Ideas To Deals

Building an SBDC With Social Media

I recently was asked to do a presentation at the Association of Small Business Development Centers (ASBDC) Annual Conference in San Diego. My presentation was "Building Your SBDC with Social Media". I based the presentation on what we have done in Columbus to build our local SBDC. It has been quite a journey over the past three years but our social media trial and error strategy has allowed us to build something pretty cool that I hoped could, at minimum, serve as inspiration to other SBDCs that they can do the same thing. As my friend Herb Lawrence, Director of the Arkansas State ASBTDC, says "We should be eating our own dog food and using the on-line tools we recommend to our clients". The presentation followed a history of the evolution of our on-line strategy from the days where we were looking for an effective  alternative to expensive direct mail, media advertising and ineffective channel partner strategies to today. As I put the presentation together it became very clear that even without knowing what we were doing we were building a community of people interested in the same thing
we were, entrepreneurship and business development. From this blog to our SBDC Free Advice on-line community we were building content to drive entrepreneurship. It wasn't about pushing workshops and training it was about bringing together like minded people that we could bring our resources to and help them grow businesses in central Ohio and beyond.  

I'm always amazed that more SBDCs and economic development entities don't use social media. SBDCs are grant funded and to be honest public funds/grants typically don't provide much money for marketing so social media is perfect. I guess the lack of adoption is because many of these entities, while very good at what they do, are often time crunched and unable to spend the time to figure out how to implement an effective on-line strategy for themselves. The funny thing is that it is not uncommon to find an SBDC consultant at a live networking event discussing business needs with area businesses and quite frankly on-line social media is really the same thing ~ remember when we used to call it social networking?

On a side note if you look at the picture of me at the presentation you will see that it is kind of dark. Five minutes before I was to present there was a massive power outage that affected five million people over two states including 1.5 million people in the San Diego area. Doing a presentation on implementing on-line strategies without a computer, presentation or access to the internet and in the dark was not optimal but we persevered and made it work.  Below you will find the presentation that was to be delivered so if you were in the session you can access it here and if you weren't there turn off the lights and pretend you were there.

Now is the time. If you are an SBDC get on-line and meet your clients. You'll find it is easier than you think and far more valuable than you ever imagined.

 

Asbdc building your center with social media

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Small Business "Word of Mouth" Marketing = Social Media

This morning I read a post by Lisa Barone of Outspoken Media that highlighted the lack of participation of small businesses on social media (read the post by clicking here). I find it interesting that small business owners are always seeking ways to do marketing in a cost effective way but don't even have a website. These businesses that are not utilizing social media are truly missing the boat. They talk about "word of mouth" marketing but completely miss the point of social media which is designed to talk to customers and get them to share experiences and talk about you.

Another thing I found interesting in Lisa's post were the reasons for not using social media. Lack of time and lack of knowledge about how to use social media. Come on, seriously? I started using social media to promote our SBDC activities in 2008 and these were the same excuses that I heard then. Given the advances in the social media sites and tools since then time should no longer be a valid reason. As for education there are training programs available on every corner (not to mention You Tube) that can quickly get you up to speed. Hey, if I figured it our anyone can.

I think that what the issue comes down to in many cases is that to many small business people don't truly appreciate the value of two-way customer interactions. Push marketing has been around so long that it is ingrained in peoples vision of what marketing. Push is "one-way" and easier to do. Easier, yes but far less effective. If you are making a sales call are you the only one talking? I hope not. To be successful you need to listen, dialog and deal with questions and objections. That is what engaging your customers on social media allows you to do...understand your customers needs and wants then taylor a solution to meet those needs.

How do you reach your customers? Are you implementing social media into your marketing strategy? Are you engaging and building a community of fans that are interested in what you do? If you are not you are falling behind.

Think about what you mean when you say you are doing "word of mouth" marketing and you will realize that social media is the same thing.

New to Social Media? How to start Attracting an Audience

I think this a great post.  I speak to a lot of people looking to start a business and we often discuss the use of social media in their marketing strategy.  The challenge that many of these people have is how do they build a community for their business and/or brand on social media.  What small business owners need to realize it that "viral" takes time and effort.  There is a lot of work behind the scenes to build a community but if done right can really payoff.

~ Mike

9 Practical Ways to Start Attracting an Audience to Your New Social Media Account

by Clare Lancaster

Last week we talked about what type of social media account you should set up. Regardless of which you choose, you’ll want to start building an audience straight away.

Remember, the value in social media is the depth of the personal connections you make, not the number of people who you’re connected to. You don’t want to get followers quickly—you want to build an audience. They are two different approaches with two different results.

1. Add social media icons to every page of your website

Just as your mailing list signup form appears on every page on your website, so should links to your social media accounts. People who are using social media will look for the icon that represents their preferred networking platform.

There are plenty of free icon sets for you to use if you search for them. Group the icons together in an obvious place and include links to each of your accounts.

2. Add social sharing buttons

Add social sharing buttons to your blog posts (e.g. the Facebook Like button or Twitter tweet button). These allow readers to share individual posts with their networks, helping to grow awareness of your blog and your social media presence.

3. Leverage your existing audience

We’re big fans of leverage here at ProBlogger. When you’re starting to build an audience on a new account, the easiest way to do it is to leverage your existing audience.

Write a blog post inviting people to connect elsewhere and add links to your social media accounts in your newsletters. If you’ve already built an audience on one platform, invite them to connect on other platforms too.

4. Add links to your social media account to your email autoresponder

Whether you add a dedicated email to your email autoresponder sequence or simply include links in your automatic welcome email, make sure to invite your subscribers to connect on their social networking platforms of choice.

5. Link to your accounts from your guest post bio

When I was deciding which links to include in my bio, I thought about which would give me the greatest long-term value. Connecting on social media allows your guest post readers to get to know you and create a long-term relationship. Choose to link to the account you are most active on.

6. Include a call to action at the end of your blog posts

Add a link to your most frequented social networking account at the end of each blog post with an invitation to connect if the reader liked what they saw.

7. Add a call to action on your About page

The about page is typically one of the most popular pages on a blog. As the reader learns more about you, be sure to invite them to connect on other social platforms.

8. Add a link to your email signature

Most of us send a lot of email daily. Make the most of that effort and add links to your accounts to your email signature.

9. Highlight your social media accounts regularly

Attracting people to your social media accounts should be considered a meaningful transaction. As with all meaningful transactions, you need to promote this one regularly. Once you start to build an audience, keep leveraging new connections by regularly linking to your other accounts and inviting them to connect there too.

My most important tip?

Go and do these things now. Reading articles alone isn’t going to help build an audience on your accounts. Jump in and use what you’ve got now to build a better blog business in the future.

via www.problogger.net

VatorNews - Top 10 biggest social media stories of 2009

via vator.tv

When it comes to business in 2009 three overlying topics emerge: Recession, Stimulus and Social Media. Social media has leveled the playing field between small and large businesses. Now more than ever before the masses are driving content and guiding the direction of business. VatorNews has compiled a list of the Top 10 Social Media Stories for 2009. How did they do? What are your thoughts?

How to Easily Increase Blog Subscribers | Small Business Trends

I'm always amazed about the number of questions I get from small business owners about blogging. The questions vary from if they should have a blog or a website; how do they find the time; how do they find the time to blog. One question always emerges once they do start to blog, How do I get traffic to to my blog? Here are some great tips for driving traffic for beginning bloggers from Small Business Trends and author Lisa Barone.

"Dispelling Myths and Fears of Using Social Media in Business"

The Ohio Web Leaders or OWL was held December 18 at the offices of the Ohio Small Business Development Center at Columbus State Community College and it was a fantastic meeting. Brian Link of BE Interactive Consulting (a recent VP of Technology from Digg.com), Nick Seguin, a strategist from dynamIt Technologies, and Angela Siefer, owner of Shiny Door, a Social Media training consultancy delivered an interactive presentation on "Dispelling Myths and Fears of Using Social Media in Business" (below you will find the presentation from the meeting). The crowd of over 60 attendees discussed the pros and cons of using social media for business The conversations were active both live and over Twitter. I saw over Twitter that Mark Henson of Sparkspace missed the event but felt he picked up some key points from the on-line activity that was probably heavier than any previous meeting.

What struck me was that companies need to realize that social media is not a fad. It is not just kids on MySpace or Facebook, it has gone mainstream. People are talking and you should be part of that conversation. Company executives often do not get social media. They don’t realize social media should be an integrated component of the overall marketing strategy. Senior management may view social media as campaign oriented but it is not, it is a longer term play designed to maximize “Return On Influence”. To succeed companies that want to utilize social media need to be set up for two-way communication. Realize that your brand is real. Build relationships with your customers and communicate in a transparent way…deal with both good and bad feedback. In addition to specific social media strategies be transparent with employees and allow them to talk to your customers or others through their social media channels. They are going to talk anyway so help them be mindful about what they say.

While the internal champions may continue to encounter resistance in implementing social media strategies the December Ohio Web Leaders meeting showed that they should not give up because social media is a powerful marketing channel and it is here to stay

Dispelling Myths And Fears Of Using Social Media In Business

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Social Networking for Fun and Profit

We recently launched a social network to help entrepreneurs build connections that can support business development, the site "SBDC Free Expert Advice".  We launched this based on recommendations from people we have worked with (specifically Sara Rampersaud) to provide connections and assistance to those launching/growing small businesses in Ohio.   

In the spirit of Guy Kawasaki here are my top 10 basics on how to benefit from using social networking sites....note...I'm along way from being an expert at this so I hope people leave some good comments.

1. Build a good profile ~ There is a difference between looking in the window and going into the store.  To benefit from social networking sites you need to become part of the experience and the way to do that is to build a profile.  I signed up for Twitter about a month before I actually used it.  Once I did use it I got hooked and don't know how to live without it but it all started with building a profile and getting started.  There is more to building a profile than simply signing up.  First...Try to put something in the picture box: If you don't have a picture of yourself that's fine but anything is better than the face-less model that most sites use.  Second...Develop an introduction to you and your business: Be sure to build an introduction or "about" section and don't make it all business.  True networking is about relationships and you need to give people some level of insight into you as a person. 
2. Make yourself connectable ~ Once you have a profile make sure you have all of the ways in which people can find you on-line.  Let people connect the way they want.  I have friends across various platforms.  Some people like Facebook some like LinkedIn and some Twitter, etc.  I have all of my connection points linked on my site.  You can reach me in whatever way you are comfortable. 
3. Participate don't just sell ~ If there is one thing I hate is when people call me and want to meet so they can sell me and close me that day.  I get people who show up and want to do training workshops for our small business clients and expect me to set the date and time right then.  The problem with that is that I only use people to speak that I know or know of.  I need to guarantee the quality of the program and I can't do that with people I don't know.  It is the same thing with in a social networking environment.  Participate and at least people will be used to seeing your name if you contact them. 
4. Build connections ~ A couple of weeks ago I was at the Association for Small Business Development Centers (ASBDC) conference and attended a session on social networking.  The first thing I was shocked at was how little the attendees knew about social networking, which in retrospect I should have expected.  The second thing that jumped out was their aversion to the use of the term "Friend" when building connections in social networking.  It was viewed as to casual and not professional.  I can see that but in most cases that's the way it is so get past it and use of the word friends (I actually like having friends but that's just me).  Whatever you call it you should invite "friends" so you can connect and communicate easier.  Once you do connect send them a message or post a "thanks for the add" or something like that.  Again start to build a relationship.
5. Participate in discussion forums ~Discussion forums are a great way to get answers to business questions or to demonstrate some knowledge you may have by replying to a question.  Remember that people will be hesitant to post questions when they are new to the site but may be more inclined to post replies so post some questions you may have then start a dialog about the issue instead of waiting for questions to pop up.
6. Participate in groups ~ Most sites have the opportunity to develop or join groups that hold particular interest to them. We have groups on "SBDC Free Expert Advice" around topics and/or events we are holding.  Great way to interact with people that have specific interests in topics similar to you.
7. Post a Blog ~ Posting a blog can be a great way to share some knowledge that you have on particular subjects.  Posting blogs on social sites is nice when you don't have time to really carry a full blog site but still like to write about topics you are interested in. Also, don't be afraid of comments.  You can learn a lot from other peoples' knowledge.
8. Use the Events Feature to Learn of Professional Development Opportunities ~ With today's spam filters I often miss e-mail notices of events unless I remember to go to the organization's site or they have RSS feeds to let me know.  With many social networking sites now you can tap into networks or groups to learn of events or webcasts available as well as videos relating to educational opportunities.
9. Learn from others ~ Social networks provide great opportunities to learn from others.  I have learned so much from URL post on Twitter about everything from local activities to business trends to what is going on in the technology arena.  The key is that I learned it from the other members that I've connected with not from static web searches.  Very interactive and very valuable.
10. Meet Face to Face ~ Finally, set up face to face interactions (or at least phone calls).  I'm an on-line guy, I love all of this stuff, but there is no substitute for sitting down and talking face to face.  I have met many people through my interactions on-line and when I can I set a meeting to meet in person.  I met Jim Canterucci, author of "Personal Brilliance" through Twitter.  We met, and I am planning on having him be the opening keynote at the Ohio Growth Summit 2009 in June.  I followed his posts on-line and reviewed his site but until we met I didn't know if we could do business, after the meeting I knew Jim was the right person for the Summit.  Susan RoAne, a past speaker at the Summit, has a new book "Face to Face: How to reclaim the Personal Touch in a Digital World".  Susan gets it...She is connected in the on-line world (as a matter of fact we are connected on LinkIn, Facebook and Twitter) but she knows the real value comes from a face to face interaction.

So there you have it my top 10 list on the basics of using social networks for business.  I like what Gary Moneysmith said on his blog "Social Media @ Work & Play"      "...put yourself into the mindset that people are having online  conversations. They’re not just querying search engines anymore; they’re talking to each other.  It may seem overwhelming to imagine millions of people talking to each other, but that’s exactly what’s happening.  And like your mother-in-law, they’re also showing off photos and videos, too. It’s time for you to have a voice."