Inside Small Business | Small Business & Home Business Marketing
Archive for February, 2009
Social Media Tools and Techniques – Which one is best for YOU?
Patrick Mason, TechMarkets
There are a million social media tools out there and more coming by the day. Here are some tips for what tools to use, and how to use them to take advantage of this important business trend.
First off, you need to identify whom it is out there you care about and what it is you want to say to them. In short, what’s your objective? Next, you need to listen to them. You need to understand what people are saying and how they are saying it before you add your voice. You wouldn’t join a conversation at a party by speaking first, you would instinctively listen to first get the ebb and flow of things, and then slowly enter into it with your own contribution.
Social media is the same. Listen first, and then speak recognizing that the conversation has many participants. The gold here is a conversation; open and honest, with trust on both sides.
Below is a tool set to help you listen, speak and finally converse in order that you can achieve your objective.
Listen
To listen, you can start with a tool called newsreaders. Newsreaders are magic newspapers that let you handpick each section of your paper, and then fetch you fresh articles everyday. I use Bloglines because it is free, has no software to install and I can use it from any browser. For a more in depth discussion on listening, go here.
Publish
Publishing can happen a number of ways. The best way to start is still probably a blog. Although that may seem old fashioned, it is still the defacto best way to get the word out. WordPress is a state-of-the-art publishing platform (their words).” It’s free, easy to set up and easy to use. Learn more about WordPress, then follow the three easy steps below to start blogging in minutes.
Converse
Now we are on to the fun stuff. If you listened well, and entered in to the conversation with some manners and grace, and above all authenticity and honesty, you now have the right to speak.
Conversing can be tied to how you publish or broadcast your message. For example, if you publish via a blog you can converse via the comments people leave back and forth about certain posts. For a more real time conversation, you can check out Twitter in which you participate in a sort of mass on-line conversation with an unlimited number of people. Many of the largest corporations out there are on Twitter, and have staff assigned to monitor and “tweet” on their behalf. This stuff is very real, and very effective in the right hands.
Good luck, and remember to have an objective, listen, talk and then converse in that order. Once you get rolling, you can explore the tools, options and abilities and find the ones that suit you best.
Good luck! For more information, advice and free social media tools, feel free to visit our blog, or drop us a line.
* Patrick Mason is the owner of TechMarkets, and a successful entrepreneur specializing in technology and marketing, specifically targeted at new Social Media techniques and technologies. As Managing Partner and co-founder, Patrick is SocialMedia404’s CCO (Chief Chatting Officer) and is responsible for business and product development.
Building your Web business – Part 2
Skip Shuda, Team and a Dream
In my last post, I talked about the role of introspection in starting your Web business. We ended up with a discussion of how you can begin brainstorming your business by bouncing your idea ball.
Now we’re ready to start the heavy lifting of constructing your plan. This means that you need to do your homework on your marketplace and competition, create a compelling message and draft your business model.
In this Web business building post, we’ll cover:
1. Create a 10-slide pitch deck
2. Perform market testing with Google Insights and/or Google Adwords
3. Explore other business models
A big part of being a Web entrepreneur is being able to move fast and with agility. You’ll need to get used to creating things, trying them out, ripping them down and re-building them with a new twist and angle. You need an agile alternative to the more time consuming business plan.
At this point, you can quickly organize your thinking into a 10 slide “Pitch Deck” like the one advocated by Guy Kawasaki in The Art of the Start. This pitch deck is a PowerPoint presentation that allows you to organize your latest thinking about your business. I suggest you take 2-3 hours to create your first one. Do it quickly – and know that you’ll be rebuilding most of it before you’re done.
To help you fill out that Pitch Deck, you need to start testing out your ideas with real data. If you’d rather learn by the school of hard knocks, spend thousands of dollars, and burn through months of stressful effort- then skip this step. If you want to save money, get to a profitable business faster and raise your chance for success, then you need to perform market testing.
You can start with Google Insights for free access to the most powerful, relevant database in the world by looking for keywords that might appeal to your target market. Check out this How To Use Google Insights Screencast of Google Insights. This will show you what’s hot, the best words to use in your web site copy and it might even highlight some other markets for your consideration.
But one of the most powerful ways to check out the viability of your idea is to “De-risk your Idea”. This post by Steve Barsh of First Round Capital is an excellent overview of how to market test your idea using Google Adwords.
Another set of terrific market testing ideas can be found in Tim Ferris’s Bestselling book, “The Four Hour Work Week“. Ferris covers a wide range of topics around creating an independent lifestyle fueled by online business. He outlines specific steps you can follow through Google Adwords or eBay to test out your idea.
Finally, you’ll need to recognize that there are a lot of ways to make money on the Web. Some are easier than others – and most Web-based businesses will pursue some combination of the most common models like eCommerce, subscription, Information sales and Advertising. Dr. Michael Rappa of NC State University provides a comprehensive review of Internet Business models here. We’ll delve deeper into this topic in the future. In the meantime, you need to ensure that your chosen model can stand up to the test of reasonable assumptions and solid financial modeling.
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