This post was guest blogged by Kathy Kane, Market Insights

It’s no wonder all types of businesses are jumping on the bandwagon, with the increased popularity of social networking sites. While targeting your niche you can find many ways to get exposure on these sites. This can be as inexpensive as creating a free profile or going as far finding paid advertisements in cleaver locations on the site.

Finding the Right Network for Your Business

 
Make sure you have a goal of what you would like to accomplish with your profile before creating it.

WHAT-
Social networking sites are great tools for “word-of-mouth” marketing and “grass-roots” campaigns. This is a great option when trying to get a group of distinct people to talk about your site. The main investment needed here, is time.

WHO-
The key is finding the people that would be interested in your product or service. Visualize online networks the same way you would in regards to sports & clubs in high school. You won’t find many ballet fans on the football team. However if you venture into the theatre and arts club or the dance team, you might have a little more luck.

WHERE-
Do a little research. By searching for lists of such sites on popular search engines, you will see the list is fairly extensive. Many sites have distinct communities, examples include: indie music on myspace, classmates on facebook, car enthusiasts on cardomain,  tv fans on television without pity, mothers on mombloggers, etc.

Making Friends
You set your goal, you found your community, and you made your profile… Now what?

Start “Friending.” Do searches for people with common interests, in the same region, or personal friends. Nobody will know you have a profile until you let them know. If there is nothing there, your profile can look pretty plain and boring.  Something to keep in mind is that you must put time into your profile.

Keep updating your profile. Set specific times out of the week to make this happen. People will not come back to your profile to read the same “About Me” information over and over again. This can be 10 minutes a day, 1 hour a week, or every few days. Get out there and mingle, popularity does not come over night.

Kathy Kane is the owner of Market Insights LLC, an action oriented marketing consulting firm with many years experience in the areas of sales, marketing & management. She graduated with a degree in Hospitality Services and Marketing from Central Michigan University, managed several hotels in the Detroit area and founded Market Insights in 1995.

Tim Somers
Bizarre Promotions, Inc.
Over 750,000 Promo Items To Help Your Business Grow!
 

I have noticed the back to school advertisements popping up already, on the radio, TV and in the local papers.  Many of our suppliers that offer School Spirit items are also running specials on custom printed Megaphones and items like the 5 Inch Mini Plastic Football.

Both of these items are great for handing out at school sporting events.  An item like the Cheerleading Megaphone comes with a free white plastic Popcorn Cap – this is a great bonus to use as fundraisers at school events, a consumer buys popcorn and gets to keep the Megaphone which they use later to cheer for their team.

The back to school sale on Megaphones and Plastic Footballs will not last long – The Mega specials are as follows –

Megaphone – custom printed with your info – 500 min. .85 each (plus $45 set-up/shipping/tax)

5 Inch Plastic Football – custom printed with your info – 500 min. .95 each (plus $45 set-up/shipping/tax)

Tim Somers
Bizarre Promotions, Inc. 

Long time customer Roscoe Johnson, Johnson Tattoo Studio, in Taylor Michigan was kind enough to let me know how the T-shirts we printed for him worked out at the 2008 Chopper Show in Detroit Michigan.

Below is the email I received from Roscoe (posted with permission of course) and a great picture of Roscoe and his Dad Gary, decked out in the t-shirts (designed by Roscoe himself).

What I Did Last Weekend:

Chopper Show Detroit 2008 - Corktown Tavern, Detroit - next door to Old Tiger Stadium on Michigan Avenue - which was being demolished even as the event progressed. Saturday, August 9th 2008.

The shirts I designed for the Chopper Show Detroit 2008 last Saturday (Printed by Bizarre Promotions) went over pretty well.

The event was a LOT of work: I had to pack, unpack, put up, tear down, pack and unpack the tent, tables, displays and everything - so today I feel like I’m recovering from having been beaten up;

When the torrential rain started, I made a comment to Dad that “Rain is one thing, but I take exception to torrential rain.” As if on cue, the HAIL and high winds started, and the tent kept trying to take flight like a kite!

It was on and off like that for the whole evening, but old gnarly bikers on beer are made of tough stuff - and mostly stuck around. Made a lot of contacts for the shop; Dad ran into some of his old bike club brothers he thought must have croaked years ago.

I gave a lot of the Johnson Tattoo Shirts away as promotional freebies along with my “Bird Flip” Chopper Show shirts, which got completely soaked several times over.

I should have known that a bunch of old bikers would need lots of 3XL’s and even 4XL’s - Ran out of those really fast!

Thanks Roscoe!!

Tim Somers
Bizarre Promotions, Inc.

Camouflage has become a trend from Pink Camouflage Shirts to traditional hunter’s camo hats that are consistently popular among the young and old.  If you are looking for great employee give-a-ways get off the fence and look at the many different camo options available to imprint your company logo on.

Camouflage clothing comes in the traditional army camo or olive drab, popular hunting patterns, orange camo as well as a host of just about all the colors in the rainbow.

The new Silencer Cap features camouflage with an in-depth scene of tree bark camo and leaves on a hunter green background.  Image your logo displayed prominently on this hat stylish hat.

Tim Somers
Bizarre Promotions, Inc.