Social Business Media Additional Tools for Businesses

 

Small Business and social media has continued to gain in importance. The major concern of small business owners is will it work for their business. As discussed in previous articles, the use of social media works for the business if it is used in the way it was intended to build positive relations with the public. As with any tool it should be used wisely and be used in a consistent manner.

Tools such as LinkedIn for professionals, Facebook Pages, Twitter, YouTube and Google+ are all-powerful tools in building business relationships. Each is a great tool for a business when matched with the demographics in its marketing plan. As with any marketing tool, it takes time, patience, good content, and frequency to build and create brand awareness. Another major part is consistency. The content must promote the business brand and the information posted must be relevant to the people the business is attempting to reach and serve.

Prior to any decision to get involved with social media of any kind it is important for the business to make sure that it has an adequate budget and has appropriated money for the social media effort. The budget must not only consider financial considerations but human resources and time. Time must be devoted to doing the research, developing content, and posting the content developed in the various media sites chosen by the business. It is important that the content developed is relevant and ease the achievement of the goals of the social media marketing plan. Means of measuring the success of the social media marketing plan should be explored and put in place to measure the return on investment over time. The need for a plan that includes an adequate budget for the implementation process, whether the social media marketing is handled internally by staff or contracted to an external agency for the business is important to the overall success.

The number of social media sites has increased exponentially. Various sites draw many different demographics and have different requirements. They also have different purposes and different outreach. The need to know the target audience will have a great impact on what sites are chosen to promote the business brand. In addition to the basic sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and Google+ there are many other sites that are very important to business development. 

One of the newer sites that have gained popularity is Pinterest. This site is a favorite of women of all ages and many businesses that are selling or appealing to women use this site. The site uses interest boards (think of them as mini posters) to post interesting and relevant information. The more pictures you use or information with pictures the greater the interest generated. The major effort is to promote good solid content that reflects the multiple interests within your business that maybe of interest to others. It is also important to curate other information that may also show information useful to others. The use of the content it to create brand awareness and promote the business while at the same time creating informative call for actions. As part of the process the business must also follow other boards as well as building relationships in a positive way with other businesses and people.

Another of the newer services is Gentlemint. It is similar to Pinterest with the exception that has a focus on men’s topics. As with Pinterest, it creates brand awareness and builds business relationships. It to uses pictures and good topics on interest boards to post information. It provides the ability to follow others as well as be followed by other businesses and people. As with all social media sites content drives the process. The better your content, it increases the opportunities for others to follow and create business partnerships.

Storeboard is an up and coming site that combines social media with business in some very unique ways. It is a very flexible platform and can also be of benefit to non-profits as well. The site is both national and international in scope. Many of the big business are using the site on an ongoing basis and reaching out to many businesses on the site. Some of the features of the site include: markets, classified, groups, forums, videos, blogs, images, audio, coupon deals and selected channels to follow. It has a good search capability and allows businesses to contact each other through a messaging system. Status updates like those used in other social media allow you to send out short information pieces about your business or other relevant topics.

Yet another business to business social media site is MerchantCircle. The focus of the site is to promote business to business relationships. It is designed to enhance a business’s opportunity to create a solid business presence. It provides the business with a chance to connect with other business as a follower of the business or to create connections with business to send messages. A business can create and post blogs, newsletters, create coupons, search for leads, develop a network of other businesses, create service request for customers to contact the business, and a chance to upgrade to be able to do more promotions. In addition a business can keep up status updates and link them to other social media sites. It is a flexible program and gives a business an opportunity to expand the possibilities for greater business.

There are many sites that keep developing and older ones continue to improve their presence, it is still incumbent on the business to make the best decisions on which ones to use. The use of the internet has grown. Consider how internet users spend their time: 22 percent on social media, 21 percent on searches, 20 percent browsing content, 19 percent reading emails, 13 percent multimedia sites, and 5 percent online shopping. A business must also remember that is very important to research each of the social media sites to make sure that their main target market is using the site.
As a business recognizing that the time and effort in personal and financial resources that will be expended in the social marketing effort is critical, it is important to carefully select the best social media platforms for their business. It is impossible have a presence on every site and to post good content on each site. It is better that reach your target market and drive customers/clients to the business site or the storefront than to dilute the brand message.

An upcoming blog will begin discussions of other tools that should be used to more effectively improve the business and to provide additional flexibility to the business development and business model being used within the organization. Keep in mind all that is done in and for the business focuses on serving the public as we know them as customers. Service, service, courtesy, respect and truthfulness in all that is done to provide the greater benefit to the public.

6/5/20132 Lonnie G. Juarez, Jr. Ph.D. Visionary/CEO Social Business Media Connections and Social Business Media Managers

As a business owner for over 30 years, I had the opportunity to work with many businesses in providing computer software utilization and leadership development. Small businesses are the ones that need the most help with the use of social media. My graduate degree is organizational change and development and assist in creating the media plans for small business. http://www.socialbusinessmediamanagers.com http://www.sbmconnect.wordpress.com

Choosing the Tools for Social Media for Small Business

The initial part of this series explored the need for small businesses to use social media and what were some of the critical steps in the process. Questions were raised to assist the small business owner to focus their efforts in the best way possible to achieve the desired results based upon the overall objectives and goals of the marketing plan. It gave a few tips on how to specifically identify the target audience and where they could be found on social media.
 

It is possible to compare the selection of the tools for social media to how a farmer selects the tools. First he/she surveys the land to determine the best type of crop to plant. This is similar to the small business owner reviewing the business website. The website for the small business is very much like the land for the farmer. It must be easy to use, provide content, contains various ways for people to interact with business and other ways to link with the business. As the farmer begins to make a choice of crop or crops to plant, he/she identifies who will be buying the crops. For the small business, it is the identification of the target audience. 

The farmer then makes the selection of the crop or crops that will produce the greatest results for them and develops a plan or process that will be used to plant the crops. This includes the review of the tools the farmer has on hand and the tools he/she needs to purchase or lease to complete the job of planting. Thus the farmer reviews each of their tools to ensure they are in good condition and able to perform effectively the tasks that need to be accomplished.

As the farmer makes the decisions about crops, the small business owner has to make the choice of the products or services he/she are going to provide to customers. The small business owner must review the website and began asking the questions that will assist in making the correct decisions on improvement.

For instance,

• How effective has the website been in assisting creating more sales?
• What kind of content are we providing that helps prospective customers?
• What is on the site that keeps the customer captured in order for them to spend more time looking at other products?
• Do I have links to other social media sites?
• Do I have a place for them to sign up for something free I am giving them?
• What other things can I offer to them to keep them on the site longer or have them buy a product or service?

The implements for the farmer are limited by the type of product they are going to produce and the overall size of the area to be planted. For the small business owner, the implements for social media are much more varied and are dependent on the target audience and the overall time that a small business owner plans to expand on social media. Presently, the major tools being used include: Facebook (Many large businesses have fan pages.); Twitter (This is a popular way to keep in constant contact with people who follow you.); LinkedIn (Professional site that provides information about people and companies.); You Tube (Video site that is growing fast and being used in many unique ways to promote businesses); and Google+(Similar to Facebook but is newer and is growing in a powerful way for business use).

While the ones listed above are the most popular and used most often, they are not the only tools that are available for a small business. Some other tools being used are Tumblr, Slideshare, Instagram, Foursquare, Yelp, Pinterest, Gentlemint and Merchant Circle. Each one of these tools provides different formats and reaches different audiences.

So much as the farmer decides on the best tools for planting the crops, small business owners must do the same thing. As we review the popular tools, it is important for you as the small business owner to keep in mind your target audience; also, the amount of time you want to expend in using social media.

Social media tools discussed below have requirements that you create a profile. The profile will differ somewhat between social media platforms. It is important that the business owner complete each of the profiles. This becomes the key for people to learn to know about the owner and the services or products that the company provides. Some of the requested information include: name, picture, professional headline, current title, web sites, public profile, summary, specialties, experience, education, interests, groups and associations, skills, personal information, contact settings, and companies.

The tool called Facebook (www.facebook.com), is one of the most popular of the tools and is constantly growing. Businesses of all sizes are using this tool. Businesses create fan pages and business pages to promote their business. They ask people to like their pages in order to create greater number of followers. When they post updates people who have asked to get notifications and feeds will get them. This is a way for them to promote their brands, events, and coupons. Businesses also can buy ads to post on Facebook to have their brand promoted at a greater level. Before selecting this as the place where you want your business listed as an owner understand that just posting a page is not sufficient. It requires time to place status updates and respond to updates in a timely manner. It is about the relationship you are creating. Prior to select this tool the owner should check for the demographics of the website to ensure it fits the target audience. This link can be used to find the information: http://tinyurl.com/smdemgrphs

 

LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) as a tool is one of the most powerful tools for connecting with professionals. It is a tool that allows a person to develop a professional profile, upload a resume and join groups, create groups and follow individuals and companies. It is a good source to find information about a person or company. It is an excellent way to connect to other professionals across the nation and world as well as generate request for introductions to others. It allows a user to maintain a contact list of people they know and trust in business and can use to help connect with others. As with other tools, it must be used professionally and needs to (have ongoing maintenance. Interactions are also important in establishing your creditability with this tool. The following site can be used to find the demographics of those using this site http://tinyurl.com/smdemgrphs

 

twitter (www.twitter.com) is another of the more popular tools in social media. It requires more attention than others because it is more like carrying on several conversations. It is used worldwide and can be considered a micro blogging site. It is a good tool to keep people posted as to what is occurring in your industry and information that as a business should be shared with others. It is a means of connecting with leaders in your industry and finding out their thoughts and how they influence people. As with the other tools, it requires a time commitment to maintain and respond to twits or updates from people. Before selecting this site as a tool for the business the following site will allow the owner to review the demographics:http://tinyurl.com/smdemgrphs

YouTube (www.youtube.com) is a video sharing social media site that is owned by Google. This site has grown considerably and is now the number two search engine. Business and individuals use this as a means of connecting with people using a visual mode. Studies show that people will watch a short video rather than read a large amount of data. It is also used as an educational platform and provides various types of self-development information. It is a great platform for delivering video-based testimonials, how to guides and commercials promoting products and/or services. As with other tools, a business can subscribe to other users and receive information when new posts are made. Before selecting this medium recognize that new videos will need to be developed and uploaded to be an effective tool. Demographics for this site can be found at http://tinyurl.com/smdemgrphs

Google+ (Google Plus https://plus.google.com) is a relative new tool as far as social media is concerned. It is used by both businesses and individuals. It provides a few more tools to use within the site than some of the others. Some of them include: Circles, Hangouts, Messenger, Instant Upload of Photos, Hashtags, Explore posts, Find People, Events, Find Local Businesses, Create Business Pages and more. The features are user friendly and make it easy for an individual to use. Since it is part of the Google product line one must have a Google Email account to use Google+. As a whole when viewed with the other Google product provides a great arsenal of tools to assist small business become more successful. As with the other tools discussed the following site can be used to review the demographics of the Google+ users: http://tinyurl.com/dempgoplus

The tools we have briefly discussed are some of the most powerful being used presently, but they are only as good as the business owner who selects to use them. The business owner must remember that as a farmer selects the tools, the owner must do the same that are best for the designed marketing plan. The use of the tools themselves for business owner is most important. Once the farmer prepares the field with the right tools and plants the seed, it is now important to water the seeds and plants until it is time to harvest. The small business owner has prepared his website, selected the social media tools based upon the marketing design, prepared each of the sites with the requested profiles and published each of the sites.

Now as the farmer waters the small business owner must use the status updates, tweets, messages, videos, slides. Responding to comments is also the way that a small business owner works with small business to establish the know, like and trust factors. This must be done with consistency overtime. As discussed in the previous article, social media is the developing of relationships with people and that does not happen quickly. Thus it is of utmost importance that a regular schedule be developed and implemented on a weekly basis.

The next segment of the series will review and look at social media sites that are up and coming and sites that are very powerful but have not gained in the overall popularity. As with the others, each has its strengths and weaknesses. Each therefore has different demographics and different targets. The business owner needs to have an understanding in order to select the best tool. A discussion of some of the sites that are better for international use will also be discussed. The subsequent articles will deal with tools to use to make using social media a little easier and ways to measure the return on investment of social media. 

The final part of the series will discuss other web based tools that can assist small business become more effective in delivering services and products to customers.

As a small business owner, take the time to review each of the demographics for the sites. If you do not have a social media site, then select one that fits your demographics. Ask questions, raise concerns, review your goals, and talk to those who are using the sites, and then move forward with your plan.

Lonnie G. Juarez, Jr. Ph.D. Visionary/CEO Social Business Media Connections and Social Business Media Managers

Social Media and Small Business How and Why It Works

Business and social media how does it work and why does it work for some and not for others. These questions are on the minds of many small business owners when people talk about using social media. The most important question for you as the owner is “Why should I get involved and how is it going to help my business?” The answer to the questions must first come from what is your mission and purpose for your business. Can you in a few words describe both of these concepts as they relate to your business?
Having done that, what are your 3 or 4 major objectives for your business? What are the 2 or 3 goals for each objective that are SMART goals (measurable and timeline for achievement)? How do you envision your business in 5 years and how to do the items discussed previously help you achieve that vision?

You are probably asking yourself why all the questions and what is the purpose I know my business. These questions help you clarify where you are and where you want to be and can be used to develop on how you can best get there. As you look at your strategic plan and marketing plan, ask yourself how and where am I planning on maintaining my present customer base and how do I plan on continuing to attract new customers. Who is the target audience or audiences that I am trying to attract or maintain as clients/customers? The answer to these questions for a large part helps in the development of you marketing plan, customer relations and maintenance plan. With the marketing plan the major purpose is to establish some kind of positive relationship with potential clients. You are attempting to resonate with them in a manner that they will ultimately buy from you.

Through the process you are branding your company and yourself as unique in you particularly industry and can deliver a differentiate product or service. Though the marketing process you are building a know-like-trust factor so potential clients/customers will want to come and buy from you. Social media becomes one of the tools available to you in your marketing plan that will enable you to build this type of relationship. It must be emphasized that it is not the end all in marketing and is only one phase. Social media has been found effective for small business to play with the big businesses without breaking a budget. It is a process that requires attention as much as the other parts of your marketing plan to be effective. Remember it is only one tool in your arsenal of tools to build your brand. It can be effective in building new clients/customers and helps to maintain present clients.

The use of social media in business is to build positive ongoing relationships with potential customers/clients and extend greater benefits to present customers/clients. Think of it as means of networking much as done when attending live events. It is a means of utilizing effective communication to provide a clear understanding of what you have to offer. We are establishing a relationship with people we meet and entire into discussions. Through social media we are doing the same type of thing. You are asking questions of the people and telling them about yourself and your business. You are building a relationship that takes time to build and is not done in just a few sessions.

Now that you have answered the questions about your business and your marketing plan and have a basic understanding of what social media is about, you are now ready to begin the journey of selecting the right types of social media and the right sites. Then selecting the right message and the right mediums to build the relationships with your target audience is now your next task.

Given the many sites available it is important that you select the ones that best fit you target audiences. The place to begin is to seek the answer to the questions that revolve around your target audience. The first thing to do is to do a search of sites that those individuals use for their social media. There are many different sites with many different characteristic and not all are best for all businesses. So it is important that you search for that target audience demographics. Decide what type of relationship you want to develop with them and why is it important to your business. What is the problem you are trying to solve for that demographic with your products or services? What makes your solution or solutions the best for them and how are you going to communicate that to the target audience? How effectively are you communicating it with your present use of media especially your website?

Once you have identified the answers you are ready to begin the journey into the world of social media and business. You are now prepared to select the right sites to use for your business, began developing the profiles and selecting the process you want to use to create the relationships. This becomes first steps in engaging the social media tools to assist you in enhancing your business opportunities.

In the first paragraph we proposed the question as to why to use social media and why are some successful and others are not. The first reason is that now social media is being used in many more ways and with the growing smart technologies it becomes even more important to have presences online in many different formats. Big business realizes the importance of using social media and uses it very effectively to promote their brands. It has become a way of communicating with people on different levels and to create social media as a part of customer care. Why it is not effective is that people do not use it correctly. It has to be done constantly and consistently. It has to be done with thought and with a way positive outlook. Social media has to be more than just asking people to come to an event. It has to be a process that establishes the know-like-trust factors. Therefore social media does not work if you do not work it.

Over the next few weeks we will explore together the many sites available, and the ones that are most used and the ones that need to be further explored. We will discuss how to develop a plan to evaluate the return on investment for using social media. We will examine ways of exploring how it is affecting your overall business presence. We will explore other the use of other online tools that can be used to assist in improving the overall business processes.

Look for the next phase as we began the exploration of sites.

1/31/2013 Lonnie G. Juarez, Jr. Ph.D. Visionary/CEO Social Business Media Connections and Social Business Media Managers

Help For Small Business

Businesses grow and thrive when they are able to maintain present customers and gain new customers and followers. During these times, businesses closely watch the bottom-line and how they market their business, while continuing creating opportunities to better serve present clients. Social Business Media Connections recognizes that the economy has a great impact on small and medium size businesses.

SBMConnect staff and ownership believes that the heart of the economy revolves on the overall strength of the small business. Small businesses create jobs and fuel overall economic development. Entrepreneurs are continually seeking new opportunities and ways to increase their resent cash flow. We at SBMConnect recognize these efforts of the small business and are proposing a means of assisting them.

Social Business Media Connections in order to help small businesses will give away one week of advertisement on our media channels to a selected small business each week. The business will be featured on our websites, blogs, articles and status updates in over 20 different sites. The purpose is to help stimulate the drive for new business to the business website or storefront or both depending on what the business provides to clients or customers. While we understand that a true marketing effort in social media requires much more time, it is our purpose to assist the business in its efforts to utilize the media for their best interest. It is estimated that the value of this is over $700 and is being donated by SBMConnect to assist the selected business gain greater exposure.

The business will be selected by SMB staff and ownership after the business has completed an application form provided by SMBConnect. The information to be supplied will remain confidential and used only for the purpose of selecting the company based upon the criteria established by SBM Connect and their advisers. Some of the information to be requested will be as follows:

1. Name of the Business:
2. Business Address:
3. Type of Business:
4. Product or services provided:
5. Name of the Owner and contact information:
6. Number of years in business:
7. Number of employees:
8. Goals for 2013 for the business:
9. Major points in marketing plan:
10. Overall use of social media presently:
11. Projected growth for the next 3 years:

The staff and ownership will review each of the applications and select a business to work with for the week. A call will be made to the owner to set a time for an interview to gain more information to use in the social media effort. Other applications will be kept on file and if any week there are no applications then a selection will be made from the applications on file. For more information or an application please send an email to Lonnie Juarez at SBMConnect@gmail.com

Looking forward to working with you! To your continued success in all you do!

Lonnie Juarez, Ph.D.

Visionary/CEO

Social Business Media Connections

FLYER FOR SOCIAL BUSINESS MEDIA CONNECTIONS

"Customized and focused social media relations to build your business to greater prosperity through increasing the know like and trust factors"

Benefits

Social Business Media Connections provides businesses and organizations with a cost effective way to enhance relationships to build the know, like and trust factors leading to increased potential income streams using the advantages of social media. Our mission manages the process and guides our clients in the selection of the right social media outlets for their products/services. We manage the process by utilizing its greater capacity in an appropriate and productive manner by enhancing the business, while creating additional income opportunities for its owner.

Improving Bottom Line

• We save our clients TIME and MONEY
• We create a positive image and relationships (know, like and trust).
• We increase branding (name identity).
• We maintain two current blog sites
• We increase traffic and presence.
• We increase business opportunities.
• We manage the process from beginning to end without adding personnel costs.

We can do all this AND MORE for a fraction of the cost other social media outlets charge. We assist you in achieving your goals and increasing your opportunity for creating greater more positive relationships with your clients/customers and potential clients. We use an alchemy and treasure of skills and knowledge to utilize social media as a vehicle to build trusting relationships with people.
We provide relevant content valuable to people, and enhance an understanding of your expertise. Using this model we build a know, like and trust process for you as a person and for your business that will ultimately lead to greater web traffic and sales.

HOW OUR PROCESS TYPICALLY WORKS

We identify potential clients (i.e., determine niche markets to focus), and once established we make contact and prepare materials for meeting with the owner(s). At this stage, we prepare a working detailed plan geared to evaluating results of postings suitably matched to the client’s business. The implementation of the plan helps establish a timeline and a data collection of proposed sites we feel are pivotal in the matchup.

However, before any of the many ideas we bring to the table transpire we have already done the important homework that shows the owner(s) where their business shows up on the Web (ranking placement), where we found their site (if it even showed up), how many similar businesses may be ahead, and what we saw on their site or sites that made the business standout. The key is where the business shows up on the Web and its placement high or low on the list. Usually, the businesses we support are low on a long list of similar businesses. Thus, we provide a business management plan that will put our clients into the mainstream of social media, using as many sources as possible to ensure the business remains highly visible at all times. SBMConnect provides the knowledge and maintenance to truly make a difference in social media ranking. To do this requires consistency and paying attention to the latest trends of the changing social media market. It is the best tool yet for helping businesses stay in the vanguard and stay ahead of the competition.

PRIMARY FACILITATORS AND CONSULTANTS

Richard Holtzin, Ph.D. President, holds a Doctorate in Western and Eastern Philosophy. As an educator, Rich has sat in many different educator chairs over the years: high school substitute teacher (earth sciences, math and business classes), guitar and music theory, instructor with the Grand Canyon Field Institute staff (geology, archeology, ecology, human and natural history), instructor with Yavapai College (Prescott, AZ) and Northern Arizona University (Flagstaff, AZ), eco and cultural tourism owner and guide (Ecosouthwest.com and Arizona Ed-Venture Tours), composer and studio musician, author and copy editor, website design, leadership and wellness seminars, editor and commercial pilot. Richard has worked with the utilization of technology and the development of blog and websites for businesses; also his free networking site (www.rknetworking.net) that mainly features non profit organizations and a select few artists and writers and photographers.


More Information, Please Call:

Social Business Media Connections
Attn: Rich Holztin

Phone: 347.762.2873
Email: sbmconnect@gmail.com or Sbmconnect@live.com

WHAT’S REALLY DRIVING THE SLUGGISH ECONOMY THESE DAYS?

The answer: social media and networking. Online lead generation is what’s driving higher growth profitability despite gloomy economy forecasts to the contrary. Social media is behind this major impetus. It can also be the most cost-effective and expedient means to cultivate one’s business, especially smaller businesses trying to compete with larger corporations. But instead of negating growth and profits, social media and its vast potential for networking abets the process.

For instance, a recent article posted on the web showed how professional service companies generated a large proportion of business leads by means of using online sources. These sources also grew faster and were more profitable than firms without such lead capabilities. (source Hinge Marketing) It was further reported how using SEO networks, blogging and Web analytics were among the most effective online marketing tools for high-growth businesses. Just think what could happen to slow-growth enterprises if the same methods were in place.

And here’s the proof in the proverbial pudding: based on a survey of 500 professional service companies, 77.1% generate at least some new-business leads online; most (48%) generate less than 20% of total leads online and nearly one-quarter (22.9%) generate no leads via online sources. However, 14.8% of firms generate 40% or more of their new business leads online and such firms lead the pack in business growth and profitability.

Now you have idea how businesses small and large and in between really can achieve high growth and profits with online marketing, with social media networking leading the way. We suggest readers look up this URL and learn more (just copy and paste):

http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2011/6341/online-lead-generation-drives-higher-growth-profitability#ixzz1dylOXxMs

SBMC Team!

A DIFFERENT WAY TO EXPLAIN THE SOCIAL MEDIA CONCEPT