In the mid-1800s the industrial revolution replaced the mild, earthen lifestyle of the farm economy. Not since then have we seen world events come together to completely alter the economy. Small Business is now seeing changes that are completely mind-numbing. To get your product, service or site noticed, you'd better be Marketing for Search Engines(SEM) and on board with the Impact of Social Media on your Business. New tools sprout from new technology, meaning a new set of rules for discovering and sharing information in "The Cloud" of global SAAS (software as a service) apps and databases that vary their content by the second. Funk and Wagnals has nothing on today's web. I said B O O K S H E L F. It's a wooden, flat surface that sticks out of your walls to hold, get this, physical or paperback;BOOKS. Just picture a stand beneath your wall mounted flat screen TV with no electronics and you get the picture. The key question is, just How Does Social Media Help Small Business? NOT YOUR FATHER'S BUSINESS MARKETING Remember the days when large corporations "push-marketed" their wares onto society? "You can have any Ford Model T you want, as long as it's black." Companies had some ideas, did some vague version of market testing, and unleashed their campaigns upon an unsuspecting public with limited TV, radio and print options. Perhaps they got themselves a mailing list and sent out sales letters to those groups they thought were their target audiences. If you got 1-2%, you were happier than a marketing pig in..slop, of course. Now I'm not saying these methods no longer work. What I am saying is, the abundance of choice along with Social Media technologies that make assembling, collecting and exchanging ideas around millions of themes as easy as tying your Velcro -laced shoes has changed the game—forever! The most successful companies embracing the new business marketing paradigm have learned to sacrifice and in fact totally relinquish something that 10 years ago they never would have—CONTROL. You are no longer in command of the marketplace. Your customers are. You even have to ask permission to market to them! What on earth is the world coming to today? In fact, the marketplace is now dictated by non-customers and customers alike, people who try it, test it, review it and talk about it to all their friends…X 500 MILLION! According to Andy Warhol, "Everyone wants to have his 15 minutes of fame." Well guess what? Today's technology makes that easier than ever, at least in the mind of the general public. Outlets like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter give rise to anybody on the plant getting heard or viewed inexpensively and fast. And they talk. And talk. And talk. And they film, often to their own reputational detriments, but always to the chagrin of the corporation or business that puts out sub-standard product or service. Successful companies today embrace the lack of control, give away their products and proudly seek out ways to encourage the chatter. The problem is, if you're NOT doing this, you are WAY behind the curve in 2011. Key words to describe product launches from yesteryear have been replaced. QUALITY provides no competitive advantage at all, it is the minimum price of admission to the game, but BUZZ is what you need, buzz that you can't necessarily control, just hope to germinate. Get enough buzz, and you reach a tipping point that happens faster than ever before in human history and get to the place where VIRAL is a good thing! There's good news and bad news for small businesses. The good news is that since the new paradigm is free in the competitive world of technology, toys and widgets, you can take part in this universe affordably and literally compete with mega-corporations. The bad news? So can a high-school dropout working in a loft in Bangalore, India or Buenos Aires. Even if your business is local, you can no longer hide from this avalanche. The most popular websites, portals and search engines (think Google world domination) are focusing billions on localizing their content. Get the right strategy, and you have a fighting chance at getting noticed. For God's sake, though, have a plan!
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