Earlier this week I had the wonderful experience of serving my good friend Denise Deveau from the National Post and Financial Post with some information on “social media in Canadian business” for a recent article of hers which appears in the National Post and Financial Post recently. The article “Sweeten Sales with Social Media” focused on how Canadian Small Business can use social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to improve overall sales performance. But more importantly, the article really touched on the importance of engagement and listening.
Kim Gans from Toronto’s Sweet Flour Bake Shop was the focus on the article. Kim shared how her business uses social media services to connect with clients and her community. I was there as the Canadian Professional who can help other Canadian Small Businesses figure this out but the real star of the article was Kim and her business.
Kim shared in the article how her business uses social media each day to engage in the community and work with her customers. ”For us, social media tools are incredibly useful and a huge component of our marketing. We do very, very little advertising, with the exception of a few local placements.”
Her story is just like many of the businesses we serve daily at Ulistic. Many Canadian small business are weathering the recession OK but they have next to nothing for a marketing budget but still want to make a big splash. Luckily for many Canadian small business owners, the barrier to entry is nice and low and the Internet is the perfect vehicle to help them succeed with their marketing. It is almost the perfect storm for many of my peers to take advantage of the Internet to help grow their businesses.
But it takes commitment, authenticity and persistence. This is not something you can do once and say “there, I did it…business come to me now”. It is just like business networking face-to-face, it takes work and it takes hard work to run effective online marketing campaigns. I am sure Kim will share with you that it didn’t happen over night. Just to repeat, it takes work and this commitment to working on the business marketing for many often dies off over time. Just look around and you will see “stale blogs” littered all across the Internet. When was the last time you wrote something on your blog?
Kim summed it up “We have added a lot of different mixes based on feedback. We’re not just asking people, we’re listening to what they have to say online. For example, we found out that a lot of customers wanted gluten-free choices so we added that. Our new ice cream and frozen yogurt sandwich cookies were their idea.”
It takes effort, it takes engagement and you must listen and listen all the time. Social Media effectiveness is more listening than talking and most of us have this backwards. We spend more time publishing than we do keeping our finger on the pulse of what is happening around us. We really need to shift gears back into listening and engagement mode. Just like Kim did when her customers shared with her about the ice cream and frozen yogurt sandwich.
What is your ice cream and frozen yogurt sandwich?
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Ulistic focuses on serving the needs of Canadian Small Business, REALTORS, and Information Technology firms across Canada and United States. Helping your business understand, deploy and leverage social media, search engine optimization and online communications to generate business opportunities and make an impact inside your community and industry.
My business partner David and I are business professionals first. We understand what it takes to run a successful small business.
I invite you to reach out to me personally at 403.775.2205 or email Stuart at scrawford@ulistic.com.
Tags: Business, Business Success, Business/Finance, Communication design, Denise Deveau, Facebook Inc, financial post, Kim Gans, LinkedIn Ltd, little advertising, Mass media, media services, media tools, social media, Technology/Internet, the National Post, toronto, Twitter Inc
Posted in Advertising, Communication, Marketing | |
