The times they are a-changin’. Each day, millions of people go online to talk to “friends” and “fans” they’ve never met. Bloggers lead their flocks to listen to certain music, attend certain events and buy certain products. Top manufacturers are getting in line to beg popular bloggers to review their products online.
Celebrities, politicians and stay-at-home moms keep family, friends and strangers in tune to their day-to-day lives by sending tweets. Social media has made the World Wide Web a closer-knit community with endless possibilities. But what does that mean for you as a small business owner?
First things first. Your customers are already logged on, and it’s time for you to catch up. “Your customers and prospects are out there talking about you and your services whether or not you choose to get involved,” says Nathan Egan, founder of the Freesource Agency, a social media consulting firm.
Social media platforms like blogs, Facebook and Twitter are an easy, inexpensive way to influence the conversations people are having, brand your business and drive web traffic. New research from social media platform Wetpaint and digital consulting firm Altimeter Group found that companies with a strong social media presence increased their revenues by an average of 18% in the past 12 months, while those with a weak presence saw sales drop by 6%.
So what’s stopping you? If you’re like a lot of other small business owners, you are already overworked, understaffed and over budget. The world of social media is huge, and it can feel daunting to even know where to begin. That’s where NICHE comes in. We’ve put together a primer to help you build a social media plan that fits your schedule and delivers results for your gallery. We’ll help you decide which platforms work best for you, give you tips on what to post and how to attract followers, and let you hear from gallery owners who are already making social media work for them.

For more of “The Essential (Non-Threatening) Guide to Social Media” pick up a copy of the Winter 2010 NICHE magazine.

Spectrum Art & Jewelry

Star Sosa, owner
Wilmington, N.C.

Have you reduced your inventory levels? What needs to happen before you will feel comfortable increasing your inventory levels?

We started reducing our inventory levels in October 2008. It was like someone slammed the door shut on traffic; the gallery was empty. My inventory levels were reduced naturally, because I didn’t order any last-minute merchandise in the fourth quarter. I felt that if I could hold on until June, we could survive the crisis. That proved to be true.

I also made some fundamental shifts in inventory price points. I worked hard to develop low- and mid-range price points while still having unique handmade jewelry, glass and gifts. It became very important to purchase items that would allow for strong margins.

What indicators do you need to see before you’ve decided that the economy is indeed improving?

The strongest and most consistent part of my business is custom jewelry design. Oddly enough, people seem happy to recycle, restyle or redesign their jewelry, spending significant amounts of money to do so.

Are you advertising consistently?

I did cut back my advertising some, but I stuck with the tried-and-true methods. My biggest and most successful marketing efforts include my e-newsletter, website, blogs and a very active approach to social media and gallery events.

The greatest thing about the Internet is that once you learn how to do these things, the primary investment is time and creativity. The cost remains very low, and they all interconnect, feed off and support each other, creating links that improve exposure on the web.

What are a few other ways you’re preparing for the rebound?

I’ve been keeping my overhead very low, running with a minimum of staff, and cutting costs whenever possible. This is just good business, and these are habits it would be wise to continue.

I’m past believing that there will be a dramatic rebound. I think this experience has permanently changed the way many of us approach consumption and debt. We need to prepare for the new “normal.”

What have you noticed in terms of consumer confidence?

I can’t necessarily say that I’ve seen a big uptick in consumer confidence.

I still have regulars who indulge in impulse buys, some of them large-ticket items. Those are the people I really go out of my way to take care of, because they are the ones who sustain me through thick and thin. It is crucial to identify your top 100 customers and pamper them like crazy. They are better advocates for you and your business than anything you could spend on advertising.

I have been very proactive about putting any sleepy or outdated inventory in the sale case and freeing up space and cash to invest in fresh new inventory.

You have to know which items go on your “never out” list, and stay on top of your reorders.

So much has changed since we launched NICHE magazine more than 20 years ago. There were no personal computers then, no e-mail, no Google. Broad-based access to the World Wide Web was out of reach, and any thought of personalized websites and e-commerce was fanciful at best. Retailers did business in brick-and-mortar locations the traditional way, and phones and fax machines were the accepted means of staying in touch.

I don’t need to tell any of you how completely revolutionized our world has since become. Just keeping up with innovations taking place in every facet of business and society seems like a full-time job in itself.

Twitter? Facebook? LinkedIn? RSS feeds? Blogs? Information overload is the real worry these days: how can you ever hope to stay abreast of the rocketing technology and still get your job done? Or stay successful as craft gallery retailers when the playing field in which you were once so sure-footed keeps shifting?

Since the beginning, NICHE magazine’s mission has been to address business and marketing issues with the needs of craft galleries and artists in mind. That won’t change. In the new print edition, you’ll still find the solid mix of retail gallery and artist profiles, essential retailer business topics, trend features and merchandising strategy updates that you’ve come to rely on. But what you’ll also find is much more emphasis on interactivity and e-commerce, both in the two expanded print editions, now scheduled for Summer and Winter, and on our NICHEmag.com website.

Whether you are a craft retailer or craft maker, NICHE exists to help you grow your business. We want to make things easier for you as you chart the challenging waters of retailing in the 21st century.

The new, redesigned NICHE will have a more functional look and feel. Our goal? To encourage you to see each ongoing issue as a workbook, pinpointing what’s new, what works on the retail scene, and how other small businesses are dealing with today’s challenges.

But we also need to hear from you. What’s on your mind? What do you want us to incorporate into our editorial mix? How can we help?

I look forward to your comments and suggestions. Let’s move forward together!

What Is Social Media?
That’s a good question, and the complete answer could fill pages without really delivering the clarity that a small business marketer might desire.

So here’s the simple definition for the purpose of this document. Social media is the use of technology combined with social interaction to create or co-create value.

In a way, the definition doesn’t really matter nearly as much as the application and changing role of marketing in a social media world.

Social media—and by that I’m lumping together blogs, RSS, social search, social networks, and bookmarking—presents the marketer with a rich set of new tools to help in the effort to generate new business.

Why Does It Matter?
It used to be that all you needed to be on the Web was a Web site. Today you need to think and act in terms of a total Web presence. And that means if you’re not participating in social media, you’re not really online.

What’s Changed?
Well, c’mon, just about everything, right? If you studied marketing in the textbook world, you likely covered the 4 Ps of marketing: you simply created a Product, figured out how to Price it, got it Placed in the market, and Promoted the heck out of it.

Today’s approach to marketing, the approach infused with social media, leans much more heavily on the 4 Cs of marketing. Tons of relevant, education-based, and perhaps user-generated Content that is filtered, aggregated, and delivered in a Context that makes it useful for people who are starving to make Connections with people, products, and brands they can build a Community around.

Content + Context + Connections + Community = Social Media Marketing

The Hierarchy of Social Marketing
I think one of the things small business marketers struggle with concerning the entire topic of social marketing is trying to jump into the next new thing without enough analysis of what they should focus on. This is an important, evolving and essential area of marketing for small businesses, but there’s a hierarchy to it. In other words, there is a logical progression of utilization that comes about much like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Nature.

As Maslow theorized, the ultimate potential of your marketing or human self-actualization cannot be achieved until the most basic human psychological needs such as breathing, eating and sleeping are first met. In fact, safety, love and esteem all come before transcendence. Now, before I edge too close to the deep end here, I’m simply comparing what I think is a bit like progressing up the social marketing hierarchy.

I recommend that small business owners look at the following progression or hierarchy as they move deeper into social marketing tactics. So, jump in, but do it in this order and don’t move on until you have the basics of each stage down and working for you.

1. Blogging—the foundation of the pyramid—read blogs, comment on blogs, and then blog. This is the doorway to all other social marketing.
2. RSS—Aggregate and filter content around subjects, and use RSS technology as a tool to help you repurpose, republish and create content.
3. Social Search—Often ignored in this discussion but I think it’s become very important for small business owners. By participating, you can stimulate and manage your reputation here.
4. Social Bookmarking—Tagging content and participating in social bookmarking communities can be a great way to open up more channels to your business. It can also generate extra traffic, but it takes work.
5. Social Networks—Branching out to take advantage of the potential prospects you might find on sites like Facebook or MySpace will frustrate—at least as a business tool—if you don’t have many of the above needs met. These networks take time to understand, and thrive on ideas and content. You’ve got to have much to share if you wish to build a business case.
6. Micro—I’ve lumped some of the more experimental social tools into the edgy trend of micro: social, real-time communication that will likely only confuse most small business owners. The confusion is not because they can’t figure out how to make them work, it’s just not obvious why they should spend the time. I believe Maslow suggested that self-actualization is a place most might never reach. In social marketing terms, Twitter, Plurk and FriendFeed might be some sort of sick transcendence.

Case Study: They Don’t Use Social Media in My Industry
Many small business owners still think they can take a pass on the power of online social media tools, particularly if they reside in seemingly low-tech industries like plumbing, fishing or lawyering. I want to share a quick interview I had with Jason Brown, 23-year-old co-founder of Brown Lures. That’s right, they sell fishing lures to guys and gals that probably don’t call hanging out at Web 2.0 conferences a good time. (I’m just guessing on that though.)

Brown credits his blog with changing the way people find him. He created a podcast that gives him great “fishing stories” and loyalty from guides up and down the Gulf Coast. He uses RSS and content tagging to automatically produce fresh blog content, and e-mail marketing to blow his competition away at trade shows. Using social media in industries that are still slow to adopt it is the killer competitive advantage.

In Brown’s words:
“We have been running waiting lists for products for about a year now, and no one has any clue how we are doing it without spending big advertising money. I love this stuff …”

Alas, I can still hear the cries from the cynics—We don’t need no stinkin’ social media, we just need more sales.

This excerpt is reprinted from Let’s Talk: Social Media for Small Business © 2008 by John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing. Sponsored by Microsoft Office Live Small Business. All rights reserved. Download the full free e-book here.