Creating Pre-Launch Buzz

I presented a seminar on Social Media Marketing the other day and one of the questions that came up was “What’s the point of learning all this when my website isn’t even up yet?”

My answer was immediate, “Start now to create buzz, so that when your site does go up, you already have people ready and waiting to find out more.”

This created a real buzz of conversation that nearly ran us overtime. This is the inspiration for this post. How many of you know how to create buzz around something that doesn’t even exist yet? You know the concept isn’t new, movies producers have been doing it for years and we can all take some lessons from the film industry on this.

* Create trailers of your own, small videos of the kind of information, showcasing your skills, talents and personality act like movie teaser trailers – hooking a ready made audience who will eventually come to see your main show – your website and all it has to offer.

* Get a blog, Facebook Page or Group and Twitter profile up and running as soon as you can to get your intended clientele hooked on your information before your site is up and running and put Google Friend Connect on it and Disqus on your blog so that fans can become a fan base via the interlinking community aspects of these applications.

* Are you going to have a membership area on your site? This technique is just like a limited showing to test audience reviews: allow a certain number of Beta testers into your memberhsip area free of charge to test and review your site. If they love what you have to offer, their rave reviews will market your site for you.

* Most of all talk about your upcoming site via Social Media, give tidbits of upcoming information, let people know there will be a members only section, ask for volunteers to test your members area, let people see you really are an expert on your topic well before your site goes up in every way you can. Give away quality information, become a resource in your field and next thing you know your site will be too.

Follow these tips and watch your site stats jump as soon as your site is open for business. I love it when I am on Twitter and someone asks me when the site will go live, or when the membership area will be open for business, why? Because it means people are checking out the site and want to know more.. What could be better than that?

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