With the tough economy getting more, well, tough, as a small business owner you may be asking yourself how can we maximize our available funds? How do I get the most bang for my dollars and efforts? Facebook, MySpace, Ning, Typepad blogging, WordPress, YouTube–which online marketing and social media tools do we add to our small business marketing toolbox?How much should we dip our toe into social media marketing? Should we try out social networking sites? If so, which ones? How much time will it take?
Do we create a Facebook or MySpace page for our small company? Is a small business blog right for us? What about the new public relations (online PR)? How much time will social media marketing take?
How much will all of this cost?
Get Out Your Rolodex
Before choosing a social media marketing strategy and tools, let’s consider your key marketing/business growth goal.
You want to have as many two-way customer conversations as possible. Online and in the real world.
If you want to out-market your competition, get to know your customers and prospects better. Have the most high-quality, engaging, authentic conversations that you can. Find out what your customers are up to when it comes to social media.
Here are some in-person questions to get you started:
- Besides dealing with the problems that your products and services solve, what other topics are your customers interested in?
- What are they doing online? How do they do research for purchases?
- Are they even spending time online?
- Where do they go when they need answers? Which web sites (if any) do they rely on?
- When they have a business problem to solve, do they send an email to their friends in the same industry? Do they call someone?
- Do your customers read print publications? What are their favorites?
- What are they reading? Do they follow blogs? Many people tell me they only read blogs when one comes up on a Google or Yahoo search. Groundswell, the insightful book about how companies can turn the trend of how customers talk about /interact with products and services online, describes this type of customer. The authors Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff call people that (simply) read blogs, read customer ratings/reviews online, watch other consumers’ videos, listen to Podcasts and visit online customer forums, “Spectators”.
You want to learn how your customers learn online. If at all.
Customers & Companies Are All Different
There is not a one size fits all type of answer. A small business blog–while powerful when done correctly and with the commitment of the whole company–is not for everyone. Blogs require more time than money.
When I surveyed mid-size business financial managers for a client I discovered a group of business customers that are simply not inclined to follow blogs.
Some of their answers were interesting from “…I find the whole idea of blogs annoying…” to, “I work part time for two different companies, I just don’t have time to do research on the Internet. I read Time magazine at home…”
Groundswell calls folks like these that do not read blogs, watch videos or participate in online forums “Inactives”. However, You still need a marketing strategy to reach them if you have target customers that are Inactives.
This was also the case for a real estate investment broker I worked with. Interviewing his clients about how they got their information regarding investments sure opened my eyes! (Being a blog-devouring, online community junkie myself.) The Internet was not a big part of how this group sought out the information they needed for selecting new investing strategies. Reliance on trusted friends and advisers was their preference. Good old face-to-face conversations. Go figure.
What are your next steps?
Step 1. Have conversations with your best customers. Non-sales conversations.
Step 2. Listen hard.
Step 3. Listen some more.
Step 4. Find out if they’re online.
Your challenge is to learn as much as you can about your customers’ and prospects’ online reading, and research habits and preferences.
Ask your customers what information sources they use. What do they rely on first when they need help to solve a problem? How do they seek out information when they want to learn a new skill to help their business or improve?
Then you will know where to be online. You’ll know how to make your company more “findable” when your target audience is looking for information.
So, open up your Rolodex, pick up your trusty cellphone and take a customer to lunch. Take a prospect to coffee. Ask some questions. And listen.
Let me know what you hear. Next we’ll talk about listening online.
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Very interesting post and I think it’s very good advice. So much is made of social marketing that some jump in head first without finding out if it’s necessary for them and then are put off the entire idea due to the amount of time and effort required with very little to show for it.
However, I would suggest that even for very small companies with a predominantly “inactive” customer base there are a few basic social marketing activities that are almost a requirement in today’s world.
First – make sure you are visible on the prominent online directories such as Google Local, Yelp (for the US) and Bizwiki.co.uk for the UK. I’m not suggesting that you just list your address, I am suggesting you take advantage of whatever opportunities the directory gives you to really make a case for yourself. For example, on Bizwiki we allow companies to post their history, services, products, branches, specialisations, opening hours and other factual information.
Second – I would suggest that businesses actively solicit positive reviews. Sites like Yelp rank business listings based on the number of positive reviews so ask for them. Every time a customer says they’ve had a positive experience or thanks you for sorting out a problem send them your listing link on Yelp, Bizwiki, Google or whatever site and ask them to tell the world about it.
If companies do nothing else but ensure they are well listed and well reviewed on the free business directories they will probably have done enough social marketing. Most small businesses, especially those offering products or very local services, would not require anything more.
I agree that every business is different and some may not even require that level of online social marketing but the trend towards using the internet in place of the phone book and taking reviews into account when making purchase decisions is growing.