Online advertising

[pugsandseals]

Any ideas about which websites to advertise my local business? I'm aiming at parents with an interest in education & culture. My budget is very, very small - preferably free!

[DolomitesDonkey]

Twitter and make a Facebook business page. Total cost equals zero.

[pugsandseals]

Is a Facebook business page different from a group page? I already have one of those & it doesn't really get any traffic

[mrscumberbatch]

How are you promoting your facebook page?

[pugsandseals]

I post updates from time to time, what else should I do?

[mrscumberbatch]

You need to look into Social Networking, you have to be proactively social.

I'd look at joining twitter, getting active in topics/convos relevant to education and culture. Gets your point across quickly and you might get some followers that way.

[DolomitesDonkey]

A group is definitely not the same as a business page! Social media in 2013 is moving towards "local" so you need to be on it. Likewise if your business has a physical presence you can get it on google maps for free!

[BlipbipBeep]

Hi, I don't tweet but I do have a facebook page. I firstly invited all of my friends to like it, they are not much good for business promotion but they make me look popular :)
Next I found a very active local community facebook group and asked them very nicely to mention my business and my page and that got a few more likes, Occasionally I post on the community page too but I try not to make those posts into adverts more just being part of the community iyswim.
I'm a bit annoying in that I do ask pretty much everyone to like my page.
I don't generally post adverts more stuff about my business that people outside of the business might find interesting but I do try to post at least once a day.
I am finding that the page is growing in likes slowly but steadily and I have had quite a lot of business through facebook both directly and indirectly.

[BlipbipBeep]

I liked every local business that I could find on facebook too and they are starting to return the compliment. The thing is the more likes you have the more chatter there is and the more people hear about you and read about you. Its not instant but I do think that it is the way to go.

[pugsandseals]

Hmm, tricky because the vast majority of my Facebook friends are not local & would not be at all interested in my business which is aimed at a select group of parents. I have found that I can advertise for free on Netmums [hides & waits for people to throw things at me for mentioning the enemy] & that has helped bring in some business. Looking for similar fee ads really I think if I'm going to get the name out there. I'm also considering trying to find a page where I can ask current clients to post a review. No idea if anything like that exists though!

[Tee2072]

You can have a free listing on MN Local as well, so long as it doesn't mention any promotions etc.

If you want to do a promotion or something, you can pay £20 for 3 months on MN Local for a sponsored talk thread.

Go to your local and have a poke around.

[Tee2072]

Also, now that I'm done promoting Local (yes, I'm a Local Editor), remember that the key word in Social Media is social.

You have to engage with people. Post on their walls if it's Facebook, chat if it's Twitter. You can't just post on your own wall and expect people to find you. You have to reach out to them.

[ethelb]

You can do google ad words relatively cheaply and they are good for directing geographically relevant traffic eg buy 'your area' 'your service'