Reviews put the power in social media

Social Media is obviously more than a trend. It seems like everyone is on twitter, facebook and LinkedIn. However, many small businesses are struggling with how to properly use social media to attract and retain customers. I often hear strategy on social media and get thoughts on my business - sometimes this comes from people who have never used any social media at all. At times I am forced to listen to the good and the bad (the non social media users in the bad category).

One place small businesses can focus on is customers reviews and work hard to make it part of their culture. Google is making a big push with Google Places and I predict that reviews will become an integral part of search results in the very near future (within the next 12 months at the latest). If you are a business, you will need them - it will be your number one asset to attract customers.

Do I hear about how to use reviews from people who don't know what they are? Yes, but soon most will know and only a few will be like the Twitter & FaceBook laggards.

Mass High Tech AllStars

The Mass High Tech AllStar event took place last night. It was a great event that recognized technology achievement. Some of the key speakers focused on concerns that we are not producing enough quality engineers in the U.S. to remain competitive.  As a startup person, I think that it is great to foster and promote technology achievement in our state in such persistent way each year through MHT, MITX and other organizations. Hopefully, we will maintain and always improve in education. I do think we have the right cultural environment here to create and support many succesful startups well into the future.

Movie "The Social Network"

I get a little worried that new entrepreneurs will take the message form the movie about facebook that you should just build something cool. Maybe, the guy who worries about the money is an outcast? It is clear early on that facebook could not monetize until it had millions of users. Trying to sell ads early would have been distracting and useless. The company had to get to significant critical mass to monetize and I doubt very seriously they did not know this fact.

I don’t believe that anyone in a company should take the approach of not worrying about money. You must have a cohesive strategy to make money and it may require building something cool that attracts millions of users so it can be monetized.

Even a few million users alone do not make a company. Take a look at Plaxo in 2004 – it had millions of users, but no way to monetize. It took a new CEO to come in and refocus the company on making money that led to a successful exit to Comcast.

I think most will find that the venture community will not open its doors unless you understand your economic model. If you want to get funding – you have to deeply understand this – cool only sells if it is attached to money..

Thoughts?

RatePoint's Social Media Survey

We had tremendous pick up at RatePoint on our social media survey. I think it is very interesting that many businesses have opened social media accounts. However, a lot are unsure about the benefit they are receiving. You really need a plan in social media and the proper tools to make a difference with your customers. The end result needs to be a measurable lift in sales from defined, repeatable activities in social media. Anyway, here is a link from one of the media outlets that published the survey results.  Enjoy..

http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/Small-Businesses-Wary-of-Facebook-Twitter-540669/