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Cure Apparel does a good job of personally<br />
interacting with its fans on Facebook<br />
Brains on Fire discusses Word of Mouth<br />
movements for your brand.<br />
THREAD’S NOT DEAD • Jeff Finley<br />
Speaking of Facebook, do you have<br />
a fan page yet? If <strong>not</strong>, get on it. Every<br />
business is jumping on the bandwagon<br />
so it’s getting kind of tired already.<br />
But as I write this, it’s essential. Most<br />
books I read reiterate the fact that you<br />
shouldn’t just get on Facebook because<br />
everyone is doing it. You do it to get involved<br />
with your customer’s lives and<br />
add real value to them. This is social<br />
media 101 and a reminder that it’s <strong>not</strong><br />
always about you.<br />
Don’t use a fan page as a self promotional<br />
shout box. But use it to empower<br />
your fans and promote them. Offer exclusive<br />
deals they can’t get anywhere<br />
else. Give them sneak peeks of new<br />
products and ask for their insight into<br />
what designs you should print next. I<br />
see Kelly from Cure Apparel do this<br />
often. He’ll give the fans a choice and<br />
they have a say in what gets released.<br />
He also posts links to content relevant<br />
to his audience that’s NOT about him.<br />
By doing so, he’s creating a loyal following.<br />
Pretty cool huh?<br />
If what I said wasn’t enough, there are<br />
lots of articles and books on social media.<br />
Anthony at TeeBiz posted some<br />
tips on selling tees through social<br />
media. For books, I recommend Trust<br />
Agents and Brains on Fire. Trust Agents<br />
is like the bible for anyone who is trying<br />
to build influence on the web. Brains on<br />
Fire is about igniting authentic word of<br />
mouth movements. Two must-reads for<br />
any social media nerd. (like me)<br />
Blog Your Way to Success<br />
The hands down best way to advertise for free is blogging. Keep putting out<br />
great content and people will keep coming back. It sounds so easy and in fact it<br />
IS really easy to start blogging. But people tend to run out of things to say and<br />
their blog dries up like a shriveled hamburger patty left out in the sun.<br />
If you think of blogging as a way to promote<br />
your brand, it makes it easier to find<br />
that motivation to post. Come up with interesting<br />
posts that engage the user but<br />
also help drive traffic and sales to your<br />
site. That’s the reward you get for writing<br />
good content!<br />
The Power of Other Bloggers<br />
Keep putting out great<br />
content and people will<br />
keep coming back.<br />
We’ve been able to build a solid fan base and other sources of income through our<br />
blog GoMediaZine.com. It’s a platform for us to write about our expertise.<br />
I must mention how important it is to network with other bloggers. As a clothing<br />
company, you have products that you can offer in exchange for write-ups and<br />
reviews. There are currently lots of blogs dedicated to the t-shirt world like I am<br />
the Trend, Assault, Pop Culture Tees, Hide Your Arms, OMG Tees, and more.<br />
Jon Kruse of Mediocre Clothing was smart about this from the beginning. He<br />
says, “I make friends with blog owners and have them get the word out for<br />
me. Each of these people gets thousands of visitors to their t-shirt blogs every<br />
Branding & Marketing 61
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