Social media is a hot topic for businesses, large and small. The main question is, how do businesses integrate social media into their existing marketing efforts?

Network Solutions® is pleased to announce Jill Foster of DC Media Makers, Terri Holley of Creative Blog Solutions, Brent Leary of  CRM Essentials, Danilo Bogdanovic of Loudoun Scene and Joanna Pineda of Matrix Group will address this topic as the panelists for the Integrating Traditional Marketing with Social Media session at the GrowSmartBiz Conference.

Attendees will learn what social media is and gain a better understanding of social media tools. Learn how blogs can help showcase your expertise, how to harness brand advocates through social networks such as FaceBook© and Twitter, and where customer service fits into the social media world. Additionally, attendees will be able to determine whether or not social media can help market their business and, if so, what steps they need to take to develop and integrate a social media strategy that aligns with their current marketing efforts.

In addition this topic and to Wired Editor-in-Chief and author Chris Anderson’s keynote, the conference also will focus on the following topics:
•    Driving Small Business Performance with Marketing & Innovation
•    Raising Capital with Effective Finance Strategies
•    Stay Ahead in the Current Economy

The GrowSmartBiz Conference will be held on September 29, 2009, at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington, D.C. The event was created to highlight the findings from the Small Business Success Index (SBSI) – an ongoing measurement of the overall health of small businesses commissioned by the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business and Network Solutions, and to provide small businesses with tips, information and network opportunities that will help small businesses thrive in the current economy. The conference will focus on key areas of business that small businesses view as critical to their success according to the 1,500 small businesses that were interviewed for the Small Business Success Index.

For more information or to register for the event, visit the GrowSmartBiz Conference site. Don’t forget to turn in your small business success story for the chance to have it posted on the GrowSmartBusiness Blog and to receive FREE admission to the GrowSmartBiz Conference. For more details visit: http://growsmartbsuiness.com.

Note from Solutions Are Power:
At her blog The MatriX Files, CEO/Founder Joanna Pineda recently blogged about economic survival tips and her mobile media experience with Solutions Are Power. Her post is cross-published with permission below. Enjoy!

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By Joanna Pineda

Okay, it’s official. The economy is in a recession, but what are you doing about it? What is your company or organization doing to weather the storm or even thrive in it?

I was recently interviewed by Jill Foster for the Network Solution blog on a variety of topics, including using social media for recruiting and what we’re doing here at Matrix Group to survive this hellish economy.

When our fiscal year ends next June, I want to be able to say that we were counter-trend and that our company grew, despite the recession. Here are my top strategies for surviving this economic bloodbath.

Stay close to our customers.
We’re listening extra hard when customers give us feedback, request new services, and share their pain points.

Keep marketing.
I’m seeing my competitors cut back on their marketing efforts, but here at Matrix Group, we’ve expanded our sales and marketing staff, we’re doing more webinars, we’re using social media, and we’re looking at every opportunity.

Manage vendor relationships.
When the market crashed, one of my first calls was to our leasing company, whose President assured us that the credit crunch didn’t affect us and it’s business as usual.

Here’s a link to the Network Solutions blog post:
http://blog.networksolutions.com/tag/joanna-pineda/

And here are some great articles I found about thriving in this market.

• –Southwest Airlines changing strategy for LaGuardia presence
• –How to survive: market segmentation

Geek note: During the interview with Jill, she created a podcast using a service called Utterli. At the beginning of the conversation, Jill dialed a number on her mobile phone, talked into it, then handed the phone to me when it was my turn to comment. At the end of the conversation, Jill hung up and said, “okay, the podcast has been uploaded to my blog.” I was dumbfounded. Jill used her phone to create a podcast!

Note to self: create an Utterli account and create podcasts from the next conference I attend.

Second note to self: ask clients how we can combine our Web development services with Utterli to give them a more powerful blogging platform from their meetings and conventions. Any takers?

(photo purchased from iStockPhoto by Joanna Pineda)

Who she is – part deux
Founder/CEO & Chief Trouble Maker Joanna Pineda of Matrix Group International and I continue talking on the difference between ‘users’ and ‘visitors’ to a website, social media results (and theories), plus social media’s impact on recruitment.

Pineda’s interactive agency has been around since 1999; and while helping associations and non-profits develop interactive online presence, Matrix Group has grown to be the 6th largest interactive agency in the DC region.

Listen while you work: 6 minute audio
Work at your desk and hear Joanna talk shop in the background on making trouble, re-perceiving your clients, executing social media, and more.

Or read on for the written version of her interview’s second installment.

Warning:
Keep in mind the audio cast brings a bonus conversation in addition to below. So hey, just follow the hyperlink above and hit ‘play’ to not miss out!

Can online media find Jeddah the missing dog?
Matrix Group recently re-launched their website that frames client commentary and easily links to their Flickr photos, blog (…for which Joanna creates content personally), plus favorite bookmarks. In light of the site’s social media focus, I asked her to describe a recent social media campaign by Matrix – Jeddah’s story.

Joanna:
I have a client who helps animals that need medical care. She heard about a missing dog named Jeddah who escaped from her travel crate at Dulles Airport. The client wanted to launch a website to help Jeddah’s return (and actually set up a domain through Network Solutions).

“If they were apart of the Matrix social media fabric, they heard about Jeddah.”

Jeddah’s story and Twitter form a community
After designing the site, we setup a Twitter account with each Twitter update on Jeddah feeding into the site. What was interesting to me was for about two weeks since setting up the site and Twitter account, I’d ask after random meetings with different groups if they’d heard about Jeddah’s search. And if they were apart of the Matrix social media fabric, they were informed.

“I was seeing the multiplier effect.”

But what was fascinating to me was learning that people who did not intersect with our social media community, generally did not know about the story. I was seeing the multiplier effect. To us within our social media community, it felt like Jeddah’s news was all over the place. But in reality there were just two or three mainstream media mentions out there for the public to even access (vs our intersections in Matrix social media and HelpFindJeddah.com where everyone knew and were offering help).

Note: Jeddah’s online effort continues. Her whereabouts remain unclear.

Need to jive: how social media affects recruitment

Joanna:
A mix of generations X, Y, and Millennials takes interest in working at Matrix. For the Millennials and some from the Y generation, it’s a lifestyle choice to come here. But Matrix needs to jive with them too. I find our company’s social media gives potential employees a sense of this ‘jiving’ as a culture. It – our online presence and social media – helps them to envision themselves here.

When interviewing candidates, sometimes I get asked about our green strategy where as I’m thinking ‘talk to me about money!’ It’s social media and needing lifestyle values which help to inspire this exchange on values.

Social media allows us to reach a hiring audience we haven’t reached before.

Candidates are lurking and keeping tabs on us as employers. We each make the mutual decision to hire each other. And as for potential candidates, I expect them to be always surfing and online practitioners as well. And as they [potential candidates) find us online – our company’s pics, blogs, etc create an intimacy with the candidate with who we are. With this online participation in place, the candidate thinks ‘the company has let me in’.

More from:

Part 1 of Joanna Pineda’s CEO Conversation