Follow the People Trail

To paraphrase Grammy-winning, mega-successful entrepreneur, Chamillionaire on episode #26 on the podcast, This Week In Venture Capital with Mark Suster, "Go where the people are." This strategy worked for Chamillionaire as he built up his music distribution business directly online, but it can be applied to any business seeking to draw in customers without going through the traditional distribution channels. Twitter is obviously one of the major social networks, but how do you make it work for your business? It's not enough to slap together a profile and tweet in the hope of attracting a large group of followers, you have to be proactive and "enlist" your followers. It's amazing how many brand name companies are out there on Twitter with anemic follower lists. This is a missed opportunity, particularly for those companies with a national market. That's the beauty of Twitter, it casts a wide net. (1) First, identify the kind of followers you want and start by following them. If it is done right, count on about 50% of them following back and eventually a critical mass will form. 2) Be selective, don't just follow anyone, see who's following the competition and only accept profile with real names and photos attached to them. (3) Tweet regularly and be real, show a little stuff that goes on behind the scenes. Ultimately the size of your following will be a function of allocated resources. Cultivate that following and it will grow and with time the business will have its own broadcasting network.