Social Media for Business Secret?

Today's still operating Boston Globe has an article in the business section about a recent Social Media Breakfast - this is a real monthly event that was founded in Boston and is now global, according to the "Blog Filter" story. A young author and social media specialist at EMC, Dan Schwabel, shared his story about personal branding which can inspire business and corporate branding as well. He spoke about how his blog, podcast and published articles grabbed the attention of EMC who then hired him to do the same for them. He's quoted as saying, "Use the content you create to stimulate conversations, promote other people, and everything comes back to you." To some, that's the secret of social media success. Yet, it isn't really a secret at all.

I see this as two things most of us have been doing for years:

1. sharing information (content)
2. sharing resources (referrals)
   

Content: Those of us in the SEO world (search engine optimization) have been talking about using content to build a brand for as long as we've been talking about SEO. Not just content, but content that is relevant, timely and interesting. Content was and is most important because it engages people when it's done properly.

Referrals: Many of us often share resources with people we know. We make recommendations and people listen. We talk about books, programs, workshops, vendors and much more. And, again, people listen. I also call this the golden rule of business - you can eventually gain from what you give.

The only thing that's changed since content was declared king is social media. Before, in the not so old days (like, a year or two ago), we were talking about social media and user generated content but it wasn't as popular in the small business segment. Certainly, there were people participating, early adopters that understood the value. I'm talking about micro and small business specifically, not the companies with marketing departments and marketing budgets and staff that could dedicate the time to write a gazillion articles and build a big brand. I'm talking about companies like ours, entrepreneurs, solopreneurs and small companies that don't have time to think about the next great thing. They are busy in the trenches doing business they way they know how.

Social media was largely ignored by the majority of small business owners. How can I say this? Because I've been presenting workshops and seminars on Internet marketing for years to that very same audience. The social media "conversations" started with Web 2.o which, at the time, was a very mysterious concept and ter. When I touched on social media one of two things would happen: either eyes glazed over about this new way of marketing or people just didn't understand how it could work for them and asked for the next topic.

But social media isn't really new. Social media is really just good old fashioned word-of-mouth (WOM) dressed up with a new name and addressed using new tools.

The only difference between today and the old days of WOM is that it's no longer a one way message delivery system. With the help of the Internet, many can interact in real time and share experiences/information with and influence a larger audience.

Once upon a time we called it Guerrilla Marketing, a term coined by Jay Conrad Levinson. Now we call it social media marketing because the content can be shaped by the reader, the participant, as the conversation develops.

The rules are the same for social media as they are for word-of-mouth marketing:

• Know what your company represents and define your various marketing goals and objectives.
• Know your target audience and understand what they want.
• Use social media to start the conversation and invite your audience - your customers, prospects and referral resources - to join the conversation.
  
• Share your passion, your knowledge, your expertise to engage your audience.
  

Social media isn't a magic bullet or secret sauce for business. However, it can spread the word a lot faster than the old way of spreading the word, and the word can catch on with many more people than you expect. That's the difference; it's not a secret.

So if you're wondering how social media can help your business and think it's something that's something new, novel and requires a new way of thinking, you're sort of right. But there is no secret as it's all about building traditional word-of-mouth marketing with modern communication tools. If you can think of it that way, you can remove the mystery and embrace social media to your business building marketing strategy.