Social Media Revolution – Its Affect On Small Businesses

Erik Qualman, author of the book Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business, created a video called the Social Media Revolution in August 2009. He updated the video less than a year later to demonstrate how quickly the social media landscape moves. Some of the statistics are definitely eye-opening as well as exciting for small business owners. You can read the entire list and credits on Erik’s post Social Media Revolution 2 (Refresh).

“Social Media isn’t a fad, it’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate.”

What does this mean?

Social media is not a trend and its use is growing exponentially. The tools will evolve and may in fact change, but the need for businesses to incorporate the Internet in general, and social media specifically, into their overall marketing strategy in order to achieve their goals is not going away. Social media will continue to change the way businesses market their brand, products and services because a savvy business is able to be proactive with its consumers, listening to what they want and need and responding to those needs quickly.
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Lead Generation: What Works Today

I recently presented a workshop at the New England Business Brokers Association meeting about how to integrate online and social media marketing for lead generation. As professional service business owners, we build our credibility by demonstrating our expertise and knowledge of our discipline and the use of social media makes building your reputation much simpler than before.

As a small business owner, how you approach online marketing can make the difference between a successful campaign and an overwhelming exercise. Learning how to use online marketing to drive visitors to your Website and generate leads is going to impact your marketing and ultimately the success of your business.

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6 Ways to Promote Your Facebook Page

Creating a Facebook Page for your business is one of the more valuable exercises you can do as a small business owner. But once you have the page set up and you are providing valuable, relative content, how do you get people to like your page?

Invite your Facebook friends that fit your target market profile

To invite connections you think would be interested in your Facebook Page, use the Suggest to Friends link.

If you have connected with clients via Facebook, invite them first as your clients should already be supportive of you. Next invite other connections that fit your target market that may be interested in finding out more about what you offer. If you have done a good job of organizing your professional colleagues, customers and prospects into Friend Lists, you can invite these lists as groups to your Facebook fan page instead of sending individual invites.

Be selective in who you invite and as a courtesy, invite them once only. Don’t annoy people with Facebook Page invitations that aren’t interested in your business or know nothing about you. If a person rejects the request, be careful not to send them another invitation. Read more on 6 Ways to Promote Your Facebook Page…

Contractor Marketing Basics

Recently I have been working with a few contractors helping them market their businesses. Besides defining their brand and setting up their Internet presence, I work with them on how to decide what type of marketing will work for them. The following is a presentation that I gave to a group of contractors a few weeks ago and a brief transcript of the key points that I make when I give this presentation.

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Social Media Marketing – Myths or Reality?

In a recent Business Week Viewpoint article called “Beware Social Media Marketing Myths“, Gene Marks highlights what he feels are 5 myths of social media marketing that small business owners should be aware of. Although all 5 of these statements as he describes are myths, I believe this article is misleading to readers on the value of using social media as a channel to build visibility and awareness for your business and personal brand. So let me weigh in on these 5 myths of social media marketing.

Myth 1. Social media sites are free

Reality: This statement is not a myth but a gross understatement of the value of social media. There is a significant cost in time which is an issue if small business owners do not know how to use these tools to market your business as you will spend a lot of time and get nothing in return. But, nothing of value in this world comes for free and you need to invest some type of resource – time or money – to get the most out of them. Think of social media as a channel in which you are able to communicate your value to your ideal client. You must spend time meeting people in these social media sites, building relationships and hearing what they have to say. As Gary Vaynerchuk (@GaryVee) pointed out in his keynote presentation for the Social Media Success Summit, it takes sweat equity to be successful using social media. Read more on Social Media Marketing – Myths or Reality?…

Tele-clinic on Marketing using Social Media

Get Connected. Get Found.™

Social media has added a new, powerful set of tools to your marketing toolbox, making it easy to meet, network and develop relationships with people online that was once out of the reach of many small business owners. More importantly, social media is making it easier to meet new potential clients and market your business. But how you integrate these tools into your marketing plan will make the difference between a successful marketing strategy and an overwhelming exercise. Whether your business targets consumers or other businesses, social media is going to impact on your marketing and ultimately the success of your business.

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Develop a Social Media System

Some people just are organized. Others need a bit of help staying focused. That’s the beauty of being human – we have our strengths which complement those who have different strengths. When it comes to managing your time now given all the social media activities, the small business owner can get more than overwhelmed. I get asked by many people how does one keep up with everything that is going on in social media.

A Simple Marketing Review

As we enter the final days of 2008, I’m spending time with clients reviewing their marketing results in order to determine their marketing plan for the new year. You can do this yourself by spending a few hours looking at how your marketing has helped your business grow. Ask these questions and don’t be afraid of the answers. If your results aren’t the best, now is the time to make some changes.

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