The principles for small businesses



Photo by visualpanic

 My last post on Chin Chin's use of Social Media got me thinking. It got me thinking about how small businesses can leverage SM to their benefit.

Perhaps it's been so successful because it's one of the first channels that's accessible to everyone. No major expenses required, it can be done without an ad agency, a media buyer and a research company. Of course, these things can help too - but a small business-man can pull off a relatively proffessional SM job without the general public batting an eyelid.

So I got googling, and came across these principles for businesses wanting to dip their toes into social media at MarketingProfs.com

At a super high level - but read more here.

Rule 1: Develop your social skills
Rule 2: Let culture lead your way
Rule 3: Mind your online and offline manners
Rule 4: Listen, learn, adapt
Rule 5: Include others in everything you do
Rule 6: Rely on others for growth and innovation
Rule 7: Reward others and you will be rewarded, too

Rule 3, 5,6 and 7 speak to me especially. While all these rules are key for successful SM strategy, these seem to exemplify the new way of conducting yourself (and your brand) online. Instead of paying their way to exposure brands need to work for it, and rely on the goodwill of others to spread it.

This might be a new and novel approach for big businesses, but for the small community business it's nothing revolutionary. Small businesses have been relying on word of mouth and the benevolence of stranger for generations. And now they can do what they do best, and utilise SM in the process.

Chin Chin

Chin Chin launched barely 3 months ago but already has queues out the door. I lined up with the masses last Friday night - at 5.45pm there was a line out the door and we were seated by 6.50pm.

Was it worth it? The food AND cocktails were sensational, but besides that, I'm intrigued by their use of social media.

A little section of the menu drew my attention, check out this shot featuring our dee-lish son-in-law eggs AND 2 little icons down the bottom left.

 

For little more than 3 months they've got some impressive stats:

• 1,555 Facebook check ins
• 1,135 Facebook likes
• 1,267 tweets
• 1,239 followers
• Too many reviews to count on urbanspoon

Chin Chin employs someone to answer
all their tweets and keep their social pages up to date. There's an amazing volume of engaged tweets and responses right through from pre-launch to current day.

 

They follow other trendy restaurants like Earl Canteen and Hardware Societe and are already involved in initiatives such as Feed Melbourne.

Well known Melbourne food bloggers have reviewed:
Tomato
Melbourne Culinary Review
The Weekly Review
The very very hungry caterpillar
And many more...

 

So what is it that's made Chin Chin such a success?

 

Undoubtedly social media has contributed, but there's no point creating 'hype' unless it is lived up to - and Chin Chin does just that with food, beverages, service and interior. Consumers can sense a fake a mile away - to make social media work authenticity is required in both the online AND offline environment.

 

A nice example of effective social media for small businesses - well done Chin Chin!

Social media mishap? Don’t worry, you’re covered!

Is your company keen to get involved in Social Media but concerned about the potential bad press? Just take out insurance to cover it.

As reported by the Financial Standard online - Peter Fraser, a founding partner of social media intelligence company says:

"...boards are caught between their Gen X and Y employees and shareholders, realising that they have got to understand the risks associated with social media."

And now there’s a product designed to help!

"In fact, there was a product released six months ago by a major global insurer that can provide an injection of capital if you can truly prove the loss of revenue linked to a particular event, and there are 17 defined perils including an adverse social media outbreak and misuse or theft of private information."

Is it possible to safeguard your company’s reputation?

Check out the article.

Are the other channels jealous?

So, first blog post - and first big question!

As a marketing professional, and one who's specialised in BTL marketing for most of my career, I'm fascinated with how social media fits in to everything else we do. How do businesses make the best use of social to achieve their desired results.

As a one-to-one marketer I was right there on the bandwagon with businesses using social media for marketing, however I've noticed a disturbing trend lately amongst the other channels - I think they're a little bit jealous!

'So WHAT about social media - it's just another channel right!?!'
What's so special about it - of course TV ads are effective!'
'Gen Y spend all day on it making pointless comments - we don't want these people as customers anyway'

But isn't social media about building meaningful conversations and by using it, can't brands relate to their customers on a more personal level?

Q. What's the best mix of social media and other channels to keep their 'jealousy' at bay and achieve the best results?

This agency have certainly leverage social media to demonstrate their expertise, it's done the rounds of the advertising and marketing world, and it's also an interesting example of an integrated strategy.