The New Southern Standard

There have been several conversations social media and it’s use in business. For those of you who can’t seem to make a dent in the corporate world, you might consider this approach.

With the high fuel prices and new charges from the airlines, people are traveling less. Take advantage of that by budgeting less for your trade shows. The fuel prices will definitely produce a hit to the trade show attendance. Convince your marketing director to re-direct the dollars from the trade show into a small social media campaign.

At least try to start a small one. If nothing else, you can call it a ‘trial run.’

This is an interesting article by John - Advanced SEO

I agree with the internal thoughts behind the article, but one this is absolutely clear to me. SEO should be ingrained in the marketing team’s efforts. Not all team members need to be intimately involved with the details, but the concepts of rank, keywords, and conversion should be considered at each meeting.

I always wonder about companies who don’t get this. I wonder how many customers they are losing because of the web. Or, more specifically, because of their lack of understanding of the web.

Decide what content you are going to write by understanding your audience.

There is a tool to help determine the make-up of your audience called an ‘audience persona.’ A persona is a written overview of your customers’ traits. The big agencies use them for campaigns, but your internal personas don’t have to be fancy, complicated, or even high budget.

A persona sheet is used by the blog writer to focus in on the audience’s preferences for content. For an obvious example, it is unlikely that a vegetarian would read articles highlighting new recipes for pork chops. A persona provides a guidepost for the type of content to write. A well-executed persona are essential to create an efficient decision process for new content.

Here are other resources on personas:

Buyer Persona Blog by Adele Revella

Post by Matt Dickman at Techno/Marketer: Developing personas for marketing strategy

Article from Pragmatic Marketing : The Power of the Persona

Here’s a persona-like page I did on Squidoo: Marketing to Engineers

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With the persona, deciding the type of content you write is easy. You write about something your audience wants to read. The topics could be anything that falls within the intersection of them and you. You might not need to create new ground or even be a thought leader. But you should follow one adage - write about topics that interests them, not you.

I am an advocate of social media and other technology tools for businesses. I see a disturbing trend of folk discussing techniques for building out their social media strategy, but few seem to acknowledge the end goal of a firm - to make money.

Let’s be clear on one thing. If a new tool is introduced and everyone knows it is new and innovative, that’s fine. [ I stand on this side. I think we are seeing new channels for business, yet I also admit that the possibilities for revenue generation still need to be refined. ]

If a new tool is introduced without the full understanding of the downsides, that’s irresponsible.

My suggestions for corporate media? Start small, measure the results, re-invest the gains, and grow.

We are still in the early stages of social media being used for business. If you are still skeptical, read this article. The discussion provides some interesting, and very surprising, observations about the power of social networks.

Social Networks’ Sway May Be Underestimated

This article discusses PR in the next generation of technology. The audience is presumably start-ups, but I think the advice works well for existing businesses who are looking to improve their digital marketing:

PR Tips for Startups - The Director’s Cut

According to a new research report, no we’re not. All the neurotics live up North. (But we already knew that, didn’t we?)

The study by 3 psychologists looks at the psychogeography of individuals across the United States. They superimpose personality characteristics, like extroversion and agreeableness, to their locations in the U.S. The data used for the study came from hundreds of thousands of personality surveys.

The 5 traits used for the study are openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. These traits form the basis of the Big 5 theory of personality, a theory that attempts to classify human personality into 5 major traits. There have been several attempts to classify human personality, with some theories like the Myers-Briggs well-known throughout the general public and educational settings. The history of trying to analyze personality is long and even the Big 5 has critics.

According to the research, Southern residents are more agreeable and more conscientious than other citizens throughout the country. (Here’s the map again.) What exactly do those words describe in Southerners? Agreeable people tend to be sympathetic and kind, while conscientiousness is marked by thoroughness. The folks in California are markedly more open-to-experience (shocking!), while the Midwest population prefers structure.

Business who operate across the U.S. could use the data to understand variations in communication styles, influences, and willingness to work. However, I’m going to use it in a different way.

I’m crafted an email to send to my friends in the North. A link to the study is copied in the body of the email. And, in the subject line - “See. I told you so. Science finally proves it. Y’all are nuts.”

I’m sure I’ve written about this topic elsewhere. Several things have been building over the previous few months that are prompting me to discuss it again.

Here are the 3 scenarios -

1) A retired executive looking to start consulting

2) A person selling a utility vehicle

3) A nurse opening up a new facility

(Granted, #2 isn’t really a business, but it’s the same model - trying to sell something.)

I’ve been working with all of these people. What do they have in common? Lots of things, but the most important one is the Field of Dreams syndrome.

In one case, an ad was taken out in the newspaper for one week. There were no calls so the ad was discontinued. In another case a television spot was run. There were many calls, but no sales. In one case, a brochure was hastily written with the copy listing the vast number of achievements and awards. A few people were sent the brochure and no one bought.

A marketing professional can pinpoint multiple problems with the situations above. What is the common thing among them? They all succumbed to the ‘Field of Dreams’ syndrome.

Each thought that when their product hit the streets, a long line of people would suddenly start beating the door down. In reality, a customer is highly unlikely to make a purchase the first time they see an ad. And, as a corollary to that rule, when someone is learning about your product, they do not want to hear about you, they want to hear about themselves. They don’t want information about your product, they want information about themselves using your product.

For all the business owners, the cause of the problem was the same. They knew everything about the product and how great it was, but they neglected to realize that their customer’s did not. They didn’t allow time for the customer to learn about the product, give them space to make a decision, or factor in the complicated issues in making a buying decision.

Most likely you are an expert on your product. You quickly decide the value of the information and make a decision. Remember that the customer has no such expertise. It takes time for people to make a decision.

This is not the ‘Field of Dreams.’ You can build it, but you should allow ample time for people to come.

How do you measure success for your business?

Sales? Profit?  Net income? Days sales outstanding? Meeting payroll requirements?

CPAs, financial advisors, and MBAs all use a multitude of financial numbers and ratios to bedazzled audiences about performance. If you visit any finance site it doesn’t take long for you to be swimming in ratios and numbers. In general, the ratios provide additional perspective into the performance of the firm. For small business owners, all the numbers are overkill. There are 3 main numbers to be concerned with. All 3 of these numbers should be managed properly for a single reason - To Make Money.

The 3 indicators are:

Cash flow -  Incoming and outgoing cash is the most vital element to the survival of a business. Just like in our bodies, cash flow is the air that fuels daily operation and continued growth. There needs to be a healthy supply of it for things to remain normal. However, most business who have problems due so because of cash flow reasons. They either don’t focus on or don’t realize the importance of cash until it is too late. And, by that time, the supply is slowing down. As soon as that happens, the business starts to choke and gasp, desperately looking for air.

Return on Investment (ROI) - There are several measurements for ROI, the most appropriate one depends upon your business. They all provide the same concept - a relative indication of your improvement. A relative measure is different than an absolute measure in one important way. It takes into account previous (and current) investment. For instance, if I told you that I made $1Billion last year, that would be rather impressive. That is, until I told you that I had to spend $200Billion to make that $1Billion. Suddenly, things aren’t so rosy. Use ROI to measure your improvement as compared to your investment. The rule to operate by: For every $1 I invest, I need to make more than $1 in return.

Net Profit - This number is simply (Revenue - Costs).  This number is the easiest to calculate and is often the number casually tossed around in conversation.  It is an absolute measurement of how much money you made last year.

These 3 metrics should be monitored simultaneously. Your goal as a business owner is to keep all 3 of these indicators positive, trying to increase your net profit, while increase ROI and your cash flow.

(Adapted from The Goal, What the CEO Wants You to Know)

The past few weeks have been a blur. Here are 4 articles I missed the first time around. They offer a good explanation for small business and the use of social media.

What is the Top Social Media Site Among Small Biz?

Social Media: Valuable Marketing Tools or Time Waster?

Weekly social data chart: Small-business owners

Social Media Campaign vs. Social Media Strategy

And, here are 3 others that I’ve been re-reading:

Social Media Marketing for Small Business

5 Ways Small Business Can Benefit From Social Media/Networking Sites

Social Media for Small Business