The Code Factory» Small Business and Social Media

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Small Business and Social Media

I have been pondering the effect of social media on small business for some time. For example how valuable is twitter to the local pizza guy or the Green Papaya on Queen Street or the Starbucks or Bridgehead on Bank Street in Ottawa? Will twitter affect the top and or bottom line of the average small business owner?

I don’t think so.

I understand the value of communication and connectedness and business relationships but how do you translate that into tangible business results?

Ian Graham

Filed under: Entrepreneurship, Ottawa, The Code Factory by Ian
4 Comments »

Comments

4 Responses to “Small Business and Social Media”

Chris Justus, on January 24th, 2009 at 5:49 pm Said:

I think you just gave me my TIM thesis
admin, on January 24th, 2009 at 7:02 pm Said:

Hey Chris, thank you for the comment.

TIM thesis eh.. does this mean you have decided to do your masters at Carleton. I have met any number of really good people associated with TIM.

Please stop by again when you have a chance and we can catch up.

cheers, Ian
Wendy, on February 4th, 2009 at 3:54 am Said:

Twitter is not the only social media tool out there, just the current hot favourite. It’s working wonderfully well for Ask Around, though I’m glad no-one is looking over my shoulder counting the time I have spent to reach this point.

If customer relationships are not central to your business then twitter may not work for you. It’s the social part that’s important. Perhaps twitter should be labelled as a ‘social lead’ tool: A good place to find people you might like to get to know; and maybe some of them will even become customers.

I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next, I’m guessing it will be better and hoping I will hear about it soon enough to make it useful.

Wendy

ps. I’m so old my clocks run on gravity, but you know what twitter reminds me of? CB radio. Same content (plus a bit more) on a whole new channel.
admin, on February 4th, 2009 at 4:05 pm Said:

thank you for the comment Wendy and I agree with what you have said.

I guess in the original post what I had meant was that people using twitter tend to be innovators and early adopters. The vast majority of the market place (pizza place etc.) still don’t use a lot of social media stuff and I am not sure if they did how it would benefit them. Traditional marketing still has significant value and is unlikely to be usurped by the rebel technology.

If your market is innovators and early adopters then twitter and such might make good sense. I find there is a bit of irrational exuberance around social media and a general lack of understanding with respect to appropriate business models. Business models will evolve but they appear conspicuously absent at the moment.