My Organized Biz

Friday Feature: Can Big Brother help your business?

by Jennifer Hofmann on March 28th, 2008

(www.myorganizedbiz.com) - I’m thrilled to be featuring Leif Hansen this week from SparkNW. He’s had quite a lot of press and camera time lately around his work with SoulTech, including a recent feature on the Today Show.

Jen: Welcome, Leif! Now, you’ve got your businesses, Spark Northwest & Spark Social Media, and recently the ‘Soul Tech’ workshop - that’s a lot! How are you spending most of your time?

Leif: I divide it a few ways, but the main focus for me lately is doing consulting and development around new social media. People are more and more interested in things like podcasting, social networking, microblogging, social bookmarking, etc. It’s richer media, more interactive, and its the way things are heading. It’s fun and a little scary because it can suck up so much of one’s time and life (that’s where the ‘Soul Tech’ workshop comes in.)

Jen: Before we dig in to all of it, can you tell us what compels you to focus on social networking?

Leif: Well, underneath everything I do, whether face-to-face or through technology, is a common thread: connecting people, facilitating an enjoyable/exciting process, and motivating people to action (hopefully to transformation). The new social media, particularly social networking, is really setup to facilitate all three of those steps (though each step, being virtual, has its pitfalls.)

I have to say that I’m also skeptical of social media’s limitations (I use the term ’skeptech’ when blogging about my tech concerns). Because I value real face-to-face time, I’m constantly struggling with balancing the real world versus the virtual world. You’ve got to have both - too much time in front of the screen, your connections are not as deep.

Jen: Agreed - they’re both powerful formats, but balance is key. So, what would you say are the benefits of using social media in one’s small business?

Leif: Good and hard question. Off the top of my head I’d say social media does 4 or 5 things for the small business:

1. It can help improve your product or service based on real time feedback - a power which I think is just barely being tapped by companies.

2. It helps increase retention and loyalty of current customers by deepening the relationship - keeping in touch and giving people a place to share themselves, like a nest for them to settle back into. This ‘customer community’ mentality can also help keep your business genuinely service-oriented, which will always be good for business.

3. It offers you the ability to promote a product/service almost instantaneously through new channels and to new markets. In addition, by offering social bookmarking links (like Digg, Del.icio.us, Stumble Upon, etc) and by making it easy for your readers, listeners or viewers to share your content with others, your business can ‘go viral’.

4. Social media puts you in the hot zone. When you’re using the most innovative tools, it implies relevance and that your business is ‘hot’.

5. Some businesses may even be able to do real-time business through new social media: video conferencing options, paid-subscription based content, SkypeCasting ( a group conference call - for example, combine this with a pay per call online class.)

Jen: There are so many possibilities in this media that a small business owner could get overwhelmed. What advice would you give to someone considering incorporating social media into their business?

Leif:

• Ask yourself what your end goal is - what’s the destination? Think about why you’re doing this.
• Do some thinking about the possible outcomes and decide what your priorities are. for example, do you want this to get feedback? To develop web presence more? To connect clients with each other? Be strategic about it.
• Decide how much time and resources money you want to invest in it. Be realistic.
• Take stock of your own technical skills. If you’re someone who is high-tech and can learn this stuff easily, then you can DIY. If you’re not or you’re busy, it’s probably better to hire someone else to do it for you.
• Come up with a timeline and a plan. The temptation is to do it all tomorrow, but you’ll get better results if you lay out a plan and the steps to develop based on your goals.

Jen: And someone can contact you for this kind of support, right?

Leif: Yes!

Jen: This is great information. So tell me, what’s some of the coolest stuff you’ve seen or tried lately that’s helping you organize in your business?

Leif: Well, there are so many I’d want to suggest, but here are a few geeky cool tools that come to mind.

Have you heard of jott.com?You call their toll-free number and it takes your message, then translates it into text (with about 95% accuracy) - and then it can add that to a to-do list like twitter, etc. How about GrandCentral, recently acquired by Google. This currently free service gives you a ‘lifetime’ phone number that can then ring all your other numbers depending on who is calling, when, etc. Tons of features you’ll need to check out.

I’d suggest people checking out ‘Talkshoe.com’ –a service that allows you to easily set up your own live talk show and podcast, and that will even pay you based on the number of live listeners and downloads you receive. Even crazier, checkout Ustream.TV - with this service anyone can have their own TV station for free. In about a half hour, you log in, set up account, and anyone you give the link to can see it - BOOM! you have your own TV station. Crazy, huh?

Jen: Awesome!

Leif: There’s even a service called Qik, that gives you your own station using a cell phone! You turn it on and it’s a live video channel. Of course, with this kind of power there is potential for great good (think of social justice issues brought to attention) and great abuse (think big brother.)

Jen: Depending on how it’s used, right?

Leif: Exactly. One other geeky thing to check out is eyejott.com. You just use the camera on your computer (or you can buy one) and then leave a short video message on your blog or website - then other people can reply with video, or with voice (if they don’t have video.)

Jen: Thanks for giving us a rundown of the benefits of social media in small business and the most organized ways of incorporating it into our marketing plan.

And readers - are your eyes glazed over? Have you used any of these tools? Chime and and share what you think below…

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POSTED IN: Communication, Friday Feature, Technology Tips