Where Would I Be Without Social Media

Hello Bizzebee Community!

This is my first post for the new Bizzebee community site, so I thought I should start my work with you all answering a very important question, because it will help you understand where I am coming from and WHY I am so passionate about Social Media. But more importantly might trigger some thought patterns inside your own mind if indeed you are curious about Social Media and your business.

“Where Would I Be Without Social Media?”

This is a question I often ask myself, infact I find it quite strange that I can’t quite imagine either my work or personal life without Social Media.

Quite simply, Social Media has transformed my day-to-day life, and just like each of you reading this post I am a regular person going about their daily life trying to make a living in an economy that is in downturn.

Social Media has changed business for the better – that is because it has allowed people to talk publicly about their experiences, their likes, dislikes and also bridge the gap between those in business power and those who keep them there (the consumer)

Don’t get me wrong, Social Media Marketing has not replaced traditional marketing methods – such as guerrilla marketing, flyer campaigns, email marketing and the like, but what is has done is add an additional element to the marketing mix which has broken geographical boundaries.

I GENUINELY BELIEVE THAT EVERY SINGLE BUSINESS OWNER NEEDS A SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE 

Whether you are the local sweet shop or a large blue chip corporation, your business can and will become better and achieve longevity by tapping into the social networks that surround and consume our daily lives.

I did an on going Case Study against my own family business  (in Print & Graphic Design) which I started about 2 years ago, with a business that had NO website, and very limited web presence.

I wanted to test the theory that I had about Social channels – as someone who has been enthusiastic about Social Media since the MySpace days, I sat in my office wondering where people were looking for services, aside from the obvious of typing into Google.

I started with Twitter, I looked at it’s search facility, I looked for businesses and people I knew, and I studied their tweeting habits, I looked up specific words (just like I would with Google) only this time I saw something different, I saw people asking “can anyone recommend _____” rather than a load of businesses with something to sell filling up a Google search results.

That was my light bulb moment 

Nobody told me “how” to “do,” Twitter, I sat there and over the course of about 6 weeks I’d figured it out – BE HELPFUL. So I was. I Created a business Twitter account and then started life as a great person offering my experience and help on many different things – relating to printing and design right down to what to do in Berlin.

It was relatively easy to gain my first “sale” via social media too.  6 weeks into having the business Twitter account we’d sold our first set of business cards for £27, and since then have built an exceptional reputation of being a good Twitter community member, so much so that we have approximately 15 regular clients (so have come back to order more than once) and in the last 2 years have increased the company turnover by about £60K

Some Examples Of Our Customers Comments In The Twitter Public Domain

At the time of writing this post, our company website has only been fully functioning for the last 4 weeks.

Ask me if having the company website alone without the social channels would it have had the same impact on company turnover, my answer would be NO.

Social Media is FREE – it has cost the company nothing except for my time, had we have relied on the website alone, we’d have spent a LOT more on SEO & Advertising.

I’m not saying you don’t need to pay for those kind of things (because they are an integral part of your business success too) but if you are a business start up then money is often tight – the one thing you can often spare is time – whenever you have 20 / 30 / 45 / 60 minutes you can tap into your social networks and carry on building / forging those all important relationships that build trust.

Trust is what gets you the referrals. If someone trusts what you are about and believes in you as a person they will recommend and open you up to their network. It’s exactly the same as face to face networking groups, only its online and not geographically tied.

Without social media my family’s business wouldn’t have even been in existence to some of the people we have done work for. They simply wouldn’t of known who we were.

I teach people like all of you reading this the principles to move forward and bring your brand online. When someone says to me “it doesn’t work for me” I spend my time wanting to learn more about their approach. If it works for me, then it will work for you, it just means you are going wrong somewhere along the line.

Systems Work, People Fail – it really is that black and white

In my now role as someone who helps others learn the social media ropes, I’ve made some AMAZING contacts, its opened up opportunities to learn and grow in both my personal and business life.

People I’ve worked with on Social Media efforts, that without Social Media I’d of NEVER connected with

 

Infact, if it wasn’t for social media I wouldn’t be the Bizzebee I am now, working with some of the most honest and helpful people in this industry on this amazing project that is only going to give you all the benefit of our experience and the truth about succeeding and what it takes to get there.

In conclusion, I’m going to try and answer my initial question for you.

“Where Would I Be Without Social Media?”

Behind the times, falling down behind my competitors, losing business I didn’t even know I could have got, probably facing some tough decisions with the family business and how we carry on operating.

It is NEVER too late to build your social presence, which is why we took the best of the best, put us all together and built this bizzebee community.

Clair 🙂