They launched the program to recognize those who have made significant contributions to the organization in promoting it’s mission and purpose.  The primary Honoree was Tom Horne, Superintendent of Education

At the event they distributed the December 2009 copy of SCOREBoard too and I was happy to see articles by Lon Safko and myself filling the issue.  I had submitted an article, but found out later that it was a bit long for the publication and left it to the editors to make the needed changes.

The result was it looked great and the message of the article was easily conveyed.  I feel blessed and flattered to have the article published by such a wonderful organization – I owe thanks to Maryanne, Lon and everyone associated with SCORE.

Those of you involved in social media will recognize the reference to Gary Vaynerchuk / WineLibrary.TV in the ROI example and the use of the analogy given by Marcel LeBrun as the ‘Social Phone’ in Episode 2 of my podcast interview.

As I said the article was edited to fit the space in the newsletter so now that they have it published in the edited format, I present the unedited article here for you to read and enjoy.

The question seems to be on many business owners mind these days – “should I be making an investment in social media today?”

Admittedly, I’m a little bias on this answer as a social media evangelist and I would hate to be a guy with a hammer that sees everything as a nail, so let’s look at some of the most recent published statistics.

From them, we can get some sense of the impact and effectiveness of social media and take my opinion out of the equation.

• A wine distributor in New Jersey grew their company from $4M to $50M using social media as a primary tactic to market

Consider these results –

• A company invested $15,000 in direct mail offer and got 200 new customers
  • $75 acquisition cost per customer
• They invested $7,500 in a freeway billboard, repeated the same promotion and got 300 new customers
  • $25 acquisition cost per customer
• Repeated the same promotion again, using a popular micro-blog system ($0 hard cost) and got 1,800 new customers
  • $0 acquisition cost per customer? Well, $0 hard cost at least

hmm…

If those statistics begin to interest you, then yes, you might already be considering how social media might be used by a company of your size and in your industry. Now the question becomes not ‘if’ you should invest in social media but ‘where’ and maybe ‘how fast?’

‘Where’ is a question that asks, “of the several hundred or thousands of places on the Internet I might open an account and dive in, where should I start?” Choices include Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, but what about Blogger, Meebo, YouTube, FastPitch, or Flickr?

The answer is a bit deeper than I can approach here, but this may be a relevant statistic –

• 300,000 companies (competitors?) have decided to already opened a presence on Facebook

As I see it, there are two investment variables in a basic entrepreneurial equation – time & money. ‘How fast’ questions the ability to invest in what it takes to create and maintain a presence in social media. If you have no money, be prepared to buy and read everything you can and to invest time in learning what works best for you – we recommend ‘The Social Media Bible’ by Lon Safko and David Brake. Self paced education will always cost less money, but will take a good deal more time.

If you are constrained with time, money is your answer.  With prudent investment, you can buy time by hiring the right people. Of course, it is your company and you get to make the decision about how much of each to invest, but investing in social media is something you should be doing now.

Why? A few more statistics for you –

• Companies with the highest level of social media activity grew sales by 18%. Companies with the least presence showed a decline of -6%
• Online advertising effectiveness increases over 100% when coupled with social media
• 71% of companies surveyed are planning to increase investment in social media by an average of 40% because a) low cost, b) it seems to be getting traction and c)we have to do it

You may not be a statistics person though, so let’s put it another context then.

Imagine for a moment that a customer or prospective customer calls your company with a question, a comment, a request for help or maybe a complaint. Imagine picking up the phone and listening to them for a few seconds and then imagine you or your employee, carefully placing the phone on the desk, allowing the conversation to occur, but intentionally ignoring the customer or prospect.

They are talking to you, but you are not listening.

Sounds a little crazy doesn’t it?

When we move that image to online media that involves a social component, the scenario plays itself out thousands of times a day in hundreds of locations. The ‘social media phone’ could be ringing off the hook and unless they have the tools and tactics in place, many businesses will not even hear it and with the speed of electrons, hundreds or thousands of other customers and prospects WILL hear it! They may also notice that you did not engage or respond – would they take that as a comment on your ability to handle their business?

In spite of those discussions, you may be thinking that “this social media thing is probably just a fad though; I mean how popular could this social media thing be anyway?” Well, it is pretty big. Social media is now more popular on the web than adult entertainment. The membership in some online services is huge; Facebook is now over 320,000,000 members in 170+ countries – hat’s more than the population of Norway, Finland and Sweden – combined. Usage statistics show that about a quarter of them log in everyday.

OK, so social media is big, but how is a statistic about Facebook relevant to my business in Phoenix?  The best estimates suggest that as of July 2009, Arizona had over 1 million people using Facebook. How would your business be impacted by connecting with a million of your fellow Arizonans?  Could you expand your shipping to other states with the extra business? How many of the 320,000,000 would you need to connect to grow revenue 5%? or another 50%? or a 150%?

You might find with proper planning and a few dollars that you can connect with new customers with a click of the mouse, regardless of where they are or what time they decide to visit your website and buy.

Should businesses be investing in social media? Yes – if nothing else, start listening. Create an account in Google Alerts (a free service from Google) and set a listening post up that can instantly let you know when and where you, your name or your industry are being mentioned.

If you are ready for something more, check www.TheSocialMediaBible.com, or look over my website here at www.StevenGroves.com, look for and read the post on ‘The Trinity of Social Media’. It is a very basic tactical strategy that will get you moving with some of the basic social media tools and, in virtually every case, those tools can be extended into a more robust and engaging strategy when you are ready.

Social media a fad? Yes, it could be referred to as a fad; one like the Internet, email, and cell phones once were. It is a fad that will forever change the way we connect to our customers, prospects and stakeholders in ways that will change our culture.

Welcome to social media!

Related posts:

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• The ROI of Social Media, Again

I liked the promotion from the beginning, but that’s because I’m a caffeine junkie and free is always a good price.

I did not work with him on the planning or promotion of the event but I was very happy to see him investing in activity to grow his consumer base and I got a good Cup O’ Joe in the process.

Like any effort I come across in marketing, I was very interested in seeing the results of the activity.  The best result in this effort would be an up-tick in new customers coming through the door, indicating that the visibility of the organization was improved, at least for the period of time the promotion was running.  The long term objective is that these new consumers would find that the product was tasty, well produced and served in a way that made it worth stopping here for coffee instead of a nearby ‘char-bucks’ – there are three within a 2 mile radius – all with drive-thru access.

I’ve had quite a few conversation with my friend about the company, his background, and the product.  I know he’s very proud of the product he offers the market – he buys his own beans from the importers, roasts them in a commercial roaster, intimately understanding the process and how it creates flavor in the product.  He then grinds them particular to the brewing method and finally brews them in whatever drink you’re wanting just as they come out of the grinder fresh and with a delicious aroma – I love walking into his shop.

Today was the first day of the special promotion to drop in and get the free cup of coffee.  I showed up near the end of the event at around 9:40A.  I looked around and saw that there were two other free coffee drinkers in the shop (could tell by the cup they serve the free drink in), a customer drinking an iced drink and the Barista.  I made it five when I came in with my copy of ‘Advertising Age’ under my arm.

Maybe I am expecting too much, but free coffee of the quality this guy produces is like manna from heaven – you just have to have some and once you do, you would make it high on your list of preferred coffee vendors.  I expected a much larger crowd.  Maybe the flow of customers was larger earlier – I’m waiting to discuss the event, it’s promotion and the results.

Here is what I know of the events promotion so far – they printed several yard signs and posted them on the street around the intersection near the shop.  It’s how I found out about it actually.

I do think this is a good way to get the casual drive-by customer, but consider for a moment that he does not have a drive-thru.  A consumer will have to park their car, and go inside to get the free coffee. 

Hmm… I began to see a few wrinkles in the plan emerging, so I thought I’d take a look at what he was doing in online promotion / marketing.

• Main Website - Their main website does not mention the promotion. 
• It does offer a different promotion however – mention that you saw the website when you go in and you get a different promotion; a two-for-one offer.
• Twitter - The last tweet from the shop was June 24th – almost a month ago.  The tag on their Twitter pages says “Support local coffee! Roasted fresh on site! Follow us for daily drink specials and get the inside scoop. ”  They have 36 followers on Twitter.
• Facebook Fan Page - The last post on their Facebook page was July 11 and that was a pitch to buy their newly designed T-shirts.  The Barista was NOT wearing when I went in today.   They have 139 fans of their page too, but no announcement of the free coffee promotion.
• Yelp - Yelp also has a listing for them, but the address is wrong and it has too few reviews to be a good representation of them.
• Phone – Their voice message that comes up when you phone in and they do not answer does not mention it.

Summary - On the face of it I’d suggest that my friend has a disjointed sense of what he want to accomplish with his marketing and is investing meager resources on a hit-miss approach.  I see this regularly, in one-on-one conversations with prospects for in our consulting practice at TSMB media, at social events and industry gatherings.

My friend, like sooo many other people, are doing one thing, or another, but I’ve not seen yet where he is connecting them to maximum effect. 

My recommendation is to get the disconnected parts of his online presence and off line marketing working for him in a single effort to drive visibility of the company and customers to his location.   Use his online presence to listen to the market and find more ways to push more java bean juice into peoples hands.

I love this guy, I like his product and will sitting with him a bit to cover what my research has come up with, get more input from him and come up with an affordable strategy that he himself can pursue to  improve results.  Look for an update on the ‘Coffee Shop Case Study’ in a few weeks.

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The sponsors deserve a lot of thanks – you all helped make the event possible and you contributed generously to the mission of OTEF; Microsoft BizSpark, Infusionsoft, Wells-Fargo, Osborn Maledon, C-Scan Technologies, City of Tempe Community Development, Arizona Department of Commerce, Deru Internet, Phoenix Business Journal, HSL Financial, Gangplank, Digestif, Sacks PR, BusinessWire, and BrainSavers all made meaningful contributions.  Metro Studios and Essential Event Technologies made service and in-kind donations as well

The speakers, the breakout session presenters, the staff at ASBA and Joan Kerber-Walker all deserve some thank too.  Chuck Reynolds did a great website, Justin Crossman produced a great logo, Melissa Balkan / StrongDesign gave us a program I know I used every minute.There are probably a dozen or so other people that made contributions I did not mention, but the sponsors all helped make the event possible with their generous donations of money, resources or in-kind products and services.  All of which I know are mentioned at www.AZEntreprenurship.com

What’s next? a well deserved rest (I’m in Claypool Hill, Virginia as I write this, visiting friends) and then back to the work of launching Silent Dispatch, looking at next years event (promising to be event bigger & better) and enjoying the upcoming holiday with my family.  OTEF’s work for next spring is set it seems, looks like the event did it’s job by raising enough to fund a program next year in the community.

See you all soon.

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• Generational / Cultural Connections - I have often been called somewhat of an anomaly in my career before, so it’s not to weird for me to have people say so now.  Early on, I was the youngest of the team and brought a lot of energy and creativity to an effort.  Now I am one of the older guys sitting around the social media technology table and I still bring creativity to the table that has been tempered with experience.  I hang out with both a traditional entrepreneurial community and I’ve also been working more and more with what I’ll call a new generation and culture of entrepreneurship, a culture exemplified by social media and it’s impact on marketing and it’s ability to create community.  One is often represented by slacks / suits, collared shirts, hard shoes and ties and the other by flip flops, jeans and silk-screened tees.  This event saw both of them mixing and mingling in the pursuit of knowledge in the entrepreneurial equation.  I think we need to see a lot more of it and we need to look for way to connect the two, not drive generational or cultural wedges between them.
• Passion by Gary Vanerchuk – My favorite presenter of the day was Gary Vanerchuk.  It was not so much his stories about WineLibrary.TV or the family business’ trials and tribulations that struck me, but his emphatic encouragement that we all have to do what we’re passionate about, the thing that is meaningful to us individually.  Not just doing the thing we think is going to make us some money.  In this age of social media, what you’re passionate about WILL come through – either by you delivering it to your audience or from your customers, suppliers and competitors doing it.  People will find you out if you’re just posing and they will talk about whether or not you’re passionate about what you’re doing.  Gary suggested that even if that approach does not make you a million, you will be happier with your life than if you gave up your passion for a buck.  I liked Gary’s message.  I have my own story about why I do the work I do and how it fills my life with a passion to learn and do what I do in social media.
• Microsoft BizSpark - BizSpark is one of the biggest announcements of the year, I am not sure a project of this scope and caliber has even been launched in the history of business.  It is a project that only a company the size and depth of Microsoft could have launched.  At it’s core is the ability to provide the start-up entrepreneur with integrated enterprise-quality tools at little or no hard cost.  The low-cost alternative has been the development and deployment of solutions using OpenSource Solutions (OSS) technology with the integration left to the entrepreneur.  OSS is not necessarily a bad alternative, but the addition of the Microsoft suite to the decision process means that now the tech entrepreneur can make the best possible decision, not just the best OSS-based decision. Silent Dispatch was announced as an early adopter / inductee of the program, so again I am in full disclosure here – I like what they’ve done and have some perspective after 25 years in tech.

These are the things that made the event significant for me; I’m interested in hearing what made it worth the investment of time and dollars for you

(Update – Chance Carpenter / EET just post a bunch of YouTube videos on what many of you thought about the conference – thx Chance!)

• Gary Vaynerchuk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH7Ik9oOZ-Q
• Matt Mullenweg: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laFy1vhtlMM
• Roseann Higgins: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRv8DXm_C1g
• Chance Carpenter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPLegfqw8-Q
• Toby Lindeman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYEkhWekdB0
• Chris Brogan.: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw2le3Vg8Ls
• Mike Edwards: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLWR988VN-w
• Heather Herr: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7crDz0eYrI4

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The reason I am live blogging on this topic is that the subjects he is covering in the Solomon Sales System have me thinking about the underlying elements in a successful social media marketing effort.  I am not sure how deeply the entire Solomon Sales System model fits social media marketing, but one of the first elements he covers first is the need to ‘Engage’ your customer.  So it got me thinking about how the social media marketer needs to embrace the same concept of engagement.

Social media branding and marketing requires the participant to definitely engage and pretty much with the characteristics Michael cites in the Solomon Sales System model – Trust, Credibility and Interest.

Michael is still tuning his presentation on the Solomon Sales System, but he is spot-on with characteristics he’s identified in the ‘Engage’ segment of his system, I think they apply to not just to the sales situation, but to social media in general and here is how and why I say that -

Trust – Social media requires trust, but how do you develop trust in the online social setting?  My perspective is that the development of trust is based on participation in the same sphere / community as your audience.  They will become used to seeing you in the same community they’re in and they will come to trust you as something more than an interloper.  Trust is not immediately acquired however, it takes time and requires patience.  I think that a referral from a mutual friend would also be a good way to establish some level of immediate trust.  It’s why I am very happy that I’ve had 11 of my peers, managers and clients give me testimonials on my LinkedIn account, published for the world to see.

Credibility – Credibility can be more quickly established than Trust I think.  Why?  Because the reputation that follows you can be quickly and easily checked into today with a simple web query.  The “Steven Groves” that appears ahead of me is a lobbyist and shows up frequently in the news because of his appearance in front of congress – news papers write about him.  The next three listings on a Google search all point to me in my work and the next two refer to a frigate (the USS Stephen Groves) and a years old article posted on a blog about a guys uncle names ‘Steven Groves’.

Likewise I think a lack of credibility can follow you around.  I participated in a seminar / workshop put on by a friend on how to use Twitter for business.  While I agree there is a need for such a workshop, I am not sure they can carry the day in terms of credibility on the topic.  I looked them up on TwitterGrader and they rank in the 66 percentile with 110 followers / 105 followed and 81 updates.  I rank regularly around a 98 (97.7 today) with 669 followers / 370 followed and over 3,000 updates (just passed passed 3,000 today!).  Who would the audience take to be more credible in presenting how to use Twitter to a business audience?

Interest – Here is where I find my most used comment to prospects and clients.  How do you establish interest in what the audience is looking for?  A single word – Listen.  Listen to the conversation going on in the community you are approaching.  The Twitter-sphere is alive with a global conversation and it is growing.  Twitter is becoming a mainstream tool that social marketers can use to monitor and manage the message.  A blog is an excellent way to connect to an audience, but how do you keep it interesting?  My friend David Barnhart / Business Blogging Pros has an excellent presentation on blogging and I’ll encourage you to visit his site and view the presentation on video over there.

I think that the tactic and process Michael Goodman is developing and presenting as the Solomon Sales System is excellent; I also think that the same underlying elements belong in social media marketing toolkit as it matures.

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Here is how I see the program being structured; first from the business side beginning with the startup.  The startup is just bout any company out there, the criteria is pretty liberal (you can read the criteria at the BizSpark website here) so if you’re a new company, you may want to look at it pretty quickly.  Those startups are vetted by a local Network Partner, in our case it was Stealthmode partners.  This process allows companies to find out if they are eligible and how it might help them quickly before being forwarded to the next level, the MSFT Champ.  When I spoke to the Phoenix Champ yesterday, he was being overwhelmed with companies looking to find our more on the program.  he is signing up Network Partners as fast as he can I think.  The last part of the program and one I’m still exploring is the Hosting Partner relationship.  I’ll share more on this element as i find out more.

Yesterday I spent the better part of the day finishing up the registration process, filling out online forms, connecting the various accesses to my Live ID  and reviewing the MSDN access that comes as part of the program and all I can say is ‘Wow’.  The resources being provided by this program are amazing.  Of course the software is helpful, but not jst to the dev team, as the biz guy at the company, I am especially pleased with the CRM access, the hosting company support and the local Champ we’ve been assigned.

What I see in this push from Microsoft is their interest in connecting their enterprise class development tools to the startup entrepreneur when they’re typically making a dev tool selection.  The model of the tech entrepreneur has been to use a low / no cost open source dev tool first and by the time they grew up and came onto the radar of Microsoft, the dev tool / database decision had been already made – often too late for MSFT to be a legitimate consideration; BizSpark changes all of that in a huge way.

Beyond the dev consideration though, I again want to point out that from a business dev perspective, the rest of the MSFT offering is very supportive of the beginning entrepreneur.  The Office suite, Project, CRM, Dynamics & Solomon accounting, Expression design studio… the list goes on and on.

I think that this project will carve thousands of dollars out of the monthly burn of the company and for other companies, may mean the difference between if they launch and how fast they can make it to profitability.

My verdict - BizSpark is good for business and it demonstrates how much Microsoft is willing to do to support the startup entrepreneur.

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