Dude, Blog Your Business!

Adam Coomes (@adamcoomes), President of Infegy, sets up a search in Twitter for “social media whores” (or some such term for people who might be interested in his product).

Finds @BlogDudes and checks out their profile.

Adam follows BlogDudes.

I get an email telling me that Adam is following BlogDudes on Twitter

I check out Adam Coomes profile and follow the link to his website.

I check out the info on his company’s product – Social Radar

I Tweet Adam back saying ‘thanks for the follow, I would be interested in finding out more about Social Radar’.

I get an email from Brooks Morgan from the same company regarding setting up a webinar

Talk to Brooks on the phone to sort out mutually agreeable time

I participate in webinar

I am impressed and will likely become a buyer for our next client project.

Bish Bosh – done deal – sweet meat from one tweet!

And that, B2B ers, is how you increase your business using Twitter!

Its called “Inbound Marketing“.

How many small businesses have you heard say something like “I only operate locally, social media wouldn’t really benefit me”. Having been to many small business networking events I can tell you that this is an attitude you often hear. No matter how you explain to people that social media is a way to start conversations with their customers, where ever they are – which is why they go to networking groups in the first place, afterall – many don’t see social media as relevant to them.

If any require an example of a small, very localized business that is using social media to increase the number of customers coming to their shop it is Pizza Party in Santa Clara, California.  I commend you click on the link and watch the video that is on their site – a news item on their local ABC 7 News.  (Note: the fact that a local pizza shop is using social media to increase their business is worthy of local TV news!)  26 year old co-owner, Bear Silber, uses Facebook and Twitter to promote specials and offers, and even has a webcam so you can watch your pizza being made!  He also has his own iPhone app!  How cool is that?

Although his pizza shop has been around a long time, Bear makes it clear that if it is going to remain around in the future then the old methods of advertising, like Yellow Pages and door-hangers, are no longer going to cut it.  He uses the internet everyday anyway – utilizing social media is a natural move for someone like him, and it is obviously paying off – his business is increasing because of it.  It is a great example to other small businesses with a local market – social media can work for you to.  And if you are not as web savvy as Bear, then we are here to help.  All you have to do is ask.

A video not made by Tom Hinchey! That’s a first for this blog!  This is actually a video that appeared on Hubspot’s blog and I thought it so pertinent to a lot of what we have been doing with groups like The 3000 Club here locally in Phoenix, for instance, that I wanted to share it here as well for the benefit of our audience.

The video is an interview with a business owner, Lewis Weinstein, who built an online referral network on the back of his family’s accounting business, which relied on referrals.  The point being made by Hubspot is that although much of the technology, like blogging and search engine optimization*, associated with the new ‘inbound marketing’ trend may be new, inbound marketing, in the form of things like referrals, has been going on forever.
*(As a Brit I still have a problem with using a ‘z’ here!)

The important conclusion Weinstein offers in this interview is what we all, as small business owners – and non-profits (most of their goals are the same in terms of attracting interest) – need to understand. No spoiler alerts here though – check it out for yourselves!

Hey, we’re on Twitter! Follow us at http://twitter.com/blogdudes!