebook is another way for people to spread the word, but there has to be more to it than that. What do you do on Facebook to get people to not only look at your page but “like” it and go on to visit your actual website/shop?

A couple of days later things slowed down. Good thing I already had a Twitter account set up because Facebook hasn’t really given me as much traffic as I hoped for. Twitter, on the other hand, has definitely helped me gain new followers. I’ve been cross-posting my shop listings via both networking sites, but with Twitter it’s helped the most when I’ve used “#tags”. This allows people to search for specific words within a tweet and it leads them here or to my Etsy shop. I also interact with other shop owners & bloggers by replying to their tweets & retweeting things that are related to my own interests. Over the past week, I’ve gained almost 20-30 followers from just making new friends and talking to them. I know this will eventually help out my blog views & my shop right? Fingers crossed! What else are you guys doing to promote your product using Twitter?

Finally, I decided to try a more formal networking site, specifically geared towards business/client relationships, called LinkedIn. I just now updated all of my info, making everything appear more like a resume rather than a sales pitch. I added everyone I knew on there & then figured out that you can promote yourself in discussion groups. There were several for Etsy shop owners & bloggers. By getting to know the folks in those groups, I not only received more “likes” on Facebook, more followers on Twitter, but I also noticed that more people “favorited” my items in my shop or added me to their “circle” on Etsy! That was a major boost, but it’s still not enough.

How does one maintain a steady flow of traffic, increase page likes, & in turn get the world to notice your online business??? . . .

Please, feel free to discuss marketing via these networking websites as well as others, start a chat, or talk to me! I’d love to hear what you guys have to say!