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!

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!

Subscribe! Part 1 covered the importance of getting interesting blog content brought to you in a convenient, efficient manner.  Part 2 is a bit more hand’s on in showing you how to actually subscribe.

Decide where you want to see blog content

A great thing about RSS is that there are multiple ways to manage content.  You can set it up in your web browser, through email or even feed it to your personal or business home page.  I actually have some feeds that come up in my iGoogle home page, some that feed to a tab in Internet Explorer and some that go to an email folder in Outlook.

To determine which tool to use for feeding content you should ask yourself, “Do I want to see this post immediately, or have as a reference for later”  The posts I want to see immediately, the timely information I want to comment on, are fed to my iGoogle personal page through Google Reader.  Those I use for reference to search later feed to my browser or an email folder, and some feed to multiple places.

Don’t forget that following and commenting on other people’s blogs is an important part of social networking.  It is how you listen and interact in the discussion, building trust and credibility with each thought and comment.

For step-by-step on three basic RSS feed techniques, click the links below.  If you have any questions, suggestions or run into problems, drop me a comment.  Although the directions are specific to an application, most similar apps have the same functionality.

Using Google Reader and following blogs on your iGoogle home page

Tracking RSS Feeds as Internet Explorer Favorites

RSS Feeds in Microsoft Outlook

Google Reader is a great little tool that helps aggregate the blogs you are tracking to your Google account.  The reason I like it is that I have an iGoogle “portal” page (a page that I can personalize with info I want to see) and there is a “Gadget” that puts my feeds right onto my personal home page, the one that I see first every time I open Internet Explorer.  This is what I use for those blogs I want to see and review quickly and then comment, especially on blogs related to educating small business owners.

 1.  Sign into your Google Account.  If you don’t have a Google account:

1. Go to www.Google.com
2. Click “Sign In” at upper right
3. Click “Create an Account Now” under the Sign in box
4. Follow instructions for setting up an account

Click on Settings in the upper right to add new Google apps

2.  In the upper right of your Google page click on the “Settings” drop-down and select “Google Account Settings”.  You can do a lot here to personalize your page and account.

3.  If “Reader” isn’t listed under “My Products”, go to the “Try Something New” section and click on “More”

4.  Under the “Communicate, show & share” section, click on “Reader”.  This will place Reader into the “My Products” section where you can open and start using.

Open Google Reader by clicking the link

5.  Open Reader by clicking on the link and you should see your Google Reader Page

Go to www.SigmaBizBlog.com or another blog you want to feed

Click on the "Add Subscription" Button

Click on the Subscription to see the latest posts from that source.

Add the Google Reader Gadget to Your iGoogle Home Page

Click on "iGoogle" at the top right to open your iGoogle page

1.  Go to www.Google.com and sign in if you aren’t already.  This should open your iGoogle page (if it doesn’t, click on the “iGoogle” link in the upper right) and you should see something like this.  Each of the little blocks is called a gadget and you can customize which gadgets you want on you page.

Click on the "Add Stuff" link in the upper right to get new gadgets!

2.  In the upper right click on the link for “Add stuff”.  In the search area type in “reader” and search.  This will show you the Google Reader gadget and clicking “Add It Now” will put it on your iGoogle home page.

Search for "Reader" to find the Reader Gadget and "Add it Now"

3.  Now, when you go to Google.com, your subscriptions will show up for a quick review.  If you click on the title a preview window pops up so you can take a quick look without even leaving the page.

Although I walked through the Google method for putting subscriptions on your home page, most other portal sites that let you customize a home page will have similar functionality.

See Related Blog Posts on RSS Feeds:

Subscribe! Part 1

Subscribe! Part 2

Tracking RSS Feeds as Internet Explorer Favorites

RSS Feeds in Microsoft Outlook

In Subscribe! Part 1 I talked about the importance of tracking and commenting on relevant blogs and news feeds to building your online presence.  Internet Explorer and other browsers have the capability to help you manage your RSS feeds and this post will walk through how to send news and current blog posts to the “Feeds” tab in Internet Explorer 8.  Other browsers should have similar functionality.

If you are someone who routinely uses the “favorites” functionality in IE to manage the web sites you visit frequently, then this may be the best place to track important RSS Feeds that you want to comment on immediately.  I don’t routinely use the favorites part of IE so I use this method for sites that don’t update often, or for sites that I want to track for reference when I’m developing business curriculum.  Remember, in social networking it is important to follow and comment, so keep your “high interest” content where you will see it often through your normal work routine.

1.  Go to SigmaBizBlog.com or another blog or news site that you want to subscribe to.

Click on the RSS Icon in the upper right of the IE window

2.  In the upper right of the window, in the menu area is the little orange RSS icon.  If the icon isn’t orange, either you are already subscribed or the site doesn’t have RSS capability.  Click on the RSS button and a “feed” page will load.

3.  Click on “Subscribe to this feed” and then “Subscribe” in the window that pops up.  The subscription will be placed in the “Feed” Tab in Favorites.

Access your saved RSS feed through the Favorite window on the Feeds Tab

4.  To see your feeds, click the “Favorites” button in the upper left of the window and then the “Feeds” Tab.

5.  Click on the subscription to see the latest post!

Remember that a big part of building credible online relationships is to listen and comment on the thoughts of others.  Subscribing to interesting blogs with RSS, reading them and consistently commenting is a great way to be part of the discussion! 

See Related Blog Posts on RSS Feeds:

Subscribe! Part 1

Subscribe! Part 2

Using Google Reader and following blogs on your iGoogle home page

Tracking RSS Feeds as Internet Explorer Favorites

RSS Feeds in Microsoft Outlook

What a great week of weather, business and family! 

Molly’s Rule – “You MUST be present to win!”

While announcing the door prizes at events for the Prince William County – Greater Manassas Chamber, Chairman Molly Grove frequently reminds us – “You must be present to win, that’s my rule”.  It hit me this week that this is not only a good door prize rule, but a great networking rule.  To get the most out of a chamber of commerce or any networking group, you must attend, engage and participate.  If you aren’t willing to “be present to win”, the networking opportunities will pass you by, and this is just as true with online social networking.  Thanks Molly for reminding me of this networking fact!

YouTube Video Benefiting You Even More

Abe Erickson of Ugly Chair Productions sat down with me this week to discuss a joint class on using video in your marketing strategy (more info in the weeks to come).  He mentioned a blog entry he was working on that described how, Google owned, YouTube is now transcribing the audio from YouTube videos, primarily for accessibility for the hearing impaired.  However, another resulting benefit is that it provides text based content for search engine indexing – and any SEO expert will tell you “text is king” when it comes to search engines.  This makes video an even more important part of your online strategy.  Read more on Abe’s blog. 

Exclusive: Abe also let me in on a new video production package Ugly Chair is developing  where they will produce a 3 minute intro video for your business for less than $300.  WOW!  I’ll keep you posted on availability as I know.

Jan’s Insurance Jeopardy!

Business Sign on Car =

Commercial Auto Policy

Jan Sutton of Farmer’s Insurance   gave a near perfect demonstration of an effective way to use your “10 minutes” at the Piedmont Professionals.  Insurance Jeopardy! was interesting, educational and most importantly, it gave Jan an opportunity to build credibility and point out some things that will help us all identify potential referrals for her.  Great job Jan in making the BLAH, BLAH, BLAH a RAH, RAH, RAH, and thanks for the lesson.  Don’t be surprised if I use this example in my next class.

Shouting Out!

Amelia with the #33 Car

News and Notes on the friends of SigmaBiz

Thanks to the Prince William County – Greater Manassas Chamber for adding Jessica Melander to the team!  Jessica is hitting the ground running, making an already great team even better!  Vince Buono and Costco in Manassas, VA will be hosting the Business Before Hours on Tuesday morning (4/13).  Food, networking and early bird shopping – even for non-members.  It’s free, so see you there and bring a guest.  Amelia Stansell and her BB&T Heathcote Branch in Haymarket, VA hit a home run yesterday at the Grand Opening Celebration (see pictures).  Thanks for the hospitality and all the people who came by to bank and help celebrate.  Haymarket Earth Day on Saturday 4/17 – fun for the whole family and there are still sponsorship opportunities.  Marketing on a Shoestring – I’m teaming up with Scot Small of Revbuilders and the Greater Warrenton Chamber of Commerce to present “Marketing on a Shoestring” Thursday morning, 4/15.  We’re gonna put out some great info.  Scot Small is also presenting at the “Business Making a Difference” Luncheon on Wednesday 4/14, hosted by 89.9 and 90.5 Virginia’s Positive Hits.