Your Personal vs. Your Business Brand

By Patricia Wilson-Smith

By now, if you own a small business, you already know that you should be on Facebook. Check. And you know that by now, you should have a Twitter account. Check. And maybe a..blog..thingy. Check. But do you really know why?

Well, if you're like me, you've been personally using these and maybe a few other social networks for some time now - and as the months and years of hanging out online have passed, you've amassed a respectable network of 'friends', all waiting with baited breath for your next clever post. Hee-hee - like my latest from FaceBook this afternoon:

'I just said "thank you" to a voice response system - am I crazy, or just very well-raised?'

Clever stuff like that. And our friends and family soak it up like a sponge, right? Of course they do - because you've somehow, after hundreds of updates and tweets, managed to build a sense of community around yourself that keeps it all going.Cool, right? Imagine if you could do the same for your small business!

 

No need to imagine, because of course, you can. With a little bit of planning, and some patience, your business can spawn the same kind of loyal following, and turn that following into new revenue and more customers for your business. Let's face it - ever since Dell's famed multi-million dollar increase in revenues was attributed to their Twitter activity, businesses large and small have plunged head first into the social networking malaise, with kick-ass results.

 

So what do these businesses know that you don't?

 

It's simple. It takes more to be successful marketing online than putting up a FaceBook page and waiting for the masses to flock to you. Like the carefully crafted community of friends you've built around you personally, you have to have a better, even more well-crafted strategy for how you will engage your customers online - a real step-by-step plan for building a community around your business.

 

The good news is, social networking makes it inexpensive and fun to do so. Anyone can create Facebook fan pages for their business, as well as create any number of other accounts on any of a dizzying array of social networks choices. Part of creating a sound strategy, however, means making sure that you're on the right social networks - the ones where your current and potential customers can be found. 

 

For example, if you're a record label and you're trying to break a new artist, you almost certainly need to establish a presence on MySpace - but cultivating a FourSquare presence? Maybe not so much. And if you sell products and services and you want to get the word out quickly about sales or other deals, Twitter is a perfect choice - a blog would work too, but better in conjunction with Twitter and Facebook. Get the idea?

 

And you must, absolutely must find a way to build a community around your brand, by giving your social networks reason to engage with you online. Whether its free and helpful information, or discounts on your products, the experience you give customers online must be substantive - simply setting up accounts all over the place and blasting daily specials to all who will bother to read them won't cut it - just like there are people who want to be a part of the community you created around your personal brand, there are people who are interested in what you have to offer that may want to be a part of the community that naturally springs out of your business' brand.

 

The other good news is - if you have no idea how to get started, there are many professionals out there who are willing and able to help. You know your business best - running it is your main gig. Don't be afraid to leverage a social media management professional to help you take your business online via the magic of Web 2.0! 

 

Whether you know it or not, you've likely developed a digital footprint over the years. Years of posting comments, downloading music, sharing photos and videos online - has created a virtual view of you that says a lot about who you are. You need to do the same thing for your business, before someone does it for you, and a proactive and comprehensive social networking strategy can help you do just that. Get behind the wheel of your business' brand and drive it into the 21st century - your revenues and new customers will thank you for it!