Storm Dawg Marketing

Ok people… this is HUGE!
( &  yes I still owe you all a review of the Twitter tools…it’s coming…until I get you mine…check out this great video review of Hootesuite and some other complementary Twitter tools done by G4

Very recently (a week ago) my father a restaurateur who is almost 70 asked me to help him set up a Twitter and Facebook for his business.  I was totally floored.  First and foremost because, well this is my dad we are talking about.  He doesn’t usually ask me for advice.  Like EVER.

He is one of my mentors when it comes to all things small business, including the marketing of small businesses.  I usually bounce ideas off of him to get his feedback.  Though most of his feedback finds me disagreeable (sorry Dad) …it’s really his experience that I am looking for and learning from.

He doesn’t really know what I do for work…I actually don’t even think that he knows that I write for a Blog.  For the expressed reason that he will tell all of my relatives and they will all leave comments on my posts like “Good job honey,” and “Can’t wait to see you at Sunday Dinner.”  It’s not Facebook… I don’t invite them here. Sheesh!

So for all of you who said “of course he would ask you about Twitter; you write about it and use it”.  You would be wrong.  He has no idea.  And with my dad I’ve learned not to offer suggestions.  It’s better to wait until my opinion is asked.  And boy was it ever!  So here is my chance to explain to my dad “this is how you can use Twitter for your business.”

So I asked him 3 Things:

1.  Why do you want to be on Twitter?

2.  What do you want to get from Twitter?  (New customers, return business, to connect with your clientele…what?)

3.  How are you going to measure the effectiveness this has on your business.  (Site traffic, foot traffic…what?)

I was surprised by what my dad said, though looking back I don’t know why….

His Answers:

1.  Well I know that by being on things like Twitter and Facebook I can improve my natural search rankings.  (How does my dad know this?)  I can reach my customers in their homes and on their phones with little cost besides “sweat equity” on my part.  (Jeez he is freaking amazing me here!)  Is this the cool new thing?  I thought I was ahead of the curve.  (That you are Dad…that you are…but not that far ahead, so we’ve got to move QUICK!)

2. I want new business.  (Totally saw that one coming!)

3.  Well measuring foot traffic is never really something I’ve done…  Site traffic is something I will for sure measure.  But my measurement will be in increased revenue.  (HMM…well ok….but how will you know what is driving this since I know you are doing other marketing?  Of course I didn’t ask him that!)

With his first answer surprising me…the other two are for the most part what I expect any other businessman to want from their social media efforts.  After all, business owners aren’t doing this for the “fun” of it.  They’re there to make money.

To Be Continued…..
For the suggestions I gave my dad please check out my next post.

Thanks
Christina Kudym

Yes, social media can be time consuming but it’s worth it. Like anything worth doing, it’s worth doing well. And to do it well, it may take you a little time.  Thinking of not investing the time?  Ask yourself this:  Can I afford not to invest the time?  I know, “Time is money”…trust me, I know!  Let me explain why I think you should invest your time.

Unless you are a huge brand like Coke that had a “fan” create their Facebook fan page for them - imagine that…their customers taking the time to do their social marketing for them…and people talking all day about how they love their product…whoa – you will need to devote some time to figuring out a social media strategy.

Maybe you’ll start with a Facebook ad or Fanpage…Maybe a Twitter account…maybe all three.  Whatever you do, have a “game plan.” Look around and see what other businesses like yours are doing. I’m not saying you should copy them, but you can certainly learn from them.  Play around with Tweetdeck,  Seesmic,  HootSuite and other free services that help you organize your online presence and engagements.  Find the one that suits your needs and makes sense for your business.

Think your customers aren’t talking about you online?

Think again! Not only are they talking about you, they’re also sharing their opinions with their friends, relatives and total strangers.  Can you afford not to listen to what they are saying? Wouldn’t you like to be able to thank the people saying nice things about you…and have an opportunity to turn an unhappy customer into a happy one?

More and more small businesses are running targeted ads on Facebook, developing fan pages and keeping customers happy on Twitter. Why? Because that is where their customers are!  So that is where you need to be.  Not should be…NEED to be.  Did you know that Comcast, Southwest Airlines, QWEST and Verizon all use Twitter for customer service?

Here is a great article that gives you seven cases of businesses using Twitter to service customers.

Engagement is key. As most of you know, when you make a connection with a customer, they’ll keep coming back to your store.  They come in because they like something about you or your store.  They will tell you by their reactions to your small talk or smile what level or type of engagement they want.

What people who use SMS (Social Media Sites) are telling us/you is they want to engage on these sites and expect to be engaged with before they make a purchase.  Here is another great article that will give you some insight into how small businesses are using social media to compete with large brands.

There is a new breed of consumer coming…really they are already here.  If you don’t understand where they are coming from, you aren’t going to know where to look for them,  and more importantly, how to sell to them.

So…do you have time for social media?

Next week I will give you my thoughts on a few of the free tools I mentioned today -  Tweetdeck, Hootsuite and Seesmic for starters.

If you have any questions on anything you see here, just leave a comment on this post…I will be glad to help you out.

Until next week,
Christina Kudym

Hey all,

I love this article about small businesses using Twitter. It talks about how people are trying to figure out twitter and how to make money with it. A key point is made in the article about where the innovation will come from. I bet it will be from a small business owner.

“Watching how small businesses use Twitter is particularly interesting,” Mr. Banerji said, “because they are able to take more risks, try out things on Twitter that it will take a little more time for big businesses to do.”

Let’s keep watching, and let me know how you are using twitter. I use it to drive traffic to my blog and to talk to other folks that are interested in small businesses and small business marketing.

Don’t work too hard!

Stormdawg