idea on how to promote a product/business

[lifetiles108]

Hello,
I have been missing from this forum for a while and glad to come back with some great news I have discovered. As a small online (new) business selling a unique product I came across a website called www.bigamericangiveaway.com . The concept is quite simple... it is a daily giveaway site, small business owners can reserve their days and offer a giveaway on their chosen day. In order to enter their giveaway the public have to increase their social media profile (like them on Facebook, Follow them on Twitter) so this is real word-of-mouth online marketing. For the small price of AU$130 I have bought around 10 days that will be shown in the US starting 2012. You probably have to go into the website to see exactly how it works as I will not do it justice in this small space......but it sounds exciting.

What is also really cool is that they have just opened up in Aus (www.bigaussiegiveaway.com) and the UK (www.bigbritishgiveaway.com) A great way to get your brand/service/product out there at seriously affordable costs.

We are all trying to find unique ways of promoting our business so I thought that I would share what I have found!

PS:: If you look on Feb 8th calendars for New York and California you will see the days I have bought

[JakeThomas]

Hi Emanuela,

Glad to have you back!! How is the website going? I remember your launch wasn't that long ago was it?

Thanks for sharing that link - not sure how suitable it would be to most here as it's targeted at Americans.

[lifetiles108]

Hi Jake,
Nice to be back.....can't believe it's almost 5 months since I launched the website. It's going well but my focus has been towards the US market only because they have accepted the product/concept much faster than I thought and it has the potential to expand quicker. So this 'giveaway' concept really appealed to me as it is the most economical way to get your brand seen across such a huge market. I have now purchased a total of 12 USA days...all in different states.

Having said that, the same people are now releasing an Aussie and UK version (as mentioned in my intro above), so imagine that.......you can display your product or services in your own country and in your own state! I have bought about 6 days in Aus so far and about 10 in the UK.

By the way....the term giveaway.......doesn't necessarily mean I will be giving away my product for nothing on the day my ads go live but what I have chosen to do is to give ONE free item when ONE it is purchased.
Thanks

[AshleyWhiteBusiness]

Business promotion can be done in a very quick manner through social media tools. Presently, it is the fastest way to reach customers as most people are regular internet users. Social media tools are not as expensive and cumbersome as the traditional marketing methods.

[JakeThomas]

Not sure if I agree with that Ashley - there are still a huge chunk of people who aren't online yet.

[Dean@PeekWebDesign]

Speaking of Social Media tools - what's the best way to drum up some Twitter followers/FB fans?

[Linda Enever]

Dean getting twitter and facebook followers to me is about the quality of interecation ie: keeping the fans once you have them. So making your posts relevant and informative so that your readers are likely to share.

Twitter we find the best way is sharing useful content and making the most out of hash tags. Facebook it is all about networking and sharing there are some great business groups I can point you too if you like

Thanks Linda

[Precise]

The best way to get Twitter followers is to:

• Post often
• Follow a lot of like minded people/businesses
• Follow competitors (because their followers will probably follow you)
• Post interesting interesting tweets
• Post tweets that boost your industry credibility e.g. industry reports, interesting relevant webpages
• Don't post links straight to your products/services
• Time your tweets for maximum exposure (beginning of the business day in whatever time zone you're in and what time zone your followers are in)

Michael McGarry
Precise Online Marketing for Small Business
w: http://www.precise-online-marketing-...-business.com/
f: goo.gl/DkyvW
t: @onlinesmallbiz

[v2Media]

These days you can buy followers by the hundreds. The number of followers any business has on FB and Twitter is easily pumped up by social media marketing services with access to thousands of dummy accounts.

[Lilyponds]

I would suggest getting facebook likers isn't necessarily the priority, bums on seats/dummy likers are there to impress the network buddies into cross promoting you and referring work to you. I get quite a bit of work from facebook but I don't use dummy accounts, I have (mostly) authentic likers mixed with a few marchers and ladder climbers from the early days.

Fake likers may actually damage your Edgerank because they become low interaction on the page. They also make you talking about this score look low which is Edgerank summarised and also the quick reference as to whether new likers should like your page. I am all about authentic Facebook stuff though, because that's where the money is