Online Marketing Advice

If you are looking for a way to promote your UK home business for free you would be a twit to ignore Twitter!

Twitter is a relatively new social networking site and one which often causes some confusion. However for those in the know it can provide you with a great way of networking and also promoting your UK home business. It allows you to provide information on what it is you do, what products or services you have to offer and any promotions or special discounts that are available.

Tweeting?

If you are new to twitter you may find some of the terms slightly confusing at first. A ‘tweet’ is essentially text written by the owner of the account with a maximum total of 140 characters. This is then displayed on your profile. By creating these tweets anyone who follows your status updates will be informed of any promotion for your business and can reply if they feel necessary. This provides a great source of advertising for your business.

Choosing your target audience

It is important that you make sure that you select your target audience or ‘followers’ carefully and choose only those who may be interested in what your business has to offer. There is no point in spending time and effort promoting yourself to someone who has little interest or need for your UK home business. Once you have built up a list of followers you should do your best to interact with them on their posts and build up a relationship. In this way they will become familiar with you and your reputation will hopefully increase.

Do not spam

As with any form of business promotion it is important to respect your client base and avoid spamming them. This will only lead to alienating your potential customers and they are then unlikely to use your business or mention you to friends or family. You should therefore make sure that you do not over ‘tweet’ and that you mix up your posts a little to avoid it sounding like constant promotion. After all, Twitter is essentially a fun social networking site.

Remember to keep all of your ‘tweets’ professional and informative as you only have a limited number of characters with which to promote your UK home business. Include keywords and links and perhaps from time to time offer discounts especially for your followers so that they can see that you value their friendship and business. Overall you should treat Twitter as any other type of business promotion and make sure that you take your time to do your research and build up business contacts slowly and carefully.

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When you are looking for ways to promote your business online it’s important to know where to find your potential customers. In most cases there will be an online chat forum dedicated in your particular subject and these forums can be a fantastic way of promoting what you have to offer.

Using online forums to promote a business may not be an area that you have considered, but it should be. Forums can provide you with the perfect platform to gain ideas, subtly carry out some market research as well as for promoting your UK home business. Not only is this free but it also saves you a lot of effort and allows you to speak to and interact with potential customers.

Research is important

However this does not mean that this type of promotion is completely quick and easy. It will require you to do some prior research to find forums that are relevant to your business and also for you to slowly become a part of the community. Trying to find larger forums that are very active and have a number of members is a great way to ensure you have a wider audience.

It is important to remember that forums are not specifically designed as a way for people to promote their business and by doing this you can quickly alienate yourself. You may find that some forums have a marketplace or trading area but even so you are not advised to just jump straight in and promote your business. More often then not many forums will have rules preventing you from spamming or promoting your business so tread carefully.

Interact with members

In order to get the most out of the forum you should interact with other members, post on threads and become better known and trusted before you mention your UK home business. In this way you can build up a good, solid reputation with other members and you are more likely to be listened too and gain more custom. Often those who just join up to a forum and make no effort to contribute will be ignored.

Making sure that you spend some time on the forum will not only allow you to become a genuine member but will also allow you to ask questions and be given useful answers that could benefit you in the long run.

Using signatures

One of the great features of forums is that the majority will allow you to have a signature of some sort which will automatically show up every time you make a post. This can consist of words, links or pictures and could be a very useful way of linking to your business without having to mention it straight out. However you should make sure that it is not too long or too fussy and does not make it seem like the reason you joined was purely for promotion.

Overall forums can make a really great free addition to promoting your UK home business. Just make sure that you abide by any rules of the forum, slowly build up trust and respect and do not over promote.

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Facebook is perhaps one of the biggest social networking sites around at the moment and as such can provide you with a great way to promote your UK home business. It provides you with a way of building up a contact base and keeping people informed of everything you are doing. If you are unfamiliar with Facebook it may take a little time for you to get to grips with it but is worth the effort. All that is required is some time invested on your part.

Using Facebook Groups

Facebook has an ever increasing number of groups and these can provide you with access to like minded people who are likely to be interested in your business and what you have to offer. The main way in which people use Facebook is by setting up a group page for your UK home business. This will then give you a platform in which to explain what it is you do. You can then choose to add existing friends and contacts or ask them to invite anyone they feel may be interested. Facebook also allows you to look for similar groups and invite members to join yours from there.

One of the advantages that Facebook has over twitter is that you can directly email members of your group. It is however wise to remember that you must keep this professional at all times and do not send too many emails as you may end up alienating people.

Status Updates

Another way of keeping in your contacts up to date with everything you are doing is via your status updates. This enables you to post updates and information for all of your contacts to see and can be a great way to get them to engage with you by commenting on your status updates.

Those that do respond in this way are often interested in your business and you could then think about providing subtle links to your site or your products or services. You may also like to run special promotions or discounts for members of your group to make them feel that you value their business.

It is important to remember that Facebook does not offer a quick way of promoting your UK home business and it can take much time and effort in order to build up a suitable contact base. You should never under any circumstances spam your contact list as this could well be detrimental to the overall perception and success of your business.

Click here to receive FREE online marketing advice and tips to help you run a profitable home business.

This is a quick article highlighting a few ways to advertise or market your business online for FREE.

When you first set up your UK home business you will need to find a way to get yourself noticed with minimum expenditure. With the popularity nowadays for working from home as well as social networking sites, there are now a number of ways that you can actually get your business noticed for free.

Twitter Marketing

Setting up an account on Twitter is completely free and will allow you to add contacts or for them to search and find you. You can then update your status or ‘tweet’ regularly with new deals or promotions for your business and keep everyone up to date instantly.

Facebook Marketing

Another great way to get your UK home business noticed is to set up a free account on Facebook. This is possibly one of the biggest social networking sites available online and can offer you a great way of building up a contact base and keeping people informed of everything you are doing.

The best way to use Facebook is often to set up a group page for your home business and explain exactly what it is you do with a list of contact details. You can then either add friends and contacts and perhaps ask them to invite their friends to join. Or if you prefer you can search for similar groups and invite members from there.

The benefit of this over twitter is that any updates or offers can be emailed to every member of the group guaranteeing that they will see them. However remember that it is essential to keep this professional and not to bombard people with emails.

Article Marketing

Articles can be a great way to help you build your reputation and get your UK home business noticed. If you are not used to writing articles you may find that it can take a while to complete, but the benefits are definitely worth the time spent.
Producing a written account of your business and what it is you do is likely to help you spread the word quickly and efficiently. You can also give detailed information regarding promotions and any other information you feel is relevant and that may encourage people to use your business.

Forums Marketing

Once you have set up your business it can be a good idea to search online for forums that are relevant to your line of work or that may have members interested in what you offer. Many forums will have an area for people promoting their businesses or a section where members request services. This can be an ideal way to spread the word about your business and find custom.

If you do a good job then you may find that others will be more inclined to use you if someone else reports good feedback on the forum.

Free online classified ads

Using classified ads is possibly one of the most well known methods of getting your UK home business noticed online. You simply create an ad that provides adequate information on your business, what it is you offer etc and leave your contact details. You can then place the ad in the categories that you feel are most relevant. Make sure that you include plenty of keywords so that your ad can be easily found by those looking.

Click here to receive FREE online marketing advice and tips to help you run a profitable home business.