Think On Your Feet or End Up On Your Ass

Your competition never sleeps – are YOU sleeping?

Thinking On Your Feet May Just Save Your Business

Surviving as a small business takes brass. Are you ready to make your business stand out amongst all the competition? Are you willing to invest considerable time and money to make it happen? Do you have a vision for your marketing? Are you trying to hand off responsibilities and say, “I have a Facebook account and it hasn’t increased sales”, Social Media must not work?

Some Questions for the small business owner to think about:

• Is your business successful now? Successful businesses are constantly evaluating the terrain, sizing up their competition and try to stay one step ahead at the least. Market leaders don’t have to be the biggest players, just the most informed. If you understand the web is the present and the future and just don’t know where to start perhaps some Internet Consulting services may be your best move initially.

 

• Is the market growing, shrinking, or stagnant? Have you carefully thought about the future? When was the last time you asked yourself, “Have my sales hit a plateau?” What can I do to increase sales? Thinking about your business is something that owners can forget in the course of day to day operations. One day they look up to find themselves chasing the market instead of changing the market.

 

• Are you looking to Social Media or a new website to save your business? Upgrading or adding a website is a good start but if your market is small and saturated with competition, you may want to explore a niche. Ask yourself, “What do I do better than any other business in my field?” Sometimes the best website and marketing in the world is not your answer. A different business or business model is. You’ll never hear that from the SOS. (short for snake oil salesman)

 

• Is your product or service still viable? It’s been said that the kiss of death for any business is gaining an increasing share of a declining market. At some point the well runs dry and then what? Have you thought about alternative uses for your products or services?

 

• Has your market shrunk or are your clients exploring alternatives to your products or services? Has your market shifted or dried up? Is there still room for growth in your industry? Can you sustain increased sales with your in-house talent?

 

• Why should we care? Glitz and glamour only go so far. Remember the Where’s the Beef ads? Where’s the steak in your offerings? Is your business prepared to give the kind of customer service that makes clients stay with you even if your not the cheapest? Advertising agencies call this the unique selling proposition which is just a slickster way of saying be unique.

 
There is a reason this post has 20 questions (well 23) and is written in an interrogational style. Consumers are more savvy than ever. Forget the fluff and deliver. We Do. Ask any Pittsburgh Internet Marketing clients of Blackball Online Marketing.

Social Media for business depends on your Brand Ambassadors carrying the message. Not a concocted standard company line but a genuine sentiment and opinion. Your customers can tell. Some will call these Brand Ambassadors thought leaders of a company; but we think every worker carries weight with a customer or potential business ally. Leveraging your employees, management, and ownership’s social voice can make or break your business in these hyper-competitive and changing times. Utilize them all.

Who are these brand ambassadors and what is their voice? This is where common business culture meets the public road; at your digital front door. Are they welcoming? Are the responsive? Do they help? Or Complain?

The social voice of your business carries louder, farther and with more clarity than any PR or advertising ever will. This is the true voice of your business and why it must come from within. The true voice will get out regardless, make it work for you. Like the little birds or the fly on the wall, your customers can hear it all loud and clear; much louder than the canned doublespeak pumped out through the standard channels. It’s the comments being heard in passing when the subject of your product or service is mentioned in day to day conversations.

Reputation = Track Record + Social Voice + 1/PR + 2/Advertising

Your Brand’s reputation is governed by the track record you have built plus the word on the street supplemented by a little Public Relations and a little more Advertising. Consumers are bombarded with ambient PR and advertising noise. They have adapted selective hearing and filters for the noise. Our opinion is that word of mouth carries more weight, and therefore more responsibility, than ever before.

Empowering Brand Ambassadors: trusting employees to share their real feelings can be a tough sell to big business. This is why big business has such a hard time with Social Media. Control issues cloud the fact that businesses must change their whole model or lens on the world. This control is an illusion and change of this magnitude always meets resistance. That’s where your Brand Ambassadors come in.

What worked yesterday is passé. Communication has fundamentally changed. Business 101 states that a company should always evaluate the sentiment on the street. Get a feel for the terrain. And speak in a language that your customer understands – your Social Voice.

Other Pittsburgh Internet Consulting posts by Blackball Online Marketing:

Doing Social Media Well – Audiences

Doing Social Media Well - Scale

Pittsburgh Online Marketing Services by Blackball Online Marketing brings you all the highly skilled components of the high priced SEO specialists and SEM gurus at a fraction of the cost. Our team of dedicated business promotion specialists combined with our Online Marketing Technologist returns outstanding Investment return and increased exposure. We specialize in small business promotion where we can get to know your company and make your website and dollars really count.

Forgive the sales pitch but we're very happy to introduce a video component to our arsenal. Social Media is fun and fruitful. We aim to keep it that way. Check out our video and please leave a comment on this post or on our Pittsburgh Internet Marketing YouTube Channel.

Special thanks to the folks at Imagine Audio and Media, a local Pittsburgh DVD duplication and full service recording studio - and to Art DeConcilis, the voice talent.