This morning I was reading the Boston Globe at work and I stumbled upon an article that caught my attention, titled "Small businesses learn to tweet, post, and blog." This articled discussed how the new technologies (Twitter, Facebook, Groupon) have changed the way small businesses market themselves. In the article, Mike's Automotive Services always tried to keep up with the latest technology when it comes down to marketing, building their first web page back in 1994. Small business owners have begun to navigate away from the traditional refrigerator magnets and wall calendars and moved towards tweeting on twitter, social networking on Facebook, blogging, and offering online coupons at Groupon (an online coupon site). Their online presence increased their businesses tremendously; they sold over 1,705 coupons for a "ten dollar oil change" from Groupon alone! New customers for Mike's Automotive Services went up 28% after they began their social media campaign and the numbers are still increasing. The biggest effects of social media is igniting "buzz" about any company or business. Before there is any "buzz" no one knows anything about a company/business and leaves them local/loyal customers that frequently stop by. By igniting "buzz" with social media more and more people realize their existence which drives the business to receiving more and more revenue. The results are proof that social media works and the businesses that are avoiding it, are losing customers and profits. So, the lesson learned is to jump into the social media and see the results first hand!
I found this article online at the Boston Globes website. Here is the link to view the article: http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2011/02/22/small_businesses_learn_to_tweet_post_and_blog/
Nice! The people in my age group that go into starting a small business all start with twitter or facebook instantaneously. Even before they get their business cars lamented, they put facebook pages up relating to their new business ventures and see if they attract enough interest. Soon enough, anybody will be able to start a small business. Maybe business management classes will become obsolete? Who knows!
ReplyDeleteThe challenge for all businesses right now is to make sure that they are in both the traditional and new media worlds. This takes expertise and time. For large companies this is less of a problem as they can hire the expertise. Small businesses, however, are resource constrained and thus have a challenge to develop both types of campaigns. As this article points out, the payoffs can be big.
ReplyDeleteInteresting point, Harlan, in regard to the mix of traditional and new media worlds. It's very important to keep in mind that traditional marketing in new media will not work. It's about the conversation, not the push to make the sale. I think that is why social media has been successful with B2C business and B2B business still struggles with the concept. B2C can have that conversation and B2B is still talking about what product does, not the problem that it solves.
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