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It seems like everywhere you go these days, someone is talking about their Facebook or MySpace friends and what they liked or posted or their newest status updates.
These sites have become such a staple in our lives that cell phone companies are bragging about their phone's ability to access them, and now there is a device designed specifically for networking. Even major network news stations will have a link displayed at the bottom of the screen so that you can follow that person or station's Twitter feed. This whole "social media" hype is something that I have managed to avoid with little effort despite the pressure from all of my FaceSpace-wielding friends, but the pillar of strength that I once was is quickly crumbling. I guess the idea of sharing my life with online goers that I hardly know isn't something that I need to do on a moment to moment basis, but as it turns out I may be missing out on a major marketing opportunity.
A few years ago, I could tell you without any question that I would die happy never having had a social profile, but now it looks like I might end up expiring without a smile on my face. This whole mess started because my dad mentioned that Bio Kustumz needed a dedicated site to market the few products that we offer (BioKustumzProducts.com, for those who care) and that led to us talking about how to drive traffic to both sites. After a bit of research on search engine optimization, my dad suggested that I might think about having a blog on my site. I don't know much about blogs so initially I was against it, but as I asked around and gave it some thought the idea gained merit. On top of the improved placing in search engines, it would be nice to have a place to display our day-to-day work. There are so many neat things that we build that rarely get seen by anybody other than our occasional visitor.
So where do I start?
Well, one day I was helping Johnny O move his truck, and he tweeted about something situational and of course I made fun of him for it, but his reply wasn't quite what I expected. He said, "As goofy as Twitter is, I've actually gotten work from it." Hmm... really? After a bit more homework, I realize that all the tools are there to do exactly what I need for both the website and my daily updates, and to top it off it's an established social site with millions of users. What a marketing opportunity-with none of the extra crap that comes with the other sites like friend requests, lost ponies, and mystery eggs. It sounded like the perfect solution, but as it turns out there aren't as many folks on Twitter that are into kustom cars, or at least they aren't using the site to follow fab shops and talk about their cars. So now what? As I looked at a few of the shops that I'm following on Twitter, like The Little Shop of Horrors and Grant Kustoms, they have both Facebook and Twitter accounts, but their number of Facebook followers are 50x more than on their Twitter account... seriously. Hell, Facebook just passed up Google as the most visited site. I guess I'm missing something here.
By the time you read this, Bio Kustumz will have a Facebook "fan page," and hopefully my products website will be presentable enough to entertain all who visit it, but I feel that I will go to social hell for selling out to the marketing powers that run FaceTube. They've done their job well and have proven to be a worthy opponent to my stubbornness.
So I guess this is where I insert the shameless plug and tell you to "like" Bio Kustumz on Facebook or "follow" us on Twitter@BioKustumz... even though I just died a little inside for admitting defeat.