Outsourcing Advantage - My Social Media Marketing Campaign – Part Three
My Social Media Marketing Campaign – Part Three
By the end of January 2010, my Filipino outsourcers had produced over 40 promotional videos, set up my Facebook Business Page, added over 50 friends and I now had almost 30 ‘Likes'. My Twitter account had 1500 followers and I was starting to pick up "offline" clients. Local businesspeople were now starting to approach me to ask what I was doing.....and, could I do it for them?
In mid January, I picked up my first client, a massage therapist who wanted to promote a new pain relief product that she was selling. Within 2 days of making changes to her Facebook account, she had made 3 sales of this new product. She became a walking talking testimonial for me. Over the next 3 weeks she helped me get a number of new customers from a lady who sold party products such as balloons, costumes and food, to a new bridal business to a Printer who was looking for a way to sell his business. Business was starting to take off.
Around about this time, I decided that it was time I visited my Outsourcers in The Philippines. I booked a flight from Sydney to Manila via Darwin to arrive late Wednesday 16th February and to return via the same route late Sunday 20th February. Unfortunately for me, and the people of Darwin, a cyclone hit a few hours before I was due to take off and my flight got cancelled.
No more flights were available on an alternative route until early the following day. So, I got shunted onto a flight to Melbourne where I had a 3 hour wait for a flight to Singapore. Thank goodness that the seats were comfortable and the service was first class. I was not looking forward to a further 8 hour stopover in Singapore, but at least it was Changi airport. If you have to have an 8 hour airport stopover, make sure it is Changi. There's plenty to do. Shopping, computer games, free wifi, food, drink and a relaxing swim in the hotel pool......and it is huge!
Eventually arriving at Manila airport at 3.50AM on Friday the 18th did not leave me a lot of time to meet the team but, luckily for me, this is a wonderful team. Four people showed up at the airport to greet me and to drive me to my hotel in Batangas City, a 90 minute trip south from Manila. Gee Joy and Dan, the two owners of the business, arrived with Nowen, my Virtual Assistant at that time, and Jasmine who is my current VA. I was amazed that anyone would show up at that time of the morning, let alone 4 of them!
After a few hours sleep at Days Hotel Batangas, my hosts Gee Joy and Dan were back to collect me and take me to their home which doubles as their office. Gee Joy and Dan have 12 professional young ladies working for them. They are very experienced in Social Media, SEO, video production, article writing, forum posting, backlinking and many other online tasks. I had the opportunity to interview each one of them and was surprised at their backgrounds. Some of them had been teachers, some had been clerks and some of them had university degrees. It's not always easy to get the job you are trained for in The Philippines so Outsourcing is a real growth industry in this country. Their quality of work is excellent, they speak very good English, they work hard and they are extremely loyal.
During my short stay Gee Joy, Dan and Nowen never left my side from the moment they picked me up at the hotel in the morning until the time they dropped me back there. We combined work with pleasure and visited all the local sites of interest including Tagaytay and the Taal Volcano where the Survivor Tagaytay TV show was filmed. My stay was much too short and I'll have to go for a week next time so I can visit the resorts.
In Part Four of my SMM Campaign I will discuss what has happened between my visit in February through to mid July 2011 and how my Campaign is changing.
About the Author
Batangas Wedding at Barcelona Garden Resort
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