Building a Local Tribe - Pay to Play ? No Way

January 08, 2018

 

One of the biggest challenges of being a business owner is new customer acquisition. 

Gone are the days of free Facebook traffic, Instagram follows and high rising pins without paying for play. 

I started Shop LuLu in 2005 after leaving the tech industry. If you only know me as LuLu you would not know some of the things that I had accomplished, I single handedly started on the the largest online Free Tech Job posting boards to gain employment in the Philadelphia area which no only helped candidates find jobs, it catapulted my career into Rock Star status. 

I walked away from that job because it was time, I am one that loves a good challenge and after I pretty much capped out my earning potential and decided to start a family, I just quit. No big goodbye, I pretty much just walked away. 

ShopLuLu.com started as just a little business to keep my brain busy while I figured out my next move. Little did I know that hustling cute and cheap fashion accessories would bring me the joy of social marketing and financial opportunities. 

Shop LuLu was one of the first companies to utilize a Facebook FanPage to capture sales and directly sell to our customers, creating our own commerce system. Later studied by companies and I was hired on to consult with a Comment Sold media company technology caught up to what I was doing and Facebook soon shut down the ability to source such traffic and sales. 

Fast Forward to Today, in 2018 it's all about engagement. Simply, the more your Post is liked, clicked and shared, the more visible it becomes, the more eyes on your website and with the right tribe, it can bring brand awareness to your company from market segments you may have never engaged with before. 

What does a Tribe do ? 

The Simple Answer  We follow, like and share each other's posts, products and tweets to create momentum on posts. 

The Longer Answer We create long term relationships and engagements with like minded consumers and once relationships are forged, we create giveaways and contests to engage new customers to our respective companies. 

 

Let me give you an example.... for 13 years I have spent creating relationships with customers who really like what I do. I give them awesome fashion accessories for a fraction of the price that they find online on bigger sites.  My customers know me, they know that if I like something and they like me, they trust my judgement. If I share information about a business, a product, I have worked really hard on creating those relationships and most of my long term customers are way more than just people who buy from me, they really are my own tribe. When I share a post, or like a post they will see it and knowing that we are like minded, they will most likely like it to, even if it is not a " click or a like " it is an imprint. A tiny note in their collective minds that " Hey, this XXX is out there " maybe it becomes a referral or a conversation but it is exposure. 

 

A tribe creates awareness, engagement and exposure and the best part is that it is free.  

 

Want to be in my Tribe ?  Just Join our Brand New Facebook Group and we will start a Tribe of our Own !  

 

Click to the Cactus to Be Taken to our Facebook Group where we will trade bios and create free like minded pods that will benefit one another. 

 

 

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