Circle of Connections

I love vacations for many reasons. There is the obvious reason of a warmer climate. It always gives me some space and time to step back from the daily grind of business and gain new perspectives. I always find time to do more writing on vacation. There is airplane time. There is beach time. It also gives me an opportunity to listen and see what is happening in other parts of the country that have yet to appear in Minnesota.

New Things I saw on Vacation

A couple of new things I noticed on my vacation. One local TV station offered with each new program comments from their Face Book and Twitter accounts. People now feel free to make comments about the news on the stations social networking accounts and the TV station shares the comments on the air.

Watching the Today show, when they had their Expert Help Segments, instead of just letting the experts tell their story, they have webcams where people actually asked questions of the experts directly from their home computers.

As I watching the last day of the golf tournament, several times during the tournament, the announcers read emails from viewers and answered their questions directly on the air.

Do you see a pattern developing? An interactive mode of programs and marketing now is replacing the traditional models of controlling the news and TV programming.

The Question for Small Business Owners

The question becomes how will this interactive mode affect your small business? How are the Social net tools going to change the way you do business?

Let me start by suggesting that the Social net will not eliminate other marketing tools to create awareness for your business. Physical networking groups like Circle of Connections can still meet and produce results. Some of you may still put an ad in the local newspaper or create a brochure to help advertise your business.

However, it becomes even more critical for you to ask the question, “What results are my current marketing tools producing for my business?” Don’t use any marketing tool because someone tells you to use it! Keep evaluating what you are doing. Keep what’s working; discard what’s not working.

Along with your traditional marketing efforts, you will need to develop an internet strategy on which tools you are going to use to help promote your business in this internet marketing medium. You need to go where your customers are going. They are going to the internet. As you do create a strategy for the Social net, I make two notes of caution.

Follow Basic Marketing Principles

First, if you are weak on the basics of small business marketing, you will fail on the Social net. By the basics I mean clearly knowing your customer niche, clearly knowing how your products benefit your customers, and showing proof that people can believe what you are telling them.

If you are missing these critical ingredients, you will quickly fail on the Social net. Why? There is too much competition from people who follow the basics. You don’t have the luxury of dealing face to face with people to overcome your marketing limitations with your charming personality or a face to face encounter.

Adopt a Different Marketing Mentality

My second warning, you must behave differently on the Social net. In traditional marketing, you talk directly at people telling them about your business and what you can do for them. On the Social net you must be willing to give up control and find ways to influence people rather than tell people.

Your primary skill in these social net programs is listening. You are invited as guest, to participate along with other guests. You can listen, you can add suggestions, you can ask questions, you can share your insights as an expert in your field. You can become a person of influence.

If you think you can go to a social networking group and blast your business in front of them, you will be shut out. Worse, people will simply ignore you. The key is to come as a person of influence. When you do this, you can have some success on the Social net.

I believe you cannot avoid the Social net if you want to really be successful in your small business. The world has already moved there. Each of us needs to develop a strategy on how we are going to make our business presence on the Social net.

Al Hanzal
www. Successfulmarketingtools.com/wordpressblog