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The real initial value of social media is networking. For instance, I've found the journalists - through Twitter (many of the top TV personalities in my market are just an @ away).
And when you do have a marketing-type message, if you don't already have a network, you're going to be sharing that message to an empty room, or you're being "that guy" doing the virtual equivalent of shoving business cards in people's hands and walking away.
And as anyone who owns a small business knows, it's not always what you know but who you know - social media gives you the ability to expand the contact network you have.
I can't tell you how many vendors and jobs I've found for myself and others through the reciprocity that is social media done well with respect.
Just like in the offline world, you need to build your contact list or network before you need them. If you're not at least participating, you're starting cold when you do jump in and at a serious disadvantage.
What I am professing is to build a marketing strategy and then you can fully realize the time spent on social networks - without it, too much time is simply wasted.
A website for a website's sake is not a valuable strategy - I can see how this now extends to social media (in particular Twitter).
I agree with your list but it insinuates that all these things need to be done first. To accelerate marketing we need to do things concurrently, so if a basic strategy is laid out, I think we have to venture forward and put our toe in the water. But limit ourselves while working on the above things as an objective.
I guess having my strategy in place and budgeting(time) is the key to me.
(my version also fits in a Tweet.)
If a business can't clearly articulate what they do, who they do it for, how marvellous life will be for the customer when no longer suffering pain, and why they are uniquely placed to help the customer - then they need to work on that first and foremost.
Then they can build a comprehensive Marketing Strategy that allows the customers multiple ways to move in simple steps from being unaware of their existence, all the way to being such loyal customers that they can't help being enthusiastic evangelists.
Then they can create an Action Plan which may or may not include implementing websites and tweeting on Twitter and the rest.
Then, and only then, are they justified in spending time making the plan happen and the results arrive!
Hope this helps.
David
Whilst my reasoning appears slightly different to yours John the underlying rationale is the same.
Ike's summation was great too.
Social media can be an important facet of a company's communication and customer engagement strategy but its not the starting point. It needs to be integrated into a thoughtful plan that actually makes sense to the business objectives. Social media is not a magic hat.
If a small business is in any way reticent about getting on Twitter, then they just shouldn't do it. The relationship aspect of Twitter, and any other social media, does take time. This is time that may be considered a waste for many small businesses, but that certainly hasn't been our experience.
I think you are doing two things here: 1 - emphasising that Social Media works best when it's part of a structured marketing process and 2 - letting small business owners who aren't on Twitter but think they should be know that it's ok to not be on there yet.
But the important word there is 'yet'; as you say social media for small businesses is growing in importance. It's not as simple as saying don't worry you don't ever need to know anything about it; it's more that there are other things that they need to be doing first.
And FWIW I disagree with the comment about small businesses not needing a website; with the current local search statistics as they are I believe small local businesses without a website (or at the very least a Google Maps entry) are leaving money on the table.
Thanks for opening up the debate.
Great insight John.
I don't know why people don't realize that they need to go where their audience is. If you're in a small town and the majority of your customers not only aren't on Twitter but haven't even heard of it, what are you trying to accomplish? I like to say, "If your audience is at the bowling alley, don't go marketing yourself at the roller rink."
1 - emphasising that Social Media works best when it’s part of a structured marketing process and
2 - letting small business owners who aren’t on Twitter but think they should be know that it’s ok to not be on there yet.
3 - I was also trying to subtly suggest I'm getting a little tired of the SM preachers who not only suggest that you must be on twitter, but that you must be on twitter as they say - perhaps that would be left for another post.
I understand your intent, as you followed up nicely with comments explaining your opinion better. I really have to agree if it is used improperly, can be a waste of time, but to say that in order to see a benefit, you have to be an established expert, is not accurate. I personally have seen a great benefit and an excellent return and do not consider myself an Icon.
I do get your point, John that " we shouldn't lose focus of diversifying our strategy and tactics" to market ourselves.
A social media fan base can be achieved with great results, like everything else....time and effort
I just think that a strategy to dabble is ok. As Covey would say, "Sharpen the Saw." You have to learn.
Thanks John for another good post.
Other than that though there are plenty of strategies to utilize social media to help grow your business, primarily to meet B2B partners, clients, peers and prospects. Also I think it is a great learning tool! I have learned a great deal in the last few weeks just being a follower!
As a follower it's a matter of working strategy and the thing I have seen champions for in the last few days is for search.twitter.com - and that is how I found you. With a powerful search, outbound marketing, self introductions etc can still be a decent while more work intensive approach to utilizing social media.
As for being a leader, I am with you on building the marketing base - your niche(s), your reputation, and your website and then bringing that with you to social media to attract attention to what you do - being the duct tape if you will, or magnet I think of it as. I also call it leveraging your reputation. The longer you have been in an industry, the more you know and the more people you know and know you - invite them to join you on social media! This I look at as a leading strategy...
With a properly designed website, designed to inform potentially but more so to close business and generate leads, social media can be used as an inbound marketing tool (as Hubspot's @mvolpe calls it) whose primary function is to send traffic to your business/revenue producing funnel of a website. Ping.FM is a great tool for broadcasting your newest additions to your website to bring people back...
Back to improving my funnel... :)
We at DeskAway are active on twitter and other online media.
On the other hand social media is generally free (for the moment) so probably has the potential to provide the cheapest PR for smaller businesses?
The only time social media isn't right for a small business is if they people they need to listen to aren't using social media.
1. Great content and lots of it.
2. A plan or agenda for these sites.
For example knowing 5 journalists. I didn't know any when I started, I now know at least 10 due to twitter.
I didn't have one single thing on your list in place before I started using Twitter and it's been very successful for me so far. ;-) And that's a complete anomaly!
That said, I am not like most small businesses and I will admit, I have put a TON of time and effort into my social media efforts and relationship building and recognize that most small businesses would not do the same (or have the time to do so).
My advice to them...follow your very smart advice first. And then when they are ready, only fish where the fish are (Twitter might not be the right pond) and don't let shiny objects lure you in (i.e. the next greatest tool or app)...be the shiny object instead (i.e. offer value to your network/community).
And you're right...there are a lot of social media charlatans (my word, not yours!) out there who push these tools on everyone. Mainly it's because they don't understand basic marketing fundamentals. And as shocking as it might be, some companies just don't need to implement social media into their overall marketing plan.
Great post! Wish I had seen it before my speaking engagement with small businesses today (this same topic). Lesson learned!! ;-)
I agree, I spend a bit of time twittering but have other needs that take priority.
Did go to tweet-up last might, mostly web developers and real estate agents.
The one point that readers have shared more than any, and I agree, is that it's never quite as linear as I've proposed, in some cases you have all of what I've proposed 1/2 done while your signing up and building profiles, and that's ok too.
One thing I would say is that there may be some special cases out there where a business can use Twitter in a unique way, and not have to launch into the whole "Twitter lifestyle." For example, a restaurant letting customers know (via their website, table cards, etc.) that they'll tweet their daily specials every day.
Like any tactic, I think it comes down to understanding why you are doing it, and weighing the potential benefits against what you could achieve by using that time for another activity. Using that as a guide, investing a little bit of time in Twitter (in a very focused way), might be worthwhile even if you don't have everything else up and running.
And workshops would only be appropriate for certain industries and companies.
I agree that everyone rushes to social media, but they arent sure why or what to say, and even with people who have accomplished everything on that list it is often still just bunch of people talking (or spewing) and not a lot of listening and communicating.
but twitter still serves a purpose for the small business. we're not at the point of acquiring many new customers from twitter, but it is one of our primary professional marketing tools. many of the connections we have with other photographers either started through twitter or have grown there. and in our industry, referral is a huge factor. so, in some small businesses, twitter = professional networking = referrals.
I agree that Twitter can be a waste of time when you don't see the value in it initially. I think for small businesses that don't have a solid marketing strategy in place, they can use it for other things. Things like seeing what people are saying about their products, their services, or their competitors products and services, etc. Small business need to be on Twitter in some capacity to hear the conversations that might effect them. I personally feel you don't need Twitter to be social. It can be your R & D tool. You can easily find what your niche is looking for by polling, asking questions, etc. So I think it has many uses other than driving traffic to a site, converting traffic to sales, or networking. What are your thoughts?
Good blog post...it got me thinking about my own strategy and how I'm using the social sites.
If you don't know how to use Twitter though, it will be a waste of time.
It never hurts to build a list.
BUT...
To capitalize on it immediately you are absolutely correct why a person shouldn't bother with FB or Twitter!
There is a place in business for social networking and there are some networks that are of higher quality than others. Anyone on the internet today knows this.
while I don't completly agree that all the items on your list are necessary prior to social networkin, I firmly agree that you need to know what part of your overall marketing strategy these venues fill.
There is a crucial component missing from most internet marketers' toolkits and that is a written plan of action that is tied to some sort of accountability statistic. Socializing and building relationships on the internet is fun but focus is necessary, especially if one is self-employed.
Marj Wyatt aka Virtually Marj
Thanks.
On my blog I am educating my audience on the benefits of simply Listening - my audience works in a highly regulated industry that prevents Talking and Collaborating.
As Charles M suggests above, there is an entirely new dimension of insights to be gained by adding search.twitter.com to your base of education re prospects, clients, industry, competition, etc.
1) Many don't understand how to do it
2) Others do not know how to do it themselves
3) Those who might be willing to hire someone to assist have no idea who they can trust
4) Most have difficulty staying focused on so many different tasks at once and do not know how to prioritize them.
All we can do is keep encouraging them to select one missing element and work on it until they get it done.
We can also recommend those who deserve to be recommended and assist those who can become deserving enough to make them valuable assets instead of knowing just enough to be dangerous.
How would you define a strong marketing foundation for a small business with limited resources without the utilization of free resources on the internet?
I agree with you that for some small businesses, trying to figure out the right things to market through FB, Twitter and the like can be time consuming, however- it is not wasteful. Marketing on social networking sites is about trial and error (and I'm not the only one who believes this: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/09...). There are no manuals, and no marketers who know the wiser- one of the most brilliant developments of marketing with these sites is how easy it is to be niche- which means that marketing is as unique as it can get. A mass marketer's worst nightmare, but a small business owner's dream. Why not invest the time?