I was speaking with a group of small business owners last week at the Greater Warrenton Chamber Business Seminar on social media.  Social media was the topic and “WHY” was the question.  Here are my top five reasons that every small business owner should consider jumping on the social bandwagon.

#1 Build Credibility

Social Media provides an opportunity for you to “publish” and establish your expertise.

Writing blogs that demonstrate you are an expert in your industry, pictures that show work you have completed and videos that teach or demonstrate are great ways to establish your expertise.  Make sure your posts provide value.  After all, it’s tough to establish expertise when your posts are all promotional.  And don’t forget to find other experts and knowledge seekers in the industry so that you can comment and share their content.  It will build great credibility with people who can promote you.

#2 Promote Your Network

The foundation of networking is that by knowing and promoting our network, they will more likely learn about and promote us.  Social Media is a sharing, referring, mentioning gold mine!

The biggest networking mistake I see every week is that we aren’t leveraging social media to really launch our networks.  If you are serious about a networking group, like everyone’s fan page, subscribe to their blogs, follow them on Twitter and connect and recommend them on Facebook.  Pay special attention to their posts and make an effort to share and comment on their posts.  It’s a great way to help out your network..  On the other side, make sure you are posting content that your network will want to share, stuff that will make them look good. 

#3 Communicate with Customers

Frequent contact and interaction with customers is a critical sales tool.  It builds trust and increases the chance that you will be top of mind when it’s time to buy.  Social Media provides the tools for “opt-in” frequent messaging.

Provide your customers with daily posts of value – reminders of features, hints for products, upgrades, anything that will keep them informed and loyal.  Another great approach is to post content that generates interaction.  Ask them about creative ways to use your product and answer their questions, anything to keep them involved.

#4 Promote Your Business

Yes, finally, you can promote your business.  The value of social media is that you can be more effective by mixing self promotion in with other information and discussion, subtly branding over time.

Be creative in how you mix in your promotional message.  One of my favorite sources for social media ideas is Social Media Examiner.  When possible promote yourself while promoting others.  You might want to talk about the work you are doing with a charity organization or write about one of your customer’s and your part in making them great.  Don’t forget about social media paid advertising.  You can ultra-target in many areas using the demographic and interest information social media sites collect.

#5 Generate Leads

Social Media provides tools to rapidly expand to and effectively manage a much larger network.

By posting great content and adding value for your fans, followers and connections, you will generate quality leads.  However, you can use tools like LinkedIn to proactively target companies and people within those companies to make bigger sales.  I mention LinkedIn specifically because it allows you to identify people within your target customer and then figure out how your network coincides with theirs.  As a business owner (pronounced “sales person”), you know the value of the warm introduction to a target customer.  Social media provides a way to better identify those opportunities.  Once you have made the initial contact, mix social media with your visits, calls and emails to build the relationship and move towards the sale.

Go Social!

I haven’t met a business owner yet who couldn’t benefit from social media in some manner.  Don’t get overwhelmed!  When I work with people who are getting started we begin with one or two tools and focus on doing those consistently well.  Then we add in additional tools, continuing to build the network and more importantly the value!

Facebook Events is an application that lets you schedule your business events from a Fan Page and invite friends and fans to attend.  Events can be “Public” in which case anyone can RSVP and attend or “Private”, which only allows invited guests to RSVP.  Either way this app is a great way to help get the word out about your next event!  Thanks to Becky O’Brien of Optimal Wellness for helping me test the process!

Add an event from your Fan Page

Sign in to Facebook and go to your Fan Page.  One of the tabs should be “Events”.  If you don’t see an Events tab click on the “>>” tab or the “+” to see more options, “Events” may be there if you have other tabs.  Your Events tab will show and at the top right is a button to “Create Event”.  This will bring up a page to enter your event information.

After you fill in the event information it’s time to invite people.  Realize that the people that you are able to invite are “Friends” from your Personal Profile, not Fans.  You might want to filter and select from that list or choose not to invite people at this point if it is a business event.  You can always post and share from your Fan Page after creating the event.  Don’t forget to add an image to your event so that you don’t get the standard event picture!  When you create the event it builds and event page that allows people to post comments and see who else has been invited and who has accepted, if you click on the boxes to allow those things.

When you are done entering the event information, click the button to “Create Event”.  This will bring up your new event page.  From here you can invite more Friends (once again from your Personal Profile) using the link on the left under the picture.  At the top there is a link to edit the page if you need to make changes and…..

Update Your Fans!

Clicking the link to update your fans will bring up an update box for your event that lets you invite your friends to the event.  You have the capability to do some filtering on your list by region, gender and age.  Add a subject and message then click send.  Your friends will see the invitation in their news feed and have the opportunity to comment, share and RSVP directly from the post.

You can send additional updates as your event approaches.  You might want to consider planning this out and using additional updates to announce speakers, VIP guests that have accepted the invitation, door prizes that have been contributed or other special news relative to the event.

Sharing Events

The best thing about social media is the ability to quickly share information.  This is true of Facebook Events as well.  When you see events posting to your News Feed from your network, click on the share button to send to your friends if you think they may benefit.  When posting and updating your events, encourage your fans to share with their friends!

Please comment with any additional tips or lessons learned while using the Facebook Events Application.

This scene from the movie classic Raising Arizona reminds me of a conversation between a Social Media expert and the typical small business person!

“Well you’re on Facebook, right? You’re not on Facebook, you don’t have a page? And what about Twitter, well you just have to be tweeting…and blogging, are you using WordPress, Blogspot, what, you aren’t blogging? And make sure you use Hootsuite, or Tweetdeck or you won’t have any idea what is going on!”

I often catch myself doing it with my students and clients, and then slow down when I see the eyes glaze.  Because of the value of social media and the ease of linking things together and sharing, it is difficult to talk about only one media at a time.  For those who are overwhelmed and panicked, here are some tips for fitting social media to you.  Make sure to leave a coment with your biggest challenge in social networking!

• Some is better than none!  Start with one application and build as you get comfortable.  What you start with depends on the business and objectives.  I like to get professional services people up on LinkedIn first and then get them blogging before digging into Facebook and Twitter.  For retail I might focus on Foursquare first, followed by Facebook and Twitter.
• Learn to Subscribe and Comment. Find blogs to subscribe to, people to follow on twitter and Facebook Fan pages to “Like”.  Track those with experience and see how they do it.  Write comments, respond to questions and ask them questions about their sites.  It’s a great way to learn and an easy way to start getting your name out there.
• Carve out an hour a day.  Most social media is free, but if it’s a significant part of your marketing plan you have to put in the time.  At first you will spend the hour learning more than posting, but as you get more comfortable and experienced the hour will become more and more productive.  To start try spending 20 minutes learning more about social media, 20 minutes reading and commenting on other peoples posts and 20 minutes on your posts – thinking through what and when you will post throughout the day.
• Read a good book on Social Media.  I recommend the book Trust Agents because it focuses more on the philosophy and strategy of social media than how to use any specific tool.    What you really need to understand is how you can add value to the network you are trying to build. For the “how-to’s”, there are a ton of step-by-step blogs out there.
• Slow and steady wins the Race. Listen, you may go a couple days and not have time to post anything.  It’s ok to jump back in!  Even if you can only spend 30 minutes every other day, it’s better than nothing and you will see some results.  Just like most other types of marketing, a little every day is better than a marketing dump every two weeks.

Don’t try to solve world hunger in your first week of social media!  You will become quickly overwhelmed and likely stop after a couple weeks.  Instead, pick one media app and go with it, focusing on establishing a routine and setting aside the time.  You will get people telling you about a ton of other tools that are out there.  Write them down for reference but make the time and get comfortable with the first thing before taking on the second and third.

It won’t be long until you shift from finding the time to network online to forcing yourself to stop so you can get some work done!

What’s your biggest challenge to social networking?

See how annoying that is? Are you doing the same thing through your Facebook and Twitter Posts?

This is a family favorite scene from the movie Get Smart and it came immediately to mind yesterday while I was reviewing my Facebook feeds.  A local organization that I “Like” posted about 20 things in a matter of 2 hours, pushing all my other posts to the third or fourth page.  Now I’m open to a little creative marketing blitz now and again, but there was no creativity and the posts were long!  It was like Jamie, Jamie, Jamie, Jamie….

If social medial is going to be a significant part of your marketing strategy I recommend that you develop a media schedule that spreads out your posts and mixes them up a bit.

Spread posts throughout the day instead of posting everything in the hour you spend on Facebook during the day.  Develop a media schedule and use a scheduling tool like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck to spread out the messages.  Place the messages during times your audience is most likely to be online so that you are more likely to receive a response.

Pick your key message and nail it.  When it comes to messaging 1+1+1+1=ZERO, if you try to announce 4 different products in 140 characters your followers see “stuff”.  Pick the one message that they will most likely click or share and nail it.  The great thing about social media is that it’s acceptable to send messages 2-4 in separate posts throughout the day or week.

Mix it up! This is the hardest for me (and for many of you from what I see).  The media schedules that we create for clients mix different types of posts to keep fans and followers engaged.  For one client we recommend educational facts, promoting others, entertaining and self-promotion.  If you only promote yourself every time, using very similar posts, it’s going to get stale.  There are some exceptions, especially if people are waiting to hear from you.  For example, one ice cream store tweets their daily ice cream flavor.

Lay down the foundation and fill with spontaneity!  Many of the posts you will make next week could be written right now.  So why not do it right now.  We create a monthly schedule for clients that lists post ideas around the events we know will be happening over the next month.  This way they can write and schedule the posts early, mixing them and spreading them according to the Social Media Plan.  On a daily basis they can fill by adding posts about what is happening in the moment.  And if they are out for a day, they still have the scheduled messages providing a consistent presence.

As with most marketing there is nothing new under the sun.  Social media offers some great tools, but it’s still important to stick with the basics – a clear and consistent message that touches your audience frequently when they are most receptive.  So, create a social media schedule that gets you in front of people without annoying the crap out of them!

Excuse me Mother. Yes Sean. There is a flying man outside my window!

Much better communication, wouldn’t you say?

As part of my networking routine I join the email lists of new contacts.  Yes it tends to fill the inbox, but more importantly it gives me something that I can forward as a referral for the people that I network with – it’s just easier for me.  I’m not an email expert by any stretch, but I’ve seen, heard and read enough to identify some of the most common mistakes.  Feel free to join my mailing list and hold me accountable to my own advice! Join Sigma College Email List

1. Make the Subject a Headline – I’m constantly reminded by my friend Scot Small at RevBuilders – “Unless you are Coke, your logo means nothing – you need a good, prominent headline”.  The point is that people don’t notice our names and logos (yet), they notice and open good headlines.  Search WordPress blogs for articles on writing subject lines for a ton of great articles.
2. Be Consistent and Patient – It may take months for people to start consistently opening your emails and discovering the value that lies within.  For about 4 months after I started email marketing I heard nothing and open rates were sporadic.  Eventually, after consistently emailing over a period of months, people began recognizing me by my brand and thanking me for sending out my class schedules and other information.  Open rates steadied and I was able to start some A-B testing to refine.  So, don’t give up!
3. Content that Adds Value – Keep the content relevant and to the point.  My weekly email is simply a list of upcoming classes.  You may have articles to publish or events to announce, but my recommendation is that you include a headline and excerpt, or the basic facts and then use a “read more” link to your web site (you may prefer a “call this number” action).  This does two things – gets them to your web site (or calling) which is likely the reason you send an email, and puts more content on your web site for better search engine optimization.  Most importantly, after time, your readers will know they can sift through the headlines and pick what they want to read very quickly, rather than paging through an 800 word email to find that nugget.
4. Create an Opt-in Email List – It took me some time to grasp the value of an opt-in email list.  This is a list that you build through people joining online or giving you specific permission to add their name.  Collecting business cards and adding everyone results in lower open rates, high “unsubscribes” and even some spam reports.  Now sometimes there are reasons to do mass campaigns using purchased opt-in lists, but most small, local businesses should stick to a list that will help you build relationships and not alienate people.

Email marketing is a great marketing tool, especially when combined with other things.  But, a campaign that is done poorly and forced on an unwilling audience can actually hurt your business.  Make sure you continue to review, test and improve your email strategy!

Yesterday, my friend Becky O’Brien from Optimal Wellness recommended that I write something about why a small business owner, even an independent distributor should use social media.  To keep it simple I’ll focus on Facebook, but the same general principles apply across applications with some unique benefits for each.

1. Customers are using Facebook and don’t seem to mind brief, useful posts from businesses they “like” – this sets up for you to have multiple touch points with a lot of customers and potential customers every day.  Social Media is still a “passive” media where people understand a little promotion and it’s acceptable if it’s kept short and there is value mixed in.  But, don’t get greedy by overdoing it.
2. Businesses like “word-of-mouth” business and Facebook is “word-of-mouth” times 100 – Let’s say your average fan has 100 friends and that you have 200 fans, not a bad start for a small, local business.  If even 2 fans share one of your posts you have the potential to hit 400 people with your post!  Build up your fans and you can see how quickly that number could jump.  Oh, and these are word-of-mouth referrals FROM people who have chosen to “like” you, TO people who have chosen to be their friend!
3. Facebook advertising can be tightly targeted to a specific audience – I get Facebook advertising targeted to Naval Academy Graduates because it is in my profile.  You can target by location, age, sex, relationship status….. That means if I sell wedding dresses I can target engaged women, ages 18-30 and filter out those who are already fans.  That’s tight!

Facebook is warming up to business more each day, and I highly recommend jumping on the band wagon before business dominates and people start looking for less commercial alternatives.  If you are just getting started remember to be consistent without being overbearing, spread posts throughout the day and week and add posts with value that are worth reading and sharing.

I’ll close with a link to a simple example of how my sharing on Foursquare, combined with Facebook to create awareness for a local small business.  The post is

Sigma College of Small Business will be offering a 3-hour workshop titled “Facebook for Business! Beyond the Basic Fan Page” on August 17 and August 25 in Haymarket, VA.

A great place to start is with the full title of this book!

“Getting Naked: A Business Fable about shedding the three fears that sabotage client loyalty”

Like the title, this isn’t your typical business book.  Mr. Lencioni challenges all of us in the service industries to put our pride aside and replace it with the best interest of our customers.  And, he does it in the form of a novel, an interesting touch for a business book.

The Story…

…is about the acquisition of a boutique consulting firm by a big corporate firm.  Jack, is the man set up to manage integrating Lighthouse Partners into the prestigious, international, full-service management consulting firm of Kendrick and Black. Along the way he learns some of the secrets of Michael Casey, founder of Lighthouse Partners.  What Jack later terms “Getting Naked” with the client is the technique of putting aside corporate and personal pride to be more effective and build tremendous client loyalty.  I won’t spoil the end of the story for you, but will hit on the key business points – the “Three Fears”.

Fear of Losing the Business

The premise to this fear is that when we are afraid of losing the business, that becomes our focus and drives our actions.  Actions driven by keeping the account are often contrary to actions focused on helping the client.  An example is when we are tempted to tell customers what they want to hear rather than our true thoughts based on the experience and education for which they hired us.  Although this might help keep the account for the short term, when it doesn’t work out we become part of the problem and lose credibility.

Fear of Being Embarrassed

This fear is what causes us to walk away from meetings wondering.  Instead of speaking up and asking what might sound like a dumb question, or suggesting something that might be laughed at, we decide not to speak up.  Patrick’s take is that naked service providers are so busy putting the success of their client first, they are willing to speak up with ideas and questions even at the risk of being embarrassed.  Otherwise, you wonder what it was you didn’t understand or what would happen if they tried your idea.

Fear of Feeling Inferior

At one point in the book a group of executives are asked which of these fears are they most susceptible.  For me it was this one.  As a business management instructor and service provider at Sigma College of Small Business, it seems logical that if you aren’t continually demonstrating superiority, clients will start thinking you aren’t important and adding value.  However, the case is made that by purposely putting ourselves in a lower position than our clients (which equates to putting them on a higher level), the naked service provider will gain trust, respect and loyalty with their clients.

“Shedding the Three Fears”

Mr. Lencioni completes the book with a set of principles for overcoming the three fears.  Instead of working through those here, I highly recommend that you pick up and read the book.  It’s a very enjoyable read with a great message for anyone who provides services.  Caution: When reading in public, expect some strange looks and people avoiding you as they look at the title:-)

I was listening to the Tony Kornheiser show this morning and they read through a direct mail piece that Tony received from the Washington Kastles Tennis Team.  The letter was a form invitation from the owner of the Kastles to an upcoming event and seemed to be pretty well done for a direct mail piece.  Tony and the crew absolutely ripped the Kastle organization for it though.  The problem – the letter started out “Dear Anthony”.

Boy, if you could take back a direct mail piece!

Most of us understand the methods for gathering names and information for direct mail, and that there are many mistakes in the names, titles or even gender.  Where the Kastles really messed up though is that they didn’t use public relations to address the media audience separate from the direct mailing to the general population.

For those not familiar with the Tony Kornheiser show, it is a daily talk show on a local DC sports radio station.  They talk some sports, but it is more about entertainment and, well, just stuff.  The Kornheiser crew/posse/team (what exactly are they?) loves to latch on to a product or company, for good or bad, and use it as conversation fodder throughout the show.  At the end of the show there is an email pile-on where the audience sends in their take on the day’s topics, usually dominated by the product or company in the spot light.  You can imagine (or you can probably go listen) how much fun they had with a letter from a local sports group to a national sports celebrity and local sports icon that started out “Dear Anthony”.

When you are planning your marketing campaigns, especially for upcoming special events, do some public relations planning first.  How would this have been different if before Tony received this impersonal, promotional invitation he had received a personally signed invitation, or even a phone call, from the owner or a public relations person?  Do you know the ten or twenty media people in your industry who have the power to make or ruin your day because they have an audience?  You should be communicating with these folks through public relations.

Many small business owners mistakenly limit public relations to periodic press releases about their business.  PR is much more than that, and unless you are a company popular enough to be newsworthy, self reporting press releases are useless.  Public relations is about knowing and building relationships with the media and providing information and resources that help them provide more value to their audience.  Of course your hope is that the end result reflects positively on your business.

The Prince William Chamber of Commerce is hosting a Marketing, Advertising and Public Relations Strategies conference in September and the focus this year is on Public Relations.  Wouldn’t it be great if Tony Kornheiser somehow found and read this obscure blog post and offered to come to the September 22nd as the keynote speaker!  “Mr. Anthony”, you can email me at jlgorman@sigmabizlearning.com if you’re interested.  It’s more likely that they read this post and publically humiliate me for my poor grammar and shameless use of their name to promote my blog and MAPS event!

A couple weeks ago, I finally purchased my new Droid phone.  This led to an increased frequency in my Foursquare posts – the posts you see on Facebook and Twitter stating that someone has just “checked-in”.  Now that my friends and followers are seeing these posts I’m getting more questions about Foursquare, so I decided to shed some light for those that are in the dark on this unique social media application.

It’s Good for Businesses

Quite frankly, if it didn’t show some value for my small business customers, I wouldn’t be so enthusiastic about Foursquare.  It’s good for business because it has the potential to send out your brand from a trusted source to hundreds of people every time a customer enters with a cell phone!

Here’s How it Works

Let’s say I am sitting at the Sigma College of Small Business offices in Haymarket, VA and decide that I need a cup of coffee and something sweet.  I walk across the parking lot to Cupcake Heaven.  While I wait for my tall decaf coffee and afternoon treat, I turn on my Droid, open the Foursquare app, select Cupcake Heaven from the list of nearby venues, add a note about how great the service is and “check-in”.  This automatically sends a post to my Facebook and Twitter accounts and all my friends and followers see my comment and that I am at Cupcake Heaven.

So, do the math.  If 5 customers like me walk into the store and each of us has 200 friends and followers, the name of that store is promoted to 1,000 people that day.  Cost and effort to the store – ZERO!

Why Would a Customer Check In?

Just read your Facebook posts.  I get posts from people when they wake-up, go to bed, eat, stub their toe, etc… So people will check-in just to be social.  However, Foursquare offers tools for businesses to encourage customers to check-in.  As the manager of Sigma College of Small Business I “claimed” my venue and can now offer specific promotions to people who check-in.  Promotions can be based on number of check-ins or given to those who check-in the most – The Mayor.  That’s right, if you are the person who has checked in to an establishment the most, you are given the title of Mayor, which is announced to all your friends and followers.  People will definitely check-in for free stuff and a title!

There’s More!

As the registered owner of your venue, you have the capability to see who is checking in at your place and how often they are checking in – a great way to keep tabs on some of your most loyal and vocal customers.  If you are a retailer or restaurant and not using this free tool, you need to put it on your list of things to check out.  I’m still researching all the benefits, but this one seems to be a no-brainer, just set it up and let your customers promote your business!  Did I mention FREE?

I’ll certainly be adding a few slides on Foursquare to my “Leveraging the Online Social Network” class this coming Tuesday!

This weekend I traded emails with Becky O’Brien of Optimal Wellness about my Subscribe! blog posts that described the importance and steps to subscribing to a blog.  As part of the discussion I went to her blog, checked out the subscription setup and left a comment – nothing serious.

Here’s where it gets interesting…

I walked into Sigma College of Small Business yesterday afternoon and there on the desk was a little pink box with a great thank-you note from Becky.  The little pink box contained a Southern Red Velvet cupcake from one of my business neighbors in Haymarket, VA, Cupcake Heaven.  Now, 5 years ago I would have e-mailed or called Becky to thank her and probably told my wife and a few others what she had done and how wonderful the cupcake tasted.  In the end maybe 5 or 10 people would have known how thoughtful Becky had been, what a wonderful cupcake they have over at Cupcake Heaven and the fact that I took some time to help Becky out with her blog.

The Difference with Social Media

Instead of just e-mailing or calling, I posted my thank you on Becky’s Fan page and on my personal profile in Facebook, tagging her fan page.  I also mentioned Cupcake Heaven and the quality of their product.  The difference with social media is that the same message that went to 5 or 10 people a few years ago can now reach hundreds of people between my friends, my fans and Becky’s fans.  And it took no more effort on my part than if I had just sent an email.  If I could have quickly found the Cupcake Heaven Fan Page, (I have since found them on FB) the message would have been received by all their fans as well!  So the advantage is that in the simplest of transactions and communication, all three of us are promoted from trusted sources (people choose to fan, follow and like those that they trust) to a few hundred people.

And By the Way…

You may be asking the question “Why would Becky choose Cupcake Heaven, with its pink box and swirly frosting for a male business associate?”  Well, it is right next door and I look like I enjoy a good cupcake, but that’s not the case.  The fact is that I have been posting my visits to Cupcake Heaven for coffee through Foursquare, and commenting on how tempting the cupcakes (and ice cream) look, for several weeks!  In fact I’m the Mayor!  So Becky knew going in that this would the perfect thank-you gift, and it absolutely was!  I was wiping frosting off my face as I walked into my next meeting.

A Lot of Hype

There is certainly a lot of hype around social media.  And there are some who can fit the technology so well with their business and personality that it becomes a huge business driver.  But like any other marketing tool it takes time and consistency to build success.  Don’t get scared by the hype because even a simple presence and effort can become beneficial.  In fact, in many cases, like the one I described above, you just need to set up the presence and let your customers and network do the work for you through their social media channels!