Just yesterday, I saw a national, 30-second prime time TV commercial that invited viewers who wanted more information to “visit our YouTube channel.” 

How cool is that?  Thanks to technology and the social web, we are the media.  We have more ways to get our product messages to potential customers.  We don’t have to squeeze it all in a 30-second spot, a display ad or onto a highway billboard.  With multimedia, we don’t have to fill web pages with too much text.  Using video, audio and imagery, we can craft expanded messages and place them at no cost on sites for anyone to see and experience!

Before you start redistributing your ad budget, clue in on a key fact.  In the scenario mentioned above, the company still invested in 30 seconds of national air time.  I would’ve never known they had a YouTube channel were it not for that commercial.  And their commercial had to be creatively compelling, or I would’ve disregarded the whole thing entirely.

You still have to invest in advertising and promotions to draw a crowd.  Just because you launch a great blog or start a YouTube channel chock full of informative videos doesn’t mean the world will just happen upon them.  You must still extend invitations, and in many/most cases, you’ll have to convince potential customers it’ll be worth their while to check out what you have to say.

And you better have compelling content when the crowd shows up.  Content is always king, but there’s an even bigger, brighter spotlight on this truth online.  If you put yourself out there, you need to provide as promised. 

Here’s a suggested step-by-step for small businesses to apply these concepts.  I’ll use “blogging” as an example, but this could apply to other online endeavors as well.

1.  Start a blog and nurture it for a time.  Don’t write one blog post and immediately mass email the world to proclaim it.  Give yourself up to a month to establish a rhythm, get your groove in terms of content and make certain you’re really committed to it.  Establish a protocol (i.e. - create an editorial calendar, enlist a team of bloggers, get some topics in the queue) so you sure the content will stay fresh.  Ever seen a company blog that’s not been updated in a year?  It’s not impressive.

2.  Announce with direct communications.  Start spreading the news internally first, with employees, your existing customers, vendors and perhaps a tight list of strong potential customers.  Get your team on board and enlist them to become your word-of-mouth/click-of-mouse army.  Use your existing connections to organically grow new ones.  Make it easy for this ‘army’ to spread the news by providing them cut-and-paste links that they can quickly plug into their communications.

3.  Get connected.  Establish a presence on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Technorati—anywhere you can build community, share your content, get new ideas and field questions.  Just as you gave your blog its due time before you started telling the world about it, tackle these social media tools in the same way (if you are new to them).  Get a feel for how each of these mediums works so you create a persona and presence on them effectively.  Look into Ping.fm and Friendfeed.com as methods of updating all your profiles at once, so that this aspect of your promotions is less cumbersome and easy to manage.

4.  Get recognized.  Over time, as you establish your content as useful and viable, look into earning recognition for the hard work you’re putting in.  Winning blogging contests or getting listed on respected sites such as Alltop.com can really help boost your traffic.  Seek out the chance to contribute a guest column in a trade publication, with a nice mention of your blog. 

5.  Consider targeted advertising.  You can also jolt your traffic by investing in advertising.  Again, this should come only over time, as you’re assured that you’re providing great content for new viewers.  From Google Ads or Facebook ads to traditional placements to your targeted audiences, there are endless advertising options today, and many are relatively cost effective.  You can set budgets and timeframes very easily with online advertising outlets such as Google and Facebook.  Be sure to build in methods for measuring ROI to make sure your efforts are well-directed and worthwhile.

6.  Give it time.  Never compromise quality of content in the haste to get followers.  Blogs and YouTube pages can be created in a matter of minutes, but reputations are established over time.  You want relationships with root systems, and those don’t happen overnight.

Yes, it’s a whole new world, and we can all have a YouTube channel if we so desire.  Yet I still see the guy dressed up like a sub sandwich on the street corner a few times a week, holding a giant arrow and comically waving cars into his shops parking lot.  It's not very technological, but I surely can't help but notice him. 

When it all boils down, we all have to something to say or something to share, and we need to get attention to get an audience—offline or online.  Most of all we need to make sure what we’re saying or selling is worthwhile; that’s the best attention-grabber of all!

Thanks!

Later today, I’ll be on a conference call with a client to discuss how in the world wide web to reach her customers.  This client recently attempted some traditional marketing tactics that went “splat” in terms of garnering leads.  Her team of national sales reps needs fresh contacts.  Why didn’t the print ad or direct mailer do the trick...like they used to? 

The customers haven’t gone away nor has their need for the product this client manufactures, yet they clearly aren’t getting information to make purchasing decisions in the same way these days. 

In prep for the meeting, I did a cursory Web search and quickly found several discussion boards on which end-users were asking about this client’s product.  It was a bit maddening to read threads that were six months cold—potential customers bantering about “what’ve you heard?,”  “is it any good?,”  “is it hard to use?” and see no knowledgeable response to affirm the product’s validity. 

Here are some key points I plan to make on the call today, to help this client find her customers and redefine her marketing tactics. 

Set up news alerts for key search terms.
Create Google and/or Yahoo! alerts for product and brand names, as well as key phrases, to stay apprised on mentions that are happening online on a daily basis.  These daily feeds are emailed directly and are handy as tools to know what’s being said  about select topics of interest on the web.

Give regional sales reps online ‘territories.’
They call it the “world wide” web for a reason.  The Internet is a big place made of up small spaces.  Enlist regional sales reps to find online forums, discussion groups and sites that are gathering grounds for customers.  Cull the list, then divide amongst the reps in order to conquer.  Have them watch those lists regularly, to gain insight on what’s being discussed and interject as needed.  Advise reps to not “sell” on these forums, but rather inform and engage in discussions as a member of a community.

Become the news source.
Think “education” over “persuasion” by enhancing your website with a blog.  A blog is your chance to be the publisher, convey pertinent messages and get the word out to customers.  I’ve previously written about effective blogging, but bear in mind that blogs can be forays into other online communities.  Blog content can be reposted or linked in countless places or used as reference in those online discussions and forums the sales reps will be monitoring.

Tap into the power of PR.
Public relations is so much more than traditional media relations, especially today.  As more forums and topic specific blogs infiltrate the ‘Net, PR can serve to reach these non-traditional media outlets with key messages.  PR can help guide the content of company-generated blogs, find in-person opportunities to connect and even aid in creating messages and responses to inquiries on those online forums. 


Looks like today’s conference call will be an important one!  Wish me luck as I encourage this client to take her small biz to the big time through the use of social media!

I'll keep you posted...