Small Business Blog

A guest post by Chris Ott:

Small business owners have been business networking since the beginning of time… ssshhhh…. but don’t let your “social media expert” or favorite corporate blogger hear that. After watching the Gravity Social Media Summit this morning two things became clear:

1. Most of the hype surrounding social media is large-brand-centric. By that I mean, most success stories are framed from the perspective of multi-nationals looking to strengthen brand loyalty amongst thousands of strangers.

2. Small business owners overwhelmed by Web 2.0 would be wise to think of themselves ahead of the curve and ignore the cyclone of garbage that surrounds them.

From my experience, it is very possible for a professional who’s never used the internet to get more out of online business networking than a five year social media vet. It really all depends on who’s the better networker, technology is secondary.

Below are 5 buzzwords that small business owners need not toil over:

Customer Engagement - Customer engagement is nothing new for small business owners and it is likely that if you were not good at engaging your customers pre-web 2.0, you’re not in any better of a position today. Instant messages, updates, and Tweets don’t change the game at all. No-one is going to say, “This guy was a jerk before but since he started a Twitter account and began Tweeting…. I think I’ll pay for his services!”

Viral - The word “viral” has little meaning on it’s own. A small business owner can only interpret “viral” as a synonym for “popular”.  Is a video that is viewed by 10,000 people considered “viral”, and if it is, what does that even mean  for a small business?

Connections - If the word “connections” was vague before the social-boom, it means little to nothing now. What is a connection? Do 2,000 followers on Twitter constitute as 2,000 connections, and if so, does that make Twitter more powerful than your 300 connections on Linked In? Similarly, are your 300 LinkedIn connections more important than your 100 real-world connections?

Social Media Expert - If a Fortune 500 company has money to spend on having an “expert” sell their CEO on creating a Facebook user group… so be it, but small business owners don’t need to be paying someone to tell them how to network. Social media technology is relatively simple to use and your strategy will be as unique as the business itself. Most importantly, if you’re good at networking face-to-face, social media will come natural. Read blogs, blogs, and more blogs if you want to learn the various features of specific services. The power of networking lies in understanding your business, your colleagues, and your clients.

Freemium - “Freemium” is a business model which describes how services such as Facebook, Linked In and YouTube… are “free”. This concept is completely misleading. There’s no such thing as “free”.  As I always say, “Time has replaced money as the scarcest commodity.”  The reality is that if you spend two hours on Facebook flipping through pictures…. uhhh umm… excuse me… I mean “personal branding”, you’ve effectively detracted from something else. I am not singling out Facebook, which is a great service and may work quite well for some, the important thing is to stay sales focused though. With all of the buzzwords and roundabout online marketing strategies, it can be hard to believe anyone is actually closing deals.

Synopsis

For small business owners, social media is a tool just like a telephone; you need to use it, it can be very powerful, but there are no tricks… just good business networking with people you know and trust!

This entry was posted on Monday, August 31st, 2009 at 1:09 pm and is filed under Small Business Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.