Duct Tape Marketing - Latest Comments in All Tweet and No Cattle

Re: All Tweet and No Cattle

Erin — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:34:44 -0000

"My real message is that social networks, including twitter are growing in importance for small business, but hold little value to the business that has not built a strong marketing foundation."

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.co.... 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?

Re: All Tweet and No Cattle

Gail Gardner — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 15:17:06 -0000

You are absolutely correct and there is one very good reason so many businesses still do not do what you and so many others have recommended:

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.

Re: All Tweet and No Cattle

shorespeak — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 15:05:54 -0000

While I do not agree that all eight of your bullet points need to be in place before jumping into any social/new media, I do appreciate the underlying sentiment of the post and the comments.

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.

Re: All Tweet and No Cattle

Kris Bovay — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 19:52:43 -0000

A refreshing change in direction. Everywhere I turn these days, the pressure to participate in social media is growing. Your point about being ready for it and ensuring that social media is part of, or will further, your business objectives is right on target.
Thanks.

Re: All Tweet and No Cattle

marjwyatt — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 18:45:17 -0000

This is a great post and very much on mark with a blog post I wrote last month on social networking, which you can review at: http://getincomeblog.com/fa...

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

Re: All Tweet and No Cattle

John Piro — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 16:39:07 -0000

Bottom Line John ...

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!

Re: All Tweet and No Cattle

Paul Cooley — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 15:51:06 -0000

I understand what you are saying, but I would say it comes down more to time management and truly understanding the tools that can be used for Twitter. Used correctly, Twitter is a powerful tool for online and offline businesses. With the different tools that are available now, you don't have to spend a lot of time on Twitter at all. With Twitter you can connect with like-minded people that you would have never connected with any other way, you can get JV partners, find out about events and some pretty cool marketing strategies.

If you don't know how to use Twitter though, it will be a waste of time.

Re: All Tweet and No Cattle

Dale Bohman — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 12:17:28 -0000

Good article and points. Twitter is starting to make some sense for me, but I have a full marketing strategy and an education print marketing blog that I tweet about. With all that I only spend about 20 minutes a day with Twitter and just see it as a small piece in the overall marketing puzzle. I do get some good links from people I follow that are helpful and I try to do the same, but I do see the people that all they are doing with marketing is messing around with Twitter or other Social online services with no substance backing it up.

Good blog post...it got me thinking about my own strategy and how I'm using the social sites.

Re: All Tweet and No Cattle

Paul Chaney — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 16:07:29 -0000

John, one chapter in my new book deals with precisely what you said. Before diving off into social media initiatives, get the basics down first. Of course, my focus is online but the same applies in a general sense. Thanks for being the "voice crying in the wilderness." It may not be popular advice, but it is sound advice.

Re: All Tweet and No Cattle

Samuel — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:57:31 -0000

John,

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?

Re: All Tweet and No Cattle

chaim_k — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 09:49:02 -0000

John, I agree with you totally, I'm now on twitter for about 2 months over 100 entries and haven't picked up any business. I understand that should not be my motive. but that's the bottom line. Yes you need to have a marketing strategy even for twitter, right-on John

Re: All Tweet and No Cattle

ben @ STUDIO 623 — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 09:39:26 -0000

it seems that many bloggers write on twitter from the perspective of larger corporations. the steps above line out a fantastic marketing strategy for all businesses. but some of the points are not extremely relevant for some small businesses.

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.

Re: All Tweet and No Cattle

Tim Nagle — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 23:13:11 -0000

John, It is great advice and for some a splash of cold water in the face. I read this info three-four times and it is better and better each time. Great advice.

Re: All Tweet and No Cattle

Mark Denton — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 18:18:32 -0000

Nicely said. I wrote a post http://bit.ly/mqTMl a couple of weeks ago on the "social media gurus" who seem to think that it's all about accumulating Twitter followers, and I think this really takes it to the next level.

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.

Re: All Tweet and No Cattle

ducttape — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 17:44:27 -0000

@Beth - thanks - I certainly wasn't saying don't do these things, obviously anyone that reads this blog with any regularity knows I'm always talking about social media, and certainly there are people who can do what you've done, people are doing what you've done, but it's not the norm and probably not the best path for most.

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.

Re: All Tweet and No Cattle

Michael Eisenberg — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 17:29:14 -0000

A voice of reason swimming against the tide.
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.

Re: All Tweet and No Cattle

Jared O'Toole — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 14:21:36 -0000

I don't think you need to have all of those things. I think you need

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.

Re: All Tweet and No Cattle

Scott — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 13:45:10 -0000

I disagree with you because I find the real value of Social Media hasn't been as a broadcasting platform. Social Media is a wonderful way to stay in touch with your customers, clients, competitors, and industry news -- the trick is knowing who to be listening to.

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.

Re: All Tweet and No Cattle

Rob Murray — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 11:54:55 -0000

I totally agree. Social Media marketing is like a luxury good to some. Its the time resource that it takes to carry it out that makes it so expensive. It is not a necessity or a priority and therefore should indeed only be done once the brand has met the above mentioned 8 criteria.

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?

Re: All Tweet and No Cattle

nwesource — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 04:18:27 -0000

This is more solid material on the lines of your twitter background graphic - social media isn't a religion - and you were speaking to the zealots: point taken.

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... :)

Re: All Tweet and No Cattle

Tim Nagle — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:33:26 -0000

My real message is that social networks, including twitter are growing in importance for small business, but hold little value to the business that has not built a strong marketing foundation.

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

Re: All Tweet and No Cattle

ducttape — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:08:02 -0000

@Jo - I do think you caught me - I was trying to say about 3 things actually and that's a recipe for confusion.

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.

Re: All Tweet and No Cattle

ducttape — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:05:05 -0000

@Stacy - this is the point of course - "I like to say, If your audience is at the bowling alley, don’t go marketing yourself at the roller rink."

Re: All Tweet and No Cattle

ducttape — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:03:41 -0000

@Joe - you're right it is something that you need to do all at once perhaps, so I guess I was being a bit overdramatic in trying to make a point - on one hand I want to help people relax about some of the SM hype, but kick in the butt to say you need to get in this stuff, but do it the right way,

Re: All Tweet and No Cattle

Stacy Lukas — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:07:27 -0000

While I don't think it's necessary to have all the things on your list checked off before a small business dives into the Twittersphere, I do agree with your overall point, and I've flat out told people in my chamber of commerce that. They see/hear about Twitter as something they think they "should" be doing, but while it's fun and a great networking tool, if your target market isn't even on Twitter then why waste your time?

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."