small business & social media 2010 - prepared for ups
DESCRIPTION
On Wednesday, December 15th, Courtney Thurman of SmallWerks, Inc. presented on the emerging opportunities within the Small Business Market and the adoption of Social Media and the corresponding growth rates and opportunities.TRANSCRIPT
Small Business &
Social MediaAn Overview Prepared for UPS
Courtney Thurman
December 15th, 2010
Introduction – Courtney Thurman
CEO, SmallWerks, Inc.
SmallWerks, Inc. is a small business marketing agency.
Four-time Author, Small Business Marketing titles by Entrepreneur Press, a division alongside Entrepreneur.com and Entrepreneur magazine.
Co-Founder of ConnectOC, Orange County’s social media-driven networking group.
Recurring Guest Speaker at Cal State Fullerton, Chapman University and University of California Irvine.
Founder of the USC Entrepreneur Club of the USC Marshall School of Business and presented with their Special Services Recognition Award.
UPS Marketing - Requested Topics
1. Small Business Market Size & Trends
2. How is the Small Business Market Growing using Social Media? 3. How is Small Business Going Global? Green?
4. How are Small Businesses Marketing? Email? Reach? Conversion?
5. Search Engine Optimization & Effects of Internet Marketing
6. Content Plans & Social Media Monitoring
7. Adoption of Online Events, Crowdsourcing and Promotion
8. Overview of Case Studies
9. Resources & Videos
Small Business Market
SMALL BUSINESS MARKET: Statistical makeup of Small Business:
•What is the statistical make-up of Small Business?
•What are the demographics of the small business segment?
•Is there a difference in them using social media?
Small Business Market
Reuters Blog – May 2010
•National Small Business Week starts on May 25th
•Twenty-nine million (29M) small businesses in the US •Small Business Market supports fifty million (50M) employees
•Largest inhibitors now are funding and health insurance mandates
•60,000 small businesses received loans from the SBA last year
•SBA requested $30B in loan guarantees through community banks for 2011
National Small Business Week: Who Cares?” Reuters Blog. May 25, 2010. http://reut.rs/e82mSM
VIDEO:Meet BLANK
http://bit.ly/exTQAg
Social Media Information
USING SOCIAL MEDIA: •What’s it used for? •What are the statistics? •Going global? •Going green? •Monitoring: Does utilizing social media require constant monitoring of site? Which sites are best for business marketing?
Global Audience
4 Key Steps - Entering Social Media The Right Way
Step 1: Listen. See what people are saying about your brand, your products and your industry before jumping in.
Step 2: Interact. Join the conversation in a way that adds value. "You have to contribute to conversations people are already having to gain an audience," says Qualman.
Step 3: React. "If 70 percent of people are saying they like something about your product, how quickly [are you] changing your product to deliver more of what they like?”. Conversely, if people are talking about what they don't like about your product or brand, how quickly are you working to fix it? This stage is where many companies drop the ball.
Step 4: Sell. Now is the perfect time to seamlessly add in a little self-promotion. "If you're reacting to customer feedback to constantly improve your offering, selling will come naturally," Qualman states.
Source: Interview with Erik Qualman of SocialNomics.com on Bazaarblog.com.
Social Media Growth
GROWTH: How is the small business market growing using social media? REACH. Previously cost-prohibitive to be visible and have that much exposure before. Opening the two-way dialogue: Customer service has radically changed. Polls and surveys have changed how competitors learn about products and services.
Social Media Growth, Cont’d.
How Small Businesses Use Social Media
The University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business looked at the relationship between social media and small businesses and found that the technology adoption rates in the U.S. have doubled in the past year from 12% to 24%. Small Business Success Index Report - December 2009 telephone survey of 500 small business owners versus December 2008. The study concludes that nearly one in five small business owners are integrating social media into their business processes — Facebook and LinkedIn were the most popular sites. In fact, 45% of surveyed respondents even believe their social media initiatives will pay off financially in 12 months or less.
Social Media Growth, Cont’d. (2)
As the graphic below details, the small business owners who are using social media are primarily engaging in social media through company pages (75%) and status updates (69%) on Facebook or LinkedIn.
What’s especially intriguing is that a much smaller percentage of respondents — just 16% — are using Twitter as a customer service channel. Another interesting notion is that small business owners now believe social media can help them on the lead generation front, and that is the primary motivating factor for engaging in these new customer service channels.
So while half of surveyed respondents found the time it takes to use social media sites more daunting than expected, 61% are still putting in the hours and making active efforts to identify new customers.
Social Media Growth, Cont’d. (3)
Conclusion
Clearly social media has become a valuable tool for small businesses, but we’re especially curious to see how Twitter adoption rates fluctuate over the time.
While we expect more small businesses to use Twitter as a customer service channel in the year ahead, as it stands, Facebook and LinkedIn have become the predominant platforms for small business owners.
“How Small Business is Using Social Media [STATS]”. April 2010 Source: http://mashable.com/2010/03/02/small-business-stats/
Social Media Growth Graphic
Facebook Demographics Report
Facebook Demographics and Statistics Report 2010
Key Insight: 145% Growth in 1 Year •Facebook’s US user base grew from 42 million to 103 million in 2009. That’s a 144.9% growth rate.
•The 35+ demographic now represents more than 30% of the entire user base.
•The 55+ audience grew a whopping 922.7% in 2009.
•Atlanta had the highest growth rate in 2009 at 267.6%
Source: www.istrategylabs.com
Facebook Demographics Infographic
Facebook Statistics
Facebook versus the United States [Small Business Going Global]
Facebook’s official company statistics outline the breakdown of the sites over 400 million active users. While the site points out about 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States, it doesn’t dive deeper into the U.S. numbers.
To find out more about the average American Facebook user and how he or she compares to the average American, we dug a little further. After crunching the numbers and comparing the data, this is what we found.
“By the Numbers: Facebook vs. The United States [INFOGRAPHIC]” May 2010. Source: http://mashable.com/2010/04/05/facebook-us-infographic/
Internet Marketing
INTERNET MARKETING: Using SEO and Advertising: Small Biz and Search Engine Optimization? How and what are they using to market themselves? Overall Marketing Activities: Sell their products? Email Campaigns? Web-Campaigns? Reach? Conversion?
Location-based Tools & Rewards: Facebook Places, FourSquare, Yelp, etc.
Event Marketing: Ability to host online events? What do they look like? Are they well attended?
Case Studies Ministry Momentum Golf Tournament &
Support Dinner
Escalate LIVE 2010
ConnectOC 2010 and ConnectOC 2.0
Cars4aCause Campaign
Milestones in Leadership Summit 2011
Recommended Web Articles
1. “National Small Business Week: Who Cares?” Reuters Blog. May 25, 2010. http://reut.rs/e82mSM
2. “Facebook Demographics and Statistics Report 2010 – 145% Growth in 1 Year”. http://www.iStrategyLabs.com
3. “By the Numbers: Facebook vs. The United States [INFOGRAPHIC]”. Mashable.com. May 2010. Source: http://mashable.com/2010/04/05/facebook-us-infographic/
4. “How Small Business is Using Social Media [STATS]”. April 2010 Source: http://mashable.com/2010/03/02/small-business-stats/
5. “HOW TO: Define a Social Media Strategy for an Enterprise”. Mashable.com. December 2010. http://mashable.com/2010/12/07/social-media-strategy-enterprise/
Web Resources (Research)
1. Socialnomics.com2. Hubspot.com3. Mashable.com4. Nielsen5. EMarketer6. TheNextWeb.com7. TED.com8. SlideShare.com9. KissMetrics.com10.CheckFacebook.com11.SocialMediaExaminer.com12.MarketingProfs.com
Contact Info
Courtney ThurmanSmallWerks, Inc.Phone: [email protected]
Connect Online:SmallWerks.comMarketingFromHell.comTwitter.com/SmallWerksFacebook.com/SmallWerksIncSendOutCards.com/SmallWerksLinkedIn.com/in/CourtneyThurman