biz ladies by Grace Bonney 51

biz ladies: promoting your business (tastefully) online

i’ve been learning so much from the consulting sessions i’ve been doing with independent business and blog owners lately that it’s really inspired me to get a bit more involved in the biz ladies section of d*s. so many of the same issues and concerns keep popping up, and rather than keep the solutions between just two of us, i thought i’d share some of the advice i’ve given clients with everyone. last week it sort of hit me over the head just how much people’s businesses and blogs are suffering from a lack of promotion. and believe me, as someone who rolls their eyes on a regular basis about some of the gross ways people promote themselves online, i wasn’t looking to encourage people to do the same. but there are some great tools, tips, and ideas that i use for promotion that i think help people feel more comfortable about reaching out to bloggers, fellow business owners, and traditional print media. so today i thought i’d share another video slideshow i made last week for my consulting newsletter.

today’s video focuses on the reasons you should be promoting your business and blog, the places and ways you can promote, do’s and don’ts of tasteful promoting, and general “rules of thumb” to follow when doing your own promotion. i’m not going into press release detail like i did in this PR how-to document, but rather hoping to help people think outside of the box in terms of what informal but personal promotion can look like. i’m covering everything from emails and newsletters to twitter and facebook so i hope you’ll find these ideas helpful. remember- no one knows your business or blog as well as you do. and no one can convey the passion and excitement you have for your work like you- so don’t be afraid to be the face of your company’s outreach- people will be thrilled to hear from you directly. best of luck!

*if you want to catch up on the rest of my biz ladies video slideshows, click here for the archives on youtube

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51 Comments

Anna Joyce Design

Oh Grace! Thank you! Once again- just what I needed, just when I needed it.
Your next book could be a collection of all the Biz Ladies posts!
Any idea when the next consulting sessions will be offered?
THANK YOU!!

Michaela @ The Gardener's Eden

Thank you Grace. These arr very good tips. I particularly like the way you gently encouraged people to use tact with Twitter and Facebook when promoting sites and/or addressing issues best left to email. Many of the blogs in my feed were found through features on other sites (such is the case with {this is glamorous}. This is not only smart, but it just plain feels good… which is what I like about the internet blogging community (at its best anyway)
Michaela

c

Thanks Grace! You really do have a knack at sensing your readers’ needs and sending out timely emails. I just started a blog this week, and just created my facebook fan page today, and was struggling with how often to reach out to people. Thanks so much!!

Christine

I love this video! Especially the part about splitting up social media. I have always felt stuck when it comes to twitter/facebook, so this will really help!

[email protected]

Grace you have really inspired me to reach our to other bloggers! I am an avid blogger about makeup & hair and would love to increase my readership. Many of your suggestions may do just that!

Nayla

Thank you Grace! I am always and again surprised how generous you are!
I found these tips really helpful. Thanks again!

Macy

Thank you, Grace!

What wonderful tips and you explained each so well.

I am addicted to your blog :-)

Laura

Great tips, Grace!

My only question, when it comes to Twitter, is how to include personal tweets without getting into “oversharing” territory. Do you think the personal comments should still relate to your business or blog, or should they just be totally random? I find myself turned off by people’s twitter streams when they are TOO personal (i.e. “I had a chicken sandwich for lunch!”) without any relevant content, so I’m wondering how this plays into your ratio.

Elle Thornton

Oh Grace this is just fab – thank you for taking the time to record it and share.

I’m still getting to grips with Twitter so your 3-way split of content is really valuable.

I use a similar approach to sending newsletters: ratio 1:4
1 part selling my great stuff (ahem) to 4 parts resources/info

Similar sort of approach and I find it works – I get good feedback because it’s useful to clients and isn’t just hard sell. Helps establish yourself as a resource/expert in your niche (just like design sponge!)

Thank you again – it’s good to hear a voice to go with the anonymous writer, Elle x

PS Tara (Scoutie Girl) mentioned she’d met you at the BlogHer event – sounds like a good networking opportunity – how was it?

grace

thanks elle :)

blogher was fun- i was only there for my panel (i had been traveling for a week and was MAJORLY jet lagged) but everyone i met was super friendly :)

g

Juleen

After going through massive national publicity campaigns that have cost tens of thousands of dollars, this is the most cohesive, comprehensive, and doable mapped out tutorial for dealing with social networking that I have seen! Thank you! Implementation of many of these will begin today!

Miss Stovetop

Very helpful, I’m going to send this out to a blogphobic friend who’s just started her new word-of-mouth marketing company.

nicole

Thank you, the video was great and to the point! Love the 1/3 twitter thing! You Biz Ladies are amazing.

Heather

Thank you for always being so generous with your insight and information. We are redoing our blog soon and will keep these great tips in mind!

Christine Campbell

Great old school advice, I sent the video to my daughter who is just starting out as Financial Planner, and your advice can apply to any business.

Bianca Castro

Hello!

This is actually my first visit to this blog. I’m a brazilian journalist/blogger and I’m always looking for inspiring websites such as this one.
Thought I should leave a comment just to tell you how nice and motivating this website is. Thanks for sharing all this cool stuff here.

I have a blog for over a year now and I find really difficult to promote it because I always feel I’m being pushy. I think the social media helped me a lot but I always have the feeling I’m “bothering” people everytime I update something specially on Facebook. Anyway, thanks for the video it was really helpful. Hopefully I will get more page views after following your tips! xxxx

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