While becoming more mainstream, social media still holds fear for many businesses, especially small local business.
Fear of time involved; fear of where to start; fear of where to be.
While this fear is understandable, it also means that many local small business owners miss out on social media and all the benefits it can offer, especially when it comes to competing with the big boys.
While I’ve written before about how expensive social media can be from a corporate campaign viewpoint, for small businesses it’s still one of the most cost-effective methods of being visible to your customers, new and existing. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube – they all offer possibilities for the small business owner.
Then there’s the real workhorse – the blog. The best marketing tool you will ever have as a small business owner, a blog can be a myriad of things:
- A promotional tool.
- An information hub.
- A resource centre.
- Your own personal social network.
- A live, ever-fresh FAQ section.
In fact, the only limitation to what a blog can do for you is the limitations you put on the blog itself. And again, this is where many small business owners – especially local small business owners – bypass social media’s strengths and opportunities.
Fear comes back in. Fear of what to blog about; fear of how to target an audience; fear of how to promote a new (or existing) blog; fear of setting yourself apart when there are so many other voices around.
Apart from that fear, perhaps the biggest stumbling block is setting up the blog in the first place. If you’re not doing it yourself, where do you find a designer (and for many small business owners, one that doesn’t break your budget or rip you off). Again, this fear is only natural.
Yet help is at hand.
In the next couple of weeks, a new course will be unveiled that takes the fear out of social media and blogging for small business owners. Some of the features will include:
- Using social media and your blog to market your small business.
- Using online tools to benefit your brick and mortar business (or a simple home-based one).
- Getting a fully-functional blog and social media tools set up from day one.
- Course “mentors” that bring a vast and comprehensive set of skills to the table (oh, and me).
These are just some of the features and benefits, with more to be announced over the coming weeks. It’s a course designed specifically for small and local business owners that get social media and its benefits (like blogs), but need that extra bit of help to really start utilizing it. Best of all, it won’t cost you anywhere near $22,000 a day…
More information will be available very soon. To make sure you get the latest updates, as well as details of what’s in store and who’ll be part of the course, you can sign up for the latest news via the newsletter form below. Don’t worry, you won’t be spammed and you definitely won’t be sold to any dodgy characters!
Social media and blogging was made for small business owners. Here’s a great chance to be that business – look forward to seeing you in a few weeks.
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Twitter: amvandenhurk
So true. Social media can be so helpful to small businesses and nonprofits. Social media is the current “It Girl” in public relations and marketing, but it might not be right for every organization. It is not a stand-alone solution to get your message out, but just one of many tactics to use in a smart and deliberate plan.
Agreed, Ann Marie, an integrated approach is far stronger than purely social (or mobile) marketing, unless that’s the need at the time.
It’s also great for any business – while PR and marketing are very suited to it, there’s an audience there for pretty much any business on social. You just need to know where to look and how to engage (and if at all).
Cheers!
Twitter: worthytips
I always believe Youtube and Twitter is most easiest way to promote a product and need less technical effort. Usually it don’t need anything more than a savvy effort and friendly mind to build a relationship chain with others and cash out that chain for business. Small business owner should aware of this and utilize the power of social media. Nicely described article Danny.
Arafat Hossain Piyada´s most recent blog post …Gmail now let you fetch POP accounts instantly & easily
If you look at something like the Free Hugs campaign on YouTube, with over 55 million views and counting, there’s no doubt that video is a great way to market. Now imagine if just 10% of these views were on your blog, though? More than 5 million possibilities…
Cheers for popping by, Arafat.
Well, now, that’s more like it. SM for small biz, like music to my ears, Danny.
I’ve been yelling “hyper-local” internet for biz for so long, I almost forgot some aren’t aware yet. Yes, I’m looking forwards to the spread of hot tips for local small business via blogs, SM, and other tools. Always nice to eat local grown and fresh
cheers.
Vince.
Love the concept and have been evangelizing the value of social media for small and medium business for more than five years now. Some firms still don’t understand that the days of placing a print ad or a TV ad or a Yellow Pages ad and sitting back waiting for the phone to ring are SO OVER!
We have been proselytizing for small and medium businesses to forget about getting their activities covered by the mainstream broadcast media, and instead focus on creating their own content in the form of video news “wrapper” reports. We cover the event just like a TV news crew, interview the client and participants, and then produce a video news report that can be distributed on websites, YouTube, other video platforms, and through social media networks. The value? Audiences already interested in your stories and content will be able to see them the way you want them seen.
Social media is not all about just Facebook and Twitter and blogs. Podcasting and video podcasting can be very cost-effective and useful tools.
Agreed, Steve – social isn’t just about the popular, it’s about what works for you. The great thing about a blog – and I include both audio and video in this – is that it really offers you your own space and connection in ways that some of the others – Twitter, Facebook, etc – often miss.
Cheers for stopping by, appreciated!
Nice post, I am considering using social media for my business too, this post provided a lot of insights.
Calvin´s most recent blog post …How To Promote Your Business On Social Media
Twitter: ramartijr
Right on Danny. I have been working with small businesses helping them create an integrated approach. Social Media poses some great opportunities for them with corresponding challenges. The biggest challenge is the time commitment. There is no doubt that there is both a learning curve and a time investment they have to make.
Many small business owners wear a lot of hats and their time is already stretched. We coach them that by applying a little wisdom, and some effort up front, with a mindset change of integrating social media into every day communication, they can actually free up time, increase customer satisfaction + increase business.
It is not free, but well crafted integration of social media into daily activities can and does produce fantastic results.
Richard A Marti Jr´s most recent blog post …“OGM My Blog is Gone” -Prevent the Panic
Agreed, Rich, the time is most definitely one of the biggest challenges smaller business owners face. And there’s still the associated costs (do you run the accounts yourself or outsource).
But then take into account the time spent physically networking; advertising in the local press; paying recruitment agencies to find your staff; etc.
If you can transfer that to a blog (or at the very least the main machinations of it) and save cost and time that way, it begins to pay back. Then once you see these savings (and you have extra time because of it), that’s where the real magic can begin.
Hopefully we can help folks make the transfer if they wish it.
Twitter: ariherzog
While your arguments work for some small businesses, it’s not a blanket argument and shouldn’t be construed as such. Yet, when you write blogging is “the best marketing tool you will ever have as a small business,” I disagree for a business isn’t recruiting for staff nor running print ads, there is the question of finding time to 1) write blog posts, 2) drive eyeballs to it, 3) focus on transforming eyeballs to engagers, and 4) dare I add commenting on other blogs.
It works for some, but not all.
Ari Herzog´s most recent blog post …How My Blog Reading is Changing
Completely agree regarding blanket coverage, Ari, and the post doesn’t make that assumption. I disagree with your take on the marketing aspect of a blog, especially for a small business, since the time investment is worth much more than any scattershot advertising. Something the course will address and advise on, along with much more.
Do what you fear most and you control fear.
Do these terrified business owners have conversations with suppliers, customers, and the like about their business face to face? Do they use email?
Social media is nothing more than a digital means to carry out those conversations online and hopefully reach a wider, more diverse community.
It’s really that simple. Everything else is tools to have those conversations and people trying to come up with ways to measure the effects thereof.
Why are we so focused on measuring ROI on social media efforts anyway? Society is becoming more social online. Period. You can engage your customers where they are today (online), or you can play catch up next year.
:shrug
The main “problem” many have, Brian, is that the conversations online are (can be) a lot scarier than locally. Locally, you may have to worry about a few folks seeing you mess up if you do; online, we know it’s different.
For sure, it’s just another way of communicating and once folks see how beneficial (and non-scary) it can be, they’re asking themselves the same questions you are now.
With regards the social media ROI, though, of course it needs to be measured. Otherwise, how do you know if you’re being effective or just wasting time in a space you don’t need to be (or be as much)? Anything you do for your business, whether it’s online or offline, needs to be measured – social is no different in this regard.
Cheers for your thoughts, fella.
Great article Danny. I think you touched on a very good point about the business owner’s FEAR when they hear about the various social media tools. When teaching new clients about the power of social media we try to take away that fear and show them how powerful and yet simple it can be to use. Like anything else that is new, its a mindset change and once practiced and then seeing the benefits of the effort, it becomes part of their daily routine.
I think it is key to gently lead the way and help alleviate that fear.
As a resume writer, I have only experienced success from social media. Not just monetary business but what I’ve learned is priceless, and the time spent has paid for itself in knowledge.
What about finding the time? I think for most of my clients they struggle to make time to write well thought out blogs and make the most of social media.
This is so true. Social media can be terrifying to small business owners, especially if there is no one willing to teach them how to use it. It’s important the these people know that there are people willing to help them and that social media isn’t as scary as they think it is.
Thank you, Danny, for your insight and helping to empower small business owners everywhere.
Tessa Carroll
http://www.blogs.vbpoutsourcing.com
Twitter: dineroycredito
As a small business owner willing to try new marketing channels, social media presents an interesting challenge (and opportunity). While the communication increases at first, I find that there
Mike Periu
Author, Propio Negocio en cinco pasos
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Let me know what you think… kelly@briefworld.com