When it comes to promoting yourself or a product, the more people you communicate with on social networking sites, the more potential customers your online promotion attempts will reach. And as you reach more customers, the greater your chances of selling your products, your services, or getting the attention that you would like to bring to yourself and your particular skill set.
In short, when it comes to promoting through social networking, numbers matter.
Start Friending and Following
One of the most basic ways to begin building the number of friends that you have on Facebook or the number of followers that you have on Twitter is to make the first move. Start by friending people on Facebook and following people on Twitter.
Don’t follow blindly, though.
Use the search features on Facebook and Twitter to find people who share your interests, or who might be interested in the product or service that you’re trying to promote. If you have a dog-sitting business in Kansas City, for instance, narrow your search first by location, and then search for those people who have already mentioned dogs in their tweets. The goal is targeted marketing that can get your name or business name, and the services that you offer, in front of those people who might benefit from your services.
When you follow people who share your interests, or who could use your services, those people are also more likely to follow you back. So, the more people that you follow on Twitter or friend on Facebook, the more followers or friends you should get in return.
Keep in mind that Twitter and Facebook both add many new users on a daily basis, so you should do regular searches to find new users to friend or follow. Make a schedule of it, so that you don’t miss out on potential social contacts.
Interact in the Network
Once you have a core group of Facebook friends or Twitter followers, work on keeping those social networking relationships alive and building outward from your original friends and followers lists. You can accomplish this by interacting with those people who are already following you.
Keep an eye out for tweets from your Twitter followers or posts from your Facebook friends that pertain to your area of interest. Also look for similar services that you are attempting to promote, and reply to those tweets or posts. Every time you reply to a friend or follower, you remind that person about your service or product.
Post and Tweet
Self promotion or business promotion cannot thrive on replies alone. To increase your Facebook friends or Twitter followers, you’re also going to have to come up with some original material. When it comes to product or service promotion, occasional tweets promoting your business can keep you in the public eye.
Don’t overdo it, though. Not only sending out an hourly tweet about a new product or service annoy those people on your friends or followers list, it could get you reported for spam, at which point your account may be closed and you’ll have to start all over.
Instead of posting endlessly about yourself or your services, try to come up with tweets or posts that will be of interest to your followers, but aren’t necessarily self-promoting. If you own that dog-sitting business, for instance, you could post facts about different dog breeds. Then, people who are very interested in dogs will friend or follow you, and when you make the occasional post or tweet about your business, those followers will be exposed to your business.
The more posts or tweets you create, the easier it will be for friends or followers who share your interests to find you, and the more interesting those posts or tweets are, the more people will share your posts or tweets through “Likes” on Facebook or by retweeting on Twitter.
Use Online Tools
Even with the search features in each program, finding the right Facebook friends and Twitter followers can prove the biggest challenge to build your friends or followers list. Several sites have sprung up to help with this process. The websites Increasr, Twiends, Twello and WeFollow all have Twitter and Facebook listings, broken down by category and interest. These sites are good resources for finding followers whose interests align with your own.
To help followers find you, you can also list your Twitter or Facebook account on these sites, along with your interests, so that your accounts appear under the proper categories.
There is no denying that building your friend and follower lists on Facebook and Twitter one-by-one takes time and effort, but, if you focus on the right people, it can prove rewarding for promoting products and services that you would like to sell, or in getting your name out in the virtual world.
About the author: Jaime is an avid hiker and skier who loves to write in her spare time for USBundles.com – home of Century Link.