Life Moves Too Fast

Is your small business taking advantage of social media?

Facebook. Myspace. Digg. Angie’s List. If you are a small business owner and have never heard of these four Web sites before, I am afraid I have some bad news. You are missing out on potential, free exposure.

Social Media is changing the way businesses are understanding their customers. If your business limits its online presence to advertising banners or organic search, it’s missing out. Social Networking sites such as Myspace or Del.icio.us are helping your customers connect with similar users of your products and services, and sharing their experiences. Popular social networks have become more than just playgrounds for millenials. Did you know over 30% of Facebook’s users are over the age of 35?

Twitter, a kind of micro-blogging platform, has changed the way online users communicate and share their lives - and wants and needs. Prominent businesses such as Zappos.com and even CNN use Twitter to advertise sales to it’s key demographic, or share top news stories that click through to full-featured articles (filled with those ad’s you spent last years budget on).

Then there is the new generation of reviews and ratings given by your actual customers. If you are a restaurant owner, or perhaps own a service business such as landscaping or auto repair, there is a whole new set of online venues you need to listen to. Yelp.com, a popular user-review site, allows customers to rate and score restaurants and businesses in their home towns. What is happening here is potential customers are going to the Web first to see what others are saying about your business before they pick the place to take mom on Mother’s Day. According to Yelp, the site had an average of 9 million unique visitors in March 2008.

What you need to know here is that when exploring what changes you need to make to draw more traffic or business, it is important to harness the power of social media instead of sinking all your time into AdWords or banner ads on your local newspapers’ site. By setting up a Twitter or MySpace account and advertising sales, offering discounts to loyal fans via quick text messages or posts, or listening to what customers are saying or ‘tagging’ on sites like Digg.com, you are actually interacting with your customers. Instead of simply advertising and watching imaginary click-throughs, you are actually participating.

And the best part about social media is creating accounts and interacting with your customers usually costs you no money at all and you can take their input directly back to your business.

Would you start a business during a recession?

There is a great article in the May issue of Inc Magazine about starting a business during an economic downturn. This got me thinking about the pros of many businesses who got their start, and lived to tell, while the internet bubble was bursting. If you are a master at bootstrapping, starting a business during a recession can have it’s pay offs. If you offer the right product or service, you can take advantage of the cost saving measures companies are making and undercut the competition - the larger companies in the marketplace. Furthermore, everything from real estate to hardware can be had for far cheaper prices.

How is your small business taking advantage of the slower economy?

On travel

Be it a simple trip to Grandmas, or a jaunt across the world, your travels live on in your memories and pictures for years to come. Life moves too fast, so do not wait for ‘that perfect time’ to travel and see the world and its many amazing sites.

On May 1st, one of my own childhood memories will no longer be experienced by future generations. Venice bans pigeon feeding in St. Mark’s Square. If you have ever been to Venice, Italy, you will recall St Mark’s Square. The main gathering point and piazza in this floating city, St. Marks Square, or Piazza San Marco, received a nickname from my brother upon our second visit in 1999 - Pigeon Square. A lucrative business was selling corn seed to tourists who would in turn feed the seed to thousands of pigeons by now trained in this pavlovian relationship. Only specific vendors had this license and it has been a century-old tradition to buy the seed and lure the pigeons to your hand for a photo opp.

However, this 90-year old business ended earlier this month in an effort to clean up the city and decrease the negative impacts of thousands of these birds. I agree with this decision in principle, however at the same time reflect on how traditions disappear each and every day and that you must enjoy them before they are gone. Make sure you catch yourself the next time you say you will ‘wait until next year’, or ‘do it when you are retired’. You never know when a tradition, or even a complete town or attraction, will disappear and you miss an opportunity for a lifelong memory.

See the world!

Welcome to Life Moves Too Fast

Life Moves Too Fast launched on 1 May 2008 as the blog of Don Krutewicz. Enjoy a quick introduction into the goals behind LMTF.