OrangeSoda Internet Marketing Blog

I just read an email from Flyte Media with the title: Does Your Small Business Really Need a Social Media Strategy?

The answer, is YES! Especially in a slow economy. Getting involved before your competitors are gives you an advantage.

Rich Brooks goes on to detail how Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Skype, YouTube, and LinkedIn have helped his business. He also talks about why this trend to use social media in marketing a small business has so much attention. Social media does not a linear, predictable relationship but a hodgepodge of interactions that can and usually do result in ROI.

Here are some example of how social media has helped his small business (wish I were a graphic designer because this would make a fun diagram):

• Someone finds you on Twitter and asks you to do a small job. That leads into something bigger - a regular contract. Or that person is happy with the small job and tells someone else about you when they need a similar service. Or the happy customer blogs about you and brings you more business. All started on Twitter.
• You reconnect with an old friend on Facebook who then sees what you do and hires you for a job for their business or company. Or they recommend you when someone they know needs internet marketing help.
  Note: a lot of companies haven’t considered that they need internet marketing until they learn what it is. Many people assume I build web sites. I never build web sites, only market existing ones.
• You travel to another state and while you’re there you set up meetings with people you exchange tweets with so you can meet them in real life.
• You read someone’s blog then meet in real life at a conference. You then follow each other on Twitter. You “friend” each other on Facebook,
• You post and answer questions on LinkedIn (like, can you recommend someone for this job?) and use Skype to talk in real life to people all over the world.

I’ll add my own - a CEO from another country is scoping out a new place to do business. He reads my blog and contacts me. Someone else is wondering if they should invest in a company I’ve worked with and wants my opinion. These are people who never would’ve found me if I weren’t visible - in this case - through my blog.

Rich talks about a common phenomenon - people think either these social sites are a waste of time or they can’t see how it can help a business. He points out that he had about 800 tweets (Twitter posts) before he ever got a job. You can’t predict when this networking will benefit you, but if you invest in it at some point it will happen, especially if you’re one of the only ones in your industry on that network.

Each Social Network has its Own Culture

What follows is that if you’re going to try to join the community, you’ll need to learn the culture.

Bloggers have egos that are massaged when you leave insightful comments on their blog, blog about them and link back, or put them on your blogroll.

Twitterers like it when you message them and expose them to your network, helping them gain new followers (if you have a good network). They like it when you answer their questions or respond to their requests or “retweet” their posts.

Please add your knowledge of the culture on the social networks you frequent in the comments below.

You first watch and listen and get a sense for how things work before jumping in and looking foolish (some social media sites are more tolerant of newcomers than others).  It’s like visiting another country - you don’t want to offend people by acting until you have some sense of what’s appropriate.

He notes:

“Use social media the right way and you will create and strengthen relationships. You won’t have to chase customers, you’ll attract them.”

That is a very different mindset - attracting new customers rather than trying to persuade or cajole them into paying attention to you or responding to your advertisement. Doesn’t that sound great? It is. And as Rich points out it’s a lot of fun.

And with that I’m going to “follow” Rich on Twitter and trackback to his blog post.