Social Media & Small Business: Top 5 Things You Should Already Be Doing in 2012

Social media is “the new kid on the block” when it comes to marketing your business. Although social media has been around in some form for over 10 years, it is only during the past few years that businesses began to adapt to this new form of interacting with their customers on a personal, every day basis. This trend is here to stay, and I am here to make social media work for your business.


To a long-time small business owner, new Internet ventures can be scary. If you haven’t jumped on the Internet and social media marketing bandwagons yet, 2012 is the time to do it. Here are the top 5 things you can do to improve your marketing online.
Google has created a series of applications (apps) to not only help you with your day to day affairs with in your business, but also to understand your marketing and track your business online. You can use Google’s email (gmail.com) for business use, as well as set up shared documents, spreadsheets, and calendars. Google does go beyond that, having relationships with HTML email companies (enabling you to send out a newsletter to an email list, for example); Google Analytics, allowing you to track not only how people are finding your website, but what portions of your website they are interested in; and Google Adwords, which gives priority ad placement on Google and their partners(when someone completes a search using one of your keywords.)

These apps are also just the tip of the iceberg, as they develop and release new applications frequently and their site has many more. You need to look at them and figure out what works for you. If anything, after you set up your website, set up Google Analytics. This will give you valuable information on your site and pages within it that will allow you to alter your information and grow your site, if need be.


Another Google app that I use is Google Alerts. I have them set up at work for my company’s name and nicknames. I get an email every day of new articles, websites, blogs, and mentions of my company. The good information comes with the bad information — being in marketing, I need to see it all. This is the same attitude you should have. Social media and online marketing have given businesses the opportunity to stand up for themselves and address adversity head on and usually, almost immediately. Good news and articles can then be shared with your “followers” on your website and Facebook fan page immediately. In turn, bad news or information can be responded to quickly. Fans and customers will want to see how you react to such information. They will hope that you can do so with dignity and respect.

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Websites closing down in protest of SOPA

Google, YouTube, Wikepdia and several other major websites are coming together to protest a controversial bill. It's called SOPA and some people say if passed, it could very well shut down some of our favorite websites.

"The devil is in the details. And a lot of the details kind of concern people," IPFW Online Marketing Specialist John Kaufeld said.

IPFW Social Media expert, John Kaufeld, has been researching the Stop Online Piracy Act for months. He says the bill has good intentions. The goal's to protect peoples intellectual property from copyright infringement.

But unnecessary details in the bill concern technologists like Kaufeld.

"You have the representatives and the senators on one side saying 'Well we just really want to accomplish this one thing. We're trying to protect intellectual property.' But the technologists on the other hand are saying 'You know you're going after a fly with a shotgun and dynamite.'"

Kaufeld says most people don't understand the implications of what SOPA would do. It could blackout sites for months while they investigate cases of infringement. In turn that could cause a company or business to shut down.

Thanks: http://www.wane.com/dpp/news

Social media a threat to business security

The impact of increasing use of social media among professionals and companies was singled out as one of the biggest threats faced by businesses in 2011 at an IT security briefing in Sydney yesterday.

John Reeman founder and chief technical officer of firm VMinformer said that social media sites offered all the ingredients for a security crisis.

"The world is changing and we're all adopting social media very, very quickly so we see this as one of the top (security) threats in 2011 and moving forward," Mr Reeman said.

"There are three main reasons for this. The first is that they're hugely popular. The second is that they foster a culture of trust. If you couple them with a third, that they have inherently insecure code behind those web sites, then you've really got the elements of the perfect storm," Mr Reeman said.


The increasingly sophisticated methods that social networking sites use to monitor their members' activities both while their logged into sites like Facebook and after they leave were among concerns raised by security specialists at the meeting.
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Social Media Is Morphing Into Social Business

These days, if you're doing business, you've got to go social. As 'social media' morphs into 'social business,' the conversation is broadening within the enterprise. In addition to Marketing and Communications, we're now seeing Legal, HR, Customer Services, Sales, and other departments adopt social technologies both internally and externally. The adoption curve is maturing.

The world's leading companies are realizing that a solid grasp of social technologies and social platforms, along with the concepts of authenticity, transparency, and trust will become critical to building global brands, transforming product development, enabling real-time customer service, and fostering social collaboration with customers and key stakeholders.

From the beginning, way back in 2007, the term 'social media' rubbed some the wrong way. Just what is social media, anyway? Doesn't it mean Facebook, blogs, Twitter? Or is it more about the new communication platforms? Or about real-time? Or maybe it's just another term for 'digital media'?

When I was developing the curriculum for the Social Media Marketing class I teach with Karl Kasca for the UCLA Extension, we grappled with this as well. Back in 2007, we spent a lot of time in the first session defining 'social media,' and quite a lively discussion ensued. And today the market is still defining it.

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How Social Media Can Derail Your New-Business Efforts

Social media has had a dramatic impact on the life of the agency business development executive over the last several years, particularly when it comes to prospecting, doing market research and gaining industry intelligence.

Whether it's zeroing in on marketing decision makers at companies on LinkedIn, or learning what's on the mind of that individual through his Twitter feed, we use social media on a daily basis to bolster new business. What I've learned most over the last year is that, along with many benefits, social media can actually work against your agency.

Let me share a few risks you might not be aware of -- as well as how you can capitalize on them.

Linking to your client prospect
When you link to a marketer, whether a prospect or current client, you are letting your LinkedIn colleagues know who you're talking to or working with. That's not necessarily bad. By monitoring LinkedIn, you can give your agency team a sense of the landscape and agencies you might be up against in a review.

It also has some downsides. Our agency was recently participating in an agency review and within the first day of talking to the prospect, who we were already linked to, a number of agency business development folks connected to the same contact. While the prospect wasn't revealing agency names of the other participants, we pretty much knew who we were up against.

Recommendation: Don't link to your pitch prospect until after a review. This not only keeps the review quiet, but it also doesn't give your agency competitors an opportunity to find potential weak spots in your armor.

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Marketing-Free Social Media

What role does social media play at your bank?

We're in multiple areas: Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, blogs, YouTube, Flickr, and LinkedIn. We use it more for branding than for marketing. It's a way to share information with customers, content related to financial services. We also send holiday messages to people.
Is there anything that you avoid?

We stay away from the marketing aspect because of regulatory concerns [regarding online ad content] ... last week we sat down with two regulators from the FDIC for a cursory exam prior to our larger exam ... they liked that we were not doing any type of advertising on social media. And imagine trying to disclose information about a rate offer in 140 characters [Twitter's character limit]. It's not going to happen.
How can social media add value?

It's not a separate channel; we look at it as a way to get information out to customers who come to us with product questions, or integrate customer service issues with the branch or contact center. It's another way for people to interact with us if they choose to.
What are some of the major misconceptions about social media?


One is that everybody has to be in all of the different outlets. That's untrue, and the people who are saying that are those who make money selling banks on their own expertise. Social media is no different than any other interaction. You have to do it if it's right for your organization or right for your customer base. If you study the impact of a site and it can add value to your relationships, then you say 'yes.' If not, then say 'no.' People talk about the ROI of social media. I think that's a crock. It doesn't exist.

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More Tips For The Online Entrepreneur

It’s the Fourth of July here in the U.S., and small business owners around the world are celebrating their independence with increased activity in the online space. Working online allows small businesses access to new global markets, opportunities for new low cost marketing options and an incredible new array of networking and other tools. Here’s our roundup of tips for the online entrepreneur. Have something you think we’ve missed? Share it in the comment section below:
Blogging

Does your business have a blog? Lots of businesses do and are finding the benefits offered by business blogging. Giving your small business an enhanced online presence could include experimenting with the many advanced features a blog offers. A simple Website may not cut it these days. What do you want to achieve with your business communications? A blog may help. Small Business Shift

Monetization basics. Yes, businesses can make money online and, yes, your blog could become more than simply a Website marketing another business. It could be your business. But before you get too excited or listen to a lot of get rich quick gurus, please understand. This is a lot of hard work. The Work At Home Woman
Social Media

Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter for traffic? Using social media sites like Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter to refer traffic to your Website is one tactic often used by online entrepreneurs these days. But time is limited for anyone in small business, so, given the choice, which sites are the best for referring traffic? Facebook, of course, is number one, but you may be surprised at the second place contender. Seeking Alpha

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