If You Sell Products or Services You Are in Business

If you are a comedian looking for paying gigs or a dog groomer looking for dogs to groom, you are in business.

Why am I stating what may be obvious?

Because of an email response I got in which the person said something was too "business" and the person was in "entertainment."

Let me state this as clearly as I can:

"Business" is NOT a dirty word. In fact, it is what fuels the U.S. economy — the more business the healthier the economy.

And while we are on the subject, "selling" is also NOT a dirty word. We do need to sell our products and services in order to have an ongoing business.

But if the sales part of your business makes you uncomfortable, you should be embracing social media wholeheartedly.

Why? Because social media is about sharing information related to your products or services rather than pushing out sales messages. And this sharing of information helps create relationships between you and your target audiences that can lead to the purchase of your products or services.

Instead of assuming that what worked in the past still works today, it's important to have an open mind to learning about the new opportunities that online marketing presents to your business.

And the first place to make sure that you are presenting your business effectively in today's Facebook era is your website. Read my blog post "The Importance of Effective Websites" about how you are presenting your business online.

© 2011 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company Miller Mosaic, LLC, which offers "done for you" and "do it yourself" social media services at www.millermosaicllc.com/services/

Information about Phyllis' fiction books and ebooks is available on her Amazon author page at http://budurl.com/PZMAmazon