Tim Shaw – “But wait, there’s more” – Social Media for Small Business.

An Interview with Jon Dale of Small Fish Business Coaching for the Northern Beaches Premier networking group Pittwater Business Limited.

By Jon Dale, Small Fish Business Coaching

Jon Dale:

Tim, we all know who you are – steak knives, but wait there’s more, My Business on Sunday mornings with Kochie.

You were the face of Demtel Home Shopping and sold $100m of products for them in three years– that’s a lot of sales! You are an accepted authority on sales and marketing for small business.

Tell me a few of your successes – either for yourself or for some of your customers.

Tim Shaw:

Success can be measured in many ways. I know of one man businesses who apply simple & effective sales and marketing strategies every day that lead to business growth. The key is building a strong brand that customers can identify with. The second is a respect for clients and their needs. The third is a value for money proposition for your product or service.

Jon Dale:

You’ve been looking into social media lately, because of the enormous amount of noise there is about it, I’m guessing. Can you give me a brief comment on what it’s doing to the way people are making their buying decisions nowadays?

Tim Shaw:

Social media leads to groupings of people with a like mind. A great way to capture their views is through crowd sourcing their opinions. People will buy what others are buying particularly if there is a recommendation from a trusted source. YouTube has millions of videos loaded onto the site. Interestingly over 55% of the content was professionally produced and edited. Therefore collective groupings can make for influencing the buying decisions of consumers.

(Ed. Speaking of YouTube Check out this Tim Shaw classic video the 'Kings Collection of Knives")

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Jon Dale:

I’ve been told that 94% of people will Google your business name before they call you or visit your website. It sounds a bit like someone pulled a number out of their bum but I get the message. Do you agree?

Tim Shaw:

The net is full of information – is it always accurate? – No! Google and other search engines provide the user with a tool of comparison. It makes for all business to prepare their messages clearly & succinctly to engage as quickly as possible that set of eyeballs. They are only a click away from your business, but also only a click away from your competitor. That’s why a TV set on the Net creates a point of difference for your business in the eyes of a consumer.

Jon Dale:

We all realise by now that a website is important if we want to succeed in today’s marketing world. This isn’t the same as social media, I know, so how do social media differ from what we know about websites and Internet marketing? There’s plenty of them – Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, MSN, Linked In. What’s the difference? How can a small business use them?

Tim Shaw:

I disagree, there is a difference. Social media online, it could be argued, is a modern version of the old stump speech in the park where philosophers, politicians, critics and comedians used to assemble to address a crowd. Your contact with a customer does not need to be a static website experience. Imagine if you allowed a customer to complain about your business directly online or to compliment you on what you are doing right. What is stopping a corporation from organising an online social experience. Lets not limit social media to just MySpace, msn, facebook or linked-in. you can create your own platform for interaction and you can achieve an opt in social media environment. We have just achieved that in a business to business environment with www.toktv.com.au

Jon Dale:

I’ve also heard that video is increasingly important – certainly, we all like watching videos on the web. Do you agree?

Tim Shaw:

Yes. People have watched free to air TV for more than 60 years. It is easy; it's user controlled and provides information, education and entertainment for the viewer in a relatively affordable format. Your TV set on the Net is only limited by the accessibility to quality programming you want to watch . I believe we will see a plethora growth in specialty internet TV programming, not just reruns old TV programs. The programs we can watch online are only limited by our own imaginations and those of the producers. Here we are near the end of the first decade of the new millennia with arguable the most egalitarian access to information and entertainment in the worlds history. Let’s maximize the opportunity and cage the old media bears who limit what we can do on traditional media platforms. Potentially the lunatics are truly now in charge of the asylum. What fun!

Jon Dale:

So, we should all be using video to send our messages clearly and amuse or engage people about our businesses, sites or our stories?

Tim Shaw:

Yes. Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water but don’t try to retro fit video onto your current sites. Be bold and creative and use a new stand alone TV Set on the Net (new URL) to link to your shopping carts elsewhere.