The Power of Your Personal Network

With the growing use of social media as a marketing tool, it can become easy to forget what the real goal of a social networking platform is: to connect individuals and provide a platform for dialogue between you and your network.

A couple of months ago, Julia, a high school friend of mine, approached me to talk about potentially reaching out to find her little brother whom she had been separated from more than twelve years ago. Knowing my understanding of social networking platforms, she asked for my opinion in crafting a message and making that message go viral. Doubting the power of her social network, she posted on her personal Facebook page, “If I can get X amount of likes on this post, I will move forward and try to find my little brother.” Lack of response to her outreaching Facebook post left her debating whether or not to move forward with the idea.

On Oct. 8, Julia decided that it was time to take her search for her brother public. This is the photo and message that Julia posted on her personal Facebook page:

“PLEASE SHARE TO HELP ME FIND MY BABY BROTHER!
I have a little brother named Isaiah Luke (update: dob 12/11/93) who has been missing from my life for the past 12 1/2 years. In approximately 2001 he, along with my little sister Sarah, were taken from our home by Child Protective Services. He was placed into temporary foster homes in Greeley, CO and eventually adopted by a wonderful same-sex couple here in Colorado. I have spent everyday since then thinking about him and hoping that one day we can be reunited.
Isaiah was born in December, 1994 in Brighton, CO at Platte Valley Medical Center. He has bright blue eyes and sandy blonde hair. He would be approximately 18 years old today. I believe he is still in the CO area, but may not be. Please share this, anywhere and everywhere! Personal pages, biz pages, news pages, etc!”

By Oct. 11, Julia had received statewide coverage from two news stations, almost 17,000 “shares” on Facebook and to put the icing on the cake, she had found her little brother.

Click here to view the follow-up article ran by 7News.

There is a lesson to be learned here, and that lesson is to never underestimate the power of your personal network.

Not everything that you do online will go viral, which can be a good or bad thing depending on your online activity. However, here are some tips to help you harness the power of your personal network:

Use images!
People respond much stronger to images than they do to text. In most cases, people will pay attention to a photo and if the message is something they want to help share, they will share it.
Make sure your image speaks for itself. Your network is much less likely to share something that they have to explain.
If you are sharing an image on behalf of a business or organization, make sure to brand it. As images circulate the internet, it’s easy to lose sources. Make it impossible to lose your branding by putting your logo, a hashtag, or something else on the image that makes sure people know where it originated.

Have a message that you want to share, but you’re still not sure how to share it? Give us a call and we can help navigate you through your messaging.

Back to All Insights

Brittany Mathisen

2023-09-27

OTM has been a wonderful marketing partner for the last four years. We have shifted marketing plans over time and they are very open and explained all the details as we moved forward with new plans. They have done everything from help design and update offices, managed social media, planning marketing events, and many more things. The Hear for Holidays Event that we do each year is one of my favorite events that we work on together. Rachel and the whole OTM team have brought my marketing vision to life and I love everything they have done for my business. I look forward to what the future holds as we continue to work together.

Yvonne Myers

2023-07-30

I worked with Old Town Media (OTM) on a quick grant project that had a 6-week timeline. They were very thoughtful about whether they could meet the grant expectations and needs before accepting the work. The team at OTM then completed extensive research and facilitated focus groups to ensure the product they created met the needs of the end-users. They met all of the grant deadlines and far exceeded our expectations of the portal they created for us! I would not hesitate to use their services again and highly recommend them to others looking for a professional, high quality, and FUN team to work with.

Julie Dokoupil

2023-07-18

OTM is a locally owned firm that I have worked with for over 13 years. They are an amazing team of people who know and understand current marketing technology and strategies. My husband and I are starting a new business and they have helped us out even with small details to get our business going.

TunDesign

2023-06-20

I have seen a significant increase in community engagement which has helped bolster our brand presence, exceeding the expectations of the entire team. Carrie and her team provides consistent communication through slack and emails which has led to an effective and trusted partnership. Truly appreciate how hard-working, agile, and driven everyone on the team is. Thanks again for eveything your team has done for our company.

David Haase

2023-06-07

OTM has done a fantastic job bringing the Fort Collins Peach Festival back to the public! OTM is dealing with several volunteers on a committee and keeping everyone informed, best in business advice and a platform that will serve us for years. We didn't know what we needed and were presented with choices and educated about each before implementation. Kerrie and Brianna have done great work for us! Dave Haase Committee Chair Fort Collins Peach Festival

Dana Sednek

2023-03-15

Using their Path to Growth Model, OTM not only gave me a path forward, but they helped me clarify my strategy, direction, and actions for how to set and launch my business. I was able to launch quickly and I see the flywheel ahead that is necessary to accelerate customer intake and revenue building. Thrilled with the outcome!!!

Liza Adams

2023-01-13

As the Head of Marketing at Encompass Technologies, I considered Old Town Media an extension of our marketing team. OTM worked closely with us on rebranding and repositioning, multiple industry-first product launches, key industry events, and integrated demand generation campaigns while we grew our marketing team and acquired new companies. With the help of OTM, we grew our pipeline and bested industry benchmarks for Software as a Service (SaaS) sales and marketing efficiency metrics. We came to rely on OTM for tactical execution to augment our team but where they added the most value was in our rebranding strategy and market positioning efforts. OTM played an integral role in conducting research and deeply understanding our market dynamics, ideal customer profile, customer challenges, competitive landscape, products and innovation, key differentiators, vision, and mission. This was no easy feat with a highly complex ecosystem, multiple segments, wide variety of audiences, and a broad array of products. Armed with market insights, OTM helped us develop a compelling brand, an inspirational story reflecting our vision and strategy, a unique and defensible market position, and messaging that was relevant to our target audiences. I appreciated that the team was respectful and empathetic, intently curious, insightful with their observations and recommendations, and candid with their feedback. OTM set realistic expectations about deliverables/scope, level of effort, roles, timeline, and cost. The team was responsive, highly collaborative, and open to suggestions. OTM plugged our expertise and resource gaps which allowed us to break the compromise between doing good work and doing it quickly. On top of that, they were fun to work with. OTM was truly a partner of the business.

Eric Dengler

2023-01-11

Great team! Small company service. Big firm power and expertise.

zach fulton

2023-01-06

Simply put, OTM is a well oiled machine! Thanks for all you do

The Power of Your Personal Network

Growing a business
is hard and finding the
right partner matters.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Our Location

Quick Links