Mom and Pop's Social Media Shop

A colleague of mine was recently asked to give a speech to a retail trade group on the effects of social media and how it can be used to attract more customers to their stores. The majority of retailers attending that day own Mom and Pop shops scattered throughout small towns in the Midwest. They compete with the behemoth box stores we've all come to simultaneously love and loathe.

Being at a severe disadvantage because of the corporate marketing and advertising dollars the big boys are willing (and able) to throw around, the Mom and Pop shops are looking for any piece of grease they can get their hands on that may make their store's name and products sticky enough to stay top of mind with the customers they value so much.

It's simply not enough to just have a website anymore. Online visitors don't want to be spoon fed the information. They want to discover it. They want to digest it. They want to discard it. But, most of all, they want to choose how to react to it.

So, how can social media help Mom and Pop in the fight against the big boys?

Here are four ways:

1. Establish a presence on a social network you are comfortable with. If you've never been on a socnet before, ask some friends for their recommendation on which might be the best to serve your needs. Some examples:

• Facebook - allows other Facebookers to "Like" Mom and Pop and to receive updates on sales and promotions in their News Feeds.
• Twitter - helps Mom and Pop to interact with followers and admirers on a more one-to-one basis.
• Foursquare - encourages customers to "check-in" at Mom and Pop's store and get rewarded for their loyalty with discounts and other promotional deals.

2. Time or Money. You need at least one of these things if you want your social media efforts to pay off. Social media is about starting and sustaining long-term relationships. So, if you do not have the Time that it takes to do that, you'll need to have the Money required to hire someone who can do that on your behalf. The amount of time you spend on fostering online relationships will only contribute to the equity your brand has built within the offline community.

Besides the costs of hiring someone (if that is even needed), the overhead of maintaining a social presence is minimal and quite cost-efficient, especially compared to all of the media dollars one can spend on traditional media. Granted, social media marketing is more targeted and serves a different purpose than TV, radio, billboards, etc., but to think social media marketing isn't a viable, effective option for a small town retailer is nothing, if not short-sighted. Just as much (and more) can be gained from the efforts put into building a fluid, traction-gaining existence within an online community.

3. The Young (at heart) and the Restless. One key to understand is that social media is not just for young people. Naturally, using these tools will help attract younger customers who may otherwise not be attracted to Mom and Pop's store. But, surprisingly, older generations are the ones who are really gravitating toward the social medium. They use the platforms as a way to stay in touch with their families, friends and communities. Your returning customers are your brand ambassadors and if they are visiting you in your store and have nice things to say about you to their friends, chances are they will visit you online and invite their friends to do so as well.

4. Promote. Promote. Then, Promote some more. How are you going to inform your customers that you are now "socially available?"

• Create table tents or other signage and put them at checkout
• Remind clerks to formally invite customers to join the store and to tell their friends
• Place information slips into carry-out bags

And those are just things you can do in-store. Online, you can:

• Buy highly targeted ads on Facebook
• Put some funds towards Search Engine Marketing
• Run exclusive promotions online that only your Facebook friends, Twitter followers, or FourSquare fans can take part in, thus growing the word of mouth about your social presence

The bottom line is, it doesn't matter what size of business you have. Whether you're Big Brother or Mom and Pop, social media tools allow you to establish a voice and form valuable, enduring relationships.

What you do with that voice, and more importantly, those relationships is up to you.

8-bit Flashback

Here's a fun Friday video that will make you yearn for the days of Frogger.

PIXELS by PATRICK JEAN. - une vidéo Art et Création @ Yahoo! Video

"Like" it or not, Facebook is changing the game again

Reports have been surfacing that Facebook is set to make a fundamental change to the way brands are currently using the site as a consumer marketing engagement tool.

Facebook is throwing the "Become a Fan" option out the window and is instead choosing to expand the company's popular "Like" function to pick up the slack. Evidently, Facebook feels this will be beneficial for companies because there will be less hoops to jump through in order to get in front of interested users than there have been in the past.

Check out this article from AdAge.com to get more details. As you'll see this is actually part of a more elaborate and complex plan to make the "Like" button more omnipresent on sites outside of Facebook. The company seems to have a pretty clear vision for how they are trying to transition outside of the social juggernaut's walls in the very near future.

And it looks to be happening whether we "Like" it or not.

The Twitter (R)evolution

I know. I know. I get it. I really do. Twitter this. Tweet that. @someone. #something. Tweeps meeting for a tweetup outside the twittershpere 'round twelve o'clock. Twotally Twawesome Twisn't Twit?

It's the digital platform that never sleeps. It has spawned more offspring than the participants at a hillbilly family picnic. There are random Twitter applications taking up bandwidth all over the Web. Some are useful (see: TwitPic, TweetDeck) while others are not (see: TweetBrawl, TwitterLeague).

Twitter is a bona fide, smash hit of epic proportions not only in the social media world, but also in pop culture. It's everywhere you look. ESPN's SportsCenter features a tweet of the day. I can find all 360° of Anderson Cooper just by searching for @andersoncooper. I could even get a play-by-play of the King of Pop's star-filled memorial (if I was remotely interested in such a thing). Not only has the media latched onto the next BIG thing, but they've brought the rest of us along for the ride.

And who are we to complain?

We're absolutely smitten with it. Obsessed at first tweet. Kind of -- (according to HubSpot, 55% of people who have registered for a Twitter account have never tweeted; think of them as Twitter Voyeurs).

It's fun making up silly sounding words and names based on such a phonetically pleasing word as Twitter. We've established an entirely new social lexicon. Forget Googling something. That was so 2005. We're tweeting now. Get with the program.

I guess it's just as fun to learn something fresh and feel like you're at the forefront of an oncoming communications revolution as you join your friends in their mission to maintain conversations and stay current 140 characters or less at a time.

But now that the next BIG thing has been delivered to us on a multitude of silver platter platforms, where does it go from here? What do we do with it?

Every social network has something in common: it must evolve or die.

I don't believe Twitter can continue to exist and prosper in its current state. I think to a small degree it will continue to be used the way it is now with tweeters just telling their followers what they're "doing now." But the future for Twitter lies in the daily news headlines. You can already see the seeds being planted. People are using the service to break, find and discuss news in rapid succession. News outlets and reporters all over the country are using Twitter to get a leg up in the Great American Media Arms Race.

Twitter needs to evolve much the same way MySpace has evolved from a basic peer-to-peer social network to a digital music and video destination. Sure, there's still pieces of me and pieces of you scattered across that site in profile form, but do you think with the emergence of Facebook and other rising social stars, that MySpace would still be around if it hadn't evolved into what it has become today?

Bill Simmons, a columnist for ESPN.com, was interviewed by Mediaite.com recently and gave great insight into the Twitter phenomenon. "People are not seeing what is happening here. Facebook is a social network; Twitter is a media/marketing vehicle disguised as a social network."

The versatility and mobility of the micro-blogging service certainly makes it attractive to new and current users alike. But just as fast as the Twitter Revolution has arrived, the time will come for Twitter to make a choice that every other social network has had to make: evolve or die.

Something tells me the Tweeps will make that decision for them.

The Prodigal Son

It's true. I have returned from my six month sabbatical. I feel like a college professor just returning from an overseas stay in an underdeveloped country where I devoted my every waking hour to making the world a better place one smile at a time. Only, minus the sun tan, weight loss and the satisfaction of making the world a better place.

But that's why I'm back. I think I can make the world a better place (at least hypothetically) from my own desk listening to Pandora while I search the Interwebs for the latest digital playground toys.

So, sit back, relax and enjoy the ride as we float among the stars.

Welcome back.

The New SKAR.com

The new website's here! The new website's here! This is the kind of spontaneous publicity SKAR needs! Our name online! That really makes somebody! Things are going to start happening to us now.

In case you couldn't tell from my overly-enthusiastic, "Jerk" inspired quote above, the freshly minted redesign of SKAR.com has arrived.

We at SKAR are proud to roll out this bad, mother-loving site chock-full of new features (SKARblogs, SKARsocial, an interactive timeline, etc.), a sweet new homepage featuring a unique way to view and share some of our best work, as well as other informative pages about the agency offering an inside look at SKAR.

The new SKAR.com is a departure from our previous incarnation (which was beloved) and this is the next step in the evolutionary process for the agency and our digital capabilities led by Vice President of Digital Marketing, Nate Hall.

So, if you get the chance check it out and let me know what you think of it in the comments section. I'd love to hear your feedback.

New Year's Digital Resolutions

Here is a list of my digital resolutions for 2009 (countdown-style in honor of Dick Clark):

10. Use Twitter more.

9. Download as much Radiohead, Buddy Rich, and Kings of Leon as my computer can handle.

8. Tell everyone I know to watch anything on Hulu.

7. Use Justin.tv to watch as many streaming televised sporting events as my satellite provider keeps me from viewing without paying a premium (especially the Big Ten Network).

6. Be more selective when adding friends on Facebook.

5. Join more groups on LinkedIn.

4. Limit my text messages and make more phone calls.

3. Limit my phone calls and save more money.

2. Convince more people that social media doesn't work like traditional advertising.

1. Grace the world with more mind-blowingly, insightfully-stupid, yet intriguing posts from this blog.

Happy New Year!