In the last five years marketing has become amazingly small.  I don’t mean unimportant.  I mean that in the past, the big contenders with seven-figure advertising budgets would buy advertising time on TV, radio, and print newspapers or magazines.  Marketing was big then.  Smaller businesses tried to do the same things, only on a smaller scale.  Advertising on local TV and radio and purchasing ad space in local newspapers.

For the first few years of the Internet, it followed this same model.  You bought advertising space on the highest traffic websites you could afford.  But now the tables have turned, and marketing has become small.  Now, all of the big contenders are clamoring to do exactly what you and I do everyday.  We post things on Facebook and Twitter and upload videos to YouTube everyday.  It is an unprecedented turn of events in which everyone now has access to the same advertising channels that the biggest companies in the world have.  This is an incredible opportunity for the small guy to compete in ways that we could never have dreamed of before.

So the big question you are asking is how can I use this as a web designer or web developer, right?  Here are 6 tips on how to use social networking to market your web design or web development business.

I just saw someone today trying to use Facebook for marketing with short posts like “Use my services today!”  Really?  That is all you have to say?  Nothing to at least set you apart from anyone else in your market?

Instead of filling your social marketing channels like Facebook or Twitter with advertisements for yourself that nobody cares about, start talking about web design in relation to your target market.  If you don’t know what your your target market is, look back at my last article.

I recommend adding a blog of some type to your website and then use the social networks to drive traffic to your blog.  So let’s say your target market is bicycle shops.  You can start giving general business tips through Twitter about how vital a website is for small businesses to market themselves to pull in new business.  Then you can sprinkle in information about how a bike photo-gallery can be used to feature new bikes, or mention some plug-in that will show local bike trails in Google Maps right on your websites.  The tweets can link back to your websites where you include more detail.

The main advantage to this system is that your potential clients are drawn in by the useful content that you freely give away and as they read it, you establish yourself as an expert in their mind.    At the same time they are being exposed to all of the advantages of having a good website… well it just so happens that you can provide them with just what they need!

Consistency is a huge part of any marketing campaign!  Putting out 30 tweets in one day and then being silent for 3 weeks will get you nowhere.   Social marketing isn’t a sprint, it is a marathon.  You have to pace yourself and spread your content out through each day and throughout the week, over the course of months.

Not only will this keep you from burning out but it will ensure that the most people are exposed to your tweeting and posting.  Most people don’t sit in front of Facebook or twitter 24/7, and almost no one has enough time to read every tweet and Facebook post that comes through their feed.  No, they start at the top and work their way down, following various rabbit trails, and maybe they make it to the bottom, of the page, but many things get pushed off of the page before they have a chance to read it.

Your consistency of putting out helpful online business and marketing tips over time will solidify your name in the minds of your readers as a go-to person that they hope will be able to do business with them

Continue on to Part 2 >>