Pearlie Perryman ⋅ Atlanta, GA M.A.P Transport Services LLC ⋅ 2 years experience

Here are a few simple things you can do:

1) In your email signature, include a link to your Facebook page.

2) Invite new people you meet to connect with you via your Facebook page during a follow email.

3) Add you Facebook page to your business cards.

4) Invite new Facebook connections to like your page.

5) To build your audience organically, share posts that they will be most interested in. (Do not think about what you would like. Think about what your target market will like and create posts or share links about that).

6) Ask questions in your post to keep your audience engaged. This will encourage people so share posts on their page and their friends will be able to see it, and in turn, they will see where the original post came from-your page.

7) Keep posts short. People have a tendency not to read long posts. (30 to 40 words)

8) Post mostly content and interesting things. So a rule of thumb is to make 80% of your posts content oriented (articles, links, pictures). The other 20% can be used to promote products and services you offer.

9) Have a giveway or a contest. One of the stipulations of the contest can be to comment on or share a link; possibly even tell a mini story about themselves relating to a topic of your choice. This will generate activity on your page, and it will have people already connected to your page sharing your page with others.

10) Post content on your Facebook business page and share it on your personal Facebook page. This will allow you to share with family and friends who have not liked your Facebook business page already. They can see content from your business page and may decide to eventually like your page.

11) Remember it takes time to build an audience so be consistent. Post regularly. You don't want new people coming to your page and see that you haven't posted in a week. They will not like your page because they will think that the user is inactive.

Tonya Hempstead ⋅ Riverview, FL American Express Global Business Travel ⋅ 10 years experience

Hi Ron-

I agree with the other advice and recommendations you received. I would also recommend increasing your networking opportunities by targeting specific people, groups or venues through social media. By liking/following them and sharing your achievements, you can open the door to a wider audience.

Krystal Yates ⋅ Lewisville, TX EBR Consulting, LLC ⋅ 19 years experience

It sounds like you need to build your audience organically for the best results. Pearlie makes some very good points I would take her advice. I would add though - which is advice from a social media marketer I have worked with - be consistent. Decide how many times a week you are going to post and make sure you do it. Pick days and times so your audience knows when to look for you.

Todd Del Tufo ⋅ La Habra, CA U.S. Army Reserve, Captain ⋅ 13 years served

HI RON,

http://lesbrown.com/speaker-training/enroll-in-training.html

This is what you need!

Check It Out.

God Luck!

Tod

wayne seguin ⋅ Locust Grove, GA Georgia Bureau of Investigation ⋅ 17 years experience

Google allows you to do everything that people charge you for free. Your business are you using a home address or do you have a location? Where is your website, are you using a blog type site or is it proper HTML? Are you trying to speak locally, in a geographic area, or any where? Who is your audience, why do they want to hear you, will they pay for hot travel?

Roman Soboliev ⋅ Quincy, MA Hewlett Packard ⋅ 5 years experience

Ron,

First and for most, thank you for your service.
Pearlie already gave great advice. The only thing I'd add is concider bundling up your social platforms. I'm not sure what exactly you plan to do, but some people are more responcive to Instagram and Twitter vs FB.
Also, you might want to concider creating your Youtube channel and produce video podcast to share on your FB page. Going forward once you build up your following you will be able to monitize it based upon number of viewers.
Hope this helps.

-Roman

June R Massoud ⋅ Burlington, VT School Boards/Teaching, Tutoring Business and Technical Business ⋅ 25 years experience

Don't get obsessed with spending too much time on the internet. You need to go out, meet people in business and network. Join business groups and meet people. The last thing you want is to end up depressed and isolated.
Best,
June R Massoud

Walt Overfield ⋅ Virginia Beach, VA United Healthcare ⋅ 15 years experience

Ron,
Another way to get more people to your webpage is by using Search Engine Optimization or SEO.
Google the phrase to understand how to do it. Basically, it means using the right key words in your web site description so that when people use a search engine to find "motivational public speakers" etc. your web site shows up near the top of page one. I tried it about 8 years ago when I started my business and it worked for me. I had to research key words and come up with about 20 or 30 words or phrases that people might enter. Then I had to enter those words and phrases in the right place on my web page. Finally, I had to submit my web page to all the search engines I wanted to connect with. I found free software to help manage the whole process including key word research.
Also, have you developed a business plan for public speaking? The plan will help you answer all the questions you currently have and most of the questions you may not have asked but will need to address in the future. Your local SBA office can be a great resource to get you started.
Good Luck!
Walt

Gerald Mannikarote ⋅ Houston, TX dMann Training Technologies ⋅ 20 years experience

Ron,
It looks like you have received a lot of advice and I think all of it is very good. Jamie has provided you with several resources that are FREE. I have used a few of them myself and have achieved great results.
As mentioned by others, start developing and posting great content. You will not be spending anything for that. You can do that with a Wordpress or Blogspot page. Provide quality free content to your audience. Link your posts to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and whatever else you can think of. This will help you gain more exposure and grow your content organically. People no longer just 'wander' onto your website.
Once you obtain some amount of money to invest, you can buy a website and link your blog to it and it will look more professional. By this point you will have a dedicated readership and following. You can begin to develop a product to sell and pitch it to your audience.
I hope this helps.

Jerry

Michael Marshall ⋅ Chester, VA Transformational Leadership Coaching and Consulting, LLC ⋅ 20 years experience

Before implementing a solution/s on building a 'following' ... what is the 'gift' you are offering? You may have this well defined but it is not evident in your request. People must know what you have to offer that is worth their consideration and that is not currently evident in your overview. Build clarity on your EIM (End in Mind), define your target audience/s, and then - implement some of the great ideas people have already offered in their responses. all the best ...

Spencer Smith ⋅ Madison, WI Spencer X Smith ⋅ 16 years experience

Hi Ron -

As a fellow speaker that spends zero on advertising, here's what I did (a lesson learned from our rock band) -

Gather email addresses at your next speaking engagement. Present wherever you can for free (Chambers of Commerce, networking groups, service groups) and actually distribute hard-copy sign-up sheets for your email list during the presentation.

Offer some incentive like a free yet-to-be-written eBook, report, etc. That's what I did before my book was done. Many speakers just ask those in the crowd to "Like Me on Facebook," or "Follow Me on Twitter," and people in the crowd sometimes do and sometimes don't. The handwritten sheets really did wonders for me.

Handwritten sign-ups during an in-person presentation yields almost 100% of the audience, in my experience.

Then they’re part of your mailing list!

We used this same idea with our rock band. The absolute best time to sell merchandise is directly after you're done performing. Your presentation "performance" helps capture that same enthusiasm via an in-person hard-copy sign-up sheet. My mailing list growth, as a result of this idea, has been 270% in the past three months.

Good luck!
Spencer X Smith
http://www.spencerxsmith.com

Jamie MacMillan ⋅ Fairfax, CA Cosmic Cart ⋅ 20 years experience

Since you are trying to build an audience there are two things I'd recommend:

#1 as mentioned before, create GREAT content for your website. Take time putting it together and when you post make sure you are proud of that content and will be 5 years from now. It will take some time to build a following, but if you are consistently creating great content you will get an audience. A couple of examples to learn from would be Tim Ferris (http://fourhourworkweek.com) and Ramit Sethi (http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com). Read through their blogs, especially their early stuff from a few years ago. You can see how they evolved over time, but you'll also see that their older content is still relevant today and still gets a lot of traffic.

#2 - start collecting an email list NOW. This will be your most valuable asset as you build your business. You can do this by just putting a button on your site and FB page saying something like "sign up here for our newsletter". Even if you aren't going to have a newsletter for several months, start collecting emails. After you have created some decent content you can then start to send out a monthly email that has a quick few sentence summary and link to a few of your best posts from that month. You'll be amazed how many emails you'll have if you are creating great content consistently for 6-12 months.

Once you figure out how you will be monetizing your traffic/audience the email list will be very, very useful.

Here are some good free (mostly) resources for learning about search engine optimization, which can help you drive traffic to your website (I posted these on another thread):

Seobook.com - Aaron Wall puts out a lot of great material for free on his site and the paid section is even better. Start out by reading everything he's posted on his blog (it goes back years, tons of good info there).

johnon.com - John Andrews has put out a lot of great material as well, though you'll need to read between the lines a bit as he's not going to just lay out every tactic or shift in black and white. He'll suggest things to consider and in general he's way ahead of the curve. Read everything on his site and sign up for his newsletter.

bluehatseo.com - I haven't read Eli's stuff in a while, but the stuff I read a few years back was very good and quite descriptive with tactics. The tactics have likely been degraded by now, but read his stuff and you'll get an idea of the mindset of the types of folks that push the boundaries and test to find an edge. Start with "The Original" and read everything there.

Gary Vaynerchuck's stuff is pretty solid for social media (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube)

Jonathan Horn ⋅ Needham Heights, MA Coca-Cola ⋅ 12 years experience

Ron,

I agree with comments made by another advisor in his answer to your question. Ron Schaefer from Santa Barbara, CA had dropped the name of Gary Vaynerchuk as a source for good information through youtube and/or his books. I recommend the same as well. He talks a lot about the best ways to utilize social media and internet platforms as a way to engage audiences while getting you motivated in the process. I am currently reading another one of his books "The Thank You Economy." Definitely worth checking out.

Laura Zoerner ⋅ Littleton, CO W.L. Gore & Associates ⋅ 20 years experience

There are a lot of good ideas here for you. One other you might consider is to use LinkedIn. If you are trying to get a following by talking about things of the mind, engage people who use their mind every day.

You can create a discussion on LinkedIn and engage people for conversation. Here, you can explore your topic and see how peoe resonate on The topics. Also, you can link them to your Facebook page.

Keep in mind that Facebook is a more social forum. Ask yourself who your target audience is and if they are using Facebook for what your are offering. If not, find where they are! That might be a platform more like LinkedIn.

On LinkedIn, there was a gal who posted she has more than 1M followers now and how she got there. Go explore!

Christopher Ahlberg ⋅ Holtsville, NY Recorded Future, Inc. ⋅ 15 years experience

The funny thing about getting people to "show up at your website/blog" is that you can do a lot of stuff at the edges, costing money, that will help - i.e. advertising, fancy design, spread content on twitter/facebook/linkedin, identify thought leaders and subtly get it to them so that they spread.

BUT... all that said - the only thing that matters really is your content. If you write good content in good language in a consistent way people will show up. It might take a while and you need to be consistent. Don't write a nobel prize aspiring novel and post hoping for a million visitors. Write short good stuff and Google will make sure that your content will match people searching for such content.

So -
a) write about something interesting.
b) be consistent. a blog should be a about one subject. not many. Google will
score your content in areas, and it's really hard to win on many. stay true to one subject.
c) keep language consistent
d) keep a steady (once a week?) pace, posting every Tuesday at 8am or similar.
e) if there's a subject/name/theme/category to what you write about - drizzle that in in relevant
places (titles, headers, html tags, etc) - but don't overdo it. both people and Google will see through that in 2 seconds... and never be back.
f) and of course, the subject in e) need to be something that people care about :)

Once you've done that you can do lots of completely free stuff with Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn.

Then... you can spend some money perhaps... but not until then!

cleotha webster ⋅ Homewood, IL U.S. Army, Private First Class ⋅ 5 years served

You may want to cinsider a website and app called constant contct. It allowfor mass mailing and advertising across the internet and mass snail mail.

Catherine Wilson ⋅ Courtland, VA 5LINX Enterprises Inc. Independent Mkt Rep ⋅ 10 years experience

Hi Ron
The suggestions above are great. Add to these: submitting your Facebook and website URL to top search engines like Google and Bing. They may select your sites to crawl and drive more traffic to your sites. Search: Free URL website submit Google.

Heather Gillbanks ⋅ Houston, TX General Electric ⋅ 26 years experience

To me, the answer to your question depends on whether your business is based more on quantity of eyeballs of quality. meaning: Do you need (or should you think about) targeting? Or are you truly a mass marketer? Because your approach should differ.

I do agree with the feedback above, I'd simply suggest that you filter the advice based on the central question "who am I trying to attract and why?"

Best of luck!
-heather

Michael Del Vecchio ⋅ Killingworth, CT U.S. Army, Staff Sergeant ⋅ 3 years served

Good Morning, Ron

I would not jump the gun and do anything until you refine your target audience and message them appropriately - social media may be the right communications medium, but maybe not. In any case, you may be wasting time and effort without a plan.

The best way to get assistance with your business is to contact local a SCORE (https://www.score.org/) or SBDC (https://www.sba.gov/tools/local-assistance/sbdc) mentor and have a conversation with people who have been there. There may be local experts (free) or you may be able to find one on line. Contact me with questions.

Take care, best of luck.

Louis Schwarz ⋅ Somerville, NJ AIG ⋅ 43 years experience

Do not forget your military experience. Many young people would like to discuss carriers and you may be able to provide a point of view and a guide for them.. They need to hear from experience, the pluses and minus of a military commitment. Even some active military may want to discuss tomorrow with you. Your experience is valuable..

Mark Johnson ⋅ Beltsville, MD Bds marketing / Banking ⋅ 4 years experience

Try google logistics
they have tutorials and some free tips

Janey McCarthy ⋅ Pikesville, MD Retex Retail Technology Consortium ⋅ 25 years experience

When you tweet a hashtag word or phrase, it's very effective if that word or phrase is repeated on your website. The cross reference will pollinate both locations.

Omar Sultan ⋅ Elk Grove, CA Cisco ⋅ 25 years experience

One free thing you can do is identify the watering holes for your target audience--web sites, message boards, local meet-ups, etc. and start hanging out there and listening and participating and building positive reputation. Its important to not spam these venues, but legitimately contribute to the conversation--as folks start to recognize you as a useful dude, they will come to you and check out FB, LinkedIn, your profile/bio, etc.

Ron Schaefer ⋅ Santa Barbara, CA Montecito Retirement Association ⋅ 23 years experience

A lot of good advice here already. One more I would add is to look at a speaker, Gary Vaynerchuck, who rebuilt his dad's business using social media. You can find him on YouTube (look for some of his keynote speeches) and he has some great books on social media, the most current (and complete) being "Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook".

Best,
Ron

Courtney Gordon-Tennant ⋅ Port Washington, NY US Navy JAG Corps ⋅ 7 years experience

Ron,
Also suggest using Linkedin and linking it to your other social media.

Cedric Cook ⋅ Richmond, TX IBM ⋅ 19 years experience

Hi Ron -

I would recommend you taking what you've described here and open a campaign on a Crowd-funding website. One in particular is Kiva.org.. This site is setup such that as you become prosperous through your business, you can repay (kinda like dividends) those who have invested. Another part of what you can do to get the word out is write white-papers on various topics and publish via facebook or other social media sites.. Once folks go to those sites, you can direct them to download to capture their contact information.. Once you have the contact information, you can Market additional "for fee" service-offerings.

I hope that this helps...

Regards,

Cedric

Jennifer Polhemus ⋅ Santa Monica, CA Precision Research (self-employed) ⋅ 25 years experience

Work on become a thought leader in your field, to help build your online reputation. Contribute insightful, targeted comments (not just amplifying what others have said already) to blogs & FB pages relevant to your enterprise.

Emanuel Carpenter ⋅ Alpharetta, GA SDR Master Class ⋅ 20 years experience

Ron:

You'll find tons of great advice on this page:
https://growthhackers.com/

Also, consider adding Twitter posts to your repertoire. When you tweet with hashtags, you'll get more followers. Then direct those followers to your Facebook page.

Also, there are many specials you can find online to try Google AdWords for free. That way, people who are searching for popular but generic terms can find your Facebook page.