In 2005, Newsweek printed a story entitled, “Blogs Will Change Your Business”. By 2008, the story still sits in cyberspace with an editorial note reminding us that even a media giant like Newsweek, “never saw MySpace coming” and they originally thought Twitter was simply a space on the internet cluttered by “small birds”. How social media for business will evolve into the next decade, the next year or even into the next month remains anyone’s guess.
So where are you? No matter how small or how large, if your business isn’t into developing and launching a socially based online campaign, then the next question is: “Why not?” Even the smallest retail business is subjected to online comments. For good or bad, your customers are talking about you. But what are you doing to promote your business in spite of lukewarm or God Forbid bad reviews?
Surveying a small number of local business owners, it’s easy to find many who just aren’t up with the times. Survey their customers and you’ll find that most people want to do business with an enterprise that is hip, green and online. The world is changing and if your business is still sitting in the dark ages you’re future success is up for grabs!
Gone are the days when people merely looked to networking sites as a resume posting vehicle. Small business and big business alike are dedicating a large chunk of their marketing strategy and budget into developing communication tools for the future. Today, they’re using popular networking platforms such as Twitter, MySpace and Facebook.
Maybe you have yet to even setup a website. Well, shame on you! In a retail enterprise, talk and gawk are the keys to success. If multi-million dollar businesses think online presence is important, then why have you hesitated to follow suit? You’re only killing your own business if you think that socialized networking, online marketing campaigns and enigmatic online advertising are only for geeks.
One complaint that many business owners have about social media is the amount of time that it takes to administer a well optimized social networking campaign. Fortunately, there are resources available that allow you to automate many of the most tedious of those chores. Two of those aids are GooBert and Miracle Traffic Bot, which we have reviewed elsewhere.
But what’s that you say? Your business is highly localized and can’t possibly be hurt or helped by a global presence such as LINKEDIN or Facebook? Silly you for thinking so small. The world has changed as much as advertising has changed. People located in Bali might well seek your business out the next time they visit San Francisco. That is, if they even know you exist. That local crowd, who visits your shop now and again, they’re LINKEDIN even if you’re not. They’ll think better of you if they know your business is approachable online as well as offline.
Nobody wants to have to work harder to get customers or retain the ones they have. But for you ‘Mom & Pop Ops’ out there who think that you can continue to grow without online intervention. Think again. Then click into the future by using social media for your business. Like most things, you can use it or lose it! But with social media one thing is for certain, if you don’t use it well, it will use you and ultimately that may not be such a ‘good thing’ after all.
