Now Is Gone, But It’s Not Too Late: New Media & Your Small Business

I have been reading a lot of books lately about new media.  A couple that I have reviewed here at MarketMe include Naked Conversations by Scoble/Israel and Meatball Sundae by Seth Godin.  My latest read was Now Is Gone by Geoff Livingston.  As I said, most of my reading lately has been about new media so I was not entirely optimistic that Now Is Gone was going to impart knowledge that I had not already gained elsewhere.

I was wrong to feel that way.  As Livingston states in his book,

“There are many books that cover the actual day-to-day marketing activities in the social media world.  Instead, this book will discuss the general strategic principles and major aspects of social network marketing, providing executives a primer to begin their effort.” 

The hype and buzz around new media has created a stampede of authors, experts, and gurus to tout the wonderful ways that you can use new media to market your business.  However, while telling their readers how to do it, many don’t pause to ask their readers to consider if they should.  This is one of the things that I feel is extremely helpful about Now Is Gone.

Livingston suggests that there are 5 things to consider when deciding whether or not new media is right for your business.

1. Giving Up Control Of The Message - In the past, a major aspect of marketing was controlling the messages about your business that the public was exposed to.  When using new media, you are no longer in control.  There is a shift in power that allows others to use a voice just as loud as yours when sending out messages about you and your business.  Some may see this as a bad thing.  However by embracing those voices, while you will never maintain control of the message, you can influence it.  This is especially true when the message is that customers may like to see you do things differently.  By responding directly to those messages with words and actions, you can influence the message, perception, and image of your business as one that takes what their customers have to say seriously.
    
   It seems to me that control of the message has already been taken from businesses whether or not they feel comfortable giving it up or not.  People are going to talk about their experiences with the businesses that they deal with.  With the tools available to them now with blogs and social networks, they can now easily share those experiences with thousands instead of just a handful of friends and family.  You might as well do what you can to influence the direction those messages take.
2. Participation In The Community - Just as with giving up control of the message, participating in the community means no longer having one way conversations with your customers and would be customers.  It takes a different mind set.  It is the difference between standing at the podium and telling people what you are about and sitting down and having lunch with them while you both share your goals, interests, opinions, and finding where you come together on things. 
    
   The biggest mistake businesses make in their forays into the social networks of their target communities is that they take a propaganda approach.  If a community sees you that you are contributing only marketing messages and not attempting to bring value to the other members, they will call you out and you will be worse off than if you had never joined the community in the first place.  If you are ready to join the community then your business may be successful at using new media.
3. Is Your Community (Target Market) Social Media Savvy? - Basically what this means is that if those that you want to talk with are not currently participating in social media, you will end up wasting a lot of time and money just talking to yourself.  However, there are so many forums, social groups, blogs, and networks on the Internet today that chances are your community can be found there.  Some communities may not be as large as others but, that simply means that your participation can have even more of an impact.  Ensuring that you are using the appropriate new media for your business will be crucial. 
    
   There are a lot of different factors that are used to define a demographic or community and age has always been a prominent one when measuring Internet use and new media engagement.  And why not?  For each new generation the Internet and technology becomes more and more a normal part of their everyday lives.  While at the same time, there are generations that can still remember anything from having to get up to change the channel on the television to days when the ice man came to deliver blocks of ice for the “ice box”. 
    
   While social networks started out as being dominated by the 25 and under crowd, there has definitely been a shift in the demographics.  Not only have specific social networks such as MySpace and Facebook seen a shift in their specific demographic but, social networking as a whole has seen the demographic of its participants get older and older as well.   Case in point: Eons.com, a baby boomer social networking site launched in 2006 boasts over 700,000 members (including Hillary and Obama).  I don’t think the question is whether your community is engaged in social media, but rather which one.
4. Dedicating The Resources - To jump feet first into the new media arena without forethought and planning will do more harm than good.  Make sure that you have the resources you are going to need to do it right. 
    
   On the financial side you will not be required to put aside a large percentage of your budget.  For instance, joining social networks is absolutely free.  You can also use free blogging platforms such as WordPress as well as free blog templates.  If you do decide to allocate some of your budget for your blog, you can usually spruce it up for under $200. 
    
   The major resource that will need to be tapped in order to be successful with new media is time.  This is something that I have said often before.  Livingston suggests that a small business should be able to dedicate 8-10 hours a week to their blog or other social network activity.  That is the minimum that you will need to be able to develop quality content and make quality contributions to your community.  If you can afford that, you can afford to start your new media efforts.
5. Ethical Actions And Transparent Communications - Online communities have very little tolerance for businesses that do not represent themselves accurately.  And no where else will an unethical and dishonest business be outed more quickly and visciously than online.  As long as what you represent your business to be matches the experience your customers get from working with you, you are ready for new media.  If the ethics and image that your business portrays matches your actions, you have the kind of business that can do well by participating in online communities.

Overall, Now Is Gone was a good read.  Aside from the section on deciding whether or not new media is right for your business there was also good information on the tactical categories within new media such as RSS and tag based blogosphere buzz, social networking, social media releases, traditional media releases, and more.  As well, the book includes an informative section on what Livingston calls The Seven Principles Of Social Media Communications. 

If you want to know any more about what was in the book, you are just going to have to read it yourself. 

Reader Comments

Geoff Livingston says...February 26th, 2008

Brandi:

So glad to hear the book stood out from the pack, and that it was useful. I hope you get some results from it.

Thanks, and best wishes!

GL

Brandi Cummings says...February 27th, 2008

Thanks for stopping by Geoff. And, of course, thanks for putting what was in your head down on paper so we could all benefit from it.

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