Three Reasons Social Media Marketing Favors Small Businesses
Sunday, September 25th 2011
http://www.smallbusinessnewz.com/node/2495
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Three Reasons Social Media Marketing Favors Small Businesses
Mark Schaefer | Staff Writer
Embrace the social web!
I've spent some time this week attending a few online webinars and
catching up on my blog reader and I noticed an interesting trend.
The conversations, research, presentations, and case studies focused
entirely on large corporations.
For example, I sat through a Forrester presentation on new social web
marketing analytics and their ideas on measurement took resources that
were way out of reach of the small business owner, meaning most of us.
Look through the success stories in your blog reader. Nike. Ford.
Coca-Cola. And of course the ever-present Zappos. Is anybody paying
attention to the little guys?
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We keep hearing about the great opportunity for small businesses to
"take part in the conversation" but is that really true? In the
daily dogfight for consumer attention, are they being overwhelmed by
the big brand mega-productions, online promotions and games? Are small
businesses going to be crowded out by the big chains and big marketing
budgets?
No! It's time for the small business owner to rise up and embrace
the social web! Local businesses CAN have an advantage through
social media for these three reasons:
Local angle - Social media's greatest power is when it is used in
a way that is targeted and local. I could care less about a tweet
from a mega-brand, but I would certainly be interested to get to
know a local shop owner in a personal way.
Here's an example. I don't follow Starbucks on Twitter and
probably never will. However, I do follow Brian Myers, the owner
of JaVerde Coffee here in Knoxville. We became friends over Twitter.
Although his shop is 15 miles from my home, I go out of my way to
support his small business entirely because of our personal Twitter
connection. That's how business works!
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Personal touch - One time Brian saw this tweet come through: "On
my way to JaVerde Coffee but forgot my wallet!" The shop owner
replied, "Come on by, this one is on me." He just won a customer
for life.
Even though companies like McDonalds may fill a room with tweeters,
I don't think they could ever match the connection and loyalty a
local business owner can drive with its customers. If Bank of America
tweets every minute of the day for the rest of my life I am probably
never going to connect with a real person. And for a small business,
that is everything. It's not just about coupons. It's about caring.
The ROI advantage - Culturally, I think it is difficult for many
large businesses to do anything more than check a box on social
media because they expect all the results to be neatly assembled
on an Excel spreadsheet or infographic. If you have a moment to
spare, I encourage you to watch this three minute news story about
a small bakery's use of Facebook. Here are some of the social
media benefits described in the clip:
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- Higher customer loyalty/number of visits
- Higher rate of spending
- Frequent customer connection
- A channel for customer service
- Emotional connection to the brand
- Source for new product ideas and customer polling
Now if a customer provides an idea for a great new pastry, how do
you measure that? I suppose you could create a pie chart. Pie chart!
Get it? Oh, never mind.
For a local business using an essentially free social media platform,
this list of benefits is pretty impressive. In fact, it's revolutionary.
So while small businesses may not be getting the spotlight on the
blogosphere, there is no question that, done right, there can be
great opportunity in this critical segment of the economy.
What is your experience? Do you have any great case studies from
your city you would like to share?
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