photo by B Rosen
I recently read an interesting stat that said 31% of small businesses did not believe that their customers use social media. This stat really made me think about these business owners and how much they know about their business.
Also this week there was some online chatter about the 3rd Tribe , a group of marketers that are in the middle of the hard core Internet Marketers and the social media cool kids. In an arguement against the 3rd tribe was a group that said true internet marketers are the ones that are selling flowers to people looking to buy flowers. You don’t need a community, or a network or a tribe, you simply need the best products, seem trustworthy and have a clean interface to purchase and feel confident about your purchase.
I think both of these statements are really true. Disclaimer – opinion coming! I think nearly all consumers (especially those buying things online) are engaging in some sort of social activity. This means that they may be
- leaving or reading reviews on Amazon
- engaging in forums
- looking at blogs (sometimes without even knowing its a blog)
- lurking on Twitter
- turning to friends on social networks for peer questioning
- looking to sites like yelp for reviews
- asking questions on Yahoo or LinkedIn
- and so on.
Doing this is engaging in some sort of social activity and it would be in the best interest of a small business to be a part of these “online events” (I think I like that term better than conversations for this session).
This does not mean that
- they need to join a Ning community about your business
- become your fan on Facebook
- grab your RSS Feed
- get your Tweets to their phone
Not all social activities require an intense level of engagement. Some require due dilligence on your part, as a business to ensure that your company and your services / products are broadcast in the correct and transparent light.
The same survey from the stat that opened this post also states that 29% of these businesses do not have the time to engage in social media activities.
Here is my question for this scenario:
How much time do you have to find new customers? How much money are you spending in customer acquisition?
Doing a few automated tasks to set up your reputation management can help to gain new customers who may go elsewhere to the company that is participating. That cost is measurable, as your cost per new customer will continue to rise. None of us want that cost to go up anymore in this economic climate.
As you look into your small business this week, take a look at how you and your company spend its time working with customers and how those customers experience your brand. See how they interact. See how they look for things online. And then spend 20 minutes putting automated systems in place to create brand awareness and social reach to keep them happy. It will be worth it!
Greg Rollett is a Rock Star Internet Marketer from Orlando, FL. He blogs about Lifestyle Design and Online Marketing.
http://www.socialmediamarketing.com/blog
