Know-How Exchange : Strategy

Yes, free social media can help promote a product (the online equivalent of word-of-mouth). However, the promotion must fit into the social media conversation to be useful.

Social media is useful especially if your target segment is an online community. Yet, you should try to avoid spreading too thin, while reaching out to maximum number of your prospects. Because each new content you create will require promotion on its own (e.g. it's of no use when you create a blog when it does not get any traffic). For example, as a consulting company we use:

- A blog to publish our articles on various subjects of interest to our target market: https://forteconsultancy.wordpress.com

- A web page to provide detailed information on our service offerings and additional content: https://www.forteconsultancy.com

- A newsletter which is also published on our web-site but is also e-mailed to a list of subscribers.

- Presentations and documents published on https://www.slideshare.net and https://www.docstoc.com with more detailed information on our recommendations and offerings

We also use a number of professional directories and blog lists to drive traffic to our content.