The title for this post stemmed from a conversation overheard in a group of supposedly forward thinking individuals who were discussing their business plans.  When success stories of contacts made and leads gained were used as examples of social media success these were dismissed as being irrelevant as there was no cash being made.

This created a question to the "social media sucks" brigade;

What avenues were you using?

This elicited the right answer. LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and blogging. Well so far, so good.  But then the next question identified where the problem was;

How long have you been doing it for?

We stopped after a few weeks, we weren't making any headway.

And therein lies the issue. It amazed me that business people were still thinking that they are going to elicit an immediate response to their social media campaigning and that they will start making money straight away.

Those of us who are actively engaged in social media as part of our marketing strategies know this. We know how much time and effort it takes to generate meaningful contacts which, in turn, will generate revenues - either directly from the contacts we make or 2nd/3rd hand from our contacts links.

I understand the frustration felt by small business owners. They are trying to do a million things at once and if something does not seem to be having an immediate effect, it tends to get dropped in favour of things that give an immediate satisfaction or benefit to the business. However, social media cannot be ignored and the time it takes is well spent.

A contact I know has made over Stg100K directly as a result of blogging and using Twitter.  80% of the sign-ups for our beta testing have come from social media connections (including this site - so thanks for that!).  These are tangible results for the success of social media. These examples alone show the benefits of a social media marketing strategy.

Social media marketing requires a strategy, it's no good doing it "willy-nilly", and time. The former can be created with a bit of research, the latter just needs to be planned into the working day. Blogs can be created in advance. There are ways out there to be used to help you post automatically on Twitter (though make sure to interact as well), along with a host of other tools.

There is no excuse or reason for not engaging with social media in your business. It is too powerful an opportunity to ignore. But no, you won't see a result in two weeks! (unless you are very lucky!).

Any helpful hints on engaging with social media for the unconverted?

Are you turning your back on customers?

I don’t know about you, but I continue to be astonished at the number of businesses that don’t seem to want my custom, despite these hard times.

Of course, they don’t come right out and say so. There aren’t any signs warning ‘No dogs or customers’ or ‘Shoppers need not apply’. No, it’s much more subtle than that.

If you were thick-skinned you mightn’t even notice it. Or in a hurry or otherwise preoccupied.

But even then, it will eventually sink in: ‘I’m not welcome here. They don’t want my kind around, making unreasonable demands on their time and attention.’

Money’s no object in these places. Or so it appears. The shop assistants or waiting staff remain unimpressed by your ability to pay. All they see is trouble armed with a wallet or purse.

And who needs trouble anyway? Move along please, nothing to see here.

Sir, madam, have yiz no homes to go to?

You’ll hear it said that this is a buyer’s market. Sometimes, it appears that somebody forgot to tell the sellers.

And, of course, when times are tough, we buyers need to be encouraged too rather than cold-shouldered.

Of course, there are exceptions: The coffee-chain that bundles your drink and sandwich to offer a high-value treat.

The car-valet that comes to your home or place of work and the hotel where they offer you a courtesy drink whilst you wait for your taxi.

But these are few and far between.

In the past few weeks alone, I’ve been ignored forever by a shop-assistant planning his night out, been driven to abandon my online shopping cart because I was unable to add another item (apparently I missed the small-print which explained that the particular choice was only available as part of another package) and been served a black coffee with a topping of froth masquerading as a costly cappuccino in a high-class hotel. Costly despite being spat out by a machine that clearly wasn’t up to the task, as the mortified Italian waiter who served me confided in a furtive whisper.

I don’t want to come over all Lord Bountiful, but don’t these places want my custom? Aren’t they hurting like the rest of us in this downturn?

I’m not difficult to please. Sometimes, I just want a little help in spending my hard-earned money.

None of these businesses has asked me for my advice on branding but, if they did, I’d remind them that first things must come first: There’s no point attracting customers if you don’t intend to look after them.

It seems obvious I know, but I’ll say it again: I continue to be astonished by the number of businesses that don’t seem to want my custom.

What are you doing to make it clear to customers like me that you're open for business and ready to help us spend their money?

2. Eyejot – Video email. I have found this a really useful tool to follow up with prospective clients I have met. It enables them to see me again and to hear how I may be able to help them.
This visual email is a powerful follow up after a busy night’s networking. Eyejot is easy to personalise with your own branding. Eyejot is free to use without branding. With branding it is as little as $29.99 per year. Here is an example of a video email.

3. Screenjelly – Allow you to record your computer screen and your voice. I have used this service to comment on cvs and tell them how and where their cv should be strengthened. Once you record your message just send it via email or twitter. Cost – Free

4. Tungle – A great application for the busy entrepreneur. Tungle makes scheduling meetings effortless and synchronises with both Outlook and Google. It makes it easy for staff and clients to see when you are available and set a meeting with you. Tungle is free to use.

5. WiseStamp is  a really nifty and free product that enables you to personalise your email signature. It works on Firefox. It seems to work with most email providers (Gmail ,Yahoo Mail ,AOL, Hotmail, Google Apps…) It is easy to customise. You can add social media buttons to your signature and even your photo.
Here is a sample of a signature or two on Wise Stamp looks:

Signature Template:

John Smith Your City, Country Mobile: +983-23832842 Email: John@wisestamp.com

Chat: Google Talk: John Skype: John MSN:

Greg Fry Careers Coach - fast track your career to success Tel. +353 872039855 Email. greg.fry@careerscoach.eu Web. www.careerscoach.ie Blog. http://wwwcareerscoacheu.blog.com

So what top tools have you used in 2009?

Which ones would you recommend and why?

More and more, customers are making their choices based on brand.

So what are you waiting for?

When I talk with business-owners who’ve been slow to set about building their brand, I find their reluctance often comes down to a belief that brand-building is an expensive business. Of course, the big brands often spend a lot of money on creating their brands and even more telling the world about them but building your brand doesn’t need to cost the earth. In fact, given that the strength of your brand is based on the quality of your relationship with your customer, you can build a great brand using little more than ‘blood, sweat and toil’.

Sounds like too much hard work? It is, but here’s my five ways (each with a practical step attached) to build a top brand without putting your hand into your pocket:

1. Roll Up Your Sleeves That’s right; the first thing you’ve got to do is roll up your sleeves and get stuck in. Brand-building can be a messy business and you need to show your customer that you’re ready to get your hands dirty in order to make things work for them.

Practical Step: Schedule regular meetings with customers where there’s no sales agenda.

There’s no better way to show your commitment to your customers than meeting up with them to find out what’s going on in their lives. Of course, depending on your business, your meetings don’t have to be face-to-face. You can reach out to customers by ‘phone, email, SMS or twitter just as well.

2. Make Your Story Your Customer’s Story Now you’ve got to show your customers that you’ve been listening. It’s no good just listing your qualifications and achievements as so many of us do. You’ve got to link your story with the stories of your customers.

Practical Step: Put together case stories that show what you can do for your customer.

It’s very powerful when we can demonstrate to our customers what we can do for someone just like them. It’s not enough that we’re excellent at what we do; we must be able to show our customers how that relates to them right now. Good case stories offer a really effective way to do this.

3. Be A Big Fish In A Little Pond Too many business-owners make the mistake of battling it out in over-crowded marketplaces. Unless you can jump higher or shout louder than your competitors, there’s every danger that you’ll simply get lost in the crowd.

Practical Step: Make yours a category of one.

Find some aspect of what you do that immediately sets you apart from the competition. That might be something you specialise in, a unique service feature or guarantee, or a particular theme to what you do. The important thing is that you don’t make the make the mistake of fighting it out with bigger and better-armed competitors.

4. Build Your Own Network This isn’t simply about joining networks, although naturally enough you’ll need to do that too. This is about building your own system of vital links; that network of connections that links you to the important people in your marketplace.

Practical Step: Prompt word-of-mouth.

Don’t think of word-of-mouth as something that happens by accident. It’s up to you to design the network that will carry your message to those you want to influence. Of course, you’ll use existing networks wherever you can, but you need to be prepared to forge links between and beyond those networks.

5. Become An Expert Somewhat surprisingly, expertise is underrated when it comes to building brands. But it’s hugely attractive to customers, particularly in areas where that expertise can really make a difference between getting it right and getting it terribly wrong.

Practical Step: Publish your expertise.

Become the go-to expert in your field. This isn’t about being academic or technical. Work hard to build your expertise and then give it away freely to those who are open to it. Customers are rarely tempted to take things on themselves; when it comes down to it, they’d much prefer to have an expert take care of things for them.

Over To You: It really is over to you now. Put these five ways to work for you in building your brand and keep me posted about how you get on.

Like Mr. Shankly, my tongue might be in my cheek, but only ever so slightly.

Of course, if you believe that branding is simply about managing image or reputation, it won’t strike you as shocking that many start-ups go to market with their prize offering in tow and little else.

‘Why put lipstick on a pig’, they say, ‘especially when making-up can be so expensive?’

But if, like me, you consider branding to be about making the right offer to the right customer at the right place and time, then you’ll appreciate that it can make the difference between the life and death of the new business.

Simply put, if your customer doesn’t see you as just right for them, then you might as well shut up shop and go home. So the priority for every start-up has to be the business of setting out your stall in a way that makes sense to your customer.

Now that may involve a little make-up, but much more importantly, it means teasing out the part that your offer will play in the life of your buyer and playing that role in everything you do.

Say, for example, that you plan to fix problems for your customer and that you determine that the most effective way for you to do that (in a way that both fits the bill for your buyer and sets you apart from the competition) is to play the part of trouble-shooter.

(That’s the positioning part of branding).

So what do you do next?

It’s gloriously simple: you play the part of trouble-shooter.

What does that mean exactly?

It means you look, speak and act like a trouble-shooter.

It means that if you see trouble, you shoot it. Whilst others fiddle about, meet trouble half way or sit on the fence, you take that gun out of your pocket and you nail trouble there and then.

(That’s the branding part).

It also means that you don’t make trouble for your customer in other ways. You make sure that every little thing you do finishes in one way and one way only: with trouble stone dead.

Of course, you can dispense with many of the niceties. No one expects a trouble-shooter to come house-trained. In fact, it’s rather worrying to find your hired gun wiping his boots on the mat before doing the deed.

So getting your branding right is quite a simple task. It takes planning before you go to market and discipline when you get there. And maybe just a touch of lipstick.

But not, of course, if you’re a trouble-shooter.

Some people say that branding’s a matter of life or death. I say it’s more important than that. Particularly if you’re a start-up.

Over To You: What part does your offer play in the life of your customer?