Guest post – Can the online community help?

Guest post – Can the online community help?

Today I’ve got a guest blog from Liz Weston, who I’ve known for a number of years as she’s evolved from being someone who knew that they wanted to start a business of their own, but wasn’t sure what to do, into running her own social media and PR agency and being a publisher for NHS Maternity Units. 

I wrote a blog post documenting my journey to getting control of my website and re couping some of tens of thousands of pounds Bras4Mums has lost – some of which has now been recovered. Liz suggested in a comment on that blog post that I could take a fresh approach to promoting Bras4Mums and offered to write a guest post on it, so here it is….
I saw TJ’s post a few days ago and part of me felt guilty that I’d not been there more for her – physically and practically, particularly in the last 12 months when she’d been re evaluating the Bras4Mums business. I’m so pleased that the issues have now been resolved and that she’s still standing. My suggestion for her to make the most of 2013 and in particular, the start of it, is to “reach out” (to use a term that really annoys most people in PR and social media) and ask people for help, because she’s helped so many people over the last few years herself.
The idea comes from the experience of Nick Sarillo who in September 2011, sent an email to his customers and anyone and everyone that he knew, to ask them for help. In short, if he didn’t get more customers into his pizzeria, and quickly, he was going to lose his business. It’s a proper phoenix from the ashes and in fact, he’s just had his book published about the whole experience.
So my suggestion to TJ is that she does this herself. And being TJ, she’s a bit, well, shy to say that she’d like some help. So I’m doing it for her! As a community, we can come together, and help Bras4Mums. Here’s a few of the easiest ways that you can support Bras4Mums in 2013…
You can commit to tweet or post on Facebook – on your personal and business page once a month, for every month of 2013. With buffer, hootsuite and all sorts of other scheduling opportunities available to us all, the least we can do is tweet once a month, telling people that Bras4Mums helps women of all shapes and sizes, at whatever stage they are at in pregnancy or breastfeeding. T-J and the Bra Lady team help women throughout their lives
Or if like me, you’ve had a bra from T-J and Bras4Mums, you could tell people about it in a blog post – you could explain if you had to return a bra that wasn’t the right size, about their free returns and their great over the phone bra fitting service – I’ve used it! And I spoke to T-J – long before I actually knew her personally!!
Or perhaps you could put a badge, or link to Bras4Mums on your Facebook page or blog, or somewhere that you have a presence online?
If you own a business, can you write a post about how T-J’s sharing has made you feel – confident of where you’re at / scared that other people can have such an effect upon your business / realising that you need to strengthen your networks / grateful for the networks that you do have / in need of growing your online community. In fact, even if you think T-J was too trusting, she won’t be offended if you write that you think she should have intervened at the point where she realised her website had been sub-contracted.
And finally, you could look for opportunities for other people you know to take guest blog posts from T-J on her experiences and look for opportunities to share stats, stories and news from Bras4Mums.
And I forgot – the most obvious one – to make sure you are signed up to the Bras4Mums newsletter – make your life easy – you’ll get strong content for your online platforms!
So, that’s a few of my initial ideas on how we can all come together and share the fact that Bras4Mums is still very much here and in need of support from the community to be able to continue and thrive. How you choose to do it, is up to you. Please leave a comment below on what you will do so we can comment, tweet and reply to your support of Bras4Mums.
And finally, (really this is the last thing, promise)… please leave comments with ideas on how we can all do more than this – I’m just scratching the surface with these suggestions. As a whole, we are so much stronger than our individual parts, so please join me in showing T-J how much we want Bras4Mums to have a great 2013….