Small Business and Social Media

In this hyper-connected world in which we presently exist, I am still amazed at just how many small business owners have been hesitant to embrace new technology and marketing methods. Social Media is a valuable, cost effective marketing tool that many small businesses, particularly in rural communities are not adding to their marketing toolbox. Social Media such as Facebook, Twitter, Ning, and others are great networking opportunities that get missed by the small business owner.

To be sure, small business owners find themselves in a very unique situation, in fact, most of the business owners that I know (myself included) are tasked with doing everything from cleaning, to managing customer service, to accounting and facilities maintenance. Truly, it can be a monumental task. Adding to the economic situations, rising costs and worry about a lower profit margin adding another element to manage may seem daunting. However, Social Media is not the place to skimp within your business-marketing plan. Social Media is about sharing and growing information. As your sharing grows, your relevance and presence in the community grows, and so will your financial well being, brand identification, and more importantly your social capital.

What used to be the domain of major companies due to high priced media campaigns competing for the scarce "airtime" resources of newspaper, radio, and TV. In these formats advertising and marketing was a one-way street, producing disconnected advertising by buying the limited time available to shout at random consumers from an untrusted source. The stage is set now for a small business to achieve smart, economical marketing through the near limitless access to the Internet by social media applications. Even more important you can target your advertising through connected, trusted avenues. These social media networks can be used to advertise and grow customers as well as increase your competitive edge through 2 way communications. Real-time, unfiltered customer comments allow a new level of control to your business. Good comments can add incredible trust, value, presence, and relevancy to your business. If bad, you can review your practices and use the comments as an opportunity gain value in the marketplace by adjusting your business model to accommodate criticism. Currently, the stage is set for a small business to really extend and approve their brand at a very reasonable price using social media. When it is done properly social media marketing for small businesses really works!

Everyday my interactions bring me into contact with owners and managers telling me that numbers are way down from previous years. In these times great innovation and growth are born from adversity and tough economic times. Social Media is the new tool for customer relationship management. You need to use these tools to cultivate trust, develop your brand and capture new customers. The beauty of social media is this takes place in real time with measurable results. Your business will get immediate, unfiltered feedback and access to your customer base. Preferably, you as a small business owner are already using social media, but if not getting started today is the most important thing!

The beauty of leveraging social media is that it is not expensive, overly complicated or extremely time consuming. In fact, it almost has a zero startup cost and only your time is involved. Brainstorm Media believes so much in growing the local social media community we welcome the opportunity to visit with you and discuss how social media can be integrated into your business most effectively. We PROVIDE THIS SERVICE FREE for businesses in the local area. If you are excited and ready to embrace or at least try online promotion and social media here are five action items to help you develop and start your marketing plan.

1. List out your business goals and how you would like social media and online marketing to help you achieve them. Your goals can be anything that you would like them to be. Some common examples establishing a web presence, growing customer's or sales, informing or providing information to the public, and developing a business network.
2. Agree to dedicate 30 minutes per day to developing your social media network.
3. Create a personal facebook page. Your business page can come later but this will lower your apprehension of working in an online environment.
4. Seek out forums, blogs, or community websites. Whether you're a retail shop, lawn care service, or non-profit some support already exits in your niche on the web. Register with a site and in you have the knowledge see if you can answer some questions.
5. Begin to think about information you can impart to your customers. Think about all the questions you customers ask, or new products, or even item about yourself that would be valuable for you customer's to know. Write them up even if your note going to publish them. This may provide even more focus or allow you to develop new avenues for your business through exploration of the thought process.

I realize it is often not easy to find the time and change your daily routine. Social media promotion, done correctly, will yield you some measurable results as your network grows. This is the perfect time to develop those social networks and trusts from customers. The key in the startup stages is providing good consistent content to your customer base.