We’re continuing our series on Social Media for Small Business. Today we are talking with Steve Sherlock. Steve is an experienced Project Manager, a Customer Service Advocate, and a Social Media Practitioner. You'll find him online at Steve's 2 Cents, and at Franklin Matters, where he is a citizen journalist for Franklin, MA voters.
___
Hear Steve Sherlock discuss social media with George & Mary-Lynn on The Bigg Success Show! Click the player to listen [6:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Hear Steve Sherlock discuss social media with George & Mary-Lynn on The Bigg Success Show! Click the player to listen [6:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download___
___
As podcasters, we appreciate that fact that Steve helped organize the first ever PodCamp in Boston which has grown to become a national conference. AND you can never miss Steve at a conference because he wears his signature revolutionary hat!
___
___
And I have to say that you are one of our favorite people, who we met at one of our favorite conferences…
___
___
___
___
One of the challenges small businesses face is where they should participate in social media.
___
___
We know that in real estate investing there's three rules: location, location, location. During our master mind session at SOBCON, you said that location, location, location also matters even in the virtual world.
___
___
Yes it does. Think about it this way: If you can conduct your business transaction (whatever business you're in), without having a conversation, then for you, social media doesn't make sense. But if your transaction does require a conversation to complete that transaction, then some social media should be considered as part of your marketing and/or brand awareness tool kit. Clearly for some transactions you just need to create some brand awareness. For some products that have a longer sales cycle, like selling an automobile or software, you’ll need to build that relationship. Find the social media location that your customer base is using. Once you find them you need to be in that location, location, location to meet those people, create your brand, create the conversation, and create the trust, so that they can come to you and come back to you.
___
___
So what you are saying is, the shorter my sales cycle, perhaps the less I need social media. I may advertise in certain spaces, but I don't necessarily need to be there as part of the conversation?
___
___
Correct. For example Twitter's kind of the big buzzword right now. I saw a stat the other day that said that the awareness of Twitter has increased to over half the population. But only 7% of those people are actually using it. Certainly you can still create some brand awareness, and let the people who are on Twitter help you spread that, but that may not be the best place for you depending on the group you are trying to reach.
___
___
What are your thoughts on using Facebook as a platform for your business?
___
___
The demographics show that the 20-something, 30-something, 40-something crowd is there.
___
___
In the real world, if we were setting up a retail store, we would conduct some kind of a feasibility study, or we would look at traffic counts with certain locations to choose the location of our store. What I loved about your location, location, location analogy, it that it instantly puts that same thought process in my mind of determining where the traffic counts are…not just massive people driving by, but the actual people who will patronize my business.
___
___
Right, if you're going to be a corner convenience store then you want to be on the corner of the high volume traffic area. In the virtual space, you want to be on "the corner" where your people are going to go and visit. For some it will be Twitter, for some it will be Facebook, and for some it will be Youtube. You need to figure out where the people are that you want to reach, and then be there to hit that location, location, location.
___
___
The rents online are a lot less expensive!
___
___
You know it’s amazing that in most cases it's free. The ROI on free is really doable!
___
What social media location has proven to be a good one for your business, and why?
Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/biggsuccess/00584-051110.mp3
Mary Lynn, George – that was fun to do!
It was so much fun, it inspired me to come up with a reason for how you got the extra ‘g’ in Bigg: What happens when you hear overhear a conversation between two people who are clearly having some fun? Don’t you find yourself saying: “Gee, I want some of that!”
Take that “G” and add it to “Big” and you can understand how “Bigg success” got it’s name!
Keep up the good work! Business folks will gravitate to get some of that “g”!
http://steves2cents.blogspot.com/2010/05/gee-i-want-some-of-that.html
@ Steve – Gee, we never thought of that … we always thought it was just because we can’t spell! Thanks for sharing your time and wisdom with us!