Now Blogging Exclusively at Nonprofit Tech 2.0
Hello everyone,
I wanted to drop a quick note to let you know that I am retiring this blog indefinitely. My brand is much more well-known in the nonprofit sector than in the small business world, and I need to now focus solely on my work with the nonprofit sector. You can now follow me at:
myspace.com/nonprofitorganizations
Small businesses could learn a lot about how to use social media from nonprofits. Nonprofits are some of the best sales folks on the planet. Instead of selling a tangible product or service, they sell the idea of donating $25 or $50 without the customer getting anything in return except the reward helping make the world a better place. No easy task, and not an easy sale. Not only that, nonprofits were they first adopters of utilizing social media going back to MySpace in 2005.
I will not be offering my webinars for small businesses any longer either, but my comprehensive set of social media and mobile technology webinars for nonprofits are also very useful to small businesses. 90% of the content applies… just exchange the word “nonprofit” for “small business” and “sales” with “fundraising”.
Good luck to all of you… and thanks for following, friending, fanning, subscribing!
Google Buzz :: yourbusiness@gmail.com
Google has been working double-time launching new products over the last few months. From Google Wave to Google Voice, to Social Search and now Google Buzz, I think that now is a good time for small businesses to reserve a Gmail account if they haven’t already. I haven’t had the chance yet to look too deeply into their products, but I am big believer in small businesses being proactive and protecting their online brand from squatters. Unlike Google Wave, Google Buzz requires a Gmail account. I am hoping that Google Voice and eventually Google Wave will also be tied to Gmail accounts.
That said, take 5 minutes and protect your Google brand. My company works a lot with nonprofits, so in addition to all my profiles for small businesses, I also created and manage twitter.com/nonprofitorgs, facebook.com/nonprofitorgs and youtube.com/nonprofitorgs and just grabbed nonprofitorgs@gmail.com. Unlike Twitter and YouTube, there’s still a pretty good chance that your username is available in Gmail, though smallbusinesses, smallbusiness, smbusinesses was not. I didn’t see that one coming. 
Finally, once you have your new Gmail account, sign up for beta invite to Google Voice. I am hoping Google Voice will enable small businesses to utilize group texting for free or at a very low-cost… and be connected somehow to Buzz for Mobile.
Related Links:
HOW TO: Protect Your Small Business from Social Media Squatters
Great Wall of Facebook: The Social Network’s Plan to Dominate the Web – And Keep Google Out
Google Prepares for Facebook Assault
There are currently 133 million blogs worldwide. The world doesn’t need another blogger, right? Wrong. In the short 6 months that I have been blogging, I have come to the conclusion that blogging is the missing piece in a successful social media strategy. Here are four reasons why:
1) Blogging allows your small business to have a consistent stream of fresh, timely new content to Tweet, post on Facebook, etc.
Social media is content driven. Blogging allows small businesses to quickly and easily create and post content that’s timely and relevant to the here and now. That’s especially true on Twitter. Your business is much more likely to be successful on Twitter if you can respond quickly to breaking news related to your product, service and/or industry. People don’t RT old news, and the static content on your website is only interesting for a Tweet or two.
2) To improve your search engine results.
In recent years Google, Bing, Ask.com, etc. have all changed the way they search the Web to archive and list Web pages in their search engines. SEO experts and spammers got so good at utilizing meta tags to manipulate search engine results that Google and others have now changed their search “spiders” to look for keywords in page titles, not meta tags. Blogging tools like WordPress and TypePad automatically add the code for page titles in every new blog post you publish to the Web. Blogging is a simple, low-to-no-cost way to quickly improve your search engine results.
3) To get access to statistical data.
Small Business Tech 2.0 utilizes WordPress (a blogging platform) and the statistical data WordPress provides has been incredibly helpful in helping me understand my readers and the content that they are most interested in. From daily to monthly visits and most popular blog posts, WordPress also allows you to view referral URLs and how many visitors came to your blog from Google searches, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. It consistently amazes me that the posts businesses read the most (anything about Facebook ) are not the ones that I think they’d be most interested in (mobile technology ).
4) To grow your fans and followers on social networking sites.
I have icons for Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, etc. on my website and my blog, but very people click on them on my website. Many do on my blog. Why? I think because my website is classic old school marketing (which is still necessary and serves its own purpose) while my blog has a face, a name, a personality, an opinion. People want to “Friend” and “Follow” humans with emotions and opinions, not marketing bots.
Small Businesses of the Month :: February 2010
DIOSA Communications created and manages the Small Businesses Facebook Page, the Small Businesses Twitter Profile, the Small Businesses YouTube Channel, and the Small Businesses MySpace Page. Each month a small business that excels in its use of social media is chosen and featured on the various “Small Businesses” profiles. For February 2010, the Small Businesses of the Month are:
Twitter: India’s Castle
Facebook: MaMa Jean’s Natural Market
YouTube: Asana Climbing
MySpace: D & D T-Shirts
HOW TO: Add Your Small Business to FourSquare
FourSquare has received quite a bit of buzz over the last few months. Some have even declared it to be the “Twitter of 2010“. I am not so sure about that, but it is fun. It is Different. Addictive. And as of last week, FourSquare has gone global.
Part social networking site, part smartphone App, and part social experiment, FourSquare is a tool meant to be primary used on the go on your smartphone. Quite simply, you “Check-in” to restaurants, movie theaters, retail stores, etc. while physically at the location and offer “Tips” and send out “Shouts”. All types of small businesses can and are already starting to add their physical location as “Venues” to FourSquare in order to show up in “Check-in” searches. More importantly, your customers are doing it for you!
Even if you never become a regular user of FourSquare, at the very least take 10 minutes and follow the steps below to add your business to FourSquare. I have already added numerous businesses. Trust me. You are going to want to be the one to add your own business.
I’ll be doing a couple more blog posts on FourSquare over the next month and the site will likely add a lot of new features in 2010 (I’m excited!), but right now let’s start with the basics:
1) Sign up for an individual profile on their website.
Don’t create a profile for your business. Create a profile for yourself. Sign up. Do not skip the option to upload a photo. You will not accrue “Badges” if you do not have a photo, nor will you become a “Mayor”. Do not use your logo. At this point, the power for businesses on FourSquare is in the individual profile.
Now, something very important. You must sync your FourSquare account with your business’s Twitter account to get a username [@NonprofitOrgs becomes www.foursquare.com/user/nonprofitorgs]. Please note that you can change Twitter accounts at a later date, thus your are not locked into a FourSquare username. This also hints at how fully integrated FourSquare will be with Twitter. Love that. Love Twitter.
2) Search for your business.
There is a 90% chance that your business is not going to come up in search results, thus select “Add Venue” and follow the steps below:
1. Enter the name of your business… correctly. Don’t enter in all lower case. For Example, “Moxie Cinema”.
2. Enter the address. FourSquare requests that you use abbreviations for streets and avenues. Cities should be spelled out. States and countries should be abbreviated in CAPS:
431 S. Jefferson Ave #108
Springfield, MO 65806
3. Enter your business’s Twitter ID.
4. Add the Tags “locally owned” and “green” and “socially responsible”, etc. as well as any other Tags relevant to your business. The default is that all Tags appear in lowercase. Very important: Add the city and state of your business as a Tag. It doesn’t make a difference in searches on the website version of FourSquare, but it does in the iPhone App version!
When the steps above are completed, here’s an example of a correctly added venue:
http://foursquare.com/venue/436782
3) If you have a smartphone, download the FourSquare App and then Check-in to your business venue.
Foursquare is available for the iPhone, Blackberry, Android and Palm Pre. Download the App, Check-in, and then on the next day, Check-in again. At that point you become the “Mayor”. More Mayor strategies, To Dos, and Tips next week!
Related Webinar:
How Small Businesses Can Successfully Utilize Group Texting, Mobile Website and Smartphone Apps
Give a Tweet: How Small Businesses Can Generate Buzz on Twitter Through Philanthropy and Cause Marketing
Small businesses are looking for new ways to get recognized for their philanthropy on social networks, but it usually requires them to launch an App on Facebook or a comprehensive cause marketing campaign on Twitter. Both are time consuming and costly.
Now thanks to Give a Tweet, small businesses can launch simple, cost-effective cause marketing Twitter campaigns by signing up to become a “Matcher” and then selecting nonprofits that you want to match donations for – meaning you pledge to match donations made by other donors to your chosen nonprofits.
For example, let’s say you – the small business – chooses the Wildlife Alliance and you pledge to match every donation made to Wildlife Alliance on Give a Tweet by others up to $10. Three people donate $25 each for a total of $75, and you thus are pledged to donate $30. Each of those three donors is then prompted to Tweet that your small business matched their donation. Your Give a Tweet profile is also featured on GiveaTweet.com. That’s a lot of exposure for $30!
It’s also worth noting that small businesses can select a maximum amount that they are willing to donate and your donations are 100% tax-deductible. Give a Tweet instantly emails you a receipt for your donations for tax purposes.
For many businesses this exactly the kind of tool that they are looking for to generate buzz for their philanthropic efforts. Small businesses can become Matchers for as little as $10, though I would suggest that you pledge at least $50-100. Give a Tweet has the the data of almost every 501(c)3 nonprofit organization in the United States inside their site, so if you regularly donate to nonprofits, most likely your favorite nonprofits have profiles inside Give a Tweet. If you have any questions about how Matching on Give a Tweet works, please contact them at nonprofits@giveatweet.com and/or see their FAQ.
Small Businesses of the Month :: January 2010
DIOSA Communications created and manages the Small Businesses Facebook Page, the Small Businesses Twitter Profile, the Small Businesses YouTube Channel, and the Small Businesses MySpace Page. Each month a small business that excels in its use of social media is chosen and featured on the various “Small Businesses” profiles. For January 2010, the Small Businesses of the Month are:
Twitter: Earthy Sole Shoes
Facebook: The Little Lasso
YouTube: Strand Book Store
MySpace: Rich’s Remodeling
The Austin Statesman recently did a story about The Little Lasso’s success on Facebook in which DIOSA Communications was also featured. View Austin baby products company uses Facebook to reach customers.
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ATTN Small Businesses: Major Changes Coming Soon to Facebook Fan Pages
Scheduled to occur sometime between late 2009 and early 2010, some major changes are coming to Facebook Fan Pages. My first instinct is that the changes below are going to significantly impact small businesses and in some cases, not in a good way. I think those businesses with national and international brand recognition, lots of fans, and technical resources will benefit and the changes will hardly affect them. But small businesses are going to have a harder time with the new Pages, at the very least initially, because:
1) Status Updates showing up in the News Feed to all fans is no longer guaranteed.
90% of the power of a Facebook Fan Page is being able to post Status Updates that can be viewed by fans in their News Feed. People don’t seem to read “Updates” much and don’t generally of their own free will visit and participate in your Page, so the vast majority of participation happens in the News Feed via regularly posted Status Updates.
When the new Pages launch, if your business’ Status Updates will show up in the News Feed will depend upon one of those mysterious Facebook algorithms. The Status Update algorithm will be based mostly on how many “Thumbs Up” or “Comments” your Page gets. Purchasing advertising from Facebook will also increase your odds of showing up in the News Feed more often. But if you don’t purchase advertising, or regularly receive Thumbs Up or Comments, then your Page and your Facebook strategy could easily stagnate. Engagement is now a lot more important. Having a good community builder as your Facebook Admin will be essential.
There is one possible silver lining here, and explains now why Facebook launched the “Live Feed”. Hopefully when the new Pages go live all Facebook Page Status Updates will continue show up in the Live Feed. At this point there is no way to know for sure, but Justin Smith of Inside Facebook says: “Even in the new Live Feed, Facebook chooses a subset of friends and connections if you have more than 250 overall, though you can increase that default number – to see all Pages updates, users will need to click on the “Pages” filter in the left hand menu.”
Thus, there is a good possibility that all Status Updates will continue show up in the Live Feed, but it might require your fans with more than 250 friends or connections to changes their Live Feed Settings and opt-in to receive your Status Updates in their Pages filter. It would stun me if Facebook completely shuts out small businesses and other less known brands from the News Feed and Live Feed. I know Facebook needs more revenue, but this would be detrimental to their long-term brand. They have to know that. The question now becomes will Status Updates in the Live Feed be as valuable in terms of ROI as the News Feed?
2) The Boxes Tab will disappear.
I don’t think many fans actually click on the “Boxes” Tab on Facebook Fan Pages. As I mentioned above, I think 90% of the power of a Facebook Fan Page is in the Status Update. That said, under the new design Boxes and the Boxes Tab will be removed and any current content offered in them will disappear immediately upon the new Pages launch. It’s unclear what will be in the left column of your Facebook Page when the new Pages launch (or if there will even be a left column), but from what I am reading, the new Facebook Fan Pages will be built entirely around Tabs. For small businesses that means your Facebook tech skills are going to have to get much more advanced. You are either going to have to learn html to be able to utilize the Static FBML App to create your own customized Tabs, hire someone to do it, or you’re going to have to utilize services like Involver and Sprout.
I haven’t heard an outcry from developers about these upcoming changes, so perhaps the Boxes Apps will live on? [UPDATE: Most Boxes Apps will become Tabs] Facebook has said that all the content of the Boxes App will disappear (html, graphics, RSS feeds, etc), but the question remains are the Boxes Apps gone for good, or are they just be shifted around? Again, we will just have to wait and see.
3. The Tabs width will shrink from 760 pixels wide to 520 pixels.
This means if you currently use the Static FBML App to create custom Tabs, such Honda and Coca-Cola, then you are going to have to re-design your Tabs. If not, they might look broken or poorly designed. I have never actually found a small business that knows how to use the Static FBML App to create custom Tabs… the webinar How Small Businesses Can Successfully Use Facebook Pages and Twitter is essential.
4. The ability to extract the e-mail addresses of your Fans will become available… maybe.
If your small business has created a Facebook Page App or plans to, then there is a new API which your App developer can tap into to prompt users of the App for their e-mail address. This will initially only affect a very few businesses, but down the road my guess is a company will use this new API to create a Facebook Fan Page App that will allow small businesses to extract e-mail addresses of fans for free or for a low-monthly fee. Such an App does not yet exist, but has been something small businesses have wanted for almost two years… wonder who will do it first? My guess is Involver or Sprout.
What do you think? Will small businesses will adjust to these changes like they have to previous changes before, or are these changes so dramatic that small businesses will abandon Facebook or at the very least, less likely to put so much effort into building their fan base? Or will it prompt them to become better at using Facebook? Do you think these changes could help small businesses in the long run?
Related Articles and Resources:
Webinar: How Small Businesses Can Successfully Use Facebook and Twitter
5 Things All Page and Brand Managers Should Know
Alert! Facebook Pages Are Changing: Are You Ready?
Note to Agencies and Page Managers:
100 Word Review: Google’s Real-Time Search for Small Businesses
Many businesses still struggle with how to measure Social Media ROI and are not so clear on what exactly the benefits are of utilizing social media. An obvious benefit is about take front and center stage in a few days when Google launches their Real Time Search to the public. If your business is not utilizing social media, then the only content that will show up is what others are saying about your business. Businesses that do utilize social media will have more control and will show up in real time results more often. Here’s a video demo from Google:
