I always find it interesting to see small businesses who are reluctant to take advantage of the power of the Internet. Especially when you consider even businesses in a small town or in a localized neighborhood, can see huge benefits from being online. People are going online to find products and services. And those businesses, large and small, who are online are getting found.

For most of these small businesses, the idea of being online appears to be overwhelming. And for these same small businesses, fear is what drives them to spend way too much money using the “traditional” advertising avenues like the Yellow Pages™ and the local small town newspaper.

Now before I get tons of hate mail and emails from the Yellow Pages and all of the small town newspapers out there, let me just say this. There is a place in some marketing plans for the Yellow Pages and small town newspapers. However, the problem with these outlets is the fact you are limited to your local market for the most part. And even worse, those small businesses who use these outlets are doing so usually out of fear. Fear in the belief if they don’t, the small business down the block will and they will get all the customers or clients.

What is social media?

A blog can be used on its own without social media and social media can too. However, let me take just a moment to touch on what I feel are the important social media tools for the small biz to use. But first, what is social media? Shel Israel had a post recently where he provided a great definition of social media.

Social media were spaces on the web where people could hold public conversations.

The social media tools you can easily put into this definition is blogging, twitter and Facebook for starters. LinkedIn fits too.

If anyone doubts that a blog is social media they shouldn’t. A blog was social media before social media even knew it was social media. When you consider for a moment what you can do with a blog, you will see it is a space on the web where people can hold a public conversation. You write the post to start the conversation. Your readers can comment on the post and the conversation continues.

Twitter on the other hand is a social media tool you can use to enhance and promote not only your business, but your blog too. All of the social media tools can and should be used together.

So why should small businesses be using a blog and social media?

Communicate with potential and current customers One of the huge benefits and features of a blog is the fact you have the ability to provide a channel where you and your potential and current customers can communicate. As we mentioned above. You start the conversation on your blog by posting a post. Your audience continues the conversation by commenting.

However, it doesn’t and shouldn’t stop there. As a blogger, you have the opportunity to reply to the comments you are getting. This allows you to communicate directly with your audience. Try that with the Yellow Pages or a newspaper ad.

As a blogging business, you can even provide a “contact form” where your audience can send you a direct message. I get messages via our form a number of times a week. And I respond to them all.

Twitter provides you with the same chance to communicate with your target audience too. Take for example that we actually talk to and answer questions from our Headway customers. As a business, if you are willing to put yourself out there on a blog and even twitter, you are miles ahead of others in your market or niche.

Promote your products and services Without a doubt, you can do some serious target marketing with both a blog and the other social media tools. And with any of the social media tools we are talking about, you can promote your products or services directly to your target market.

Take for example the time you may experience between something exciting you want to announce about your products and the time it takes to get in the Yellow Pages or even in the newspaper. You are at the mercy of both. With a blog you can actually promote new products or features the nano-second they happen. How much of an advantage would that be to your business and your bottom line?

Inform your market of news about your business Similar to the above paragraph. Social media tools like blogging, twitter and even Facebook give you the ability to quickly inform your market of news about you and your business. And it can happen at lightening speed too.

Hire a new employee, tell the world the second it happens. Coming out with an improvement to an existing product? Tell your market the second it is released. Experiencing a bug or issue with a product? Be proactive not reactive and tell your audience. Keep them informed via a blog or social media tools and you are light years ahead of your competition.

Expand your market past the local level The Internet has truly become the infra-structure you can use to take your business global. This is especially true for the small biz that sells, markets and builds a product. No longer do we have to rely on hard transportation like trucks or the railroad to get our stuff out there. And no longer are we tied to our small towns or localized neighborhoods for our customers.

With tools like blogging and the other social media avenues, we can get the word out and even distribute our products online. People can download a software program, book, recordings and other information products right from your blogsite. And your market can order your product by clicking that wonderful “Buy Button”. If you offer a product that can be shipped by an outside vendor, even better. In other words, you can run a very successful and thriving business right from your basement or garage.

Blogging and social media can expand your market. But first you must expand your thinking and realize you are not tied to your physical store location or even your town.

Compete with the “big guys” The Internet has opened the world to small businesses. The Internet gives the small biz the ways and means to compete with the “big guys.” No longer do we have to have a huge marketing budget to get the world out. No longer do we need the huge marketing budget to compete either. Let’s face it. Small biz simply does not have the budget to buy that full page ad in the Yellow Pages. Or for that matter, the full page ad in the newspaper.

Social media tools like twitter are free. Other than your time, there is no output of money. Blogging, while it may not be free if you hire a professional to do your site, is still a lot cheaper than other ways of marketing.

One other thing to keep in mind, as a small biz, you are in better position than big biz too. As a small business, you are the one to make the decision about your marketing. Big biz on the other hand has to go through the channels to get almost anything done. Small biz can move faster in its adaption of new marketing and communication tools like social media.

And best of all, done right, a blog will get you moving up in the search engines too. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself ranked higher than the companies or businesses with the huge marketing budgets.

Conclusion

This is not the conclusion of our conversation here about blogging and social media for small businesses. In fact, this is going to be a series of post. Be watching as I and some of the others on Blog For Profit give you information on how you can use these tools to really take your marketing to the next level.

And please, leave your comments and/or questions too. Let’s keep the conversation going as we all learn more when we communicate.