By Janette Toral
Digital Filipino
A friend asked me recently about alternatives for companies to market themselves online. Granted that blogs and websites are valuable tools today, how do you ensure that they get re-gular traffic where part of it can be converted to customers or generate more referrals for the company?
There are many options and this includes employees taking an active part in promoting the company through:
Instant Messaging tools. I often use my Yahoo Messenger to disseminate information to friends about new developments. Of course, I just don’t send it to everyone but target those who can surely benefit from it. An exception, though, will be Twitter.com where friends and followers will get any announcement that you post through it. Instead of product announcements, I find it non-intrusive to announce new articles posted online.
Social networks. I use my Facebook, Friendster and Multiply account to disseminate information about new efforts, articles, initiatives that may be worth their attention.
In some cases, friends of their friends get to see this and may generate more referral traffic as well. The key here, though, is to build your community consistently by adding new friends, not just anyone.
Another is to disseminate additional useful information apart from your usual news.
Press release dissemination. There are many free website services today that allow you to disseminate press releases to various sectors and countries. This includes PRWeb and PRLeap, among others. Some of it are even free and only charge a fee should you want to be prioritized.
Bookmarking. There are sites like StumbleUpon, Mahalo and the likes where you can submit articles and sites of relevance. If you have a new article in your site that shares a lot of valuable information, using bookmarking services to promote it might help. The key here is to establish a community, connect with fellow users, who will find value in what you post through it.
Write about it. If you have a personal blog or site, one way is to also write about it and share the story. But rather than just copy and paste it, add more insights such as behind-the-scenes accounts about its development or why it personally matters to you.
Internet advertising. If you have a budget, a good alternative is to use sites like Google AdWords. This is where you can allot at least P50 a day to promote your site through its system. Depending on the keywords, your ad will appear in search engine results and content publishers. If it gets user interest, it will be clicked and this will bring new users to your site. The beauty of Google AdWords is that you only pay when your ad gets clicked.
The number of ways that you can promote your site online is continuously increasing. Just be creative, don’t be shy, and promote it with value.