KC Businesses Make a Difference to Bottom Line by Getting Social

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Posted February 10th, 2010 in Advertising, Social Marketing, Social Media Club | 2 Comments

KCFreePress.com and contributing writer Katy Ryan released an article today highlighting some local KC businesses that are seeing a positive difference to their bottom line due to their online efforts. Our CEO Lisa had the pleasure of working withKaty to help prepare the social media and marketing strategy portion of the article. She was kind enough to include a quote from us so we wanted to return the favor by posting her article. In case you’re interested we added the full excerpt of Lisa’s interview with Katy following the conclusion of the article.

And Tweets to be Tweeted, of course.
Amid the day’s hustle and bustle, she composes several 140-character posts a day updating the company’s 400-plus Twitter followers about available donut and coffee flavors, as well as new product offerings: “What if we take chocolate, add chocolate to it & then top with a little chocolate? Wait WE ALREADY DID! Try our Triple Choc Muffin today! :) ”
Welcome to the new world of small business marketing. Benjamin is among a growing number of small business owners who find themselves spending a large part of their days dedicated to communicating with followers and friends on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook.
“It allows us to connect with our customers and members of the broader community in a real-time fashion and in an authentic way,” Benjamin said. “It lets us come out from behind traditional push advertising to simply talk and listen to the people we work, play and live with.”
Leroy Shatto of Shatto Milk Company has long prided himself on personally connecting with customers and local suppliers on a daily basis to ensure product satisfaction and to answer any questions. Now armed with a Facebook fan page, Shatto Milk Company reaches more than 8,000 fans who get updates about Shatto products, flavors, farm events and other company information, combined with an even greater level of transparency that allows customers to more easily contact the company.
Greg Morey, the Marketing Manager of Cafe Trio on the Plaza, said he spends a couple of hours a day maintaining the restaurant’s Facebook page, which currently reaches more than 1,500 fans. On the Facebook page, Morey frequently rewards fans with gift certificates and other give-aways. To enter one of the contests, fans have to guess a number in a specified range. It’s a dual strategy that rewards fans for their loyalty, and also ensures that the winners will tell others about Cafe Trio, thereby increasing their prospective customer base.
“These contests have helped expand our fan base exponentially,” he said. “The activity keeps us in the news feed and hence in an ever-growing stream of awareness. When I post a comment about a special cocktail, menu item, or event, fans may not post a comment, but a few might make that snap decision to drop by that day or within the next few days. It’s about keeping the brand near the top of the choice list.”
How to make social networking work for businesses
Businesses’ growing use of these services to communicate directly with customers has spawned an industry of social media marketing consultants, like Overland Park-based Evans Media Group. President and CMO Paul Evans said the company became an early adopter of social media about three years ago when it started advising clients to get on Facebook, FriendFeed and others.
As use of the sites has grown, Evans and Sara Paxton, the company’s managing partner and CTO, have developed increased expertise on how businesses can turn social networking into increased revenue. They say that engaging in and maintaining a conversation is one of the most important parts of social media for a company, regardless of the service or platform — but that it can’t be all about the business.
“Imagine dating someone self-involved who talks about him- or herself the entire time,” she says. “You don’t want to put up with that.”
And that’s why Paxton and Evans suggest the following formula for social networking success: businesses should make 90 percent of their posts about the business or links to content, and the other 10 percent should be fun posts on other topics to help give the business a personality.
Paxton and Evans said that by using social networks properly, companies can raise awareness and increase engagement of customers.
“That’s the huge piece,” Paxton said. “The people who interact become brand evangelists so quickly. Others will say good things about you, and that’s the value of social media and what you can’t easily quantify or turn into an ROI.”
Yet for those unexperienced at social media, the opposite can happen as account operators send needless or irrelevant information into cyberspace.
“This is supposed to be an interactive, engaging session,” Paxton said. “Social media isn’t just an extension of an ad or web site, and that’s the one mistake we see small business owners make.”
And although social media may be more appealing than traditional advertising channels (based in large part on the fact that most social media services are free), Fresh ID CEO and Social Media Club of Kansas City President Lisa Qualls thinks a combined approach is still a company’s best weapon for success.
“All forms of promotion—traditional, experimential and digital—are all needed,” she said. “It’s just that companies now have more avenues available for budgets of all sizes, and the benefit of many free-to-use tools that allow them to both promote and communicate with fans and brand enthusiasts. It can be more fulfilling to do a Facebook campaign, or post an ad on YouTube, and get an immediate response and sense of enthusiasm, than to put an ad in a newspaper and see if anyone walks into the store or picks up the phone because of it.”
In a larger sense, the inherent appeal of social media is that through the Internet, the world becomes a smaller, more manageable sphere throughout which interaction is possible regardless of physical location.
“The whole point of the Internet is that it levels the playing field,” Paxton said. “It doesn’t matter if you have an NYC office or you’re in Manhattan, Kan. If all of these outlets online are consistent, no one really knows the difference.”
By Katy Ryan, February 10, 2010 – As president of Verona Key LLC, the family-owned operator of Kansas City’s sole Dunkin’ Donuts franchise, Jennifer Benjamin has a full schedule. There are logistics to be sorted. A staff to be managed. Deliveries to be scheduled.
space
And Tweets to be Tweeted, of course.
space
Amid the day’s hustle and bustle, she composes several 140-character posts a day updating the company’s 400-plus Twitter followers about available donut and coffee flavors, as well as new product offerings: “What if we take chocolate, add chocolate to it & then top with a little chocolate? Wait WE ALREADY DID! Try our Triple Choc Muffin today! :) ”
space
Welcome to the new world of small business marketing. Benjamin is among a growing number of small business owners who find themselves spending a large part of their days dedicated to communicating with followers and friends on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook.
space
“It allows us to connect with our customers and members of the broader community in a real-time fashion and in an authentic way,” Benjamin said. “It lets us come out from behind traditional push advertising to simply talk and listen to the people we work, play and live with.”
space
Leroy Shatto of Shatto Milk Company has long prided himself on personally connecting with customers and local suppliers on a daily basis to ensure product satisfaction and to answer any questions. Now armed with a Facebook fan page, Shatto Milk Company reaches more than 8,000 fans who get updates about Shatto products, flavors, farm events and other company information, combined with an even greater level of transparency that allows customers to more easily contact the company.
space
Greg Morey, the Marketing Manager of Cafe Trio on the Plaza, said he spends a couple of hours a day maintaining the restaurant’s Facebook page, which currently reaches more than 1,500 fans. On the Facebook page, Morey frequently rewards fans with gift certificates and other give-aways. To enter one of the contests, fans have to guess a number in a specified range. It’s a dual strategy that rewards fans for their loyalty, and also ensures that the winners will tell others about Cafe Trio, thereby increasing their prospective customer base.
space
“These contests have helped expand our fan base exponentially,” he said. “The activity keeps us in the news feed and hence in an ever-growing stream of awareness. When I post a comment about a special cocktail, menu item, or event, fans may not post a comment, but a few might make that snap decision to drop by that day or within the next few days. It’s about keeping the brand near the top of the choice list.”
space

How to make social networking work for businesses

space
Businesses’ growing use of these services to communicate directly with customers has spawned an industry of social media marketing consultants, like Overland Park-based Evans Media Group. President and CMO Paul Evans said the company became an early adopter of social media about three years ago when it started advising clients to get on Facebook, FriendFeed and others.

space
As use of the sites has grown, Evans and Sara Paxton, the company’s managing partner and CTO, have developed increased expertise on how businesses can turn social networking into increased revenue. They say that engaging in and maintaining a conversation is one of the most important parts of social media for a company, regardless of the service or platform — but that it can’t be all about the business. “Imagine dating someone self-involved who talks about him- or herself the entire time,” she says. “You don’t want to put up with that.”
space
And that’s why Paxton and Evans suggest the following formula for social networking success: businesses should make 90 percent of their posts about the business or links to content, and the other 10 percent should be fun posts on other topics to help give the business a personality.
space

Paxton and Evans said that by using social networks properly, companies can raise awareness and increase engagement of customers. “That’s the huge piece,” Paxton said. “The people who interact become brand evangelists so quickly. Others will say good things about you, and that’s the value of social media and what you can’t easily quantify or turn into an ROI.”

space
Yet for those unexperienced at social media, the opposite can happen as account operators send needless or irrelevant information into cyberspace. “This is supposed to be an interactive, engaging session,” Paxton said. “Social media isn’t just an extension of an ad or web site, and that’s the one mistake we see small business owners make.”
space
And although social media may be more appealing than traditional advertising channels (based in large part on the fact that most social media services are free), Fresh ID CEO and Social Media Club of Kansas City President Lisa Qualls thinks a combined approach is still a company’s best weapon for success.
space
“All forms of promotion—traditional, experimential and digital—are all needed,” she said. “It’s just that companies now have more avenues available for budgets of all sizes, and the benefit of many free-to-use tools that allow them to both promote and communicate with fans and brand enthusiasts. It can be more fulfilling to do a Facebook campaign, or post an ad on YouTube, and get an immediate response and sense of enthusiasm, than to put an ad in a newspaper and see if anyone walks into the store or picks up the phone because of it.”
space
In a larger sense, the inherent appeal of social media is that through the Internet, the world becomes a smaller, more manageable sphere throughout which interaction is possible regardless of physical location.
space
“The whole point of the Internet is that it levels the playing field,” Paxton said. “It doesn’t matter if you have an NYC office or you’re in Manhattan, Kan. If all of these outlets online are consistent, no one really knows the difference.”
space

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Here is the full excerpt of the email interview Lisa had with Katy:

1. What prompted you to become involved in social media?

I began participating in social media back in 2004 when I joined LinkedIn as a way to network professionally with colleagues outside my local area. I have always been one to enjoy connecting with others so participating in online communities was a no brainer for me. I love to learn from others, talk with others and share my opinion and social media enables me to do all three…sometimes at the same time! I’m a wife, mother and business owner so finding time to “read the world” and “engage” during normal hours is almost impossible. Social media is a 24X7 world letting me participate when it’s convenient for me. I also love the global aspect…it isn’t uncommon on Twitter to get in to conversations with people from Australia, England, or India to name just a few. To have the ability to see the world through their eyes and from their perspective is pretty powerful.

2. What role does an organization like SMCKC play in cultivating the local social media landscape, and how does it help individuals and businesses learn the social media tools they need to succeed?

SMC brings together people who are intensely and actively immersed in various aspects of social media for marketing, customer care, promotion, fundraising, employee communications and virtual networking, so that they can learn from each other and band together to achieve business goals. With over 1,000 members, SMCKC serves as a great resource for members, the community and local businesses alike to hear about the quickly changing landscape we call the internet and embrace new practices and tools to enhance and extend their brand. We have members who are respected as industry leaders and often speak at local, regional and national events sharing with others how best to adopt social media in to their day-to-day business operations.

3. What, in your opinion, are the benefits of a business using social media over more traditional forms of advertising?

It’s not an either/or… really, all forms of promotion – traditional, experiential and digital – are all needed. It’s just that companies now have more avenues available for budgets of all sizes, and the benefit of many free-to-use tools that allow them to both promote and communicate with fans and brand enthusiasts. It can be more fulfilling to do a Facebook campaign, or post an ad on YouTube, and get immediate response and sense of enthusiasm, than to put an ad in a newspaper and wait to see if anyone walks into the store or picks up the phone because of it. Organizations have to be prepared, though… the more passive traditional marketing and advertising methods don’t have the consequence of many people talking about them (both positively and negatively) and some companies handle this new realm of promotion better than others.

4. Are there any KC businesses that you think do an exemplary job of using social media?

I think what is most exciting is how Kansas City isn’t just doing a great job using social media but is well regarded as a strong leader in the industry. We have companies like H&R Block, Garmin and Sprint who are well-known and have been recognized for their social media efforts. What I think is even more telling is how our small businesses are benefiting from expanding their reach through social media. I love to use Grass Pad as a great example of how small businesses can leverage Facebook to connect with a bigger audience… they are a local small business with over 1,500 fans on their facebook page. You will see their Facebook Wall is buzzing with activity including questions, comments and an overall appreciation for how the company is helping their customers. What I think is great about social media is the numerous benefits it offers to businesses when they actively participate within the various communities, forums, and networks. Social Media is more than just a new form of marketing, it can truly serve as the catalyst to knock down the silos’ and help a business take better care of their customers during the entire lifecycle..from lead generation, service delivery, to customer care.

5. What’s on the horizon for SMCKC in 2010-11?

We have many things on our plate for 2010…in fact we just announced our annual membership plan at our breakfast this past Friday. We just recently put in place an Executive Board at the end of 2009 so this was a great exercise in thinking about our foundational elements. Our plan was built with three primary pillars in mind…our membership, our community and our businesses. We identified four goals; Establishment, Contribution, Outreach and Fun. We think developing our efforts in these key areas will help us mature as an organization (we are less than 2 years old) while holding true to our fun grass roots philosophy that we believe has been the primary factor in our fast paced growth.

6. Anything else?

Thank you for the opportunity to share a little bit about SMCKC and the world of social media in general. You can learn more by visiting http://socialmediakc.com