False economy What’s in it for me? Understand what makes the

The old marketing tools still apply today.
Despite what social media experts say, 
marketing functions the same way it always has, 
and the same tried-and-true marketing tools still 
apply.
If you look behind all the social media buzz, 
good business still boils down to these basic 
principles.
First, no matter what you are promoting, you rely 
on real offline connections, luck, support and 
other external factors in order to succeed.
If you organize a charity event, for example, and 
invite both people you know personally as well 
as Facebook fans that you hardly ever see, who 

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is more likely to show up to your event? 
Obviously your personal contacts.
Second, you need to be in the media spotlight.
You just can’t get anywhere in marketing without 
the media. A good place to start is always local 
media, so contact them directly to get their 
attention and maybe even some coverage.
For example, your charity event should feature 
something like a fund-raising dancing contest as 
a way to get people interested in your cause.
Third, if you’re working with a small budget, then 
never hire anyone for something that you could 
do yourself.
For example, if you aren’t a PR expert, you can 
still learn about it and start promoting your 
charity event yourself without spending the 
money on a PR manager right away. Save that 
for when you have a bigger budget.
And finally, as a small business owner, focus 
solely on the customer, not on social media.
For smaller operations, the only thing that 
matters are sales. This means that it’s important 
to satisfy the people who actually buy your 
product, and not to collect likes or online 
followers.
One way to optimize your service, product or 
performance is to conduct surveys on your 
customers to find out what to improve or change. 
Looking back to the charity ball, one thing to do 
would be to ask people to rate the event or tell 
you how they heard about it.
For a small business, keeping the customer 
happy is far more important than social media!