Gary Honig, president of D.C.-based Creative Capital Associates (CCA), provides accounts receivable financing to emerging businesses. Currently CCA has more than $10 million in available funding reserves with which they purchased $100 million of commercial invoicing last year. Now with offices in Denver, CO and Red Bank, NJ, CCA continues to fund nationwide. In an industry dependent upon relationships and referrals, Gary has very effectively harnessed the power of social media to raise awareness about his business, as well as to grow his personal and professional network.

Gary is on Twitter @garyhonig and blogs at The Art of Factoring. In this “Social Gets Local” post, Gary tells us how he puts his social media style to work for him every day.

Q: How has social media impacted the way you market your business?
A: As an early adopter of the power of social media, I began to incorporate the communication platform as an integrated part of our overall efforts. This allowed us to effectively get our message into the corners of business communities that had been previously hard to reach. Because the entirety of social media is an evolving mass, the excitement and anticipation of new concepts and applications drives the strategies. To successfully use social media marketing you must be nimble, pro-active, and quick to adopt fresh techniques.

Q: What social media tool do you use the most?
A: This changes as my needs require. A site like LinkedIn might help promote me as a subject matter expert, while Twitter might help me reach referral sources in a fast cost-effective way. The important thing is to cross-pollinate all these tools.

Q: How much time each day do you spend using social media?
A: Some days it seems as if I spend all day reading and writing. If you have enough self discipline to get in and get out of the social media spaces quickly, you can be very effective with 20 minutes here and there a couple times a day. The self discipline to not click on tantalizing subjects is key. That said, I think the threat of “wasting time online” does not mean that the tools are ineffective.

Q: Do you consider your time on social sites “time well spent”?
A: I have measurable results from the efforts to effectively use social media.

Q: What percentage of your new clients comes from social media?
A: Our business is relationships; possibly half the new relationships we acquire come through the social media marketing campaigns.

Q: How are you gauging “ROI”?
A: I believe we could be more effectively tracking our analytics. We are actively seeking to outsource some of this work to optimize the results.

Q: Can you describe your “social media successes” at the local, regional and national levels?
A: Local: We’re meeting good, strong resource partners by participating in events found through social media. Regional: We’re building awareness with better referral sources. National: We’re increasing our visibility as subject matter experts.

Q: Do you encourage your sales force to use social media? How or in what ways?
A: Yes, we believe that increasing the brand footprint by using social media is a great way to stay in front of new business. By staying on top of Twitter chat, working our keywords in discussions, and monitoring those keywords we can be first to respond when a question arises.

Q: What would you say to other local business owners about social media?
A: Be prepared to develop a plan that uses all the tools as a matrix strategy. The tools feed off each other. Use your time effectively, watch out for time drift and have discipline.

Q: What question do you have about social media that you’d like to ask your local business community?
A: What’s the last thing you read or attended that really stopped you in your tracks?

Click here if you’d like to be a part of Social Gets Local, a FREE local directory supporting businesses located or based in Baltimore, Washington D.C. and Annapolis that are using social media effectively.

Joan Schramm, who is an executive, career, business and personal coach at Momentum Coaching, has leveraged the power and reach of multiple social media tools to “achieve momentum” for her business.

In this “Social Gets Local” post, Joan shares her social media approaches, ideas and successes as both a business owner and a skilled social marketer.

Q: How has social media impacted the way you market your business?
A: My blog readership has tripled. By leveraging the power of blogging, I am able to earn more traffic and generate more requests for information.

Q: What social media tool do you use the most?
A: Tweetdeck for Twitter – it is a great tool for posting and for search, as well as for keeping track of important Tweets. I also use Friendfeed to further boost my exposure.

Q: How much time each day do you spend using social media?
A: I spend about 15 – 20 minutes a day on Facebook and on Twitter (@JoanSchramm) I’m in and out all day: 10-15 minutes in the morning; 10 minutes in the afternoon and 10 minutes in the evening.

Q: Do you consider your time on Twitter “time well spent?”
A: Absolutely. It keeps me up to date with what other people in the field are doing, and allows me to effectively communicate with a large number of interested people.

Q: What percentage of your new clients come from social media?
A: About 75 – 80% of my new clients come from social networking – LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook (in that order). The others come from regular networking, which is often an out-shoot of the social networking, so it’s all related. My outreach is more focused and I have started hosting a bi-monthly radio show on BlogTalkRadio. I’m also putting together a teleclass on social networking for job search.

Q: How are you gauging “ROI?”
A: I use search and monitoring tools (Google alerts and Twitter search) to gauge the Word Of Mouth (WOM) of my name/brand/business. Right now, I view the addition of new clients, as well as boosts in WOM as my primary measuring sticks for ROI.

Q: Can you describe one of your “social media successes?”
A: During the holidays, I ran a “10 Days of Holiday Giving” campaign in which I donated (to charity) $1.00 for every comment made on my blog. I got a lot of good feedback on that idea. I also have a Twitter account for a non-profit I volunteer with – Mid-Atlantic Great Dane Rescue League (MAGDRL). The response has been incredible, and MAGDRL was named one of the top 26 charities on Twitter by Mashable.

Q: Do you encourage your sales force to use social media? How or in what ways?
A: Our marketing efforts include our blog, newsletter and social media marketing. I use Google Reader every day to monitor my Top 10 list of blogs – which are great sources for sharing information.

Q: What would you say to other local business owners about social media?
A: Get ahead of the curve NOW. You are missing opportunities! Social media is NOT for kids – it’s for innovative marketers.

Q: What question do you have about social media that you’d like to ask your local business community?
A: Why aren’t more of you involved in social networking? I see a lot of skepticism and misunderstanding about its role in business, and I wonder why that is.

Click here if you’d like to be a part of Social Gets Local, a FREE local directory supporting businesses located in Baltimore, Washington DC and Annapolis that are using social media effectively.