Promotional gifts work so well with Social!

The Curry Guy embroidered!

Except for a few exceptions, I stopped writing my business blog about a year ago. I got bored and was running out of things to say about promotional gifts and products that people would actually want to read. I decided to put it on the back burner and think things out for a while.

I needed to think about the future and the role promotional gifts and products might play in this amazing new digital world we all share. That is if they had a role to play at all.

I had a clock printed with the Google logo so I was quite sure they did.

At the time, I had already started a curry blog which can be found at http://www.greatcurryrecipes.net. I even had a name for myself – The Curry Guy. I set out to use promotional gifts and social media together to build a new brand.

By stepping back from my business and concentrating on building a new brand in modern times I knew I could better serve my clients when I returned.

I began following more people on Twitter from my @TheCurryGuy Twitter account and really getting to know them. It was funny how much more receptive people were when I was tweeting about my hobby – cooking – and not business. I think this would be true with any popular hobby.

When your followers’ guards come down, you are free to be yourself. I learned that my life was not all about promotional gifts!

I already had quite a few followers on my @CompuGift Twitter account but within months, I had many more over at @TheCurryGuy and we were talking daily! Don’t let anyone tell you that the number of followers you have on Twitter and Facebook isn’t important. Rubbish! I’ll take a large quantity of friends who like talking on the social networks any day.

Although my love for cooking was the main reason I started my curry blog, I now wanted to see if I could use promotional gifts to take it all to the next level. That’s exactly what I did.

I had promotional pens printed. I embroidered promotional aprons and shirts. I ensured that my new brand went with me in a fun way everywhere I went. People started commenting that I had a BRAND without me even prompting them to do so. Outstanding suppliers of quality food related products began to contact me about sponsoring my food blog too.

I now have a full line up of speaking events and will be launching a new The Curry Guy branded spice range within the next few weeks. Watch this space.

The Curry Guy Spice Range - COMING SOON!

Over the next few months I would like to show you how you could use your hobbies and interests to promote your brand – not in a spammy way – but in a good way. We’ll look at using both social media and promotional gifts together to get your name out there.

Promotional gifts come in many shapes and sizes. Perhaps you already supply something that could be used as a business gift that your customers would like to use and enjoy. We’ll look at all of this and hopefully get the conversation rolling!