This morning, Greg Glynn from my agency team and I presented a seminar on Social Media for Small Businesses at the Skowhegan Community Center. The workshop was sponsored by our client, Skowhegan Savings.  We talked about how small businesses need to define their goals, their identity, and their key messages before diving into the pool of social media. We recommended that people who are totally new to social media start by establishing an account on Linked In to start experimenting with the power of increasing your network of contacts.

I talked about how powerful LinkedIn can be in creating contacts not only with people you already know, but then connecting with people that your contacts know. It’s that ’second degree of separation” that is truly powerful because you can get introduced to people who know and trust the same contacts that you share in common. 

We had a great  mix of people in the audience, from two women who organize and promote the Trek Across Maine (which I have proudly ridden two times, 180 miles across the state of Maine), to a man who owns a company that sells fire extinguishing equipment, and the manager of a law firm. We also had a woman who does “long arm quilting” (I didn’t have time to ask her what the difference is between long and short arm quilting, but I’ll save that for another day), as well as a representative from the fabulous WinterKids organization (my friend Fran Mullin who went to Colby College with me is the Executive Director). I was also pleased to see my friend and neighbor Rick Bisson who handles the PR and Marketing for my kids’ school, Carrabassett Valley Academy.   We even had a representative from Gifford’s Ice Cream, a company that just won a national award for the best chocolate ice cream in the country! Now that’s something to blog about! 

Jack Ducharme, a loan officer from Skowhegan Savings, shared a story about a local restaurant in Skowhegan called Ken’s Family Restaurant. When they created their Facebook page, they made a special offer. If you became a fan of their restaurant within the next 24 hours, you would receive a dessert for only $1 that very weekend. Within 24 hours they had 500 fans!  Now that was good marketing in my book! 

We also talked about Twitter, Facebook, blogging, and the whole arrayof social networking tools available. We made a few recommendations:

• Make a commitment to whatever social network you choose. It’s better to start with just  one or two and really participate than to sign up for every network available and not stay current
• Make sure to define your goals. If your goal is to establish yourself as an expert, then be sure to share your expertise. If you want to broaden your network of contacts, then focus on adding several new people to your network each week.
• You will get back what you give. Be sure to comment on other peoples’ posts, and not just talk about yourself all the time. There are opportunities to tell people you like what they said, to give a thumbs up for their photos, or provide recommendations. It’s not all about you.
• Be sure to show your personality. You don’t need to always talk in ‘corporate speak.’  Show your unique personality.
• That said, you need to have a social media policy in place if your employees are going to participate on behalf of your company. Make sure they know that they can only write things on social networks that they would say in public or put on company letterhead. No photos of the drunken bash they attended last Saturday night!

I gave an example of how people help each other out in these social networks. Two days ago, as I was preparing my comments, I posted on Twitter and Facebook that I was giving a presentation on Social Media for Small Business. One of my followers on Twitter sent me this URL, which links to a fantastic e-book called  ”Let’s Talk about Social Media for Small Business.” Not only is it free, but it is full of great information that we can use for our small businesses whether we are newbies or experienced veterans. Check it out!

As promised, here is a link to the PowerPoint presentation we used for the presentation today. If you were at the session, please share your thoughts and your success stories. If not, I would also love to hear from you. This is an area of marketing that is evolving so the way you apply it is totally up to your creativity and imagination.

www.marshallpr.com/nmc/SSBSeminar.ppt

We finished the session off by saying that it is not enough for small businesses just to have a Web site any more. You have to have a Web site AND participate in social networks so you are constantly expanding your network of contacts and participating in online conversations.  For me, it has become a passion. Of course, my genetic blueprint made me a social creature from the start so I consider online networking as an extension of my day-to-day networking that I do in person. But even if you’re not as social as me, you can still create an online niche where you make new contacts, share your expertise, and hopefully achieve your business goals through social media marketing. 

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