Brian Beehler – Social Media Talk

Over the past year I have been developing an idea that will enable small and medium sized business owners (SMB) to harness the potential of social media. With the vast majority of Canadians (individuals and businesses) relying increasingly on the internet to connect and interact, virtual communities have formed across different platforms and areas of interest. Within this vast network, I’m proposing to introduce a socially optimized Community. This community would act as a bridge between SMBs and its potential customers by the integrating social media, transactional software, mobile and desktop platforms. The Community will operate, in essence, as a virtual marketplace and the connection point between SMBs and consumers. I’ll be presenting my idea to you over the next 5 posts and hope that you will give me your thoughts.

What is the opportunity?

The growth of social media has created a dynamic and fast-paced online sales cycle. With new social technologies has come the rise of ‘social shopping’ where consumers recommend, promote and share feedback on products within their network and directly with the companies themselves. In addition, they are accessing the internet through their mobile devices, making it easier to shop and interact regardless of location. And these trends are only becoming more acute:

• A 2009 survey found that 67% of shoppers spend more online after recommendations from online community of friends.
• Between 2006 and 2007, e-commerce sales rose 26 per cent representing over $60 billion in sales transactions.
• A March 2009 study by Knowledge Networks, for example, found that between 10% and 24% of US social media users turned to social networks when making purchase decisions about various categories of products and services. (eMarketer, October 2009)
• Facebook, blogs, Twitter and customer reviews are considered the most effective tactics for mobilizing consumers to talk up products online. (Etailing survey of 117 companies, September 2009)
• “Person like me” still most trusted source for information about a company and, therefore, products. (Edelman Trust Barometer, November 2007)
• Analysts predict Smartphones (iPhones, Blackberries, Nexus etc) will outsell PCs by 2011. In 2009, North Americans spent over $32 billion from their mobile devices.

With 84% of Canadians spending time online (through their computers or mobile devices), businesses of all sizes are realizing the power of developing a socially optimized presence through which to interact and engage with target audiences. SMBs, in particular, are seeing the value of building grassroots support online – with word of mouth being one of the most effective (and cost effective) marketing tools going forward, engaging with their audiences and building brand recognition via social media is a critically important exercise.

To date, companies – such as Rogers and large financial and IT firms — that have been seeking to engage the SMB community typically restrict themselves to providing access to marketing, IT or business advice. Similarly, single transaction components exist to support how SMBs conduct business online, for example, Yellow.ca’s directory functionality and PayPal’s financial transaction tool.

While all variations of transactional and SMB-specific information are widely available online a value gap exists given that few sites offer a sufficient suite of value-added tools and services to drive large-scale, sustained adoption. The Community which I’ll describe more in my next post (I’ll try to post something within the next week or so) has been conceived as a way to aggregate value-added services with seamless integration between PC and mobile platforms, in order to support how SMBs manage and grow their online businesses — whether through the provision of useful content or specific transactional services and offers.

The opportunity is there and the time is now to provide a platform that bridges all these tools for the SMB community. Small business owners are looking for a platform that simplifies how they conduct business online and provides a cost-effective approach to engaging its potential customers.

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Special thanks to Cassandra Richards for helping me with putting my thoughts down. You are truly a talented writer and I enjoyed working with you throughout this project.

Filed under: Social Media Tagged: | community, Facebook, mobile, PayPal, small business, Social Media, Twitter