How to Get Your Shop Noticed

Since my interview with Jeremy Kalgreen I have been thinking alot about how to promote your shop. I will say I was surprised to learn that Jeremy didn’t use a lot of social media to promote his shop. What I thought was a helpful tip from Jeremy was the idea of designing shirts around something you like and then finding people who like the same things.

There is a post this week on ProBlogger called How to Get Noticed [The Art of Positioning] which I think is a good way to think about positioning your Spreadshirt shop. Problogger links to this post on Web Strategy By Jeremiah which has some great steps for getting noticed. Here are a few that I think are helpful if you have a Spreadshirt shop:

Have a goal
Before you do anything, think about what your objectives are. In particular for brands or personal brands, identify the keywords that you’d most want to be associated with. Try to think of keywords that people would search for, are long-term, and aren’t some made up name that no one would seek. Your goal may be association with these keywords which you’ll be gunning for. Or, if your goal is to network with others and to grow your reach, focus on how many quality relationships (perhaps defined by people that would help you and you’d help back) that you can grow. Or if your goal is to learn about a new topic and eventually master the subject material, focus on how you’ll learn by reading, then eventually writing on that topic.

Develop a unique brand
I really don’t think URLs are as important as they used to be, often folks will Google your name to find you, and the fact that we disperse to so many websites (Facebook/Twitter/Friendfeed/What’s next) is an indicator of the distributed web ruling the destination website. There are millions of blogs/companies out there, and if you’re trying to get noticed, you’re going to have to compete to stand out. Having a default blog template to your website isn’t going to be enough, you’re automatically segmenting yourself with others. Develop a unique look and feel by designing it yourself or finding someone who can help. If that’s too difficult, at least create a custom masthead image that will brand your site.

Get personal
If you want to stand out, you should add your picture to your blog, and develop a visual icon that demonstrates who you are. While not everyone shows their picture (Louis Gray comes to mind) he did develop an icon “LG” that represents his personal brand. Use this icon on all your other social media properties in a consistent manner. Also, register the same handle on other social media sites, and cross link them from your blog. Take for example Jive Software, who in a crowded space (80-100 vendors) has encouraged Sam Lawrence to develop a unique voice that he inserts –and leads– in the conversation about enterprise social software.

What has helped you get your shop noticed?

Problogger also talks about Gary Vaynerchuk as a good example of someone who gets noticed. Gary is the guy behind Wine Library TV. I know NOTHING about wine so I am definitly going to go back and check out his podcasts. I also like his Wine Library TV t-shirts - they would look great in flex. Gary’s blog - garyvaynerchuk.com - looks good too he has some good information about branding.