A Small Business Guide to Social Media

At the launch of Small Business Week 2009, BT presented the results of a massive survey of SMEs. A sample of over 7,000 business people revealed 20 per cent were using social media in some way to promote their businesses.

I had some questions for Mick Hegarty, strategy director at BT Business, who heads up the telecoms behemoth's own social networking tool, Tradespace.

BNET: One in five using social media is quite a surprisingly high number, considering the size of the sample. Why do you think so many have embraced the new technology?
MH: For small businesses word of mouth is one of the most powerful ways of attracting and retaining customers, business social networking is now taking this online and enabling them to extend their networks and thereby the power of word of mouth.

Are social media projects quantifiable in any meaningful way or is it merely a nebulous profile augmenter that can't really be judged a success or failure?
We have seen through the extensive feedback on our own business social networking site that small business are seeing real benefits. Some of our members, such as Lyn Hill from Hedgepig have cited a significant increase to their monthly turnover -- in this particular case 20 per cent.

It is also important to remember the impact that social media content has on the search rankings of a business and their ability to manage an effective digital marketing campaign with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

[BNET notes: Googling 'Lynn Hill' and 'Hedgepig' results in a BT Tradespace link coming top, so SEO not working entirely for the user's benefit in this particular instance then.]
What three tips would you give a SME looking at using social media?

• View social media as a way of not just getting noticed but also building your online reputation, there are tools now available as part of business social networks that help you take advantage of communities and give you a means to build up a online fan base.
• Look at video as part of your digital marketing not only does it allow you to offer a unique perspective on your business but also can help you climb the search rankings andstand out from your competitors.
• Updating content and keywords will ensure that you continue to get noticed and enabling you to compete on a more level playing field with even your largest competitors, this doesn't need to be complicated there are simple tools available to let you blog, podcast and update online content yourselfwithout being a techno wizard.