business advice | Paul Wallbank - Communications Professional

The corporates are getting social media and local search

Small business’ head start over corporations in using social media and local search is over, it’s time to get serious.

Shopping centre owner Westfield’s announcement this week that they’ll be offering Facebook Check-in Deals at their local malls shows the corporate sector is beginning to rise to the challenges of the social, local and mobile driven marketplace. Smaller businesses need to be taking notice.

Consumer behaviour is changing quickly as the SoLoMo revolution, a term invented by investor John Doerr, sees customers bringing together social media and local search on their mobile phones and iPads. That presents a lot of opportunities for savvy marketers and business owners.

In the early days of mobile commerce we saw the idea of local, mobile based marketing being SMS based along the lines of nearby vending machines texting you on a hot day to say “hey, I have cold drinks” on a hot day.

Thankfully for our sanity that concept never really took off and it’s taken the arrival of social media services and smartphones for this type of marketing to become feasible.

Social media services also have the advantage that messages, particularly those appearing on a user’s Facebook wall, come from trusted sources, further increasing the credibility of a message.

How the check-in deals work is a shopper checks into their local shopping mall which triggers messages there are deals available at stores in the centre. If the customer takes an offer, a “Like” appears on their Facebook wall.

All of the customer’s friends then see the hot deal and that encourages them to visit the store and shopping centre. In this respect it’s similar to the social media aspect of group buying services, another area that Facebook have entered and which will almost certainly be integrated into this the Check-In Deals program.

There are some issues with this for both the merchant and the consumer. The most obvious are the privacy and identity issues of the customer as social media sites work harder than ever to find angles on using our private information.

For businesses, there’s the risk of being held hostage by Facebook and Westfield. Both organisations are well known for their strict terms and control of tenants and users, so having your business’ long term interests may not be served by being locked onto their platforms.

Driving traffic to your website is the key objective of a social media presence, so the website has to tie into the proprietary social media, local search, group buying and whatever channels you’re using to promote your business online.

What this emphasises is the importance of smaller businesses getting their local search listings working on services like True Local, Google and Facebook Places to compete on this platform against the big boys who are now making aggressive moves into the social and local services.

The clear message from Westfield’s partnership is that corporate Australia is now beginning to understand how social media, e-commerce and online concepts like group buying fit into their businesses.

Smaller businesses had a head start with online media as the larger corporations struggled to understand the new services. Now that advantage is gone, it’s time to make sure you’re getting local services right.

Greater fools and lesser fools

Is the Silicon Valley, venture capital funded business model right for your venture?

As Groupon struggles to get its public offering to the market and the startup mania continues in the tech sector, it’s worthwhile having a look at what underpins the modern Silicon Valley business model along with it’s limitations and risks for those who want to imitate it or invest in it.

Distilled to the basics, the aim of the venture capital funded startup is to earn a profitable exit for the founders and investors. While there’s some exceptions – Apple and Google being two of the most notable – most of these businesses are not intended to be profitable or even sustainable, they are intended to be dressed up and sold onto someone else.

This can be seen in what many of these companies spend investors’ money on; in an example where a startup receives 10 million dollars VC investment, we may see a million spent on developing the product, five million allocated customer acquisition and four million on PR. The numbers may vary, but the proportions indicate the investors’ and management priorities.

Focussing on PR and customer acquisition is essential to attract buyers, the public relations spend is to place stories in the business media and trade press about the hot new business and spending millions buying in customers backs the narrative of how great this business is. By creating enough hype about a fast growing enterprise, the plan is prospective buyers will come knocking.

But who buys many of these business? In some cases a company like Microsoft or Google may buy the startup just to get the talents of some smart developers or entrepreneurs, but in many cases it’s fools being parted from their money.

Greater Fools

The greater fool model the core tech start up model; two guys set up a business with some basic funding from their immediate circle; the friends, family and other fools. A VC gets involved, makes an investment and markets the company as described above.

With enough hype, the business comes to the attention of a big corporation whose managers are hypnotised by the growth story and possibly feel threatened by the new industry or have a Fear Of Missing Out on the new hot, sector.

Eventually the big business buys the little guys for a large sum, meeting the aim of the founders and venture capital investors. The buyer then steadily runs down the acquired business as management finds they don’t understand it and find it a small, irritating distraction from their main business activity.

While there are hundreds of examples of this in the tech sector, the funny thing is the biggest examples are in the media industry with Time Warner’s purchase of AOL and News Corporation of MySpace.

Lesser Fools

As a bubble develops we start seeing the Initial Public Offering arrive and this is where the lesser fools step in.

The mums and dad, the retiree, German dentists, the investment funds and all the other players of the stock market are offered a slice of the hot new business.

Usually the results are interesting; the IPO is often underpriced which sees a massive profit for the initial shareholders and underwriters in the first few days then a steady decline in the stock price as the pie in the sky valuations and the realities of the underlying business’ profitability become apparent.

Steve Blank, a Silicon Valley investor and entrepreneur, put the greater or lesser fool scenario well in a recent article asking Are You The Fool At The Table? Sadly too many small and big investors, along with big corporations, are the fools at the table ignoring Warren Buffet’s advice on avoiding businesses you don’t understand and finding themselves the patsies that the Silicon Valley startup model relies upon.

The fundamental misunderstanding of the venture capital driven Silicon Valley model of building businesses is dangerous as our governments and investment mangers are seduced by the glamorous, big money deals. It’s also understandable funding from banks and other traditional sources is difficult to find.

An obsession with this method of growing businesses means that long term ventures with profitable underlying products and services are overlooked as investors flock to the latest shiny startup. That’s a shame and something our economy, and investment portfolios, can’t really afford in volatile times.

For business owners, the venture capital model might be a good option if your aim is a quick, profitable sale to a fool. If your driving reasons for running a business are something different, then maybe the Silicon Valley way of doing business isn’t for you.

ABC Nightlife: The Spare Room Tycoon

How you can set up a world beating business from your home

Our retailers, the media and many other industries are struggling as a new generation of entrepreneurs are springing up from home and changing the way we shop, work and socialise.

Whether you’re looking at starting your own business or looking to grow an existing business, you need to understand how these free or cheap online social media, local search and cloud computing services can help you.

Join Paul Wallbank and Tony Delroy on ABC Nightlife to discuss how our work and business is changing and how you can use these powerful online social media, local search and cloud computing tools.

Aspects we’ll discuss include;

How can someone take on the big boys from their spare room?
What sort of costs are involved?
How difficult is it to setup an online business?
Are juggling home and business demands likely to cause problems?
What are the challenges of keeping the kids off your home systems?
How do you stop hackers and security risks?
How can existing businesses adapt to this new world?

If you’d like to add to the list or join the conversation with your on-air questions or comments are welcome, phone in on 1300 800 222 within Australia or +61 2 8333 1000 from outside Australia.

Tune in on your local ABC radio station or listen online at www.abc.net.au/nightlife.

You can SMS Nightlife’s talkback on 19922702, twitter @paulwallbank using the #abcnightlife hashtag or visit the Nightlife Facebook page.

So you want a freebie?

If you want something for free, you’ll need to ask nicely. Here’s some tips on making a polite request.

It’s human nature to want something for free and in these days where consumers and businesses don’t expect to pay for information and skills it often doesn’t seem unreasonable to think contributors to your project – be it an event, publication or a start up business – wouldn’t be prepared to do help for free.

That might be how it seems, but you’re asking someone to contribute their most valuable and scarce asset, their time. So what should you be doing to make it easier for someone to donate their time to your project?

What’s in it for the giver?

Your cause could be great or you could be offering some great exposure, either way you need to make the proposition compelling to those you want to do a freebie.

Keep in mind if you’re an employee of a industry group, university or private business and you’re expecting others to donate their time for free. If your organisation is such a noble enterprise, why aren’t you and your managers donating time?

Be prepared for rejection

People have a right to value their time and skills and may be offended at a request for doing something gratis. Unfortunately that’s something you’ll have to deal with as the cost of asking for a free service.

Just be thankful you aren’t asking author and scriptwriter Harlan Ellison for some work or permission to use some of his work.

Tell the truth

Respect those you’re asking to contribute by being up front about your event and the other speakers. It’s absolutely unforgivable to lie about your project when you expect people to donate their time and skills.

Be discrete

If someone agrees to participate for free, don’t blurt it to the entire world. That person has made a donation to your project and they deserve respect.

For a professional, particularly speakers and writers, that lack of discretion could cost them money for future event fees and devalue their brand. Show respect.

Don’t nickel and dime people

Again, those who agree to do something for free deserve your respect. Don’t screw them around on parking fees, taxi, or trivial charges, they’ve done you a favour and the least you can do is make it easier for them to get there and home, even if you are too darned cheap to buy them lunch or dinner.

Don’t get contractual

Even with paid contributors or speakers things can go wrong as misunderstandings happen, people get sick and volcanos disrupt airline schedules. If something goes wrong, threatening a damages suit against someone who has done you a favour is a bad look.

Expect to be stood up

While most professionals will honour their obligations, paid assignments have to take priority. As a freeloader, you have to accept your project will not have the same priority as those the contributor will get paid for.

Say thank you

After the event, show some appreciation. It’s good manners to at least send a card and maybe a small gift. For many professional writers and speakers a written testimonial or a LinkedIn recommendation is a nice way of saying thank you.

Should you be asking for a freebie?

There’s no shortage of third rate events, webinars and magazines on this Earth you have to ask if you can’t afford to pay for talent, then is your project really adding value? The fact that attendees or customers won’t pay could be an indicator that you aren’t adding value.

Similarly with the contributors, they may be free because they don’t add a great deal of value. You may want to consider a smaller project where you can pay your speakers, writers or other creatives for higher quality work.

There’s many good reasons for organisers to run free events or participants to donate their time, probably more than the excuses not to do so. Unfortunately in the Internet age, free is being abused and many creatives aren’t getting paid for their time and skills

For free to work, there has to be respect and some mutual obligation. Someone who does something for free to help your project deserves your respect and support.

Binary thinking in a digital world

Thinking you have to use one tool at the expense of others or make a choice between being wholly online or ignoring the Internet totally is a false, dangerous choice.

In a time when the retail industry, like the music and newspaper industries before it, is going through major changes thanks to the Internet there’s a tendency to think in black and white – that you’re either online or you aren’t.

This is a mistake as the choice between going online or not isn’t a black and white issue, it’s a matter of degrees.

A good example of flawed thinking was the announcement that Just Jeans would close 50 stores and move to online selling. This idea ignores that Just Jeans’ management has little online retail experience they would be better to be using an online presence to compliment their existing strengths and drive traffic into their stores.

A bricks and mortar store still needs online presence, even if there’s no intention to sell online. A shop or café needs a website that at least tells customers who they are, what they sell, where they are and when they are open.

For many businesses, online is a new channel and opportunity that complements existing channels. The web, and particularly social media tools, offer an opportunity to connect to customers, build loyalty and spread the word about the business.

Even the online tools themselves suffer this where we have arguments about whether a business should use one social media tool like Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. The real answer is you should have a presence in all of them, even though most businesses will find one channel is more effective than others.

Similarly an online business needs a credible physical presence such as real call centres, phone numbers and office contact details. Indeed the lack of customer service is the Achilles Heel of many online retailers.

A lack of understanding that there is little real difference between the online and physical worlds is shared by many in the community; the idea that what someone does online is not related to their reputation or legal responsibilities in the real world persists despite it being constantly proved wrong.

In the online world the answer isn’t usually one choice or another, it’s a matter of how one channel will help you more than others.

Thinking you have to use one tool at the expense of others or make a choice between being wholly online or ignoring the Internet totally is a false, dangerous choice.

A more sensible way of dealing with the online world for established retailers, or any existing business is to experiment with what works for their customers and markets.

It may well be that shutting down physical stores and moving online is the solution for some, but for many others it will make more sense to use what the online world does well to build on existing advantages.

For the retail industry, salvation is probably going to lie in providing service. It’s those managers and business owners that see qualified, helpful staff as an asset rather than a cost who will thrive in the next decade.

Why hide your address?

If you have an online address, be it a web site, social media account, Google or Facebook Place page you need to tell your customers about it.

There’s a lot of concern about businesses not having a website with estimates that between 40 and 60% of all enterprises simply don’t have a website and most aren’t using social media.

Businesses who haven’t bothered setting up a site, or at least a free Facebook or Google Places listing are missing out on customers, but even many organisations with an online presence aren’t publicising them well.

A recent walk down my local shopping strip went past nearly 200 businesses. Of them only four had a reference to their website or preferred social media platform.

Even businesses do have a website didn’t choose to display them where customers or passers by could see them.

Worse, some of the fast food chains that are running social media campaigns had no indication that checking in or liking could win a customer a deal which makes you wonder just how committed those business are to these channels.

It could be that businesses are afraid that referring to their online presence will encourage customers to move away from their physical store, if that’s the case most business owners are wrong.

Customers are expecting to find our websites even if they intend to visit our stores or hire us. Our sites – even if they are only a free page from Google or Facebook – should be telling propective customers who we are, what we do, why are we great and what hours we’re open.

Just as time is money to the typical business person, shoppers want to make sure they are going to the right place for the right product and won’t be wasting their time if they show up on a Sunday afternoon or after 6pm.

There’s no reason not to have your web page, social media addresses and other online contact details somewhere prominent where customers can see them so they can see how great you are. Should your competitors be telling their story, they are going to be getting the customers.

In a noisy, busy world we need to telling our stories both online and offline, peoples’ attention and time is too scarce to let an opportunity go by.

The web’s big weakness

How a hands-off customer model may doom many of today’s social media and web services

There’s a fundamental flaw in the way the tech industry does business, that weakness could be what ultimately kills many of today’s new media, web and social media services.

AirBnB, an online home share service, is one of the darlings of the booming Silicon Valley start up sector, having recently being valued at $1.2 billion after a successful capital raising.

Like most Web 2.0 and social media businesses, AirBnB’s advantage is in the low operating costs where customer support is left to the service’s peer review and social media communities while AirBnB pockets a commission for simply making the connection between the landlord and tenant.

The flaws in this “all care, no responsibility” model became apparent last month when a lady posted a description of her house being ransacked by an errant housesitter she found through AirBnB.

AirBnB’s management responded to the article with assurances they were helping and working with their affected customer, claims which were promptly contradicted by the original victim.

To make matters worse, certain prominent members of the Silicon Valley investment and blogging communities alluded she was lying or was “batshit crazy.” Now that other stories of bad AirBnB tenants are appearing, the view this is simply the untrustworthy word of a deranged customer affected by their first such incident is looking hollow.

Failing to deal with customer problems is not unique to AirBnB, hiding behind impenetrable layers of “support” backed up by user hostile terms and conditions is familiar to anyone who has had to deal with an online service gone wrong.

Last month Thomas Monopoly found he was locked out of his Google account and had it not been for the intervention of a senior Google employee, Thomas’ problem would probably still be stuck in an endless feedback loop.

Exactly the same problem has been encountered thousands of times by other users of web mail, social media, online auction and matchmaking sites.

Many of the people running these services retort their products are free so users get the support the support they pay for – an argument conveniently overlooking that most “free” web services are based around selling customer data – but even this does not justify delivering the basic services users have been lead to expect, regardless of what a 5,000 word user agreement states.

Today’s tech startups, and many of their big established cousins in the IT industry, have the idea that customer support is an optional extra and an expense to minimised or outsourced.

In this respect they are not too far removed from dinosaur car manufacturers or some of today’s less dynamic retailers offering little in the way of customer service or after sales support.

That way of working has died as consumers have been able to go online to vent their dissatisfaction, strangely today’s hot tech start ups seem to have missed this aspect of the revolution they have helped start.

Ignoring consumer problems is exactly what’s bringing traditional businesses unstuck in the online world. The funny thing is it might bring many of the online business undone as well.

A question of respect

Do we give our business partners the respect we’d like to receive?

All too often a discussion of business leadership descends into a series of homilies and recycled stories equating corporate warriors to ancient Chinese generals.

In a time where we’re obsessed with the shiny toys of technology, we often forget that all business is social and leadership and respect are the keys to growing a successful enterprise.

Last week’s final session of the 2011 Let’s Talk Business series was refreshingly different with David James of Sydney’s Brasserie Bread, Mike Cannon-Brookes of software company Atlassian and business mentor Chris Witt telling their stories of leading growing enterprises.

Mike and David showed how real business leadership is about entrenching values within in an organisation that fosters consistently good service and great products.

David told how Brasserie Bread treat their retail partners with generous commissions and services that encourage cross selling illustrated the key difference between smaller businesses taking the long view and the short term views taken by corporate managers.

The cross selling and commission models work well for Brasserie Bread’s retailers, the customer comes into a shop to pick up their bread order, buys a coffee while they are there and – as they discover more about the business – they become a regular.

While there’s a great difference between a bakery and software company, Mike Cannon-Brookes had a similar view about values, telling how Atlassian has the “beer test” where they ask if a prospective employee would be interesting when talking over an after work drink.

Atlassian’s main mantra though is “don’t f*** the customer”, which is notable in a business world largely dominated by the belief you give the customer the minimum you can get away with.

Both Brasserie Bread’s and Atlassian’s philosophies can be boiled down to one word: Respect.

Respecting customers, suppliers, staff and resellers is something that’s forgotten by many larger businesses obsessed with short term gains at the expense of anyone foolish or unfortunate enough to do business with them.

The current problems of big retailers can be put down to that lack of respect; for suppliers as they screwed the last cent out of their supply chains, for staff as they crudely cut numbers to achieve their performance targets and for customers who found service had become a word with little meaning in their stores.

It would be unfair to pick on the retailers though as most large organisations share that attitude of disrespecting everyone who doesn’t sit on the same floor as the CEO.

Much of these beliefs on blindly cutting costs, outsourcing service and focusing on short term KPIs came out of 1980s thinking at consulting firms and management schools.

Although the schools and consultants have updated their thinking, many business leaders are stuck in that short term model which worked well during the two decades of easy credit we’ve went through up to 2008.

Chris Witt summed this short term thinking up well with his closing comment; “Neanderthal man’s survival strategy was short term, it didn’t do him much good.”

Respecting your business relationships is the key to long term survival in these uncertain times, we need to be insuring we show the respect to our staff, supplier, customers and partners we hope they would give us.

Google+ explained

What does Google’s latest social media platform mean for the ordinary business or home Internet user?

The latest shiny thing in the online world is Google+, the search engine monolith’s latest attempt at a social networking service. What does it mean to the average user?

Google+ differs from most social networks – particularly Facebook – in that you can segment your online connections into different groups called circles so when sharing information such as comments, updates or photos you can choose to only let certain circles or individuals see those posts.

This addresses the biggest problem with social media; that what we share with our family is not necessarily what we want our friends or work colleagues to see, an issue identified by then Google designer Paul Adams, who has since moved onto Facebook.

At the core of Google+ is the Google Profile which is shared with most Google services such as Gmail and Blogger which gives rise to quite a few privacy concerns as those you share with can get access to this information, although this is the same with most other social media services.

Google+ has quite a few interesting features such as Hangouts which allow impromptu video conferences and Sparks which are random popups of things you might be interested based upon your search history and posts.

As a consumer product, Google+ doesn’t have the gaming and the social features that Facebook offers however that’s expected to change as the product develops.

For businesses, Google+ is off limits. Right now it is only open to individuals although we can expect that will change as Google integrate the product with their small business Places platform along with adwords and their online application service.

Right now Google+ is for the geeks and that’s why the tech media is talking about it. For the average home or business users it’s not quite ready to replace or complement Facebook or other social media services although it’s worth keeping an eye on to see how it evolves.

The stakes are quite high for Google with this product as the overwhelming amount of data at every Internet user’s fingertips is seeing people seeking out sources they trust for answers, recommendations and advice. The social aspect of the online world is going to define the web in this decade just as search did in the previous decade.

For this reason, Google are going to be working hard on making sure Google+ is part of the social web, for the average user we’ll be choosing the tools we trust. It remains to be seen if Google+ is one of those tools.

The quest for virility

Chasing big numbers on the Internet is the most basic online mistake of all.

One of the common Internet traps is a mindless quest for numbers; when we first go online we’re obsessed with gathering Facebook friends, Twitter followers and LinkedIn connections.

For businesses, we get seduced by the prospect of big markets to sell to; which isn’t surprising when there’s nearly 700 million people on Facebook, over 50 million tweets sent every day and the group buying market is growing almost as quickly as the number of new entrants into the industry.

The current holy grail for many businesses is the viral video; a troupe of dancers extolling your business to surprised commuters, a cool ex-football player giving advice from a shower or a tasteful video of your staff doing their jobs naked is seen as the way to get millions of ‘likes’ or ‘follows’ from eager web consumers.

For the successful ones, creating an online clip seen by your mother and a million of her friends is an easy way to get a campaign to worldwide markets without spending massive marketing budgets. Not to mention the trip to Cannes and the accolades for any advertising agency associated with it.

Sadly creating a video that goes viral is harder than it looks as we discussed at the Media 140 Conference in Perth last week; it has to be quirky, entertaining and attention catching which is pretty well the antithesis of the typical corporate video.

To compound the budding viral videographer’s problems, there’s the corporate desire to control the message. Almost every high profile blogger or online editor has stories of struggling to get permission to use an organisation’s clip because of the managerial urge to control distribution.

No doubt those managers have good reasons for controlling the use of their videos but we can be sure those same control obsessed administrators are constantly bugging their agencies to create something viral.

Losing control is a great risk for managers and bureaucrats. Last year prolific wine blogger Gary Vaynerchuk visited Australia and gave the local wine industry some great publicity.

Sadly, in reviewing the some wines from his visit he described a Yarra Valley wine as having “a taste of burned vomit” (at 4.25) probably put the Australian wine market in the US back a decade.

Gary Vaynerchuk is probably the best case of someone who has grown a business through viral video, through adding interesting valuable content with a real character. An equivalent Australian success has been Natalie Tran’s Community Channel.

One of the other points with these is many of the early successes have been because they were early entrants into a new market. Today, the marketplace is a lot more crowded and videos, like any other online content, are struggling to get heard.

That’s not such a bad thing as it takes away the obsession with numbers and makes us focus on the quality of our online audience. Rather than obsessing about raw hits, we start considering where our customers are.

Group buying is a good example of where well targeted campaigns work well. The successful group buying advertisers are thinking about where the offer, product and audience fit in their business plan rather than just fixating on the tens of thousands of potential customers for a quick sales boost.

While a Charlie Sheen tweet might drive page views, the real business objective of the web is about establishing our brand and attracting the customers we want, not just achieving big numbers.

eBusiness Sample Chapter: Social Media Basics for Business

A look at some of the basic social media tools for business, a free extract from eBusiness, Seven Steps to Online Success

Nothing illustrates the difference between old media and new media than social networking platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Under the old model — newspapers, radio or television — someone owns the platform and publishes information through it. If the audience wants to respond, members send in a letter or call the talk back phone lines. In social media, the audience does the publishing, then members talk to each other about it.

In many ways social media isn’t anything new: it’s the internet equivalent of hanging around the mall or gossiping in the tea room, and even using internet services like bulletin boards and newsgroups pre-date the world wide web.

What the newer social media platforms have changed is how people share information. It’s now much easier for people with similar interests, backgrounds or family links to connect each other from anywhere in the world. By joining these networks you will be able to tap into passionate and motivated communities that might, if you show respect to them and their interests, be interested in your products.

And just as you can establish or enhance your web presence using free online listings, you can extend that presence using the free social media sites.

Talking, not shouting

One of the big differences between the traditional media channels and social media is the way you attract attention. In the older media channels, you had to shout in the hope your product would be seen. This model suited big businesses that have the deep pockets needed to fund a traditional marketing campaign.

For smaller business, the only way to compete with big business campaigns was to be as loud as possible — big billboards, garish print adverts and irritating late night TV commercials were typical ways of being seen. But even if you were big, you had to be big, loud and brassy.

The social media channels operate more like a conversation, and using the shouting techniques of the traditional sectors will kill your site stone dead. Instead, communicating in social media is about cultivating online relationships by getting people, not always customers, to becoming supporters of your business. They may choose to support your business because they like you, they think the product’s funky, or because their friends like you or your products or for any other of a million possible reasons. In many ways this suits smaller businesses that operate on local reputations and word of mouth##—##especially because most of us don’t have the funds, or the brash personalities, to run loud, abrasive advertising campaigns on TV or radio.

Facebook

With more than 500 million users at the end of 2010, and looking at a potential stock market value of over $50 billion dollars, Facebook has become an internet force to be reckoned with. The Facebook platform has a number of quirks and features that make it unique on the internet.

At the core of Facebook is your network of friends##—##not necessarily people you know in real life, but folk you have agreed to become Facebook friends with. Your friends can communicate with you, see information you have chosen to keep private from most of the world and invite you to join their games, groups and causes. Those friends can also post on your Wall, which is the first screen you see when you go into your Facebook account. The Wall keeps you up to date with everything your friends are doing, including what they Like.

The ‘Like’ button appears on every page or update on Facebook: if you like something someone has said or done, you click the button and your likes will go onto all your friends’ Walls.

Facebook does not allow businesses to set up personal profiles. Instead, businesses have to set up a Facebook Page, which is free and can be customised to suit your business.

Probably the best thing about Facebook for the smaller business is that it’s a great channel for announcing events and products. However, the service also has the benefits of building up a base of friends and customers. Using it to track customer complaints and the performance of products shouldn’t be discounted, either, as unhappy clients will post messages to your Wall.

To set up a Facebook Page go to <www.facebook.com/pages> and click the ‘Create page’ button in the top left hand corner. This will take you to the ‘Create a Page’ screen, which gives you the choice of the type of page you prefer.

For most business owners, the choice is between ‘Local business’ or ‘Place of interest’ and ‘Company, organisation or institution’ although ‘Product or brand’ can be appropriate if you are launching an individual product.

When you choose one of the Page options, a sub-screen will appear asking for your basic details, such as location and phone number. Once those questions are answered, you will have your basic Facebook Page set up.

From there, you can upload your logo and any other pictures, videos and links to your or other people’s interesting websites in a similar way to that described for local business directories (see chapter 2). Try to keep your information consistent across the different platforms.

Even if you don’t take social media or Facebook seriously, it’s worthwhile checking the page at least every week, just to see what people are saying. If you have something useful to add, such as a special offer or a new product, make sure it goes onto the page.

You can customise your pages with backgrounds and landing pages, which can be complex to set up but effective. More detailed Facebook stategies are discussed later (see chapter 16), but a basic Facebook Page with regular updates is usually enough to get many businesses started.

Facebook is the general community site, while LinkedIn is more focused on business and recruitment. At its most basic, LinkedIn is like an online CV, where people post their work experience and make connections with people they have worked and dealt with.

LinkedIn also allows you to set up a company page, and that’s worthwhile, particularly if you stage business-oriented events or if you’re recruiting. A company page gives current and previous employees, suppliers or contractors the opportunity to link to your business and follow your news.

Like Facebook, setting up a LinkedIn company page is a straight forward process of filling in key details about your business. As LinkedIn is checked by Google it’s a good opportunity to improve the business’ search engine visibility. Typing in similar details to those you entered for Google Local and True Local in the previous chapter is the best way to use LinkedIn well.

If your business mainly deals with other big commercial organisations, government departments or professional groups, then you will find LinkedIn is a particularly powerful tool. Having a comprehensive, up-to-date profile is an indicator to big clients that you are serious in the online space.

Flickr

The main purpose of Flickr is photo sharing. Over time,it has also become a powerful social media platform as like-minded people gather online to share photos and interests. Photos posted on Flickr often aren’t directly related to the business, but one landscape gardener actually gets business from his wildlife photos. It’s more typical that a reception hall might have photos of weddings, and an entertainer will have photos of their performances.

Naturally photographers and artists use the photo sharing sites to display their portfolios. There’s nothing to stop you posting pictures of work you’re proud of as a concreter, hairdresser or caterer — just remember to get permission from your client if they can be identified from a photo.

Flickr, and the other photo-sharing sites, can be a very good way to build a community and fan base around your organisation. If you like taking photos, your hobby can become a useful part of your business.

For business, it’s straightforward to set up a Flickr profile by visiting the www.flickr.com , setting up a new account and then posting photos relating to your business. With a link to your website in the profile page you’re creating an online profile that is going to attract the interests of the search engines while spreading the word about your business.

YouTube

Another surprising social media platform is YouTube, the video-sharing service. Many businesses are shooting videos to post on YouTube to promote their products.

Like other social media channels, loud advertisements for the business don’t work on this platform, while instructional and informational videos do well while also promoting the business.

A great example of this is Jim the Realtor, a San Diego–based real estate agent who has become famous for taking videos of his inspections and travels around southern California. As well as being entertaining, he gives many good hints on what to watch for in badly constructed homes, overhanging powerlines and various vendor tricks.

Often successful businesses on YouTube, like Jim’s, don’t spend a lot of money on production — though if you have the budget, skills and equipment to do a high quality video it won’t hurt. However, the experience seems to be that online viewers aren’t fussed about picture quality when watching videos on a computer or smart phone

Twitter

Probably the most hyped social media tool through 2009 and 2010, Twitter has become the darling of the media industry, with marketers, public relations firms and journalists flocking to the service. Twitter allows people to send messages from their computers or mobile phones that are no longer than 140 characters, forcing senders, known as tweeps, or twits, to be witty and concise.

Twitter’s attractions are that it’s a good way to tune into what people you find interesting think, and share their thoughts, ideas and news. As a communication tool, Twitter is as much about listening as talking, so it’s a great news delivery tool.

For businesses, Twitter can be an awkward tool to use, as it’s probably the biggest time sink on the internet. If you do find really interesting people to follow, you can easily find yourself immersed for the entire day reading fascinating, but totally irrelevant, websites.

For startup businesses, it’s usually best to sign up to Twitter as a marketing tool, then check in regularly to check what customers are saying about you and what important people are saying about your industry. As you begin to understand how Twitter works and what your circles are like, you can then start posting product announcements, communicating with customers and contributing to the conversations you find interesting.

Setting up a Twitter account is extremely easy. Click on the yellow Signup button at the top of the Twitter webpage to set the page up; choose a user name##—##preferably your business name or something very close to it; and put in your email address.

Once you have set up a page in Twitter, you can choose to customise the look and feel of your page using the same techniques described for the other social media platforms (see chapter 2). You can also set up your website to automatically feed new information into Twitter as it’s posted.

Conclusion

Social media tools are a good way of getting online for free, as well as being an adequate substitute for smaller or cash-strapped businesses that don’t want their own website##—##although I recommend that every business spends a bit of time setting up a site.

To have a successful presence in social media requires having something useful to say, so you need to have the platform to say something, and that’s a basic website, which can be created using free website blogging tools (see chapter 4).

Checklist for social media

Have you chosen a user name close to your business name?
Have you included unique pictures and videos in your profile?
Have you linked your social media sites to your other web presences, particularly if you have a website?
Remember to use social media to listen: your fans and your critics will be there so social media provides a valuable listening post.
Remember to take care not to be sucked into spending too much time online.
Remember to try to avoid mixing personal and business in your online presence.
Remember not to use social media when you’re angry, upset or drunk.

Like to learn more? eBu$iness is available at all good book sellers and online through the John Wiley website.