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Thread: Marketing a Bridal Stationery Company through social networking

  1. #1
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    Marketing a Bridal Stationery Company through social networking

    Hello

    I started a small wedding stationery design co with a difference - you can check out my portfolio on www.belladancer.co.za (also go like my facebook page and suggest it to your friends on facebook (top left corner) - cheeky i know) hahaha

    Anyway the responses are great and I am having the time of my life - whoever said that work cant be fun?!

    But what I need to find out is how to better market my co - I have hooked up with many bridal suppliers, am on facebook and on their pages, have a website (not enough cash for SEO yet though) and on many many bridal directories. I will go to bridal fairs, again, once I have a bit more cash on hand. The only thing I cant get my head around is twitter. How do I find potential clients on there? Most related people are not based in SA, which doesnt help? Any other ideas on blogging and social networking?

    Any responses will be appreciated!

    Bon

  2. #2
    Email problem derekjay's Avatar
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    You mentioned that you don't have enough money for SEO at this point. I've put together a free SEO course that you could use to learn how to do it yourself at no cost.

    Also, you can try the following:

    - Pay Per Click Advertising (Google Adwords)
    - Refer A Friend scripts on your website (if not already there...)
    - Get listed on wedding sites like Celebration.co.za, WeddingQuotes.co.za and so forth.

    Unfortunately I don't know too much about Twitter, but I think the best bet there is to get your clients to follow you (as you get them) and then use the platform for upselling and future selling...

    Hope this helps

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    Hi

    Twitter is more of a give and take. You have to become an active listener (Twitter Search is very powerful!) and not just do push marketing. Tweet something that would be interesting to your followers. If you created something new, you can share it with your followers to make comment on. I would focus more on Facebook (apart from the search marketing recommended above), but always remember that it's good to use your central content platform (ie your website), to point users back to.

    You can also use various 3rd party sites that would for instance automatically share your blog posts on Twitter and Facebook, so that it frees up some of your time to focus on actual work ;-) Come into the habit of posting once or twice a week, keep it updated.

    Also install an SEO plugin on your blog (you can search for the plugin 'All in one SEO pack' and autoinstall under 'add new' in plugins) that enables you to tweak keywords, page titles and meta descriptions for each page and post.

    There's nothing wrong with asking friends to add and share your content, it's often a nice way to get the ball rolling.

    As far as SEO is concerned, if you're operating in a specific area, make sure to include the area within your content and page titles to ensure Google a better understanding of what AND where you are.

    Oh and install 'Sharethis' plugin as well, that's an easy solution on Wordpress for people to share (on social networks and via email) your posts and pages.

    Good luck!

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    Platinum Member Chatmaster's Avatar
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    Hi Bon

    I somehow missed your post the first time around. With regards to Twitter, I would not recommend that you spent to much time on trying to crack the marketing opportunities within Twitter for now. In terms of the order that online marketing should take place in for a business targeting SA Twitter is way down on the list of priorities.

    I strongly believe that you should rather put some effort into networking with the source of your clients, which would be Wedding planners, venues, bridal shops etc. As suggested by PERONii also put some effort into Facebook but not just by creating a group but also utilizing some hype groups.

    I also firmly believe that you should move SEO up on your list of priorities as you are not targeting a very competitive industry you should be able to make the site rank fairly quickly, but as things stand at the moment you have very little if any sites linking to your site making it virtually impossible to get traffic from Google.

    Spending just an hour a day or week on building some backlinks to your site should already give you much needed exposure and give the site a much better chance on ranking well.

    A further recommendation I would like to make is to add a "tweet this" to your website to utilize the power of Twitter

    But I have some serious issues with your website and it makes me wonder if you shouldn't consider making small changes to the content of the site as well as adding proper page titles that target your main keywords to the site.

    At the moment your website are trying to rank for keywords such as "Home", "About Us", "Service" and "Portfolio". If you can simply change the page titles and headings of each page to something more descriptive, your conversion ratio, website success and SEO will dramatically change. You do not have to spent any money in my opinion on SEO at the moment. That would come in later.
    Roelof Vermeulen (Entrepreneurship in large organizations)
    Roelof Vermeulen| Rock flaps south africa

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    derekjay (23-Aug-10)

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    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    One post wonders that don't even read their own thread...

    My guess is Belladancer stopped reading the SEO manuals straight after the link building chapter

    Social networking implies a conversation, darling

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    derekjay (23-Aug-10)

  9. #6
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    Hi everyone - thank you for the posts - I have been swamped with work these last few weeks due to bridal fairs, networking and also going nationwide with wedding directories on the web. It has meant pulling a few all nighters (hence the lack of social networking Dave - lol).

    Things are looking great I am happy to report.

    But it is time to get back to my site and improve it - the SEO manual is very useful - thanks!

    Thanks for all the help guys - now I need to sit and implement it all. So I will probably fall off the planet again and only check back in a few months

  10. #7
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    Oh and 1 more thing - I discovered Google Places - very cool and very free!

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    Exclamation Get professional help.

    Hi Bella, I suggest that you check out the "Linkedin or left behind? course for small business owners here: www.vira.co.za or try to attend workshops like these: www.socialmediasherpas.co.za

    You didn't teach yourself algebra, so why try to teach yourself social media?

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