Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

It'll be interesting to revisit the research results in 12 months' time! What I love about social media is that it puts businesses of all sizes on a more even playing field. Gone are the days when the large corporations just threw money around to get their message heard. Now it's about getting to know the person or people behind the logo, and that's where the smaller business can actually get ahead of their bigger cousins.

Thanks for another great post John, your articles always get me thinking!

Louise

Thanks very much for using our research. Im glad you are finding it useful.

In comment to you louise. This is our third wave and we have seen huge growth in a number of areas over the past 18 months. We actually have another wave coming up in a couple of months. So check out my slideshare or blog

http://thingsdonotchangewechange.blogspot.com

for the latest

thanks guys

I certainly think more positively about companies that have a personal touch to their blog, not just companies that have a blog for the sake of having one.

IMHO, social media is here to stay because social media provides a fantastic opportunity for small, niche and regionally-based businesses to become known, liked and trusted at a very affordable price. The first people and businesses to "get it" will get richly rewarded.

Adrianne Machina
Duct Tape Coach

Great statistics and even a greater diagram. I keep talking to people that shy away from the social media and Why? There is so many different ways to interact and all you have to do is use a couple. Once you do, it is like taking training wheels off you bike, you will start using the freedom to your advantage. Maybe, even grow up and drive a car.

Wow. 73% of online users read a blog. I wonder if that means that they read regularly or have ever read one blog post in their entire life, or something else entirely.

I'm not sure if that's really an accurate representation of typical online behavior. I've heard that the most used feature of the Internet is retrieving email. I've also heard that the sites that get the most traffic are the "adult" sites.

I'm not trying to minimize the importance of having a blog (I have several), but I'm just wondering if MOST people really read blogs.

Hmmm. Maybe it doesn't really matter if MOST people read blogs. It's more important that any particular blog attracts the RIGHT people, not the most people.

It's not about readership, it's conversion that counts. Right?

@Sheryl - there is some indication that 73% is actually low because many people reach blogs, not because they intended to read a blog, because they searched for something and blog results turned up first. It's more likely 95% of online users have read a blog.

To some of your other points - social networks now attract more visits than porn sites.

And, it's always about results.

McCann who? Never heard of them. Did they pay you to blog about their questionable survey?

The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press reports only 10% of the public regularly reads political and news blogs.

@Antoinette - why I suspect there are many things you've never heard of. Regularly reading a political blog in not what this post is pointing out, but thanks for sharing.

I think there are 4 effective ways to use an online business networking site:

1. If its mainly business contacts you are looking for, then join a business only networking site and think carefully how you will set up your profile and the image you want to portray. The better the image is that aligns to what you do and offer, the better the chances are that someone or company will contact you looking for a fit. Its all part of that “Personal Branding” thing.
2. You will need to engage actively in the site. For example, LinkedIn has a Q&A section where you can pose questions categorized by industry interest, and again, you will need to give thoughtful, well articulated and genuine answers and pose relevant and timely questions so that people both in and outside your network become responsive.
3. LinkedIn and especially other networking sites such as Plaxo have an aggregating feature, where you can link your other online presences such as blogs, business websites, etc. to it, that will be effective in both directing others to informative and interesting sites and links to learn more about you, and those sites and links can direct people back to your social networking site.
4. If you meet a potential business contact offline, follow up and link to them online and visa versa. Then follow up.

When you're selling to other busineses the opportunities seem to be limited outside of blogging (always a good one of course) and possibly linkedin. Are there any other big ones?

It might be interesting if someone launched a social network for small service businesses - so if I've worked with John and trust him I can see who he recommends for related services.

Great post John and right on. Especially the fact businesses have to be blogging or they are really missing out. No longer can you throw up a yellow page ad. And no longer can you throw up a static web site, or a web yellow page, and than pay and pray someone will find you and actually call. You have to participate in what Social Media has done. Social media of all kinds has created conversations all over the web and if a business is not involved, they will be left behind. Not only must the business be involved by having a blog, but they must participate in the full scope of social media.

@Richard, maybe check out Ning and start that small service social network YOURSELF! The April edition of FastCompany did a whole feature on them and the reality that ANYONE cannot just join in the social media phenom, but actual start a network!

http://www.ning.com/

Why just hang out at Starbucks when you can start your own chain!?! This is a cool idea - wondering myself if it has legs. It does seem like a lot of work - or mostly patience. Facebook is a tool I use B2B - I'm not really selling per se, but I use it as part of the over all strategy of getting people to know, like and trust me. The way I look at it, B2B is such an impersonal acronym for what really takes place. There's no such thing as "business to business" - it's are PEOPLE dealing with PEOPLE. The game may have different rules, but it's still PEOPLE wanting to do business with other PEOPLE. So there's a lot of room to grow and enjoy trust-building relationships in B2B.

-Randy

This is wonderful research. I am active on most of social book marking websites in which i could meet knowledgeable persons for sharing views and ideas online with great business relationships.

John, thank you for the comment on my post. I have corrected the ("older") reference. I am still trying to work on the use of " and the context.

I have always appreciated the Duct Tape marketing philosophy. When writing about corporate blogging I try to write about strategy whenever pitching research (or the idea of selling) to readers.

You can have all the numbers in the world but if you are not authentic you will lose.

Thank you for all you do, John.

Thanks for sharing excellent info!

@John

Thanks for the update; I'm thrilled to hear that social networking sites are doing better than the "adult" sites. I've just recently started to use Twitter and Facebook.

Doing research for workshop on Social Media in Wilmington, NC. This is awesome info. Social media gets people to get to know, like, and trust you in a very leveraged way when your market is in the mood to be marketed to.

This might be a dumb question but this is the first time I ahve seen SlideShare. Is there some audio hiding somewhere for this or is it just visual?

@Reggie - not a dumb question at all - you can enable and sync audio with Slideshare presentations but not all do - this one does not have audio.

I think that the sheer numbers of people now engaging in social media is a clear indicator of it's popularity in the business realm. For me it's actually opened some doors that never would have been possible in any other way. To be truly global - or even national, depending upon your country of origin - social media allows you a way to get yourself, your "brand," [what you stand for personally], your product/service available for notice to prospective customers, associates and contacts. I think one major challenge for many is finding Time. Time has become a precious commodity...to run your business [it's daily tasks], advertise and and promote in traditional ways, advertise and promote now online - blog, social media site posts and updates...it can be daunting - especially for 1-person, home-based business people. - just my thoughts. - Linda

hey guys

Its great to see the positive comments about our research. We have done a great new piece on the role of strangers online helping to change our preceptions of products and brands. Check it out

http://thingsdonotchangewechange.blogspot.com/2...

The great thing about social media is that it allows people to know you or your brand and put trust in you. Leveraging social media in the correct way allows for users to connect with a brand or company at the time of their choice. I very much enjoyed the research. As part of my company this is something that I have become experienced in for a long time now.