by Laurie McConnell,
BigpacificMedia.com

Social Media: Is It For You?

Social media/social networking (SM) has moved from being a fun way to keep up with friends that most could ignore to a business tool that seems as ubiquitous as the proverbial blade of grass. I can't look at a publication, business directory or advertisements without seeing numerous calls to follow and interact. It's like the Pied Piper, on crack, for small businesses. There's so many tunes whistling out at us we seem to be spinning in circles.

I keep running into business owners who talk about being bewildered, even overwhelmed, by the amount of information coming at them. Especially in smaller, rural communities where - it seems almost unbelievable given the constant learning required at this point in technological history - we are slower to adapt and adopt. While in major urban areas social media applications are in widespread and diverse use and have already achieved a certain level of critical mass, in the small outlying communities, some businesses are still waiting for high speed Internet to arrive. I even know a few sorry souls still on dial-up. There's no cell coverage, or no 3Gs coverage, rendering these discussions moot for some.

For the rest of us we're left with a bewildering array of marketing and communication web sites and apps that seems to be proliferating faster than we can even imagine, never mind keep up with. Even for those of us working in the technology sector, the amount of available time for evaluating and benchmarking these tools is but a single blade of wheat in a vast acreage of it.

So how do you know if social media is right for your business?

First, what IS it?

Wikipedia defines it as: "Social media uses Internet and web-based [and increasingly, mobile/cellphone-based - my note] technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many)."

This in itself marks a fundamental change in business practices. The expectations of the consumer regarding your business bears about as much resemblance to the established way of doing things as a current cell phone does to the old shoe-sized monolith we used to hold up and shout into. This is the post-meltdown era, where if we can't have job security, have trouble making our mortgages, and are experiencing a real fear of the future, at least we can be recognized.

These days it's all about personalized customer service and proactive selling. These days you're not just competing with the big box store that recently moved into your community; you're vying for customers with businesses from around the world. People will still buy locally, but increasingly their expectations for the relationship are getting more and more refined.

The hallmarks of the typical modern consumer:

• High expectations for service standards
• Willingness to shop around with easily available tools online
• Enjoys the game of finding the best prices
• Desires a personal relationship with the companies they buy from
• Communicates in real time about their experiences
• Provides access to their peer group at a nominal cost if their expectations are met or exceeded
• Enjoys novelty, finding new and different things, experiencing them in surprising ways
• Much more sophisticated than consumers of the past
• Makes a connection between the money they spend in your business and your personal benefit from it
• Much less loyal, constantly wooed by your competitors

The hallmarks of businesses aggressively capitalizing from these shifts in relationship:

• Actively seeks input from consumers, via in-store data collection, online surveys, newsletters, instant media
• Finds ways to personalize service
• Responds hyperfast to complaints, often apologizing publicly for the consumer's experience
• Offers many ways for consumers to connect
• If traditional in approach (standard/shortened hours of opening, traditional marketing), ups the in-store service through careful retention of key employees and a strong company culture that focuses on personal relationships with customers
• Develops, adopts and measures on a regular basis customer service, including developing operations manuals for all positions and standardizing delivery regardless of individuals involved (the same experience every time for the consumer)
• Looks for innovative - and measurable - ways to interact with customers

The bad news is a customer can walk into your store, have a bad experience with one of your staffers - or even you - and literally while you are watching they can post their experience to multiple channels in their personal (and often public) networks. Worse still, if you're not participating in social media, you won't even be aware of it, never mind take steps to address it. (Read a recent story in Inc. for one small business owner's nightmare with the Yelp social network. )

The good news is that you have access to some incredible intelligence about your products, service and reputation that can transform your business. Out of that chaff can come new product or service ideas, the opportunity to see and hear what's being said about you and your business, in real time, and to respond proactively before long-term damage has been done. You can test product ideas and have customers vote on what you should sell, driving your buying decisions and leading to reduced inventory and returns. You can keep an eye on your competitors.

For these reasons I weigh in as a 'Yes' on businesses participating on Social Media, and here's some tips for how you can do it without getting hopelessly tied up with information or tied into technology.

If all you do as a small businesses in a rural area is these 5 things, you will be ahead of most of your competitors.

1. Sign up for free accounts on Twitter.com and Facebook.com, the two largest and most active social networks.
2. Set up a free account at Google.com/accounts.
3. Search for your business or niche on Twitter and listen to what's being said about you and respond directly.
4. Collect some friends on Facebook and watch how people interact and what/how they share
5. Set up a Google Alert at Google.com/alerts and get emails of links that include your business name or industry

Set yourself a goal of 1-3 months of perhaps 5-10 minutes per day to watch and learn, and when you feel ready, start participating. Make sure you do this BEFORE you hire someone to run a social media campaign for you, and be sure to ask them what tools they use to track campaigns and what kind of reporting you can expect to receive. Once you understand social media's purpose and behavior you're more likely to pick the right service provider.

Sign up for the Bigpacific Media Connections Blog to learn more about how your business can benefit from participating in these and other technologies.