Take 5...Minutes to Connect With Your Target Market

It's easy to feel overwhelmed with all the various ways to market on the Internet. Because we are so busy, we may feel there's not enough time to make real meaningful connections with our target market using social media.

Why not just Take 5? Take five minutes a day and do one of the following five things to connect with your target market.

1. Direct message (DM) a contact on Twitter. Perhaps you noticed they just posted a new blog entry you enjoyed reading. Let them know with a DM.

2. Send a message to a connection on Facebook. Did one of your clients just announce a new service or product? Send them a message and congratulate them!

3. Comment on a blog post. You should be following blogs relevant to your industry. Take 5 minutes to make a meaningful comment on a blog entry and add value to the conversation.

4. Write a short blog post. Take 5 minutes to write a short blog post with the top 5 tips on how to... Not every entry you post needs to be a novella.

5. Send an email. Have you recently met someone at a networking event that you would like to follow up with? Send a brief email asking when would be a good time to chat for 10-15 minutes by phone to learn more about their business.

You know you should market your business every single day. On those days when you just feel too busy and overwhelmed to do that, keep this list handy and remember, Take 5...

What can you do in 5 minutes to connect with your target market?

Where do you come up with your blog ideas?

Recently someone asked me where I come up with my blog ideas. It can be very challenging to create fresh blog content regularly. Here are some of the ideas I shared:

1. Subscribe to newsletters and blogs about your industry to get ideas.
2. Read - books, magazines, blogs, newsletters.
3. Write down a list of words that describe you and your business. Then create a blog post for each word describing in more detail what you and your business is all about.
4. Go to BlogEnergizer.com for ideas.
5. Keep a notebook with you at all times. You'll be surprised the ideas you come up with while sitting at a meeting, networking with others, and just driving down the road. Jot them down in your notebook and then go back to create a blog entry.
6. Use questions (such as this one I received) to create a blog entry.

Remember, blog posts do not need to be long. In fact I think a short, one paragraph entry is just fine.

Where do you come up with your blog ideas?

Using Facebook to Market Yourself

Using Facebook to market your business is becoming more popular. It's not just for your kids any more. Here are some statistics regarding Facebook from Hubspot:

• Over 120 million active users
• Adding 250,000 new users each day since Jan 07
• 4th most trafficked website
• Most trafficked social media site
• Top Social Search Engine
• More than 55,000 networks
• More than half are outside of college & the fastest growing demographic is 25 years or older

Learn more about how you can use Facebook at Hubspot.com.