Fanny Farmer Got it Right

I was a sucker for the candy lady. This must be why social media marketing is so fun for me. It's more than just creating backlinks. Let me explain.

The candy lady was a sweet grandmotherly type that worked for Fanny Farmer. I don't work for Fanny Farmer by the way, but I do love their chocolates. It seemed to me that the candy lady was always standing just outside the store so she could be seen easily from all four directions as Fanny Farmer occupied the coveted corner store in our local shopping mall. The thing I liked about the candy lady is that I could experience the joy of a piece of chocolate every time I went to the mall without buying anything. She would always look at me with that smile and then extend the decadent silver platter of rich chocolate and with a simple nod, she knew that I would walk over and try one. How could I resist someone so confident in their product that they could share it freely without fear of "giving the store away." And oh, by the way, I did buy from Fanny Farmer on occasion because my wife likes their chocolates as much as I do.

Great Internet marketing reminds me of the candy lady. Astute social media marketers know that you almost never lose when you provide potential customers with a sample of your "delicious expertise" in the form of a tweet, a video or an update posted to a few of your favorite social media spots. The best tweeters I know give their best too. They try to do it every time they tweet. They know that pretenders are everywhere on the internet and that today's savvy buyer can spot a pretender a mile a way. I am now of the opinion that quality is just as important as quantity actually; that a well written article that provides information freely and is easy and fun to read may be more important than a few tweets or updates that are short on substance. This is especially true as clutter increases in our information rich lives.

Use your imagination, and remember the Fanny Farmer candy lady when creating backlinks and posting content. She never worried that she was giving out too much of a good thing, because it always came back to her at the cash register. You shouldn't worry about it either because if you are good at what you do, sharing it freely and effectively always comes back to you one way or another.

Tim Calcara is the President of Giving Media - http://www.givingforaliving.com - and the Director of Marketing for Future Choice LLC, a social media and search engine marketing company. The mission of Giving Media is to partner with broadcasters to provide SEO and Social Media Marketing services for their customers. Contact Tim at tim@givingforaliving.com or call him at (319) 213 7275.