The quick answer is “yeah, but….”

A small business needs to be involved with social marketing. Being able to connect with customers and more importantly potential local customers is what it is all about.  Social marketing is growing at a tremendous pace right now and with anything online, if it is hot, you want to be a part of it.

I recently came across a couple of related articles that are worth reading:  How SMBs Can Optimize their Social Networking Time (2 part article) and Small Business Owners Need Twitter and LinkedIn by Carrie Hilland and Social Media Marketing for Small Business.  Both provides some good ideas on small business and social marketing

Ok, back to the “yeah , but…” Social marketing/networking biggest problem is TIME. It takes time to read blogs, write tweets, get friends, reply to emails, etc. Time is the one thing we the small business owners do not have enough of; trust me I am speaking from experience.  I find myself spending tons of time on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc. trying to keeping up with things rather than getting my work done. It is addicting!

I really do not think it is realistic for the typical small business owner to be doing a lot of social online marketing. You really cannot keep up with it all. Your best bet is to hire a professional web marketer to monitor/maintain your online social network.  Now if that is now an option, I would:

• Get an account on each of the major social sites and try them out. Each one has its own unique or signature feature.
• Talk to your current customers and see what they use.
• Decide what is your reason for social marketing- plug specials, converse with customers, simply provide updates, learn more about your field, teach others about your field, etc.
• Once you find one that works for you, use and use it daily. Don’t have to spend hours on it, just set aside some time each day.

Customer are the key to any business and relating and conversing with customers is how you keep them.…Sorry I need to go…. someone just sent me a tweet, I got a new Facebook friend,  got to update my flickr page, need to stumbleUpon an article, check my rss feeds, read some emails, and I got to finish my blog post on social marketing!

What I found was that the major search engines have a mobile version of their site but after that there is huge drop off in quality mobile search engines or directories. There are some out there but I had to search hard for them and I could not see many folks accessing them.  So my question is, should small business worry about mobile search?

Mobile search is growing but it’s not quite there yet. A recent press release from comScore: Mobile Internet Becoming A Daily Activity For Many showed that the daily mobile internet user population has more than doubled in one year! Accessing news and information was the top activity and then accessing social network or blogs was second.  So folks are using their mobile phones more, but the question is should you get a .mobi website?  In general I would say no. Now I will qualify my answer saying that some industries such as restaurants, hotels, movie theaters etc that really cater to those on the go should invest in mobile search.

Another great article I found recently, Getting Closer to Mobile Local Search’s Day by Mike Boland provides a nice overview of where mobile search is today and some forcasts for the future. Some points Mike makes:

• Mobile web users will grow to 95 million by 2013
• Changing device standards are bringing mobile search into the mainstream
• Smart phones are settling around $200, making the mobile Web a mass market opportunity for the first time

Again mobile search is growing but has not yet reached the level many have been expecting for some time.  With the growth of smart phones with full html browsers it does not seem necessary right now for the majority of small businesses to create a .mobi website or spend hours submitting the mobile search engines. If you optimize your website for local search and get listed in the major search engines, you should be just fine for right now in the emerging mobile search.

Small business marketing is a tricky animal. When you’re starting out, money may be tight, and it may seem like a good idea to skimp on your marketing budget, but don’t. Without marketing, you don’t have customers, and without customers, your business will suffer.

The good news is online marketing can help businesses with relatively small marketing budgets compete with huge corporations by targeting customers looking for their products and services on the Internet. Whereas traditional advertising requires you spend on people outside your target demographic (consider this “wasted spend”), online advertising helps you eliminate wasted dollars by focusing marketing efforts only on people who are most likely to convert into customers.

1 – You Need to Have an Action Plan

What is the goal of online marketing? Growing your business. How do you do this? By driving traffic to your website…

…but how?

There are a slew of ways to drive traffic to your site, but not every strategy makes sense for every business. Before you dump money into pursuing the wrong online marketing strategy, figure out what makes the most sense for you. Consulting a professional online marketing firm is always smart, but try to do a little research first so you understand common terms.

To get you started, let’s look at three of the most common ways to advertise online:

- PPC (pay-per-click) advertising

PPC advertising allows you to target people searching for your products and services online by placing text ads in the results pages of the major search engines. To trigger your ads, you bid on keywords related to your business, indicating which search terms you want to trigger your ads and how much you are willing to spend for clicks generated by specific keywords.

- SEO (search engine optimization)

SEO is the process of driving traffic to your site by improving its ranking in the natural or organic section of the search engine results pages. SEO is complex and involves many factors like site usability, content creation, link building, and more.

- Online display advertising

Online display advertising is the process of placing banner or video ads on specific websites. The upside to online display advertising is the ability to raise brand awareness among your target demographic. The downside is you are usually required to pay regardless of ad performance. There are metrics to consult when placing display ads to help you make smart choices, but ultimately, you are taking a risking a low return on investment (ROI).
Arming yourself with details like the above will better prepare you to navigate the world of online advertising, but reading this blog post is not enough! We’ve only scratched the surface, and there is much more to be learned. Likewise, things on the Internet move and change at such a rapid pace it often takes a professional firm to manage your online campaigns, especially when it comes to PPC management and SEO, both which can be especially difficult to do well.

2 – Tracking Is Essential – Know Your ROI

One of the most attractive features of online advertising is the ability to track results in terms of ROI using analytics and call tracking tools. These tools make it possible to gather valuable data regarding the performance of your campaign(s) and help you make decisions that affect your bottom line.

For example, analytics tools can tell you whether email marketing or display ads are generating more traffic to your site. You can also see which visitors are converting into sales and evaluate which of your online marketing tactics are the most profitable.

3 – You Can’t Be Number One Overnight

Many who begin advertising online are dazzled by PPC and think there is some secret to getting top positioning for their ads, but there isn’t. PPC involves many complicated variables, such as the level of saturation in your market, your keyword selection, the amount of your bids, how well your ads are written, and the relevancy of your landing page. Others discover SEO and think if they toss a few keyword-rich articles onto their site, they will outrank competitors, which is false. The reality is generating website traffic takes time. Anyone who tells you differently is using fly-by-night methods or lying.

4 – Your Website Does Matter (and So Does Your Copy) – Give It Some TLC

While some business owners launch a fancy website and do nothing to generate traffic, others do the opposite: launch a poorly designed and hastily written site and spend tons of money advertising it. Yikes! The truth is your website matters, and a poor execution will hurt your results. Look at your business website as a long-term investment and spend time thinking about how it should look, what it will say, and what you want visitors to do once they arrive. A well-planned website is a gift that keeps on giving; gloss over your site now and you’ll pay later.

5 – Never Give Up

As veterans will tell you, you online marketing is a process. You must experiment and take risks, but you have to know how much you can afford to lose if something doesn’t pan out as planned. Say you want to try a media buy on a popular site, for example. As with most online initiatives, you aren’t sure it will work, but if it does, the results could be astronomical. The key is to know how much you are willing to spend with no return. If you put a big chunk of your marketing budget into something that doesn’t produce results, you’ll be short on marketing dollars down the line.

Good luck!

Clearly, entrepreneurship is not for everyone. I have a good friend who left his high-profile advertising job to start a company and a mere six months later returned to the agency. As he joked, “Nobody told me I was going to have to take out my own trash.”

I think the same thing is true for those trying to market their business online… “No one told me I had to work for it.”

Too many small business think that they can build a website and they are set to go. This is the furthest from the truth. A website is an extension of you business, an investment. It is a dynamic, growing entity. There is so much more to online marketing then having a website.  I have been to a number of small business seminars and all they say to get a website but nothing about what happens after that…

So how should you market your website or business online? There is not one set way to do it. Each business is unique, so it is marketing strategy. Can you do it yourself? You can do some but you will probably need to employ a professional to understand and take advantages of the many nuances of online marketing. Also you need to take a long term approach. It will not happen overnight.

Local search marketing, video marketing, social marketing are all components that your business can take advantage of to increase its visibility online.  Online marketing is very important and can provide huge returns if done properly and one goes in with the correct attitude.

Do you have what it takes to market a business online?

Generally PR works through large communications channels like newspapers, magazines, TV, radio as well as through smaller channels like blogs, online publications and social media sites. If you’re not using PR you may be missing out on an opportunity to shape the conversation people have about you.

If you’re a client of CitySquares, chances are you are already engaging in a form of PR by generating ideas about your business through your listings. But there is a whole world of PR out there beyond that.

Here are a few reasons why you should consider ratcheting up the PR effort.

PR provides third party validation. When someone else—an independent person– writes about you and places that article in a public place, it has intrinsic value. That’s why companies want to be featured in the media whether it’s in the town paper or on the Today Show. A good PR plan includes strategies for promoting your story to the right media.

Many people think PR is expensive. It doesn’t have to be. If you’re a small business consider working with a small PR firm. A small business owner is used to being the point person and could be frustrated dealing with a junior level executive at a large firm. Plus, small firms are cheaper.

In PR, unlike in advertising, spending less doesn’t mean you get less. Cutting an ad budget means you lose your reach and frequency and that can undermine a good ad. But, cutting your PR budget and signing on with a smaller, more nimble firm can still result in an effective media placement. Similarly, opting for a black and white ad instead of color means you could fail to attract enough eyeballs to get the ad noticed. But working with a PR firm on a project basis as opposed to a costly monthly retainer can still get you featured on TV. In the end it comes down to how well your PR pro develops your message and leverages it with the media.

In today’s economy, ROI is more critical than ever. While PR is never a guarantee, it can be a cost effective way to get you message to the right people, and if you can still throw some money behind advertising—that’s even better.

Unfortunately, for so many business owners, the next step is … nothing. It becomes just one more thing that slips through the cracks and makes them feel guilty. It’s not that they don’t work hard; it’s just that achieving their goals doesn’t stay in focus and therefore they never get around to the execution. ”I’ll work on my goals after I call this client, and do one more performance review …”

When you’re a business owner, you typically manage yourself. And even though you may think you’re hard on yourself, you’re not hard enough. Everyone needs a boss, someone who will get excited when they succeed, and disappointed when you fail. That’s why you need someone to hold you accountable for what you say you’re going to do. In business, you can accomplish this by forming an advisory board.

An advisory board is a great way to keep yourself on track, gain outside perspective, and engage a larger network in making your business successful. When you share your goals with a group of advisors whom you respect, you increase your chances of achieving your goals. You will also gain more resources (their experience, expertise and advice, and their business leads) that you can use to meet your goals. Advisory boards also provide focus for business owners who get pulled in many different directions.

If you are serious about putting your written goals into action, then get serious about taking the next step and forming an advisory board. Here’s how you can do that.

1. • Pick some people whom you respect. Since you want to be held accountable for what you say you want to do, pick people who, if you disappoint them, it would upset you.
   • Pick people who have experience in your industry. Maybe it’s a recently retired executive who wants to give advice and give back, or it’s someone successful in a nearby city (who’s not likely to be a direct competitor). But find some folks who know the landscape in your industry.
   • Offer incentive, but not money. The rewards of serving on an advisory board are rich, but cash is not one of them. Board members get a great sense of giving back. They love to feel like they are admired and appreciated (so don’t forget to thank them and let them know how their advice helped you). Many of them get reward from meeting the other board members. So give them some time to network and mingle.
   • Go and court them. Once you’ve assembled a list, go ask those people if they would be interested in serving on your board. Have an outline of what you are looking for, how many meetings you are planning to hold, what kind of help and advice you need, etc. Some people may say no, so have some back-ups. You should assemble a board of three to five people to start.

Once you have formed your advisory board, you can now plan your meetings. I usually recommend dinner meetings because they reward your board members a little. During the meeting, you tell them about your progress toward achieving your goals and outline any obstacles or challenges that you may have faced. Then, you review your plans for the year and for the quarter. At the next meeting, you do the same thing, and you talk about how acted on the advice they gave you at the previous meeting.

It’s good to keep in touch between meetings with email updates every two to three weeks. This will minimize the time you spend catching up with everyone when you get back together. Let them know how things are going for you. Share any new challenges or opportunities. Many times, they will respond back with advice or contacts that may help. This constant feedback insures that even in the midst of the whirlwind of day-to-day activities, your primary goals and challenges stay top of mind for you.

If this seems like a lot of work, or like the process of getting an advisory board is tougher than the process of meeting your goals, there is an easier way to get this benefit. There are a number of CEO roundtable groups that provide ready-made peer advisory boards. In these groups a professional facilitator leads a discussion where non-competitive business owners share their challenges and opportunities. I am a member of a Vistage group and would be happy to share my experience with you.

In 2009, make it a priority to achieve your goals – not by yourself but with the assistance and guidance of an outside advisory board. The results you achieve will be well worth the time and effort you put into forming the board in the first place.

If you are interested in learning more about advisory boards, please contact Anchor Advisors and we can assist you. Articles:

• SCORE: Learning Through Listening: The Value of Advisory Boards for Fast-Growth Small Businesses
• Chris Brogan: Your 3 Goals for 2009
• Ben Saren: The Importance of Good Advisors

I am the founding director of Somerville Local First, a nonprofit network of Local Independents (locally owned and independent businesses) in the Somerville, MA.  Day to day, I work with small business owners, fellow nonprofit organizations, local politicians and government agencies, local and regional media and small business service providers. This gives me a window into most corners of the small business world, and I hope to be able to share some of those insights with you.

There are a lot of reasons to support Local Independents, and you’ll be hearing them from me with regularity, but the one I want to start with is the importance of Place.  A couple of months ago, I came across this quote:

“When every place looks the same, there is no such thing as place anymore.”

Ironically, this article from Atlantic Monthly is titled “In Praise of Chain Stores”.  Clearly, I vigorously disagree with the author’s premise, but am happy to steal her verbiage to make my point

Place IS important.  The character of our City Squares (pun intended), Main Streets and Central Business Districts does make us unique.  In Somerville, we have institutions like Johnny D’s and Redbones that people immediately identify with Somerville.  The author of the Atlantic Monthly article argues that its weather and terrain that create a sense of place.  Hmm…

I don’t know…I hear “I love Redbones” or “I saw XYZ @ Johnny D’s” much more than “Somerville has a lot of hills”…which it does by the way.  Somerville boasts, in my humble opinion, one of the coolest, most creative communities in America and the Local Independents have a lot to do with that.

In closing, I encourage you to compare and contrast your communtiy with those around you.   Whether you live in a place surrounded by independent businesses or one that has more corporate offerings, think about what makes your community unique.  And, as I often say in my Somerville Local First blog, Keep it Local, Keep it Fresh.

There will be no layoffs, but also no raises: I am keeping all compensation level with 2008.  Each of them knows their work and our general performance as a team will play a large part in our success this year.  That success will determine what kind of bonuses I am able to give at the end of the year.  Everyone gets it.  This is a good stretch of time: all thirty of my employees are happy to be here, have been working well together and know their jobs pretty well.  After eighteen years in business, I know this is a blessing, and could change for many reasons beyond my control.  But just now, I sigh with relief and pleasure.

I made a pledge on a moms’ political web site to speak and act positively this year.  This notion came from two sources: fatigue at hearing conditions on every statement of intent or action: “With the economy the way it is…” or “Until the fall I had expected to…” or “Considering the situation now…” and my husband saying to me in response to some similar statement spoken (inadvertently–) by me: “Your talking that way IS the problem!”

Yes, it is so: depression is a state of mind, and one we can change.

Granted, banks are skittish, granted unemployment is growing.  Yes, there are big troubles throughout the system.  But anyone in business knows a few things about money, especially those of us who are close to the ground: knowing our customers, knowing our staff.  The big guys may be in serious trouble, some of what they do or don’t do may affect us, but we are still able to work, to produce a product to sell.

While watching pennies may not be fun, and may be more necessary just now, it is possible, and it is a good idea anyway, even when times get better.  While negotiating selling prices is a challenge, it is possible, and in the cycle of commerce we are both consumers and producers, so while my guests are looking for the best deals, and I am finding ways to offer them, I am looking for great deals too, to keep my costs at a minimum.

The point is to keep moving, to keep selling and buying, marketing, experimenting, improving, planning.  It is our doubt that will bury us.  Our hesitation, our losing our faith in ourselves, in our employees, in our mission, in our customers, in the system can only worsen the situation.  Act as if until you are.  We should all act as if until we are.