I’m sitting in on a great Smartcompany webcast titled “How Small and Mid-Sized Companies are using Technology to Drive Business Success”. As usual the Smartcompany efforts are excellent productions, well worth the time.
The interesting thing about this particular session is hearing non-tech related small businesses talk about their use of social media. Great example is Brasserie Bread, a Sydney based artisan bakery. These guys have captured the passion surrounding their products to fantastic effect by creating a vibrant and active community. Tools like Twitter and a blog keep their customers engaged in a two way dialogue bringing superb value to both sides of the relationship. Brasserie Bread has further expanded their activities to include baking classes and public events both driven by, and feeding back into their community and social media strategy.
I’ve often pondered the best way to grow a community around what Grassroots IT has to offer. Trouble is as soon as I get thinking about that, my next thought is “who on earth would want to engage in a tech centric community, apart from a tech?”. Having seen what Brasserie Bread has achieved though definitely gives me pause for thought. After all, if they can foster an active community around something as seemingly ordinary as bread, surely Grassroots IT has something to offer?
I’ve got a good friend and colleague who is one of the most astute networkers I know. She has an amazing ability with people, both in understand them, working with them, but also in bringing them together. She also happens to be a fantastic writer, penning a number of e-publications that she has successfully used to help promote her business. In fact the success of her business is largely based on these core skills. Which is why I was a little surprised the other day when she confessed to knowing very little about blogs, twitter, and so on. Web 2.0 is such a perfect medium for her message that I had assumed she’d be all over it!
Now to bring this back into context, Grassroots IT is only slowly discovering the power of social media, so for sure we are the last ones to be in a position to offer advise! So better yet, let’s share the learning experience. Follow us on Twitter (@GrassrootsIT), and via the blog (Subscribe over here) and learn from our mistakes! Let us know what works, and what doesn’t. Comment on our blog posts. Tweet back at us with feedback and ideas. Why not dip a toe in the water of Twitter? It’s free, and you can just listen for as long as you want. When you’re ready to start tweeting yourself, start by checking out these great Twitter Tips for an easy introduction. And don’t forget to let us know when you’re on, so that we can follow you too!
There’s no ignoring the ‘Social Media Revolution’ that’s happening around us, but the real question is…does it actually matter? Facebook, Twitter, Web 2.0, etc, etc, etc. The numbers are quite staggering when you hear about how many subscribers these services have, how rapidly they’re growing (and what they’re considered to be worth in dollar terms – astronomical).
But what’s it worth to me, as a small business owner? Can social media add any value to my business? To my clients business? The irony of that question I guess is that I”m asking it via a ‘social media’ channel, namely my blog. In my opinion yes, the well considered use of social media channels can bring a massive amount of value to my business (note the phrase ‘well considered’ in that sentence) and that of my clients. Now I’m going to throw up a quick disclaimer here to say that social media is a new thing to Grassroots IT. We’re starting to dip our toes in the water, so to speak, and learning a lot as we go. To give you a quick idea of where we’re heading with this, and how we might gain some value from the time invested…
Here’s an amazing video that I’ve seen a few times around the place, but final just came across today. Gives me goose bumps every time I see this, and puts a new perspective on social media.