August 30, 2011
OPEN Forum Message
Affordably Build Your Brand
FedEx Global Brand Management Director Monica Skipper shares a cost-effective way to build a bigger brand for your small business.
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I spend time each week combing social media for stories about small business. Lately, it seems wherever I turn I come across Melinda F. Emerson, known to most people online as @SmallBizLady. She not only has a notable presence on Twitter, she blogs on how to Succeed as your own boss and has a weekly YouTube video offering small business tips as well.
Emerson's foray into social media began in 2008 after she authored a book about how to plan and start your own business. After publication, she turned to Twitter to promote it, and was disappointed to discover someone had already taken her name and she couldn’t come up with any good workarounds.
She huddled with her publicity agent who suggested the SmallBizLady handle, which seemed to work pretty well. She began to offer handy pragmatic tips for small business people. She pointed to other useful articles and she answered just about every comment or questions posed to her.
Emerson built a strong online following which continues to grow. Along the way she has gained much, but she may have lost something—her name.
SmallBizLady became a well-known and positive personal brand. And when you are as small a business as she is, your personal brand becomes your business brand. Few people know Melinda F. Emerson, but tens of thousands of people know SmallBizLady. “I have become a walking, talking social media brand,” she told me.
And the brand is clear. If you are struggling with how to use social media to bolster small business marketing efforts, then SmallBizLady is your online pal.
It’s an interesting twist; Emerson is in the business of giving small business people tips on using social media successfully and she is succeeding by using social media successfully.
Twitter remains her home base. She uses it to direct traffic to her other activities both online and off.
“I work Twitter like a job. It’s what’s required to build an influential social media brand. Many people assume that the minute they start using social media it will start raining money. This is not true in any business. People do business with people they like, know and trust, which means you must put your time in as a small business owner as a resource first, which will enable you to build a community online. Then you can tell your customer about your products and service offerings and. Many will ask you to do business with you too, which is how you get to commerce.”
Emerson believes—as I do—that social media is an ideal venue for small business and home office entrepreneurs.
“Social media is the best thing that has ever happened to small businesses. Access used to be the biggest issue in selling and building relationships. Thanks to social media it is much easier to target prospects and reach out to people. Small businesses are able to become a brand in demand,” she argues.
Emerson also noted that authenticity is essential to success in social media, and small business people can do that far more easily than spokespeople for large, branded corporations.
Small businesses have other advantages. “Since the value one brings to a relationship is now the currency, big businesses are at a disadvantage in many ways. Traditional selling is dead and consumers are driving the conversation. Many big businesses are still learning how to react to immediate public customer contact. Fortune 500 companies are able to monitor what people say better than small businesses. Some use social media as customer service, some broadcast special deals and events, others position the management team as thought leaders. Many large companies use agencies to maintain social media accounts and engage customers and influencers while they internally draft policies for social media use in the workplace.
Emerson has a fresh response to the omnipresent question of “where’s the ROI?” She sees a triple ROI:
- Return on investment. According to Emerson, the investment to measure is time, not dollars, and a smart social media program returns the time you put in in terms of engagement with customers and prospects as well as word-of-mouth.
- Return on influence. By sharing quality content, small business owners build influence, which helps online and off.
- Return on identity. According to Emerson, everything in social media is about brand identity. SmallBizLady is an excellent example of how that can work.
Emerson advises small businesses to understand their niche and to be active in social media where their customers and prospects hang out, then provide content, which is both interesting and useful. It is also important to stay focused so that followers don’t get confused on what to expect from you.
The biggest mistake she sees small businesses making when they first start out is that they go for the sale rather than the relationship.
“No one wants to read, ‘Buy my stuff’ before they know you and trust you as a resource,” she said. “You cannot blog about the top 10 tips for buying a house one day, and your cat caught in a tree the next. “
I like Emerson’s style. She is focused and to the point. If I were a small business decision maker, trying to get started or get better on social media, I would treat her like my online coach. There very little fluff and lots of good stuff.
Check your balance, review recent transactions and pay your bill on the go.
Tashawna N. Sealy 6 months ago
I enjoy learning from Ms. Emerson and I plan to continue to use her as a respectful and go to resource.