Social media is any kind of text, image, audio, or video content that is uploaded to the Internet and then accessed by and shared with others in the online community. Unlike traditional media such as newspaper, magazine, radio or TV advertisements, direct mail, scholarly articles and other vehicles that produce a one-way conversation, social media creates an interactive, two-way conversation between companies, customers and other stakeholders. Blogs, web forums, content sharing and networking sites such as Flicker, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and many others are examples of social media.
What can small business gain by using social media?
A particularly powerful benefit of participating in social media is getting and staying connected to customers. The online community provides a great opportunity to reach customers, keep them engaged, and be more responsive to their needs. Social media tools make it simple for current or potential customers to find, understand, and value your company's products and services. Specifically, using social media can help small businesses by:
* Delivering powerful, world-wide marketing and public relations
Social media communities provide an unparalleled opportunity to increase sales through the time-tested value of "word-of-mouth" marketing … recognized as probably the most powerful and effective forms of marketing. Let's say, for example, that a prospective customer of a bike shop is interested in buying a bicycle. He or she may casually consult with a friend that says "Oh, that place is a really great bike shop." The online world facilitates the creation and spread of this kind of word-of-mouth feedback and recommendations, and can create "buzz" from loyal customers world-wide, thereby broadening a company's reputation and sales opportunities to anyone sitting at a computer, all over the globe. Of course, it goes without saying that you have to have a great product or service to make that work. If you don't, then the same kind of feedback—but in a negative manner-- can do you in.
* Leveling the "big budget" playing field
Today, companies do not necessarily need a huge budget to to publicize news, products and offers or to gather reactions and feedback from customers. Through a well-planned, active web site offering timely and ongoing updates and interactions with current and potential customers, you can build a devoted, growing following for your business without a large budget. Success in promoting your business via social media then depends less on money and more on trategy, intelligence, creativity, hard work and, of course, offering a great product or service.
For example, there is a small candy, coffee, and cheese shop in a beautiful Victorian home in Rochester, New York called Chocolate and Vines. It's owned by a young couple in their 20s. When they started their business, they put up a page on Twitter to develop a presence and get connected to customers. They promoted specials, offered wine tastings and publicized local events as a strategy to build a stronger loyal community than some giant chain bakery store in the same vicinity. They used social media to reduce the disadvantage of being a small business without a huge marketing budget.
* Conducting free grassroots market research
Companies, large and small, can use social media to follow what customers are saying for market research purposes. For example, a large phone carrier wanted to find out what innovative feature to offer in the next version of their cell phone. This company monitored sites frequented by teenagers and found a resounding
*
* Conducting free grassroots market research
Companies, large and small, can use social media to follow what customers are saying for market research purposes. For example, a large phone carrier wanted to find out what innovative feature to offer in the next version of their cell phone. This company monitored sites frequented by teenagers and found a resounding complaint that teens were exceeding parental budgets for call and text time because they couldn't control their inbound calls and texts.
This grass-roots conversation gave rise to the "friends and family" types of plans that offer unlimited in-bound calls and texting within the company network, providing a competitive advantage to that firm. Social media, then, can be a great source for companies to use to identify needs that are important to their customers that they otherwise might not have thought of.
* Protecting your reputation
Your company's reputation is an asset that needs to be protected! By regularly monitoring comments and opinions from customers across social media sites, companies can learn what customers like and, more importantly, what they don't like about doing business with you. Then, you can turn an obstacle into an opportunity by addressing these concerns, fixing the business issue, delighting the customer with how you responded to his or her experience, and building long-lasting loyalty in the process.
* Keeping an eye on the competition
Small businesses can gain powerful competitive intelligence by monitoring web sites and blogs of competitors, industry and trade associations, and other credible third-party sources to find out how your current or prospective customers compare you to your competition. You can find out what customers like or don't like about a competitive company and incorporate those insights into your business strategy.
* Finding the right people to hire
Recruiting is a definite benefit of active social media marketing. Putting a status update that you're hiring on your Facebook or Twitter page, or searching professional social media sites like LinkedIn and others can help companies proactively find prospects who are right for your company without incurring costly search consultants' fees.
Finding the right people is not limited to hiring. Many firms use social media to find and engage in strategic partnerships and alliances with other small businesses. Small business web-based communities like AmexOPEN systematically provide those kinds of introductions within their membership. Much of social media revolves around connecting with the right people.
What should small businesses do to get started?
1. Take the time to become social media-literate. Figure out the differences between the many different sites and be intentional about the ones you choose to participate in or monitor. Spend time with a variety of social media sites and networks.
2. Set clear goals and allocate resources. Make sure you identify goals for engaging in social media and allocate the time and money it will take to establish and maintain your presence. Understand how social media fits into your larger marketing strategy. Decide whether you're going to hire someone to help or do it yourself. Putting information out there once and then neglecting it is worse than not doing anything at all.
2.
Finally, have a measure for success, whether it is percentage of new business, traffic to your own site, positive online press, or numbers of customer service issues resolved.
3. Get and stay involved. My friend and colleague, Marina Wollberg has a website (see resources below) that teaches small business professionals how to use social media to promote their companies. She cites three levels of involvement for engagement in social media: observe, comment, create. First, read the right blogs, listen to the conversation and really understand what the issues are. Then, comment. Join the conversation. Become a known participant who shares valuable and relevant information and insights. Finally, write your own blog. Start your own conversations around issues that are central to your customers and industry. Remember: social media is all about two-way communication.
4. Figure out how to build community to drive traffic to your products or services. Use your chosen form of social media to entice people to find you. Get the word out. Include your online information on all traditional forms of marketing materials so it's easy for people to find you. Be creative about giving away low-cost, high-value material to get people coming back.
There are countless examples of small businesses putting social media to good use. One is a firm called Lion Brand Yarn, a 65-person person company in New York City founded in 1878. The firm produces podcasts, has a Facebook page with over 107,000 "fans" and a presence on Twitter that the company uses to offer free patterns and share instruction videos to drive traffic to its site. Lion Brand also participates in Raverly, a niche, user-driven social networking site for knitters, crocheters, designers, spinners, and weavers that provides excellent, targeted visibility within the "Ravelers" fibers community.
Marketing VP Ilana Rabinowitz says that social media has helped build word-of-mouth marketing by allowing Lion Brand to speak one-on-one with customers. If Lion Brand finds out on Twitter or a blog about a problem a customer experienced with one of its products, the firm contacts the customer directly to offer Lion Brand's 100 percent satisfaction guarantee and discuss how to return or replace the product in question. Rabinowitz cites that customers are often surprised and delighted to hear quickly and directly from a real person that knows his or her name. As for impact on the bottom line, Rabinowitz says that Facebook traffic converts at a rate 40% higher than the average customer coming through a Google search.
Not engaging in social media is a missed opportunity. Done right, it forges strong connections with customers, helps small businesses learn what customers' value, and enables businesses to be even more responsive to those wants and needs to build customer satisfaction and loyalty. It also shows that you are a current, savvy marketer and a trusted expert resource. But remember, regardless of the media you choose, there is no substitute for a great product and impeccable customer service.
Here are some of my favorite blogs/experts on social media, as well as my most recent favorite blogger's post on how small business can use social media
Marina London: iwebu
http://iwebu.blogspot.com
Focus: Simple tips and strategies for boosting your business by using the social Web
Social media is any kind of text, image, audio, or video content that is uploaded to the Internet and then accessed by and shared with others in the online community. Unlike traditional media such as newspaper, magazine, radio or TV advertisements, direct mail, scholarly articles and other vehicles that produce a one-way conversation, social media creates an interactive, two-way conversation between companies, customers and other stakeholders. Blogs, web forums, content sharing and networking sites such as Flicker, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and many others are examples of social media.
What can small business gain by using social media?
A particularly powerful benefit of participating in social media is getting and staying connected to customers. The online community provides a great opportunity to reach customers, keep them engaged, and be more responsive to their needs. Social media tools make it simple for current or potential customers to find, understand, and value your company's products and services. Specifically, using social media can help small businesses by:
* Delivering powerful, world-wide marketing and public relations
Social media communities provide an unparalleled opportunity to increase sales through the time-tested value of "word-of-mouth" marketing … recognized as probably the most powerful and effective forms of marketing. Let's say, for example, that a prospective customer of a bike shop is interested in buying a bicycle. He or she may casually consult with a friend that says "Oh, that place is a really great bike shop." The online world facilitates the creation and spread of this kind of word-of-mouth feedback and recommendations, and can create "buzz" from loyal customers world-wide, thereby broadening a company's reputation and sales opportunities to anyone sitting at a computer, all over the globe. Of course, it goes without saying that you have to have a great product or service to make that work. If you don't, then the same kind of feedback—but in a negative manner-- can do you in.
* Leveling the "big budget" playing field
Today, companies do not necessarily need a huge budget to to publicize news, products and offers or to gather reactions and feedback from customers. Through a well-planned, active web site offering timely and ongoing updates and interactions with current and potential customers, you can build a devoted, growing following for your business without a large budget. Success in promoting your business via social media then depends less on money and more on trategy, intelligence, creativity, hard work and, of course, offering a great product or service.
For example, there is a small candy, coffee, and cheese shop in a beautiful Victorian home in Rochester, New York called Chocolate and Vines. It's owned by a young couple in their 20s. When they started their business, they put up a page on Twitter to develop a presence and get connected to customers. They promoted specials, offered wine tastings and publicized local events as a strategy to build a stronger loyal community than some giant chain bakery store in the same vicinity. They used social media to reduce the disadvantage of being a small business without a huge marketing budget.
* Conducting free grassroots market research
Companies, large and small, can use social media to follow what customers are saying for market research purposes. For example, a large phone carrier wanted to find out what innovative feature to offer in the next version of their cell phone. This company monitored sites frequented by teenagers and found a resounding complaint that teens were exceeding parental budgets for call and text time because they couldn't control their inbound calls and texts.
This grass-roots conversation gave rise to the "friends and family" types of plans that offer unlimited in-bound calls and texting within the company network, providing a competitive advantage to that firm. Social media, then, can be a great source for companies to use to identify needs that are important to their customers that they otherwise might not have thought of.
* Protecting your reputation
Your company's reputation is an asset that needs to be protected! By regularly monitoring comments and opinions from customers across social media sites, companies can learn what customers like and, more importantly, what they don't like about doing business with you. Then, you can turn an obstacle into an opportunity by addressing these concerns, fixing the business issue, delighting the customer with how you responded to his or her experience, and building long-lasting loyalty in the process.
* Keeping an eye on the competition
Small businesses can gain powerful competitive intelligence by monitoring web sites and blogs of competitors, industry and trade associations, and other credible third-party sources to find out how your current or prospective customers compare you to your competition. You can find out what customers like or don't like about a competitive company and incorporate those insights into your business strategy.
* Finding the right people to hire
Recruiting is a definite benefit of active social media marketing. Putting a status update that you're hiring on your Facebook or Twitter page, or searching professional social media sites like LinkedIn and others can help companies proactively find prospects who are right for your company without incurring costly search consultants' fees.
Finding the right people is not limited to hiring. Many firms use social media to find and engage in strategic partnerships and alliances with other small businesses. Small business web-based communities like AmexOPEN systematically provide those kinds of introductions within their membership. Much of social media revolves around connecting with the right people.
What should small businesses do to get started?
1. Take the time to become social media-literate. Figure out the differences between the many different sites and be intentional about the ones you choose to participate in or monitor. Spend time with a variety of social media sites and networks.
2. Set clear goals and allocate resources. Make sure you identify goals for engaging in social media and allocate the time and money it will take to establish and maintain your presence. Understand how social media fits into your larger marketing strategy. Decide whether you're going to hire someone to help or do it yourself. Putting information out there once and then neglecting it is worse than not doing anything at all.
Finally, have a measure for success, whether it is percentage of new business, traffic to your own site, positive online press, or numbers of customer service issues resolved.
3. Get and stay involved. My friend and colleague, Marina Wollberg has a website (see resources below) that teaches small business professionals how to use social media to promote their companies. She cites three levels of involvement for engagement in social media: observe, comment, create. First, read the right blogs, listen to the conversation and really understand what the issues are. Then, comment. Join the conversation. Become a known participant who shares valuable and relevant information and insights. Finally, write your own blog. Start your own conversations around issues that are central to your customers and industry. Remember: social media is all about two-way communication.
4. Figure out how to build community to drive traffic to your products or services. Use your chosen form of social media to entice people to find you. Get the word out. Include your online information on all traditional forms of marketing materials so it's easy for people to find you. Be creative about giving away low-cost, high-value material to get people coming back.
There are countless examples of small businesses putting social media to good use. One is a firm called Lion Brand Yarn, a 65-person person company in New York City founded in 1878. The firm produces podcasts, has a Facebook page with over 107,000 "fans" and a presence on Twitter that the company uses to offer free patterns and share instruction videos to drive traffic to its site. Lion Brand also participates in Raverly, a niche, user-driven social networking site for knitters, crocheters, designers, spinners, and weavers that provides excellent, targeted visibility within the "Ravelers" fibers community.
Marketing VP Ilana Rabinowitz says that social media has helped build word-of-mouth marketing by allowing Lion Brand to speak one-on-one with customers. If Lion Brand finds out on Twitter or a blog about a problem a customer experienced with one of its products, the firm contacts the customer directly to offer Lion Brand's 100 percent satisfaction guarantee and discuss how to return or replace the product in question. Rabinowitz cites that customers are often surprised and delighted to hear quickly and directly from a real person that knows his or her name. As for impact on the bottom line, Rabinowitz says that Facebook traffic converts at a rate 40% higher than the average customer coming through a Google search.
Not engaging in social media is a missed opportunity. Done right, it forges strong connections with customers, helps small businesses learn what customers' value, and enables businesses to be even more responsive to those wants and needs to build customer satisfaction and loyalty. It also shows that you are a current, savvy marketer and a trusted expert resource. But remember, regardless of the media you choose, there is no substitute for a great product and impeccable customer service.
Here are some of my favorite blogs/experts on social media, as well as my most recent favorite blogger's post on how small business can use social media
Marina London: iwebu
http://iwebu.blogspot.com
Focus: Simple tips and strategies for boosting your business by using the social Web
J.D. Lasica: SocialMedia.biz
http://www.socialmedia.biz
Focus: How smart businesses can leverage the social web
Charlene Li: Altimeter
http://www.altimetergroup.com/blog
Focus: Strategic use of social media for companies
Naomi Dunford: IttyBiz
http://www.ittybiz.com
Focus: Very small businesses
Toby Bloomberg: Diva Marketing Blog
http://www.bloombergmarketing.blogs.com
Focus: Strategic marketing using social media
Danny Sullivan: SearchEngineLand
http://www.searchengineland.com
Focus: Search engine marketing
Beth Kanter: Beth's Blog:
http://www.bethkanter.org
Focus: Non-profits
Darren Rowse; ProBlogger
http://www.problogger.net
Focus: Using blogs to increase income
Favorite Recent Blog Post: Darren Rowse; ProBlogger
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2010/03/18/30
Valuable-lessons-learned-using-social-media-for-small-business/
For a free summary checklist of "the best tools and tips for doing research with social media," contact Robert Berkman at robertberkman@gmail.com.
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