john {WEB}ster

You just put up a great website for your brand new business. And you have been told for years now that every business has to use the internet to grow a business — But where do you begin?

When Scott Monty, head of social media marketing for Ford Motor Company, was asked about using social media to get traffic to a new company’s website. He did a great job of covering the subject on his The Social Media Marketing Blog. This quote from the story sums it up:

“… I wouldn’t be concerned about getting people to your site/blog. Social media isn’t about getting traffic, it’s about building relationships.”

Read the rest of Social Media for the Entrepreneur to get a good insight on the best practices for using social media. He also includes links to some other really good references.

More than just another crazy internet word, Twitter is a powerful tool for spreading information. With Twitter you can pass along small bits of ministry news, interesting stories from mailing list and blogs, and obviously, “valuable” chunks of information from the Twitter users you follow. These end up being things you could never find the time to print in the church bulletin, post on a website, blog about or blast out to everyone on your email list. Simply the “job” of a ministry program is to spread the word – Twitter is the perfect tool for that.

When I was first introduced to Twitter, it was an immature product that seemed to distribute trivial information about people’s personal lives. I knew I didn’t have time to follow the daily goings on of hundreds of people, so I didn’t buy in at first glance. Since then Twitter has matured into a critical business tool, perfect for following the ideas and whereabouts of people sharing the word of God, combined with your ministry’s thoughts and information.

In our current economic climate, small businesses have to work harder and smarter on the web to compete against King Kong Corporation, with a seemingly endless marketing budget. It also means that small business will have to be more creative and use many of the marketing opportunities the big guys have overlooked. And carve our marketing opportunities where none exist.

Let’s examine one opportunity few businesses are using: Flickr.

Flickr is a social media website owned by Yahoo which allows you to upload and share your pictures with prospects, registered Flickr users as well as the general internet audience. The main attraction of Flickr is its focus on the social sharing of images with their community of the interested viewers. Flickr’s social networking foundation, solid user base and its explosive growth has transformed it into a practical platform for marketing your business, organization or website. Last year one blogger Barry Schwartz started writing about how Flickr can be used as a traffic building tool for your website or online business.

5 Ways to Market with Flickr

Your Website address should be used as your Flickr screen name. Your screen name is used for everything you do on Flickr — it will be associated with every photo you upload and every comment you post in a Flickr group. Use your screen name to market, brand, advertise your website’s address.