SMBs, B2B and SMM
Not a very SEO-friendly title perhaps, but maybe a bit more attention getting. I'm referring to small-to-medium B2B businesses and their use of social media marketing.
I received today's version of Get to the Po!nt email newsletter from MarketingProfs which rang my bell. It opened by saying, "If you're a small business, you're aware that Web 2.0 offers entirely new channels for attracting and cultivating customers. And in a post at the Acquiring Minds blog, Robert Lesser explains why your diminutive stature might actually give you the social-media edge over your larger (and richer) competitors."
Lesser points out a number of key benefits, including the fact that social media can be an antidote to small (or non-existing) marketing budgets, a problem I face daily. That's one reason I use social media as a marketing tool -- it's cheap!
He contends the biggest investment comes in the form of time and sweat equity. "The greatest resource for a small firm is the hard labor that staff will invest to make their equity real. The production of relevant social media content requires this dedication and investment," states Lesser.
However, that in and of itself, can be a problem. In a small business most employees wear several hats. Selling the idea that staff members should add social media engagement to their already extensive list of responsibilities, especially when doing so has marketing implications, is not always met with friendly smiles. The rationale: Why should I be doing your job for you?
Nonetheless, we are on the verge of unleashing a social media marketing program in the form of a new blog site to be called User Friendly Thinking on which several of our key staff will be blogging. We'll be covering a number of topics related to web design, usability, development and Internet marketing couched under the tagline, "Technology - Creativity." I anticipate we'll see it live in a couple of weeks as soon as our developers work out some of the kinks.
We've also changed the name and focus of our weekly Blog Talk Radio show from "Bizzuka Buzz" to User Friendly Thinking to coincide.
Considering that BTR is free to use and that we've developed our own blog component, the cost, other than the investment of time, is minimal. (We did pay a designer to come up with a knock-out design for the site.)
Another key point made by Lesser is that SMBs aren't encumbered with the levels of bureaucracy faced by corporations. As a result, things can move at a much healthier pace with greater degrees of flexibility. Usually, as in the case of our new User Friendly Thinking blog, only a handful of people need to buy in...and sometimes only the CEO.
Personally, I think in the end small businesses are the ones most likely to benefit from the use of business blogs and other forms of social media. I've seen that phenomenon occur multiple times. Glad to know other's think so too.
