Small businesses are joining the social media wave, however, it’s not just because they want to – it’s because they have to.

Facebook, MySpace, Foursquare, Twitter, etc. There are countless numbers of social networks – all with very active users. With all these different networks, how are small businesses supposed to have the time participate in all of them? They aren’t.

Many small businesses are a one man band – or at least close to it. This makes it extremely hard for business owners to really jump in and participate effectively when it comes to social media. It can be also be a very overwhelming experience when it’s an additional item on your ‘to do’ list. This is why small business owners and marketers alike need to pick their battles when it comes to social media.

No one can argue that there are a tremendous amount of possibilities that can result by jumping in on the social media bandwagon. However, it’s important to realize that you only need to dip your toes in, and not take a full plunge right away – especially when you are just starting out.

Pick the network that best suits you and your business and try to set goals for yourself on ways you can engage with your customers via the chosen social network.

This is just the kind of advice we offer to our clients.

About two years ago, we had a very hard time trying to get clients to participate in the social media wave. It just wasn’t something that they thought they needed to do and they didn’t have enough time for it. Now they are realizing it’s not about having time to join in – it’s about making time. However, to effectively make use of your time – and your time spent on social media – it’s about focusing your efforts.

Joining too many networks at once will lead to brand confusion on the customer end – and exhaustion on your end.

Figure our where your customers are and start there. Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter or any of the other social networks – set aside time to engage your customers in conversation and make their connection to your business worthwhile by offering them tips, advice, special offers or other promotions via the network you chose.

Once you get the hang of the whole social media thing and you feel like you want to expand your social media efforts – do it!

If you are a business, what sites are you on? If you are a consumer, what sites are you most active on and why?

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Technorati Tags: Small Business Marketing, Small Businesses

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We have a big group offering up their opinions this week! In PRobecast episode #109, Topazers Renatta Siewert and Justin Martell join me in talking about how technology could be causing psychological damage, a non-alcoholic sports drink, holograms as conference calls and more.

Is tech changing who we really think are our friends? – Sherry Turkle, author of “Alone Together,” is concerned about how technology is changing people and causing possible psychological side effects with excessive use of not just physical tech, but social networks and the internet in general. In her book, she says who many of the adolescents interviewed said that they don’t particularly like using the phone – the conversations are too long, prying and hard to end – while texts are an easy way to control the situation. Is technology making it easier for people to engage without the personal connection?

Is a non-alcoholic beer a Gatorade competitor? – A non-alcoholic beer is the latest drink being marketed as a sports and fitness beverage. The beer is apparently full of vitamins and has “natural regenerative powers” that help athletes recover from a strenuous workout. It’s currently the number 1 non-alcoholic beer in Germany. Would you grab one of these recovery drinks over a Gatorade?

Google launches a new ‘Person Finder’ page – Google has launched a Person Finder page to help victims of the New Zealand earthquake. It’s all user-generated data and people can go in and search, add information about someone or leave a message for a lost loved one on the site. They’ve previously created similar pages after the disasters in Haiti, China and Chile.

Coming to your conference room soon: Holograms – Developers of holographic displays are working on new technology that could change the way we think of conference calls – hologram video projection. This technology could present a filmed presentation live and 3-D right in front of your eyes. Some are skeptical of the technology, saying that if it’s just a hologram, anyone sitting up close. Either way, if the technology does in fact work as planned, it definitely changes the meaning of teleconferencing people in.

Now it’s time for the PRobecast PR Power Ranking – which is when we go around the room and pick the story that we think ranks the highest PR-wise – meaning any aspects of PR could be the reasoning behind the pick. Is it the story itself, good data that was used, what’s getting the most pickup, was it a good PR move the company made, etc.

Google isn’t always on the receiving end of complimentary news – but by offering a way for victims of these tragic disasters to help locate friends and family members makes them our PR Power Ranker of the week. It’s nice to see bigger brands help those that need it, especially under these circumstances.

Do you agree with us?

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Technorati Tags: Along Together, Erdinger, Person Finder, Sherry Turkle

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It’s a familiar trope to declare something ‘dead’ when really you’re declaring your own boredom or waning interest – in a cultural meme, a philosophical point-of-view, a once-hot company, a must-have technical device or even a designer label.

So The New York Times, no stranger to ‘calling it’ on all things zeitgeist, has put a sell-by date on blogs, citing a drift to Twitter and Facebook by Millennials and Gen Y, those arbiters of modern culture.

Citing results of a report from The Internet and American Life Project at the Pew Research Center, titled ‘Social Media and Young Adults’, the Times notes that children 12-17 are blogging less (homework, perhaps?) and tweeting more, while blogging among Boomers (46-55) has risen five percent and among plus anciens (65-73) is up two percent. Not surprisingly, the article chronicles a similar drop in the status of blogging platforms Blogger and LiveJournal (although, apparently, WordPress is doing just fine.)

What are we to take from this? Top level, it’s a lot easier to push out content of 140 characters a pop rather than slave over posts composed of considered opinions, full words and complete sentences. Twitter rewards the attention-deprived and syntactically-challenged by according them a place to share random thoughts with a cast of thousands. Facebook takes it further by supporting random thoughts accompanied by video and richer media types. Arguably both platforms provide a simulacrum of conversation but discourage what SNL aptly parodied as ‘Deep Thoughts’.

Bloggers, writing in the hopes of influencing others, work alone, and may not be able to attract sufficient readership to reward the effort. Nevertheless working with bloggers is a must-have skill for PR pros – so many journalists have made the switch from publications to blogging that ignoring blogs would compromise coverage.

Of course, while it’s easy to take a poke at the Times for its essay on the fate of blogging, it’s impossible to ignore the power and influence of Twitter and Facebook in these fractured and challenging political times. So here’s a compromise – blog, tweet, post on Facebook, write an article, whatever. Just don’t stop communicating. Then we’ll all have lost.

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Technorati Tags: blogs, communicating, Fate of Blogs

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