5 things that Social can do for small business in 2016

I grew up just north of Philly. In my opinion, the northeast is the mecca of marketing growth. Two years ago, I relocated to Tulsa, OK for a job (that no longer exists). The one thing I've come to notice is that the social media mentality of small business is maybe 2 years (if not more) behind. The acceptance and implementation have begun, but there's a lot more ground to cover.

The following strategies work across the board, but are specifically inspired by the Midwest attitude. "Laid back" isn't the right approach to growth.


I keep reading the negative version of this article. I can't tell you how many times I've seen "The Top (insert # here) things your business is doing wrong", or some variation of such. Not everyone responds to the doom and gloom of the negative. I'm here to point out to you the positive things that could happen in 2016, IF you adopt and implement new strategies on Social.

1. Expand your customer base - If you're not utilizing Facebook (and even Twitter) for paid reach services, you're missing out on a whole world of clients. You're also missing the boat on consumer spending trends. We live to shop online, avoid the hectic lines, and have joy delivered to the front door. Social marketing tools allow YOU to bring that joy. Ten years ago, the analysis of your marketing money was based on guess work and assumption. You paid for what you HOPED would attract your ideal client. Today, we can specialize your ad reach so that your ideal clientele is the only target. To an extent, at least 75% of your growth can come from this form of social reach. Nothing like this comes free, but its return is felt across the board. You must be willing to pay if you want to play. Your reach is simply determined by your effort and investment of time and money. Let me break it down.

   ORGANIC REACH - Before social media, this was simply word of mouth. It's free, it's good, but most companies can't rely on it to pay the bills. Today, organic reach involves interaction with your "fan" base, and saying a little prayer that the interactions are shared, quoted, and reach a new avenue of clients. Organic efforts are a must, but are time consuming and won't provide the gratification you seek.
   PAID REACH - SOCIAL BASED digital advertising can allow you to break down your proposed viewing base (i.e., those who see your advertisement) by so many variables. Imagine if a bulletin board on the highway was only seen by your ideal buyer, or you only paid based on the interactions of the ideal passers-by. Could that happen? NO. It can't. It won't. BUT in the digitalworld, we can program your ad set to focus itself precisely on a goal, and do just that.

If you invest only a few dollars into paid reach a week, your customer base SHOULD grow. It's an investment in your future. Make sure the message is on point, and a call to action is imperative. Let me repeat that; ALL CALL TO ACTION IS IMPERATIVE!

2. Bring (back) in repeat business - Once you have have your ideal customer, why let that go? Most businesses thrive off of the repeat customer. You should too. Utilize social reach tointeract with your loyal fan base.
Let's look at statistics. More than 75% of those utilizing the internet, in the U.S., are also using Facebook. 25% of our population also use Twitter. Any handout, informative e-mail, or advertisement MUST include a reference to your social media presence. And you must work to drive a cyclical presence between your formal web page and your social efforts.
You NEED to gain those "likes". Why? Likes don't bring in money, but the views that will be ensured from those single clicks can.
And in a world of instant affirmation, your followers ensure that visitors to your platforms are greeted by an existing presence. In other words, your "likes" serve as a portion of today's version of "word of mouth". A thumbs up from strangers means something. Capture the attention of the repeat customers.

3. Allows you to scout the competition - I'm not just talking about the business down the street. Social media allows you to see what similar businesses are doing, no matter if you feel they're serving your area or not. Utilizing simple searches via any good engine, or your social searches, will bring you into the world of similar business. You get a clear view into what others are doing. That can help an business to make smart decisions about the future.
Is your competition not utilizing Social Media? Then they're not competition right now. Seriously, if you're utilizing the reach of the social networks and your competition isn't, you have an easy win (to start).
Give it all you have in 2016 and you can blow them away with just a few clicks. But, knowing what the other guys are doing allows you to set yourself apart! Don't be part of the pack. Break off and be your own leader.

4. Stay current with trends - Okay, this is possibly the most overused term in all of social media; trending. The fact is, things that are here today and gone in a week aren't really trends. Someone's cute video may be all but forgotten when the next big things comes along. BUT, there are trends that can be followed. And you can create your own (to an extent). Utilizing tags and analysis of them allows you to see what's important to today's social consumer. Sure, not everything will apply to you and what you do, but it's important to stay on top of those trends so that you capture the market when they do apply to you. Yes, trends are that simple. They create demand.

5. Remain relevant - Hopefully if you're reading this, you at least understand the importance of a social media presence. I'll break things down quickly. Statistics don't lie. 271 MILLION people are on the internet in the U.S. Just over 200 million of those people have at least one Facebook profile. About 62 million users have a Twitter account. Let's just say, for a moment, that only 50% of those people are active on those two networks. That means one out of every 4 people you meet are ACTIVE on Facebook. One out of 9 is Tweeting. Do you think somewhere in those numbers lies a customer base? And that's just two major networks. People are watching YouTube videos, dialing into Periscope feeds, and scrolling pictures on Instagram. Somewhere in the vast sea of social offerings, ANY business can find its niche. Utilizing those networks to your advantage makes you, and keeps you, relevant.

      Do you remember a time when a webpage was necessity? I'm not saying that's it's still not, but follow me here. in 2005, we searched the internet for a webpage, and on occasion followed the link on the page to a Facebook account.  We're in a world of the reverse, now. Many of your customers search for your Facebook page and MIGHT follow to the webpage (if you're selling online, let's hope they do). It's a new world, and it's not changing any time soon. Social rules the marketing world. It allows consumers to see up to date thoughts, reviews, offerings, etc. AND, it's easy on the marketer. Updating a webpage, constantly, takes work and money. Posting to Facebook should take effort, but come on...it's still easier than updating lines of code.

    So, using social media to remain relevant is important. Heck, I'd label it at a tie for #1 (with ADVERTISING). You cannot build a social media presence and sit on it. You must update. Views come based on content, and constant content updates. Use this great power to remain relevant in your marketplace. You cannot afford to let it go and pray people see it. Keep a constant presence and you'll do so much for your growth.

Now, those are 5 things that can change your outlook in 2016. Ignoring the social world is like closing your doors to 75% of those people trying to get in. Would you do that? Hopefully, the answer is no.

Do some research on the social networks that work for your specific business. Not every platform will work for every business, although, I think Facebook works for all.
For example, retail can benefit greatly from a number of options, not limited to Facebook. Check out Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIN, etc. Don't limit yourself when more exposure means more clientele.

With just a little work, 2016 can be a new venture for you and your small business. Develop your social media presence NOW.

meltonbeanne@gmail.com
                                 

Taking on Goliath

  

    It's safe to say that most know the name Goliath. He represents the large, insurmountable force standing in way of a goal. In a Biblical case, Goliath was a warrior of great size. Those who fought against him quickly learned the power of "big."

      Too many small businesses see themselves at the losing end of this battle against Goliath. It's better to have run and lived than to have fought and died. Self preservation aside, this is possibly the biggest business mistake the little guy can make.

       Nothing in the world is infinite (okay, nothing in the business world is infinite). And unless you're lucky enough to cater to a clientele full of disposable income, we're all dipping from the same pot. While education and demand can create clients, business is won and lost in the trenches of the repeat faithful client.

       Who doesn't love coffee? Let's chat about that dark glorious liquid of choice. Tea lovers...while I don't understand you, you should just substitute words here and there. You'll get the idea.

In downtown Bethlehem, Pa stands a small coffee shop; you're traditional "mom and pop" business. THE WISE BEAN. They're coffee is good. Their prices are fair. The location is okay. The interior space lacks size and layout.I love it, all of it.

       The Wise Bean is not creating coffee drinkers. I've never seen them throwing samples at a passerby hoping to get him hooked. No, this small business is after the same customer base as Goliath. Today, Goliath will be played by the part of Starbucks. Fitting? Hmmm

         The customer base is a finite pot. As new drinkers are born others fade off. But, that finite pool of drinkers is the target. If you don't (or can't) take a share of the pot, you don't make it! Why.would any company like Wise Bean not try to take on Goliath?

           Follow me here. The local bean shop isn't killing Starbucks any time soon. But, no one says they can't kick it in the knees and steal some lunch money. If you're not willing to go toe to toe with the big guys, you're not going to grow. And with so much going on in the world today, the opposite of growth is DEATH.

            Realistically, there are two key components to a profitable company; a good product and great wording (aka effective marketing). If you have the product you need to show that you can stand with the big guys on quality and value because you can't stand with them on marketing side, at least not when it comes to the money sunk into killing off the competition. Right now, and for the foreseable future, digital marketing is the prime choice to start this battle. Utilizing organizing and paid reach is the easiest way to toss that stone.

            There will be others to share that pot with. (note: if those "others" aren't working to market their product like you SHOULD be, they will not be around too long anyway) The key is to extract, and keep, the amount of clientele necessary to reach your goal. And to do that, you must be willing to battle Goliath.

              Now, let's look at the bigger picture. There are holes in the analogy. Clearly, coffee shops, including Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts, use various items to attract non-coffee drinkers. And the big guys don't have much concern when it comes to the mom and pop shops. This is the first win for the little guy. Typically, when larger companies "attack" home grown businesses in order to gain market share, it can have a negative effect. People want to spread money across multiple markets. We want to love the place up the street, and want to utilize the big box stores when necessary. So follow what the big guys do without losing yourself. Their goal is to capture as much of the market share as possible, and continually adapt offerings to increase the customer base.

           BUT WAIT; the little guy can do that same. Maybe finances will limit the extent of this, but if you're not trying to diversify your offerings, screw Goliath; you're taking on yourself first. Be willing to fight in the trenches to grab your appropriate share.

           Now, let's look back and see what all of this babbling adds up to. It's simple math, the one who has the most customers (greatest clientele) with reasonable margins is winning. You can win, even if you're only beating the old model of yourself.  It could be that Goliath isn't the mega-store down the street, but a road block in your mind. This happens more often than it should. You need to be willing to change and adapt in order to grow.

          It's nearly 2016. What do you want from business in the coming year? If growth isn't in your future, then you might as well shut your doors now. Your competition is out there seeking new ventures and greater horizons. Don't let yourself be stuck behind them. Take on Goliath. Throw that stone. And most importantly, once the stone is tossed, don't expect miracles. One stone won't make Goliath take a dive, nor do you need to have your competition go down. Competition can be good for YOUR business model.

           The world is a changing place. If you don't change with it, you'll never be able to throw the stone. You'll never have a stone to throw. And analogies aside, without adaptation to tomorrow's trends, you'll be stuck here, today, reading something like this blog and wondering where you went wrong. Embrace technology. Accept the fact that SOCIAL marketing is the now, and it's not going anywhere soon. If you're still paying to be listed in the yellow pages, stop. Take that money and throw it out a window. OR, invest it in your tomorrow. Buy a rock to toss and a sling to carry the load.

            The keys to business, and taking on the giants, is simple; have a good offering and the right wording. YOU make the difference in you. Provide what people want, and utilize the tools to show you have just that.

Hand in hand, but not the same

About a month ago I gave my (then) boss an investment pitch. He's always looking for new venues to diversify.

What did I want? Well, what I still want today: a quality digital marketing company in Tulsa. Let me step back a bit, there ARE quality companies here. There's also room for more and different.

You see, the boss owns a group of successful, medically minded companies. I wanted to start my focus and efforts with  that community, specifically physicians,  offices , etc.

A few days later I got an email supporting me, in spirit, but not in pocketbook! But what concerned me the most was his explaination as to why. He's a quick money type of guy, and he wrote "SEO can take 6 months or more to get up and going."

When did I ever mention SEO? At first I thought that it was my fault. My pitch sucked. Clearly I hadn't gotten my point across.

In the last few weeks I've come to the realization that this may be a common misconception. If you're not savvy and have little interest, it's of no concern to you which is which; that is unless you're trying to drive leads, increase sales, or exist in today's growing marketplace.

It's not just the fault of undereducated buyers. Marketng companies can often  blur the lines by offering all inclusive packages, or presenting joint pitches.

And I have a problem with this. It's not just  that search engine work bores me (it does, on occasion). SEO is a tool as old as the Internet. While methods have changed, the goal hasn't. You want to be tops on Google, Bing, Yahoo etc. Your name in lights, for a price. But this is such a small part of what digital marketing is these days. There's so much more to offer.

SEO is great, when needed. But if you're looking to search engine marketing to make or break the business, you might be broke.

Social media is the current world marketplace.  I don't care how many dot Com sales sights pop up, a large percentage of the 12-45 year old population  (those who hold the theoretical influence) are finding what they want on social media, and at a growing rate. If it's 1 network or 6, people are watching their feeds for the words of the wise, the trends, the "it" topics. And you don't get that with simple SEO. I'm sure in the future we'll get a better integration platform to bring the two together  (Google + Maybe?). But for now, let them be two versions of online marketing tools. They can hold hands snd skip down the road together. They can work as a team, but clients need to be aware that each is different. SEO is tried and true but only part of the pie. Social media marketing is the now, the tomorrow, and the foreseeable future. It's the meat of that matter  (I'm hungry and blogging!).

Now if only I could give this explaination to the investor I'm standing next to every week. Maybe I'll just make him read.

A little side note. I had no plans on publishing today. This wasn't even one of my draft topics in queue. But, today, I helped a friend get his wife's business "out there". He's a smart guy but when it came to marketing online he bumbled and stumbled. Everyone needs help sometimes, not everyone asks.

Keep Your Eye On the Prize

You know the term, "Get the big picture"? Too many of us know that saying and don't follow through. Get the picture,  show the picture, get the business.

Recent studies show that at least 65% of people are visual learners. That doesn't mean that of that group, some don't have the ability to learn using multiple methods, but in itself, it's a very important number. When we're marketing, the end goal is to simply reach those in the target audience interact with the largest group possible.

So if roughly 7 out of 10 people you're trying to reach respond well to visual stimulation, why is some of the digital world still so wordy? Here's a hint: they're not aiming at the 30% alone. It just could be that they don't know any better.

There's a reason that we make attractive packaging; we want people to open it, accept it, want it, & crave it. You want potential customers to have the same feelings.

A 100 word essay does not drive demand. In fact, it may drive away potential clients. You can simply be "too wordy". For better or worse, we're living in an age where the written word is dying, but it's giving way to the imagination.

Follow me, if you will, on a trip down your feeds. What makes you stop? Are you more likely to pause tp read a well worded paragraph, or click on the brightly colored pic that catches your eye? Visual content is king, and the queen is the shortly worded explaination. Gone is the need for wordy explainations. We want pictures and we want to use our own imagination to interpret its place. The visual content doesn't even need to fully represent what's up for grabs. The key is to slow a percentage of  the traffic long enough, and grab part of the ever growing pie.

Look at the content you're putting out there. What does it look like? If it's full of black and xz letters, your content isn't working for you. Bring your business into the visual world. Leave the novels on the shelf and paint a pretty picture of what you offer. People will see you, and seek out information as needed.

Keep your eye on the prize. In order to remain relevant, in order to grow, and in orderro reach out to a high percentage of the population, you must offer up a visual representation of you.

If you're marketing group isn't giving you custom visual content, time to seek out someone who will. You need not have a Picasso, just something eye catching that sets you apart. Complicated or simple, graphics it doesn't matter. The concentration needs to be on the intent. If your content fulfills the intent, it's working for you.

You're all being lied to, and so am I

Social media; two words that only 15 years ago meant almost nothing, together, in a sentence.

Social: of or relating to society or its organization
Media: the main means of mass communication (especially television, radio, newspapers, and the Internet) regarded collectively.

Social Media: websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking

The human being, in itself, is a social butterfly. While we all have our own adaptations of social ability, with the advent of the internet, and its networks, almost anyone can prescribe to a form of mingling. We need not meet at the bar, a club, or church in order to "socialize". For free (or your Wifi fee monthly) you can interact with millions that you may, or may not, ever meet. Somehow, we all see this as being social. We build artificial lives in a two dimensional existence and find ourselves to be "normal".

Now onto the media portion of this commentary. It's growing, like a skin condition that can't be contained. We have turned feeds, pictures, comments, and interactions into an excess of media that is, in some cases, combating the traditional forms that many know and love. TV news has given way to Facebook posts. The radio, while it still has an engrossed following, can easily be supplemented with the right Twitter feed. And, we're all being influenced but more than the facts.

Let's face it, bias in media is an epidemic. An event without an opinion doesn't exist. And a news report without a slant on the facts is almost non-existent. Every single action has an equal reaction, as well as an opposite. We are human, and as such, we have independent thoughts (sometimes). Any report will stir emotions, spark rage, and enable your brain to compose a line of thinking to agree with, or attack the facts at hand.

In the "good old days", this meant a complaint to friends and family about what happened, and some loudly expressed outrage full of nonsensical thoughts and rants. Today, we have new forums.

And we use these forums for truth, justice...and the natural way of manipulation. Every day, we are being lied to. And it's not just the media spreading the lies; it's you, it's me, and it's people across this world who have taken a position on an issue and utilize "information" to support thoughts, no matter how correct or deranged. 

Memes: the word used to humanize this propaganda campaign. Seriously, these internet memes hold more clout than some news reports. "Where did you get your information?" I saw it on a meme, on the internet, online...blah blah blah.

The main thing to take away from this is simple; it's all manipulation. Whether it's based on truth, farce, or outright lies, it's all meant to influence the reader (as is this...touche!). 

We all have minds. We all form opinions, and when done correctly, it's perfect. Stop, think, read learn. These are the steps to avoid the eventual fire of crap that comes from the internet. Go out of your way to research something that just seems off. Two things can happen: you could learn the truth, or learn that it is truth. Either way, those who are willing to research the crap that's fed to us are in fact SMARTER than others. Be smart, and know it's truth and lies, and the find line is hidden in the sand for you find.