The question, of course, is, “How can you develop more people in your rolodex?”.

Social Media is an outstanding tool to develop your rolodex, and more importantly, how to develop the people that you already know into legitimate referral sources.

Capitalizing Upon the People That You Already Know

How many times has your mother, father, sister or brother referred you business? Usually the answer is fairly low, and oftentimes none. The same can be true for your friends. This is not because they don’t love and respect you, but rather because they don’t think to do so. Heck, oftentimes, these people whom you are closest with have no idea what you actually do for a living! Sure, they may know a job title, or a business industry, but they don’t *really* know what you do. Short of sitting with everyone and explaining what it is you do and teaching them how to sell (a technique I encourage, actually), you have very few ways of getting them to sell for you.

Enter Facebook. Facebook is usually used for exclusively social reasons, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be used for promoting your business. With over 500 million users and over 50% of those users checking on a daily basis, Facebook affords small businesses a unique way of connecting to users.

This doesn’t mean that everyone should immediately create a Facebook “like” or “fan” page for their business. In fact, this technique is usually worthless and unnecessary (although sometimes very effective). What it does mean is that in addition to letting people know what random fun activities you are doing, you can also help educate your friends about what you do for work.

This can be done directly by letting people know about new products or promotions, or by way of happy customer stories or excitement over a finished project. By letting your friends and family know what you are doing everyday for work, they can be more informed when it is time to potentially recommend you.

Increase Your Audience

While Facebook allows you to inform people who you already know, it does very little for increasing your audience. Corporate Blogging and Twitter are exceptional ways for expanding your audience.

As the fastest growing platform in the history of the Internet, Twitter allows you to connect and reach entirely new audiences than you ever had. By developing “Followers” that are either prospective customers or referral sources, you create an entirely new group of people that are learning about your business. It increases the size of your Rolodex.

Corporate Blogging is simply a platform that allows you to write about your business. Much like the article you are reading right now, it is a way to share your knowledge with the world. While the topics can be sales driven, I usually recommend they be informative. Allow your audience to be aware that you are an expert in your field. If you accomplish that, when it is time to refer someone, or hire them yourself, it is more likely you will do so with the person who has proven their worth.

The coolest part is that you can use Twitter and Facebook to point to your Blog, further increasing the exposure that it gets.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Website Integration

An added benefit of using these tools, is doing so in conjunction with your website. By integrating your Blog and Twitter feeds, you create a more dynamic website that has more user retention for repeat viewings. Further, search engines like Google and Bing love the relevant and refreshed content that Blogs and Twitter feeds provide. Better Search Engine Optimization (SEO) means more hits. More hits usually means more money.

In Conclusion

This was intended as food for thought on how Social Media can be used effectively to promote your small business. There are, of course, many other ways that these tools can be used for business that I will address in future articles, but for now I encourage you to think of how these tools can improve your rolodex. ]]> http://www.flyingchimp.com/the-rolodex-and-brand-awareness-how-to-use-social-media-to-promote-your-small-business/feed/ 0 http://www.flyingchimp.com/social-media-is-not-passive-advertising/ http://www.flyingchimp.com/social-media-is-not-passive-advertising/#comments Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:07:09 +0000 admin http://www.flyingchimp.com/?p=303 I recently met with a prospective client who was interested in Social Media.

They have always used more traditional advertising methods such as CraigsList and other yellow pages based methods, and wanted Social Media to accomplish the same thing. They wanted us to create a series of social networking pages (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc.) that would just attract business.

Unfortunately, it was not going work the way they wanted.

Social Media is a dynamic exchange of information with the rest of the online world that increases your visibility and network of available resources. Social Media is NOT a passive form of advertising.

The success of Social Media is directly tied with the activity of the user. If you want Social Media to not require work, then it won’t work for you or your business.

Does that mean that Social Media has no value in business? Of course not! It has tremendous value, some of which has yet to be figured out! But it does require a commitment to make it work. It requires a particular business to decide to make Social Media work for them, and to dedicate the necessary resources needed to make it successful. That said, there are ways to reduce your workload, and find easy things to tweet, update or blog about. Much like optimizing a process within your business, there are ways to optimize your Social Media time to much less than it may originally seem.

Commit to making it work, and it will. If not, don’t bother.

This particular client seemed to understand what I was explaining, and has decided to make Social Media work for them. They recognize that it is not passive, and while it will require additional effort, they see the value and future value and want to grow. Good for them.

Ancillary Benefits of Blogging

1. Blogging makes you a better thinker
2. Blogging makes you a better listener
3. Blogging makes you a better writer
4. Blogging makes you a better salesperson
5. Blogging keeps you focused on learning
6. Blogging makes you a better networker

Blogging makes you a better thinker
In an effort to create content for a blog that is succinct, it can reveal new ways to look at common things, or apply simple solutions to seemingly complex problems.

Blogging makes you a better listener
By listening with a writer’s ear, you will find yourself coming up with blog ideas simply by listening to others discuss unrelated subjects.

Blogging makes you a better writer
By writing every day, you will naturally become a better writer. In addition to practice, writing publicly also allows for community reaction to help you get better faster.

Blogging makes you a better salesperson
By clearly stating idea pitches in writing, you will find that it has improved your ability to quickly articulate them in selling. It’s like you build up this reserve bank of preprogrammed discussion points.

Blogging keeps you focused on learning
The discipline required to create even somewhat interesting content, requires that you stay on top of current trends, what’s being said and what’s not being said in order to find ways to apply it to the world of small business.

Blogging makes you a better networker
By blogging on a regular basis, your regular readership will grow over time, growing your network beyond where it currently is.

Final Thoughts

It takes time.
You will not see immediate gains from your blog. Blogs are not a magic bullet to the top of the engines. They require working hard and smart – especially smart. However the payoff can be significant.

Be responsive.
The blogosphere is all about two-way communication — a blog is not simply an outlet for your message, but a tool for engaging in a conversation. Readers want to see that the person or people who are writing the blog are actually invested in its content and willing to read and respond to comments. The goal is to make your organization’s or corporation’s voice heard as part of ongoing conversation about policy issues.

Have a well-thought-through plan.
Too often a blog gets started amid a great deal of hype and publicity, but then quickly loses wind as posts become more and more sporadic. A lack of fresh content and infrequent updates will make it clear to readers that the company isn’t really taking its blog seriously. It is better not to create a blog at all than to launch one with only a halfhearted effort.

Read part one

Read part two

How to be successful with your Blog

1. Make it personal
2. Share your knowledge
3. Don’t over analyze your posts for more than errors and readability
4. Consistency
5. Read and Comment on great blogs
6. Longevity in posting
7. Be controversial, but not rude
8. Be relevent

Make it personal
While it is a corporate blog, don’t be afraid to show some humanity. Despite its label, a “corporate” blog has to have a real personality as its primary voice.

Share Your Knowledge
You know a great deal about your business. Share your successes and failures. Encourage those who are looking learn about your business topic by providing them with insights that would have helped you when you were first starting out. Don’t be concerned with “giving away your secrets” and helping to the competition. Blogging is in it’s infancy. Those of you who are positioning yourselves as experts in your field will reap the rewards as customers look for the experts in Google and see your name pop up. Additionally, you can enjoy the benefits of expert status offline. Further, giving away something of value for nothing has always been great PR.

Don’t over analyze your posts for more than errors and readability
If you second guess all your posts you’ll never release anything of value. Just write it, read it and post it. Don’t spend a week on one post. While you may spend a week on research (or more), a week to write a post on a regular basis is not practical for a business blogger.

Consistency
Frequent and consistent posting is almost as good as quality posting. Give them a reason to subscribe and a reason to keep coming back to the site. Frequently updated sites get more traffic.

Read and Comment on Great Blogs
Find some great blogs and digest everything they have to say. Learn from those who now are where you want to be soon. Look to the great business bloggers to understand what they are doing (note their content, their discussions off their blog, their passion and their wit).

Longevity in posting
What you write today, while it pushes off your front page rather quickly, doesn’t disappear. It will be available in the search engines’ archives forever. Make sure it represents you and your company well and is a topic that will be popularly searched for a long time.

Be controversial, but not rude
It is good to have an opinion and a strong point of view. You should be willing to throw down a gauntlet, but don’t do it all the time.

Be relevant
You want to plan a blog that caters to the specific target audience on which your business focuses.

Read part one

Read part three

Overall benefits of Corporate Blogging

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
2. Direct Communications
3. Brand Building
4. Competitive Differentiation
5. Relational Marketing
6. Exploit the Niches
7. Build Community
8. Media & Public Relations
9. Position You as an Expert
10. Reputation Management
11. Low cost

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Blogs provide many of the things that search engines covet: relevant refreshed content and more pages of it.

Direct Communications
Blogs provide a way for you to speak directly, openly and honestly with your customer.

Brand Building
Blogs serve as another channel on which to promote your brand and company.

Competitive Differentiation
Because blogs give you the opportunity to tell your story over and over, they help set you apart from the competition.

Relational Marketing
Blogs allow you to build personal, long-lasting relationships with your customers that foster trust.

Exploit the Niches
Blogs help you fill your particular industry niche.

Build Community
Business blogs provide your small business with a chance to share your expertise and knowledge with a larger audience. An opportunity to connect with a wider audience and build a community is a strong benefit for consultants and knowledge workers.

Media & Public Relations
Blogs are excellent PR tools. The media calls you, not your competition.

Position You as an Expert
Blogs enable you to articulate your viewpoints, knowledge and expertise on matters pertaining to your industry.

Reputation Management
Blogs help you manage your online reputation.

Low Cost
Blogs are inexpensive to set up, operate and maintain.

Read part two

Read part three