Free Marketing: 101 Low and No-Cost Ways to Grow Your Business, Online and Off

CHAPTER 78

SHARE YOUR LIFE OPENLY FOR MARKETING AUTHENTICITY

The bar has been raised.

Now more than ever customers and prospects want to know the people behind the businesses they are doing business with.

I made the observation a couple of years ago that a lot of CEOs were starting to appear in television commercials. That was extremely uncommon 15 years ago. It's almost as if all big businesses are now on trial, and they are all trying to convince us that they really are human at their core. Those megacorporations have a difficult challenge in front of them, don't they? How can a billion-dollar company connect with the average guy on Facebook? They are recognizing the same thing we all are: We want to do business with people we know and trust. We want to do business with people.

We have it easier as smaller businesses. Just by the nature of our size we are automatically more approachable. If you use the right tools, you can build life-long loyal relationships (yes, even online).

We've all heard the skeptical business people say things like, “I don't need Facebook, I don't care what someone had for breakfast today.” A statement like that tells me that they don't quite get it. They will eventually, if they have a cause, a dream, or a business to share.

An essential element of raising the trust level between you and those that your business is trying to attract is authenticity. Perhaps the best way to build a relationship based on authenticity is to openly share and discuss details ...