Facebook starting easy...

Ok timer set...and...go!
59 minutes and 59 seconds to go! My first day trying to promote my new T-shirt designs for graduates is underway!

I referred to my (rather basic) marketing plan and decided to start with what network marketers call your warm market - or people you know. I went to university with a load of people who I am still in contact with (more or less) on Facebook so firstly I posted a link onto my profile including a picture of one of my designs and a short message explaining that I had made some T shirt designs for graduates and that I wanted some feedback. I think its important when you are doing this kind of marketing to avoid a hard sell - I mean be honest with yourself - are you going to respond to something that just says - Buy this!? By asking for feedback firstly you are more likely for people to take a serious look at what you are offering and secondly you might get some helpful advice or ideas that you wouldn't have thought of on your own.

I then moved onto creating friend lists of all my friends who had been to/going to Goldsmiths uni and sent them all the link with the Goldsmiths specific designs; again asking for feedback. One problem was that although you could make friend lists as long as you wanted, you could only message a list of up to 20 names, so I had to break up my original list into three sub-lists and do each of them individually.

My next task was to reach out to the relevant 'groups' for people who dont use Facebook groups are entities which provide information and connect people of similar interests. They have their own profile and message board. I already had a specific Goldsmiths group in mind where I posted my link.

Another neat thing about Facebook groups is that they list how many members they have so I then spent some time searching for Goldsmiths groups and noting down the names of the larger ones.

After doing a search for student forums related to Goldsmiths and posting a new thread (asking for feedback and including my link) my time was up! Phew - there really isnt that much you can do in an hour!

Tomorrow I will be starting to promote my generic site as well by targeting more Facebook groups and student forums.