# Tips on using social media to promote your company



## iwearyourshirt (Dec 16, 2008)

So if anyone doesn't know who I am, I am a guy who is selling every shirt I am wear for everyday in 2009. I started to promote myself back in October and currently have 1/2 of 2009 sold out! Of course, I am not 100% successful yet, but I think I've learned how to get a solid start. I have solid traffic coming to my website, blogs talking about me, nearly 1,000 followers on twitter (growing daily) and audiences building at video sites.

I know that a lot of you already know about social media (Site Blog, Twitter, Facebook, Ustream.tv, YouTube, etc) but are you actually using it? Setting up a profile on these sites, putting a link to them on your company site and thinking you are done is wrong. If you want a community built around your brand, you need to do just that, get people to come to you by going to them. 

*Twitter* is the EASIEST website ever for this and it costs nothing but your time and dedication. You can follow up to 2,000 people at a time, and trust me, there are easily 2,000 people you want to see your company on Twitter! And you should start there, because you can grow an audience and then start pushing other social media to them _(don't just try to sales pitch everyone, be friendly)_. Get some video going where you: talk about your shirts, show your creative process, model the shirts, do something funny or weird... Create a group on facebook and start inviting people, get some friends and have them talk about you.

Last but not least, try out some live streaming (Ustream.tv is simple!). My first day ever was today and I had nothing super-exciting to talk about, I was just myself. Some people will hate you, some will love you and hopefully you build your brand in the process.

If anyone else has any success stories using social media, please add to this thread. I know a lot of you are on Twitter, stop sitting there reading @THE_REAL_SHAQ and follow some people!


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## deucedesign (Jun 25, 2008)

I've known other marketers to use Twitter, also. Thanks for affirming their tales. Myspace and Facebook have been know to be decent marketing tools, but can be a peice of work to navigate around all of the teens and the chatterbox.

Chase


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## cpix (Aug 25, 2007)

Twitter is awesome. I recently made a Twitter account for my brand and so far I've been getting a lot of good feedback with the free promotion. A couple blog owners even made blog posts about my upcoming line within five hours which was amazing. I think everyone needs to familiarize themselves with Myspace/Facebook/Twitter and whatever other social networking site is hot these days. It definitely helps get the word around.


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## spiralcat (Nov 17, 2008)

It's great when people share this kind of advice, thanks. How much time do you dedicate to social sites?


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## iwearyourshirt (Dec 16, 2008)

spiralcat said:


> It's great when people share this kind of advice, thanks. How much time do you dedicate to social sites?


There is an old saying, you get out of something what you put into it... or something like that.

If you only put in 5 minutes a day, expect a small return. If you can dedicate a couple hours, it is well worth it. You don't want to be spammy, but you want to get involved with people and spark up conversations. Have a little fun, be yourself and make sure to stay on top of it.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> Twitter is awesome. I recently made a Twitter account for my brand


PS. You can add twitter to your T-ShirtForums Profile (so your twitter link shows up under your avatar) by editing your profile here: http://www.t-shirtforums.com/profile.php?do=editprofile


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## cpix (Aug 25, 2007)

iwearyourshirt said:


> There is an old saying, you get out of something what you put into it... or something like that.
> 
> If you only put in 5 minutes a day, expect a small return. If you can dedicate a couple hours, it is well worth it. You don't want to be spammy, but you want to get involved with people and spark up conversations. Have a little fun, be yourself and make sure to stay on top of it.


Yeah, that's the right idea. I work at home as a freelancer so whenever I'm not designing for a client and have some free time, I'm usually on one of the various social networking sites promoting.

"You don't want to be spammy" is good advice.

@Rodney - Thanks I just added it!


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## EnMartian (Feb 14, 2008)

The advice to work on building community and not just to be on the sites selling is spot on. People in these communities get "sold" all the time. Most of them are savvy enough to figure out pretty quickly if a new user is there to contribute or just to sell whatever it is they have to sell. 

If you want to use these sites successfully, you have to think like a contributor who sells things, not a salesperson who contributes. Make sure the contribution comes first. If you do that, sales will follow.


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## iwearyourshirt (Dec 16, 2008)

crackpixels said:


> Yeah, that's the right idea. I work at home as a freelancer so whenever I'm not designing for a client and have some free time, I'm usually on one of the various social networking sites promoting.
> 
> "You don't want to be spammy" is good advice.
> 
> @Rodney - Thanks I just added it!


Sounds like you have the perfect gig to get involved with social media and devote time to it. And yeah, keep it un-spammy, ha. Stick to being yourself and finding your niche.



EnMartian said:


> The advice to work on building community and not just to be on the sites selling is spot on. People in these communities get "sold" all the time. Most of them are savvy enough to figure out pretty quickly if a new user is there to contribute or just to sell whatever it is they have to sell.
> 
> If you want to use these sites successfully, you have to think like a contributor who sells things, not a salesperson who contributes. Make sure the contribution comes first. If you do that, sales will follow.


Very very good point.. These people are so used to get spammed multiple times a day, as we all are. Yeah you may not be a viagra email or one of those weird Nigerian emails, but it's still spam and it can still be annoying.

Ask people if they want to hear more and if they don't, say thank you and move on. You don't have to never engage with them again, but do it on their terms when they are asking questions or you have something of use to offer.


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## badalou (Mar 19, 2006)

Highly recommend youtube.com I do a great business from my 28 videos on there. I just passed over 340,000 views. That is a lot of people. That is a lot of free publicity. If you make shirts. get a model and show your stuff. it is easy and fun. Lou (great thread jason)..


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## iwearyourshirt (Dec 16, 2008)

badalou said:


> Highly recommend youtube.com I do a great business from my 28 videos on there. I just passed over 340,000 views. That is a lot of people. That is a lot of free publicity. If you make shirts. get a model and show your stuff. it is easy and fun. Lou (great thread jason)..


^ ^ ^ This is your perfect success story to any doubters out there. And Lou, it didn't happen overnight did it? It takes time and you have to put some effort into it... but that effort obviously pays off. 

Do you do any keyword searches for your video titles and tagging? I've heard Google is using a lot of YouTube videos now in SEO.


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## badalou (Mar 19, 2006)

iwearyourshirt said:


> ^ ^ ^ This is your perfect success story to any doubters out there. And Lou, it didn't happen overnight did it? It takes time and you have to put some effort into it... but that effort obviously pays off.
> 
> Do you do any keyword searches for your video titles and tagging? I've heard Google is using a lot of YouTube videos now in SEO.


here is something that surprised even me. 'jet pro sofstretch" on yahoo and google both.. On yahoo I am number one!!!! Google number 4.. With all people that are selling this paper and even the manufacturer I was surprised. Lou


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## shersher (Jul 25, 2007)

Social networking has gone down a lot of the last few years. Yes you can create a name for yourself. I have found people just don't pay attention anymore to bulletins on myspace. The problem is they made it harder to navigate to see bulletins and also there is so much software out there for people to use to add friends, post bulletins, send messages that one really does not have to be online. Therefore less people actually seeing what's going on. I started out on myspace in late 04 and it has done well for me, just not the same at all anymore


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## shersher (Jul 25, 2007)

badalou said:


> Highly recommend youtube.com I do a great business from my 28 videos on there. I just passed over 340,000 views. That is a lot of people. That is a lot of free publicity. If you make shirts. get a model and show your stuff. it is easy and fun. Lou (great thread jason)..



I agree with this very much though. I am just waiting to get a video camera to do so


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## Jay Merc (Nov 18, 2008)

iwearyourshirt said:


> So if anyone doesn't know who I am, I am a guy who is selling every shirt I am wear for everyday in 2009. I started to promote myself back in October and currently have 1/2 of 2009 sold out! Of course, I am not 100% successful yet, but I think I've learned how to get a solid start. I have solid traffic coming to my website, blogs talking about me, nearly 1,000 followers on twitter (growing daily) and audiences building at video sites.
> 
> I know that a lot of you already know about social media (Site Blog, Twitter, Facebook, Ustream.tv, YouTube, etc) but are you actually using it? Setting up a profile on these sites, putting a link to them on your company site and thinking you are done is wrong. If you want a community built around your brand, you need to do just that, get people to come to you by going to them.
> 
> *Twitter* is the EASIEST website ever for this and it costs nothing but your time and dedication. You can follow up to 2,000 people at a time, and trust me, there are easily 2,000 people you want to see your company on Twitter! And you should start there, because you can grow an audience and then start pushing other social media to them _(don't just try to sales pitch everyone, be friendly)_. Get some video going where you: talk about your shirts, show your creative process, model the shirts, do something funny or weird... Create a group on facebook and start inviting people, get some friends and have them talk about you.


Thanks for the advise! I'm brand new to this twitter thing. I see how i can follow a bunch of people and I am in the process of doing that, but how to you get so many people to follow you?

I saw one guy who had like 2000 followers and only about a hundred people he was following?

How does that happen?

Thanks for sharing!


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## iwearyourshirt (Dec 16, 2008)

Jay Merc said:


> Thanks for the advise! I'm brand new to this twitter thing. I see how i can follow a bunch of people and I am in the process of doing that, but how to you get so many people to follow you?
> 
> I saw one guy who had like 2000 followers and only about a hundred people he was following?
> 
> ...


Engage in conversation with people. Use the @reply function and talk to some people and have fun with it. I would recommend to not follow 2,000 people right away and then see what happens. It comes off as spam and twitter users don't like it. So keep your following amount steady to your followers and keep it going!

Make sure to promote your twitter account on your website, blog, facebook etc etc.

Another great little hidden resource for twitter is TweetGrid - by jazzychad. I have no affiliation, it is simply a great tool for searching what twitter users are talking about. I tend to search "Tees" and "T-shirts" once a day to see if any new companies are popping up or people are talking about interesting tees. Try it out.


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## Jay Merc (Nov 18, 2008)

iwearyourshirt said:


> Engage in conversation with people. Use the @reply function and talk to some people and have fun with it. I would recommend to not follow 2,000 people right away and then see what happens. It comes off as spam and twitter users don't like it. So keep your following amount steady to your followers and keep it going!
> 
> Make sure to promote your twitter account on your website, blog, facebook etc etc.
> 
> Another great little hidden resource for twitter is TweetGrid - by jazzychad. I have no affiliation, it is simply a great tool for searching what twitter users are talking about. I tend to search "Tees" and "T-shirts" once a day to see if any new companies are popping up or people are talking about interesting tees. Try it out.


Thanks for the info! Love the tweetgrid!

I also love your site.. great concept. brilliant!


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## jshade (Feb 24, 2007)

Its so nice to hear a success story right on T-shirt forums! Jason's t-shirt idea goes to tell us that creative thinking and hard work pay off in the end. Good job Jason, i hope 2010 is as big as a year for you as you hope it will be!


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## surgitech81 (Dec 3, 2008)

badalou said:


> here is something that surprised even me. 'jet pro sofstretch" on yahoo and google both.. On yahoo I am number one!!!! Google number 4.. With all people that are selling this paper and even the manufacturer I was surprised. Lou


I can attest to what Bad Lou is saying. I found him and bought a few things from him long before I found this forum.


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## iwearyourshirt (Dec 16, 2008)

Jay Merc said:


> Thanks for the info! Love the tweetgrid!
> 
> I also love your site.. great concept. brilliant!


Thanks for the compliment, much appreciated! Use tweetgrid wisely and get your name/company/thoughts out there.



jshade said:


> Its so nice to hear a success story right on T-shirt forums! Jason's t-shirt idea goes to tell us that creative thinking and hard work pay off in the end. Good job Jason, i hope 2010 is as big as a year for you as you hope it will be!


I hope so too for 2010! And thinking outside the box is huge... staying inside the box gets you nowhere.

By the way, 2500+ people watched my first live stream of shirt wearing yesterday. That was only the live stream, not including eyeballs on facebook, twitter, youtube (et al) and iwearyourshirt.com!!


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## surgitech81 (Dec 3, 2008)

iwearyourshirt said:


> Thanks for the compliment, much appreciated! Use tweetgrid wisely and get your name/company/thoughts out there.
> 
> 
> I hope so too for 2010! And thinking outside the box is huge... staying inside the box gets you nowhere.
> ...


I wish you all the best Jason, but I do have a concern about your pricing scale. I don't doubt that you will be able to sell shirts straight through Jan. However, once Feb1 rolls around and shirts cost $32 and keep going up, aren't you concerned that sales will plummet. Won't every shirt in Dec. cost $330-$365? The site is a GREAT concept, but my only problem is the price scale


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## iwearyourshirt (Dec 16, 2008)

surgitech81 said:


> I wish you all the best Jason, but I do have a concern about your pricing scale. I don't doubt that you will be able to sell shirts straight through Jan. However, once Feb1 rolls around and shirts cost $32 and keep going up, aren't you concerned that sales will plummet. Won't every shirt in Dec. cost $330-$365? The site is a GREAT concept, but my only problem is the price scale


I've sold 198 days already and am sold out through May (June is half full)


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## cpix (Aug 25, 2007)

surgitech81 said:


> I wish you all the best Jason, but I do have a concern about your pricing scale. I don't doubt that you will be able to sell shirts straight through Jan. However, once Feb1 rolls around and shirts cost $32 and keep going up, aren't you concerned that sales will plummet. Won't every shirt in Dec. cost $330-$365? The site is a GREAT concept, but my only problem is the price scale


I think that's sort of the point. The site will have so much traffic that brand owners will be willing to pay that much for a spot. Obviously everybody will want the earlier months but not everybody's quick.


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## SBEMedia (Jun 26, 2008)

There's also a few other sites which are definitely great for getting your information out there. One is MerchantCircle, www.merchantcircle.com, its a place where you can list your business, write and distribute newsletters/coupons/blogs all for free. It also helps with SEO since they do get a tremendous amount of hits. Also a good widget is called Digsby (www.digsby.com) it helps organize all the social marketing engines and email into one place, I hate having to track down all the different websites I update on.


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## SimplyTopUK (Jan 10, 2009)

Thanks for telling me that Twiiter is quite good to get your brand out there, You think you can wear one of our tshirts?


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## jkruse (Oct 10, 2008)

At first I thought the more people I got on myspace or other social sites the better, but now I realize my flaw. Making personal connections is what matters most. It doesn't matter if you have a million friends, if they don't care about what you're doing it doesn't matter.

Be a human being, connect with them on a personal level, don't be that spammy business that sends out hundreds of bulletins.


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## iwearyourshirt (Dec 16, 2008)

jkruse said:


> At first I thought the more people I got on myspace or other social sites the better, but now I realize my flaw. Making personal connections is what matters most. It doesn't matter if you have a million friends, if they don't care about what you're doing it doesn't matter.
> 
> Be a human being, connect with them on a personal level, don't be that spammy business that sends out hundreds of bulletins.


This is great advice. It's not about knowing 10,000 useless people, it's about knowing 100 worthwhile people. That group of 100 will work for you and spread the word!


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## anonimol (May 7, 2008)

Hey Jason, I hope I win giveaway on this forum, so I can see you wearing my kids' shirt  That would be fun....
But seriously- I love the concept of your website!


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## Relik Apparel (Jul 10, 2009)

iwearyourshirt said:


> So if anyone doesn't know who I am, I am a guy who is selling every shirt I am wear for everyday in 2009.


Congratulations!  I think you came up with a brilliant idea!

I am new to this business and just saw u have 19k followers on Twitter, wow! I would love to have you wear one of our shirts even more than once a year, but as mentioned above concerned about the current price or dates available.

What are your sales up to now?


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## ladyumbrella (Aug 25, 2009)

Hey Dee, thanks for finding this post hehe..

Lots of useful info here and I agree Twitter and social networking is so important these days..getting an idea that will snowball and go viral, like the t-shirt a day, is key...if only there was an easy way of getting such a great idea...hehe, maybe I'll wear 2 t-shirts a day for a year


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## Relik Apparel (Jul 10, 2009)

Lol, sure. Build up an audience of followers and you can sell just about any idea


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## murphy (Mar 21, 2006)

very good info


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