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SBA Lending Guide - Pg 10 | Startup-Friendly Resource Directory - Pg 21

The Monthly Resource Guide For Startup Businesses

December 2009

Exercise
Your Social
Media Muscle
Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and the other social
media only work if you exercise with them regularly.
These four social media experts will pump you up
and introduce you to the next level of communication
muscle: Tyler Olson, Social Media Consulting;
Dave Meyer, BizzyWeb; Alan Kremer, imagewrks
MARKETING; and Jim Robinson, ITR Group.

Reprinted with Permission Courtesy of New Business Minnesota 2009 www.newbizminn.com

December 2009

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Facebook?
Facebook,LinkedIn?
LinkedIn and Which
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social media
only work
if you
exercise
with
them
regularly.
Its All About Choosing
the Best
Tools
to Reach
Your
Customers.

From the Publisher:


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ople are curious.
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New Business
Minnesota will hold its monthly Startup Meetup networking
ant to be a partevent
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register
RSVP
go to:
Twitter
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www.newstartupmeetup.com.
me changer technology.
become the main competitor to Facebook.
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gg your Twitter? Is it time to finally learn about sodoing? The premise was that you could Tweet out in
al media? Education on social media is critical for the
140 characters or less what you were doing and your
ccess of any social media campaign. These tools are
friends and family could follow you.

ness Minnesota approached this team of experts to write about the latest trends and strategies: Tyler Olson, Social Media Consulting; Dave
Meyer, BizzyWeb; Alan Kremer, imagewrks MARKETING; and Jim
Robinson, ITR Group.
They will share more information in a free interactive workshop
from 3 to 5 p.m. on January 14 at the Airport Hilton in Bloomington.
New Business Minnesota will hold its monthly Startup Meetup networking event immediately following the workshop. For more information and to register and RSVP go to:
www.newstartupmeetup.com.

Twitter? Facebook? LinkedIn? Which One?


Its All About Choosing the Best Tools to Reach Your Customers.
By Tyler Olson

Twitter? Facebook? L

Special to New Business Minnesota

verybody is asking us: What is social


media and how can I use it for my business? In a nutshell: social media is a
new, low-cost marketing channel for small
business owners, allowing them to communicate with clients, partners, prospects, and
friend to further their relationships.
With it they can complement their current business initiatives and communicate
with those who know them, like them, and
want to know more about them.
By using tools such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, businesses are able to more
effectively and affordably get in front of
more people faster. Whether the business is
B2B or B2C, there are ways with social media to achieve business objectives, whether
its through additional foot traffic, web traffic, coffee appointments, etc.
Even though I work with social media every day, I still enjoy the excitement about this
new form of communication when another
business owner chooses to make the investment in a social media campaign. People are
curious. People want to understand. People
want to be a part of it. Its clear that social
media is a game changer technology.
Should you StumbleUpon your Facebook?
Do you Digg your Twitter? Is it time to finally learn about social media? Education
on social media is critical for the success of
any social media campaign. These tools are
new, they evolve quickly and sometimes are
difficult to understand.
Twitter and other social media websites
can become overwhelming. How do you use
them? Why do you use them? What can you
get out of it and how will it help you meet
your business objectives?
To answer these questions, we typically
engage with what we call our social media Assessment, which will guide clients
through the basics of social media and how
it could impact their companies. It also lays
out the foundation of the go-forward social
media Strategy.
Having a strategy to answer these questions will give you guidance and lay out a
plan to stick with. Its important enough that
we have staff to specifically work on strat-

ing about your brand and your products and


many other things.
Recently Twitter has opened up to two major search
Google and
Bing. AllowItsengines,
All About
Choosing
the Bes
ing these two search engines to tap into the
tweets for searches will change the way search
business is B2B or B2C, there are ways with social meworks
forever. Things that are happening live,
dia to achieve business objectives, whether its through
things
that news
cannot
possibly
have
additional
footoutlets
traffic, web
traffic,
coffee appointments,
up yet
will
begin
to
show
up
in
Google
search
etc.
instantly.
Even though I work with social media every day, I
This
is huge
for the search
community.
still enjoy
the excitement
about this
new form of communication
when
owner chooses
Recently
Twitter
has another
opened business
up the people
to make
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ter also
introduced
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tant as having a strategy; it allows you to most
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clients.To answer these questions, we typically engage with
Which
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in these
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stick
with.
Its imporand platforms. They can also provide insight
that we have
staff choose
to specifically
as totant
whyenough
your company
might
to usework on
and objectives. Based on what weve learned
one strategies
over another.
working with new and small business in general is that
The
last the
thing
to most
consider
in your
social
perhaps
single
important
aspect
to using somedia
your
time.
What
is your
cialplanning
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aptimeproach.
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spent? This
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to should
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up amanage
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Corporate
implement
have Twitter
your strategy to meet your objectives?
Paying employees is expensive. Hiring an
agency specializing in just social media can
save your employees and yourself time and
headaches when implementing and managing your social media.
Tyler Olson, owner and President of Social
Media Consulting and HelpMeTy.com, has
consulted on many technology-related topics
and has been a speaker at numerous events on
strategies to help people achieve more through
web technologies. He regularly writes for the
business technology section in PCWorld magazine on social networking. He can be reached
at: tolson@smcpros.com, smcpros.com or twitter.com/TyOlson

egies and objectives. Based on what weve


Bywith
Tyler
Olson
learned working
new
and small business
in general
is
that
perhaps
the single
most imSpecial to New Business
Minnesota
portant aspect to using social media is to begin with a solid, well-thought-out approach.
verybody
is asking
is social
media
This
strategic
plan us:
willWhat
define
whether
youand
how can I use it for my business? In a nutshell:
should
be setting up a Facebook Fan Page,
social media is a new, low-cost marketing chanCorporate Twitter Account, LinkedIn Profile,
nel for small business owners, allowing them to cometc. It will
layclients,
the foundation
for whatand
should
municate
with
partners, prospects,
friend
nextrelationships.
to drive your business objectohappen
further their
tives.
With it they can complement their current business
initiatives
and communicate
with
those who
know
Sometimes
that involves
training
of your
them,
like them,
andmanagement.
want to know more
aboutbusithem.
employees
and
In many
By using
toolsTwitter
such asdoes
Facebook,
LinkedIn,
and
ness
models,
not make
sense.
Twitter,
businesses
are ablewill
to more
effectivelymuch
and afSometimes
LinkedIn
not provide
fordably get in front of more people faster. Whether the
value. Ultimately, it comes down to who your
target market is and where they congregate
online.
Twitter is a hot topic these days and it has
quickly become the main competitor to Facebook.
Twitter started with the question of What
are you doing? The premise was that you
could Tweet out in 140 characters or less what
you were doing and your friends and family
could follow you.
In practice, people began to use the site
more for what was happening rather then
what they were doing. Companies realized
that by joining Twitter they can interact with
customers on a whole new level. You can obtain feedback; find out what people are say-

Reprinted with Permission Courtesy of New Business Minnesota 2009 www.newbizminn.com

Integrating
Social Media
Whats Next? Getting the Most Out of Your Online Communication.
By Dave Meyer
Special to New Business Minnesota

ocial media is an amazing tool for marketing a new business. Tools like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn allow cashstrapped startups a way to generate buzz and
engage their prospects and customers on a
more personal level.
But even with free tools, theres always a
cost. It takes time to connect with your fans,
share ideas about your products, listen to
what your customers are saying, or network
with prospects and referral sources.
Heres the good news. There is a trick
to consolidating your social media efforts.
When its done right, updating your social
networking accounts can be done through a
single tool your website.
Just as it doesnt make sense to force your
customers to connect with you only one way
you probably wouldnt limit customers to
just connecting over the phone for example,
or just through a contact form on your website effective communication in
todays world requires you to be
where people are.
The companies who are best
able to reach out and connect
are the ones who are seeing real
results. Social media tools each
serve a slightly different purpose.
Twitter is great for keeping up
with experts in any given field and
marketing ideas. LinkedIn is the
go-to spot to find talent and network with professionals. Facebook is where
250 million people go to connect with old
friends.
Couple the confusion of which network
does what with the tools your company already uses emails, your website, traditional advertising and even in-person networking or sales calls and its easy to see why so
many are overwhelmed by it all.
However, a well-designed website using
a tool like WordPress can do much of your
social media connecting for you.
WordPress is an open-source content
management system that allows users to

logon to their own website from any browser and publish news articles (or posts), manage pages and add multimedia content with
ease.
Since it was originally created as a blog-

Search Engine Optimization more


links to your site equal higher rankings.
Your sites visitors will be able to easily
share your content with others.
Multimedia integration video and audio are a snap to setup and share.
You own your own data (if LinkedIn or
Facebook go down or decide to close your
page, your data is gone).
Allow your visitors to comment on your
articles (subject to your approval of course).
Another advantage of WordPress is that
it puts you in the drivers seat of your site.
You dont need to call your web developer
to make changes. You just sign in from your
browser and with a few clicks you can introduce your latest product or announce a new
special.
Customers, clients and prospects expect
to be part of a conversation with businesses
posting a press release and calling it a day
doesnt cut it anymore. Your customers want
to ask questions and provide feedback. They
want be the first to know when something
new is coming. And they want to do it on
whatever network they prefer.
Spend the time
to setup a system to
communicate automatically to your
social media networks, and youll
slash the amount
of time you spend
crossposting to each
network individually. A professionally designed website that is built to leverage
social media and integrate your efforts will
make generating buzz a lot easier.
Dave Meyer is the president and owner
of BizzyWeb, a company that creates WordPress-powered websites designed to integrate
with social media. BizzyWeb also offers social
media training webinars and consulting services. He is a frequent speaker on social media topics, and is currently the president of the
Minnesota chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators. He can
be reached at bizzyweb. com, or follow him on
Twitter at: http://twitter.com/ dave1meyer.

A well-designed website using a tool


like WordPress can do much of your
social media connecting for you.
ging platform, the community of developers that created it built in the capability to
interact with visitors in a personal way. Articles you post to your website can automatically publish to each social site using simple
plugins, and search engine optimization is
handled seamlessly.
With every post youre getting the word
out effectively, and engaging your prospects
at every step.
Advantages of using a tool like WordPress to integrate your social media efforts
include:
Automatically publish your news to
LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook fan pages.

Social Media is For Real;


Get Plugged In?
Its Time to Include It In Your Marketing Mix.
By Alan Kremer
Special to New Business Minnesota

ll admit it. Im a natural-born skeptic: A


tire kicker. Not of the cynical variety, but
the kind born of a desire to make wise
decisions that maximize ROI for my clients businesses, as well as my own.
So when bloggers first started singing
the praises of social media, I raised an eyebrow. And when the social media floodgates
opened, I saw the potential, but still doubted. Why all the peer pressure to jump on the
bandwagon? Wheres the proof? The value?
The metrics?
My inner cynic (who said that?) pushed
me to investigate social medias viability as
a real, results-driven initiative, worthy of a
place within a companys marketing mix.
My conclusion? Surprise, surprise: social
media does deserve a spot at the table. Companies that have embraced the two-way,
conversational format have gleaned valuable
information, solidified brand loyalty and
some have even monetized
their social presence.
Over the past 12 months,
my company has increasingly provided social media services in response to
the demand. Our customers have asked us to help
them get up to speedfast.
In fact, one client referred
to us as the personal trainers of social media.
Beyond an initially unsettling image involving sweatbands and knee socks, I was
able to catch his drift.
As we work with companies exploring
social media opportunities, we come across
common desires and questions. First, they
want to properly and intelligently plug-in to
the right social media circles. They want to
gain genuine access to and develop strong,
loyal relationships with their most valuable
contacts and customer segments. We end up
kind of like coaches, working alongside
them, helping them achieve their goals.
So, heres the million-dollar question:

Where do we start? Whether youre a new


business or an existing small business, we
have found it best to focus on three areas:
determining goals, developing a plan and
aligning the social media strategy with the

munity.
Develop quarterly content calendars.
This systematically guides the subject matter, ensuring posts and conversation starters
actively support the clients primary marketing goals.
Assign one person to have committed
ownership. As the saying goes, if everybody
owns it, nobody does. We encourage our
clients to identify one person who can take
charge of their companys social media presence.
Integrating social media with the overall marketing program.
Social media should never be viewed as
a Lone Ranger attempt at marketing a company. So we think about what links can be
made between social networking efforts and
a companys other online/offline marketing
initiatives. How can tactics be cross-promoted?
I know social networking will continue
to gain momentum as companies stop feeling overwhelmed even frightened by
this medium. Without question, social media can be an incredibly powerful venue for
companies willing to legitimately engage with their
contacts and customers.
As with any tactic, the
results should be measured.
But when it comes right
down to it, the power and
benefits of social networking outweigh its shortcomings, even for a skeptic like
me.
Alan Kremer is an owner and Vice President for Imagewrks Marketing, a company
recently named among the 50 fastest growing
private companies in Minnesota. Imagewrks
identifies and solves its clients core marketing
and communications issues, and offers everything from research and creative strategy to
design, printing and fulfillmentall under
one roof. He can be reached at alan@iwmarketing.com. www.iwmarketing.com.

Companies that have embraced the two-way,


conversational format have gleaned valuable
information, solidified brand loyalty and some
have even monetized their social presence.
companys big-picture marketing efforts.
Determining goals
Are our clients trying to establish thought
leadership with a target audience? Drive
traffic to their website? Test a new product
idea? Nurture leads? Access an elusive niche
segment? To start off on the right foot, it is
imperative to identify and quantify their
primary goals.
Developing a plan
This entails three key tasks. Choose a
community. Its important not to bite off
more than can be chewed, so we typically
recommend starting with one social com-

Why you need a Social Media Strategy?


You Should Hear What People Are Saying About Your Brand.
By Jim Robinson

focused effort around the right people.


Use the 80/20 rule Find the 20 percent
of your target market who are the creators,
connectors, influencers who are creating 80
percent of the content/ buzz around your
product/service.
Use search tools to focus on keywords
(e.g., hashtags in Twitter) to identify the
most appropriate people to follow. Consider
following your r top customers or product
advocates, as well as the competition. If you
are unsure where to look ITR can help identify those people with common interests
you could even create your own group. You
can do this very easily in most online communities such as Facebook.
LinkedIn and NING also allow you to
create a group about anything. You can also
create a blog, or your own online community but these take more time and resources.

Special to New Business Minnesota

ou never get a second chance to make


a first impression. This has never
been truer than when jumping into
the Social Media world. Whether or not
youre engaged in social networking, your
company and your brand are most likely being discussed and defined without you.
Its a common misconception that social media is the answer to all business and
marketing problems. Social Media is simply
a tool. It doesnt replace marketing fundamentals. It needs to be implemented as part
of a complete marketing plan and business
strategy.
When set up right, it is a dynamic, twoway media for real-time interaction. Social
Media allows businesses to think of the web
as being a place for conversations that they
can monitor and join. That is a tremendous
advantage when used correctly.

Develop a Strategy

Companies should look at Social Media


as they would any other business tool or
service. That involves investigating options,
evaluating potential opportunities, planning
how to incorporate it into their business,
and having a sound exit strategy in the event
the benefits dont fully materialize.
Without a strategy and constant monitoring, you can appear extremely foolish to
your customers and prospects. Worse yet,
one careless posting and a company can
rapidly loose stature in their industry or
trade. Keep in mind; the first people who
will follow you online are your biggest fans,
and your most agitated detractors. Without
a plan and measurable goals, you could be
risking market share.
If youre ready to formulate a Social Media strategy, remember that you want to get
it right from the beginning. Take your time.
Think it through. And ask for help before
you need it.

Getting Started

Monitor the Social Media arena to understand how you should participate. Social
Media Monitoring allows you to identify
people who might be interested in what you
have to say or sell. Monitoring will help you
in finding, connecting, conversing, and engaging with them.
Social Media monitoring is one of the
most reliable and fastest ways to identify

unhappy customers, disgruntled former employees, or disenchanted suppliers. If someone has a grudge or axe to grind, monitoring
is your early warning system.
Remember, Social Media is more than
Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. The online
universe is expansive and new applications
and services are always emerging. If you
limit your monitoring to these three applications, you are doing a disservice to yourself, your brand and your company.

Work with an organization that can


help you establish a Strategy and
Objective.

You cant manage what you cant measure.


You need to understand why you are establishing a strategy and what you hope to get
out of it.
There are only four reasons to participate in social networking; risk management,
brand management, customer intimacy and
financial (Revenue generations and cost reduction).
What are you trying to accomplish? Do
you want to understand your customers requirements? Do you want to promote your
products? Do you want to enhance your
brand? Answering these questions will define how you use Social Media, which works
best as a component of your larger marketing programs.

Gain confirmation that youre


focusing on the right efforts.

Use an established organization to help


you identify your target market and create a

Listen, Listen, Listen

Once you zero-in on a target segment,


listen to them. The beauty of Social Media
is that periodic interaction with customers (individual business trips, focus groups,
trade shows, etc.) has been replaced with
real-time interaction. Take advantage of it.
Work with your Social Media partner on
monitoring and listening strategies.
Work smarter and not harder. Accept that
the market is changing. The most common
complaint I hear is, There is too much data.
I cant listen to every one of my customers!
Well, you cant afford not to. If your customers are willing to talk to you, are you really
going to hang up the phone? Trust me, your
competitor wouldnt.
The key to successful monitoring is in the
rationalizing the data brought in by the tools
that look across all the Social Media sites,
blogs, etc. With that data in hand, you can
focus on key problems and opportunities.
All of this is moving very quickly, as you
have probably noticed. Now is the time for
you to take action to become engaged with
your customers and your community with
the right dialogue and message.
Jim Robison is the Social Media Capability Manager for ITR Group. ITR group is a
national leader in Social Media Consulting,
Business and Technology Consulting, and
Mobile Development. He has provided technology and marketing solutions for many
Fortune 500 companies such as Visa, Capital One, GMAC and Wells Fargo. He can be
reached at: jimr@itrgroupinc.com or (651)
757-4500.

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