Yesterday, I was asked by an artist friend of mine about setting up a website to get commissions. I told her the story of how a dear old friend of mine put a couple of images of her paintings of our old village up on Plaxo. I saw them and commented how much I liked them. I told my wife how much I liked them and later that year she contacted our friend and bought a print of the picture I liked for my birthday. I was so delighted with the present.
This interaction is a lovely example of how social media marketing can support selling. Simply by letting her friends know that she had created something of value, my friend ended up selling a print to me (and hopefully others).
I think the interesting thing about this example is that she created something of value. Imagine if you you had found the cure for cancer. Wouldn’t you just want to tell the world? Now I appreciate that’s a bit of an inflated example, but it illustrates my point. Create something of value and then tell the world about it.
Anyway, my artist friend is off to learn about Twitter and Facebook before she goes through the work of setting up a site.