Growing your business is not a solo job—good thing that sharing your growth with a social partner is a great way to expand online reach and bring more people to your website. Let’s start with the basics: who is a social partner? Any business owner who has a message or customer base that’s similar to yours can qualify. Even if you’re not a social butterfly, stepping out of your comfort zone and making friends in the business world could be your best growth decision yet. Find out how in Growth Tactic #79, Find a Social Partner for Shared Growth and continue along your 100-Day Digital Growth Plan journey.
OVERVIEW–Find a Social Partner for Shared Growth
Once you’ve envisioned your potential social partner, what can you do to make it all happen? Although there are endless shared-growth possibilities, we will focus on two of them. One method entails sharing your partner’s online reach through shared content. This approach is less formal and relies on agreeing to promote each other’s content on a consistent basis. If you prefer a more formal approach, consider entering a partnership with your newfound social colleague (and I don’t mean taking them out to dinner). This arrangement involves creating a piece of content (infographic, video, blog post, etc.) or launching a campaign together. Formal or not, asking other businesses to help promote your content requires commitment and responsibility. If you’re ready to enter a new, exciting phase of business relationships to promote growth, check out the steps below.
HOW-TO
STEP ONE: Select some potential social partners and contact them about your shared-growth objectives. The best social partners will have common business interests, products or services that complement yours (rather than directly competing with yours), a strong online presence and similar clientele goals. But before contacting your potential partners (through email or another medium you see fit), try a little schmoozing by mentioning them in your blog posts. Who would say no to positive publicity?
STEP TWO: Once you have established who your social partner(s) will be, it’s game plan time. Decide whether to take a less formal approach by committing to promote each other’s content, or to formalize your arrangement by publishing content or launching a campaign together. Maybe even go content crazy and try both!
STEP THREE: Agree on a promotion plan with your partner and get to work. This could mean hyperlinking their relevant posts within your content or tweeting about their awesome products. If you and your partner want to create content together, consider co-hosting an instructional video or creating an email campaign that highlights both businesses.
RESOURCES AND TOOLS
- Buzzsumo (allows users to analyze the most popular content for any topic)
- Using Partnerships to Accelerate Content Marketing & Link Building (why partnerships are a good idea)
- How to Find Co-Marketing Partners for Your Business (a guide to picking the right social partner)
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