Social media and SMEs

Posted: under News.

In yesterdays blog on how useful is Twitter as a business tool, we concluded that blogging is a more useful way of reaching our audience. An article in the Telegraph reports that 52 pc of respondents to a survey found that social media was useless for their business.

This comes as no great surprise as the whole social media thing can become the means itself rather than the means to the end, when most small business owners really want and need to concentrate on doing the stuff that results in an invoice.

It is a surprise, however, how many SMEs, don’t even have a website, preferring to use the more traditional methods of mail shots and face-to-face meetings and telephone calling. That is a pity, really as they are missing a trick here. The first thing that mots businesses do when they receive a mailshot, no matter how good it may be, is to check ou the business on the old world wide interweb and if there isn’t a website, or it is of an amatuerish nature, then the mailshot has effectively been wasted.

Keeping Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin up to date can be all consuming, it is true and whilst the company may feel that their time could be better spent elsewhere in the business, there is absolutley no excuse for not having even the simplest of websites.

A small html based brochure site can work wonders as a virtual shop window and need not be expensive. For most businesses, one extra order as a result of the website will prove a significant ROI.

We would advocate the addition of a blog to any website and use this to update the world on what is happening in the business. Of course, it needs to be updated regularly – minimum once a month – but it need not take too much time. Allocate an 1 hour on a Friday to add a few words to your site. It will reap enormous benefits.

Comments (0) Oct 19 2010


Bullying on Twitter

Posted: under News.

I recently wrote a piece on twitter as a business tool. Over this last weekend (16/17th Oct) one of the folks I was following was subject to an unacceptable campaign from a so called commentator. Although not targetted directly at the individual, allegations were made against a family member. Whilst it was supposed to be a “joke”, it was inappropriate and probably libellous.
There followed a protracted thread which also involved the instigator receiving abusive tweets in response. Whilst not condoning the actions of these misguided, if well meaning folks, the person who kicked the whole thing off really had no axe to grind. Really sowing what she reaped.

Whilst there may be some out there who promote the freedom of speech thing, and people in the public eye are fair game, I, for one, do not believe that this should under any circumstance extend to theri families.

Social media sites such as Twitter do not have the benefit of moderators – unlike forums which were their predecessors. Any inappropriate postings were deleted and the ultimate sanction was barring from the forum. Although it ispossible to be debarred from Twitter, it doesn’t really happen sufficiently often and as a consequence these Cyber bullies can and do thrive.

I suppose it is up to us to police our Tweets and to unfloow anyone who becomes abusive. Maybe then they will get the message.

Comments (0) Oct 18 2010


Twitter as a business tool?

Posted: under News.

A few weeks ago I wrote a piece on the merits of Facebook as an e-marketing tool and suggested that a well branded page on Twitter could help small business get their message across.

Having spent the last few months on Twitter, I am not so sure of its relevance for SMEs.

It is important, of course, to follow the right businesses and, more importantly, to have the right people follow you so that the viral marketing effect is maximised.

There is a tendency for some businesses to post large numbers of Tweets per day and whilst this undoubtedly increases their profiles, it may become self defeating as it is easy to overlook them.

One Tweeter – who shall remain nameless – posted 12 tweets in a 15 minute interval and it was clear that there was no monitoring of the information being posted as it was being repeated on a regular basis. I have stopped following as a result.

It is also a very time consuming pastime and even using Tweetdeck, it is easy to lose site of the fact that we are in business to do invoiceable stuff. Being a busy fool does not pay the bills.

So if you are a small business with limited time what do you do? Easy, Blog, blog, blog.

I am probably as guilty as anyone at not blogging more regularly. Duncan Bannatyne, who is an avid Tweeter also has his own blog. The first he uses as a general chat, views on the world and a bit of personal promotion and the blog is much more business oriented.

That for me, sums up Twitter. It is a great place to have some fun but business promotion is more effective through use of regular blogs.

For a while it was thought that Twitter, Facebook etc had made blogging redundant. Quite the contrary, blogging is an even more important marketing tool and even if only updated once a month can and will do wonders for your business.

Comments (0) Oct 18 2010