You’re nimble. You’re quick. You don’t own any red tape. It’s you and your customers. Oh, and your passion, (pre-built into most small businesses). So what’s next?…

Thanks for taking the time to comment and for your email. I will be in touch (the old fashioned way, by phone).

On your last point, regarding large corporate bureaucracy, I couldn’t agree more and I could create an entire blog on that subject alone! I run into the SAME questions and stumbling blocks. I have found that Amber Nasland (of Radian 6), who blogs at http://altitudebranding.com/ , has a lot of posts, case studies and resources that work to educate (and cut) through the corporate red tape to open the door to greater social media participation and awareness.

For me, it all comes down to any company’s leadership: are they willing to make the cultural shift that will require CHANGES in policy and procedure. All of the corporate concerns about risk, employee productivity if engaged in social media while on the clock, ROI , negative comment management and loss of control (which is already lost online anyway are REAL issues. I’m not diminishing them at all, but the cultural shift comes in addressing them and moving forward.

I had a boss once, who now runs a successful brand strategy firm in Philadelphia, Brand Drive who taught me the two most important things that I have brought to running my own business:
1.) Don’t talk to clients about what you can’t do, always tell them what you can do…even if it’s different than what they asked of you.
2.) Whatever it is and no matter how impossible it seems, there’s ALWAYS a way to “make it happen.”

If large corporate leaders considered both items 1 and 2, they’d be talking less about why social media can’t work for them and more about how they can make it work for them.

In the meantime, this is the window for small business to get out there and get a head start on it all.

Okay. That’s more than a minute. My time here is up.
I thank you again, Eric. And I look forward to speaking with you soon.

Best regards,
-Renee

We use Social Media Marketing extensively to marketing and brand our boutique apartment management business, Urbane Apartments in Royal Oak, MI. I have this exact conversation with my apartment friends and colleges across the nation that run much larger, regional and national property management companies. They are quick to point out that the only reason it works for Urbane is because we are small. I tend to disagree, at least regionally.

The real takeaway from your article is Small Business, Jump In, you can level the playing field, and compete. I completely agree.

The other issue, for larger business, is it isn’t so much a scalability issues as it is a corporate bureaucracy issue. There are is no time for approvals, is it OK to say it this way or that way.

Great Stuff, Thanks for the article,

-R

Mike Spataro
Visible Technologies

Amber is an amazing social media leader. I’m publicly gushing here, I realize. But I’ve learned A LOT from Amber on her blog http://altitudebranding.com which I HIGHLY recommend that you subscribe to via email or RSS feed. You’ll see many links to her posts and downloads on my Resources page.

I agree with Amber’s comment, in particular with the idea that social media requires a culture shift in an organization’s overall operational culture. This is no easy feat when the c-levels think “social media” presents more problems than solutions: such as, online risk/reputation management (which I cite as a reason to be IN the space to respond to comments/concerns), ROI (I suggest considering social media as an awareness tool and a customer service opportunity), employee engagement concerns (they don’t want employees twittering on company time), Internet access (so many corporate networks are locked and blocked so employees can’t access what the company hasn’t approved) and the blurring of the line between the professional and personal (does an employee still represent the company when s/he is on facebook at home?).

These are serious and important questions that impede the culture shift. This is why I love talking to a true “small business”…you know, just a few employees. If you’re the small biz owner, you can engage and learn without solving all of the aforementioned problems that the industry is grappling with…you can invest your time because it’s for your business. The ROI is growing your network, building brand awareness, learning from your peers and creating loyalty among your customers and vendors. You can maneuver more easily and make sure the social media rubber is hitting the virtual road when and how you determine (per your personal strategy). You can make adjustments quickly. And, most likely, your mistakes can be remedied without the eyes of the entire twitterverse or blogosphere spending days recounting it all.

I love small business because I feel as though its owners are better positioned (and often more willing) to take risks…only to find that this social media space isn’t such a frightful place to be afterall.
I’ll continue to confront and try to manage the issues the large companies are facing in social business, while closely following Amber and the thought leaders driving social media innovations.

In the meantime, if you’re a big company…take a look at what just happened here. Radian6 was mentioned on a blog and, because she monitors effectively, Amber’s attention was drawn to Craig’s comment. She had an opportunity to respond to Craig directly (and publicly) to the benefit of her brand image (personally and professionally). Where it goes from there, who knows…but the point is…Radian6 was a part of this conversation.

So I can only ask: Are you part of the online conversations taking place about your brand?

-Renee

Scaling is such a great topic, and I think it is more relevant to businesses at times based on size. That said, scaling social media is often a matter of human resources; we’ve learned how to grow our customer support over the years by streamlining parts of the process and humanizing others, and I think social media will evolve much the same way over time. It’s going to be different for every business, but I think they key is in making sure that social media touches a bit of everything you do. It’s not relegated to communications, but part of your overall operational culture.

Craig, I’d be more than happy to chat with you more about scalability and Radian6 too; my email is below and we can talk through your needs and concerns.

Best,
Amber Naslund
Director of Community | Radian6
amber.naslund@radian6.com
@AmberCadabra