Social Networking - Is it good for small businesses

[Scottish Business Owner]

I dont know how many of you have ever came accross Seth Godin but I follow his blog on a daily basis and have bought many of his books.

I've linked below to a very short video where Seth gives his views on social networking sites. Makes interesting listening

Social networking ? good for small business? | OPEN Forum by American Express OPEN

 

[RedEvo]

I love Seth Godin - he just makes sense.

d

 

[Former Member 1]

Having said that, I just pulled an iconic musician as a facebook friend and that will do me fine, lol :001_tt2:

Can't be all that Iconic if he isn't working at Stow yet.... :lol:

I have mixed feelings about ol' Seth. Often the best place to hide something is in plain sight and Seth's very good at marketing Seth. That said, he's often right....

What IS a facebook page anyway?

 

[Power Lunch Club]

What IS a facebook page anyway?

Exactly Matt...:001_rolleyes:

 

[Former Member 1]

Bit far to travel from Camden town, I would've thought.

Oooh I dunno.... Dee Bahl (Biffy Clyro's Manager) used to regularly come in jet-lagged off the New York flight...

You can have a personal facebook page, as well as one for your business, to which you can attract 'fans'. You can also create a group for members with a common interest in a cause (or business). How useful it is depends, like everything else, on the sort of business you are in.

I have to confess to spending far too much time on facebook, although I can't be bothered with a lot of its features. Many of my younger customers use it daily and I imagine the same goes for a lot of your students, Matt.

We actually teach the Music Management students how to use and exploit it effectively as a marketing tool.... A few of the film students use it of course.... But it's main use seems to be for promoting records.

I'll confess to having once set up both a facebook page and a myspace both of which lasted all of six months. It certainly didn't do anything for my business. And I found the daily stack of 'invitations' from nubile far-eastern women disturbing. Not that I'm averse to nubile far-eastern women of course; it's just that I prefer them to be here, already hold a UK passport and be at least a tad older than my favourite watch....:blush:

And I'm not sure that I want to be doing business with the sort of middle-aged men who hang about on facebook responding to invitations from nubile far-eastern women either! I have one or two acquaintances who are now in or approaching their 40's and had very minor successes with bands back in the 80's. I get a little freaked out by some of their efforts to make a 'cult' of themselves. :001_tt2:

It DOES depend on the business you're in I guess. If yours is a business that follows or sets trends among a younger audience I can see the value of things like facebook. But for a business like mine which is all B2B and aimed at a fairly staid audience my worry is that it could actually be slightly damaging.....

Personally, well run on-line forums like this, and structured interaction opportunities such as Gordon provides seem far more relevant (in a business sense) than platforms such as facebook....

 

[Dawn Barclay]

Hi all,

I don't think the guys that set up Facebook realised just how much an impact it would have had on business...originally set up to keep college friends together.

Facebook is projected to have 500 million users by 2011. I think like everything we do even Facebook or Twitter if taking up time out your business has to be carefully planned out...just like any marketing strategy.

For me Facebook is about relationships first, I don't spend hours on it. It keeps me real. it provides a small space where I can give a little bit if me not as a business owner.

Even forums that are not locked provide web content all over the world for other people's blogs and sites. Even this thread may end up somewhere one day! And it's Seth (by 's first link) that is going to raise the profile of Seth!

In Facebook you can create a page and this is ranked by Google. That's good is it not? Esp if you have a website. I know that some people think that popularity is important, it really isn't. Also there is an events page. Obviously some businesses will not benefit from Social Networking - and that is okay, Matt's students will as music can be online, downloaded etc etc. It's perfect for that. Like any networking site (like I need to day this) it's what you put in that matters.

I only joined this forum in September and apart from the networking and commenting it serves this purpose for me...as I work alone it makes me feel connected to a much larger picture, it's Scottish, the banter, the cartoons, the banter, forums like this are part of my work day, marketing is very much the byproduct. I remember at the time thinking 'oh Scottish Business Owners' great.

I hope that makes sense...going to write an article about Facebook I think...then I will twitter or tweet it digg or stumble it

LOL...

Dawn

Dawn Barclay on Facebook!

 

[Kasumi]

I think for many the social networking and small business do not get associated well together...
One of my guest bloggers recently wrote a fab article Web 2.0 Whats it good for? which has a great insight into how businesses can make better use of social networking.