Effort & Time Question Addressed Using Social Media for Local Businesses
Some business owners contend: I / we don’t have time to “use Twitter” or Facebook, contribute to & maintain a blog, etc. We just don’t have the time!
With this contention come very real concerns that not only are small business owners currently over inundated with work, but there is an outstanding question as to the efficacy of using Twitter, Facebook, developing a blog, etc for their business. Does it really work? Is it in my demographic? “Do people actually watch / use this stuff – consume this information? And why???”
The answer is that 70% or more of the people – for most retail business – that come into your store, use your service or otherwise patronize your business came in contact with you or were some way influenced by your online presence. 70%. 50% is a very conservative number. Considering this, wouldn’t it be prudent to spend more time here developing your brand and making a very real contribution and connection with your customers online?
Cut something else out! Stop doing that direct mail campaign, stop doing whatever it is your doing where 50-70% of your customers are not being influenced. That is the real paradigm shift here. That is the real handle. Make the time to get involved with this medium. It takes time, both in terms of the day to day time it takes, and in the overall time it takes to build up an audience, but it will pay off.
User Reviews
It amazes me how many restaurant and retail business owners don’t actively engage with responding to user reviews online. “Don’t have time” or are otherwise not engaged. This is one of the single most effective ways to not only reach out to the “online community” but to make an impression about your business, one that says you care, you’re engaged and that you’re passionate about what you do, your business, your product and your service. Stick up for yourself, say thank you and make it personal: from you! It makes a huge impression online.
Unbelievable how many people miss the boat on this!
Starbucks! Quality v. Quanity
Starbucks announced today another round of huge layoffs: the closing of 400 additional stores in 2009 culminating in a loss of 6000 store jobs and 345 corporate / Seattle jobs.
A friend of mine who owns a prominent and multi unit restaurant in Seattle.Tacoma mentioned over a beer tonight: “Why did Starbucks have to concentrate on such massive expansion? Why couldn’t they have concentrated more on just becoming better – on improving what they already had?”
Good question. I don’t think it’s hindsight 20/20 either. I think this was a very real question when they were announcing ridiculously high store opening goal #’s that were, in hindsight, embarrasing. And now they are left with a product that is ok but hasn’t quite evolved with the velocity requisite with Starbucks track record.
Hopefully they can get back on track but they will have to weather this economic storm first. They will. But in what fashion and with how much strength they ascend is the real question. Maybe then they can conectrate more on quality vs. quanity.
Trust
People trust user reviews. In a recent study people ranked user reviews second only to suggestions from friends in terms of a source of information they trusted most about businesses.
Ranked lowest: Company blogs.
http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/2008/12/people-dont-tru.html
Flickr Ban
Flickr is a photo sharing site. A social site. It has recently banned certain accounts for “commercial use”, primarily retailers posting pictures of their products as an additional extension of their marketing and awareness online.
http://www.clickz.com/3632015
The Power of Story
Last night I was at Bartell Drug’s looking for bleach to clean my deck. There was a lot of grunge and grind out there and I needed something strong. As I walked in I noticed “Seventh Generation: free & clear” Chlorine Free Bleach. This particular bottle of bleach read “non-toxic * hypo-allergenic * degradable” – furthermore it pronounced, ever so humbly in the top right hand corner: “In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations. – From the Great Law of the Iroquois Confederacy” Read more…
Small is a Weapon!
I love this post by Seth Godin: The takeaway? Small is a weapon, not an excuse.
The web is a great equalizer. Use it to your advantage!
Photos, Photos, Photos…
Photos are a great way to show your business off at various angles: the business, the people, the food, the product, the location, and again, the people! Very few local and small businesses focus on getting photos up in as many places as possible. Here is why you should:
1. Tagging – searchability
2. Access – people get a look and ‘feel’ for your product and business
3. Personality – viewers get a sense of what you are about
4. Interaction – there are plenty of sites where people can post comments regarding your photos.
5. People want to see your products. Pictures are worth a thousand words, and if done right, a lot more than that in marketing dollars if done right.
Where to post?
1. Flickr
2. Facebook
3. Picasa
4. Yahoo, Google and MSN local profiles
5. Your own blog (Posterous, Tumblr, Word Press, Blogger)
If you don’t have photos, spend a few hundred (suggestion: up to $500) for a professional to take a hundred + shots, or / and have your ‘crew’ and yourself bring in personal digital cameras and take as many photos as possible.
It’s very much worth it and very much under utilized in the small, local business space.
Human in a Fray of “Information” Sticks Out
On Tuesday, July 8 a prominent blogger and web 2.0 “valley insider” – relative to most – by the name of Cyndy Aleo-Carreira posted an interesting article / blog post regarding her amazement and shock as to how much feedback, commentary and “coverage” she received for posting a blog post on how she put her 3 year old daughter to bed using a popular online video distribution system called Seesmic.
Carreira has distinguished herself in a variety of capacities online: “Cyndy Aleo-Carreira is a former web developer turned technology writer. In addition to contributing to The Industry Standard, she is also Editor at the Web 2.0 blog Profy, and discusses tech and start-up issues at Wife 2.0.”
You can read the two links posted above regarding the “story”, but she deemed the incident one of the most surreal days she has had online in over 15 years.
Why? I’m betting human…
Among other things this was very human story in a fray of online media and information – “the fire hose” – fraught with an over abundance of technical and business information, making this post stand out from the norm. This was a very human story behind a piece of “technology” that has a very real world and human application: in this case, putting babies to bed! Talking to people, explaining stories, showing the ‘behind the scenes’ aspects of life…or, I daresay…business.
She let us into her life with this story and it paid off huge dividends.
Work it!
The enclosed article from the San Francisco Chronicle reveals the danger of schilling on Yelp! Yelp, in order to create the impression that their reviewers and reviews are legitimate (both a very real concern and a PR move) are removing entire accounts associated with what they deem ‘fake’ reviews: reviews written to artificially inflate the public record and discourse on the business of record.
The comments section in this article is more interesting and pertinent than the actual article itself. It provides insight into the public impression of Yelp and it’s users.
So what do you do as someone who owns or operates a retail business or is involved in “social media”? Does one get better and more ‘sneaky’ and ‘authentic sounding’ when it comes to writing reviews for your friends or family, or your own business on Yelp or City Search?
The question misses the point entirely as I see it. The way to create a great reputation online is to be open, sincere and relevant. Rather than “game” the system, “work” the system. Engage users. Write them back. Respond. Get involved in the discussions on Yelp as the business owner you are. Use the tools available to you on Yelp. Very few business owners do this for many good reasons, namely time and inclination. Who has time to do this? But at the end of the day, spending just 5 minutes a day not on your profile, but on your competitors profiles, on the “Talk” section of Yelp, in the “Events” section of Yelp, etc…the more time you spend on Yelp / online and get to know your customers there, the better you’ll do.
