If you think social media is only for teenagers, think again. As Will Paccione points out in this guest post, now is a perfect time to leverage social networks to market your business and insulate your company from some of the challenges less connected businesses face.
Whether you planned for it or not, you realize that leading your company through these tough economic times falls squarely on your shoulders. Traditional advertising just isn't bringing in the business for you like it used to. People now Fast Forward past your TV commercials, listen to music without your radio ads, don't look at the junk mail you send, and are on the Do Not Call list.
It's time you devised a new plan. Wouldn’t you like to be there when people are looking for answers to questions in your industry? You need to start building relationships with people that can get you business, and find people that you wouldn't mind referring business to.
Call it what you want - Social Media, Online Networking or Web 2.0, but whatever you call it... It's not just for teenagers and single people anymore.
Check out these Social Media stats:
- More than 1 in 8 viewers make a purchase after watching a video ad online - eMarketer
- Facebook has 150,000 new users sign up every single day - Time Magazine
- As of October 2006, about 100,000 new Blogs were created every day -Technorati
- LinkedIn has a 137% growth year over year bringing its visitors to about 8 million per month - compete.com
Social Media has it's cost, fortunately it's only time.
People aren't just wasting time on Social Networking sites. They're being productive by doing searches, asking and answering business questions, getting referrals and giving testimonials. Not on yet? Plenty of your competitors are. It's time you got involved in the conversation or be left behind.
Case in point #1:
Zagat has been around for 29 years reviewing restaurants. Yelp, known for its restaurant reviews, has been around for less than 5 years. Yelp chose to embrace Social Networking and in that short period of time people are writing articles in the New York Times about how Yelp might be more of a factor than Zagat:
Yelp’s traffic has expanded geometrically while Zagat’s has grown only a little. This July, Yelp drew 4.76 million unique visitors, compared with Zagat’s 384,000. -Randall Stross
Starting to take this more seriously? Okay, so what do you do?
First step:
Monitor your reputation
Google your name and your company. What comes up? Scam Alert? Judgment papers against you? Ex-flame trashing you in a video? Getting yourself active in Online Networking gives you more of a chance to give Searchers relevant information about your company that you want them to see on Google's Results page- like your LinkedIn account.
Set up a couple of Google Alerts to alert you when someone mentions you or links to your website (set up "your name", link:www.yourwebsite.com). You'll receive an email anytime someone mentions you or links to your business website with a link to that page. Something bad? Do damage control. Something good? Send'em a thanks for mentioning you.
Case in point #2:
There are 2 excellent online web conferencing applications I found. I posed the question to my Twitfriends: "Which is better A or B?" Funny thing is that both A and B were monitoring their online reputations at Twitter Search and saw I was Twittering about them. They started to follow my Tweets (Twitter updates) and said if I had any questions about their service to just ask. Wow, talk about pro-active. I followed them back and through interacting directly with them and seeing their posts, I understood that their applications had different strengths and realize I have a use for both. I now feel like I have friends in the business and I won't even consider others.
Second Step:
Social Media is a lot like networking offline, like your local Chamber of Commerce or BNI group. You'll realize that it's easier to get and give business with people you know on a personal level.
You're goal should be to become the "Go-To" person in your industry for people in your networks.
- Start by getting an account on LinkedIn. This is the MySpace for business Professionals. List all of your contact info, past work experience, website, services offered, blog etc. Start answering questions, joining groups that apply to your community and once again, get involved in the conversation.
- Open up a free Twitter account and try to use your own photo. Search for people talking about topics relevant to you and your business at Twitter Search and start the following and replying to people needing advice. Don't just post things business related. You wouldn't open up a conversation with someone on the street and start telling them about your services without establishing some kind of credibility.
- Start a Blog. Blog about your industry, your business and a bit about yourself. Be the resource for your industry.
When you have a captive audience, tell people on LinkedIn and Twitter and all the other Social Networking services you joined that you posted a new Blog or added a new service. Invite them to ask you questions in the comments section and make sure you answer them!
I have certain people in the offline world that are my "Go-To" people for certain industries. I now have my "Go-To" people in my online world too. And they're a lot easier to get a hold of... I know where they hang out.
Will Paccione is an Internet Consultant specializing in getting businesses more business with Website Design, Search Engine and Social Media Optimization.
Would you like to guest post at Smallbizbee.com? We're always looking for great content to feature on our website.
Photo Credit: sethgoldstein
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Very good information on Social media. Thanks Will for the tips.
Excellent post. Here’s another case study.
An internet marketer just mentioned in his autoresponder email about a few issues he had with merchant accounts, etc. So I followed him on Twitter, and referred him to my site for more info (http://www.ampyourcashflow.com).
Well, we’ve been exchanging emails and I’m trying to solve his current problem, and in the process perhaps (fingers crossed) land his account, and maybe those of his friends, associates, and people on his list.
How cool is that? Just by paying attention and following folks online.
Good points. These days, where do you go if you have a question about anything? How many people go to a dictionary or encyclopedia for the answer? How about Google? Enough said.
@Frank Scalia
Or how about using a phone book…do they even exist any more?
Matt
that’s a good one… phone books. talk about offline “spam.” i don’t even ask for them, and they bring them around anyway. what a waste of paper…
@Michael
They drive me nuts! They get dropped off at my door every so often, and I take them straight to the recycling bin. I want to see if they delivery person will just drop them off at recycling for me.
Matt
Good Stuff! Thanks for the info!
Very cool. I’m going to think about these things with my own business. Will is the man. In an internet consultant sort of way.
Interesting and fustrating at the same time. Who are these so called experts? I suppose it’s still better than the old days of having no info – now we have too much.
I have been reading a lot about social media in the last few days and I am still not sure how this could work for a financial advisor that is looking for high networth clients.
Matt,
You know my background has been primarily SEO/SEM for many years and I have just started to become really active in the social media world in the past few months. i.e. Twitter, StumbleUpon, Digg, LinkedIn ect. I have to say I’m completely amazed by the over the top results I have gotten in just a few short months. I have closed new business and made some really good industry contact and friends around the world. What amazes me about everything is if I can see results like this in just a few months time the long term outlook is really great!
@Galen
You’ll be interested in the findings from this article:
http://tinyurl.com/a2j8n2
“More than 90% of wealthy Internet users say they get information about investing and other financial opportunities online.”
“20% of respondents say they’ve commented on a blog and almost one-in-five of these do so daily or weekly. ”
Your high networth clients are out there, you just need to find them.
Matt
@Gerald
Long term it only gets bigger. Everyone will get better at using social media, and driving business, we are in the infancy of what social media can become. Enjoy the ride.
Matt
Good article, I am getting more and more people interested in promotions via the blogosphere. This lends additional credence to that process.
Thanks
I typed “Investing” into LinkedIn and up came 500 Questions with Answers. You should go on and try to answer some to show your expertise. Obviously, answering without breaking any SEC(?) rules!
Yep yep I believe we are at the forefront of the social media revolution. Good times.
Great info – I may just have to take a deeper look into what i do regularly for my business.
Great article…. very informative!
Very useful article Will. Now I just need to find the time to follow up with the social networking sites I’ve joined.
Thanks for the info. I’m still a novice navigating the online social sites and you gave me some good ideas to help expand my reach. Just reading the posts here gives it more of a personal feeling to this type of networking.
Thanks for opening up a whole new toolbox for the businesses who choose to evolve rather than perish!
Very interesting. My children don’t remember not having a computer or the internet and their children won’t know what one of those big yellow books are. Amazing.
Your such a twitter, Will Paccione. (Whats a twitter anyway?) this is my first time blogging OMG its great. ?!?!? What the F#!$#@? Hey good article.
@Dee Langdon
Or better yet…younger kids today probably won’t know what a CD is, everything is digital now. I remember when CD’s were cutting edge, and am proud to say when I was a kid I played with records-gasp!
Matt
Great Article, lots of good information. I agree think outside the box, it can only help to keep the small business going.
Great article, thanks for the info!!
Great article! Some good ideas and tools to really move us into the 21st century. So many of us are still sadly in the 20th.
Another great piece of advice from Will. “Social Media has it’s cost, fortunately it’s only time.” I can’t agree with you more when it comes to putting time into your website. When my customers ask me about my website (Thank you Will) I tell them anyone can have a website but you need to put time into it. I cannot stress that enough. There are new methods to improve traffic to your website everyday. The only thing going against you, TIME. You need to put the time into it to get the maximum out of it. Great, more work to do! Great post Will.
Yes Very good information, thank you Will. you really are the best.
Excellent advice from a noted expert in all manner of internet communications. I was not aware of the Google alert feature, which I will have to look at.
Phone book???! Whats that?! No need for paper anymore, everyhting is online
Great article! Social neworking makes companies seem more human.
@Webdesi3
It’s that human connection that will be the business driver of the future. Social media is changing what the consumer expects from the producer, and it’s for the better in my opinion.
Matt
Great post!
I’m glad you see that social media should be embraced by the masses.
I would like to see more small businesses use social media to engage their customers especially receiving feedback. There are a lot of businesses that use Yelp to receive feedback, but reviews sites are too one sided. It doesn’t allow the business owner to resolve issues or reply back to threads for the public to see.
With that being said, we’re creating an online suggestion box for small businesses called FeedbackJar. We want to allow business owners to engage and communicate with their customers. This will lead to more understanding from both parties and allow business owners to better harness social media.
Mr. Paccione is dead on accurate. to quote the Lord of the Rings, “The world has changed”. I no longer watch TV other than fast forwarding through the traditional TV commercials. I spend most of my free time on the internet now.
Matt,
Great article! By the way, I ran the SocialMedia.com ad network until recently, before breaking out to focus on small businesses. There is so much more to social media than advertising within games that are on Facebook. But for many of our small business clients, among all the other strategies, the social one that seems to be most effective is just buying some self-serve ads on Facebook’s own platform. You can bid 10 cents a click and geo-target and basically dominate a city. Try it!
Dennis
I agree that so many more people are using Social Media to make connections and market their businesses – however – print marketing is not dead. There are still people across the country, and around the world, who are don’t even have a computer – much less an Internet connection.
And even if they are hooked up it not everyone is connected to the Social Media Revolution. My 28 year old son-in-law, for instance, has no desire to be on Facebook, Twitter or any other social sites. Blogging is not in his vocabulary. He doesn’t even like the computer. AND, he is the ONLY one in my house who actually DOES use the phone book!
With that said….
When marketing via Social Media we must NOT forget that we still need to integrate the traditional marketing/advertising mediums. And if it means joining your local Chamber of Commere and face-to-face networking groups, or advertising in the phone book, then that’s just what we have to do.
Just like each individual needs to be well-rounded in their lives – business and personal – the way we make connectins and build relationships need to be well-rounded as well.
When planning your marketing campaign – add in as many of the elements of traditional maketing as you can and then you will experience the growth you are seeking!
Your marketing plan should begin using traditional mediums and Social Media is used to re-enforce the path already laid.
By overlooking the traditional marketing mediums you may be loosing out on your biggest client and you’d never know it. However, your competition – who understands diversity – WAS able to land that huge client.
The old method of advertising is interactive marketing. The term is misleading. Most people think it means that there is some type of interaction on the part of the person advertised to, and there is. But, it is not conversational. Instead, the advertiser wants you to interact with their campaign in a specific set of steps. Following the call to action and visiting a website for instance. It’s the push to make you do something. Live this image. Buy this now.
Social Media Marketing is just the opposite. It’s the pull of the tribe. The tribe already has your trust so the actions they take are ones you align with. On a larger scale, it’s the allure of belonging in the group as you take action together. “I am doing this so why don’t you do it with me?” On an individual level, the attraction is to behave the same way to get the same results that benefits your fellow tribeswoman or tribesman. “She looks hot! I want to look hot too. I want to go to her hairstylist” and you do. Social Media Marketing uses the power of attraction.
While advertising tries to use the same tactic, with a billboard for instance, of a gorgeous woman telling you the benefits of the salon, it doesn’t have the same impact because it’s pushing you to go. It is not pulling you in as a trusted friend. Your friends have your best interests at heart and advertisers do not. Social Media Marketing is based on building trust and that foundation will make Social Media a dominant player in Marketing.
@Brand4profit I couldn’t have put it better myself.
@Eydie I agree that we shouldn’t abandon Offline Marketing. I specifically mentioned BNI and Chamber of Commerce, each of which I’m not only a member, but serve on the boards of both.
However, I would disagree that you “Should start with Traditional Media”. It doesn’t matter which one you start with, they both have their pluses and minuses, but Social Networking is less expensive… and we know how the economy is. People are working 2 jobs with kids and can’t always get to Chamber or BNI events at specific times. Social Networking is always open. My stance is to Network whichever way fits you, your time, your job, your budget, etc…
Rereading this great article to make sure I’m on top of your suggested list of Social Media Networking opportunites. This is such a great article to come back to over and over! I have it bookmarked
I have to teach marketing strategies to women running a small business out of their homes surrounded by small children. Social media also eliminates the hazards of answering a business phone in a wonderfully noisy home environment.
You can really take advantage of social networks – it’s amazing how powerful they are.
Sometimes traffic can be un-targeted and have low conversions but as long as it’s an email submit or doesn’t require a CC you can do quite well.