9 Ways to Promote Your Business

Joan Stewart

If you're trying to promote your store, but you don't have a big advertising budget, relax. There are lots of ways you can get in front of the audience you want to reach by using free publicity. Here are tips that will boost your publicity efforts and help you finally get noticed.

1. Participate in Facebook. When creating your profile, you cannot create a corporate identity or business identity account. You must first create an account by setting up a personal profile, presumably for the person who will be managing the Facebook account for your business. Once that's set up, that person can then create a fan page for your business by going to http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php. Now, invite your friends to become fans.

2. Participate in Linkedln. Ask your customers,clients and others for recommendations, which will appear on your profile. Also, answer questions that pertain to your area of expertise. This helps position you as an expert.

3. Participate in Twitter. As of this writing, it's the hottest social networking site, and it allows companies or anyone to "push out" short messages of no more than 140 characters. Provide helpful, useful, practical information and tips for those who are following you.

4. Call the advertising department of every newspaper and magazine you want to get into and ask for a copy of their editorial calendar. It's a free listing of all the special topics and special sections coming up during the calendar year. It will tip you off to sections where your story idea would be a good fit, so you can query the editor weeks and even months ahead.

5. Invite a reporter from your local newspaper or magazine for coffee or lunch. Instead of asking, "Will you write about me?" a better question is, "How can I help you?" Offer yourself as a resource in your area of expertise. Talk about trends you're seeing in your industry.

6. Consider starting your own television show on your cable TV station's community access channel. A floral shop can do a program on how to create dried flower arrangements. The station can rent you the camera equipment for a nominal fee. Air time is free. Produce one show or an entire series of programs. Call your cable company for details.

7. Build a network of other retailers in your area. Agree informally that you will refer reporters to each other whenever reporters call and want your comments on a topic on which you all could comment, such as a new sales tax increase.

8. Write how-to articles - such as this one - for newsletters published by groups in your community or for newsletters read by audiences who buy your products or services. Be sure the last paragraph tells readers how to contact you.

9. Get on your local TV news and the morning TV news feature shows. Tie your product, service, cause or issue to a breaking news event, pitch yourself as the local angle to a national story, or suggest a feature story with great visuals.

Reprinted with permission from Dallas Market Center.