Guerrilla Marketing Techniques for Social Media Marketers
The other evening I attended my first Social Media Club Melbourne meetup to listen to 3 local entrepreneurs chat about how they’re using social media effectively to build their businesses and their brands. The three blokes in the spotlight were:
- Scott Kilmartin from Haul
- Steve Sammartino from Rentoid.com and
- Sahil Merchant from MagNation
I’d had the pleasure of interviewing Scott Kilmartin on the Small Business Big Marketing podcast and Steve and Sahil were certainly of the same caliber; intelligent and inspiring. Trevor Young also did a great job hosting the evening.
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There’s something I didn’t understand though. There were probably 40 or 50 attendees there to learn about Social Media Marketing from 3 guys who are using it to build buzz around their brand. And doing it very well I might add. Essentially, people were there to hear about others’ techniques for marketing their businesses.
Yet, I was the only one in the room employing an age old, simple, cheap, guerrilla marketing technique. I’ll share the secret with you – it’s a branded t-shirt.
I just don’t get it. Is is perhaps bad etiquette to brand yourself at these events? Did I commit some sort of faux pas by wearing a branded t-shirt to a networking event? If I did then there’s surely some irony in it.
It’s funny how people will use something as relatively sophisticated as social media marketing yet not do the basics. This T-shirt cost all of about $20, yet every time I wear it in public – at a networking event or just walking down the street, it’s generating brand awareness.
Apart form being a branding tool, it’s also a good icebreaker. People who are familiar with the brand come up and say g’day – and people who aren’t ask what the business does. I might have handed out a couple of business cards that evening, but almost every person in the room laid eyes on the brand.
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My experience: Meetups become “dress to impress” events and branding goes out the window.
Good for you Luke – Guerilla market the heck out of Flippa!
Totally agree Luke! Not sure about the faux pas-ness of it, but as long as you’re not violating any dress code, I don’t see the problem!
I was thinking about this exact same thing on the weekend. My business focusses on one particular industry/market (mining industry) so it makes sense at industry events to have your brand literally on. Last week I had on a shirt with my website logo on it front and back and just walking around the airport it was remarkable how many people were looking at it. And because of the airport it was and the time of day it was, I know that many of them are in the mining industry.
My suggestion would be though to add your website address under the logo and even on the back (top, centre). Give people (like me) who might not ask a way to find out what the hell that shirt was you were wearing!
Cheers,
Jamie
I stumbled across this post as I am one of the Social Media Club organisers along with Trevor and a couple others.
Glad you came along, that was our second event and we were still getting our format right. The speakers were fantastic. I want a boxer as my brand ambassador.
Absolutely no faux pas in shameless self promotion at these sort of events. Isn’t that what they are all about? Sharing stories about what each are doing online. I was trying to get everyone to write their twitter handle on their name tags at the door.
I reckon real world branding reinforces the social presence quite a bit. Although I will admit to not knowing the Flippa brand at the time and not seeing the t shirt that night.