“Corporate bureaucracy is becoming obsolete,” according to a Wall Street Journal article. “Managers should act like venture capitalists.” Better yet,  act like entrepreneurs and business owners.

Now that you’re feeling a bit superior about your maverick ways bring yourself back to reality with a few questions:

• Is your marketing and advertising part of your small business growth plan?
• Are you getting the results you want?
• How will you improve your marketing ROI in the coming year?

Businesses grow into the Fortune 500 because they take time to plan then take steps to grow toward their goals.

Small businesses should do that too. But the day-to-day constraints of running a business can push planning to the back burner. Before you know it, next year is here. By default, you’ll do the same thing you’ve always done and hope to get the same results you’ve always gotten (if you’re lucky).

Time to try something new – a marketing consultant! Partnering with an experienced consultant gives you the right expertise at the right time for the right results. The first step is a FREE consultation.

But before you blog, tweet or fan you’ve got to have a plan.

Here are my 5 SMART Steps for using social media to drive business:

• Set Goals
• Manage Strategy
• Assess Tools
• Re-purpose Content
• Tenaciously Review, Revise, Repeat

When considering social media as a marketing and SEO tool, small business owners must consider whether you (or your staff) have the time and expertise to:

• Integrate social media into your marketing plan
• Choose the best social media tools to drive business
• Brainstorm, create and post content
• Measure and analyze the results
• Recommend improvements to get desired results

It’s OK if you’re missing a few components. Minneapolis is teeming with social media consultants – but only one uses social media to drive search engine optimization…Word of Maus.

We collaborate with you to grow your business. Our operating principle: You are the expert in your business and we are the expert in ours. By working together, collaborating, we help you grow.

REQUEST a Strategy Session to find out more.

We will provide marketing, social media and search engine optimization services for this vibrant environmental graphic design firm. What is environmental graphic design?

Well now…you’ll find out more when we launch their new blog. Stay tuned!

Small business owners looking to grow their business should start with the basics. All of these ideas can help build your search engine optimization (SEO). Many of them, when taken to the next level, can help grow your business.

7 ideas to Get Your Prospect’s Attention online:

1. Buy Your Domain
2. Start A Blog
3. Modify your Linked In profile
4. Create or modify your Twitter profile
5. Update your Facebook business fan page
6. Create a Google profile
7. Leave comments on other blogs

Now that you’ve laid the foundation you’re ready to take the next step. Want to find out what your next step should be? REQUEST a free 30-minute Strategy Session.

As in, posting something on your company’s facebook wall is the same as posting an entry on your blog.

Uh, actually, there is a difference.

Misuse the tool and you might miss an opportunity – or worse, you’ll be dismissed by a generation of customers better versed than you on the finer points of using Facebook, blogs, Twitter.

Choosing the right tool for the job

Facebook, blogs and Twitter all have different purposes for:

• Distributing and sharing information
• Educating and informing customers/prospects
• Inviting prospects into your sales funnel

The tools

Facebook is good for:

• Providing quick updates
• Directing viewers to more detailed information
• Starting online “conversations”

Twitter is good for:

• Quick call to action
• Sharing  expertise
• Recommending resources

Blogs are good for:

• Learning more about prospects and customers
• Educating and informing
• Cultivating prospects

Are you confidently implementing your B2B social media plan? If not, we can help! REQUEST a FREE Strategy Session.

Clients admit, often sheepishly after the fact, that they have attended.

No need to feel funny about that. In fact, I encourage clients to attend!

The more they learn about social media and how to use it for small business marketing, the better. Sharing knowledge and social media tips is the foundation of of this new way of business communication, afterall.

“The morning session was an overview of social media  and I was able to keep up with that,” she said. “But by the afternoon session my head was swimming with all of of the details related to using social media to market our business.”

Most social media tools like a wordpress blog, twitter account and linked in are free! The expertise needed to use them for small business marketing? Priceless!

Want to learn if social media is right for your business?  Sign up for a FREE information session:

How do you know who is linking to you? Try this FREE tool: Page Link Analyzer

Facebook is a way to gain exposure to a wide audience (nearly 500 million). Wall updates, fan news and tagged photos can be optimized to increase the chance that prospects may “stumble” on your business. Average users spend more than  7 hours a month on the social networking site.

However, keep in mind that Facebook requires every fan page, yes even business fan groups, to be tied to your personal Facebook account.

This mix of personal and business can present challenges if you want boundaries between your life as a parent and a professional, for example.

Mark Zuckerberg, 26, Facebook founder and chief executive, doesn’t believe that social and professional lives are distinct, said LinkedIn Founder Reid Hoffman. “That’s a classic college student view.”

You’ll get the biggest business bang on Facebook when you:

K EEP

I  T

S EPARATE

S USAN

• Develop new products
• Gather customer feedback
• Improve your profits

That last one really got my attention! How about you?

Small business owners whose products or services have become commodities can turn the tide by listening to their customers. Social media is a great way to begin the conversation.

This Wall Street Journal article has great ideas to get the ball rolling within your business:

Questions to Ask Yourself

1. Does your company continuously focus on improving its products and services in ways that are important to customers and that allow you to raise prices and increase profits?

2. Do you communicate regularly with customers to find out how you can improve your offerings, and to make sure they’re aware of any unique value you provide?

3. Do your salespeople speak to the right decision makers and others who care about these value benefits in the customer’s organization?

4. Does your company involve every department in discussions about product development and pricing strategy in order to maximize efficiency, quality and profits?

5. Does your company consider pricing when it’s still developing a new service or product instead of when the product or service is introduced to the market?

If you answered no to any of these questions, your company is probably not doing enough to maximize profits in line with products and services that customers want and are willing to pay more for.

And if you lack a repeatable process for doing these things internally at your company, it is unlikely that you will effectively identify and communicate value externally with your customers: Like so many other important things in business, pricing and leadership begin at home.

Susan Maus helps companies use social media to escape the commodity trap! REQUEST a FREE 30-minute Strategy Session to get started.

Especially when it comes to small businesses that want to grow.

Ready to cast aside illusions of Best Practices and embrace  “Outside the Box” marketing practices that actually drive business?  CONTACT us!