Marketing 2.0 for Small Business

August 14, 2008 :: cbensen

Last week I had a dawning while I was thinking about the editorial calendar for this blog.

Small Business Owners do it all!

If you would like to put your business online then the basics in the yellow middle circle are important. I have a series about putting your business online. Marketing, PR, customer relations, product development, etc are all important.

But take a look at the outside ring. Those are all topics that I cover on my personal blog in terms of networking & building brand. (Hat tip to Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends for the graphic. I saw the graphic on a great new series that you should check out on Marketing 2.0).

More aspects

There are many more aspects to consider (things that a community manager does that I view are necessities for a business online - no matter it’s size!).

- Listening - Brand monitoring tools
- Marketing utilizing social media tools
- Adding a community to your site

The great thing is that so many of the social media tools are free & word of mouth efforts can be done with little or no investment. The key is to choose the ones that will be the most effective for your niche.

What would you add to the diagram?

Share and Enjoy:

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Vid Luther

Great post, I wish you will elaborate on the some of the points in the future. One of the things people need to understand, is that not all 3 things need to happen. Some sites and businesses don't necessarily need a community, more specifically, not all communities are the same.

You don't need an online forum for everything, sometimes the community can be offline first, and then build an online community in the future, as your fan base, users grow and figure out what they have in common.

Ryan

Hey thanks for the awesome information. I’ve been checking out your blog for a ouple weeks now and I learn something new every time. What was your inspiration to start up your blog? You might want to check out these free excerpts from New York Times bestselling business growth book “The Answer” … www.readtheanswer.com/index.php?RTA=web2

Also, check out this cool entrepreneurship blog… www.gothamtechminute.blogspot.com

cbensen

Hi Vid,
Thanks for the feedback. It's very helpful. And yes, I will be covering the areas in the outer circle.

Your point is very valid about community. There are 3 options for building community - offline, online but at other places on the web, and an online community that you provide. I totally agree with you that one should wait before building a community. There are some steps to do first: 1. establish your business online; 2. grow it & find where your customers are at (offline & online); 3. then consider how to engage

Smack MacDougal

Exactly what is the payoff for each?

Can you give a dollar amount of increased sales that each one of these contributes?

Exactly how does a site like MySpace, geared toward ignorant TV land America, earn extra sales for say a rare coin dealer?

How does Twitter (self-reporting about what you're doing) and Digg (voting on stories not about you) increase sales and hence add cash profit to a business?

Folks talk about "put your business online" without any way to connect the potential time wasting acts to increased cash intake from more sales.

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