10 Marketing Sites to Gain Great Exposure (For Free) |
Posted: September 5, 2011 |
10 Marketing Sites to Gain Great Exposure (For Free)by Russell Busse Marketing can be a very expensive proposition, consuming an inordinate amount of a company’s income. However, with the rise of social media, the costs associated with traditional advertising can be avoided. Even though mailings, television or radio advertisements, and even Google can be expensive, there are a bevy of sites than can provide the same amount of exposure at zero cost to the business owner. They are easy to use and manage, and the benefits can be astounding. In no particular order, here are 10 such sites: 1) Storeboard.com Storeboard.com is a website designed for businesses as opposed to individuals. The focus is squarely on the business in question. The profile picture is the company logo or an image that best represents the business. It uses many of the same technologies as other social media sites, and you can upload pictures, videos, classified ads, or pretty any form of media. It has the ability to list services and sell products directly off of the site. While it is a newer website without the massive audience of some of the other sites on this list, it is a valuable tool for any business. 2) Facebook Speaking of Facebook, it is very easy to utilize the hugely popular site to benefit your business. You can create a page just for your company, listing services and promotions. The interface is very customizable, and you can reach a large number of people. Gaining “Likes” for your page allows you to post directly to your followers’ news feeds, although as a downside there is so much content being generated constantly your posts might slide down someone’s feed without being seen. Still, it is easy to use and so many people are on the site it’s hard to ignore Facebook as an advertising tool. 3) Twitter Twitter is another easy to use site that has a massive audience already. The more you interact and follow people the greater your following grows, and Twitter allows you to post directly to your customer’s feeds as well. While the 140 character limit can be constricting, you can reach people with a simple message, or shortened links to your main company site or anything you particularly want to see. You can use the search function to find customers or potential partners in your area. Twitter also shows you trending topics, which can be used to make up to the minute comments on relevant topics. 4) Linkedin This networking site is incredibly helpful in developing contacts. You can and should fully fill our your information so everyone you interact with can get an idea of what your business is like and what sort of experience you have in your industry. It’s a two way street as well; you can find people with the same interests and view their accomplishments and networks, seeing who they interact with and potentially reaching a larger audience that way. Linkedin also hosts articles on a variety of topics, meaning you can reciprocate and post your own. You can also create a page specifically for your business, but they are not as popular on Linkedin because the focus is more on the individual. The site allows you to post status updates to your network as well. 5. Foursquare Foursquare is basically a way for its users to tell others where they are at a given time, by checking in at a given place. Businesses can create a location, and run promotions for people that check in often, or whoever the “Mayor” of the location is on a given day. (To be a place’s Mayor one has to have checked in there the most times.) Foursquare is huge in the smart phone era, and other sites have integrated the idea of checking in to their strategies. Because a check in gets posted to a customer’s network, every time someone checks in you get a reminder to their entire network that your business is around, and being used by their friend. As an added bonus, they’ll know where your business is. 6. Fastpitchnetworking.com Fast Pitch is essentially purely for marketing your business. All the members are specifically there to market something, be it their services or themselves. This essentially guarantees a receptive audience, as everyone knows what they’re getting into by using and going to the site. It offers a variety of tools, like email blasts and search engine optimization. As a bonus, it ties in with Twitter, Facebook, and Foursquare. While not everything here is free, the enhanced services are reasonable and it is essentially a one stop shop for someone looking to market their business because of the helpful ties with other social networking sites. 7. Digg Digg is a site where users submit links to a huge variety of things. It works on a system of up or down votes, where the most popular links make their way to the front page and gain the most exposure. This is a very popular website, so the number of people that could potentially view your content is one of its biggest upsides. The voting system is a double edged sword of sorts, as your content could get pushed to one of the later pages, and like search engine results on the second page, not get viewed as much as you would like. 8. Agreatertown.com Agreatertown.com allows a user to instantly create a great looking website. There are a variety of styles and things you can have your website include, but as a major bonus your website grants far more exposure on Google. The site focuses on postings by businesses and individuals. The posts are then categorized by town, allowing for a helpful search by relevant distance. Everything is user friendly, and the ease of use makes it a great asset. 9. Freepressrelease.com Freepressrelease.com does a good job of summing up its services in its name. It is free to join, and from there you can post press releases about any topic you so choose. There, they are organized by industry, with a great deal of industries represented. Popular releases are featured on the front page, where you can peruse by headline and a brief snippet of the release. They also have tips on how to write successful releases, and measure your statistics to make sure your work is being read by the audience you wanted. You can embed audio or visual content in your release, as well as links to other websites. There is a catch to their free hosting: you have to generate a small amount of traffic or they take it down. 10. SalesSpider Sales Spider is another social network for businesses. You can post and browse classifieds for businesses, and are added to their business directory, which has over 800,000 businesses already, with over 1 million opportunities listed. You can browse that directory by location or industry, and meet both potential partners and clients. Posting classifieds is free, and the organization of the website allows people to find classifieds that they are interested in relatively easily. The site makes reaching an audience easier and, of course, cheaper. Any business looking to save money and get more exposure should be using as many of these sites as they can manage, and with the interconnectivity between them, it doesn’t make sense not to mix and match. Social networking can be a tough path to navigate, but as you become more comfortable with the services offered, it is an incredibly valuable tool. And all of it is free.
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