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June 11, 2011 at 9:08 pm #973809Up::0
I work beside a young person (part timer) who also works as a virtual assistant. I don’t know how well this business venture is going but they recently printed business cards and began handing them around the office so that we could obviously hand them out to people we knew.
I was offered lots of cards but only took one.
I mentioned to her that Twitter was a thriving place for small business and that they would get more leads from it compared to handing out business cards. The response was that Twitter was full of irrelevant small talk.
I told her to get herself online and to create a FB page. No comment.
Are too many small/micro businesses missing the point about Social Media and what it can offer them?
June 11, 2011 at 9:59 pm #1064270Up::0Haha I get where she is coming from & can empathise with it, however like it or not it CAN be a good business tool if used correctly.
June 11, 2011 at 11:44 pm #1064271Up::0Twitter is full of junk….being face to face with someone and giving them your card will be 1000% more effective any day.
I have never had one scrap of interest from either T or FB – I only participate in case it ever does.I will give you an example of its ineffectiveness – We have included on our emails when we send clients their completed caricatures the invitation to interact with us on FB or to FB or Twitter about their caricature…despite getting enthusiastic emails says thanks, how wonderful etc, only one person has ever actively social media’d about us ( thanks Bridie) – so one in over 600 clients….
Does SM work. No
June 11, 2011 at 11:57 pm #1064272Up::0If you take the “ter” out of “Twitter” explains the type of nonsense being posted on these social networks. Who wants to know when you brush your teeth, buy a Latte, go shopping e.t.c? Even within the business networks you still see a lot of repetitive garbage being posted.
June 12, 2011 at 6:42 am #1064273Up::0I have decided it comes down to how you use these mediums and what you expect from them.
I am a freelance writer and my client base is quite diverse. I have found that more small business people and other writers connect using Twitter, but not Facebook. Individuals and young people are the opposite.
My profiles are there, and I will start to use them more, but I don’t hang out there all day, tweeting and poking in case I get a new job.
June 12, 2011 at 7:24 am #1064274Up::0tweeting and poking
It’s the ‘poking’ I find inappropriate – especially if you don’t know them that well!
June 12, 2011 at 8:38 am #1064275Up::0As for Twitter I have found it to be the 2nd most effective communication medium we have used in marketing Carbonite. Facebook is another story but it is early days and personally I am learning more and more about it all of the time.
Face to face is great but you can’t always get it. Whereas with social media you can even communicate with people when they aren’t at work.
June 12, 2011 at 9:24 am #1064276Up::0I’m still getting to grips with my Facebook business page… But I love twitter and it’s a great resource for businesses, particularly the smaller ones.
It makes me smile when people I hear people say “It’s full of people talking about what they’re having for lunch / taking out the garbage” etc.
Yes, there are heaps of individuals talking about things that aren’t even vaguely interesting.
BUT from a business perspective there are heaps of individuals sharing interesting and useful content and interacting with one another.
Interaction is definitely the key. I’ve picked up a number of clients purely through my use of twitter, some of whom have been people I’ve been “chatting” to for a while and never imagined for a minute they’d be in the market for my services.
Not only that, I’ve learnt things I would never have known without it (website and marketing tips for instance).
That said, it’s not for everyone.
And King – you’re welcome!
June 12, 2011 at 9:25 am #1064277Up::0Carbonite Australia, post: 79538 wrote:Face to face is great but you can’t always get it. Whereas with social media you can even communicate with people when they aren’t at work.Absolutely, I have clients on the other side of the globe who I would never have reached without social media…
June 12, 2011 at 9:37 am #1064278Up::0When I hand out my business card I generally get people saying ‘Great, I have some books to get rid of’, not ‘Fantastic, I’d like to buy some’. I have had some sales through both Twitter and Facebook.
Like any business tool you need to do the research and see if Twitter or Facebook can help YOUR business. What might be good for someone else might not suit you.
I’ve been asked to help a bottle shop with a Facebook page and I told them to do some research to see where there customers are likely to hang out. I also suggested FourSquare would be a good thing to get involved in.
June 12, 2011 at 9:42 am #1064279Up::0Carbonite Australia, post: 79538 wrote:Facebook is another story but it is early days and personally I am learning more and more about it all of the time.Face to face is great but you can’t always get it.
Irrespective of the effectiveness of social media, face to face is hard to beat so I’m not sure why you would tell your workmate social media is the better option?
Also, why would you tell them to get a facebook page when you don’t even know the how effective it is yourself?June 12, 2011 at 1:34 pm #1064280Up::0sixx, post: 79543 wrote:Irrespective of the effectiveness of social media, face to face is hard to beat so I’m not sure why you would tell your workmate social media is the better option?
Also, why would you tell them to get a facebook page when you don’t even know the how effective it is yourself?Easy – I have no intention of handing out cards for her but if she had a twitter profile I would mention it to Carbonite’s 400+ followers, maybe a few might them look into what she does.
Facebook might not be giving me a conclusive answer as to whether it will deliver sales, awareness etc, regardless I would still continue to invest time in my page. I can see the benefits of being there in whatever capacity works.
Yes face to face is best but how do you do it day in day out?
June 12, 2011 at 2:24 pm #1064281Up::0The response was that Twitter was full of irrelevant small talk.
I told her to get herself online and to create a FB page. No comment.
Are too many small/micro businesses missing the point about Social Media and what it can offer them?
To be honest, I can really understand this perspective and I would add that it’s getting to be quite a common one. I also wonder why you didn’t question her further on her views before rubbishing them. Just because something appears popular doesn’t mean it’s good for business. I understand that Twitter and Facebook are very popular but I’m not sure I like the reasons why. This is why I’m really wrestling with whether or not to use them as part of my marketing strategy right now as I embark on my own small business venture.
Yes, absolutely I understand the power behind social media and I’m not rubbishing it by any stretch. But what I’m asking as a business owner is the image that goes along with using these platforms/sites the kind of image I want for my business? At first glance, no way. From my research in my industry among my demographic, Facebook has a very tawdry image and Twitter has a downright shoddier one. In terms of businesses using it, the view from potential customers is that it’s very lowbrow. So at first glance followed up by research it would still be ‘no way’.
As someone who is promoting a personal service, image is closely examined and in my industry there’s certainly no margin for error when projecting it. I look at what other businesses in my industry are doing on FB and Twitter and I admit I positively cringe when I read what is written and the persona that is projected. I also note that those in my line of business whom I truly admire aren’t on those sites or they’ll have an info page and that’s it.
To that end I would like to say that I am not missing the point to social media, understand what it has to offer but in terms of Facebook and Twitter am reluctant to damage and/or lower my reputation by using them.
Furthermore, there are a lot of people out there abusing Facebook and Twitter which can adversely affect your business. Twitter is instant and even though it’s possible to erase comments, they’re still recorded and retrievable forevermore and, of course, you have no control over the other person’s tweets, particularly if they bag you or are out to ruin you. A good example of this is here.
June 12, 2011 at 2:57 pm #1064282Up::0Carbonite Australia, post: 79564 wrote:Easy – I have no intention of handing out cards for herYes but you have her card. She doesn’t follow you on facebook or twitter, but you follow her.
But no, I undertsand what you’re saying.
It’s a tricky topic and definately a horses for courses type scenario.
June 12, 2011 at 9:31 pm #1064283Up::0Carbonite Australia, post: 79564 wrote:Easy – I have no intention of handing out cards for her but if she had a twitter profile I would mention it to Carbonite’s 400+ followers, maybe a few might them look into what she does.So you will just tweet anything…but…you won’t hand out business cards…Doesn’t this explain why there is so much junk on twitter? lol…
Junk are things people with time constraints can’t be bothered reading…People with time constraints are people who need a virtual assistant)
Seems to me a business card face to face has a much larger signal to noise ratio…and is far more likely to end in the hands of someone who is time poor.
As others have said, one just has to decide what returns the best ROI for their particular good or service…All advertising mediums work. How well is what matters…
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