Facebook: Dead or Alive?

Facebook: Dead or Alive?

We can combat the Boston Marathon tragedy

We can combat the Boston Marathon tragedy.

Apple’s Steve Jobs… correction, Steve Jobs’ Apple

Apple’s Steve Jobs… correction, Steve Jobs’ Apple.

The Fine Line of “I Love This”

The Fine Line of “I Love This”.

Social media’s rising importance to small business success

Now more than ever, small businesses have the advantage over large corporations…. connecting with customers and potential customers via social media. What most small business owners find, is that keeping their company’s social media presence consistently updated is quite daunting. The payoff is huge if applied correctly. Social media after all provides a business with: zero-costs of marketing, maximized turnaround time, and reaching target audiences on a one-to-one basis. Nowhere in advertising are these things possible aside from social media.

Below are some high level statistics that will get you thinking of social media’s impact on small business.

Small businesses asked what new hire would most help their business, 9 percent said a social media expert, making it the second most popular choice after bookkeeper.
Small Business Monitor/American Express OPEN

Small business owners found the time it takes to use social media sites more daunting than expected, 61 percent are still putting in the hours and making active efforts to identify new customers.
Small Business Success Index™/Network Solutions® and the University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business

Almost one-half of small businesses have successfully connected with new customers through social networks (compared to larger companies at 28 percent and medium-sized businesses at 36 percent).
Regus Survey “Social Success?”

90% of consumers say they trust recommendations from people they know, and 70% trust consumer opinions posted online.
The Neilson Company

Gary Vaynerchuk, a social media fanatic, spends 12 hour a day engaging online markets which helped bolster earnings for his father’s quaint New Jersey-based liquor store from $4 million to $50 million “through social media” alone.
ThePersonalityProject.com

What is the take away from this? Choosing the right categories (to place your product/service/company) and tapping into the right follower group, is essential to making a businesses social media efforts profitable. A social media strategy can be implemented either on a personal basis or through the use of expert professionals. Achieving viral success depends on the commitment of the small business owner.

The key deliverable on social media is the immediate feedback and chatter by customers. This feedback is invaluable to improving everything from product features to pricing structures. In summary, every small business should be employing a social media strategy, and finding the right outlet in this space is essential to a successful strategy. To learn more about how your business can successfully navigate the social media universe go to lancemwyllie.com.

amazing photo of cloud trying to form a tornado

Pat Kavanagh of Canada Captures Photo Of A Cloud Trying To Form A Tornado.

Simply amazing!

There is always a beginning

The amount of work it takes to set up even the simplest of blogs is often underestimated.