So are there any trends here that you can use for your company? talk to your employees and customers about what they would like to see. If your at a loss or stuck in a paralysis of ideas contact us today for a consultation.

You should also look at cleaning up your companies information online as well.You should take a look at updating info on the multiple local business search sites.  These are sites like YELP, CitySearch, Merchantcircle, Superpages. Also don’t forget to look for reviews of your company on Angieslist as well as searching through the forums on craigslist. Make sure that Google maps,Bing maps and Yahoo maps are updated with your correct info as well. Make sure that all hyperlinks, contact info, and pictures on your website and social media platforms( Flickr,Facebook,Myspace, etc) are current.

Remember each social media platform utilized out there on the web for your business is more then just a tiny ripple on a pond created by the proverbial pebble. With social networking, digital marketing, proximity promotions, and multi-channel media, YOUR business  has never had a larger pond to play in. The pebbles are no longer hitting the water one at a time they are being launched into the pond in multiple handfuls at a time. The ripples are now becoming waves and you want to make sure your company is riding them successfully.

Now we here at Smmee have been showing many small business owners that a presence on line is a must. That Social media is a force multiplier for them and a great way to help save money on advertising.It can also take their advertising to the next level. But we also like to show them that sometimes a great idea can backfire. This article by Stephanie Marcus the other day on Mashable is a great example of what to do and not to do when you respond to customers and potential customers online. You can see the article here. She has done a great job on showing three companies who’s online presence was affected by negative feedback and those companies responses. Enjoy.

Great article from Information Week on the latest reports from a Neilson study on Americans usage of the Internet. You can read the whole article here from Alison Diana.

It is rapidly apparent that Americans are utilizing Social media portals/sites far more then they are using their email. Not only are they forwarding their thoughts and deeds and accomplishments to their friends. They are also using it to forward the best deals that they find along with what they have recently bought and from whom the purchased it from. What is interesting is that we are still seeing a larger growth curve in the baby-boomer population

In fact, U.S. Internet users spent 22.7% of their time on social networking sites — up 43% from the 15.8% they spent in 2009, the research firm found. By comparison, Americans are dedicating fewer hours to the once-ubiquitous e-mail: In this year’s report, users spent 8.3% of their online time reading and sending missives, down almost 28% from last year’s 11.5%, Nielsen said in its Aug. 1 report, “What Americans Do Online.”

Users of all ages are adopting social networking, the research firm found, with double the number of Americans ages 50 and above visiting these sites than the under-18 age group. The report tracked 200,000 users in June 2010.

So the under 18 population is rapidly transitioning to a mobile interface and Neilson found this information to be accurate here:

 The picture changed when Americans described their online usage via smartphones instead of computers. Americans spent 42% of their online time using e-mail when they accessed the Internet with their phone, Nielsen found. Last year, they spent 37% of their phone-accessed Internet time on e-mail, the study said. Portals were the second most used category, according to the report.

So we are seeing that any business today needs to have a presence not only on Social media sites ( Facebook, Youtube,myspace, etc) but regionalized sites as well ( craigslist, oodle, olx, etc.) and now a presence on mobile devices ( www.appinkling.com) .

Your Size Works in Your Favor

As a small business, your size is your friend in social media channels. Use your small size as an advantage and respond to each and every person that mentions you. Since you’re working with a smaller customer base, you can also build customer Twitter Lists to separate different categories of customers into groups, which should help you offer more personalized customer service — something the big businesses don’t have the time or resources to support.

Here’s an easy example: Who are your most frequent customers? Make a Twitter List called “Regulars,” and add your regulars on Twitter to it.

In doing so, you’re associating patronage with prestige. Your efforts could even inspire semi-regular customers to frequent your business more often just so they too can get added to the list. This tactic might also serve as a catalyst for one regular to connect with another, though you could also facilitate customer-to-customer connections with introductory tweets. So if a customer tweets for a recommendation, you could respond with something simple as, “@customer1 good question, I like the cheesecake but @customer2 really loves the custard.”

These types of personal exchanges highlight the advantages afforded to small businesses using social media

Great answer. Every business has phones. The have had a form of communication since the dawn of time. Be it a pteranodon with a bone attached to its leg( A favorite  Super Bowl FedEx commercial of mine) to today’s instant communication and e-commerce. There has been no question as to the value of communications to a company. The question becomes in how do you optimize the channels that we use to communicate.

Are we communicating our companies goals and objectives? Are we listening to our customers needs and concerns? Are we listening to what the competitors are doing and saying and do we care?

As we have stated many times in our workshops, one on one consultations, and blog post’s not every channel is needed by every business out there. Not all business’s need a staff of 5 to 100 people dedicated to online social platforms to communicate their business to potential customers. But it is needed. Ask yourself how much business would you not do if you had no phones?

 NOW how much business have you lost not utilizing the many free online tools out there to reach your customers and future customers. What is the ROI on silence or absence of your company online?

Only you can answer these questions, but if you need some ideas or help we are here for you.

So what you say? 

 Well in visiting their site you can not find the paper template listed. The only way to get to the template is to know the URL for it. The only way to get to the URL was to buy the magazine or go to a magazine shop or bookstore and copy it down. Now they did a great job in only allowing the color version of their characters in the magazine so to get them you have to buy the magazine. The blank templates to design your own are on Behemoth’s website…but color is not available on the website only in the Giant robot magazine. Thus the customer must buy the magazine and go to Behemoth’s website to get all the models. Great!!, both the magazine and the game company win with this.

However there is no way to show off the user generated content. It appears that Behemoth and Giant robot forgot that people like to show off what they do. There is no place or website listed to upload images of your redesigned Castle Crasher. NO contest to show off how creative you are or how big a fan you are. Was this done intentionally or just not thought all the way through? Don’t know but hopefully you the small business owner can take this idea and spend a little more time in your marketing meetings to see how you can really engage your audience and get them more interactive with you products and services.

Essential social media listening tools

What caught my interest in these two emails was the fact that you can have two different types of companies and industries utilizing the same free on-line Social Media tools to send out the word - their words, their mission, and their needs. You have an organization consisting of people associated with a company worth billions of dollars and another organization that struggles on donations and ticket sales. One giant and leader in the Internet and software fields (a Goliath) and one smaller company (a David) trying to maximize every cent they have. Social media tools can be used by pretty much any company no matter what their size, budget, or industry. They may be late adopters to this medium but they have recognized the power behind Social media tools, the ease behind using them and the multiplier effect they have in getting ones message out to the world.

From the email from Scott Nolte at Taproot Theatre:

• We’re ramping up our presence in the world of social media, through services and websites like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter adn Flickr.
• Through our website and others, we’re cultivating bloggers – people who regularly write about the plays they see and accumulate a following of readers who trust their tast and opinion.

From the email from the Microsoft Alumni Network:

We are very excited to announce that in mid-May MSA will begin the transition to a new community platform featuring state-of-the-art social network features.  Phase one of the all-new MSA site will be live on May 15, 2009.  New features will be released over a 90 day period from launch and include:

• Groups with Document Libraries and Photo Galleries
• Enhanced Directories and Connections
• Profiles that support the attachment of resumes and other professional documents
• Member-to-member notes
• Enhanced Opportunity Center (jobs, volunteer and mentorship positions, contract positions, etc.
• Blogs
• Rich media