Small Business Marketing - Social Media Opportunity

Small business owners have a great opportunity with Social Media!

Becoming intentional, proactive and strategic in your social media efforts, you are able to successfully:

* Build a community of advocates of your product or service

* Dialogue directly with your target customers

* Improve the Search Engine Optimization & Search Engine Marketing for your companies website

In 2010, Fortune 500 companies are reporting to have moved 40% of their marketing budgets to Social Media Marketing.

Some stats:

* 90% of your customers TRUST their peer recommendations.

* 14% trust an ad

The opportunity - step away from your sales podium and off the stage to make your way down to the floor, where your customers are mingling. Join them in conversations! You will build trust and value; and when you listen, you will discover new, creative ways to speak with them. Building trust takes time, but when it occurs, you are sure to identify strong advocates for your products/services and they will be EAGER to share you within their circle of friends...thus growing your circle of friends.

Yes, there is HUGE value when you incorporate social media marketing into your overall marketing mix.

So....

Where to begin?

Stay tuned for details...

Social Media Marketing - The Bandwagon

Social Media Marketing (SMM) is definitely a topic of conversation in business today. After all, there are over 400 million people on Facebook, so I NEED A FACEBOOK PAGE - right?

Probably.

BUT, before a small business owner jumps onto the SMM bandwagon, you need to pause for moment and remember the basics:

* Who is my customer?

* Are they even ON Facebook? If so, what are they doing there? Where are they?

* Why do I even want to spend the energy to connect with them on Facebook?

* How do I tell them I am on Facebook?

Your jumping into SMM without a plan is similar to some companies I have seen purchase an exhibit booth space at a trade show and not let anyone at the show know they are there. They left the show defeated and upset that only a few people happened to stop by their booths.

You MUST have a plan.

You MUST tell them your there.

You MUST encourage them to visit you.

Your becoming intentional, proactive and strategic in your SMM thinking will move you ahead of the many other small business owners who have simply jumped into the social media channels and failed to bring their basic marketing life preserves with them.

Small Business Marketing Tactic: SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Absent from blogging the past few months, I am thrilled to return with some incredible information, strategy, tactics for small business owners!

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

We have been hearing much about social media marketing for a couple of years. From my own recent experiences, I plan will begin to share pertinent information and suggestions regarding how your business can thrive within this social media world too.

I will be disclose real-life examples from my current work with my client partners and suggest how you may incorporate those tactics into social media areas of your business.

REMEMBER! Social media marketing is NOT the end all of your marketing. Yes, it can definitely impact your business. We must remember that social media marketing is simply one prong within your overall marketing mix that adds great value to provide you with your own online community focus group that shares the value of your product or service and encourages them to SHARE that value with their community of friends.

Closing this post, I share this cool result from a basic use of social media:

1. My client's Twitter channel had just under 100 followers

2. Thursday night, I posted an update that the brand was going to be featured on Fox's HANNITY

3. Within 20 minutes, 3 of the followers had ReTweeted the post to their list of friends.

3. Within 30 minutes, 7000 followers of followers had received the news!

To prove, social media marketing works WHEN you are intentional, proactive and when you enter the channel with a plan. I will discuss this in future posts.

Stay tuned for a newly invigorated MarketingBloc that will focus much effort to provide YOU information, statistics, and tactics to grow your company's product/service when you add social media marketing to your marketing mix.

talk soon :)

Small Business Marketing Tactic: LIMIT THE USE OF YOUR CREDIT CARDS!

Beyond the valid Dave Ramsey platform of CUT YOUR CREDIT CARDS (which is liberating!), Entrepreneur's blog discloses industry statistics that educate and encourage (hopefully!) small business owners to LIMIT THE USE OF YOUR CREDIT CARDS!

From the blog, the study reports:

- 58% of small-business owners said they relied on credit cards for start up money in 2006

- for EVERY $1000 in additional credit card debt, the probability of the firm closing increased 2.2%

SOURCE: http://blog.entrepreneur.com/2009/08/how-credit-cards-make-your-business-die.php

Small Business Marketing Tactic: Multiple Channel Marketing

Good marketing services your target market in multiple ways:

website,

email list,

direct mail,

clear communication in advertising,

referral programs,

sponsored events,

etc

Your goal is to keep reminding your consumers who you are, what you offer, and WHERE to find you.