In small business, the notion of taking time to write socially appealing articles that integrate with an overall company marketing strategy seems too daunting to conquer.

Phooey I say!

On Social Media, in an article titled, “The Top Six Reasons Companies and Still Scared of Social Media”, the author addresses the most “talked” about reasons, but they missed what I believe to be the most prevalent among small business owners.

TIME!  Or should I say, the perception of time to engage their target audience in the social networks.

With hundreds, if not thousands of social networking sites promoted everyday, business owners are confused over how to approach the net—in mass or selectively.  The answer may be different for some who need MASS marketing means to promote their wares, but I feel being selective about where you participate is critical.

Quality is always better than quantity.  Publishing (pardon the language) crap wastes the time of your reader and does nothing to build a social connection.  Herein lies the goal—make new social connections.

If your company already attends a chamber of commerce meeting, leads groups, B2B networking, etc; then you have time to include social media in the mix.

HOW?  You ask?

When marketing via social media, stop trying to make the conversation all about you.  In the world of “social” communications, very few people care that your widget is best; they care more about you as a person.

Spend 15 minutes a day being social online.  Pick one to three social sites with lots of people in your primary target market and be real.

Allow your profile to connect customers to your website, allow the social networking platform to connect you to new friends.

Ed Bejarana
Zenith Exhibits, Inc and BusinessBlogging.net

Hundreds of millions use them, billions are invested in them and no profits are to be found.  Am I talking about General Motors?  Nope.

Amtrak?  Nope.

How about the Pet Rock?  Nope.  I am of course talking about communication mediums where the intent is designed to help people find and communicate with more friends (a.k.a. Social Media).

The techno-geeks sold us a line built on the traditional marketing model, where there is traffic there is profit.  Eight years ago that falsehood was exposed at the cost of hundreds of billions of dollars and millions of jobs.

Paul Benjou wrote on MediaLifeMagazine.com, “The fact is, it’s a good bet these social networking sites will never figure out a workable business model because there may not be one.”

Why then do hundreds of millions of people flock to them and very smart investors drop billions of hard earned dollars on the hope?

Do people really seek hundreds, if not thousands, of new friends?  Do humans spend countless hours behind the computer screen sending messages to the thousands of followers they have on Twitter, Facebook or My Space?  Do we crave attention so much yet lack the basic ability to find that companionship in face-to-face interactions?  Nope, nope, and nope.  The reason comes down to one word: Money.

Social networking has been around for as long as humans interacted.  As soon as a monetary system was established, I bet someone was trying to make a buck by selling the ability to reach more people.  Herein lies the reason why millions try and billions are invested.

Small Business runs America.  70% of the jobs are created by small business, 50% of the GDP is generated by small business; but small business can nary afford the expensive “traditional media” air time.  We seek alternative methods and when something seems to work, we use it!

Twitter, Facebook and MySpace will probably go the way of the pet rock, but in the mean time, many small business owners will use social media to reach new customers and earn a living.  When it ends, will it be a bubble or a fad?

I only hope social media sites don’t go the way of GM or Amtrack.

Ed Bejarana
Zenith Exhibits, Inc.

Zenith Exhibits, Inc. is a marketing firm that specializes in face-to-face and internet marketing that is affordable for small business people.  To learn more about our tradeshow displays or internet marketing service, please call (503) 709-1454.

Your friends have told you starting a business blog can help you find new clients, but they tell you to use Twitter, Facebook, Ning and a dozen other sites as well. Does any of this stuff really work?

Over on BusinessBlogging.net I have written about social networking and how it compares to face-to-face marketing, in this article we will dive deeper into business blogging so you can understand how it works.

If social networking is the short elevator speech, then business blogging is the conversation. Because so many of us attend, or have attended, a chamber meeting; I use chamber business meetings as a parallel for internet marketing via social networking.

Success is always defined by new business. Unless your site is an eCommerce site, then I assume business can only be concluded over the phone or face-to-face. The process of internet marketing filtering through the hundreds of millions of prospects until the right “future” customer finds you.

Why not just advertise? Sure, it works for Nike, Dell and Burger King. The obvious answer is you don’t have the same marketing budget as the big companies in the market place.

Just like the chamber meeting, there are several important parts to your internet marketing effort. Your website contains the features and benefits statements and/or the sales pitch; your social networking sites contain the elevator speech and the information tease; that leaves only the social interaction with the audience and advertising.

Business blogging is the process of conversing with other people. Unlike your website, your blog site talks with, not at, your intended audience. Comparing to the chamber meeting, your business blog articles on the conversations you have with your chamber friends, not the first time guest who asked what you do.

When business blogging you should include your personality. On my BusinessBlogging.net website I describe the concept of personality based marketing, so I will not go into it here: Rather, when blogging for business, you are dropping hooks in the MASSIVE sea of internet commerce.

Fishing, like chamber meetings, is also a good comparison for internet marketing. There are thousands of different types of fish, some better than others. Picture your blog article as a specific type of bait designed to catch a specific type of fish. Maybe a married liberal female fish with a college education, two children, and a busy life style.

Ed Bejarana
Zenith Exhibits, Inc.
BusinessBlogging.net is the internet marketing division for Zenith Exhibits, Inc.

Because this subject is so BIG, I have broken it into three parts and published it on three blog sites.

This site covers the business blogging and using community blog sites.

Over on BusinessBlogging.net you can read more about social marketing part of the discussion.

Finally, on ZenithExhibits.com I cover changes to your face-to-face, trade show marketing efforts and how to use internet marketing to improve your ROI.

I Can Do It – Can You?

Internet Marketing is not hard – it does not require a 4 year marketing degree (it is not even rocket science).  What it requires is a desire to learn and a little time.  I am convinced that anybody can learn to get more traffic to their websites - targeted, buying traffic. Here are a few ideas:

• Take advantage of sites like this one to link back to your website.
• Show that you are an expert in your field (you better be if you are in business) – put some of your well earned knowledge onto a Blog and/or Article site to share with others.
• Get involved with Social Networking Sites – make sure your profiles are filled out completely and linked to your website.
• Get very clear on your keywords – then start using them as you write content.
• Include your keywords in Titles, at the front of sentences, in lists, and in links.

Supplying value to your readers is very important.  Internet Marketing is not just selling.  You need to build buyer confidence, trust, and your expertise.  One way to provide all of these things (over time) is to become the expert in your field in the eyes of your readers and potential customers.  Provide quality content first and build up a list of readers – then you will have a much better conversion when you do offer a product or service for sale.  For an article on Internet Marketing Success and  Providing Value First visit this site.

These are just a few ideas to get you going with your Online Marketing for 2009.  If you would like more ideas (or hand-holding) then come over to my Marketing Blog at Attraction Internet Marketing.  I help small business owners – you know the ones that think they do not have the time to learn Internet Marketing- get better results with their websites – more traffic = more buying customers.

Dotty
AttractionInternetMarketing.com
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