I originally titled this post “Do Small/Local Businesses Need Social Media?”  I realized it is a silly title.  It no longer is a question in any serious business owners mind.  We need only to focus on the mounting reasons social media is not an option.

Social Media is to right now, what the telephone was in the 1910′s and the Internet was in the late 1990′s.  If you don’t start right now you will lose new clients.  It does not matter how big or small or dominate you currently are.  Early adopters win.

To prove, I’m not trying to hype this up for my ‘sales sake’, let’s quickly look at a new development.

The friends of potential clients now visibly influence Google page rank via social media.

Yes, Google held true to their word. Within the last week the search engine giant started to influence page rank based on what friends tweet about.

Twitter influence in page rank.

The above image is the last two results on the first page after MY search for “Small Business Marketing”.  Notice the little pictures of people below the results. (Click on the picture to enlarge.) Those are people I follow on twitter. Google knows because I gave them permission in my gmail account.  If you don’t know what gmail is, just know, LOTS of your customers are using it.

Jonathan Fields is a well know Internet Marketing expert.  He self-promoted his own page on a twitter feed once.  So what, big deal. I don’t really know him personally anyway.

However Jeremy on the second result I do know personally and that is not his website.  As a bonus he tweeted on a local article in St. Louis.  (I lived in St. Louis for several years before moving back to Eugene.)  Guess which person I trust more?  Ding – Ding you win the prize for picking the person I know personally.  Not to hard to conclude which link I want to check out first.  BTW that is the LAST result on the first page.

That is how social media works. We generally want to do the same things as our friends.  It’s why we picked them.  If you don’t want to be like your friends, you should pick new friends. Otherwise it is a lot of stress for both of you.

OK if you still don’t see the importance let’s use my friend Jala to drive the point home.

Jala and I graduated together at the same high school here in Eugene.  Jala is a late 30′s stay at home entrepreneur.  Before baby boy came along Jala rubbed shoulders with the uppity ups at New Season’s market.

The thing is Jala is a twitter machine.  20+ tweets a day on a slow day. It is how she stays in contact with her girlfriends, her corporate ties (and 4000 other people) while enjoying her new phase of life. Don’t think she is one of a kind.  Just because you are not on twitter doesn’t  mean your customers are not.

She is an advocate of things she likes.  When she likes something she tweets about it.  Because she is very likable her friends like what she likes.  You do remember the whole you do what your friends do part?

Now that Google is storing and linking all tweets to webpages in their search results, Jala’s friends don’t have to catch all her tweets the moment they come out.  Pretend Jala sent a tweet about her awesome eco-friendly dentist.  (I’m making this example up, but I know you are a smart reader and can see the truth of the situation.)

(Fictional) Tweet Sent: “OMG my dentist is amazing. No harsh chemicals. http://www.eugeneecodentist.com”

Three months later Jala’s friend is searching for a new dentist on her smart phone during her break. What does she see in Google?
“http://www.eugeneecodentist.com”
Shared by Jala

Now the fun beings.

Friend via twitter: “Jala I see you go to EugeneEcoDentist.com. Do you really like him?”
Jala: “He is great! Lets get drinks.  I miss you. It has been too long.”

Then they got together to talk over Dr. Eco for 5 minutes and spend the next hour talking about everything else under the sun.

Look at what Dr. Eco did as a small business owner.  He provided space for a reconnection and gained a new client.  It did not cost anything extra.  He was able to do it because he was wise about Internet marketing and put social media buttons, tied to his accounts, on his website

My point is IF YOU DON”T HAVE THE DANG SOCIAL MEDIA BUTTONS ON YOUR WEBSITE YOU WILL LOOSE NEW CLIENTS. Google will guarantee  it.  Do you want to be there first or your competitors?

How much will it cost you to miss out on one effort free new client?

You don’t need me to do it. Here is a how to guide from Mashable

If you can’t do it yourself, have somebody do it for you.   Look below this line, that is what you need.

Photo: damnlol.com

Not much more needs to be said. This may be the easiest blog post I ever make.

(Now yellowpages.com is a good place to put a listing. I highly recommend the free listing.)

1. Building Trust and Customer Engagement

Your customers want to trust you.  Meaning they want to trust in you before they pay you.   Social media increases the trust factor and eventually sales.  The more ways a potential client can get to know about you the more comfortable they will we with working with you.  As it is said the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know.  You could be the best mechanic with a stealer reputation with your current customers.  But if new potential clients can’t see or engage with you, you will have the trust factor of a chop-shop down a dark alley.     The engagement  is often one sided with the clients silently listening.  Myself and many of my cohorts (non Internet marketers) can testify of its importance.  I try to ritually ask new clients and customers “Why did you pick me?”.  About a quarter say they had be watching me on Facebook or have been following my twitter feed.

I’ll admit Twitter specifically may not be ideal fit for your business.  Unless you are a naturally witty poditist and an extreme extrovert your patients are not waiting for an daily updates from their foot doctor.  However, you may consider connecting with your fellow pedigreed pedi pals because it will increase content.  Remember everybody is silently listening even when you are not directly talking to them.   That leads us into the second point.

2. Google loves Social Media

Repeat after me, “If Google loves it, I will love it.”  Stop repeating the phrase right before you are completely brain washed.  In general we want to pay attention to what Google is liking.  Matt Cutts of Google tells the world social media is something not to be ignored.

Watch the video if you like. If you don’t have time here my paraphrase.  Social Media is a factor in page rank.  For now it is minor don’t have sleepless nights if you are not the king/queen of Facebook.

These days a professional looking website can be created between 1 – 7 days.  The cost can be free if you do it yourself.  The most accepted and search engine friendly website platform (WordPress.org)  is free.  The template (aka layout) varies from free to $100.

The hard expensive part is now free, for anybody, in the world.  It is why I left web development.  I could not compete with faster, better, cheaper.

A professional will develop one between $300-$2000.  The largest factor in cost is how many custom pictures and graphics you want.   A few are good to have some eye appeal.  However many are not necessary.  Devote your money to creating fewer high quality graphics/pictures than having a graphical masterpiece.  Remember the goal is good content for the search engines to read. This will help your Internet marketing and page rank more. The search robots don’t care how how pretty your site is.  You will waste a lot of money to make a pretty website if it does not show up on the first two pages of search results.   It is similar to building a museum from a world renown architect with the best art from all ages in the middle of Iowa.  Fantastic creation, but nobody is going to come look at it.  It is too far away.

Here is a perfect example of how little guys can beat the giants with lots of money in Eugene. Go to Google and type in “General Contractor Eugene“. On  May 9th 2011, you will have seen the below results. Notice the second natural listing, David M Zarzycki.

Click to zoom

Click to zoom

Mr. Zarzycki’s website is simple inexpensive and slightly outdated. Yet it ranks higher than Koala Built a local Eugene competitor with an expensive looking website.

Click to zoom

I looked 10 pages deep in the search results to find Koala Built Homes and gave up. Good SEO tactics, complete business listings and reviews will always be better Internet marketing practices. Oh BTW who do you think will be easier and faster to load on a mobile device? You have 5 seconds to have the page load and catch the attention of a mobile user. Less is better.

“Google suggests you make it easy to find you.”  My translation: Google gives higher page rank for mobile friendly sites.

Is your website mobile ready?  We can get you there.

Put your name, email, and phone number in the form below
and I will set up a free consultation on how you can cheaply
and easily add mobile marketing in your business.

It does not have to be.

The internet is full of successful people using low-cost equipment to win fans/customers and earn profit.  New pocket video recorders average $150.  These toy like recorders boast a higher resolution than most production cameras 5 years ago.  An apple iPhone will work great for the budget minded DYIer.

Impatient viewing patterns reducing production costs too.  One old school of thought was expensive video editing kept the attention of the viewer.  It is still true for Hollywood. Movies are for entertainment.  Main Street videos are the opposite.  Those are watched for information.  Short and to the point is better.  Five seconds are all you have to turn viewer curiosity into interest to hear more.  If 3 seconds  is used up by fancy graphics of your logo flying around… two seconds is a short time.

Viewers might be impatient, but they do not have a short attention span.. kind of.  Keeping videos down to 2 minutes or less is best.  However this is still an eon when compared to the TV days of 20-30 seconds time slots.  What viewers want to see what I call the Trifecta: authenticity, expertise and a personal connection.  Translation.. Can I trust you, can I trust you, can I trust you?  That is harder to do in an exact 20-30 seconds.  Massive editing was used to cram everything in.  It’s much easier to capture the Trifecta in a single 1 to 2 minutes take, because you don’t have to be time bound in your delivery.  Customers want authenticity.  A few stumbles of a word or a slight nervous behavior can actually lend to your credibility.  Viewers think you are hiding something when you are too polished.

The newest video editing software is cheap and easy to use.  You can learn the needed basics of video editing in a week and $100.  Professionals can produce a video in half if not a quarter of the time it used to take 4 years ago.

Lastly, no reoccurring advertising costs.    The age of the internet is truly changing financial models.