With websites, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and Snapchat we have the ability to connect with clients and friends from around the world.
You may think that because you sell fine teapots, your clients are generally not shopping online and spending time on social media. That might be true but you are literally within a friend request or two of reaching every possible client in the world. According to Wikipedia, “Six degrees of separation is the idea that all living things and everything else in the world are six or fewer steps away from each other so that a chain of ‘a friend of a friend’ statements can be made to connect any two people in a maximum of six steps.”
You have friends and they have friends. Imagine your best friend Susan needs a teapot. She looks at your web page, MyTeaPot.com and finds one she loves so she buys it from you. Susan then posts a picture of it to Facebook on a cold morning and tags your business’ Facebook page. Her sister Molly sees the picture and buys one to use in her office. While working on a late night project, she posts to Snapchat with the teapot on her desk. Molly’s cousin Margaret sees the picture and realizes that a teapot would be a perfect gift for Grandma’s 90th birthday and she too visits your web page and orders. When Margaret delivers the teapot to Grandma, the weekly bridge group loves it so much they each want one!
So, Grandma’s bridge group may not be on the internet, Facebook or Snapchat but people they know are and because of that the bridge group has stopped playing cards on Sunday mornings and enjoys hosting tea parties instead. Each of them uses their favorite new teapot from your shop!
Every one of your current and future customers is within six degrees of your handcrafted teapots. Your task is to determine how to make those connections! Websites and social media are an easy and inexpensive way to reach large groups of people.