I had a talk with the owner of a local coffee shop chain last month. A great guy, but not a tech guy. He was poo-pooing the value of being in the social media game. I hope he has seen the buzz his crosstown rival has been getting for their social media engagement. They are doing a knock-out job, and from what I can tell, they are seeing a return for their efforts.
How do you make the case for social media in your small business? It is hard to wrap your head around all the emerging technologies and predict what the benefit will be to your business. Here are a few key questions to ask yourself as you evaluate whether to jump in:
1. Do you have the type of audience/customer base that would be using social media? With each passing day it is harder to answer No to this question. As Twitter/Facebook usage explodes there is a good chance that your customers are using these tools to build relationships and connect with the rest of the world.
2. Do you have someone in your organization who can lead the charge? Going in half-assed is not a winning approach. Having no Facebook page is better than a bad/unattended Facebook page. If you are not the one who is going to be firing off tweets (messages posted to Twitter), do you have a energetic, tech-savvy employee or a family member who is already part of the social media arena? Social Media communication is a skill – different from writing articles or doing traditional marketing. There are many in the younger crowd who have already developed social media skills. As long as they have some other old-fashioned communication skills (good spelling, good judgment, and audience awareness) they might be a great asset.
3. Do you have something interesting or of value to share with the masses? One would hope there is something interesting or exciting or unique about your business. If not, now is the time to get thinking about how you can set yourself apart from your competition. Social Media could be a great springboard to take your business to a new level. In a certain sense, Social Media is all about starting a conversation with your audience and generating enough excitement to get that conversation to spread.
Here are a few ideas:
- Announce a time-sensitive product special on your website.
- Run a contest that encourages your followers/fans to spread the word to others.
- Stay up on the latest news in your industry and share it, along with your unique commentary.
- Solicit input on product development.
- Coerce your staff to do outlandish stuff and start doing some videoing. Some people actually enjoy doing outlandish stuff in public!
- Post photos of what is happening at your business. An iphone and a service like twitpic can make this process very fluid.
Here is an innovative twitter application pointed out by @alexpeerenboom. Bakertweet is a device/service that allows bakeries to distribute tweets announce when their hot creations have just popped out of the oven. How cool (or hot) is that?
4. Is it important to you to form a close connection with your customers? There is a potential consequence of getting close to someone. They might want to get close back with you! If the thought of bonding online with your customer base makes you wince, then Social Media might not be for you. There are some unique qualities to online relationships; if you can master the online medium you can build strong, long-term bonds with your customers.
5. What is the ongoing cost going to be? The surface cost to social media is next to nothing. Assuming you are already connected to the Internet an account with Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter is free. You will likely want to budget an hour of somebody’s time per day to social media endeavors. Then you need to put on your creative thinking cap and consider what kind of content you are going to be sharing across your social media channels. If you have great ideas for photos or video, you will need the tools or expertise to deliver. I recommend making an outline of your social media plan including the following.
- the social media outlets where you will participate.
- frequency of participation
- a rough list of the type of content you will be posting.
Consistency is key. If you can continually post valuable, entertaining, or educational information, your customers will appreciate you.
Next stop: ROI. Stay tuned for our next post in which we will talk about measuring return on investment from your social media activities.
